Memories, Dreams, Reflections

by Carl Jung

Even more than his Man and His Symbols, this is the book that charts the importance of sun myths, and the part our star plays in our dreams. There is an awful lot of nonsense around about the sun – think alchemy, freemasonry, Zoroastrianism, for a start – but the best of Jung is memorable: ‘Every soul is seized by an inexpressible longing for light… It is a maternal mystery, this primordial darkness. That is why the sun’s birth in the morning strikes the natives [of Africa] as so overwhelmingly meaningful… The longing for light is the longing for consciousness.’