Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
Locked
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nefastos »

Polyhymnia wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:24 pmJust a little note to say I had big dreams of participating more vigorously in this, but I received my book in the mail not that long ago and I'm afraid I underestimated the denseness of the material, and grossly overestimated my ability to keep up with both this and the secret doctrine at an adequate pace. I will be following slowly, from afar. Thank you so much for such thorough write ups! I am enjoying what I can of the discussions at my snail's pace.

Great to hear that you have some strength left from Blavatsky & Dzyan to participate, even from afar! In case you wish, at any point, to take some portion of the texts we go through, just say so. Many parts of the books are not so intensely interconnected that it would impossible to read just some part & comment it, even if one hasn't read all the preceding parts of the text.

On we go, to the final dreamlike visions of chapter 2.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:21. Visual impression: "The dreamer is surrounded by nymphs. A vocie says; "We were always there, only you did not notice us" (p.86)

I am a bit surprised by the tameness with which the author comments this quite erotic an image. It reminds me of Jung's personal perhaps a bit problematic (or maybe culturally induced, at the time?) distance to sexual themes. Also, he never seems to address his own situation including both wife and a lover in his autobiography or elsewhere, for example, even though one might assume that such things are extremely important to ponder upon thoroughly when thinking about one's process with the anima soul &c. Once again the "roundness" of the alchemical matrix is mentioned, and once again Jung seems to hesitate to talk about its most apparent symbolism in maternal womb & breast. Maybe we come to that symbolism at some later point.

To me this visual impression speaks of the both alarming and promising state of separatio where one's (here a man's) psyche is fragmented into several female figures, which he has to once again collect into one actual anima-shakti in the Great Work, in order to actually produce unity which is the goal. Ad perpetranda miracula rei unius, as goes the White aspect motto from Tabula Smaragdina.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:22. Visual impression: "In a primeval forest. An elephant looms up menacingly. Then a large ape-man, bear, or cave-man threatens to attack the dreamer with a club. Suddenly the "man with the pointed beard" appears and stares at the aggressor, so that he is spellbound. But the dreamer is terrified. The voice says, "Everything must be ruled by the light." (p.89)

This last impression brings us to the same figure that was mentioned in March's Red Book chapter, the "wild man of the woods", the Green Man. Once again enter Nietzsche:

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:It needed a Nietzsche to expose in all its feebleness Europe's schooboy attitude to the ancient world. But what did Dionysus mean to Nietzsche? What he says about it must be taken seriously; what it did to him still more so. (p.89-90)

That is, Jung suggests that the Dionysian power devoured Nietzsche, who wasn't able to unite and ground these basic vital energies, but became their unquestioning presentator and therefore also a victim, for that is how these divine tragedies work out. In this we need that Mephistophelian "light" mentioned: intellect must be taken into the process, to play its critical (sic) part.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:The intellect may be the devil, but the devil is the "strange son of chaos" who can most readily be trusted to deal effectively with his mother. (p.91)

Exquisitely well said, and of the utmost importance to us LHP-oriented (as well as other!) occultists.
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!"
User avatar
Smaragd
Posts: 1120
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:27 am

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Smaragd »

Nefastos wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:13 pm
DREAM 13
--Mercury, who really is everywhere and everything. E.g. To us he is both buddhi, kundalinî and iocator, the principle of the trickster, so very little is actually left outside his area in occultism.
These connections between buddhi and iocator (and its madness) connecting to the idea of anima/animus left me thinking. Eventually the ”philosopher’s egg” ie. alchemical vessel caught my attention. I strongly associated it to the protecting integrity or soundness, one may feel when soaring in the Air while the madness of Mercury starts to become threatening (the protection in actuality is not just a feeling that will protect the ignoring aspirant no matter what, but a balancing impulse to draw the high flying ideas back towards ground, making them, for example, presentable to others and the lower self). There are several things I can connect to the protective egg in myself. One layer is the protective grounding my aspectual emphasis creates. Another one, linking to the aspectual effect (I think different aspects have somewhat different kind of effects here) is the protective and grounding circle the fraternity creates. Then, perhaps most essentially (literal emphasis on the word here) ones anima/animus as the master, the inner/higher self – the integrity the otherness in the self offers in the most loving way as the immaculate sacrifice. The egg with the angels and birds is an image of the ideal unviolent way of creation and taking shape, while the homunculus Mercury inside the egg creates needed dynamism to make the dance happen.
Mercury - Alchemical Vessel.png
Mercury - Alchemical Vessel.png (434.03 KiB) Viewed 6271 times
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nefastos »

