1. The Place of This Chapter
“Splitting of the Spirit” is Chapter VI of Liber Primus, following “Descent into Hell in the Future”. In the previous chapter, Jung has moved from the desert into a deeper darkness and encountered powerful images such as blood, water, serpents, the sun, and death. In this chapter, descent is no longer only entry into darkness. It reveals a more fundamental consequence: the spirit itself splits.
This “splitting” is not an ordinary emotional contradiction, nor a simple wavering of thought. It means that the unified spiritual structure on which Jung formerly relied begins to break. The spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths are no longer merely opposed outside him; they now form a fracture within Jung himself. The ego can no longer maintain a clear, whole, and stable position. It must recognise that conflicting forces exist within it.
The importance of this chapter lies in its movement from “entering the depths” to “enduring division”. To enter the depths is only the beginning. The real difficulty is that once a person touches the unconscious, he discovers that he is not a single, transparent, unified subject. Within the spirit there are opposing directions, opposing voices, opposing values, and opposing demands. If the ego continues to preserve surface unity, it represses these fractures. If it is completely torn open by them, it loses the capacity to endure.
2. Chapter Summary
This chapter can be summarised in this way: after the descent, Jung begins to face the division within spirit itself. He can no longer explain what he encounters through his former rational and moral structure. The spirit of the depths continues to push him lower, darker, and closer to what is difficult to accept, while the ego responds with anger, resistance, shame, and confusion. The soul is no longer only a gentle guide. It also becomes a force of pressure and challenge.
The ego’s position in this chapter is deeply uncomfortable. It has left the spirit of the age, but it cannot yet dwell securely in the spirit of the depths. It no longer fully trusts the explanations of the old world, but it also cannot easily accept the darkness of the new one. The spirit is therefore torn between two powers: on one side are reason, order, dignity, cleanliness, morality, and control; on the other are depth, darkness, absurdity, blood, death, lowliness, and unacceptable life-forces.
This splitting shows Jung that “spirit” is not simply noble, bright, and upward. Spirit also divides, descends, and connects with darkness. In the past, spirit may have meant ascent, purification, and transcendence. In The Red Book, spirit must pass through descent, contamination, and fracture. Only through this splitting can spirit later regain a more complete structure.
3. Why the Spirit Splits
The spirit splits because the old unity can no longer contain the new experience.
When a person lives within the spirit of the age, he usually forms a relatively unified self-image: I am rational, moral, clear, goal-directed, socially placed, and valuable. This unity makes action in society possible and gives stability. But it is often achieved by excluding many contents. Desires, fears, shame, foolishness, violence, lowliness, and darkness that do not fit the self-image are pressed into the unconscious.
When Jung enters the spirit of the depths, these excluded contents begin to return. They do not return gently, but in intense, strange, and disturbing forms. The old unity can no longer hold. The ego wants to remain noble and clear, but the depths present confusion and darkness. The ego wants to remain rational, but the unconscious brings absurdity and contradiction. The ego wants moral superiority, but the inner world reveals guilt, violence, and lowliness.
The spirit does not split because the person has simply become worse. It splits because repressed wholeness begins to return. The old spiritual unity was only partial unity, not true wholeness. It looked clear because it was maintained by exclusion. The spirit of the depths breaks this one-sided unity and forces the person to face what has long been rejected.
Splitting is therefore painful, but necessary. Without splitting, the old structure does not loosen; without the loosening of the old structure, new integration cannot occur.
4. The Ego’s Resistance to the Spirit of the Depths
In this chapter, the ego strongly resists the spirit of the depths. This resistance is natural, because the contents brought by the spirit of the depths do not meet the ego’s expectations.
The ego imagines that after serving the soul, it may receive higher meaning, brighter spiritual experience, or inner peace. But the spirit of the depths gives it desert, hell, darkness, blood, and division. The ego feels deceived, humiliated, and dragged downward. It struggles to accept that the path of the soul is not upward but downward; not clean but stained; not victory but suffering.
This resistance shows that the ego still wants to measure the spirit of the depths by its own standards. It still wants the soul to serve its noble imagination. It still wants God and soul to fit its moral and aesthetic expectations. But the spirit of the depths does not satisfy these expectations. It brings the ego to places where it cannot remain elegant, forcing it to face what it hates.
This is the severity of Jung’s path. The spirit of the depths is not a spiritual product for consumption. It does not exist to provide beautiful experiences for the ego. It demands that the ego endure reality, and reality is not always beautiful, noble, or agreeable to the ego’s imagination.
