Volume 2 of the Collected Works of Marie-Louise von Franz: Archetypal Symbols in Fairytales - The Hero's Journey

The Collected Works of Marie-Louise von Franz is a 28 volume Magnum Opus from one of the leading minds in Jungian Psychology. Volume 1, released on her 106th birthday, is to be followed by 27 more volumes over the next 10 years. Volume 2 turns to the Hero’s Journey within fairytales. The Hero’s Journey is about the great adventure that leads to a cherished and difficult to obtain prize. In these fairytales, the Self is often symbolized as that treasured prize and the hero’s travails symbolize the process of individuation. In its many manifestations, the hero embodies the emerging personality. “In the conscious world, the hero is only one part of the personality—the despised part—and through his attachment to the Self in the unconscious is a symbol of the whole personality.” Von Franz’s prodigious knowledge of fairytales from around the world demonstrates that the fairytale draws its root moisture from the collective realm. This volume continues where Volume 1 left off as von Franz describes the fairytale, “suspended between the divine and the secular worlds (…) creating a mysterious and pregnant tension that requires extreme power to withstand.” The resistance of the great mother against the hero and his humble origins, as well as the hero freeing the anima figure from the clutches of the unconscious are universal archetypal patterns. The spoils retrieved by the hero symbolize new levels of consciousness wrested from the unconscious. Marie-Louise von Franz At the age of eighteen, while still in high school, Marie-Louise von Franz met Carl Jung at his Bolingen Tower. She later described this as the most decisive encounter of her life. She entered analysis with him months later, completed her doctorate in classical philology and began seeing her first analysands soon after. She was wholeheartedly dedicated to the unconscious, both in her own life and that of her analysands. She developed a far-reaching expertise in fairytales, alchemy, synchronicity and numbers. She is estimated to have personally analyzed over 65,000 dreams. She was a prolific writer and a highly sought-after teacher. Listening to von Franz lecture was a numinous experience. I thought God was speaking. She seemed to know everything. In an amazing fashion and without a text, she ranged over history West and East, mythology, philosophy, anthropology, and a host of other specialized areas. Never in my training had I heard such far-reaching and profound reflections. (Murray Stein, PhD) Introduction Chapter 1. The Three Feathers Chapter 2. The Poor Miller’s Boy and the Cat Chapter 3. Tritill, Litill, and the Birds Chapter 4. The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs Chapter 5. The King of the Golden Mountain Chapter 6. Stupid Ivanko Chapter 7. The Virgin Tsar Chapter 8. The Blind Padishah Chapter 9. The Boy and the Snake Chapter 10. The Rose Maiden Chapter 11. The Golden Bird Chapter 12. The Golden Castle that Hung in the Air Chapter 13. The Red Swan Chapter 14. The Story of Djihanishah Chapter 15. Djulek Batür Chapter 16. The Magician Palermo Chapter 17. Endings – the Meaning of the End of a Fairytale Bibliography Index of Authors Index of Fairytales Subject Index