16 : simplicity

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

— Matthew 3:4

John the Baptist lived a life of radical simplicity in the wilderness, embracing a way of being that was stripped of the luxuries and distractions of society. His ministry was one of self-reliance, relying on the wilderness for sustenance and rejecting the trappings of the material world. This simplicity allowed him to remain focused on the truth he sought and the message he carried — a message of repentance and preparation for something greater.

From a Jungian perspective, the wilderness that John embraced is symbolic of the psychological space where we confront our essential nature. When we strip away the external comforts and distractions, we are left with the raw elements of ourselves. In the wilderness, like John, we are forced to become self-reliant, not in the sense of isolation, but in the sense of returning to our own inner truth, independent of the external validation we often seek.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Saint John the Baptist (1513) depicts the figure of John with a serene, almost mystical expression, pointing upward, suggesting his connection to something higher, something beyond the material world. His calm and quiet confidence is a reminder that true strength and truth come from within, from the simplicity of living in alignment with one’s deeper purpose. And that when we are called to do something, we don't do it for ourselves, but for something / someone else...

In a world that often promotes excess and noise, John’s life calls us to explore the wilderness within ourselves, to embrace simplicity, and to rely on our inner compass. When we do, we may find that the truths we seek have been waiting in that quiet space all along.

Journaling Prompt: Where in your life might you be complicating things or relying on external validation? How can you strip away what isn’t essential and return to a place of simplicity and self-reliance to discover deeper truths?

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