obnoxion wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:49 am Marie-Louis von Franz shares an Alchemical story about Isis, which relates to our topic: When her son had gone to fight Typhon, Isis went to the Town of Hermes. Isis waited for the right moment – the kairoi – when the heavenly spheres were in right position. When the moment came, an angelic being from the first firmament saw Isis and wanted to unite with her sexually. Isis said she will not comply unless the angel tell her everything he knows about Alchemy. The next time the angle came with his superior called Amnael, who taught Isis all he knew, but Isis was not allowed to reveal this knowledge to anyone except her son.
The story does not tell if the promise of sex happened. Marie-Louis von Franz compares this myth to the Jewish legend of daughters of men getting the secrets of metallurgy from Azazel. Although the “original” (I wouldn’t say there is an original text that is copied and copied, but instead would consider an Archetypal source for the mythic pattern in question) Heathen versions tend to celebrate the knowledge without any guilt. Here I will quote a most enlightening paragraph from M-L von F’s “Alchemy – An Introduction to the Symbolism and Psychology” (Inner City Books, 1980; page 57). She basically suggests that a sexual impulse that might take the form of an enamored spiritual being, might be the first form of a chance to progress of consciousness that could be lost if we abandons ourselves to it immediately:
“…the angel would represent a content of the collective unconscious, in our terms, which irrupts into the psychological system with a demand, in this case a sexual one… Alchemy was born through Isis’ resistance and the fact that she did not cede quickly [or] at least delayed the sexual process, if it did not stop it altogether… If she were a human woman, the angel’s attack would be an animus invasion, but I would rather formulate it much more generally because that would apply to a single case, and this is not case material. It means that very often contents of the collective unconscious irrupt in an instinctive form, in the form of some kind of instinctive urge, either power or sex, or something of the kind. That is, the libido irruption of the unconscious presents itself on a relatively animal or low level first, and that is something we experience again and again. The development of further consciousness often manifests initially in this form. One of the great problems in the psychological realm was to recognize this. If such an irruption takes place you can say that that is being flooded by the sexual impulse, or fantasies, or even physical sexual impulse. We have always to decide whether that is genuine sex or disguised unconscious impulse, which really implies knowledge or progress of consciousness, which appears first in this form.”
Wow. You have no idea how much I needed to read this today. The Divine works in mysterious ways. My morning meditation had me thinking of the nature of sexual impulse, and how I often perceive it as an annoying obstacle since it tends to creep up when I'm trying to be still, or perform magical workings. Does anyone else experience this? I'm wondering if perhaps I need to look at these impulses deeper and dissect what's going on. I'm going to see if I can find a copy of the book you mentioned.