Sun of the Night by Peter Birkhäuser

click on the image for a HI-Rez view

From the book: ‘Stone by Stone: Reflections on the psychology of CG Jung’

Here’s the text that accompanies this remarkable image:

A painting of Peter Birkhäuser (1911-1976), painted during a difficult period of his life, might offer an answer to this question. He called the painting Sun of the Night. It beautifully illustrates why it is so important that the individual is committed in a very concrete way, in his own house, as it were, to the spirit of the collective unconscious.

A nocturnal, owl-like creature with uncanny eyes rises from the horizon like the moon. Its look seems somehow foreboding as if it were in possession of a remote knowledge which certainly surpasses human consciousness. Its strangeness and even eeriness make clear that the encounter of the individual with the spirit of the unconscious isn’t anything like an easy task. On the contrary, the human being in his small house seems to be completely and utterly at the mercy of that supreme and alien power of the “Other.” Compared to the powerful Sun of the Night the small house with its warm human light appears rather unimportant. And now this dwelling place offers a vessel to the human, that is, a protected place of shelter. The human being needs such a place, where he or she can get in contact with and listen to the objective psyche, that is, to the spirit of the unconscious.

(thank you Peter Komidar!)
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