Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Smaragd
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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Nefastos wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:39 pm
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:18. Dream: A square space with complicated ceremonies going on in it, the purpose of which is to transform animals into men. Two snakes, moving in opposite directions, have to be got rid of at once. Some animals are there, e.g., foxes and dogs. The people walk round the square and must let themselves be bitten in the calf by these animals at each of the four corners. If they run away all is lost. Now the higher animals come on the scene – bulls and ibexes. Four snakes glide into the four corners. Then the congretation files out. Two sacrificial priests carry in a huge reptile and with this they touch the forehead of a shapeless animal lump or life-mass. Out of it there instantly rises a human head, transfigured. A voice proclaims: "These are attemps at being." (p.143)

Once again so extremely solid alchemical & magical dream that it makes one wonder what kind of unconscious neophyte the dreamer must have been.
Every now and then I've thought why my dreams are nowadays so every day sort. Lately I've even woken very early to extreme tension in a dream, but even those dreams are far from the fantastic horror and nightmares. It's more about being late from a public transport kind of stuff. But I guess when one has had the drive to bring the opposites towards each other, the unconscious to the conscious and other way around from such an early age, we don't have to hang on dreams so much. For example, one might have heard his call to become a neophyte and being enough conscious of the mysterious currents the unconscious tries to lure him into, that he has managed to pursue this idea in waking consciousness by becoming fascinated by surrealism for example. Pursuing the calling and forming ones own relation to it, through art or other ways, such magnificent dreams might be left unseen, and the unconscious communicating with us through dreams might be left to draw further mysteries, perhaps less scifi ones, we are yet to reach. Some clearly alchemical dreams of mine has been very much drenched in the every-day sort of things of working with old women etc.
Nefastos wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:39 pm Jung ponders, understandably, the old idea of a human being been released from his animal state with the aid of the serpent. (See Genesis & all kinds of similar kundalinî mythologies, including the Book of Dzyan.) He puts the ordeal in very good words, which must ring especially true to the ears of those walking the Left Hand Path:
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:During the process one is "bitten" by animals; in other words, we have to expose ourselves to the animal impulses of the unconscious without identifying with them and without "running away".(p.145)

The trauma casted by Christianity upon our culture has made this challenge extremely rarely overcome, because to many not identifying with the animal impulses would mean bowing down to the Christian law. Once again a reason why I try to avoid all political thinking even away from fraternity contexts: the choosing of side is always a fall in the inner accumulated integrity. The inner unification of the opposites is doomed by judgement of the surface masks (whether the masks are those of Christianity, Dionysian pagans, witches... whatever.)

I've just started reading Dante's The Divine Comedy (second attempt), and in the start Dante is climbing a mountain when he comes across different beasts that won't let him pass. He obviously isn't identifying with them, nor straight away running from them, but carefully tracing his steps back until he hears the voice of his master (Lucifer disguised as Vergilius, I presume) who leads him further down the falling arch to hell to hear the agony of its inhabitants. I assume this observation of the suffering in inferno is paraller symbol to letting the animals bite you. Although the specific happenings in the soul of Dante and in the soul of our dreamer here might somewhat differ.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:The arrangement of the snakes in the four corners is indicative of an order in the unconscious. It is as if we were confronted with a pre-existent ground plan, a kind of Pythagorean tetraktys. I have very frequently observed the number four in this connection. It probably explains the universal incidence and magical significance of the cross or of the circle divided into four. In the present case the point seems to be to capture and regulate the animal instincts so as to exorcise the danger of falling into unconsciousness. This may well be the empirical basis of the cross as that which vanquishes the powers of darkness (fig. 73)
This reminds me once again of the Phinx and the four animal parts relation to the four Evangelists. As the religious surroundings, laws, symbols, metaphysics and theology affects our souls so much, I had a wild idea if the Tetramorph could be set individually to certain ideal form to meditate upon. It would be a sort of purification of the concepts, and what would hopefully follow is the spreading of the fire to purify the other forms the tetramorph is presented in.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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19. Dream

Wild war between two people.


According to Jung, the dreamer is again in conflict. His consciousness defends its position and surpresses the unconscious.



20. Dream

two Boys are in a cave. A third one falls in through a tube.