Yes! All these come back to Mercury-Buddhi's deepest root as the principle of integrity. We can add to the list of important examples also:

– Protective magic circle of the ceremonial magician.
– The practical circle of ethics, which is the aura of the Triple Key.
– Physically one's skin which, as Buddhists say, must be solid if one is to touch poison.
– The double feminine generating & protective bosom (of uterus & ubera) mentioned above.
– Circle (and therefore, the symbolic ring) of matrimony, which creates the protective circle in Hieros Gamos (inside the soul or outside as a socio-psychological fidelity).
– Shaktic circle of the metaphysical as well as "physical" (i.e. force-) electrons, circling the abstract core of the laya center that is pure power in anti-creation.
– Invisible but factual halo around a Saint's (arhat's or adept's) head, which makes her an invidualized actual "planet", instead of being just a part of nebulous human substance.
– The same symbolized in the monarch's crown or a diadem.
– One's personal "auric egg", as the ultimate feminine principle in human microcosm (related by theosophists to kârana sharîra or the "body of reasons", meaning that this ultimate reserve of fundamental individualized energies is one's dharmic & karmic treasury of light). Blavatsky considered this principle as too sacred to be spoken of freely, because of which it is in abscondito behind the exoterical principle of âtma in the theosophical sevenfold schema (as well as in the same of SoA, but can be seen in the triple stone model of the Demons' Cube nine principle model).

Et cetera. All these are "protective" as well as in vital communion with Otherness. This is where Hermes' functions as hermetic & hermeneutical form one meaningful=sacred whole.
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!"
User avatar
Nayana
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:10 pm

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nayana »

Chapter 3. The Symbolism of the Mandala

In the introductory part "concerning the mandala", Jung opens up about his idea of the Mandala, and its relevance for the dreams he analyses.

He describes the mandala as a symbol that resembles a ritual or magical circle, used as an instrument of contemplation in tantric yoga & yantra, especially in lamaism.

Initially, Jung describes how he talked to a lamaistic rinpoche ("precious one", a title of those reincarnated, older, respected, notable, learned and/or an accomplished lamas or teachers of the dharma) called Lingdam Gomchen about the Mandala. The latter explained it to be a "dmigs-pa", a mental image which could only be created by an learned lama. Correspondingly, the rinpoche describes any depiction of a mandala as meaningless, as they would only be representations of the inner picture. The true mandala would be an inner, individual picture created by active imagination when there is a disharmony in mental balance, or if a thought cannot be found and has to be searched for outside of the sacred doctrine.

Jung appears rather cautious about the rinpoches definition. Concerning the individuality, he would object how the mandalas are presented in an more or less similar style while depicting a tradional structure. Mostly, mandalas would represent a quaternary system, whichs contents would derive from lamaistic dogma. Also, he upholds that there are texts (he mentions the "Shri-Chakra-Sambhara-Tantra" as example), giving specific instructions on the creation of a mandala.

Rather, Jung suspects the origin of the mandala in dreams and visions, and himself describes them as part of the oldest religious symbols of humanity. The center of a mandala would often show a figure of high meaning (Shiva, Shiva in embrace of Shakti, Buddha, Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, one of the great Mahayana teachers or the Dorje/ Vajra, the symbol of the divine powers in their creative and destructive nature as one). The individual mandala would - next to alchemical qualities Jung finds described in the text "golden flower" from taoistic syncretism - possess the same "metaphysical qualites", only - my interpretation - in relation to the individual. Hence, to Jung a mandala describes the center of personality outside of / unequal to the I.

Related to Jungs definition, I found it interesting how the rinpoche talks about a thought that cannot be found and has to be searched for. The mandala as a center of personality seems in line with this; if something is not found within personality, one attempts to reach out for the whole and find it there. It will be interesting to learn about the nature of the conflict between the mandala as an active imagination (rinpoche Lingdam Gomchen) and, as it appears for now, an expression of the unconscious / center of personality (Jung). Jungs neglect of the lamanian take, however, seems understandable, as an expression of the inner falls into dogma, similiar as one may observe with meaningful points of western spirituality and churches.

