Up: [[Creating a Body of Work]] Related: [[Jung's Red Book]] Created: 2024-07-12 Updated: 2025-12-30 I have been strongly impacted by Jung’s exhortation that we each create our own *Red Book*. > [!Orbit] [[C. G. Jung]] from *The Red Book Reader* > I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can — in some beautifully bound book. It will see as if you were making the visions banal — but then you need to do that — then you are freed from the power of them. If you do that with these eyes for instance they will cease to draw you. You should never try to make the visions come again. Think of it in your imagination and try to paint it. Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book and turn over the pages and for you, it will be your church — your cathedral — the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal. If any one tells you that it is morbid or neurotic and you listen to them — then you will lose your soul — for in that book is your soul. (p. 77) ### Not the Same as the Red Book Jung's Red Book is polished active imaginations and accompanying gorgeous art compiled and shaped from many years of anguished and deep personal reflection in his Black Books. Jung was working alone and developing his theory, first and foremost for himself but ultimately of benefit to the world. I benefit from his theory, don't need to even attempt to reinvent that wheel. And I'm not alone. I’m interested in a collection that documents my life from a depth psychology perspective. ### Blue Box For years now, I’ve wanted not a bound book, but a blue box. This is essentially an artist’s box, a three-dimensional jackdaw of art pieces, photographs, books, even objects like sculptures, that tell the story of my life from a depth psychology perspective. The box would be the size of a child’s small toy chest. It would be painted Prussian Blue and greens with a sea turtle, a spiral, stars, the moon, an the words Profound Journey in scrip. Maybe a female hermit with a lantern and hestia’s symbol of the flame on the top, the sea turtle on the front. Once I figure out dimensions and any special things like maybe separate sections for books and for art pieces, I’ve looked up furniture carpenters and I think I would approach [Glen Briggs]([https://glenbriggs.ca](https://glenbriggs.ca/)) to build it for me. And [Kate Green](https://www.kategreendesign.com/kate-green-paintings-for-sale.html) to paint it. It’s not a book but a collection; not a pile of folders but an imagined assortment of creamy papers in white, beige, soft blue and soft green; notebooks with jewel toned covers, words in fountain pen inks of all hues. ### Advantages to a Box instead of a Book Because it's a box, it can hold many bound books plus individual pieces of art with accompanying text, photographs, sculptures, memorabilia like my hand puppet from when I was five years old. And because it's in a box, the pieces can be developed and assembled over time. I don't need to wait until I've done years more work. ### Still, I Hesitate I admit it. [[Jung's Red Book]] intimidates me. But I’ve realized that it’s the end product, the result of years of Black Book work. It was only when Jung knew what material he wanted to transfer to the *Red Book* that he shaped it, laboured over it, and added the art. I am in the Black Books stage. The differences between me and Jung, besides him being a genius and me not!, are that my black books work is sometimes just writing like his, sometimes leads with art, sometimes is accompanied by art. And because I’m putting a collection of pieces in an artist’s box, I can take any theme from black book to red book status anytime that I want. I don’t need to wait until I have everything. Yet the Blue Box is still difficult for me to make progress on because it’s not just active imaginations or just dreams. I want it to be a collection of my thoughts and experiences, but more than that. I want it to be curated so that it provides my experiences and thoughts *and* answers and values around an essential question, or around my values or ? ### Questions - Is thematic the way to go? And if so, what themes? - Would there be value in working from a Jungian glossary of terms? - Where does my very extensive tarot work fit in? Would tarot be a good organizing structure? - How much non-fiction writing/information do I want in the box compared to personal life writing? - Who am I writing to? Myself? Family or friends? Pacifica Graduate students? - How personal do I get? Can I be as brave as Jung, as vulnerable as Nick? And if I can, how do I manage the dangers that exist in my inevitable desire to polish and shape whatever goes in, especially bound books? ### Thoughts If I'm not going to go deep, there is no difference between my Blue Box and a steamer trunk full of old letters and diaries. There's nothing wrong with the latter. It's just not my version of Jung's Red Book if it's not depth focused. I want depth focused. ### A Surprise Landing I’ve been intending on a Blue Box for at least half a dozen years. The daily hearth notes in my vault are littered with references to it. But I’m not going to make it, at least not in print form. **My passion is in seeing the connections across my single human life, bringing the threads together for meaning and a sense of completion.** A Blue Box doesn’t allow for interconnectivity and it puts way too much pressure on me to produce pieces of finished art in books that have been preplanned, which is directly opposite the intuitive and expressive approach I am taking.