In the cave, Jung sees the Darkness and seclusiveness of the unconscious. The two boys are described as the the two functions of consciousness that currently are unconscious. The third one is theorized to be the auxilary function. As three of four functions have fallen into the unconscious, a new advance of the latter is suspected.



21. Dream

a large transparent sphere containing many smaller spheres. At the top, a green plant grows out.

The large sphere represents the whole containing all contents. Jung notes how in kundalini-yoga, the green "lap/ bosom" refers to Ishvara (Shiva), who emerges from his latency.



22. Dream

In an american hotel. The dreamer takes the lift to the third or fourth floor. There, he has to wait with lots of other people. A friend tells him how he should not have let the dark, unknown woman wait downstairs for so long; after all, the friend has put her into his care. The friend gives him a paper adressed to the woman. It says: "Salvation does not come from not going or fleeing. But it also does not come from letting oneself drift without will. Salvation comes from a complete commitment, where the gaze must be directed to a request/plea/appeal." On the edge of the note, there is a drawing showing a wheel with eight spokes.

Now, a liftboy tells the dreamer that his room would be on the eigth floor. He takes the lift to the seventh or eigth floor. There, he meets an unkown redhaired man und greets him friendly. The scene changes: they say, there is a revolution in switzerland, in which a military party propagades to cut of the left side completely. The objection that the left is weak anyway is answered by explaining how that's exactly why the left should be cut off completely. Now, solderies in old fashioned uniforms arrive, all equal to the red haired man.They load their rifles with sticks, set up in a circle and get ready to shoot in the middle. In the end, they dont shoot and march away.

The dreamer wakes up in great fear.


Fascinating dream. I love how the note speaks about salvation; that it only comes with a deep devotion and constant work. The plea / appeal seems to be the reason & cornerstone of this work, as if life itself - or rather, the wholeness of the self - asks the elemental question that makes said devotion necessary.

The symbol of the wheel with eight spokes correspondingly can be related - although Jung himself does not directly draw this connection - to the Dharmachakra, depicting the eight virtues of buddism, giving guidelines to one possible form of devotion to a question asked by life itself.

Jung himself relates both the wheel and the advice from the note to the center of personality. In that context, the plea appears to refer to the natural aspiration to wholeness that Jung mentions troughout his work.

On the seventh or eight floor, this center of personality is about to be attacked by apparently antiquated soldiers. To Jung, these represent conformity and collective opinion, which is opposed to the process of individuation. Correspondingly, the left that is to be cut off is linked to the unconscious.



23. Dream

In a square room. The unknown woman sits facing towards the dreamer. He is about to draw her portrait, but he doesnt draw her face. Instead, he draws three-leaf clovers or distorted crosses in four different colours:red, yellow, green and blue.


My own first impression here has been that the dreamers anima shows itself to him in a very symbolic way. Jung himself mostly refers to what has happened after this concrete dream, though. The dreamer spontaneously drew a circle with 8 spokes, whichs quaters are colored like the clovers in the dream. In the middle, there was a four-leaf blue flower. Afterwards, the dreamer often would draw similar symbols, based upon visual impressions, intuitions or dreams. In this, Jung sees an occupation with the center point.



24. Dream

Two people talk about cristals, especially about a diamond.


It is a treasure that is difficult to reach.



25. Dream

This dream is about the construction of a centre and a symmetrization of the formation by reflection at the center point.


In the word construction, Jung sees a hint to the alchemical "opus". The symmetrization on the other hand is understood as an answer to the call to "cut off the left" from dream 22. As the "right" of consciousness would refer to its world and the corresponding principles, this world view would be reflected into the "Left", i.e. the unconscious. This symmetrization would, in Jungs idea, mean the recognition of the unconscious and its installment into the dreamers world view.



26. Dream

At night. A voice says: "now it will begin!" As the dreamer asks what would begin, the voice answers: "the circulation /loop can begin." A shooting star falls in a strange, left-hand bend. The scene changes; the dreamer is in a dubious amusement venue. A landlord who appears to be an unscrupulous exploiter and a girl in a down-and-out state are there.

