Full text of "PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION WEST AND EAST VOLUME - II"

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF 

C.G.JUNG 

VOLUME 11 

PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION: 
WEST AND EAST 

Translated by R. F. C. Hull 

C. O. Jung's shorter works on religion and psychology 
are collected In this volume. Several* although of com 
parative brevity, are of major significance and take 
their place with two full-length works Psychology and 
Alchemy and A/on to complete Jung's statement on 
this central theme. The contents are as follows, with 
original dates given in brackets: 

Western Religion 

Psychology and Religion [ 1 938] "The Terry Lectures," 
revised and augmented 

A. Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity 
[19-42/1948] 

Transformation Symbolism in the .Mass [1 942/1 954 J 

Forewords to ^^hite's Goo 1 and the Unconscious and 
NA^erblowsky's Lucifer and Prometheus 1952] 

Brother Klaus [1933] 

Psychotherapists or the Clergy [1932] 
Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls [1928] 
Answer to Job [1952] 

Eastern Religion 

Psychological Commentaries on Tfie Tibetan Book of 
the Great Liberation [1939/1954] and The Tibetan 
Book of the Dead [ 1935/1 953] 

Yocja and the West [1936] 

Foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism 
[1939] 

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation [1943] 
The Holy Men of India [1944] 
Foreword to the / Ching [195O] 

An extensive bibliography and index round out this 
volume, which was the seventh to appear in the col 
lected works. The second edition contains many cor 
rections and revisions. 

Jacket design by E. McKnight Kauffer 



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KANSAS- erne (MO) LIBRASI 



BOLLINGEN SERIES XX 



THE COLLECTED 
OF 

G . G. JUNO 



EDITORS 
SIR HERBERT READ 

, AdC.D., M 
-AJDLER, IHL.I>. 

McGuiRE, executive 



PSYCHOLOGY 
AND RELIGION: 
WEST AND EAST 



C. G. JUNG 



SECOND EDITION 




TRANSLATED BY R. F. C. HULL 



BOLLINGEN SERIES XX 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 



COPYRIGHT 1958 BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, N. Y. 

SECOND EDITION COPYRIGHT 1969 
BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 

SECOND EDITION, 1969 

Second printing, 1973 
Third printing, 1975 
Fourth printing, 1977 
Eighth printing, 19 #9 

THIS EDITION IS BEING PUBLISHED IN THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY PRINCETON 
UNIVERSITY PRESS, AND IN ENGLAND BY 
ROUTLEDGE AND KEGAN PAUL, LTD. IN THE 
AMERICAN EDITION, ALL THE VOLUMES 
COMPRISING THE COLLECTED WORKS CON 
STITUTE NUMBER XX IN BOLLINGEN SERIES, 
SPONSORED BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION. 
THE PRESENT VOLUME IS NUMBER 1 1 OF THE 
COLLECTED WORKS, AND WAS THE SEVENTH 
TO APPEAR. 



Psychology and Religion (The Terry Lectures) copyright 1938, renewed 
1966 by Yale University Press. Foreword to the I Ching copyright 1950 and 
"Transformation Symbolism in the Mass" copyright 1955 by Bollingen 
Foundation Inc. Foreword to White's God and the Unconscious copyright 
1953 b Y Henry Regnery Co. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 75-156 

ISBN 0-691-09772-0 
MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.A. 

10 9 8 



EDITORIAL NOTE 



The title Psychology and Religion: West and East calls for com 
ment, since no single volume can cover Jung's publications on a 
subject that takes so prominent a place in all his later works. 
To a full understanding of Jung's thesis on religion a thorough 
grasp of his theory of the archetypes is essential, as well as a 
knowledge of several other of the volumes of the Collected 
Works, of which A ion and Psychology and Alchemy may be 
singled out. 

It could, therefore, be said that the Editors would have been 
better advised to group all these works under the general title 
Psychology and Religion, rather than confine this title to a 
single volume. It will not be out of place to remember that 
Jung's definition of religion is a wide one. Religion, he says, is 
"a careful and scrupulous observation of what Rudolf Otto 
aptly termed the numinosum" From this standpoint, Jung was 
struck by the contrasting methods of observation employed by 
religious men of the East and by those of the predominantly 
Christian West. 

The main part of the title is that of the Terry Lectures for 
1937, its general applicability being evident; but the volume 
has a particular aim, which the subtitle West and East clarifies. 
Thus the division into two parts, "Western Religion" and 
"Eastern Religion," reflecting Jung's idea that the two are 
radically different. 

In the original "Psychology and Religion," which introduces 
Part One, Jung expounds the relation between Christianity and 
alchemy. This connection he has worked out in greater detail 
in Psychology and Alchemy, where he says that "alchemy seems 
like a continuation of Christian mysticism carried on in the 
subterranean darkness of the unconscious." There follow in 
this volume "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the 
Trinity," translated for the first time into English, and "Trans- 



EDITORIAL NOTE 



formation Symbolism in the Mass," which presents alchemical 
and Aztec parallels to the Christian ritual. Part One ends with 
the provocative essay "Answer to Job." These three works, all 
original researches of distinctive importance, are especially sig 
nificant because they penetrate to the heart of Christian sym 
bolism and shed new light on its psychological meaning. Part 
One also contains two forewords, of particular interest because 
the books they introduce both illustrate the relevance of Jung's 
work for religious thinking; a short essay on the Swiss saint, 
Brother Klaus; and two essays on the relation between psycho 
therapy and religious healing. 

It is worthy of note that most of the works on Eastern religion 
in Part Two are commentaries or forewords, in contrast with 
the authoritative tone of Jung's writings on Christianity and 
alchemy. This fact confirms what should be clear from all his 
work: that his main interest has been in the psychology of 
Western man and so in his religious life and development. 

It may be a matter for surprise that the foreword to the 
/ Ching, which closes the volume, is included here; it is a docu 
ment that would scarcely be termed religious, in the common 
usage of that word. If, however, Jung's definition cited above 
be kept in mind, and if it be remembered that the earlier inter 
pretations of what is now known as synchronicity were essen 
tially religious in Jung's sense and that the / Ching was studied 
by the most illustrious of the Eastern sages, the intention of the 
Editors will be apparent. Jung's commentary on The Secret of 
the Golden Flower might equally well have come into the 
second part of this volume, but because of the many analogies 
between this Taoist text and alchemy, the Editors have placed 
it in Volume 13, Alchemical Studies. 



Grateful acknowledgment is made to the School of American 
Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a quotation from the 
Anderson and Dibble translation of Sahagun; to the Clarendon 
Press, Oxford, for passages from M. R. James, The Apocryphal 
New Testament; the Oxford University Press, for Professor 
Jung's commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Great Libera- 



VI 



TRANSLATORS NOTE 



tion; and the Harvill Press and the Henry Regnery Company 
for Professor Jung's foreword to God and the Unconscious. 
The frontispiece is from a photograph by Giraudon, Paris, 
of an illustration in the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier, 
Conde Museum, Chantilly. 



TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 



I wish to make grateful acknowledgment to the following per 
sons, whose various translations have been consulted to a greater 
or less degree during the preparation of this volume; Miss 
Monica Curtis, for help derived from her perceptive translation 
of extensive portions of "Transformation Symbolism in the 
Mass," published as Guild Lecture No. 69 by the Guild of 
Pastoral Psychology, London, and of which certain passages are 
incorporated here almost verbatim; Father Victor White, O.P., 
for the use of his translation of the foreword to his book God 
and the Unconscious; Dr. Horace Gray, for reference to his 
translation of "Brother Klaus" in the Journal of Nervous and 
Mental Diseases; Mr. W. S. Dell and Mrs. Gary F. Baynes, for 
reference to their translation of "Psychotherapists or the 
Clergy" in Modern Man in Search of a Soul; Dr. James Kirsch, 
for making available to me his private translation of "Answer to 
Job," prepared for members of a seminar he conducted at Los 
Angeles, 1952-53, and also for his helpful criticism during per 
sonal discussions; Mrs. Gary F. Baynes, for reference to her 
translation of "Yoga and the West" in Prabuddha Bharata and 
for the use with only minor alterations of her translation of the 
foreword to the I Ching; Miss Constance Rolfe, for reference to 
her translation of the foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen 
Buddhism; and Mrs. Carol Baumann, for reference to her trans 
lation of "The Psychology of Eastern Meditation" in Art and 
Thought. Acknowledgment is also made to Mr. A. S. B. Glover 
for his translations of many Latin passages throughout as well 
as for the index. 

vii 



EDITORIAL NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



Bibliographical citations and entries have been revised in the 
light of subsequent publications in the Collected Works; some 
revisions have been made in the translation as the consequence 
of continued study of Jung's work particularly in alchemy; other 
revisions and minor additions of a reference nature arose as the 
result of the publication of Zur Psychologic Westlicher und 
Ostlicher Religion^ Band 1 1 in the Gesammelte Werke (Zurich: 
Rascher, 1963), which was mostly edited before Jung's death. 

The paragraph numbers of the Swiss and English editions 
of Volume 11 correspond through par. 963. Thereafter, the 
"Foreword to the 1 Ghing* " varies somewhat in the original 
German manuscript, which is reproduced in the Swiss edition. 
Finally, the Swiss edition contains an appendix of short articles, 
which are disposed as follows in the English edition (1975): 

657: "Religion and Psychology: A Reply to Martin Buber" (1952): Vol. 
18, pars. 1499 *f- 

665: (Extract from a letter to a Protestant theologian (1942) on Psychol 
ogy and Religion: not translated.) 

667: "Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology" (1959): Vol. 10, pars. 
858 ff. 

681: Extract from a letter to a Catholic religious (1953) on the problem 
of the Christ-symbol: to Fr. Victor White, 24 Nov. 1953, in Letters, ed. G. 
Adler, vol. 2. 

685: Extract from a letter to a Protestant theologian (1951) on Answer 
to Job: to Hans Schar, 16 Nov. 1951, ibid. 

687: Extract from a letter to a Protestant theologian (1952) on Answer 
to Job: to Dorothee Hoch, 28 May 1952, ibid. 

687: "Concerning Answer to Job" (dust-jacket blurb for the original 
edition): Vol. 18, par. i4g8a. 

688: Extract from a letter to a Protestant theologian: to Pastor H. Weg- 
mann, 19 Dec. 1943, in Letters, ed. G. Adler, vol. i. 

689: Letter to The Listener, Jan. 1960: equivalent to letters to Hugh 
Burnett and to M. Leonard, 5 Dec. 1959, ibid., vol. 2. 

690: "On the Discourses of the Buddha" (Die Reden Gotamo Buddhos, 
by K. E. Neumann) (1956): Vol. 18, pars. 1575 ff. 

viii 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



EDITORIAL NOTE v 

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE V11 



PART ONE: WESTERN RELIGION 



Psychology and Religion 

Originally published in English: The Terry Lectures of 1937 
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, and London: 
Oxford University Press, 1938); here revised and augmented 
in accordance with the Swiss edition (Zurich: Rascher, 1940). 

1. The Autonomy of the Unconscious, 5 

2. Dogma and Natural Symbols, 34 

3. The History and Psychology of a Natural Symbol, 64 



II 

A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity 1 07 

Translated from "Versuch zu einer psychologischen Deutung 
des Trinitatsdogmas," Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich: Rascher, 
1948). 

Introduction, 109 

i. Pre-Christian Parallels, 112 

i. Babylonia, 112. - n. Egypt, 115. - in. Greece, 117 

ix 



CONTENTS 



2. Father, Son, and Spirit, 129 

3. The Symbola, 138 

i. The Symbolum Apostolicum, 141. u. The Sym- 
bolum of Gregory Thaumaturgus, 142. m. The 
Nicaenum, 143. iv. The Nicaeno-Constantinopoli- 
tanum, the Athanasianum, and the Lateranense, 144 

4. The Three Persons in the Light of Psychology, 148 

i. The Hypothesis of the Archetype, 148. n. Christ 
as Archetype, 152. m. The Holy Ghost, 157 

5. The Problem of the Fourth, 164 

i. The Concept of Quaternity, 164. n. The Psy 
chology of the Quaternity, 180. in. General Re 
marks on Symbolism, 187 

6. Conclusion, 193 

III 

Transformation Symbolism in the Mass 201 

Translated from "Das Wandlungssymbol in der Messe," Von 
den Wurzeln des Bewusstseins (Zurich: Rascher, 1954). 

1. Introduction, 203 

2. The Sequence of the Transformation Rite, 208 

i. Oblation of the Bread, 208. n. Preparation of 
the Chalice, 209. m. Elevation of the Chalice, 212. 

iv. Censing of the Substances and the Altar, 212. 

v. The Epiclesis, 2 13. vi. The Consecration, 214. 

vn. The Greater Elevation, 216. vm. The Post- 
Consecration, 216. ix. End of the Canon, 218. 
x. Breaking of the Host ("Fractio"), 218. xi. Con- 
signatio, 219. xn. Commixtio, 219. xin. Con 
clusion, 220 

3. Parallels to the Transformation Mystery, 222 

i. The Aztec "Teoqualo," 222. n. The Vision of 
Zosimos, 225 

4. The Psychology of the Mass, 247 

i. General Remarks on the Sacrifice, 247. n. The 
Psychological Meaning of Sacrifice, 252. in. The 
Mass and the Individuation Process, 273 



CONTENTS 
IV 

Foreword to White's God and the Unconscious 299 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in the book by Victor White (London: Harvill, 1952; 
Chicago: H. Regnery, 1953). 

Foreword to Werblowsky's Lucifer and Prometheus 311 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in the book by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (London: 
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952). 

Brother Klaus 316 

Translated from a book review in the Neue Schweizer Rund 
schau (Zurich), new series, I (1933). 



V 
Psychotherapists or the Clergy 327 

Translated from Die Eeziehungen der Psychotherapie zur 
Seelsorge (Zurich: Rascher, 1932) . 

Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls 348 

Translated from "Psychoanalyse und Seelsorge," Ethik: 
Sexual- und Gesellschafts-Ethik (Halle), V (1928). 



VI 

Answer to Job 355 

Translated from Antwort auf Hiob (Zurich: Rascher, 1952). 

Prefatory Note, 357 
Lectori Benevolo, 359 
Answer to Job, 365 

xi 



CONTENTS 



PART TWO: EASTERN RELIGION 



VII 

Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of 

the Great Liberation 475 

Originally published in English in the book (London and 
New York: Oxford University Press, 1954). 

1. The Difference between Eastern and Western Think 

ing, 475 

2. Comments on the Text, 494 

Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of 

the Dead 509 

Translated from "Psychologischer Kommentar zum Bardo 
Thodol," in Das Tibetanische Totenbuch, 5th edition (Zu 
rich: Rascher, 1953). 



VIII 

Yoga and the West 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in Prabuddka Bharata (Calcutta), February 1936. 

Foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism 538 

Translated from the foreword to D. T. Suzuki, Die Grosse 
Befreiung: Einfuhrung in den Zen-Buddhismus (Leipzig: 
Curt Weller, 1939) . 

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation 558 

Translated from "Zur Psychologic ostlicher Meditation/' 
Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich: Rascher, 1948). 

xii 



CONTENTS 

The Holy Men of India 576 

Translated from the introduction to Heinrich Zimmer, Der 
Weg zum Selbst (Zurich: Rascher, 1944). 



IX 

Foreword to the / Ching 589 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in The I Ching, or Book of Changes, translated by 
Gary F. Baynes from the German translation of Richard Wil- 
helm (New York: Pantheon Books [Bollingen Series XIX] 
and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950) . This is the 
Baynes translation of the Foreword with minor revisions. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 609 

} 
INDEX 641 



Xlll 




Jean Fouquet: The Trinity with the Virgin Mary 
From the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier (Chantilly) 
The rnandala encloses the three identical male figures composing the 
Trinity and a fourth, female figure, together with the four symbols of 
the Evangelists, three in the form of animals and one (Matthew) in the 
form of an anerel. Marv is Queen of the Angels. (Cf . pp. 64ff. and i O7ff .) 



PART ONE 

WESTERN RELIGION 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



[Originally written in English and delivered in 1937, at Yale University, New 
Haven, Connecticut, as the fifteenth series of "Lectures on Religion in the Light 
of Science and Philosophy" under the auspices of the Dwight Harrington Terry 
Foundation. The lectures were published for the Terry Foundation by the Yale 
University Press (and by Oxford University Press, London) in 1938. They were 
then translated into German by Felicia Froboese, and the translation, revised by 
Toni Wolff and augmented by Professor Jung, was published at Zurich, 1940, as 
Psychologic und Religion. The present version is based on both the original 
English and the German versions and contains the revisions and additions of the 
latter. EDITORS.] 



i. THE AUTONOMY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS 



As it seems to be the intention of the founder of the Terry 
Lectures to enable representatives of science, as well as of phi 
losophy and other spheres of human knowledge, to contribute 
to the discussion of the eternal problem of religion, and since 
Yale University has bestowed upon me the great honour of de 
livering the Terry Lectures for 1937, 1 assume that it will be my 
task to show what psychology, or rather that special branch of 
medical psychology which I represent, has to do with or to say 
about religion. Since religion is incontestably one of the earliest 
and most universal expressions of the human mind, it is obvious 
that any psychology which touches upon the psychological struc 
ture of human personality cannot avoid taking note of the fact 
that religion is not only a sociological and historical phenome 
non, but also something of considerable personal concern to a 
great number of individuals. 

Although I have often been called a philosopher, I am an 
empiricist and adhere as such to the phenomenological stand 
point. I trust that it does not conflict with the principles of scien 
tific empiricism if one occasionally makes certain reflections 
which go beyond a mere accumulation and classification of ex 
perience. As a matter of fact I believe that experience is not 
even possible without reflection, because "experience'* is a 
process of assimilation without which there could be no under- 

5 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



standing. As this statement indicates, I approach psychological 
matters from a scientific and not from a philosophical stand 
point. Inasmuch as religion has a very important psychological 
aspect, I deal with it from a purely empirical point of view, that 
is, I restrict myself to the observation of phenomena and I 
eschew any metaphysical or philosophical considerations. I do 
not deny the validity of these other considerations, but I cannot 
claim to be competent to apply them correctly. 

I am aware that most people believe they know all there is 
to be known about psychology, because they think that psychol 
ogy is nothing but what they know of themselves. But I am 
afraid psychology is a good deal more than that. While having 
little to do with philosophy, it has much to do with empirical 
facts, many of which are not easily accessible to the experience 
of the average man. It is my intention to give you a few glimpses 
of the way in which practical psychology comes up against the 
problem of religion. It is self-evident that the vastness of the 
problem requires far more than three lectures, as the necessary 
elaboration of concrete detail takes a great deal of time and 
explanation. My first lecture will be a sort of introduction to 
the problem of practical psychology and religion. The second is 
concerned with facts which demonstrate the existence of an 
authentic religious function in the unconscious. The third deals 
with the religious symbolism of unconscious processes. 

Since I am going to present a rather unusual argument, I 
cannot assume that my audience will be fully acquainted with 
the methodological standpoint of the branch of psychology I 
represent. This standpoint is exclusively phenomenological, that 
is, it is concerned with occurrences, events, experiences in a 
word, with facts. Its truth is a fact and not a judgment. When 
psychology speaks, for instance, of the motif of the virgin birth, 
it is only concerned with the fact that there is such an idea, but 
it is not concerned with the question whether such an idea is 
true or false in any other sense. The idea is psychologically true 
inasmuch as it exists. Psychological existence is subjective in 
so far as an idea occurs in only one individual. But it is objec 
tive in so far as that idea is shared by a society by a consensus 
gentium. 

This point of view is the same as that of natural science. 
Psychology deals with ideas and other mental contents as zool- 

6 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



ogy, for instance, deals with the different species o animals. An 
elephant is "true" because it exists. The elephant is neither an 
inference nor a statement nor the subjective judgment of a cre 
ator. It is a phenomenon. But we are so used to the idea that 
psychic events are wilful and arbitrary products, or even the 
inventions of a human creator, that we can hardly rid ourselves 
of the prejudiced view that the psyche and its contents are noth 
ing but our own arbitrary invention or the more or less illusory 
product of supposition and judgment. The fact is that certain 
ideas exist almost everywhere and at all times and can even 
spontaneously create themselves quite independently of migra 
tion and tradition. They are not made by the individual, they 
just happen to himthey even force themselves on his conscious 
ness. This is not Platonic philosophy but empirical psychology. 

In speaking of religion I must make clear from the start what 
I mean by that term. Religion, as the Latin word denotes, is a 
careful and scrupulous observation of what Rudolf Otto * 
aptly termed the numinosum, that is, a dynamic agency or effect 
not caused by an arbitrary act of will. On the contrary, it seizes 
and controls the human subject, who is always rather its victim 
than its creator. The numinosum whatever its cause may he- 
is an experience of the subject independent of his will. At all 
events, religious teaching as well as the consensus gentium al 
ways and everywhere explain this experience as being due to a 
cause external to the individual. The numinosum is either a 
quality belonging to a visible object or the influence of an in 
visible presence that causes a peculiar alteration of conscious 
ness. This is, at any rate, the general rule. 

There are, however, certain exceptions when it comes to the 
question of religious practice or ritual. A great many ritualistic 
performances are carried out for the sole purpose of producing 
at will the effect of the numinosum by means of certain devices 
of a magical nature, such as invocation, incantation, sacrifice, 
meditation and other yoga practices, self-inflicted tortures of 
various descriptions, and so forth. But a religious belief in an 
external and objective divine cause is always prior to any such 
performance. The Catholic Church, for instance, administers 
the sacraments for the purpose of bestowing their spiritual bless 
ings upon the believer; but since this act would amount to 

l The Idea of the Holy. 

7 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



enforcing the presence of divine grace by an indubitably mag 
ical procedure, it is logically argued that nobody can compel 
divine grace to be present in the sacramental act, but that it is 
nevertheless inevitably present since the sacrament is a divine 
institution which God would not have caused to be if he had 
not intended to lend it his support. 2 

Religion appears to me to be a peculiar attitude of mind 
which could be formulated in accordance with the original use 
of the word religio, which means a careful consideration and 
observation of certain dynamic factors that are conceived as 
"powers": spirits, daemons, gods, laws, ideas, ideals, or whatever 
name man has given to such factors in his world as he has found 
powerful, dangerous, or helpful enough to be taken into careful 
consideration, or grand, beautiful, and meaningful enough to 
be devoutly worshipped and loved. In colloquial speech one 
often says of somebody who is enthusiastically interested in a 
certain pursuit that he is almost "religiously devoted" to his 
cause; William James, for instance, remarks that a scientist often 
has no creed, but his "temper is devout." 3 

I want to make clear that by the term "religion" 4 I do not 
mean a creed. It is, however, true that every creed is originally 
based on the one hand upon the experience of the numinosum 
and on the other hand upon rims, that is to say, trust or loyalty, 
faith and confidence in a certain experience of a numinous na 
ture and in the change of consciousness that ensues. The con 
version of Paul is a striking example of this. We might say, then, 
that the term "religion" designates the attitude peculiar to a 
consciousness which has been changed by experience of the 
numinosum. 

2 Gratia adiuvans and gratia sanctificans are the effects of the sacramentum ex 
opere operate. The sacrament owes its undoubted efficacy to the fact that it is 
directly instituted by Christ himself. The Church is powerless to connect the rite 
with grace in such a way that the sacramental act would produce the presence 
and effect of grace. Consequently the rite performed by the priest is not a causa 
instrumentalis f but merely a causa ministerialis. 

3 "But our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself 
almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout." Pragmatism, p. 14. 

4 "Religion is that which gives reverence and worship to some higher nature 
[which is called divine]/' Cicero, De inventione rhetorica, II, 53, 161. For "testi 
mony given under the sanction of religion on the faith of an oath" cf. Cicero, 
Pro Coelio, 55. 

8 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Creeds are codified and dogmatized forms of original re 
ligious experience. 5 The contents of the experience have be 
come sanctified and are usually congealed in a rigid, often 
elaborate, structure of ideas. The practice and repetition of the 
original experience have become a ritual and an unchangeable 
institution. This does not necessarily mean lifeless petrifaction. 
On the contrary, it may prove to be a valid form of religious 
experience for millions of people for thousands of years, without 
there arising any vital necessity to alter it. Although the Catholic 
Church has often been accused of particular rigidity, she never 
theless admits that dogma is a living thing and that its formula 
tion is therefore capable of change and development. Even the 
number of dogmas is not limited and can be multiplied in the 
course of time. The same holds true of the ritual. Yet all changes 
and developments are determined within the framework of the 
facts as originally experienced, and this sets up a special kind of 
dogmatic content and emotional value. Even Protestantism, 
which has abandoned itself apparently to an almost unlimited 
emancipation from dogmatic tradition and codified ritual and 
has thus split into more than four hundred denominations- 
even Protestantism is bound at least to be Christian and to ex 
press itself within the framework of the belief that God revealed 
himself in Christ, who suffered for mankind. This is a definite 
framework with definite contents which cannot be combined 
with or supplemented by Buddhist or Islamic ideas and feelings. 
Yet it is unquestionably true that not only Buddha and Moham 
med, Confucius and Zarathustra, represent religious phenom 
ena, but also Mithras, Attis, Cybele, Mani, Hermes, and the dei 
ties of many other exotic cults. The psychologist, if he takes up a 
scientific attitude, has to disregard the claim of every creed to 
be the unique and eternal truth. He must keep his eye on the 
human side of the religious problem, since he is concerned with 
the original religious experience quite apart from what the 
creeds have made of it. 

L As I am a doctor and a specialist in nervous and mental dis 
eases, my point of departure is not a creed but the psychology 
of the homo religiosus, that is, of the man who takes into account 
and carefully observes certain factors which influence him and 

5 Heinrich Scholz (Die Religionsphilosophie des Als-Ob) insists on a similar stand 
point. Gf. also Pearcy, A Vindication of Paul. 

9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



his general condition. It is easy to designate and define these 
factors in accordance with historical tradition or ethnological 
knowledge, but to do the same thing from the standpoint of 
psychology is an uncommonly difficult task. What I can con 
tribute to the question of religion is derived entirely from my 
practical experience, both with my patients and with so-called 
normal persons. As our experience with people depends to a 
large extent upon what we do with them, I can see no other way 
of proceeding than to give you at least a general idea of the line 
I take in my professional work. 

Since every neurosis is connected with man's most intimate 
life, there will always be some hesitation when a patient has to 
give a complete account of all the circumstances and complica 
tions which originally led him into a morbid condition. But 
why shouldn't he be able to talk freely? Why should he be afraid 
or shy or prudish? The reason is that he is "carefully observing" 
certain external factors which together constitute what one calls 
public opinion or respectability or reputation. And even if he 
trusts his doctor and is no longer shy of him, he will be reluctant 
or even afraid to admit certain things to himself, as if it were 
dangerous to become conscious of himself. One is usually afraid 
of things that seem to be overpowering. But is there anything 
in man that is stronger than himself? We should not forget that 
every neurosis entails a corresponding amount of demoraliza 
tion. If a man is neurotic, he has lost confidence in himself. A 
neurosis is a humiliating defeat and is felt as such by people who 
are not entirely unconscious of their own psychology. And one 
is defeated by something "unreal." Doctors may have assured the 
patient, long ago, that there is nothing the matter with him, 
that he does not suffer from a real heart-disease or from a real 
cancer. His symptoms are quite imaginary. The more he believes 
that he is a malade imaginaire, the more a feeling of inferiority 
permeates his whole personality. "If my symptoms are imagi 
nary," he will say, "where have I picked up this confounded 
imagination and why should I put up with such a perfect nui 
sance?" It is indeed pathetic to have an intelligent man almost 
imploringly assure you that he is suffering from an intestinal 
cancer and declare at the same time in a despondent voice that 
of course he knows his cancer is a purely imaginary affair. 

Our usual materialistic conception of the psyche is, I am 

10 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



afraid, not particularly helpful in cases of neurosis. If only the 
soul were endowed with a subtle body, then one could at least 
say that this breath- or vapour-body was suffering from a real 
though somewhat ethereal cancer, in the same way as the gross 
material body can succumb to a cancerous disease. That, at least, 
would be something real. Medicine therefore feels a strong aver 
sion for anything of a psychic nature either the body is ill or 
there is nothing the matter. And if you cannot prove that the 
body is really ill, that is only because our present techniques do 
not enable the doctor to discover the true nature of the un 
doubtedly organic trouble. 

14 But what, actually, is the psyche? Materialistic prejudice ex 
plains it as a mere epiphenomenal by-product of organic proc 
esses in the brain. Any psychic disturbance must therefore be 
an organic or physical disorder which is undiscoverable only 
because of the inadequacy of our present methods of diagnosis. 
The undeniable connection between psyche and brain gives this 
point of view a certain weight, but not enough to make it an 
unshakable truth. We do not know whether there is a real dis 
turbance of the organic processes in the brain in a case of neuro 
sis, and if there are disorders of an endocrine nature it is 
impossible to say whether they might not be effects rather than 
causes. 

15 On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that the real causes 
of neurosis are psychological. Not so long ago it was very diffi 
cult to imagine how an organic or physical disorder could be 
relieved by quite simple psychological means, yet in recent years 
medical science has recognized a whole class of diseases, the 
psychosomatic disorders, in which the patient's psychology plays 
the essential part. Since my readers may not be familiar with 
these medical facts I may instance a case of hysterical fever, with 
a temperature of 102 , which was cured in a few minutes through 
confession of the psychological cause. A patient with psoriasis 
extending over practically the whole body was told that I did 
not feel competent to treat his skin trouble, but that I should 
concentrate on his psychological conflicts, which were numerous. 
After six weeks of intense analysis and discussion of his purely 
psychological difficulties, there came about as an unexpected 
by-product the almost complete disappearance of the skin dis 
ease. In another case, the patient had recently undergone an 

11 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



operation for distention of the colon. Forty centimetres of it had 
been removed, but this was followed by another extraordinary 
distention. The patient was desperate and refused to permit a 
second operation, though the surgeon thought it vital. As soon 
as certain intimate psychological facts were discovered, the colon 
began to function normally again. 

16 Such experiences make it exceedingly difficult to believe that 
the psyche is nothing, or that an imaginary fact is unreal. Only, 
it is not there where a near-sighted mind seeks it. It exists, but 
not in physical form. It is an almost absurd prejudice to suppose 
that existence can only be physical. As a matter of fact, the only 
form of existence of which we have immediate knowledge is 
psychic. We might well say, on the contrary, that physical exist 
ence is a mere inference, since we know of matter only in so far 
as we perceive psychic images mediated by the senses. 

!? We are surely making a great mistake when we forget this 
simple yet fundamental truth. Even if a neurosis had no cause at 
all other than imagination, it would, none the less, be a very 
real thing. If a man imagined that I was his arch-enemy and 
killed me, I should be dead on account of mere imagination. 
Imaginary conditions do exist and they may be just as real and 
just as harmful or dangerous as physical conditions. I even be 
lieve that psychic disturbances are far more dangerous than epi 
demics or earthquakes. Not even the medieval epidemics of 
bubonic plague or smallpox killed as many people as certain 
differences of opinion in 1914 or certain political "ideals" in 
Russia. 

*8 Although the mind cannot apprehend its own form of exist 
ence, owing to the lack of an Archimedean point outside, it 
nevertheless exists. Not only does the psyche exist, it is existence 
itself. 

J 9 What, then, shall we say to our patient with the imaginary 
cancer? I would tell him: "Yes, my friend, you are really suffer 
ing from a cancer-like thing, you really do harbour in yourself 
a deadly evil. However, it will not kill your body, because it is 
imaginary. But it will eventually kill your soul. It has already 
spoilt and even poisoned your human relations and your personal 
happiness and it will go on growing until it has swallowed your 
whole psychic existence. So that in the end you will not be a 
human being any more, but an evil destructive tumour." 

12 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



20 It is obvious to our patient that he is not the author of his 
morbid imagination, although his theoretical turn of mind will 
certainly suggest that he is the owner and maker of his own 
imaginings. If a man is suffering from a real cancer, he never 
believes himself to be responsible for such an evil, despite the 
fact that the cancer is in his own body. But when it comes to the 
psyche we instantly feel a kind of responsibility, as if we were 
the makers of our psychic conditions. This prejudice is of rela 
tively recent date. Not so very long ago even highly civilized 
people believed that psychic agencies could influence our minds 
and feelings. There were ghosts, wizards, and witches, daemons 
and angels, and even gods, who could produce certain psycho 
logical changes in human beings. In former times the man with 
the idea that he had cancer might have felt quite differently 
about his idea. He would probably have assumed that somebody 
had worked witchcraft against him or that he was possessed. He 
never would have thought of himself as the originator of such a 
fantasy. 

21 As a matter of fact, I take his cancer to be a spontaneous 
growth, which originated in the part of the psyche that is 
not identical with consciousness. It appears as an autonomous 
formation intruding upon consciousness. Of consciousness one 
might say that it is our own psychic existence, but the cancer has 
its own psychic existence, independent of ourselves. This state 
ment seems to formulate the observable facts completely. If we 
submit such a case to an association experiment, 6 we soon dis 
cover that he is not master in his own house. His reactions will 
be delayed, altered, suppressed, or replaced by autonomous 
intruders. There will be a number of stimulus-words which can 
not be answered by his conscious intention. They will be an 
swered by certain autonomous contents, which are very often 
unconscious even to himself. In our case we shall certainly dis 
cover answers that come from the psychic complex at the root 
of the cancer idea. Whenever a stimulus-word touches some 
thing connected with the hidden complex, the reaction of the 
conscious ego will be disturbed, or even replaced, by an answer 
coming from the complex. It is just as if the complex were an 
autonomous being capable of interfering with the intentions of 
6 Cf. my "Studies in Word Association." 

13 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the ego. Complexes do indeed behave like secondary or partial 
personalities possessing a mental life of their own. 

Many complexes are split off from consciousness because the 
latter preferred to get rid of them by repression. But there are 
others that have never been in consciousness before and there 
fore could never have been arbitrarily repressed. They grow out 
of the unconscious and invade the conscious mind with their 
weird and unassailable convictions and impulses. Our patient 
belonged to the latter category. Despite his culture and intelli 
gence, he was a helpless victim of something that obsessed and 
possessed him. He was unable to help himself in any way against 
the demonic power of his morbid idea. It proliferated in him 
like a carcinoma. One day the idea appeared and from then on 
it remained unshakable; there were only short intervals when 
he was free from it. 

The existence of such cases does something to explain why 
people are afraid of becoming conscious of themselves. There 
might really be something behind the screen one never knows 
and so people prefer "to consider and observe carefully" the 
factors external to their consciousness. In most people there is a 
sort of primitive Seuridaifjiovla, with regard to the possible contents 
of the unconscious. Beneath all natural shyness, shame, and tact, 
there is a secret fear of the unknown "perils of the soul." Of 
course one is reluctant to admit such a ridiculous fear. But one 
should realize that this fear is by no means unjustified; on the 
contrary, it is only too well founded. We can never be sure that 
a new idea will not seize either upon ourselves or upon our 
neighbours. We know from modern as well as from ancient 
history that such ideas are often so strange, indeed so bizarre, 
that they fly in the face of reason. The fascination which is al 
most invariably connected with ideas of this sort produces a 
fanatical obsession, with the result that all dissenters, no matter 
how well meaning or reasonable they are, get burnt alive or 
have their heads cut off or are disposed of in masses by the more 
modern machine-gun. We cannot even console ourselves with 
the thought that such things belong to the remote past. Unfor 
tunately they seem to belong not only to the present, but, quite 
particularly, to the future. "Homo homini lupus" is a sad yet 
eternal truism. There is indeed reason enough for man to be 
afraid of the impersonal forces lurking in his unconscious. We 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



are blissfully unconscious of these forces because they never, or 
almost never, appear in our personal relations or under ordinary 
circumstances. But if people crowd together and form a mob, 
then the dynamisms of the collective man are let loosebeasts 
or demons that lie dormant in every person until he is part of 
a mob. Man in the mass sinks unconsciously to an inferior moral 
and intellectual level, to that level which is always there, below 
the threshold of consciousness, ready to break forth as soon as it 
is activated by the formation of a mass. 

24 It is, to my mind, a fatal mistake to regard the human psyche 
as a purely personal affair and to explain it exclusively from a 
personal point of view. Such a mode of explanation is only 
applicable to the individual in his ordinary everyday occupa 
tions and relationships. If, however, some slight trouble occurs, 
perhaps in the form of an unforeseen and somewhat unusual 
event, instantly instinctual forces are called up, forces which 
appear to be wholly unexpected, new, and strange. They can 
no longer be explained in terms of personal motives, being 
comparable rather to certain primitive occurrences like panics 
at solar eclipses and the like. To explain the murderous out 
break of Bolshevism, for instance, as a personal father-complex 
appears to me singularly inadequate. 

25 The change of character brought about by the uprush of 
collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can 
be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always 
inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing 
could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of 
fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there 
is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a pos 
sible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is 
certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but 
what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd 
in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between 
them because the madman and the mob are both moved by im 
personal, overwhelming forces. 

26 As a matter of fact, it only needs a neurosis to conjure up a 
force that cannot be dealt with by rational means. Our cancer 
case shows clearly how impotent man's reason and intellect are 
against the most palpable nonsense. I always advise my patients 
to take such obvious but invincible nonsense as the manifesta- 

15 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



tion of a power and a meaning they have not yet understood. 
Experience has taught me that it is much more effective to take 
these things seriously and then look for a suitable explanation. 
But an explanation is suitable only when it produces a hy 
pothesis equal to the morbid effect. Our patient is confronted 
with a power of will and suggestion more than equal to anything 
his consciousness can put against it. In this precarious situation 
it would be bad strategy to convince him that in some incom 
prehensible way he is at the back of his own symptom, secretly 
inventing and supporting it. Such a suggestion would instantly 
paralyse his fighting spirit, and he would get demoralized. It is 
far better for him to understand that his complex is an autono 
mous power directed against his conscious personality. More 
over, such an explanation fits the actual facts much better than 
a reduction to personal motives. An apparently personal motiva 
tion does exist, but it is not made by his will, it just happens to 
him. 

27 When in the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh's arrogance and 
hybris defy the gods, they create a man equal in strength to 
Gilgamesh in order to check the hero's unlawful ambition. The 
very same thing has happened to our patient: he is a thinker 
who has settled, or is always going to settle, the world by the 
power of his intellect and reason. His ambition has at least suc 
ceeded in forging his own personal fate. He has forced every 
thing under the inexorable law of his reason, but somewhere 
nature escaped and came back with a vengeance in the form of 
an unassailable bit of nonsense, the cancer idea. This was the 
clever device of the unconscious to keep him on a merciless and 
cruel leash. It was the worst blow that could be dealt to all his 
rational ideals and especially to his belief in the all-powerful 
human will. Such an obsession can occur only in a person who 
makes habitual misuse of reason and intellect for egotistical 
power purposes. 

28 Gilgamesh, however, escaped the vengeance of the gods. He 
had warning dreams to which he paid attention. They showed 
him how he could overcome his enemy. Our patient, living in 
an age when the gods have become extinct and have fallen into 
bad repute, also had such dreams, but he did not listen to them. 
How could an intelligent man be so superstitious as to take 
dreams seriously! The very common prejudice against dreams is 

16 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



but one symptom of a far more serious undervaluation of the 
human psyche in general. The marvellous development of sci 
ence and technics is counterbalanced by an appalling lack of 
wisdom and introspection. It is true that our religion speaks of 
an immortal soul; but it has very few kind words to say for the 
human psyche as such, which would go straight to eternal 
damnation were it not for a special act of Divine Grace. These 
two important factors are largely responsible for the general 
undervaluation of the psyche, but not entirely so. Older by far 
than these relatively recent developments are the primitive fear 
of and aversion to everything that borders on the unconscious. 

Consciousness must have been a very precarious thing in its 
beginnings. In relatively primitive societies we can still observe 
how easily consciousness gets lost. One of the "perils of the 
soul," 7 for instance, is the loss of a soul. This is what happens 
when part of the psyche becomes unconscious again. Another ex 
ample is "running amok," 8 the equivalent of "going berserk" in 
Germanic saga. 9 This is a more or less complete trance-state, of ten 
accompanied by devastating social effects. Even a quite ordinary 
emotion can cause considerable loss of consciousness. Primitives 
therefore cultivate elaborate forms of politeness, speaking in a 
hushed voice, laying down their weapons, crawling on all fours, 
bowing the head, showing the palms. Even our own forms of 
politeness still exhibit a "religious" consideration of possible 
psychic dangers. We propitiate fate by magically wishing one 
another a good day. It is not good form to keep the left hand in 
your pocket or behind your back when shaking hands. If you 
want to be particularly ingratiating you use both hands. Before 
people of great authority we bow with uncovered head, i.e., we 
offer our head unprotected in order to propitiate the powerful 
one, who might quite easily fall sudden prey to a fit of uncon 
trollable violence. In war-dances primitives can become so 
excited that they may even shed blood. 

The life of the primitive is filled with constant regard for the 
ever-lurking possibility of psychic danger, and the procedures 
employed to diminish the risks are very numerous. The setting 
up of tabooed areas is an outward expression of this fact. The 

TFrazer, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 306:.; Crawley, The Idea of the 
Soul, pp. 8aff.; Lvy-Bruhl, Primitive Mentality. 8 Fenn, Running Amok. 

9 Ninck, Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube. 

17 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



innumerable taboos are delimited psychic areas which are 
meticulously and fearfully observed. I once made a terrific mis 
take when I was with a tribe on the southern slopes o Mount 
Elgon, in East Africa. I wanted to inquire about the ghost- 
houses I frequently found in the woods, and during a palaver I 
mentioned the word selelteni, meaning 'ghost/ Instantly every 
body was silent and painfully embarrassed. They all looked 
away from me because I had spoken aloud a carefully hushed-up 
word, and had thus invited most dangerous consequences. I had 
to change the subject in order to be able to continue the meet 
ing. The same men assured me that they never had dreams; they 
were the prerogative of the chief and of the medicine man. The 
medicine man then confessed to me that he no longer had any 
dreams either, they had the District Commissioner instead. 
"Since the English are in the country we have no dreams any 
more," he said. "The District Commissioner knows everything 
about war and diseases, and about where we have got to live." 
This strange statement is based on the fact that dreams were 
formerly the supreme political guide, the voice of Mungu, 'God/ 
Therefore it would have been unwise for an ordinary man to 
suggest that he had dreams. 

31 Dreams are the voice of the Unknown, ever threatening new 
schemes, new dangers, sacrifices, warfare, and other troublesome 
things. An African Negro once dreamt that his enemies had 
taken him prisoner and burnt him alive. The next day he called 
his relatives together and implored them to burn him. They 
consented so far as to bind his feet together and put them in the 
fire. He was of course badly crippled but had escaped his foes. 10 

32 There are any amount of magical rites that exist for the sole 
purpose of erecting a defence against the unexpected, dangerous 
tendencies of the unconscious. The peculiar fact that the dream 
is a divine voice and messenger and yet an unending source of 
trouble does not disturb the primitive mind in the least. We 
find obvious remnants of this primitive thinking in the psychol 
ogy of the Hebrew prophets. 11 Often enough they hesitate to 
listen to the voice. And it was, we must admit, rather hard on a 
pious man like Hosea to marry a harlot in order to obey the 

10 L6vy-Brulil, How Natives Think, and Primitive Mentality, ch. 3, "Dreams," 
pp.97ff. 

11 Haeussermann, Wortempfang und Symbol in der alttestamentlichen Prophetic. 

18 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Lord's command. Since the dawn of humanity there has been a 
marked tendency to limit this unruly and arbitrary "super 
natural" influence by means of definite forms and laws. And 
this process has continued throughout history in the form of 
a multiplication of rites, institutions, and beliefs. During the 
last two thousand years we find the institution of the Christian 
Church taking over a mediating and protective function be 
tween these influences and man. It is not denied in medieval 
ecclesiastical writings that a divine influx may occur in dreams, 
but this view is not exactly encouraged, and the Church reserves 
the right to decide whether a revelation is to be considered 
authentic or not. 12 In spite of the Church's recognition that 

12 In his excellent treatise on dreams and their functions, Benedictus Pererius, S.J. 
(De Magia; De Observatione Somniorum et de Divinations Astrologica libri tres, 
1598) says: "For God is not constrained by such laws of time, nor does he await 
opportune moments for his operation; for he inspires dreams where he will, when 
he will, and in whomsoever he will" (p. 147). The following passage throws an 
interesting light on the relation of the Church to the problem of dreams: "For 
we read in Cassian's 22nd Collation, that the old governors and directors of the 
monks were well versed in seeking out and testing the causes of certain dreams" 
(p. 142). Pererius classifies dreams as follows: "Many [dreams] are natural, some 
are of human origin, and some are even divine" (p. 145). There are four causes 
of dreams: (i) An affection of the body. (2) An affect or vehement commotion of 
the mind caused by love, hope, fear, or hatred (pp. i26ff.). (3) The power and 
cunning of the demon, i.e. of a heathen god or the Christian devil. ("For the devil 
is able to know natural effects which will needs come about at some future time 
from fixed causes; he can know those things which he himself is going to bring 
about at a later time; he can know things, both present and past, which are 
hidden from men, and make them known to men in dreams" [p. 129]. Concern 
ing the diagnosis of demonic dreams, the author says: "It can be surmised that 
dreams are sent by the devil, firstly if dreams often occur which signify future or 
hidden events, knowledge whereof is advantageous not to any useful end whether 
for oneself or for others, but only for the vain display of curious information, or 
even for the doing of some evil act . . ." [p. 130].) (4) Dreams sent by God. Con 
cerning the signs indicating the divine nature of a dream, the author says: 
". . . from the importance of the matters made known by the dream, especially 
if, in the dream, those things are made known to a man of which certain knowl 
edge can come to him only by God's leave and bounty. Of such sort are those 
things which in the schools of the theologians are called contingent future events; 
further, the secrets of the heart which are wholly hidden from all men's under 
standing; and lastly, those highest mysteries of our faith which are known to no 
man unless he be taught them by God [1] ... That this [is divine] is especially 
declared by a certain enlightenment and moving of the spirits, whereby God so 
illumines the mind, so acts upon the will, and so assures the dreamer of the 

19 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



certain dreams are sent by God, she is disinclined, and even 
averse, to any serious concern with dreams, while admitting that 
some might conceivably contain an immediate revelation. Thus 
the change of mental attitude that has taken place in recent 
centuries is, from this point of view at least, not wholly unwel 
come to the Church, because it effectively discouraged the 
earlier introspective attitude which favoured a serious considera 
tion of dreams and inner experiences. 

credibility and authority of his dream that he so dearly recognizes and so cer 
tainly judges God to be its author that he not only desires to believe it, but must 
believe it without any doubt whatsoever" (pp. 1312.). Since the demon, as stated 
above, is also capable of producing dreams accurately predicting future events, 
the author adds a quotation from Gregory the Great (Dialogorum Libri IV, cap. 
48, in Migne, PJL., vol. 77, col. 412): "Holy men discern between illusions and 
revelations, the very words and images of visions, by a certain inward sensibility, 
so that they know what they receive from the good spirit and what they endure 
from the deceiver. For if a man's mind were not careful in this regard, it would 
plunge itself into many vanities through the deceiving spirit, who is sometimes 
wont to foretell many true things, in order that he may entirely prevail to en 
snare the soul by some one single falsity" (p. 132). It seemed to be a welcome 
safeguard against this uncertainty if dreams were concerned with the "highest 
mysteries of our faith." Athanasius, in his biography of St. Anthony, gives us 
some idea of how clever the devils are in foretelling future events. (Cf. Budge, 
The Book of Paradise, I, pp. 372.) The same author says they sometimes appear 
even in the shape of monks, singing psalms, reading the Bible aloud, and making 
disturbing remarks about the moral conduct of the brethren (pp. 33ff. and 47). 
Pererius, however, seems to trust his own criterion, for he continues: "As there 
fore the natural light of our minds enables us clearly to discern the truth of first 
principles, so that they are embraced by our assent immediately and without any 
argument; so in dreams sent by God the divine light shining upon our minds 
brings it about that we understand and believe with certainty that those dreams 
are true and of God." He does not touch on the delicate question of whether 
every unshakable conviction derived from a dream necessarily proves the divine 
origin of the dream. He merely takes it for granted that a dream of this sort 
would naturally exhibit a character consistent with the "highest mysteries of our 
faith," and not perchance with those of another one. The humanist Kaspar 
Peucer (in his Commentarius de praedpuis generibus divinationum, 1560) is far 
more definite and restrictive in this respect. He says (p. 270): "Those dreams are 
of God which the sacred scriptures affirm to be sent from on high, not to every 
one promiscuously, nor to those who strive after and expect revelations of their 
own opinion, but to the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets by the will and judgment 
of God. [Such dreams are concerned] not with light matters, or with trifles and 
ephemeral things, but with Christ, the governance of the Church, with empires 
and their well ordering, and other remarkable events; and to these God always 
adds sure testimonies, such as the gift of interpretation and other things, by 

20 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



33 Protestantism, having pulled down so many walls carefully 
erected by the Church, immediately began to experience the 
disintegrating and schismatic effect of individual revelation. As 
soon as the dogmatic fence was broken down and the ritual lost 
its authority, man had to face his inner experience without the 
protection and guidance of dogma and ritual, which are the 
very quintessence of Christian as well as of pagan religious ex 
perience. Protestantism has, in the main, lost all the finer shades 
of traditional Christianity: the mass, confession, the greater part 
of the liturgy, and the vicarious function of priesthood. 

34 I must emphasize that this statement is not a value-judgment 
and is not intended to be one. I merely state the facts. Protestant 
ism has, however, intensified the authority of the Bible as a 
substitute for the lost authority of the Church. But as history 
has shown, one can interpret certain biblical texts in many ways. 
Nor has scientific criticism of the New Testament been very 
helpful in enhancing belief in the divine character of the holy 
scriptures. It is also a fact that under the influence of a so-called 

which it is clear that they are not rashly to be objected to, nor are they of 
natural origin, but are divinely inspired." His crypto-Calvinism is palpably mani 
fest in his words, particularly when one compares them with the natural theology 
of his Catholic contemporaries. It is probable that Peucer's hint about "revela 
tions" refers to certain heretical innovations. At any rate, in the next paragraph, 
where he deals with dreams of diabolical origin, he says these are the dreams 
"which the devil shows nowadays to Anabaptists, and at all times to Enthusiasts 
and suchlike fanatics." Pererius with more perspicacity and human understand 
ing devotes one chapter to the question "Whether it be lawful for a Christian 
man to observe dreams?" (pp. 142 fE.) and another to the question "To what kind 
of man does it belong to interpret dreams aright?" (pp. 245ff.). In the first he 
reaches the conclusion that important dreams should be considered. I quote his 
words: "Finally, to consider whether the dreams which ofttimes disturb us and 
move us to evil courses are put before us by the devil, as likewise on the other 
hand to ponder whether those by which we are aroused and incited to good, as 
for example to celibacy, almsgiving, and entering the religious life, are sent us 
by God, is the part not of a superstitious mind, but of one that is religious, 
prudent, and careful and solicitous for its salvation." Only stupid people would 
observe all the other futile dreams. In the second chapter, he answers that nobody 
should or could interpret dreams "unless he be divinely inspired and instructed." 
"Even so," he adds, "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" 
(I Cor. 2:11). This statement, eminently true in itself, reserves the art of inter 
pretation to such persons as are endowed by then* office with the gift of the Holy 
Spirit. It is obvious, however, that a Jesuit author could not envisage a descent of 
the Holy Spirit outside the Church. 

21 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



scientific enlightenment great masses of educated people have 
either left the Church or become profoundly indifferent to it. 
If they were all dull rationalists or neurotic intellectuals the loss 
would not be regrettable. But many of them are religious 
people, only incapable of agreeing with the existing forms of 
belief. Otherwise, one could hardly explain the remarkable 
effect of the Buchman movement on the more-or-less educated 
Protestant classes. The Catholic who has turned his back on 
the Church usually develops a secret or manifest leaning towards 
atheism, whereas the Protestant follows, if possible, a sectarian 
movement. The absolutism of the Catholic Church seems to de 
mand an equally absolute negation, whereas Protestant rela 
tivism permits of variations. 

35 It may perhaps be thought that I have gone a bit too far into 
the history of Christianity, and for no other purpose than to 
explain the prejudice against dreams and inner experiences. 
But what I have just said might have been part of my conversa 
tion with our cancer patient. I told him that it would be better 
to take his obsession seriously instead of reviling it as patholog 
ical nonsense. But to take it seriously would mean acknowledg 
ing it as a sort of diagnostic statement of the fact that, in a psyche 
which really existed, trouble had arisen in the form of a cancer- 
like growth. "But," he will certainly ask, "what could that 
growth be?" And I shall answer: "I do not know," as indeed I 
do not. Although, as I mentioned before, it is surely a compensa 
tory or complementary unconscious formation, nothing is yet 
known about its specific nature or about its content. It is a spon 
taneous manifestation of the unconscious, based on contents 
which are not to be found in consciousness. 

3 6 My patient is now very curious how I shall set about getting 
at the contents that form the root of the obsession. I then in 
form him, at the risk of shocking him severely, that his dreams 
will provide us with all the necessary information. We will take 
them as if they issued from an intelligent, purposive, and, as it 
were, personal source. This is of course a bold hypothesis and 
at the same time an adventure, because we are going to give 
extraordinary credit to a discredited entity the psyche whose 
very existence is still denied by not a few contemporary psychol 
ogists as well as by philosophers. A famous anthropologist, when 
I showed him my way of proceeding, made the typical remark: 

22 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



"That's all very interesting indeed, but dangerous." Yes, I ad 
mit it is dangerous, just as dangerous as a neurosis. If you want 
to cure a neurosis you have to risk something. To do something 
without taking a risk is merely ineffectual, as we know only too 
well. A surgical operation for cancer is a risk too, and yet it has 
to be done. For the sake of better understanding I have often 
felt tempted to advise my patients to think of the psyche as a 
subtle body in which subtle tumours can grow. The prejudiced 
belief that the psyche is unimaginable and consequently less 
than air, or that it is a more or less intellectual system of logical 
concepts, is so great that when people are not conscious of cer 
tain contents they assume these do not exist. They have no con 
fidence and no belief in a reliable psychic functioning outside 
consciousness, and dreams are thought to be only ridiculous. 
Under such conditions my proposal arouses the worst suspicions. 
And indeed I have heard every argument under the sun used 
against the vague spectres of dreams. 

37 Yet in dreams we find, without any profound analysis, the 
same conflicts and complexes whose existence can also be demon 
strated by the association test. Moreover, these complexes form 
an integral part of the existing neurosis. We have, therefore, 
reason to believe that dreams can give us at least as much in 
formation as the association test can about the content of a neu 
rosis. As a matter of fact, they give very much more. The symp 
tom is like the shoot above ground, yet the main plant is an 
extended rhizome underground. The rhizome represents the 
content of a neurosis; it is the matrix of complexes, of symptoms, 
and of dreams. We have every reason to believe that dreams 
mirror exactly the underground processes of the psyche. And if 
we get there, we literally get at the "roots" of the disease. 

3 8 As it is not my intention to go any further into the psycho- 
pathology of neuroses, I propose to choose another case as an 
example of how dreams reveal the unknown inner facts of the 
psyche and of what these facts consist. The dreamer was another 
intellectual, of remarkable intelligence and learning. He was 
neurotic and was seeking my help because he felt that his neu 
rosis had become overpowering and was slowly but surely under 
mining his morale. Fortunately his intellectual integrity had not 
yet suffered and he had the free use of his fine intelligence. For 
this reason I set him the task of observing and recording his 

23 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



dreams himself. The dreams were not analysed or explained to 
him and it was only very much later that we began their analysis. 
Thus the dreams I am going to relate have not been tampered 
with at all. They represent an entirely uninfluenced natural 
sequence of events. The patient had never read any psychology, 
much less any analytical psychology. 

39 Since the series consists of over four hundred dreams, I could 
not possibly convey an impression of the whole material; but I 
have published elsewhere a selection of seventy-four dreams con 
taining motifs of special religious interest. 18 The dreamer, it 
should be said, was a Catholic by education, but no longer a 
practising one, nor was he interested in religious problems. He 
was one of those scientifically minded intellectuals who would 
be simply amazed if anybody should saddle them with religious 
views of any kind. If one holds that the unconscious has a psychic 
existence independent of consciousness, a case such as that of 
our dreamer might be of particular interest, provided we are 
not mistaken in our conception of the religious character of 
certain dreams. And if one lays stress on the conscious mind 
alone and does not credit the unconscious with an independent 
existence, it will be interesting to find out whether or not the 
dreams really derive their material from conscious contents. 
Should the facts favour the hypothesis of the unconscious, one 
could then use dreams as possible sources of information about 
the religious tendencies of the unconscious. 

40 One cannot expect dreams to speak of religion as we know it. 
There are, however, two dreams among the four hundred that 
obviously deal with religion. I will now give the text which the 
dreamer himself had taken down: 

All the houses have something theatrical about them, with 
stage scenery and decorations. The name of Bernard Shaw is 
mentioned. The play is supposed to take place in the distant 
future. There is a notice in English and German on one of 
the sets: 

is "Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process." [Orig. in Eranos-Jahrbuch 1935. 
A revised and expanded version of this appears in Psychology and Alchemy, as 
Part II. EDITORS.] Although the dreams cited here are mentioned in the above 
publication, they are examined there from a different standpoint. Since dreams 
have many aspects they can be studied from various angles. 

24 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



This is the universal Catholic Church. 

It is the Church of the Lord. 

All those who feel that they are the instruments of the Lord 
may enter. 

Under this is printed in smaller letters: "The Church was 
founded by Jesus and Paul 9 ' like a firm advertising its long 
standing. 

I say to my friend, "Come on, let's have a look at this." He 
replies, "I do not see why a lot of people have to get together 
when they're feeling religious." I answer, "As a Protestant you 
will never understand" A woman nods emphatic approval. 
Then I see a sort of proclamation on the wall of the church. 
It runs: 

Soldiers! 

When you feel you are under the power of the Lord, do not ad 
dress him directly. The Lord cannot be reached by words. We also 
strongly advise you not to indulge in any discussions among your 
selves concerning the attributes of the Lord. It is futile, for every 
thing valuable and important is ineffable. 

(Signed) Pope . . . (Name illegible) 

Now we go in. The interior resembles a mosque, more par 
ticularly the Hagia Sophia: no seatswonderful effect of space; 
no images, only framed texts decorating the walls (like the 
Koran texts in the Hagia Sophia). One of the texts reads "Do 
not flatter your benefactor." The woman who had nodded ap 
proval bursts into tears and cries, "Then there's nothing left!" 
I reply, "I find it quite right!" but she vanishes. At first I stand 
with a pillar in front of me and can see nothing. Then I change 
my position and see a crowd of people. I do not belong to them 
and stand alone. But they are quite clear, so that I can see their 
faces. They all say in unison, "We confess that we are under the 
power of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us." They 
repeat this three times with great solemnity. Then the organ 
starts to play and they sing a Bach fugue with chorale. But the 
original text is omitted; sometimes there is only a sort of colora 
tura singing, then the words are repeated: "Everything else is 
paper" (meaning that it does not make a living impression on 

25 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



me). When the chorale has faded away the gemiitlich part of the 
ceremony begins; it is almost like a students' party. The people 
are all cheerful and equable. We move about, converse, and 
greet one another, and wine (from an episcopal seminary) is 
served with other refreshments. The health of the Church is 
drunk and, as if to express everybody's pleasure at the increase 
in membership, a loudspeaker blares a ragtime melody with the 
refrain, "Charles is also with us now." A priest explains to me: 
"These somewhat Jrivial amusements are officially approved 
and permitted. We must adapt a little to American methods. 
With a large crowd such as we have here this is inevitable. But 
rue differ in principle from the American churches by our de 
cidedly anti-ascetic tendency." Thereupon I awake with a feel 
ing of great relief. 

4 1 There are, as you know, numerous works on the phenome 
nology of dreams, but very few that deal with their psychology. 
This for the obvious reason that a psychological interpretation 
of dreams is an exceedingly ticklish and risky business. Freud 
has made a courageous attempt to elucidate the intricacies of 
dream psychology with the help of views which he gathered in 
the field of psychopathology. 14 Much as I admire the boldness 
of his attempt, I cannot agree either with his method or with its 
results. He explains the dream as a mere facade behind which 
something has been carefully hidden. There is no doubt that 
neurotics hide disagreeable things, probably just as much as 
normal people do. But it is a serious question whether this 
category can be applied to such a normal and world-wide phe 
nomenon as the dream. I doubt whether we can assume that a 
dream is something other than it appears to be. I am rather in 
clined to quote another Jewish authority, the Talmud, which 
says: "The dream is its own interpretation." In other words 
I take the dream for lohat it is. The dream is such a difficult 
and complicated thing that I do not dare to make any assump- 

!* Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams. Silberer (Der Traum, 1919) presents a 
more cautious and more balanced point of view. As to the difference between 
Freud's and my own views, I would refer the reader to my little essay on this 
subject, "Freud and Jung: Contrasts." Further material in Two Essays on Analy 
tical Psychology, pars. i6ff.; Kranefeldt, Secret Ways of the Mind; Gerhard Adler, 
Entdeckung der Seele; and Toni Wolff, "Einfiihrung in die Grundlagen der 
komplexen Psychologic," in Die kulturelle Bedeutung der komplexen Psychologic. 

26 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tions about its possible cunning or its tendency to deceive. The 
dream is a natural occurrence, and there is no earthly reason 
why we should assume that it is a crafty device to lead us astray. 
It occurs when consciousness and will are to a large extent ex 
tinguished. It seems to be a natural product which is also found 
in people who are not neurotic. Moreover, we know so little 
about the psychology of the dream process that we must be more 
than careful when we introduce into its explanation elements 
that are foreign to the dream itself. 

4* For all these reasons I hold that our dream really is speaking 
of religion and that it intends to do so. Since the dream has a 
coherent and well-designed structure, it suggests a certain logic 
and a certain intention, that is, it has a meaningful motivation 
which finds direct expression in the dream-content. 
43 The first part of the dream is a serious statement in favour 
of the Catholic Church. A certain Protestant point of view- 
that religion is just an individual experience is discouraged by 
the dreamer. The second, more grotesque part is the Church's 
adaptation to a decidedly worldly standpoint, and the end is a 
statement in favour of an anti-ascetic tendency which would 
not and could not be backed up by the real Church. Neverthe 
less the dreamer's anti-ascetic priest makes it a matter of prin 
ciple. Spiritualization and sublimation are essentially Christian 
principles, and any insistence upon the contrary would amount 
to blasphemous paganism. Christianity has never been worldly 
nor has it ever looked with favour on good food and wine, and 
it is more than doubtful whether the introduction of jazz into 
the cult would be a particular asset. The "cheerful and equable 1 * 
people who peripatetically converse with each other in more or 
less Epicurean style remind one much more of an ancient philo 
sophical ideal which is rather distasteful to the contemporary 
Christian. In the first and second part the importance of masses 
or crowds of people is emphasized. 

44 Thus the Catholic Church, though highly recommended, 
appears coupled with a strange pagan point of view which is ir 
reconcilable with a fundamentally Christian attitude. The actual 
irreconcilability does not appear in the dream. It is hushed up 
as it were by a cosy ("gemutlich") atmosphere in which dangerous 
contrasts are blurred and blended. The Protestant conception of 
an individual relationship to God is swamped by mass organiza- 

27 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



tion and a correspondingly collective religious feeling. The in 
sistence on crowds and the insinuation o a pagan ideal are 
remarkable parallels to things that are actually happening in 
Europe today. Everybody was astonished at the pagan tendencies 
of modern Germany because nobody knew how to interpret 
Nietzsche's Dionysian experience. Nietzsche was but one of the 
thousands and millions of Germans yet unborn in whose uncon 
scious the Teutonic cousin of Dionysus Wotan came to birth 
during the Great War. 15 In the dreams of the Germans whom I 
treated then I could clearly see the Wotanistic revolution com 
ing on, and in 1918 I published an article in which I pointed out 
the peculiar kind of new development to be expected in Ger 
many. 16 Those Germans were by no means people who had 
studied Thus Spake Zarathustra, and certainly the young people 
who resurrected the pagan sacrifices of sheep knew nothing of 
Nietzsche's experience. 17 That is why they called their god 
Wotan and not Dionysus. In Nietzsche's biography you will find 
irrefutable proof that the god he originally meant was really 
Wotan, but, being a philologist and living in the seventies and 
eighties of the nineteenth century, he called him Dionysus. 
Looked at from a comparative point of view, the two gods have 
much in common. 

45 There is apparently no opposition to collective feeling, mass 
religion, and paganism anywhere in the dream of my patient, 
except for the Protestant friend who is soon reduced to silence. 
One curious incident merits our attention, and that is the un 
known woman who at first backs up the eulogy of Catholicism 
and then suddenly bursts into tears, saying: "Then there's noth 
ing left," and vanishes without returning. 

15 Cf. the relation of Odin as the god of poets, seers, and raving enthusiasts, and of 
Mimir, the Wise One, to Dionysus and Silenus. The word Odin has a root-connec 
tion with Gall. ofcaTis, Ir. faith, L. vates, similar to fiavris and vaLvopat. Ninck, 
Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube, pp. goff. 

16 "The Role of the Unconscious." 

17 Cf. my "Wotan," Neue Schweizer Rundschau, 1936 [an abbreviated version in 
the Saturday Review of Literature, Oct. 16, 1937; subsequently published in 
Essays on Contemporary Events, 1947, now in Coll. Works, vol. 10]. The Wotan 
parallels in Nietzsche's work are to be found in the poem "To the Unknown 
God'* (Werke, ed. Baeumler, V, p. 457); Thus Spake Zarathustra, trans, by Thomas 
Common, pp. 293ff., 150, and iS$L; and the Wotan dream of 1859 in Elisabeth 
Foerster-Nietzsche, Der werdende Nietzsche, pp. 845. 

28 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



46 Who is this woman? To the dreamer she is a vague and un 
known person, but when he had that dream he was already well 
acquainted with her as the "unknown woman" who had fre 
quently appeared in previous dreams. 

47 As this figure plays a great role in men's dreams, it bears the 
technical name of the "anima," 18 with reference to the fact that, 
from time immemorial, man in his myths has expressed the idea 
of a male and female coexisting in the same body. Such psycho 
logical intuitions were usually projected in the form of the 
divine syzygy, the divine pair, or in the idea of the hermaphro 
ditic nature of the creator. 19 Edward Maitland, the biographer 
of Anna Kingsford, relates in our own day an inner experience 
of the bisexual nature of the Deity. 20 Then there is Hermetic 
philosophy with its hermaphrodite and its androgynous inner 
man, 21 the homo Adamicus, who, "although he appears in 

18 Cf. my Two Essays, pars. 2g6ff.; Psychological Types, Defs. 48, 49; "Archetypes 
of the Collective Unconscious," pars. 52ff.; and "Concerning the Archetypes." 

19 Cf. my "Concerning the Archetypes/' pars, igoff. 

20 Maitland, Anna Kings-ford, I, pp. isgff. [Cf. "Comm. on Golden Flower/' par. 40.] 

21 The statement about the hermaphroditic nature of the Deity in Corpus 
Hermeticum, Lib. I (ed. Scott, Hermetica, 1, p. 118): "For the first Mind was 
bisexual," is probably taken from Plato, Symposium, XIV. It is questionable 
whether the later medieval representations of the hermaphrodite stem from 
"Poimandres" (Hermetica, I), since the hermaphrodite figure was practically un 
known in the West before the Poimander was printed by Marsilio Ficino in 1471. 
It is possible, however, that one of the few scholars of those days who understood 
Greek got the idea from one of the Greek codices then extant, as for instance the 
Codex Laurentianus 71, 33, the Codex Parisinus Graecus 1220, or the Codices 
Vaticanus Graecus 237 and 951, all from the i4th century. There are no older 
codices. The first Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino had a sensational effect. 
But before that date we have the hermaphroditic symbols from the Codex 
Germanicus Monacensis 598, dated 1417. It seems to me more probable that the 
hermaphrodite symbol derives from Arabic or Syriac MSS. translated in the 
nth or isth century. In the old Latin "Tractatulus Avicennae," which is strongly 
influenced by Arabic tradition, we find: "[The elixir] is a voluptuous serpent 
impregnating itself" (Artis auriferae, I, 1593, p. 406). Although the author was a 
Pseudo-Avicenna and not the authentic Ibn Sina (970-1037), he is one of the 
Arabic-Latin sources for medieval Hermetic literature. We find the same passage 
in "Rosinus ad Sarratantam" (Artis aurif. f I, p. 303). "Rosinus" is an Arabic-Latin 
corruption of "Zosimos," a Greek neo-Platonic philosopher of the grd century. 
His treatise "Ad Sarratantam" belongs to the same class of literature, and since 
the history of these texts is still shrouded in darkness, nobody can say who copied 
from whom. The Turba philosophorum, Sermo LXV, a Latin text of Arabic 

29 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



masculine form, always carries about with him Eve, or his wife, 
hidden in his body/' as a medieval commentator on the Her- 
metis Tractatus aureus says. 22 

48 The anima is presumably a psychic representation of the 
minority of female genes in a man's body. This is all the more 
probable since the same figure is not to be found in the imagery 
of a woman's unconscious. There is a corresponding figure, how 
ever, that plays an equivalent role, yet it is not a woman's image 
but a man's. This masculine figure in a woman's psychology has 
been termed the "animus." 23 One of the most typical manifesta 
tions of both figures is what has long been called "animosity." 
The anima causes illogical moods, and the animus produces 
irritating platitudes and unreasonable opinions. Both are fre 
quent dream-figures. As a rule they personify the unconscious 
and give it its peculiarly disagreeable or irritating character. 
The unconscious in itself has no such negative qualities. They 
appear only when it is personified by these figures and when 
they begin to influence consciousness. Being only partial per 
sonalities, they have the character either of an inferior woman 
or of an inferior man hence their irritating effect. A man 
experiencing this influence will be subject to unaccountable 

origin, makes the same allusion: "The composite brings itself forth." (Ruska, 
Turbo, philosophorum, 1931, p. 165.) So far as I can judge, the first text that 
definitely mentions the hermaphrodite is the "Liber de arte chymica" of the i6th 
century (Artis aurif., I, pp. 5756*.). On p. 610 it says: "For that Mercurius is all 
metals, male and female, and an hermaphroditic monster even in the marriage of 
soul and body." Of the later literature I mention only Hieronymus Reusner, 
Pandora (1588); "Splendor Solis" (Aureum vellus, 1598); Michael Maier, Symbola 
aureae rnensae (1617) and Atalanta fugiens (1618); J. D. Mylius, Philosophia 
re formula (1622). 

22 The "Tractatus aureus Hermetis" is of Arabic origin and does not belong to 
the Corpus Hermeticum. Its history is unknown (first printed in Ars chemica, 
1566). Dominicus Gnosius wrote a commentary on the text in his Hermetis 
Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus de Lapide philosophici secreto (1610). On p. 
101 he says: "As a shadow continually follows the body of one who walks in the 
sun ... so our Adamic hermaphrodite, though he appears hi masculine form, 
nevertheless always carries about with him Eve, or his feminine part, hidden in 
his body/' This commentary, together with the text, is reproduced in Manget, 
Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, I (1702), pp. 4Oiff. 

23 There is a description of both these figures in Two Essays, Part II, pars. 2966!. 
See also Psychological Types t Def. 48, and Emma Jung, "On the Nature of the 
Animus." [Cf. also Aion, ch. III.] 

30 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



moods, and a woman will be argumentative and produce opin 
ions that are beside the mark. 24 

49 The negative reaction of the anima to the church dream indi 
cates that the dreamer's feminine side, his unconscious, disagrees 
with his conscious attitude. The disagreement started with the 
text on the wall: "Do not flatter your benefactor/' which the 
dreamer agreed with. The meaning of the text seems sound 
enough, so that one does not understand why the woman should 
feel so desperate about it. Without delving further into this 
mystery, we must content ourselves for the time being with the 
statement that there is a contradiction in the dream and that a 
very important minority has left the stage under vivid protest 
and pays no more attention to the proceedings. 

5 We gather, then, from the dream that the unconscious func 
tioning of the dreamer's mind has produced a pretty flat com 
promise between Catholicism and pagan joie de vivre. The 
product of the unconscious is manifestly not expressing a fixed 
point of view or a definite opinion, rather it is a dramatic exposi 
tion of an act of reflection. It could be formulated perhaps as 
follows: "Now what about this religious business? You are a 
Catholic, are you not? Is that not good enough? But asceticism- 
well, well, even the church has to adapt a little movies, radio, 
spiritual five o'clock tea and all that why not some ecclesiastical 
wine and gay acquaintances?" But for some secret reason this 
awkward mystery woman, well known from many former 
dreams, seems to be deeply disappointed and quits. 

51 I must confess that I find myself in sympathy with the anima. 
Obviously the compromise is too cheap and too superficial, but 
it is characteristic of the dreamer as well as of many other people 
to whom religion does not matter very much. Religion was of 
no concern to my patient and he certainly never expected that 
it would concern him in any way. But he had come to me be 
cause of a very alarming experience. Being highly rationalistic 
and intellectual he had found that his attitude of mind and his 
philosophy forsook him completely in the face of his neurosis 
and its demoralizing forces. He found nothing in his whole 

24 Anima and animus do not only occur in negative form. They may sometimes 
appear as a source of enlightenment, as messengers (ayyeXoi), and as mystagogues. 
[Cf. Jung, Aion (Coll. Works, Vol. 9, pt. n), p. 16; "Psychology of the Transfer 
ence," par. 504. EDITORS.] 

3 1 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Weltanschauung that would help him to gain sufficient control 
of himself. He was therefore very much in the situation of a 
man deserted by his hitherto cherished convictions and ideals. 
It is by no means extraordinary that under such conditions a 
man should return to the religion of his childhood in the hope 
of finding something helpful there. It was, however, not a con 
scious attempt or decision to revivify his earlier religious beliefs. 
He merely dreamed it; that is, his unconscious produced a pe 
culiar statement about his religion. It is just as if the spirit and 
the flesh, the eternal enemies in a Christian consciousness, had 
made peace with each other in the form of a curious mitigation 
of their contradictory nature. Spirituality and worldliness come 
together in unexpected amity. The effect is slightly grotesque 
and comical. The inexorable severity of the spirit seems to be 
undermined by an almost antique gaiety perfumed with wine 
and roses. At all events the dream describes a spiritual and 
worldly atmosphere that dulls the sharpness of a moial conflict 
and swallows up in oblivion all mental pain and distress. 

52 If this was a wish-fulfilment it was surely a conscious one, 
for it was precisely what the patient had already done to excess. 
And he was not unconscious of this either, since wine was one 
of his most dangerous enemies. The dream, on the other hand, 
is an impartial statement of the patient's spiritual condition. It 
gives a picture of a degenerate religion corrupted by worldliness 
and mob instincts. There is religious sentimentality instead of 
the numinosum of divine experience. This is the well-known 
characteristic of a religion that has lost its living mystery. It is 
readily understandable that such a religion is incapable of giv 
ing help or of having any other moral effect. 

53 The over-all aspect of the dream is definitely unfavourable, 
although certain other aspects of a more positive nature are 
dimly visible. It rarely happens that dreams are either exclu 
sively positive or exclusively negative. As a rule one finds both 
aspects, but usually one is stronger than the other. It is obvious 
that such a dream provides the psychologist with enough ma 
terial to raise the problem of a religious attitude. If our dream 
were the only one we possess we could hardly hope to unlock 
its innermost meaning, but we have quite a number of dreams 
in our series which point to a remarkable religious problem. I 
never, if I can help it, interpret one dream by itself. As a rule a 

32 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



dream belongs in a series. Since there is a continuity of con 
sciousness despite the fact that it is regularly interrupted by 
sleep, there is probably also a continuity of unconscious proc 
essesperhaps even more than with the events of consciousness. 
In any case my experience is in favour of the probability that 
dreams are the visible links in a chain of unconscious events. 
If we want to shed any light on the deeper reasons for the dream, 
we must go back to the series and find out where it is located in 
the long chain of four hundred dreams. 

54 We find our dream wedged in between two important 
dreams of an uncanny quality. The dream before reports that 
there is a gathering of many people and that a peculiar ceremony 
is taking place, apparently of magical character, for the purpose 
of "reconstructing the gibbon." The dream after is concerned 
with a similar theme the magical transformation of animals 
into human beings. 25 

55 Both dreams are intensely disagreeable and very alarming 
to the patient. Whereas the church dream manifestly moves on 
the surface and expresses opinions which in other circumstances 
could just as well have been thought consciously, these two 
dreams are strange and remote in character and their emotional 
effect is such that the dreamer would avoid them if possible. As 
a matter of fact, the text of the second dream says: "If one runs 
away, all is lost." Curiously enough, this remark coincides with 
that of the unknown woman: "Then there's nothing left." The 
inference to be drawn from these remarks is that the church 
dream was an attempt to escape from other dream ideas of a 
much deeper significance. These ideas appear in the dreams 
occurring immediately before and after it. 

25 [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 1642., iSgff. EDITORS.] 



33 



2. DOGMA AND NATURAL SYMBOLS 



5 6 The first of these dreams the one preceding the church 
dreamspeaks of a ceremony whereby an ape is to be recon 
structed. To explain this point sufficiently would require too 
many details. I must, therefore, restrict myself to the mere 
statement that the "ape" refers to the dreamer's instinctual per 
sonality, 1 which he had completely neglected in favour of an 
exclusively intellectual attitude. The result had been that his 
instincts got the better of him and attacked him at times in the 
form of uncontrollable outbursts. The "reconstruction" of the 
ape means the rebuilding of the instinctual personality within 
the framework of the hierarchy of consciousness. Such a recon 
struction is only possible if accompanied by important changes 
in the conscious attitude. The patient was naturally afraid of 
the tendencies of the unconscious, because hitherto they had 
revealed themselves to him in their most unfavourable form. 
The church dream that followed represents an attempt to seek 
refuge from this fear in the shelter of a church religion. The 
third dream, in speaking of the "transformation of animals into 
human beings," obviously continues the theme of the first one; 
that is, the ape is reconstructed solely for the purpose of being 
transformed later into a human being. In other words, the pa- 

i [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 175. EDITORS.] 

34 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tient has to undergo an important change through the reintegra- 
tion of his hitherto split-off instinctuality, and is thus to be 
made over into a new man. The modern mind has forgotten 
those old truths that speak of the death of the old man and the 
making of a new one, of spiritual rebirth and such-like old- 
fashioned "mystical absurdities." My patient, being a scientist 
of today, was more than once seized by panic when he realized 
how much he was gripped by such thoughts. He was afraid he 
was going mad, whereas the man of two thousand years ago 
would have welcomed such dreams and rejoiced in the hope of 
a magical rebirth and renewal of life. But our modern attitude 
looks back arrogantly upon the mists of superstition and of 
medieval or primitive credulity, entirely forgetting that we 
carry the whole living past in the lower storeys of the skyscraper 
of rational consciousness. Without the lower storeys our mind 
is suspended in mid air. No wonder it gets nervous. The true 
history of the mind is not preserved in learned volumes but in 
the living psychic organism of every individual. 

57 I must admit, however, that the idea of renewal took on 
shapes that could easily shock a modern mind. It is indeed diffi 
cult, if not impossible, to connect "rebirth," as we understand 
it, with the way it is depicted in the dreams. But before we 
discuss the strange and unexpected transformation there hinted 
at, we should turn our attention to the other manifestly religious 
dream to which I alluded before. 

5 8 While the church dream comes relatively early in the long 
series, the following dream belongs to the later stages of the 
process. 2 This is the literal text: 

/ come to a strange., solemn house the "House of the Gather 
ing." 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 house, "When they come out again they are cleansed'* 

1 go into the house myself and find I can concentrate perfectly. 
Then a voice says: "What you are doing is dangerous. Religion is 
not a tax to be paid so that you can rid yourself of the woman's 

2 [Cf. ibid., par. 293. EDITORS.] 

35 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



image, for this image cannot be got rid of. Woe unto them who 
use religion as a substitute for the other 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 
completion. 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 house I see a burning mountain and 
I feel: "The fire that is not put out is a holy fire" (Shaw, Saint 
Joan). 

59 The patient was deeply impressed by this dream. It was a 
solemn and powerful experience for him, one of several which 
produced a far-reaching change in his attitude to life and 
humanity. 

60 It is not difficult to see that this dream forms a parallel to 
the church dream. Only this time the church has become a 
house of solemnity and self-collection. There are no indications 
of ceremonies or of any other known attributes of the Catholic 
Church, with the sole exception of the burning candles, which 
are arranged in a symbolic form probably derived from the 
Catholic cult. 3 They form four pyramids or points, which per 
haps anticipate the final vision of the flaming mountain. The 
appearance of the number four is, however, a regular feature in 
the patient's dreams and plays a very important role. The holy 
fire refers to Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, as the dreamer himself 
observes. The unquenchable fire, on the other hand, is a well- 
known attribute of the Deity, not only in the Old Testament, 
but also as an allegoria Christi in an uncanonical logion cited 
in Origen's Homilies: 4 "Ait ipse salvator: qui iuxta me est, 
iuxta ignem est, qui longe est a me, longe est a regno" (the 
Saviour himself says: Whoever is near to me is near to the fire; 
whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom). Since the time 
of Heraclitus life has been conceived as a TTVP ad $&v, an ever- 

3 A bishop is allowed four candles for a private mass. Some of the more solemn 
forms of the Mass, such as the Missa cantata, also have four. Still higher forms 
have six or seven. 

4 Origen, In Jeremiam homiliae, XX, 3, in Migne, P.G., vol. 13, col. 532. Also in 
James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 35. 

36 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



living fire; and as Christ calls himself "The Life," the un- 
canonical saying is quite understandable. The fire signifying 
"life" fits into the frame of the dream, for it emphasizes that 
"fulness of life" is the only legitimate source of religion. Thus 
the four fiery points function almost as an icon denoting the 
presence of the Deity or an equivalent being. In the system of 
Barbelo-Gnosis, four lights surround the Autogenes (the Self- 
Born, or Uncreated). 5 This strange figure may correspond to 
the Monogenes of Coptic Gnosis, mentioned in the Codex 
Brucianus. There too the Monogenes is characterized as a qua- 
ternity symbol. 

61 As I said before, the number four plays an important role 
in these dreams, always alluding to an idea akin to the Pytha 
gorean tetraktys. 6 

62 The quaternarium or quaternity has a long history. It ap 
pears not only in Christian iconology and mystical speculation 7 
but plays perhaps a still greater role in Gnostic philosophy 8 

5 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, trans, by Keble, p. 81. 

6 Cf. Zeller, Die Philosophic der Griechen, where all the sources are collected. 
"Four is the origin and root of eternal nature" (I, p. 291). Plato derives the human 
body from the four. According to the Neoplatonists, Pythagoras himself called 
the soul a square (Zeller, III, n, p. 120). 

7 The "four" in Christian iconography appears chiefly in the form of the four 
evangelists and their symbols, arranged in a rose, circle, or melothesia, or as a 
tetramorph, as for instance in the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg and 
in works of mystical speculation. Of these I mention only: (i) Jakob Bohme, XL 
Questions concerning the Soule (1647). ( 2 ) Hildegard of Bingen, Codex Luccensis, 
fol. 372, and Codex Heidelbergensis, "Scivias," representations of the mystic uni 
verse; cf . Singer, Studies in the History and Method of Science. (3) The remarkable 
drawings of Opicinus de Canistris in the Codex Palatinus Latinus 1993, Vatican; 
cf. Salomon, Weltbild und Bekenntnisse eines avignonesischen Klerikers des 14. 
Jahrhunderts. (4) Heinrich Khunrath, Vom hylealischen, das ist f pri-materialischen 
catholischen, oder algemeinen naturlichen Chaos (1597), pp. 204 and 281, where 
he says the "Monas catholica" arises from the rotation of the "Quaternarium" 
and interprets it as an image and allegory of Christ (further material in Khun- 
rath, Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, 1604). (5) The speculations about the 
cross: "It is said . . . that the cross was made of four kinds of wood," St. Bernard, 
Vitis mystica, cap. XLVI, in Migne, PJL., vol. 184, col. 752; cf. W. Meyer, Die 
Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus t p. 7. For the quaternity see also Dunbar, 
Symbolism in Mediaeval Thought and Its Consummation in the Divine Comedy. 

8 Cf. the systems of Isidorus, Valentinus, Marcus, and Secundus. A most instruc 
tive example is the symbolism of the Monogenes in the Codex Brucianus 
(Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Bruce 96), trans, by C. A. Baynes, A Coptic 
Gnostic Treatise f pp. 59*?., 7off. [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy t pars. 

37 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



and from then on down through the Middle Ages until well 
into the eighteenth century. 9 

6 3 In the dream under discussion, the quaternity appears as 
the most significant exponent of the religious cult created by 
the unconscious. 10 The dreamer enters the "House of the Gath 
ering" alone, instead of with a friend as in the church dream. 
Here he meets an old man, who had already appeared in an 
earlier dream as the sage who had pointed to a particular 
spot on the earth where the dreamer belonged. The old man 
explains the character of the cult as a purification ritual. It is 
not clear from the dream-text what kind of purification is meant, 
or from what it should purify. The only ritual that actually takes 
place seems to be a concentration or meditation, leading up to 
the ecstatic phenomenon of the voice. The voice is a frequent 
occurrence in this dream-series. It always utters an authoritative 
declaration or command, either of astonishing common sense 
or of profound philosophic import. It is nearly always a final 
statement, usually coming toward the end of a dream, and it is, 
as a rule, so clear and convincing that the dreamer finds no 
argument against it. It has, indeed, so much the character of 
indisputable truth that it can hardly be understood as anything 
except a final and trenchant summing up of a long process of 
unconscious deliberation and weighing of arguments. Fre- 

^ I am thinking of the mystical speculations about the four "roots'* (the rhizomata 
of Empedocles), i.e., the four elements or four qualities (wet, dry, warm, cold), 
peculiar to Hermetic or alchemical philosophy. Descriptions in Petrus Bonus, 
Pretiosa margarita novella (1546); Joannes Pantheus, Ars transmutationis metal- 
licae (1519), p. 5, based on a quaternatio; Raymond Lully, "Theorica et practica" 
(Theatrum chemicum, IV, 1613, p. 174), a quaternatio elementorum and of chem 
ical processes; Michael Maier, Scrutinium chymicum (1687), symbols of the four 
elements. The last-named author wrote an interesting treatise called De circulo 
physico quadrato (1616). There is much the same symbolism in Mylius, Philoso- 
phia reformata (1622). Pictures of the Hermetic redemption in the form of a 
tetrad with symbols of the four evangelists (from Reusner's Pandora and the 
Codex Germanicus Monacensis 598) are reproduced in Psychology and Alchemy, 
figs. 231 and 232; quaternity symbolism, ibid., par. 327. Further material in 
Kuekelhaus, Urzahl und Gebarde. Eastern parallels in Zimmer, Kunstform und 
Yoga im indischen Kultbild; Wilhelm and Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower. 
The literature on the symbolism of the cross is also relevant here. 
10 This sentence may sound presumptuous, for I seem to be forgetting that we 
are concerned here with a single and unique dream from which no far-reaching 
conclusions can be drawn. My conclusions, however, are based not on this dream 
alone but on many similar experiences to which I have alluded elsewhere, 

38 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



quently the voice issues from an authoritative figure, such as a 
military commander, or the captain of a ship, or an old physi 
cian. Sometimes, as in this case, there is simply a voice coming 
apparently from nowhere. It was interesting to see how this 
very intellectual and sceptical man accepted the voice; often it 
did not suit him at all, yet he accepted it unquestioningly, even 
humbly. Thus the voice revealed itself, in the course of several 
hundred carefully recorded dreams, as an important and even 
decisive spokesman of the unconscious. Since this patient is by 
no means the only one I have observed who exhibited the phe 
nomenon of the voice in dreams and in other peculiar states of 
consciousness, I am forced to admit that the unconscious is capa 
ble at times of manifesting an intelligence and purposiveness 
superior to the actual conscious insight. There can be no doubt 
that this is a basic religious phenomenon, observed here in a 
person whose conscious mental attitude certainly seemed most 
unlikely to produce religious phenomena. I have not infre 
quently made similar observations in other cases and I must 
confess that I am unable to formulate the facts in any other way. 
I have often met with the objection that the thoughts which the 
voice represents are no more than the thoughts of the individual 
himself. That may be; but I would call a thought my own only 
when / have thought it, just as I would call money my own only 
when I have earned or acquired it in a conscious and legitimate 
manner. If somebody gives me the money as a present, then I 
shall certainly not say to my benefactor, "Thank you for my 
money/ 1 although to a third person I might say afterwards: 
"This is my own money/' With the voice I am in a similar situa 
tion. The voice gives me certain contents, exactly as if a friend 
were informing me of his ideas. It would be neither decent nor 
truthful to suggest that what he says are my own ideas. 

This is the reason why I differentiate between what I have 
produced or acquired by my own conscious effort and what is 
clearly and unmistakably a product of the unconscious. Someone 
may object that the so-called unconscious mind is merely my 
own mind and that, therefore, such a differentiation is super 
fluous. But I am not at all convinced that the unconscious mind 
is merely my mind, because the term "unconscious" means that 
I am not even conscious of it. As a matter of fact, the concept 
of the unconscious is an assumption for the sake of convenience. 

39 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



In reality I am totally unconscious of or, in other words, I 
do not know at all where the voice comes from. Not only am I 
incapable of producing the phenomenon at will, I am unable to 
anticipate what the voice will say. Under such conditions it 
would be presumptuous to refer to the factor that produces the 
voice as my unconscious or my mind. This would not be ac 
curate, to say the least. The fact that you perceive the voice in 
your dream proves nothing at all, for you can also hear the 
noises in the street, which you would never think of calling 
your own. 

65 There is only one condition under which you might legiti 
mately call the voice your own, and that is when you assume 
your conscious personality to be a part of a whole or to be a 
smaller circle contained in a bigger one. A little bank-clerk, 
showing a friend around town, who points to the bank building 
with the words, "And this is my bank," is making use of the 
same privilege. 

66 We may suppose that human personality consists of two 
things: first, consciousness and whatever this covers, and second, 
an indefinitely large hinterland of unconscious psyche. So far as 
the former is concerned, it can be more or less clearly defined 
and delimited; but as for the sum total of human personality, 
one has to admit the impossibility of a complete description or 
definition. In other words, there is bound to be an illimitable 
and indefinable addition to every personality, because the latter 
consists of a conscious and observable part which does not con 
tain certain factors whose existence, however, we are forced to 
assume in order to explain certain observable facts. The un 
known factors form what we call the unconscious part of the 
personality. 

67 Of what those factors consist we have no idea, since we can 
observe only their effects. We may assume that they are of a 
psychic nature comparable to that of conscious contents, yet 
there is no certainty about this. But if we suppose such a likeness 
we can hardly refrain from going further. Since psychic con 
tents are conscious and perceivable only when they are asso 
ciated with an ego, the phenomenon of the voice, having a 
strongly personal character, may also issue from a centre but a 
centre which is not identical with the conscious ego. Such reason 
ing is permissible if we conceive of the ego as being subordi- 

40 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



nated to, or contained in, a supraordinate self as centre of the 
total, illimitable, and indefinable psychic personality. 

68 I do not enjoy philosophical arguments that amuse by their 
own complications. Although my argument may seem abstruse, 
it is at least an honest attempt to formulate the observed facts. 
To put it simply one could say: Since we do not know every 
thing, practically every experience, fact, or object contains 
something unknown. Hence, if we speak of the totality of an 
experience, the word "totality" can refer only to the conscious 
part of it. As we cannot assume that our experience covers the 
totality of the object, it is clear that its absolute totality must 
necessarily contain the part that has not been experienced. The 
same holds true, as I have mentioned, of every experience and 
also of the psyche, whose absolute totality covers a greater area 
than consciousness. In other words, the psyche is no exception to 
the general rule that the universe can be established only so far 
as our psychic organism permits. 

