Jung’s The Red Book Reading Notes: The Way of What Is to Come and the Call of the Spirit of the Depths

1. The Place of This Chapter

“The Way of What Is to Come” is the opening of Liber Primus and the first true threshold of The Red Book. It is not an ordinary preface. It opens the spiritual direction of the entire work. What Jung introduces here is not yet a mature psychological concept, but a conflict between the spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths.

The central movement of the chapter is simple but decisive. Jung recognises that he has long lived within the “spirit of this time”. This spirit values reason, knowledge, explanation, order, value, usefulness, and external achievement. It forms the modern ego and shapes the modern way of judging. Yet Jung begins to feel that the spirit of the age is not the whole of the human being. There is another power in the depths, older, darker, and less controllable by reason. Jung calls it the spirit of the depths.

The chapter opens the fracture between two spirits: one comes from the age, the other from the depths; one demands clarity, usefulness, rationality, and explanation; the other demands entry into the inexplicable, the contradictory, the absurd, the dark, and the soul. Jung’s way begins in this fracture.

2. The Spirit of the Age and the Spirit of the Depths

The spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths form the most important opposition in this chapter.

The spirit of the age is not simply evil. It represents the reason, knowledge, moral standards, social values, and cultural judgement that human beings inevitably receive from their time. Without it, one cannot act in society or share language and order with others. The spirit of the age allows a person to become a functioning modern human being.

But the spirit of the age also has limits. It teaches people to believe that only what can be explained has meaning, only what is useful has value, and only what fits the standards of the age deserves recognition. In this way, deeper experiences can be excluded. Dreams, visions, absurdity, symbols, soul, mystery, inner conflict, and unexplained suffering can all be dismissed as unreliable, irrational, or worthless.

The spirit of the depths is the power pressed down by the spirit of the age. It does not appear according to modern logic, nor does it obey the ordinary order of reason. It may appear through dreams, images, voices, fear, absurdity, and contradiction. It does not exist to make the ego comfortable, nor does it necessarily provide clear answers. It is more like a call from the depths, forcing the person to leave familiar forms of understanding and enter a more dangerous and more truthful inner field.

Jung’s movement in this chapter is a turn from simple obedience to the spirit of the age toward listening to the spirit of the depths. This is not a rejection of reason. It is the recognition that reason and the consciousness of the age are not the whole personality. The real question is not whether reason has value, but what happens to the soul when reason takes itself as the only measure.

3. What Is to Come Is Not Prediction

The title “The Way of What Is to Come” can easily be misunderstood as prophecy. It is not simply a prediction of the external future. “What is to come” is closer to what has not yet been received by present consciousness. It comes from the depths of the person, from the depths of history, and from the depths of the collective unconscious.

What is to come is not the future arriving according to a plan. It is the return of what has been repressed by the spirit of the age. It comes from the unintegrated parts of the person and from the shadow that an age has not yet understood. It is called “to come” not because it is entirely absent, but because present consciousness does not yet have the capacity to face it.

In this sense, what is to come is both future and depth. It is not merely the next item on a timeline. It is the next layer of an unfinished structure of consciousness. When Jung faces what is to come, he is facing what he has not yet become, and also what modern humanity has not yet acknowledged in the psyche.

This gives the opening of The Red Book its strong sense of direction. Jung does not begin from a clear theory. He begins from a sense of being summoned. He knows that the old way cannot continue, but the new way has not yet fully appeared. The old order has cracked; the new order has not yet formed. That is the real situation of “the way of what is to come”.

4. Meaning and Absurdity Together

Another important idea is already present in this chapter: the meaning brought by the spirit of the depths is not ordinary rational meaning. It is not clear, singular, provable, or immediately useful. It often joins meaning and meaninglessness, clarity and absurdity, reason and the irrational.

This is one reason why The Red Book is difficult to read. Jung does not organise deep experience into ordinary philosophical propositions. Instead, he recognises that deep experience often appears with contradiction and confusion. To the spirit of the age, this confusion is a problem. To the spirit of the depths, it may be the state before a new meaning can form.

Modern consciousness usually wants to separate meaning from meaninglessness, reason from absurdity, truth from fantasy. But deep psychological experience often does not work in this way. A dream may be absurd and still touch something real. A vision may not be literally understandable and still reveal psychological structure. A pain may have no clear explanation and still force the personality to reorganise itself.

The way of what is to come is therefore not a path toward simpler and neater answers. It leads into a more complex field, where meaning must pass through absurdity, reason must face the irrational, and the ego must admit that it does not fully command itself.