A quarrel about right and left arises. Then the dreamer leaves and takes a taxi that drives him around on the circumference of a square. Then the bar again. The innkeeper says: "What people have been talking about left and right could not match my feeling. is there really a right and a left part of human society?" The dreamer answers: "The existence of the left does not contradict that of the right. In every human being there are both. Left is the mirror image of right. Whenever I feel it, as a mirror image, I agree with myself. There is no right and no left part of human society, but there are symmetrical and crooked people. The crooked ones are those who can only fulfil one side, the left or the right, in themselves. They are still in their childhood state." The host says thoughtfully: "That is much better, and goes back to his occupation.


Here, Jung sees the symmetry of dream 25 stripped of its cosmic element and translated into the psyche of the dreamer. The quarell about left and right is linked to the inner conflict the dreamer had when confronted with the symmetry of both. In the "magical circumambulatio", expressed in the dreamer driving upon the circumference of a square, the dreamer learns to see the left without "running away".



27. Visual impression

A Circle with a green tree in the middle. There is an angry fight between wild people in the circle. They cannot see the tree.


Again the conclict between left and right. The wild people are still in a state of childhood and are crooked as described by the dreamer in dream 26. They can se only one of the sides, without noticing the tree as a third that stands above the conflict.



28. Visual impression

A circle; inside, steps lead up to a basin with a fountain.


Here, Jung sees a return to the symbol of the fountain from dream 13. As a reason for this he says how if a state is not satisfying because a crucial aspect of unconscious content is missing, consciousness goes back to earlier symbols.



29. visual impression

a bouquet of roses, than a symbol (like ≠ with two additional lines) that should be like a star with 8 rays.


The bouqet of roses is linked to a fountain that unfolds. Whereas the purpose of the first symbol remains unclear to jung, the second one he describes as an eightfold flower. The fact that the first symbol should actually be another one is understood as a correction aiming at the right evaluation of the center.



30. Dream

Together with the dark, unknown woman, the dreamer sits at a round table.


Everytime when a certain climax in clarity is reached, a slight regression would appear, which Jung sees in this dream. The former dreams would show how the aspired totality is a little embarrassing to the dreamer, since its accomplishment would have practical consequences.



31. Dream

He is sitting at a round table with a certain man of negative quality. On the table stands a glass filled with gelatinous mass.


This dream is described as direct progress from the former. Now, the formerly "dark" anima has become a concrete "shadow" that belongs to the dreamer personally. To Jung, the anima is now freed from the projection of moral inferiority and can go back to its actual function, creative vitality. The latter is seen to be reflected in the gelatinous mass and likened to the mass in dream 18. The glass itself is described as the "unum vas" of alchemy, from which spiritually gifted/ spirit bestowed living body of the lapis emerges. The lapis would not be just a stone, since it is constituted "de re animali, vegetablili et minerali", consists of body, soul and spirit and grows from flesh and blood.

Correspondingly, Jung sees this dream as the birth of the center. The fact that this birth takes place from a "gelatinous mass" is linked to the alchemical prima materia as a chaotic, impregnated massa informis.
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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Jung's dreamer continues his psychonautic journey with many smaller dreams. Some of these seem like partly caleidoscopic play of the now common themes, but there is also a new symbol I see as important. This symbol is 'the gem from the Master'.

In this first week of this month's reading I will go through dreams 32 to 43.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:32. Dream: The dreamer receives a letter from an unknown woman. She writes that she has pains in the uterus. A drawing is attached to the letter, looking roughly like this: [There follows a sketch where a zigzagging journey goes through "Virgin Forest", to reach a spiral in the center of which there is a center point marked as uterus] (p.179)

Jung likens uterus to the vessel of Grail. "It is surrounded by the spiral, the symbol of indirect approach by means of the circumambulatio." This if familiar to the occultists as the spiral of Fohat & kundalinî process, which is the spiritual form of the usual "approaching of the fertile womb". Those who have read my article on Fohat might find it interesting that the map-sketch here depicts the two forms of Fohatic process I mentioned there: first the zigzagging two-dimensional form, which is the shamanic trance-line (the one seen also in the floor of the Black Lodge of Twin Peaks...), and then the even more sacred spherical spiral form. These are the masculine and feminine forms of Fohat/Kundalinî.

Jung speaks of the "healing serpent of Aesculapis" when approaching this "serpentine line", but does not note how the similararity to the gnostic Cista Mystica, where the serpent saviour emerges, and where it returns. Appropriately in this Grail symbolism of sacred sexuality Jung also lists some very White aspect symbols, like glaciers and the Milky Way. He cites also comes back to the Grail as the "rejected stone" symbolism that is and has always been so crucial to the Star of Azazel symbolism. (See Jung's footnote 125 on page 180.)