69 My psychological experience has shown time and again that 
certain contents issue from a psyche that is more complete than 
consciousness. They often contain a superior analysis or insight 
or knowledge which consciousness has not been able to produce. 
We have a suitable word for such occurrences intuition. In 
uttering this word most people have an agreeable feeling, as if 
something had been settled. But they never consider that you 
do not make an intuition. On the contrary, it always comes to 
you; you have a hunch, it has come of itself, and you only catch 
it if you are clever or quick enough. 

7 Consequently, I explain the voice, in the dream of the sacred 
house, as a product of the more complete personality of which 
the dreamer's conscious self is a part, and I hold that this is the 
reason why the voice shows an intelligence and a clarity superior 
to the dreamer's actual consciousness. This superiority is the 
reason for the absolute authority of the voice. 

7* The message of the voice contains a strange criticism of the 
dreamer's attitude. In the church dream, he made an attempt 
to reconcile the two sides of life by a kind of cheap compromise. 
As we know, the unknown woman, the anima, disagreed and left 
the scene. In the present dream the voice seems to have taken 
the place of the anima, making not a merely emotional protest 
but a masterful statement on two kinds of religion. According 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



to this statement, the dreamer is inclined to use religion as 
a substitute for the "woman's image," as the text says. The 
"woman" refers to the anima. This is borne out by the next 
sentence, which speaks of religion being used as a substitute for 
"the other side of the soul's life." The anima is the "other side," 
as I explained before. She is the representative of the female 
minority hidden below the threshold of consciousness, that is to 
say, in the unconscious. The criticism, therefore, would read as 
follows: "You try religion in order to escape from your uncon 
scious. You use it as a substitute for a part of your soul's life. 
But religion is the fruit and culmination of the completeness of 
life, that is, of a life which contains both sides." 

72 Careful comparison with other dreams of the same series 
shows unmistakably what the "other side" is. The patient always 
tried to evade his emotional needs. As a matter of fact he was 
afraid they might get him into trouble, for instance into mar 
riage, and into other responsibilities such as love, devotion, 
loyalty, trust, emotional dependence, and general submission to 
the soul's needs. All this had nothing to do with science or an 
academic career; moreover, the word "soul" was nothing but 
an intellectual obscenity, not fit to be touched with a barge pole. 

73 The "mystery" of the anima is the mysterious allusion to 
religion. This was a great puzzle to my patient, who naturally 
enough knew nothing of religion except as a creed. He also 
knew that religion can be a substitute for certain awkward emo 
tional demands which one might circumvent by going to church. 
The prejudices of our age are visibly reflected in the dreamer's 
apprehensions. The voice, on the other hand, is unorthodox, 
indeed shockingly unconventional: it takes religion seriously, 
puts it on the very apex of life, a life containing "both sides," 
and thus upsets his most cherished intellectual and rationalistic 

. prejudices. This was such a revolution that my patient was often 
afraid he would go crazy. Well, I should say that we knowing 
the average intellectual of today and yesterday can easily sym 
pathize with his predicament. To take the "woman's image" 
in other words, the unconscious seriously into account, what a 
blow to enlightened common sense! n 

II Cf. the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). This book is supposed to have been 
written by a monk of the i5th century. It is an excellent example of an anima- 
romance. [Fierz-David's study The Dream of Poliphilo treats it as such. EDITORS.] 

42 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



74 I began his personal treatment only after he had observed 
the first series of about three hundred and fifty dreams. Then I 
got the whole backwash of his upsetting experiences. No won 
der he wanted to run away from his adventure 1 But, fortunately, 
the man had religio, that is, he "carefully took account of" his 
experience and he had enough moris, or loyalty to his experi 
ence, to enable him to hang on to it and continue it. He had the 
great advantage of being neurotic and so, whenever he tried to 
be disloyal to his experience or to deny the voice, the neurotic 
condition instantly came back. He simply could not "quench 
the fire" and finally he had to admit the incomprehensibly 
numinous character of his experience. He had to confess that the 
unquenchable fire was "holy." This was the sine qua non of 
his cure. 

75 One might, perhaps, consider this case an exception inasmuch 
as fairly complete human beings are exceptions. It is true that 
an overwhelming majority of educated people are fragmentary 
personalities and have a lot of substitutes instead of the genuine 
goods. But being like that meant a neurosis for this man, and it 
means the same for a great many other people too. What is ordi 
narily called "religion" is a substitute to such an amazing degree 
that I ask myself seriously whether this kind of "religion," 
which I prefer to call a creed, may not after all have an impor 
tant function in human society. The substitute has the obvious 
purpose of replacing immediate experience by a choice of suit 
able symbols tricked out with an organized dogma and ritual. 
The Catholic Church maintains them by her indisputable 
authority, the Protestant "church" (if this term is still applica 
ble) by insistence on belief in the evangelical message. So long 
as these two principles work, people are effectively protected 
against immediate religious experience. 12 Even if something of 
the sort should happen to them, they can refer to the Church, 
for she would know whether the experience came from God 
or from the devil, and whether it is to be accepted or rejected. 

7 6 In my profession I have encountered many people who have 
had immediate experience and who would not and could not 
submit to the authority of ecclesiastical decision. I had to go 

12 Ecclesiastical vestments are not for adornment only, they also serve to protect 
the officiating priest. "Fear of God" is no groundless metaphor, for at the back of 
it there is a very real phenomenology. Cf. Exodus 20: i8f. 

43 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



with them through the crises of passionate conflicts, through the 

panics of madness, through desperate confusions and depressions 

which were grotesque and terrible at the same time, so that I 

am fully aware of the extraordinary importance of dogma and 

ritual, at least as methods of mental hygiene. If the patient is a 

practising Catholic, I invariably advise him to confess and to 

receive communion in order to protect himself from immediate 

experience, which might easily prove too much for him. With 

Protestants it is usually not so easy, because dogma and ritual 

have become so pale and faint that they have lost their efficacy to 

a very great extent. There is also, as a rule, no confession, and 

the clergy share the common dislike of psychological problems 

and also, unfortunately, the common ignorance of psychology. 

The Catholic "director of conscience" often has infinitely more 

psychological skill and insight. Protestant parsons, moreover, 

have gone through a scientific training at a theological faculty 

which, with its critical spirit, undermines naivete of faith, 

whereas the powerful historical tradition in a Catholic priest's 

training is apt to strengthen the authority of the institution. 

77 As a doctor I might, of course, espouse a so-called "scientific" 
creed, holding that the contents of a neurosis are nothing but 
repressed infantile sexuality or will to power. By thus depreci 
ating these contents, it would be possible, up to a point, to 
shield a number of patients from the risk of immediate experi 
ence. But I know that this theory is only partially true, which 
means that it formulates only certain aspects of the neurotic 
psyche. And I cannot tell my patients what I myself do not fully 
believe. 

78 Now people may ask me: "But if you tell your practising 
Catholic to go to the priest and confess, you are telling him 
something you do not believe" that is, assuming that I am a 
Protestant. 

79 In order to answer this critical question I must first of all 
explain that, if I can help it, I never preach my belief. If asked 
I shall certainly stand by my convictions, but these do not go 
beyond what I consider to be my actual knowledge. I believe 
only what I know. Everything else is hypothesis and beyond that 
I can leave a lot of things to the Unknown. They do not bother 
me. But they would begin to bother me, I am sure, if I felt that 
I ought to know about them. If, therefore, a patient is convinced 

44 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



of the exclusively sexual origin of his neurosis, I would not dis 
turb him in his opinion because I know that such a conviction, 
particularly if it is deeply rooted, is an excellent defence against 
an onslaught of immediate experience with its terrible am 
biguity. So long as such a defence works I shall not break it 
down, since I know that there must be cogent reasons why the 
patient has to think in such a narrow circle. But if his dreams 
should begin to destroy the protective theory, I have to support 
the wider personality, as I have done in the case of the dream 
described. In the same way and for the same reason I support 
the hypothesis of the practising Catholic while it works for him. 
In either case, I reinforce a means of defence against a grave 
risk, without asking the academic question whether the defence 
is an ultimate truth. I am glad when it works and so long as 
it works. 

80 With our patient, the Catholic defence had broken down 
long before I ever touched the case. He would have laughed at 
me if I had advised him to confess or anything of that sort, just 
as he laughed at the sexual theory, which he had no use for 
either. But I always let him see that I was entirely on the side of 
the voice, which I recognized as part of his future greater per 
sonality, destined to relieve him of his one-sidedness. 

81 For a certain type of intellectual mediocrity characterized by 
enlightened rationalism, a scientific theory that simplifies mat 
ters is a very good means of defence because of the tremendous 
faith modern man has in anything which bears the label "scien 
tific." Such a label sets your mind at rest immediately, almost 
as well as Roma locuta causa finita: "Rome has spoken, the 
matter is settled." In itself any scientific theory, no matter how 
subtle, has, I think, less value from the standpoint of psycho 
logical truth than religious dogma, for the simple reason that a 
theory is necessarily highly abstract and exclusively rational, 
whereas dogma expresses an irrational whole by means of im 
agery. This guarantees a far better rendering of an irrational 
fact like the psyche. Moreover, dogma owes its continued exist 
ence and its form on the one hand to so-called "revealed" or 
immediate experiences of the "Gnosis" 13 for instance, the God- 
man, the Cross, the Virgin Birth, the Immaculate Conception, 

13 Gnosis, as a special kind of knowledge, should not be confused with "Gnosti 
cism." 

45 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the Trinity, and so on, and on the other hand to the ceaseless 
collaboration of many minds over many centuries. It may not 
be quite clear why I call certain dogmas "immediate experi 
ences/' since in itself a dogma is the very thing that precludes 
immediate experience. Yet the Christian images I have men 
tioned are not peculiar to Christianity alone (although in Chris 
tianity they have undergone a development and intensification 
of meaning not to be found in any other religion). They occur 
just as often in pagan religions, and besides that they can reap 
pear spontaneously in all sorts of variations as psychic phenom 
ena, just as in the remote past they originated in visions, dreams, 
or trances. Ideas like these are never invented. They came into 
being before man had learned to use his mind purposively. Be 
fore man learned to produce thoughts, thoughts came to him. 
He did not thinkhe perceived his mind functioning. Dogma 
is like a dream, reflecting the spontaneous and autonomous ac 
tivity of the objective psyche, the unconscious. Such an expres 
sion of the unconscious is a much more efficient means of defence 
against further immediate experiences than any scientific theory. 
The theory has to disregard the emotional values of the experi 
ence. The dogma, on the other hand, is extremely eloquent in 
just this respect. One scientific theory is soon superseded by 
another. Dogma lasts for untold centuries. The suffering God- 
Man may be at least five thousand years old and the Trinity is 
probably even older. 

82 Dogma expresses the psyche more completely than a scien 
tific theory, for the latter gives expression to and formulates the 
conscious mind alone. Furthermore, a theory can do nothing 
except formulate a living thing in abstract terms. Dogma, on the 
contrary, aptly expresses the living process of the unconscious 
in the form of the drama of repentance, sacrifice, and redemp 
tion. It is rather astonishing, from this point of view, that the 
Protestant schism could not have been avoided. But since 
Protestantism became the creed of the adventurous Germanic 
tribes with their characteristic curiosity, acquisitiveness, and 
recklessness, it seems possible that their peculiar nature was un 
able to endure the peace of the Church, at least not for any 
length of time. It looks as if they were not yet advanced enough 
to suffer a process of salvation and to submit to a deity who 
was made visible in the magnificent structure of the Church. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



There was, perhaps, too much of the Imperium Romanum or 
of the Pax Romana in the Church too much, at least, for their 
energies, which were and still are insufficiently domesticated. 
It is quite likely that they needed an unmitigated and less con 
trolled experience of God, as often happens to adventurous and 
restless people who are too youthful for any form of conserva 
tism or domestication. They therefore did away with the inter 
cession of the Church between God and man, some more and 
some less. With the demolition of protective walls, the Protes 
tant lost the sacred images that expressed important unconscious 
factors, together with the ritual which, from time immemorial, 
has been a safe way of dealing with the unpredictable forces of 
the unconscious. A vast amount of energy was thus liberated and 
instantly went into the old channels of curiosity and acquisitive 
ness. In this way Europe became the mother of dragons that 
devoured the greater part of the earth. 

83 Since those days Protestantism has become a hotbed of 
schisms and, at the same time, of rapid advances in science and 
technics which cast such a spell over man's conscious mind that 
it forgot the unpredictable forces of the unconscious. The catas 
trophe of the first World War and the extraordinary manifesta 
tions of profound spiritual malaise that came afterwards were 
needed to arouse a doubt as to whether all was well with the 
white man's mind. Before the war broke out in 1914 we were 
all quite certain that the world could be righted by rational 
means. Now we behold the amazing spectacle of states taking 
over the age-old totalitarian claims of theocracy, which are in 
evitably accompanied by suppression of free opinion. Once more 
we see people cutting each other's throats in support of childish 
theories of how to create paradise on earth. It is not very diffi 
cult to see that the powers of the underworld not to say of hell 
which in former times were more or less successfully chained up 
in a gigantic spiritual edifice where they could be of some use, 
are now creating, or trying to create, a State slavery and a State 
prison devoid of any mental or spiritual charm. There are not a 
few people nowadays who are convinced that mere human rea 
son is not entirely up to the enormous task of putting a lid on 
the volcano. 

84 This whole development is fate. I would not lay the blame 
either on Protestantism or on the Renaissance. But one thing is 

47 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION t WEST 



certainthat modern man, Protestant or otherwise, has lost the 
protection of the ecclesiastical walls erected and reinforced so 
carefully since Roman days, and because of this loss has ap 
proached the zone of world-destroying and world-creating fire. 
Life has become quickened and intensified. Our world is shot 
through with waves of uneasiness and fear. 

8 5 Protestantism was, and still is, a great risk and at the same 
time a great opportunity. If it goes on disintegrating as a church, 
it must have the effect of stripping man of all his spiritual safe 
guards and means of defence against immediate experience of 
the forces waiting for liberation in the unconscious. Look at all 
the incredible savagery going on in our so-called civilized world: 
it all comes from human beings and the spiritual condition they 
are in! Look at the devilish engines of destruction! They are 
invented by completely innocuous gentlemen, reasonable, re 
spectable citizens who are everything we could wish. And when 
the whole thing blows up and an indescribable hell of destruc 
tion is let loose, nobody seems to be responsible. It simply hap 
pens, and yet it is all man-made. But since everybody is blindly 
convinced that he is nothing more than his own extremely un 
assuming and insignificant conscious self, which performs its 
duties decently and earns a moderate living, nobody is aware 
that this whole rationalistically organized conglomeration we 
call a state or a nation is driven on by a seemingly impersonal, 
invisible but terrifying power which nobody and nothing can 
check. This ghastly power is mostly explained as fear of the 
neighbouring nation, which is supposed to be possessed by a 
malevolent fiend. Since nobody is capable of recognizing just 
where and how much he himself is possessed and unconscious, 
he simply projects his own condition upon his neighbour, and 
thus it becomes a sacred duty to have the biggest guns and the 
most poisonous gas. The worst of it is that he is quite right. All 
one's neighbours are in the grip of some uncontrolled and un 
controllable fear, just like oneself. In lunatic asylums it is a well- 
known fact that patients are far more dangerous when suffering 
from fear than when moved by rage or hatred. 

86 The Protestant is left to God alone. For him there is no con~ 
fession, no absolution, no possibility of an expiatory opus 
divinum of any kind. He has to digest his sins by himself; and, 
because the absence of a suitable ritual has put it beyond his 

48 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



reach, he is none too sure of divine grace. Hence the present 
alertness of the Protestant conscience and this bad conscience 
has all the disagreeable characteristics of a lingering illness 
which makes people chronically uncomfortable. But, for this 
very reason, the Protestant has a unique chance to make himself 
conscious of sin to a degree that is hardly possible for a Catholic 
mentality, as confession and absolution are always at hand to 
ease excess of tension. The Protestant, however, is left to his 
tensions, which can go on sharpening his conscience. Con 
science, and particularly a bad conscience, can be a gift from 
heaven, a veritable grace if used in the interests of the higher 
self-criticism. And self-criticism, in the sense of an introspective, 
discriminating activity, is indispensable in any attempt to under 
stand your own psychology. If you have done something that 
puzzles you and you ask yourself what could have prompted you 
to such an action, you need the sting of a bad conscience and its 
discriminating faculty in order to discover the real motive of 
your behaviour. It is only then that you can see what motives are 
governing your actions. The sting of a bad conscience even 
spurs you on to discover things that were unconscious before, 
and in this way you may be able to cross the threshold of the 
unconscious and take cognizance of those impersonal forces 
which make you an unconscious instrument of the wholesale 
murderer in man. If a Protestant survives the complete loss of 
his church and still remains a Protestant, that is to say a man 
who is defenceless against God and no longer shielded by walls 
or communities, he has a unique spiritual opportunity for 
immediate religious experience. 

8 7 I do not know whether I have succeeded in conveying what 
the experience of the unconscious meant to my patient. There 
is, however, no objective criterion by which such an experience 
can be valued. We have to take it for what it is worth to the per 
son who has the experience. Thus you may be impressed by the 
fact that the apparent futility of certain dreams should mean 
something to an intelligent person. But if you cannot accept 
what he says, or if you cannot put yourself in his place, you 
should not judge his case. The genius religiosus is a wind that 
bloweth where it listeth. There is no Archimedean point from 
which to judge, since the psyche is indistinguishable from its 
manifestations. The psyche is the object of psychology, and 

49 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



fatally enough also its subject. There is no getting away from 
this fact. 

88 The few dreams I have chosen as examples of what I call 
"immediate experience" certainly look very insignificant to the 
unpractised eye. They are not spectacular, and are only modest 
witnesses to an individual experience. They would cut a better 
figure if I could present them in their sequence, together with 
the wealth of symbolic material that was brought up in the 
course of the entire process. But even the sum total of the dreams 
in the series could not compare in beauty and expressiveness 
with any part of a traditional religion. A dogma is always the 
result and fruit of many minds and many centuries, purified of 
all the oddities, shortcomings, and flaws of individual experi 
ence. But for all that, the individual experience, by its very pov 
erty, is immediate life, the warm red blood pulsating today. It is 
more convincing to a seeker after truth than the best tradition. 
Immediate life is always individual since the carrier of life is 
the individual, and whatever emanates from the individual is in 
a way unique, and hence transitory and imperfect, particularly 
when it comes to spontaneous psychic products such as dreams 
and the like. No one else will have the same dreams, although 
many have the same problem. But just as no individual is differ 
entiated to the point of absolute uniqueness, so there are no in 
dividual products of absolutely unique quality. Even dreams are 
made of collective material to a very high degree, just as, in the 
mythology and folklore of different peoples, certain motifs re 
peat themselves in almost identical form. I have called these 
motifs "archetypes," 14 and by this I mean forms or images of a 
collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as 
constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous, 
individual products of unconscious origin. The archetypal mo 
tifs presumably derive from patterns of the human mind that 
are transmitted not only by tradition and migration but also by 
heredity. The latter hypothesis is indispensable, since even 
complicated archetypal images can be reproduced spontane 
ously without there being any possibility of direct tradition. 
89 The theory of preconscious primordial ideas is by no means 
my own invention, as the term "archetype," which stems from 

i* Cf. Psychological Types, Def . 26. [Also "On the Nature of the Psyche," Coll. 
Works, Vol. 8, pp. 21 sff. -EDITORS.] 

50 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



the first centuries of our era, proves. 15 With special reference to 
psychology we find this theory in the works o Adolf Bastian 16 
and then again in Nietzsche. 17 In French literature Hubert and 
Mauss, 18 and also Levy-Bruhl, 19 mention similar ideas. I only 
gave an empirical foundation to the theory of what were for 
merly called primordial or elementary ideas, "categories" or 
"habitudes directrices de la conscience/' "representations col 
lectives/' etc., by setting out to investigate certain details. 

In the second of the dreams discussed above, we met with an 
archetype which I have not yet considered. This is the peculiar 
arrangement of the burning candles in four pyramid-like points. 
The arrangement emphasizes the symbolic importance of the 
number four by putting it in place of the altar or iconostasis 
where one would expect to find the sacred images. Since the 
temple is called the "House of the Gathering/' we may assume 
that this character is expressed if the image or symbol appears 

15 The term "archetypus" is used by Cicero, Pliny, and others. It appears in the 
Corpus Hermeticum, Lib. I (Scott, Hermetica, I, p. 1 16, 8a) as a definitely philo 
sophical concept: "Thou knowest in thy mind the archetypal form [T& bpxtrvTrov 
cISos], the beginning before the beginning, the unbounded." 
!6jD&s Bestandige in den Menschenrassen, p. 75; Die Vorstellungen von der 
Seele, p. 306; Der Volkergedanke im Aufbau einer Wissenschaft vom Menschen; 
Ethnische Element argedanken in der Lehre vom Menschen. 

17 "In sleep and in dreams we pass through the whole thought of earlier human 
ity. ... I mean, as a man now reasons in dreams, so humanity also reasoned 
for many thousands of years when awake: the first cause which occurred to the 
mind as an explanation of anything that required explanation was sufficient and 
passed for truth. . . . This atavistic element in man's nature continues to mani 
fest itself in our dreams, for it is the foundation upon which the higher reason 
has developed and still develops in every individual. Dreams carry us back to 
remote conditions of human culture and afford us a ready means of understand 
ing it better." Nietzsche, Human All-Too-Human, I, pp. 24-25, trans, by 
Zimmern and Cohn, modified. 

18 Hubert and Mauss, Melanges d'Histoire des Religions, p. xxix: "Constantly 
set before us in language, though not necessarily explicit in it, ... the cate 
gories . . . generally exist rather under the form of habits that guide conscious 
ness, themselves remaining unconscious. The notion of mana is one of these 
principles; it is a datum of language; it is implied in a whole series of judgments 
and reasonings concerned with attributes that are those of mana. We have de 
scribed mana as a category, but it is a category not confined to primitive thought; 
and today, in a weakened degree, it is still the primal form that certain other 
categories which always function in our minds have covered over: those of sub 
stance, cause . . ." etc. 

19 Ldvy-Bruhl, How Natives Think, 

51 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



in the place of worship. The tetraktys-to use the Pythagorean 
term-does indeed refer to an "inner gathering," as our 
patient's dream clearly demonstrates. The symbol appears in 
other dreams, usually in the form of a circle divided into four 
or containing four main parts. In other dreams of the same series 
it takes the form of an undivided circle, a flower, a square place 
or room, a quadrangle, a globe, a clock, a symmetrical garden 
with a fountain in the centre, four people in a boat, in an aero 
plane, or at a table, four chairs round a table, four colours, a 
wheel with eight spokes, an eight-rayed star or sun, a round hat 
divided into eight parts, a bear with four eyes, a square prison 
cell, the four seasons, a bowl containing four nuts, the world 
clock with a disc divided into 4 X 8 = S 2 partitions, and so on. 20 
91 These quaternity symbols occur no less than seventy-one 
times in a series of four hundred dreams. 21 My case is no excep 
tion in this respect. I have observed many cases where the num 
ber four occurred and it always had an unconscious origin, that 
is, the dreamer got it first from a dream and had no idea of its 
meaning, nor had he ever heard of the symbolic importance of 
the number four. It would of course be a different thing with the 
number three, since the Trinity represents a symbolic number 
known to everybody. But for us, and particularly for a modern 
scientist, four conveys no more than any other number. Number 
symbolism and its venerable history is a field of knowledge com 
pletely outside our dreamer's intellectual interests. If under 
such conditions dreams insist upon the importance of four, we 
have every right to call its origin an unconscious one. The 
numinous character of the quaternity is obvious in the second 
dream. From this we must conclude that it points to a meaning 
which we have to call "sacred." Since the dreamer was unable to 
trace this peculiar character to any conscious source, I apply a 
comparative method in order to elucidate the meaning of the 
symbolism. It is of course impossible to give a complete account 
of this procedure here, so I must restrict myself to die barest 
hints. 

20 For the psychology of the tetraktys, see my "Commentary on The Secret of the 
Golden Flower," par. 31; ["Dogma of the Trinity," pars. 246, 268ff.]; and Hauer, 
"Symbole und Erfahrung des Selbstes in der Indo-Arischen Mystik." 

21 [For a tabulation of these dreams, see Psychology and Alchemy, par. 329, n. 
EDITORS.] 

52 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



92 Since many unconscious contents seem to be remnants of 
historical states of mind, we need only go back a few hundred 
years in order to reach the conscious level that forms the paral 
lel to our dreams. In our case we step back not quite three hun 
dred years and find ourselves among scientists and natural phi 
losophers who were seriously discussing the enigma of squaring 
the circle. 22 This abstruse problem was itself a psychological pro 
jection of something much older and completely unconscious. 
But they knew in those days that the circle signified the Deity: 
"God is an intellectual figure whose centre is everywhere and 
the circumference nowhere," 23 as one of these philosophers said, 
repeating St. Augustine. A man as introverted and introspective 
as Emerson 24 could hardly fail to touch on the same idea and 
likewise quote St. Augustine. The image of the circle regarded 
as the most perfect form since Plato's Timaeus, the prime au 
thority for Hermetic philosophywas assigned to the most per 
fect substance, to the gold, also to the anima mundi or anima 
media natura, and to the first created light. And because the 
macrocosm, the Great World, was made by the creator "in a 
form round and globose," 25 the smallest part of the whole, the 
point, also possesses this perfect nature. As the philosopher says : 
"Of all shapes the simplest and most perfect is the sphere, which 
rests in a point." 26 This image of the Deity dormant and 

22 There is an excellent presentation of the problem in Maier, De circulo (1616). 

23 [On the source of this saying, see par. 229, n. 6, below. EDITORS.] 

24 Cf. his essay "Circles" (Essays, Everyman edn., p. 167). 

25 Plato, Timaeus, 7; Steeb, Coelum Sephiroticum Hebraeorum (1679), p. 15. 

26 Steeb, p. 19. Maier (De circulo, p. 27) says: "The circle is a symbol of eternity 
or an indivisible point." Concerning the "round element/' see Turba philoso- 
phorum, Sermo XLI (ed. Ruska, p. 148), where the "rotundum which turns 
copper into four" is mentioned. Ruska says there is no similar symbol in the 
Greek sources. This is not quite correct, since we find a o-rocxetov a-TporyGXov 
(round element) in the xepi opyfocav of Zosimos (Berthelot, A Ich. grecs, in, xlix, 
i). The same symbolism may also occur in his Trohipa. (Berthelot, III, v bis), in 
the form of the irepiriKovurpkvov, which Berthelot translates as "objet circulaire." 
(The correctness of this translation, however, is doubtful.) [Cf. "The Visions of 
Zosimos," par. 86, n. 12.] A better parallel might be Zosimos' "omega element." 
He himself describes it as "round" (Berthelot, III, xlix, i). 

The idea of the creative point in matter is mentioned in Sendivogius, "Novum 
lumen" (Musaeum hermeticum, 1678, p. 559); cf. The Hermetic Museum Restored 
and Enlarged, trans, by A. E. Waite, II, p. 89: "For there is in every body A 
centre, the seeding-place or spermatic point." This point is a "point born of 
God" (p. 59). Here we encounter the doctrine of the "panspermia" (all-embracing 

53 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



concealed in matter was what the alchemists called the original 
chaos, or the earth of paradise, or the round fish in the sea, 27 or 
the egg, or simply the rotundum. That round thing was in pos 
session of the magical key which unlocked the closed doors of 
matter. As is said in the Timaeus, only the demiurge, the perfect 
being, is capable of dissolving the tetraktys, the embrace of the 
four elements. 28 One of the great authorities since the thirteenth 
century, the Turba philosophorum, says that the rotundum 
can turn copper into four. 29 Thus the much-sought-for aurum 
philosophicum was round. 30 Opinions were divided as to the 
procedure for procuring the dormant demiurge. Some hoped to 
lay hold of him in the form of a prima materia containing a 
particular concentration or a particularly suitable variety of this 
substance. Others endeavoured to produce the round substance 
by a sort of synthesis, called the coniunctio; the anonymous 
author of the Rosarium philosophorum says: "Make a round 
circle of man and woman, extract therefrom a quadrangle and 
from it a triangle. Make the circle round, and you will have the 
Philosophers' Stone." 31 

seed-bed), about which Athanasius Kircher, SJ. (Mundus subterraneus, 1678, II, 
p. 347) says: "Thus from the holy words of Moses ... it appears that God, the 
creator of all things, in the beginning created from nothing a certain Matter, 
which we not unfittingly call Chaotic . . . within which something . . . confused lay 
hidden as if in a kind of panspermia ... as though he brought forth afterward 
from the underlying material all things which had already been fecundated and 
incubated by the divine Spirit. . . , But he did not forthwith destroy the 
Chaotic Matter, but willed it to endure until the consummation of the world, 
as at the first beginning of things so to this very day, a panspennia replete with 
all things. . . ." These ideas lead us back to the "descent" or "fall of the deity" 
in the Gnostic systems. Cf. Bussell, Religious Thought and Heresy in the Middle 
Ages, pp. 554ff.; Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 50; Mead, Pistis Sophia, pp. 365., 
and Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 470. 

27 "There is in the sea a round fish, lacking bones and scales, and having in itself 
a fatness" (the humidum radicale the anima mundi imprisoned in matter). From . 
"Allegoriae super Turbam," Art. aurif., I (1593), p. 141. [Cf. Aion t pars, igsff.] 

28 Timaeus 7. 29 See above, n. 26. 

so "For as the heaven which is visible is round in form and motion ... so is the 
Gold" (Maier, De ctrculo, p. 39). 

31 Rosarium philosophorum (Art. aurif., II, p. 261). This treatise is ascribed to 
Petrus Toletanus, who lived in Toledo about the middle of the igth century. He 
is said to have been either an older contemporary or a brother of Arnold of Villa- 
nova, the famous physician and philosopher. The present form of the Rosarium, 
based on the first printing of 1550, is a compilation and probably does not date 

54 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



93 This marvellous stone was symbolized as a perfect living be 
ing of hermaphroditic nature corresponding to the Empedoclean 
cr^cupos, the v8aLnovkcTTaT03 6&>$ and all-round bisexual being in 
Plato. 32 As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, the 
lapis was compared by Petrus Bonus to Christ, as an allegoria 
Christi.** In the Aurea hora> a Pseudo-Thomist tract from the 
thirteenth century, the mystery of the stone is rated even higher 
than the mysteries of the Christian religion. 34 I mention these 
facts merely to show that the circle or globe containing the four 
was an allegory of the Deity for not a few of our learned fore 
fathers. 

94 From the Latin treatises it is also evident that the latent 
demiurge, dormant and concealed in matter, is identical with 
the so-called homo philosophicus, the second Adam. 35 H[e is the 
spiritual man, Adam Kadmon, often identified with Christ. 
Whereas the original Adam was mortal, because he was made of 
the corruptible four elements, the second Adam is immortal, 
because he consists of one pure and incorruptible essence. Thus 
Pseudo-Thomas says: "The Second Adam . . . from pure ele 
ments entered into eternity. Therefore, what is composed of 
simple and pure essence remaineth forever." 36 The same treatise 
quotes a Latinized Arabic author called Senior, a famous author- 
back further than the 15th century, though certain parts may have originated 
early in the isjth century. 32 Symposium XIV. 

33 Petrus Bonus in Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa margarita novella (1946). For the 
allegoria Christi, see Psychology and Alchemy, "The Lapis-Christ Parallel." 
SBeati Thomae de Aquino Aurora sive Aurea hora. Complete text in the rare 
printing of 1625: Harmoniae Inperscrutabilis Chymico-philosophicae sive 
Philosophorum Antiquorum Consentientium Decas I (Francofurti apud Conrad 
Eifridum. Anno MDCXXV). (British Museum 1033 dai.) The interesting part of 
this treatise is the first part, "Tractatus parabolarum," which was omitted on 
account of its "blasphemous" character from the printings of Artis auriferae in 
1572 and 1593. In the so-called Codex Rhenoviensis (Zurich Central Library), 
about four chapters of the "Parabolarum" are missing. The Codex Parisinus 
Fond. Lat. 14006 (Bibl. nat.) contains a complete text. [For English translation, 
see Aurora Consurgens, edited by M.-L. von Franz. EDITORS.] 

35 A good example is the commentary of Gnosius on the "Tractatus aureus 
Hermetis," Theatr. chem., IV, pp. Gysff.; Manget, Bibl. chem., I, pp. 4coff. 

36 Aurora Consurgens (ed. von Franz), p. 129. Zosimos (Berthelot, Alch grecs, III, 
xlix, 4-5), quoting from a Hermetic writing, says that& faov vlbs Traifra^cvSnevos 
was Adam or Thoth, who was made of the four elements and the four cardinal 
points. Cf. Psychology and Alchemy f par. 456, sec. 6. 

55 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



ity throughout the Middle Ages, as saying: "There is One thing 
that never dieth, for it continueth by perpetual increase/' and 
interprets this One thing as the second Adam. 37 

95 It is clear from these quotations that the round substance 
searched for by the philosophers was a projection very similar 
to our own dream symbolism. We have historical documents 
which prove that dreams, visions, and even hallucinations were 
often mixed up with the great philosophic opus. 38 Our fore 
fathers, being even more naively constituted than ourselves, pro 
jected their unconscious contents directly into matter. Matter, 
however, could easily take up such projections, because at that 
time it was a practically unknown and incomprehensible entity. 
And whenever man encounters something mysterious he pro 
jects his own assumptions into it without the slightest self- 
criticism. But since chemical matter nowadays is something we 
know fairly well, we can no longer project as freely as our ances 
tors. We have, at last, to admit that the quaternity is something 
psychic; and we do not yet know whether, in a more or less dis 
tant future, this too may not prove to be a projection. For the 
time being we must be satisfied with the fact that an idea of God 
which is entirely absent from the conscious mind of modern man 
returns in a form known consciously three hundred or four hun 
dred years ago. 

Q 6 I do not need to emphasize that this piece of history was com 
pletely unknown to my dreamer. One could say with the classical 
poet: "Naturam expelles furca tamen usque recurret" (Drive 
out nature with a pitchfork and she always turns up again). 39 

97 The idea of those old philosophers was that God manifested 
himself first in the creation of the four elements. They were sym 
bolized by the four partitions of the circle. Thus we read in a 
Coptic treatise of the Codex Brucianus 40 concerning the Only- 
Begotten (Monogenes or Anthropos): 

This same is he who dwelleth in the Monad, which is in the 
Setheus [creator], and which came from the place of which none 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 of tree, and in the manner of a city, 

37 Aurora Consurgens (ed. von Franz), p. 129. 

38 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 3475. 39 Horace, Epistles, I, x, 24. 
40 Baynes, ed., A Coptic Gnostic Treatise, pp. 22, 89 94 

56 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



filled with all races of mankind . . . And to its veil which surround 
ed! it in the manner of a defence there are twelve Gates . . . This 
same is the Mother-City (^rpoTroXts) of the Only-Begotten. 

In another place the Anthropos himself is the city and his mem 
bers are the four gates. The Monad is a spark of light (<nru^p), 
an atom of the Deity. The Monogenes is thought of as standing 
upon a rerpdxefa, a platform supported by four pillars, corre 
sponding to the Christian quaternarium of the Evangelists, or 
to the Tetramorph, the symbolic steed of the Church, composed 
of the symbols of the four evangelists: the angel, eagle, ox or 
calf, and lion. The analogy with the New Jerusalem of the Apoc 
alypse is obvious. 

98 The division into four, the synthesis of the four, the miracu 
lous appearance of the four colours, and the four stages of the 
work nigredo, dealbatio, rubefactio, and citrinitas are con 
stant preoccupations of the old philosophers. 41 Four symbolizes 
the parts, qualities, and aspects of the One. But why should my 
patient recapitulate these old speculations? 

99 I do not know why he should. I only know that this is not an 
isolated case; many others under my observation or under that 
of my colleagues have spontaneously produced the same sym 
bolism. I naturally do not think that it originated three or four 
hundred years ago. That was simply another epoch when this 
same archetypal idea was very much in the foreground. As a 
matter of fact, it is much older than the Middle Ages, as the 
Timaeus proves. Nor is it a classical or an Egyptian heritage, 
since it is to be found practically everywhere and in all ages. 
One has only to remember, for instance, how great an impor 
tance was attributed to the quaternity by the American In 
dians. 42 

j oo Although the quaternity is an age-old and presumably 
prehistoric symbol, 43 always associated with the idea of a 
world-creating deity, it iscuriously enough rarely under 
stood as such by those moderns in whom it occurs. I have always 
been particularly interested to see how people, if left to their 

41 The Rosarium philosophorum is one of the first attempts at a synopsis and 
gives a fairly comprehensive account of the medieval quaternity. 

42 Cf., for instance, the 5th and 8th Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institu 
tion, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington (1887 and 1892). 

43 Cf. the paleolithic (?) "sun wheels" of Rhodesia. [But see infra, par. 484, n. 9.] 

57 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



own devices and not informed about the history of the symbol, 
would interpret it to themselves. I was careful, therefore, not 
to disturb them with my own opinions, and as a rule I discov 
ered that they took it to symbolize themselves or rather some 
thing in themselves. They felt it belonged intimately to them 
selves as a sort of creative background, a life-producing sun in 
the depths of the unconscious. Though it was easy to see that 
certain mandala-drawmgs were almost an exact replica of Ezek- 
iel's vision, it very seldom happened that people recognized the 
analogy even when they knew the visionwhich knowledge, by 
the way, is pretty rare nowadays. What one could almost call a 
systematic blindness is simply the effect of the prejudice that 
God is outside man. Although this prejudice is not exclusively 
Christian, there are certain religions which do not share it at all. 
On the contrary they insist, as do certain Christian mystics, 
on the essential identity of God and man, either in the form of 
an a priori identity or of a goal to be attained by certain prac 
tices or initiations, as known to us, for instance, from the meta 
morphoses of Apuleius, not to speak of certain yoga methods. 

The use of the comparative method shows without a doubt 
that the quaternity is a more or less direct representation of the 
God who is manifest in his creation. We might, therefore, con 
clude that the symbol spontaneously produced in the dreams of 
modern people means something similar the God within. Al 
though the majority of the persons concerned do not recognize 
this analogy, the interpretation might nevertheless be correct. 
If we consider the fact that the idea of God is an "unscientific" 
hypothesis, we can easily explain why people have forgotten to 
think along such lines. And even if they do cherish a certain be 
lief in God they would be deterred from the idea of a God within 
by their religious education, which has always depreciated this 
idea as "mystical." Yet it is precisely this "mystical" idea which 
is forced upon the conscious mind by dreams and visions. I my 
self, as well as my colleagues, have seen so many cases developing 
the same kind of symbolism that we cannot doubt its existence 
any longer. My observations, moreover, date back to 1914, and 
I waited fourteen years before alluding to them publicly. 44 

It would be a regrettable mistake if anybody should take my 

44 [In his commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower, first pub. (in Ger 
man) in 1929. EDITORS,] 

58 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



observations as a kind of proof of the existence of God. They 
prove only the existence of an archetypal God-image, which to 
my mind is the most we can assert about God psychologically. 
But as it is a very important and influential archetype, its rela 
tively frequent occurrence seems to be a noteworthy fact for any 
theologia naturalis. And since experience of this archetype has 
the quality of numinosity, often in very high degree, it comes 
into the category of religious experiences. 

i3 I cannot refrain from calling attention to the interesting fact 
that whereas the central Christian symbolism is a Trinity, the 
formula presented by the unconscious is a quaternity. In reality 
the orthodox Christian formula is not quite complete, because 
the dogmatic aspect of the evil principle is absent from the 
Trinity and leads a more or less awkward existence on its own as 
the devil. Nevertheless it seems that the Church does not exclude 
an inner relationship between the devil and the Trinity. A Cath 
olic authority expresses himself on this question as follows: "The 
existence of Satan, however, can only be understood in relation 
to the Trinity." "Any theological treatment of the devil that is 
not related to God's trinitarian consciousness is a falsification of 
the actual position." 45 According to this view, the devil pos 
sesses personality and absolute freedom. That is why he can be 
the true, personal "counterpart of Christ." "Herein is revealed a 
new freedom in God's being: he freely allows the devil to sub 
sist beside him and permits his kingdom to endure for ever." 
"The idea of a mighty devil is incompatible with the conception 
of Yahweh, but not with the conception of the Trinity. The 
mystery of one God in Three Persons opens out a new freedom 
in the depths of God's being, and this even makes possible the 
thought of a personal devil existing alongside God and in op 
position to him." 46 The devil, accordingly, possesses an autono 
mous personality, freedom, and eternality, and he has these 
metaphysical qualities so much in common with God that he 
can actually subsist in opposition to him. Hence the relation 
ship or even the (negative) affinity of the devil with the Trinity 
can no longer be denied as a Catholic idea. 

10 4 The inclusion of the devil in the quaternity is by no means 
a modern speculation or a monstrous fabrication of the uncon 
scious. We find in the writings of the sixteenth-century natural 

Koepgen, Die Gnosis des Christentums, pp. 189, 190. 46 Ibid., pp. 

59 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



philosopher and physician, Gerard Dorn, a detailed discussion 
of the symbols of the Trinity and the quaternity, the latter 
being attributed to the devil. Dorn breaks with the whole al 
chemical tradition inasmuch as he adopts the rigidly Christian 
standpoint that Three is One but Four is not, because Four 
attains to unity in the quinta essentia. According to this author 
the quaternity is in truth a "diabolical fraud" or "deception of 
the devil," and he holds that at the fall of the angels the devil 
"fell into the realm of quaternity and the elements" (in quater- 
nariam et elementariam regionem decidit). He also gives an 
elaborate description of the symbolic operation whereby the 
devil produced the "double serpent" (the number 2) "with the 
four horns" (the number 4). Indeed, the number 2 is the devil 
himself, the quadricornutus binarius.** 

105 Since a God identical with the individual man is an exceed 
ingly complex assumption bordering on heresy, 48 the "God 

*TDorn thinks that God created the binarius on the second day of Creation, 
when he separated the upper waters from the lower, and that this was the reason 
why he omitted to say on the evening of the second day what he said on all 
the others, namely that "it was good/* The emancipation of the binarius, Dorn 
holds', was the cause of "confusion, division, and strife." From the binarius issued 
"its quaternary offspring" (sua proles quaternaria). Since the number 2 is femi 
nine, it also signified Eve, whereas the number 5 was equated with Adam. There 
fore the devil tempted Eve first: "For [the devil] knew, being full of all guile, 
that Adam was marked with the urwzriiw, and for this cause he did not at first 
attack him, for he greatly doubted whether he could do anything against him. 
Moreover, he was not ignorant that Eve was divided from her husband as a 
natural binary from the unity of its ternary [tanquam naturalem binarium ab 
unario sui ternarifj. Accordingly, armed with a certain likeness of binary to 
binary, he made his attack on the woman. For all even numbers are feminine, of 
which two, Eve's proper and original number, is the first/' {Dorn, "De tenebris 
contra naturam et vita brevi,** Theatr. chem., 1602, I, p. 527. In this treatise 
and the one that follows it, "De Duello Animi cum Corpore," pp. 5352., the 
reader will find everything I have mentioned here.) The reader will have noticed 
how Dorn, with great cunning, discovers in the binarius a secret affinity between 
the devil and woman. He was the first to point out the discord between threeness 
and fourness, between God as Spirit and Empedoclean nature, thus albeit un 
consciouslycutting the thread of alchemical projection. Accordingly, he speaks 
of the qiutternctrius as "fundamental to the medicine of the infidels." We must 
leave it an open question whether by "infidels'* he meant the Arabs or the pagans 
of antiquity. At any rate Dorn suspected that there was something ungodly in 
the quaternity, which was intimately associated with the nature of woman. Cf. 
my remarks concerning the "virgo terra," pars. 107, n. 52, 123, 126. 
48 I am not referring here to the dogma of the human nature of Christ. 

60 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



within" also presents a dogmatic difficulty. But the quaternity 
as produced by the modern psyche points directly not only to 
the God within, but to the identity of God and man. Contrary 
to the dogma, there are not three, but four aspects. It could easily 
be inferred that the fourth represents the devil. Though we have 
the logion "I and the Father are one: who seeth me seeth the 
Father," it would be considered blasphemy or madness to stress 
Christ's dogmatic humanity to such a degree that man could 
identify himself with Christ and his homoousia. 49 But this is 
precisely what seems to be meant by the natural symbol. From 
an orthodox standpoint, therefore, the natural quaternity could 
be declared a diabolica fraus^ and the chief proof of this would 
be its assimilation of the fourth aspect which represents the 
reprehensible part of the Christian cosmos. The Church, it 
seems to me, probably has to repudiate any attempt to take such 
conclusions seriously. She may even have to condemn any ap 
proach to these experiences, since she cannot admit that nature 
unites what she herself has divided. The voice of nature is 
clearly audible in all experiences of the quaternity, and this 
arouses all the old mistrust of anything even remotely con 
nected with the unconscious. Scientific investigation of dreams 
is simply the old oneiromancy in new guise and therefore just as 
objectionable as any other of the "occult" arts. Close parallels 
to the symbolism of dreams can be found in the old alchemical 
treatises, and these are quite as heretical as dreams. 50 Here, it 
would seem, was reason enough for secrecy and protective meta 
phors. 51 The symbolic statements of the old alchemists issue 
from the same unconscious as modern dreams and are just as 
much the voice of nature. 

106 jf we W ere still living in a medieval setting where there was 
not much doubt about the ultimate things and where every his 
tory of the world began with Genesis, we could easily brush 

4 9 This identification has nothing to do with the Catholic conception of the 
assimilation of the individual's life to the life of Christ and his absorption into 
the corpus mysticum of the Church. It is rather the opposite of this view. 
501 am thinking chiefly of works that contain alchemical legends and didactic 
tales. A good example would be Maier's Symbola aureae mensae (1617), with its 
symbolic peregrinatio (pp. 5693!.). 

si So far as I know, there are no complaints in alchemical literature of persecu 
tion by the Church. The authors allude usually to the tremendous secret of the 
magistery as a reason for secrecy. 

6l 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



aside dreams and the like. Unfortunately we live in a modern 
setting where all the ultimate things are doubtful, where there 
is a prehistory of enormous extension, and where people are 
fully aware that if there is any numinous experience at all, it is 
the experience of the psyche. We can no longer imagine an 
empyrean world revolving round the throne of God, and we 
would not dream of seeking for him somewhere behind the 
galactic systems. Yet the human soul seems to harbour mysteries, 
since to an empiricist all religious experience boils down to a 
peculiar psychic condition. If we want to know anything of what 
religious experience means to those who have it, we have every 
chance nowadays of studying it in every imaginable form. And if 
it means anything, it means everything to those who have it. 
This is at any rate the inevitable conclusion one reaches by ai 
careful study of the evidence. One could even define religious 
experience as that kind of experience which is accorded the 
highest value, no matter what its contents may be. The modern 
mind, so far as it stands under the verdict "extra ecclesiam nulla 
salus," will turn to the psyche as the last hope. Where else could 
one obtain experience? And the answer will be more or less of 
the kind which I have described. The voice of nature will answer 
and all those concerned with the spiritual problem of man will 
be confronted with new and baffling problems. Because of the 
spiritual need of my patients I have been forced to make a seri 
ous attempt to understand some of the symbols produced by the 
unconscious. As it would lead much too far to embark on a dis 
cussion of the intellectual and ethical consequences, I shall have 
to content myself with a mere sketch. 

10 7 The main symbolic figures of a religion are always expressive 
of the particular moral and mental attitude involved. I would 
mention, for instance, the cross and its various religious mean 
ings. Another main symbol is the Trinity. It is of exclusively 
masculine character. The unconscious, however, transforms it 
into a quaternity, which is at the same time a unity, just as the 
three persons of the Trinity are one and the same God. The nat 
ural philosophers of antiquity represented the Trinity, so far as 
it was imaginata in natura, as the three aa^ara or "spirits," also 
called "volatilia," namely water, air, and fire. The fourth con 
stituent, on the other hand, was TO wnarov, the earth or the body. 

62 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



They symbolized the latter by the Virgin. 52 In this way they 
added the feminine element to their physical Trinity, thereby 
producing the quaternity or circulus quadratus, whose symbol 
was the hermaphroditic rebisf* the filius sapientiae. The natural 
philosophers of the Middle Ages undoubtedly meant earth and 
woman by the fourth element. The principle of evil was not 
openly mentioned, but it appears in the poisonous quality of the 
prima materia and in other allusions. The quaternity in modern 
dreams is a creation of the unconscious. As I explained in the 
first chapter, the unconscious is often personified by the anima, 
a feminine figure. Apparently the symbol of the quaternity is 
sues from her. She would be the matrix of the quaternity, a 
B&TOKOS or Mater Dei, just as the earth was understood to be the 
Mother of God. But since woman, as well as evil, is excluded 
from the Deity in the dogma of the Trinity, the element of evil 
would form part of the religious symbol if the latter should be 
a quaternity. It needs no particular effort of imagination to 
guess the far-reaching spiritual consequences of such a develop 
ment. 

52 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy , fig. 232, showing the glorification of the body in 
the form of the Assumption of the Virgin (from Reusner, Pandora, 1588). St. 
Augustine used the earth to symbolize the Virgin: "Truth is arisen from the 
earth, for Christ is born of a virgin" (Sermones, 189, II, in Migne, P.L., vol. 38, 
col. 1006). Likewise Tertullian: "That virgin earth, not yet watered by the rains 
nor fertilized by the showers" (Adversus Judaeos, 13, in Migne, PJL., vol. 2, 
col. 655). 

53 The rebis ('made of two') is the philosophers' stone, for in it the masculine 
and the feminine nature are united. [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 125, and 
"The Psychology of the Transference/ 1 pars. 525!?. EDITORS] 



THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF A 
NATURAL SYMBOL 



Although I have no wish to discourage philosophical curi 
osity, I would rather not lose myself in a discussion of the ethical 
and intellectual aspects of the problem raised by the quaternity 
symbol. Its psychological importance is far-reaching and plays a 
considerable role in practical treatment. While we are not con 
cerned here with psychotherapy, but with the religious aspect of 
certain psychic phenomena, I have been forced through my 
studies in psychopathology to dig out these historical symbols 
and figures from the dust of their graves. 1 When I was a young 
alienist I should never have suspected myself of doing such a 
thing. I shall not mind, therefore, if this long discussion of the 
quaternity symbol, the circulus quadratus, and the heretical 
attempts to improve on the dogma of the Trinity seem to be 
somewhat far-fetched and exaggerated. But, in point of fact, my 
whole discourse on the quaternity is no more than a regrettably 
short and inadequate introduction to the final and crowning 
example which illustrates my case. 

Already at the very beginning of our dream-series the circle 
appears. It takes the form, for instance, of a serpent, which 
describes a circle 2 round the dreamer. It appears in later dreams 

1 Cfc Symbols of Transformation. 

2 A recurrence of the ancient symbol of the uroboros, *tail-eater.' 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



as a clock, a circle with a central point, a round target for shoot 
ing practice, a clock that is a perpetuum mobile, a ball, a globe, 
a round table, a basin, and so on. The square appears also, about 
the same time, in the form of a city square or a garden with a 
fountain in the centre. Somewhat later it appears in connection 
with a circular movement: 3 people walking round in a square; 
a magic ceremony (the transformation of animals into human 
beings) that takes place in a square room, in the corners of which 
are four snakes, with people again circulating round the four 
corners; the dreamer driving round a square in a taxi; a square 
prison cell; an empty square which is itself rotating; and so on. 
In other dreams the circle is represented by rotationfor in 
stance, four children carry a "dark ring" and walk in a circle. 
Again, the circle appears combined with the quaternity, as a 
silver bowl with four nuts at the four cardinal points, or as a 
table with four chairs. The centre seems to be particularly em 
phasized. It is symbolized by an egg in the middle of a ring; by 
a star consisting of a body of soldiers; by a star rotating in a 
circle, the cardinal points of which represent the four seasons; 
by the Pole; by a precious stone, and so on. 

All these dreams lead up to one image which came to the 
patient in the form of a sudden visual impression. He had had 
such glimpses or visualizations on several occasions before, but 
this time it was a most impressive experience. As he himself 
says: "It was an impression of the most sublime harmony." In 
such a case it does not matter at all what our impression is or 
what we think about it. It only matters how the patient feels 
about it. It is his experience, and if it has a deeply transforming 
influence upon his condition there is no point in arguing against 
it. The psychologist can only take note of the fact and, if he feels 
equal to the task, he might also make an attempt to under 
stand why such a vision had such an effect upon such a person. 
The vision was a turning point in the patient's psychological 
development. It was what one would call in the language of 
religion a conversion. 

This is the literal text of the vision: 

3 An Eastern parallel is the "circulation of the light" mentioned in the Chinese 
alchemical treatise, The Secret of the Golden Flower [1962, pp. goff.], edited by 
R. Wilhelm and myself. 

65 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



There is a vertical and a horizontal circle, having a common 
centre. This is the world clock. It is supported by the black 
bird. 4 ' 

The vertical circle is a blue disc with a white border divided 
into 4 X 8 = 32 partitions. 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 four 
children). 

The world 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 rotation of the pointer. 

At the same time the horizontal circle 
advances by 1/32- 

3. The great pulse: 32. middle pulses are equal to one com 

plete rotation of the golden ring. 

The vision sums up all the allusions in the previous dreams. 
It seems to be an attempt to make a meaningful xvhole of the 
formerly fragmentary symbols, then characterized as circle, 
globe, square, rotation, clock, star, cross, quaternity, time, and 
so on. 

It is of course difficult to understand why a feeling of "most 
sublime harmony" should be produced by this abstract struc 
ture. But if we think of the two circles in Plato's Timaeus, and 
of the harmonious all-roundness of his anima mundi, we might 
find an avenue to understanding. Again, the term "world clock" 
suggests the antique conception of the musical harmony of the 
spheres. It would thus be a sort of cosmological system. If it 
were a vision of the firmament and its silent rotation, or of the 
steady movement of the solar system, we could readily under 
stand and appreciate the perfect harmony of the picture. We 
might also assume that the platonic vision of the cosmos was 
faintly glimmering through the mist of a dreamlike conscious 
ness. But there is something in the vision that does not quite 
accord with the harmonious perfection of the platonic picture. 
The two circles are each of a different nature. Not only is their 

4 This refers to a previous vision, where a black eagle carried away a golden ring. 
[For this entire clock vision, cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 3078:. EDITORS.] 

66 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



movement different, but their colour too. The vertical circle is 
blue and the horizontal one containing four colours is golden. 
The blue circle might easily symbolize the blue hemisphere of 
the sky, while the horizontal circle would represent the horizon 
with its four cardinal points, personified by the four little men 
and characterized by the four colours. (In a former dream, the 
four points were represented once by four children and another 
time by the four seasons.) This picture immediately calls to 
mind the medieval representations of the world in the form of 
a circle or in the shape of the rex gloriae with the four evan 
gelists, or the melothesia* where the horizon is formed by the 
zodiac. The representation of the triumphant Christ seems to be 
derived from similar pictures of Horus and his four sons. 6 There 
are also Eastern analogies: the Buddhist mandalas or circles, 
usually of Tibetan origin. These consist as a rule of a circular 
padma or lotus which contains a square sacred building with 
four gates, indicating the four cardinal points and the seasons. 
The centre contains a Buddha, or more often the conjunction 
of Shiva and his Shakti, or an equivalent dorje (thunderbolt) 
symbol. 7 They are yantras or ritualistic instruments for the pur 
pose of contemplation, concentration, and the final transforma 
tion of the yogi's consciousness into the divine all-consciousness. 8 
However striking these analogies may be, they are not en 
tirely satisfactory, because they all emphasize the centre to such 
an extent that they seem to have been made in order to express 
the importance of the central figure. In our case, however, the 
centre is empty. It consists only of a mathematical point. The 
parallels I have mentioned depict the world-creating or world- 
ruling deity, or else man in his dependence upon the celestial 
constellations. Our symbol is a clock, symbolizing time. The 

5 The "blood-letting manikins" are melothesiae. [These are the little figures 
which medieval physicians used to draw inside a circle or mandala on the part 
of the body affected, when bleeding or "cupping" a patient. Melothesia is the 
"assignment of parts of the body to the tutelage of signs or planets" (Liddell and 
Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1099). Woodcuts of melothesiae are reproduced 
in Jacobi, ed., Paracelsus: Selected Writings, figs. 36 and 45. EDITORS.] 

6 Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, I, 3; The Egyptian Book of the 
Dead (facsimile), pi. 5. In a manuscript from the 7th century (Gellone), the evan 
gelists are represented with the heads of their symbolic animals instead of human 
heads. 7 [See "Concerning Mandala Symbolism," fig. i and pars. 636^] 

8 Shrlchakrasambhdra Tantra, ed. by Avalon. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



only analogy I can think of to such a symbol is the design of the 
horoscope. It too has four cardinal points and an empty centre. 
And there is another remarkable correspondence: rotation is 
often mentioned in the previous dreams, and this is usually 
reported as moving to the left. The horoscope has twelve houses 
that progress numerically to the left, that is, counter-clockwise. 

"5 But the horoscope consists of one circle only and moreover 
contains no contrast between two obviously different systems. 
So the horoscope too is an unsatisfactory analogy, though it sheds 
some light on the time aspect of our symbol. We would be 
forced to give up our attempt to find psychological parallels 
were it not for the treasure-house of medieval symbolism. By a 
lucky chance I came across a little-known medieval author of 
the early fourteenth century, Guillaume de Digulleville, prior 
of a monastery at Chalis, a Norman poet who wrote three 
"P&erinages" between 1330 and 1355. 9 They are called Les 
Pelerinages de la vie humaine, de I'dme, and de Jesus Christ, In 
the last canto of the Pelerinage de I* time we find a vision of 
paradise. 

n6 Paradise consists of forty-nine rotating spheres. They are 
called "stecles," centuries, being the prototypes or archetypes of 
the earthly centuries. But, as the angel who serves as a guide to 
Guillaume explains, the ecclesiastical expression "in saecula 
saeculorum" means eternity and not ordinary time. A golden 
heaven surrounds all the spheres. When Guillaume looked up to 
the golden heaven he suddenly became aware of a small circle, 
only three feet wide and of the colour of sapphire. He says of this 
circle: "It came out of the golden heaven at one point and re- 
entered it at another, and it made the whole tour of the golden 
heaven." Evidently the blue circle was rolling like a disc upon a 
great circle which intersected the golden sphere of heaven. 

"7 Here, then, we have two different systems, the one golden, 
the other felue, and the one cutting through the other. What is 
the blue circle? The angel again explains to the wondering 
Guillaume: 

9 Abbe" Joseph Delacotte, Guillaume de Digulleville, Trois romans-poemes du 
XlVe si&cle. [A i5th-cent. verse translation of the "Pilgrimage" by John Lydgate 
was published by the Early English Text Society (1899-1904). For other early 
English translations, published in recent times, see the Oxford History of English 
Literature, II, part i, p. 308. EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Ce cercle que tu vois est le calendrier, 
Qui en faisant son tour entier, 
Montre des Saints les journees 
Quand elles doivent etre ftes. 
Chacun en fait le cercle un tour, 
Chacune etoile y est pour jour, 
Chacun soleil pour 1'espace 
De jours trente ou zodiaque. 

(This circle is the calendar 

Which spinning round the course entire 

Shows the feast day of each saint 

And when it should be celebrate. 

Each saint goes once round all the way, 

Each star you see stands for a day, 

And every sun denotes a spell 

Of thirty days zodiacal.) 

"8 The blue circle is the ecclesiastical calendar. So here we have 
another parallel the element of time. It will be remembered 
that time, in our vision, is characterized or measured by three 
pulses. Guillaume's calendar circle is three feet in diameter. 
Moreover, while Guillaume is gazing at the blue circle, three 
spirits clad in purple suddenly appear. The angel explains that 
this is the feast-day of the three saints, and he goes on to dis 
course about the whole zodiac. When he comes to the sign of the 
Fishes he mentions the feast of the twelve fishermen which pre 
cedes that of the Holy Trinity. Whereupon Guillaume tells the 
angel that he has never quite understood the symbol of the 
Trinity. He asks him to be good enough to explain this mystery. 
. Whereupon the angel answers: "Well, there are three principal 
colours: green, red, and golden." One can see them united in 
the peacock's tail. And he goes on: "The almighty King who 
puts three colours in one, cannot he also make one substance to 
be three?" The golden colour, he says, belongs to the Father, the 
red to the Son, and the green to the Holy Ghost. 10 Then the 
angel warns the poet not to ask any more questions and dis 
appears. 

U 9 We know, happily enough, from the angel's teaching, that 
three has to do with the Trinity. So we also know that our 

10 The Holy Ghost is the cause of the viriditas (greenness). Cf. below, pp. 91-92. 

69 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



former digression into the field of mystical speculation on the 
Trinity was not far off the mark. At the same time we meet with 
the motif of the colours, but unfortunately our patient has four, 
whereas Guillaume, or rather the angel, speaks only of three- 
gold, red, and green. Here we might quote the opening words 
of the Timaeus: "Three there are, but where is the fourth?" Or 
we could quote the very same words from Goethe's Faust, from 
the famous Cabiri scene in Part II, where the Cabiri bring the 
vision of that mysterious "streng Gebilde," the "severe image," 
from the sea. 

The four little men of our vision are dwarfs or Cabiri. They 
represent the four cardinal points and the four seasons, as well 
as the four colours and the four elements. In the Timaeus, as 
also in Faust and the Pelerinage, something seems to be wrong 
with the number four. The missing fourth colour is obviously 
blue. It is the one that belongs to the series yellow, red, and 
green. Why is blue missing? What is wrong with the calendar? 
or with time? or with the colour blue? n 

1 Poor old Guillaume has evidently been stumped by the same 
problem. Three there are, but where is the fourth? He was 
eager to learn something about the Trinity which, as he says, 
he had never quite understood. And it is slightly suspicious that 
the angel is in such a hurry to get away before Guillaume can 
ask any more awkward questions. 

2 Well, I suppose Guillaume was pretty unconscious when he 
went to heaven, or he surely would have drawn certain conclu 
sions from what he saw. Now what did he actually see? First 
he saw the spheres or "siecles" inhabited by those who had at- 

11 Gerhard Dorn had a similar conception of circular figures intersecting and dis 
turbing one another: on the one hand the circular system of the Trinity and on 
the other the devil's attempt to construct a system of his own. He says: "It is to be 
noted, moreover, that the centre is unary, and its circle is ternary, but whatever 
is inserted between the centre [and the circumference], and enters the enclosed 
realm, is to be taken as binary, be it another circle ... or any other figure what 
ever." So the devil fabricated a circle of sorts for himself and tried to devise a 
circular system with it, but for various reasons the attempt failed. In the end all 
he produced was the "figure of a twofold serpent lifting up four horns, and 
therefore is the kingdom of the monomachy [monomachiae regnum] divided 
against itself." Being the binarius in person, the devil could hardly have produced 
anything else. ("De Duello/' Theatrum chemicum, 1602, 1, p. 547.) Already in the 
alchemy of Zosimos the devil appears as &vrLfjLLfjtos t the imitator, ape of God. 
(Berthelot, Alch. grecs, HI, xlix, 9. Cf. also Mead, Pistis Sophia, passim.) 

70 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tained eternal bliss. Then he beheld the heaven of gold, the 
"ciel d'or," and there was the King of Heaven sitting upon a 
golden throne and, beside him, the Queen of Heaven sitting 
upon a round throne of brown crystal. This latter detail refers 
to the fact that Mary is supposed to have been taken up to 
heaven with her body, as the only mortal being permitted to 
unite with the body before the resurrection of the dead. The 
king is usually represented as the triumphant Christ in conjunc 
tion with his bride, the Church. But the all-important point is 
that the king, being Christ, is at the same time the Trinity, and 
that the introduction of a fourth person, the Queen, makes it a 
quaternity. The royal pair represents in ideal form the unity of 
the Two under the rule of the One "binarius sub monarchia 
unarii," as Dorn would say. Moreover, in the brown crystal, the 
"realm of quaternity and the elements" into which the "four- 
horned binarius" was cast has been exalted to the throne of the 
supreme intercessor, Mary. Consequently the quaternity of 
the natural elements appears not only in close conjunction with 
the corpus mysticum of the bridal Church or Queen of Heaven 
often it is difficult to distinguish between the two but in im 
mediate relationship to the Trinity. 12 

Blue is the colour of Mary's celestial cloak; she is the earth 
covered by the blue tent of the sky. 13 But why should the Mother 
of God not be mentioned? According to the dogma she is only 
beata, not divine. Moreover, she represents the earth, which is 
also the body and its darkness. That is the reason why she, the 
all-merciful, has the power of attorney to plead for all sinners, 
but also why, -despite her privileged position (it is not possible 
for the angels to sin), she has a relationship with the Trinity 
which is rationally not comprehensible, since it is so close and 
yet so distant. As the matrix, the vessel, the earth, she can be 
interpreted allegorically as the rotundum, which is character 
ized by the four cardinal points, and hence as the globe with 
the four quarters, God's footstool, or as the "four-square" 
Heavenly City, or the "flower of the sea, in which Christ lies 

12 A peculiar coincidence of three and four is to be found in Wernher vom 
Niederrhein's allegory of Mary, where, besides the three men in the burning fiery 
furnace, a fourth appears who is interpreted as Christ. Cf. Salzer, Die Sinnbilder 
und Beiworte Martens f p. 21. 
is Eisler, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt, I, pp. 855. 

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hidden** 14 in a word, as a mandala. This, according to the 
Tantric idea of the lotus, is feminine, and for readily under 
standable reasons. The lotus is the eternal birthplace of the 
gods. It corresponds to the Western rose in which the King of 
Glory sits, often supported by the four evangelists, who corre 
spond to the four quarters. 

From this precious piece of medieval psychology we gain 
some insight into the meaning of our patient's mandala. It 
unites the four and they function together harmoniously. My 
patient had been brought up a Catholic and thus, unwittingly, 
he was confronted with the same problem which caused not a 
little worry to old Guillaume. It was, indeed, a great problem 
to the Middle Ages, this problem of the Trinity and the exclu 
sion, or the very qualified recognition, of the feminine element, 
of the earth, the body, and matter in general, which were yet, in 
the form of Mary's womb, the sacred abode of the Deity and 
the indispensable instrument for the divine work of redemp 
tion. My patient's vision is a symbolic answer to this age-old 
question. That is probably the deeper reason why the image of 
the world clock produced the impression of "most sublime 
harmony/' It was the first intimation of a possible solution of 
the devastating conflict between matter and spirit, between the 
desires of the flesh and the love of God. The miserable and 
ineffectual compromise of the church dream is completely over 
come in this mandala vision, where all opposites are reconciled. 
If we hark back to the old Pythagorean idea that the soul is a 
square, 15 then the mandala would express the Deity through its 
threefold rhythm and the soul through its static quatemity, the 
circle divided into four colours. And thus its innermost mean 
ing would simply be the union of the soul with God. 

As the world clock also represents the quadratura circuit and 
the perpetuum mobile, both these preoccupations of the medi 
eval mind find adequate expression in our mandala. The golden 
circle and its contents represent the quaternity in the form of 
the four Cabiri and the four colours, and the blue circle repre 
sents the Trinity and the movement of time, according to 
Guillaume. In our case, the hand of the blue circle has the 

14 Salzer, p. 66. 

15 Zeller, Die Philosophic der Gricchen, HI, ii, p. iso. According to Archytas, the 
soul is a circle or sphere. 

7* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



fastest movement, while the golden circle moves slowly. Whereas 
the blue circle seems to be somewhat incongruous in Guil- 
laume's golden heaven, the circles in our case are harmoniously 
combined. The Trinity is now the life, the "pulse" of the whole 
system, with a threefold rhythm based, however, on thirty-two, 
a multiple of four. This agrees with the view I expressed before, 
that the quaternity is the sine qua non of divine birth and, con 
sequently, of the inner life of the Trinity. Thus circle and 
quaternity on one side and the threefold rhythm on the other 
interpenetrate so that each is contained in the other. In Guil- 
laume's version the Trinity is obvious enough, but the quater 
nity is concealed in the duality of the King and Queen of 
Heaven. What is more, the blue colour does not belong to the 
queen but to the calendar, which represents time and is char 
acterized by trinitarian attributes. There seems to be a mutual 
interpenetration of symbols, just as in our case. 
1*6 Interpenetrations of qualities and contents are typical not 
only of symbols in general, but also of the essential similarity of 
the contents symbolized. Without this similarity no interpene 
tration would be possible at all. We therefore find interpenetra 
tion also in the Christian conception of the Trinity, where the 
Father appears in the Son, the Son in the Father, the Holy 
Ghost in Father and Son, or both these in the Holy Ghost as 
the Paraclete. The progression from Father to Son and the 
Son's appearance on earth at a particular moment would repre 
sent the time element, while the spatial element would be per 
sonified by the Mater Dei. (The mother quality was originally 
an attribute of the Holy Ghost, and the latter was known as 
Sophia-Sapientia by certain early Christians. 16 This feminine 
quality could not be completely eradicated; it still adheres to 
the symbol of the Holy Ghost, the columba spiritus sancti}. But 
the quaternity is entirely absent from the dogma, though it ap 
pears in early ecclesiastical symbolism. I refer to the cross with 
equal arms enclosed in the circle, the triumphant Christ with 
the four evangelists, the tetramorph, and so on. In later ecclesi 
astical symbolism the rosa mystica, the vas devotionis, the fons 

16 Cf. the invocation in the Acts of Thomas (Mead, Fragments of a Faith For 
gotten, pp. 422ff.)- Also the "seat of wisdom" in the Litany of Loreto, and the 
readings from Proverbs on Mary's feast-days, e.g., the Immaculate Conception 
(Prov. 8:22-35). 

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signatus, and the hortus conclusus appear as attributes of the 
Mater Dei and of the spiritualized earth. 17 

It would hardly be worth while to look at all these relation 
ships in a psychological light if the conceptions of the Trinity 
were nothing more than the ingenuities of human reason. I 
have always taken the view that they belong to the type of revela 
tion to which Koepgen has recently given the name of "Gnosis" 
(not to be confused with Gnosticism). Revelation is an "unveil 
ing" of the depths of the human soul first and foremost, a "lay 
ing bare"; hence it is an essentially psychological event, though 
this does not, of course, tell us what else it might be. That lies 
outside the province of science. My view comes very close to 
Koepgen's lapidary formula, which moreover bears the ecclesi 
astical imprimatur: "The Trinity is a revelation not only of 
God but at the same time of man/' 18 

Our mandala is an abstract, almost mathematical represen 
tation of some of the main problems discussed in medieval 
Christian philosophy. The abstraction goes so far, indeed, that 
if it had not been for the help of Guillaume's vision we might 
have overlooked its widespread system of roots in human his 
tory. The patient did not possess any real knowledge of the 
historical material. He knew only what anybody who had re 
ceived a smattering of religious instruction in early childhood 
would know. He himself saw no connection between his world 
clock and any religious symbolism. One can readily understand 
this, since the vision contains nothing at first sight that would 
remind anyone of religion. Yet the vision itself came shortly 
after the dream of the "House of the Gathering." And that 
dreain was the answer to the problem of three and four repre 
sented in a still earlier dream. There it was a matter of a rec 
tangular space, on the four sides of which were four goblets 
filled with coloured water. One was yellow, another red, the 
third green, and the fourth colourless. Obviously blue was 
missing, yet it had been connected with the three other colours 
in a previous vision, where a bear appeared in the depths of a 
cavern. The bear had four eyes emitting red, yellow, green, and 

17 For the Gnostics the quaternity was decidedly feminine. Cf. Irenaeus, Against 
Heresies, I, ch. xi (Keble trans., p. 36). 

18 JDze Gnosis des Christentums, p. 194. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



blue light. Astonishingly enough, in the later dream the blue 
colour had disappeared. At the same time the customary square 
was transformed into an oblong, which had never appeared 
before. The cause of this manifest disturbance was the dreamer's 
resistance to the feminine element represented by the anima. In 
the dream of the "House of the Gathering" the voice confirms 
this fact. It says: "What you are doing is dangerous. Religion 
is not the tax you pay in order to get rid of the woman's image, 
for this image cannot be got rid of." The "woman's image" is 
exactly what we would call the "anima." 19 

129 It is normal for a man to resist his anima, because she repre 
sents, as I said before, the unconscious and all those tendencies 
and contents hitherto excluded from conscious life. They were 
excluded for a number of reasons, both real and apparent. Some 
are suppressed and some are repressed. As a rule those tendencies 
that represent the antisocial elements in man's psychic struc 
turewhat I call the "statistical criminal" in everybody are 
suppressed, that is, they are consciously and deliberately dis 
posed of. But tendencies that are merely repressed are usually 
of a somewhat doubtful character. They are not so much anti 
social as unconventional and socially awkward. The reason why 
we repress them is equally doubtful. Some people repress them 
from sheer cowardice, others from conventional morality, and 
others again for reasons of respectability. Repression is a sort of 
half-conscious and half-hearted letting go of things, a dropping 
of hot cakes or a reviling of grapes which hang too high, or a 
looking the other way in order not to become conscious of one's 
desires. Freud discovered that repression is one of the main 
mechanisms in the making of a neurosis. Suppression amounts 
to a conscious moral choice, but repression is a rather immoral 
"penchant" for getting rid of disagreeable decisions. Suppres 
sion may cause worry, conflict and suffering, but it never 
causes a neurosis. Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate 
suffering. 

1 3 If one discounts the "statistical criminal," there still remains 
the vast domain of inferior qualities and primitive tendencies 
which belong to the psychic structure of the man who is less 

i See Psychological Types, Defs. 48 and 49. [Also Aion (Coll. Works, Vol. 9, pt. 
n), pars, aoff. EDITORS.] 

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ideal and more primitive than we should like to be. 20 We have 
certain ideas as to how a civilized or educated or moral being 
should live, and we occasionally do our best to fulfil these am 
bitious expectations. But since nature has not bestowed the 
same blessings upon each of her children, some are more and 
others less gifted. Thus there are people who can just afford to 
live properly and respectably; that is to say, no manifest flaw is 
discoverable. They either commit minor sins, if they sin at all, 
or their sins are concealed from them by a thick layer of un 
consciousness. One is rather inclined to be lenient with sinners 
who are unconscious of their sins. But nature is not at all lenient 
with unconscious sinners. She punishes them just as severely as 
if they had committed a conscious offence. Thus we find, as the 
pious Henry Drummond 21 once observed, that it is highly 
moral people, unaware of their other side, who develop particu 
larly hellish moods which make them insupportable to their 
relatives. The odour of sanctity may be far reaching, but to live 
with a saint might well cause an inferiority complex or even a 
wild outburst of immorality in individuals less morally gifted. 
Morality seems to be a gift like intelligence. You cannot pump 
it into a system to which it is not indigenous. 

131 Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the 
whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Every 
one carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the indi 
vidual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an 
inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. 
Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so 
that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is 
repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets cor 
rected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of 
unawareness. At all events, it forms an unconscious snag, thwart 
ing our most well-meant intentions. 

13* We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior 
man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enor 
mous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If 
it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a consid- 

20 A special instance is the "inferior function." See Psychological Types, Def. 30. 
[And Aion, pars, igff. EDITORS.] 

21 Widely known because of his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, The 
quotation comes from The Greatest Thing in the World. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



erably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be 
cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious per 
sonality and his shadow can live together. 

This is a very serious problem for all those who are them 
selves in such a predicament or have to help sick people back 
to normal life. Mere suppression of the shadow is as little of a 
remedy as beheading would be for headache. To destroy a man's 
morality does not help either, because it would kill his better 
self, without which even the shadow makes no sense. The recon 
ciliation of these opposites is a major problem, and even in 
antiquity it bothered certain minds. Thus we know of an other 
wise legendary personality of the second century, Carpocrates, 22 
a Neoplatonist philosopher whose school, according to Irenaeus, 
taught that good and evil are merely human opinions and that 
the soul, before its departure from the body, must pass through 
the whole gamut of human experience to the very end if it is not 
to fall back into the prison of the body. It is as if the soul could 
only ransom itself from imprisonment in the somatic world of 
the demiurge by complete fulfilment of all life's demands. The 
bodily existence in which we find ourselves is a kind of hostile 
brother whose conditions must first be known. It was in this 
sense that the Carpocratians interpreted Matthew 5 : 25f . (also 
Luke 12 : 58f.): "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou 
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver 
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and 
thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by 
no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost 
farthing/' Remembering the other Gnostic doctrine that no 
man can be redeemed from a sin he has not committed, we are 
here confronted with a problem of the very greatest importance, 
obscured though it is by the Christian abhorrence of anything 
Gnostic. Inasmuch as the somatic man, the "adversary," is none 
other than "the other in me," it is plain that the Carpocratian 
mode of thought would lead to the following interpretation of 
Matthew 5 : ssf.: "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry 
with himself without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: 
and whosoever shall say to himself, Raca, shall be in danger of 
the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in 
danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, 
22 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, XXV (Keble, p. 75). Cf. Mead, Fragments, p. 231. 

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and there rernemberest that thou hast aught against thyself, 
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be 
reconciled to thyself , and then come and offer thy gift. Agree 
with thyself quickly, whiles thou art in the way with thyself; 
lest at any time thou deliverest thyself to the judge." From here 
it is but a step to the uncanonical saying: "Man, if indeed thou 
knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed; but if thou knowest 
not, thou art cursed, and a transgressor of the law." 23 But the 
problem comes very close indeed in the parable of the unjust 
steward, which is a stumbling-block in more senses than one. 
"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had 
done wisely" (Luke 16: 8). In the Vulgate the word for 'wisely' 
is prudenter, and in the Greek text it is <pwtjuws (prudently, 
sensibly, intelligently). There's no denying that practical intelli 
gence functions here as a court of ethical decision. Perhaps, 
despite Irenaeus, we may credit the Carpocratians with this 
much insight, and allow that they too, like the unjust steward, 
were commendably aware of how to save face. It is natural that 
the more robust mentality of the Church Fathers could not 
appreciate the delicacy and the merit of this subtle and, from a 
modern point of view, immensely practical argument. It was 
also dangerous, and it is still the most vital and yet the most 
ticklish ethical problem of a civilization that has forgotten why 
man's life should be sacrificial, that is, offered up to an idea 
greater than himself. Man can live the most amazing things if 
they make sense to him. But the difficulty is to create that sense. 
It must be a conviction, naturally; but you find that the most 
convincing things man can invent are cheap and ready-made, and 
are never able to convince him against his personal desires and 
fears. 

If the repressed tendencies, the shadow as I call them, were 
obviously evil, there would be no problem whatever. But the 
shadow is merely somewhat inferior, primitive, unadapted, and 
awkward; not wholly bad. It even contains childish or primitive 
qualities which would in a way vitalize and embellish human 
existence, but convention forbids! The educated public, flower 
of our present civilization, has detached itself from its roots, 
and is about to lose its connection with the earth as well. There 

2S James, trans., The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 33. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



is no civilized country nowadays where the lowest strata of the 
population are not in a state of unrest and dissent. In a number 
of European nations such a condition is overtaking the upper 
strata too. This state of affairs demonstrates our psychological 
problem on a gigantic scale. Inasmuch as collectivities are mere 
accumulations of individuals, their problems are accumulations 
of individual problems. One set of people identifies itself with 
the superior man and cannot descend, and the other set identi 
fies itself with the inferior man and wants to get to the top. 

135 Such problems are never solved by legislation or by tricks. 
They are solved only by a general change of attitude. And the 
change does not begin with propaganda and mass meetings, or 
with violence. It begins with a change in individuals. It will con 
tinue as a transformation of their personal likes and dislikes, of 
their outlook on life and of their values, and only the accumula 
tion of these individual changes will produce a collective solu 
tion. 

1 3 6 The educated man tries to repress the inferior man in him 
self, not realizing that by so doing he forces the latter into re 
volt. It is characteristic of my patient that he once dreamt of a 
military party that wanted "to strangle the left completely." 
Somebody remarks that the left is weak enough anyway, but the 
military party answers that this is just why it ought to be 
strangled completely. The dream shows how my patient dealt 
with his own inferior man. This is clearly not the right method. 
The dream of the "House of the Gathering," on the contrary, 
shows a religious attitude as the correct answer to his question. 
The mandala seems to be an amplification of this particular 
point. Historically, as we have seen, the mandala served as a 
symbol to clarify the nature of the deity philosophically, or to 
represent the same thing in a visible form for the purpose of 
adoration, or, as in the East, as a yantra for yoga practices. The 
wholeness ("perfection") of the celestial circle and the square 
ness of the earth, combining the four principles or elements or 
psychic qualities, 24 express completeness and union. Thus the 
mandala has the status of a "uniting symbol." 25 As the union of 

24 in Tibetan Buddhism the four colours are associated with psychic qualities (the 
four forms of wisdom). Cf. my psychological commentary to the Tibetan Book 
of the Dead, below, p. 522. 

25 See Psychological Types, Def. 51. 

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God and man is expressed in the symbol of Christ or the cross, 26 
we would expect the patient's world clock to have a similar 
reconciling significance. Prejudiced by historical analogies, we 
would expect a deity to occupy the centre of the mandala. The 
centre is, however, empty. The seat of the deity is unoccupied, 
in spite of the fact that, when we analyse the mandala in terms 
of its historical models, we arrive at the god symbolized by the 
circle and the goddess symbolized by the square. Instead of 
"goddess" we could also say "earth" or "soul." Despite the his 
torical prejudice, however, the fact must be insisted upon that 
(as in the "House of the Gathering," where the place of the 
sacred image was occupied by the quaternity) we find no trace 
of a deity in the mandala, but, on the contrary, a mechanism. I 
do not believe that we have any right to disregard such an im 
portant fact in favour of a preconceived idea. A dream or a 
vision is just what it seems to be. It is not a disguise for some 
thing else. It is a natural product, which is precisely a thing with 
out ulterior motive. I have seen many hundreds of mandalas, 
done by patients who were quite uninfluenced, and I have found 
the same fact in an overwhelming majority of cases: there was 
never a deity occupying the centre. The centre, as a rule, is 
emphasized. But what we find there is a symbol with a very 
different meaning. It is a star, a sun, a flower, a cross with equal 
arms, a precious stone, a bowl filled with water or wine, a ser 
pent coiled up, or a human being, but never a god. 27 

When we find a triumphant Christ in the rose window of a 
medieval church, we rightly assume that this must be a central 
symbol of the Christian cult. At the same time we also assume 
that any religion which is rooted in the history of a people is 
as much an expression of their psychology as the form of polit 
ical government, for instance, that the people have developed. 

26 The cross has also the meaning of a boundary-stone between heaven and hell, 
since it is set up in the centre of the cosmos and extends to all sides. (Cf. Kroll, 
Gott und Holle, p. 18, n. 3.) The Tibetan mandala occupies a similar central 
position, its upper half rising up to heaven out of the earth (like the hemispher 
ical stupas at Sanchi, India), with hell lying below. I have often found the same 
construction in individual mandalas: the light world on top, the dark below, as 
if they were projecting into these worlds. There is a similar design in Jakob 
Bohme's "reversed eye" or "philosophical mirror" (XL Questions concerning the 
Soule, 1647). [Cf. "A Study in the Process of Individuation," fig. i, p. 297.] 
2T [Cf. the illustrations in Jung, "Concerning Mandala Symbolism." EDITORS.] 

so 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



If we apply the same method to the modern mandalas that 
people have seen in dreams or visions, or have developed through 
"active imagination," 28 we reach the conclusion that mandalas 
are expressions of a certain attitude which we cannot help call 
ing "religious." Religion is a relationship to the highest or most 
powerful value, be it positive or negative. The relationship is 
voluntary as well as involuntary, that is to say you can accept, 
consciously, the value by which you are possessed unconsciously. 
That psychological fact which wields the greatest power in your 
system functions as a god, since it is always the overwhelming 
psychic factor that is called "God." As soon as a god ceases to 
be an overwhelming factor he dwindles to a mere name. His 
essence is dead and his power is gone. Why did the gods of an 
tiquity lose their prestige and their effect on the human soul? 
Because the Olympians had served their time and a new mystery 
began: God became man. 

If we allow ourselves to draw conclusions from modern 
mandalas we should ask people, first, whether they worship stars, 
suns, flowers, and snakes. They will deny this, and at the same 
time they will assert that the globes, stars, crosses, and the like 
are symbols for a centre in themselves. And if asked what they 
mean .by this centre, they will begin to stammer and to refer to 
this or that experience which may turn out to be something very 
similar to the confession of my patient, who found that the 
vision of his world clock had left him with a wonderful feeling 
of perfect harmony. Others will confess that a similar vision 
came to them in a moment of extreme pain or profound despair. 
To others again it is the memory of a sublime dream or of a 
moment when long and fruitless struggles came to an end and a 
reign of peace began. If you sum up what people tell you about 
their experiences, you can formulate it this way: They came to 
themselves, they could accept themselves, they were able to be 
come reconciled to themselves, and thus were reconciled to 
adverse circumstances and events. This is almost like what used 
to be expressed by saying: He has made his peace with God, 

28 This is a technical term referring to a method I have proposed, for raising un 
conscious contents to consciousness. [Cf. "The Relations between the Ego and the 
Unconscious," pars. 342ff.; "The Psychological Aspects of the Kore," pars, gigff., 
"The Transcendent Function/* pars, idyf., Mysterium Coniunctionis* pars. 753f.] 

8l 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



he has sacrificed his own will, he has submitted himself to the 
will of God. 

139 A modern mandala is an involuntary confession of a peculiar 
mental condition. There is no deity in the mandala, nor is there 
any submission or reconciliation to a deity. The place of the 
deity seems to be taken by the wholeness of man. 29 

140 When one speaks of man, everybody means his own ego- 
personality that is, his personality so far as he is conscious of 
it and when one speaks of others one assumes that they have a 
very similar personality. But since modern research has ac 
quainted us with the fact that individual consciousness is based 
on and surrounded by an indefinitely extended unconscious 
psyche, we must needs revise our somewhat old-fashioned preju 
dice that man is nothing but his consciousness. This naive 
assumption must be confronted at once with the critical ques 
tion: Whose consciousness? The fact is, it would be a difficult 
task to reconcile the picture I have of myself with the one which 
other people have of me. Who is right? And who is the real indi 
vidual? If we go further and consider the fact that man is also 
what neither he himself nor other people know of him an un 
known something which can yet be proved to exist the problem 
of identity becomes more difficult still. Indeed, it is quite im 
possible to define the extent and the ultimate character of 
psychic existence. When we now speak of man we mean the 
indefinable whole of him, an ineffable totality, which can only 
be formulated symbolically. I have chosen the term "self" to 
designate the totality of man, the sum total of his conscious and 
unconscious contents. 30 I have chosen this term in accordance 
with Eastern philosophy, 31 which for centuries has occupied it 
self with the problems that arise when even the gods cease to 
incarnate. The philosophy of the Upanishads corresponds to a 
psychology that long ago recognized the relativity of the gods. 32 
This is not to be confused with a stupid error like atheism. The 

29 For the psychology of the mandala, see my "Commentary on The Secret of the 
Golden Flower" pars. 3 iff. [Also "Concerning Mandala Symbolism/' pars. Ssyff.- 
EDITORS.] 

30 See Psychological Types, Def. 16 [and 46 in Coll Works, vol. 6].[Also "The Re 
lations between the Ego and the Unconscious," par. 274; Aion t pars. 4gff. EDITORS.] 

31 C. Hauer, "Symbole und Erfahrung des Selbstes," p. 33. 

32 Concerning the concept of the "relativity of God," see Psychological Types, 
ch. V, 4 b. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



world is as it ever has been, but our consciousness undergoes 
peculiar changes. First, in remote times (which can still be ob 
served among primitives living today), the main body of psychic 
life was apparently in human and in nonhuman objects: it was 
projected, as we should say now. 33 Consciousness can hardly exist 
in a state of complete projection. At most it would be a heap of 
emotions. Through the withdrawal of projections, conscious 
knowledge slowly developed. Science, curiously enough, began 
with the discovery of astronomical laws, and hence with the 
withdrawal, so to speak, of the most distant projections. This 
was the first stage in the despiritualization of the world. One 
step followed another: already in antiquity the gods were with 
drawn from mountains and rivers, from trees and animals. 
Modern science has subtilized its projections to an almost un 
recognizable degree, but our ordinary life still swarms with 
them. You can find them spread out in the newspapers, in 
books, rumours, and ordinary social gossip. All gaps in our 
actual knowledge are still filled out with projections. We are 
still so sure we know what other people think or what their true 
character is. We are convinced that certain people have all the 
bad qualities we do not know in ourselves or that they practise 
all those vices which could, of course, never be our own. We 
must still be exceedingly careful not to project our own shadows 
too shamelessly; we are still swamped with projected illusions. 
If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all 
these projections, then you get an individual who is conscious 
of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with 
new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem 
to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, 
they are wrong, and they must be fought against. He lives in the 
"House of the Gathering." Such a man knows that whatever is 
wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal 
with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. 
He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part 
of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day. These 
problems are mostly so difficult because they are poisoned by 
mutual projections. How can anyone see straight when he does 
not even see himself and the darkness he unconsciously carries 
with him into all his dealings? 
83 This fact accounts for the theory of animism. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Modern psychological development leads to a much better 
understanding as to what man really consists of. The gods at 
first lived in superhuman power and beauty on the top of snow- 
clad mountains or in the darkness of caves, woods, and seas. 
Later on they drew together into one god, and then that god 
became man. But in our day even the God-man seems to have 
descended from his throne and to be dissolving himself in the 
common man. That is probably why his seat is empty. Instead, 
the common man suffers from a hybris of consciousness that 
borders on the pathological. This psychic condition in the indi 
vidual corresponds by and large to the hypertrophy and totali 
tarian pretensions of the idealized State. In the same way that 
the State has caught the individual, the individual imagines 
that he has caught the psyche and holds her in the hollow of his 
hand. He is even making a science of her in the absurd supposi 
tion that the intellect, which is but a part and a function of the 
psyche, is sufficient to comprehend the much greater whole. In 
reality the psyche is the mother and the maker, the subject and 
even the possibility of consciousness itself. It reaches so far be 
yond the boundaries of consciousness that the latter could easily 
be compared to an island in the ocean. Whereas the island is 
small and narrow, the ocean is immensely wide and deep and 
contains a life infinitely surpassing, in kind and degree, anything 
known on the island so that if it is a question of space, it does 
not matter whether the gods are "inside" or "outside." It might 
be objected that there is no proof that consciousness is nothing 
more than an island in the ocean. Certainly it is impossible to 
prove this, since the known range of consciousness is confronted 
with the unknown extension of the unconscious, of which we 
only know that it exists and by the very fact of its existence 
exerts a limiting effect on consciousness and its freedom. Wher 
ever unconsciousness reigns, there is bondage and possession. 
The immensity of the ocean is simply a comparison; it ex 
presses in allegorical form the capacity of the unconscious to 
limit and threaten consciousness. Empirical psychology loved, 
until recently, to explain the "unconscious" as mere absence of 
consciousness the term itself indicates as much just as shadow 
is an absence of light. Today accurate observation of uncon 
scious processes has recognized, with all other ages before us, 
that the unconscious possesses a creative autonomy such as a 

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mere shadow could never be endowed with. When Cams, von 
Hartmann and, in a sense, Schopenhauer equated the uncon 
scious with the world-creating principle, they were only sum 
ming up all those teachings of the past which, grounded in 
inner experience, saw the mysterious agent personified as the 
gods. It suits our hypertrophied and hybristic modern conscious 
ness not to be mindful of the dangerous autonomy of the 
unconscious and to treat it negatively as an absence of conscious 
ness. The hypothesis of invisible gods or daemons would be, 
psychologically, a far more appropriate formulation, even 
though it would be an anthropomorphic projection. But since 
the development of consciousness requires die withdrawal of 
all the projections we can lay our hands on, it is not possible 
to maintain any non-psychological doctrine about the gods. If 
the historical process of world despiritualization continues as 
hitherto, then everything of a divine or daemonic character out 
side us must return to the psyche, to the inside of the unknown 
man, whence it apparently originated. 

