Four Archetypes (11 page)

¹
[Cf. infra, “The Psychology of the Kore,” and Kerényi’s companion essays in
Essays on a Science of Mythology
.—E
DITORS
.]

²
Cf. my “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass.”

³
Thus Spake Zarathustra
, trans. by Common, pp. 315ff.

⁴
Ibid.: “An old, bent and gnarled tree, hung with grapes.”

⁵
Horneffer,
Nietzsches Lehre von der ewigen Wiederkehr
.

⁶
Les Névroses
, p. 358.

⁷
The
gana
phenomena described by Count Keyserling (
South-American Meditations
, pp. 161ff.) come into this category.

⁸
Ephesians 4 : 8.

⁹
“Thy soul will be dead even sooner than thy body.”
Thus Spake Zarathustra
, p. 74.

¹⁰
Cf. “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” pars. 226ff.

¹¹
Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4, 6ff. (Trans. based on Hume,
The Thirteen Principal Upanishads
, pp. 403ff.).

¹²
Koran, 18th Sura.

¹³
I have discussed one such case of a widening of the personality in my inaugural dissertation, “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena.”

¹⁴
For the Church’s view of possession see de Tonquédec,
Les Maladies nerveuses ou mentales et les manifestations diaboliques;
also “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” p. 163, n. 15.

¹⁵
In this connection, Schopenhauer’s “The Wisdom of Life: Aphorisms” (
Essays from the Parerga and Paralipomena
) could be read with profit.

¹⁶
This important problem is discussed in detail in Ch. II of
Psychological Types
.

¹⁷
Cf. the apt description of the anima in Aldrovandus,
Dendrologiae libri duo
(1668, p. 211): “She appeared both very soft and very hard at the same time, and while for some two thousand years she had made a show of inconstant looks like a Proteus, she bedevilled the love of Lucius Agatho Priscus, then a citizen of Bologna, with anxious cares and sorrows, which assuredly were conjured up from chaos, or from what Plato calls Agathonian confusion.” There is a similar description in Fierz-David,
The Dream of Poliphilo
, pp. 189ff.

¹⁸
Cf. Emma Jung, “On the Nature of the Animus.”

¹⁹
Cf. Lévy-Bruhl,
La Mythologie primitive
.

²⁰
Le Bon,
The Crowd
.

²¹
The
alcheringamijina
. Cf. the rites of Australian tribes, in Spencer and Gillen,
The Northern Tribes of Central Australia;
also Lévy-Bruhl,
La Mythologie primitive
.

²²
I would remind the reader of the catastrophic panic which broke out in New York on the occasion [1938] of a broadcast dramatization of H. G. Wells’
War of the Worlds
shortly before the second World War [see Cantril,
The Invasion from Mars
(1940)], and which was later [1949] repeated in Quito.

²³
Cf. “The Psychology of Eastern Meditation.”

²⁴
Cf.
Psychology and Alchemy
, Part II.

²⁵
Cf. Ruland,
Lexicon
(1893 edn.), p. 226.

²⁶
Izquierdo,
Pratica di alcuni Esercitij spirituali di S. Ignatio
(Rome, 1686, p. 7): “A colloquy . . . is nothing else than to talk and communicate familiarly with Christ.”

^26a
(“Daily Conversations with Dr. Piffoel,” in her
Intimate Journal
.—E
DITORS
.)

²⁷
A Pseudo-Aristotle quotation in
Rosarium philosophorum
(1550), fol. Q.

²⁸
“Largiri vis mihi meum” is the usual reading, as in the first edition (1556) of
Ars chemica
, under the title “Septem tractatus seu capitula Hermetis Trismegisti aurei,” and also in
Theatrum chemicurn
, IV (1613), and Manget,
Bibliotheca chemica
, I (1702), pp. 400ff. In the
Rosarium philosophorum
(1550), fol. E
^v
, there is a different reading: “Largire mihi ius meum ut te adiuvem” (Give me my due that I may help thee). This is one of the interpretative readings for which the anonymous author of the
Rosarium
is responsible. Despite their arbitrariness they have an important bearing on the interpretation of alchemy. [Cf.
Psychology and Alchemy
, par. 139, n.17.]