Unlike so many other authors, Jung also shows very wise humility when he (on page 182) writes that he is approaching the Oriental symbolism as psychological: "There may be other [points of view] with I am not familiar." One thing I so admire in Jung is his ability to bring together great vision that necessarily demands personal pride in one's work, and wisdom to be humble enough not to present it as excluding other positive and uplifting approaches. For in fact there are very few actually condemnable interpretations, namely, those which belong to the downward path.

Right next to this he gives another very good interpretation or approach: "[...] concept "mandala" expresses the essence of a certain kind of attitude." (Page 182, emphasis in the original.)

Important to this Grail symbolism, page 184 gives the familiar Rosicrucian symbol of a hermetic pelican, "nourishing its young with its own blood". Those able to travel in Finland might remember this as a beautiful stained glass from Tampere cathedral, which is filled with gnostic symbolism.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:33. Dream: A battle among savages, in which bestial cruelties are perpetrated. (p.184)

The commentary as a whole is: "As was to be foreseen, the new complications ("immortality") has started a furious conflict, which makes use of the same symbols as the analogous situation in dream 27." This is brought about by astral atmosphere intensification, creating a pressure for giving birth.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:34. Dream: A conversation with a friend The dreamer says, "I must carry on with the figure of the bleeding Christ before me and persevere in the work of self-redemption. (p.184)

In his comments, Jung points out how "the process of individuation [...] has been held up to Western man in the dogmatic and religious model of the life of Christ". The problem is that the Work that should be done by individual is projected and left for one superman (Jesus) to handle for all the rest. A most grievous error.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:35. Dream: An actor smashes his hat against the wall, where it looks like this: [a picture of a eight-spoked wheel with a black sphere as its navel] (p.185)

Jung understandably reminds us about the hat symbolism from the beginning of the dream cycle. He does not comment the obvious, how the micro- and macrocosmic models here come together in the symbol of the Magician's (arcana I) Head, and the interesting things how this joins to the eight-spoked wheel of e.g. Buddhist vehicle (not to mention its laya center as the center of one's head: see Polyharmonia's quotation of Tao Te Ching).
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:36. Dream: The dreamer drives in a taxi to the Rathausplatz, but it is called the "Marienhof." (p.186)

Closed garden of Virgin Mary, of which has been spoken early in the process (the closed four-walled space for the Work, containing the living process: in Cartazon article I spoke about its aspect of the four-towered fortress; it's about elemental stability & thus protection).
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:37. Dream: There are curves outlined in light around a dark centre. Then the dreamer is wandering about in a dark cave, where a battle is going on between good and evil. But there is also a prince who knows everything. He gives the dreamer a ring set with a diamond and places it on the fourth finger of his left hand. (p.186)

It amazes me how little emphasis Jung has put on this extremely important dream. In it one actually receives the Grail stone (the philosopher's stone!) from the hand of his Master ("the prince who knows everything" is Lucifer, an ascended i.e. unveiled form of the earlier dreams' Mephisto) as a wedding ring. One can't get much deeper into positive symbolism than this is, and Jung even briefly mentions this, yet somehow does not go deeper into the initiation symbolism. ("The gift means nothing less than the dreamer's vow to the self – for as a rule the wedding ring is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand.")
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:38. Dream: A circular table with four chairs round it. Table and chairs are empty. (p.186)

The mandala is not yet in use, says Jung. Round table he has already dealt as the round table of the Grail knights (there's a beautiful picture in page 181).
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:39. Visual impression: The dreamer is falling into the abyss. At the bottom there is a bear whose eyes gleam alternately in four colours: red, yellow, green, and blue. Actually it has four eyes that change into four lights. The bear disappears and the dreamer goes through a long dark tunel. Light is shimmering at the far end. A treasure is there, and on top of it the ring with the diamond. It is said that this ring will lead him on a long journey to the east. (p.187)

