I first became aware of the
Freemasons during college, after reading the works of Hermann Hesse and Carl Jung, two Swiss Freemasons (my son Matt recently traced back part of our family to Switzerland.) I remember being relieved discovering Jung, after studying Freud and Behavioralism. Jung understood that sometimes, trees in dreams were just "trees in dreams" and not phallic symbols. And we are not just biological machines. Two books by Hesse that were important to me were
Siddartha and
Journey to the East. Siddhartha got me curious about Buddhism and my mother's family's Japanese heritage. Also, believe it or not, a role playing game titled
Bushido, got me interested in the Samurai. After studying and living in Japan for 8 years, and coming back to Minnesota, I started exploring the traditions and culture of my father's side of the family. Journey to The East is a thinly disguised story about Freemasonry.
I would have to say, Jung and Hesse, along with
Joseph Campbell, were important in the development of my world view.
I remember trying to find out about Masonry back then, in the early '70s. But I knew no Masons and we didn't have the World Wide Web at the time. Things have really changed!
3 comments:
How did you become informed that Jung was a Freemason? Is this common knowledge? Thanks for replying!
I don't know if my comment was published. Just curious how you might know that Jung was a Mason. thank you!
Suzan, It is public knowledge that Jung was the Grand Master of Switzerland. I can't remember where I first read it.
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