14* The materialistic error was probably unavoidable at first. 
Since the throne of God could not be discovered among the 
galactic systems, the inference was that God had never existed. 
The second unavoidable error is psychologism: if God is any 
thing, he must be an illusion derived from certain motives 
from the will to power, for instance, or from repressed sexuality. 
These arguments are not new. Much the same thing was said 
by the Christian missionaries who overthrew the idols of 
heathen gods. But whereas the early missionaries were conscious 
of serving a new God by combatting the old ones, modern 
iconoclasts are unconscious of the one in whose name they are 
destroying old values. Nietzsche thought himself quite conscious 
and responsible when he smashed the old tablets, yet he felt a 
peculiar need to back himself up with a revivified Zarathustra, 
a sort of alter ego, with whom he often identifies himself in his 
great tragedy Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche was no atheist, 
but his God was dead. The result of this demise was a split in 
himself, and he felt compelled to call the other self "Zarathustra" 
or, at times, "Dionysus." In his fatal illness he signed his letters 
"Zagreus," the dismembered god of the Thracians. The tragedy 
of Zarathustra is that, because his God died, Nietzsche himself 
became a god; and this happened because he was no atheist. He 

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was of too positive a nature to tolerate the urban neurosis of 
atheism. It seems dangerous for such a man to assert that "God 
is dead": he instantly becomes the victim of inflation. 34 Far 
from being a negation, God is actually the strongest and most 
effective "position" the psyche can reach, in exactly the same 
sense in which Paul speaks of people "whose God is their belly" 
(Phil. 3: 19). The strongest and therefore the decisive factor in 
any individual psyche compels the same belief or fear, sub 
mission or devotion which a God would demand from man. 
Anything despotic and inescapable is in this sense "God," and it 
becomes absolute unless, by an ethical decision freely chosen, 
one succeeds in building up against this natural phenomenon a 
position that is equally strong and invincible. If this psychic 
position proves to be absolutely effective, it surely deserves to be 
named a "God," and what is more, a spiritual God, since it 
sprang from the freedom of ethical decision and therefore from 
the mind. Man is free to decide whether "God" shall be a 
"spirit" or a natural phenomenon like the craving of a morphine 
addict, and hence whether "God" shall act as a beneficent or a 
destructive force. 

143 However indubitable and clearly understandable these psy 
chic events or decisions may be, they are very apt to lead people 
to the false, unpsychological conclusion that it rests with them 
to decide whether they will create a "God" for themselves or 
not. There is no question of that, since each of us is equipped 
with a psychic disposition that limits our freedom in high degree 
and makes it practically illusory. Not only is "freedom of the 
will" an incalculable problem philosophically, it is also a mis 
nomer in the practical sense, for we seldom find anybody who 
is not influenced and indeed dominated by desires, habits, im 
pulses, prejudices, resentments, and by every conceivable kind 
of complex. All these natural facts function exactly like an 
Olympus full of deities who want to be propitiated, served, 
feared and worshipped, not only by the individual owner of this 
assorted pantheon, but by everybody in his vicinity. Bondage 
and possession are synonymous. Always, therefore, there is 
something in the psyche that takes possession and limits or 
suppresses our moral freedom. In order to hide this undeniable 

34 Concerning the concept "inflation," see "The Relations between the Ego and 
the Unconscious/ 1 pars. 228ff. 

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but exceedingly unpleasant fact from ourselves and at the same 
time pay lip-service to freedom, we have got accustomed to 
saying apotropaically, "/ have such and such a desire or habit 
or feeling of resentment," instead of the more veracious "Such 
and such a desire or habit or feeling of resentment has me" The 
latter formulation would certainly rob us even of the illusion 
of freedom. But I ask myself whether this would not be better 
in the end than fuddling ourselves with words. The truth is 
that we do not enjoy masterless freedom; we are continually 
threatened by psychic factors which, in the guise of "natural 
phenomena," may take possession of us at any moment. The 
withdrawal of metaphysical projections leaves us almost defence 
less in the face of this happening, for we immediately identify 
with every impulse instead of giving it the name of the "other," 
which would at least hold it at arm's length and prevent it from 
storming the citadel of the ego. "Principalities and powers" are 
always with us; we have no need to create them even if we could. 
It is merely incumbent on us to choose the master we wish to 
serve, so that his service shall be our safeguard against being 
mastered by the "other" whom we have not chosen. We do not 
create "God," we choose him. 

144 Though our choice characterizes and defines "God," it is 
always man-made, and the definition it gives is therefore finite 
and imperfect. (Even the idea of perfection does not posit per 
fection.) The definition is an image, but this image does not 
raise the unknown fact it designates into the realm of intelligi 
bility, otherwise we would be entitled to say that we had created 
a God. The "master" we choose is not identical with the image 
we project of him in time and space. He goes on working as 
before, like an unknown quantity in the depths of the psyche. 
We do not even know the nature of the simplest thought, let 
alone the ultimate principles of the psyche. Also, we have no 
control over its inner life. But because this inner life is in 
trinsically free and not subject to our will and intentions, it may 
easily happen that the living thing chosen and defined by us will 
drop out of its setting, the man-made image, even against our 
will. Then, perhaps, we could say with Nietzsche, "God is dead." 
Yet it would be truer to say, "He has put off our image, and 
where shall we find him again?" The interregnum is full of 
danger, for the natural facts will raise their claim in the form 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



of various -isms, which are productive of nothing but anarchy 
and destruction because inflation and man's hybris between 
them have elected to make the ego, in all its ridiculous paltri 
ness, lord of the universe. That was the case with Nietzsche, the 
uncomprehended portent of a whole epoch. 

145 The individual ego is much too small, its brain is much too 
feeble, to incorporate all the projections withdrawn from the 
world. Ego and brain burst asunder in the effort; the psychia 
trist calls it schizophrenia. When Nietzsche said "God is dead," 
he uttered a truth which is valid for the greater pan of Europe. 
People were influenced by it not because he said so, but because 
it stated a widespread psychological fact. The consequences were 
not long delayed: after the fog of -isms, the catastrophe. Nobody 
thought of drawing the slightest conclusions from Nietzsche's 
pronouncement. Yet it has, for some ears, the same eerie sound 
as that ancient cry which came echoing over the sea to mark 
the end of the nature gods: "Great Pan is dead." 35 

H6 The life of Christ is understood by the Church on the one 
hand as an historical, and on the other hand as an eternally exist 
ing, mystery. This is especially evident in the sacrifice of the 
Mass. From a psychological standpoint this view can be trans 
lated as follows: Christ lived a concrete, personal, and unique 
life which, in all essential features, had at the same time an 
archetypal character. This character can be recognized from the 
numerous connections of the biographical details with world 
wide myth-motifs. These undeniable connections are the main 
reason why it is so difficult for researchers into the life of Jesus 
to construct from the gospel reports an individual life divested 
of myth. In the gospels themselves factual reports, legends, and 
myths are woven into a whole. This is precisely what constitutes 
the meaning of the gospels, and they would immediately lose 
their character of wholeness if one tried to separate the indi 
vidual from the archetypal with a critical scalpel. The life of 
Christ is no exception in that not a few of the great figures of 
history have realized, more or less clearly, the archetype of the 
hero's life with its characteristic changes of fortune. But the 
ordinary man, too, unconsciously lives archetypal forms, and if 
these are no longer valued it is only because of the prevailing 
psychological ignorance. Indeed, even the fleeting phenomena 

35 Plutarch, DC defectu oraeulorum, 17. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



of dreams often reveal distinctly archetypal patterns. At bottom, 
all psychic events are so deeply grounded in the archetype and 
are so much interwoven with it that in every case considerable 
critical effort is needed to separate the unique from the typical 
with any certainty. Ultimately, every individual life is at the 
same time the eternal life of the species. The individual is con 
tinuously "historical" because strictly time-bound; the relation 
of the type to time, on the other hand, is irrelevant. Since the 
life of Christ is archetypal to a high degree, it represents to just 
that degree the life of the archetype. But since the archetype 
is the unconscious precondition of every human life, its life, 
when revealed, also reveals the hidden, unconscious ground- 
life of every individual. That is to say, what happens in the life 
of Christ happens always and everywhere. In the Christian 
archetype all lives of this kind are prefigured and are expressed 
over and over again or once and for all. And in it, too, the ques 
tion that concerns us here of God's death is anticipated in perfect 
form. Christ himself is the typical dying and self-transforming 
God. 

147 The psychological situation from which we started is tanta 
mount to "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not 
here" (Luke 24:5!). But where shall we find the risen Christ? 

*48 I do not expect any believing Christian to pursue these 
thoughts of mine any further, for they will probably seem to him 
absurd. I am not, however, addressing myself to the happy 
possessors of faith, but to those many people for whom the light 
has gone out, the mystery has faded, and God is dead. For most 
of them there is no going back, and one does not know either 
whether going back is always the better way. To gain an under 
standing of religious matters, probably all that is left us today 
is the psychological approach. That is why I take these thought- 
forms that have become historically fixed, try to melt them down 
again and pour them into moulds of immediate experience. It 
is certainly a difficult undertaking to discover connecting links 
between dogma and immediate experience of psychological 
archetypes, but a study of the natural symbols of the unconscious 
gives us the necessary raw material. 

*49 God's death, or his disappearance, is by no means only a 
Christian symbol. The search which follows the death is still 
repeated today after the death of a Dalai Lama, and in antiquity 

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it was celebrated in the annual search for the Kore. Such a wide 
distribution argues in favour of the universal occurrence of 
this typical psychic process: the highest value, which gives life 
and meaning, has got lost. This is a typical experience that has 
been repeated many times, and its expression therefore occupies 
a central place in the Christian mystery. The death or loss must 
always repeat itself: Christ always dies, and always he is born; 
for the psychic life of the archetype is timeless in comparison 
with our individual time-boundness. According to what laws 
now one and now another aspect of the archetype enters into 
active manifestation, I do not know. I only know and here I am 
expressing what countless other people know that the present 
is a time of God's death and disappearance. The myth says he 
was not to be found where his body was laid. "Body" means the 
outward, visible form, the erstwhile but ephemeral setting for 
the highest value. The myth further says that the value rose 
again in a miraculous manner, transformed. It looks like a 
miracle, for, when a value disappears, it always seems to be lost 
irretrievably. So it is quite unexpected that it should come back. 
The three days' descent into hell during death describes the 
sinking of the vanished value into the unconscious, where, by 
conquering the power of darkness, it establishes a new order, 
and then rises up to heaven again, that is, attains supreme clarity 
of consciousness. The fact that only a few people see the Risen 
One means that no small difficulties stand in the way of finding 
and recognizing the transformed value. 

I showed earlier, with the help of dreams, how the uncon 
scious produces a natural symbol, technically termed a mandala, 
which has the functional significance of a union of opposites, or 
of mediation. These speculative ideas, symptomatic of an acti 
vated archetype, can be traced back to about the time of the 
Reformation, where we find them formulated in the alchemical 
treatises as symbolic geometrical figures which sought to express 
the nature of the Deus terrenus, the philosophers' stone. For 
instance, we read in the commentary to the Tractatus aureus: 

This one thing to which the elements must be reduced is that little 
circle holding the place of the centre in this squared figure. It is a 
mediator making peace between enemies or the elements, that they 
may love one another in a meet embrace. He alone brings about the 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



squaring of the circle, which many hitherto have sought, but few 
have found. 36 

Of this "mediator," the wonderful stone, Orthelius says: 

For as ... the supernatural and eternal good, Christ Jesus our 
Mediator and Saviour, who delivers us from eternal death, from the 
devil, and from all evil, partakes of two natures, the divine and the 
human, so likewise is that earthly saviour composed of two parts, 
the heavenly and the earthly. With these he has restored us to health, 
and delivers us from diseases heavenly and earthly, spiritual and 
corporeal, visible and invisible. 37 

Here the "saviour" does not come down from heaven but out 
of the depths of the earth, i.e., from that which lies below con 
sciousness. These philosophers suspected that a "spirit" was im 
prisoned there, in the vessel of matter; a "white dove" compara 
ble to the Nous in the krater of Hermes, of which it is said: 
"Plunge into this krater, if thou canst, by recognizing to what 
end thou wast created, 38 and by believing that thou wilt rise up 
to Him, who hath sent the krater down to earth." 39 

This Nous or spirit was known as "Mercurius," 40 and it is 
to this arcanum that the alchemical saying refers: "What 
ever the wise seek is in mercury." A very ancient formula, at 
tributed by Zosimos to the legendary Ostanes, runs: "Go to the 
waters of the Nile, and there thou wilt find a stone that hath a 
spirit [pneuma]." A commentator explains that this refers to 
quicksilver (hydrargyron, mercury). 41 This spirit, coming from 
God, is also the cause of the "greenness," the benedicta viriditas y 
much praised by the alchemists. Mylius says of it: "God has 
breathed into created things ... a kind of germination, which 
is the viridescence." In Hildegard of Bingen's Hymn to the Holy 
Ghost, which begins "O ignis Spiritus paraclite," we read: 
"From you the clouds rain down, the heavens move, the stones 
have their moisture, the waters give forth streams, and the earth 

38 Manget, Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, I (1702), p. 408. 

37 Theatrum chemicum, VI (1661), p. 451. 

38 Cf. the very similar formula in the "Fundamentum" of St. Ignatius Loyola's 
Spiritual Exercises, [Cf. Aion, par, 252.] 39 Corpus Hermeticum, IV, 4. 

40 Mercury is "wholly aerial and spiritual." Theobald de Hoghelande, "Be 
alchemiae difficultatibus," Theatr. chem., I (1602), p. 183. 

41 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, vi, 5. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION t WEST 



sweats out greenness." 41a This water of the Holy Ghost played 
an important role in alchemy since the remotest times, as the 
vSojp dlov or aqua permanens, a symbol of the spirit assimilated 
to matter, which according to Heraclitus turned to water. The 
Christian parallel was naturally Christ's blood, for which reason 
the water of the philosophers was named "spiritualis sanguis." 42 
The arcane substance was also known simply as the rotun- 
dum > by which was understood the anima media natura, iden 
tical with the anima mundi. The latter is a virtus Dei, an organ 
or a sphere that surrounds God. Of this Mylius says: "[God has] 
love all round him. Others have declared him to be an intellec 
tual and fiery spirit, 43 having no form, but transforming himself 
into whatsoever he wills and making himself equal to all things; 
who by a manifold relation is in a certain measure bound up 
with his creatures." ** This image of God enveloped by the 
anima is the same as Gregory the Great's allegory of Christ and 
the Church: "A woman shall compass a man" (Jeremiah 31: 
ss). 45 This is an exact parallel to the Tantric conception of Shiva 
in the embrace of his Shakti. 46 From this fundamental image of 
the male-female opposites united in the centre is derived 
another designation of the lapis as the "hermaphrodite"; it is 
also the basis for the mandala motif. The extension of God as 
the anima media natura into every individual creature means 
that there is a divine spark, the scintilla, 47 indwelling even in 

4 la Daniel, Thesaurus, V, pp. 201-2. 

42 Mylius, Philosophia reformata, p. 42; Dorn, "Congeries," Theatr. chem., I, p. 
584; "Turba philosophorum," Artis auriferae, I (1593), p. 89. 

43 Originally a Platonic idea. 44 Mylius, p. 8. 

45 St. Gregory, Expositiones in librum I Regum, I, i, i; Migne, P.L., vol. 79, 
col. 23. 

46Barbek> or Ennoia plays the role of the anima in Barbelo-Gnosis. Bousset 
thinks the name "Barbelo" is a corruption of parthenos, 'virgin.' It is also trans 
lated as 4 God is in the Four/ 

47 This idea was formulated in the conception of the "anima in compedibus," the 
fettered or imprisoned soul. (Cf. Dorn, "Speculativa philosophia," Thcatr. chem., 
I, pp. 272, 298; "De spagirico artificio," etc., ibid., I, pp. 457, 497.) So far, I 
have found no evidence that the medieval natural philosophers based themselves 
consciously on any heretical traditions. But the parallels are astonishing. Those 
"enchained in Hades" are mentioned very early on, in the Comarius text dating 
from the ist century (Berthelot, Alch. gws, IV, xx, 8.) For the spark in the dark 
ness and the spirit imprisoned in matter, see Leisegang, Die Gnosis, pp. 154! and 
233. A similar motif is the conception of the "natura abscondita," which is dis- 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



dead matter, in utter darkness. The medieval natural philoso 
phers endeavoured to make this spark rise up again as a divine 
image from the "round vessel." Such ideas can only be based on 
the existence of unconscious psychic processes, for otherwise we 
simply could not understand how the same ideas crop up every 
where. Our dream-example shows that such images are not in 
ventions of the intellect; rather, they are natural revelations. 
And they will probably be found again and again in exactly 
the same way. The alchemists themselves say that the arcanum 
is sometimes revealed in a dream. 48 

The old natural philosophers not only felt pretty clearly, but 
actually said, that the miraculous substance whose essential 
nature they symbolized by a circle divided into four parts, was 
man himself. The "Aenigmata ex visiqne Arislei" 49 speaks of 
the homo albus who is formed in the hermetic vessel. This 
"white man" is the equivalent of the priest figure in the visions 
of Zosimos. In the Arabic-transmitted "Book of Krates" 50 we 
find an equally significant allusion in the dialogue between the 
spiritual and the worldly man (corresponding to the pneu- 
matikos and sarkikos of the Gnostics). The spiritual man says 
to the worldly man: "Are you capable of knowing your soul in 
a complete manner? If you knew it as is fitting, and if you knew 
what makes it better, you would be able to recognize that the 
names which the philosophers formerly gave it are not its true 
names. . . . O dubious names which resemble the true names, 
what errors and agonies you have provoked among men!" The 
names refer in turn to the philosophers' stone. A treatise 
ascribed to Zosimos, though it more likely derives from the 

coverable in man and in all things, and is of the same nature as the anima. Thus 
Dora ("De spagirico artificio," p. 457) says: "In the body of man there is hidden 
a certain substance of heavenly nature known to very few." In his "Philosophia 
specula tiva" (p. 1598) the same author says: "There is in natural things a certain 
truth not seen by the outward eye but perceived by the mind alone. Of this the 
philosophers had experience, and found its virtue to be such that it worked 
miracles." The idea of the "hidden nature" occurs already in Pseudo-Democritus. 
(Berthelot, II, iii, 6.) 

48 A classical example is the "Visio Arislei" (Art. aurif., I, pp. 146^.). Also the 
visions of Zosimos (Berthelot, III, i-vi); cf. my paper "The Visions of Zosimos." 
Revelation of the magistery in a dream in Sendivogius, "Parabola" (Bibliotheca 
chemica curiosa, II, 1702, p. 475). 

49 Art. aurif., I, p. 151. 50 Berthelot, La Chimit au may en Age, in, p. 50, 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Arabic-Latinist school of literature, says unmistakably of the 
stone: "Thus it comes from man, and you are its mineral (raw 
material); in you it is found, and from you it is extracted . . . 
and it remains inseparably in you." 51 Solomon Trismosin ex 
presses it most clearly of all: 

Study what thou art, 

Whereof thou art a part, 

What thou knowest of this art, 

This is really what thou art. 

All that is without thee 

Also is within. 

Thus wrote Trismosin. 52 

And Gerhard Dorn cries out: "Transform yourselves into 
living philosophical stonesl" 53 There can hardly be any doubt 
that not a few of those seekers had the dawning knowledge that 
the secret nature of the stone was man's own self. This "self" 
was evidently never thought of as an entity identical with the 
ego, and for this reason it was described as a "hidden nature" 
dwelling in inanimate matter, as a spirit, daemon, 54 or fiery 
spark. By means of the philosophical opus, which was mostly 
thought of as a mental one, 55 this entity was freed from darkness 
and imprisonment, and finally it enjoyed a resurrection, often 
represented in the form of an apotheosis and equated with the 
resurrection of Christ. 56 It is clear that these ideas can have 

5i"Rosinus ad Sarratantam," Art. aurif. t I, p. 311. 

SZAureum vellus (1598), p. 5; trans. J. K., Splendor soils (1920). Cf. also Rosarium 
(Art. aurif., II, p. 292): "None does that work without God's help/ And then only 
if he see through himself." 

53 "Speculativa philosophia," Theatr. chem., I, p. 267. 

54 Olympiodorus (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, II, iv, 43). 

55 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 357ff. 

56 Mylius (Phil, ref., p. 106) says that the masculine and feminine components of 
the stone must first be killed "that they may be brought to life again in a new 
and incorruptible resurrection, so that thereafter they may be immortal/' The 
stone is also compared to the future resurrected body as a "corpus glorificatum." 
The "Aurea hora," or "Aurora consurgens" (Art. aurif., I, p. 201) says it is "like 
to a body which is glorified in the day of judgment." Cf. de Hoghelande, Theatr. 
chem., I, p. 189; "Consilium coniugii," Ars chemica (1566), p. 128; "Aurea hora," 
Art. aurif., I, p. 195; Djabir, "Le Livre de la mis&icorde," hi Berthelot, La Chimie 
au moyen age, III, p. 188; "Le Livre d'Ostanes," in ibid., p. 117; Comarius, in 
Berthelot, Alch. grecs, IV, xx, 15; Zosimos, in ibid., Ill, viii, 2, and HI, i, 2; Turba 
phiL, ed. Ruska, p. 139; Michael Maier, Symbola aureae mensae (1617), p. 599; 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



nothing to do with the empirical ego, but are concerned with a 
"divine nature*' quite distinct from it, and hence, psycholog 
ically speaking, with a consciousness-transcending content issu 
ing from the realm of the unconscious. 

155 With this we come back to our modern experiences. They 
are obviously similar in nature to the basic medieval and clas 
sical ideas, and can therefore be expressed by the same, or at any 
rate similar, symbols. The medieval representations of the circle 
are based on the idea of the microcosm, a concept that was also 
applied to the stone. 57 The stone was a "little world" like man 
himself, a sort of inner image of the cosmos, reaching not into 
immeasurable distances but into an equally immeasurable 
depth-dimension, i.e., from the small to the unimaginably small 
est. Mylius therefore calls this centre the "punctum cordis." 58 

*5 6 The experience formulated by the modern mandala is typi 
cal of people who cannot project the divine image any longer. 
Owing to the withdrawal and introjection of the image they are 
in danger of inflation and dissociation of the personality. The 
round or square enclosures built round the centre therefore 
have the purpose of protective walls or of a vas hermeticum, to 
prevent an outburst or a disintegration. Thus the mandala de 
notes and assists exclusive concentration on the centre, the self. 
This is anything but egocentricity. On the contrary, it is a much 
needed self-control for the purpose of avoiding inflation and 
dissociation. 

157 The enclosure, as we have seen, has also the meaning of what 
is called in Greek a temenos, the precincts of a temple or any 
isolated sacred place. The circle in this case protects or isolates 
an inner content or process that should not get mixed up with 
things outside. Thus the mandala repeats in symbolic form 
archaic procedures which were once concrete realities. As I 
have already mentioned, the inhabitant of the temenos was a 
god. But the prisoner, or the well-protected dweller in the man 
dala, does not seem to be a god, since the symbols used stars, 
crosses, globes, etc do not signify a god but an obviously im 
portant part of the human personality. One might almost say 
that man himself, or his innermost soul, is the prisoner or the 

Rosarium philosophorum (1550), fol. 2a, IV, illustration. 

57 "Aphorism! Basiliani," Theatr. chem., IV (1613), p. 368; de Hoghelande, ibid., 
} (1602), p. 178; Dorn, "Congeries/' ibid., I, p. 585; and many other places. 

58 Philosophia reformata (1622), p. 21. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



protected inhabitant of themandala. Since modern mandalas are 
amazingly close parallels to the ancient magical circles, which 
usually have a deity in the centre, it is clear that in the modern 
mandala man the deep ground, as it were, of the self is not a 
substitute but a symbol for the deity. 

158 It is a remarkable fact that this symbol is a natural and spon 
taneous occurrence and that it is always an essentially uncon 
scious product, as our dream shows. If we want to know what 
happens when the idea of God is no longer projected as an 
autonomous entity, this is the answer of the unconscious psyche. 
The unconscious produces the idea of a deified or divine man 
who is imprisoned, concealed, protected, usually depersonalized, 
and represented by an abstract symbol. The symbols often con 
tain allusions to the medieval conception of the microcosm, as 
was the case with my patient's world clock, for instance. Many 
of the processes that lead to the mandala, and the mandala it 
self, seem to be direct confirmations of medieval speculation. 
It looks as if the patients had read those old treatises on the 
philosophers' stone, the divine water, the rotundum, the squar 
ing of the circle, the four colours, etc. And yet they have never 
been anywhere near alchemical philosophy and its abstruse 
symbolism. 

*59 It is difficult to evaluate such facts properly. They could be 
explained as a sort of regression to archaic ways of thinking, if 
one's chief consideration was their obvious and impressive 
parallelism with medieval symbolism. But whenever such re 
gressions occur, the result is always inferior adaptation and a 
corresponding lack of efficiency. This is by no means typical 
of the psychological development depicted here. On the con 
trary, neurotic and dissociated conditions improve considerably 
and the whole personality undergoes a change for the better. 
For this reason I do not think the process in question should be 
explained as regression, which would amount to saying that it 
was a morbid condition. I am rather inclined to understand the 
apparently retrograde connections of mandala psychology 59 as 
the continuation of a process of spiritual development which 
began in the early Middle Ages, and perhaps even further back, 

59 Koepgen (see above, p. 5911.), rightly speaks of the "circular thinking" of the 
Gnostics. This is only another term for totality or "all-round" thinking, since, 
symbolically, roundness is the same as wholeness. 

96 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



in early Christian times. There is documentary evidence that 
the essential symbols of Christianity were already in existence 
in the first century. I am thinking of the Greek treatise entitled: 
"Comarius, the Archpriest, teaches Cleopatra the Divine Art." 60 
The text is of Egyptian origin and bears no trace of Christian 
influence. There are also the mystical texts of Pseudo-Democritus 
and Zosimos. 61 Jewish and Christian influences are noticeable 
in the last-named author, though the main symbolism is Neo- 
platonist and is closely connected with the philosophy of the 
Corpus Hermeticum* 2 

160 The fact that the symbolism of the mandala can be traced 
back through its near relatives to pagan sources casts a peculiar 
light upon these apparently modern psychological phenomena. 
They seem to continue a Gnostic trend of thought without be 
ing supported by direct tradition. If lam right in supposing that 
every religion is a spontaneous expression of a certain predomi 
nant psychological condition, then Christianity was the formula 
tion of a condition that predominated at the beginning of our 
era and lasted for several centuries. But a particular psycholog 
ical condition which predominates for a certain length of time 
does not exclude the existence of other psychological conditions 
at other times, and these are equally capable of religious ex 
pression. Christianity had at one time to fight for its life against 
Gnosticism, which corresponded to another psychological condi 
tion. Gnosticism was stamped out completely and its remnants 
are so badly mangled that special study is needed to get any in 
sight at all into its inner meaning. But if the historical roots of 
our symbols extend beyond the Middle Ages they are certainly 
to be found in Gnosticism. It would not seem to me illogical if 
a psychological condition, previously suppressed, should re 
assert itself when the main ideas of the suppressive condition 
begin to lose their influence. In spite of the suppression of the 
Gnostic heresy, it continued to flourish throughout the Middle 
Ages under the disguise of alchemy. It is a well-known fact that 
alchemy consisted of two parts which complement one another 
on the one hand chemical research proper and on the other the 

60 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, IV, xx. According to F. Sherwood Taylor, In "A Survey 
of Greek Alchemy," pp. logff., this is probably the oldest Greek text of the ist 
century. Cf. also Jensen, Die alteste Alchemic. 

61 Berthelot, III, iff. 62 Scott, Hermetica. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



"theoria" or "philosophia." 63 As is clear from the writings of 
Pseudo-Democritus in the first century, entitled TO, <t>voriKa Kal rd, 
jLtuorwcd, 64 the two aspects already belonged together at the be 
ginning of our era. The same holds true of the Leiden papyri 
and the writings of Zosimos in the third century. The religious 
or philosophical views of ancient alchemy were clearly Gnostic. 
The later views seem to cluster round the following central idea: 
The anima mundi, the demiurge or divine spirit that incubated 
the chaotic waters of the beginning, remained in matter in a 
potential state, and the initial chaotic condition persisted with 
it. 65 Thus the philosophers, or the "sons of wisdom" as they 

63 Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 4016*. 

64 Berthelot, A Ich. grecs, II, i/. 

65 Very early among the Greek alchemists we encounter the idea of the "stone 
that has a spirit" (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, vi). The "stone" is the prima 
materia f called hyle or chaos or massa confusa. This alchemical terminology was 
based on Plato's Timaeus. Joannes C. Steeb (Coelum sephiroticum Hebraeorum, 
1679) says: "Neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor those things which are 
made of these things nor those things of which these are made, should be called 
the prima materia, which must be the receptacle and the mother of that which 
is made and that which can be beheld, but a certain species which cannot be 
beheld and is formless and sustains all things" (p. 26). The same author calls the 
prima materia "the primeval chaotic earth, Hyle, Chaos, the abyss, the mother of 
things. . . . That first chaotic matter . . . was watered by the streams of heaven, 
and adorned by God with numberless Ideas of the species." He explains how the 
spirit of God descended into matter and what became of him there (p. 33): "The 
spirit of God fertilized the upper waters with a peculiar fostering warmth and 
made them as it were milky. . . . The fostering warmth of the Holy Spirit 
brought about, therefore, in the waters that are above the heavens [aquis 
supracoelestibus; cf. Genesis 1:7], a virtue subtly penetrating and nourish 
ing all things, which, combining with light, generated in the mineral kingdom 
of the lower regions the mercurial serpent [this could refer just as well to the 
caduceus of Aesculapius, since the serpent is also the origin of the medicina 
catholica, the panacea], hi the vegetable kingdom the blessed greenness [chloro 
phyll], in the animal kingdom a formative virtue, so that the supracelestial spirit 
of the waters united in marriage with light may justly be called the soul of the 
world." "The lower waters are darksome, and absorb the outflowings of light in 
their capacious depths" (p. 38). This doctrine is based on nothing less than the 
Gnostic legend of the Nous descending from the higher spheres and being caught 
in the embrace of Physis. The Mercurius of the alchemists is winged ("volatile"). 
Abu'l-Qasim Muhammad (Kitdb aVilm al muktasab, etc., ed. Holmyard), speaks 
of "Hermes, the volatile" (p. 37), and in many other places he is called a 
"spiritus." Moreover, he was understood to be a Hermes psychopompos, showing 
the way to Paradise (Michael Maier, Symbola, p. 592). This is very much the 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



called themselves, took their prima materia to be a part of the 
original chaos pregnant with spirit. By "spirit" they understood 
a semimaterial pneuma, a sort of "subtle body," which they also 
called "volatile" and identified chemically with oxides and other 
dissoluble compounds. They called this spirit Mercurius, which 
was chemically quicksilver though "Mercurius noster" was no 
ordinary Hg! and philosophically Hermes, the god of revela 
tion, who, as Hermes Trismegistus, was the arch-authority on 

role of a redeemer, which was attributed to the Nous in "Ep/jou TP& Tdr/' (Scott, 
Hermetica, I, pp. 1490%). For the Pythagoreans the soul was entirely devoured by 
matter, except for its reasoning part. (Zeller, Die Philosophic der Griechen, III, 
n, p. 158.) 

In the old "Commentariolum in Tabulam smaragdinam" (Ars chemica), 
Hortulanus speaks of the "massa confusa" or the "chaos confusum" from which 
the world was created and from which also the mysterious lapis is generated. The 
lapis was identified with Christ from the beginning of the i4th century (Petrus 
Bonus, Pretiosa margarita, 1546). Orthelius (Theatr. chem., VI, p. 431) says: "Our 
Saviour Jesus Christ . . . partakes of two natures. ... So likewise is that earthly 
saviour made up of two parts, the heavenly and the earthly." In the same way 
the Mercurius imprisoned in matter was identified with the Holy Ghost. Johannes 
Grasseus ("Area arcani," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 314) quotes: "The gift of the Holy 
Spirit, that is the lead of the philosophers which they call the lead of the air, 
wherein is a resplendent white dove which is called the salt of the metals, in 
which consists the magistery of the work." 

Concerning the extraction and transformation of the Chaos, Christopher of 
Paris ("Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 228) writes: 
"In this Chaos the said precious substance and nature truly exists potentially, in 
a single confused mass of the elements. Human reason ought therefore to apply 
itself to bringing our heaven into actuality." "Our heaven" refers to the micro 
cosm and is also called the "quintessence." It is "incorruptible" and "immaculate." 
Johannes de Rupescissa (La Vertu et la Propriety de la Quinte Essence, 1581) 
calls it "le ciel humain." It is clear that the philosophers projected the vision of 
the golden and blue circle onto their aurum philosophicum (which was named 
the "rotundum"; see Maier, De circulo, 1616, p. 15) and onto the blue quin 
tessence. The terms chaos and massa confusa were in general use, according to 
the testimony of Bernardus Sylvestris, a contemporary of William of Champeaux 
(1070-1121). His work, De mundi universitate libri duo, had a widespread influ 
ence. He speaks of the "confusion of the primary matter, that is, Hyle" (p. 5, li. 
18), the "congealed mass, formless chaos, refractory matter, the face of being, a 
discolored mass discordant with itself" (p. 7, li. 18-19), "a mass of confusion" (p. 
56, XI, li. 10). Bernardus also mentions the descensus spiritus as follows: "When 
Jove comes down into the lap of his bride, all the world is moved and would 
urge the soil to bring forth" (p. 51, li. 21-22). Another variant is the idea of the 
King submerged or concealed in the sea (Maier, Symbola, p. 380; "Visio Arislei," 
Art. aurif., I, pp. 1465.). [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 434*!.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



alchemy. 66 Their aim was to extract the original divine spirit 
out of the chaos, and this extract was called the quinta essentia, 
aqua permanens, 55wp Btlov, &a4>fi or tinctura. A famous alche 
mist, Johannes de Rupescissa (d. 1375), 67 calls the quintessence 
"le ciel humain," the human sky or heaven. For him it was a 
blue liquid and incorruptible like the sky. He says that the 
quintessence is of the colour of the sky "and our sun has adorned 
it, as the sun adorns the sky." The sun is an allegory of gold. 
He says: "This sun is true gold." He continues: "These two 
things joined together influence in us ... the condition of the 
Heaven of heavens, and of the heavenly Sun." His idea is, obvi 
ously, that the quintessence, the blue sky with the golden sun 
in it, evokes corresponding images of the heaven and the heaven 
ly sun in ourselves. It is a picture of a blue and golden micro 
cosm, 68 and I take it to be a direct parallel to Guillaume's celes 
tial vision. The colours are, however, reversed; with Rupescissa 
the disc is golden and the sky blue. My patient, therefore, hav 
ing a similar arrangement, seems to lean more towards the 
alchemical side. 

161 The miraculous liquid, the divine water, called sky or 
heaven, probably refers to the supra-celestial waters of Genesis 
1:7. In its functional aspect it was thought to be a sort of bap 
tismal water which, like the holy water of the Church, possesses 
a creative and transformative quality. 69 The Catholic Church 

6 For instance, the genius of the planet Mercury reveals the mysteries to Pseudo- 
Democritus. (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, I, Introduction, p. 236.) 
87 j. de Rupescissa, La Vcrtu, p. 19. 

68 Bjabir, in La Lwre de la Misericorde* says that the philosophers' stone is equal 
to a microcosm. (Berthelot, La Chimie au moyen age, III, p. 179.) 

69 it is difficult not to assume that the alchemists were influenced by the alle 
gorical style of patristic literature. They even claimed some of the Fathers as 
representatives of the Royal Art, for instance Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, 
Alanus de Instills. A text like the "Aurora consurgens" is full of allegorical inter 
pretations of the scriptures. It has even been ascribed to Thomas Aquinas. Never 
theless, water was in fact used as an allegory of the Holy Spirit: "Water is the 
living grace of the Holy Spirit*' (Rupert, Abbot of Deutz, in Migne, PX., vol. 169, 
col. 353). "Flowing water is the Holy Spirit" (Bruno, Bishop of Wurzburg, in 
Migne, PJL., vol. 142, col. 295). "Water is the infusion of the Holy Spirit" (Gar- 
nerius of St. Victor, in Migne, PJL, voL 193, col. 279). Water is also an allegory 
of Christ's humanity (Gaudentius, in Migne, PJL., vol. 20, col. 983). Very often 
water appears as dew (ros Gedconis), and dew, likewise, is an allegory of Christ: 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



still performs the rite of the benedictio fontis on Holy Saturday 
before Easter. 70 The rite consists in a repetition of the descensus 
spiritus sancti in aquam. The ordinary water thereby acquires 
the divine quality of transforming and giving spiritual rebirth 
to man. This is exactly the alchemical idea of the divine water, 
and there would be no difficulty whatever in deriving the aqua 
permanens of alchemy from the rite of the benedictio fontis 
were it not that the former is of pagan origin and certainly the 
older of the two. We find the miraculous water mentioned in 
the first treatises of Greek alchemy, which belong to the first 
century. 71 Moreover the descent of the spirit into Physis is a 
Gnostic legend that greatly influenced Mani. And it was possibly 
through Manichean influences that it became one of the main 
ideas of Latin alchemy. The aim of the philosophers was to 
transform imperfect matter chemically into gold, the panacea, 
or the elixir vitae, but philosophically or mystically into the 

"Dew is seen in the fire" (Romanus, De theophania, in Pitra, Analecta sacra, I, p. 
21). "Now has Gideon's dew flowed on earth" (Romanus, De nativztate, ibid., p. 
237). The alchemists thought that their aqua permanens was endued with a virtue 
which they railed "flos" (flower). It had the power of changing body into spirit 
and giving it an incorruptible quality (Turba phil., ed. Ruska, p. 197). The 
water was also called "acetum" (acid), "whereby God finished his work, whereby 
also bodies take on spirit and are made spiritual" (Turba, p. 126). Another name 
for it is "spiritus sanguis" (blood spirit, Turba, p. 129). The Turba is an early 
Latin treatise of the i2th century, translated from an originally Arabic compila 
tion dating back to the 9th and loth centuries. Its contents, however, stem from 
Hellenistic sources. The Christian allusion in "spiritualis sanguis" might be due 
to Byzantine influence. Aqua permanens is quicksilver, argentum vivum (Hg). 
M Our living silver is our clearest water" (Rosarium phil., in Art. aurif., II, p. 
213). The aqua is also called fire (ibid., p. 218). The body, or substance, is trans 
formed by water and fire, a complete parallel to the Christian idea of baptism 
and spiritual transformation. 

TOMissale Romanum. The rite is old and was known as the "lesser (or greater) 
blessing of salt and water" from about the 8th century. 

71 in "Isis the Prophetess to her Son Horus" (Berthelot, A Ich. grecs, I, xiii), an 
angel brings Isis a small vessel filled with transparent water, the arcanum. This 
is an obvious parallel to the krater of Hermes (Corpus Hermeticum, I) and of 
Zosimos (Berthelot, III, li, 8), which was filled with nous. In the tfuwtxd Kal pwrnxb 
of Pseudo-Democritus (Berthelot, II, i, 63), the divine water is said to effect a 
transformation by bringing the "hidden nature" to the surface. And in the 
treatise of Comarius we find the miraculous waters that produce a new springtime 
(Berthelot, Traductions, p. 281). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



divine hermaphrodite, the second Adam, 72 the glorified, incor 
ruptible body of resurrection, 73 or the lumen luminum the 
illumination of the human mind, or sapientia. As I have shown, 
together with Richard Wilhelm, Chinese alchemy produced the 
same idea, that the goal of the opus magnum is the creation of 
the "diamond body." 75 

162 AH these parallels are an attempt to put my psychological 
observations into their historical setting. Without the historical 
connection they would remain suspended in mid air, a mere 
curiosity, although one could find numerous other modern 
parallels to the dreams described here. For instance, there is the 
following dream of a young woman. The initial dream was 
mainly concerned with the memory of an actual experience, a 
baptizing ceremony in a Protestant sect that took place under 
particularly grotesque and even repulsive conditions. The asso 
ciations were a precipitate of all the dreamer's disappointments 
with religion. But the dream that came immediately after 
showed her a picture which she did not understand and could 
not relate to the previous dream. One could have aided her 
understanding by the simple device of prefacing her second 
dream with the words "on the contrary." This was the dream: 
She was in a planetarium, a very impressive place overhung by 
the vault of the sky. In the sky two stars were shining; a white 
one, which was Mercury, but the other star emitted warm red 

72 Gnosius (in Herrnetis Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus, cum Scholiis Dominici 
Gnosii, 1610, pp. 44 and 101) speaks of "Hermaphroditus noster Adamicus" when 
treating of the quaternity in the circle. The centre is the "mediator making peace 
between enemies," obviously a uniting symbol (cf. Psychological Types, ch. V, 
sec. 3, and Def. 51). [Further developed in A ion, pp. 1945. EDITORS.] The 
hermaphrodite is born of the "self-impregnating dragon" (Art. aurif., I, p. 303), 
who is none other than Mercurius, the anima mundi. (Maier, Symbola, p. 43; 
Berthelot, I, 87.) The uroboros is an hermaphroditic symbol. The hermaphrodite 
is also called the Rebis ("made of two"), frequently depicted in the form of an 
apotheosis (for instance in the Rosarium, in Art. aurif., H, pp. 291 and 359; 
Reusner, Pandora, 1588, p. 253). 

73 Aurora Consurgtns (ed. von Franz, p. 129) says, quoting Senior: "There is One 
thing that never dieth, for it continueth by perpetual increase, when the body 
shall be glorified in the final resurrection of the dead. . . . Then saith the second 
Adam to the first and to his sons: Come ye blessed of my Father/' etc. 

74 Alphidius (i2th cent.?): "Of them is born the modern light (lux moderna), to 
which no light is like in all the world." (Rosarium, in Art. aurif. f II, p. 248; 
"Tractatus aureus," Ars chem.) 

75 Jung and Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower (1962), p. 69. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



waves of light and was unknown to her. She now saw that the 
walls underneath the vault were covered with frescoes. But she 
could recognize only one of them: it was an antique picture of 
the tree-birth of Adonis. 

163 The "red waves of light" she took to be "warm feelings," i.e., 
love, and she now thought the star must have been Venus. She 
had once seen a picture of the tree-birth in a museum and had 
fancied that Adonis, as the dying and resurgent god, must also 
be a god of rebirth. 

164 In the first dream, then, there was violent criticism of 
Church religion, followed in the second dream by the mandala 
vision of a world clock which is what a planetarium is in the 
fullest sense. In the sky the divine pair stands united, he white, 
she red, thus reversing the famous alchemical pair, where he is 
red and she is white, whence she was called Beya (Arabic al 
baida, 'the White One'), and he was called "servus rubeus," 
the 'red slave/ although, as Gabricius (Arabic kibrit, 'sulphur"), 
he is her royal brother. The divine pair makes one think of 
Guillaume de Digulleville's Christian allegory. The allusion to 
the tree-birth of Adonis corresponds to those dreams of my 
patient which had to do with mysterious rites of creation and 
renewal. 76 

165 So in principle these two dreams largely repeat the thought- 
processes of my patient, although having nothing in common 
with the latter except the spiritual malaise of our time. As I 
have already pointed out, the connection of spontaneous mod 
ern symbolism with ancient theories and beliefs is not estab 
lished by direct or indirect tradition, nor even by a secret 
tradition as has sometimes been surmised, though there are no 
tenable proofs of this. 17 The most careful inquiry has never 
revealed any possibility of my patients' being acquainted with 
the relevant literature or having any other information about 
such ideas. It seems that their unconscious worked along the 
same line of thought which has manifested itself time and again 
in the last two thousand years. Such a continuity can only exist 
if we assume a certain unconscious condition as an inherited 
a priori factor. By this I naturally do not mean the inheritance 
of ideas, which would be difficult if not impossible to prove. I 

76 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 1645., i 

77 Waite, The Secret Tradition in Alchemy. 

10 3 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



suppose, rather, the inherited quality to be something like the 
formal possibility of producing the same or similar ideas over 
and over again. I have called this possibility the "archetype.** 
Accordingly, the archetype would be a structural quality or con 
dition peculiar to a psyche that is somehow connected with the 
brain. 78 

*66 In the light of these historical parallels the mandala symbol 
izes either the divine being hitherto hidden and dormant in the 
body and now extracted and revivified, or else the vessel or the 
room in which the transformation of man into a divine being 
takes place. I know such formulations are fatally reminiscent 
of the wildest metaphysical speculations. I am sorry if it sounds 
crazy, but this is exactly what the human psyche produces an.d 
always has produced. Any psychology which assumes it can do 
without these facts must exclude them artificially. I would call 
this a philosophical prejudice, inadmissible from the empirical 
point of view. I should perhaps emphasize that we do not estab 
lish any metaphysical truth with these formulations. It is merely 
a statement that the psyche functions in such a way. And it is a 
fact that my patient felt a great deal better after the vision of 
the mandala. If you understand the problem it solved for him, 
you can also understand why he had such a feeling of "sublime 
harmony." 

l6 7 I would not hesitate for a moment to suppress all specula 
tions about the possible consequences of an experience as ab 
struse and remote as the mandala, if this were feasible. But for 
me, unfortunately, this type of experience is neither abstruse nor 
remote. On the contrary, it is an almost daily occurrence in my 
profession. I know a fair number of people who have to take 
their experience seriously if they want to live at all. They can 
only choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. The devil 
is the mandala or something equivalent to it and the deep blue 
sea is their neurosis. The well-meaning rationalist will point 
out that I am casting out the devil with Beelzebub and replacing 
an honest neurosis by the swindle of a religious belief. As to the 
former charge, I have nothing to say in reply, being no metaphys 
ical expert. But as to the latter one, I beg leave to point out that 
it is not a question of belief but of experience. Religious experi 
ence is absolute; it cannot be disputed. You can only say that 

78 Cf. my "Psychological Factors Determining Human Behaviour." 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



you have never had such an experience, whereupon your oppo 
nent will reply: "Sorry, I have." And there your discussion will 
come to an end. No matter what the world thinks about re 
ligious experience, the one who has it possesses a great treasure, 
a thing that has become for him a source of life, meaning, and 
beauty, and that has given a new splendour to the world and to 
mankind. He has pistis and peace. Where is the criterion by 
which you could say that such a life is not legitimate, that such 
an experience is not valid, and that such pistis is mere illusion? 
Is there, as a matter of fact, any better truth about the ultimate 
things than the one that helps you to live? That is the reason 
why I take careful account religio! of the symbols produced 
by the unconscious. They are the one thing that is capable of 
convincing the critical mind of modern man. And they are con 
vincing for a very old-fashioned reason: They are overwhelming, 
which is precisely what the Latin word convincere means. The 
thing that cures a neurosis must be as convincing as the neurosis, 
and since the latter is only too real, the helpful experience must 
be equally real. It must be a very real illusion, if you want to 
put it pessimistically. But what is the difference between a real 
illusion and a healing religious experience? It is merely a differ 
ence of words. You can say, for instance, that life is a disease 
with a very bad prognosis: it lingers on for years, only to end 
with death; or that normality is a general constitutional defect; 
or that man is an animal with a fatally overgrown brain. This 
kind of thinking is the prerogative of habitual grumblers with 
bad digestions. No one can know what the ultimate things are. 
We must therefore take them as we experience them. And if 
such experience helps to make life healthier, more beautiful, 
more complete and more satisfactory to yourself and to those 
you love, you may safely say: "This was the grace of God." 
168 No transcendental truth is thereby demonstrated, and we 
must confess in all humility that religious experience is extra 
ecclesiam, subjective, and liable to boundless error. Yet, if the 
spiritual adventure of our time is the exposure of human con 
sciousness to the undefined and indefinable, there would seem 
to be good reasons for thinking that even the Boundless is per 
vaded by psychic laws, which no man invented, but of which 
he has "gnosis" in the symbolism of Christian dogma. Only heed 
less fools will wish to destroy this; the lover of the soul, never. 

105 



II 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE 
DOGMA OF THE TRINITY 



Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi; 

in interiore homine habitat veritas. 

(Go not outside, return into thyself: 
Truth dwells in the inward man.) 

St. Augustine, 
Liber de vera religione, xxix (72) 



INTRODUCTION 



169 The present study grew up out of a lecture I gave at the 
Eranos meeting in 1940, under the title "On the Psychology of 
the Idea of the Trinity." The lecture, though subsequently 
published, 1 was no more than a sketch, and it was clear to me 
from the beginning that it needed improving. Hence I felt 
under a kind of moral obligation to return to this theme in 
order to treat it in a manner befitting its dignity and importance. 

*7 From the reactions the lecture provoked, it was plain that 
some of my readers found a psychological discussion of Chris 
tian symbols objectionable even when it carefully avoided any 
infringement of their religious value. Presumably my critics 
would have found less to object to had the same psychological 
treatment been accorded to Buddhist symbols, whose sacredness 
is just as indubitable. Yet, what is sauce for the goose is sauce 
for the gander. I have to ask myself also, in all seriousness, 
whether it might not be far more dangerous if Christian symbols 
were made inaccessible to thoughtful understanding by being 
banished to a sphere of sacrosanct unintelligibility. They can 
easily become so remote from us that their irrationality turns 

i"Zur Psychologic der Trinitatsidee," Eranos-Jahrbuch 194.0-41 (Zurich, 1942). 
[Later revised and expanded as "Versuch zu einer psychologischen Deutung des 
Trinitatsdogmas," Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich, 1948), pp. 321-446, from which 
version the present translation is made. EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



into preposterous nonsense. Faith is a charisma not granted to 
all; instead, man has the gift of thought, which can strive after 
the highest things. The timid defensiveness certain moderns 
display when it comes to thinking about symbols was certainly 
not shared by St. Paul or by many of the venerable Church 
Fathers. 2 This timidity and anxiety about Christian symbols is 
not a good sign. If these symbols stand for a higher truth which, 
presumably, my critics do not doubt then science can only 
make a fool of itself if it proceeds incautiously in its efforts to 
understand them. Besides, it has never been my intention to 
invalidate the meaning of symbols; I concern myself with them 
precisely because I am convinced of their psychological validity. 
People who merely believe and don't think always forget that 
they continually expose themselves to their own worst enemy: 
doubt. Wherever belief reigns, doubt lurks in the background. 
But thinking people welcome doubt: it serves them as a valuable 
stepping-stone to better knowledge. People who can believe 
should be a little more tolerant with those of their fellows who 
are only capable of thinking. Belief has already conquered the 
summit which thinking tries to win by toilsome climbing. The 
believer ought not to project his habitual enemy, doubt, upon 
the thinker, thereby suspecting him of destructive designs. If 
the ancients had not done a bit of thinking we would not possess 
any dogma about the Trinity at all. The fact that a dogma is 
on the one hand believed and on the other hand is an object of 
thought is proof of its vitality. Therefore let the believer rejoice 
that others, too, seek to climb the mountain on whose peak 
he sits* 

My attempt to make the most sacred of all dogmatic symbols, 
the Trinity, an object of psychological study is an undertaking 
of whose audacity I am very well aware. Not having any theolog 
ical knowledge worth mentioning, I must rely in this respect 
on the texts available to every layman. But since I have no in 
tention of involving myself in the metaphysics of the Trinity, 

1 am free to accept the Church's own formulation of the dogma, 
without having to enter into all the complicated metaphysical 
speculations that have gathered round it in the course of history. 
For the purposes of psychological discussion the elaborate ver- 

2 Of the older ones I refer chieHy to Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 316), Origen 
(d. 253), and Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite (d. end of 5th cent.). 

11O 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

sion contained in the Athanasian Creed would be sufficient, as 
this shows very clearly what Church doctrine understands by the 
Trinity. Nevertheless, a certain amount of historical explana 
tion has proved unavoidable for the sake of psychological under 
standing. My chief object, however, is to give a detailed exposi 
tion of those psychological views which seem to me necessary if 
we are to understand the dogma as a symbol in the psychological 
sense. Yet my purpose would be radically misunderstood if it 
were conceived as an attempt to "psychologize" the dogma. 
Symbols that have an archetypal foundation can never be re 
duced to anything else, as must be obvious to anybody who 
possesses the slightest knowledge of my writings. To many 
people it may seem strange that a doctor with a scientific train 
ing should interest himself in the Trinity at all. But anyone 
who has experienced how closely and meaningfully these 
representations collectives are bound up with the weal and woe 
of the human soul will readily understand that the central sym 
bol of Christianity must have, above all else, a psychological 
meaning, for without this it could never have acquired any uni 
versal meaning whatever, but would have been relegated long 
ago to the dusty cabinet of spiritual monstrosities and shared the 
fate of the many-armed and many-headed gods of India and 
Greece. But since the dogma stands in a relationship of living 
reciprocity to the psyche, whence it originated in the first place, 
it expresses many of the things I am endeavouring to say over 
again, even though with the uncomfortable feeling that there 
is much in my exposition that still needs improvement. 



111 



i. PRE-CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 



I. BABYLONIA 

17* In proposing to approach this central symbol of Christianity, 
the Trinity, from the psychological point of view, I realize that 
I am trespassing on territory that must seem very far removed 
from psychology. Everything to do with religion, everything it 
is and asserts, touches the human soul so closely that psychology 
least of all can afford to overlook it. A conception like the 
Trinity pertains so much to the realm of theology that the only 
one of the profane sciences to pay any attention to it nowa 
days is history. Indeed, most people have ceased even to think 
about dogma, especially about a concept as hard to visualize 
as the Trinity. Even among professing Christians there are very 
few who think seriously about the Trinity as a matter of dogma 
and would consider it a possible subject for reflection not to 
mention the educated public. A recent exception is Georg 
Koepgen's very important book, Die Gnosis des Christentums?- 
which, unfortunately, soon found its way onto the Index despite 
the episcopal "Placet/ 1 For all those who are seriously concerned 
to understand dogmatic ideas, this book of Koepgen's is a per 
fect example of thinking which has fallen under the spell of 
trinitarian symbolism. 

1 Salzburg, 1939. 

112 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

173 Triads of gods appear very early, at a primitive level. The 
archaic triads in the religions of antiquity and of the East are 
too numerous to be mentioned here. Arrangement in triads is 
an archetype in the history of religion, which in all probability 
formed the basis of the Christian Trinity. Often these triads do 
not consist of three different deities independent of one another; 
instead, there is a distinct tendency for certain family relation 
ships to arise within the triads. I would mention as an example 
the Babylonian triads, of which the most important is Anu, 
Bel, and Ea. Ea, personifying knowledge, is the father of Bel 
("Lord"), who personifies practical activity. 2 A secondary, rather 
later triad is the one made up of Sin (moon), Shamash (sun), 
and Adad (storm). Here Adad is the son of the supreme god, 
Anu. 3 Under Nebuchadnezzar, Adad was the "Lord of heaven 
and earth." This suggestion of a father-son relationship comes 
out more clearly at the time of Hammurabi: Marduk, the son 
of Ea, was entrusted with Bel's power and thrust him into the 
background. 4 Ea was a "loving, proud father, who willingly 
transferred his power and rights to his son." 5 Marduk was 
originally a sun-god, with the cognomen "Lord" (Bel); e he was 
the mediator between his father Ea and mankind. Ea declared 
that he knew nothing that his son did not know. 7 Marduk, as 
his fight with Tiamat shows, is a redeemer. He is "the com 
passionate one, who loves to awaken the dead"; the "Great- 
eared," who hears the pleadings of men. He is a helper and 
healer, a true saviour. This teaching about a redeemer flour 
ished on Babylonian soil all through the Christian era and goes 
on living today in the religion of the Mandaeans (who still exist 
in Mesopotamia), especially in their redeemer figure Manda d' 
Hayya or Hibil Ziwa. 8 Among the Mandaeans he appears also as 
a light-bringer and at the same time as a world-creator. 9 Just 
as, in the Babylonian epic, Marduk fashions the universe out of 
Tiamat, so Mani, the Original Man, makes heaven and earth 
from the skin, bones, and excrement of the children of dark- 
ness. ia "The all-round influence which the myth of Marduk 

2 Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, I, p. 61. 

3 Ibid., pp. 102, 143!. * P. i 12. 5 P. 130. 6 P. 11*. 

7 P. 130. Cf. John 16: 15. 

8 Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, I, p. 137. 
3 Cf. John 1:3. 10 Kessler, M ani f pp. 2672. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



had on the religious ideas of the Israelites is surprising." n 
174 It appears that Hammurabi worshipped only a dyad, Anu 
and Bel; but, as a divine ruler himself, he associated himself 
with them as the "proclaimer of Anu and Bel," 12 and this at a 
time when the worship of Marduk was nearing its height. Ham 
murabi felt himself the god of a new aeon 13 the aeon of Aries, 
which was then beginning and the suspicion is probably justi 
fied that tacit recognition was given to the triad Anu-Bel- 
Hammurabi. 14 

'75 The fact that there is a secondary triad, Sin-Shamash-Ishtar, 
is indicative of another intra-triadic relationship. Ishtar 15 ap 
pears here in the place of Adad, the storm god. She is the mother 
of the gods, and at the same time the daughter 16 of Anu as well 
as of Sin. 

176 Invocation of the ancient triads soon takes on a purely 
formal character. The triads prove to be "more a theological 
tenet than a living force." 17 They represent, in fact, the earliest 
beginnings of theology. Anu is the Lord of heaven, Bel is the 
Lord of the lower realm, earth, and Ea too is the god of an 
"underworld," but in his case it is the watery deep. 18 The knowl 
edge that Ea personifies comes from the "depths of the waters." 
According to one Babylonian legend, Ea created Uddushu- 
namir, a creature of light, who was the messenger of the gods 
on Ishtar's journey to hell. The name means: "His light (or 
rising) shines." 1& Jeremias connects him with Gilgamesh, the 
hero who was more than half a god. 20 The messenger of the gods 
was usually called Girru (Sumerian "Gibil"), the god of fire. 
As such he has an ethical aspect, for with his purifying fire he 
destroys evil. He too is a son of Ea, but on the other hand he is 
also described as a son of Anu. In this connection it is worth 
mentioning that Marduk as well has a dual nature, since in one 

11 Roscher, Lcxikon, II, 2, cols. 237 if., s.v. "Marduk.** 

12 Jastrow, p 139. Cf. John 1:18. 13 Cf. the Christian fish-symbol. 

i* "Anu and Bel called me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshipper of 
the Gods, to go forth like the sun ... to enlighten the land." Harper, The Code 
of Hammurabi, p. 3. 

is Cf. the invocation of the Holy Ghost as "Mother" hi the Acts of Thomas 
(James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 376). Also the feminine nature of 
Sophia, who frequently represents the Holy Ghost. 

16 Cf. Mary as creature and as GeorAcos. 

17 Jastrow, p. 141. 18 P. 61. i P. 133. 20 Jeremias, I, pp. 

114 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

hymn he is called Mar Mummi, 'son of chaos/ In the same hymn 
his consort Sarpanitu is invoked along with Ea's wife, the 
mother of Marduk, as the "Silver-shining One." This is probably 
a reference to Venus, the femina alba. In alchemy the albedo 
changes into the moon, which, in Babylonia, was still mascu 
line. 21 Marduk's companions were four dogs. 22 Here the number 
four may signify totality, just as it does in the case o the four 
sons of Horus, the four seraphim in the vision of Ezekiel, and 
the four symbols of the evangelists, consisting of three animals 
and one angel. 



II. EGYPT 

*77 The ideas which are present only as intimations in Babylo 
nian tradition are developed to full clarity in Egypt. I shall pass 
lightly over this subject here, as I have dealt with the Egyptian 
prefigurations of the Trinity at greater length elsewhere, in an 
as yet unfinished study of the symbolical bases of alchemy. 1 I 
shall only emphasize that Egyptian theology asserts, first and 
foremost, the essential unity (homoousia) of God as father and 
son, both represented by the king. 2 The third person appears in 
the form of Ka-mutef ("the bull of his mother"), who is none 
other than the ka f the procreative power of the deity. In it and 
through it father and son are combined not in a triad but in a 
triunity. To the extent that Ka-mutef is a special manifestation 
of the divine ka, we can "actually speak of a triunity of God, 
king, and ka, in the sense that God is the father, the king is the 
son, and ka the connecting-link between them." s In his con 
cluding chapter Jacobsohn draws a parallel between this Egyp 
tian idea and the Christian credo. Apropos the passage "qui 
conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria virgine," he 

21 Cf. Mary's connections with the moon in Rahner, Griechische Mythen in 
christlicher Deutung, pp. gooff., and "Mysterium Lunae," p. 80. 

22 A possible reference to the realm of the dead on the one hand and to Nimrod 
the mighty hunter on the other. See Roscher, Lexikon, II, cols. 237 if., s.v. 
"Marduk." 

1 [Mysterium Coniunctionis, ch. IV, 1-3.] 

2 Jacobsohn, "Die dogmatische Stellung des Konigs in der Theologie der alten 
Aegypter," p. 17. 

3 Ibid., p. 58. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



cites Karl Earth's formulation: "There is indeed a unity of God 
and man; God himself creates it. ... It is no other unity than 
his own eternal unity as father and son. This unity is the Holy 
Ghost." 4 As procreator the Holy Ghost would correspond to 
Ka-mutef, who connotes and guarantees the unity of father and 
son. In this connection Jacobsohn cites Earth's comment on 
Luke i : 35 ("The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God"): "When the Bible speaks of the Holy Ghost, it is 
speaking of God as the combination of father and son, of the 
mnculum caritatis" 5 The divine procreation of Pharaoh takes 
place through Ka-mutef, in the human mother of the king. But, 
like Mary, she remains outside the Trinity. As Preisigke points 
out, the early Christian Egyptians simply transferred their tra 
ditional ideas about the ka to the Holy Ghost. 6 This explains the 
curious fact that in the Coptic version of Pistis Sophia, dating 
from the third century, Jesus has the Holy Ghost as his double, 
just like a proper ka. 7 The Egyptian mythologem of the unity of 
substance of father and son, and of procreation in the king's 
mother, lasted until the Vth dynasty (about 2500 B.C.). Speak 
ing of the birth of the divine boy in whom Horus manifests 
himself, God the Father says: "He will exercise a kingship of 
grace in this land, for my soul is in him," and to the child he 
says: "You are the son of my body, begotten by me." 8 "The 
sun he bears within him from his father's seed rises anew in 
him." His eyes are the sun and moon, the eyes of Horus. 9 We 
know that the passage in Luke i:78f.: "Through the tender 
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath 
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the 
shadow of death," refers to Malachi 4:2: "But unto you that 
fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing 
in his wings.*' Who does not think here of the winged sun-disc 
of Egypt? 

4 P. 64. Barth, Credo, p. 70. 5 Barth, Bibelstunden uber Luk I, p. 26. 

6 Preisigke, Die Gotteskraft der fruhchrist lichen Zeit;also Vom gottlichen Fluidum 
nach agyptischer Anschauung. 

7 Pistis Sophia (trans, by Mead), p. 118. 

8 Cf. Hebrews 1:5: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 

9 A. Moret, "Du caractere religieux de la royaut6 pharaonique." 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

178 These ideas 10 passed over into Hellenistic syncretism and 
were transmitted to Christianity through Philo and Plutarch. 11 
So it is not true, as is sometimes asserted even by modern theo 
logians, that Egypt had little if any influence on the formation 
of Christian ideas. Quite the contrary. It is, indeed, highly im 
probable that only Babylonian ideas should have penetrated 
into Palestine, considering that this small buffer state had long 
been under Egyptian hegemony and had, moreover, the closest 
cultural ties with its powerful neighbour, especially after a flour 
ishing Jewish colony established itself in Alexandria, several 
centuries before the birth of Christ. It is difficult to understand 
what could have induced Protestant theologians, whenever pos 
sible, to make it appear that the world of Christian ideas 
dropped straight out of heaven. The Catholic Church is liberal 
enough to look upon the Osiris-Horus-Isis myth, or at any rate 
suitable portions of it, as a prefiguration of the Christian legend 
of salvation. The numinous power of a mythologem and its 
value as truth are considerably enhanced if its archetypal char 
acter can be proved. The archetype is "that which is believed 
always, everywhere, and by everybody," and if it is not recog 
nized consciously, then it appears from behind in its "wrathful" 
form, as the dark "son of chaos," the evil-doer, as Antichrist 
instead of Saviour a fact which is all too clearly demonstrated 
by contemporary history. 



III. GREECE 

*79 In enumerating the pre-Christian sources of the Trinity con 
cept, we should not omit the mathematical speculations of the 
Greek philosophers. As we know, the philosophizing temper of 
the Greek mind is discernible even in St. John's gospel, a work 
that is, very obviously, of Gnostic inspiration. Later, at the time 
of the Greek Fathers, this spirit begins to amplify the archetypal 
content of the Revelation, interpreting it in Gnostic terms. 
Pythagoras and his school probably had the most to do with the 
moulding of Greek thought, and as one aspect of the Trinity is 
based on number symbolism, it would be worth our while to 

10 Further material concerning pagan sources in Nielsen, Der dreieinige Gott, I. 

11 Cf. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, pp. 77ff. 

117 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



examine the Pythagorean system of numbers and see what it has 
to say about the three basic numbers with which we are con 
cerned here. Zeller * says: "One is the first from which all other 
numbers arise, and in which the opposite qualities of numbers, 
the odd and the even, must therefore be united; two is the first 
even number; three the first that is uneven and perfect, because 
in it we first find beginning, middle, and end." 2 The views 
of the Pythagoreans influenced Plato, as is evident from his 
Timaeus; and, as this had an incalculable influence on the philo 
sophical speculations of posterity, we shall have to go rather 
deeply into the psychology of number speculation. 
180 The number one claims an exceptional position, which we 
meet again in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages. Ac 
cording to this, one is not a number at all; the first number is 
two. 3 Two is the first number because, with it, separation and 
multiplication begin, which alone make counting possible. With 
the appearance of the number two, another appears alongside 
the one, a happening which is so striking that in many languages 
"the other" and "the second" are expressed by the same word. 
Also associated with the number two is the idea of right and 
left, 4 and remarkably enough, of favourable and unfavourable, 
good and bad. The "other" can have a "sinister" significance 
or one feels it, at least, as something opposite and alien. There 
fore, argues a medieval alchemist, God did not praise the second 
day of creation, because on this day (Monday, the day of the 
moon) the binarius, alias the devil, 5 came into existence. Two 
implies a one which is different and distinct from the "number 
less" One. In other words, as soon as the number two appears, 
a unit is produced out of the original unity, and this unit is none 
other than that same unity split into two and turned into a 
"number." The "One" and the "Other" form an opposition, but 
there is no opposition between one and two, for these are simple 
numbers which are distinguished only by their arithmetical 

1 A History of Greek Philosophy, I, p. 429. 

2 Authority for the latter remark in Aristotle, De coelo, I, i, s68a. 

3 The source for this appears to be Macrobius, Commentarius in Somnium 
Scipionis, I, 6, 8. 

4 Cf. "the movement of the Different to the left" in the Timaeus 56C (trans, by 
Cornford, p. 73). 

5 Cf. the etymological relations between G. zwei f 'two/ and Zweifler, 'doubter/ [In 
Eng., cf. duplicity > double-dealer, double-cross, two-faced. TRANS.] 

us 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

value and by nothing else. The "One," however, seeks to hold 
to its one-and-alone existence, while the "Other" evei strives to 
be another opposed to the One. The One will not let go o the 
Other because, if it did, it would lose its character; and the 
Other pushes itself away from the One in order to exist at all. 
Thus there arises a tension of opposites between the One and 
the Other. But every tension of opposites culminates in a re 
lease, out of which comes the "third." In the third, the tension 
is resolved and the lost unity is restored. Unity, the absolute 
One, cannot be numbered, it is indefinable and unknowable; 
only when it appears as a unit, the number one, is it knowable, 
for the "Other" which is required for this act of knowing is lack 
ing in the condition of the One. Three is an unfolding of the 
One to a condition where it can be knownunity become recog 
nizable; had it not been resolved into the polarity of the One 
and the Other, it would have remained fixed in a condition de 
void of every quality. Three therefore appears as a suitable 
synonym for a process of development in time, and thus forms 
a parallel to the self-revelation of the Deity as the absolute One 
unfolded into Three. The relation of Threeness to Oneness can 
be expressed by an equilateral triangle, 6 A = B = C, that is, by 
the identity of the three, threeness being contained in its en 
tirety in each of the three angles. This intellectual idea of the 
equilateral triangle is a conceptual model for the logical image 
of the Trinity. 

In addition to the Pythagorean interpretation of numbers, 
we have to consider, as a more direct source of trinitarian ideas 
in Greek philosophy, the mystery-laden Timaeus of Plato. I 
shall quote, first of all, the classical argument in sections 



Hence the god, when he began to put together the body of the uni 
verse, set about making it of fire and earth. But two things alone 
cannot be satisfactorily united without a third; for there must be 
some bond between them drawing them together. And of all bonds 
the best is that which makes itself and the terms it connects a unity 
in the fullest sense; and it is of the nature of a continued geometrical 
proportion to effect this most perfectly. For whenever, of three num 
bers, the middle one between any two that are either solids or planes 

8 Harnack (Dogmengesckichte, II, p. 303) compares the scholastic conception of 
the Trinity to an equilateral triangle. 

"9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



[i.e., cubes or squares] Is such that, as the first is to it, so is it to the 
last, and conversely as the last is to the middle, so is the middle to 
the first, then since the middle becomes first and last, and again the 
last and first become middle, in that way all will necessarily come 
to play the same part towards one another, and by so doing they 
will all make a unity. 7 

In a geometrical progression, the quotient (q) of a series of 
terms remains the same, e.g.: 2:1 = 4:2 = 8:4 = 2, or, alge 
braically expressed: a, aq, aq 2 . The proportion is therefore as 
follows: 2 is to 4 as 4 is to 8, or a is to aq as aq is to aq 2 . 

This argument is now followed by a reflection which has far- 
reaching psychological implications: if a simple pair of opposites, 
say fire and earth, are bound together by a mean (/leo-o^), and if 
this bond is a geometrical proportion, then one mean can only 
connect plane figures, since two means are required to connect 
solids: 

Now if it had been required that the body of the universe should be 
a plane surface with no depth, a single mean would have been 
enough to connect its companions and itself; but in fact the world 
was to be solid in form, and solids are always conjoined, not by one 
mean, but by two. 8 

Accordingly, the two-dimensional connection is not yet a physi 
cal reality, for a plane without extension in the third dimension 
is only an abstract thought. If it is to become a physical reality, 
three dimensions and therefore two means are required. Sir 
Thomas Heath 9 puts the problem in the following algebraic 
formulae: 

Union in two dimensions of earth (p 2 ) and fire (q 2 ): 

P 2 :pq=pq:q* 
Obviously the mean is pq. 

Physical union of earth and fire, represented by p 3 and q s 
respectively: 



The two means are p 2 q and pq 2 9 corresponding to the physical 
elements water and air. 

7 Trans, by Cornford, p. 44. 8 ibid., p. 44. 

8 A History of Greek Mathematics, I, p. 89; Cornford, p. 47. 

ISO 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Accordingly, the god set water and air between fire and earth, and 
made them, so far as was possible, proportional to one another, so 
that as fire is to air, so is air to water, and as air is to water, so is 
water to earth, and thus he bound together the frame of a world 
visible and tangible. For these reasons and from such constituents, 
four in number, the body of the universe was brought into being, 
coming into concord by means of proportion, and from these it ac 
quired Amity, so that united with itself it became indissoluble by 
any other power save him who bound it together. 10 

183 The union of one pair of opposites only produces a two- 
dimensional triad: p 2 -(- pq -f. q 2 . This, being a plane figure, is 
not a reality but a thought. Hence two pairs of opposites, mak 
ing a quaternio (p B -f- P 2 % + P? 2 + ? 3 ) are needed to represent 
physical reality. Here we meet, at any rate in veiled form, the 
dilemma of three and four alluded to in the opening words of 
the Timaeus. Goethe intuitively grasped the significance of this 
allusion when he says of the fourth Cabir in Faust: "He was the 
right one / Who thought for them all," and that "You might ask 
on Olympus" about the eighth "whom nobody thought of/* u 

184 It is interesting to note that Plato begins by representing the 
union of opposites two-dimensionally, as an intellectual prob 
lem to be solved by thinking, but then comes to see that its solu 
tion does not add up to reality. In the former case we have to do 
with a self-subsistent triad, and in the latter with a quaternity. 
This was the dilemma that perplexed the alchemists for more 
than a thousand years, and, as the "axiom of Maria Prophetissa" 
(the Jewess or Copt), it appears in modern dreams, 12 and is also 
found in psychology as the opposition between the functions of 
consciousness, three of which are fairly well differentiated, while 
the fourth, undifferentiated, "inferior" function is undomesti- 
cated, unadapted, uncontrolled, and primitive. Because of its 
contamination with the collective unconscious, it possesses 
archaic and mystical qualities, and is the complete opposite of 
the most differentiated function. For instance, if the most differ 
entiated is thinking, or the intellect, then the inferior, 13 fourth 

10 Cornford, pp. 44-45, slightly modified. 

11 For a detailed account see Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 2042. 

12 As the dream in Psychology and Alchemy, par. 200, shows. 

is Judging, of course, from the standpoint of the most differentiated function. 

121 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



function 14 will be feeling. Hence the opening words of the 
Timaeus"One, two, three but where, my dear Timaeus, is 
the fourth . . . ?" fall familiarly upon the ears of the psycholo 
gist and alchemist, and for him as for Goethe there can be no 
doubt that Plato is alluding to something of mysterious import. 
We can now see that it was nothing less than the dilemma as to 
whether something we think about is a mere thought or a real 
ity, or at least capable of becoming real. And this, for any phi 
losopher who is not just an empty babbler, is a problem of the 
first order and no whit less important than the moral problems 
inseparably connected with it. In this matter Plato knew from 
personal experience how difficult is the step from two-dimen 
sional thinking to its realization in three-dimensional fact. 15 
Already with his friend Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, 
he had so many disagreements that the philosopher-politician 
contrived to sell him as a slave, from which fate he was preserved 
only because he had the good fortune to be ransomed by friends. 
His attempts to realize his political theories under Dionysius the 
Younger also ended in failure, and from then on Plato aban 
doned politics for good. Metaphysics seemed to him to offer 
more prospects than this ungovernable world. So, for him per 
sonally, the main emphasis lay on the two-dimensional world of 
thought; and this is especially true of the Timaeus, which was 
written after his political disappointments. It is generally reck 
oned as belonging to Plato's late works. 

l8 5 In these circumstances the opening words, not being attrib 
utable either to the jocosity of the author or to pure chance, 
take on a rather mournful significance: one of the four is absent 
because he is "unwell." If we regard the introductory scene as 
symbolical, this means that of the four elements out of which 
reality is composed, either air or water is missing. If air is miss 
ing, then there is no connecting link with spirit (fire), and if 
water is missing, there is no link with concrete reality (earth). 
Plato certainly did not lack spirit; the missing element he so 
much desired was the concrete realization of ideas. He had to 

14 Cf. Psychological Types, Bef. 30. 

is "The world is narrow and the brain is wide; 

Thoughts in the head dwell lightly side by side, 
Yet things in space run counter and fell foul." 

Schiller, Wallcnsteins Tod, II, 2. 
122 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

content himself with the harmony of airy thought-structures 
that lacked weight, and with a paper surface that lacked depth. 
The step from three to four brought him sharply up against 
something unexpected and alien to his thought, something 
heavy, inert, and limited, which no "w 6v" 16 and no "privatio 
boni" can conjure away or diminish. Even God's fairest creation 
is corrupted by it, and idleness, stupidity, malice, discontent, 
sickness, old age and death fill the glorious body of the "blessed 
god." Truly a grievous spectacle, this sick world-soul, and unfor 
tunately not at all as Plato's inner eye envisaged it when he 
wrote: 

All this, then, was the plan of the everlasting god for the god who was 
going to be. According to this plan he made the body of the world 
smooth and uniform, everywhere equidistant from its centre, a body 
whole and complete, with complete bodies for its parts. And in the 
centre he set the soul and caused it to extend throughout the whole 
body, and he further wrapped the body round with soul on the out 
side. So he established one world alone, round and revolving in a 
circle, solitary but able by reason of its excellence to bear itself com 
pany, needing no other acquaintance or friend but sufficient unto 
itself. On all these accounts the world which he brought into being 
was a blessed god. 17 

186 This world, created by a god, is itself a god, a son of the self- 
manifesting father. Further, the demiurge furnished it with a 
soul which is "prior" to the body (346). The world-soul was 
fashioned by the demiurge as follows: he made a mixture of the 
indivisible (d/zepes) and the divisible (nepierbv), thus producing a 
third form of existence. This third form had a nature independ 
ent of the "Same" (TO afrrov) and the "Different" (TO Irepov). At 
first sight the "Same" seems to coincide with the indivisible and 
the "Different" with the divisible. 18 The text says: 19 "From 

16 "Not being." 17 Cornford, p. 58, slightly modified. 

iSTheodor Gomperz (Greek Thinkers, III, p. 215) mentions two primary sub 
stances which are designated as follows in Plato's Philebus: limit, unlimited; the 
same, the other; the divisible, the indivisible. He adds that Plato's pupils would 
have spoken of "unity" and of "the great and the small" or of "duality." From 
this it is clear that Gomperz regards the "Same" and the "indivisible" as synon 
ymous, thus overlooking the resistance of the "Other," and the fundamentally 
fourfold nature of the world soul. (See below.) 

is [The version here given is translated from the German text of Otto Apelt 
(Plato: Timaios und Kritias, p. 52) cited by the author. TRANS.] 

123 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the indivisible and ever the same substance [Cornford's "Same 
ness"], and that which is physically divisible, he mixed an inter 
mediate, third form of existence which had its own being beside 
the Same and the Different, and this form he fashioned accord 
ingly [KO.TQ. ravra] as a mean between the indivisible and the 
physically divisible. Then taking these three existences, he 
mixed them again, forcing the nature of the Different, 
though it resisted the mixture, into union with the Same. 
Thus, with the admixture of being (oixrta), the three became 
one." 20 

18 7 The world-soul, representing the governing principle of the 
whole physical world, therefore possesses a triune nature. And 
since, for Plato, the world is a Beurepo* Ocfo (second god), the 
world-soul is a revelation or unfolding of the God-image. 21 

188 Plato's account of the actual process of creation is very curi 
ous and calls for some elucidation. The first thing that strikes 
us is the twice-repeated ow^cpdo-aro ('he mixed'). Why should the 
mixture be repeated, since it consists of three elements in the 
first place and contains no more than three at the end, and, in 
the second place, Same and Different appear to correspond with 
indivisible and divisible? Appearances, however, are deceptive. 
During the first mixture there is nothing to suggest that the 
divisible was recalcitrant and had to be forcibly united with 
the indivisible. In both mixtures it is rather a question of com 
bining two separate pairs of opposites, 22 which, because they 

20 TITS &ftptffrau Kal &cl xard rotord kxpbrns ofcrfos tal rip a$ xcpZ T* era^ara ytyvofjLbnjs 
/rtpwT^s, rplroy ! d/i#oi> & &&<$ ffw&cepcuraTO otwt'as eiSos" rfc rl ratrrw <f>kr&iJS a$ 
vkpt Kal rfs rov krtpov, jcai jcard ratrra GwkaTqo& & ptff<p rov TC &fjtepovs abr&v /cat TOU 
xard rd tr&iMTa fupurrav* icai rpta \a&iv airrA. Srra owecepderaro d$ fuav T&rra Itear, 
Tfy Qarkpav ^KTU Sfofteucrov ofcra* ds rabrdv ffwaptt&rr&p jttq., fietyvvs te perk T fr 
oicriar. 

Comfbrd (pp. 59-60) translates as follows: "Between the indivisible Existence 
that is ever in the same state and the divisible Existence that becomes in bodies, 
he compounded a third form of Existence composed of both. Again, in the case 
of Sameness and in that of Difference, he also on the same principle made a 
compound intermediate between that kind of them which is indivisible and the 
kind that is divisible in bodies. Then, taking the three, he blended them all into 
a unity, forcing the nature of Difference, hard as it was to mingle, into union 
with Sameness, and mixing them together with Existence" ($5A). 
21 Cf. Timaeus 376, where the first God is described as the "father" and his 
creation as the copy of an original "pattern," which is himself (Cornford, p. 97). 

124 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

are called upon to make a unity, may be thought of as arranged 
in a quaternio: 



Same 



Indivisible 



Divisible 



Different 

Indivisible and divisible, together with their mean, form a 
simple triad which has "its own being" beside the Same and the 
Different. This triad corresponds to the condition of "thought" 
not yet become "reality." For this a second mixture is needed, 
in which the Different (i.e., the "Other") is incorporated by 
force. The "Other" is therefore the "fourth" element, whose 
nature it is to be the "adversary" and to resist harmony. But the 
fourth, as the text says, is intimately connected with Plato's de 
sire for "being." One thinks, not unnaturally, of the impatience 
the philosopher must have felt when reality proved so intracta 
ble to his ideas. That reasonableness might, under certain cir 
cumstances, have to be imposed by force is a notion that must 
sometimes have crossed his mind. 

l8 9 The passage as a whole, however, is far from simple. It can 
be translated in many ways and interpreted in many more. The 
critical point for us is (rvvto-Trjo-ev kv &&$ TOV re d^cpous, literally, 'he 
compounded (a form of the nature of sameness and difference) 
in the middle (kv pkvci) of the indivisible (and the divisible)/ 
Consequently the middle term of the second pair of opposites 
would coincide with the middle term of the first pair. The re 
sultant figure is a quincunx, since the two pairs of opposites have 
a common mean or "third form" (rpirov 



22 This seems borne out by the fact that the first pair of opposites is correlated 
with ohrta (being), and the second with <fcns (nature). If one had to choose be 
tween ofola. and #w, the latter would probably be considered the more concrete 
of the two. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Indivisible Divisible 




Different Same 

190 I have placed the pairs of opposites side by side, instead of 
facing one another (as in the previous diagram), in order to illus 
trate their union in a single mean. Three elements are to be 
distinguished in our diagram: the two pairs of opposites and 
their common mean, and I understand the text as referring to 
these three elements when it says: "Then, taking these three 
existences . . ." Since the mean is called the "third form," each 
pair of opposites can presumably be taken as representing the 
first and second forms: Indivisible = first form, Divisible = 
second form, mean = third form, and so on. Their union in a 
quincunx signifies union of the four elements in a world-body. 
Thomas Taylor, who was strongly influenced by Proclus, says 
in his commentary to the Timaeus: "For those which are con 
nected with her essence in a following order, proceed from her 
[the anima mundi] according to the power of the fourth term (4), 
which possesses generative powers; but return to her according 
to the fifth (9) which reduces them to one." 23 Further confirma 
tion of the quaternary nature of the world-soul and world-body 
may be found in the passage where the demiurge splits this 
whole fabric lengthwise into two halves and joins them up again 
in the form of a X- 24 According to Porphyry, a X i n a circle 

23 Reprinted as Bollingen Series III, Plato: Timaeus and Critias, p. 71. 

24 Timaeus 366 (Coraford, p. 73). 

126 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

signified the world-soul for the Egyptians. 25 It is, in fact, the 
hieroglyph for 'city.' 2e Perhaps Plato was trying, in this passage, 
to bring forth the mandala structure that later appeared as the 
capital of Atlantis in his Critias. 

19* The two mixtures could be regarded as a parallel to the two 
means of the physical elements. Cornford, on the other hand, 
considers that Plato is referring to three intermedia, which he 
calls "Intermediate Existence," "Intermediate Sameness," "In 
termediate Difference." 27 His main insistence is on the three 
fold procedure and not on the four substances. The Middle 
Ages were also familiar with the quatuor elementa (A B C D) 
and the tria regimina (three procedures) which united them as 
follows: AB, BC, CD. From this point of view, Cornford fails 
to catch Plato's subtle allusion to the recalcitrant fourth. 

192 We do not wish it to be supposed that the thought-processes 
we have deduced from the text of the Timaeus represent Plato's 
conscious reflections. However extraordinary his genius may 
have been, it by no means follows that his thoughts were all 
conscious ones. The problem of the fourth, for instance, which 
is an absolutely essential ingredient of totality, can hardly have 
reached his consciousness in complete form. If it had, he would 
have been repelled by the violence with which the elements were 
to be forced into a harmonious system. Nor would he have been 
so illogical as to insist on the threefoldness of his world-soul. 
Again, I would not venture to assert that the opening words of 
the Timaeus are a conscious reference to the underlying prob 
lem of the recalcitrant fourth. Everything suggests that the same 
unconscious spiritus rector was at work which twice impelled the 
master to try to write a tetralogy, the fourth part remaining 
unfinished on both occasions. 28 This factor also ensured that 
Plato would remain a bachelor to the end of his life, as if affirm 
ing the masculinity of his triadic God-image. 

25 Taylor, p. 75. ^^ 

26 Griffith, A Collection of Hieroglyphs, p. 34 B. Fig. 142: *2 = Plan of a vil 
lage with cross-streets. ^Qr 

27 p. 6 1. The intermedia are constructed on the assumption that Indivisible and 
Divisible are opposite attributes of each of the three principles, Existence, Same 
ness, Difference. I do not know whether the text permits of such an operation. 

28 Gomperz, III, p. 200 [The two unfinished tetralogies are (a) Republic f Timaeus, 
Critias (left incomplete), (Hermocrates, never written); (b) Theaetetus, Sophist, 
Statesman, (philosopher, never written). TRANS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



As history draws nearer to the beginning o our era, the gods 
become more and more abstract and spiritualized. Even Yahweh 
had to submit to this transformation. In the Alexandrian phi 
losophy that arose in the last century B.C., we witness not only 
an alteration of his nature but an emergence of two other divini 
ties in his immediate vicinity: the Logos and Sophia. Together 
with him they form a triad, 29 and this is a clear prefiguration of 
the post-Christian Trinity. 

29 Leisegang, Pneuma Hagion, p. 86. 



128 



*. FATHER, SON, AND SPIRIT 



I have dwelt at some length on the views of the Babylo 
nians and Egyptians, and on Platonist philosophy, in order to 
give the reader some conception of the trinitarian and Unitarian 
ideas that were in existence many centuries before the birth of 
Christianity. Whether these ideas were handed down to poster 
ity as a result of migration and tradition or whether they arose 
spontaneously in each case is a question of little importance. 
The important thing is that they occurred because, once having 
sprung forth from the unconscious of the human race (and not 
just in Asia Minor!), they could rearise anywhere at any time. 
It is, for instance, more than doubtful whether the Church 
Fathers who devised the homoousios formula were even re 
motely acquainted with the ancient Egyptian theology of king 
ship. Nevertheless, they neither paused in their labours nor 
rested until they had finally reconstructed the ancient Egyptian 
archetype. Much the same sort of thing happened when, in 
A.D. 431, at the Council of Ephesus, whose streets had once rung 
with hymns of praise to many-breasted Diana, the Virgin Mary 
was declared the 0or6/cos, 'birth-giver of the god/ * As we 
know from Epiphanius, 2 there was even a sect, the Collyridians, 

i Here one might recall the legend that, after the death of Christ, Mary betook 
herself with John to Ephesus, where she is said to have lived until her death. 

(Contra octoginta haereses) LXXIX. See Migne, P.G V vol. 41, cols. 

129 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



who worshipped Mary after the manner of an antique goddess. 
Her cult had its chief centres in Arabia, Thrace, and Upper 
Scythia, the most enthusiastic devotees being women. Their 
provocations moved Epiphanius to the rebuke that "the whole 
female sex is slippery and prone to error, with a mind that is 
very petty and narrow." 3 It is clear from this chastening sermon 
that there were priestesses who on certain feast days decorated 
a wagon or four-cornered seat and covered it with linen, on 
which they placed offerings of bakemeats "in the name of 
Mary" (fc ovopa rrjs Maptas), afterwards partaking of the sacri 
ficial meal. This plainly amounted to a Eucharistic feast in 
honour of Mary, at which wheaten bread was eaten. The ortho 
dox standpoint of the time is aptly expressed in the words of 
Epiphanius: "Let Mary be held in honour, and let the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Ghost be adored, but let no one adore 
Mary." 

Thus the archetype reasserted itself, since, as I have tried to 
show, archetypal ideas are part of the indestructible foundations 
of the human mind. However long they are forgotten and 
buried, always they return, sometimes in the strangest guise, 
with a personal twist to them or intellectually distorted, as in 
the case of the Arian heresy, but continually reproducing them 
selves in new forms representing the timeless truths that are 
innate in man's nature. 4 

Even though Plato's influence on the thinkers of the next 
few centuries can hardly be overestimated, his philosophically 
formulated triad cannot be held responsible for the origins of 
the Christian dogma of the Trinity. For we are concerned here 
not with any philosophical, that is conscious, assumptions but 
with unconscious, archetypal forms. The Platonic formula for 
the triad contradicts the Christian Trinity in one essential 
point: the triad is built on opposition, whereas the Trinity con 
tains no opposition of any kind, but is, on the contrary, a com 
plete harmony in itself. The three Persons are characterized in 
such a manner that they cannot possibly be derived from Pla- 

3 "Quod genus lubricum et in errorem proclive, ac pusilli admodum et angusti 
animi esse solet." 

4 The special emphasis I lay on archetypal predispositions does not mean that 
mythologems are of exclusively psychic origin. I am not overlooking the social 
conditions that are just as necessary for their production. 

IgO 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

tonic premises, while the terms Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do 
not proceed in any sense from the number three. At most, the 
Platonic formula supplies the intellectual scaffolding for contents 
that come from quite other sources. The Trinity may be con 
ceived platonically as to its form, but for its content we have to 
rely on psychic factors, on irrational data that cannot be 
logically determined beforehand. In other words, we have to 
distinguish between the logical idea of the Trinity and its 
psychological reality. The latter brings us back to the very much 
more ancient Egyptian ideas and hence to the archetype, which 
provides the authentic and eternal justification for the existence 
of any trinitarian idea at all. 

197 The psychological datum consists of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. If we posit "Father," then "Son" logically follows; but 
"Holy Ghost" does not follow logically from either "Father" 
or "Son." So we must be dealing here with a special factor that 
rests on a different presupposition. According to the old doc 
trine, the Holy Ghost is "vera persona, quae a filio et patre missa 
est" (a real person who is sent by the Son and the Father). The 
"processio a patre filioque" (procession from the Father and the 
Son) is a "spiration" and not a "begetting." This somewhat 
peculiar idea corresponds to the separation, which still existed 
in the Middle Ages, of "corpus" and "spiramen," the latter be 
ing understood as something more than mere "breath." What 
it really denoted was the anima, which, as its name shows, is a 
breath-being (anemos = wind). Although an activity of the 
body, it was thought of as an independent substance (or hyposta- 
sis) existing alongside the body. The underlying idea is that the 
body "lives," and that "life" is something superadded and auton 
omous, conceived as a soul unattached to the body. Applying 
this idea to the Trinity formula, we would have to say: Father, 
Son, and Lifethe life proceeding from both or lived by both. 
The Holy Ghost as "life" is a concept that cannot be derived 
logically from the identity of Father and Son, but is, rather, a 
psychological idea, a datum based on an irrational, primordial 
image. This primordial image is the archetype, and we find it 
expressed most clearly in the Egyptian theology of kingship. 
There, as we have seen, the archetype takes the form of God the 
father, Ka-mutef (the begetter), and the son. The ka is the life- 
spirit, the animating principle of men and gods, and therefore 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



can be legitimately interpreted as the soul or spiritual double. 
He is the "life'* of the dead man, and thus corresponds on the 
one hand to the living man's soul, and on the other to his 
"spirit" or "genius." We have seen that Ka-mutef is a hyposta- 
tization of procreative power. 5 In the same way, the Holy Ghost 
is hypostatized procreative power and life-force. 6 Hence, in the 
Christian Trinity, we are confronted with a distinctly archaic 
idea, whose extraordinary value lies precisely in the fact that it 
is a supreme, hypostatic representation of an abstract thought 
(two-dimensional triad). The form is still concretistic, in that 
the archetype is represented by the relationship "Father" and 
"Son." Were it nothing but that, it would only be a dyad. The 
third element, however, the connecting link between "Father" 
and "Son," is spirit and not a human figure. The masculine 
father-son relationship is thus lifted out of the natural order 
(which includes mothers and daughters) and translated to a 
sphere from which the feminine element is excluded: in ancient 
Egypt as in Christianity the Theotokos stands outside the Trin 
ity. One has only to think of Jesus's brusque rejection of his 
mother at the marriage in Cana: "Woman, what have I to do 
with thee?" (John 2:4), and also earlier, when she sought the 
twelve-year-old child in the temple: "How is it that ye sought 
me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" 
(Luke 2 :49). We shall probably not be wrong in assuming that 
this special sphere to which the father-son relationship is re 
moved is the sphere of primitive mysteries and masculine initia 
tions. Among certain tribes, women are forbidden to look at the 
mysteries on pain of death. Through the initiations the young 
men are systematically alienated from their mothers and are 
reborn as spirits. The celibacy of the priesthood is a continua 
tion of this archetypal idea. 7 

198 The intellectual operation that lies concealed in the higher 
father-son relationship consists in the extrapolation of an invisi- 

5 The ka of the king even has an individual name. Thus "the living ka of the 
Lord of the Two Lands," Thutmosis III, was called the "victorious bull which 
shines in Thebes." Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 307. 