5. The Double Face of the Soul
In the earlier chapters, the soul mainly appears as the inner object that must be refound and served. In this chapter, the soul becomes more complex. It is not only the precious thing that has been lost, nor only the way to God. It may also become the force that compels the ego to descend.
The soul therefore shows a double face. On the one hand, it leads Jung away from the spirit of the age and reconnects him with the inner depths. On the other hand, it brings him into darkness, confusion, and division. It is not simply a comforter, but a dangerous guide.
This doubleness is very important. Many people imagine the soul as gentle, pure, peaceful, and beautiful. But the soul in The Red Book is not always so. The soul is connected with the depths, and the depths contain life and fear, meaning and chaos, divinity and danger. If the soul truly leads a person into the depths, it cannot bring only comfort.
To serve the soul is therefore not to choose a comfortable inner life, but to accept the whole path brought by the soul. The soul does not lead only to places the ego likes. It also leads to places the ego resists. In this resistance, the ego begins to know itself more truly.
6. The Heights and Depths of Spirit
“Splitting of the Spirit” also reveals an important theme: spirit has not only heights, but depths.
In ordinary understanding, spirit is often associated with nobility, purity, reason, light, and transcendence. People easily imagine spirit as an upward movement away from body, desire, blood, death, and darkness. But the spirit of The Red Book is not such a one-sided ascent. It must descend into the lower places and face the rejected layers of life.
This is not a degradation of spirit, but the restoration of its wholeness. A spirit that remains only in the heights easily becomes abstract, anaemic, and separated from life. It seems pure, but may lose reality. True spirit cannot remain only in heaven; it must also pass through the underworld. It cannot know only light; it must also know darkness. It cannot face only good; it must face the possibility of evil.
This is why the chapter is difficult. Jung is not describing clean spiritual growth. He is describing spirit being forced into its own opposite. Only when spirit recognises its lower side can it cease to be one-sided. The pain of splitting comes from the conflict between height and depth, and the possibility of integration also arises from this conflict.
7. From Splitting to the Beginning of Oppositional Integration
This chapter does not yet complete integration. It only makes the split visible. But once the split is seen, the possibility of integration begins.
When the ego still believes in its unity, many opposites remain buried in the unconscious. The ego thinks it is whole, but in fact it has not seen its other half. Now the split appears, and the ego begins to face opposing forces. This is painful, but also more truthful.
The appearance of opposites is a major theme in Jung’s psychology. Consciousness and unconsciousness, reason and the irrational, light and darkness, good and evil, ascent and descent, spirit and body, hero and sinner — these oppositions do not disappear by simply choosing one side. Real psychological development does not destroy one pole, but brings the opposites into a larger relation.
In The Red Book, this relation has not yet formed. Jung is still struggling. But because he does not flee the split immediately, and does not cover it too quickly with theory, a new psychological structure can begin to emerge. Splitting is the exposed stage before oppositional integration.
8. Splitting and the Modern Structure of Personality
This chapter is especially important for modern people, because modern personality often rests on one-sided unity.
Modern people usually try to maintain a clear, successful, rational, positive, and stable self-image. Society encourages such an image. One should appear effective, capable, goal-directed, valuable, and in control. But the stronger this image becomes, the more material may be excluded behind it. Fear, weakness, shame, absurdity, anger, solitude, failure, and meaninglessness may all be pressed into the shadow.
When these contents return, a person feels “split”. He may not understand why he seems outwardly normal but inwardly chaotic; why he is capable but empty; why he is rational but disturbed by dreams, emotions, and impulses. This condition does not necessarily mean simple pathology. It may also mean that repressed parts of the personality are demanding to be seen.
This chapter of The Red Book reminds us that spiritual wholeness is not the maintenance of a beautiful surface unity. It is the recognition that inner oppositions really exist. If a person cannot acknowledge his fractures, he can maintain stability only through repression. Such stability is fragile because it depends on exclusion. A deeper stability must pass through the appearance of splitting.
9. Core Images of the Chapter
1. Splitting
Splitting is the central image of the chapter. It shows that the old spiritual unity can no longer hold and that repressed oppositional forces are beginning to appear.
2. The Depths
The depths are not only the source of the soul. They are also the place of darkness, confusion, and rejected contents. To enter the depths is to enter a field the ego cannot fully control.
3. Resistance
The ego’s resistance to the spirit of the depths shows that it still wants to keep its former nobility and central position. The stronger the resistance, the deeper the content that has been touched.
4. The Double Soul
The soul is both guide and dangerous force. It not only comforts the ego, but compels it to descend.