5. The Prelude to the Problem of the Soul

Although this chapter does not yet fully develop the theme of refinding the soul, the problem of the soul is already present in the background. The conflict between the spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths is, at its core, a conflict between modern consciousness and the soul.

The spirit of the age draws the person outward. It is concerned with knowledge, career, identity, judgement, explanation, and achievement. The spirit of the depths pulls the person inward. It is concerned with neglected dreams, pain, fear, symbols, and unheard voices. The soul begins to appear through this inward call.

Jung’s real problem is not lack of knowledge or professional ability. It is the loss of direct relation to the soul. When a person lives only in the spirit of the age, he can still be intelligent, successful, respected, and productive. But he may gradually lose the depth of inner life. This loss does not necessarily appear as external failure. It appears as inner emptiness, exhaustion of meaning, and unexplained unrest.

The way of what is to come is therefore the tremor before the soul returns. The spirit of the depths first interrupts the spirit of the age and forces the ego to recognise that it is not whole. Only when the ego no longer fully trusts the answers provided by the spirit of the age can the soul find space to appear again.

6. The Ego First Loses Its Centre

This chapter does not yet contain the complex figures and visions that appear later, but the central position of the ego is already beginning to loosen.

Within the spirit of the age, the ego is the judge, interpreter, and controller. It believes it can understand the world through knowledge, organise life through reason, and confirm itself through social value. But the appearance of the spirit of the depths makes this position unstable. Jung begins to recognise that there are things that the ego does not choose and cannot command. Something comes from the depths and demands to be heard.

This is the first loss of the ego’s centre. It is not a total collapse, but the beginning of the recognition that the ego is not the whole personality. The ego must learn a new posture: not immediate explanation, not immediate denial, not immediate possession, but listening, waiting, enduring, and entering.

This is crucial for Jung’s later psychology. Individuation does not mean the ego becoming stronger and stronger. It means the ego gradually recognising that it belongs within a larger whole. This whole includes consciousness and unconsciousness, reason and symbol, the present age and the deeper history of the collective psyche.

7. The Modern Spiritual Condition

This chapter matters not only because it explains Jung’s personal crisis, but because it touches the general condition of modern life.

Modern people often live within a powerful spirit of the age. The age tells them what success is, what reason is, what is effective, and what is worth pursuing. The more a person adapts to the spirit of the age, the more easily he may obtain a place in the external world. But this adaptation may also carry a cost: one gradually understands oneself only in ways that the age permits, and loses contact with the depths.

The problem Jung faces here remains alive today. Modern human beings possess more knowledge, technology, information, and choice, but not necessarily a more complete inner life. Reason and efficiency can solve many external problems, but they cannot fully answer questions of soul, meaning, death, solitude, dream, desire, and fear.

The way of what is to come reminds us that the true future is not only external technology or social progress. It also includes the deep contents that consciousness has not yet integrated. If these contents remain repressed, they do not disappear. They return in more confused and dangerous forms. This is true of an individual, and also of an age.

8. Core Images of the Chapter

1. The Way

The way is the central image of this chapter. It means that Jung can no longer remain in his former position of consciousness. The way means departure and entry: departure from the safe explanations offered by the spirit of the age, and entry into the unknown field opened by the spirit of the depths.

2. What Is to Come

What is to come is not the ordinary future. It is what has not yet been received by consciousness. It comes from both the future and the depths. It represents a psychological reality approaching the ego before the ego can fully understand it.

3. The Spirit of the Age

The spirit of the age represents the order, reason, values, and practical judgement of modern consciousness. It allows a person to belong to the age, but it may also make the person mistake the standards of the age for the only possible standards.

4. The Spirit of the Depths

The spirit of the depths represents the power that comes from the unconscious and the soul. It does not appear according to the rules of the age, but it carries the possibility of transformation. It turns Jung from the outer path toward the inner path.

5. Meaning and Absurdity

This chapter already shows that meaning in The Red Book is not pure clarity. It is often entangled with absurdity, contradiction, and what cannot yet be understood. New meaning often emerges where old meaning breaks down.

9. The Chapter’s Place in the Whole Book

“The Way of What Is to Come” is the threshold of The Red Book. It does not yet unfold the full world of visions, but it already establishes the book’s main direction.

First, Jung begins to move away from the spirit of the age.
Second, the spirit of the depths begins to speak.
Third, the ego first recognises that it is not the whole personality.
Fourth, the problem of the soul begins to appear in the background.
Fifth, the way of the whole book opens.