We will have to see how Jung continues to unfold his thoughts about the mandala symbolism, as he continues the chapter by explaining why he would not publish any of his findings before his work on the text "golden flower" with Richard Wilhelm. Next to imitation or the greedy adoration with borrowed feathers, the external (mis-) use of such "magical motives" like an ointment seems to be an important reason for him. He almost rants against those who take what ever they can get from different schools or practices as if it would be a spiritual bazaar (my own words, trying to make his point clear), because they "cannot get along with themselves and who lack the belief that anything usefl can come from their own soul". He even writes:

"So the soul has gradually become that Nazareth from whom nothing good can come, and so it is taken from all four winds; the further away and the more eccentric, the better."

In the light of his sceptism concerning the rinpoches definition, his comments seem understandable. The matter at hand is something to be experienced by onesself and something alive that suffers from dogma or superficiality. Correspondingly Jung continues how Man would be worth to mind himself, and how he would have a soul on his own out of which something can become. He even upholds himself how he would have the utmost respect of anything happening in the soul that he would not interfere with it in any way. Hence, he left the observation of the coming mandala dreams to a beginner.

---
As one of Jungs points throughout this chapter would not fit in properly, I decided to put a summary here. The yantra we usually associate with the mandala is the Khilkor. Jung contrasts it with the sidpe-korlo, the world wheel. This yantra depicts the course of the forms of human existence according to buddhistic philosophy. The sidpe-korlo depicts a ternary system, in whichs center the 3 world principles are shown: Lust as a rooster, Hate or envy as a serpent and ignorance / nescience as a pig. (Interesting side note: in german language, nescience would be translated as "Unbewusstheit", not being conscious of something). Here, Jung encounters the problem of 3 and 4 again, and gives an outlook how we'd encounter this further in course of the coming dreams.
From Fire we create life.
User avatar
Smaragd
Posts: 1120
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:27 am

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Smaragd »

Nayana wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:05 pm "metaphysical qualites"
Do you think Jung has chosen to limit the meaning of "metaphysical" purely because the scientific world has had problems with it? I simply do not understand what he is saying if I don't understand metaphysical as a term unbound from restrictions and fully blazing behind emptiness and every phenomena seen and unseen in the cosmos, not devoid in any subjective or objective realities.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
User avatar
Nayana
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:10 pm

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nayana »

Smaragd wrote:990 time=1590917147 user_id=418]
Nayana wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:05 pm "metaphysical qualites"
Do you think Jung has chosen to limit the meaning of "metaphysical" purely because the scientific world has had problems with it? I simply do not understand what he is saying if I don't understand metaphysical as a term unbound from restrictions and fully blazing behind emptiness and every phenomena seen and unseen in the cosmos, not devoid in any subjective or objective realities.
As I would understand him, he may have chosen the term "metapysical" only to point towards the similarity between the divine principles depicted in a mandala and those refering to the self, while the divine mandala serves as a basis here. I think that the word "metapysical" can barely hold any relevance for consciousness other than by describing the "otherness" of any given experience that, since it lies outside of everyday consciousness, goes beyond the usual experience of selfhood. During this time's texts, Jung actually defines this further himself, see dream 9!

II. The Mandalas in the Dreams

Before continuing the series of dreams, this time with the mandala symbolism in focus, Jung shows where he sees the symbol in the dreams discussed before:

1. Visual impression 5 : A serpent draws a circle around the dreamer
2. Dream 17: a blue Flower
3. Dream 18: Man with gold coins in his hand. marked space for a variety show
4. Visual Impression 19: red sphere
5. Dream 20: A globe

If we remember how a mandala describes the center of personality for Jung, these symbols open up a little. The serpent appears to point towards said center, in case of this dream already taken by the dreamer. The marked space depicts the frame of the mandala, again pointing towards the middle where the show itself may have taken place. The sphere and the globe are both perfectly round objects, in turn pointing towards its middle point as the point that allows to grasp it properly.

In course of the follwing pages, Jung begins with the new dream series in relation with the mandala symbolism, starting to count anew based upon the dreams above.


6. Dream
the dreamer is chased by an unkown woman. he runs in circles.

To Jung, the serpent in visual impression 5 anticipated a movement now undergone by the dreamer himself. According to Jung, personified aspects of the unconscious would often anticipates what later is experienced. In this case, the dreamer is hustled into a circular movement by the woman as an anima symbol. By this, a potential middle point is implied. Interestingly enough, in this stage the center cannot be reached by the dreamer himself, despite being chased by the anima.