5. Height and Depth
Spirit is not only ascent. It must also descend. The conflict between height and depth is one source of the splitting of spirit.
10. The Chapter’s Place in the Whole Book
“Splitting of the Spirit” is a crucial turning point in the opening movement of The Red Book. The earlier chapters open the way: refinding the soul, facing God, serving the soul, entering the desert, and descending into hell. In this chapter, the result of descent begins to appear within Jung himself: spirit no longer remains unified, but splits.
This chapter prepares for “Murder of the Hero”. Once the spirit is split, the old heroic image can no longer remain intact. The hero represents the ego’s ideal of strength, victory, clarity, and nobility. Splitting shows that there are contents within the self that the heroic image cannot contain. The hero must be questioned, and even die, before a new structure can form.
The role of this chapter in the whole book is therefore to make it impossible for Jung to preserve the old image of spirit. He must recognise that he is not simply a subject moving upward toward goodness and light. He must face inner darkness, contradiction, and depth. Only then can later sacrifice, the birth of the God, and deeper integration become possible.
11. Summary of the Chapter
The core of “Splitting of the Spirit” is Jung’s discovery, after descent, that spirit itself has split. The old unity cannot contain the experience brought by the spirit of the depths. The ego wants to remain rational, ordered, and noble, but the unconscious brings darkness, absurdity, blood, death, and unacceptable contents.
This chapter shows that the path of the soul does not lead to simple peace, but to a more truthful complexity. The soul both guides and compels. The spirit of the depths brings meaning and confusion. Spirit has heights and depths. Only when these oppositions are seen can real integration begin.
For modern people, the significance of this chapter is that wholeness cannot be maintained by repressing fractures. A person may be outwardly successful, rational, and stable, while excluded parts of the psyche demand recognition. Splitting is painful, but it may also be the beginning of a more complete personality.
Q&A
1. Where does “Splitting of the Spirit” stand in The Red Book?
Answer: It follows “Descent into Hell in the Future” and deepens the experience of descent in Liber Primus.
2. What is the central theme of this chapter?
Answer: The central theme is that after descent, Jung discovers a split within spirit itself. The ego can no longer preserve its old unity and centrality.
3. Is this splitting merely emotional contradiction?
Answer: No. It means that repressed oppositional forces within the structure of spirit begin to appear, and the old unity can no longer hold.
4. Why does the spirit split?
Answer: Because the old unity was maintained by excluding darkness, desire, fear, lowliness, and contradiction. When these return from the unconscious, the unity breaks.
5. Is splitting only negative?
Answer: No. Although painful, splitting reveals repressed wholeness. Without the appearance of the split, real integration cannot begin.
6. Why does the ego resist the spirit of the depths?
Answer: Because the spirit of the depths brings contents that do not match the ego’s expectations. The ego wants light and meaning, but is brought into darkness, impurity, and confusion.
7. How does the soul change in this chapter?
Answer: The soul is no longer only something to be refound and served. It becomes a dangerous guide that compels the ego to descend and face darkness.
8. Why does the soul have a double face?
Answer: Because the soul both reconnects the ego with the depths and leads it into fear, confusion, and division. It guides and challenges at the same time.
9. What do height and depth of spirit mean?
Answer: Height means reason, light, purity, and transcendence. Depth means body, blood, death, darkness, and rejected life-forces. A complete spirit must face both.
10. Why can spirit not remain only in the heights?
Answer: A spirit that remains only in the heights becomes abstract, bloodless, and cut off from life. It must pass through the depths to regain wholeness.
11. How is this chapter related to the integration of opposites?
Answer: It does not yet complete integration, but it reveals the opposites. Once the opposites are seen, the possibility of integration begins.
12. What does this chapter mean for modern personality?
Answer: It shows that modern self-images often depend on excluding the shadow. A more complete personality must recognise inner fractures.
13. Why can outwardly successful people still feel spiritually split?
Answer: Because outer success does not remove repressed fear, shame, desire, solitude, or meaninglessness. These contents may return from within.
14. How does this chapter prepare for “Murder of the Hero”?
Answer: Splitting shows that the old heroic image cannot hold the whole personality. The hero, as the ego’s ideal of strength and nobility, must be questioned and eventually sacrificed.
15. What role does this chapter play in the whole book?
Answer: It prevents Jung from preserving the old image of spirit and forces him to face inner darkness, contradiction, and depth.
16. What is the significance of this chapter for modern people?
Answer: It reminds us not to maintain a beautiful surface unity at the cost of repression. True wholeness requires facing fractures and bringing excluded contents into conscious relation.
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