Jung says very little about the meaning of this, but I would suggest that the "empty seats" of the round table are creating a problem for the work; even going as far that our dreamer might be wasting his possibility for the actual esoteric accomplishment by not taking the possibility for actually taking part of the Work, instead keeping the backseat of his own process that is taken to be (only) psychological instead of (also) occult. ("There may be other [points of view] with I am not familiar.") This vacuum of personal presence is classicaly presented by the monstrous form of the Other, and the four eyes of the bear are the energies that are unable to present themselves as the "four knights" who would actively seek the Grail. All this is my interpretation however.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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This week's part consists of a serie of dreams & visual impressions that mostly are very little commented by Jung. He practically just points out the already familiar recurrent symbolism, like the alchemical colour coding: likening of citrinitas (yellow phase) to the rubedo (red phase)... So this week our text gets a bit boring. Yet here we go.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:40. Dream: Under the guidance of the unknown woman the dreamer has to discover the Pole at the risk of his life. (p.188)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:41. Visual impression: Yellow balls rolling round to the left in a circle. (p.188)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:42. Dream: An old master points to a spot on the ground illuminated in red. (p.188)

Together with 47 & 48, this brings to mind the process of the Grand Grimoire. The karcist conjures devil by the name of Lucifuge Rofocale, forces the demon to show him a place where a treasure is buried, then after obtaining it, is instructed to give up the Satanist business, ask forgiveness from God, and live happily ever after with his soul given back and having all the treasure besides.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:43. Dream: A yellow light like the sun looms though the fog, it is murky. Eight rays go out from the centre. This is the point of penetration: the light ought to pierce through, but has not quite succeeded. (p.188)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:44. Dream: The dreamer is in a square enclosure where he must keep still. It is a prison for Lilliputians (or children?). A wicked woman is in charge of them. The children start moving and begin to circulate round the periphery. The dreamer would like to run away but may not do so. One of the children turns into an animal and bites him in the calf. (p.189)

"[C]ircumambulatio means, as always, concentration on the center." (p.190)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:45. Dream: A parade ground with troops. They are not equipping themselves for war but form an eight-rayed star rotating to the left. (p.190)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:46. Dream: The dreamer is imprisoned in the square enclosure. Lions and a wicked sorceress appear. (p.190)

Not a wardrobe, I hope. God I hate that book. "Lions, like all wild animals, indicate latent affects." (p.190)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:47. Dream: The wise old man shows the dreamer a place one the ground marked in a peculiar way. (p.190)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:48. Dream: An acquiantance wins a prize for digging up a potter's wheel. The potter's wheel rotates on the ground (cf. dream 45) and produces the earthenware ("earthly") vessels which may figuratively be called human bodies. Being round, the wheel refers to the self and the creative activity in which it is manifest. The potter's wheel also symbolizes the recurrent theme of circulation. (p.190-191)

I had some quite strong positive synchronisms anchored to this particular thing. The most striking of them was that I had just been commenting Matthew chapter 27 when I took the break & read this particular dream 48. I had just written:

"At the dawn Jesus is taken to the governor Pilate. At that time Judas is shocked, either because he now actually comes to face the results of his actions, or because he notices that things have come to pass differently to what he had thought. He "cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself" (27:5). With these money that were given back to the temple they "bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in" (27:7). Out of clay was also made Adam, the earthly human being (Genesis 2:7), and the potter's field as a cematery brings to mind the Christian burial formula, that especially reminds of the human that is "ashes to ashes & dust to dust", the part that does not have part to resurrection."

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:49. Dream: A starry figure rotating. At the cardinal points of the circle there are pictures representing the seasons. (p.191)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:50. Dream: An unknown man gives the dreamer a precious stone. But he is attacked by a gang of apaches. He runs away (nightmare) and is able to escape. The unknown woman tells him afterwards that it will not always be so: sometime he will have to stand his ground and not run away. (p.192)

I take this to be a support my personal interpretation of or approach to the dreams 37-39 from the last week.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:51. Dream: There is a feeling of great tension. Many people are circulating a large central oblong with four smaller oblongs on its sides. The circulation in the large oblong goes to the left and in the smaller oblongs to the right. In the middle there is the eight-rayed star. A bowl is place in the center of each of the smaller oblongs, containing red, yellow, green, and colourless water. The water rotates to the left. The disquieting question arises: Is there enough water? (p.192)

I still consider the same. The dreamer is "losing the mandala" (it changes from square to oblong, which also Jung takes to me the horizontal shape of the subconscious emphasised) because he cannot "take the Grail (star-bowl) quest" but is content just by dreaming. Naturally this is quite a bold theory to make from such a distance!

