Numinosum is the term Jung appropriated from Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational, produced during the First World War. It is a philosophical work that incorporates the thinking of Schleiermacher, Marett, Husserl, and neo-Kantianism; although it is the central experience depicted in it, referred to as the numinous, that particularly attracted Jung’s attention. Otto adopted the term from a word coined from the Latin numen defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a presiding deity or spirit. The Latin dictionary further defines numenas “nod” or “will” both of which are important in Jung’s usage of the term numinous. For example, he often refers to a numinous experience as a “hint” that there are greater powers in the psyche than those of which ego is conscious. Jung was further motivated in this direction by Schopenhauer’s writings, an instance of which is set forth in the following: “Hence it...
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Casement, A. (2020). Numinosum. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_466
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