E.1-2— carl jung and the old testament prophets
Season 1: Episode 2
carl jung and the old testament prophets
In this episode you will learn:
🔥 Why the psyche has a religious function
🧠 How psychological truth can be more powerful than objective fact
💡 What it means to hear a voice from the well of your own soul
✝️ The symbolic life of faith — and how it ignites true transformation
Episode length: 11:00
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Transcript
Carl Jung once said that the psyche has a religious function.
Not because we were made to become religious Pharisees
but because something deep within us
wants to stir us into the holy life and wonder that is alive in Christianity.Today, we’re exploring how Jung’s psychology —
which emerged from dreams, visions, and a raw inner wrestling —
mirrors the strange, fiery world of the Old Testament prophets.These weren’t just ancient mystics…
They were people gripped by something greater than themselves.
Just like Jung was.So what does a 20th-century Swiss psychologist have in common
with Ezekiel, or Jeremiah?
It’s time to Awake Holy Wonder.
Stay with me.
the symbol
Hey friend —
I’m Angela Meer, and this is The Christian Jung podcast.
If you’re new here, welcome.
And if you’ve been with me for a while,
I’m so glad we’re on this journey together.
Today, we’re diving deep again.
Into the place where Spirit and soul meet —
and where your inner world starts to burn with meaning.
Carl Jung built his psychology much differently from most.
Not from theories but from experience watching patients in mental hospitals.
From the very beginning, When Jung says his work is empirical,
he doesn’t mean scientific in the modern lab-coat kind of way.
He means:
“I speak of things I have seen.
Things I have lived.
Things I’ve watched rise up from within people’s souls.”
He studied dreams, neuroses, visions.
Not to dismiss them.
But to honor them.
Because for Jung, the question was never:
“Is this objectively real?”
It was always:
“What does this mean to the soul?”
So when someone dreamed of a snake or a wise old man,
he didn’t laugh it off.
He leaned in.
“What’s this image doing inside of you?”
“What is it trying to say?”
We act on psychological truths all the time.
For example, have you seen the cat and cucumber videos?
People who have indoor cats have been sneaking up behind their cats
while they are eating, and quietly laying a cucumber down.
When the cat turns around after eating, it jumps sky high.
They are hilarious videos, but demonstrate this idea:
the cat is wired to avoid snakes that could kill or eat him.
So when he sees a cucumber that looks like a snake,
his response is to save his life,
even though that cucumber is not a snake, it’s a cucumber!
Similarly, we act on psychological truth all the time.
This was something that set Jung apart in his field –
he was able to utilize the symbols, visions and dreams of his patients
to understand something deeper at work.
the burning bush
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you entered a moment symbolically?
Maybe it was in Communion or the Eucharist…
Or the way you interacted with someone
wearing a toolbelt or a priest’s robe?
Did it feel imagined… or did it feel symbolic?
Did it do something… inside your psyche?
Hold that thought and consider it while we break for a short message.
There’s a story in Jung’s book Man and His Symbols
that I’ve never forgotten.
A man came to Jung —
utterly hollow, deeply depressed,
and ready to commit suicide.
He’d lived his whole life logically, dutifully —
but now… it all felt meaningless.
Then he had a dream.
He was walking through a desert.
And in the center of that desert… was a well.
A deep, black, ancient well.
And from the bottom of the well, he heard a voice:
“Your soul is down here.”
He woke up… shaken.
But for the first time in years —
he felt something real.
Jung told him:
“You must go down into that well.”
Not literally —
but psychologically.
And he did.
He began the work —
writing, dreaming, listening.
And over time…
he rebuilt his life from the inside out.
Not from ego.
But from soul.
jeremiah, says this:
My whole life has been dedicated to my walk with Christ.
I have never backslid, as they call it,
and I’ve been involved in every Christian pursuit you can think of.
My parents were missionaries to western Honduras,
and we did medical clinics in extremely remote places.
I’ve been a pastor, a nonprofit director,
and countless overseas trips for Christian causes.
But I had a crisis of faith at 19 years old.
I honestly remember this day and thank God for it,
but at the time it terrified me.
I was sitting in an outdoor amphitheater at my church
waiting for church to start.
I was people-watching and it was a beautiful spring day.
All of a sudden these words burst up into my consciousness
and I honestly never remember thinking them, let alone saying them.
I said this:
There has to be more than this to Christianity.
I had a faith in Jesus.
A strong one.
But I was so thirsty…
Not for more theology —
but for touch.
For a Spirit that could water the aching places.
For a love I could feel, not just think about.
And that led me here —
To a path that honors the mind, yes…
But also makes space for the emotional, the symbolic,
and the numinous.
“True worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.”
— John 4
That verse has become a cornerstone for me.
Because Spirit and truth are not opposites.
They’re companions.
Inside the Christian Jung Community,
I go deeper into how I applied this in real time.
You’ll get all the tools to begin listening
to what’s awakening in you —
and to experience Christianity in the realm of the Spirit.
Founding membership is open for a limited time,
so I hope you’ll come join us at AngelaMeer.com.
But back to this story of my own awakening…
You know what’s wild?
These inner moments —
this burning voice of the soul —
they don’t just show up in modern therapy.
They show up in Scripture, too.
The Hebrew word for prophet is nabi —
it means “to bubble up,” to proclaim.
Prophets weren’t calm scholars.
They were gripped.
They were burdened.
They were set on fire from within.
They stood between God and people —
and sometimes, they couldn’t hold it in.
Jeremiah said:
“His word is in my heart like a fire…
I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”
— Jeremiah 20:9
That’s not just theology.
That’s the psyche on fire with the voice of the Holy Spirit.
your own awakening
So let me ask you:
📓 Has something ever bubbled up from inside you?
A dream?
A phrase you didn’t expect to say out loud?
What was that?
And how can you honor it?
Sometimes, the Spirit whispers.
And sometimes, it erupts.
Either way — it’s holy.
Holiness is a major topic in Jungian Psychology.
In the Christian Jung Community,
we dive deep into these practices that encourage understanding our inner world.
Our goal is spiritual transformation —
and learning to honor the Holy Spirit at work in our inner life.
Membership is only open for a few more weeks.
Go to AngelaMeer.com to join us.
Next episode, we’re diving into a powerful question:
What is the goal of Jung’s psychology —
and how does it align perfectly with the Christian faith?
We’ll be here every week,
going deeper into the mystery of soul and Spirit.
Before we go,
let’s take a few minutes of quiet together.
Sit in silence.
Let God speak.
What is He showing you in this moment?
Let’s close with a prayer
from St. Catherine of Siena:
“Be who God meant you to be…
and you will set the world on fire.”
Amen.