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:52. Dream: A rectangular dance hall. Everybody is going round the periphery to the left. Suddenly the order is heard: "To the kernels!" But the dreamer has first to go into the adjoining room to crack some nuts. Then the people climb down rope ladders to the water. (p.193)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:53. Dream: The dreamer finds himself in an empty square room which is rotating. A voice cries, "Don't let him out. He won't pay the tax!" (p.194)

Jung comments that "the cause of the disturbance was an underestimation of the demands of the unconscious (the vertical) which led to a flattening of the personality". In the light of my theory, there really is "underestimation of the demands" present.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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This August's third part will go through five visions. After these there is only one left, and this dream journey that is starting to become a bit tiresome, is over.
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:54. Dream: I come to a strange, solemn house – the "House of the Gathering." Many candles are burning in the background, arranged in a peculiar pattern with four points running upward. Outside, at the door of the house, an old man is posted. People are going in. They say nothing and stand motionless in order to collect themselves inwardly. The man at the door says of the visitors to the hous, "When they come out again they are cleansed." I go into the house myself and find I can concentrate perfectly. Then a voice sys: "What you are doing is dangerous. Religion is not a tax to be paid so that you can rid yourself of the woman's image, for this image cannot be got rid of. Woe unto them who use religion as a substitute for another side of the soul's life; they are in error and will be accursed. Religion is no substitute; it is to be added to the other activities of the soul as the ultimate compeltion. Out of the fulness of life shall you bring forth your religion; only then shall you be blessed!" While the last sentence is being spoken in ringing tones I hear distant music, simple chords on an organ. Something about it reminds me of Wagner's Fire Music. As I leave the thouse I see a burning mountain and I feel: "The fire that is not put out is a holy fire" (Shaw, St. Joan).(p.194)

I wish my last night's dreams would have been more like this. Instead, I dreamed of brother Yinlong being a sociopath ax murderer, and later wrestling with a vampire risen from one of his victims. Maybe I should cut off my black magic practices before sleeping a little.

This "House of Gathering", which was a "powerful experience" for the dreamer, reminds Jung of the Mountain of the Adepts, also known as the House of Gathering. It also reminds me the Gatherings mentioned at the end of the Voice of Silence, and the cabalistic Gatherings. We will leave Magic the Gathering out of this. There follows some basic occult teaching (about the dark fire & the seven gods which became the seven fallen Archons) which most likely is more or less familiar to all our readers here.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:55. Dream: A silver bowl with four cracked nuts at the cardinal points.(p.197)

"This dream shows that some of the problems in dream 52 have been settled, though the settlement is not complete."

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:56. Dream: Four children are carrying a large dark ring. They move in a circle. The dark unknown woman appears and says she will come again, for it is the festival of the solstice.(p.199)

The author ponders upon the meanings of the child-like beings, seemingly not taking into consideration the common mystical teaching about the demand of becoming like a child to enter the Kingdom (of Heaven), given in the gospels as well in the Voice of Silence, and elsewhere. "Note that children also play a part in the opus alchymicum: a certain portion of the work is called ludus pueroum. Save for the remark that the work is as easy as "child's play," I have found no explanation for this." Some of us might remember from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra reading here in the forum that one of the teachings was "to suck something & become that sucking". Being a small child is to be nourished from outside. Also that demands a certain attitude (for example, the "anti-virtue of being capable of following"), so even "child's play" is not always easy. Jung once again reminds us of dwarfs, Cabiri, and hobgoblins.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:57 Visual impression: The dark ring, with an egg in the middle. (p.201)

This is not commented in any way. Those familiar with the Finnish version of Argarizim might note some resemblance to the idea of its cover.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:58 Visual impression: A black eagle comes out of the egg and seizes in its beak the ring, now turned to gold. Then the dreamer is on a shup and the bird flies ahead. (p.201)

Jung's interpretation of this dream is not very detailed. He reminds us that the bird adds the height to the process, and likens it to all the other alchemical bird emblems: phoenix, vulture, raven. (I consider this to be simplification.) Ship reminds him of the man-made spiritual "vehicles" like Mahayana & Hinayana of buddhism.