6 The "doubling" of the spirit occurs also in the Old Testament, though more 
as a "potency" emanating from God than as an hypostasis. Nevertheless, Isaiah 
48: 16 looks very like a hypostasis in the Septuagint text: Kbpux Kipios &rrriX& 
fjL6 Kal r& vwGJtitt a&rav (The Lord the Lord sent me and his spirit). 

7 For an instructive account of the Greek background see Harrison, Themis, ch. i. 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ble figure, a "spirit" that is the very essence of masculine life. 
The life of the body or of a man is posited as something differ 
ent from the man himself. This led to the idea of a ka or 
immortal soul, able to detach itself from the body and not de 
pendent on it for its existence. In this respect, primitives have 
extraordinarily well developed ideas about a plurality of souls. 
Some are immortal, others are only loosely attached to the body 
and can wander off and get lost in the night, or they lose their 
way and get caught in a dream. There are even souls that belong 
to a person without being lodged in his body, like the bush-soul, 
which dwells outside in the forest, in the body of an animal. 
The juxtaposition of a person and his "life" has its psychological 
basis in the fact that a mind which is not very well differentiated 
cannot think abstractly and is incapable of putting things into 
categories. It can only take the qualities it perceives and place 
them side by side: man and his life, or his sickness (visualized 
as a sort of demon), or his health or prestige (mana, etc.). This is 
obviously the case with the Egyptian ka. Father-son-life (or 
procreative power), together with rigorous exclusion of the 
Theotokos, constitute the patriarchal formula that was "in the 
air" long before the advent of Christianity. 

199 The Father is, by definition, the prime cause, the creator, the 
auctor return, who, on a level of culture where reflection is still 
unknown, can only be One. The Other follows from the One by 
splitting off from it. This split need not occur so long as there 
is no criticism of the auctor rerumso long, that is to say, as a 
culture refrains from all reflection about the One and does not 
start criticizing the Creator's handiwork. A feeling of oneness, 
far removed from critical judgment and moral conflict, leaves 
the Father's authority unimpaired. 

*oo I had occasion to observe this original oneness of the father- 
world when I was with a tribe of Negroes on Mount Elgon. 
These people professed to believe that the Creator had made 
everything good and beautiful. "But what about the bad animals 
that kill your cattle?" I asked. They replied: "The lion is good 
and beautiful." "And your horrible diseases?" "You lie in the 
sun, and it is beautiful." I was impressed by their optimism. 
But at six o'clock in the evening this philosophy came to a sud 
den stop, as I was soon to discover. After sunset, another world 
took overthe dark world of the Ayik, who is everything evil, 

133 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



dangerous, and terrifying. The optimistic philosophy ends and 
a philosophy of fear, ghosts, and magical spells for averting the 
Evil One begins. Then, at sunrise, the optimism starts off again 
without any trace of inner contradiction. 

Here man, world, and God form a whole, a unity unclouded 
by criticism. It is the world of the Father, and of man in his 
childhood state. Despite the fact that twelve hours out of every 
twenty-four are spent in the world of darkness, and in agonizing 
belief in this darkness, the doubt never arises as to whether God 
might not also be the Other. The famous question about the 
origin of evil does not yet exist in a patriarchal age. Only with 
the coming of Christianity did it present itself as the principal 
problem of morality. The world of the Father typifies an age 
which is characterized by a pristine oneness with the whole of 
Nature, no matter whether this oneness be beautiful or ugly or 
awe-inspiring. But once the question is asked: "Whence comes 
the evil, why is the world so bad and imperfect, why are there 
diseases and other horrors, why must man suffer?" then reflec 
tion has already begun to judge the Father by his manifest 
works, and straightway one is conscious of a doubt, which is it 
self the symptom of a split in the original unity. One comes to 
the conclusion that creation is imperfect nay more, that the 
Creator has not done his job properly, that the goodness and 
almightiness of the Father cannot be the sole principle of the 
cosmos. Hence the One has to be supplemented by the Other, 
with the result that the world of the Father is fundamentally 
altered and is superseded by the world of the Son. 

This was the time when the Greeks started criticizing the 
world, the time of "gnosis" in its widest sense, which ultimately 
gave birth to Christianity. The archetype of the redeemer-god 
and Original Man is age-old we simply do not know how old. 
The Son, the revealed god, who voluntarily or involuntarily 
offers himself for sacrifice as a man, in order to create the world 
or redeem it from evil, can be traced back to the Purusha of 
Indian philosophy, and is also found in the Persian conception 
of the Original Man, Gayomart. Gayomart, son of the god of 
light, falls victim to the darkness, from which he must be set 
free in order to redeem the world. He is the prototype of the 
Gnostic redeemer-figures and of the teachings concerning Christ, 
redeemer of mankind. 

134 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

203 It is not hard to see that a critique which raised the question 
of the origin of evil and of suffering had in mind another world 
a world filled with longing for redemption and for that state 
of perfection in which man was still one with the Father. Long 
ingly he looked back to the world of the Father, but it was lost 
forever, because an irreversible increase in man's consciousness 
had taken place in the meantime and made it independent. 
With this mutation he broke away from the world of the Father 
and entered upon the world of the Son, with its divine drama 
of redemption and the ritualistic retelling of those things which 
the God-man had accomplished during his earthly sojourn. 8 
The life of the God-man revealed things that could not possibly 
have been known at the time when the Father ruled as the One. 
For the Father, as the original unity, was not a defined or de 
finable object; nor could he, strictly speaking, either be called 
the "Father" or be one. He only became a "Father" by incarnat 
ing in the Son, and by so doing became defined and definable. 
By becoming a father and a man he revealed to man the secret 
of his divinity. 

204 One of these revelations is the Holy Ghost. As a being who 
existed before the world was, he is eternal, but he appears em 
pirically in this world only when Christ had left the earthly 
stage. He will be for the disciples what Christ was for them. 
He will invest them with the power to do works greater, per 
haps, than those of the Son (John 14:12). The Holy Ghost is 
a figure who deputizes for Christ and who corresponds to what 
Christ received from the Father. From the Father comes the 
Son, and common to both is the living activity of the Holy 
Ghost, who, according to Christian doctrine, is breathed forth 
("spirated") by both. As he is the third term common to Father 
and Son, he puts an end to the duality, to the "doubt" in the 
Son. He is, in fact, the third element that rounds out the Three 
and restores the One. The point is that the unfolding of the 
One reaches its climax in the Holy Ghost after polarizing itself 
as Father and Son. Its descent into a human body is sufficient 
in itself to make it become another, to set it in opposition to 
itself. Thenceforward there are two: the "One" and the "Other," 

8 Cf. the detailed exposition of the death and rebirth of the divine icoupoy in Har 
rison, Themis. 

135 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



which results in a certain tension. 9 This tension works itself out 
in the suffering and fate of the Son 10 and, finally, in Christ's 
admission of abandonment by God (Matthew 27:46). 

205 Although the Holy Ghost is the progenitor of the Son 
(Matthew 1:18), he is also, as the Paraclete, a legacy from him. 
He continues the work of redemption in mankind at large, by 
descending upon those who merit divine election. Consequently, 
the Paraclete is, at least by implication, the crowning figure in 
the work of redemption on the one hand and in God's revelation 
of himself on the other. It could, in fact, be said that the Holy 
Ghost represents the final, complete stage in the evolution of 
God and the divine drama. For the Trinity is undoubtedly a 
higher form of God-concept than mere unity, since it corre 
sponds to a level of reflection on which man has become more 
conscious. 

206 The trinitarian conception of a life-process within the Deity, 
which I have outlined here, was, as we have seen, already in 
existence in pre-Christian times, its essential features being a 
continuation and differentiation of the primitive rites of re 
newal and the cult-legends associated with them. Just as the gods 
of these mysteries become extinct, so, too, do the mysteries them 
selves, only to take on new forms in the course of history. A 
large-scale extinction of the old gods was once more in progress 
at the beginning of our era, and the birth of a new god, with 
new mysteries and new emotions, was an occurrence that healed 
the wound in men's souls. It goes without saying that any con 
scious borrowing from the existing mystery traditions would 
have hampered the god's renewal and rebirth. It had to be an 
entirely unprejudiced revelation which, quite unrelated to any 
thing else, and if possible without preconceptions of any kind, 
would usher into the world a new 5p6>juew and a new cult- 
legend. Only at a comparatively late date did people notice the 
striking parallels with the legend of Dionysus, which they then 
declared to be the work of the devil. This attitude on the part 
of the early Christians can easily be understood, for Christianity 

9 The relation of Father to Son is not arithmetical, since both the One and the 
Other are still united in the original Unity and are, so to speak, eternally on the 
point of becoming two. Hence the Son is eternally being begotten by the Father, 
and Christ's sacrificial death is an eternally present act. 

10 The T0077 of Dionysus would be the Greek parallels. 

136 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

did indeed develop in this unconscious fashion, and furthermore 
its seeming lack of antecedents proved to be the indispensable 
condition for its existence as an effective force. Nobody can 
doubt the manifold superiority of the Christian revelation over 
its pagan precursors, for which reason it is distinctly superfluous 
today to insist on the unheralded and unhistorical character of 
the gospels, seeing that they swarm with historical and psycho 
logical assumptions of very ancient origin. 



3 . THE SYMBOLA 



207 The trinitarian drama of redemption (as distinct from the 
intellectual conception of it) burst upon the world scene at the 
beginning of a new era, amid complete unconsciousness of its re 
suscitation from the past. Leaving aside the so-called prefigura- 
tions in the Old Testament, there is not a single passage in the 
New Testament where the Trinity is formulated in an intellec 
tually comprehensible manner. 1 Generally speaking, it is more 
a question of formulae for triple benediction, such as the end of 
the second epistle to the Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the 
Holy Ghost, be with you all," 2 or the beginning of the first 

1 The so-called "Comma Johanneum," which would seem to be an exception, is a 
demonstrably late interpolation of doubtful origin. Regarded as a dogmatic and 
revealed text per se, it would afford the strongest evidence for the occurrence of 
the Trinity in the New Testament. The passage reads (I John 5 : 8: "And there 
are three that bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these 
three are one" (DV), That is to say, they agree in their testimony that Christ 
"came in water and in blood'* (verse 6, DV). pn verse 8, AV has "and these three 
agree in one"; RSV: "and these three agree." TRANS.] The Vulgate has the late 
interpolation in verse 7: "Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in caelo: Pater, 
Verbum et Sptritus Sanctus: et hi tres unum sunt." Note that in the Greek text 
the three neuter nouns rvcupa, 56a>p, and aT/za are followed by a masculine plural: 

01 rpels ets r& & tier iv. 

2 II Cor. 13: 14 (AV). The baptismal formula "In the name of the Father and the 
Son and the Holy Ghost" comes into this category, though its authenticity is 

138 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

epistle of Peter: ". . . chosen and destined by God the Father 
and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and 
for sprinkling with his blood," 3 or Jude 20-21. Another passage 
cited in favour of the Trinity is I Corinthians 12 14-6, but this 
only gives the emphatic assurance that the Spirit is one (repeated 
in Ephesians 4 : 4-6), and may be taken more as an incantation 
against polytheism and polydemonism than an assertion o the 
Trinity. Triadic formulae were also current in the post-apostolic 
epoch. Thus Clement says in his first letter (46:6): ". . . Have 
we not one God, and one Christ, and one Spirit . . ." * Epipha- 
nius even reports that Christ taught his disciples that "the 
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are the same." 5 

208 Epiphanius took this passage from the apocryphal "Gospel 
according to the Egyptians," 6 of which unfortunately only frag 
ments are preserved. The formula is significant insofar as it pro 
vides a definite starting-point for a "modalistic" concept of the 
Trinity. 

*9 Now the important point is not that the New Testament con 
tains no trinitarian formulae, but that we find in it three figures 
who are reciprocally related to one another: the Father, the 
Son, begotten through the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost. 
Since olden times, formulae for benediction, all solemn agree 
ments, occasions, attributes, etc. have had a magical, threefold 
character (e.g., the Trishagion). 7 Although they are no evidence 
for the Trinity in the New Testament, they nevertheless occur 
and, like the three divine Persons, are clear indications of an 
active archetype operating beneath the surface and throwing up 
triadic formations. This proves that the trinitarian archetype is 

doubted. It seems that originally people were baptized only in the name of Jesus 
Christ. The formula does not occur in Mark and Luke. Cf. Krueger, Das Dogma 
von der Dreieinigkeit und Gottmenschheit in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, 
p. 1 1 . 31 Peter i : 2 (RSV). 

4 Apostolic Fathers, trans, by Lake, I, p. 89. Clement was the third bishop of 
Rome after Peter, according to Irenaeus. His dating is unsure, but he seems to 
have been born in the second half of the 2nd cent. 
SPanarium, LXII, u, in Migne, P.G., vol. 41, cols. 1052-53. 

6 Cf, James, The Apocryphal New Testament, pp. lof. 

7 We might also mention the division of Christ's forbears into 3 x *4 generations 
in Matthew 1:17. Cf. the role of the 14 royal ancestors in ancient Egypt: Jacob- 
sohn, "Die dogmatische Stellung des Konigs in der Theologie der alten Aegypter," 
pp. 66ff. 

139 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



already at work in the New Testament, for what comes after 
is largely the result of what has gone before, a proposition which 
is especially apposite when, as in the case of the Trinity, we are 
confronted with the effects of an unconscious content or arche 
type. From the creeds to be discussed later, we shall see that at 
the synods of the Fathers the New Testament allusions to the 
divine trio were developed in a thoroughly consistent manner 
until the homoousia was restored, which again happened un 
consciously, since the Fathers knew nothing of the ancient 
Egyptian model that had already reached the homoousian level. 
The after-effects on posterity were inevitable consequences of 
the trinitarian anticipations that were abroad in the early days 
of Christianity, and are nothing but amplifications of the con 
stellated archetype. These amplifications, so far as they were 
naive and unprejudiced, are direct proof that what the New 
Testament is alluding to is in fact the Trinity, as the Church 
also believes. 

Since people did not actually know what it was that had so 
suddenly revealed itself in the "Son of Man," but only believed 
the current interpretations, the effects it had over the centuries 
signify nothing less than the gradual unfolding of the archetype 
in man's consciousness, or rather, its absorption into the pattern 
of ideas transmitted by the cultures of antiquity. 8 From this 
historical echo it is possible to recognize what had revealed it 
self in a sudden flash of illumination and seized upon men's 
minds, even though the event, when it happened, was so far 
beyond their comprehension that they were unable to put it 
into a clear formula. Before "revealed" contents can be sorted 
out and properly formulated, time and distance are needed. 
The results of this intellectual activity were deposited in a series 
of tenets, the dogmata, which were then summed up in the 
"symbolum" or creed. This breviary of belief well deserves the 
name "symbolum," for, from a psychological point of view, it 
gives symbolical expression to, and paints an anthropomorphic 
picture of, a transcendent fact that cannot be demonstrated or 
explained rationally, the word "transcendent" being used here 
in a strictly psychological sense. 9 

8 As we know, St. John's gospel marks the beginning of this process. 
Cf. Psychological Types, Def. 51. 

140 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 
I. THE SYMBOLUM APOSTOLICUM 

an The first of these summaries was attempted fairly early, if 
tradition may be relied on. St. Ambrose, for instance, reports 
that the confession used at baptism in the church of Milan 
originated with the twelve apostles. 10 This creed of the old 
Church is therefore known as the Apostles' Creed. As established 
in the fourth century, it ran: 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only 
begotten Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the 
Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, and on 
the third day rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of the Father, whence he shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. And [I believe] in the Holy Ghost, 
the holy Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh. 

212 This creed is still entirely on the level of the gospels and 
epistles: there are three divine figures, and they do not in any 
way contradict the one God. Here the Trinity is not explicit, 
but exists latently, just as Clement's second letter says of the 
pre-existent Church: "It was spiritually there." Even in the very 
early days of Christianity it was accepted that Christ as Logos 
was God himself (John 1:1). For Paul he is pre-existent in God's 
form, as is clear from the famous "kenosis" passage in Philip- 
pians 2 : 6 (AV): "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God" (T& Avu Iva. 6eu = esse se 
aequalem Deo}. There are also passages in the letters where the 
author confuses Christ with the Holy Ghost, or where the three 
are seen as one, as in II Corinthians 3:17 (DV): "Now the Lord 
is the spirit" (6 5 /cuptos ra Trveupa kanv = Dominus autem spiri- 
tus esf). When the next verse speaks of the "glory of the 
Lord" (S6a wpiov = gloria Domini), "Lord" seems to refer to 
Christ. But if you read the whole passage, from verses 7 to 18, 
it is evident that the "glory" refers equally to God, thus proving 
the promiscuity of the three figures and their latent Trinity. 

10 Explanatio symboli ad initiandos. 



141 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



II. THE SYMBOLUM OF GREGORY THAUMATURGUS 

21 3 Although the Apostles* Creed does not stipulate the Trinity 
in so many words, it was nevertheless "spiritually there" at a 
very early date, and it is nothing but a quibble to insist, as many 
people do, that the Trinity was "invented only long afterwards." 
In this connection, therefore, I must mention the vision of 
Gregory Thaumaturgus (210-70), in which the Blessed Virgin 
and St. John appeared to him and enunciated a creed which he 
wrote down on the spot. 11 It runs: 

One God, Father of the living Word, [of his] self-subsistent wisdom 
and power, [of his] eternal likeness, perfect Begetter of what is per 
fect, Father of the only begotten Son. One Lord, Alone of the Alone, 
God of God, veritable likeness of Godhead, effectual Word, com 
prehensive Wisdom by which all things subsist, Power that creates 
all Creation, true Son of the true Father, unseen [Son] of the unseen 
[Father], incorruptible of the incorruptible, deathless of the death 
less, everlasting of the everlasting. And one Holy Spirit, having 
existence from God and appearing through the Son, Image of the 
Son and perfect [Image] of the perfect [Father], Life and cause of 
life, holy Fount, Ringleader [Xopi/Tos] of holiness: in whom is mani 
fest God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, 
who pervades all. Perfect Trinity, whose glory and eternity and 
dominion is not divided and not separate. 12 

*H This trinitarian creed had already established itself in a 
position of authority long before the appearance of the Apostles' 
Creed, which is far less explicit. Gregory had been a pupil of 
Origen until about 238. Origen (182-251) employed the concept 
of the Trinity 13 in his writings and gave it considerable thought, 
concerning himself more particularly with its internal econ 
omy (olKovofiLa, oeconomia) and the management of its power: 
"I am of the opinion, then, that the God and Father, who holds 
the universe together, is superior to every being that exists, for 
he imparts to each one from his own existence that which each 
one is. The Son, being less than the Father, is superior to 

11 Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita S. Gregorii Thaumaturgi, in Migne, F.G., vol. 46, 
cols. 911-14. 

i2Caspari, Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, pp. 10-17. 
is First mentioned in Tertullian (d. 220). 

142 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

rational creatures alone (for he is second to the Father). The 
Holy Spirit is still less, and dwells within the saints alone. So 
that in this way the power of the Father is greater than that of 
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and in turn the power of the 
Holy Spirit exceeds that of every other holy being." 14 He is not 
very clear about the nature of the Holy Spirit, for he says: "The 
Spirit of God, therefore, who, as it is written, moved upon the 
waters in the beginning of the creation of the world, I reckon 
to be none other than the Holy Spirit, so far as I can under 
stand." 15 Earlier he says: "But up to the present we have been 
able to find no passage in the holy scriptures which would war 
rant us in saying that the Holy Spirit was a being made or cre 
ated." 16 



III. THE NICAENUM 

215 Trinitarian speculation had long passed its peak when the 
Council of Nicaea, in 325, created a new creed, known as the 
"Nicene."Itruns: 

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things 
visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, the 
only begotten of the Father, being of the substance [owla] of the 
Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten 
not made, consubstantial [fyiootxrios] with the Father, through whom 
all things have been made which are in heaven and on earth. Who 
for us men and for our salvation descended and was made flesh, be 
came man, suffered, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, 
and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy 
Spirit. As for those who say, "There was a time when He was not," 
or "Before He was begotten He was not," or "He was made from 
that which was not, or from another subsistence [uTrooracris], or sub 
stance," or "The Son of God is created, changeable, or subject to 
change," these the Catholic Church anathematizes. 17 

* l6 It was, apparently, a Spanish bishop, Hosius of Cordoba, 
who proposed to the emperor the crucial word dftooixrios. It did 

14 Origen, On First Principles, trans, by Butterworth, pp. 33?. 

15 ibid., p. 31. 16 Ibid. 

17 Cf. J. R. Palanque and others, The Church in the Christian Roman Empire, I: 
The Church and the Arian Crisis, p. 96. 

143 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



not occur then for the first time, for it can be found in Tertul- 
lian, as the "unitas substantiae." The concept of homoousia can 
also be found in Gnostic usage, as for instance in Irenaeus' refer 
ences to the Valentinians (140-^. 200), where the Aeons are said 
to be of one substance with their creator, Bythos. 18 The Nicene 
Creed concentrates on the father-son relationship, while the 
Holy Ghost receives scant mention. 



IV. THE NICAENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITANUM, 
THE ATHANASIANUM, AND THE LATERANENSE 

217 The next formulation in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan 
Creed of 381 brings an important advance. It runs: 

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before 
all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, be 
gotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom 
all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came 
down from heaven and was made flesh by the Holy Ghost and the 
Virgin Mary and became man, and was crucified for us under 
Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, and on the third day rose 
again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, whence he shall come 
again in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and whose kingdom 
shall have no end. And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord 
and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, 19 who with the 
Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake 
through the prophets. And [we believe] in one holy Catholic and 
Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission 
of sins. And we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the 
world to come. Amen. 

is More accurately, the unity of substance consists in the fact that the Aeons 
are descended from the Logos, which proceeds from Nous, the direct emanation 
of Bythos. Cf. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, II, 17, 4, in Migne, P.G., vol. 7, cols. 
762-63 (trans, by Roberts and Rambaut, p. 174). 

19 [The addition at this point of the words "and from the Son" (Filioque), which, 
though never accepted by the Eastern Churches, has been universal in the West, 
both Catholic and Protestant, since the beginning of the eleventh century, is 
still one of the principal points of contention between the two main sections of 
the Christian body. EDITORS.] 

1 44 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

218 Here the Holy Ghost is given due consideration: he is called 
"Lord" and is worshipped together with Father and Son. But he 
proceeds from the Father only. It was this point that caused the 
tremendous controversy over the "filioque" question, as to 
whether the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only, or from 
the Son as well. In order to make the Trinity a complete unity, 
the filioque was just as essential as the homoousia. The (falsely 
so-called) Athanasian Creed 20 insisted in the strongest possible 
terms on the equality of all three Persons. Its peculiarities have 
given much offence to rationalistic and liberal-minded theolo 
gians. I quote, as a sample, a passage from the beginning: 

Now the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, 
and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing 
the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the 
Son, another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, the 
majesty co-eternal. Such as the 'Father is, such is the Son, and such 
is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the 
Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father infinite, the Son infinite, the 
Holy Ghost infinite. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy 
Ghost eternal. And yet not three Eternals, but one Eternal. As also 
there are not three Uncreated, nor three Infinites, but one Infinite 
and one Uncreated. So likewise is the Father almighty, the Son al 
mighty, the Holy Ghost almighty; and yet there are not three Al 
mighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, 
the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one 
God. Likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost 
is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. For just 
as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge each 
Person by himself to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by 
the Catholic religion to say there are three Gods or three Lords. 
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son 
is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The 
Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor 
begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; 
one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. 
And in this Trinity none is before or after, none is greater or less; 
but all three Persons are coeternal together and coequal. So that in 

20 It is also known as the "Symbolum Quicumque," on account of the opening 
words: "Quicumque vult salvus esse" (Whosoever would be saved). It does not go 
back to Athanasius. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



all ways, as is aforesaid, both the Trinity is to be worshipped in 
Unity, and the Unity in Trinity. He, therefore, that would be saved, 
let him think thus of the Trinity. 21 

219 Here the Trinity is a fully developed conceptual schema in 
which everything balances, the homoousia binding all three Per 
sons equally. The Creed of the Lateran Council, 1215, brings a 
further differentiation. I shall quote only the beginning: 

We firmly believe and wholeheartedly confess that there is only one 
true God, eternal, infinite, and unchanging; incomprehensible, 
almighty, and ineffable; Father and Son and Holy Ghost; three 
Persons, but one essence; entirely simple in substance and nature. 
The Father is of none, the Son is of the Father alone, and the Holy 
Ghost is of both equally; for ever without beginning and without 
end; the Father begetting, the Son being born, and the Holy Ghost 
proceeding; consubstantial and coequal and coalmighty and co- 
eternal. 22 

220 The "filioque" is expressly taken up into this creed, thus 
assigning the Holy Ghost a special activity and significance. So 
far as I can judge, the later Creed of the Council of Trent adds 
nothing further that would be of interest for our theme. 

221 Before concluding this section, I would like to call attention 
to a book well known in the Middle Ages, the Liber de Spiritu 
et Anima?* which attempts a psychological interpretation of the 
Trinity. The argument starts with the assumption that by self- 
knowledge a man may attain to a knowledge of God. 24 The 
mens rationalis is closest to God, for it is "excellently made, and 
expressly after his likeness." If it recognizes its own likeness to 
God it will the more easily recognize its creator. And thus 
knowledge of the Trinity begins. For the intellect sees how wis 
dom (sapientia) proceeds from it and how it loves this wisdom. 
But, from intellect and wisdom, there proceeds love, and thus 
all three, intellect, wisdom, and love, appear in one. The origin 
of all wisdom, however, is God. Therefore intellect (vovs) corre 
sponds to the Father, the wisdom it begets corresponds to the 

21 [Official version from the Revised Book of Common Prayer (1928), with alterna 
tive readings. TRANS.] 

22 [From the Decrees of the Lateran Council, ch. i. TRANS.] 

23 Erroneously ascribed to St. Augustine. Cf. Opera, VI. 

24 Ibid., p. 1194, B. 

146 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 



Son (XOYOS), and love corresponds to the Spirit (wvevjia) breathed 
forth between them. 25 The wisdom of God was often identified 
with the cosmogonic Logos and hence with Christ. The medieval 
mind finds it natural to derive the structure of the psyche from 
the Trinity, whereas the modern mind reverses the procedure. 

25 "The begetter is the Father, the begotten is the Son, and that which proceeds 
from both is the Holy Spirit." Ibid., p. 1195, D. 



4. THE THREE PERSONS IN THE LIGHT OF 
PSYCHOLOGY 



I. THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE ARCHETYPE 

The sequence o creeds illustrates the evolution of the Trin 
ity idea through the centuries. In the course of its development 
it either consistently avoided, or successfully combated, all 
rationalistic deviations, such as, for instance, the so-plausible- 
looking Arian heresy. The creeds superimposed on the trini- 
tarian allusions in the Holy Scriptures a structure of ideas that 
is a perpetual stumbling-block to the liberal-minded rationalist. 
Religious statements are, however, never rational in the ordi 
nary sense of the word, for they always take into consideration 
that other world, the world of the archetype, of which reason in 
the ordinary sense is unconscious, being occupied only with ex 
ternals. Thus the development of the Christian idea of the Trin 
ity unconsciously reproduced the archetype of the homoousia 
of Father, Son, and Ka-mutef which first appeared in Egyptian 
theology. Not that the Egyptian model could be considered the 
archetype of the Christian idea. The archetype an sich, as I have 
explained elsewhere, 1 is an "irrepresentable" factor, a "disposi 
tion" which starts functioning at a given moment in the de- 

i Cf . my "On the Nature of the Psyche," pp. aooff. 

148 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

velopment of the human mind and arranges the material o 
consciousness into definite patterns. 2 That is to say, man's con 
ceptions of God are organized into triads and trinities, and a 
whole host of ritualistic and magical practices take on a triple 
or trichotomous character, as in the case of thrice-repeated 
apotropaic spells, formulae for blessing, cursing, praising, giving 
thanks, etc. Wherever we find it, the archetype has a compelling 
force which it derives from the unconscious, and whenever its 
effect becomes conscious it has a distinctly numinous quality. 
There is never any conscious invention or cogitation, though 
speculations about the Trinity have often been accused of this. 
All the controversies, sophistries, quibbles, intrigues, and dissen 
sions that are such an odious blot on the history of this dogma 
owe their existence to the compelling numinosity of the arche 
type and to the unexampled difficulty of incorporating it in the 
world of rational thought. Although the emperors may have 
made political capital out of the quarrels that ensued, this singu 
lar chapter in the history of the human mind cannot possibly 
be traced back to politics, any more than social and economic 
causes can be held responsible for it. The sole reason for the 
dogma lies in the Christian "message," which caused a psychic 
revolution in Western man. On the evidence of the gospels, and 
of Paul's letters in particular, it announced the real and vera 
cious appearance of the God-man in this humdrum human 
world, accompanied by all the marvellous portents worthy of 
the son of God. However obscure the historical core of this 
phenomenon may seem to us moderns, with our hankering for 
factual accuracy, it is quite certain that those tremendous 
psychic effects, lasting for centuries, were not causelessly called 
2 1 have often been asked where the archetype comes from and whether it is 
acquired or not. This question cannot be answered directly. Archetypes are, by 
definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain 
images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recog 
nized only from the effects they produce. They exist preconsciously, and pre 
sumably they form the structural dominants of the psyche in general. They may 
be compared to the invisible presence of the crystal lattice in a saturated solution. 
As a priori conditioning factors they represent a special, psychological instance of 
the biological "pattern of behaviour," which gives all living organisms their spe 
cific qualities. Just as the manifestations of this biological ground plan may 
change in the course of development, so also can those of the archetype. Em 
pirically considered, however, the archetype did not ever come into existence as a 
phenomenon of organic life, but entered into the picture with life itself, 

149 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION *. WEST 



forth, by just nothing at all. Unfortunately the gospel reports, 
originating in missionary zeal, form the meagrest source imag 
inable for attempts at historical reconstruction. But, for that 
very reason, they tell us all the more about the psychological re 
actions of the civilized world at that time. These reactions and 
assertions are continued in the history of dogma, where they are 
still conceived as the workings of the Holy Ghost. This interpre 
tation, though the psychologist has nothing to say in regard to 
its metaphysical validity, is of the greatest moment, for it proves 
the existence of an overwhelming opinion or conviction that 
the operative factor in the formation of ideas is not man's in 
tellect but an authority above and beyond consciousness. This 
psychological fact should on no account be overlooked, for any 
theoretical reasons whatsoever. Rationalistic arguments to the 
effect that the Holy Ghost is an hypothesis that cannot be proved 
are not commensurable with the statements of the psyche. A 
delusional idea is real, even though its content is, factually con 
sidered, nonsense. Psychology's concern is with psychic phe 
nomena and with nothing else. These may be mere aspects of 
phenomena which, in themselves, could be subjected to a num 
ber of quite different modes of observation. Thus the statement 
that dogmas are inspired by the Holy Ghost indicates that they 
are not the product of conscious cogitation and speculation but 
are motivated from sources outside consciousness and possibly 
even outside man. Statements of this kind are the rule in arche 
typal experiences and are constantly associated with the sensed 
presence of a numen. An archetypal dream, for instance, can so 
fascinate the dreamer that he is very apt to see in it some kind 
of illumination, warning, or supernatural help. Nowadays most 
people are afraid of surrendering to such experiences, and their 
fear proves the existence of a "holy dread" of the numinous. 
Whatever the nature of these numinous experiences may be, 
they all have one thing in common: they relegate their source to 
a region outside consciousness. Psychology uses instead the con 
cept of the unconscious, and specially that of the collective un 
conscious as opposed to the personal unconscious. People who 
reject the former and give credence only to the latter are forced 
into personalistic explanations. But collective and, above all, 
manifestly archetypal ideas can never be derived from the per 
sonal sphere. If Communism, for instance, refers to Engels, 

150 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Marx, Lenin, and so on as the "fathers" of the movement, it 
does not know that it is reviving an archetypal order of society 
that existed even in primitive times, thereby explaining, inci 
dentally, the "religious" and "numinous" (i.e., fanatical) char 
acter of Communism. Neither did the Church Fathers know that 
their Trinity had a prehistory dating back several thousand 
years. 

223 There can be no doubt that the doctrine of the Trinity 
originally corresponded with a patriarchal order of society. But 
we cannot tell whether social conditions produced the idea or, 
conversely, the idea revolutionized the existing social order. 
The phenomenon of early Christianity and the rise of Islam, to 
take only these two examples, show what ideas can do. The lay 
man, having no opportunity to observe the behaviour of autono 
mous complexes, is usually inclined, in conformity with the 
general trend, to trace the origin of psychic contents back to 
the environment. This expectation is certainly justified so far 
as the ideational contents of consciousness are concerned. In 
addition to these, however, there are irrational, affective reac 
tions and impulses, emanating from the unconscious, which 
organize the conscious material in an archetypal way. The more 
clearly the archetype is constellated, the more powerful will 
be its fascination, and the resultant religious statements will 
formulate it accordingly, as something "daemonic" or "divine." 
Such statements indicate possession by an archetype. The ideas 
underlying them are necessarily anthropomorphic and are there 
by distinguished from the organizing archetype, which in itself 
is irrepresentable because unconscious. 3 They prove, however, 
that an archetype has been activated. 4 

224 Thus the history of the Trinity presents itself as the gradual 
crystallization of an archetype that moulds the anthropomorphic 
conceptions of father and son, of life, and of different persons 
into an archetypal and numinous figure, the "Most Holy Three- 
in-One." The contemporary witnesses of these events appre 
hended it as something that modern psychology would call a 
psychic presence outside consciousness. If there is a consensus of 

3 Cf. the detailed argument which I have put forward in "On the Nature of the 
Psyche," pp. aooff. 

4 It is very probable that the activation of an archetype depends on an alteration 
of the conscious situation, which requires a new form of compensation. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



opinion in respect of an idea, as there is here and always has 
been, then we are entitled to speak of a collective presence. 
Similar "presences" today are the Fascist and Communist ideol 
ogies, the one emphasizing the power of the chief, and the other 
communal ownership of goods in a primitive society. 
225 "Holiness" means that an idea or thing possesses the highest 
value, and that in the presence of this value men are, so to speak, 
struck dumb. Holiness is also revelatory: it is the illuminative 
power emanating from an archetypal figure. Nobody ever feels 
himself as the subject of such a process, but always as its object. 5 
He does not perceive holiness, it takes him captive and over 
whelms him; nor does he behold it in a revelation, it reveals 
itself to him, and he cannot even boast that he has understood 
it properly. Everything happens apparently outside the sphere 
of his will, and these happenings are contents of the uncon 
scious. Science is unable to say anything more than this, for it 
cannot, by an act of faith, overstep the limits appropriate to its 
nature. 



II. CHRIST AS ARCHETYPE 

The Trinity and its inner life process appear as a closed 
circle, a self-contained divine drama in which man plays, at 
most, a passive part. It seizes on him and, for a period of several 
centuries, forced him to occupy his mind passionately with all 
sorts of queer problems which today seem incredibly "abstruse, 
if not downright absurd. It is, in the first place, difficult to see 
what the Trinity could possibly mean for us, either practically, 
morally, or symbolically. Even theologians often feel that specu 
lation on this subject is a more or less otiose juggling with ideas, 
and there are not a few who could get along quite comfortably 
without the divinity of Christ, and for whom the role of the 
Holy Ghost, both inside and outside the Trinity, is an em 
barrassment of the first order. Writing of the Athanasian Creed, 
D. F. Strauss remarks: "The truth is that anyone who has sworn 

5 Koepgen makes the following trenchant remark in his Gnosis des Chris tentums, 
p. 198: "If there is such a thing as a history of the Western mind ... it would 
have to be viewed from the standpoint of the personality of Western man, which 
grew up under the influence of trinitarian dogma/' 

152 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

to the Symbolum Quicumque has abjured the laws of human 
thought." Naturally, the only person who can talk like that is 
one who is no longer impressed by the revelation of holiness 
and has fallen back on his own mental activity. This, so far as 
the revealed archetype is concerned, is an inevitably retrograde 
step: the liberalistic humanization of Christ goes back to the 
rival doctrine of homoiousia and to Arianism, while modern 
anti-trinitarianism has a conception of God that is more Old 
Testament or Islamic in character than Christian. 

227 Obviously, anyone who approaches this problem with ra 
tionalistic and intellectualistic assumptions, like D. F. Strauss, 
is bound to find the patristic discussions and arguments com 
pletely nonsensical. But that anyone, and especially a theologian, 
should fall back on such manifestly incommensurable criteria 
as reason, logic, and the like, shows that, despite all the mental 
exertions of the Councils and of scholastic theology, they failed 
to bequeath to posterity an intellectual understanding of the 
dogma that would lend the slightest support to belief in it. 
There remained only submission to faith and renunciation of 
one's own desire to understand. Faith, as we know from experi 
ence, often comes off second best and has to give in to criticism 
which may not be at all qualified to deal with the object of faith. 
Criticism of this kind always puts on an air of great enlighten 
mentthat is to say, it spreads round itself that thick darkness 
which the Word once tried to penetrate with its light: "And 
the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness compre 
hended it not." 

228 Naturally, it never occurs to these critics that their way of 
approach is incommensurable with their object. They think 
they have to do with rational facts, whereas it entirely escapes 
them that it is and always has been primarily a question of 
irrational psychic phenomena. That this is so can be seen plainly 
enough from the unhistorical character of the gospels, whose 
only concern was to represent the miraculous figure of Christ 
as graphically and impressively as possible. Further evidence of 
this is supplied by the earliest literary witness, Paul, who was 
closer to the events in question than the apostles. It is frankly 
disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus 
of Nazareth to get a word in. Even at this early date (and not 
only in John) he is completely overlaid, or rather smothered, 

153 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



by metaphysical conceptions: he is the ruler over all daemonic 
forces, the cosmic saviour, the mediating God-man. The whole 
pre-Christian and Gnostic theology of the Near East (some of 
whose roots go still further back) wraps itself about him and 
turns him before our eyes into a dogmatic figure who has no 
more need of historicity. At a very early stage, therefore, the real 
Christ vanished behind the emotions and projections that 
swarmed about him from far and near; immediately and almost 
without trace he was absorbed into the surrounding religious 
systems and moulded into their archetypal exponent. He be 
came the collective figure whom the unconscious of his con 
temporaries expected to appear, and for this reason it is pointless 
to ask who he "really" was. Were he human and nothing else, 
and in this sense historically true, he would probably be no 
more enlightening a figure than, say, Pythagoras, or Socrates, 
or Apollonius of Tyana. He opened men's eyes to revelation pre 
cisely because he was, from everlasting, God, and therefore un- 
historical; and he functioned as such only by virtue of the con 
sensus of unconscious expectation. If nobody had remarked that 
there was something special about the wonder-working Rabbi 
from Galilee, the darkness would never have noticed that a light 
was shining. Whether he lit the light with his own strength, or 
whether he was the victim of the universal longing for light 
and broke down under it, are questions which, for lack of re 
liable information, only faith can decide. At any rate the 
documentary reports relating to the general projection and 
assimilation of the Christ-figure are unequivocal. There is 
plenty of evidence for the co-operation of the collective uncon 
scious in view of the abundance of parallels from the history of 
religion. In these circumstances we must ask ourselves what it 
was in man that was stirred by the Christian message, and what 
was the answer he gave. 

229 If we are to answer this psychological question, we must first 
of all examine the Christ-symbolism contained in the New 
Testament, together with the patristic allegories and medieval 
iconography, and compare this material with the archetypal con 
tent of the unconscious psyche in order to find out what arche 
types have been constellated. The most important of the 
symbolical statements about Christ are those which reveal the 
attributes of the hero's life: improbable origin, divine father, 

154 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

hazardous birth, rescue in the nick of time, precocious develop 
ment, conquest of the mother and of death, miraculous deeds, a 
tragic, early end, symbolically significant manner of death, post 
mortem effects (reappearances, signs and marvels, etc.). As the 
Logos, Son of the Father, Rex gloriae^ Judex mundi, Redeemer, 
and Saviour, Christ is himself God, an all-embracing totality, 
which, like the definition of Godhead, is expressed iconograph- 
ically by the circle or mandala. 6 Here I would mention only the 
traditional representation of the Rex gloriae in a mandala, 
accompanied by a quaternity composed of the four symbols of 
the evangelists (including the four seasons, four winds, four 
rivers, and so on). Another symbolism of the same kind is the 
choir of saints, angels, and elders grouped round Christ (or God) 
in the centre. Here Christ symbolizes the integration of the 
kings and prophets of the Old Testament. As a shepherd he is 
the leader and centre of the flock. He is the vine, and those that 
hang on him are the branches. His body is bread to be eaten, 
and his blood wine to be drunk; he is also the mystical body 
formed by the congregation. In his human manifestation he is 
the hero and God-man, born without sin, more complete and 
more perfect than the natural man, who is to him what a child 
is to an adult, or an animal (sheep) to a human being. 
*3 These mythological statements, coming from within the 
Christian sphere as well as from outside it, adumbrate an arche 
type that expresses itself in essentially the same symbolism and 
also occurs in individual dreams or in fantasy-like projections 
upon living people (transference phenomena, hero-worship, 
etc.). The content of all such symbolic products is the idea of 
an overpowering, all-embracing, complete or perfect being, 
represented either by a man of heroic proportions, or by an 
animal with magical attributes, or by a magical vessel or some 
other "treasure hard to attain/* such as a jewel, ring, crown, or, 

6"Deus est circulus cuius centrum est ubique, circumferentia vero nusquam" 
(God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere). This 
definition occurs in the later literature. In the form "Deus est sphaera infinita" 
(God is an infinite sphere) it is supposed to have come from the Liber Hermetis, 
Liber Termegisti, Cod. Paris. 6319 (i4th cent.); Cod. Vat. 3060 (1315). Gf. Baum- 
gartner, Die Philosophic des Alanus de Insulis, p. 118. In this connection, men 
tion should be made of the tendency of Gnostic thought to move in a circle, e.g.: 
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the 
Word." Cf. Leisegang, Denkformen, pp. 6off. 

155 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



geometrically, by a mandala. This archetypal idea is a reflection 
of the individual's wholeness, i.e., of the self, which is present 
in him as an unconscious image. The conscious mind can form 
absolutely no conception of this totality, because it includes not 
only the conscious but also the unconscious psyche, which is, as 
such, inconceivable and irrepresentable. 

23* It was this archetype of the self in the soul of every man that 
responded to the Christian message, with the result that the 
concrete Rabbi Jesus was rapidly assimilated by the constellated 
archetype. In this way Christ realized the idea of the self. 7 But 
as one can never distinguish empirically between a symbol of 
the self and a God-image, the two ideas, however much we try 
to differentiate them, always appear blended together, so that 
the self appears synonymous with the inner Christ of the 
Johannine and Pauline writings, and Christ with God ("of one 
substance with the Father'*), just as the atman appears as the 
individualized self and at the same time as the animating prin 
ciple of the cosmos, and Tao as a condition of mind and at the 
same time as the correct behaviour of cosmic events. Psycholog 
ically speaking, the domain of "gods" begins where conscious 
ness leaves off, for at that point man is already at the mercy of 
the natural order, whether he thrive or perish. To the symbols 
of wholeness that come to him from there he attaches names 
which vary according to time and place. 

2 3 2 The self is defined psychologically as the psychic totality of 
the individual. Anything that a man postulates as being a 
greater totality than himself can become a symbol of the self. 
For this reason the symbol of the self is not always as total as 
the definition would require. Even the Christ-figure is not a 
totality, for it lacks the nocturnal side of the psyche's nature, 
the darkness of the spirit, and is also without sin. Without the 
integration of evil there is no totality, nor can evil be "added 
to the mixture by force." One could compare Christ as a sym 
bol to the mean of the first mixture: he would then be the 
middle term of a triad, in which the One and Indivisible is 
represented by the Father, and the Divisible by the Holy Ghost, 
who, as we know, can divide himself into tongues of fire. But 

7 Koepgen (p. 507) puts it very aptly: "Jesus relates everything to his ego, but 
this ego is not the subjective ego, it is a cosmic ego/* 

156 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

this triad, according to the Timaeus, is not yet a reality. Conse 
quently a second mixture is needed. 

233 The goal of psychological, as of biological, development is 
self-realization, or individuation. But since man knows himself 
only as an ego, and the self, as a totality, is indescribable and 
indistinguishable from a God-image, self-realization to put it 
in religious or metaphysical terms amounts to God's incarna 
tion. That is already expressed in the fact that Christ is the son 
of God. And because individuation is an heroic and often tragic 
task, the most difficult of all, it involves suffering, a passion of 
the ego: the ordinary, empirical man we once were is burdened 
with the fate of losing himself in a greater dimension and being 
robbed of his fancied freedom of will. He suffers, so to speak, 
from the violence done to him by the self. 8 The analogous 
passion of Christ signifies God's suffering on account of the in 
justice of the world and the darkness of man. The human and 
the divine suffering set up a relationship of complementarity 
with compensating effects. Through the Christ-symbol, man can 
get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way 
towards realizing his wholeness. As a result of the integration of 
conscious and unconscious, his ego enters the "divine" realm, 
where it participates in "God's suffering/' The cause of the 
suffering is in both cases the same, namely "incarnation," which 
on the human level appears as "individuation." The divine hero 
born of man is already threatened with murder; he has nowhere 
to lay his head, and his death is a gruesome tragedy. The self 
is no mere concept or logical postulate; it is a psychic reality, 
only part of it conscious, while for the rest it embraces the life 
of the unconscious and is therefore inconceivable except in the 
form of symbols. The drama of the archetypal life of Christ de 
scribes in symbolic images the events in the conscious life as 
well as in the life that transcends consciousness of a man who 
has been transformed by his higher destiny. 



III. THE HOLY GHOST 

234 The psychological relationship between man and the trini- 
tarian life process is illustrated first by the human nature of 
8 Cf. Jacob's struggle with the angel at the ford. 

157 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Christ, and second by the descent of the Holy Ghost and his in 
dwelling in man, as predicted and promised by the Christian 
message. The life of Christ is on the one hand only a short, his 
torical interlude for proclaiming the message, but on the other 
hand it is an exemplary demonstration of the psychic experi 
ences connected with God's manifestation of himself (or the 
realization of the self). The important thing for man is not 
the fciKvvptvov and the Sp&nwov (what is "shown" and "done"), 
but what happens afterwards: the seizure of the individual by 
the Holy Ghost. 

235 Here, however, we run into a great difficulty. For if we fol 
low up the theory of the Holy Ghost and carry it a step further 
(which the Church has not done, for obvious reasons), we come 
inevitably to the conclusion that if the Father appears in the Son 
and breathes together with the Son, and the Son leaves the Holy 
Ghost behind for man, then the Holy Ghost breathes in man, 
too, and thus is the breath common to man, the Son, and the 
Father. Man is therefore included in God's sonship, and the 
words of Christ" Ye are gods" (John 10:34) appear in a sig 
nificant light. The doctrine that the Paraclete was expressly left 
behind for man raises an enormous problem. The triadic for 
mula of Plato would surely be the last word in the matter of 
logic, but psychologically it is not so at all, because the psycho 
logical factor keeps on intruding in the most disturbing way. 
Why, in the name of all that's wonderful, wasn't it "Father, 
Mother, and Son?" That would be much more "reasonable" 
and "natural" than "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." To this we 
must answer: it is not just a question of a natural situation, but 
of a product of human reflection 9 added on to the natural se 
quence of father and son. Through reflection, "life" and its 
"soul" are abstracted from Nature and endowed with a separate 
existence. Father and son are united in the same soul, or, accord 
ing to the ancient Egyptian view, in the same procreative force, 

9 "Reflection" should be understood not simply as an act of thought, but rather 
as an attitude. [Cf. Psychological Types, Def. S.-EDITORS.] It is a privilege born 
of human freedom in contradistinction to the compulsion of natural law. As 
the word itself testifies ("reflection" means literally "bending back"), reflection is 
a spiritual act that runs counter to the natural process; an act whereby we stop, 
call something to mind, form a picture, and take up a relation to and come to 
terms with what we have seen. It should, therefore, be understood as an act of 
becoming conscious. 

158 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Ka-mutef. Ka-mutef is exactly the same hypostatization of an 
attribute as the breath or Aspiration" of the Godhead. 10 
*3 6 This psychological fact spoils the abstract perfection of the 
triadic formula and makes it a logically incomprehensible con 
struction, since, in some mysterious and unexpected way, an 
important mental process peculiar to man has been imported 
into it. If the Holy Ghost is, at one and the same time, the breath 
of life and a loving spirit and the Third Person in whom the 
whole trinitarian process culminates, then he is essentially a 
product of reflection, an hypostatized noumenon tacked on to 
the natural family-picture of father and son. It is significant that 
early Christian Gnosticism tried to get round this difficulty by 
interpreting the Holy Ghost as the Mother. 11 But that would 
merely have kept him within the archaic family-picture, within 
the tritheism and polytheism of the patriarchal world. It is, 
after all, perfectly natural that the father should have a family 
and that the son should embody the father. This train of thought 
is quite consistent with the father-world. On the other hand, 
the mother-interpretation would reduce the specific meaning 
of the Holy Ghost to a primitive image and destroy the most 
essential of the qualities attributed to him: not only is he the 
life common to Father and Son, he is also the Paraclete whom 
the Son left behind him, to procreate in man and bring forth 
works of divine parentage. It is of paramount importance that 
the idea of the Holy Ghost is not a natural image, but a recog 
nition of the living quality of Father and Son, abstractly con 
ceived as the "third" term between the One and the Other. Out 
of the tension of duality life always produces a "third" that 
seems somehow incommensurable or paradoxical. Hence, as the 
"third," the Holy Ghost is bound to be incommensurable and 
paradoxical too. Unlike Father and Son, he has no name and no 
character. He is a function, but that function is the Third Per 
son of the Godhead. 

10 "Active spiration" is a manifestation of life, an immanent act of Father and 
Son; "passive spiration/' on the other hand, is a quality of the Holy Ghost. 
According to St. Thomas, spiration does not proceed from the intellect but from 
the will of the Father and Son. In relation to the Son the Holy Ghost is not a 
spiration, but a procreative act of the Father. 

11 Cf. the Acts of Thomas (trans, by James, p. 388): "Come, O communion of the 
male; come, she that knoweth the mysteries of him that is chosen. . . . Come, 
holy dove that beareth the twin young; come, hidden mother." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



257 He is psychologically heterogeneous in that he cannot be 
logically derived from the father-son relationship and can only 
be understood as an idea introduced by a process of human 
reflection. The Holy Ghost is an exceedingly "abstract" concep 
tion, since a "breath" shared by two figures characterized as dis 
tinct and not mutually interchangeable can hardly be conceived 
at all. Hence one feels it to be an artificial construction of the 
mind, even though, as the Egyptian Ka-mutef concept shows, 
it seems somehow to belong to the very essence of the Trinity. 
Despite the fact that we cannot help seeing in the positing of 
such a concept a product of human reflection, this reflection 
need not necessarily have been a conscious act. It could equally 
well owe its existence to a "revelation," i.e., to an unconscious 
reflection, 12 and hence to an autonomous functioning of the un 
conscious, or rather of the self, whose symbols, as we have al 
ready said, cannot be distinguished from God-images. A religious 
interpretation will therefore insist that this hypostasis was a 
divine revelation. While it cannot raise any objections to such a 
notion, psychology must hold fast to the conceptual nature of 
the hypostasis, for in the last analysis the Trinity, too, is an 
anthropomorphic configuration, gradually taking shape through 
strenuous mental and spiritual effort, even though already 
preformed by the timeless archetype. 

*38 This separating, recognizing, and assigning of qualities is a 
mental activity which, although unconscious at first, gradually 
filters through to consciousness as the work proceeds. What 
started off by merely happening to consciousness later becomes 
integrated in it as its own activity. So long as a mental or indeed 
any psychic process at all is unconscious, it is subject to the law 
governing archetypal dispositions, which are organized and 
arranged round the self. And since the self cannot be dis 
tinguished from an archetypal God-image, it would be equally 
true to say of any such arrangement that it conforms to natural 
law and that it is an act of God's will. (Every metaphysical state 
ment is, ipso facto, unprovable). Inasmuch, then, as acts of cogni 
tion and judgment are essential qualities of consciousness, any 
accumulation of unconscious acts of this sort 13 will have the 

12 For this seeming contradictio in adjecto see "On the Nature of the Psyche," 
p. 172. 

is The existence of such process is evidenced by the content of dreams. 

160 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

effect of strengthening and widening consciousness, as one can 
see for oneself in any thorough analysis of the unconscious. 
Consequently, man's achievement of consciousness appears as 
the result of prefigurative archetypal processes or to put it 
metaphysically as part of the divine life-process. In other 
words, God becomes manifest in the human act of reflection. 

239 The nature of this conception (i.e., the hypostatizing of a 
quality) meets the need evinced by primitive thought to form a 
more or less abstract idea by endowing each individual quality 
with a concrete existence of its own. Just as the Holy Ghost is 
a legacy left to man, so, conversely, the concept of the Holy 
Ghost is something begotten by man and bears the stamp of its 
human progenitor. And just as Christ took on man's bodily 
nature, so through the Holy Ghost man as a spiritual force is 
surreptitiously included in the mystery of the Trinity, thereby 
raising it far above the naturalistic level of the triad and thus 
beyond the Platonic triunity. The Trinity, therefore, discloses 
itself as a symbol that comprehends the essence of the divine and 
the human. It is, as Koepgen w says, "a revelation not only of 
God but at the same time of man." 

240 The Gnostic interpretation of the Holy Ghost as the Mother 
contains a core of truth in that Mary was the instrument of 
God's birth and so became involved in the trinitarian drama as 
a human being. The Mother of God can, therefore, be regarded 
as a symbol of mankind's essential participation in the Trinity. 
The psychological justification for this assumption lies in the 
fact that thinking, which originally had its source in the self- 
revelations of the unconscious, was felt to be the manifestation 
of a power external to consciousness. The primitive does not 
think; the thoughts come to him. We ourselves still feel certain 
particularly enlightening ideas as "in-fluences," "in-spirations," 
etc. Where judgments and flashes of insight are transmitted by 
unconscious activity, they are often attributed to an archetypal 
feminine figure, the anima or mother-beloved. It then seems as 
if the inspiration came from the mother or from the beloved, 
the "femme inspiratrice." In view o this, the Holy Ghost 
would have a tendency to exchange his neuter designation (TO 
mx-upa ) for a feminine one. (It may be noted that the Hebrew 
word for spirit ruach is predominantly feminine.) Holy Ghost 

u Die Gnosis des Christentums, p. 194. 

161 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



and Logos merge in the Gnostic idea of Sophia, and again in the 
Sapientia of the medieval natural philosophers, who said of her: 
"In gremio matris sedet sapientia patris" (the wisdom of the 
father lies in the lap of the mother). These psychological rela 
tionships do something to explain why the Holy Ghost was 
interpreted as the mother, but they add nothing to our under 
standing of the Holy Ghost as such, because it is impossible to 
see how the mother could come third when her natural place 
would be second. 

241 Since the Holy Ghost is an hypostasis of "life," posited by an 
act of reflection, he appears, on account of his peculiar nature, 
as a separate and incommensurable "third," whose very pecu 
liarities testify that it is neither a compromise nor a mere 
triadic appendage, but rather the logically unexpected reso 
lution of tension between Father and Son. The fact that it is 
precisely a process of human reflection that irrationally creates 
the uniting "third" is itself connected with the nature of the 
drama of redemption, whereby God descends into the human 
realm and man mounts up to the realm of divinity. 

242 Thinking in the magic circle of the Trinity, or trinitarian 
thinking, is in truth motivated by the "Holy Spirit" in so far as 
it is never a question of mere cogitation but of giving expression 
to imponderable psychic events. The driving forces that work 
themselves out in this thinking are not conscious motives; they 
spring from an historical occurrence rooted, in its turn, in those 
obscure psychic conditions for which one could hardly find a 
better or more succinct formula than the "change from father to 
son/* from unity to duality, from non-reflection to criticism. To 
the extent that personal motives are lacking in trinitarian think 
ing, and the forces motivating it derive from impersonal and 
collective psychic conditions, it expresses a need of the un 
conscious psyche far surpassing all personal needs. This need, 
aided by human thought, produced the symbol of the Trinity, 
which was destined to serve as a saving formula of wholeness in 
an epoch of change and psychic transformation. Manifestations 
of a psychic activity not caused or consciously willed by man 
himself have always been felt to be daemonic, divine, or "holy," 
in the sense that they heal and make whole* His ideas of God 
behave as do all images arising out of the unconscious: they com 
pensate or complete the general mood or attitude of the mo- 

162 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ment, and it is only through the integration of these unconscious 
images that a man becomes a psychic whole. The "merely con 
scious" man who is all ego is a mere fragment, in so far as he 
seems to exist apart from the unconscious. But the more the un 
conscious is split off, the more formidable the shape in which it 
appears to the conscious mind if not in divine form, then in 
the more unfavourable form of obsessions and outbursts of 
affect. 15 Gods are personifications of unconscious contents, for 
they reveal themselves to us through the unconscious activity of 
the psyche. 16 Trinitarian thinking had something of the same 
quality, and its passionate profundity rouses in us latecomers 
a naive astonishment. We no longer know, or have not yet dis 
covered, what depths in the soul were stirred by that great turn 
ing-point in human history. The Holy Ghost seems to have 
faded away without having found the answer to the question he 
set humanity. 

15 In the Rituale Romanum ("On the Exorcism of Persons Possessed by the 
Devil": 1952 edn., pp. 8398?.), states of possession are expressly distinguished from 
diseases. We are told that the exorcist must learn to know the signs by which 
the possessed person may be distinguished from "those suffering from melancholy 
or any morbid condition." The criteria of possession are: ". . . speaking fluently 
in unknown tongues or understanding those who speak them; revealing things 
that take place at a distance or in secret; giving evidence of greater strength 
than is natural in view of one's age or condition; and other things of the same 
kind." The Church's idea of possession, therefore, is limited to extremely rare 
cases, whereas I would use it in a much wider sense as designating a frequently 
occurring psychic phenomenon: any autonomous complex not subject to the 
conscious will exerts a possessive effect on consciousness proportional to its 
strength and limits the latter's freedom. On the question of the Church's distinc 
tion between disease and possession, see Tonqudec, Les Maladies nerveuses ou 
mentales et les manifestations diaboliqttes. 

16 1 am always coming up against the misunderstanding that a psychological treat 
ment or explanation reduces God to "nothing but" psychology. It is not a question 
of God at all, but of man's ideas of God, as I have repeatedly emphasized. There 
are people who do have such ideas and who form such conceptions, and these 
things are the proper study of psychology. 



163 



5. THE PROBLEM OF THE FOURTH 



I. THE CONCEPT OF QUATERNITY 

243 The Timaeus, which was the first to propound a triadic for 
mula for the God-image in philosophical terms, starts off with 
the ominous question: "One, two, three but . . . where is the 
fourth?" This question is, as we know, taken up again in the 
Cabiri scene in Faust: 

Three we brought with us, 

The fourth would not come. 
He was the right one 

Who thought for them all. 

244 When Goethe says that the fourth was the one "who thought 
for them all," we rather suspect that the fourth was Goethe's 
own thinking function. 1 The Cabiri are, in fact, the mysterious 
creative powers, the gnomes who work under the earth, i.e., 
below the threshold of consciousness, in order to supply us with 
lucky ideas. As imps and hobgoblins, however, they also play 
all sorts of nasty tricks, keeping back names and dates that were 

i "Feeling is all; / Names are sound and smoke." [This problem of the "fourth" 
in Faust is also discussed in Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 2Oiff. EDITORS.] 

164 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

"on the tip of the tongue," making us say the wrong thing, etc. 
They give an eye to everything that has not already been antici 
pated by the conscious mind and the functions at its disposal. 
As these functions can be used consciously only because they 
are adapted, it follows that the unconscious, autonomous func 
tion is not or cannot be used consciously because it is unadapted. 
The differentiated and differentiable functions are much easier 
to cope with, and, for understandable reasons, we prefer to leave 
the "inferior" function round the corner, or to repress it alto 
gether, because it is such an awkward customer. And it is a fact 
that it has the strongest tendency to be infantile, banal, primi 
tive, and archaic. Anybody who has a high opinion of himself 
will do well to guard against letting it make a fool of him. On 
the other hand, deeper insight will show that the primitive and 
archaic qualities of the inferior function conceal all sorts of 
significant relationships and symbolical meanings, and instead 
of laughing off the Cabiri as ridiculous Tom Thumbs he may 
begin to suspect that they are a treasure-house of hidden wis 
dom. Just as, in Faust, the fourth thinks for them all, so the 
whereabouts of the eighth should be asked "on Olympus." 
Goethe showed great insight in not underestimating his inferior 
function, thinking, although it was in the hands of the Cabiri 
and was undoubtedly mythological and archaic. He character 
izes it perfectly in the line: "The fourth would not come." 
Exactly! It wanted for some reason to stay behind or below. 2 
S45 Three of the four orienting functions are available to con 
sciousness. This is confirmed by the psychological experience 
that a rational type, for instance, whose superior function is 
thinking, has at his disposal one, or possibly two, auxiliary func 
tions of an irrational nature, namely sensation (the "fonction du 
reel") and intuition (perception via the unconscious). His in 
ferior function will be feeling (valuation), which remains in a 
retarded state and is contaminated with the unconscious. It 
refuses to come along with the others and often goes wildly off 
on its own. This peculiar dissociation is, it seems, a product of 
civilization, and it denotes a freeing of consciousness from any 
excessive attachment to the "spirit of gravity." If that function, 
which is still bound indissolubly to the past and whose roots 

2 Cf. Psychological Types, Def. $o. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



reach back as far as the animal kingdom, 3 can be left behind 
and even forgotten, then consciousness has won for itself a new 
and not entirely illusory freedom. It can leap over abysses on 
winged feet; it can free itself from bondage to sense-impressions, 
emotions, fascinating thoughts, and presentiments by soaring 
into abstraction. Certain primitive initiations stress the idea of 
transformation into ghosts and invisible spirits and thereby 
testify to the relative emancipation of consciousness from the 
fetters of non-differentiation. Although there is a tendency, 
characteristic not only of primitive religions, to speak rather 
exaggeratedly of complete transformation, complete renewal 
and rebirth, it is, of course, only a relative change, continuity 
with the earlier state being in large measure preserved. Were it 
otherwise, every religious transformation would bring about a 
complete splitting of the personality or a loss of memory, which 
is obviously not so. The connection with the earlier attitude is 
maintained because part of the personality remains behind in 
the previous situation; that is to say it lapses into unconscious 
ness and starts building up the shadow. 4 The loss makes itself 
felt in consciousness through the absence of at least one of the 
four orienting functions, and the missing function is always the 
opposite of the superior function. The loss need not necessarily 
take the form of complete absence; in other words, the inferior 
function may be either unconscious or conscious, but in both 
cases it is autonomous and obsessive and not influenceable by 
the will. It has the "all-or-none" character of an instinct. Al 
though emancipation from the instincts brings a differentiation 
and enhancement of consciousness, it can only come about at the 
expense of the unconscious function, so that conscious orienta 
tion lacks that element which the inferior function could have 
supplied. Thus it often happens that people who have an amaz 
ing range of consciousness know less about themselves than the 
veriest infant, and all because "the fourth would not come" 

3Cf. the Hynm of Valentinus (Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 307): 
"All things depending in spirit I see; all things supported in spirit I view; flesh 
from soul depending; soul by air supported; air from aether hanging; fruits born 
of the deep; babe born of the womb." Cf. also the -rpoa^wp $vxh of Isidorus, 
who supposed that all manner of animal qualities attached to the human soul 
in the form of "outgrowths." [Cf. Aion, par. 370.] 

* Cf. the alchemical symbol of the umbra solis and the Gnostic idea that Christ 
was born "not without some shadow." 

166 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

it remained down below or up above in the unconscious 
realm. 

246 As compared with the trinitarian thinking of Plato, ancient 
Greek philosophy favoured thinking of a quaternary type. In 
Pythagoras the great role was played not by three but by four; 
the Pythagorean oath, for instance, says that the tetraktys "con 
tains the roots of eternal nature." 5 The Pythagorean school was 
dominated by the idea that the soul was a square and not a 
triangle. The origin of these ideas lies far back in the dark pre 
history of Greek thought. The quaternity is an archetype of 
almost universal occurrence. It forms the logical basis for any 
whole judgment. If one wishes to pass such a judgment, it must 
have this fourfold aspect. For instance, if you want to describe 
the horizon as a whole, you name the four quarters of heaven. 
Three is not a natural coefficient of order, but an artificial one. 
There are four elements, four prime qualities, four colours, 
four castes, four ways of spiritual development in Buddhism, etc. 
So, too, there are four aspects of psychological orientation, be 
yond which nothing fundamental remains to be said. In order 
to orient ourselves, we must have a function which ascertains 
that something is there (sensation); a second function which 
establishes what it is (thinking); a third function which states 
whether it suits us or not, whether we wish to accept it or not 
(feeling); and a fourth function which indicates where it came 
from and where it is going (intuition). When this has been done, 
there is nothing more to say. Schopenhauer proves that the 
"Principle of Sufficient Reason" has a fourfold root. 6 This is 
so because the fourfold aspect is the minimum requirement for 
a complete judgment. The ideal of completeness is the circle 
or sphere, but its natural minimal division is a quaternity. 

2 47 Now if Plato had had the idea of the Christian Trinity T 
which of course he did not and had on that account placed his 
triad above everything, one would be bound to object that this 
cannot be a whole judgment. A necessary fourth would be left 

5 The four pt^/xara of Empedocles. 

6 "On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason/' in Two Essays 
by Arthur Schopenhauer. 

1 1n Plato the quaternity takes the form of a cube, which he correlates with earth. 
Lu Pu-wei (FriihUng und Herbst, trans, into German by Wilhelm, p. 38) says: 
41 Heaven's way is round, earth's way is square." 

167 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



out; or, if Plato took the three-sided figure as symbolic of the 
Beautiful and the Good and endowed it with all positive quali 
ties, he would have had to deny evil and imperfection to it. In 
that case, what has become of them? The Christian answer is 
that evil is a privatio boni. This classic formula robs evil of 
absolute existence and makes it a shadow that has only a relative 
existence dependent on light. Good, on the other hand, is 
credited with a positive substantiality. But, as psychological ex 
perience shows, "good" and "evil" are opposite poles of a moral 
judgment which, as such, originates in man. A judgment can be 
made about a thing only if its opposite is equally real and pos 
sible. The opposite of a seeming evil can only be a seeming 
good, and an evil that lacks substance can only be contrasted 
with a good that is equally non-substantial. Although the op 
posite of "existence" is "non-existence," the opposite of an 
existing good can never be a non-existing evil, for the latter is 
a contradiction in terms and opposes to an existing good some 
thing incommensurable with it; the opposite of a non-existing 
(negative) evil can only be a non-existing (negative) good. If, 
therefore, evil is said to be a mere privation of good, the opposi 
tion of good and evil is denied outright. How can one speak of 
"good" at all if there is no "evil"? Or of "light" if there is no 
"darkness/' or of "above" if there is no "below"? There is no 
getting round the fact that if you allow substantiality to good, 
you must also allow it to evil. If evil has no substance, good must 
remain shadowy, for there is no substantial opponent for it to 
defend itself against, but only a shadow, a mere privation of 
good. Such a view can hardly be squared with observed reality. 
It is difficult to avoid the impression that apotropaic tendencies 
have had a hand in creating this notion, with the understand 
able intention of settling the painful problem of evil as optimis 
tically as possible. Often it is just as well that we do not know 
the danger we escape when we rush in where angels fear to 
tread. 

248 Christianity also deals with the problem in another way, by 
asserting that evil has substance and personality as the devil, or 
Lucifer. There is one view which allows the devil a malicious, 
goblin-like existence only, thus making him the insignificant 
head of an insignificant tribe of wood-imps and poltergeists. An 
other view grants him a more dignified status, depending on the 

168 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

degree to which it identifies him with "ills" in general. How far 
"ills" may be identified with "evil" is a controversial question. 
The Church distinguishes between physical ills and moral ills. 
The former may be willed by divine Providence (e.g., for man's 
improvement), the latter not, because sin cannot be willed by 
God even as a means to an end. It would be difficult to verify the 
Church's view in concrete instances, for psychic and somatic dis 
orders are "ills," and, as illnesses, they are moral as well as physi 
cal. At all events there is a view which holds that the devil, 
though created, is autonomous and eternal. In addition, he is 
the adversary of Christ: by infecting our first parents with origi 
nal sin he corrupted creation and made the Incarnation neces 
sary for God's work of salvation. In so doing he acted according 
to his own judgment, as in the Job episode, where he was even 
able to talk God round. The devil's prowess on these occasions 
hardly squares with his alleged shadow-existence as the privatio 
boni, which, as we have said, looks very like a euphemism. The 
devil as an autonomous and eternal personality is much more in 
keeping with his role as the adversary of Christ and with the 
psychological reality of evil. 

249 But if the devil has the power to put a spoke in God's Crea 
tion, or even corrupt it, and God does nothing to stop this nefari 
ous activity and leaves it all to man (who is notoriously stupid, 
unconscious, and easily led astray), then, despite all assurances 
to the contrary, the evil spirit must be a factor of quite incal 
culable potency. In this respect, anyhow, the dualism of the 
Gnostic systems makes sense, because they at least try to do jus 
tice to the real meaning of evil. They have also done us the 
supreme service of having gone very thoroughly into the ques 
tion of where evil comes from. Biblical tradition leaves us very 
much in the dark on this point, and it is only too obvious why 
the old theologians were in no particular hurry to enlighten us. 
In a monotheistic religion everything that goes against God can 
only be traced back to God himself. This thought is objection 
able, to say the least of it, and has therefore to be circumvented. 
That is the deeper reason why a highly influential personage like 
the devil cannot be accommodated properly in a trinitarian cos 
mos. It is difficult to make out in what relation he stands to the 
Trinity. As the adversary of Christ, he would have to take up an 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



equivalent counterposition and be, like him, a "son of God." 8 
But that would lead straight back to certain Gnostic views ac 
cording to which the devil, as Satanael, 9 is God's first son, Christ 
being the second. 9a A further logical inference would be the abo 
lition of the Trinity formula and its replacement by a quater- 
nity. 

250 The idea of a quaternity of divine principles was violently 
attacked by the Church Fathers when an attempt was made 
to add a fourth-God's "essence" to the Three Persons of the 
Trinity. This resistance to the quaternity is very odd, consider 
ing that the central Christian symbol, the Cross, is unmistakably 
a quaternity. The Cross, however, symbolizes God's suffering 
in his immediate encounter with the world. 10 The "prince of 
this world/' the devil (John 12 : 31, 14:30), vanquishes the God- 
man at this point, although by so doing he is presumably pre 
paring his own defeat and digging his own grave. According to 
an old view, Christ is the "bait on the hook" (the Cross), with 
which he catches "Leviathan" (the devil). 11 It is therefore sig 
nificant that the Cross, set up midway between heaven and hell 
as a symbol of Christ's struggle with the devil, corresponds to 
the quaternity. 

251 Medieval iconology, embroidering on the old speculations 
about the Theotokos, evolved a quaternity symbol in its repre 
sentations of the coronation of the Virgin 12 and surreptitiously 
put it in place of the Trinity. The Assumption of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, i.e., the taking up of Mary's soul into heaven with 
her body, is admitted as ecclesiastical doctrine but has not yet 
become dogma. 13 Although Christ, too, rose up with his body, 

8 In her "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament" (Symbolik des Geistes, pp. 

i53ff.), Riwkah Scharf shows that Satan is in fact one of God's sons, at any rate 

in the Old Testament sense. 

The suffix -el means god, so Satanael = Satan-God. 

* Michael Psellus, "De Daemonibus," 1497, fol. NV?, ed. M. Ficino. Cf. also 

Epiphanius, Panarium, Haer. XXX, in Migne, P.G., vol. 41, cols. 4o6ff. 

10 Cf. Przywara's meditations on the Cross and its relation to God in Deus Semper 

Major 1 1. Also the early Christian interpretation of the Cross in the Acts of John, 

trans, by James, pp. 228ff. n See Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 28. 

12 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 3150% and the first paper in this volume, 
pars. i22ff. 

13 As this doctrine has already got beyond the stage of "conclusio probabilis" and 
has reached that of "conclusio certa," the "definitio sollemnis" is now only a 
matter of time. The Assumption is, doctrinally speaking, a "revelatum im- 

170 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

this has a rather different meaning, since Christ was a divinity 
in the first place and Mary was not. In her case the body would 
have been a much more material one than Christ's, much more 
an element of space-time reality. 14 Ever since the Timaeus the 
"fourth" has signified "realization," i.e., entry into an essentially 
different condition, that of worldly materiality, which, it is 
authoritatively stated, is ruled by the Prince of this world for 
matter is the diametrical opposite of spirit. It is the true abode 
of the devil, whose hellish hearth-fire burns deep in the interior 
of the earth, while the shining spirit soars in the aether, freed 
from the shackles of gravity. 

252 The Assumptio Mariae paves the way not only for the di 
vinity of the Theotokos (i.e., her ultimate recognition as a 
goddess), 15 but also for the quaternity. At the same time, matter 
is included in the metaphysical realm, together with the cor 
rupting principle of the cosmos, evil. One can explain that 
matter was originally pure, or at least capable of purity, but this 
does not do away with the fact that matter represents the con- 
creteness of God's thoughts and is, therefore, the very thing that 
makes individuation possible, with all its consequences. The 
adversary is, quite logically, conceived to be the soul of matter, 
because they both constitute a point of resistance without which 

plicitum"; that is to say, it has never been revealed explicitly, but, in the gradual 
course of development, it became clear as an original content of the Revelation. 
(Cf. Wiederkehr, Die leibliche Aufnahme der allerseligsten Jungfrau Maria in 
den Himmel.) From the psychological standpoint, however, and in terms of the 
history of symbols, this view is a consistent and logical restoration of the 
archetypal situation, in which the exalted status of Mary is revealed implicitly 
and must therefore become a "conclusio certa" in the course of time. 

[This note was written in 1948, two years before the promulgation of the 
dogma. The bodily assumption of Mary into heaven was defined as a dogma of 
the Catholic faith by Pope Pius XII in November 1950 by the Apostolic Consti 
tution Munificentissimus Deus (Ada Apostolicae Sedis, Rome, X.LII, pp. 753ff-). 
and in an Encyclical Letter, Ad Caeli Reginam, of October n, 1954, the same 
Pope instituted a feast to be observed yearly in honour of Mary's "regalis dig- 
nitas" as Queen of Heaven and Earth (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XLVI, pp. 625*!.). 
EDITORS.] 

i* Although the assumption of Mary is of fundamental significance, it was not 
the first case of this kind. Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven with their 
bodies, and many holy men rose from their graves when Christ died. 
15 Her divinity may be regarded as a tacit conclusio probabilis, and so too may 
the worship or adoration (a-poo-K^o-is) to which she is entitled. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the relative autonomy of individual existence would be simply 
unthinkable. The will to be different and contrary is character 
istic of the devil, just as disobedience was the hallmark of orig 
inal sin. These, as we have said, are the necessary conditions for 
the Creation and ought, therefore, to be included in the divine 
plan andultimately in the divine realm. 16 But the Christian 
definition of God as the summum bonum excludes the Evil One 
right from the start, despite the fact that in the Old Testament 
he was still one of the "sons of God/' Hence the devil remained 
outside the Trinity as the "ape of God" and in opposition to it. 
Medieval representations of the triune God as having three 
heads are based on the three-headedness of Satan, as we find it, 
for instance, in Dante. This would point to an infernal Anti- 
trinity, a true "umbra trinitatis" analogous to the Antichrist. 17 
The devil is, undoubtedly, an awkward figure: he is the "odd 
man out" in the Christian cosmos. That is why people would 
like to minimize his importance by euphemistic ridicule or by 
ignoring his existence altogether; or, better still, to lay the 
blame for him at man's door. This is in fact done by the very 
people who would protest mightily if sinful man should credit 
himself, equally, with the origin of all good. A glance at the 
Scriptures, however, is enough to show us the importance of 
the devil in the divine drama of redemption. 18 If the power of 
the Evil One had been as feeble as certain persons would wish it 
to appear, either the world would not have needed God himself 
to come down to it or it would have lain within the power of 
man to set the world to rights, which has certainly not hap 
pened so far. 

13 Koepgen (p. 185) expresses himself in similar terms: "The essence of the devil 
is his hatred for God; and God allows this hatred. There are two things which 
Divine Omnipotence alone makes possible: Satan's hatred and the existence of 
the human individual. Both are by nature completely inexplicable. But so, too, 
is their relationship to God." 

17 Just how alive and ingrained such conceptions are can be seen from the title 
of a modern book by Sosnosky, JDf<? rote Dreifaltigkeit: Jakobiner und Bolsche- 
viken ["The Red Trinity: Jacobins and Bolsheviks"]. 

18 Koepgen's views are not so far from my own in certain respects. For instance, 
he says that "Satan acts, in a sense, as God's power. . . . The mystery of one God 
in Three Persons opens out a new freedom in the depths of God's being, and this 
even makes possible the thought of a personal devil existing alongside God and 
in opposition to him** (p. 186). 

172 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

253 Whatever the metaphysical position of the devil may be, in 
psychological reality evil is an effective, not to say menacing, 
limitation of goodness, so that it is no exaggeration to assume 
that in this world good and evil more or less balance each other, 
like day and night, and that this is the reason why the victory 
of the good is always a special act of grace. 

254 If we disregard the specifically Persian system of dualism, it 
appears that no real devil is to be found anywhere in the early 
period of man's spiritual development. In the Old Testament, 
he is vaguely foreshadowed in the figure of Satan. But the real 
devil first appears as the adversary of Christ, 19 and with him we 
gaze for the first time into the luminous realm of divinity on 
the one hand and into the abyss of hell on the other. The devil 
is autonomous; he cannot be brought under God's rule, for if 
he could he would not have the power to be the adversary of 
Christ, but would only be God's instrument. Once the inde 
finable One unfolds into two, it becomes something definite: the 
man Jesus, the Son and Logos. This statement is possible only 
by virtue of something else that is not Jesus, not Son or Logos. 
The act of love embodied in the Son is counterbalanced by 
Lucifer's denial. 

255 Inasmuch as the devil was an angel created by God and "fell 
like lightning from heaven," he too is a divine "procession" 
that became Lord of this world. It is significant that the Gnostics 
thought of him sometimes as the imperfect demiurge and some 
times as the Saturnine archon, laldabaoth. Pictorial representa 
tions of this archon correspond in every detail with those of a 
diabolical demon. He symbolized the power of darkness from 
which Christ came to rescue humanity. The archons issued from 
the womb of the unfathomable abyss, i.e., from the same source 
that produced the Gnostic Christ. 

256 A medieval thinker observed that when God separated the 
upper waters from the lower on the second day of Creation, he 
did not say in the evening, as he did on all the other days, that 
it was good. And he did not say it because on that day he had 

19 Since Satan, like Christ, is a son of God, it is evident that we have here the 
archetype of the hostile bfothers. The Old Testament prefiguration would there 
fore be Cain and Abel and their sacrifice. Cain has a Luciferian nature because 
of his rebellious progressiveness, but Abel is the pious shepherd. At all events, 
the vegetarian trend got no encouragement from Yahweh [Gen. 4:5]. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



created the binarius, the origin of all evil. 20 We come across a 
similar idea in Persian literature, where the origin of Ahriman 
is attributed to a doubting thought in Ahura-Mazda's mind. If 
we think in non-trinitarian terms, the logic of the following 
schema seems inescapable: 



SON 



257 So it is not strange that we should meet the idea of Antichrist 
so early. It was probably connected on the one hand with the 
astrological synchronicity of the dawning aeon of Pisces, 21 and 
on the other hand with the increasing realization of the duality 
postulated by the Son, which in turn is prefigured in the fish 
symbol: )-(, showing two fishes, joined by a commissure, moving 
in opposite directions. 22 It would be absurd to put any kind of 
causal construction on these events. Rather, it is a question of 
preconscious, prefigurative connections between the archetypes 
themselves, suggestions of which can be traced in other constella 
tions as well and above all in the formation of myths. 

258 In our diagram, Christ and the devil appear as equal and 
opposite, thus conforming to the idea of the "adversary," This 
opposition means conflict to the last, and it is the task of human 
ity to endure this conflict until the time or turning-point is 
reached where good and evil begin to relativize themselves, to 
doubt themselves, and the cry is raised for a morality "beyond 
good and evil." In the age of Christianity and in the domain of 
trinitarian thinking such an idea is simply out of the question, 
because the conflict is too violent for evil to be assigned any 
other logical relation to the Trinity than that of an absolute 
opposite. In an emotional opposition, i.e., in a conflict situation, 

20 See the first paper in this volume, par. 104. 

21 In antiquity, regard for astrology was nothing at all extraordinary. [Cf. "Syn 
chronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle/* pars. 8720% and Aion, pars. 1275.- 
EDUORS.] 

22 This applies to the zodion of the Fishes. In the astronomical constellation it 
self, the fish that corresponds approximately to the first 1,000 years of our era is 
vertical, but the other fish is horizontal. 

174 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

thesis and antithesis cannot be viewed together at the same time. 
This only becomes possible with cooler assessment of the rela 
tive value of good and the relative non-value of evil. Then it 
can no longer be doubted, either, that a common life unites not 
only the Father and the "light" son, but the Father and his dark 
emanation. The unspeakable conflict posited by duality resolves 
itself in a fourth principle, which restores the unity of the first 
in its full development. The rhythm is built up in three steps, 
but the resultant symbol is a quaternity. 




DEVIL 



SPIRJT 



259 The dual aspect of the Father is by no means unknown to 
religious speculation. 23 This is proved by the allegory of the 
monoceros, or unicorn, who symbolizes Yahweh's angry moodi- 
ness. Like this irritable beast, he reduced the world to chaos and 
could only be moved to love in the lap of a pure virgin. 24 
Luther was familiar with a deus absconditus. Murder, sudden 
death, war, sickness, crime, and every kind of abomination fall 
in with the unity of God. If God reveals his nature and takes on 
definite form as a man, then the opposites in him must fly apart: 
here good, there evil. So it was that the opposites latent in the 
Deity flew apart when the Son was begotten and manifested 
themselves in the struggle between Christ and the devil, with 
the Persian Ormuzd-Ahriman antithesis, perhaps, as the under- 

23 God's antithetical nature is also expressed in his androgyny. Priscillian there 
fore calls him "masculofoemina," on the basis of Genesis i : 27: "So God created 
man in his own image . . . male and female created he them." 

24 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 52off. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



lying model. The world of the Son is the world of moral discord, 
without which human consciousness could hardly have pro 
gressed so far as it has towards mental and spiritual differentia 
tion. That we are not unreservedly enthusiastic about this 
progress is shown by the fits of doubt to which our modern con 
sciousness is subject. 

260 Despite the fact that he is potentially redeemed, the Chris 
tian is given over to moral suffering, and in his suffering he 
needs the Comforter, the Paraclete. He cannot overcome the 
conflict on his own resources; after all, he didn't invent it. He 
has to rely on divine comfort and mediation, that is to say on 
the spontaneous revelation of the spirit, which does not obey 
man's will but comes and goes as it wills. This spirit is an 
autonomous psychic happening, a hush that follows the storm, 
a reconciling light in the darknesses of man's mind, secretly 
bringing order into the chaos of his soul. The Holy Ghost is a 
comforter like the Father, a mute, eternal, unfathomable One 
in whom God's love and God's terribleness come together in 
wordless union. And through this union the original meaning 
of the still-unconscious Father-world is restored and brought 
within the scope of human experience and reflection. Looked at 
from a quaternary standpoint, the Holy Ghost is a reconciliation 
of opposites and hence the answer to the suffering in the God 
head which Christ personifies. 

261 The Pythagorean quaternity was a natural phenomenon, an 
archetypal image, but it was not yet a moral problem, let alone 
a divine drama. Therefore it "went underground." It was a 
purely naturalistic, intuitive idea born of the nature-bound 
mind. The gulf that Christianity opened out between nature 
and spirit enabled the human mind to think not only beyond 
nature but in opposition to it, thus demonstrating its divine 
freedom, so to speak. This flight from the darkness of nature's 
depths culminates in trinitarian thinking, which moves in a 
Platonic, "supracelestial" realm. But the question of the fourth, 
rightly or wrongly, remained. It stayed down "below," and from 
there threw up the heretical notion of the quaternity and the 
speculations of Hermetic philosophy. 

262 In this connection I would like to call attention to Gerhard 
Dorn, a physician and alchemist, and a native of Frankfurt. He 
took great exception to the traditional quaternity of the basic 

176 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

principles of his art, and also to the fourfold nature of its goal, 
the lapis philosophorum. It seemed to him that this was a heresy, 
since the principle that ruled the world was a Trinity. The 
quaternity must therefore be of the devil. 25 Four, he maintained, 
was a doubling of two, and two was made on the second day of 
Creation, but God was obviously not altogether pleased with the 
result of his handiwork that evening. The binarius is the devil 
of discord and, what is worse, of feminine nature. (In East and 
West alike even numbers are feminine.) The cause of dissatis 
faction was that, on this ominous second day of Creation, just 
as with Ahura-Mazda, a split was revealed in God's nature. Out 
of it crept the "four-horned serpent," who promptly succeeded 
in seducing Eve, because she was related to him by reason of her 
binary nature. ("Man was created by God, woman by the ape of 
God.") 

265 The devil is the aping shadow of God, the dz>rt/u/ioj> irvwpa, 
in Gnosticism and also in Greek alchemy. He is "Lord of this 
world," in whose shadow man was born, fatally tainted with the 
original sin brought about by the devil. Christ, according to the 
Gnostic view, cast off the shadow he was born with and re 
mained without sin. His sinlessness proves his essential lack of 
contamination with the dark world of nature-bound man, 
who tries in vain to shake off this darkness. ("Uns bleibt ein 
Erdenrest / zu tragen peinlich." 26 ) Man's connection with 
physis, with the material world and its demands, is the cause of 
his anomalous position: on the one hand he has the capacity for 
enlightenment, on the other he is in thrall to the Lord of this 
world. ("Who will deliver me from the body of this death?") 
On account of his sinlessness, Christ on the contrary lives in 
the Platonic realm of pure ideas whither only man's thought can 
reach, but not he himself in his totality. Man is, in truth, the 
bridge spanning the gulf between "this world" the realm of 
the dark Tricephalus and the heavenly Trinity. That is why, 
even in the days of unqualified belief in the Trinity, there was 
always a quest for the lost fourth, from the time of the Neo- 
pythagoreans down to Goethe's Faust. Although these seekers 
thought of themselves as Christians, they were really Christians 



25 Cf. above, pars. 

26 Faust, Part II, Act 5. ("Earth's residue to bear / Hath sorely pressed us." Trans. 
by Bayard Taylor.) 

177 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



only on the side, devoting their lives to a work whose purpose it 
was to redeem the "four-horned serpent/' the fallen Lucifer, 
and to free the anima mundi imprisoned in matter. What in 
their view lay hidden in matter was the lumen luminum, the 
Sapientia Dei, and their work was a "gift of the Holy Spirit/' 
Our quaternity formula confirms the Tightness of their claims; 
for the Holy Ghost, as the synthesis of the original One which 
then became split, issues from a source that is both light and 
dark. "For the powers of the right and the left unite in the 
harmony of wisdom," we are told in the Acts of John. 27 

It will have struck the reader that two corresponding ele 
ments cross one another in our quaternity schema. On the one 
hand we have the polaristic identity of Christ and his adversary, 
and on the other the unity of the Father unfolded in the multi 
plicity of the Holy Ghost. The resultant cross is the symbol of 
the suffering Godhead that redeems mankind. This suffering 
could not have occurred, nor could it have had any effect at all, 
had it not been for the existence of a power opposed to God, 
namely "this world" and its Lord. The quaternity schema recog 
nizes the existence of this power as an undeniable fact by fetter 
ing trinitarian thinking to the reality of this world. The Platonic 
freedom of the spirit does not make a whole judgment possible: 
it wrenches the light half of the picture away from the dark half. 
This freedom is to a large extent a phenomenon of civilization, 
the lofty preoccupation of that fortunate Athenian whose lot it 
was not to be born a slave. We can only rise above nature if 
somebody else carries the weight of the earth for us. What sort 
of philosophy would Plato have produced had he been his own 
house-slave? What would the Rabbi Jesus have taught if he had 
had to support a wife and children? If he had had to till the soil 
in which the bread he broke had grown, and weed the vineyard 
in which the wine he dispensed had ripened? The dark weight 
of the earth must enter into the picture of the whole. In "this 
world" there is no good without its bad, no day without its 
night, no summer without its winter. But civilized man can live 
without the winter, for he can protect himself against the cold; 
without dirt, for he can wash; without sin, for he can prudently 
cut himself off from his fellows and thereby avoid many an occa 
sion for evil. He can deem himself good and pure, because hard 

2T Cf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 255. 

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A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

necessity does not teach him anything better. The natural man, 
on the other hand, has a wholeness that astonishes one, though 
there is nothing particularly admirable about it. It is the same 
old unconsciousness, apathy, and filth. 

265 If, however, God is born as a man and wants to unite man 
kind in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, he must suffer the 
terrible torture of having to endure the world in all its reality. 
This is the cross he has to bear, and he himself is a cross. The 
whole world is God's suffering, and every individual man who 
wants to get anywhere near his own wholeness knows that this 
is the way of the cross. 

26" These thoughts are expressed with touching simplicity and 
beauty in the Negro film The Green Pastures. 2 * For many years 
God ruled the world with curses, thunder, lightning, and floods, 
but it never prospered. Finally he realized that he would have 
to become a man himself in order to get at the root of the 
trouble. 

*6? After he had experienced the world's suffering, this God who 
became man left behind him a Comforter, the Third Person of 
the Trinity, who would make his dwelling in many individuals 
still to come, none of whom would enjoy the privilege or even 
the possibility of being born without sin. In the Paraclete, there 
fore, God is closer to the real man and his darkness than he is 
in the Son. The light God bestrides the bridge Man from the 
1 ay side; God's shadow, from the night side. What will be the out- 
v-ome of this fearful dilemma, which threatens to shatter the 
frail human vessel with unknown storms and intoxications? It 
may well be the revelation of the Holy Ghost out of man him 
self. Just as man was once revealed out of God, so, when the 
circle closes, God may be revealed out of man. But since, in this 
world, an evil is joined to every good, the avriin^v -KV^OL 
will twist the indwelling of the Paraclete into a self-deification 
of man, thereby causing an inflation of self-importance of which 
we had a foretaste in the case of Nietzsche. The more uncon 
scious we are of the religious problem in the future, the greater 
the danger of our putting the divine germ within us to some 
ridiculous or demoniacal use, puffing ourselves up with it in 
stead of remaining conscious that we are no more than the 

28 [From a play by Marc Connelly, adapted from stories by Roark Bradford 
based on American Negro folk-themes. EDITORS.] 