7. Dream
The Anima blames him for not caring enough about her. There's a clock that says five minutes to (?).

I think its clear that unconsciousness implies a certain urgency in the matter. Personally, I see a certain 'force' and demand in both this dream and the one before. Jung even notes a feeling of tension that is always present in circular movement. Lets keep in mind how he himself sees the unconscious as autonomous, and how we ourselves can experience something unconscious to "find its way" into our lives, regardless of our knowing or intention.


8. Dream
On a Ship. He's working on a new method of determining his position. Soon he's too far, soon too close, but the right place is in the middle. A map is there, on which a circle is drawn with the centre point.

The center in question clearly marks this dream as refering to the mandala symbolism. Interestingly enough, outside of the map - and the stars as a common means of navigation, as Jung mentions - the "frame" is utterly missing (my interpretation). Maybe the sea itself has its relevance for unconscious movement to which the dreamer is exposed.


9. Dream
A pendulum clock that always runs without the weights sinking any lower.

To Jung, this clock appears to be a perpetum mobile, being in an eternal circular movement. In this he sees a metaphysical attribute and characterizes this term further. From his psychological standpoint, metaphysical refers to a "statement" of the unconscious, not a hypostasis. Correspondingly, the ever moving clock is characterized as transcendent and, in turn, as in grave contrast to the normally perceived level of 'I', which naturally will not experience a perpetum mobile or the relative timelessness represented by it.


10. Dream
The Dreamer, the doctor, the goatee and a doll woman are on the peterhofstatt in Zurich. The latter is an unknown woman who does not speak and to whom no one speaks. There's doubt to which of the three the woman belongs.

To Jung, the dreamer is the conscious I, the goatee the "employed" intellect (mephisto) and the puppet woman the anima. As no one speaks to her nor knows where she belongs, the dreamers relation to the unconscious is unclear and not developed. While the dreamer himself and the goatee are connected to the ego, both the puppet woman and the doctor as a possible reference to Jung himself (without any concrete contact) belong to the non ego.

Jung considers the possibility of all four characters symbolising the totality of the personality. Its center could not be the conscious 'i', which he describes as the most dominent of the functions of consciousness (thinking, intuate, feel, sense), but has to consist in the self as embodiment of total personality.

That very center he sees allegorized by god; and he continues to further unfold similar ideas. In the context of his term of "metaphysical", the mention of the Atman from the upanishad-philosophy is especially interesting to me. He sees atman as the personsal self as well as the kosmic quality of self itself, which renders - in a sense - the former a concrete and individual expression of the latter. (personal interpretation.)

From Gnosis, he mentions the idea of Anthropos, Pleroma, the Monad and the spark of light:

"this same is he (monogenes) who dwelleth in the monad which is in the setheus and which came from the place of which one can say where it is... From him it is the monad came, in the manner of a ship, laden with all good things, and in the manner of a field, filled, or planted with every kind or tree, and in the manner of a city, filled with all the races of mankind... this the fashion of the monad - all these being in it: there are twelve monads as crown upon its head... and to its veil which surroundeth it in the manner of a defence there are twelve gates.... this same is the mother-city of the only-begotten."

Setheus is explained to be a name of god, Monogenes to be the son of god. The monad is said to be the spark of light and an Image of the father, with which monoges as the son of god is identical. In that way, Setheus is "the house and the dewller in the house", rendering monogenes the personifcation of said god who brought himself into being, being his own agent of manifestation (personal interpretation).

To be perfectly honest, I am unsure wheter I grasp the reason and depth of why Jung brings up this idea here. In a sense I think that the relation between Monogenes and Setheus as its father may be similar to Atman as personal and universal principle, as the father (atman as universal) brings forth the son (the personsal), whereas the son remains but an agent of the father. It is, after all, from the son that came "all the good things", which I can imagine to relate to the indiviual manifestation of all-common principles of the self. But I'd be glad if you have another and possibly more fitting idea!

Jung himself, however, sees a relation to the alchemical idea of the lapis here. He quotes: "Me igitur et filio meo coniuncto, nil melius ac venerabilius in mundo fieri potest" ("nothing better and more venerable can happen in the world than the union of myself with my son", Tractus Aureus). As it is the father speaking here, it seems that a union of the unspecific principle with the individual is thematized. Anyway I believe that we can recognize the idea of union as an alchemical ideal attributed to the Lapis.

