“Number, as it were, lies behind the psychic realm as a dynamic ordering principle, the primal element of which Jung called spirit.”

—  Marie-Louise von Franz

Source: Psyche and Matter (1992), p. 216
Context: Number, as it were, lies behind the psychic realm as a dynamic ordering principle, the primal element of which Jung called spirit. As an archetype, number becomes not only a psychic factor, but more generally, a world-structuring factor. In other words, numbers point to a background reality in which psyche and matter are no longer distinguishable.

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Marie-Louise von Franz photo
Marie-Louise von Franz 30
Swiss psychologist and scholar 1915–1998

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“To sum up: numbers appear to represent both an attribute of matter and the unconscious foundation of our mental process. For this reason, number forms, according to Jung, that particular element that unites the realms of matter and psyche. It is “real” in a double sense, as an archetypal image and as a qualitative manifestation in the realm of outer-world experience.”

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