Next: Just one more dream, the one of culmination & perfection.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Angolmois

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Angolmois »

Nefastos wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:47 am
I wish my last night's dreams would have been more like this. Instead, I dreamed of brother Yinlong being a sociopath ax murderer.. .
Reminded me of a dream I had about your astral dobbelgänger and another unknown soror of SoA when I had contemplated about moving to Helsinki a year or so ago. In the dream I was in my New Helsinki apartment, sitting on a chair in front of the table. When I turned around, the unknown soror was preparing a Black mass and there was a grilled pig in the room with occult symbols carved into its skin. When I looked again over my head to another direction, a long haired Nefastos, looking like a cunning fox, tried to hack my head off with an axe. To this I woke up. 🧙‍♂️
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Nefastos
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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Rúnatýr wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:57 pma long haired Nefastos, looking like a cunning fox, tried to hack my head off with an axe.

To have that long blonde hair once again would almost be worth of becoming an axe-murderer.
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Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Angolmois

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Angolmois »

What a handsome young man!
Nefastos wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:18 am
Rúnatýr wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:57 pm To have that long blonde hair once again would almost be worth of becoming an axe-murderer.
I feel you, I'm getting Balder (!) Day by Day although again trying to grow my hair.
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Nefastos
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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This month's last week gives us ––
Psychology & Alchemy wrote:III. The vision of the world clock

59. The "Great Vision":
There is a vertical and a horizontal circle, having a common centre. This is the world clock. It is supported by the black bird. The vertical circle is a blue disc with a white border divided into 4 x 8 = 32 partitiions. A pointer rotates upon it. The horizontal circle consists of four colours. On it stand four little men with pendulums, and round about it is laid the ring that was once dark and is now golden (formerly carried by the children). The "clock" has three rhythms or pulses:
1. The small pulse: the pointer on the blue vertical disc advances by 1/32.
2. The middle pulse: one complete revolution of the pointer. At the same time the horizontal disc advances by 1/32.
3. 32 middle pulses are equal to one revolution of the golden ring.


This remarkable vision made a deep and lasting impression on the dreamer, an impression of "the most sublime harmony," as he himself puts it. (p.203-204)

"This vision is treated in greater detail in Jung, "Psychology and Religion"."

Author next tells us that the vision brought about some signifying realization, although he cannot say what it was, due to medical discretion. "Whatever a man does in reality he himself becomes." Jung does not know what the three rhythms allude to, but he considers the 32 paths of wisdom of Sepher Jetzirah, the canales occulti of Knorr von Rosenroth. "Whether the cabalistic numer 32 can be equated with the thirty-two fortunate signs (mahavyanjana) of the Buddha-child is doubtful."

He then goes on pondering on symbolism of spheres & colours according to 14th century pélerinages of Guillaume de Digulleville, which to me seems a bit like a stretch, although it is great to hear (for the first time) about this work. From one footnote (nr. 143) we learn that in some early manuscripts the four evangelists have their animal counterparts' heads instead of human ones.

In the last page of August, Jung naturally once more comes back to his Bible, Goethe's Faust. And that was it. The next month brother Nayana (unless someone else is willing?) will give us the conclusion of this part two from "The Symbols of the Self", & start the third part of the book: "Religious Ideas in Alchemy: An Historical Survey of Alchemical Ideas". That is the part that most likely interests most our occultist readers, for it is like a little instruction booklet for alchemical operations & terminology.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

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Psychology and Alchemy wrote:It is characteristic of Goethe’s feeling-toned nature that the fourth should be the thinker. If the supreme principle is “feeling is all,” then thinking has to play an unfavourable role and be submerged. Faust I portrays this development. Since Goethe acted as his own model, thinking became the fourth (taboo) function. Because of its contamination with the unconscious it takes on the grotesque form of the Cabiri, for the Cabiri, as dwarfs, are chthonic gods and misshapen accordingly. (“I call them potbellied freaks of common clay.”) They thus stand in grotesque contrast to the heavenly gods and poke fun at them (cf. the “ape of God”).
It is very important notion to mark different functions like feeling or thinking can take the submerged role (or the place of the inferior function, if I understood correctly they are the same thing) in an individual. I caught myself so immersed in this patients world that I had almost closed the option thinking can become the inferior function, although I've witnessed it many times. Keeping ones mind open just the right amount can be surprisingly hard. Too much openess doesn't bring the abstractions of new and occult matters enough to the ground reality of past experience, and too much closed mind can miss the more abstract points beyond the most obvious examples. Reading mythological tales in an alive manner, revealing what is meaningful to oneself, may reveal interesting notions even from the details and is a great exercise in the openess of the mind. Instead of learning some rigid system of symbols, or thinking a novel should be interpreted in specific rigid way, all the creatures with their peculiar nature and the tale itself becomes much more an open world analogous to many things, yet potentially including a sound system of symbols. The combination of the two is positively direction giving.