In relation to the dream, however, the female principle is still missing, to which Jung relates with the following quote from Tractatus Aureus, Chapter 4:

"The king rules, for which his brethren bear witness, saying, "I will be crowned and adorned with the tiara, and I will be endowed with your kingdom, and I will bring joy to the heart, and I, clothed in my mother's arms and breast in her substance, will make my substance stick together and rest, and I will put together the invisible from the visible; then the hidden appearance will appear, and all that the philosophers have hidden will be made of us. Understand, preserve, meditate these words, O you who listen, and do not search for anything else. Man is created from the beginning by nature, whose entrails are flesh, and from no other substance."

Here, the mother is the principle that makes the king - related to the lapis, according to Jung - "put together the invisible and the visible", which may relate to the formation of the center of personality in contrast to the 'i'', driven by the female principle symbolizing the unconscious.

This particular interpretation of Jung has been hard to grasp for me; I hope that you either can see sense or have far better approaches towards this particular matter.
From Fire we create life.
User avatar
Nayana
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:10 pm

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nayana »

11. Dream

The dreamer, the doctor, a pilot and the unknown woman are in a plane. Suddenly a croquet ball smashes the mirror, a necessary navigation instrument, and the plane crashes. Once again, there is doubt as to whom the unknown woman belongs to.


As the doctor, the pilot and the unkown woman are not specified in the dream, Jung again counts them to the non-ego. The dreamer himself is only in "possession" of the ego-bearing, differentiating function of consciousness.

The crocket-ball belongs to a game played on the ground, where a ball is driven through an arc. Jung relates this to dream 8 of the former series, where a rainbow shall be used as a bridge. As one dies trying to cross the bridge, one must go under it. Similarily, in this dream the dreamer is lead far above the ground by the mirror as instrument as navigation, which is then destroyed by the crocket-ball as a far more grounded symbol. Refering to Schopenhauer, Jung identifies the mirror as the intellect with its reflective abilities, in itself an instrument of navigation through the world for us.

In short, we find a situation in which the dreamers intellect leads to spiritual / mental heights far away from the earth that - although not fully formulated - appears to represent the more mundane aspects of humanity to Jung. He writes:

"Man has indeed lost his ancient dinosaur tail; but in return he has a chain attached to his soul which binds him to the earth: a no less than Homeric chain of circumstances so grave that it is better to remain connected to them, at the risk of not becoming a hero or a saint."

Using a tree as an example, Jung stresses how vital the connection to this "chain" is. The higher, broader a tree is, the deeper must be its roots; after all, a tree does not only grow upwards, but downwards as well.

The crocket-ball, bringing the lost roots to the attention of the dreamer, is spherical and henceforth a symbol of totality (a mandala symbol), which shows hostility towards the mirror as a symbol of the intellect. The unknown woman is explained to characterize the inferior function of consciousness in the dream situation: Feeling. As next to her presence, she doesnt serve a role in this dream nor "belongs" to anyone, Jung suggests that the dreamer "navigates" to much with his intellect, hence disturbing the process of indivuation, for which the acknowledgement of the anima would be necessary (my interpretation).


12. Dream

The dreamer finds himself in a dangerous situation with his vater, mother and sister at a tramp plattform.


Again, the dreamer forms a whole of four with the dream persons. Since this familial situation is characteristical for childhood, the dreamers family represents components of his personality that are projected onto and personified by the individual members. Likewise, In childhood, one finds oneself in a state of innocence where a mother, father or sister is to blame for the faults on has to experience. As an adult, one has to understand one's own faults, wheras the clinging to infantile innocence and the faults of others can lead to the loss of moral freedom and the totality of the soul.

Whereas the former dream took place in a vehicle of the dreamers own intellect, the tramp is described as a collective vehicle which anyone can ride. According to Jung, a vehicle in a dream can represent the kind of movement in which one finds oneself at any given time. Thus, the dreamer finds himself confronted with a common issue on his personal path of individuation.



13. Dream

In the sea lies a treasure. In order to reach it, one has to dive through a narrow opening. It is dangerous, but one will find a companion below. The dreamer dares to jump into the dark and finds himself in a beautiful, regularly laid out garden with a fountain in the middle.


To Jung, this dream is in direct succession with the former ones: The fall from the heights of intellect lead through childhood into the depths of the unconscious, where the dreamer finds the fountain of life in the secure and beautiful boarders of the temenos (circumscribed area of a sanctuary). The fountain, the treasure - hinted to the lapis as the greatest treasure of alchemy - and the companion are suggested to be one and the same: the self. The self, before fully integrated, appear as a non-ego and a companion that joins the conscious I. In this, Jung sees the motive of the magical companion reflected, as depicted by the disciples on the road to Emmaus, The Bhagavadgita (Krishna and Arjuna) or the The 18th Sura of the Koran (Moses and Chidher). The Fountain is the source of living water as described in John 7,38, and is seen as a symbol of ever renewing life force. As a source of life, the living water is related to fire as well, and is correspondingly ascribed dissolving properties similar to the "aqua nostra", an necessary ingredient in the production of the Lapis.

