Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit.
Bidden or not bidden, God is present.
– The answer the Delphic Oracle gave the Lacedemonians when they considered going to war against Athens. Jung inscribed it over the entrance to his house in Kusnacht.
In a letter of November 19, 1960, Jung explains the inscription:
By the way, you seek the enigmatic oracle Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit in vain in Delphi: it is cut in stone over the door of my house in Kusnacht near Zurich and otherwise found in Erasmus’s collection of Adagia (XVIth cent.). [Jung had acquired a copy of the 1563 edition of Erasmus’s Collectaneas adagiorum, a compilation of analects from classical authors, when he was 19 years old.] It is a Delphic oracle though. It says: yes, the god will be on the spot, but in what form and to what purpose? I have put the inscription there to remind my patients and myself: Timor dei initium sapiente [“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”] Here another not less important road begins, not the approach to “Christianity” but to God himself and this seems to be the ultimate question. (1975: 611)
AUGUST 20, 2024
This post received a comment so I took another look at it. I am honestly not sure why I included Jung’s quote without any additional comments, and also why I included his quote in the first place. At the time, it must have meant something to me.
I wrote a new article based on Philip’s comment below and with a few more words from me.
Another understanding of this might be ‘whether you call Him or not God is with you.’
Ah, yes, Jung’s understanding of “God” is that, contained within the “godhead” is both good and evil. Another way of saying this is that in our personal Psyche, whether we recognise it or not, exists both good and evil. Of course, Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity, has an intense focus on the “good”. However, if one refuses to acknowledge the “bad” or “evil” in his/her self, then we will project the unconscious, suppressed “evil” onto others.
Jung’s journey, and I speak from personal experience, was to become conscious of as much as one’s psychic contents as possible. To quote Freud, the way we become conscious is through “the royal road of dreams”. In this analytic endeavour, we become truly who we are, both good and evil; able to hold the evil parts of ourselves, our psyches, consciously, along with the “good” psychic contents.
One (in MY personal journey and of my clients) learns to “take back” one’s projections and thus discovers that we are, in fact, a “multiplicity of selves”.
In this endeavour, “Self” acceptance of one’s own shadow side, as well as our “good” side, can lead to more than a measure of contentment.
Thank you for the opportunity to put into words how I understand my own ongoing journey of “Self” discovery.