Reading the book I was amused how Jungs psychology especially with this patient could almost be seen as a classic magician-medium relationship. The patient is a sort of a medium seeing these images of the soul which the magician Jung depicts in a larger scale pointing out of it science of the spirit. The course is just quite a bit altered as the ”medium” is not so much a tool of the magician for he is more like an apprentice whose propably going throuh jungian individuation process, although a tool in the sense that through his capabilities and his soul we – the audience of the magician are seeing the demonstration of the magic of the individuation process.
Nefastos wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 3:12 pm
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:48. Dream: An acquiantance wins a prize for digging up a potter's wheel. The potter's wheel rotates on the ground (cf. dream 45) and produces the earthenware ("earthly") vessels which may figuratively be called human bodies. Being round, the wheel refers to the self and the creative activity in which it is manifest. The potter's wheel also symbolizes the recurrent theme of circulation. (p.190-191)

I had some quite strong positive synchronisms anchored to this particular thing. The most striking of them was that I had just been commenting Matthew chapter 27 when I took the break & read this particular dream 48. I had just written:

"At the dawn Jesus is taken to the governor Pilate. At that time Judas is shocked, either because he now actually comes to face the results of his actions, or because he notices that things have come to pass differently to what he had thought. He "cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself" (27:5). With these money that were given back to the temple they "bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in" (27:7). Out of clay was also made Adam, the earthly human being (Genesis 2:7), and the potter's field as a cematery brings to mind the Christian burial formula, that especially reminds of the human that is "ashes to ashes & dust to dust", the part that does not have part to resurrection."
So the potters field and Judas’ deeds (coming ultimately to the abandonement or sacrifice of power in form of the silver coins and his own body) may be seen referring to the crude material leftovers from which the potter molds new human vessels. Interesting notion indeed. I might be taking this a bit far, but to me this seems to become clearly a metaphor of black magic in the New Testament. If Peter and Andrew were shown how to be fisher of men, Judas in his cosmic role of an apostle seems to give men their vessels of clay.
Nefastos wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 9:47 am
This "House of Gathering", which was a "powerful experience" for the dreamer, reminds Jung of the Mountain of the Adepts, also known as the House of Gathering. It also reminds me the Gatherings mentioned at the end of the Voice of Silence, and the cabalistic Gatherings. We will leave Magic the Gathering out of this. There follows some basic occult teaching (about the dark fire & the seven gods which became the seven fallen Archons) which most likely is more or less familiar to all our readers here.
I might have read the idea somewhere years ago, maybe even from your texts, but just one or two days ago before reading this part of the book, I somehow came to contemplate the seven gods as the Archons who prevent us from leaving the earthly realm or proceeding in the work. Preventing is obviously in a satanic sense the very tension that ultimately allows us to proceed, or to gain the powers of the seven gods – initiation to them.

”Originally the seven stars were the seven great Babylonian gods”.
Ah, so this is why the seal of Babalon is seven pointed. I’ve wondered what’s the connection, and how to interpret Babalon in a larger context, often seeing the seal and other surfaces of Thelema inspired contemporary occultism in my pastime hobby of searching and appreciating occult themed art and images. I assume Babalon is a sort of representative of Babylon. ”Mother of Abominations” fits well with the challenges the unknown woman presents for the dreamer in the book, and I came think Temenos and Babylon to be sort of two different stages of ”the city”. Babylon as the chaotic city of sin, the nature of which must be accepted, and Temenos as a complementary fortress of balance coming in a later stage from the bosom of which the attacking demonic winds can be turned to magical powers through initiation – energetic understanding and mastery of the powers, the demonic emanations also are made of.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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