Again, the dreamer has to go downwards (under it, dream 8 former series & dream 11) in order to find the fiery source of life. Without going downwards to the roots of one's self, one could not create the lapis or the self.


14. Dream

The dreamer goes to the pharmacy with his father. There, valuable things are available at a cheap price, among these a special water. The father tells him about the land where the water comes from. Then he takes a train across the Rubicon.


The pharmancy reminds of the traditional alchemical laboratory. The dreamers father, as the creator of his life and a symbol of the teaching spirit, initiating him into the purpose of life and the secrets of the ancients, leads him to a place where the "aqua nostra" as the special water is available cheaply, because everybody has it without knowing its value. The dreamer understands the value of the water and how it is necessary to the realisation of wholeness. He crosses the rubicon, from which it is said there would be no return.


15. Dream

The dreamer, the father, a certain friend and the unknown woman are going down a river.


In contrast to the other dreams of 4 characters forming a whole, the father and the friend are defined (not unknown), and as such part of the dreamers conscious life. The former movement down into the unconscious connected the above with the below, which puts the dreamer in a position where his personality is more conscious than unconscious, and he is a step closer to wholeness.

Jung implies that the dreamer more or less willingly picked up the threat laid out by his dreams and decided to live in the bodily world as well, not only in the world of intellect. To Jung, individuation is not only a mental problem or process, but one about life in its fullness.
From Fire we create life.
User avatar
Smaragd
Posts: 1120
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:27 am

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Smaragd »

33. Footnote wrote:“Lapis enim est haec ipsa permanens aqua et dum aqua est, lapis
non est” (For the stone is this selfsame permanent water; and while it is water it is not the stone).
Reminds me of how I had a phase in my life when all abstract and obscure was very much luring and I was delving into the idea of communication without words. It was a time when all sorts of forms and structures inside and out were destroyed. I would hesitate to call this mortification, rather it was re-learning how the life force worked by returning the substance to its plastic nature of being capable to assume any form. With all these regressions Jung points towards, I see I have sort of regressed myself since, for the process of finding the lapis with the help of occultism and the structures it provides; I half forgot the Mercurial work I had done to find how thewater is turned in to stone. In this process it has become obvious the lapis needs the Mercurial studies to be made true. There has been certain stages getting to know the polar opposites, but they are neither the lapis nor the living water, I don’t think, for these things are more nuanced and mixed into each other in their essence.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nefastos »

This month my reading will be done in this single post. I will go through dreams 16 to 18. Once again there are many illustrations, so the actual amount of text pages is approximately 18, even though in the English edition these alchemical dream interpretations go from page 124 to page 153.

Theme for the author in this dream sequence is mostly the interrelation between the circle, the triangle, and the square. God (spirit) Mercury naturally is still in great role, as he is the patron of alchemical change. Jung likens Mercury with number 4 and therefore to square. This mercurial square forms the most important part of all the dreams/interpretations given in this part. In the Star of Azazel working one can see this aspect of alchemical change in the permutating cross-cube in the middle of the Hieroglyphic Key. It is the active aspect of change and balance both.

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:16. Dream: Many people are present. They are walking to the left around a square. The dreamer is not in the centre but to one side. They say that a gibbon is to be reconstructed. (p.124)

In page 127 Jung comes to classic right & left symbolism. He says that "a leftward movement is equivalent to a movement in the direction of the unconscious, whereas a movement to the right is "correct" and aims at consciousness". We see here the RHP & the LHP: the "correct" esoteric/religious way, and the one that seeks to integrate into itself the shadow aspect. As most likely known to every person reading this here, Star of Azazel seeks ardently to join these two, instead of giving in to either one. Too much "right" makes one rigid, too much "left" makes one less conscious of his actual overall process.