179 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



stable in which the Lord is born. Even on the highest peak 
we shall never be "beyond good and evil," and the more we 
experience of their inextricable entanglement the more uncer 
tain and confused will our moral judgment be. In this conflict, 
it will not help us in the least to throw the moral criterion on 
the rubbish heap and to set up new tablets after known patterns; 
for, as in the past, so in the future the wrong we have done, 
thought, or intended will wreak its vengeance on our souls, no 
matter whether we turn the world upside down or not. Our 
knowledge of good and evil has dwindled with our mounting 
knowledge and experience, and will dwindle still more in the 
future, without our being able to escape the demands of ethics. 
In this utmost uncertainty we need the illumination of a holy 
and whole-making spirit a spirit that can be anything rather 
than our reason. 



II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE QUATERNITY 

268 As I have shown in the previous chapter, one can think out 
the problem of the fourth without having to discard a religious 
terminology. The development of the Trinity into a quaternity 
can be represented in projection on metaphysical figures, and 
at the same time the exposition gains in plasticity. But any 
statements of this kind can and for scientific reasons, must- 
be reduced to man and his psychology, since they are mental 
products which cannot be presumed to have any metaphysical 
validity. They are, in the first place, projections of psychic proc 
esses, and nobody really knows what they are "in themselves," 
i.e., if they exist in an unconscious sphere inaccessible to man. 
At any rate, science ought not to treat them as anything other 
than projections. If it acts otherwise, it loses its independence. 
And since it is not a question of individual fantasies but at 
least so far as the Trinity is concerned of a collective phenome 
non, we must assume that the development of the idea of the 
Trinity is a collective process, representing a differentiation of 
consciousness that has been going on for several thousand years. 

26 9 In order to interpret the Trinity-symbol psychologically, we 
have to start with the individual and regard the symbol as an 
expression of his psyche, rather as if it were a dream-image. It is 

180 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

possible to do this because even collective ideas once sprang 
from single individuals and, moreover, can only be "had" by 
individuals. We can treat the Trinity the more easily as a dream 
in that its life is a drama, as is also the case with every dream 
that is moderately well developed. 

270 Generally speaking, the father denotes the earlier state of 
consciousness when one was still a child, still dependent on a 
definite, ready-made pattern of existence which is habitual and 
has the character of law. It is a passive, unreflecting condition, a 
mere awareness of what is given, without intellectual or moral 
judgment. 1 This is true both individually and collectively. 

271 The picture changes when the accent shifts to the son. On 
the individual level the change usually sets in when the son 
starts to put himself in his father's place. According to the 
archaic pattern, this takes the form of quasi-father-murder in 
other words, violent identification with the father followed by 
his liquidation. This, however, is not an advance; it is simply a 
retention of the old habits and customs with no subsequent 
differentiation of consciousness. No detachment from the father 
has been effected. Legitimate detachment consists in conscious 
differentiation from the father and from the habitus represented 
by him. This requires a certain amount of knowledge of one's 
own individuality, which cannot be acquired without moral 
discrimination and cannot be held on to unless one has under 
stood its meaning. 2 Habit can only be replaced by a mode of life 
consciously chosen and acquired. The Christianity symbolized 
by the "Son" therefore forces the individual to discriminate and 
to reflect, as was noticeably the case with those Church Fathers 3 
who laid such emphasis on CTTIO-T^T? (knowledge) as opposed to 

lYahweh approaches the moral problem comparatively late only in Job. Cf. 
"Answer to Job/' in this volume. 

SRoepgen (p. 231) therefore calls Jesus, quite rightly, the first "autonomous" 
personality. 

3 Justin Martyr, Apologia II: "that we may not remain children of necessity and 
ignorance, but of choice and knowledge." Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, I, 9: 
"And how necessary is it for him who desires to be partaker of the power of God, 
to treat of intellectual subjects by philosophizing!" II, 4: "Knowledge accordingly 
is characterized by faith; and faith, by a kind of divine mutual and reciprocal 
correspondence, becomes characterized by knowledge." VII, 10: "For by it 
(Gnosis) faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely by it that the believer becomes 
perfect." "And knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of what is re 
ceived by faith." (Trans, by Wilson, I, p. 380; II, pp. 10, 446-47.) 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



(necessity) and ayvoia (ignorance). The same tendency is 
apparent in the New Testament controversies over the Jews' 
righteousness in the eyes o the law, which stands exclusively 
for the old habitus. 

272 The third step, finally, points beyond the "Son" into the 
future, to a continuing realization of the "spirit," i.e., a living 
activity proceeding from "Father'* and "Son" which raises the 
subsequent stages of consciousness to the same level of inde 
pendence as that of "Father" and "Son." This extension of the 
filiatio, whereby men are made children of God, is a meta 
physical projection of the psychic change that has taken place. 
The "Son" represents a transition stage, an intermediate state, 
part child, part adult. He is a transitory phenomenon, and it is 
thanks to this fact that the "Son"-gods die an early death. "Son" 
means the transition from a permanent initial stage called 
"Father" and "auctor rerum" to the stage of being a father one 
self. And this means that the son will transmit to his children 
the procreative spirit of life which he himself has received and 
from which he himself was begotten. Brought down to the level 
of the individual, this symbolism can be interpreted as follows: 
the state of unreflecting awareness known as "Father" changes 
into the reflective and rational state of consciousness known as 
"Son." This state is not only in opposition to the still-existing 
earlier state, but, by virtue of its conscious and rational nature, 
it also contains many latent possibilities of dissociation. In 
creased discrimination begets conflicts that were unconscious 
before but must now be faced, because, unless they are clearly 
recognized, no moral decisions can be taken. The stage of the 
"Son" is therefore a conflict situation par excellence: the choice 
of possible ways is menaced by just as many possibilities of error. 
"Freedom from the law" brings a sharpening of opposites, in 
particular of the moral opposites. Christ crucified between two 
thieves is an eloquent symbol of this fact. The exemplary life 
of Christ is in itself a "transitus" and amounts therefore to a 
bridge leading over to the third stage, where the initial stage of 
the Father is, as it were, recovered. If it were no more than a 
repetition of the first stage, everything that had been won in 
the second stagereason and reflection would be lost, only to 
make room for a renewed state of semiconsciousness, of an irra 
tional and unreflecting nature. To avoid this, the values of the 

182 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

second stage must be held fast; in other words, reason and re 
flection must be preserved intact. Though the new level of 
consciousness acquired through the emancipation of the son 
continues in the third stage, it must recognize that it is not the 
source of the ultimate decisions and flashes of insight which 
rightly go by the name of "gnosis," but that these are inspired 
by a higher authority which, in projected form, is known as the 
"Holy Ghost/' Psychologically speaking, "inspiration" comes 
from an unconscious function. To the naive-minded person the 
agent of inspiration appears as an "intelligence" correlated with, 
or even superior to, consciousness, for it often happens that an 
idea drops in on one like a saving deus ex machina. 
273 Accordingly, the advance to the third stage means something 
like a recognition of the unconscious, if not actual subordina 
tion to it. 4 Adulthood is reached when the son reproduces his 
own childhood state by voluntarily submitting to a paternal 
authority, either in psychological form, or factually in pro 
jected form, as when he recognizes the authority of the Church's 
teachings. This authority can, of course, be replaced by all man 
ner of substitutes, which only proves that the transition to the 
third stage is attended by unusual spiritual dangers, consisting 
chiefly in rationalistic deviations that run counter to the in 
stincts. 5 Spiritual transformation does not mean that one should 
remain a child, but that the adult should summon up enough 
honest self-criticism admixed with humility to see where, and 
in relation to what, he must behave as a child irrationally, and 
with unreflecting receptivity. Just as the transition from the 
first stage to the second demands the sacrifice of childish de 
pendence, so, at the transition to the third stage, an exclusive 
independence has to be relinquished. 

274 It is clear that these changes are not everyday occurrences, 
but are very fateful transformations indeed. Usually they have a 
numinous character, and can take the form of conversions, 
illuminations, emotional shocks, blows of fate, religious or 

4 Submission to any metaphysical authority is, from the psychological standpoint, 
submission to the unconscious. There are no scientific criteria for distinguishing 
so-called metaphysical factors from psychic ones. But this does not mean that 
psychology denies the existence of metaphysical factors. 

5 The Church knows that the "discernment of spirits" is no simple matter. It 
knows the dangers of subjective submission to God and therefore reserves the 
right to act as a director of conscience. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



mystical experiences, or their equivalents. Modern man has 
such hopelessly muddled ideas about anything "mystical," or 
else such a rationalistic fear of it, that, if ever a mystical experi 
ence should befall him, he is sure to misunderstand its true 
character and will deny or repress its numinosity. It will then 
be evaluated as an inexplicable, irrational, and even patho 
logical phenomenon. This sort of misinterpretation is always 
due to lack of insight and inadequate understanding of the com 
plex relationships in the background, which as a rule can only 
be clarified when the conscious data are supplemented by ma 
terial derived from the unconscious. Without this, too many 
gaps remain unfilled in a man's experience of life, and each gap 
is an opportunity for futile rationalizations. If there is even the 
slightest tendency to neurotic dissociation, or an indolence verg 
ing upon habitual unconsciousness, then false causalities will 
be preferred to truth every time. 

275 The numinous character of these experiences is proved by 
the fact that they are overwhelming an admission that goes 
against not only our pride, but against our deep-rooted fear 
that consciousness may perhaps lose its ascendency, for pride is 
often only a reaction covering up a secret fear. How thin these 
protective walls are can be seen from the positively terrifying 
suggestibility that lies behind all psychic mass movements, be 
ginning with the simple folk who call themselves "Jehovah's 
Witnesses," the "Oxford Groups" (so named for reasons of 
prestige 6 ) among the upper classes, and ending with the National 
Socialism of a whole nation all in search of the unifying mysti 
cal experience! 

276 Anyone who does not understand the events that befall him 
is always in danger of getting stuck in the transitional stage of 
the Son. The criterion of adulthood does not consist in being a 
member of certain sects, groups, or nations, but in submitting 
to the spirit of one's own independence. Just as the "Son" 
proceeds from the "Father," so the "Father" proceeds from the 
6 The "Oxford Movement" was originally the name of the Catholicizing trend 
started by the Anglican clergy in Oxford, 1853. [Whereas the "Oxford Groups," or 
"Moral Rearmament Movement," were founded in 1921, also at Oxford, by Frank 
Buchman as "a Christian revolution ... the aim of which is a new social order 
under the dictatorship of the Spirit of God, and which issues in personal, social 
racial, national, and supernational renaissance" (Buchman, cited in Webster's 
International Dictionary, and edn., 1950). EDITORS.] 

184 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

stage of the "Son," yet this Father is not a mere repetition of 
the original Father or an identification with him, but one in 
whom the vitality of the "Father" continues its procreative 
work. This third stage, as we have seen, means articulating one's 
ego-consciousness with a supraordinate totality, of which one 
cannot say that it is "I," but which is best visualized as a more 
comprehensive being, though one should of course keep oneself 
conscious all the time of the anthropomorphism of such a con 
ception. Hard as it is to define, this unknown quantity can be 
experienced by the psyche and is known in Christian parlance as 
the "Holy Ghost," the breath that heals and makes whole. Chris 
tianity claims that this breath also has personality, which in the 
circumstances could hardly be otherwise. For close on two 
thousand years history has been familiar with the figure of the 
Cosmic Man, the Anthropos, whose image has merged with that 
of Yahweh and also of Christ. Similarly, the saints who received 
the stigmata became Christ-figures in a visible and concrete 
sense, and thus carriers of the Anthropos-image. They symbolize 
the working of the Holy Ghost among men. The Anthropos is 
a symbol that argues in favour of the personal nature of the 
"totality," i.e., the self. If, however, you review the numerous 
symbols of the self, you will discover not a few among them that 
have no characteristics of human personality at all. I won't back 
up this statement with psychological case histories, which are 
terra incognita to the layman anyway, but will only refer to the 
historical material, which fully confirms the findings of mod 
ern scientific research. Alchemical symbolism has produced, 
aside from the personal figures, a whole series of non-human 
forms, geometrical configurations like the sphere, circle, square, 
and octagon, or chemical symbols like the Philosophers' Stone, 
the ruby, diamond, quicksilver, gold, water, fire, and spirit (in 
the sense of a volatile substance). This choice of symbols tallies 
more or less with the modern products of the unconscious. 7 I 
might mention in this connection that there are numerous 
theriomorphic spirit symbols, the most important Christian ones 
being the lamb, the dove, and the snake (Satan). The snake 
symbolizing the Gnostic Nous and the Agathodaimon has a 
pneumatic significance (the devil, too, is a spirit). These symbols 
express the non-human character of the totality or self, as was 

7 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, Pan II. 

185 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



reported long ago when, at Pentecost, the spirit descended on 
the disciples in tongues of fire. From this point of view we can 
share something of Origen's perplexity as to the nature of the 
Holy Ghost. It also explains why the Third Person of the Trin 
ity, unlike Father and Son, has no personal quality. 8 "Spirit" is 
not a personal designation but the qualitative definition of a 
substance of aeriform nature. 

2 77 Whenever, as in the present instance, the unconscious 
makes such sweepingly contradictory statements, experience 
tells us that the situation is far from simple. The unconscious is 
trying to express certain facts for which there are no conceptual 
categories in the conscious mind. The contents in question need 
not be "metaphysical," as in the case of the Holy Ghost. Any 
content that transcends consciousness, and for which the apper- 
ceptive apparatus does not exist, can call forth the same kind 
of paradoxical or antinomial symbolism. For a naive conscious 
ness that sees everything in terms of black and white, even the 
unavoidable dual aspect of "man and his shadow" can be tran 
scendent in this sense and will consequently evoke paradoxical 
symbols. We shall hardly be wrong, therefore, if we conjecture 
that the striking contradictions we find in our spirit symbolism 
are proof that the Holy Ghost is a complexio oppositorum 
(union of opposites). Consciousness certainly possesses no con 
ceptual category for anything of this kind, for such a union is 
simply inconceivable except as a violent collision in which the 
two sides cancel each other out. This would mean their mutual 
annihilation. 

*7 8 But the spontaneous symbolism of the complexio opposi 
torum points to the exact opposite of annihilation, since it 
ascribes to the product of their union either everlasting dura 
tion, that is to say incorruptibility and adamantine stability, or 
supreme and inexhaustible efficacy. 9 

279 Thus the spirit as a complexio oppositorum has the same 
formula as the "Father," the auctor rerum, who is also, accord- 

8 Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologica, I, xxxvi, art. i): "Non habet nomen 
proprium" (he has no proper name). I owe this reference to the kindness of 
Fr. Victor White, O.P. 

a Both these categories are, as we know, attributes of the lap is philosophorum 
and of the symbols of the self. 

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A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ing to Nicholas of Cusa, a union of opposites. 10 The "Father," 
in fact, contains the opposite qualities which appear in his son 
and his son's adversary. Riwkah Scharf u has shown just how far 
the monotheism of the Old Testament was obliged to make 
concessions to the idea of the "relativity" of God. The Book of 
Job comes within a hair's breadth of the dualism which flowered 
in Persia for some centuries before and after Christ, and which 
also gave rise to various heretical movements within Christianity 
itself. It was only to be expected, therefore, that, as we said 
above, the dual aspect of the "Father" should reappear in the 
Holy Ghost, who in this way effects an apocatastasis of the 
Father. To use an analogy from physics, the Holy Ghost could 
be likened to the stream of photons arising out of the destruc 
tion of matter, while the "Father" would be the primordial 
energy that promotes the formation of protons and electrons 
with their positive and negative charges. This, as the reader will 
understand, is not an explanation, but an analogy which is pos 
sible because the physicist's models ultimately rest on the same 
archetypal foundations that also underlie the speculations of the 
theologian. Both are psychology, and it too has no other founda 
tion. 



III. GENERAL REMARKS ON SYMBOLISM 

280 Although it is extremely improbable that the Christian 
Trinity is derived directly from the triadic World-Soul in the 
Timaeus, it is nevertheless rooted in the same archetype. If we 
wish to describe the phenomenology of this archetype, we shall 
have to consider all the aspects which go to make up the total 
picture. For instance, in our analysis of the Timaeus, we found 
that the number three represents an intellectual schema only, 
and that the second mixture reveals the resistance of the "recalci 
trant fourth" ingredient, which we meet again as the "adver 
sary" of the Christian Trinity. Without the fourth the three 
have no reality as we understand it; they even lack meaning, 

10 It should not be forgotten, however, that the opposites which Nicholas had in 
mind were very different from the psychological ones. 

11 Cf. "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament," in Symbolik des Geistes, pp. 

153* 

187 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



for a "thought" has meaning only if it refers to a possible or 
actual reality. This relationship to reality is completely lacking 
in the idea of the Trinity, so much so that people nowadays tend 
to lose sight of it altogether, without even noticing the loss. But 
we can see what this loss means when we are faced with the prob 
lem of reconstruction that is to say in all those cases where 
the conscious part of the psyche is cut off from the unconscious 
part by a dissociation. This split can only be mended if con 
sciousness is able to formulate conceptions which give adequate 
expression to the contents of the unconscious. It seems as if the 
Trinity plus the incommensurable "fourth" were a conception 
of this kind. As part of the doctrine of salvation it must, indeed, 
have a saving, healing, wholesome effect. During the process of 
integrating the unconscious contents into consciousness, un 
doubted importance attaches to the business of seeing how the 
dream-symbols relate to trivial everyday realities. But, in a 
deeper sense and on a long-term view, this procedure is not 
sufficient, as it fails to bring out the significance of the arche 
typal contents. These reach down, or up, to quite other levels 
than so-called common sense would suspect. As a priori condi 
tions of all psychic events, they are endued with a dignity which 
has found immemorial expression in godlike figures. No other 
formulation will satisfy the needs of the unconscious. The un 
conscious is the unwritten history of mankind from time unre 
corded. Rational formulae may satisfy the present and the 
immediate past, but not the experience of mankind as a whole. 
This calls for the all-embracing vision of the myth, as expressed 
in symbols. If the symbol is lacking, man's wholeness is not 
represented in consciousness. He remains a more or less acci 
dental fragment, a suggestible wisp of consciousness, at the 
mercy of all the Utopian fantasies that rush in to fill the gap left 
by the totality symbols. A symbol cannot be made to order as 
the rationalist would like to believe. It is a legitimate symbol 
only if it gives expression to the immutable structure of the 
unconscious and can therefore command general acceptance. 
So long as it evokes belief spontaneously, it does not require to 
be understood in any other way. But if, from sheer lack of under 
standing, belief in it begins to wane, then, for better or worse, 
one must use understanding as a tool if the incalculable conse 
quences of a loss are to be avoided. What should we then put 

188 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

in place of the symbol? Is there anybody who knows a better 
way of expressing something that has never yet been under 
stood? 

281 As I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy and elsewhere, 
trinity and quaternity symbols occur fairly frequently in dreams, 
and from this I have learnt that the idea of the Trinity is based 
on something that can be experienced and must, therefore, have 
a meaning. This insight was not won by a study of the tradi 
tional sources. If I have succeeded in forming an intelligible 
conception of the Trinity that is in any way based on empirical 
reality, I have been helped by dreams, folklore, and the myths in 
which these number motifs occur. As a rule they appear spon 
taneously in dreams, and such dreams look very banal from the 
outside. There is nothing at all of the myth or fairytale about 
them, much less anything religious. Mostly it is three men and a 
woman, either sitting at a table or driving in a car, or three men 
and a dog, a huntsman with three hounds, three chickens in a 
coop from which the fourth has escaped, and suchlike. These 
things are indeed so banal that one is apt to overlook them. 
Nor do they wish to say anything more specific, at first, than that 
they refer to functions and aspects of the dreamer's personality, 
as can easily be ascertained when they appear as three or four 
known persons with well-marked characteristics, or as the four 
principal colours, red, blue, green, and yellow. It happens with 
some regularity that these colours are correlated with the four 
orienting functions of consciousness. Only when the dreamer 
begins to reflect that the four are an allusion to his total per 
sonality does he realize that these banal dream-motifs are like 
shadow pictures of more important things. The fourth figure is, 
as a rule, particularly instructive: it soon becomes incompatible, 
disagreeable, frightening, or in some way odd, with a different 
sense of good and bad, rather like a Tom Thumb beside his 
three normal brothers. Naturally the situation can be reversed, 
with three odd figures and one normal one. Anybody with a 
little knowledge of fairytales will know that the seemingly 
enormous gulf that separates the Trinity from these trivial hap 
penings is by no means unbridgeable. But this is not to say that 
the Trinity can be reduced to this level. On the contrary, the 
Trinity represents the most perfect form of the archetype in 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



question. The empirical material merely shows, in the smallest 
and most insignificant psychic detail, how the archetype works. 
This is what makes the archetype so important, firstly as an 
organizing schema and a criterion for judging the quality of 
an individual psychic structure, and secondly as a vehicle of the 
synthesis in which the individuation process culminates. This 
goal is symbolized by the putting together of the four; hence the 
quaternity is a symbol of the self, which is of central im 
portance in Indian philosophy and takes the place of the Deity. 
In the West, any amount of quaternities were developed during 
the Middle Ages; here I would mention only the Rex gloriae 
with the four symbols of the evangelists (three theriomorphic, 
one anthropomorphic). In Gnosticism there is the figure of 
Barbelo ("God is four"). These examples and many others like 
them bring the quaternity into closest relationship with the 
Deity, so that, as I said earlier, it is impossible to distinguish 
the self from a God-image. At any rate, I personally have found 
it impossible to discover a criterion of distinction. Here faith 
or philosophy alone can decide, neither of which has anything 
to do with the empiricism of the scientist. 

282 One can, then, explain the God-image aspect of the quater 
nity as a reflection of the self, or, conversely, explain the self as 
an imago Dei in man. Both propositions are psychologically 
true, since the self, which can only be perceived subjectively as 
a most intimate and unique thing, requires universality as a 
background, for without this it could not manifest itself in its 
absolute separateness. Strictly speaking, the self must be re 
garded as the extreme opposite of God. Nevertheless we must 
say with Angelus Silesius: "He cannot live without me, nor I 
without him/' So although the empirical symbol requires two 
diametrically opposite interpretations, neither of them can be 
proved valid. The symbol means both and is therefore a para 
dox. This is not the place to say anything more about the role 
these number symbols play in practice; for this I must refer the 
reader to the dream material in Psychology and Alchemy, Part II. 



283 In view of the special importance of quaternity symbolism 
one is driven to ask how it came about that a highly differenti 
ated form of religion like Christianity reverted to the archaic 

190 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

triad in order to construct its trinitarian God-image. 1 With 
equal justification one could also ask (as has, in fact, been done) 
with what right Christ is presumed to be a symbol of the self, 
since the self is by definition a complexio oppositorum, whereas 
the Christ figure wholly lacks a dark side? (In dogma, Christ is 
sine macula peccati 'unspotted by sin/) 

284 Both questions touch on the same problem. I always seek 
the answer to such questions on empirical territory, for which 
reason I must now cite the concrete facts. It is a general rule 
that most geometrical or numerical symbols have a quaternary 
character. There are also ternary or trinitarian symbols, but in 
my experience they are rather rare. On investigating such cases 
carefully, I have found that they were distinguished by some 
thing that can only be called a "medieval psychology." This does 
not imply any backwardness and is not meant as a value judg 
ment, but only as denoting a special problem. That is to say, 
in all these cases there is so much unconsciousness, and such a 
large degree of primitivity to match it, that a spiritualization 
appears necessary as a compensation. The saving symbol is 
then a triad in which the fourth is lacking because it has to be 
unconditionally rejected. 

285 In my experience it is of considerable practical importance 
that the symbols aiming at wholeness should be correctly under 
stood by the doctor. They are the remedy with whose help 
neurotic dissociations can be repaired, by restoring to the con 
scious mind a spirit and an attitude which from time immemo 
rial have been felt as solving and healing in their effects. They 
are "representations collectives" which facilitate the much- 
needed union of conscious and unconscious. This union cannot 
be accomplished either intellectually or in a purely practical 
sense, because in the former case the instincts rebel and in the 
latter case reason and morality. Every dissociation that falls 
within the category of the psychogenic neuroses is due to a con 
flict of this kind, and the conflict can only be resolved through 
the symbol. For this purpose the dreams produce symbols which 
in the last analysis coincide with those recorded throughout his 
tory. But the dream-images can be taken up into the dreamer's 
consciousness, and grasped by his reason and feeling, only if his 
conscious mind possesses the intellectual categories and moral 

i In the Greek Church the Trinity is called rpias. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



feelings necessary for their assimilation. And this is where the 
psychotherapist often has to perform feats that tax his patience 
to the utmost. The synthesis of conscious and unconscious can 
only be implemented by a conscious confrontation with the lat 
ter, and this is not possible unless one understands what the 
unconscious is saying. During this process we come upon the 
symbols investigated in the present study, and in coming to 
terms with them we re-establish the lost connection with ideas 
and feelings which make a synthesis of the personality possible. 
The loss of gnosis, i.e., knowledge of the ultimate things, weighs 
much more heavily than is generally admitted. Faith alone would 
suffice too, did it not happen to be a charisma whose true posses 
sion is something of a rarity, except in spasmodic form. Were 
it otherwise, we doctors could spare ourselves much thankless 
work. Theology regards our efforts in this respect with mistrust 
ful mien, while pointedly declining to tackle this very necessary 
task itself. It proclaims doctrines which nobody understands, 
and demands a faith which nobody can manufacture. This is 
how things stand in the Protestant camp. The situation in the 
Catholic camp is more subtle. Of especial importance here is 
the ritual with its sacral action, which dramatizes the living 
occurrence of archetypal meaning and thus makes a direct im 
pact on the unconscious. Can any one, for instance, deny the 
impression made upon him by the sacrament of the Mass, if 
he has followed it with even a minimum of understanding? 
Then again, the Catholic Church has the institution of confes 
sion and the director of conscience, which are of the greatest 
practical value when these activities devolve upon suitable per 
sons. The fact that this is not always so proves, unfortunately, 
to be an equally great disadvantage. Thirdly, the Catholic 
Church possesses a richly developed and undamaged world of 
dogmatic ideas, which provide a worthy receptacle for the 
plethora of figures in the unconscious and in this way give visi 
ble expression to certain vitally important truths with which 
the conscious mind should keep in touch. The faith of a Catho 
lic is not better or stronger than the faith of a Protestant, but a 
person's unconscious is gripped by the Catholic form no matter 
how weak his faith may be. That is why, once he slips out of 
this form, he may easily fall into a fanatical atheism, of a kind 
that is particularly to be met with in Latin countries. 

192 



6. CONCLUSION 



286 Because of its noetic character, the Trinity expresses the 
need for a spiritual development that demands independence 
of thought. Historically we can see this striving at work above 
all in scholastic philosophy, and it was these preliminary exer 
cises that made the scientific thinking of modern man possible. 
Also, the Trinity is an archetype whose dominating power not 
only fosters spiritual development but may, on occasion, actu 
ally enforce it. But as soon as the spiritualization of the mind 
threatens to become so one-sided as to be deleterious to health, 
the compensatory significance o the Trinity necessarily recedes 
into the background. Good does not become better by being 
exaggerated, but worse, and a small evil becomes a big one 
through being disregarded and repressed. The shadow is very 
much a part of human nature, and it is only at night that no 
shadows exist. 

287 As a psychological symbol the Trinity denotes, first, the 
homoousia or essential unity of a three-part process, to be 
thought of as a process of unconscious maturation taking place 
within the individual. To that extent the three Persons are 
personifications of the three phases of a regular, instinctive 
psychic occurrence that always tends to express itself in the form 
of mythologems and ritualistic customs (for instance, the initia 
tions at puberty, and the various rites for birth, marriage, 

193 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



sickness, war, and death). As the medical lore of the ancient 
Egyptians shows, myths as well as rites have a psycho therapeutic 
value, and they still have today. 

288 Second, the Trinity denotes a process of conscious realiza 
tion continuing over the centuries. 

289 Third, the Trinity lays claim not only to represent a per 
sonification of psychic processes in three roles, but to be the 
one God in three Persons, who all share the same divine nature. 
In God there is no advance from the potential to the actual, 
from the possible to the real, because God is pure reality, the 
"actus purus" itself. The three Persons differ from one another 
by reason of the different manner of their origin, or their pro 
cession (the Son begotten by the Father and the Holy Ghost 
proceeding from both procedit a patre filioque). The ho- 
moousia, whose general recognition was the cause of so many 
controversies, is absolutely necessary from a psychological stand 
point, because, regarded as a psychological symbol, the Trinity 
represents the progressive transformation of one and the same 
substance, namely the psyche as a whole. The homoousia to 
gether with the filioque assert that Christ and the Holy Ghost 
are both of the same substance as the Father. But since, psycho 
logically, Christ must be understood as a symbol of the self, 
and the descent of the Holy Ghost as the self's actualization in 
man, it follows that the self must represent something that is 
of the substance of the Father too. This formulation is in agree 
ment with the psychological statement that the symbols of the 
self cannot be distinguished empirically from a God-image. 
Psychology, certainly, can do no more than establish the fact 
that they are indistinguishable. This makes it all the more re 
markable that the "metaphysical" statement should go so much 
further than the psychological one. Indistinguishability is a 
negative constatation merely; it does not rule out the possibility 
that a distinction may exist. It may be that the distinction is 
simply not perceived. The dogmatic assertion, on the other 
hand, speaks of the Holy Ghost making us "children of God," 
and this filial relationship is indistinguishable in meaning from 
the uiorijs (sonship) or filiatio of Christ. We can see from this how 
important it was that the homoousia should triumph over the 
homoiousia (similarity of substance); for, through the descent 
of the Holy Ghost, the self of man enters into a relationship of 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

unity with the substance of God. As ecclesiastical history shows, 
this conclusion is of immense danger to the Church it was, in 
deed, the main reason why the Church did not insist on any 
further elaboration of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. Its con 
tinued development would lead, on a negative estimate, to ex 
plosive schisms, and on a positive estimate straight into psy 
chology. Moreover, the gifts of the Holy Ghost are somewhat 
mixed: not all of them are unreservedly welcome, as St. Paul 
has already pointed out. Also, St. Thomas Aquinas observes that 
revelation is a gift of the spirit that does not stand in any clearly 
definable relationship to moral endowment. 1 The Church must 
reserve the right to decide what is a working of the Holy Ghost 
and what is not, thereby taking an exceedingly important and 
possibly disagreeable decision right out of the layman's hands. 
That the spirit, like the wind, "bloweth where it listeth" is 
something that alarmed even the Reformers. The third as well 
as the first Person of the Trinity can wear the aspect of a deus 
absconditus, and its action, like that of fire, may be no less de 
structive than beneficial when regarded from a purely human 
standpoint. 

290 "Creation" in the sense of "matter" is not included in the 
Trinity formula, at any rate not explicitly. In these circum 
stances there are only two possibilities: either the material world 
is real, in which case it is an intrinsic part of the divine "actus 
purus," or it is unreal, a mere illusion, because outside the 
divine reality. The latter conclusion is contradicted firstly by 
God's incarnation and by his whole work of salvation, secondly 
by the autonomy and eternality of the "Prince of this world," 
the devil, who has merely been "overcome" but is by no means 
destroyed and cannot be destroyed because he is eternal. But 
if the reality of the created world is included in the "actus 
purus," then the devil is there too Q.E.D. This situation gives 
rise to a quaternity, albeit a very different quaternity from the 
one anathematized by the fourth Lateran Council. The question 
there debated was whether God's essence could claim a place 

1 "St. Thomas emphasizes that prophetic revelation is, as such, independent of 
good morals not to speak of personal sanctity" (De veritate, xii, 5; Summa theol., 
I-II, p. 172). I take this remark from the MS. of an essay on "St. Thomas's Con 
ception of Revelation," by Fr. Victor White, O.P., with the kind permission of 
the author. 

195 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



alongside the three Persons or not. But the question we are con 
fronted with here is the independent position of a creature 
endowed with autonomy and eternality: the fallen angel. He is 
the fourth, "recalcitrant" figure in our symbolical series, the 
intervals between which correspond to the three phases of the 
trinitarian process. Just as, in the Timaeus, the adversary is 
the second half of the second pair of opposites, without whom 
the world-soul would not be whole and complete, so, too, the 
devil must be added to the trios as TO & rkraprov (the One as the 
Fourth), 2 in order to make it a totality. If the Trinity is under 
stood as a process, as I have tried to do all along, then, by the 
addition of the Fourth, this process would culminate in a condi 
tion of absolute totality. Through the intervention of the Holy 
Ghost, however, man is included in the divine process, and this 
means that the principle of separateness and autonomy over 
against God which is personified in Lucifer as the God-oppos 
ing will is included in it too. But for this will there would have 
been no creation and no work of salvation either. The shadow 
and the opposing will are the necessary conditions for all actual 
ization. An object that has no will of its own, capable, if need be, 
of opposing its creator, and with no qualities other than its crea 
tor's, such an object has no independent existence and is in 
capable of ethical decision. At best it is just a piece of clock 
work which the Creator has to wind up to make it function. 
Therefore Lucifer was perhaps the one who best understood the 
divine will struggling to create a world and who carried out that 
will most faithfully. For, by rebelling against God, he became 
the active principle of a creation which opposed to God a coun 
ter-will of its own. Because God willed this, we are told in Gene 
sis 3 that he gave man the power to will otherwise. Had he not 
done so, he would have created nothing but a machine, and then 
the incarnation and the redemption would never have come 
about. Nor would there have been any revelation of the Trinity, 
because everything would have remained One for ever. 

The Lucifer legend is in no sense an absurd fairytale; like 
the story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, it is a "thera 
peutic" myth. We naturally boggle at the thought that good and 
evil are both contained in God, and we think God could not pos 
sibly want such a thing. We should be careful, though, not to 

2 The Axiom of Maria. Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 2ogf. 

196 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

pare down God's omnipotence to the level of our human opin 
ions; but that is just how we do think, despite everything. Even 
so, it would not do to impute all evil to God: thanks to his moral 
autonomy, man can put down a sizable portion of it to his own 
account. Evil is a relative thing, partly avoidable, partly fate 
just as virtue is, and often one does not know which is worse. 
Think of the fate of a woman married to a recognized saint! 
What sins must not the children commit in order to feel their 
lives their own under the overwhelming influence of such a 
father! Life, being an energic process, needs the opposites, for 
without opposition there is, as we know, no energy. Good and 
evil are simply the moral aspects of this natural polarity. The 
fact that we have to feel this polarity so excruciatingly makes 
human existence all the more complicated. Yet the suffering that 
necessarily attaches to life cannot be evaded. The tension of 
opposites that makes energy possible is a universal law, fittingly 
expressed in the yang and yin of Chinese philosophy. Good and 
evil are feeling-values of human provenance, and we cannot ex 
tend them beyond the human realm. What happens beyond this 
is beyond our judgment: God is not to be caught with human 
attributes. Besides, where would the fear of God be if only good 
i.e., what seems good to us were to be expected from him? 
After all, eternal damnation doesn't bear much resemblance to 
goodness as we understand it! Although good and evil are un 
shakable as moral values, they still need to be subjected to a bit 
of psychological revision. Much, that is to say, that proves to be 
abysmally evil in its ultimate effects does not come from man's 
wickedness but from his stupidity and unconsciousness. One has 
only to think of the devastating effects of Prohibition in Amer 
ica or of the hundred thousand autos-da-fe in Spain, which were 
all caused by a praiseworthy zeal to save people's souls. One of 
the toughest roots of all evil is unconsciousness, and I could 
wish that the saying of Jesus, "Man, if thou knowest what thou 
doest, thou art blessed, but if thou knowest not, thou art ac 
cursed, and a transgressor of the law," 3 were still in the gospels, 
even though it has only one authentic source. It might well be 
the motto for a new morality. 

292 The individuation process is invariably started off by the 
patient's becoming conscious of the shadow, a personality 

3 Cf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 33. 

197 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



component usually with a negative sign. This "inferior" person 
ality is made up of everything that will not fit in with, and adapt 
to, the laws and regulations of conscious life. It is compounded 
of "disobedience" and is therefore rejected not on moral grounds 
only, but also for reasons of expediency. Closer investigation 
shows that there is at least one function in it which ought to 
collaborate in orienting consciousness. Or rather, this function 
does collaborate, not for the benefit of conscious, purposive in 
tentions, but in the interests of unconscious tendencies pursuing 
a different goal. It is this fourth, "inferior" function which acts 
autonomously towards consciousness and cannot be harnessed 
to the latter's intentions. It lurks behind every neurotic dissocia 
tion and can only be annexed to consciousness if the correspond 
ing unconscious contents are made conscious at the same time. 
But this integration cannot take place and be put to a useful 
purpose unless one can admit the tendencies bound up with the 
shadow and allow them some measure of realization tempered, 
of course, with the necessary criticism. This leads to disobedi 
ence and self-disgust, but also to self-reliance, without which 
individuation is unthinkable. The ability to "will otherwise" 
must, unfortunately, be real if ethics are to make any sense at 
all. Anyone who submits to the law from the start, or to what is 
generally expected, acts like the man in the parable who buried 
his talent in the earth. Individuation is an exceedingly difficult 
task: it always involves a conflict of duties, whose solution re 
quires us to understand that our "counter-will" is also an aspect 
of God's will. One cannot individuate with mere words and con 
venient self-deceptions, because there are too many destructive 
possibilities in the offing. One almost unavoidable danger is that 
of getting stuck in the conflict and hence in the neurotic dissoci 
ation. Here the therapeutic myth has a helpful and loosening 
effect, even when the patient shows not a trace of conscious 
understanding. The felt presence of the archetype is enough; it 
only fails to work when the possibility of conscious understand 
ing is there, within the patient's reach. In those circumstances it 
is positively deleterious for him to remain unconscious, though 
this happens frequently enough in our Christian civilization 
today. So much of what Christian symbolism taught has gone by 
the board for large numbers of people, without their ever having 
understood what they have lost. Civilization does not consist in 

198 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

progress as such and in mindless destruction of the old values, 
but in developing and refining the good that has been won. 

293 Religion is a "revealed" way of salvation. Its ideas are prod 
ucts of a pre-conscious knowledge which, always and everywhere, 
expresses itself in symbols. Even if our intellect does not grasp 
them, they still work, because our unconscious acknowledges 
them as exponents of universal psychic facts. For this reason 
faith is enough if it is there. Every extension and intensification 
of rational consciousness, however, leads us further away from 
the sources of the symbols and, by its ascendency, prevents us 
from understanding them. That is the situation today. One can 
not turn the clock back and force oneself to believe "what one 
knows is not true." But one could give a little thought to what 
the symbols really mean. In this way not only would the incom 
parable treasures of our civilization be conserved, but we should 
also gain new access to the old truths which have vanished from 
our "rational" purview because of the strangeness of their sym 
bolism. How can a man be God's Son and be born of a virgin? 
That is a slap in the face of reason. But did not Justin Martyr 
point out to his contemporaries that exactly the same thing was 
said of their heroes, and get himself listened to? That was be 
cause man's consciousness in those days did not find the symbols 
as outlandish as they are for us. Today such dogmas fall on deaf 
ears, because nothing in our known world responds to such asser 
tions. But if we understand these things for what they are, as 
symbols, then we can only marvel at the unfathomable wisdom 
that is in them and be grateful to the institution which has not 
only conserved them, but developed them dogmatically. The 
man of today lacks the very understanding that would help him 
to believe. 

294 If I have ventured to submit old dogmas, now grown stale, to 
psychological scrutiny, I have certainly not done so in the prig 
gish conceit that I knew better than others, but in the sincere 
conviction that a dogma which has been such a bone of conten 
tion for so many centuries cannot possibly be an empty fantasy. 
I felt it was too much in line with the consensus omnium, with 
the archetype, for that. It was only when I realized this that I 
was able to establish any relationship with the dogma at all. As 
a metaphysical "truth" it remained wholly inaccessible to me, 
and I suspect that I am by no means the only one to find himself 

199 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



in that position. A knowledge of the universal archetypal back 
ground was, in itself, sufficient to give me the courage to treat 
"that which is believed always, everywhere, by everybody" as a 
psychological fact which extends far beyond the confines of 
Christianity, and to approach it as an object of scientific study, 
as a phenomenon pure and simple, regardless of the "metaphysi 
cal" significance that may have been attached to it. I know from 
my own experience that this latter aspect has never contributed 
in the slightest to my belief or to my understanding. It told me 
absolutely nothing. However, I was forced to admit that the 
"symbolum" possesses the highest degree of actuality inasmuch 
as it was regarded by countless millions of people, for close on 
two thousand years, as a valid statement concerning those things 
which one cannot see with the eyes or touch with the hands. It is 
this fact that needs to be understood, for of '/metaphysical truth" 
we know only that part which man has made, unless the unbid- 
dable gift of faith lifts us beyond all dubiety and all uneasy in 
vestigation. It is dangerous if these matters are only objects of 
belief; 4 for where there is belief there is doubt, and the fiercer 
and naiver the belief the more devastating the doubt once it 
begins to dawn. One is then infinitely cleverer than all the be 
nighted heads of the Middle Ages. 

295 These considerations have made me extremely cautious in 
my approach to the further metaphysical significance that may 
possibly underlie archetypal statements. There is nothing to 
stop their ultimate ramifications from penetrating to the very 
ground of the universe. We alone are the dumb ones if we fail to 
notice it. Such being the case, I cannot pretend to myself that 
the object of archetypal statements has been explained and dis 
posed of merely by our investigation of its psychological aspects. 
What I have put forward can only be, at best, a more or less 
successful or unsuccessful attempt to give the inquiring mind 
some access to one side of the problem the side that can be 
approached. It would be presumptuo is to expect more than this. 
If I have merely succeeded in stimulating discussion, then my 
purpose is more than fulfilled. For it seems to me that the world, 
if it should lose sight of these archetypal statements, would be 
threatened with unspeakable impoverishment of mind and soul. 

* I am thinking here of the sola fide standpoint of the Protestants. 

2OO 



Ill 

TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM 

IN THE MASS 



[First published as a lecture in Eranos Jahrbuch 1940/41; later published in re 
vised and expanded form in Von den Wurzeln des Bewusstseins (Zurich, 1954). 
The present translation is made from the 1954 version. It was published in 
slightly different form in The Mysteries (Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, z; 
New York 1955; London, 1956). EDITORS.] 



i. INTRODUCTION 1 



296 The Mass is a still-living mystery, the origins of which go 
back to early Christian times. It is hardly necessary to point out 
that it owes its vitality partly to its undoubted psychological 
efficacy, and that it is therefore a fit subject for psychological 
study. But it should be equally obvious that psychology can only 
approach the subject from the phenomenological angle, for the 
realities of faith lie outside the realm of psychology. 

2 97 My exposition falls into four parts: in this introduction I 
indicate some of the New Testament sources of the Mass, with 
notes on its structure and significance. In section 2, I recapitu 
late the sequence of events in the rite. In 3, I cite a parallel 
from pagan antiquity to the Christian symbolism of sacrifice and 
transformation: the visions of Zosimos. Finally, in 4, I attempt 
a psychological discussion of the sacrifice and transformation. 

# 

298 The oldest account of the sacrament of the Mass is to be 
found in I Corinthians 1 1 



1 The following account and examination of the principal symbol in the Mass is 
not concerned either with the Mass as a whole, or with its liturgy in particular, 
but solely with the ritual actions and texts which relate to the transformation 
process in the strict sense. In order to give the reader an adequate account of this. 
I had to seek professional help. I am especially indebted to the theologian Dr. 
Callus Jud for reading through and correcting the first two sections. 

203 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



For the tradition which I have received of the Lord and handed 
down to you is that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, 
took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said: This is my body for you; 
do this in remembrance of me. And after he had supped, he took the 
chalice also, and said: This chalice is the new testament in my blood. 
As often as you drink, do this in remembrance of me. For as often as 
you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you declare the death of 
the Lord, until he comes. 2 

299 Similar accounts are to be found in Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke. In John the corresponding passage speaks of a "supper," 3 
but there it is connected with the washing of the disciples' feet. 
At this supper Christ utters the words which characterize the 
meaning and substance of the Mass (John 15 : i, 4, 5). "I am the 
true vine." "Abide in me, and I in you." "I am the vine, ye are 
the branches." The correspondence between the liturgical ac 
counts points to a traditional source outside the Bible. There is 
no evidence of an actual feast of the Eucharist until after 
A.D. 150. 

500 The Mass is a Eucharistic feast with an elaborately developed 
liturgy. It has the following structure: 

CONSECRATION 

7 1 \ 

OBLATION COMMUNION 

7 ^ 

PRELIMINARIES CONCLUSION 

3 01 As this investigation is concerned essentially with the symbol 
of transformation, I must refrain from discussing the Mass as a 
whole. 

3 02 In the sacrifice of the Mass two distinct ideas are blended 
together: the ideas of deipnon and thysia. Thysia comes from the 
verb Qbeiv, 'to sacrifice* or 'to slaughter*; but it also has the mean- 

2 [This is a translation of the Karl von Weizsacker version (1875) used here by 
the author. Elsewhere the Biblical quotations are taken from the AV and 
occasionally from the RSV and the DV. Following are the Greek and Latin 
(Vulgate) versions of the italicized portion of this passage. TRANS.] 
", . . rovro fiob &TI.V rd ar&fia fb urp uj&up* TOVTO irotetr ets TTJ? 
- K.a.1 



". . . hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis tradetur: hoc facite in meam 
commemorationem. Similiter et calicem, postquam coenavit, dicens: Hie calix 
novum testamentum est in meo sanguine." 3 &Z*Tw, *coena.* 

204 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



ing of 'blazing' or 'flaring up.' This refers to the leaping sacrifi 
cial fire by which the gift offered to the gods was consumed. 
Originally the food-offering was intended for the nourishment 
of the gods; the smoke of the burnt sacrifice carried the food up 
to their heavenly abode. At a later stage the smoke was conceived 
as a spiritualized form of food-offering; indeed, all through the 
Christian era up to the Middle Ages, spirit (or pneuma) contin 
ued to be thought of as a fine, vaporous substance. 4 

303 Deipnon means 'meal/ In the first place it is a meal shared by 
those taking part in the sacrifice, at which the god was believed 
to be present. It is also a "sacred" meal at which "consecrated" 
food is eaten, and hence a sacrifice (from sacrificare, 'to make 
sacred/ 'to consecrate'). 

304 The dual meaning of deipnon and thysia is implicitly con 
tained in the words of the sacrament: "the body which (was 
given) for you." 5 This may mean either "which was given to you 
to eat" or, indirectly, "which was given for you to God." The 
idea of a meal immediately invests the word 'body* with the 
meaning of <rap, 'flesh' (as an edible substance). In Paul, a-^a 
and <rap are practically identical. 6 

35 Besides the authentic accounts of the institution of the sacra 
ment, we must also consider Hebrews 13: 10-15 as a possible 
source for the Mass: 

We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the 
tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought 
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the 
camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with 
his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore 
unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we 
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us 
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. . . . 

3<^ As a further source we might mention Hebrews 7:17: "Thou 
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." T The idea 

4 This of course has nothing to do with the official conception of spirit by the 
Church. 5<V6 <rw/ia TO fnrlp vpw." 

6 Kasemann, Leib und Leib Christi, p. 120. 

7 Dr. Jud kindly drew my attention to the equally relevant passage in Malachi 
i: lo-n : "Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? 
neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. . . . And in every place 
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering . . .'* 

205 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



of perpetual sacrifice and of an eternal priesthood is an essential 
component of the Mass. Melchisedec, who according to Hebrews 
7 : 3 was "without father, without mother, without descent, hav 
ing neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like 
unto the Son of God/' was believed to be a pre-Christian incar 
nation of the Logos. 

s7 The idea of an eternal priesthood and of a sacrifice offered to 
God "continually" brings us to the true mysterium fidei, the 
transformation of the substances, which is the third aspect of the 
Mass. The ideas of deipnon and thysia do not in themselves 
imply or contain a mystery, although, in the burnt offering 
which is reduced to smoke and ashes by the fire, there is a primi 
tive allusion to a transformation of substance in the sense of its 
spiritualization. But this aspect is of no practical importance in 
the Mass, where it only appears in subsidiary form in the cens 
ing, as an incense-offering. The mysterium, on the other hand, 
manifests itself clearly enough in the eternal priest "after the 
order of Melchisedec" and in the sacrifice which he offers to God 
"continually." The manifestation of an order outside time in 
volves the idea of a miracle which takes place "vere, realiter, 
substantialiter" at the moment of transubstantiation, for the 
substances offered are no different from natural objects, and 
must in fact be definite commodities whose nature is known to 
everybody, namely pure wheaten bread and wine. Furthermore, 
the officiating priest is an ordinary human being who, although 
he bears the indelible mark of the priesthood upon him and is 
thus empowered to offer sacrifice, is nevertheless not yet in a 
position to be the instrument of the divine self-sacrifice enacted 
in the Mass. 8 Nor is the congregation standing behind him yet 
purged from sin, consecrated, and itself transformed into a sac 
rificial gift. The ritual of the Mass takes this situation and 
transforms it step by step until the climax is reached the Conse- 

8 That is to say, not before he has accomplished the preparatory part of the serv 
ice. In offering these gifts the priest is not the "master" of the sacrifice. "Rather 
that -which causes them to be sacrificed in the first place is sanctifying grace. For 
that is what their sacrifice means: their sanctification. The man who each time 
performs the sacred act is the servant of grace, and that is why the gifts and their 
sacrifice are always pleasing to God. The fact that the servant may be bad does 
not affect them in any way. The priest is only the servant, and even this he has 
from grace, not from himself." Joseph Kramp, S.J., Die Opferanschauungen der 
romischen Messliturgie, p. 148. 

206 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



cration, when Christ himself, as sacrificer and sacrificed, speaks 
the decisive words through the mouth of the priest. At that 
moment Christ is present in time and space. Yet his presence is 
not a reappearance, and therefore the inner meaning of the con 
secration is not a repetition of an event which occurred once in 
history, but the revelation of something existing in eternity, a 
rending of the veil of temporal and spatial limitations which 
separates the human spirit from the sight of the eternal. This 
event is necessarily a mystery, because it is beyond the power of 
man to conceive or describe. In other words, the rite is neces 
sarily and in every one of its parts a symbol. Now a symbol is not 
an arbitrary or intentional sign standing for a known and 
conceivable fact, but an admittedly anthropomorphic hence 
limited and only partly valid expression for something supra- 
human and only partly conceivable. It may be the best expres 
sion possible, yet it ranks below the level of the mystery it seeks 
to describe. The Mass is a symbol in this sense. Here I would 
like to quote the words of Father Kramp: "It is generally ad 
mitted that the sacrifice is a symbolic act, by which I mean that 
the offering of a material gift to God has no purpose in itself, 
but merely serves as a means to express an idea. And the choice 
of this means of expression brings a wide range of anthropo 
morphism into play: man confronts God as he confronts his 
own kind, almost as if God were a human being. We offer a gift 
to God as we offer it to a good friend or to an earthly ruler." a 
3 08 In so far, then, as the Mass is an anthropomorphic symbol 
standing for something otherworldly and beyond our power to 
conceive, its symbolism is a legitimate subject for comparative 
psychology and analytical research. My psychological explana 
tions are, of course, exclusively concerned with the symbolical 
expression. 
8 Ibid., p. 17. 



207 



2. THE SEQUENCE OF THE TRANSFORMATION 

RITE 



39 The rite of transformation may be said to begin with the 
Offertory, an antiphon recited during the offering of the sacrifi 
cial gifts. Here we encounter the first ritual act relating to the 
transformation. 1 



I. OBLATION OF THE BREAD 

310 The Host is lifted up towards the cross on the altar, and the 
priest makes the sign of the cross over it with the paten. The 
bread is thus brought into relation with Christ and his death on 
the cross; it is marked as a "sacrifice" and thereby becomes 
sacred. The elevation exalts it into the realm of the spiritual: 
it is a preliminary act of spiritualization. Justin makes the inter 
esting remark that the presentation of the cleansed lepers in the 
temple was an image of the Eucharistic bread. 2 This links up 
with the later alchemical idea of the imperfect or "leprous" sub 
stance which is made perfect by the opus. (Quod natura relin- 
quit imperfectum, arte perficitur."Wha.t nature leaves imper 
fect is perfected by the art.") 

1 In the account that follows I have made extensive use of Brinktrine, Die Heilige 
Messe in ihrem Werden zmd Wesen. 

2 "TtfTros rov aprov rijs e^^apt^r/as." 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



II. PREPARATION OF THE CHALICE 

311 This is still more solemn than that of the bread, correspond 
ing to the "spiritual" nature of the wine, which is reserved for 
the priest. 3 Some water is mingled with the wine. 

3 1 * The mixing of water with the wine originally referred to the 
ancient custom of not drinking wine unless mixed with water. 
A drunkard was therefore called akratopotes, an 'unmixed 
drinker/ In modern Greek, wine is still called K pa<rl (mixture). 
From the custom of the Monophysite Armenians, who did not 
add any water to the Eucharistic wine (so as to preserve the 
exclusively divine nature of Christ), it may be inferred that 
water has a hylical, or physical, significance and represents man's 
material nature. The mixing of water and wine in the Roman 
rite would accordingly signify that divinity is mingled with 
humanity as indivisibly as the wine with the water. 4 St. Cyprian 
(bishop of Carthage, d. 258) says that the wine refers to Christ, 
and the water to the congregation as the body of Christ. The 
significance of the water is explained by an allusion to the Book 
of Revelation 17:15: "The waters which thou sawest, where the 
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
tongues." (In alchemy, meretrix the whore is a synonym for the 
prima materia, the corpus imperfectum which is sunk in dark 
ness, like the man who wanders in darkness, unconscious and 
unredeemed. This idea is foreshadowed in the Gnostic image of 
Physis, who with passionate arms draws the Nous down from 
heaven and wraps him in her dark embrace.) As the water is an 
imperfect or even leprous substance, it has to be blessed and 
consecrated before being mixed, so that only a purified body 
may be joined to the wine of the spirit, just as Christ is to be 
united only with a pure and sanctified congregation. Thus this 
part of the rite has the special significance of preparing a perfect 
body the glorified body of resurrection. 

3!3 At the time of St. Cyprian the communion was generally cele 
brated with water. 5 And, still later, St. Ambrose (bishop of 

3 That is, in the Roman rite. In the Greek Uniate rites, communion is received 
in bread and wine. 

* This is the interpretation of Yves, bishop of Chartres (d. 1116). 
5 Cyprian attacks this heretical custom in his letter to Caecilius. Letter 63 to 
Caecilius, Migne, PX V vol. 4, cols. 3725. (trans, by Carey, pp. 

209 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Milan, d. 397) says: "In the shadow there was water from the 
rock, as it were the blood o Christ." 6 The water communion 
is prefigured in John 7:37-39: "If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture 
hath said, out of his belly flow rivers of living water. (But this 
he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should 
receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus 
was not yet glorified.)" And also in John 4: 14: "But whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but 
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life." The words "as the scripture 
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" do 
not occur anywhere in the Old Testament. They must therefore 
come from a writing which the author of the Johannine gospel 
obviously regarded as holy, but which is not known to us. It is 
just possible that they are based on Isaiah 58 : 1 1: "And the Lord 
shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and 
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and 
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Another possibil 
ity is Ezekiel 47 : i : "Afterward he brought me again unto the 
door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the 
threshold of the house eastward . , . and the waters came down 
from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of 
the altar." In the Church Order of Hippolytus (d. c. 235) the 
water chalice is associated with the baptismal font, where the 
inner man is renewed as well as the body. 7 This interpretation 
comes very close to the baptismal krater of Poimandres 8 and 
to the Hermetic basin filled with nous which God gave to those 
seeking >w>ia. 9 Here the water signifies the pneuma, i.e., the 
spirit of prophecy, and also the doctrine which a man receives 

"In umbra erat aqua de petra quasi sanguis ex Christo." The umbra, 'shadow/ 
refers to the foreshadowing in the Old Testament, in accordance with the saying: 
"Umbra in lege, imago in evangelio, veritas in coelestibus" (The shadow in the 
Law, the image in the Gospel, the truth in Heaven). Note that this remark of 
Ambrose does not refer to the Eucharist but to the water symbolism of early 
Christianity in general; and the same is true of the passages from John. St. 
Augustine himself says: "There the rock was Christ; for to us that is Christ which 
is placed on the altar of God." Tractatus in Joannem, XLV, 9 (trans, by Innes). 

7 Connolly, ed., The So-called Egyptian Church Order and Derived Documents. 

8 Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimi&tes grecs f III, li. 8. 

9 Corpus Hermeticum, Lib. IV, 4, in Hermetica f I, p. 151. 

210 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



and passes on to others. 10 The same image of the spiritual water 
occurs in the "Odes of Solomon": n 

For there went forth a stream, and became a river great and broad; 
. . and all the thirsty upon earth were given to drink of it; and 
thirst was relieved and quenched; for from the Most High the 
draught was given. Blessed then are the ministers of that draught 
who are entrusted with that water of His; they have assuaged the 
dry lips, and the will that had fainted they have raised up; and souls 
that were near departing they have caught back from death; and 
limbs that had fallen they straightened and set up; they gave strength 
for their feebleness and light to their eyes. For everyone knew them 
in the Lord, and they lived by the water of life for ever. 12 

314 The fact that the Eucharist was also celebrated with water 
shows that the early Christians were mainly interested in the 
symbolism of the mysteries and not in the literal observance of 
the sacrament. (There were several other variants "galactoph- 
agy," for instancewhich all bear out this view.) 

315 Another, very graphic, interpretation of the wine and water 
is the reference to John 19 : 34: "And forthwith came there out 
blood and water." Deserving of special emphasis is the remark 
of St. John Chrysostom (patriarch of Constantinople, d. 407), 
that in drinking the wine Christ drank his own blood. (See Sec 
tion 3, on Zosimos.) 

3* 6 In this section of the Mass we meet the important prayer: 

O God, who in creating human nature, didst wonderfully dignify it, 
and hast still more wonderfully renewed it; grant that, by the mys 
tery of this water and wine, we may be made partakers of his divin 
ity who vouchsafed to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus 
Christ. . . , 13 

lOStradc and Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und 
Midrasch, II, p. 492. H A collection of Gnostic hymns from the 2nd cent. 

12 Ode VI in The Odes of Solomon, ed. Bernard, p. 55, after the J. Rendel Harris 
version. Cf. the tffop Sew, the aqua permanens of early alchemy, also the treatise 
of Komarius (Berthelot, IV, xx). 

13 "Deus, qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius 
refonnasti; da nobis per huius aquae et vini mysterium, eius divinitatis esse 
consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps, Jesus Christus . . ." 
[Here and throughout this essay the English translation is taken from The Small 
Missal, London, 1924. TRANS.] 

211 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



III. ELEVATION OF THE CHALICE 

3*7 The lifting up of the chalice in the air prepares the spiritual- 
ization (i.e., volatilization) of the wine. 14 This is confirmed by 
the invocation to the Holy Ghost which immediately follows 
(Veni sanctifrcator), and it is even more evident in the Mozara- 
bic liturgy, which has "Veni spiritus sanctificator." 15 The invo 
cation serves to infuse the wine with holy spirit, for it is the 
Holy Ghost who begets, fulfils, and transforms (cf. the "Obum- 
bratio Mariae," Pentecostal fire). After the elevation, the chalice 
was, in former times, set down to the right of the Host, to corre 
spond with the blood that flowed from the right side of Christ. 



IV. CENSING OF THE SUBSTANCES AND THE ALTAR 

3*8 The priest makes the sign of the cross three times over the 
substances with the thurible, twice from right to left and once 
from left to right. 16 The counterclockwise movement (from right 
to left) corresponds psychologically to a circumambulation 
downwards, in the direction of the unconscious, while the clock 
wise (left-to-right) movement goes in the direction of conscious 
ness. There is also a complicated censing of the altar. 17 

3*9 The censing has the significance of an incense offering and is 
therefore a relic of the original thysia. At the same time it signi 
fies a transformation of the sacrificial gifts and of the altar, a 
spiritualization of all the physical substances subserving the rite. 
Finally, it is an apotropaic ceremony to drive away any demonic 
forces that may be present, for it fills the air with the fragrance 
of the pneuma and renders it uninhabitable by evil spirits. The 
vapour also suggests the sublimated body, thtcorpusvolatilesive 
spirituale, or wraithlike "subtle body." Rising up as a "spiritual" 
substance, the incense implements and represents the ascent of 

M This is my interpretation and not that of the Church, which sees in this only 

an act of devotion. 

is "Mozarabic" from Arabic rnustcfrib, 'Arabianized/ with reference to the Visi- 

gothic-Spanish form of ritual. [The Latin phrases: "Come, O sanctifying one/* 

"Come, O sanctifying spirit." EDITORS.] 

15 The circumambulation from left to right is strictly observed in Buddhism. 

17 The censing is only performed at High Mass. 

312 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



prayer hence the Dirigatur, Domine, oratio mea, sicut incen- 
surrij in conspectu tuo. 18 

320 The censing brings the preparatory, spiritualizing rites to an 
end. The gifts have been sanctified and prepared for the actual 
transubstantiation. Priest and congregation are likewise purified 
by the prayers Accendat in nobis Dominus ignem sui amoris and 
Lavabo inter innocentes and are made ready to enter into the 
mystic union of the sacrificial act which now follows. 



V. THE EPICLESIS 

3* 1 The Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, like the Orate, fratres, the Sane- 
tuSy and the Te igitur, is a propitiatory prayer which seeks to 
insure the acceptance of the sacrifice. Hence the Preface that 
comes after the Secret is called Illatio in the Mozarabic rite (the 
equivalent of the Greek avafapb), and in the old Gallican liturgy 
is known as Immolatio (in the sense of oblatio), with reference 
to the presentation of the gifts. The words of the Sanctus, "Bene- 
dictus qui venit in nomine Domini," 20 point to the expected 
appearance of the Lord which has already been prepared, on the 
ancient principle that a "naming" has the force of a "summons." 
After the Canon there follows the "Commemoration of the Liv 
ing," together with the prayers Hanc igitur and Quam oblatio- 
nem. In the Mozarabic Mass these are followed by the Epiclesis 
(invocation): "Adesto, adesto Jesu, bone Pontifex, in medio nos- 
tri: sicut fuisti in medio discipulorum tuorum." 21 This naming 
likewise has the original force of a summons. It is an intensifica 
tion of the Benedictus qui venit, and it may be, and sometimes 
was, regarded as the actual manifestation of the Lord, and hence 
as the culminating point of the Mass. 

18 ["Let my prayer, O Lord, ascend like incense in thy sight."] 

19 ["May the Lord enkindle in us the fire of his love/' / "I will wash my hands 
among the innocent."] 

20 ["Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."] 

21 ["Be present, be present in our midst, O Jesus, great High Priest: as thou wert 
in the midst of thy disciples,"] 



213 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



VI. THE CONSECRATION 

3** This, in the Roman Mass, is the climax, the transubstantia- 
tion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. 
The formula for the consecration of the bread runs: 22 

Qui pridie quam pateretur, accepit panem in sanctas ac venerabiles 
manus suas, et elevatis oculis in caelum ad te Deum, Patrem suum 
omnipotentem, tibi gratias agens, benedixit, fregit, deditque 
discipulis suis, dicens: Accipite, et manducate ex hoc omnes. Hoc 
est enim Corpus meum. 

And for the consecration of the chalice: 

Simili modo postquam coenatum est, accipiens et hunc praeclarum 
Calicem in sanctas ac venerabiles manus suas, item tibi gratias agens, 
benedixit, deditque discipulis suis, dicens: Accipite, et bibite ex eo 
omnes. Hie est enim Calix Sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti: 
mysterium fidei: qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur in remis- 
sionem peccatorum. Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam 
facietis. 

3*3 The priest and congregation, as well as the substances and 
the altar, have now been progressively purified, consecrated, ex 
alted, and spiritualized by means of the prayers and rites which 
began with the Preliminaries and ended with the Canon, and 
are thus prepared as a mystical unity for the divine epiphany. 
Hence the uttering of the words of the consecration signifies 
Christ himself speaking in the first person, his living presence in 
the corpus mysticum of priest, congregation, bread, wine, and 
incense, which together form the mystical unity offered for sacri 
fice. At this moment the eternal character of the one divine 
sacrifice is made evident: it is experienced at a particular time 
and a particular place, as if a window or a door had been opened 
upon that which lies beyond space and time. It is in this sense 
that we have to understand the words of St. Chrysostom: "And 
this word once uttered in any church, at any altar, makes perfect 
the sacrifice from that day to this, and till his Second Coming." 
It is clear that only by our Lord's presence in his words, and by 
their virtue, is the imperfect body of the sacrifice made perfect, 

22 According to the edict of the Church these words ought not, on account of their 
sacredness, to be translated into any profane tongue. Although there are missals 
that sin against this wise edict, I would prefer the Latin text to stand untrans 
lated. 

214 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



and not by the preparatory action of the priest. Were this the 
efficient cause, the rite would be no different from common 
magic. The priest is only the causa ministerialis of the transub- 
stantiation. The real cause is the living presence of Christ which 
operates spontaneously, as an act of divine grace. 
324 Accordingly, John of Damascus (d. 754) says that the -words 
have a consecrating effect no matter by what priest they be 
spoken, as if Christ were present and uttering them himself. And 
Duns Scotus (d. 1308) remarks that, in the sacrament of the Last 
Supper, Christ, by an act of will, offers himself as a sacrifice in 
every Mass, through the agency of the priest. 23 This tells us 
plainly enough that the sacrificial act is not performed by the 
priest, but by Christ himself. The agent of transformation is 
nothing less than the divine will working through Christ. The 
Council of Trent declared that in the sacrifice of the Mass "the 
selfsame Christ is contained and bloodlessly sacrificed/' 24 al 
though this is not a repetition of the historical sacrifice but a 
bloodless renewal of it. As the sacramental words have the power 
to accomplish the sacrifice, being an expression of God's will, 
they can be described metaphorically as the sacrificial knife or 
sword which, guided by his will, consummates the thysia. This 
comparison was first drawn by the Jesuit father Lessius (d. 1623), 
and has since gained acceptance as an ecclesiastical figure of 
speech. It is based on Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is 
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," 
and perhaps even more on the Book of Revelation i : 16: "And 
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." The "macta- 
tion theory" first appeared in the sixteenth century. Its origina 
tor, Cuesta, bishop of Leon (d. 1560), declared that Christ was 
slaughtered by the priest. So the sword metaphor followed quite 
naturally. 25 Nicholas Cabasilas, archbishop of Thessalonica (d. 

23 Klug, in Theologie und Glaube, XVIII (1926), 335^ Cited by Brinktrine, p. 192. 

24 "idem ille Christus continetur et incruente immolatur." Sessio XXII. Denzinger 
and Bannwart, Enchiridion Symbolorum, p. 312. 

25"Missa est sacrificium hac ratione quia Christus aliquo modo moritur et a 
sacerdote mactatur" (The Mass is a sacrifice for the reason that in it Christ dies 
after a certain manner, and is slain by the priest). Hauck, Realenzyklopadie, XII, 
p. 693. The question of the mactatio had already been raised by Nicholas 
Cabasilas of Thessalonica: "Be divino altaris sacrificio," in Migne, P.G., vol. 150, 
cols. 3632. The sword as a sacrificial instrument also occurs in the Zosimos 
visions (see section 3). 

215 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



c- 1363), gives a vivid description of the corresponding rite in the 
Greek Orthodox Church: 

The priest cuts a piece of bread from the loaf, reciting the text: "As 
a lamb he was led to the slaughter." Laying it on the table he says: 
"The lamb of God is slain." Then a sign of the cross is imprinted 
on the bread and a small lance is stabbed into its side, to the text: 
"And one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith 
came there out blood and water." With these words water and wine 
are mixed in the chalice, which is placed beside the bread. 

The S&poy (gift) also represents the giver; that is to say, Christ is 
both the sacrificer and the sacrificed. 

3*5 Kramp writes: "Sometimes the fractio and sometimes the 
elevatio which precedes the Pater noster was taken as symboliz 
ing the death of Christ, sometimes the sign of the cross at the end 
of the SuppliceS; and sometimes the consecratio; but no one ever 
thought of taking a symbol like the 'mystical slaughter* as a 
sacrifice which constitutes the essence of the Mass. So it is not 
surprising that there is no mention of any 'slaughter 1 in the 
liturgy/ 1 26 

VII. THE GREATER ELEVATION 

326 The consecrated substances are lifted up and shown to the 
congregation. The Host in particular represents a beatific vision 
of heaven, in fulfilment of Psalm 27 : 8: "Thy face, Lord, will I 
seek," for in it the Divine Man is present. 



VIII. THE POST-CONSECRATION 

3*7 There now follows the significant prayer Unde et memores, 
which I give in full together with the Supra quae and Supplices: 

Wherefore, O Lord, we thy servants, as also thy holy people, call 
ing to mind the blessed passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord, 
his resurrection from hell, and glorious ascension into heaven, offer 
unto thy most excellent majesty, of thy gifts and grants, a pure Host, 
a holy Host, an immaculate Host, the holy bread of eternal life, and 
the chalice of everlasting salvation. 
26 Krarap, p. 56. 

216 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



Upon which vouchsafe to look down with a propitious and serene 
countenance, and to accept them, as thou wert graciously pleased 
to accept the gifts of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our 
patriarch Abraham, and that which thy high priest Melchisedec 
offered to thee, a holy sacrifice, an immaculate Host. 

We most humbly beseech thee, almighty God, command these 
things to be carried by the hands of thy holy angel to thy altar on 
high, in the sight of thy divine majesty, that as many of us as, by 
participation at this altar, shall receive the most sacred body and 
blood of thy Son, may be filled with all heavenly benediction and 
grace. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen. 27 

328 The first prayer shows that in the transformed substances 
there is an allusion to the resurrection and glorification of our 
Lord, and the second prayer recalls the sacrifices prefigured in 
the Old Testament. Abel sacrificed a lamb; Abraham was to sac 
rifice his son, but a ram was substituted at the last moment. 
Melchisedec offers no sacrifice, but comes to meet Abraham with 
bread and wine. This sequence is probably not accidental it 
forms a sort of crescendo. Abel is essentially the son, and sacri 
fices an animal; Abraham is essentially the father indeed, the 
"tribal father" and therefore on a higher level. He does not 
offer a choice possession merely, but is ready to sacrifice the best 
and dearest thing he has his only son. Melchisedec ("teacher of 
righteousness"), is, according to Hebrews 7:1, king of Salem and 
"priest of the most high God," El 'Elyon. Philo Byblius men 
tions a 'EXww 6 itywjros as a Canaanite deity, 28 but he cannot be 
identical with Yahweh. Abraham nevertheless acknowledges the 

27"Unde et memores, Domine, nos servi tui, sed et plebs tua sancta, eiusdem 
Christ! Filii tui, Domini nostri, tarn beatae passionis, nee non et ab inferis resur- 
rectionis, sed et in caelos gloriosae ascensionis: offerimus praeclarae majestati tuae 
de tuis donis ac datis, hostiam puram, hostiam sanctam, hostiam immaculatam, 
Panem sanctum vitae aeternae, et Calicem salutis perpetuae. 

"Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris: et accepta habere, 
sicuti accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui justi Abel, et sacrificium 
Patriarchae nostri Abrahae: et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchise- 
dech, sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam. 

"Supplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus: jube haec perferri per manus sancti 
Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum, in conspectu divinae majestatis tuae: ut, 
quotquot ex hac altaris participatione sacrosanctum Filii tui corpus, et san- 
guinem sumpserimus, omni benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur. Per 
eundem Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen." 
28 Eusebius, Evangelica praeparatio, I, 10, n (Migne, P.G., vol. 21, col. 30). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



priesthood of Melchisedec 29 by paying him "a tenth part of all/' 
By virtue of his priesthood, Melchisedec stands above the patri 
arch, and his feasting of Abraham has the significance of a 
priestly act. We must therefore attach a symbolical meaning to 
it, as is in fact suggested by the bread and wine. Consequently 
the symbolical offering ranks even higher than the sacrifice of a 
son, which is still the sacrifice of somebody else. Melchisedec's 
offering is thus a prefiguration of Christ's sacrifice of himself.^ 
329 In the prayer Supplices te rogamus we beseech God to bring 
the gifts "by the hands of thy holy angel to thy altar on high." 
This singular request derives from the apocryphal Epistolae 
Apostolorum, where there is a legend that Christ, before he be 
came incarnate, bade the archangels take his place at God's altar 
during his absence. 30 This brings out the idea of the eternal 
priesthood which links Christ with Melchisedec. 

DC. END OF THE CANON 

33<> Taking up the Host, the priest makes the sign of the cross 
three times over the chalice, and says: "Through Him, and with 
Him, and in Him." Then he makes the sign of the cross twice 
between himself and the chalice. This establishes the identity of 
Host, chalice, and priest, thus affirming once more the unity of 
all parts of the sacrifice. The union of Host and chalice signifies 
the union of the body and blood, i.e., the quickening of the body 
with a soul, for blood is equivalent to soul. Then follows the 
Pater noster. 



X. BREAKING OF THE HOST ("FRACTIO") 

331 The prayer "Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all 
evils, past, present, and to come" lays renewed emphasis on the 
petition made in the preceding Pater noster: "but deliver us 
from evil." The connection between this and the sacrificial death 
of Christ lies in the descent into hell and the breaking of the 

29 "Sidik" is a Phoenician name for God. Sir Leonard Woolley gives a very inter 
esting explanation of this in his report on the excavations at Ur: Abraham: Re 
cent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins. 30 Kramp, p. 98. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 

infernal power. The breaking of the bread that now follows is 
symbolic of Christ's death. The Host is broken in two over the 
chalice. A small piece, the particula, is broken off from the left 
half and used for the rite of consignatio and commixtio. In the 
Byzantine rite the bread is divided into four, the four pieces 
being marked with letters as follows: 

IS 
NI KA 

XS 

This means " 'lyvovs Xpwrds VIK%" 'Jesus Christ is victorious/ 
The peculiar arrangement of the letters obviously represents a 
quaternity, which as we know always has the character of whole 
ness. This quaternity, as the letters show, refers to Christ glori 
fied, king of glory and Pantokrator. 

33 2 Still more complicated is the Mozarabic fractio: the Host is 
first broken into two, then the left half into five parts, and the 
right into four. The five are named corporatio (incarnatio), 
nativitas, circumcisio, apparitio, and passioj and the four mors, 
resurrectio, gloria, regnum. The first group refers exclusively to 
the human life of our Lord, the second to his existence beyond 
this world. According to the old view, five is the number of the 
natural ("hylical") man, whose outstretched arms and legs form, 
with the head, a pentagram. Four, on the other hand, signifies 
eternity and totality (as shown for instance by the Gnostic name 
"Barbelo," which is translated as "fourness is God"). This sym 
bol, I would add in passing, seems to indicate that extension in 
space signifies God's suffering (on the cross) and, on the other 
hand, his dominion over the universe. 

XI. CONSIGNATIO 

333 The sign of the cross is made over the chalice with the par- 
ticula, and then the priest drops it into the wine. 

XII. COMMIXTIO 

334 This is the mingling of bread and wine, as explained by 
Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428?): ". . , he combines them into 
one, whereby it is made manifest to everybody that although 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



they are two they are virtually one." S1 The text at this point 
says: "May this mixture and consecration [commixtio et const- 
cratio] of the body and blood of our Lord help us/' etc. The 
word 'consecration' may be an allusion to an original consecra 
tion by contact, though that would not clear up the contradic 
tion since a consecration of both substances has already taken 
place. Attention has therefore been drawn to the old custom of 
holding over the sacrament from one Mass to another, the Host 
being dipped in wine and then preserved in softened, or mixed, 
form. There are numerous rites that end with minglings of this 
kind. Here I would only mention the consecration by water, or 
the mixed drink of honey and milk which the neophytes were 
given after communion in the Church Order of Hippolytus. 
335 The Leonine Sacramentary (seventh century) interprets the 
commixtio as a mingling of the heavenly and earthly nature of 
Christ. The later view was that it symbolizes the resurrection, 
since in it the blood (or soul) of our Lord is reunited with the 
body lying in the sepulchre. There is a significant reversal here 
of the original rite of baptism. In baptism, the body is immersed 
in water for the purpose of transformation; in the commixtio, 
on the other hand, the body, or particula, is steeped in wine, 
symbolizing spirit, and this amounts to a glorification of the 
body. Hence the justification for regarding the commixtio as a 
symbol of the resurrection. 



XIII. CONCLUSION 

S3 6 On careful examination we find that the sequence of ritual 
actions in the Mass contains, sometimes clearly and sometimes 
by subtle allusions, a representation in condensed form of the 
life and sufferings of Christ. Certain phases overlap or are so 
close together that there can be no question of conscious and 
deliberate condensation. It is more likely that the historical evo 
lution of the Mass gradually led to its becoming a concrete pic 
ture of the most important aspects of Christ's life. First of all (in 
the Benedictus qui venit and Supra quae) we have an anticipa 
tion and prefiguration of his coming. The uttering of the words 

31 Rucker, ed., Ritus baptismi et missae quam descripsit Theodoras ep. Mopsue- 
stanus. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



o consecration corresponds to the incarnation of the Logos, and 
also to Christ's passion and sacrificial death, which appears again 
in the fractio. In the Libera nos there is an allusion to the de 
scent into hell, while the consignatio and commixtio hirit at 
resurrection. 

337 In so far as the offered gift is the sacrificer himself, in so far 
as the priest and congregation offer themselves in the sacrificial 
gift, and in so far as Christ is both sacrificer and sacrificed, there 
is a mystical unity of all parts of the sacrificial act. 32 The combi 
nation of offering and offerer in the single figure of Christ is 
implicit in the doctrine that just as bread is composed of many 
grains of wheat, and wine of many grapes, so the mystical body 
of the Church is made up of a multitude of believers. The mysti 
cal body, moreover, includes both sexes, represented by the 
bread and wine. 33 Thus the two substances the masculine wine 
and the feminine bread also signify the androgynous nature of 
the mystical Christ. 

33 8 The Mass thus contains, as its essential core, the mystery and 
miracle of God's transformation taking place in the human 
sphere, his becoming Man, and his return to his absolute exist 
ence in and for himself. Man, too, by his devotion and self-sacri 
fice as a ministering instrument, is included in the mysterious 
process. God's offering of himself is a voluntary act of love, but 
the actual sacrifice was an agonizing and bloody death brought 
about by men instrumentaliter et ministerialiter. (The words 
incruente immolatur 'bloodlessly sacrificed' refer only to the 
rite, not to the thing symbolized.) The terrors of death on the 
cross are an indispensable condition for the transformation. 
This is in the first place a bringing to life of substances which 
are in themselves lifeless, and, in the second, a substantial altera 
tion of them, a spiritualization, in accordance with the ancient 
conception of pneuma as a subtle material entity (the corpus 
glorificationis). This idea is expressed in the concrete participa 
tion in the body and blood of Christ in the Communion. 

32 This unity is a good example of participation mystique, which LeVy-Bruhl 
stressed as being one of the main characteristics of primitive psychology a view 
that has recently been contested by ethnologists in a very short-sighted manner. 
The idea of unity should not, however, be regarded as "primitive" but rather 
as showing that participation mystique is a characteristic of symbols in general. 
The symbol always includes the unconscious, hence man too is contained in it. 
The numinosity of the symbol is an expression of this fact. 33 Kramp, p. 55. 



s PARALLELS TO THE TRANSFORMATION 
MYSTERY 



I. THE AZTEC "TEOQUALO 

339 Although the Mass itself is a unique phenomenon in the his 
tory of comparative religion, its symbolic content would be 
profoundly alien to man were it not rooted in the human psyche. 
But if it is so rooted, then we may expect to find similar patterns 
of symbolism both in the earlier history of mankind and in the 
world of pagan thought contemporary with it. As the prayer 
Supra quae shows, the liturgy of the Mass contains allusions to 
the "prefigurations" in the Old Testament, and thus indirectly 
to ancient sacrificial symbolism in general. It is clear, then, that 
in Christ's sacrifice and the Communion one of the deepest 
chords in the human psyche is struck: human sacrifice and ritual 
anthropophagy. Unfortunately I cannot enter into the wealth 
of ethnological material in question here, so must content my 
self with mentioning the ritual slaying of the king to promote 
the fertility of the land and the prosperity of his people, the 
renewal and revivification of the gods through human sacrifice, 
and the totem meal, the purpose of which was to reunite the 
participants with the life of their ancestors. These hints will 
suffice to show how the symbols of the Mass penetrate into the 
deepest layers of the psyche and its history. They are evidently 



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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



among the most ancient and most central of religious concep 
tions. Now with regard to these conceptions there is still a wide 
spread prejudice, not only among laymen, but in scientific 
circles too, that beliefs and customs of this kind must have been 
"invented" at some time or other, and were then handed down 
and imitated, so that they would not exist at all in most places 
unless they had got there in the manner suggested. It is, how 
ever, always precarious to draw conclusions from our modern, 
"civilized" mentality about the primitive state of mind. Primi 
tive consciousness differs from that of the present-day white man 
in several very important respects. Thus, in primitive societies, 
"inventing" is very different from what it is with us, where one 
novelty follows another. With primitives, life goes on in the 
same way for generations; nothing alters, except perhaps the 
language. But that does not mean that a new one is "invented." 
Their language is "alive" and can therefore change, a fact that 
has been an unpleasant discovery for many lexicographers of 
primitive languages. Similarly, no one "invents" the picturesque 
slang spoken in America; it just springs up in inexhaustible 
abundance from the fertile soil of colloquial speech. Religious 
rites and their stock of symbols must have developed in much 
the same way from beginnings now lost to us, and not just in one 
place only, but in many places at once, and also at different 
periods. They have grown spontaneously out of the basic condi 
tions of human nature, which are never invented but are every 
where the same. 

34 So it is not surprising that we find religious rites which come 
very close to Christian practices in a field untouched by classical 
culture. I mean the rites of the Aztecs, and in particular that of 
the teoqualo, 'god-eating,' as recorded by Fray Bernardino de 
Sahagiin, who began his missionary work among the Aztecs in 
1529, eight years after the conquest of Mexico. In this rite, a 
doughlike paste was made out of the crushed and pounded seeds 
of the prickly poppy (Argemone mexicana) and moulded into 
the figure of the god Huitzilopochtli: 

And upon the next day the body of Huitzilopochtli died. 

And he who slew him was the priest known as Quetzalcoatl. And 
that with which he slew him was a dart, pointed with flint, which 
he shot into his heart. 

He died in the presence of Moctezuma and of the keeper of the 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



god, who verily spoke to Huitzilopochtli who verily appeared 
before him, who indeed could make him offerings; and of four 
masters of the youths, front rank leaders. Before all of them died 
Huitzilopochtli. 

And when he had died, thereupon they broke up his body of ... 
dough. His heart was apportioned to Moctezuma. 

And as for the rest of his members, which were made, as it were, 
to be his bones, they were distributed and divided up among all. 
. . . Each year . . . they ate it. ... And when they divided up 
among themselves his body made of ... dough, it was broken up 
exceeding small, very fine, as small as seeds. The youths ate it. 

And of this which they ate, it was said: "The god is eaten." And 
of those who ate it, it was said: "They guard the god." 1 

34* The idea of a divine body, its sacrifice in the presence of the 
high priest to whom the god appears and with whom he speaks, 
the piercing with the spear, the god's death followed by ritual 
dismemberment, and the eating (communio) of a small piece 
of his body, are all parallels which cannot be overlooked and 
which caused much consternation among the worthy Spanish 
Fathers at the time. 

342 In Mithraism, a religion that sprang up not long before 
Christianity, we find a special set of sacrificial symbols and, it 
would seem, a corresponding ritual which unfortunately is 
known to us only from dumb monuments. There is a transitus, 
with Mithras carrying the bull; a bull-sacrifice for seasonal fer 
tility; a stereotyped representation of the sacrificial act, flanked 
on either side by dadophors carrying raised and lowered torches; 
and a meal at which pieces o bread marked with crosses were 
laid on the table. Even small bells have been found, and these 
probably have some connection with the bell which is sounded 
at Mass. The Mithraic sacrifice is essentially a self-sacrifice, since 
the bull is a world bull and was originally identical with Mithras 
himself. This may account for the singularly agonized expres 
sion on the face of the tauroktonos? which bears comparison 
with Guido Rent's Crucifixion, The Mithraic transitus is a 
motif that corresponds to Christ carrying the cross, just as the 

1 Bernardino de Sahagun, General History of the Things of New Spain, Book 3: 
The Origin of the Gods, trans, by Anderson and Dibble, pp. 5!. (slightly modified). 

2 Cumont, Textes et monuments, I, p. 182. [And cf. Jung, Symbols of Transforma 
tion, p. 428 and frontispiece. EDITORS.] 

224 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



transformation of the beast of sacrifice corresponds to the resur 
rection of the Christian God in the form of food and drink. 
The representations of the sacrificial act, the tauroctony (bull- 
slaying), recall the crucifixion between two thieves, one of whom 
is raised up to paradise while the other goes down to hell. 
343 These few references to the Mithras cult are but one example 
of the wealth of parallels offered by the legends and rites of the 
various Near Eastern gods who die young, are mourned, and 
rise again. For anyone who knows these religions at all, there 
can be no doubt as to the basic affinity of the symbolic types and 
ideas. 3 At the time of primitive Christianity and in the early 
days of the Church, the pagan world was saturated with con 
ceptions of this kind and with philosophical speculations based 
upon them, and it was against this background that the thought 
and visionary ideas of the Gnostic philosophers were unfolded. 



II. THE VISION OF ZOSIMOS 

344 A characteristic representative of this school of thought was 
Zosimos of Panopolis, a natural philosopher and alchemist of 
the third century A.D., whose works have been preserved, though 
in corrupt state, in the famous alchemical Codex Marcianus, 
and were published in 1887 by Berthelot in his Collection des 
anciens alchimistes grecs. In various portions of his treatises 4 
Zosimos relates a number of dream-visions, all of which appear 
to go back to one and the same dream. 5 He was clearly a non- 
Christian Gnostic, and in particular so one gathers from the 
famous passage about the krater 6 an adherent of the Poiman- 
dres sect, and therefore a follower* of Hermes. Although al 
chemical literature abounds in parables, I would hesitate to 
class these dream-visions among them. Anyone acquainted with 
the language of the alchemists will recognize that their parables 
are mere allegories of ideas that were common knowledge. In 
the allegorical figures and actions, one can usually see at once 

3 Cf . Frazer's The Golden Bough, Part III: "The Dying God." For the Eucharistic 
meal of fish, see Aion, pars. 1743., 18 iff. 

4 Alchimistes, III, i, 2, 3; III, v; III, vi. 

5 Cf. my paper "The Visions of Zosimos/' par. 86, which quotes the relevant 
passages. 6 Alchimistes, III, li, 8. Cf. supra, par. 313. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION \ WEST 



what substances and what procedures are being referred to 
under a deliberately theatrical disguise. There is nothing of this 
kind in the Zosirnos visions. Indeed, it comes almost as a sur 
prise to find the alchemical interpretation, namely that the 
dream and its impressive machinery are simply an illustration 
of the means for producing the "divine water." Moreover, a 
parable is a self-contained whole, whereas our vision varies and 
amplifies a single theme as a dream does. So far as one can 
assess the nature of these visions at all, I should say that even 
in the original text the contents of an imaginative meditation 
have grouped themselves round the kernel of an actual dream 
and been woven into it. That there really was such a meditation 
is evident from the fragments of it that accompany the visions 
in the form of a commentary. As we know, meditations of this 
kind are often vividly pictorial, as if the dream were being 
continued on a level nearer to consciousness. In his Lexicon 
alchemiae, Martin Ruland, writing in Frankfort in 1612, defines 
the meditation that plays such an important part in alchemy 
as an "internal colloquy with someone else, who is nevertheless 
not seen, it may be with God, with oneself, or with one's good 
angel." The latter is a milder and less obnoxious form of the 
paredros, the familiar spirit of ancient alchemy, who was gen 
erally a planetary demon conjured up by magic. It can hardly 
be doubted that real visionary experiences originally lay at the 
root of these practices, and a vision is in the last resort nothing 
less than a dream which has broken through into the waking 
state. We know from numerous witnesses all through the ages 
that the alchemist, in the course of his imaginative work, was 
beset by visions of all kinds/ and was sometimes even threatened 
with madness. 8 So the visions of Zosimos are not something un 
usual or unknown in alchemical experience, though they are 
perhaps the most important self-revelations ever bequeathed to 
us by an alchemist, 

345 I cannot reproduce here the text of the visions in full, but 
will give as an example the first vision, in Zosimos' own words: 

And while I said this I fell asleep, and I saw a sacrificial priest stand 
ing before me, high up on an altar, which was in the shape of a 

7Cf. the examples given in Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 347!:. 
8 Olympiodorus says this is particularly the effect of lead. Cf. Berthelot, II, iv, 43. 

226 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 

shallow bowl. There were fifteen steps leading up to the altar. An 
the priest stood there, and I heard a voice from above say to me 
"Behold, I have completed the descent down the fifteen steps c 
darkness and I have completed the ascent up the steps of light. An 
he who renews me is the priest, casting away the grossness of th 
body, and by compelling necessity I am sanctified and now stand i 
perfection as a spirit \pneuma\:' And I perceived the voice of hii 
who stood upon the altar, and I inquired of him who he was. And t 
answered me in a fine voice, saying: "I am Ion, priest of the inne 
most hidden sanctuary, and I submit myself to an unendurab! 
torment. For there came one in haste at early morning, who ove 
powered me and pierced me through with the sword and cut me i 
pieces, yet in such a way that the order of my limbs was preserve* 
And he drew off the scalp of my head with the sword, which I 
wielded with strength, and he put the bones and the pieces of fles 
together and with his own hand burned them in the fire, until 
perceived that I was transformed and had become spirit. And th: 
is my unendurable torment." And even as he spoke this, and I he! 
him by force to converse with me, his eyes became as blood. And I 
spewed out all his own flesh. And I saw how he changed into 
manikin [MpuTraptov, i.e., an homunculus] who had lost a part of hin 
self. And he tore his flesh with his own teeth, and sank into himsel 

346 In the course of the visions the Hiereus (priest) appears i 
various forms. At first he is split into the figures of the Hierei 
and the Hierourgon (sacrificer), who is charged with the pe: 
formance of the sacrifice. But these figures blend into one in s 
far as both suffer the same fate. The sacrificial priest submii 
voluntarily to the torture by which he is transformed. But h 
is also the sacrificer who is sacrificed, since he is pierced throug 
with the sword and ritually dismembered. 9 The deipnon coi 
sists in his tearing himself to pieces with his own teeth and ea 
ing himself; the thysia, in his flesh being sacrificially burned o 
the altar. 

347 He is the Hiereus in so far as he rules over the sacrificial rii 
as a whole, and over the human beings who are transforme 
during the thysia. He calls himself a guardian of spirits. He 
also known as the "Brazen Man" and as Xyrourgos, the barbe 

9 The dismemberment motif belongs in the wider context of rebirth symbolist 
Consequently it plays an important part in the initiation experiences of shamai 
and medicine men, who are dismembered and then put together again. For d 
tails, see Eliade, Shamanism, ch. II. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



The brazen or leaden man is an allusion to the spirits of the 
metals, or planetary demons, as protagonists of the sacrificial 
drama. In all probability they are paredroi who were conjured 
up by magic, as may be deduced from Zosimos' remark that he 
"held him by force" to converse with him. The planetary 
demons are none other than the old gods of Olympus who finally 
expired only in the eighteenth century, as the "souls of the 
metals" or rather, assumed a new shape, since it was in this 
same century that paganism openly arose for the first time (in 
the French Revolution). 