²⁹
Biblio. chem
., I, p. 430b.

³⁰
Detailed documentation in
Psychology and Alchemy
, par. 84, and “The Spirit Mercurius,” pars. 278ff., 287ff.

³¹
“Tanquam praeceptor intermedius inter lapidem et discipulum.” (
Biblio. chem
., I, p. 430b.) Cf. the beautiful prayer of Astrampsychos, beginning “Come to me, Lord Hermes,” and ending “I am thou and thou art I.” (Reitzenstein,
Poimandres
, p. 21.)

³²
The stone and its transformation are represented:

(1) as the resurrection of the
homo philosophicus
, the Second Adam (“Aurea hora,”
Artis auriferae
, 1593, I, p. 195);

(2) as the human soul (“Book of Krates,” Berthelot,
La Chimie au moyen âge
, III, p. 50);

(3) as a being below and above man: “This stone is under thee, as to obedience; above thee, as to dominion; therefore from thee, as to knowledge; about thee, as to equals” (“Rosinus ad Sarratantam,”
Art. aurif
., I, p. 310);

(4) as life: “blood is soul and soul is life and life is our Stone” (“Tractatulus Aristotelis,” ibid., p. 364),

(5) as the resurrection of the dead (“Calidis liber secretorum,” ibid., p. 347; also “Rachaidibi fragmentum,” ibid., p. 398);

(6) as the Virgin Mary (“De arte chymica,” ibid., p. 582); and

(7) as man himself: “thou art its ore . . . and it is extracted from thee . . . and it remains inseparably with thee” (“Rosinus ad Sarratantam,” ibid., p. 311).

240

I have chosen as an example a figure which plays a great role in Islamic mysticism, namely Khidr, “the Verdant One.” He appears in the Eighteenth Sura of the Koran, entitled “The Cave.”
¹
This entire Sura is taken up with a rebirth mystery. The cave is the place of rebirth, that secret cavity in which one is shut up in order to be incubated and renewed. The Koran says of it: “You might have seen the rising sun decline to the right of their cavern, and as it set, go past them on the left, while they [the Seven Sleepers] stayed in the middle.” The “middle” is the centre where the jewel reposes, where the incubation or the sacrificial rite or the transformation takes place. The most beautiful development of this symbolism is to be found on Mithraic altarpieces
²
and in alchemical pictures of the transformative substance,
³
which is always shown between sun and moon. Representations of the crucifixion frequently follow the same type, and a similar symbolical arrangement is also found in the transformation or healing ceremonies of the Navahos.
⁴
Just such a place of the centre or of transformation is the cave in which those seven had gone to sleep, little thinking that they would experience there a prolongation of life verging on immortality. When they awoke, they had slept 309 years.

241

The legend has the following meaning: Anyone who gets into that cave, that is to say into the cave which everyone has in himself, or into the darkness that lies behind consciousness, will find himself involved in an—at first—unconscious process of transformation. By penetrating into the unconscious he makes
a connection with his unconscious contents. This may result in a momentous change of personality in the positive or negative sense. The transformation is often interpreted as a prolongation of the natural span of life or as an earnest of immortality. The former is the case with many alchemists, notably Paracelsus (in his treatise
De vita longa
⁵
), and the latter is exemplified in the Eleusinian mysteries.

242

Those seven sleepers indicate by their sacred number
⁶
that they are gods,
⁷
who are transformed during sleep and thereby enjoy eternal youth. This helps us to understand at the outset that we are dealing with a mystery legend. The fate of the numinous figures recorded in it grips the hearer, because the story gives expression to parallel processes in his own unconscious which in that way are integrated with consciousness again. The repristination of the original state is tantamount to attaining once more the freshness of youth.

243

The story of the sleepers is followed by some moral observations which appear to have no connection with it. But this apparent irrelevance is deceptive. In reality, these edifying comments are just what are needed by those who cannot be reborn themselves and have to be content with moral conduct, that is to
say with adherence to the law. Very often behaviour prescribed by rule is a substitute for spiritual transformation.
⁸
These edifying observations are then followed by the story of Moses and his servant Joshua ben Nun:

And Moses said to his servant: “I will not cease from my wanderings until I have reached the place where the two seas meet, even though I journey for eighty years.”