Right after this, Jung gives quite a strong opinion that Ignatius Loyola's Exercitia spiritualia (his Spiritual practices) is "the most important Western parallel" for Yoga. This gives quite an emphasis for these Jesuit practices, but yet we can remember that Blavatsky said something similar: that even though Roman Catholic Church is fallen, it is also the only religious system that actually is able to train its members in actual occultism in the West. (Not her exact words.) Of course Loyola's Exercitia is meaningul, but to say that it is "most important Western parallel" is still quite an opinion. Perhaps we should say it was one of the most clearly defined form of Western yoga practice in the times of Blavatsky and Jung?

In page 128 Jung studies the alchemical idea of the circle divided in four. I repeat two parts from the interesting original texts (from Rosarium philosophorum & Tractatus aureus):

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:"Out of man and woman make a round circle and extract the quadrangle from this and from the quadrangle the triangle. Make a round circle and you will have the philosopher's stone." (p.128)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:"...you could no longer recognize what was outside of inside, or lower or upper; but all would be one thing in one circle or vessel. For this vessel is the true philosophical Pelican, and there is no other to be sought for in all the world." (p.128)

The author goes on to discuss the above mentioned fourfold Mercury, Hermes Tetrakefalos, and Hermes Kynokefalos, i.e. Mercury-Hermes with four heads & with the head of a baboon (the "dog-headed ape" of the Egyptians). What he does not not mention (maybe because the dreamer was most likely not using English in the first place?) is that at least for me the words gibbon & gibbet come very close associatively, so the publicly constructed gibbon comes close to looming death sentence. Mercury was also the psychopomp to Hades, as already many times mentioned, and the journey to this underworld is both the initiatic journey & the process of depth psychology.

In page 134 Jung uses a funny expression of "mystical homo maximus", meaning (it seems) adept of the occultists.

Then comes the dream number 17, but unlike the other, it is given in full, and is too long to be repeated here. In this, the dreamer attends an uplifting meeting in church, but this meeting has pagan & even profane aspects, drinking wine &c. It is the "universal Catholic Church", and the ceremony is held in a temple quite like Hagia Sophia. It is very nice to have the whole dream related verbatim, for as I said earlier, relating only the edited dream texts means we must trust blindly that Jung has not removed anything that might have pointed to another direction than the one implied in his hypothesis & interpretation.

Our friend and master Satan also gets some mentions:

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:[T]he reconstruction of the "gibbon" is to take in the sacred precincts. Such a sacrilege might easily lead to the dangerous supposition that the leftward movement is a diabolica fraus and the gibbon the devil – for the devil is in fact regarded as the "ape of God". The leftward movement would then be a perversion of divine truth for the purpose of setting up "His Black Majesty" in place of God. (p.142)
Psychology and Alchemy wrote:At the end of vision 22 where the ape first appears, it was said that "everything must be ruled by the light," and everything, we might add, included the Lord of Darkness with his horns and cloven hoof – actually a Dionysian corybant who has rather unexpectedly risen to the rank of Prince. (p.143)

Extremely SoA-stressed thoughts here, the last sentence taken with a salt-pinch. (Dionysian exaltation being just one of Satan's aspects.)

From this, Jung goes on pondering the extremely important idea of the Dionysian aspect that has been made explicitly profane by being excommunicated from Christian mysteries, and how this has affected our society. "Our solution, however, has served to throw the gates of hell wide open." (p.143)

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. 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 author then comes back to the above mentioned theme of Mercurius quadratus (not his term), the circle divided into four. Without mentioning classic magic circles used especially in goetic evocations, he depicts those very well. When talking about circumambulatio (walking around the chosen spot) he says:

Psychology and Alchemy wrote:The magic circle thus traced will also prevent the unconscious from breaking out again, for such an eruption would be equivalent to psychosis. "Nonnulli perierunt in opere nostro": "Not a few have perised in our work," we can say with the author of the Rosarium [Philosophorum]. (p.148)

It is very interesting to note that Jung then comes to "the fourth" that signifies both anima & Satan (he draws this analogy in page 151) exactly the same route that I did in my book Magna Mater, where I discussed the symbol of the Sun as the symbol of Hieros Gamos (where center is Shiva & circumference is Shakti) and three- and four fold Hieroglyphic Key. Fohatic fourth is the Bride of the Son, and as such, a principle of magic power. He ends up bringing, also familiarly to us, Holy Ghost together with this magical force of femininity (citing Tertullian!).
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!"
User avatar
Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Reading Circle (Jung: Psychology and Alchemy)

Post by Nefastos »

I try to approach the dream 10 where brother Nayana expressed some discomfort in June 1.
Nayana wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 2:46 amTo be perfectly honest, I am unsure wheter I grasp the reason and depth of why Jung brings up this idea here. In a sense I think that the relation between Monogenes and Setheus as its father may be similar to Atman as personal and universal principle, as the father (atman as universal) brings forth the son (the personsal), whereas the son remains but an agent of the father. It is, after all, from the son that came "all the good things", which I can imagine to relate to the indiviual manifestation of all-common principles of the self. But I'd be glad if you have another and possibly more fitting idea!
Nayana wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 2:46 amThis particular interpretation of Jung has been hard to grasp for me; I hope that you either can see sense or have far better approaches towards this particular matter.

