The Art of the Self – The Blue Book of Eranos Founder Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn

Readers may recall that I reviewed a book about Emma Jung-Rauschenbach in April, and below you will find the latest volume from CG Jung’s lectures at ETH Zürich. Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn was the founder of the famous Eranos Conferences held at Ascona in Switzerland, which I was lucky enough to visit a number of years ago, even staying in Jung’s room overlooking Lago Maggiore. These conferences attracted many of the most influential scholars for deep exchanges at a level rarely found these days, also producing an extensive archive. CG Jung and his wife were regular attenders, and throughout the 1930s Fröbe-Kapteyn had an archetypal connection with Jung (she also researched alchemical symbols on his behalf) that is partly documented in the paintings and images collected here, which are symbolically resonant with those of Jung and Emma.

The three main chapters describe Fröbe-Kapteyn’s interest in art and symbolism, her iconographic corpus related to the illustrations, and her artistic itineraries. The spirit of the place is extensively documented, also with contemporary photos, some of which depict discussions at the famous round table. Jung comments how Fröbe-Kapteyn is torn between her vocation and the obligations of motherhood, which he thinks she simply has to endure until a third element takes shape. He even remarks that the apparently unendurable conflict is proof of the rightness of her life… (p. 66) There is a striking occasion in 1951 when the Hungarian composer Shandor Vegh (who I myself heard delivering masterclasses in Cornwall in the 1970s). It comes across as immortal music, poured from his very soul and embracing everything alive, unforgettable hermetic music, a mystery.

The book is worth purchasing for the sepia photographs and artworks alone, accompanied by commentaries and depicting themes such as the Grail, polarities, Sattva, Om, Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the heart, and the dance of life. Plate 175 depicts and records a profound teaching from a being, Lohan, worth quoting at length:

You have been bathed in the Light, and have been made new. You have entered the palace of the King, You have seen the White Rose beyond the Veil. Wait in the stillness that the Light may fill you. It will go before you like a burning cloud, Dark places will be lighted, hindrances melt before it. Lay all care aside and tend to the Light. You know the Secret: Give! And expect naught in return. Serve and ask not for Power. Serve and fear naught. The perfect Sphere Of Light, within and without Is invulnerable. And again, the Secrets: Serve in perfection, Achieve each task in perfection, Move in balance on the straight and narrow Path You know not, your God knoweth. Leave therefore to Him the solution of the darkness, For you live within His Flame.

February 5, 1936