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The object of this book is the presentation of a model for a new healer-priest. The subject is the fifteenth-century Swiss visionary, hermit and saint who lived fairly conventionally until he experienced a mid-life crisis which led to a change of his life style. Brother Klaus was born in 1417, married at the age of 30 an equally well-born wife, with whom he had ten children. He separated from his family with the full consent of his wife and children, but continued to maintain contact with others and with his own family except for short periods of seclusion.
Marie-Louise von Franz gives full, original versions of his visions as recorded by his biographers, quotes C. G. Jung extensively, and goes beyond the Christian meaning of Brother Klaus's visions. C. G. Jung sees in Brother Klaus a man who was able to assimilate explosions of unconscious content ‘without damaging the viability of two systems, i.e., of ego-consciousness on the one hand and the irrupted complex on the other” ( Coll. wks, 8, p. 211).
These visions are further amplified by Marie-Louise von Franz and, without destroying their Christian symbolism, she reveals their significance within the framework of Nordic and Germanic folklore and mythology. I cannot comment on this in the space available; but I should like to stress Brother Klaus's earthiness, his willingness to submit to counsel, indeed his own efforts to seek advice from peasants and priests when he felt close to being overcome by the urge to renounce all worldly desires and satisfactions. A vision of the lily devoured by a horse distressed the dreamer. He felt that he had sacrificed his higher aspirations to his appetites. The author shows convincingly that as the lily was described as inclining towards the horse, it should be taken as an invitation to a mysterium coniunctionis. The spiritual drive was to join with instinct for the religious life to be lived fully.
The last recorded vision of the Trinity, called in this book the terrifying face of G