Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
Theories of Everything
Becca Tarnas: Did Jung and Tolkien Enter the Same World?
1 hour 54 minutes Posted Aug 3, 2026 at 3:53 pm.
Jung and Tolkien's Red Books
Archetypal Rhymes and Parallels
Defining the Imaginal Realm
Active Imagination vs. Dreaming
Active Imagination Protocol
Psyche’s Spontaneous Expression
Ontology of Imaginal Figures
Psychologizing vs. Mythologizing
Planetary Archetypes Experience
Perceiving Universal Beauty
Universal vs. Objective Reality
Psychosis vs. Gnosis
Grounding the Visionary
Symbolic Language of Madness
Unearned Wisdom and Psychedelics
Motherhood as Expanded State
Meaning in Disconnection
Intuition in Science
Leonardo’s Light and Shade
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This podcast explores the uncanny link between two of the twentieth century's great visionary works. Becca Tarnas, assistant professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, joins to discuss her doctoral research into the parallels between Carl Jung's Red Book and J.R.R. Tolkien's lesser-known visionary writings. The central claim: working independently, both men produced strikingly similar imagery, timing, and figures — Jung's Philemon and Tolkien's Gandalf, the Eye of the Evil One and the Eye of Sauron — while each insisted their material felt discovered rather than invented. From there the conversation moves through active imagination, the reality of archetypes, psyche versus mind, and the line between mystical insight and psychosis — a wide-ranging look at where imagination ends and reality begins.
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LINKS MENTIONED:
- Journey To The Imaginal Realm [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1947544217?tag=toe08-20
- Participatory Imagination [Lecture]: https://beccatarnas.com/2020/08/28/jungs-participatory-imagination/
- Becca's PhD Defense: https://youtu.be/3soOYajHUBM
- The Red Book [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0393089088?tag=toe08-20
- The Holy Grail Of The Unconscious [Article]: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html
- Active Imagination: https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-active-imagination-features-methods-and-warnings/
- Jung On Active Imagination [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0691015767?tag=toe08-20
- Richard Tarnas's Website: https://cosmosandpsyche.com/
- The Passion Of The Western Mind [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0345368096?tag=toe08-20
- Psychological Types [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1614279705?tag=toe08-20
- The Fellowship Of The Ring [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0547928211?tag=toe08-20
- Kant's 'Categories': https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/
- The Imaginary And The Imaginal [Paper]: http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/mundus_imaginalis.pdf
- Toni Wolff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Wolff
- The Call Of Cthulhu [Book]: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx
- The Shadow: https://iaap.org/jung-analytical-psychology/short-articles-on-analytical-psychology/the-shadow/
- BBC Interviews Curt: https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/m002s4hd
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- Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0
- Greg Kondrak [TOE]: https://youtu.be/FFW14zSYiFY
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- Bernardo Kastrup & Susan Blackmore [TOE]: https://youtu.be/jrVnAWP2XEs
- Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk
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