348 Somewhat more curious is the term 'barber,' which we find 
in other parts of the visions, 10 for there is no mention of cutting 
the hair or shaving. There is, however, a scalping, which in our 
context is closely connected with the ancient rites of flaying and 
their magical significance, 11 I need hardly mention the flaying 
of Marsyas, who is an unmistakable parallel to the son-lover of 
Cybele, namely Attis, the dying god who rises again. In one of 
the old Attic fertility rites an ox was flayed, stuffed, and set up 
on its feet. Herodotus (IV, 60) reports a number of flaying cere 
monies among the Scythians, and especially scalpings. In gen 
eral, flaying signifies transformation from a worse state to a 
better, and hence renewal and rebirth. The best examples are 
to be found in the religion of ancient Mexico. 12 Thus, in order 
to renew the moon-goddess a young woman was decapitated and 
skinned, and a youth then put the skin round him to represent 
the risen goddess. The prototype of this renewal is the snake 
casting its skin every year, a phenomenon round which primi 
tive fantasy has always played. In our vision the skinning is 
restricted to the head, and this can probably be explained by 
the underlying idea of spiritual transformation. Since olden 
times shaving the head has been associated with consecration, 

10 [Cf. Berthelot, HI, i, 3 and v, 1-2; and "The Visions of Zosimos," par. 86. 
EDITORS.] 

11 Cf. Frazer's The Golden Bough, Part IV: Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 2422. and 
p. 405, and my Symbols of Transformation, pars. 594! Cf. also Colin Campbell, 
The Miraculous Birth of King Amon-Hotep III, p. 142, concerning the presenta 
tion of the dead man, Sen-nezem, before Osiris, Lord of Amentet: "In this scene 
the god is usually represented enthroned. Before and behind him, hanging from 
a pole, is the dripping skin of a slain bull that was slaughtered to yield up the 
soul of Osiris at his reconstruction, with the vase underneath to catch the blood." 

12 Cf. Eduard Seler's account in Hastings, Encyclopedia, VIII, pp. 6i5f. 

228 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



that is, with spiritual transformation or initiation. The priests 
of Isis had their heads shaved quite bald, and the tonsure, as we 
know, is still in use at the present day. This "symptom" o trans 
formation goes back to the old idea that the transformed one 
becomes like a new-born babe (neophyte, quasimodogenitus) 
with a hairless head. In the myth of the night sea journey, the 
hero loses all his hair during his incubation in the belly of the 
monster, because of the terrific heat. 13 The custom of tonsure, 
which is derived from these primitive ideas, naturally presup 
poses the presence of a ritual barber. 14 Curiously enough, we 
come across the barber in that old alchemical "mystery," the 
Chymical Wedding of i6i6. 15 There the hero, on entering the 
mysterious castle, is pounced on by invisible barbers, who give 
him something very like a tonsure. 16 Here again the initiation 
and transformation process is accompanied by a shaving. 17 

349 In one variant of these visions there is a dragon who is killed 
and sacrificed in the same manner as the priest and therefore 
seems to be identical with him. This makes one think of those 
far from uncommon medieval pictures, not necessarily alchem 
ical, in which a serpent is shown hanging on the Cross in place 
of Christ. (Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 217. Note the compari 
son of Christ with the serpent of Moses in John 3: 14.) 

35 A notable aspect of the priest is the leaden homunculus, and 
this is none other than the leaden spirit or planetary demon 
Saturn. In Zosimos' day Saturn was regarded as a Hebrew god, 

13 [Symbols of Transformation, pars. 309!.; Psychology and Alchemy, par. 490.] 

14 Barbers were comparatively well-to-do people in ancient Egypt, and evidently 
did a flourishing trade. Cf. Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 304: "Barbers, all 
of whom must . . . have lived in easy circumstances." 

is The real author of the Chymische Hochzeit was Johann Valentin Andreae. [It 
appeared under the pseudonym "Christian Rosencreutz," dated 1459, but actually 
published at Strasbourg, 1616. Concerning Andreae, cf. "The Psychology of the 
Transference," par. 407 and n. 18. EDITORS.] 

i As Andreae must have been a learned alchemist, he might very well have got 
hold of a copy of the Codex Marcianus and seen the writings of Zosimos. Manu 
script copies exist in Gotha, Leipzig, Munich, and Weimar. I know of only one 
printed edition, published in Italy in the i6th cent., which is very rare. 
17 Hence the "shaving of a man" and the "plucking of a fowl/' mentioned further 
on among the magical sacrificial recipes. A similar motif is suggested by the 
"changing of wigs" at the Egyptian judgment of the dead. Cf. the picture in the 
tomb of Sennezem (Campbell, p. 143). When the dead man is led before Osiris his 
wig is black; afterwards (at the sacrifice in the Papyrus of Ani) it is white. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



presumably on account of the keeping holy of the Sabbath- 
Saturday means 'Saturn's Day* 18 and also on account of the 
Gnostic parallel with the supreme archon laldabaoth ('child of 
chaos') who, as XWPTOCI^S, may be grouped together with Baal, 
Kronos, and Saturn. 19 The later Arabic designation of Zosimos 
as al-'Ibri (the Hebrew) does not of course prove that he himself 
was a Jew, but it is clear from his writings that he was ac 
quainted with Jewish traditions. 20 The parallel between the 
Hebrew god and Saturn is of considerable importance as regards 
the alchemical idea of the transformation of the God of the 
Old Testament into the God of the New. The alchemists natu 
rally attached great significance to Saturn, 21 for, besides being 
the outermost planet, the supreme archon (the Harranites 
named him "Primas"), and the demiurge laldabaoth, he was also 
the spiritus niger who lies captive in the darkness of matter, the 
deity or that part of the deity which has been swallowed up in 
his own creation. He is the dark god who reverts to his original 
luminous state in the mystery of alchemical transmutation. As 
the Aurora Consurgens says: "Blessed is he that shall find this 
science and into whom this prudence of Saturn floweth." 22 
35 1 The later alchemists were familiar not only with the ritual 
slaying of a dragon but also with the slaying of a lion, which 
took the form of his having all four paws cut off. Like the 
dragon, the lion devours himself, and so is probably only a 
variant. 23 

is Plutarch, Quaestioncs convivales, IV, 5, and Diogenes Laertius, II, 112; 
Reitzenstein, Poimandres, pp. 75*. and 112. In a text named "Ghaya al-haklm," 
ascribed to Maslama al-Madjritl, the following instructions are given when in 
voking Saturn: "Arrive vtu k la maniere des Juifs, car il est leur patron." Dozy 
and de Goeje, "Nouveaux documents pour l'tude de la religion des Harraniens," 
P- 35. 

isOrigen, Contra Celsum, VI, 31. Mead, Pistis Sophia, ch. 45. Bousset, Haupt- 
problcme der Gnosis, pp. 3515. Roscher, Lexikon, s.v. Kronos, n, col. 1496. The 
dragon (xptoos) and Kronos are often confused. 

20 Lippmann, Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemic, EL, p. 229. 

21 Cf. Aion, pars. is8f. 

22 "Beatus homo qui invenerit hanc scientiam et cui affluit providentia Saturni." 
[Ed. von Franz, pp. 37!".] 

23 See the illustration in Reusner, Pandora (1588), and in Le Songe de Poliphile, 
trans. Beroalde de Verville (1600). [Psych, and Alch., fig. 4.] Mostly the pictures 
show two lions eating one another. The uroboros, too, is often pictured in the 
form of two dragons engaged in the same process (Viridarium chymicum, 1624). 

230 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



352 The vision itself indicates that the main purpose of the trans 
formation process is the spiritualization of the sacrificing priest: 
he is to be changed into pneuma. We are also told that he would 
"change the bodies into blood, make the eyes to see and the dead 
to rise again." Later in the visions he appears in glorified form, 
shining white like the midday sun. 

353 Throughout the visions it is clear that sacrificer and sacri 
ficed are one and the same. This idea of the unity of the prima 
and ultima materia, of that which redeems and that which is to 
be redeemed, pervades the whole of alchemy from beginning 
to end. "Unus est lapis, una medicina, unum vas, unum regimen, 
unaque dispositio" is the key formula to its enigmatic lan 
guage. 24 Greek alchemy expresses the same idea in the formula 
lv TO irav. Its symbol is the uroboros, the tail-eating serpent. In 
our vision it is the priest as sacrificer who devours himself as the 
sacrifice. This recalls the saying of St. John Chrysostom that in 
the Eucharist Christ drinks his own blood. By the same token, 
one might add, he eats his own flesh. The grisly repast in the 
dream of Zosimos reminds us of the orgiastic meals in the Dion 
ysus cult, when sacrificial animals were torn to pieces and eaten. 
They represent Dionysus Zagreus being torn to pieces by the 
Titans, from whose mangled remains the v to$ AuSjwos arises. 25 

354 Zosimos tells us that the vision represents or explains the 
"production of the waters." 26 The visions themselves only show 
the transformation into pneuma. In the language of the alche 
mists, however, spirit and water are synonymous, 27 as they are 

24 cf, the Rosarium philosophorum, in the Artis auriferae (1593), II, p. 206. 

25 Cf. the Cretan fragment of Euripides (Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, p. 105): 

$k>* Tebwv t o5 
*l$atov 



rovs dyto^&yous dalra'S 
(living a holy life, since I have been initiated into the mysteries of the Idaean 
Zeus, and eaten raw the flesh of Zagreus, the night-wandering shepherd). 

26 [Cf. "The Visions of Zosimos," par. 86, III, i, 3, andfor the reference lower 
down to "blood" III, v bis.] 

27 "Est et coelestis aqua sive potius divina Chyraistarum . . . pneuma, ex aetheris 
natura et essentia rerum quinta" (There is also the celestial, or rather the divine, 
water of the alchemists ... the pneuma, having the nature of the pneuma and 
the quintessence of things). Hermolaus Barbarus, Coroll. in Dioscoridem, cited 
in M. Maier, Symbola aureae mensae (1617), p. 174. 

"Spiritus autem in hac arte nihil aliud quam aquam indicari . . ." (In this art, 

231 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



in the language of the early Christians, for whom water meant 
the spiritus veritatis. In the "Book of Krates" we read: "You 
make the bodies to liquefy, so that they mingle and become an 
homogeneous liquid; this is then named the 'divine water/ " 28 
The passage corresponds to the Zosimos text, which says that the 
priest would "change the bodies into blood." For the alchemists, 
water and blood are identical. This transformation is the same 
as the solutio or liquefactio, which is a synonym for the subli- 
matio, for "water" is also "fire": "Item ignis . . . est aqua et 
ignis noster est ignis et non ignis" (For fire ... is water and 
our fire is the fire that is no fire). "Aqua nostra" is said to be 
"ignea" (fiery). 29 

355 The "secret fire of our philosophy" is said to be "our mystical 
water," and the "permanent water" is the "fiery form of the true 
water." 30 The permanent water (the uScop Selov of the Greeks) 
also signifies "spiritualis sanguis," 31 and is identified with the 
blood and water that flowed from Christ's side. Heinrich Khun- 
rath says of this water: "So there will open for thee an healing 
flood which issues from the heart of the son of the great world." 
It is a water "which the son of the great world pours forth from 
his body and heart, to be for us a true and natural Aqua 
vitae." 32 Just as a spiritual water of grace and truth flows from 
Christ's sacrifice, so the "divine water" is produced by a sacri 
ficial act in the Zosimos vision. It is mentioned in the ancient 

spirit means nothing else but water). Theobaldus de Hoghelande, in the 
Theatrum chemicum, I (1602), p. 196. Water is a "spiritus extractus," or a 
"spiritus qui in ventre (corporis) occultus est et fiet aqua et corpus absque spiritu: 
qui est spiritualis naturae" (spirit which is hidden in the belly [of the substance], 
and water will be produced and a substance without spirit, which is of a spiritual 
nature).}. D. Mylius, Philosophia reformata (1622), p. 150. This quotation shows 
how closely spirit and water were associated in the mind of the alchemist 

"Sed aqua coelestis gloriosa sciL aes nostrum ac argentum nostrum, sericum 
nostrum, totaque oratio nostra, quod est unum et idem scil. sapientia, quam Deus 
obtulit, quibus voluit" (But the glorious celestial water, namely our copper and 
our silver, our silk, and every thing we t?ifc about, is one and the same thing, 
namely the Wisdom, which God has given to whomsoever he wished). "Con- 
silium coniugii," in the Ars chemica (1566), p. 120. 

28 Berthelot, La Chimie au moyen age, HI, p. 53. 

29 Mylius, pp. 121 and 123. For the blood-water-fire equation see George Ripley, 
Opera omnia chemica (1649), pp. 162, 197, 295, 427. 

30 Ripley, Opera, p. 62; Rosarium, p. 264. 31 Mylius, p. 42. 
32 Knunrath, V n hyleaKschen . . . Chaos (1597), PP- S 74 f - 

232 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



treatise entitled "Isis to Horus," 33 where the angel Amnael 
brings it to the prophetess in a drinking vessel. As Zosimos was 
probably an adherent of the Poimandres sect, another thing to 
be considered here is the krater which God filled with nous for 
all those seeking ewoia. 34 But nous is identical with the alchem 
ical Mercurius. This is quite clear from the Ostanes quotation 
in Zosimos, which says: "Go to the streams of the Nile and there 
thou wilt find a stone which hath a spirit. Take and divide it, 
thrust in thy hand and draw out its heart, for its soul is in its 
heart." Commenting on this, Zosimos remarks that "having a 
spirit" is a metaphorical expression for the exhydrargyrosis, the 
expulsion of the quicksilver. 35 

356 During the first centuries after Christ the words nous and 
pneuma were used indiscriminately, and the one could easily 
stand for the other. Moreover the relation of Mercurius to 
"spirit" is an extremely ancient astrological fact. Like Hermes, 
Mercurius (or the planetary spirit Mercury) was a god of revela 
tion, who discloses the secret of the art to the adepts. The Liber 
quartorum, which being of Harranite origin cannot be dated 
later than the tenth century, says of Mercurius: "Ipse enim 
aperit clausiones operum cum ingenio et intellectu suo" (For 
he opens with his genius and understanding the locked [insolu 
ble] problems of the work). 36 He is also the "soul of the bodies," 
the "anima vitalis," 3T and Ruland defines him as "spirit which 
has become earth." 3S He is a spirit that penetrates into the 
depths of the material world and transforms it. Like the nous, 
he is symbolized by the serpent. In Michael Maier he points the 
way to the earthly paradise. 39 Besides being identified with 
Hermes Trismegistus, 40 he is also called the "mediator" 41 and, 



33 Berthelot, Alchimistes, I, xiii. [Cf. "The Visions of Zosimos," pars, 

34 Ibid., Ill, li, 8, and Hermetica, ed. Scott, I, p. 151. 

35 Berthelot, Alchimistes, III, vi, 5. 

36 Of the later authors I will mention only Johannes Christophorus Steeb, Coelum 
sephiroticum (1679, p. 138): "Omnis intellectus acuminis auctor ... a coelesti 
mercurio omnem ingeniorum vim provenire" (The author of all deeper under 
standing ... all the power of genius comes from the celestial Mercurius). For 
the astrological connection see Bouch-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque, pp. 312, 
321-23. 37 "Aurora consurgens." In Mylius (p. 533) he is a giver of life. 

38 Lexicon. 39 Symbola, p. 592. 40 Ibid., p. 600. 

41 Ripley, Opera, Foreword, and in Khunrath's Chaos. In Plutarch, Mercurius 

acts as a kind of world soul. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



as the Original Man, the "Hermaphroditic Adam." 42 From 
numerous passages it is clear that Mercurius is as much a fire as 
a water, both of which aptly characterize the nature of spirit. 43 
357 Killing with the sword is a recurrent theme in alchemical 
literature. The "philosophical egg" is divided with the sword, 
and with it the "King" is transfixed and the dragon or "corpus" 
dismembered, the latter being represented as the body of a man 
whose head and limbs are cut off. 44 The lion's paws are likewise 
cut off with the sword. For the alchemical sword brings about 
the solutio or separatio of the elements, thereby restoring the 
original condition of chaos, so that a new and more perfect body 
can be produced by a new impressio formae, or by a "new 
imagination/* The sword is therefore that which "kills and 
vivifies," and the same is said of the permanent water or mercu 
rial water. Mercurius is the giver of life as well as the destroyer 
of the old form. In ecclesiastical symbolism the sword which 
comes out of the mouth of the Son of Man in the Book of Reve 
lation is, according to Hebrews 4: 12, the Logos, the Word of 
God, and hence Christ himself. This analogy did not escape the 
notice of the alchemists, who were always struggling to give ex 
pression to their fantasies. Mercurius was their mediator and 
saviour, their filius macrocosmi (contrasted with Christ the filius 
microcosm?) , 45 the solver and separator. So he too is a sword, for 
he is a "penetrating spirit" ("more piercing than a two-edged 
sword"!). Gerhard Dorn, an alchemist of the sixteenth century, 
says that in our world the sword was changed into Christ our 
Saviour. He comments as follows: 

After a long interval of time the Deus Optimus Maximus immersed 
himself in the innermost of his secrets, and he decided, out of the 
compassion of his love as well as for the demands of justice, to take 
the sword of wrath from the hand of the angel. And having hung the 
sword on the tree, he substituted for it a golden trident, and thus 
was the wrath of God changed into love. . . . When peace and 

42 Gerhard Born, "Congeries Paracelskae chemicae," in the Thcatrum chemicum, 
I, p. 589. 

43 Cf . "The Spirit Mercurius/' pars. 255, 2565. 

44 Illustration in "Splendor soils," Aureum vellus (1598). 

45 Cf. Knunrath, Chaos, and Amphithcatrum sapientiae acternae (1604). 

234 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



justice were united, the water of Grace flowed more abundantly 
from above, and now it bathes the whole world. 46 

46 Dorn, "Speculativae philosophiae," in the Theatrum chemicum, I, pp. 284^ 
The whole passage runs as follows: 

"Post primam hominis inobedientiam, Dominus viam hanc amplissimam in 
callem strictissimam difficilimamque (ut videtis) restrinxit, in cuius ostio collocavit 
Cherubim angelum, ancipitem gladium manu tenentem, quo quidem arceret 
omnes ab introitu felicis patriae: hinc deflectentes Adae filii propter peccatum 
primi sui parentis, in sinistram latam sibimet viam construxerunt, quam evitastis. 
Longo postea temporis intervallo D. O. M. secreta secretorum suorum introivit, 
in quibus amore miserente, accusanteque iustitia, conclusit angelo gladium irae 
suae de manibus eripere, cuius loco tridentem hamum substituit aureum, gladio 
ad arborem suspenso: & sic mutata est ira Dei in amorem, servata iustitia: quod 
antequam fieret, fluvius iste non erat, ut iam, in se collectus, sed ante lapsum per 
totum orbem terrarum roris instar expansus aequaliten post vero rediit unde 
processerat tandem, ut pax & iustitia sunt osculatae se, descendit affluentius ab 
alto manans aqua gratiae, totum nunc mundum alluens. In sinistram partem qui 
deflectunt, partim suspensum in arbore gladium videntes, eiusque noscentes 
historiam, quia mundo nimium sunt insiti, praetereunt: nonnulli videntes eius 
efficaciam perquirere negligunt, alii nee vident, nee vidisse voluissent: hi recta 
peregrinationem suam ad vallem dirigunt omnes, nisi per hamos resipiscentiae, 
vel poenitentiae nonnulli retrahantur ad montem Sion. Nostro iam saeculo (quod 
gratiae est) mutatus est gladius in Christum salvatorem nostrum qui crucis 
arborem pro peccatis nostris ascendit." 

(After man's first disobedience the Lord straitened this wide road Into a very 
narrow and difficult path, as you see. At its entrance he placed an angel of the 
Cherubim, holding in his hand a double-edged sword with which he was to keep 
all from entering into Paradise. Turning from thence on account of the sin of 
their first parents, the sons of Adam built for themselves a broad left-hand path: 
this you have shunned. After a long interval of time the Deus Optimus Maximus 
immersed himself in the innermost of his secrets, and he decided, out of the com 
passion of his love as well as for the demands of justice, to take the sword of 
wrath from the hand of the angel. And having hung the sword on the tree, he 
substituted for it a golden trident, and thus was the wrath of God changed into 
love, and justice remained unimpaired. Previous to this, however, the river was 
not collected into one as it is now, but before the Fall it was spread equally over 
the whole world, like dew. But later it returned to the place of its origin. When 
peace and justice were united, the water of Grace flowed more abundantly from 
above, and now it bathes the whole world. Some of those who take the left-hand 
path, on seeing the sword suspended from the tree, and knowing its history, pass 
it by, because they are too entangled in the affairs of this world; some, on seeing 
it, do not choose to inquire into its efficacy; others never see it and would not 
wish to see it. All these continue their pilgrimage into the valley, except for those 
who are drawn back to Mount Zion by the hook of repentance. Now in our age, 
which is an age of grace, the sword has become Christ our Saviour, who ascended 
the tree of the Cross for our sins.) Cf. "The Philosophical Tree," pars. 447ff. 

235 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



S5 8 This passage, which might well have occurred in an author 
like Rabanus Maurus or Honorius of Autun without doing 
them discredit, actually occurs in a context which throws light 
on certain esoteric alchemical doctrines, namely in a colloquy 
between Animus, Anima, and Corpus. There we are told that 
it is Sophia, the Sapientia, Scientia, or Philosophia of the alche 
mists, "de cuius fonte scaturiunt aquae" (from whose fount the 
waters gush forth). This Wisdom is the nous that lies hidden 
and bound in matter, the "serpens mercurialis" or "humidum 
radicale" that manifests itself in the "viventis aquae fluvius de 
mentis apice" (stream of living water from the summit of the 
mountain). 47 That is the water of grace, the "permanent" and 
"divine" water which "now bathes the whole world." The ap 
parent transformation of the God of the Old Testament into the 
God of the New is in reality the transformation of the deus 
absconditus (i.e., the natura abscondita) into the medicina 
catholica of alchemical wisdom. 48 

359 The divisive and separative function of the sword, which is 
of such importance in alchemy, is prefigured in the flaming 
sword of the angel that separated our first parents from paradise. 
Separation by a sword is a theme that can also be found in the 
Gnosis of the Ophites: the earthly cosmos is surrounded by a 
ring of fire which at the same time encloses paradise. But para 
dise and the ring of fire are separated by the "flaming sword." 49 
An important interpretation of this flaming sword is given in 
Simon Magus: 50 there is an incorruptible essence potentially 
present in every human being, the divine pneuma "which is 
stationed above and below in the stream of water." Simon says 
of this pneuma: "I and thou, thou before me. I, who am after 
thee." It is a force "that generates itself, that causes itself to 
grow; it is its own mother, sister, bride, daughter; its own son, 
mother, father; a unity, a root of the whole." It is the very 

47 Another remark of Dorn's points in the same direction: "The sword was 
suspended from a tree over the bank of the river" (p. 288). 

48 A few pages later Dorn himself remarks: "Scitote, fratres, omnia quae superius 
dicta sunt et dicentur in posterum, intelligi posse de praeparationibus alchemicis" 
(Know, brothers, that everything which has been said above and everything 
which will be said in what follows can also be understood of the alchemical 
preparations). 

43 Leisegang, Die Gnosis, pp. 17 if. 

50 The passage which follows occurs in Hippolytus, Elenchos, vi, pp. 4f. 

236 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



ground of existence, the procreative urge, which is of fiery 
origin. Fire is related to blood, which "is fashioned warm and 
ruddy like fire." Blood turns into semen in men, and in women 
into milk. This "turning" is interpreted as "the flaming sword 
which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." 51 
The operative principle in semen and milk turns into mother 
and father. The tree of life is guarded by the turning (i.e., trans 
forming) sword, and this is the "seventh power" which begets 
itself. "For if the flaming sword turned not, then would that fair 
Tree be destroyed, and perish utterly; but if it turneth into 
semen and milk, and there be added the Logos and the place of 
the Lord where the Logos is begotten, he who dwelleth po 
tentially in the semen and milk shall grow to full stature from 
the littlest spark, and shall increase and become a power bound 
less and immutable, like to an unchanging Aeon, which suffer- 
eth no more change until measureless eternity." 52 It is clear 
from these remarkable statements of Hippolytus concerning 
the teachings of Simon Magus that the sword is very much more 
than an instrument which divides; it is itself the force which 
"turns" from something infinitesimally small into the infinitely 
great: from water, fire, and blood it becomes the limitless aeon. 
What it means is the transformation of the vital spirit in man 
into the Divine. The natural being becomes the divine pneuma, 
as in the vision of Zosimos. Simon's description of the creative 
pneuma, the true arcane substance, corresponds in every detail 
to the uroboros or serpens mercurialis of the Latinists. It too is 
its own father, mother, son, daughter, brother, and sister from 
the earliest beginnings of alchemy right down to the end. 53 It 
begets and sacrifices itself and is its own instrument of sacrifice, 
for it is a symbol of the deadly and life-giving water. 54 
3 60 Simon's ideas also throw a significant light on the above- 
quoted passage from Dorn, where the sword of wrath is trans 
formed into Christ. Were it not that the philosophoumena of 
Hippolytus were first discovered in the nineteenth century, on 
Mount Athos, one might almost suppose that Dorn had made 
use of them. There are numerous other symbols in alchemy 
whose origin is so doubtful that one does not know whether to 

51 Genesis 3 : 24. 52 Leisegang, p. 80. 

53 That is why it is called "Hermaphrodites." 

54 One of its symbols is the scorpion, which stings itself to death. 

237 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



attribute them to tradition, or to a study of the heresiologists, 
or to spontaneous revival. 55 

361 The sword as the "proper" instrument of sacrifice occurs 
again in the old treatise entitled "Consilium coniugii de massa 
solis et lunae." This says: "Both must be killed with their own 
sword" ("both" referring to Sol and Luna). 56 In the still older 
"Tractatus Micreris," 57 dating perhaps from the twelfth cen 
tury, we find the "fiery sword" in a quotation from Ostanes: 
"The great Astanus [Ostanes] said: Take an egg, pierce it with 
the fiery sword, and separate its soul from its body." 58 Here 
the sword is something that divides body and soul, correspond 
ing to the division between heaven and earth, the ring of fire 
and paradise, or paradise and the first parents. In an equally old 
treatise, the "Allegoriae sapientum . . . supra librum Turbae," 
there is even mention of a sacrificial rite: "Take a fowl [volatile], 
cut off its head with the fiery sword, then pluck out its feathers, 
separate the limbs, and cook over a charcoal fire till it becomes 
of one colour." 59 Here we have a decapitation with the fiery 
sword, then a "clipping," or more accurately a "plucking," and 
finally a "cooking." The cock, which is probably what is meant 
here, is simply called "volatile," a fowl or winged creature, and 
this is a common term for spirit, but a spirit still nature-bound 
and imperfect, and in need of improvement. In another old 
treatise, with the very similar title "Allegoriae super librum 
Turbae," 60 we find the following supplementary variants: "Kill 
the mother [the prima materia], tearing off her hands and feet." 
"Take a viper ... cut off its head and tail." "Take a cock . . . 
and pluck it alive." "Take a man, shave him, and drag him over 
the stone [i.e., dry him on the hot stone] till his body dies." 
"Take the glass vessel containing bridegroom and bride, throw 

55 So far I have come across only one alchemical author who admits to having 
read the Panarium of Epiphanius, while declaring at the same time his sincere 
abhorrence of heresies. The silence of the alchemists in this matter is nothing to 
wonder at, since the mere proximity to heresy would have put them in danger of 
their lives. Thus even 90 years after the death of Trithemius of Spanheim, who 
was supposed to have been the teacher of Paracelsus, the abbot Sigismund of 
Seon had to compose a moving defence in which he endeavoured to acquit Tri 
themius of the charge of heresy. Cf. Trithemius sui-ipsius vindex (1616). 

56 Ars chemica, p. 259. Printed in Manget (1702), II. 

57 "Micreris" is probably a corruption of "Mercurius." 

58 Theatr. chem., V (1622), p. 103. 

59 Ibid., p. 68. 60 Artis auriferae, I, pp. 1391". 

238 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



them into the furnace, and roast them for three days, and they 
will be two in one flesh." "Take the white man from the 
vessel." 61 

S 6 * One is probably right in assuming that these recipes are in 
structions for magical sacrifices, not unlike the Greek magic 
papyri. 62 As an example of the latter I will give the recipe from 
the Mimaut Papyrus (li. *ff.): "Take a tomcat and make an 
Osiris of him 63 [by immersing] his body in water. And when 
you proceed to suffocate him, talk into his back." Another ex 
ample from the same papyrus (li. 425): "Take a hoopoe, tear out 
its heart, pierce it with a reed, then cut it up and throw it into 
Attic honey." 

363 Such sacrifices really were made for the purpose of summon 
ing up the paredros, the familiar spirit. That this sort of thing 
was practised, or at any rate recommended, by the alchemists is 
clear from the "Liber Platonis quartorum," where it speaks of 
the "oblationes et sacrificia" offered to the planetary demon. 
A deeper and more sombre note is struck in the following pas 
sage, which I give in the original (and generally very corrupt) 
text: 64 

Vas . . . oportet esse rotundae figurae: Ut sit artifex huius 
mutator finnamenti et testae capitis, ut cum sit res, qua indigemus, 
res simplex, habens partes similes, necesse est ipsius generationem, 
et in corpore habente similes partibus . . . proiicies ex testa capitis, 
videlicet capitis elementi hominis et massetur totum cum urina . . 

(The vessel . . . must be round in shape. Thus the artifex must 
be the transformer of this firmament and of the brain-pan, just as the 
thing for which we seek is a simple thing having uniform parts. It is 
therefore necessary that you should generate it in a body [i.e., a 
vessel] of uniform parts . . . from the brain-pan, that is, from the 
head of the element Man, and that the whole should be macerated 
with urine . . .) 

364 One asks oneself how literally this recipe is to be taken. 65 
The following story from the "Ghaya al-haklm" is exceedingly 
enlightening in this connection: 

365 The Jacobite patriarch Dionysius I set it on record that in 

61 Ibid., pp. 151, 140, 140, 139, 151, 151, resp. 

62 Papyri Graecae Magicae, trans, and ed. by Karl Preisendanz. 

63 d7ro0o<rts = 'sacrifice.' 64 Theatr. chern., V, p. 153. 
65 See also pp. 127, 128, 130, and 149 of the same work. 

239 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the year 765, a man who was destined for the sacrifice, on be 
holding the bloody head of his predecessor, was so terrified that 
he took flight and lodged a complaint with Abbas, the prefect of 
Mesopotamia, against the priests of Harran, who were after 
wards severely punished. The story goes on to say that in 830 
the Caliph Mamun told the Harranite envoys: "You are without 
doubt the people of the head, who were dealt with by my father 
Rashid." We learn from the "Ghaya" that a fair-haired man with 
dark-blue eyes was lured into a chamber of the temple, where 
he was immersed in a great jar filled with sesame oil. Only his 
head was left sticking out. There he remained for forty days, 
and during this time was fed on nothing but figs soaked in 
sesame oil. He was not given a drop of water to drink. As a re 
sult of this treatment his body became as soft as wax. The 
prisoner was repeatedly fumigated with incense, and magical 
formulae were pronounced over him. Eventually his head was 
torn off at the neck, the body remaining in the oil. The head 
was then placed in a niche on the ashes of burnt olives, and was 
packed round with cotton wool. More incense was burned be 
fore it, and the head would thereupon predict famines or good 
harvests, changes of dynasty, and other future events. Its eyes 
could see, though the lids did not move. It also revealed to 
people their inmost thoughts, and scientific and technical ques 
tions were likewise addressed to it. 66 

S 66 Even though it is possible that the real head was, in later 
times, replaced by a dummy, the whole idea of this ceremony, 
particularly when taken in conjunction with the above passage 
from the "Liber quartorum," seems to point to an original 
human sacrifice. The idea of a mysterious head is, however, con 
siderably older than the school of Harran. As far back as Zosimos 
we find the philosophers described as "children of the golden 
head," and we also encounter the "round element," which 
Zosimos says is the letter omega (O). This symbol may well be 
interpreted as the head, since the "Liber quartorum" also asso 
ciates the round vessel with the head. Zosimos, moreover, refers 
on several occasions to the "whitest stone, which is in the 
head." 67 Probably all these ideas go back to the severed head 

66 Dozy and de Goeje, p. 365. 

67 "Tdir Traanj \&jK&rarov \ifov rbv iy^^aXov." Berthelot, Alchimistes, III, xxix, 4. Cf. 
also I, iii, i and III, ii. i. 

240 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



of Osiris, which crossed the sea and was therefore associated 
with the idea of resurrection. The "head of Osiris" also plays an 
important part in medieval alchemy. 

367 In this connection we might mention the legend that was 
current about Gerbert of Rheims, afterwards Pope Sylvester II 
(d. 1003). He was believed to have possessed a golden head which 
spoke to him in oracles. Gerbert was one of the greatest savants 
of his time, and well known as a transmitter of Arabic science. 68 
Can it be that the translation of the "Liber quartorum," which 
is of Harranite origin, goes back to this author? Unfortunately 
there is little prospect of our being able to prove this. 

368 It has been conjectured that the Harranite oracle head may 
be connected with the ancient Hebrew teraphim. Rabbinic 
tradition considers the teraphim to have been originally either 
the decapitated head or skull of a human being, or else a dummy 
head. 69 The Jews had teraphim about the house as a sort of lares 
and penates (who were plural spirits, like the Cabiri). The idea 
that they were heads goes back to I Samuel 19: isf., which de 
scribes how Michal, David's wife, put the teraphim in David's 
bed in order to deceive the messengers of Saul, who wanted to 
kill him. "Then Michal took an image and laid it on the bed 
and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with 
the clothes (RSV)." The "pillow of goats' hair" is linguistically 
obscure and has even been interpreted as meaning that the 
teraphim were goats. But it may also mean something woven or 
plaited out of goats' hair, like a wig, and this would fit in better 
with the picture of a man lying in bed. Further evidence for this 
comes from a legend in a collection of midrashim from the 
twelfth century, printed in Bin Gorion's Die Sagen der Juden. 
There it is said: 

The teraphim were idols, and they were made in the following way, 
The head of a man, who had to be a first-born, was cut off and the 
hair plucked out. The head was then sprinkled with salt and 
anointed with oil. Afterwards a little plaque, of copper or gold, was 
inscribed with the name of an idol and placed under the tongue of 
the decapitated head. The head was set up in a room, candles were 
lit before it, and the people made obeisance. And if any man fell 

68 Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, I, p. 705. 

69 Jewish Encyclopaedia, XII, s.v. "Teraphim," pp. io8f. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



down before it, the head began to speak, and answered all questions 
that were addressed to it. 70 

369 This is an obvious parallel to the Harranite ritual with the 
head. The tearing out o the hair seems significant, since it is 
an equivalent of scalping or shearing, and is thus a rebirth 
mystery. It is conceivable that in later times the bald skull was 
covered with a wig for a rite of renewal, as is also reported from 
Egypt. 

37<> It seems probable that this magical procedure is of primitive 
origin. I am indebted to the South African writer, Laurens van 
der Post, for the following report from a lecture which he gave 
in Zurich in 1951: 

The tribe in question was an offshoot of the great Swazi nation 
a Bantu people. When, some years ago, the old chief died, he was 
succeeded by his son, a young man of weak character. He soon proved 
to be so unsatisfactory a chief that his uncles called a meeting of 
the tribal elders. They decided that something must be done to 
strengthen their chief, so they consulted the witch doctors. The witch 
doctors treated him with a medicine which proved ineffective. 
Another meeting was held and the witch doctors were asked to use 
the strongest medicine of all on the chief because the situation was 
becoming desperate. A half brother of the chief, a boy of twelve, 
was chosen to provide the material for the medicine. 

One afternoon a sorcerer went up to the boy, who was tending 
cattle, and engaged him in conversation. Then, emptying some 
powder from a horn into his hand, he took a reed and blew the 
powder into the ears and nostrils of the boy. A witness told me that 
the lad thereupon began to sway like a drunken person and sank to 
the ground shivering. He was then taken to the river bed and tied 
to the roots of a tree. More powder was sprinkled round about, the 
sorcerer saying: "This person will no longer eat food but only earth 
and roots." 

The boy was kept in the river bed for nine months. Some people 
say a cage was made and put into the stream, with the boy inside it, 
for hours on end, so that the water should flow over him and make 
his skin white. Others reported seeing him crawling about in the 
river bed on his hands and knees. But all were so frightened that, 
although there was a mission school only one hundred yards away, 

70 Josef bin Gorion, Die Sagcn der Juden, p. 325. I am indebted to Dr. Riwkah 
Scharf for drawing my attention to this passage. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



no one except those directly concerned in the ritual would go near 
him. All are agreed that at the end of nine months this fat, normal, 
healthy boy was like an animal and quite white-skinned. One woman 
said, "His eyes were white and the whole of his body was white as 
white paper." 

On the evening that the boy was to be killed a veteran witch doc 
tor was summoned to the chief's kraal and asked to consult the tribal 
spirits. This he did in the cattle kraal, and after selecting an animal 
for slaughter he retired to the chiefs hut. There the witch doctor 
was handed parts of the dead boy's body: first the head in a sack, 
then a thumb and a toe. He cut off the nose and ears and lips, mixed 
them with medicine, and cooked them over a fire in a broken clay 
pot. He stuck two spears on either side of the pot. Then those pres 
ent-twelve in all including the weak chief-leaned over the pot and 
deeply inhaled the steam. All save the boy's mother dipped their 
fingers in the pot and licked them. She inhaled but refused to dip 
her fingers in the pot. The rest of the body the witch doctor mixed 
into a kind of bread for doctoring the tribe's crops. 

371 Although this magical rite is not actually a "head mystery," 
it has several things in common with the practices previously 
mentioned. The body is macerated and transformed by long 
immersion in water. The victim is killed, and the salient por 
tions of the head form the main ingredient of the "strengthen 
ing" medicine which was concocted for the chief and his im 
mediate circle. The body is kneaded into a sort of bread, and 
this is obviously thought of as a strengthening medicine for the 
tribe's crops as well. The rite is a transformation process, a sort 
of rebirth after nine months of incubation in the water. Laurens 
van der Post thinks that the purpose of the "whitening" 71 was 
to assimilate the mana of the white man, who has the political 
power. I agree with this view, and would add that painting with 
white clay often signifies transformation into ancestral spirits, 
in the same way as the neophytes are made invisible in the 
Nandi territory, in Kenya, where they walk about in portable, 
cone-shaped grass huts and demonstrate their invisibility to 
everyone. 

372 Skull worship is widespread among primitives. In Melanesia 
and Polynesia it is chiefly the skulls of the ancestors that are 
worshipped, because they establish connections with the spirits 

71 Cf. the alchemical albedo and homo albus. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



or serve as tutelary deities, like the head of Osiris in Egypt. 
Skulls also play a considerable role as sacred relics. It would lead 
us too far to go into this primitive skull worship, so I must refer 
the reader to the literature. 72 I would only like to point out 
that the cut-off ears, nose, and mouth can represent the head 
as parts that stand for the whole. There are numerous examples 
of this. Equally, the head or its parts (brain, etc.) can act as 
magical food or as a means for increasing the fertility of the 
land. 

373 It is of special significance for the alchemical tradition that 
the oracle head was also known in Greece. Aelian 73 reports that 
Cleomenes of Sparta had the head of his friend Archonides pre 
served in a jar of honey, and that he consulted it as an oracle. The 
same was said of the head of Orpheus. Onians 74 rightly empha 
sizes the fact that the ^17, whose seat was in the head, corre 
sponds to the modern "unconscious," and that at that stage of 
development consciousness was identified with OVIJLOS (breath) 
and <t>ptv$ (lungs), and was localized in the chest or heart region. 
Hence Pindar's expression for the soul atwvos etSwXoz/ (image of 
Aion) is extraordinarily apt, for the collective unconscious not 
only imparts "oracles" but forever represents the microcosm 
(i.e., the form of a physical man mirroring the Cosmos). 

574 There is no evidence to show that any of the parallels we 
have drawn are historically connected with the Zosimos visions. 
It seems rather to be a case partly of parallel traditions (trans 
mitted, perhaps, chiefly through the Harran school), and partly 
of spontaneous fantasies arising from the same archetypal back 
ground from which the traditions were derived in the first place. 
As my examples have shown, the imagery of the Zosimos visions, 
however strange it may be, is by no means isolated, but is inter 
woven with older ideas some of which were certainly, and others 
quite possibly, known to Zosimos, as well as with parallels of 
uncertain date which continued to mould the speculations of 
the alchemists for many centuries to come. Religious thought 
in the early Christian era was not completely cut off from all 
contact with these conceptions; it was in fact influenced by them, 
and in turn it fertilized the minds of the natural philosophers 
during later centuries. Towards the end of the sixteenth century 

72 Hastings, VI, pp. 5 3 5 f. 73 Varia historia, XII, 8. 

74 Onians, The Origins of European Thought, pp. ioiff. 

244 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



the alchemical opus was even represented in the form of a Mass. 
The author of this tour de force was the Hungarian alchemist, 
Melchior Cibinensis. I have elaborated this parallel in my book 
Psychology and Alchemy. 

375 In the visions of Zosimos, the Hiereus who is transformed 
into pneuma represents the transformative principle at work in 
nature and the harmony of opposing forces. Chinese philosophy 
formulated this process as the enantiodromian interplay of Yin 
and Yang. 76 But the curious personifications and symbols char 
acteristic not only of these visions but of alchemical literature 
in general show in the plainest possible terms that we are deal 
ing with a psychic process that takes place mainly in the uncon 
scious and therefore can come into consciousness only in the 
form of a dream or vision. At that time and until very much 
later no one had any idea of the unconscious; consequently all 
unconscious contents were projected into the object, or rather 
were found in nature as apparent objects or properties of matter 
and were not recognized as purely internal psychic events. There 
is some evidence that Zosimos was well aware of the spiritual 
or mystical side of his art, but he believed that what he was con 
cerned with was a spirit that dwelt in natural objects, and not 
something that came from the human psyche. It remained for 
modern science to despiritualize nature through its so-called 
objective knowledge of matter. All anthropomorphic projections 
were withdrawn from the object one after another, with a two 
fold result: firstly man's mystical identity with nature 77 was 
curtailed as never before, and secondly the projections falling 
back into the human soul caused such a terrific activation of 
the unconscious that in modern times man was compelled to 
postulate the existence of an unconscious psyche. The first be 
ginnings of this can be seen in Leibniz and Kant, and then, with 
mounting intensity, in Schelling, Carus, and von Hartmann, 
until finally modern psychology discarded the last metaphysical 
claims of the philosopher-psychologists and restricted the idea 
of the psyche's existence to the psychological statement, in other 

75 Pars. 480-89. 

76 The classical example being The I Ching or Book of Changes. 

77 Mystical or unconscious identity occurs in every case of projection, because the 
content projected upon the extraneous object creates an apparent relationship 
between it and the subject. 

245 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ". WEST 



words, to its phenomenology. So far as the dramatic course of 
the Mass represents the death, sacrifice and resurrection of a 
god and the inclusion and active participation of the priest and 
congregation, its phenomenology may legitimately be brought 
into line with other fundamentally similar, though more primi 
tive, religious customs. This always involves the risk that sensi 
tive people will find it unpleasant when "small things are com 
pared with great." In fairness to the primitive psyche, however, 
I would like to emphasize that the "holy dread" of civilized man 
differs but little from the awe of the primitive, and that the God 
who is present and active in the mystery is a mystery for both. 
No matter how crass the outward differences, the similarity or 
equivalence of meaning should not be overlooked. 



246 



4 . THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MASS 



I. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE SACRIFICE 

376 Whereas I kept to the Church's interpretation when dis 
cussing the transformation rite in section 2, in the present 
section I shall treat this interpretation as a symbol. Such a pro 
cedure does not imply any evaluation of the content of religious 
belief. Scientific criticism must, of course, adhere to the view 
that when something is held as an opinion, thought to be true, 
or believed, it does not posit the existence of any real fact other 
than a psychological one. But that does not mean that a mere 
nothing has been produced. Rather, expression has been given 
to the psychic reality underlying the statement of the belief or 
rite as its empirical basis. When psychology "explains" a state 
ment of this kind, it does not, in the first place, deprive the 
object of this statement of any reality on the contrary, it is 
granted a psychic reality and in the second place the intended 
metaphysical statement is not, on that account, turned into an 
hypostasis, since it was never anything more than a psychic 
phenomenon. Its specifically "metaphysical" coloration indi 
cates that its object is beyond the reach of human perception 
and understanding except in its psychic mode of manifestation, 
and therefore cannot be judged. But every science reaches its 
end in the unknowable. Yet it would not be a science at all if it 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



regarded its temporary limitations as definitive and denied the 
existence of anything outside them. No science can consider its 
hypotheses to be the final truth. 

377 The psychological explanation and the metaphysical state 
ment do not contradict one another any more than, shall we 
say, the physicist's explanation of matter contradicts the as yet 
unknown or unknowable nature of matter. The very existence 
of a belief has in itself the reality of a psychic fact. Just what 
we posit by the concept "psyche" is simply unknowable, for 
psychology is in the unfortunate position where the observer 
and the observed are ultimately identical. Psychology has no 
Archimedean point outside, since all perception is of a psychic 
nature and we have only indirect knowledge of what is non- 
psychic. 

378 The ritual event that takes place in the Mass has a dual 
aspect, human and divine. From the human point of view, gifts 
are offered to God at the altar, signifying at the same time the 
self-oblation of the priest and the congregation. The ritual act 
consecrates both the gifts and the givers. It commemorates and 
represents the Last Supper which our Lord took with his 
disciples, the whole Incarnation, Passion, death, and resurrec 
tion of Christ. But from the divine point of view this anthropo 
morphic action is only the outer shell or husk in which what is 
really happening is not a human action at all but a divine event. 
For an instant the life of Christ, eternally existent outside time, 
becomes visible and is unfolded in temporal succession, but in 
condensed form, in the sacred action: Christ incarnates as a man 
under the aspect of the offered substances, he suffers, is killed, 
is laid in the sepulchre, breaks the power of the underworld, 
and rises again in glory. In the utterance of the words of conse 
cration the Godhead intervenes, Itself acting and truly present, 
and thus proclaims that the central event in the Mass is Its act 
of grace, in which the priest has only the significance of a min 
ister. The same applies to the congregation and the offered sub 
stances: they are all ministering causes of the sacred event. The 
presence of the Godhead binds all parts of the sacrificial act into 
a mystical unity, so that it is God himself who offers himself as 
a sacrifice in the substances, in the priest, and in the congrega 
tion, and who, in the human form of the Son, offers himself as 
an atonement to the Father. 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



379 Although this act is an eternal happening taking place within 
the divinity, man is nevertheless included in it as an essential 
component, firstly because God clothes himself in our human 
nature, and secondly because he needs the ministering co-opera 
tion of the priest and congregation, and even the material sub 
stances of bread and wine which have a special significance for 
man. Although God the Father is of one nature with God the 
Son, he appears in time on the one hand as the eternal Father 
and on the other hand as a man with limited earthly existence. 
Mankind as a whole is included in God's human nature, which 
is why man is also included in the sacrificial act. Just as, in the 
sacrificial act, God is both agens and pattens, so too is man 
according to his limited capacity. The causa efficient of the 
transubstantiation is a spontaneous act of God's grace. Ecclesi 
astical doctrine insists on this view and even tends to attribute 
the preparatory action of the priest, Indeed the very existence 
of the rite, to divine prompting, 1 rather than to slothful human 
nature with its load of original sin. This view is of the utmost 
importance for a psychological understanding of the Mass. 
Wherever the magical aspect of a rite tends to prevail, it brings 
the rite nearer to satisfying the individual ego's blind greed for 
power, and thus breaks up the mystical body of the Church into 
separate units. Where, on the other hand, the rite is conceived 
as the action of God himself, the human participants have only 
an instrumental or "ministering" significance. The Church's 
view therefore presupposes the following psychological situa 
tion: human consciousness (represented by the priest and con 
gregation) is confronted with an autonomous event which, 
taking place on a "divine" and "timeless" plane transcending 
consciousness, is in no way dependent on human action, but 
which impels man to act by seizing upon him as an instrument 
and making him the exponent of a "divine" happening. In the 
ritual action man places himself at the disposal of an autono 
mous and "eternal" agency operating outside the categories of 
human consciousness- si parva licet componere magnisin 
much the same way that a good actor does not merely represent 
the drama, but allows himself to be overpowered by the genius 
of the dramatist. The beauty of the ritual action is one of its 

i John 6:44: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me 
draw him." 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



essential properties, for man has not served God rightly unless 
he has also served him in beauty. Therefore the rite has no prac 
tical utility, for that would be making it serve a purpose a 
purely human category. But everything divine is an end-in-itself, 
perhaps the only legitimate end-in-itself we know. How some 
thing eternal can "act" at all is a question we had better not 
touch, for it is simply unanswerable. Since man, in the action of 
the Mass, is a tool (though a tool of his own free will), he is not 
in a position to know anything about the hand which guides 
him. The hammer cannot discover within itself the power which 
makes it strike. It is something outside, something autonomous, 
which seizes and moves him. What happens in the consecration 
is essentially a miracle, and is meant to be so, for otherwise we 
should have to consider whether we were not conjuring up God 
by magic, or else lose ourselves in philosophical wonder how 
anything eternal can act at all, since action is a process in time 
with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is necessary that the 
transubstantiation should be a cause of wonder and a miracle 
which man can in no wise comprehend. It is a mysterium in the 
sense of a Sp&nevov and bciwvu&ov, a secret that is acted and dis 
played. The ordinary man is not conscious of anything in him 
self that would cause him to perform a "mystery." He can only 
do so if and when it seizes upon him. This seizure, or rather the 
sensed or presumed existence of a power outside consciousness 
which seizes him, is the miracle par excellence, really and truly 
a miracle when one considers what is being represented. What 
in the world could induce us to represent an absolute impossi 
bility? What is it that for thousands of years has wrung from 
man the greatest spiritual effort, the loveliest works of art, the 
profoundest devotion, the most heroic self-sacrifice, and the most 
exacting service? What else but a miracle? It is a miracle which 
is not man's to command; for as soon as he tries to work it him 
self, or as soon as he philosophizes about it and tries to compre 
hend it intellectually, the bird is flown. A miracle is something 
that arouses man's wonder precisely because it seems inexplica 
ble. And indeed, from what we know of human nature we 
could never explain why men are constrained to such statements 
and to such beliefs. (I am thinking here of the impossible state 
ments made by all religions.) There must be some compelling 
reason for this, even though it is not to be found in ordinary 

250 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



experience. The very absurdity and impossibility of the state 
ments vouches for the existence of this reason. That is the real 
ground for belief, as was formulated most brilliantly in Ter- 
tullian's "prorsus credibile, quia ineptum." 2 An improbable 
opinion has to submit sooner or later to correction. But the 
statements of religion are the most improbable of all and yet 
they persist for thousands of years. 3 Their wholly unexpected 
vitality proves the existence of a sufficient cause which has so 
far eluded scientific investigation. I can, as a psychologist, only 
draw attention to this fact and emphasize my belief that there 
are no facile "nothing but" explanations for psychic phenomena 
of this kind. 

380 The dual aspect of the Mass finds expression not only in the 
contrast between human and divine action, but also in the dual 
aspect of God and the God-man, who, although they are by 
nature a unity, nevertheless represent a duality in the ritual 
drama. Without this "dichotomy of God," if I may use such a 
term, the whole act of sacrifice would be inconceivable and 
would lack actuality. According to the Christian view God has 
never ceased to be God, not even when he appeared in human 
form in the temporal order. The Christ of the Johannine gospel 
declares: "I and my Father are one. He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father" (John 10:30, 14:9). And yet on the Cross 
Christ cries out: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?" This contradiction must exist if the formula "very God 
and very man" is psychologically true. And if it is true, then 
the different sayings of Christ are in no sense a contradiction. 
Being "very man" means being at an extreme remove and 
utterly different from God. "De profundis clamavi ad te, 
Domine" this cry demonstrates both, the remoteness and the 
nearness, the outermost darkness and the dazzling spark of the 
Divine. God in his humanity is presumably so far from himself 
that he has to seek himself through absolute self-surrender. And 
where would God's wholeness be if he could not be the "wholly 

2 "Et mortuus est Dei filius, prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est. Et sepultus 
resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile est'* (And the Son of God is dead, which is 
to be believed because it is absurd. And buried He rose again, which is certain 
because it is impossible). Migne, P.L. f vol. 2, col. 751. 

3 The audacity of Tertullian's argument is undeniable, and so is its danger, but 
that does not detract from its psychological truth. 

251 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



other"? Accordingly it is with some psychological justification, 
so it seems to me, that when the Gnostic Nous fell into the 
power of Physis he assumed the dark chthonic form of the 
serpent, and the Manichaean "Original Man" in the same situa 
tion actually took on the qualities of the Evil One. In Tibetan 
Buddhism all gods without exception have a peaceful and a 
wrathful aspect, for they reign over all the realms of being. The 
dichotomy of God into divinity and humanity and his return 
to himself in the sacrificial act hold out the comforting doctrine 
that in man's own darkness there is hidden a light that shall 
once again return to its source, and that this light actually 
wanted to descend into the darkness in order to deliver the 
Enchained One who languishes there, and lead him to light 
everlasting. All this belongs to the stock of pre-Christian ideas, 
being none other than the doctrine of the "Man of Light," the 
Anthropos or Original Man, which the sayings of Christ in the 
gospels assume to be common knowledge. 



II. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE 

(a) The Sacrificial Gifts 

381 Kramp, in his book on the Roman liturgy, makes the follow 
ing observations about the substances symbolizing the sacrifice: 

Now bread and wine are not only the ordinary means of subsistence 
for a large portion of humanity, they are also to be had all over the 
earth (which is of the greatest significance as regards the world 
wide spread of Christianity). Further, the two together constitute 
the perfect food of man, who needs both solid and liquid sustenance. 
Because they can be so regarded as the typical food of man, they 
are best fitted to serve as a symbol of human life and human per 
sonality, a fact which throws significant light on the gift-symbol. 4 

382 It is not immediately apparent why precisely bread and wine 
should be a "symbol of human life and human personality." 
This interpretation looks very like a conclusion a posteriori from 
the special meaning which attaches to these substances in the 
Mass. In that case the meaning would be due to the liturgy and 
not to the substances themselves, for no one could imagine that 

-* Die Opferanschauungen, p. 55. 

252 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



bread and wine, in themselves, signify human life or human 
personality. But, in so far as bread and wine are important 
products of culture, they do express a vital human striving. They 
represent a definite cultural achievement which is the fruit of 
attention, patience, industry, devotion, and laborious toil. The 
words "our daily bread" express man's anxious care for his ex 
istence. By producing bread he makes his life secure. But in so 
far as he "does not live by bread alone," bread is fittingly ac 
companied by wine, whose cultivation has always demanded a 
special degree of attention and much painstaking work. Wine, 
therefore, is equally an expression of cultural achievement. 
Where wheat and the vine are cultivated, civilized life prevails. 
But where agriculture and vine-growing do not exist, there is 
only the uncivilized life of nomads and hunters. 

3 8 3 So in offering bread and wine man is in the first instance 
offering up the products of his culture, the best, as it were, that 
human industry produces. But the "best" can be produced only 
by the best in man, by his conscientiousness and devotion. Cul 
tural products can therefore easily stand for the psychological 
conditions of their production, that is, for those human virtues 
which alone make man capable of civilization. 5 

384 As to the special nature of these substances, bread is un 
doubtedly a food. There is a popular saying that wine "fortifies," 
though not in the same sense as food "sustains." It stimulates 
and "makes glad the heart of man" by virtue of a certain volatile 
substance which has always been called "spirit." It is thus, unlike 
innocuous water, an "inspiriting" drink, for a spirit or god 
dwells within it and produces the ecstasy of intoxication. The 
wine miracle at Cana was the same as the miracle in the temple 
of Dionysus, and it is profoundly significant that, on the Da 
mascus Chalice, Christ is enthroned among vine tendrils like 
Dionysus himself. 6 Bread therefore represents the physical means 
of subsistence, and wine the spiritual. The offering up of bread 
and wine is the offering of both the physical and the spiritual 
fruits of civilization. 

5 My reason for saying this is that every symbol has an objective and a subjective 
or psychic origin, so that it can be interpreted on the "objective level" as well 
as on the "subjective level." This is a consideration of some importance in dream- 
analysis. Cf. Psychological Types, Defs. 38 and 50. 

6 Further material in Eisler, Orpheusthe Fisher, pp. j8of, 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



3 8 5 But, however sensible he was of the care and labour lavished 
upon them, man could hardly fail to observe that these cul 
tivated plants grew and flourished according to an inner law of 
their own, and that there was a power at work in them which 
he compared to his own life breath or vital spirit. Frazer has 
called this principle, not unjustly, the "corn spirit/* Human 
initiative and toil are certainly necessary, but even more neces 
sary, in die eyes of primitive man, is the correct and careful 
performance of the ceremonies which sustain, strengthen, and 
propitiate the vegetation numenJ Grain and wine therefore 
have something in the nature of a soul, a specific life principle 
which makes them appropriate symbols not only of man's cul 
tural achievements, but also of the seasonally dying and re 
surgent god who is their life spirit. Symbols are never simple- 
only signs and allegories are simple. The symbol always covers a 
complicated situation which is so far beyond the grasp of lan 
guage that it cannot be expressed at all in any unambiguous 
manner. 8 Thus the grain and wine symbols have a fourfold layer 
of meaning: 

1. as agricultural products; 

2. as products requiring special processing (bread from 
grain, wine from grapes); 

3. as expressions of psychological achievement (work, indus 
try, patience, devotion, etc.) and of human vitality in general; 

4. as manifestations of mana or of the vegetation daemon. 

386 From this list it can easily be seen that a symbol is needed to 
sum up such a complicated physical and psychic situation. The 
simplest symbolical formula for this is "bread and wine/' giving 
these words the original complex significance which they have 
always had for tillers of the soil. 

(&) The Sacrifice 

387 It is clear from the foregoing that the sacrificial gift is sym 
bolic, and that it embraces everything which is expressed by the 
symbol, namely the physical product, the processed substance, 
the psychological achievement, and the autonomous, daemonic 
life principle of cultivated plants. The value of the gift is en- 

7 Similarly, in hunting, the rites d'entrec are more important than the hunt itself, 
for on these rites the success of the hunt depends. 

8 Cf. Psychological Types f Def. 51. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



hanced when it is the best or the first fruits. Since bread and 
wine are the best that agriculture can offer, they are by the same 
token man's best endeavour. In addition, bread symbolizes the 
visible manifestation of the divine numen which dies and rises 
again, and wine the presence of a pneuma which promises in 
toxication and ecstasy. 9 The classical world thought of this 
pneuma as Dionysus, particularly the suffering Dionysus Za- 
greus, whose divine substance is distributed throughout the 
whole of nature. In short, what is sacrificed under the forms of 
bread and wine is nature, man, and God, all combined in the 
unity of the symbolic gift. 

388 The offering of so significant a gift at once raises the ques 
tion: Does it lie within man's power to offer such a gift at all? 
Is he psychologically competent to do so? The Church says no, 
since she maintains that the sacrificing priest is Christ himself. 
But, since man is included in the gift included, as we have seen, 
twice over the Church also says yes, though with qualifications. 
On the side of the sacrificer there is an equally complicated, sym 
bolic state of affairs, for the symbol is Christ himself, who is both 
the sacrificer and the sacrificed. This symbol likewise has several 
layers of meaning which I shall proceed to sort out in what 
follows. 

3 8 9 The act of making a sacrifice consists in the first place in giv 
ing something which belongs to me. Everything which belongs 
to me bears the stamp of "mineness," that is, it has a subtle 
identity with my ego. This is vividly expressed in certain primi 
tive languages, where the suffix of animation is added to an 
objecta canoe, for instance when it belongs to me, but not 
when it belongs to somebody else. The affinity which all the 
things bearing the stamp of * 'mineness" have with my personality 
is aptly characterized by L^vy-Bruhl 10 as participation mystique. 
It is an irrational, unconscious identity, arising from the fact 
that anything which comes into contact with me is not only it 
self, but also a symbol. This symbolization comes about firstly 
because every human being has unconscious contents, and 
secondly because q^ery object has an unknown side. Your watch, 
for instance. Unless you are a watchmaker, you would hardly 
presume to say that you know how it works. Even if you do, you 
wouldn't know anything about the molecular structure of the 

9 Leisegang, Der Heilige Geist, pp. 248ff. 10 How Natives Think. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



steel unless you happened to be a mineralogist or a physicist. 
And have you ever heard of a scientist who knew how to repair 
his pocket watch? But where two unknowns come together, it 
is impossible to distinguish between them. The unknown in 
man and the unknown in the thing fall together in one. Thus 
there arises an unconscious identity which sometimes borders 
on the grotesque. No one is permitted to touch what is "mine," 
much less use it. One is affronted if "my" things are not treated 
with sufficient respect. I remember once seeing two Chinese 
rickshaw boys engaged in furious argument. Just as they were 
about to come to blows, one of them gave the other's rickshaw 
a violent kick, thus putting an end to the quarrel. So long as 
they are unconscious our unconscious contents are always pro 
jected, and the projection fixes upon everything "ours," inani 
mate objects as well as animals and people. And to the extent 
that "our" possessions are projection carriers, they are more 
than what they are in themselves, and function as such. They 
have acquired several layers of meaning and are therefore sym 
bolical, though this fact seldom or never reaches consciousness. 
In reality, our psyche spreads far beyond the confines of the 
conscious mind, as was apparently known long ago to the old 
alchemist who said that the soul was for the greater part outside 
the body. 11 
39 When, therefore, I give away something that is "mine," what 

I am giving is essentially a symbol, a thing of many meanings; 
but, owing to my unconsciousness of its symbolic character, it 
adheres to my ego, because it is part of my personality. Hence 
there is, explicitly or implicitly, a personal claim bound up with 
every gift. There is always an unspoken "give that thou mayest 
receive." Consequently the gift always carries with it a personal 
intention, for the mere giving of it is not a sacrifice. It only be 
comes a sacrifice if I give up the implied intention of receiving 
something in return. If it is to be a true sacrifice, the gift must 
be given as if it were being destroyed. 12 Only then is it possible 

II Michael Sendivogius, "Tractatus de sulphure** (i6th cent.), in the Musaeum 
hermeticum (1678), p. 617: "[Anima] quae extra corpus multa profundissima 
imaginatur" ([The soul] which imagines many things of the utmost profundity 
outside the body). 

12 The parallel to this is total destruction of the sacrificial gift by burning, or by 
throwing it into water or into a pit. 

256 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



for the egoistic claim to be given up, Were the bread and wine 
simply given without any consciousness of an egoistic claim, the 
fact that it was unconscious would be no excuse, but would on 
the contrary be sure proof of the existence of a secret claim. Be 
cause of its egoistic nature, the offering would then inevitably 
have the character of a magical act of propitiation, with the 
unavowed purpose and tacit expectation of purchasing the good 
will of the Deity. That is an ethically worthless simulacrum of 
sacrifice, and in order to avoid it the giver must at least make 
himself sufficiently conscious of his identity with the gift to 
recognize how far he is giving himself up in giving the gift. In 
other words, out of the natural state of identity with what is 
"mine" there grows the ethical task of sacrificing oneself, or at 
any rate that part of oneself which is identical with the gift. One 
ought to realize that when one gives or surrenders oneself there 
are corresponding claims attached, the more so the less one 
knows of them. The conscious realization of this alone guar 
antees that the giving is a real sacrifice. For if I know and admit 
that I am giving myself, forgoing myself, and do not want to be 
repaid for it, then I have sacrificed my claim, and thus a part of 
myself. Consequently, all absolute giving, a giving which is a 
total loss from the start, is a self-sacrifice. Ordinary giving for 
which no return is received is felt as a loss; but a sacrifice is 
meant to be like a loss, so that one may be sure that the egoistic 
claim no longer exists. Therefore the gift should be given as if 
it were being destroyed. But since the gift represents myself, I 
have in that case destroyed myself, given myself away without 
expectation of return. Yet, looked at in another way, this in 
tentional loss is also a gain, for if you can give yourself it proves 
that you possess yourself. Nobody can give what he has not got. 
So anyone who can sacrifice himself and forgo his claim must 
have had it; in other words, he must have been conscious of the 
claim. This presupposes an act of considerable self-knowledge, 
lacking which one remains permanently unconscious of such 
claims. It is therefore quite logical that the confession of sin 
should come before the rite of transformation in the Mass. The 
self-examination is intended to make one conscious of the selfish 
claim bound up with every gift, so that it may be consciously 
given up; otherwise the gift is no sacrifice. The sacrifice proves 
that you possess yourself, for it does not mean just letting your- 

257 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



self be passively taken: it is a conscious and deliberate self- 
surrender, which proves that you have full control of yourself, 
that is, of your ego. The ego thus becomes the object of a moral 
act, for "I" am making a decision on behalf of an authority 
which is supraordinate to my ego nature. I am, as it were, decid 
ing against my ego and renouncing my claim. The possibility of 
self-renunciation is an established psychological fact whose 
philosophical implications I do not propose to discuss. Psycho 
logically, it means that the ego is a relative quantity which can 
be subsumed under various supraordinate authorities. What are 
these authorities? They are not to be equated outright with col 
lective moral consciousness, as Freud wanted to do with his 
superego, but rather with certain psychic conditions which ex 
isted in man from the beginning and are not acquired by experi 
ence. Behind a man's actions there stands neither public opinion 
nor the moral code, 13 but the personality of which he is still 
unconscious. Just as a man still is what he always was, so he al 
ready is what he will become. The conscious mind does not 
embrace the totality of a man, for this totality consists only partly 
of his conscious contents, and for the other and far greater part, 
of his unconscious, which is of indefinite extent with no assign 
able limits. In this totality the conscious mind is contained like 
a smaller circle within a larger one. Hence it is quite possible 
for the ego to be made into an object, that is to say, for a more 
compendious personality to emerge in the course of develop 
ment and take the ego into its service. Since this growth of per 
sonality comes out of the unconscious, which is by definition 
unlimited, the extent of the personality now gradually realizing 
itself cannot in practice be limited either. But, unlike the Freud 
ian superego, it is still individual. It is in fact individuality in 
the highest sense, and therefore theoretically limited, since no 
individual can possibly display every quality. (I have called this 
process of realization the "individuation process/') So far as the 
personality is still potential, it can be called transcendent, and 

13 If there were really nothing behind him but collective standards of value on 
the one hand and natural instincts on the other, every breach of morality would 
be simply a rebellion of instinct. In that case valuable and meaningful innovations 
would be impossible, for the instincts are the oldest and most conservative ele 
ment in man and beast alike. Such a view forgets the creative instinct which, 
although it can behave like an instinct, is seldom found in nature and is con 
fined almost exclusively to Homo sapiens. 

258 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



so far as it is unconscious, it is indistinguishable from all those 
things that carry its projections in other words, the unconscious 
personality merges with our environment in accordance with the 
above-named participation mystique. This fact is of the greatest 
practical importance because it renders intelligible the peculiar 
symbols through which this projected entity expresses itself in 
dreams. By this I mean the symbols of the outside world and the 
cosmic symbols. These form the psychological basis for the con 
ception of man as a microcosm, whose fate, as we know, is bound 
up with the macrocosm through the astrological components of 
his character. 

39 1 The term "self" seemed to me a suitable one for this uncon 
scious substrate, whose actual exponent in consciousness is the 
ego. The ego stands to the self as the moved to the mover, or as 
object to subject, because the determining factors which radiate 
out from the self surround the ego on all sides and are therefore 
supraordinate to it. The self, like the unconscious, is an a priori 
existent out of which the ego evolves. It is, so to speak, an un 
conscious prefiguration of the ego. It is not I who create myself, 
rather I happen to myself. This realization is of fundamental 
importance for the psychology of religious phenomena, which 
is why Ignatius Loyola started off his Spiritual Exercises with 
"Homo creatus est" as their "fundamentum." But, fundamental 
as it is, it can be only half the psychological truth. If it were the 
whole truth it would be tantamount to determinism, for if man 
were merely a creature that came into being as a result of some 
thing already existing unconsciously, he would have no freedom 
and there would be no point in consciousness. Psychology must 
reckon with the fact that despite the causal nexus man does 
enjoy a feeling of freedom, which is identical with autonomy of 
consciousness. However much the ego can be proved to be de 
pendent and preconditioned, it cannot be convinced that it has 
no freedom. An absolutely preformed consciousness and a totally 
dependent ego would be a pointless farce, since everything 
would proceed just as well or even better unconsciously. The 
existence of ego consciousness has meaning only if it is free and 
autonomous. By stating these facts we have, it is true, established 
an antinomy, but we have at the same time given a picture of 
things as they are. There are temporal, local, and individual 
differences in the degree of dependence and freedom. In reality 

259 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION \ WEST 



both are always present: the supremacy of the self and the hybris 
of consciousness. 

39* This conflict between conscious and unconscious is at least 
brought nearer to a solution through our becoming aware of it. 
Such an act of realization is presupposed in the act of self-sacri 
fice. The ego must make itself conscious of its claim, and the 
self must cause the ego to renounce it. This can happen in two 
ways: 

393 i.I renounce my claim in consideration of a general moral 
principle, namely that one must not expect repayment for a gift. 
In this case the "self" coincides with public opinion and the 
moral code. It is then identical with Freud's superego and for 
this reason it is projected into the environment and therefore 
remains unconscious as an autonomous factor. 

394 2. I renounce my claim because I feel impelled to do so for 
painful inner reasons which are not altogether clear to me. 
These reasons give me no particular moral satisfaction; on the 
contrary, I even feel some resistance to them. But I must yield 
to the power which suppresses my egoistic claim. Here the self 
is integrated; it is withdrawn from projection and has become 
perceptible as a determining psychic factor. The objection that 
in this case the moral code is simply unconscious must be ruled 
out, because I am perfectly well aware of the moral criticism 
against which I would have to assert my egoism. Where the ego 
wish clashes with the moral standard, it is not easy to show that 
the tendency which suppresses it is individual and not collec 
tive. But where it is a case of conflicting loyalties, or we find our 
selves in a situation of which the classic example is Hosea's 
marriage with the harlot, then the ego wish coincides with the 
collective moral standard, and Hosea would have been bound 
to accuse Jehovah of immorality. Similarly, the unjust steward 
would have had to admit his guilt. Jesus took a different view. 14 
Experiences of this kind make it clear that the self cannot be 
equated either with collective morality or with natural instinct, 
but must be conceived as a determining factor whose nature is 
individual and unique. The superego is a necessary and un 
avoidable substitute for the experience of the self. 

I* To the defiler of the Sabbath he said: "Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou 
doest, thou art blessed; but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed, and a trans 
gressor of the law/' James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 33. 

260 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



395 These two ways of renouncing one's egoistic claim reveal not 
only a difference of attitude, but also a difference of situation. 
In the first case the situation need not affect me personally and 
directly; in the second, the gift must necessarily be a very per 
sonal one which seriously affects the giver and forces him to 
overcome himself. In the one case it is merely a question, say, 
of going to Mass; in the other it is more like Abraham's sacrifice 
of his son or Christ's decision in Gethsemane. The one may be 
felt very earnestly and experienced with all piety, but the other 
is the real thing. 15 

S9 6 So long as the self is unconscious, it corresponds to Freud's 
superego and is a source of perpetual moral conflict. If, however, 
it is withdrawn from projection and is no longer identical with 
public opinion, then one is truly one's own yea and nay. The 
self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes 
the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psycho 
logically possible to imagine. 16 

(c) The Sacrificer 

397 What I sacrifice is my own selfish claim, and by doing this I 
give up myself. Every sacrifice is therefore, to a greater or lesser 
degree, a self-sacrifice. The degree to which it is so depends on 
the significance of the gift. If it is of great value to me and 
touches my most personal feelings, I can be sure that in giving 
up my egoistic claim I shall challenge my ego personality to 
revolt. I can also be sure that the power which suppresses this 
claim, and thus suppresses me, must be the self. Hence it is the 
self that causes me to make the sacrifice; nay more, it compels me 
to make it. 17 The self is the sacrificer, and I am the sacrificed gift, 
the human sacrifice. Let us try for a moment to look into Abra 
ham's soul when he was commanded to sacrifice his only son. 

15 In order to avoid misunderstandings, I must emphasize that I am speaking only 
from personal experience, and not of the mysterious reality which the Mass has 
for the believer. 

is Cf. the "uniting symbol" in Psychological Types, Def. 51. 
17 In Indian philosophy we find a parallel in Prajapati and Purusha Narayana. 
Purusha sacrifices himself at the command of Prajapati, but at bottom the two 
are identical. Cf. the Shatapatha-Brahmana (Sacred Books of the East, XUV, pp. 
i7*ff.); also the Rig-Veda, X, 90 (trans, by Macnicol, pp. 28-29). 

26l 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



Quite apart from the compassion he felt for his child, would not 
a father in such a position feel himself as the victim, and feel 
that he was plunging the knife into his own breast? He would be 
at the same time the sacrificer and the sacrificed* 

398 Now, since the relation of the ego to the self is like that of the 
son to the father, we can say that when the self calls on us to 
sacrifice ourselves, it is really carrying out the sacrificial act on 
itself. We know more or less what this act means to us, but what 
it means to the self is not so clear. As the self can only be com 
prehended by us in particular acts, but remains concealed from 
us as a whole because it is more comprehensive than we are, all 
we can do is to draw conclusions from the little of the self that 
we can experience. We have seen that a sacrifice only takes place 
when we feel the self actually carrying it out on ourselves. We 
may also venture to surmise that in so far as the self stands to us 
in the relation of father to son, the self in some sort feels our 
sacrifice as a sacrifice of itself. From that sacrifice we gain our 
selvesour "self" for we have only what we give. But what does 
the self gain? We see it entering into manifestation, freeing itself 
from unconscious projection, and, as it grips us, entering into 
our lives and so passing from unconsciousness into consciousness, 
from potentiality into actuality. What it is in the diffuse uncon 
scious state we do not know; we only know that in becoming 
ourself it has become man. 

399 This process of becoming human is represented in dreams 
and inner images as the putting together of many scattered 
units, and sometimes as the gradual emergence and clarification 
of something that was always there. 18 The speculations of alche 
my, and also of some Gnostics, revolve round this process. It is 

18 This contradiction is unavoidable because the concept of the self allows only of 
antinomial statements. The self is by definition an entity more comprehensive 
than the conscious personality. Consequently the latter cannot pass any compre 
hensive judgment on the self; any judgment and any statement about it is incom 
plete and has to be supplemented (but not nullified) by a conditioned negative. 
If I assert, "The self exists,** I must supplement this by saying, "But it seems not 
to exist." For the sake of completeness I must also invert the proposition and say, 
"The self does not exist, but yet seems to exist/' Actually, this inversion is super 
fluous in view of the fact that the self is not a philosophical concept like Kant's 
"thing-in-itself," but an empirical concept of psychology, and can therefore be 
hypostatized if the above precautions are taken. 

262 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



likewise expressed in Christian dogma, and more particularly 
in the transformation mystery of the Mass. The psychology of 
this process makes it easier to understand why, in the Mass, man 
appears as both the sacrificer and the sacrificed gift, and why it 
is not man who is these things, but God who is both; why God 
becomes the suffering and dying man, and why man, through 
partaking of the Glorified Body, gains the assurance of resurrec 
tion and becomes aware of his participation in Godhead. 
4 As I have already suggested, the integration or humanization 
of the self is initiated from the conscious side by our making 
ourselves aware of our selfish aims; we examine our motives 
and try to form as complete and objective a picture as possible 
of our own nature. It is an act of self-recollection, a gathering 
together of what is scattered, of all the things in us that have 
never been properly related, and a coming to terms with oneself 
with a view to achieving full consciousness. (Unconscious self- 
sacrifice is merely an accident, not a moral act.) Self-recollection, 
however, is about the hardest and most repellent thing there is 
for man, who is predominantly unconscious. Human nature has 
an invincible dread of becoming more conscious of itself. What 
nevertheless drives us to k is the self, which demands sacrifice 
by sacrificing itself to us. Conscious realization or the bringing 
together of the scattered parts is in one sense an act of the ego's 
will, but in another sense it is a spontaneous manifestation of 
the self, 19 which was always there. Individuation appears, on the 
one hand, as the synthesis of a new unity which previously con 
sisted of scattered particles, and on the other hand, as the revela 
tion of something which existed before the ego and is in fact its 
father or creator and also its totality. Up to a point we create 
the self by making ourselves conscious of our unconscious con 
tents, and to that extent it is our son. This is why the alchemists 
called their incorruptible substance which means precisely the 
self the filius philosophorum. But we are forced to make this 
effort by the 'unconscious presence of the self, which is all the 
time urging us to overcome our unconsciousness. From that 
point of view the self is the father. This accounts for certain 
alchemical terms, such as Mercurius Senex (Hermes Trismegis- 
tus) and Saturnus, who in Gnosticism was regarded as both 

19 In so far as it is the self that actuates the ego's self -recollection. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



greybeard and youth, just as Mercurius was in alchemy. These 
psychological connections are seen most clearly in the ancient 
conceptions o the Original Man, the Protanthropos, and the 
Son of Man. Christ as the Logos is from all eternity, but in his 
human form he is the "Son of Man." 20 As the Logos, he is the 
world-creating principle. This corresponds with the relation of 
the self to consciousness, without which no world could be per 
ceived at all. The Logos is the real principium individuationis, 
because everything proceeds from it, and because everything 
which is, from crystal to man, exists only in individual form. In 
the infinite variety and differentiation of the phenomenal world 
is expressed the essence of the auctor rerum. As a correspond 
ence we have, on the one hand, the indefiniteness and unlimited 
extent of the unconscious self (despite its individuality and 
uniqueness), its creative relation to individual consciousness, 
and, on the other hand, the individual human being as a mode 
of its manifestation. Ancient philosophy paralleled this idea with 
the legend of the dismembered Dionysus, who, as creator, is the 
ajuepi<rros (undivided) wus, and, as the creature, the /zeMeptovi&os 
(divided) voiJs. 21 Dionysus is distributed throughout the whole of 
nature, and just as Zeus once devoured the throbbing heart of 
the god, so his worshippers tore wild animals to pieces in order 
to reintegrate his dismembered spirit. The gathering together of 
the light-substance in Barbelo-Gnosis and in Manichaeism 
points in the same direction. The psychological equivalent of 
this is the integration of the self through conscious assimilation 
of the split-off contents. Self-recollection is a gathering together 
of the self. It is in this sense that we have to understand the in 
structions which Monoimos gives to Theophrastus: 

Seek him [God] from out thyself, and learn who it is that taketh pos 
session of everything in thee, saying: my god, my spirit [w>us], my 
understanding, my soul, my body; and learn whence is sorrow and 
joy, and love and hate, and waking though one would not, and 
sleeping though one would not, and getting angry though one 

20 if I use the unhistorical term "self* for the corresponding processes in the 
psyche, I do so out of a conscious desire not to trespass on other preserves, but to 
confine myself exclusively to the field of empirical psychology. 

21 Finnicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum, 7, 8. 

264 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



would not, and falling in love though one would not. And if thou 
shouldst closely investigate these things, thou wilt find Him in thy 
self, the One and the Many, like to that little point, for it is from 
thee that he hath his origin. 22 

4 Self-reflection or what comes to the same thingthe urge 
to individuation gathers together what is scattered and multi 
farious, and exalts it to the original form of the One, the Primor 
dial Man. In this way our existence as separate beings, our 
former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is wid 
ened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious the 
sources of conflict are dried up. This approximation to the self 
is a kind of repristination or apocatastasis, in so far as the self 
has an "incorruptible" or "eternal" character on account of its 
being pre-existent to consciousness. 23 This feeling is expressed 
in the words from the benedictio fontis: "Et quos aut sexus in 
corpore aut aetas discernit in tempore, omnes in unam pariat 
gratia mater infantiam" (And may Mother Grace bring forth 
into one infancy all those whom sex has separated in the body, 
or age in time). 

402 The figure of the divine sacrificer corresponds feature for 
feature to the empirical modes of manifestation of the archetype 
that lies at the root of almost all known conceptions of God. 
This archetype is not merely a static image, but dynamic, full of 
movement. It is always a drama, whether in heaven, on earth, 
or in hell. 24 

(d) The Archetype of Sacrifice 

4<>3 Comparing the basic ideas of the Mass with the imagery of 
the Zosimos visions, we find that, despite considerable differ 
ences, there is a remarkable degree of similarity. For the sake of 
clearness I give the similarities and differences in tabular form. 

22 Hippolytus, Elenchos, VIII, 15. 

23 And also on account of the fact that the unconscious is only conditionally bound 
by space and time. The comparative frequency of telepathic phenomena proves 
that space and time have only a relative validity for the psyche. Evidence for this 
is furnished by Rhine's experiments. Cf. my "Synchronitity." 

24 The word "hell" may strike the reader as odd in this connection. I would, how 
ever, recommend him to study the brothel scene in James Joyce's Ulysses, or James 
Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Zosimos 



Mass 



SIMILARITIES 



1. The chief actors are two 
priests. 

2. One priest slays the other. 



3. Other human beings are sac 
rificed as well. 

4. The sacrifice is a voluntary 
self-sacrifice. 

5. It is a painful death. 

6. The victim is dismembered. 

7. There is a thysia. 

8. The priest eats his own flesh. 



9. He is transformed into spirit. 9, 



10. A shining white figure ap 
pears, like the midday sun. 



11. Production of the "divine 
water." 



1. There is the priest, and 
Christ the eternal priest. 

2. The Mactatio Christi takes 
place as the priest pronounces 
the words of consecration. 

3. The congregation itself is a 
sacrificial gift. 

4. Christ offers himself freely as 
a sacrifice. 

5. He suffers in the sacrificial 
act. 

6. Breaking of the Bread. 

7. Offering up of incense. 
Christ drinks his own blood 
(St. Chrysostom). 

The substances are trans 
formed into the body and 
blood of Christ. 

10. The Host is shown as the 
Beatific Vision ("Quaesivi 
vultum tuum, Domine") in 
the greater elevation. 

11. The Grace conferred by the 
Mass; similarity of water 
chalice and font; water a 
symbol of grace. 



8. 



DIFFERENCES 



1. The whole sacrificial process 
is an individual dream vision, 
a fragment of the unconscious 
depicting itself in dream con 
sciousness. 

2. The dreamer is only a spec 
tator of the symbolic action. 

3. The action is a bloody and 
gruesome human sacrifice. 



266 



The Mass is a conscious arti 
fact, the product of many cen 
turies and many minds. 



Priest and congregation both 
participate in the mystery. 
Nothing obnoxious; the mac- 
tatio itself is not mentioned. 
There is only the bloodless 
sacrifice of bread and wine 
(incruente immolaturl). 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



4. The sacrifice is accompanied 4. Nothing comparable, 
by a scalping. 

5. It is also performed on a 5. Symbolic sacrifice of the Lamb, 
dragon, and is therefore an 

animal sacrifice. 

6. The flesh is roasted. 6. The substances are spiritually 

transformed. 

7. The meaning of the sacrifice 7. The meaning of the Mass is 
is the production of the divine the communion of the living 
water, used for the transmuta- Christ with his flock. 

tion of metals and, mystically, 
for the birth of the self. 

8. What is transformed in the 8. What is transformed in the 
vision is presumably the plan- Mass is God, who as Father 
etary demon Saturn, the su- begat the Son in human form, 
preme Archon (who is related suffered and died in that 
to the God of the Hebrews). form, and rose up again to 
It is the dark, heavy, material his origin. 

principle in man hyle which 
is transformed into pneuma. 

404 The gross concretism of the vision is so striking that one 
might easily feel tempted, for aesthetic and other reasons, to 
drop the comparison with the Mass altogether. If I nevertheless 
venture to bring out certain analogies, I do so not with the ration 
alistic intention of devaluing the sacred ceremony by putting 
it on a level with a piece of pagan nature worship. If I have any 
aim at all apart from scientific truth, it is to show that the most 
important mystery of the Catholic Church rests, among other 
things, on psychic conditions which are deeply rooted in the 
human soul. 

405 The vision, which in all probability has the character o a 
dream, must be regarded as a spontaneous psychic product that 
was never consciously intended. Like all dreams, it is a product 
of nature. The Mass, on the other hand, is a product of man's 
mind or spirit, and is a definitely conscious proceeding. To use 
an old but not outmoded nomenclature, we can call the vision 
psychic, and the Mass pneumatic. The vision is undifferentiated 
raw material, while the Mass is a highly differentiated artifact. 
That is why the one is gruesome and the other beautiful. If 
the Mass is antique, it is antique in the best sense of the word, 

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and its liturgy is therefore satisfying to the highest requirements 
of the present day. In contrast to this, the vision is archaic and 
primitive, but its symbolism points directly to the fundamental 
alchemical idea of the incorruptible substance, namely to the 
self, which is beyond change. The vision is a piece of unalloyed 
naturalism, banal, grotesque, squalid, horrifying and profound 
as nature herself. Its meaning is not clear, but it allows itself to 
be divined with the abysmal uncertainty and ambiguity that 
pertain to all things nonhuman, suprahuman, and subhuman. 
The Mass, on the other hand, represents and clearly expresses 
the Deity itself, and clothes it in the garment of the most beauti 
ful humanity. 

406 From all this it is evident that the vision and the Mass 
are two different things, so different as to be almost incom 
mensurable. But if we could succeed in reconstructing the natu 
ral process in the unconscious on which the Mass is psychically 
based, we should probably obtain a picture which would be 
rather more commensurable with the vision of Zosimos. Accord 
ing to the view of the Church, the Mass is based on the historical 
events in the life of Jesus. From this "real" life we can single 
out certain details that add a few concretistic touches to our 
picture and thus bring it closer to the vision. For instance, I 
would mention the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and 
the clothing in a purple robe, which show Jesus as the archaic 
sacrificed king. This is further emphasized by the Barabbas epi 
sode (the name means "son of the father*') which leads to the 
sacrifice of the king. Then there is the agony of death by cruci 
fixion, a shameful and horrifying spectacle, far indeed from any 
"incruente immolatur"! The right pleural cavity and probably 
the right ventricle of the heart were cut open by the spear, so 
that blood clots and serum flowed out. If we add these details to 
the process which underlies the Mass, we shall see that they form 
a striking equivalent to certain archaic and barbarous features 
of the vision. There are also the fundamental dogmatic ideas to 
be considered. As is shown by the reference to the sacrifice of 
Isaac in the prayer Unde et memores, the sacrifice has the char 
acter not only of a human sacrifice, but the sacrifice of a son 
and an only son. That is the cruellest and most horrible kind of 
sacrifice we can imagine, so horrible that, as we know, Abraham 

268 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



was not required to carry it out. 25 And even if he had carried it 
out, a stab in the heart with a knife would have been a quick and 
relatively painless death for the victim. Even the bloody Aztec 
ceremony of cutting out the heart was a swift death. But the 
sacrifice of the son which forms the essential feature of the Mass 
began with scourging and mockery, and culminated in six hours 
of suspension on a cross to which the victim was nailed hand 
and foot not exactly a quick death, but a slow and exquisite 
form of torture. As if that were not enough, crucifixion was re 
garded as a disgraceful death for slaves, so that the physical 
cruelty is balanced by the moral cruelty. 

4<>7 Leaving aside for the moment the unity of nature of Father 
and Son which it is possible to do because they are two distinct 
Persons who are not to be confused with one another let us try 
to imagine the feelings of a father who saw his son suffering such 
a death, knowing that it was he himself who had sent him into 
the enemy's country and deliberately exposed him to this dan 
ger. Executions of this kind were generally carried out as an act 
of revenge or as punishment for a crime, with the idea that both 
father and son should suffer. The idea of punishment can be 
seen particularly clearly in the crucifixion between two thieves. 
The punishment is carried out on God himself, and the model 
for this execution is the ritual slaying of the king. The king is 
killed when he shows signs of impotence, or when failure of the 
crops arouses doubts as to his efficacy. Therefore he is killed in 
order to improve the condition of his people, just as God is sacri 
ficed for the salvation of mankind. 

408 What is the reason for this "punishment" of God? Despite 
the almost blasphemous nature of this question, we must never 
theless ask it in view of the obviously punitive character of the 

25 How Jewish piety reacted to this sacrifice can be seen from the following 
Talmudic legend: " 'And I,' cried Abraham, 'swear that I will not go down from 
the altar until you have heard me. When you commanded me to sacrifice my son 
Isaac you offended against your word, "in Isaac shall your descendants be 
named/* So if ever my descendants offend against you, and you wish to punish 
them, then remember that you too are not without fault, and forgive them/ 
*Very well, then/ replied the Lord, 'there behind you is a ram caught in the 
thicket with his horns. Offer up that instead of your son Isaac. And if ever your 
descendants sin against me, and I sit in judgment over them on New Year's Day, 
let them blow the horn of a ram, that I may remember my words, and temper 
justice with mercy/ " Fromer and Schnitzer, Legenden aus dem Talmud, pp. 34! 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



sacrifice. The usual explanation is that Christ was punished for 
our sins. 26 The dogmatic validity of this answer is not in ques 
tion here. As I am in no way concerned with the Church's ex 
planation, but only wish to reconstruct the underlying psychic 
process, we must logically assume the existence of a guilt propor 
tionate to the punishment. If mankind is the guilty party, logic 
surely demands that mankind should be punished. But if God 
takes the punishment on himself, he exculpates mankind, and 
we must then conjecture that it is not mankind that is guilty, 
but God (which would logically explain why he took the guilt 
on himself). For reasons that can readily be understood, a satis 
factory answer is not to be expected from orthodox Christianity. 
But such an answer may be found in the Old Testament, in 
Gnosticism, and in late Catholic speculation. From the Old 
Testament we know that though Yahweh was a guardian of the 
law he was not just, and that he suffered from fits of rage which 
he had every occasion to regret. 27 And from certain Gnostic sys 
tems it is clear that the auctar rerum was a lower archon who 
falsely imagined that he had created a perfect world, whereas 
in fact it was woefully imperfect. On account of his Saturnine 
disposition this demiurgic archon has affinities with the Jewish 
Yahweh, who was likewise a world creator. His work was im 
perfect and did not prosper, but the blame cannot be placed 
on the creature any more than one can curse the pots for being 
badly turned out by the potter! This argument led to the 
Marcionite Reformation and to purging the New Testament of 
elements derived from die Old. Even as late as the seventeenth 
century the learned Jesuit, Nicolas Caussin, declared that the 
unicorn was a fitting symbol for the God of the Old Testament, 
because in his wrath he reduced the world to confusion like an 
angry rhinoceros (unicorn), until, overcome by the love of a 
pure virgin, he was changed in her lap into a God of Love. 28 

26 Isaiah 55:5: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for 
our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
we are healed/* 2? See "Answer to Job," in this volume. 

28 Caussin, DC symbolica Aegyptiorum sapientia. Polyhistor symbolicus, Electorum 
symbolorum, et Parabolarum histoiicarum stromata (1618), p. 401. Cf. also 
Philippus Picinelli, Mondo Simbolico, p. 299: "Of a truth God, terrible beyond 
measure, appeared before the world peaceful and wholly tamed after dwelling in 
the womb of the most blessed Virgin. St. Bonaventura said that Christ was 
tamed and pacified by the most kindly Mary, so that he should not punish the 
sinner with eternal death." 

270 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



409 In these explanations we find the natural logic we missed in 
the answer of the Church. God's guilt consisted in the fact that, 
as creator of the world and king of his creatures, he was inade 
quate and therefore had to submit to the ritual slaying. For 
primitive man the concrete king was perfectly suited to this 
purpose, but not for a higher level of civilization with a more 
spiritual conception of God. Earlier ages could still dethrone 
their gods by destroying their images or putting them in chains. 
At a higher level, however, one god could be dethroned only by 
another god, and when monotheism developed, God could only 
transform himself. 