The fourfoldness of dream 10 where "the mystery of the fourth woman" comes under scrutiny at the end of our June text, in the interpretation of dream 18, as I mentioned above. The 4th person is at the same time the bride of the Son, Fohat, and "the Devil" (or tempter). The fourth is very distant and uncommunicative first, to the point she is actually seen as inanimate being. "Doll" can at best be a very eroticized picture of a sexually desirable woman, but nothing else: not even a clearly religious idol. As such, it is simply a neutral – and possibly even threatening – fetish. Thus the question "To which of the three does the woman belong?" – to the doctor, Mephisto, or dreamer himself – points the task: one must seek to correct the polarity of the fourth, to take "her" to her roots, and to build a cross (compare to the later dream 16, where "gibbon" – a four-armed primal being – is to be constructed).

In Jung's diagram 49 are in an easy way seen the two-, three- and fourfoldness of being. It depicts a Maltese cross of sorts, being made up of four bars: Thinking up, Feeling down, Sensation left, Intuition right. In the middle, a horizon is set, so the picture is blackening downwards. So we have a lighter part above (consisting of thinking and one half of sensation and intuition), line of the horizon (consisting of thinking and sensation), and darkened part below (consisting of feeling and one half of sensation and intuition). I see in this trinity the trinity of Heaven (the Lord), the Inferno (the Magna Mater: womb & tomb, which are the chamber of initiation), and the "Middle-Earth" or the land of incarnated beings in the middle, at the level of horizon. Setheus the Creator creates this Earth out of Inferno that is primal Chaos, or, we could say, that the Lady (Magna Mater) creates the Earth out of the Heaven of the Lord. These two different ways of saying the same thing can also be taken to mean 1) the creation (by Father) in emanation and 2) the creation (by Mother) in remanation.

In the next page (108 in English version) we have two great citations. One speaks of "the diamond body in the golden flower" (footnote 11), which comes to the similar center of the cross of our Hieroglyphic Key, where the Mani-Padme (literally: a jewel in the lotus) is seen. This is the Monad, while the rose is the Aura surrounding it. The other is a picture where the fourfold city-fortress, protected by four angel guardians of the watchtowers (literally), is "attacked" by four winds of Samael, Azazel, Azael and Mahazael. (These are the four energies of the four directions, cf. e.g. The Demon Princes, in Skinner & Rankine's The Keys to the Gateways of Magic, and numerous other grimoire sources dealing with the four points of the compass.)

Thus in the four we see the three and the two, but since the dreamer's unity with anima is unanimated (sic) & the latter remains doll-like even though it has been found & is present, the four-foldness presents more the Azazelian demonic winds than the actual city that would be his actual individualized being. Also the male Master is doubled, for the goatee (Mephisto) is "the doctor". So, we have the cross, which is fourfold and twofold (it has four bars which consist of two bars only, the horizontal & the vertical).

Thus the dream points that several strong points already exist (master as Mephisto, for example, has been found), but the cross as the fourfold actuality, is not yet ready, and thus the higher & lower being are not at balance. This is because the poles have not been corrected, since the Woman is seen as something that "belongs" to somebody (as an item: doll), and she would have to be released to be the bride for the higher Self, instead of being an item for personality (the apparent dreamer).

In the end of his analysis of dream 10, on page 110, footnote 17, we have an extremely Azazelian (now on its highest octave, where the "winds" is the lowest octave of the Azazelian mystery) quotation. Once again Jung cites Tractatus aureus:

Tractatus aureus wrote:Iam Venus ait: Ego genero lumen, nec tenebrae meae naturae sunt... me igitur et fratri meo iunctis nihil melius nature... therefore nothing is better or more worthy of veneration than the conjunction of myself and my brother. (P&A p.110, emphasis mine)

This "conjunction of light & dark Venus with its brother" is precisely & exactly our Lucifer-Christos.
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!"
Locked