The Russian existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov is known for his “philosophy of despair” or “philosophy of tragedy”. For Shestov, the sources of philosophy were the human tragedy, the horrors and sufferings of human life and the sense of hopelessness.    
Tragedies take place in the depth of the human soul, where no eye can reach out to see. Consequently, He saw the beginning of philosophy starting not with knowledge, not with wonder, but with despair.   
Despair is what he considers a “penultimate knowledge”, that is, a preliminary step that we must acknowledge, in order to progress towards something higher, the “ultimate knowledge”.


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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction 
(0:52) Philosophy of Despair
(3:32) Conflict between Faith and Reason
(6:14) Penultimate Knowledge: Despair and Awakening
(11:03) Ultimate Knowledge: Freedom and God


The Philosophy of Existential Despair

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Death is one of the greatest mysteries of human existence, the inevitable fate that unites us all. Whenever man is confronted with something mysterious and unknown such as the origin of the world, death, the afterlife, etc., the unconscious produces symbolic representations. 


In her groundbreaking book, On Dreams and Death, Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz writes about death dreams, that is, dreams of people who subsequently died. Therefore, they are of a precognitive nature, as they can anticipate the death of someone. In death dreams, the end of physical life is represented in a symbolic way, but almost always accompanied by manifestations that allude to the continuation of the person’s life.




How Dreams Can Anticipate Death and Point to the Afterlife

The villain is the most captivating and intriguing of all archetypes. The hero would not exist without his darker counterpart, which reflects aspects of ourselves that we do not dare to acknowledge or confront, but which are present within all of us. 




The Psychology of The Villain

The Magician is the most mysterious and fascinating of all archetypes. He is a person who has gained access to esoteric or occult (hidden) knowledge, bringing the spiritual to the material. Thus, he is an initiate of secret and hidden knowledge of all kinds. As the Emerald Tablet teaches us, “As above, so below, and as below, so above, to accomplish the marvels of the One work.” 


The Magician is often the mentor or guide to his people, and even to the king. Psychologically, the Magician is the archetype of transformation, transforming old realities into new ones. He is the archetype of self-realisation par excellence. The Magician aids us in our lifelong task of attaining a higher level of consciousness, and of recognising that higher power which is greater than ourselves.




The Psychology of The Magician

Numbers do not merely have a quantitative nature, but also a qualitative one (for Pythagoras they were divine). Numbers have life, they are not just symbols on paper. Several philosophers, alchemists and mystics throughout history have associated religious or mystical ideas to numbers. 


In ancient times, people associated mystical meaning to words and names based on their numerical value, which became the basis for 20th century numerology that seeks to understand personality through numbers. Carl Jung describes number as the most primitive archetype (the archetype of order), which provides a vital link between matter and psyche (united by the unus mundus).


Psychologically, the most primitive numbers are 1 to 4, which form the basis for all the rest of the numbers, and as such it is not surprising that they are the most recurring ones in the psyche. These remarkably symbolise the human creation myth and the purpose of life. To paraphrase Pythagoras, “Number rules the universe.”




The Psychology of Numbers

The Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung studied astrology for over 40 years, and was primarily interested in the way astrology could help to explore the psyche. For Jung, astrology represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity. The notion of seeing mythic narratives through patterns in the heavens is one of the earliest attempts to link the outer world with the inner world. 


The well-known Hermetic dictum, “As above, so below,” is key to astrology. It is the idea that man (the microcosm), is influenced by the universe (the macrocosm). That is to say, truths about the nature of the cosmos may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa. 


At the exact moment of birth, each person receives the typical qualities of the libido or energy which is characteristic of him or her. Time, or the moment understood as a peculiar form of energy, seems to coincide with our psychological condition. For Jung, this leads to a peculiar hypothesis, that our personality does not have to do with the position of the stars, but rather with the qualitative effect of time, also called synchronicity, based on the ancient Stoic concept of cosmic sympathy.




The Philosophy of Existential Despair

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