Later chapters continue these themes. Jung will face the soul, the desert, descent, sacrifice, unconscious figures, the dead, the shadow, anima, and symbolic forms of the Self. But the initial direction is already present here: a person who belongs only to the spirit of the age must begin to face the call from the depths.

10. Summary of the Chapter

“The Way of What Is to Come” is the true beginning of The Red Book. It is not an ordinary preface, but a declaration of Jung’s inner turn. What Jung faces here is not only a personal psychological crisis, but the basic limitation of modern consciousness.

The spirit of the age gives human beings reason, knowledge, values, and social position, but it may also cause the loss of the soul. The spirit of the depths brings dreams, symbols, absurdity, and inexplicable forces, but it also opens the path of transformation. Jung’s way begins in the conflict between these two.

The most important meaning of this chapter is that the ego begins to loosen from its central position. The ego is no longer the only judge. The spirit of the depths begins to speak, what is to come approaches, and the conditions for the return of the soul begin to form.

All that follows in The Red Book can be understood as an unfolding of this beginning. The way of what is to come is not a path into the external future. It is a path into the inner depths that have not yet been integrated by consciousness. Jung must walk this way because the old order of the ego can no longer sustain the wholeness of the personality.

Q&A

1. Where does “The Way of What Is to Come” stand in The Red Book?

Answer: It is the opening of Liber Primus and the spiritual entrance into the main text. It introduces the conflict between the spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths, opening Jung’s way toward the unconscious and the soul.

2. What is the spirit of the age?

Answer: The spirit of the age represents the reason, knowledge, values, order, usefulness, and social judgement accepted by a particular time. It helps a person adapt to society, but can limit the understanding of deeper psychological experience.

3. What is the spirit of the depths?

Answer: The spirit of the depths represents forces from the unconscious, the soul, and the deeper personality. It does not appear according to ordinary reason or the standards of the age, but it interrupts the ego and makes transformation possible.

4. Why is the spirit of the age not simply bad?

Answer: Because it allows people to live in society with shared language, judgement, and order. The problem is not the spirit of the age itself, but its tendency to treat itself as the only measure.

5. Why does the spirit of the depths disturb modern consciousness?

Answer: Because it often appears through dreams, visions, absurdity, contradiction, and what cannot be explained. It does not obey the rational order familiar to modern consciousness.

6. Is “what is to come” a prediction of the external future?

Answer: No. It is closer to psychological content that has not yet been received by present consciousness. It comes from both the future and the depths, representing an approaching inner reality.

7. Why is what is to come both future and depth?

Answer: Because it is not entirely absent. It is already active in the deeper psyche, but has not yet entered consciousness. To consciousness it appears as future; to the unconscious it comes from depth.

8. Why does this chapter emphasise the union of meaning and absurdity?

Answer: Because deep psychological experience does not always appear in clear, rational, or provable forms. It often joins meaning and meaninglessness, reason and the irrational, clarity and confusion.

9. Why can The Red Book not be understood only through ordinary rational meaning?

Answer: Because it deals with dreams, visions, symbols, and unconscious contents. These cannot always be translated directly into ordinary concepts and must be understood through symbolic structure.

10. How does this chapter anticipate the problem of the soul?

Answer: The conflict between the spirit of the age and the spirit of the depths already points to the fracture between modern consciousness and the soul. The call from the depths opens the space for the soul to return.

11. Why is Jung’s problem not a lack of knowledge?

Answer: Jung already has knowledge, professional achievement, and social position. His problem is that these external achievements cannot replace contact with the soul or guarantee inner wholeness.

12. What happens to the ego in this chapter?

Answer: The ego begins to lose its absolute central position. It recognises that something from the depths is not created or controlled by itself.

13. How is this chapter related to individuation?

Answer: Individuation begins when the ego recognises that it is not the whole personality. This chapter marks the beginning of the ego’s encounter with a larger psychic whole.

14. What does the image of the way mean?

Answer: The way means leaving the old position of consciousness and entering an unknown inner field. It is not an external journey, but the beginning of psychological transformation.

15. Why is this chapter still important for modern people?

Answer: Because modern people are still easily ruled by the spirit of the age, valuing reason, efficiency, success, and social approval while neglecting dreams, symbols, soul, and deeper inner conflict.

16. What role does this chapter play in the whole book?

Answer: It sets the direction of the whole book. From here, Jung begins to leave the spirit of the age and turn toward the spirit of the depths, the unconscious, and the problem of the soul.

More Reading Notes on Jung’s The Red Book