4* The fact that the transformative process takes the form of a 
"punishment" Zosimos uses this very word (/c6Xacns) may be 
due to a kind of rationalization or a need to offer some explana 
tion of its cruelty. Such a need only arises at a higher level of 
consciousness with developed feeling, which then seeks an ade 
quate reason for the revolting and incomprehensible cruelty of 
the procedure. (A modern parallel would be the experience of 
dismemberment in shamanistic initiations.) The readiest con 
jecture at this level is that some guilt or sin is being punished. 
In this way the transformation process acquires a moral function 
that can scarcely be conceived as underlying the original event. 
It seems more likely that a higher and later level of conscious 
ness found itself confronted with an experience for which no 
sensible reasons or explanations had ever been given, but which 
it tried to make intelligible by weaving into it a moral aetiology. 
It is not difficult to see that dismemberment originally served 
the purpose of reconstituting the neophyte as a new and more 
effective human being. Initiation even has the aspect of a heal 
ing. 29 In the light of these facts, moral interpretation in terms 
of punishment seems beside the mark and arouses the suspicion 
that dismemberment has still not been properly understood. A 
moral interpretation is inadequate because it fails to understand 
the contradiction at the heart of its explanation, namely that 
guilt should be avoided if one doesn't want to be punished. But, 
for the neophyte, it would be a real sin if he shrank from the 
torture of initiation. The torture inflicted on him is not a pun 
ishment but the indispensable means of leading him towards 
his destiny. Also, these ceremonies often take place at so young 
an age that a guilt of corresponding proportions is quite out of 
29 Eliade, Shamanism, esp. chs. II and VII. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the question. For this reason, the moralistic view of suffering 
as punishment seems to me not only inadequate but misleading. 
It is obviously a primitive attempt to give a psychological ex 
planation of an age-old archetypal idea that had never before 
been the object of reflection. Such ideas and rituals, far from 
ever having been invented, simply happened and were acted 
long before they were thought. I have seen primitives practising 
rites of which none of them had the remotest idea what they 
meant, and in Europe we still find customs whose meaning has 
always been unconscious. First attempts at explanation usually 
turn out to be somewhat clumsy. 

4* 1 The aspect of torture, then, is correlated with a detached 
and observing consciousness that has not yet understood the real 
meaning of dismemberment. What is performed concretely on 
the sacrificial animal, and what the shaman believes to be actu 
ally happening to himself, appears on a higher level, in the 
vision of Zosimos, as a psychic process in which a product of the 
unconscious, an homunculus, is cut up and transformed. By all 
the rules of dream-interpretation, this is an aspect of the ob 
serving subject himself; that is to say, Zosimos sees himself as an 
homunculus, or rather the unconscious represents him as such, 
as an incomplete, stunted, dwarfish creature who is made of 
some heavy material (lead or bronze) and thus signifies the 
"hylical man." Such a one is dark, and sunk in materiality. He 
is essentially unconscious and therefore in need of transforma 
tion and enlightenment. For this purpose his body must be 
taken apart and dissolved into its constituents, a process known 
in alchemy as the divisio, separatio and solutio, and in later 
treatises as discrimination and self-knowledge* This psycho 
logical process is admittedly painful and for many people a 
positive torture. But, as always, every step forward along the 
path of individuation is achieved only at the cost of suffering. 

41* In the case of Zosimos there is of course no real consciousness 
of the transformative process, as is abundantly clear from his 
own interpretation of the vision: he thought the dream imagery 
was showing him the "production o the waters." We can see 
from this that he was still exteriorizing the transformation and 
did not feel it in any way as an alteration of his own psyche. 

30 Particularly in Gerhard Dora, "Speculativae philosophiae," Theatrum chcm* 
icum, I (1602), pp. 276!. 

272 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



413 A similar state of affairs prevails in Christian psychology 
whenever the rites and dogmas are taken as merely external 
factors and are not experienced as inner events. But, just as the 
imitatio Christi in general, and the Mass in particular, en 
deavour to include the believer in the process of transformation, 
the Mass actually representing him as a sacrificial gift parallel 
with Christ, so a better understanding of Christianity raises it 
as high above the sphere of "mind" as the rite of the Mass is 
above the archaic level of the Zosimos vision. The Mass tries to 
effect a participation mystiqueor identity of priest and con 
gregation with Christ, so that on the one hand the soul is as 
similated to Christ and on the other hand the Christ-figure is 
recollected in the soul. It is a transformation of God and man 
alike, since the Mass is, at least by implication, a repetition of the 
whole drama of Incarnation. 



III. THE MASS AND THE INDIVIDUATION PROCESS 

4H Looked at from the psychological standpoint, Christ, as the 
Original Man (Son of Man, second Adam, r4Xetos &>0pwros), repre 
sents a totality which surpasses and includes the ordinary man, 
and which corresponds to the total personality that transcends 
consciousness. 31 We have called this personality the "self." Just 
as, on the more archaic level of the Zosimos vision, the homun- 
culus is transformed into pneuma and exalted, so the mystery 
of the Eucharist transforms the soul of the empirical man, who 
is only a part of himself, into his totality, symbolically expressed 
by Christ. In this sense, therefore, we can speak of the Mass as 
the rite of the individuation process. 

4*5 Reflections of this kind can be found very early on in the 
old Christian writings, as for instance in the Acts of John, one 
of the most important of the apocryphal texts that have come 
down to us. 82 That part of the text with which we are concerned 
here begins with a description of a mystical "round dance" 
which Christ instituted before his crucifixion. He told his 
disciples to hold hands and form a ring, while he himself stood 

31 Cf. my A ion, Ch. V. 

32 The Apocryphal New Testament. The Acts of John were probably written dur 
ing the first half of the 2nd cent. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



in the centre. As they moved round in a circle, Christ sang a 
song of praise, from which I would single out the following 
characteristic verses: 33 

I will be saved and I will save, Amen. 
I will be loosed and I will loose, 34 Amen. 
I will be wounded and I will wound, Amen. 
I will be begotten and I will beget, Amen. 
I will eat and I will be eaten, Amen. 

I will be thought, being wholly spirit, Amen. 
I will be washed and I will wash, Amen. 
Grace paces the round. I will blow the pipe. Dance 
the round all, Amen. 

The Eight [ogdoad] sings praises with us, Amen. 

The Twelve paces the round aloft, Amen. 

To each and all it is given to dance, Amen. 

Who joins not the dance mistakes the event, Amen. 

I will be united and I will unite, Amen. 

A lamp am I to you that perceive me, Amen. 
A mirror am I to you that know me, Amen. 
A door am I to you that knock on me, Amen. 
A way am I to you the wayfarer. 

Now as you respond to my dancing, behold yourself in me who 
speaks . . . 

As you dance, ponder what I do, for yours is this human suffering 
which I will to suffer. For you would be powerless to understand 
your suffering had I not been sent to you as the Logos by the Father. 
... If you had understood suffering, you would have non-suffering. 
Learn to suffer, and you shall understand how not to suffer. . . . 
Understand the Word of Wisdom in me. 35 

416 I would like to interrupt the text here, as we have come to a 
natural break, and introduce a few psychological remarks. They 
will help us to understand some further passages that still have 

33 Ibid., pp. 253!., modified. 

34 [Or: I wiH be freed and I will free.-TRANS.] 

35 Trans, based on James, pp. 253^, and that of Ralph Manheim from the Ger 
man of Max Pulver, "Jesus' Round Dance and Crucifixion according to the Acts 
of St. John," in The Mysteries, pp. 179^ 

274 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



to be discussed. Although our text is obviously based on New 
Testament models, what strikes us most of all is its antithetical 
and paradoxical style, which has very little in common with the 
spirit of the Gospels. This feature only appears in a veiled way 
in the canonical writings, for instance in the parable of the un 
just steward (Luke 16), in the Lord's Prayer ("Lead us not into 
temptation"), in Matthew 10: 16 ("Be wise as serpents"), John 
10:34 ("Ye are gods"), in the logion of the Codex Bezae to Luke 
6:4, 36 in the apocryphal saying "Whoso is near unto me is near 
unto the fire," and so on. Echoes of the antithetical style can 
also be found in Matthew 10:26: ". . . . for nothing is covered 
that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known." 

417 Paradox is a characteristic of the Gnostic writings. It does 
more justice to the unknowable than clarity can do, for uni 
formity of meaning robs the mystery of its darkness and sets it 
up as something that is known. That is a usurpation, and it leads 
the human intellect into hybris by pretending that it, the in 
tellect, has got hold of the transcendent mystery by a cognitive 
act and has "grasped" it. The paradox therefore reflects a higher 
level of intellect and, by not forcibly representing the unknow 
able as known, gives a more faithful picture of the real state of 
affairs. 

418 These antithetical predications show the amount of reflec 
tion that has gone into the hymn: it formulates the figure of our 
Lord in a series of paradoxes, as God and man, sacrificer and 
sacrificed. The latter formulation is important because the 
hymn was sung just before Jesus was arrested, that is, at about 
the moment when the synoptic gospels speak of the Last Supper 
and John among other things of the parable of the vine. John, 
significantly enough, does not mention the Last Supper, and in 
the Acts of John its place is taken by the "round dance." But the 
round table, like the round dance, stands for synthesis and 
union. In the Last Supper this takes the form of participation 
in the body and blood of Christ, i.e., there is an ingestion and 
assimilation of the Lord, and in the round dance there is a cir 
cular circumambulation round the Lord as the central point. 
Despite the outward difference of the symbols, they have a com 
mon meaning: Christ is taken into the midst of the disciples. 
But, although the two rites have this common basic meaning, 
36 See James, p. 33. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the outward difference between them should not be overlooked. 
The classical Eucharistic feast follows the synoptic gospels, 
whereas the one in the Acts of John follows the Johannine pat 
tern. One could almost say that it expresses, in a form borrowed 
from some pagan mystery feast, a more immediate relationship 
of the congregation to Christ, after the manner of the Johannine 
parable: "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in 
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit" (John 
1 5 : 5)- This close relationship is represented by the circle and 
central point: the two parts are indispensable to each other and 
equivalent. Since olden times the circle with a centre has been a 
symbol for the Deity, illustrating the wholeness of God in 
carnate: the single point in the centre and the series of points 
constituting the circumference. Ritual circumambulation often 
bases itself quite consciously on the cosmic picture of the starry 
heavens revolving, on the "dance of the stars/' an idea that is 
still preserved in the comparison of the twelve disciples with the 
zodiacal constellations, as also in the depictions of the zodiac 
that are sometimes found in churches, in front of the altar or 
on the roof of the nave. Some such picture may well have been 
at the back of the medieval ball-game of pelota that was played 
in church by the bishop and his clergy. 

419 At all events, the aim and effect of the solemn round dance 
is to impress upon the mind the image of the circle and the 
centre and the relation of each point along the periphery to that 
centre. 37 Psychologically this arrangement is equivalent to a 
mandala and is thus a symbol of the self, 38 the point of reference 
not only of the individual ego but of all those who are of like 
mind or who are bound together by fate. The self is not an ego 
but a supraordinate totality embracing the conscious and the 
unconscious. But since the latter has no assignable limits and 

37 Another idea of the kind is that every human being is a ray of sunlight. This 
image occurs in the Spanish poet Jorge Guillen, Cantico: Fe de Vida, pp. 24-25 
("Mas alia," VI): 

Where could I stray to, where? 
This point is my centre . . . 

With this earth and this ocean 

To rise to the infinite: 

One ray more of the sun, (Trans, by J. M. Cohen.) 

38 Cf. Aion, Ch. IV. 

276 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



in its deeper layers is o a collective nature, it cannot be dis 
tinguished from that of another individual. As a result, it con 
tinually creates that ubiquitous participation mystique which 
is the unity of many, the one man in all men. This psychological 
fact forms the basis for the archetype of the fo^pwiros, the Son of 
Man, the homo maximus, the vir unus, purusha, etc. 39 Because 
the unconscious, in fact and by definition, cannot be discrimi 
nated as such, the most we can hope to do is to infer its nature 
from the empirical material. Certain unconscious contents are un 
doubtedly personal and individual and cannot be attributed to 
any other individual. But, besides these, there are numerous 
others that can be observed in almost identical form in many 
different individuals in no way connected with one another. 
These experiences suggest that the unconscious has a collective 
aspect. It is therefore difficult to understand how people today 
can still doubt the existence of a collective unconscious. After 
all, nobody would dream of regarding the instincts or human 
morphology as personal acquisitions or personal caprices. The 
unconscious is the universal mediator among men. It is in a 
sense the all-embracing One, or the one psychic substratum com 
mon to all. The alchemists knew it as their Mercurius and they 
called him the mediator in analogy to Christ. 40 Ecclesiastical 
doctrine says the same thing about Christ, and so, particularly, 
does our hymn. Its antithetical statements could, however, be 
interpreted as referring just as well to Mercurius, if not better. 
420 For instance, in the first verse, "I will be saved," it is not 
clear how far the Lord is able to say such a thing of himself, 
since he is the saviour (o^p) par excellence. Mercurius, on the 
other hand, the helpful arcane substance of the alchemists, is 
the world-soul imprisoned in matter and, like the Original 
Man who fell into the embrace of Physis, is in need of salva 
tion through the labours of the artifex. Mercurius is set free 
("loosed") and redeemed; as aqua permanens he is also the 

39 The universality of this figure may explain why its epiphanies take so many 
different forms. For instance, it is related in the Acts of John (James, p. 251) that 
Drusiana saw the Lord once "in the likeness of John*' and another time "in that 
of a youth." The disciple James saw him as a child, but John as an adult. John 
saw him first as "a small man and uncomely," and then again as one reaching to 
heaven (p. 251). Sometimes his body felt "material and solid/* but sometimes "the 
substance was immaterial and as if it existed not at all" (p. 252). 

40 "The Spirit Mercurius," pt. 2, ch. 9. 

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PSYCHOLOGi A ,D RELIGION : WEST 



classical solvent. "I will be wounded, and I will wound" is 
clearer: it refers to the wound in Christ's side and to the divisive 
sword. But Mercurius too, as the arcane substance, is divided or 
pierced through with the sword (separatio and penetratio), and 
wounds himself with the sword or telum passionis, the dart of 
love. The reference to Christ is less clear in the words "I will be 
begotten, and I will beget." The first statement refers essen 
tially to him in so far as the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost 
and not created, but the "begetting" is generally held to be the 
property of the Holy Ghost and not of Christ as such. It 
certainly remains a moot point whether Mercurius as the world- 
soul was begotten or created, but he is unquestionably "vivify 
ing," and in his ithyphallic form as Hermes Kyllenios he is 
actually the symbol of generation. "Eating" as compared with 
"being eaten" is not exactly characteristic of Christ, but rather 
of the devouring dragon, the corrosive Mercurius, who, as the 
uroboros, also eats himself, like Zosimos's homunculus. 

"I will be thought," if evangelical at all, is an exclusively 
Johannine, post-apostolic speculation concerning the nature of 
the Logos. Hermes was very early considered to be Nous and 
Logos, and Hermes Trismegistus was actually the Nous of reve 
lation. Mercurius, until well into the seventeenth century, was 
thought of as the veritas hidden in the human body, i.e., in 
matter, and this truth had to be known by meditation, or by 
cogitatio, reflection. Meditation is an idea that does not occur 
at all in the New Testament. 41 The cogitatio which might pos 
sibly correspond to it usually has a negative character and ap 
pears as the wicked cogitatio cordis of Genesis 6:5 (and 8:21): 
"Cuncta cogitatio cordis intenta ad malum" (DV: ". . . all the 
thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times"; AV: 
". . . every imagination of the thoughts of his heart . . ."). In 
I Peter 4 : i ewwa is given as "cogitatio" (DV: ". . . arm your 
selves with the same intent"; AV: "same mind"; RSV: "same 
thought"). "Cogitare" has a more positive meaning in II Corin 
thians 10:7, where it really means to "bethink oneself," "re 
member by reflection": "hoc cogitet iterum apud se" ("TOUTO 
Xcyyifeotfo? iraXiv t<j>* tavrov"; DV: "let him reflect within himself"; 

4l"Haec meditate" (ravra ^Xera) in I Tim. 4:15 has more the meaning of 
'see to' or 'attend to' these things. [Both DV and AV have "meditate on these 
things/' but RSV has "practise these duties." TRANS.] 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



AV: "let him of himself think this again"; RSV: "let him re 
mind himself). But this positive thinking in us is of God (II 
Cor. 3:5: "non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis, 

quasi ex nobis"; "ovx &n &$' l&vr&v IKCLVOL e<rnev Xo7rao-0<u n cl>s 4 

cay?, dXX* ^ iKavorqs w&v k rou 0eotJ"; DV: "Not that we are suffi 
cient of ourselves to think anything, as from ourselves, but our 
sufficiency is from God"). The only place where cogitatio has the 
character of a meditation culminating in enlightenment is Acts 
10 : 19: "Petro autem cogitante de visione, dixit Spiritus ei" ("Tou 
Si Htrpov BievOv^jLOVfjikvov Trepl TOU 6pcc/zaros tTy r6 Trvevpa airr"; DV: 

"But while Peter was pondering over the vision, the spirit said 
to him . . ."). 

422 Thinking, in the first centuries of our era, was more the 
concern of the Gnostics than of the Church, for which reason 
the great Gnostics, such as Basilides and Valentinus, seem almost 
like Christian theologians with a bent for philosophy. With 
John's doctrine of the Logos, Christ came to be regarded simul 
taneously as the Nous and the object of human thought; the 
Greek text says literally: "Nwjffljww 0eXco vovs &v SXos" tt (I will be 
thought, being wholly spirit). Similarly, the Acts of Peter say of 
Christ: "Thou art perceived of the spirit only." 43 

423 The "washing" refers to the purificatio, or to baptism, and 
equally to the washing of the dead body. The latter idea lin 
gered on into the eighteenth century, as the alchemical washing 
of the "black corpse," an opus mulierum. The object to be 
washed was the black prima materia: it, the washing material 
(sapo sapientum!}, and the washer wereall three of them the 
selfsame Mercurius in different guises. But whereas in alchemy 
the nigredo and sin were identical concepts (since both needed 
washing), in Christian Gnosticism there are only a few hints 
of Christ's possible identity with the darkness. The Xofoacrffcu 
("I will be washed") in our text is one of them. 

424 The "ogdoad," being a double quaternity, belongs to the 
symbolism of the mandala. It obviously represents the archetype 
of the round dance in the "supra-celestial place," since it sings 
in harmony. The same applies to the number Twelve, the zodi 
acal archetype of the twelve disciples, a cosmic idea that still 

42 Lipsius and Bonnet, eds., Ada Apostolorum Apocrypha, I, p. 197. 

43 James, p, 335. 

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echoes in Dante's Paradiso, where the saints form shining con 
stellations. 

4 2 5 Anyone who does not join in the dance, who does not make 
the circumambulation o the centre (Christ and Anthropos), is 
smitten with blindness and sees nothing. What is described here 
as an outward event is really a symbol for the inward turning 
towards the centre in each of the disciples, towards the archetype 
of man, towards the self for the dance can hardly be under 
stood as an historical event. It should be understood, rather, as 
a sort of paraphrase of the Eucharist, an amplifying symbol that 
renders the mystery more assimilable to consciousness, and it 
must therefore be interpreted as a psychic phenomenon. It is 
an act of conscious realization on a higher level, establishing a 
connection between the consciousness of the individual and the 
supraordinate symbol of totality. 

426 The "Acts of Peter" says of Christ: 

Thou art unto me father, thou my mother, thou my brother, thou 
my friend, thou my bondsman, thou my steward. Thou art All and 
All is in thee; thou Art, and there is naught else that is save thee 
only. 

Unto him therefore do ye also, brethren, flee, and if ye learn that 
in him alone ye exist, ye shall obtain those things whereof he saith 
unto you: "Which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard, neither have 
they entered into the heart of man." 44 

427 The words "I will be united" must be understood in this 
sense, as meaning that subjective consciousness is united with an 
objective centre, thus producing the unity of God and man 
represented by Christ. The self is brought into actuality through 
the concentration of the many upon the centre, and the self 
wants this concentration. It is the subject and the object of the 
process. Therefore it is a "lamp" to those who "perceive" it. 
Its light is invisible if it is not perceived; it might just as well 
not exist. It is as dependent on being perceived as the act of 
perception is on light. This brings out once again the paradox 
ical subject-object nature of the unknowable. Christ, or the self, 
is a "mirror": on the one hand it reflects the subjective con 
sciousness of the disciple, making it visible to him, and on the 
other hand it "knows" Christ, that is to say it does not merely 

James, p. 335. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



reflect the empirical man, it also shows him as a (transcendental) 
whole. And, just as a "door" opens to one who "knocks" on it, or 
a "way" opens out to the wayfarer who seeks it, so, when you 
relate to your own (transcendental) centre, you initiate a process 
of conscious development which leads to oneness and wholeness. 
You no longer see yourself as an isolated point on the periphery, 
but as the One in the centre. Only subjective consciousness is 
isolated; when it relates to its centre it is integrated into whole 
ness. Whoever joins in the dance sees himself in the reflecting 
centre, and his suffering is the suffering which the One who 
stands in the centre "wills to suffer." The paradoxical identity 
and difference of ego and self could hardly be formulated more 
trenchantly. 

428 As the text says, you would not be able to understand what 
you suffer unless there were that Archimedean point outside, 
the objective standpoint of the self, from which the ego can be 
seen as a phenomenon. Without the objectivation of the self 
the ego would remain caught in hopeless subjectivity and would 
only gyrate round itself. But if you can see and understand your 
suffering without being subjectively involved, then, because of 
your altered standpoint, you also understand "how not to 
suffer," for you have reached a place beyond all involvements 
("you have me as a bed, rest upon me"). This is an unexpectedly 
psychological formulation of the Christian idea of overcoming 
the world, though with a Docetist twist to it: "Who I am, you 
shall know when I depart. What now I am seen to be, I am 
not." 45 These statements are clarified by a vision in which John 
sees the Lord "standing in the midst of the cave and illumi 
nating it." He says to John: 

429 John, for the multitude below in Jerusalem I am being crucified 
and pierced with lances and staves, and vinegar and gall are given 
me to drink. But to you I speak, and what I say, hear: I put it into 
your mind to go up on this mountain, that you might hear those 
things which a disciple must learn from his master and a man from 
his God. And with these words he showed me a cross of light, 
and about the cross a great multitude that had no form [plav fjLop<t>-nv 
fj$ fycovra], and in the cross there was one form and one appear 
ance. And above [&r<b>a>] the cross I saw the Lord himself, and he 
had no outward shape [<rxwa>]> but only a voice, and a voice not 

45 Ibid., p. 254. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



such as we knew, but one sweet and kind and truly [that] of [a] God, 
which spoke to me: John, one man must hear this from me, for I 
require one that shall hear. For your sakes this cross of light was 
named by me now Logos, now Nous, now Jesus, now Christ, now 
Door, now Way, now Bread, now Seed [Wopos], now Resurrection, 
now Son, now Father, now Pneuma, now Life, now Truth, now 
Faith |yi<ms], now Grace. So is it called for men; but in itself and 
in its essence, as spoken of to you, it is the Boundary of all things, 
and the composing of things unstable, 46 and the harmony of wisdom, 
and the wisdom that is in harmony. For there are [places] of the 
right and of the left, Powers, Authorities, Archons, Daemons, Work 
ings, Threatenings, Wraths, Devils, Satan, and the Nether Root 
whence proceeded the nature of whatever comes to be. And so' it is 
this cross which joined all things together through the Word, and 
which separated the things that are from those that are below, and 
which caused all things to flow forth from the One. 

But this is not the cross of wood which you will see when you go 
down from here; neither am I he that is on the cross, whom now 
you do not see, but only hear his voice. I passed for that which I am 
not, for I am not what I was to many others. But what they will say 
of me is vile and not worthy of me. Since, then, the place of rest is 
neither seen nor named, how much less will they see and name me, 
their Lordl 

Now the formless multitude about the cross is of the lower nature. 
And if those whom you see in the cross have not one form, then not 
all the parts of him who descended have yet been recollected. But 
when the nature of man has been taken up and a generation of men 
that obey my voice draws near to me, he that now hears me shall 
be united with them and shall no longer be what he now is, but shall 
stand above them, as I do now. For so long as you call not yourself 
mine, I am not what I was. But if you understand me, you shall be 
in your understanding as I am, and I shall be what I was when 
I have you with me. For this you are through me. . . . 

Behold, what you are, I have shown you. But what I am, I alone 
know, and no man else. Therefore let me have what is mine, but 
behold what is thine through me. And behold me truly, not as I 
have said I am, but as you, being akin to me, know me. 47 

430 Our text throws some doubt on the traditional view of 
Docetism. Though it is perfectly clear from the texts that Christ 
only seemed to have a body, which only seemed to suffer, this 

46 'kvayyij jStdjSa uncertain. 

47 Based on James, pp. 254ff., and the author's modified version of Hennecke, ed., 
Neutestamentlicke Apokryphen, pp. i86ff. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



is Docetism at its grossest. The Acts of John are more subtle, 
and the argument used is almost epistemological: the historical 
facts are real enough, but they reveal no more than is intelligible 
to the senses of the ordinary man. Yet even for the knower of 
divine secrets the act of crucifixion is a mystery, a symbol that 
expresses a parallel psychic event in the beholder. In the lan 
guage of Plato it is an event which occurs in a "supra-celestial 
place/' i.e., on a "mountain" and in a "cave" where a cross of 
light is set up, its many synonyms signifying that it has many 
aspects and many meanings. It expresses the unknowable nature 
of the "Lord," the supraordinate personality and reXctos a^pcoTros, 
and since it is a quaternity, a whole divided into four parts, it 
is the classic symbol of the self. 

43 1 Understood in this sense, the Docetism of the Acts of John 
appears more as a completion of the historical event than a de 
valuation of it. It is not surprising that the common people 
should have failed to appreciate its subtlety, though it is plain 
enough from a psychological point of view. On the other hand, 
the educated public of those days were by no means unfamiliar 
with the parallelism of earthly and metaphysical happenings, 
only it was not clear to them that their visionary symbols were 
not necessarily metaphysical realities but were perceptions of 
intrapsychic or subliminal processes that I have called "phenom 
ena of assimilation." The contemplation of Christ's sacrificial 
death in its traditional form and cosmic significance constellated 
analogous psychic processes which in their turn gave rise to a 
wealth of symbols, as I have shown elsewhere. 48 This is, quite 
obviously, what has happened here, and it took the form of a 
visible split between the historical event down below on earth, 
as perceived by the senses, and its ideal, visionary reflection on 
high, the cross appearing on the one hand as a wooden instru 
ment of torture and on the other as a glorious symbol. Evidently 
the centre of gravity has shifted to the ideal event, with the re 
sult that the psychic process is involuntarily given the greater 
importance. Although the emphasis on the pneuma detracts 
from the meaning of the concrete event in a rather one-sided 
and debatable way, it cannot be dismissed as superfluous, since 
a concrete event by itself can never create meaning, but is largely 
dependent for this on the manner in which it is understood. 

48 Cf. .4 ion. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION *. WEST 



Interpretation is necessary before the meaning of a thing can be 
grasped. The naked facts by themselves "mean" nothing. So 
one cannot assert that the Gnostic attempts at interpretation 
were entirely lacking in merit, even though it went far beyond 
the framework of early Christian tradition. One could even 
venture to assert that it was already implicit in that tradition, 
since the cross and the crucified are practically synonymous 
in the language of the New Testament. 49 

43 2 The text shows the cross as the antithesis of the formless 
multitude: it is, or it has, "form" and its meaning is that of a 
central point defined by the crossing of two straight lines. It is 
identical with the Kyrios (Lord) and the Logos, with Jesus and 
with Christ. How John could "see" the Lord above the cross, 
when the Lord is described as having no "outward shape," must 
remain a mystery. He only hears an explanatory voice, and this 
may indicate that the cross of light is only a visualization of the 
unknowable, whose voice can be heard apart from the cross. 
This seems to be confirmed by the remark that the cross was 
named Logos and so on "for your sakes." 

433 The cross signifies order as opposed to the disorderly chaos 
of the formless multitude. It is, in fact, one of the prime symbols 
of order, as I have shown elsewhere. In the domain of psycholog 
ical processes it functions as an organizing centre, and in states 
of psychic disorder 50 caused by an invasion of unconscious con 
tents it appears as a mandala divided into four. No doubt this 
was a frequent phenomenon in early Christian times, and not 
only in Gnostic circles. 51 Gnostic introspection could hardly fail, 
therefore, to perceive the numinosity of this archetype and be 
duly impressed by it. For the Gnostics the cross had exactly the 
same function that the atman or Self has always had for the East. 
This realization is one of the central experiences of Gnosticism. 

4 The quaternity, earlier hinted at in the vision of Ezekiel, is patently manifest 
in the pre-Christian Book of Enoch. (Cf. "Answer to Job/* below, pars. 66sff.) 
In the Apocalypse of Sophonias [Zephaniah], Christ appears surrounded by a 
garland of doves (Stem, "Die koptische Apokalypse des Sophonias," p. 124). Cf. 
also the mosaic of St. Felix at Nola, showing a cross surrounded by doves. There 
is another in San Clemente, Rome (Wickhoff, "Das Apsismosaik in der Basilica 
des H. Felix zu Nola," pp. 1582.; and Rossi, Musaici Cristiani delle Chiese di 
Roma anteriori al secolo XV, pi. XXIX). 

50 Symbolized by the formless multitude. 

51 Cf. "speaking with tongues'* and glossolalia. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



434 The definition of the cross or centre as 5topto-/x6s, the "bound 
ary" of all things, is exceedingly original, for it suggests that the 
limits of the universe are not to be found in a nonexistent pe 
riphery but in its centre. There alone lies the possibility of 
transcending this world. All instability culminates in that -which 
is unchanging and quiescent, and in the self all disharmonies 
are resolved in the "harmony of wisdom." 

435 As the centre symbolizes the idea of totality and finality, it 
is quite appropriate that the text should suddenly start speaking 
of the dichotomy of the universe, polarized into right and left, 
brightness and darkness, heaven and the "nether root," the 
omnium genetrix. This is a clear reminder that everything is 
contained in the centre and that, as a result, the Lord (i.e., 
the cross) unites and composes all things and is therefore 
"nirdvanda," free from the opposites, in conformity with East 
ern ideas and also with the psychology of this archetypal symbol. 
The Gnostic Christ-figure and the cross are counterparts of the 
typical mandalas spontaneously produced by the unconscious. 
They are natural symbols and they differ fundamentally from 
the dogmatic figure of Christ, in whom all trace of darkness is 
expressly lacking. 

43 6 In this connection mention should be made of Peter's vale 
dictory words, which he spoke during his martyrdom (he was 
crucified upside down, at his own request): 

O name of the cross, hidden mystery! O grace ineffable that is pro 
nounced in the name of the cross! O nature of man, that cannot be 
separated from God! O love unspeakable and indivisible, that can 
not be shown forth by unclean lips! I grasp thee now, I that am at 
the end of my earthly course. I will declare thee as thou art, I will 
not keep silent the mystery of the cross which was once shut and 
hidden from my soul. You that hope in Christ, let not the cross be 
for you that which appears; for it is another thing, and different 
from that which appears, this suffering which is in accordance with 
Christ's. And now above all, because you that can hear are able to 
hear it of me, who am at the last and farewell hour of my life, 
hearken: separate your souls from everything that is of the senses, 
from everything that appears to be but in truth is not. Lock your 
eyes, close your ears, shun those happenings which are seen! Then 
you shall perceive that which was done to Christ, and the whole 
mystery of your salvation. . . . 

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Learn the mystery of all nature and the beginning o all things, 
as it was. For the first man, of whose race I bear the likeness, fell 
head downwards, and showed forth a manner of birth such as had 
not existed till then, for it was dead, having no motion. And being 
pulled downwards, and having also cast his origin upon the earth, 
he established the whole disposition of things; for, being hanged 
up in the manner appointed, he showed forth the things of the 
right as those of the left, and the things of the left as those of the 
right, and changed about all the marks of their nature, so that 
things that were not fair were perceived to be fair, and those that 
were in truth evil were perceived to be good. Wherefore the Lord 
says in a mystery: "Except ye make the things of the right as those 
of the left, and those of the left as those of the right, and those that 
are above as those below, and those that are behind as those that 
are before, ye shall not have knowledge of the kingdom/* 

This understanding have I brought you, and the figure in which 
you now see me hanging is the representation of that first man who 
came to birth. 

437 In this passage, too, the symbolical interpretation of the cross 
is coupled with the problem of opposites, first in the unusual 
idea that the creation of the first man caused everything to be 
turned upside down, and then in the attempt to unite the op 
posites by identifying them with one another. A further point 
of significance is that Peter, crucified head downwards, is 
identical not only with the first created man, but with the cross: 

For what else is Christ but the word, the sound of God? So the word 
is this upright beam on which I am crucified; and the sound is the 
beam which crosses it, the nature of man; but the nail which holds 
the centre of the crossbeam to the upright is man's conversion and 
repentance (juTawta). 52 

438 In the light of these passages it can hardly be said that the 
author of the Acts of John presumably a Gnostic has drawn 
the necessary conclusions from his premises or that their full 
implications have become clear to him. On the contrary, one 
gets the impression that the light has swallowed up everything 
dark. Just as the enlightening vision appears high above the 
actual scene o crucifixion, so, for John, the enlightened one 
stands high above the formless multitude. The text says: "There 
fore care not for the many, and despise those that are outside 

2 Based on James, pp. 334^ 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



the mystery!" fi3 This overweening attitude arises from an infla 
tion caused by the fact that the enlightened John has identified 
with his own light and confused his ego with the self. Therefore 
he feels superior to the darkness in him. He forgets that light 
only has a meaning when it illuminates something dark and 
that his enlightenment is no good to him unless it helps him to 
recognize his own darkness. If the powers of the left are as real 
as those of the right, then their union can only produce a third 
thing that shares the nature of both. Opposites unite in a new 
energy potential: the "third" that arises out of their union is a 
figure "free from the opposites," beyond all moral categories. 
This conclusion would have been too advanced for the Gnostics. 
Recognizing the danger of Gnostic irrealism, the Church, more 
practical in these matters, has always insisted on the concretism 
of the historical events despite the fact that the original New 
Testament texts predict the ultimate deification of man in a 
manner strangely reminiscent of the words of the serpent in the 
Garden of Eden: "Ye shall be as gods." 54 Nevertheless, there 
was some justification for postponing the elevation of man's 
status until after death, as this avoided the danger of Gnostic 
inflation. 55 

439 Had the Gnostic not identified with the self, he would have 
been bou. a to see how much darkness was in him a realization 
that comes more naturally to modern man but causes him no 
less difficulties. Indeed, he is far more likely to assume that he 
himself is wholly of the devil than to believe that God could 
ever indulge in paradoxical statements. For all the ill conse 
quences of his fatal inflation, the Gnostic did, however, gain an 
insight into religion, or into the psychology of religion, from 
which we can still learn a thing or two today. He looked deep 
into the background of Christianity and hence into its future 
developments. This he could do because his intimate connection 
with pagan Gnosis made him an "assimilator" that helped to 
integrate the Christian message into the spirit of the times. 

44> The extraordinary number of synonyms piled on top of one 
another in an attempt to define the cross have their analogy in 
the Naassene and Peratic symbols of Hippolytus, all pointing to 

53 Ibid., p. 255. 54 Genesis 3 : 5. 

55 The possibility of inflation was brought very dose indeed by Christ's words: 

"Ye are gods" (John 10 : 34). 

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this one centre. It is the lv r6 TO.V of alchemy, which is on the 
one hand the heart and governing principle of the macrocosm, 
and on the other hand its reflection in a point, in a microcosm 
such as man has always been thought to be. He is of the same 
essence as the universe, and his own mid-point is its centre. This 
inner experience, shared by Gnostics, alchemists, and mystics 
alike, has to do with the nature of the unconscious one could 
even say that it is the experience of the unconscious; for the 
unconscious, though its objective existence and its influence on 
consciousness cannot be doubted, is in itself undifferentiable 
and therefore unknowable. Hypothetical germs of differentia 
tion may be conjectured to exist in it, but their existence cannot 
be proved, because everything appears to be in a state of mutual 
contamination. The unconscious gives the impression of multi 
plicity and unity at once. However overwhelmed we may be by 
the vast quantity of things differentiated in space and time, we 
know from the world of the senses that the validity of its laws 
extends to immense distances. We therefore believe that it is 
one and the same universe throughout, in its smallest part as in 
its greatest. On the other hand the intellect always tries to dis 
cern differences, because it cannot discriminate without them. 
Consequently the unity of the cosmos remains, for it, a some 
what nebulous postulate which it doesn't rightly know what to 
do with. But as soon as introspection starts penetrating into the 
psychic background it comes up against the unconscious, which, 
unlike consciousness, shows only the barest traces of any definite 
contents, surprising the investigator at every turn with a confus 
ing medley of relationships, parallels, contaminations, and iden 
tifications. Although he is forced, for epistemological reasons, to 
postulate an indefinite number of distinct and separate arche 
types, yet he is constantly overcome by doubt as to how far they 
are really distinguishable from one another. They overlap to 
such a degree and have such a capacity for combination that all 
attempts to isolate them conceptually must appear hopeless. In 
addition the unconscious, in sharpest contrast to consciousness 
and its contents, has a tendency to personify itself in a uniform 
way, just as if it possessed only one shape or one voice. Because 
of this peculiarity, the unconscious conveys an experience of 
unity, to which are due all those qualities enumerated by the 
Gnostics and alchemists, and a lot more besides. 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



44 1 As can plainly be seen from Gnosticism and other spiritual 
movements of the kind, people are naively inclined to take all 
the manifestations of the unconscious at their face value and to 
believe that in them the essence of the world itself, the ultimate 
truth, has been unveiled. This assumption does not seem to me 
quite as unwarranted as it may look at first sight, because the 
spontaneous utterances of the unconscious do after all reveal a 
psyche which is not identical with consciousness and which is, 
at times, greatly at variance with it. These utterances occur as a 
natural psychic activity that can neither be learnt nor controlled 
by the will. The manifestation of the unconscious is therefore 
a revelation of the unknown in man. We have only to disregard 
the dependence of dream language on environment and substi 
tute "eagle" for "aeroplane," "dragon" for "automobile" or 
"train," "snake-bite" for "injection," and so forth, in order to 
arrive at the more universal and more fundamental language 
of mythology. This gives us access to the primordial images that 
underlie all thinking and have a considerable influence even on 
our scientific ideas. 56 

44* In these archetypal forms, something, presumably, is express 
ing itself that must in some way be connected with the mysteri 
ous operation of a natural psyche in other words, with a cosmic 
factor of the first order. To save the honour of the objective 
psyche, which the contemporary hypertrophy of consciousness 
has done so much to depreciate, I must again emphasize that 
without the psyche we could not establish the existence of any 
world at all, let alone know it. But, judging by all we do know, 
it is certain that the original psyche possesses no consciousness 
of itself. This only comes in the course of development, a de 
velopment that falls mostly within the historical epoch. 57 Even 
today we know of primitive tribes whose level of consciousness 
is not so far removed from the darkness of the primordial psyche, 
and numerous vestiges of this state can still be found among 
civilized people. It is even probable, in view of its potentialities 
for further differentiation, that our modern consciousness is 
still on a relatively low level. Nevertheless, its development so 

56 Cf. Pauli, "The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on Kepler's Scientific Theories." 

57 Cf. the remarkable account of developing consciousness in an ancient Egyptian 
text, translated, with commentary, by Jacobsohn, entitled "Das Gesprach eines 
Lebensmuden mit seinem Ba." 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



far has made it emancipated enough to forget its dependence on 
the unconscious psyche. It is not a little proud of this emancipa 
tion, but it overlooks the fact that although it has apparently 
got rid of the unconscious it has become the victim of its own 
verbal concepts. The devil is cast out with Beelzebub. Our de 
pendence on words is so strong that a philosophical brand of 
"existentialism" had to restore the balance by pointing to a 
reality that exists in spite of words at considerable risk, how 
ever, of concepts such as "existence," "existential," etc, turning 
into more words which delude us into thinking that we have 
caught a reality. One can be and is just as dependent on words 
as on the unconscious. Man's advance towards the Logos was a 
great achievement, but he must pay for it with loss of instinct 
and loss of reality to the degree that he remains in primitive 
dependence on mere words. Because words are substitutes for 
things, which of course they cannot be in reality, they take on 
intensified forms, become eccentric, outlandish, stupendous, 
swell up into what schizophrenic patients call "power words." 
A primitive word-magic develops, and one is inordinately im 
pressed by it because anything out of the ordinary is felt to 
be especially profound and significant. Gnosticism in particular 
affords some very instructive examples of this. Neologisms tend 
not only to hypostatize themselves to an amazing degree, but 
actually to replace the reality they were originally intended to 
express. 

443 This rupture of the link with the unconscious and our sub 
mission to the tyranny of words have one great disadvantage: 
the conscious mind becomes more and more the victim of its 
own discriminating activity, the picture we have of the world 
gets broken down into countless particulars, and the original 
feeling of unity, which was integrally connected with the unity 
of the unconscious psyche, is lost. This feeling of unity, in the 
form of the correspondence theory and the sympathy of all 
things, dominated philosophy until well into the seventeenth 
century and is now, after a long period of oblivion, looming 
up again on the scientific horizon, thanks to the discoveries made 
by the psychology of the unconscious and by parapsychology. 
The manner in which the unconscious forcibly obtrudes upon 
the conscious by means of neurotic disturbances is not only 

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TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



reminiscent of contemporary political and social conditions but 
even appears as an accompanying phenomenon. In both cases 
there is an analogous dissociation: in the one case a splitting 
of the world's consciousness by an "iron curtain,'* and in the 
other a splitting of the individual personality. This dissociation 
extends throughout the entire world, so that a psychological 
split runs through vast numbers of individuals who, in their 
totality, call forth the corresponding mass phenomena. In the 
West it was chiefly the mass factor, and in the East technology, 
that undermined die old hierarchies. The cause of this develop 
ment lay principally in the economic and psychological up- 
rootedness of the industrial masses, which in turn was caused by 
the rapid technological advance. But technology, it is obvious, is 
based on a specifically rationalistic differentiation of conscious 
ness which tends to repress all irrational psychic factors. Hence 
there arises, in the individual and nation alike, an unconscious 
counterposition which in time grows strong enough to burst 
out into open conflict. 

444 The same situation in reverse was played out on a smaller 
scale and on a spiritual plane during the first centuries of our 
era, when the spiritual disorientation of the Roman world was 
compensated by the irruption of Christianity. Naturally, in 
order to survive, Christianity had to defend itself not only 
against its enemies but also against the excessive pretensions 
of some of its adherents, including those of the Gnostics. Increas 
ingly it had to rationalize its doctrines in order to stem the flood 
of irrationality. This led, over the centuries, to that strange mar 
riage of the originally irrational Christian message with human 
reason, which is so characteristic of the Western mentality. But 
to the degree that reason gradually gained the upper hand, the 
intellect asserted itself and demanded autonomy. And just as the 
intellect subjugated the psyche, so also it subjugated Nature and 
begat on her an age of scientific technology that left less and less 
room for the natural and irrational man. Thus the foundations 
were laid for an inner opposition which today threatens the 
world with chaos. To make the reversal complete, all the powers 
of the underworld now hide behind reason and intellect, and 
under the mask of rationalistic ideology a stubborn faith seeks to 
impose itself by fire and sword, vying with the darkest aspects 

291 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



of a church militant. By a strange enantiodromia, 58 the Chris 
tian spirit of the West has become the defender of the irrational, 
since, in spite of having fathered rationalism and intellectual- 
ism, it has not succumbed to them so far as to give up its belief 
in the rights of man, and especially the freedom of the indi 
vidual. But this freedom guarantees a recognition of the 
irrational principle, despite the lurking danger of chaotic indi 
vidualism. By appealing to the eternal rights of man, faith 
binds itself inalienably to a higher order, not only on account 
of the historical fact that Christ has proved to be an ordering 
factor for many hundreds of years, but also because the self 
effectively compensates chaotic conditions no matter by what 
name it is known: for the self is the Anthropos above and be 
yond this world, and in him is contained the freedom and 
dignity of the individual man. From this point of view, dispar 
agement and vilification of Gnosticism are an anachronism. Its 
obviously psychological symbolism could serve many people 
today as a bridge to a more living appreciation of Christian 
tradition. 

445 These historical changes have to be borne in mind if we 
wish to understand the Gnostic figure of Christ, because the say 
ings in the Acts of John concerning the nature of the Lord only 
become intelligible when we interpret them as expressing an 
experience of the original unity as contrasted with the formless 
multiplicity of conscious contents. This Gnostic Christ, of whom 
we hear hints even in the Gospel according to St. John, sym 
bolizes man's original unity and exalts it as the saving goal of his 
development. By "composing the unstable," by bringing order 
into chaos, by resolving disharmonies and centring upon the 
mid-point, thus setting a "boundary" to the multitude and 
focusing attention upon the cross, consciousness is reunited with 
the unconscious, the unconscious man is made one with his 
centre, which is also the centre of the universe, and In this wise 
the goal of man's salvation and exaltation is reached. 

446 Right as this intuition may be, it is also exceedingly danger 
ous, for it presupposes a coherent ego-consciousness capable of 
resisting the temptation to identify with the selL Such an ego- 
consciousness seems to be comparatively rare, as history shows; 

[Ct Psychological Types, Def. 18, and Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 
par. 111. EDITORS,] 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



usually the ego identifies with the inner Christ, and the danger 
is increased by animitatio Christi falsely understood. The result 
is inflation, of which our text affords eloquent proof. In order 
to exorcise this danger, the Church has not made too much of 
the "Christ within," but has made all it possibly could of the 
Christ whom we "have seen, heard, and touched with hands," 
in other words, with the historical event "below in Jerusalem." 
This is a wise attitude, which takes realistic account of the primi- 
tiveness of man's consciousness, then as now. For the less mind 
ful it is of the unconscious, the greater becomes the danger of 
its identification with the latter, and the greater, therefore, the 
danger o inflation, which, as we have experienced to our cost, 
can seize upon whole nations like a psychic epidemic. If Christ 
is to be "real" for this relatively primitive consciousness, then 
he can be so only as an historical figure and a metaphysical 
entity, but not as a psychic centre in all too perilous proximity 
to a human ego. The Gnostic development, supported by scrip 
tural authority, pushed so far ahead that Christ was clearly 
recognized as an inner, psychic fact. This also entailed the rela 
tivity of the Christ-figure, as expressively formulated in our text: 
"For so long as you call not yourself mine, I am not what I was, 
... I shall be what I was when I have you with me." From this 
it follows unmistakably that although Christ was whole once 
upon a time, that is, before time and consciousness began, he 
either lost this wholeness or gave it away to mankind 50 and 
can only get it back again through man's integration. His whole 
ness depends on man: "You shall be in your understanding as I 
am" this ineluctable conclusion shows the danger very clearly. 
The ego is dissolved in the self; unbeknown to itself, and with 
all its inadequacy and darkness, it has become a god and deems 
itself superior to its unenlightened fellows. It has identified 
with its own conception of the "higher man," quite regardless 
of the fact that this figure consists of "Places of the right and left, 
Authorities, Archons, Daemons" etc., and the devil himself. A 
figure like this is simply not to be comprehended, an awesome 

W This view may be implicit in the kenosis passage (Philippians 2:5!.): "Have 
this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he was by nature 
God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to he clung to, but emptied 
himself [fce&oxw, exinanwit], taking the nature of a slave and being made like 
unto man*' (DV). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



mystery with which one had better not identify if one has any 
sense. It is sufficient to know that such a mystery exists and that 
somewhere man can feel its presence, but he should take care 
not to confuse his ego with it. On the contrary, the confronta 
tion with his own darkness should not only warn him against 
identification but should inspire him with salutary terror on 
beholding just what he is capable of becoming. He cannot con 
quer the tremendous polarity of his nature on his own resources; 
he can only do so through the terrifying experience of a psychic 
process that is independent of him, that works him rather than 
he it. 

447 If such a process exists at all, then it is something that can 
be experienced. My own personal experience, going back over 
several decades and garnered from many individuals, and the 
experience of many other doctors and psychologists, not to men 
tion the statements terminologically different, but essentially 
the same of all the great religions, 60 all confirm the existence 
of a compensatory ordering factor which is independent of the 
ego and whose nature transcends consciousness. The existence 
of such a factor is no more miraculous, in itself, than the orderli 
ness of radium decay, or the attunement of a virus to the anat 
omy and physiology of human beings, 61 or the symbiosis of 
plants and animals. What is miraculous in the extreme is that 
man can have conscious, reflective knowledge of these hidden 
processes, while animals, plants, and inorganic bodies seemingly 
lack it Presumably it would also be an ecstatic experience for a 
radium atom to know that the time of its decay is exactly de 
termined, or for the butterfly to recognize that the flower has 
made all the necessary provisions for its propagation. 

448 The numinous experience of the individuation process is, 
<m the archaic level, the prerogative of shamans and medicine 
men; later, of the physician, prophet, and priest; and finally, at 
the civilized stage, of philosophy and religion. The shaman's 
experience of sickness, torture, death, and regeneration implies, 
at a higher level, the idea of being made whole through sacri 
fice, of being changed by transubstantiation and exalted to the 

*0 Including shamanism, whose widespread phenomenology anticipates the alche 
mist's individuatioo symbolism on an archaic level. For a comprehensive account 
see Eliadc, Shamanism. 
i Cf. Portmann, "Die Bedeutung der BHder in der tebendigen Eneigiewandlung." 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



pneumatic man in a word, of apotheosis. The Mass is the sum 
mation and quintessence of a development which began many 
thousands of years ago and, with the progressive broadening and 
deepening of consciousness, gradually made the isolated experi 
ence of specifically gifted individuals the common property of a 
larger group. The underlying psychic process remained, of 
course, hidden from view and was dramatized in the form of 
suitable "mysteries" and "sacraments," these being reinforced 
by religious teachings, exercises, meditations, and acts of sacri 
fice which plunge the celebrant so deeply into the sphere of the 
mystery that he is able to become conscious of his intimate con 
nection with the mythic happenings. Thus, in ancient Egypt, 
we see how the experience of "Osirification," 62 originally the 
prerogative of the Pharaohs, gradually passed to the aristocracy 
and finally, towards the end of the Old Kingdom, to the single 
individual as well. Similarly, the mystery religions of the Greeks, 
originally esoteric and not talked about, broadened out into 
collective experience, and at the time of the Caesars it was 
considered a regular sport for Roman tourists to get themselves 
initiated into foreign mysteries. Christianity, after some hesita 
tion, went a step further and made celebration of the mysteries 
a public institution, for, as we know, it was especially concerned 
to introduce as many people as possible to the experience of 
the mystery. So, sooner or later, the individual could not fail 
to become conscious of his own transformation and of the neces 
sary psychological conditions for this, such as confession and 
repentance of sin. The ground was prepared for the realization 
that, in the mystery of transubstantiation, it was not so much a 
question of magical influence as of psychological processes a 
realization for which the alchemists had already paved the way 
by putting their opus operatum at least on a level with the ec 
clesiastical mystery, and even attributing to it a cosmic sig 
nificance since, by its means, the divine world-soul could be 
liberated from imprisonment in matter. As I think I have 
shown, the "philosophical" side of alchemy is nothing less than 
a symbolic anticipation of certain psychological insights, and 
these to judge by the example of Gerhard Dorn were pretty 
far advanced by the end of the sixteenth century. 63 Only our in- 

2 Ci Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness, pp. sssoff. 
*$A ion, pp. i62ff. 

295 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



tellectualized age could have been so deluded as to see in alche 
my nothing but an abortive attempt at chemistry, and in the 
interpretative methods of modern psychology a mere "psycholo 
gizing," i.e., annihilation, of the mystery. Just as the alchemists 
knew that the production of their stone was a miracle that could 
only happen "Deo concedente," so the modern psychologist is 
aware that he can produce no more than a description, couched 
in scientific symbols, of a psychic process whose real nature 
transcends consciousness just as much as does the mystery of life 
or of matter. At no point has he explained the mystery itself, 
thereby causing it to fade. He has merely, in accordance with 
the spirit of Christian tradition, brought it a little nearer to 
individual consciousness, using the empirical material to set 
forth the individuation process and show it as an actual and 
experienceable fact. To treat a metaphysical statement as a 
psychic process is not to say that it is "merely psychic," as my 
critics assert in the fond belief that the word "psychic" postu 
lates something known. It does not seem to have occurred to 
people that when we say "psyche" we are alluding to the densest 
darkness it is possible to imagine. The ethics of the researcher 
require him to admit where his knowledge comes to an end. 
This end is the beginning of true wisdom. 



IV 

FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE 
UNCONSCIOUS" 



FOREWORD TO WERBLOWSKY'S 
"LUCIFER AND PROMETHEUS" 



BROTHER KLAUS 



FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE 
UNCONSCIOUS" l 



449 It is now many years since I expressed a desire for co-opera 
tion with a theologian, but I little knew or even dreamt how 
or to what extent my wish was to be fulfilled. This book, to 
which I have the honour of contributing an introductory fore 
word, is the third major publication 2 from the theological side 
which has been written in a spirit of collaboration and mutual 
effort. In the fifty years of pioneer work that now lie behind me 
I have experienced criticism, just and unjust, in such abundance 
that I know how to value any attempt at positive co-operation. 
Criticism from this quarter is constructive and therefore wel 
come. 

45<> Psychopathology and medical psychotherapy are, when 
viewed superficially, far removed from the theologian's particu 
lar field of interest, and it is therefore to be expected that no 
small amount of preliminary effort will be required to estab 
lish a terminology comprehensible to both parties. To make this 

1 [Originally trans, (by Fr. White) from the German ms. for publication in the 
book by Fr. Victor White, O.P. (London, 1952; Chicago, 1953). The foreword was 
there subscribed May 1952. It has been slightly revised, on the basis of the orig 
inal ms. EDITORS.] 

2 [The two previous ones were by the Protestant theologian Hans Schaer: Religion 
and the Cure of Souls in Jungs Psychology, and Erldsungsvorstellungen und ihre 
psychologischen Aspekte.E&noRS.'l 

299 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



possible, certain fundamental realizations are required on either 
side. The most important o these is an appreciation of the fact 
that the object of mutual concern is the psychically sick and 
suffering human being, who is in need of consideration as much 
from the somatic or biological standpoint as from the spiritual 
or religious. The problem of neurosis ranges from disturbances 
in the sphere of instinct to the ultimate questions and decisions 
affecting our philosophy of life. Neurosis is not an isolated, 
sharply defined phenomenon; it is a reaction of the whole 
human being. Here a pure therapy of the symptoms is obviously 
even more definitely proscribed than in the case of purely 
somatic illnesses; these too, however, always have a psychic com 
ponent or accompanying symptom even though they are not 
psychogenic. Modern medicine has just begun to take account 
of this fact, which the psychotherapists have been emphasizing 
for a long time. In the same way, long years of experience have 
shown me over and over again that a therapy along purely bio 
logical lines does not suffice, but requires a spiritual complement. 
This becomes especially clear to the medical psychologist where 
the question of dreams is concerned; for dreams, being state 
ments of the unconscious, play no small part in the therapy. 
Anyone who sets to work in an honest and critical frame of mind 
will have to admit that the correct understanding of dreams is 
no easy matter, but one that calls for careful reflection, leading 
far beyond purely biological points of view. The indubitable 
occurrence of archetypal motifs in dreams makes a thorough 
knowledge of the spiritual history of man indispensable for 
anyone seriously attempting to understand the real meaning of 
dreams. The likeness between certain dream-motifs and mytho- 
logems is so striking that they may be regarded not merely as 
similar but even as identical. This recognition not only raises 
the dream to a higher level and places it in the wider context 
of the mythologem, but, at the same time, the problems posed 
by mythology are brought into connection with the psychic life 
of the individual. From the mythologem to the religious state 
ment it is only a step, But whereas the mythological figures ap 
pear as pale phantoms and relics of a long past life that has 
become strange to us, the religious statement represents an im 
mediate "numinous" experience. It is a living mythologem. 
451 Here the empiricist's way of thinking and expressing himself 

300 



FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS" 

gets him into difficulties with the theologian. The latter when 
he is either making a dogma of the Gospel or "demythologizing" 
it won't hear anything of "myth" because it seems to him a 
devaluation of the religious statement, in whose supreme truth 
he believes. The empiricist, on the other hand, whose orienta 
tion is that of natural science, does not connect any notion of 
value with the concept "myth." "Myth/* for him, means "a 
statement about processes in the unconscious,' 1 and this applies 
equally to the religious statement. He has no means of deciding 
whether the latter is "truer 7 * than the mythologem, for between 
the two he sees only one difference: the difference in living in 
tensity. The so-called religious statement is still numinous, a 
quality which the myth has already lost to a great extent. The 
empiricist knows that rites and figures once "sacred" have be 
come obsolete and that new figures have become "numinous." 
452 The theologian can reproach the empiricist and say that he 
does possess the means of deciding the truth, he merely does not 
wish to make use of it referring to the truth of revelation. In 
all humility the empiricist will then ask: Which revealed truth, 
and where is the proof that one view is truer than another? 
Christians themselves do not appear to be at one on this point. 
While they are busy wrangling, the doctor has an urgent case 
on his hands. He cannot wait for age-long schisms to be settled, 
but will seize upon anything that is "alive" for the patient and 
therefore effective. Naturally he cannot prescribe any religious 
system which is commonly supposed to be alive. Rather, by dint 
of careful and persevering investigation, he must endeavour to 
discover just where the sick person feels a healing, living quality 
which can make him whole. For the present he cannot be con 
cerned whether this so-called truth bears the official stamp of 
validity or not. If, however, the patient is able to rediscover 
himself in this way and so get on his feet again, then the ques 
tion of reconciling his individual realization or whatever one 
may choose to call the new insight or life-giving experience 
with the collectively valid opinions and beliefs becomes a matter 
of vital importance. That which is only individual has an iso 
lating effect, and the sick person will never be healed by be 
coming a mere individualist. He would still be neurotically 
unrelated and estranged from his social group. Even Freud's 
exclusively personalistic psychology of drives was obliged to 

301 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



come to terms, at least negatively, with the generally valid 
truths, the age-old representations collectives of human society. 
Scientific materialism is by no means a private religious or 
philosophical matter, but a very public matter indeed, as we 
might well have realized from contemporary events. In view 
of the extraordinary importance of these so-called universal 
truths, a rapprochement between individual realizations and 
social convictions becomes an urgent necessity. And just as the 
sick person in his individual distinctiveness must find a modus 
vivendi with society, so it will be a no less urgent task for him 
to compare the insights he has won through exploring the un 
conscious with the universal truths, and to bring them into 
mutual relationship. 

453 A great part of my life's work has been devoted to this en 
deavour. But it was clear to me from the outset that I could 
never accomplish such a task by myself. Although I can testify to 
the psychological facts, it is quite beyond my power to promote 
the necessary processes of assimilation which coming to terms 
with the representations collectives requires. This calls for the 
cooperation of many, and above all of those who are the ex 
pounders of the universal truths, namely the theologians. Apart 
from doctors, they are the only people who have to worry pro 
fessionally about the human soul, with the exception perhaps 
of teachers. But the latter confine themselves to children, who 
as a rule only suffer from the problems of the age indirectly, via 
their parents and educators. Surely, then, it would be valuable 
for the theologian to know what happens in the psyche of an 
adult It must gradually be dawning on any responsible doctor 
what a tremendously important role the spiritual element plays 
in the psychic economy. 

454 I must acknowledge with gratitude that the co-operation I 
had so long wished and hoped for has now become a reality. 
The present book bears witness to this, for it meets the pre 
occupations of medical psychology not only with intellectual 
understanding, but with good will. Only the most uncritical 
optimism could expect such an encounter to be love at first 
sight. The points de depart are too far apart and too different, 
and the road to their meeting-place too long and too hard, for 
agreement to come as a matter of course. I do not presume to 
know what the theologian misunderstands or fails to under- 

302 



FOREWORD TO WHITE S GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS" 

stand in the empiricist's point of view, for it is as much as I can 
do to learn to estimate his theological premises correctly. If I 
am not mistaken, however, one of the main difficulties lies in the 
fact that both appear to speak the same language, but this 
language calls up in their minds two totally different fields of 
association. Both can apparently use the same concept and must 
then acknowledge, to their amazement, that they are speaking 
of two different things. Take, for instance, the word "God." 
The theologian will naturally assume that the metaphysical 
Ens Absolutum is meant. The empiricist, on the contrary, does 
not dream of making such a far-reaching assumption, which 
strikes him as downright impossible anyway. He just as natu 
rally means the word "God" as a mere statement, or at most as 
an archetypal motif which prefigures such statements. For him 
"God" can just as well mean Yahweh, Allah, Zeus, Shiva, or 
Huitzilopochtli. The divine attributes of omnipotence, omnis 
cience, eternity, and so on are to him statements which, symp- 
tomatically or as syndromes, more or less regularly accompany 
the archetype. He grants the divine image numinosity that is, 
a deeply stirring emotional effect which he accepts in the first 
place as a fact and sometimes tries to explain rationally, in a 
more or less unsatisfactory way. As a psychiatrist, he is suffi 
ciently hardboiled to be profoundly convinced of the relativity 
of all such statements. As a scientist, his primary interest is the 
verification of psychic facts and their regular occurrence, to 
which he attaches incomparably greater importance than to ab 
stract possibilities. His religio consists in establishing facts which 
can be observed and proved. He describes and circumscribes 
these in the same way as the mineralogist his mineral samples 
and the botanist his plants. He is aware that beyond provable 
facts he can know nothing and at best can only dream, and he 
considers it immoral to confuse a dream with knowledge. He 
does not deny what he has not experienced and cannot experi 
ence, but he will on no account assert anything which he does 
not think he can prove with facts. It is true that I have often 
been accused of having dreamt up the archetypes. I must remind 
these too hasty critics that a comparative study of motifs existed 
long before I ever mentioned archetypes. The fact that arche 
typal motifs occur in the psyche of people who have never 
heard of mythology is common knowledge to anyone who has 

3<>3 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



investigated the structure of schizophrenic delusions, if his eyes 
have not already been opened in this respect by the universal 
occurrence of certain mythologems. Ignorance and narrow- 
mindedness, even when the latter is political, have never been 
conclusive scientific arguments. 3 

455 I must be content to describe the standpoint, the faith, the 
struggle, the hope and devotion of the empiricist, which all 
culminate in the discovery and verification of provable facts and 
their hypothetical interpretation. For the theological standpoint 
I refer the reader to the competent expose by the author o this 
book. 

456 When standpoints differ so widely, it is understandable that 
numerous clashes should occur in practice, some important, 
some unimportant. They are important, above all, where one 
realm threatens to encroach upon the territory of the other. My 
criticism of the doctrine of the privatio boni is such a case. Here 
the theologian has a certain right to fear an intrusion on the 
part of the empiricist. This discussion has left its mark on the 
book, as the reader will see for himself. Hence I feel at liberty to 
avail myself of the right of free criticism, so generously offered 
me by the author, and to lay my argument before the reader. 

457 I should never have dreamt that I would come up against 
such an apparently out-of-the-way problem as that of the 
privatio boni in my practical work. Fate would have it, how 
ever, that I was called upon to treat a patient, a scholarly man 
with an academic training, who had got involved in all manner 
of dubious and morally reprehensible practices. He turned out 
to be a fervent adherent of the privatio boni, because it fitted in 
admirably with his scheme: evil in itself is nothing, a mere 
shadow, a trifling and fleeting diminution of good, like a cloud 
passing over the sun, This man professed to be a believing 
Protestant and would therefore have had no reason to appeal 
to a sententia communis of the Catholic Church had it not 
proved a welcome sedative to his uneasy conscience. It was this 
case that originally induced me to come to grips with the 
privatio boni in its psychological aspect. It is self-evident to the 

3 The fact that the psyche is not a tabula rasa, but bring? with it instinctive 
conditions, just as somatic life does, naturally does not suit a Marxist philosophy 
at all. True, the psyche can be crippled just like the body, but such a prospect 
would not be pleasing even to Marxists. 



FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS" 

empiricist that the metaphysical aspect of such a doctrine must 
be left out of account, for he knows that he is dealing only with 
moral judgments and not with substances. We name a thing, 
from a certain point of view, good or bad, high or low, right or 
left, light or dark, and so forth. Here the antithesis is just as 
factual and real as the thesis. 4 It would never occur to anyone 
except under very special conditions and for a definite purpose- 
to define cold as a diminution of heat, depth as a diminution 
of height, right as a diminution of left. With this kind of logic 
one could just as well call good a diminution of evil. The psy 
chologist would, it is true, find this way of putting it a little too 
pessimistic, but he would have nothing against it logically. 
Instead of ninety-nine you can also say a hundred minus one, 
if you don't find it too complicated. But should he, as a moral 
man, catch himself glossing over an immoral act by optimis 
tically regarding it as a slight diminution of good, which alone 
is real, or as an "accidental lack of perfection," then he would 
immediately have to call himself to order. His better judgment 
would tell him: If your evil is in fact only an unreal shadow of 
your good, then your so-called good is nothing but an unreal 
shadow of your real evil. If he does not reflect in this way he is 
deceiving himself, and self-deceptions of this kind have dissoci 
ating effects which breed neurosis, among them feelings of in 
feriority, with all their well-known attendant phenomena. 

45 8 For these reasons I have felt compelled to contest the validity 
of the privatio boni so far as the empirical realm is concerned. 
For the same reasons I also criticize the dictum derived from 
the privatio boni, namely: "Omne bonum a Deo, omne malum 
ab homine"; 5 for then on the one hand man is deprived of the 
possibility of doing anything good, and on the other he is given 
the seductive power of doing evil. The only dignity which is 
left him is that of the fallen angel. The reader will see that I 
take this dictum literally. 

459 Criticism can be applied only to psychic phenomena, i.e., 
to ideas and concepts, and not to metaphysical entities. These 

4 A recent suggestion that evil should be looked upon as a "decomposition" of 
good does not alter this fact in the slightest. A rotten egg is unfortunately just as 
real as a fresh one. 

5 The justice of this dictum strikes me as questionable, since Adam can hardly 
be held responsible for the wickedness of the serpent. 

305 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



can only be confronted with other metaphysical entities. Hence 
my criticism is valid only within the empirical realm. In the 
metaphysical realm, on the other hand, good may be a substance 
and evil a p$ fc.l know of no factual experience which approxi 
mates to such an assertion, so at this point the empiricist must 
remain silent. Nevertheless, it is possible that here, as in the 
case of other metaphysical statements, especially dogmas, there 
are archetypal factors in the background, which have existed 
for an indefinitely long time as preformative psychic forces and 
would therefore be accessible to empirical research. In other 
words, there might be a preconscious psychic tendency which, 
independent of time and place, continually causes similar state 
ments to be made, as is the case with mythologems, folklore 
motifs, and the individual formation of symbols. It seems to me, 
however, that the existing empirical material, at least so far as 
I am acquainted with it, permits of no definite conclusion as 
to the archetypal background of the privatio boni. Subject to 
correction, I would say that clear-cut moral distinctions are the 
most recent acquisition of civilized man. That is why such dis 
tinctions are often so hazy and uncertain, unlike other anti 
thetical constructions which undoubtedly have an archetypal 
nature and are the prerequisites for any act of cognition, such 
as the Platonic ratrroj^arcpw (the Same and the Different). 
460 Psychology, like every empirical science, cannot get along 
without auxiliary concepts, hypotheses, and models. But the 
theologian as well as the philosopher is apt to make the mistake 
of taking them for metaphysical postulates. The atom of which 
the physicist speaks is not an hypostasis, it is a model. Similarly, 
my concept of the archetype or of psychic energy is only an 
auxiliary idea which can be exchanged at any time for a better 
formula. From a philosophical standpoint my empirical concepts 
would be logical monsters, and as a philosopher I should cut a 
very sorry figure. Looked at theologically, my concept of the 
anima, for instance, is pure Gnosticism; hence I am often classed 
among the Gnostics, On top of that, the individuation process 
develops a symbolism whose nearest affinities are to be found 
in folklore, in Gnostic, alchemical, and suchlike "mystical" con 
ceptions, not to mention shamanism. When material of this kind 
is adduced for comparison, the exposition fairly swarms with 
"exotic'* and "far-fetched" proofs, and anyone who merely 

306 



FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS" 

skims through a book Instead o reading it can easily succumb 
to the illusion that he is confronted with a Gnostic system. In 
reality, however, individuation is an expression of that biolog 
ical process simple or complicated as the case may be by 
which every living thing becomes what it was destined to be 
come from the beginning. This process naturally expresses it 
self in man as much psychically as somatically. On the psychic 
side it produces those well-known quaternity symbols, for in 
stance, whose parallels are found in mental asylums as well as in 
Gnosticism and other exoticisms, and last but not least in 
Christian allegory. Hence it is by no means a case of mystical 
speculations, but of clinical observations and their interpreta 
tion through comparison with analogous phenomena in other 
fields. It is not the daring fantasy of the anatomist that can be 
held responsible when he discovers the nearest analogies to the 
human skeleton in certain African anthropoids of which the 
layman has never heard. 

461 It is certainly remarkable that my critics, with few excep 
tions, ignore the fact that, as a doctor and scientist, I proceed 
from facts which everyone is at liberty to verify. Instead, they 
criticize me as if I were a philosopher, or a Gnostic with pre 
tensions to supernatural knowledge. As a philosopher and 
speculating heretic I am, of course, easy prey. That is probably 
the reason why people prefer to ignore the facts I have discov 
ered, or to deny them without scruple. But it is the facts that 
are of prime importance to me and not a provisional terminol 
ogy or attempts at theoretical reflections. The fact that arche 
types exist is not spirited away by saying that there are no inborn 
ideas. I have never maintained that the archetype an sick is an 
idea, but have expressly pointed out that I regard it as a form 
without definite content. 

46* In view of these manifold misunderstandings, I set a par 
ticularly high value on the real understanding shown by the 
author, whose point de depart is diametrically opposed to that 
of natural science. He has successfully undertaken to feel his 
way into the empiricist's manner of thinking as far as possible, 
and if he has not always entirely succeeded in his attempt, I 
am the last person to blame him, for I am convinced that I am 
unwittingly guilty of many an offence against the theological 
way of thinking. Discrepancies of this kind can only be settled 

37 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



by lengthy discussions, but they have their good side: not only 
do two apparently incompatible mental spheres come into con 
tact, they also animate and fertilize one another. This calls for 
a great deal of good will on either side, and here I can give the 
author unstinted praise. He has taken the part of the opposite 
standpoint very fairly, and what is especially valuable to me 
has at the same time illustrated the theological standpoint in a 
highly instructive way. The medical psychotherapist cannot in 
the long run afford to overlook the religious systems of healing 
if one may so describe certain aspects of religion any more than 
the theologian, if he has the cure of souls at heart, can afford to 
ignore the experience of medical psychology. 

463 In the practical field of individual treatment it seems to me 
that no serious difficulties should arise. These may be expected 
only when the discussion begins between individual experience 
and the collective truths. In most cases this necessity does not 
present itself until fairly late in the treatment, if at all. In prac 
tice it quite often happens that the whole treatment takes place 
on the personal plane, without the patient having any inner ex 
periences that are definite enough to necessitate his coming to 
terms with the collective beliefs. If the patient remains within 
the framework of his traditional faith, he will, even if stirred 
or perhaps shattered by an archetypal dream, translate this ex 
perience into the language of his faith. This operation may 
strike the empiricist (if he happens to be a fanatic of the truth) 
as questionable, but it can pass off harmlessly and may even lead 
to a satisfactory issue, in so far as it is legitimate for this type of 
man. I try to impress it upon my pupils not to treat their pa 
tients as if they were all cut to the same measure: the population 
consists of different historical layers. There are people who, 
psychologically, might be living in the year 5000 B.C., i.e., who 
can still successfully solve their conflicts as people did seven 
thousand years ago. There are countless troglodytes and bar 
barians living in Europe and in all civilized countries, as well 
as a large number of medieval Christians. On the other hand, 
there are relatively few who have reached the level of conscious 
ness which is possible in our time. We must also reckon with 
the fact that a few of our generation belong to the third or 
fourth millennium A.D. and are consequently anachronistic. So 
it is psychologically quite "legitimate" when a medieval man 

308 



FOREWORD TO WHITE'S "GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS" 

solves his conflict today on a thirteenth-century level and treats 
his shadow as the devil incarnate. For such a man any other 
procedure would be unnatural and wrong, for his belief is that 
of a thirteenth-century Christian. But, for the man who belongs 
by temperament, i.e., psychologically, to the twentieth century, 
there are certain important considerations which would never 
enter the head of our medieval specimen. How much the Middle 
Ages are still with us can be seen, among other things, from the 
fact that such a simple truth as the psychic quality of metaphysi 
cal figures will not penetrate into people's heads. This is not a 
matter of intelligence or education, or of Weltanschauung, for 
the materialist also is unable to perceive to what extent, for 
instance, God is a psychic quantity which nothing can deprive 
of its reality, which does not insist on a definite name and which 
allows itself to be called reason, energy, matter, or even ego. 

464 This historical stratification must be taken into account most 
carefully by the psychotherapist, likewise the possibility of a 
latent capacity for development, which he would do well, how 
ever, not to take for granted. 

4% Whereas the "reasonable," i.e., rationalistic, point of view is 
satisfying to the man of the eighteenth century, the psycho 
logical standpoint appeals much more to the man of the twenti 
eth century. The most threadbare rationalism means more to 
the former than the best psychological explanation, for he is 
incapable of thinking psychologically and can operate only with 
rational concepts, which must on no account savour of meta 
physics, for the latter are taboo. He will at once suspect the 
psychologist of mysticism, for in his eyes a rational concept can 
be neither metaphysical nor psychological. Resistances against 
the psychological standpoint, which regards psychic processes as 
facts, are, I fear, all equally anachronistic, including the preju 
dice of "psychologism," which does not understand the em 
pirical nature of the psyche either. To the man of the twentieth 
century this is a matter of the highest importance and the very 
foundation of his reality, because he has recognized once and 
for all that without an observer there is no world and conse 
quently no truth, for there would be nobody to register it. The 
one and only immediate guarantor of reality is the observer. 
Significantly enough, the most unpsychological of all sciences, 

3<>9 



PSYCHOLOGY AN D RELIGION : WEST 



physics, comes up against the observer at the decisive point. 
This knowledge sets its stamp on our century. 

466 It would be an anachronism, i.e., a regression, for the man 
of the twentieth century to solve his conflicts either rational- 
istically or metaphysically. Therefore, for better or worse, he 
has built himself a psychology, because it is impossible to get 
along without it. Both the theologian and the somatic doctor 
would do well to give earnest consideration to this fact, if 
they do not want to risk losing touch with their time. It is 
not easy for the somatically oriented doctor to see his long 
familiar clinical pictures and their aetiology in the unaccus 
tomed light of psychology, and in the same way it will cost the 
theologian considerable effort to adjust his thinking to the new 
fact of the psyche and, in particular, of the unconscious, so that 
he too can reach the man of the twentieth century. No art, 
science, or institution in any way concerned with human beings 
can escape the effects of the development which the psychologists 
and physicists have let loose, even if they oppose it with the most 
stubborn prejudices. 

467 Father White's book has the merit of being the first theolog 
ical work from the Catholic side to concern itself with the far- 
reaching effects of the new empirical knowledge in the realm 
of archetypal ideas, and to make a serious attempt to integrate it. 
Although the book is addressed primarily to the theologian, the 
psychologist and particularly the medical psychotherapist will 
be able to glean from it a rich harvest of knowledge. 



FOREWORD TO WERBLOWSKY'S 
"LUCIFER AND PROMETHEUS" 1 



468 The author has submitted his manuscript to me with the 
request that I should write a few words by way of introduction. 
As the subject of the book is essentially literary, I do not feel 
altogether competent to express an opinion on the matter. The 
author has, however, rightly discerned that, although the prob 
lem of Milton's Paradise Lost is primarily a subject for literary 
criticism, it is, as a piece of confessional writing, fundamentally 
bound up with certain psychological assumptions. Though he 
has only touched on these at least in so many words he has 
made it sufficiently plain why he has appealed to me as a psychol 
ogist. However little disposed I am to regard Dante's Divine 
Comedy or Klopstock's Messiah or Milton's opus as fit subjects 
for psychological commentary, I cannot but acknowledge the 
acumen of the author, who has seen that the problem of Milton 
might well be elucidated from that angle of research which is my 
special field of study. 

469 For over two thousand years the figure of Satan, both as a 
theme of poetico-religious thinking and artistic creation and as 

i [Originally trans, by R. F. C. Hull from the German ms. for publication in the 
book by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (London, 1952). The present text contains only 
minor alterations. Professor Jung subscribed the foreword March 1951. EDITORS.] 

3" 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



a mythologem, has been a constant expression of the psyche, 
having its source in the unconscious evolution of "metaphysical 1 * 
images. We should go very wrong in our judgment if we as 
sumed that ideas such as this derive from rationalistic thinking. 
All the old ideas of God, indeed thought itself, and particularly 
numinous thought, have their origin in experience. Primitive 
man does not think his thoughts, they simply appear in his 
mind. Purposive and directed thinking is a relatively late 
human achievement. The numinous image is far more an ex 
pression of essentially unconscious processes than a product of 
rational inference. Consequently it falls into the category of 
psychological objects, and this raises the question of the under 
lying psychological assumptions. We have to imagine a mil 
lennial process of symbol-formation which presses towards 
consciousness, beginning in the darkness of prehistory with 
primordial or archetypal images, and gradually developing and 
differentiating these images into conscious creations. The history 
of religion in the West can be taken as an illustration of this: 
I mean the historical development of dogma, which also in 
cludes the figure of Satan. One of the best-known archetypes, 
lost in the grey mists of antiquity, is the triad of gods. In the 
early centuries of Christianity it reappears in the Christian 
formula for the Trinity, whose pagan version is Hermes ter 
unus. Nor is it difficult to see that the great goddess of the 
Ephesians has been resurrected in the 0w6*co$. This latter prob 
lem, after lying dormant for centuries, came into circulation 
again with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and, more 
recently, of the Assumption of the Virgin. The figure of the 
mediatrix rounds itself out in almost classical perfection, and it 
is especially noteworthy that behind the solemn promulgation 
of the dogma there stands no arbitrary tenet of papal authority 
but an anonymous movement of the Catholic world. The 
numerous miracles of the Virgin which preceded it are equally 
autochthonous; they are genuine and legitimate experiences 
springing directly from the unconscious psychic life of the 
people. 

470 I do not wish to multiply examples needlessly, but only to 
make it clear that the figure of Satan, too, has undergone a curi 
ous development, from the time of his first undistinguished 
appearance in the Old Testament texts to his heyday in Chris- 



FOREWORD TO WERBLOWSKY'S "LUCIFER AND PROMETHEUS" 

tianity. He achieved notoriety as the personification of the 
adversary or principle of evil, though by no means for the first 
time, as we meet him centuries earlier in the ancient Egyptian 
Set and the Persian Ahriman. Persian influences have been con 
jectured as mainly responsible for the Christian devil. But the 
real reason for the differentiation of this figure lies in the con 
ception of God as the summum bonum, which stands in sharp 
contrast to the Old Testament view and which, for reasons of 
psychic balance, inevitably requires the existence of an infirnum 
malum. No logical reasons are needed for this, only the natural 
and unconscious striving for balance and symmetry. Hence very 
early, in Clement of Rome, we meet with the conception of 
Christ as the right hand and the devil as the left hand of God, 
not to speak of the Judaeo-Christian view which recognized two 
sons of God, Satan the elder and Christ the younger. The figure 
of the devil then rose to such exalted metaphysical heights that 
he had to be forcibly depotentiated, under the threatening influ 
ence of Manichaeism. The depotentiation was effected this 
time by rationalistic reflection, by a regular tour de force of 
sophistry which defined evil as a privatio boni. But that did 
nothing to stop the belief from arising in many parts of Europe 
during the eleventh century, mainly under the influence of the 
Cathars, that it was not God but the devil who had created 
the world. In this way the archetype of the imperfect demiurge, 
who had enjoyed official recognition in Gnosticism, reappeared 
in altered guise. (The corresponding archetype is probably to 
be found in the cosmogonic jester 2 of primitive peoples.) With 
the extermination of the heretics that dragged on into the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, an uneasy calm ensued, but 
the Reformation thrust the figure of Satan once more into the 
foreground. I would only mention Jakob Bohme, who sketched 
a picture of evil which leaves the privatio boni pale by compari 
son. The same can be said of Milton. He inhabits the same 
mental climate. As for Bohme, although he was not a direct 
descendant of alchemical philosophy, whose importance is still 
grossly underrated today, he certainly took over a number of 
its leading ideas, among them the specific recognition of Satan, 
who was exalted to a cosmic figure of first rank in Milton, even 
emancipating himself from his subordinate role as the left hand 
2 [Cf. Jung's "On the Psychology of the Trickster Figure." EDrro*s.] 

313 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



of God (the role assigned to him by Clement). Milton goes even 
further than Bohme and apostrophizes the devil as the true 
principium individuationis, a concept which had been antici 
pated by the alchemists some time before. To mention only one 
example: "Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in 
terram et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis 
gloriam totius rnundL" (He rises from earth to heaven and 
descends again to earth, and receives into himself the power of 
above and below. Thus thou wilt have the glory of the whole 
world.) The quotation comes from the famous alchemical classic, 
the Tabula Smaragdina, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, 
whose authority remained unchallenged for more than thirteen 
centuries of alchemical thought. His words refer not to Satan, 
but to the filius philosophorum, whose symbolism, as I believe 
I have shown, coincides with that of the psychological "self." 
The filius of the alchemists is one of the numerous manifesta 
tions of Mercurius, who is called "duplex" and "ambiguus" and 
is also known outside alchemy as "utriusque capax" capable of 
anything. His "dark** half has an obvious affinity with Lucifer. 
47* In Milton's time these ideas were very much in the air, form 
ing part of the general stock of culture, and there were not a 
few Masters who realized that their philosophical stone was none 
other than the "total man." The Satan-Prometheus parallel 
shows clearly enough that Milton's devil stands for the essence 
of human individuation and thus comes within the scope of 
psychology. This close proximity, as we know, proved a danger 
not only to the metaphysical status of Satan, but to that of other 
numinous figures as well. With the coming of the Enlighten 
ment, metaphysics as a whole began to decline, and the rift 
which then opened out between knowledge and faith could no 
longer be repaired* The more resplendent figures in the meta 
physical pantheon had their autonomy restored to them prac 
tically untarnished, which assuredly cannot be said of the devil. 
In Goethe's Faust he has dwindled to a very personal farniliaris, 
the mere "shadow" of the struggling hero. After rational-liberal 
Protestantism had, as it were, deposed him by order of the day, 
he retired to the shadier side of the Christian Olympus as the 
"odd man out," and thus, in a manner not unwelcome to the 
Church, the old principle reasserted itself: Qmne bonurn a 

3*4 



FOREWORD TO WERBLOWSKY'S * 'LUCIFER AND PROMETHEUS" 

Deo, omne malum ab homine. The devil remains as an appendix 
to psychology. 

472 It is a psychological rule that when an archetype has lost its 
metaphysical hypostasis, it becomes identified with the conscious 
mind of the individual, which it influences and refashions in 
its own form. And since an archetype always possesses a certain 
nuininosity, the integration of the numen generally produces 
an inflation of the subject. It is therefore entirely in accord with 
psychological expectations that Goethe should dub his Faust a 
Superman. In recent times this type has extended beyond 
Nietzsche into the field of political psychology, and its incarna 
tion in man has had all the consequences that might have been 
expected to follow from such a misappropriation of power. 

473 As human beings do not live in airtight compartments, 
this infectious inflation has spread everywhere and given rise to 
an extraordinary uncertainty in morals and philosophy. The 
medical psychologist is bound to take an interest in such matters, 
if only for professional reasons, and so we witness the memorable 
spectacle of a psychiatrist introducing a critical study of Milton's 
Paradise Lost. Meditating upon this highly incongruous con 
junction, I decided that I should best fulfil my obligations if I 
explained to the well-intentioned reader how and why the devil 
got into the consulting-room of the psychiatrist. 



3*5 



BROTHER KLAUS 3 



474 Before me lies a little book by Father Alban Stoeckli on the 

Visions of the Blessed Brother Klaus. 2 Let the reader not be 
alarmed. Though a psychiatrist takes up his pen, it does not 
necessarily mean that he is going to set about this venerable 
Egure with the profane instrument of psychopathology. Psychi 
atrists have committed enough sins already and have put their 
science to the most unsuitable uses. Nothing of the kind is to 
happen here: no diagnosis or analysis will be undertaken, no 
significant hints of pathological possibilities will be dropped, 
and no attempt will be made to bring the Blessed Nicholas of 
Flue anywhere near a psychiatric clinic. Hence it must seem 
all the stranger to the reader that the reviewer of the book is a 
physician. I admit this fact is difficult to explain to anyone who 
does not know my unfashionable view on visions and the like. 
In this respect I am a good deal less sophisticated and more con 
servative than the so-called educated public, who in their philo 
sophical embarrassment heave a sigh of relief when visions are 
equated with hallucinations, delusional ideas, mania, and schizo- 

1 [First published as a review in the Ncue Schweizer Rundschau (Zurich), new 
series, I (1933) : 4, 23-29. Previously trans, by Horace Gray in the Journal of 
Nervous and Mental Diseases (New York, Richmond, London), CIII (1946) : 4, 359- 
77. In 1947 Nicholas of Flue, "Binder Klaus,** was canonized by Pope Pius XII 
and declared patron saint of Switzerland. EDITORS.] 

2 [Die Visionen des sfligen Bruder Klaus (Einsledeln, 1933}. EDITORS.] 

316 



BROTHER KLAUS 



phrenia, or whatever else these morbid things may be called, and 
are reduced to the right denominator by some competent au 
thority. Medically, I can find nothing wrong with Brother 
Klaus. I see him as a somewhat unusual but in no wise patholog 
ical person, a man after my own heart: my brother Klaus. 
Rather remote, to be sure, at this distance of more than four 
hundred years, separated by culture and creed, by those fashion 
able trifles which we always think constitute a world. Yet they 
amount to no more than linguistic difficulties, and these do not 
impede understanding of the essentials. So little, in fact, that 
I was able to converse, in the primitive language of inward 
vision, with a man who in every way was even further removed 
from me than Brother Klaus a Pueblo Indian, my friend 
Ochwiabiano ("Mountain Lake"). 2 * For what interests us here is 
not the historical personage, not the well-known figure at the 
Diet of Stans, 3 but the "friend of God," who appeared but a few 
times on the world stage, yet lived a long life in the realms of 
the soul. Of what he there experienced he left behind only scant 
traces, so few and inarticulate that it is hard for posterity to 
form any picture of his inner life. 

175 It has always intrigued me to know what a hermit does with 
himself all day long. Can we still imagine a real spiritual an 
chorite nowadays, one who has not simply crept away to vegetate 
in misanthropic simplicity? A solitary fellow, like an old ele 
phant who resentfully defies the herd instinct? Can we imagine 
a normal person living a sensible, vital existence by himself, 
with no visible partner? 

tf6 Brother Klaus had a house, wife, and children, and we do 
not know of any external factors which could have induced him 
to become a hermit. The sole reason for this was his singular 
inner life; experiences for which no merely natural grounds 
can be adduced, decisive experiences which accompanied him 
from youth up. These things seemed to him of more value than 
ordinary human existence. They were probably the object of 
his daily interest and the source of his spiritual vitality. It 
2a [See Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ch. 9, sec. ii.] 

3 [The Diet of Stans was a meeting in 1481 of representatives of the Swiss cantons 
at which disputes between the predominantly rural and the predominantly urban 
cantons were regulated, and as a result of which largely through the intervention 
of Nicholas Fribourg and Solothurn joined the Confederation. EDITOSS.] 

317 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



sounds rather like an anecdote from the life of a scholar who 
is completely immersed in his studies when the so-called "Pil 
grim's Tract" 4 relates: "And he [Brother Klaus] began to speak 
again and said to me, If it does not trouble you, I would like 
to show you my book, in which I am learning and seeking the 
art of this doctrine/ And he brought me a figure, drawn like a 
wheel with six spokes/' So evidently Brother Klaus studied 
some mysterious "doctrine" or other; he sought to understand 
and interpret the things that happened to him. That the her 
mit's activity was a sort of study must also have occurred to 
Gundolfingen, 5 one of the oldest writers on our subject. He 
says: "Did he not likewise learn in that High School of the Holy 
Ghost the representation of the wheel, which he caused to be 
painted in his chapel, and through which, as in a clear mirror, 
was reflected the entire essence of the Godhead?" From the same 
"High School" he derived "his kindness, his doctrine, and his 
science." ta 

477 Here we are concerned with the so-called Trinity Vision, 
which was of the greatest significance for the hermit's inner life. 
According to the oldest reports, it was an apparition of light, 
of surpassing intensity, in the form of a human face. The first 
hand reports make no mention of a "wheel." This seems to have 
been a subsequent addition for the purpose of clarifying the 
vision. Just as a stone, falling into calm water, produces wave 
after wave of circles, so a sudden and violent vision of this kind 
has long-lasting after-effects, like any shock. And the stranger 
and more impressive the initial vision was, the longer it will take 
to be assimilated, and the greater and more persevering will be 
the efforts of the mind to master it and render it intelligible to 
human understanding. Such a vision is a tremendous "irrup 
tion" in the most literal sense of the word, and it has therefore 
always been customary to draw rings round it like those made 
by the falling stone when it breaks the smooth surface of the 
water. 

* Ein nutzlieher und loblicher Tractet von Snider Claus und einem Bilgcr (N urn- 
berg, 1488). Cited in Stoeddi, p. 41. 

SHeinrich Gundolfingen (Gundelfingen or Gundelfinger), c. 1444-90, priest and 
professor of humanistic studies at the University of Fribourg, knew Klaus prob 
ably around the year 1480, and wrote his biography. 
5a Durrer, Brudtr Klaus, I, p. 434. 

318 



BROTHER KLAUS 



47 8 Now what has "irrupted" here, and wherein lies its mighty 
"impression"? The oldest source, Wolflin's biography,* narrates 
the following on this score: 

All who came to him were filled with terror at the first glance. As 
to the cause of this, he himself used to say that he had seen a piercing 
light resembling a human face. At the sight of it he feared that his 
heart would burst into little pieces. Overcome with terror, he in 
stantly turned his face away and fell to the ground. And that was 
the reason why his face was now terrible to others. 

This is borne out by the account which the humanist Karl 
Bovillus (Charles de Bouelles) gave to a friend in 1508 (some 
twenty years after the death of Brother Klaus): 

I wish to tell you of a vision which appeared to him in the sky, on a 
night when the stars were shining and he stood in prayer and con 
templation. He saw the head of a human figure with a terrifying 
face, full of wrath and threats. 7 

So we shall not go wrong in surmising that the vision was terrify 
ing in the extreme. When we consider that the mental attitude 
of that age, and in particular that of Brother Klaus, allowed no 
other interpretation than that this vision represented God him 
self, and that God signified the surnmum bonum, Absolute Per 
fection, then it is clear that such a vision must, by its violent 
contrast, have had a profound and shattering effect, whose as 
similation into consciousness required years of the most strenu 
ous spiritual effort. Through subsequent elaboration this vision 
then became the so-called Trinity Vision. As Father Stoeckli 
rightly conjectures, the "wheel" or circles were formed on the 
basis of, and as parallels to, the illustrated devotional books that 
were read at the time. As mentioned above, Brother Klaus even 
seems to have possessed such a book himself. Later, as a result 
of further mental elaboration, there were added the spokes of 
the wheel and the six secondary circles, as shown in the old pic 
ture of the vision in the parish church at Sachseln. 

e Heinrich Wolflin, also called by the Latin form Lupulus, born 1470, humanist 
and director of Latin studies at Bern. 

Tin gesichte Bruder Clausen ynn Schweytz und seine deutunge (Wittenberg, 
1538), p. 5. Cited in Stoeckli, p. 34, and Durrer, I, p. 560. 

3*9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION .* WEST 



479 The vision of light was not the only one which Brother 
Klaus had. He even thought that, while still in his mother's 
womb, he had seen a star that outshone all others in brightness, 
and later, in his solitude, he saw a very similar star repeatedly. 
The vision of light had, therefore, occurred several times be 
fore in his life. Light means illumination; it is an illuminating 
idea that "irrupts." Using a very cautious formulation, we 
could say that the underlying factor here is a considerable ten 
sion of psychic energy, evidently corresponding to some very 
important unconscious content. This content has an overpower 
ing effect and holds the conscious mind spellbound. The tre 
mendous power of the "objective psychic" has been named 
"demon" or "God" in all epochs with the sole exception of the 
recent present. We have become so bashful in matters of religion 
that we correctly say "unconscious," because God has in fact 
become unconscious to us. This is what always happens when 
things are interpreted, explained, and dogmatized until they 
become so encrusted with man-made images and words that they 
can no longer be seen. Something similar seems to have hap 
pened to Brother Klaus, which is why the immediate experience 
burst upon him with appalling terror. Had his vision been as 
charming and edifying as the present picture at Sachseln, no 
such terror would ever have emanated from it. 

