Carl Jung on Gnosis and God: Knowing not Believing

At the heart of the Hermetic teaching is the realisation that the individual is fundamentally no different from the Supreme. This realisation is gnosis, a single, immediate event, characterised as a second birth.

Gnosis is neither an expression of faith nor an assertion of belief. In his last years, Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung was asked whether he believed in God. ‘Believe?’ Jung replied. ‘Hard to say. I know. I don’t need to believe.’ Jung had had an experience that convinced him of the reality of God. He didn’t believe in God. He knew God. God is not a being, but being itself. As many ancient sages have pointed out, “God is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.”

In essence, there is one God. While all religions express their own unique and rich teachings, stories, and myths – they all point to the original source of all creation, which is being itself.

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