But when they had reached the place where the two seas meet, they forgot their fish, and it took its way through a stream to the sea.

And when they had journeyed past this place, Moses said to his servant: “Bring us our breakfast, for we are weary from this journey.”

But the other replied: “See what has befallen me! When we were resting there by the rock, I forgot the fish. Only Satan can have put it out of my mind, and in wondrous fashion it took its way to the sea.”

Then Moses said: “That is the place we seek.” And they went back the way they had come. And they found one of Our servants, whom We had endowed with Our grace and Our wisdom. Moses said to him: “Shall I follow you, that you may teach me for my guidance some of the wisdom you have learnt?”

But he answered: “You will not bear with me, for how should you bear patiently with things you cannot comprehend?”

Moses said: “If Allah wills, you shall find me patient; I shall not in anything disobey you.”

He said: “If you are bent on following me, you must ask no question about anything till I myself speak to you concerning it.”

The two set forth, but as soon as they embarked, Moses’ companion bored a hole in the bottom of the ship.

“A strange thing you have done!” exclaimed Moses. “Is it to drown her passengers that you have bored a hole in her?”

“Did I not tell you,” he replied, “that you would not bear with me?”

“Pardon my forgetfulness,” said Moses. “Do not be angry with me on this account.”

They journeyed on until they fell in with a certain youth. Moses’ companion slew him, and Moses said: “You have killed an innocent man who has done no harm. Surely you have committed a wicked crime.”

“Did I not tell you,” he replied, “that you would not bear with me?”

Moses said: “If ever I question you again, abandon me; for then I should deserve it.”

They travelled on until they came to a certain city. They asked the people for some food, but the people declined to receive them as their guests. There they found a wall on the point of falling down. The other raised it up, and Moses said: “Had you wished, you could have demanded payment for your labours.”

“Now the time has arrived when we must part,” said the other. “But first I will explain to you those acts of mine which you could not bear with in patience.

“Know that the ship belonged to some poor fishermen. I damaged it because in their rear was a king who was taking every ship by force.

“As for the youth, his parents both are true believers, and we feared lest he should plague them with his wickedness and unbelief. It was our wish that their Lord should grant them another in his place, a son more righteous and more filial.

“As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city whose father was an honest man. Beneath it their treasure is buried. Your Lord decreed in His mercy that they should dig out their treasure when they grew to manhood. What I did was not done by caprice. That is the meaning of the things you could not bear with in patience.”

244

This story is an amplification and elucidation of the legend of the seven sleepers and the problem of rebirth. Moses is the man who seeks, the man on the “quest.” On this pilgrimage he is accompanied by his “shadow,” the “servant” or “lower” man (
pneumatikos
and
sarkikos
in two individuals). Joshua is the son of Nun, which is a name for “fish,”
⁹
suggesting that Joshua had his origin in the depths of the waters, in the darkness of the
shadow-world. The critical place is reached “where the two seas meet,” which is interpreted as the isthmus of Suez, where the Western and the Eastern seas come close together. In other words, it is that “place of the middle” which we have already met in the symbolic preamble, but whose significance was not recognized at first by the man and his shadow. They had “forgotten their fish,” the humble source of nourishment. The fish refers to Nun, the father of the shadow, of the carnal man, who comes from the dark world of the Creator. For the fish came alive again and leapt out of the basket in order to find its way back to its homeland, the sea. In other words, the animal ancestor and creator of life separates himself from the conscious man, an event which amounts to loss of the instinctive psyche. This process is a symptom of dissociation well known in the psychopathology of the neuroses; it is always connected with one-sidedness of the conscious attitude. In view of the fact, however, that neurotic phenomena are nothing but exaggerations of normal processes, it is not to be wondered at that very similar phenomena can also be found within the scope of the normal. It is a question of that well-known “loss of soul” among primitives, as described above in the section on diminution of the personality; in scientific language, an
abaissement du niveau mental
.