4&> "God" is a primordial experience of man, and from the re 
motest times humanity has taken inconceivable pains either to 
portray this baffling experience, to assimilate it by means of 
interpretation, speculation, and dogma, or else to deny it. And 
again and again it has happened, and still happens, that one 
hears too much about the "good" God and knows him too well, 
so that one confuses him with one's own ideas and regards them 
as sacred because they can be traced back a couple of thousand 
years. This is a superstition and an idolatry every bit as bad as 
the Bolshevist delusion that "God" can be educated out of ex 
istence. Even a modern theologian like Gogarten 8 is quite sure 
that God can only be good, A good man does not terrify me 
what then would Gogarten have made of the Blessed Brother 
Klaus? Presumably he would have had to explain to him that 
he had seen the devil in person. 

8[Friedridi Gogarten (b. 1887), recently professor of systematic theology at 
Gottingen; author of Die Kirchc in der Welt (1948). EDITORS.] 



BROTHER KLAUS 



481 And here we are in the midst of that ancient dilemma of 
how such visions are to be evaluated. I would suggest taking 
every genuine case at its face value. If it was an overwhelming 
experience for so worthy and shrewd a man as Brother Klaus, 
then I do not hesitate to call it a true and veritable experience 
of God, even if it turns out not quite right dogmatically. Great 
saints were, as we know, sometimes great heretics, so it is proba 
ble that anyone who has immediate experience of God is a little 
bit outside the organization one calls the Church. The Church 
itself would have been in a pretty pass if the Son of God had 
remained a law-abiding Pharisee, a point one tends to forget. 

482 There are many indubitable lunatics who have experiences 
of God, and here too I do not contest the genuineness of the 
experience, for I know that it takes a complete and a brave man 
to stand up to it. Therefore I feel sorry for those who go under, 
and I shall not add insult to injury by saying that they tripped 
up on a mere psychologism. Besides, one can never know in 
what form a man will experience God, for there are very pe 
culiar things just as there are very peculiar people like those, 
for instance, who think that one can make anything but a con 
ceptual distinction between the individual experience of God 
and God himself. It would certainly be desirable to make this 
distinction, but to do so one would have to know what God is 
in and for himself, which does not seem to me possible. 

483 Brother Klaus's vision was a genuine primordial experience, 
and it therefore seemed to him particularly necessary to submit 
it to a thorough dogmatic revision. Loyally and with great efforts 
he applied himself to this task, the more so as he was smitten 
with terror in every limb so that even strangers took fright* The 
unconscious taint of heresy that probably clings to all genuine 
and unexpurgated visions is only hinted at in the Trinity Vision, 
but in the touched-up version it has been successfully elimi 
nated. All the affectivity, the very thing that made the strongest 
impression, has vanished without a trace, thus affording at least 
a negative proof of our interpretation. 

484 Brother Klaus's elucidation of his vision with the help of 
the three circles (the so-called "wheel") is in keeping with age- 
old human practice, which goes back to the Bronze Age sun- 
wheels (often found in Switzerland) and to the mandalas de 
picted in the Rhodesian rock-drawings. These sun-wheels may 

321 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



possibly be paleolithic; * we find them in Mexico, India, Tibet, 
and China. The Christian mandalas probably date back to St. 
Augustine and his definition of God as a circle. Presumably 
Henry Suso's notions of the circle, which were accessible to the 
"Friends of God/* were derived from the same source. But even 
if this whole tradition had been cut off and no little treatise with 
mandalas in the margin had ever come to light, and if Brother 
Klaus had never seen the rose-window of a church, he would 
still have succeeded in working his great experience into the 
shape of a circle, because this is what has always happened in 
every part of the world and still goes on happening today. 10 
485 \Ve spoke above of heresy* In Father Stoeckli's newly found 
fragment describing the vision, there is another vision which 
contains an interesting parallelism. I put the two passages side 
by side for the sake of comparison: 

There came a handsome majestic There came a beautiful majestic 

man through the palace, with a woman through the palace, also 

shining colour in his face, and in in a white garment. . . . And 

a white garment. And he laid she laid both arms on his shoul- 

both arms on his shoulders and ders and pressed him close to her 

pressed him close and thanked heart with an overflowing love, 

him with all the fervent love of because he had stood so faith- 

his heart, because he had stood fully by her son in his need. 11 
by his son and helped him in his 
need. 

& It is clear that this is a vision of God the Father and Son, 
and of the Mother of God. The palace is heaven, where "God 
the Father" dwells, and also "God the Mother." In pagan form 
they are unmistakably God and Goddess, as their absolute 
parallelism shows. The androgyny of the divine Ground is 
characteristic of mystic experience. In Indian Tantrism the 
masculine Shiva and the feminine Shakti both proceed from 

* [Documentation of the Rbodesbn sun-wheels has not been possible, though 
such rock-carved forms are noted in Angola and South Africa. Their dating is in 
doubt. Cf. supra, par. 100, n. 43. Also Jung's "Tavistock Lectures," Lecture 2 
(par, 81, n. 5). EWTOK,] 

* More on this m Zimiaer, Kvmtfixm und Yoga, and in my -Commentary on 
The Secret of the Goide* Fte*cr~ &&&. ^-45. ^ ^ 

11 Stoeddi, pp. sot 

3*2 



BROTHER KLAUS 



Brahman, which is devoid o qualities. Man as the son of the 
Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother is an age-old conception 
which goes back to primitive times, and in this vision the 
Blessed Brother Klaus is set on a par with the Son of God. The 
Trinity in this vision Father, Mother, and Son is very undog- 
matic indeed. Its nearest parallel is the exceedingly unorthodox 
Gnostic Trinity: God, Sophia, Christ. The Church, however, 
has expunged the feminine nature of the Holy Ghost, though it 
is still suggested by the symbolic dove. 

487 It is nice to think that the only outstanding Swiss mystic 
received, by God's grace, unorthodox visions and was permitted 
to look with unerring eye into the depths of the divine soul, 
where all the creeds of humanity which dogma has divided are 
united in one symbolic archetype. As I hope Father Stoeckli's 
little book will find many attentive readers, I shall not discuss 
the Vision of the Well, nor the Vision of the Man with the 
Bearskin, 12 although from the standpoint of comparative sym 
bolism they offer some very interesting aspects for I do not 
want to deprive the reader of the pleasure of finding out their 
meaning by himself. 

12 Cf . also Franz, Die Visionen des Niklaus von Flue. 



323 



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PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE 
CURE OF SOULS 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 1 



488 It is far more the urgent psychic problems of patients, rather 
than the curiosity of research workers, that have given effective 
impetus to the recent developments in medical psychology 
and psychotherapy. Medical science almost in defiance of the 
patients' needs has held aloof from all contact with strictly 
psychic problems, on the partly justifiable assumption that 
psychic problems belong to other fields of study. But it has been 
compelled to widen its scope so as to include experimented psy 
chology, just as it has been driven time and time again out of 
regard for the biological unity of the human being to borrow 
from such outlying branches of science as chemistry, physics, 
and biology. 

489 It was natural that the branches of science adopted by medi 
cine should be given a new direction. We can characterize the 
change by saying that instead of being regarded as ends in them 
selves they were valued for their practical application to human 
beings. Psychiatry, for example, helped itself out of the treasure- 
chest of experimental psychology and its methods, and funded 
its borrowings in the inclusive body of knowledge that we call 

l [First given as a lecture before the Alsatian Pastoral Conference at Strasbourg 
in May 1952; published as a pamphlet, Die Beziekungen der Psychotherapic zur 
Scelsorge (Zurich, 1932). Previously translated by W. S. Dell and Gary F. Baynes 
in Modern Man in Search of a Soul (London and New York, 1933). EDITORS,] 

327 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



psychopathology~a name for the study of complex psychic 
phenomena. Psychopathology is built for one part on the find 
ings of psychiatry in the strict sense of the term, and for the 
other part on the findings of neurology a field of study which 
originally embraced the so-called psychogenic neuroses, and 
still does so in academic parlance. In practice, however, a gulf 
has opened out in the last few decades between the trained neu 
rologist and the psychotherapist, especially after the first re 
searches in hypnotism. This rift was unavoidable, because 
neurology, strictly speaking, is the science of organic nervous 
diseases, whereas the psychogenic neuroses are not organic dis 
eases in the usual sense of the term. Nor do they fall within the 
realm of psychiatry, whose particular field of study is the 
psychoses, or mental diseasesfor the psychogenic neuroses are 
not mental diseases as this term is commonly understood. Rather 
do they constitute a special field by themselves with no hard 
and fast boundaries, and they show many transitional forms 
which point in two directions: towards mental disease on the 
one hand, and diseases of the nerves on the other. 

49<> The unmistakable feature of the neuroses is the fact that 
their causes are psychic, and that their cure depends entirely 
upon psychic methods of treatment. The attempts to delimit and 
explore this special field both from the side of psychiatry and 
from that of neurology led to a discovery which was very un 
welcome to the science of medicine: namely, the discovery of 
the psyche as an aetiological or causal factor in disease. In the 
course of the nineteenth century medicine had become, in its 
methods and theory, one of the disciplines of natural science, 
and it cherished the same basically philosophical assumption of 
material causation. For medicine, the psyche as a mental "sub 
stance" did not exist, and experimental psychology also did its 
best to constitute itself a psychology without a psyche. 

49* Investigation, however, has established beyond a doubt that 
the crux of the psycfaoneuroses is the psychic factor, that this is 
the essential cause <rf the pathological state, and must therefore 
be recognized in its own right along with other admitted patho 
genic factors such as inheritance, disposition, bacterial infection, 
and so forth. All attempts to explain the psychic factor in terms 
of more elementary physical factors were doomed to failure. 
There was more promise in the attempt to reduce it to the con- 

3*8 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



cept of the drive or instinct a concept taken over from biology. 
It is well known that instincts are observable physiological urges 
based on the functioning of the glands, and that, as experience 
shows, they condition or influence psychic processes. What 
could be more plausible, therefore, than to seek the specific 
cause of the psychoneuroses not in the mystical notion of the 
"soul," but in a disturbance of the instincts which might pos 
sibly be curable in the last resort by medicinal treatment of 
the glands? 

49 Freud's theory of the neuroses is based on this standpoint: 
it explains them in terms of disturbances of the sexual instinct. 
Adler likewise resorts to the concept of the drive, and explains 
the neuroses in terms of disturbances of the urge to power, a 
concept which, we must admit, is a good deal more psychic than 
that of the physiological sexual instinct. 

493 The term "instinct" is anything but well defined in the scien 
tific sense. It applies to a biological phenomenon of immense 
complexity, and is not much more than a border-line concept 
of quite indefinite content standing for an unknown quantity. 
I do not wish to enter here upon a critical discussion of instinct. 
Instead I will consider the possibility that the psychic factor is 
just a combination of instincts which for their part may again 
be reduced to the functioning of the glands. We may even con 
sider the possibility that everything "psychic" is comprised in 
the sum total of instincts, and that the psyche itself is therefore 
only an instinct or a conglomerate of instincts, being in the last 
analysis nothing but a function of the glands. A psychoneurosis 
would then be a glandular disease. 

494 There is, however, no proof of this statement, and no glandu 
lar extract that will cure a neurosis has yet been found. On the 
other hand, we have been taught by all too many mistakes that 
organic therapy fails completely in the treatment of neuroses, 
while psychic methods cure them. These psychic methods are 
just as effective as we might suppose the glandular extracts 
would be. So far, then, as our present knowledge goes, neuroses 
are to be influenced or cured by approaching them not from the 
proximal end, i.e., from the functioning of the glands, but from 
the distal end, i.e., from the psyche, just as if the psyche were 
itself a substance. For instance, a suitable explanation or a com 
forting word to the patient can have something like a healing 

3*9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



effect which may even influence the glandular secretions. The 
doctor's words, to be sure, are "only" vibrations in the air, yet 
their special quality is due to a particular psychic state in the 
doctor. His words are effective only in so far as they convey a 
meaning or have significance. It is this that makes them work. 
But "meaning" is something mental or spiritual. Call it a fiction 
if you like. Nevertheless this fiction enables us to influence the 
course of the disease far more effectively than we could with 
chemical preparations. Indeed, we can even influence the bio 
chemical processes of the body. Whether the fiction forms itself 
in me spontaneously or reaches me from outside via human 
speech, it can make me ill or cure me. Fictions, illusions, opin 
ions are perhaps the most intangible and unreal things we can 
think of; yet they are the most effective of all in the psychic 'and 
even the psychophysical realm. 

496 It was by recognizing these facts that medicine discovered 
the psyche, and it can no longer honestly deny the psyche's real 
ity. It has been shown that the instincts are a condition of 
psychic activity, while at the same time psychic processes seem 
to condition the instincts. 

496 The reproach levelled at the Freudian and Adlerian theories 
is not that they are based on instincts, but that they are one 
sided. It is psychology without the psyche, and this suits people 
who think they have no spiritual needs or aspirations. But here 
both doctor and patient deceive themselves. Even though the 
theories of Freud and Adler come much nearer to getting at 
the bottom of the neuroses than any earlier approach from the 
medical side, their exclusive concern with the instincts fails to 
satisfy the deeper spiritual needs of the patient. They are too 
much bound by the premises of nineteenth-century science, too 
matter of fact, and they give too little value to fictional and 
imaginative processes. In a word, they do not give enough mean 
ing to life. And it is only meaning that liberates. 

497 Ordinary reasonableness, sound human judgment, science 
as a compendium of common sense, these certainly help us over 
a good part of the road, but they never take us beyond the fron 
tiers of life's most commonplace realities, beyond the merely 
average and normal. They afford no answer to the question of 
psychic suffering and its profound significance. A psychoneu- 
rosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul 

33 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



which has not discovered its meaning. But all creativeness in 
the realm of the spirit as well as every psychic advance of man 
arises from the suffering of the soul, and the cause of the suffer 
ing is spiritual stagnation, or psychic sterility* 
49 s With this realization the doctor sets foot on territory which 
he enters with the greatest caution. He is now confronted with 
the necessity of conveying to his patient the healing fiction, the 
meaning that quickens for it is this that the sick person longs 
for, over and above everything that reason and science can give 
him. He is looking for something that will take possession of 
him and give meaning and form to the confusion of his neurotic 
soul. 

499 Is the doctor equal to this task? To begin with, he will prob 
ably hand his patient over to the clergyman or philosopher, or 
abandon him to that vast perplexity which is the special note 
of our day. As a doctor he is not required to have a finished out 
look on life, and his professional conscience does not demand it 
of him. But what will he do when he sees only too clearly why 
his patient is ill; when he sees that he has no love, but only sexu 
ality; no faith, because he is afraid to grope in the dark; no hope, 
because he is disillusioned by the world and by life; and no 
understanding, because he has failed to read the meaning of 
his own existence? 

500 There are many well-educated patients who flatly refuse to 
consult a clergyman. Still less will they listen to a philosopher, 
for the history of philosophy leaves them cold, and intellectual 
problems seem to them more barren than the desert. And where 
are the great and wise men who do not merely talk about the 
meaning of life and of the world, but really possess it? One can 
not just think up a system or truth which would give the patient 
what he needs in order to live, namely faith, hope, love, and 
understanding. 

50* These four highest achievements of human endeavour are 
so many gifts of grace, which are neither to be taught nor 
learned, neither given nor taken, neither withheld nor earned, 
since they come through experience, which is an irrational 
datum not subject to human will and caprice. Experiences can 
not be made. They happenyet fortunately their independence 
of man's activity is not absolute but relative. We can draw 
closer to them that much lies within our human reach. There 

33 1 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



are ways which bring us nearer to living experience, yet we 

should beware of calling these ways "methods." The very word 

has a deadening effect The way to experience, moreover, is 

anything but a clever trick; it is rather a venture which requires 

us to commit ourselves with our whole being. 

5* Thus, in trying to meet the therapeutic demands made upon 

him, the doctor is confronted with a question which seems to 

contain an insuperable difficulty. How can he help the sufferer 

to attain the liberating experience which will bestow upon him 

the four great gifts of grace and heal his sickness? We can, of 

course, advise the patient with the best intentions that he should 

have true love, or true faith, or true hope; and we can admonish 

him with the phrase: "Know thyself. 1 ' But how is the patient to 

obtain beforehand that which only experience can give him? 

5<>3 Saul owed his conversion neither to true love, nor to true 

faith, nor to any other truth. It was solely his hatred of the 

Christians that set him on the road to Damascus, and to that 

decisive experience which was to alter the whole course of his 

life. He was brought to this experience by following out, with 

conviction, his own worst mistake. 

5<H This opens up a problem which we can hardly take too seri 
ously. And it confronts the psychotherapist with a question 
which brings him shoulder to shoulder with the clergyman: the 
question of good and evil. 

5>5 It is in reality the priest or the clergyman, rather than the 
doctor, who should be most concerned with the problem of 
spiritual suffering. But in most cases the sufferer consults the 
doctor in the first place, because he supposes himself to be phys 
ically ill, and because certain neurotic symptoms can be at least 
alleviated by drugs. But if, on the other hand, the clergyman 
is consulted, he cannot persuade the sick man that the trouble 
is psychic. As a rule he lacks the special knowledge which would 
enable him to discern the psychic factors of the disease, and his 
judgment is without the weight of authority. 

56 There are, however, persons who, while well aware of the 
psychic nature of their complaint, nevertheless refuse to turn 
to the clergyman. They do not believe that he can really help 
them. Such persons distrust the doctor for the same reason, and 
rightly so, for the truth is that both doctor and clergyman stand 
before them with empty hands, if not what is even worse 

S3* 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



with empty words. We can hardly expect the doctor to have any 
thing to say about the ultimate questions o the soul. It is from 
the clergyman, not from the doctor, that the sufferer should ex 
pect such help. But the Protestant clergyman often finds him 
self face to face with an almost impossible task, for he has to 
cope with practical difficulties that the Catholic priest is spared. 
Above all, the priest has the authority of his Church behind 
him, and his economic position is secure and independent. This 
is far less true of the Protestant clergyman, who may be married 
and burdened with the responsibility of a family, and cannot 
expect, if all else fails, to be supported by the parish or taken 
into a monastery. Moreover the priest, if he is also a Jesuit, is 
au fait with the most up-to-date developments in psychology. I 
know, for instance, that my own writings were seriously studied 
in Rome long before any Protestant theologian thought them 
worthy of a glance. 

5<>7 We have come to a serious pass. The exodus from the Ger 
man Protestant Church is only one of many symptoms which 
should make it plain to the clergy that mere admonitions to 
believe, or to perform acts of charity, do not give modern man 
what he is looking for. The fact that many clergymen seek sup 
port or practical help from Freud's theory of sexuality or Adler's 
theory of power is astonishing, inasmuch as both these theories 
are, at bottom, hostile to spiritual values, being, as I have said, 
psychology without the psyche. They are rationalistic methods 
of treatment which actually hinder die realization of meaning 
ful experience. By far the larger number of psychotherapists are 
disciples of Freud or of Adler. This means that the great ma 
jority of patients are necessarily alienated from a spiritual stand 
pointa fact which cannot be a matter of indifference to one 
who has the fate of the psyche at heart. The wave of interest in 
psychology which at present is sweeping over the Protestant 
countries of Europe is far from receding. It is coincident with 
the mass exodus from the Church. Quoting a Protestant min 
ister, I may say: "Nowadays people go to the psychotherapist 
rather than to the clergyman." 

5<>8 I am convinced that this statement is true only of relatively 
educated persons, not of mankind in the mass. However, we 
must not forget that it takes about twenty years for the ordinary 
run of people to begin thinking the thoughts of the educated 

333 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



person of today. For instance, Biichner's work Force and 
Matter 2 became one o the most widely read books in German 
public libraries some twenty years after educated persons had for 
gotten all about it, I am convinced that the psychological needs 
of the educated today will be the interests of the people to 
morrow. 

509 I should like to call attention to the following facts. During 
the past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of 
the earth have consulted me. Many hundreds of patients have 
passed through my hands, the greater number being Protestants, 
a lesser number Jews, and not more than five or six believing 
Catholics. Among all my patients in the second half of life that 
is to say, over thirty-fivethere has not been one whose problem 
in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on 
life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he 
had lost what the living religions of every age have given to 
their followers, and none of them has been really healed who 
did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing 
whatever to do with a particular creed or membership of a 
church. 

510 Here, then, the clergyman stands before a vast horizon. But 
it would seem as if no one had noticed it. It also looks as though 
the Protestant clergyman of today were insufficiently equipped 
to cope with the urgent psychic needs of our age. It is indeed 
high time for the clergyman and the psychotherapist to join 
forces to meet this great spiritual task. 

5 U Here is a concrete example which goes to show how closely 
this problem touches us all. A little more than a year ago the 
leaders of the Christian Students' Conference at Aarau [Switzer 
land] laid before me the question whether people in spiritual 
distress prefer nowadays to consult the doctor rather than the 
clergyman, and what are the causes of their choice. This was a 
very direct and very practical question. At the time I knew noth 
ing more than the fact that my own patients obviously had con 
sulted the doctor rather than the clergyman. It seemed to me to 
be open to doubt whether this was generally the case or not. At 
any rate, I was unable to give a definite reply. I therefore set on 
foot an inquiry, through acquaintances of mine, among people 

2 [Ludwig Buchner (18*4-99), German materialistic philosopher. His Kraft und 
Staff was pub. 1855. EJMTORS,] 

334 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



whom I did not know personally; I sent out a questionnaire 
which was answered by Swiss, German, and French Protestants, 
as well as by a few Catholics. The results are very interesting, 
as the following general summary shows. Those who decided 
for the doctor represented 57 per cent of the Protestants and 
only 25 per cent of the Catholics, while those who decided for 
the clergyman formed only 8 per cent of the Protestants as 
against 58 per cent of the Catholics. These were the unequivocal 
decisions. The remaining 35 per cent of the Protestants could 
not make up their minds, while only 17 per cent of the Catholics 
were undecided. 

5 1 * The main reasons given for not consulting the clergyman 
were, firstly, his lack of psychological knowledge and insight, 
and this covered 52 per cent of the answers. Some 28 per cent 
were to the effect that he was prejudiced in his views and 
showed a dogmatic and traditional bias. Curiously enough, 
there was even one clergyman who decided for the doctor, while 
another made the irritated retort: "Theology has nothing to do 
with the treatment of human beings." All the relatives of clergy 
men who answered my questionnaire pronounced themselves 
against the clergy. 

5*3 So far as this inquiry was restricted to educated persons, it 
is only a straw in the wind. I am convinced that the uneducated 
classes would have reacted differently. But I am inclined to 
accept these sample results as a more or less valid indication 
of the views of educated people, the more so as it is a well-known 
fact that their indifference in matters of the Church and re 
ligion is steadily growing. Nor should we forget the above-men 
tioned truth of social psychology: that it takes about twenty 
years for the general outlook and problems of the educated to 
percolate down to the uneducated masses. Who, for instance, 
would have dared to prophesy twenty years ago, or even ten, 
that Spain, the most Catholic of European countries, would 
undergo the tremendous mental revolution we are witnessing 
today? 3 And yet it has broken out with the violence of a 
cataclysm. 

5H It seems to me that, side by side with the decline of religious 
life, the neuroses grow noticeably more frequent. There are as 

3 [Under the second republic, established in 1931 and later overthrown by the 
Franco forces. EDITORS.] 

335 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



yet no statistics with actual figures to prove this increase. But 
of one thing I am sure, that everywhere the mental state of 
European man shows an alarming lack of balance. We are living 
undeniably in a period of the greatest restlessness, nervous ten 
sion, confusion, and disorientation of outlook. Among my pa 
tients from many countries, all of them educated persons, there 
is a considerable number who came to see me not because they 
were suffering from a neurosis but because they could find no 
meaning in their lives or were torturing themselves with ques 
tions which neither our philosophy nor our religion could 
answer. Some of them perhaps thought I knew of a magic 
formula, but I soon had to tell them that I didn't know the 
answer either. And this brings us to practical considerations. 

5*5 Let us take for example that most ordinary and frequent of 
questions: What is the meaning of my life, or of life in general? 
Today people believe that they know only too well what the 
clergyman will or rather must say to this. They smile at the 
very thought of the philosopher's answer, and in general do not 
expect much of the physician. But from the psychotherapist who 
analyses the unconsciousfrom him one might at last learn 
something. Perhaps he has dug up from the abstruse depths of 
his mind, among other things, some meaning which could even 
be bought for a fee! It must be a relief to every serious-minded 
person to hear that the psychotherapist also does not know what 
to say. Such a confession is often the beginning of the patient's 
confidence in him. 

5 l6 I have found that modern man has an ineradicable aversion 
for traditional opinions and inherited truths. He is a Bolshevist 
for whom all the spiritual standards and forms of the past have 
somehow lost their validity, and who therefore wants to experi 
ment with his mind as the Bolshevist experiments with econom 
ics. Confronted with this attitude, every ecclesiastical system 
finds itself in an awkward situation, be it Catholic, Protestant, 
Buddhist, or Confucianist. Among these moderns there are of 
course some of those negative, destructive, and perverse natures 
degenerates and unbalanced eccentricsr-who are never satis 
fied anywhere, and who therefore flock to every new banner, 
much to the hurt of these movements and undertakings, in the 
hope of finding something for once which will compensate at 
low cost for their own ineptitude. It goes without saying that, 

336 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



in my professional work, I have come to know a great many 
modern men and women, including of course their pathological 
hangers-on. But these I prefer to leave aside. Those I am think 
ing of are by no means sickly eccentrics, but are very often 
exceptionally able, courageous, and upright persons who have 
repudiated traditional truths for honest and decent reasons, and 
not from wickedness of heart. Every one of them has the feeling 
that our religious truths have somehow become hollow. Either 
they cannot reconcile the scientific and the religious outlook, or 
the Christian tenets have lost their authority and their psycho 
logical justification. People no longer feel redeemed by the 
death of Christ; they cannot believe for although it is a lucky 
man who can believe, it is not possible to compel belief. Sin 
has become something quite relative: what is evil for one man 
is good for another. After all, why should not the Buddha be 
right too? 

517 There is no one who is not familiar with these questions and 
doubts. Yet Freudian analysis would brush them all aside as 
irrelevant, for in its view, it is basically a question of repressed 
sexuality, which the philosophical or religious doubts only serve 
to mask. If we closely examine an individual case of this sort, 
we do discover peculiar disturbances in the sexual sphere as well 
as in the sphere of unconscious impulses in general. Freud sees 
in the presence of these disturbances an explanation of the 
psychic disturbance as a whole; he is interested only in the causal 
interpretation of the sexual symptoms. He completely overlooks 
the fact that, in certain cases, the supposed causes of the neurosis 
were always present, but had no pathological effect until a dis 
turbance of the conscious attitude set in and led to a neurotic 
upset. It is as though, when a ship was sinking because of a leak, 
the crew interested itself in the chemical constitution of the 
water that was pouring in, instead of stopping the leak. The 
disturbance of the instinctual sphere is not a primary but a 
secondary phenomenon. When conscious life has lost its mean 
ing and promise, it is as though a panic had broken loose: "Let 
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" It is this mood, born of 
the meaninglessness of life, that causes the disturbance in the 
unconscious and provokes the painfully curbed instincts to 
break out anew. The causes of a neurosis lie in the present as 
much as in the past, and only a cause actually existing in the 

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PSYCHOLOGY AN 7 D RELIGION I WEST 



present can keep a neurosis active. A man is not tubercular be 
cause he was infected twenty years ago with bacilli, but because 
active foci of infection are present now. The questions when 
and how the infection occurred are totally irrelevant. Even the 
most accurate knowledge of the previous history cannot cure the 
tuberculosis. And the same holds true of the neuroses. 

518 That is why I regard the religious problems which the pa 
tient puts before me as authentic and as possible causes of the 
neurosis. But if I take them seriously, I must be able to confess 
to the patient: "Yes, I agree, the Buddha may be just as right as 
Jesus. Sin is only relative, and it is difficult to see how we can 
feel ourselves in any way redeemed by the death of Christ." As 
a doctor I can easily admit these doubts, while it is hard for the 
clergyman to do so. The patient feels my attitude to be one of 
understanding, while the parson's hesitation strikes him as a 
traditional prejudice, and this estranges them from one another. 
He asks himself: "What would the parson say if I began to tell 
him of the painful details of my sexual disturbances?" He 
rightly suspects that the parson's moral prejudice is even 
stronger than his dogmatic bias. In this connection there is a 
good story about the American president, "silent Gal" Coolidge. 
When he returned after an absence one Sunday morning his 
wife asked him where he had been. "To church," he replied. 
"What did the minister say?" "He talked about sin." "And 
what did he say about sin?" "He was against it." 

519 It is easy for the doctor to show understanding in this re 
spect, you will say. But people forget that even doctors have 
moral scruples, and that certain patients' confessions are hard 
even for a doctor to swallow. Yet the patient does not feel him 
self accepted unless the very worst in him is accepted too. No 
one can bring this about by mere words; it comes only through 
reflection and through the doctor's attitude towards himself 
and his own dark side. If the doctor wants to guide another, 
or even accompany him a step of the way, he must \ecl with that 
person's psyche. He never feels it when he passes judgment. 
Whether he puts his judgments into words, or keeps them to 
himself, makes not the slightest difference. To take the opposite 
position, and to agree with the patient offhand, is also of no 
use, but estranges him as much as condemnation. Feeling comes 
only through unprejudiced objectivity. This sounds almost like 

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a scientific precept, and it could be confused with a purely in 
tellectual, abstract attitude of mind. But what I mean is some 
thing quite different. It is a human quality a kind of deep 
respect for the facts, for the man who suffers from them, and 
for the riddle of such a man's life. The truly religious person 
has this attitude. He knows that God has brought all sorts of 
strange and inconceivable things to pass and seeks in the most 
curious ways to enter a man's heart. He therefore senses in every 
thing the unseen presence of the divine will. This is what I 
mean by "unprejudiced objectivity." It is a moral achievement 
on the part of the doctor, who ought not to let himself be re 
pelled by sickness and corruption. We cannot change anything 
unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it op 
presses. I am the oppressor of the person I condemn, not his 
friend and fellow-sufferer. I do not in the least mean to say that 
we must never pass judgment when we desire to help and im 
prove. But if the doctor wishes to help a human being he must 
be able to accept him as he is. And he can do this in reality only 
when he has already seen and accepted himself as he is. 

520 Perhaps this sounds very simple, but simple things are al 
ways the most difficult. In actual life it requires the greatest art 
to be simple, and so acceptance of oneself is the essence of the 
moral problem and the acid test of one's whole outlook on life. 
That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my 
enemy in the name of Christ all these are undoubtedly great 
virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto 
Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst 
them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all 
offenders, yea the very fiend himself that these are within me, 
and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, 
that I myself am the enemy who must be loved what then? 
Then, as a rule, the whole truth of Christianity is reversed: 
there is then no more talk of love and long-suffering; we say 
to the brother within us "Raca," and condemn and rage against 
ourselves. We hide him from the world, we deny ever having 
met this least among the lowly in ourselves, and had it been God 
himself who drew near to us in this despicable form, we should 
have denied him a thousand times before a single cock had 
crowed. 

521 Anyone who uses modern psychology to Jpok behind the 

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scene not only of his patients' lives but more especially o his 
own life-and the modern psychotherapist must do this if he is 
not to be merely an unconscious fraud-will admit that to 
accept himself in all his wretchedness is the hardest of tasks, and 
one which it is almost impossible to fulfil. The very thought 
can make us sweat with fear. We are therefore only too de 
lighted to choose, without a moment's hesitation, the compli 
cated course of remaining in ignorance about ourselves while 
busying ourselves with other people and their troubles and 
sins. This activity lends us a perceptible air of virtue, by means 
of which we benevolently deceive ourselves and others. God be 
praised, we have escaped from ourselves at last! There are count 
less people who can do this with impunity, but not everyone 
can, and these few break down on the road to their Damascus 
and succumb to a neurosis. How can I help these people if I 
myself am a fugitive, and perhaps also suffer from the morbus 
sacer of a neurosis? Only he who has fully accepted himself has 
"unprejudiced objectivity.*' But no one is justified in boasting 
that he has fully accepted himself. We can point to Christ, who 
sacrificed his historical bias to the god within him, and lived 
his individual life to the bitter end without regard for conven 
tions or for the moral standards of the Pharisees. 

We Protestants must sooner or later face this question: Are 
we to understand the "imitation of Christ" in the sense that we 
should copy his life and, if I may use the expression, ape his 
stigmata; or in the deeper sense that we are to live our own 
proper lives as truly as he lived his in its individual unique 
ness? It is no easy matter to live a life that is modelled on 
Christ's, but it is unspeakably harder to live one's own life as 
truly as Christ lived his. Anyone who did this would run 
counter to the conditions of his own history, and though he 
might thus be fulfilling them, he would none the less be mis 
judged, derided, tortured, and crucified. He would be a kind of 
crazy Bolshevist who deserved the cross. We therefore prefer 
the historically sanctioned and sanctified imitation of Christ. I 
would never disturb a monk in the practice of this identifica 
tion, for he deserves our respect. But neither I nor my patients 
are monks, and it is iny duty as a physician to show my patients 
how they can live their lives without becoming neurotic. Neu 
rosis is an innes, cleavage the state of being at war with oneself. 

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Everything that accentuates this cleavage makes the patient 
worse, and everything that mitigates it tends to heal him. What 
drives people to war with themselves is the suspicion or the 
knowledge that they consist of two persons in opposition to one 
another. The conflict may be between the sensual and the spir 
itual man, or between the ego and the shadow. It is what Faust 
means when he says: "Two souls, alas, are housed within my 
breast." A neurosis is a splitting of personality. 

5 2 3 Healing may be called a religious problem. In the sphere of 
social or national relations, the state of suffering may be civil 
war, and this state is to be cured by the Christian virtue of for 
giveness and love of one's enemies. That which we recommend, 
with the conviction of good Christians, as applicable to external 
situations, we must also apply inwardly in the treatment of neu 
rosis. This is why modern man has heard enough about guilt 
and sin. He is sorely enough beset by his own bad conscience, 
and wants rather to know how he is to reconcile himself with 
his own nature how he is to love the enemy in his own heart 
and call the wolf his brother. 

5*4 The modern man does not want to know in what way he can 
imitate Christ, but in what way he can live his own individual 
life, however meagre and uninteresting it may be. It is because 
every form of imitation seems to him deadening and sterile 
that he rebels against the force of tradition that would hold him 
to well-trodden ways. All such roads, for him, lead in the wrong 
direction. He may not know it, but he behaves as if his own 
individual life were God's special will which must be fulfilled 
at all costs. This is the source of his egoism, which is one of 
the most tangible evils of the neurotic state. But the person 
who tells him he is too egoistic has already lost his confidence, 
and rightly so, for that person has driven him still further into 
his neurosis, 

5*5 If I wish to effect a cure for my patients I am forced to 
acknowledge the deep significance of their egoism. I should be 
blind, indeed, if I did not recognize it as a true will of God. 
I must even help the patient to prevail in his egoism; if he suc 
ceeds in this, he estranges himself from other people. He drives 
them away, and they come to themselves as they should, for 
they were seeking to rob him of his "sacred" egoism. This must 
be left to him, for it is his strongest and healthiest power; it is, 

541 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



as I have said, a true will of God, which sometimes drives him 
into complete isolation. However wretched this state may be, it 
also stands him in good stead, for in this way alone can he get 
to know himself and learn what an invaluable treasure is the 
love of his fellow beings. It is, moreover, only in the state of 
complete abandonment and loneliness that we experience the 
helpful powers of our own natures. 

526 When one has several times seen this development at work 
one can no longer deny that what was evil has turned to good, 
and that what seemed good has kept alive the forces of evil. The 
archdemon of egoism leads us along the royal road to that in 
gathering which religious experience demands. What we ob 
serve here is a fundamental law of life enantiodromia or 
conversion into the opposite; and it is this that makes possible 
the reunion of the warring halves of the personality and thereby 
brings the civil war to an end. 

5*7 I have taken the neurotic's egoism as an example because it 
is one of his most common symptoms. I might equally well have 
taken any other characteristic symptom to show what attitude 
the physician must adopt towards the shortcomings of his pa 
tients, in other words, how he must deal with the problem 
of evil, 

5*8 No doubt this also sounds very simple. In reality, however, 
the acceptance of the shadow-side of human nature verges on the 
impossible. Consider for a moment what it means to grant 
the right of existence to what is unreasonable, senseless, and 
evil! Yet it is just this that the modern man insists upon. He 
wants to live with every side of himself to know what he is. 
That is why he casts history aside. He wants to break with tradi 
tion so that he can experiment with his life and determine what 
value and meaning things have in themselves, apart from tradi 
tional presuppositions. Modern youth gives us astonishing ex 
amples of this attitude. To show how far this tendency may go, 
I will instance a question addressed to me by a German society. 
I was asked if incest is to be reprobated, and what facts can be 
adduced against it! 

5*9 Granted such tendencies, the conflicts into which people may 
fall are not hard to imagine. I can well understand that one 
would like to do everything possible to protect one's fellow be 
ings from such adventures. But curiously enough we find our- 

54* 



PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



selves without means to do this. All the old arguments against 
unreasonableness, self-deception, and immorality, once so po 
tent, have lost their attraction. We are now reaping the fruit 
of nineteenth-century education. Throughout that period the 
Church preached to young people the merit of blind faith, 
while the universities inculcated an intellectual rationalism, 
with the result that today we plead in vain whether for faith 
or reason. Tired of this warfare of opinions, the modern man 
wishes to find out for himself how things are. And though this 
desire opens the door to the most dangerous possibilities, we 
cannot help seeing it as a courageous enterprise and giving it 
some measure of sympathy. It is no reckless adventure, but an 
effort inspired by deep spiritual distress to bring meaning once 
more into life on the basis of fresh and unprejudiced experi 
ence. Caution has its place, no doubt, but we cannot refuse our 
support to a serious venture which challenges the whole of the 
personality. If we oppose it, we are trying to suppress what is 
best in man his daring and his aspirations. And should we suc 
ceed, we should only have stood in the way of that invaluable 
experience which might have given a meaning to life. What 
would have happened if Paul had allowed himself to be talked 
out of his journey to Damascus? 

53 The psychotherapist who takes his work seriously must come 
to grips with this question. He must decide in every single case 
whether or not he is willing to stand by a human being with 
counsel and help upon what may be a daring misadventure. He 
must have no fixed ideas as to what is right, nor must he pre 
tend to know what is right and what not otherwise he takes 
something from the richness of the experience. He must keep 
in view what actually happens for only that which acts is ac 
tual. 4 If something which seems to me an error shows itself to 
be more effective than a truth, then I must first follow up the 
error, for in it lie power and life which I lose if I hold to what 
seems to me true. Light has need of darkness otherwise how 
could it appear as light? 

53* It is well known that Freudian psychoanalysis limits itself to 
the task of making conscious the shadow-side and the evil within 

* [A more literal translation, which brings out the meaning more clearly while 
losing the play on words, would be: "He must keep in view only what is real 
(for the patient). But a thing is 'real* (wirklich) if it 'works' (wirkt)." TRANS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



us. It simply brings into action the civil war that was latent, 
and lets it go at that. The patient must deal with it as best he 
can. Freud has unfortunately overlooked the fact that man 
has never yet been able single-handed to hold his own against 
the powers of darknessthat is, of the unconscious. Man has 
always stood in need of the spiritual help which his particular 
religion held out to him. The opening up of the unconscious 
always means the outbreak of intense spiritual suffering; it is 
as when a flourishing civilization is abandoned to invading 
hordes of barbarians, or when fertile fields are exposed by the 
bursting of a dam to a raging torrent. The World War was 
such an invasion which showed, as nothing else could, how thin 
are the walls which separate a well-ordered world from lurking 
chaos. But it is the same with the individual and his rationally 
ordered world. Seeking revenge for the violence his reason has 
done to her, outraged Nature only awaits the moment when the 
partition falls so as to overwhelm the conscious life with de 
struction. Man has been aware of this danger to the psyche 
since the earliest times, even in the most primitive stages of 
culture. It was to arm himself against this threat and to heal the 
damage done that he developed religious and magical practices. 
This is why the medicine-man is also the priest; he is the saviour 
of the soul as well as of the body, and religions are systems of 
healing for psychic illness. This is especially true of the two 
greatest religions of humanity, Christianity and Buddhism. 
Man is never helped in his suffering by what he thinks of for 
himself; only suprahuman, revealed truth lifts him out of his 
distress. 

53* Today the tide of destruction has already reached us and 
the psyche has suffered damage. That is why patients force the 
psychotherapist into the role of the priest and expect and de 
mand of him that he shall free them from their suffering. That 
is why we psychotherapists must occupy ourselves with prob 
lems which, strictly speaking, belong to the theologian. But we 
cannot leave these questions for theology to answer; challenged 
by the urgent psychic needs of our patients, we are directly con 
fronted with them every day. Since, as a rule, every concept and 
every point of view handed down from the past proves futile, 
we must first tread with the patient the path of his illnessthe 
path of his mistake that sharpens his conflicts and increases his 

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PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



loneliness till it becomes unbearable hoping that from the 
psychic depths which cast up the powers of destruction the 
rescuing forces will also come. 

533 When I first took this path I did not know where it would 
lead. I did not know what lay hidden in the depths of the psyche 
that region which I have since called the "collective uncon 
scious" and whose contents I designate as "archetypes." Since 
time immemorial, invasions of the unconscious have occurred, 
and ever and again they repeat themselves. For consciousness 
did not exist from the beginning; in every child it has to be 
built up anew in the first years of life. Consciousness is very 
weak in this formative period, and the same is true of the psychic 
history of mankind the unconscious easily seizes power. These 
struggles have left their mark. To put it in scientific terms: 
instinctive defence-mechanisms have been built up which auto 
matically intervene when the danger is greatest, and their com 
ing into action during an emergency is represented in fantasy 
by helpful images which are ineradicably imprinted on the 
human psyche. Science can only establish the existence of these 
psychic factors and attempt a rationalistic explanation by offer 
ing an hypothesis as to their source. This, however, only thrusts 
the problem a stage further back without solving the riddle. We 
thus come to those ultimate questions: Where does conscious 
ness come from? What is the psyche? At this point all science 
ends. 

534 It is as though, at the climax of the illness, the destructive 
powers were converted into healing forces. This is brought 
about by the archetypes awaking to independent life and taking 
over the guidance of the psychic personality, thus supplanting 
the ego with its futile willing and striving. As a religious-minded 
person would say: guidance has come from God. With most of 
my patients I have to avoid this formulation, apt though it is, for 
it reminds them too much of what they had to reject in the first 
place. I must express myself in more modest terms and say that 
the psyche has awakened to spontaneous activity. And indeed 
this formulation is better suited to the observable facts, as the 
transformation takes place at that moment when, in dreams or 
fantasies, motifs appear whose source in consciousness cannot be 
demonstrated. To the patient it is nothing less than a revelation 
when something altogether strange rises up to confront him 

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PSYCHOLOGY AN'D RELIGION : WEST 



from the hidden depths of the psyche something that is not his 
ego and is therefore beyond the reach of his personal will. He 
has regained access to the sources of psychic life, and this marks 
the beginning of the cure. 

555 In order to illustrate this process, I ought really to discuss 
it with the help of examples. But it is almost impossible to give 
a convincing example offhand, for as a rule it is an extremely 
subtle and complicated matter. Often it is simply the deep im 
pression made on the patient by the independent way the 
dreams deal with his problem. Or it may be that his fantasy 
points to something for which his conscious mind was quite un 
prepared. But in most cases it is contents of an archetypal na 
ture, or the connections between them, that exert a strong 
influence of their own whether or not they are understood by 
the conscious mind. This spontaneous activity of the psyche 
often becomes so intense that visionary pictures are seen or 
inner voices heard a true, primordial experience of the spirit. 

55 6 Such experiences reward the sufferer for the pains of the 
labyrinthine way. From now on a light shines through the con 
fusion; more, he can accept the conflict within him and so come 
to resolve the morbid split in his nature on a higher level. 



557 The fundamental problems of modern psychotherapy are 
so important and far-reaching that their discussion in an essay 
precludes any presentation of details, however desirable this 
might be for clarity's sake. I hope nevertheless that I have suc 
ceeded in my main purpose, which was to set forth the attitude 
of the psychotherapist to his work. This may be found more 
rewarding than precepts and pointers to methods of treatment, 
which in any case never work properly unless they are applied 
with right understanding. The attitude of the psychotherapist 
is infinitely more important than the theories and methods of 
psychotherapy, and that is why I was particularly concerned to 
make this attitude known. I believe I have given an honest ac 
count and have, at the same time, imparted information which 
will allow you to decide how far and in what way the clergyman 
can join with the psychotherapist in his aspirations and en 
deavours. I believe, also, that the picture I have drawn of the 
spiritual outlook of modern man corresponds to the true state 

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PSYCHOTHERAPISTS OR THE CLERGY 



of affairs, though I make no claim to infallibility. In any case, 
what I have had to say about the cure of neurosis, and the prob 
lems involved, is the unvarnished truth. We doctors would 
naturally welcome the sympathetic understanding of the clergy 
in our endeavours to heal psychic suffering, but we are also 
fully aware of the fundamental difficulties which stand in the 
way of co-operation. My own position is on the extreme left 
wing in the parliament of Protestant opinion, yet I would be 
the first to warn people against uncritical generalizations of 
their own point of view. As a Swiss I am an inveterate democrat, 
yet I recognize that Nature is aristocratic and, what is even more, 
esoteric. "Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi" is an unpleasant but 
eternal truth. Who are forgiven their many sins? Those who 
have loved much. But as to those who love little, their few sins 
are held against them. I am firmly convinced that a vast number 
of people belong to the fold of the Catholic Church and no 
where else, because they are most suitably housed there. I am as 
much persuaded of this as of the fact, which I have myself ob 
served, that a primitive religion is better suited to primitive 
people than Christianity, which is so incomprehensible to them 
and so foreign to their blood that they can only ape it in the 
most disgusting way. I believe, too, that there must be protes- 
tants against the Catholic Church, and also protestants against 
Protestantism for the manifestations of the spirit are truly 
wondrous, and as varied as Creation itself. 

5S 8 The living spirit grows and even outgrows its earlier forms 
of expression; it freely chooses the men who proclaim it and in 
whom it lives. This living spirit is eternally renewed and pur 
sues its goal in manifold and inconceivable ways throughout the 
history of mankind. Measured against it, the names and forms 
which men have given it mean very little; they are only the 
changing leaves and blossoms on the stem of the eternal tree. 



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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE CURE OF SOULS 



559 The question of the relations between psychoanalysis and 
the pastoral cure of souls is not easy to answer, because the two 
are concerned with essentially different things. The cure of 
souls as practised by the clergyman or priest is a religious influ 
ence based on a Christian confession of faith. Psychoanalysis, on 
the other hand, is a medical intervention, a psychological tech 
nique whose purpose it is to lay bare the contents of the uncon 
scious and integrate them into the conscious mind. This definition 
of psychoanalysis applies, however, only to the methods em 
ployed by Freud's school and mine. The Adlerian method is not 
an analysis in this sense, nor does it pursue the aim stated above. 
It is chiefly pedagogical in intent, and works directly upon the 
conscious mind without, as it were, considering the unconscious. 
It is a further development of the French "reeducation de la 
volontd" and of Dubois' "psychic orthopedics." The normaliza 
tion of the individual at which Adlerian pedagogics aim, and his 
adaptation to the collective psyche, represent a different goal 
from that pursued by the pastoral cure of souls, which has for 
its aim the salvation of the soul and its deliverance from the 
snares of this world. Normalization and adaptation may, under 
certain circumstances, even be aims which are diametrically 

1 [First published as "Psychoanalyse und SeeJsorge." in Ethik: Sexual- und Gescll- 
schtfts-Ethik (Halle), V(igsS): i, 7-1 j.-EDrro*s,] 

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE CURE OF SOULS 



opposed to the Christian ideal of detachment from the world, 
submission to the will of God, and the salvation of the indi 
vidual. The Adlerian method and the pastoral cure of souls, 
whether Protestant or Catholic, have only one thing in common, 
and that is the fact that they both apply themselves to the con 
scious mind, and in so doing appeal to a person's insight and 
will. 

540 Freudian psychoanalysis, on the other hand, appeals in the 
first place neither to insight nor to the will, but seeks to lead 
the contents of the unconscious over into the conscious mind, 
thereby destroying the roots of the disturbances or symptoms. 
Freud seeks, therefore, to remove the disturbance of adaptation 
by an undermining of the symptoms, and not through treat 
ment of the conscious mind. That is the aim of his psycho 
analytic technique. 

M 1 My difference with Freud begins with the interpretation of 
unconscious material. It stands to reason that you cannot in 
tegrate anything into consciousness without some measure of 
comprehension, i.e., insight. In order to make the unconscious 
material assimilable or understandable, Freud employs his fa 
mous sexual theory, which conceives the material brought to 
light through analysis mainly as sexual tendencies (or other im 
moral wishes) that are incompatible with the conscious attitude. 
Freud's standpoint here is based on the rationalistic material 
ism of the scientific views current in the late nineteenth century 
(of which his book The Future of an Illusion affords the plain 
est possible demonstration). With these views a fairly far-reach 
ing recognition of the animal nature of man can be effected 
without too much difficulty, for the moral conflict is then ap 
parently limited to easily avoidable collisions with public opin 
ion or the penal code. At the same time Freud speaks of 
"sublimation," which he understands as an application of libido 
in desexualized form. I cannot enter here into a criticism of 
this very delicate subject, but would merely point out that not 
everything that comes out of the unconscious can be "subli 
mated." 

54* For anyone who, whether by temperament, or for philosoph 
ical or religious reasons, cannot adopt the standpoint of scien 
tific materialism, the realization of unconscious contents is in 
every respect a serious problem. Fortunately an instinctive 

349 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



resistance protects us from realizations that would take us too 
far; hence one can often content onself with a moderate increase 
of consciousness. This is particularly so in the case of simple, 
uncomplicated neuroses, or rather, with people who are simple 
and uncomplicated (a neurosis is never more complicated than 
the person who has it). Those, on the other hand, with more 
refined natures suffer mostly from a passion for consciousness 
far exceeding their instinctive resistance. Th/y want to see, 
know, and understand. For these people the answer given by 
the Freudian art of interpretation is unsatisfying. Here the 
Church's means of grace, especially as entrusted to the Catholic 
priest, are likely to come to the aid of understanding, for their 
form and meaning are suited at the outset to the nature of un 
conscious contents. That is why the priest not only hears the 
confession, but also asks questions indeed, it is incumbent on 
him to ask them. What is more, he can ask about things which 
would otherwise only come to the ears of the doctor. In view 
of the means of grace at his disposal, the priest's intervention 
cannot be regarded as exceeding his competence, seeing that he 
is also empowered to lay the storm which he has provoked. 

543 For the Protestant minister the problem is not so simple. 
Apart from common prayer and Holy Communion, he has no 
ritual ceremonies at his disposal, no spiritual exercises, rosaries, 
pilgrimages, etc., with their expressive symbolism. He is there 
fore compelled to take his stand on moral ground, which puts 
the instinctual forces coming up from the unconscious in danger 
of a new repression. Any sacral action, in whatever form, works 
like a vessel for receiving the contents of the unconscious. Puri 
tan simplification has deprived Protestantism of just this means 
of acting on the unconscious; at any rate it has dispossessed the 
clergyman of his quality as a priestly mediator, which is so 
very necessary to the soul Instead, it has given the individual 
responsibility for himself and left him alone with his God. 
Herein lies the advantage and also the danger of Protestantism. 
From this, too, comes its inner unrest, which in the course of a 
few centuries has begotten more than four hundred Protestant 
denominations an indubitable symptom of individualism run 
riot. 

544 There can be no doubt that the psychoanalytical unveiling 
of the unconscious has a great effect. Equally, there can be no 

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE CURE OF SOULS 



doubt of the tremendous effect of Catholic confession, especially 
when it is not just a passive hearing, but an active intervention. 
In view of this, it is truly astonishing that the Protestant 
Churches have not long since made an effort to revive the insti 
tution of confession as the epitome of the pastoral bond between 
the shepherd and his flock. For the Protestant, however, there 
is and rightly so no going back to this primitive Catholic 
form; it is too sharply opposed to the nature of Protestantism. 
The Protestant minister, rightly seeing in the cure of souls the 
real purpose of his existence, naturally looks round for a new 
way that will lead to the souls, and not merely to the ears, of his 
parishioners. Analytical psychology seems to him to provide the 
key, for the meaning and purpose of his ministry are not ful 
filled with the Sunday sermon, which, though it reaches the ears, 
seldom penetrates to the heart, much less to the soul, the most 
hidden of all things hidden in man. The cure of souls can only 
be practised in the stillness of a colloquy, carried on in the 
healthful atmosphere of unreserved confidence. Soul must work 
on soul, and many doors be unlocked that bar the way to the 
innermost sanctuary. Psychoanalysis possesses the means of open 
ing doors otherwise tightly closed. 

545 The opening of these doors, however, .is often very like a 
surgical operation, where the doctor, with knife poised, must be 
prepared for anything the moment the cut is made. The psycho 
analyst, likewise, can discover unforeseen things that are very 
unpleasant indeed, such as latent psychoses and the like. Al 
though these things, given time, often come to the surface en 
tirely of their own accord, the blame nevertheless falls on the 
analyst, who, by his intervention, releases the disturbance pre 
maturely. Only a thorough knowledge of psychiatry and its 
specialized techniques can protect the doctor from such blun 
ders. A lay analyst should therefore always work in collaboration 
with a doctor. 

546 Fortunately, the unlucky accidents I have just mentioned 
occur relatively seldom. But what psychoanalysis brings to light 
is, in itself, difficult enough to cope with. It brings the patient 
face to face with his life problem, and hence with some of the 
ultimate, serious questions which he has hitherto evaded. As 
human nature is very far from innocent, the facts that come up 
are usually quite sufficient to explain why the patient avoided 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



them: he felt instinctively that he did not know a satisfactory 
answer to these questions. Accordingly he expects it from the 
analyst. The analyst can now safely leave certain critical ques 
tions open and to the patient's own advantage; for no sensible 
patient will expect from him anything more than medical help. 
More is expected from the clergyman, namely the solution of 
religious questions. 

547 As already said, the Catholic Church has at her disposal ways 
and means which have served since olden times to gather the 
lower, instinctual forces of the psyche into symbols and in this 
way integrate them into the hierarchy of the spirit. The Protes 
tant minister lacks these means, and consequently often stands 
perplexed before certain facts of human nature which no 
amount of admonition, or insight, or goodwill, or heroic self- 
castigation can subdue. In Protestantism good and evil are flatly 
and irreconcilably opposed to one another. There is no visible 
forgiveness; the human being is left alone with his sin. And 
God, as we know, only forgives the sins we have conquered 
ourselves. For the Protestant clergy it is a momentous psycholog 
ical difficulty that they possess no forms which would serve to 
catch the lower instincts of psychic life. It is precisely the prob 
lem of the unconscious conflict brought to light by psycho 
analysis that requires solving. The doctor can on the basis of 
scientific materialismtreat the problem with medical discre 
tion, that is to say he can regard the ethical problems of his 
patient as lying outside his competence as a doctor. He can safely 
retire behind a regretful "There you must make out as best you 
can." But the Protestant clergyman cannot, in my opinion, wash 
his hands in innocence; he must accompany the soul of the 
person who confides in him on its dark journey. The reductive 
standpoint of psychoanalysis is of little use to him here, for any 
development is a building up and not a breaking down. Good 
advice and moral exhortation are little if any help in serious 
cases because, if followed, they dispel that intense darkness 
which precedes the coining of the light. As a wise saying of the 
East puts it: It is better to do good than to eschew evil. He who 
is wise, therefore, will play the part o beggar, king, or criminal, 
and be mindful of the gods. 

548 It is easier for the Catholic clergy to employ the elements 
of psychological analysis than it is for the Protestant. The latter 

35* 



PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE CURE OF SOULS 



are faced with the harder task. Not only do the Catholics possess 
a ready-made pastoral technique in the historically sanctioned 
form of confession, penance, and absolution, but they also have 
at their command a rich and palpably ritualistic symbolism 
which fully satisfies the demands as well as the obscure passions 
of simpler minds. The Protestants need a psychological tech 
nique to an even greater degree since they lack all essential 
forms of ritual. I therefore hold that psychological interest on 
the part of the Protestant clergy is entirely legitimate and even 
necessary. Their possible encroachment upon medical territory 
is more than balanced by medical incursions into religion and 
philosophy, to which doctors naively believe themselves entitled 
(witness the explanation of religious processes in terms of sexual 
symptoms or infantile wish-fantasies). The doctor and the clergy 
man undoubtedly clash head-on in analytical psychology. This 
collision should lead to co-operation and not to enmity. 
549 Owing to the absence of ritual forms, the Protestant (as op 
posed to the Catholic) cure of souls develops into a personal 
discussion in the sense of an "I-Thou" relationship. It cannot 
translate the fundamental problem of the transference into 
something impersonal, as the Catholic can, but must handle it 
with confidence as a personal experience. Any contact with the 
unconscious that goes at all deep leads to transference phe 
nomena. Whenever, therefore, the clergyman penetrates any 
distance into the psychic background, he will provoke a transfer 
ence (with men as well as with women). This involves him per 
sonally, and on top of that he has no form which he could 
substitute for his own person, as the Catholic priest can, or 
rather must do. In this way he finds himself drawn into the most 
personal participation for the sake of his parishioner's spiritual 
welfare, more so even than the analyst, for whom the specific 
salvation of the patient's soul is not necessarily a matter of burn 
ing importance. At all events he can resort to plausible excuses 
which the clergyman, somewhat nervously, must repudiate for 
higher reasons. Hence he stands, and must stand, in constant 
danger of involving himself in serious psychic conflicts which, 
to put it mildly, are not conducive to the parochial peace of 
mind. This danger is no trifling one, but it has the great ad 
vantage of drawing the responsible pastor back into real life 
and, at the same time, of exposing him to the tribulations of the 

353 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



early Church (cf. the gossip against which Paul had to defend 
himself). 

55 The pastor must make up his mind how far his public posi 
tion, his stipend, and considerations for his family keep him 
from setting forth on the perilous mission of curing souls. I 
would not think ill of him if he decided not to follow the advice 
that Tertullian gave his catechumens, namely, that they should 
deliberately visit the arena. Real pastoral work that is based on 
modern psychology can easily expose the clergyman to the 
martyrdom of public misinterpretation. Public position and re 
gard for the family, though worldly considerations, counsel a 
wise reserve (for the children of this world are, as we know, 
wiser than the children of light). Nevertheless, the eyes of the 
soul turn longingly to those who, regardless of their worldly wel 
fare, can throw everything into the scales for the sake of some 
thing better. Nothing, certainly, is ever won by childish enthusi 
asm; yet only with daring a daring which never leaves the firm 
ground of the real and the possible, and which shrinks from no 
suffering can anything of greater worth be achieved. 

55 1 Thus it is the Protestant minister's lack of ritual equipment 
which holds him back from closer contact with the world, and 
at the same time drives him towards a greater adventure be 
cause it moves him right into the firing line. I hope that the 
Protestant will not be found wanting in courage for this task. 

55* All intelligent psychotherapists would be glad if their en 
deavours were supported and supplemented by the work of the 
clergy. Certainly the problems of the human soul, approached 
from opposite ends by cleric and doctor, will cause considerable 
difficulties for both, not least on account of the difference in 
standpoint. But it is just from this encounter that we may expect 
the most fruitful stimulation for both sides. 



354 



VI 



ANSWER TO JOB 



[First published as a book, Antwart auf Hiob (Zurich, 1952). The present trans 
lation was first published, in book form, in London, 1954; for it, Professor Jung 
made some half-dozen small alterations to the original text and added or author 
ized an occasional footnote. In 1956, it was reprinted and published by Pastoral 
Psychology Book Club, Great Neck, New York. Only minor stylistic alterations 
have been made in the version here published. EDITORS.] 



PREFATORY NOTE 



The suggestion that I should tell you how Answer to Job came 
to be written sets me a difficult task, because the history of this 
book can hardly be told in a few words. I have been occupied 
with its central problem for years. Many different sources nour 
ished the stream of its thoughts, until one day and after long 
reflection the time was ripe to put them into words. 

The most immediate cause of my writing the book is perhaps 
to be found in certain problems discussed in my book Avon, 
especially the problems of Christ as a symbolic figure and of the 
antagonism Christ-Antichrist, represented in the traditional 
zodiacal symbolism of the two fishes. 

In connection with the discussion of these problems and of 
the doctrine of Redemption, I criticized the idea of the privatio 
boni as not agreeing with the psychological findings. Psycholog 
ical experience shows that whatever we call "good" is balanced 
by an equally substantial "bad" or "evil." If "evil" is non-ex 
istent, then whatever there is must needs be "good." Dogmati 
cally, neither "good" nor "evil" can be derived from Man, since 
the "Evil One" existed before Man as one of the "Sons of God." 
The idea of the privatio boni began to play a role in the Church 
only after Mani. Before this heresy, Clement of Rome taught 

i [Written for Pastoral Psychology (Great Neck, N. Y.), VI: 60 (January, 1956). 
EDTTOBS.] 

357 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



that God rules the world with a right and a left hand, the right 
being Christ, the left Satan. Clement's view is clearly monothe 
istic, as it unites the opposites in one God. 

Later Christianity, however, is dualistic, inasmuch as it splits 
off one half of the opposites, personified in Satan, and he is 
eternal in his state of damnation. This crucial question of noBev 
TO KOKQV (whence evil?) forms the point of departure for the 
Christian theory of Redemption, It is therefore of prime im 
portance. If Christianity claims to be a monotheism, it becomes 
unavoidable to assume the opposites as being contained in God. 
But then we are confronted with a major religious problem: 
the problem of Job. It is the aim of my book to point out its his 
torical evolution since the time of Job down through the cen 
turies to the most recent symbolic phenomena, such as the 
A$sumptio Mariae, etc. 

Moreover, the study of medieval natural philosophy of the 
greatest importance to psychologymade me try to find an an 
swer to the question: what image of God did these old phi 
losophers have? Or rather: how should the symbols which 
supplement their image of God be understood? All this pointed 
to a complexio oppositorum and thus recalled again the story of 
Job to my mind: Job who expected help from God against God. 
This most peculiar fact presupposes a similar conception of the 
opposites in God. 

On the other hand, numerous questions, not only from my 
patients, but from all over the world, brought up the problem 
of giving a more complete and explicit answer than I had given 
in A ion. For many years I hesitated to do this because I was 
quite conscious of the probable consequences, and knew what a 
storm would be raised. But I was gripped by the urgency and 
difficulty of the problem and was unable to throw it off. There 
fore I found myself obliged to deal with the whole problem, and 
I did so in the form of describing a personal experience, carried 
by subjective emotions. I deliberately chose this form because I 
wanted to avoid the impression that I had any idea of an 
nouncing an "eternal truth," The book does not pretend to be 
anything but the voice or question of a single individual who 
hopes or expects to meet with thoughtfulness in the public. 



358 



LECTORI BENEVOLO 



1 am distressed for thec, my brother . . . 
II Samuel 1:26 (AV) 

553 On account of its somewhat unusual content, my little book 
requires a short preface. I beg of you, dear reader, not to over 
look it. For, in what follows, I shall speak of the venerable ob 
jects of religious belief. Whoever talks of such matters inevita 
bly runs the risk of being torn to pieces by the two parties who 
are in mortal conflict about those very things. This conflict is 
due to the strange supposition that a thing is true only if it 
presents itself as a physical fact. Thus some people believe it to 
be physically true that Christ was born as the son of a virgin, 
while others deny this as a physical impossibility. Everyone can 
see that there is no logical solution to this conflict and that one 
would do better not to get involved in such sterile disputes. 
Both are right and both are wrong. Yet they could easily reach 
agreement if only they dropped the word "physical." "Physical" 
is not the only criterion of truth: there are also psychic truths 
which can neither be explained nor proved nor contested in any 
physical way. If, for instance, a general belief existed that the 
river Rhine had at one time flowed backwards from its mouth 
to its source, then this belief would in itself be a fact even 
though such an assertion, physically understood, would be 

359 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



deemed utterly incredible. Beliefs of this kind are psychic facts 
which cannot be contested and need no proof. 

554 Religious statements are of this type. They refer without ex 
ception to things that cannot be established as physical facts. If 
they did not do this, they would inevitably fall into the category 
of the natural sciences. Taken as referring to anything physical, 
they make no sense whatever, and science would dismiss them as 
non-experienceable. They would be mere miracles, which are 
sufficiently exposed to doubt as it is, and yet they could not 
demonstrate the reality of the spirit or meaning that underlies 
them, because meaning is something that always demonstrates 
itself and is experienced on its own merits. The spirit and mean 
ing of Christ are present and perceptible to us even without the 
aid of miracles. Miracles appeal only to the understanding of 
those who cannot perceive the meaning. They are mere substi 
tutes for the not understood reality of the spirit. This is not to 
say that the living presence of the spirit is not occasionally ac 
companied by marvellous physical happenings. I only wish to 
emphasize that these happenings can neither replace nor bring 
about an understanding of the spirit, which is the one essential 
thing. 

555 The fact that religious statements frequently conflict with 
the observed physical phenomena proves that in contrast to 
physical perception the spirit is autonomous, and that psychic 
experience is to a certain extent independent of physical data. 
The psyche is an autonomous factor, and religious statements 
are psychic confessions which in the last resort are based on un 
conscious, i.e., on transcendental, processes. These processes are 
not accessible to physical perception but demonstrate their ex 
istence through the confessions of the psyche. The resultant 
statements are filtered through the medium of human conscious 
ness: that is to say, they are given visible forms which in their 
turn are subject to manifold influences from within and with 
out That is why whenever we speak of religious contents we 
move in a world of images that point to something ineffable. 
We do not know how clear or unclear these images, metaphors, 
and concepts are in respect of their transcendental object. If, 
for instance, we say "God," we give expression to an image or 
verbal concept which has undergone many changes in the course 
of time. We are, however, unable to say with any degree of cer- 



ANSWER TO JOB 



tainty unless it be by faith whether these changes affect only 
the images and concepts, or the Unspeakable itself. After all, we 
can imagine God as an eternally flowing current of vital energy 
that endlessly changes shape just as easily as we can imagine 
him as an eternally unmoved, unchangeable essence. Our reason 
is sure only of one thing: that it manipulates images and ideas 
which are dependent on human imagination and its temporal 
and local conditions, and which have therefore changed innum 
erable times in the course of their long history. There is no 
doubt that there is something behind these images that tran 
scends consciousness and operates in such a way that the state 
ments do not vary limitlessly and chaotically, but clearly all 
.relate to a few basic principles or archetypes. These, like the 
psyche itself, or like matter, are unknowable as such. All we can 
do is to construct models of them which we know to be inade 
quate, a fact which is confirmed again and again by religious 
statements. 

556 If, therefore, in what follows I concern myself with these 
"metaphysical" objects, I am quite conscious that I am moving 
in a world of images and that none of my reflections touches the 
essence of the Unknowable. I am also too well aware of how 
limited are our powers of conception to say nothing of the 
feebleness and poverty of language to imagine that my remarks 
mean anything more in principle than what a primitive man 
means when he conceives of his god as a hare or a snake. But, 
although our whole world of religious ideas consists of anthropo 
morphic images that could never stand up to rational criticism, 
we should never forget that they are based on numinous arche 
types, i.e., on an emotional foundation which is unassailable 
by reason. We are dealing with psychic facts which logic can 
overlook but not eliminate. In this connection Tertullian has 
already appealed, quite rightly, to the testimony of the soul. In 
his De testimonio animae, he says: 

These testimonies of the soul are as simple as they are true, as ob 
vious as they are simple, as common as they are obvious, as natural 
as they are common, as divine as they are natural. I think that they 
cannot appear to any one to be trifling and ridiculous if he considers 
the majesty of Nature, whence the authority of the soul is derived. 
What you allow to the mistress you will assign to the disciple. Nature 
is the mistress, the soul is the disciple; what the one has taught, or 

361 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the other has learned, has been delivered to them by God, who is, in 
truth, the Master even of the mistress herself. What notion the soul 
is able to conceive of her first teacher is in your power to judge, 
from that soul which is in you. Feel that which causes you to feel; 
think upon that which is in forebodings your prophet; in omens, 
your augur; in the events which befall you, your foreseen Strange 
if, being given by God, she knows how to act the diviner for men! 
Equally strange if she knows Him by whom she has been given! * 

557 I would go a step further and say that the statements made 
in the Holy Scriptures are also utterances of the soul even at 
the risk of being suspected of psychologism. The statements ot 
the conscious mind may easily be snares and delusions, lies, or 
arbitrary opinions, but this is certainly not true of the state 
ments of the soul: to begin with they always go over our heads 
because they point to realities that transcend consciousness. 
These entia are the archetypes of the collective unconscious, and 
they precipitate complexes of ideas in the form of mythological 
motifs. Ideas of this kind are never invented, but enter the field 
of inner perception as finished products, for instance in dreams. 
They are spontaneous phenomena which are not subject to our 
will, and we are therefore justified in ascribing to them a certain 
autonomy. They are to be regarded not only as objects but as 
subjects with laws of their own. From the point of view of con 
sciousness, we can, of course, describe them as objects, and even 
explain them up to a point, in the same measure as we can de 
scribe and explain a living human being. But then we have to 
disregard their autonomy. If that is considered, we are com 
pelled to treat them as subjects; in other words, we have to ad 
mit that they possess spontaneity and purposiveness, or a kind of 
consciousness and free will. We observe their behaviour and 
consider their statements. This dual standpoint, which we are 
forced to adopt towards every relatively independent organism, 
naturally has a dual result. On the one hand it tells me what I 
do to the object, and on the other hand what it does (possibly 
to me). It is obvious that this unavoidable dualism will create a 
certain amount o confusion in the minds o my readers, par 
ticularly as in what follows we shall have to do with the arche 
type of Deity. 

1 Cap. V, in Mignc, PJ^ yd. i, cois. 615^ (trans, by C. Dodgson, I, pp. jj8f. t 
slightly modified. 

362 



ANSWER TO JOB 



55 8 Should any of my readers feel tempted to add an apologetic 
"only" to the God-images as we perceive them, he would im 
mediately fall foul of experience, which demonstrates beyond 
any shadow of doubt the extraordinary numinosity of these 
images. The tremendous effectiveness (mana) of these images is 
such that they not only give one the feeling of pointing to the 
Ens realissimum, but make one convinced that they actually ex 
press it and establish it as a fact. This makes discussion uncom 
monly difficult, if not impossible. It is, in fact, impossible to 
demonstrate God's reality to oneself except by using images 
which have arisen spontaneously or are sanctified by tradition, 
and whose psychic nature and effects the naive-minded person 
has never separated from their unknowable metaphysical back 
ground. He instantly equates the effective image with the tran 
scendental x to which it points. The seeming justification for 
this procedure appears self-evident and is not considered a prob 
lem so long as the statements of religion are not seriously ques 
tioned. But if there is occasion for criticism, then it must be 
remembered that the image and the statement are psychic 
processes which are different from their transcendental object; 
they do not posit it, they merely point to it. In the realm of psychic 
processes criticism and discussion are not only permissible but 
are unavoidable. 

559 In what follows I shall attempt just such a discussion, such a 
"coming to terms" with certain religious traditions and ideas. 
Since I shall be dealing with numinous factors, my feeling is 
challenged quite as much as my intellect. I cannot, therefore, 
write in a coolly objective manner, but must allow my emotional 
subjectivity to speak if I want to describe what I feel when I read 
certain books of the Bible, or when I remember the impressions 
I have received from the doctrines of our faith. I do not write 
as a biblical scholar (which I am not), but as a layman and physi 
cian who has been privileged to see deeply into the psychic life 
of many people. What I am expressing is first of all my own 
personal view, but I know that I also speak in the name of many 
who have had similar experiences. 



3 6 3 



ANSWER TO JOB 



560 The Book of Job is a landmark in the long historical de 
velopment of a divine drama. At the time the book was written, 
there were already many testimonies which had given a contra 
dictory picture of Yahweh the picture of a God who knew no 
moderation in his emotions and suffered precisely from this lack 
of moderation. He himself admitted that he was eaten up with 
rage and jealousy and that this knowledge was painful to him. 
Insight existed along with obtuseness, loving-kindness along 
with cruelty, creative power along with destructiveness. Every 
thing was there, and none of these qualities was an obstacle to 
the other. Such a condition is only conceivable either when no 
reflecting consciousness is present at all, or when the capacity 
for reflection is very feeble and a more or less adventitious phe 
nomenon. A condition of this sort can only be described as 
amoral. 

561 How the people of the Old Testament felt about their God 
we know from the testimony of the Bible. That is not what I 
am concerned with here, but rather with the way in which a 
modern man with a Christian education and background comes 
to terms with the divine darkness which is unveiled in the Book 
of Job, and what effect it has on him. I shall not give a cool and 
carefully considered exegesis that tries to be fair to every detail, 
but a purely subjective reaction. In this way I hope to act as a 

365 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



voice for many who feel the same way as I do, and to give ex 
pression to the shattering emotion which the unvarnished spec 
tacle o divine savagery and ruthlessness produces in us. Even if 
we know by hearsay about the suffering and discord in the Deity, 
they are so unconscious, and hence so ineffectual morally, that 
they arouse no human sympathy or understanding. Instead, they 
give rise to an equally ill-considered outburst of affect, and a 
smouldering resentment that may be compared to a slowly heal 
ing wound. And just as there is a secret tie between the wound 
and the weapon, so the affect corresponds to the violence of the 
deed that caused it. 

56* The Book of Job serves as a paradigm for a certain experi 
ence of God which has a special significance for us today. These 
experiences come upon man from inside as well as from outside, 
and it is useless to interpret them rationalistically and thus 
weaken them by apotropaic means. It is far better to admit the 
affect and submit to its violence than to try to escape it by all 
sorts of intellectual tricks or by emotional value-judgments. Al 
though, by giving way to the affect, one imitates all the bad 
qualities of the outrageous act that provoked it and thus makes 
oneself guilty of the same fault, that is precisely the point of the 
whole proceeding: the violence is meant to penetrate to a man's 
vitals, and he to succumb to its action. He must be affected by it, 
otherwise its full effect will not reach him. But he should know, 
or learn to know, what has affected him, for in this way he trans 
forms the blindness of the violence on the one hand and of the 
affect on the other into knowledge. 

563 For this reason I shall express my affect fearlessly and ruth 
lessly in what follows, and I shall answer injustice with injustice, 
that I may learn to know why and to what purpose Job was 
wounded, and what consequences have grown out of this for 
Yahweh as well as for man. 



366 



5^4 Job answers Yahweh thus: 

Behold, I am of small account; -what shall I answer thee? 

I lay my hand on my mouth. 
I have spoken once, and I will not answer; 

twice, but I will proceed no further. 1 

5% And indeed, in the immediate presence of the infinite power 
of creation, this is the only possible answer for a witness who is 
still trembling in every limb with the terror of almost total 
annihilation. What else could a half-crushed human worm, 
grovelling in the dust, reasonably answer in the circumstances? 
In spite of his pitiable littleness and feebleness, this man knows 
that he is confronted with a superhuman being who is personally 
most easily provoked. He also knows that it is far better to with 
hold all moral reflections, to say nothing of certain moral re 
quirements which might be expected to apply to a god. 

566 Yahweh's "justice** is praised, so presumably Job could bring 
his complaint and the protestation of his innocence before him as 

I Job 40:4-5. [Quotations throughout are from the Revised Standard Version 
(RSV), except where the Authorized Version (AV) is closer to the text of the 
Zurcher Bibel (ZB) used hy the author in conjunction with the original Hebrew 
and Greek sources. Where neither RSV nor AV fits, I have translated direct from 
ZB. The poetic line-arrangement of RSV is followed in so far as possible. TRANS.] 

367 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : \VEST 



the just judge. But he doubts this possibility. "How can a man 
be just before God?" 2 "If I summoned him and he answered 
me, I would net believe that he was listening to my voice." 3 "If 
it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?" 4 He "multi 
plies my wounds without cause." 5 "He destroys both the blame 
less and the wicked." 6 "If the scourge slay suddenly, he will 
laugh at the trial of the innocent." 7 "I know," Job says to 
Yahweh, "thou wilt not hold me innocent. I shall be con 
demned." 8 " If I wash myself . . . never so clean, yet shalt thou 
plunge me in the ditch." * "For he is not a man, as I am, that I 
should answer him, and we should come together in judg 
ment." 10 Job wants to explain his point of view to Yahweh, 
to state his complaint, and tells him: "Thou knowest that I am 
not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand." " 
"I desire to argue my case with God." 12 "I will defend my ways 
to his face," 1S "I know that I shall be vindicated." M Yahweh 
should summon him and render him an account or at least allow 
him to plead his cause. Properly estimating the disproportion 
between man and God, he asks: "Wilt thou break a leaf driven 
to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?" 15 God has 
put him in the wrong, but there is no justice. 16 He has "taken 
away my right." 1T "Till I die I will not put away my integrity 
from me. I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it 
go." 18 His friend Elihu the Buzite does not believe the in 
justice of Yahweh: "Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and 
the Almighty will not pervert justice." 19 Illogically enough, 
he bases his opinion on God's power: "Is it fit to say to a king, 
Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?" * One must 
"respect the persons of princes and esteem the high more than 
the low/' ** But Job is not shaken in his faith, and had already 
uttered an important truth when he said: "Behold, my witness 
is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high . . . my eye 
pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a 
man with God, like that of a man with his neighbour." tt And 

2Jobg:. 89:16. ^ 9: 19. *9 :1 7- $9:22. 

T 9 :*S(AV). g:***. *g:&-$i (AV). 2ftg:st(AV). 

1110:7, 1J i5 : 3* 1S 13:15- "13:18. 15 13: 25 (AV). 

1819:6-7. 1727:2. "27:5-6. it 34: . >34:i8(AV). 

21 34: 19 (ZB). 2216:19-21. 

368 



ANSWER TO JOB 



later: "For I know that my Vindicator lives, and at last he will 
stand upon the earth." 23 

567 These words clearly show that Job, in spite of his doubt as 
to whether man can be just before God, still finds it difficult to 
relinquish the idea of meeting God on the basis of justice and 
therefore of morality. Because, in spite of everything, he cannot 
give up his faith in divine justice, it is not easy for him to accept 
the knowledge that divine arbitrariness breaks the law. On the 
other hand, he has to admit that no one except Yahweh himself 
is doing him injustice and violence. He cannot deny that he is 
up against a God who does not care a rap for any moral opinion 
and does not recognize any form of ethics as binding. This is 
perhaps the greatest thing about Job, that, faced with this diffi 
culty, he does not doubt the unity of God. He clearly sees that 
God is at odds with himself so totally at odds that he, Job, is 
quite certain of finding in God a helper and an "advocate" 
against God. As certain as he is of the evil in Yahweh, he is 
equally certain of the good. In a human being who renders us 
evil we cannot expect at the same time to find a helper. But 
Yahweh is not a human being: he is both a persecutor and a 
helper in one, and the one aspect is as real as the other. Yahweh 
is not split but is an antinomy a. totality of inner opposites 
and this is the indispensable condition for his tremendous 
dynamism, his omniscience and omnipotence. Because of this 
knowledge Job holds on to his intention of "defending his ways 
to his face," i.e., of making his point of view clear to him, since 
notwithstanding his wrath, Yahweh is also man's advocate 
against himself when man puts forth his complaint. 

568 One would be even more astonished at Job's knowledge of 
God if this were the first time one were hearing of Yahweh's 
amorality. His incalculable moods and devastating attacks of 
wrath had, however, been known from time immemorial. He 
had proved himself to be a jealous defender of morality and 
was specially sensitive in regard to justice. Hence he had always 
to be praised as "just," which, it seemed, was very important to 
him* Thanks to this circumstance or peculiarity of his, he had a 
distinct personality, which differed from that of a more or less 
archaic king only in scope. His jealous and irritable nature, 

23 19:25. ['Vindicator* is RSV alternative reading for 'Redeemer,* and comes very 
dose to the ZB Anwalt, 'advocate/ TRANS.] 

3 6 9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



prying mistrustfully into the faithless hearts of men and explor 
ing their secret thoughts, compelled a personal relationship be 
tween himself and man, who could not help but feel personally 
called by him. That was the essential difference between Yahweh 
and the all-ruling Father Zeus, who in a benevolent and some 
what detached manner allowed the economy of the universe to 
roll along on its accustomed courses and punished only those 
who were disorderly. He did not moralize but ruled purely in 
stinctively. He did not demand anything more from human 
beings than the sacrifices due to him; he did not want to do any 
thing with human beings because he had no plans for them. 
Father Zeus is certainly a figure but not a personality. Yahweh, 
on the other hand, was interested in man. Human beings were 
a matter of first-rate importance to him. He needed them as they 
needed him, urgently and personally- Zeus too could throw 
thunderbolts about, but only at hopelessly disorderly individ 
uals. Against mankind as a whole he had no objections but 
then they did not interest him all that much. Yahweh, however, 
could get inordinately excited about man as a species and men as 
individuals if they did not behave as he desired or expected, 
without ever considering that in his omnipotence he could easily 
have created something better than these "bad earthenware 
pots." 

569 In view of this intense personal relatedness to his chosen 
people, it was only to be expected that a regular covenant would 
develop which also extended to certain individuals, for instance 
to David. As we learn from the Eighty-ninth Psalm, Yahweh told 
him: 

My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever, 
and my covenant will stand firm for him. 

I will not violate my covenant, 

or alter the word that went forth from my lips. 
Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; 

I will not lie to David. 2 * 

57 And yet it happened that he, who watched so jealously over 
the fulfilment of laws and contracts, broke his own oath. Modern 
man, with his sensitive conscience, would have felt the black 

24 Verses 28,34,55. 

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ANSWER TO JOB 



abyss opening and the ground giving way under his feet, for the 
least he expects of his God is that he should be superior to 
mortal man in the sense of being better, higher, nobler but not 
his superior in the kind of moral flexibility and unreliability 
that do not jib even at perjury. 

571 Of course one must not tax an archaic god with the require 
ments of modern ethics. For the people of early antiquity things 
were rather different. In their gods there was absolutely every 
thing: they teemed with virtues and vices. Hence they could be 
punished, put in chains, deceived, stirred up against one 
another without losing face, or at least not for long. The man 
of that epoch was so inured to divine inconsistencies that he was 
not unduly perturbed when they happened. With Yahweh the 
case was different because, from quite early on, the personal 
and moral tie began to play an important part in the religious 
relationship. In these circumstances a breach of contract was 
bound to have the effect not only of a personal but of a moral 
injury. One can see this from the way David answers Yahweh: 

How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? 

shall thy wrath burn like fire? 
Remember how short my time is: 

wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? 



Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, 

which by thy faithfulness thou didst swear to David? 25 

57* Had this been addressed to a human being it would have run 
something like this: "For heaven's sake, man, pull yourself to 
gether and stop being such a senseless savagel It is really too 
grotesque to get into such a rage when it's partly your own fault 
that the plants won't flourish. You used to be quite reasonable 
and took good care of the garden you planted, instead of tram 
pling it to pieces." 

573 Certainly our interlocutor would never dare to remonstrate 
with his almighty partner about this breach of contract He 
knows only too well what a row he would get into if he were the 
wretched breaker of the law. Because anything else would put 
him in peril of his life, he must retire to the more exalted plane 
as Psalm 89:46, 47, 49 (AV; last line from RSV). 

37 * 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



of reason. In this way, without knowing it or wanting it, he 
shows himself superior to his divine partner both intellectually 
and morally. Yahweh fails to notice that he is being humoured, 
just as little as he understands why he has continually to be 
praised as just. He makes pressing demands on his people to be 
praised M and propitiated in every possible way, for the obvious 
purpose of keeping him in a good temper at any price. 
574 The character thus revealed fits a personality who can only 
convince himself that he exists through his relation to an object. 
Such dependence on the object is absolute when the subject is 
totally lacking in self-reflection and therefore has no insight into 
himself. It is as if he existed only by reason of the fact that he 
has an object which assures him that he is really there. If Yah 
weh, as we would expect of a sensible human being, were really 
conscious of himself, he would, in view of the true facts of the 
case, at least have put an end to the panegyrics on his justice. 
But he is too unconscious to be moral. Morality presupposes 
consciousness. By this I do not mean to say that Yahweh is im 
perfect or evil, like a gnostic demiurge. He is everything in its 
totality; therefore, among other things, he is total justice, and 
also its total opposite. At least this is the way he must be con 
ceived if one is to form a unified picture of his character. We 
must only remember that what we have sketched is no more 
than an anthropomorphic picture which is not even particularly 
easy to visualize. From the way the divine nature expresses it 
self we can see that the individual qualities are not adequately 
related to one another, with the result that they fall apart into 
mutually contradictory acts. For instance, Yahweh regrets hav 
ing created human beings, although in his omniscience he must 
have known all along what would happen to them. 



n 

575 Since the Omniscient looks into all hearts, and Yahweh's 
eyes "run to and fro through the whole earth," * it were better 
for the interlocutor of the Eighty-ninth Psalm not to wax 

2* Or to be "blessed," which is even more captious of him. 

i Zechariah 4: 10 (AV). Cf. also the Wisdom of Solomon 1:10 (AV): "For the ear 

of jealousy heareth ail things: and the noise of murmurings is not hid." 

372 



ANSWER TO JOB 



too conscious of his slight moral superiority over the more 
unconscious God. Better to keep it dark, for Yahweh is no 
friend of critical thoughts which in any way diminish the tribute 
of recognition he demands. Loudly as his power resounds 
through the universe, the basis of its existence is correspond 
ingly slender, for it needs conscious reflection in order to exist 
in reality. Existence is only real when it is conscious to some 
body. That is why the Creator needs conscious man even 
though, from sheer unconsciousness, he would like to prevent 
him from becoming conscious. And that is also why Yahweh 
needs the acclamation of a small group of people. One can im 
agine what would happen if this assembly suddenly decided to 
stop the applause: there would be a state of high excitation, with 
outbursts of blind destructive rage, then a withdrawal into 
hellish loneliness and the torture of non-existence, followed by 
a gradual reawakening of an unutterable longing for something 
which would make him conscious of himself. It is probably for 
this reason that all pristine things, even man before he be 
comes the canaille, have a touching, magical beauty, for in its 
nascent state "each thing after its kind" is the most precious, 
the most desirable, the tenderest thing in the world, being a 
reflection of the infinite love and goodness of the Creator, 
576 In view of the undoubted frightfulness of divine wrath, and 
in an age when men still knew what they were talking about 
when they said "Fear God," it was only to be expected that 
man's slight superiority should have remained unconscious. The 
powerful personality of Yahweh, who, in addition to everything 
else, lacked all biographical antecedents (his original relation 
ship to the Elohim had long since been sunk in oblivion), had 
raised him above all the numina of the Gentiles and had im 
munized him against the influence that for several centuries had 
been undermining the authority of the pagan gods. It was pre 
cisely the details of their mythological biography that had be 
come their nemesis, for with his growing capacity for judgment 
man had found these stories more and more incomprehensible 
and indecent. Yahweh, however, had no origin and no past, 
except his creation of the world, with which all history began, 
and his relation to that part of mankind whose forefather Adam 
he had fashioned in his own image as the Anthropos, the orig 
inal man, by what appears to have been a special act of creation. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



One can only suppose that the other human beings who must 
also have existed at that time had been formed previously on the 
divine potter's wheel along with the various kinds of beasts and 
cattle those human beings, namely, from whom Gain and Seth 
chose their wives. If one does not approve of this conjecture, 
then the only other possibility that remains is the far more 
scandalous one that they incestuously married their sisters (for 
whom there is no evidence in the text), as was still surmised by 
the philosopher Karl Lamprecht at the end of the nineteenth 
century. 

577 The special providence which singled out the Jews from 
among the divinely stamped portion of humanity and made 
them the "chosen people 1 * had burdened them from the start 
with a heavy obligation. As usually happens with such mort 
gages, they quite understandably tried to circumvent it as much 
as possible. Since the chosen people used every opportunity to 
break away from him, and Yahweh felt it of vital importance to 
tie this indispensable object (which he had made "godlike" for 
this very purpose) definitely to himself, he proposed to the 
patriarch Noah a contract between himself on the one hand, 
and Noah, his children, and all their animals, both tame and 
wild, on the othera contract that promised advantages to both 
parties. In order to strengthen this contract and keep it fresh 
in the memory, he instituted the rainbow as a token of the cove 
nant. If, in future, he summoned the thunder-clouds which hide 
within them floods of water and lightning, then the rainbow 
would appear, reminding him and his people of the contract. 
The temptation to use such an accumulation of clouds for an 
experimental deluge was no small one, and it was therefore a 
good idea to associate it with a sign that would give timely warn 
ing of possible catastrophe. 

578 In spite of these precautions the contract had gone to pieces 
with David, an event which left behind it a literary deposit in 
the Scriptures and which grieved some few of the devout, who 
upon reading it became reflective. As the Psalms were zealously 
read, it was inevitable that certain thoughtful people were un 
able to stomach the Eighty-ninth Psalm. However that may be, 
the fatal impression made by the breach of contract survived. 2 

2 The 8gth Psalm is attributed to David and is supposed to have been a com 
munity song written in exile. 

374 



ANSWER TO JOB 



It is historically possible that these considerations influenced 
the author of the Book of Job. 

579 The Book of Job places this pious and faithful man, so heav 
ily afflicted by the Lord, on a brightly lit stage where he presents 
his case to the eyes and ears of the world. It is amazing to see 
how easily Yahweh, quite without reason, had let himself be 
influenced by one of his sons, by a doubting thought, 3 and made 
unsure of Job's faithfulness. With his touchiness and suspicious- 
ness the mere possibility of doubt was enough to infuriate him 
and induce that peculiar double-faced behaviour of which he 
had already given proof in the Garden of Eden, when he pointed 
out the tree to the First Parents and at the same time forbade 
them to eat of it. In this way he precipitated the Fall, which he 
apparently never intended. Similarly, his faithful servant Job 
is now to be exposed to a rigorous moral test, quite gratuitously 
and to no purpose, although Yahweh is convinced of Job's faith 
fulness and constancy, and could moreover have assured himself 
beyond all doubt on this point had he taken counsel with his 
own omniscience. Why, then, is the experiment made at all, 
and a bet with the unscrupulous slanderer settled, without a 
stake, on the back of a powerless creature? It is indeed no edify 
ing spectacle to see how quickly Yahweh abandons his faithful 
servant to the evil spirit and lets him fall without compunction 
or pity into the abyss of physical and moral suffering. From the 
human point of view Yahweh's behaviour is so revolting that 
one has to ask oneself whether there is not a deeper motive 
hidden behind it. Has Yahweh some secret resistance against 
Job? That would explain his yielding to Satan. But what does 
man possess that God does not have? Because of his littleness, 
puniness, and defencelessness against the Almighty, he possesses, 
as we have already suggested, a somewhat keener consciousness 
based on self-reflection: he must, in order to survive, always be 
mindful of his impotence. God has no need of this circumspec 
tion, for nowhere does he come up against an insuperable ob 
stacle that would force him to hesitate and hence make him 
reflect on himself. Could a suspicion have grown up in God 
that man possesses an infinitely small yet more concentrated 

s Satan is presumably one of God's eyes which "go to and fro in the earth and 
walk up and down in it" (Job i : 7). In Persian tradition, Ahriman proceeded 
from one of Ormuzd's doubting thoughts. 

375 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



light than he, Yahweh, possesses? A jealousy of that kind might 
perhaps explain his behaviour. It would be quite explicable if 
some such dim, barely understood deviation from the definition 
of a mere "creature" had aroused his divine suspicions. Too 
often already these human beings had not behaved in the pre 
scribed manner. Even his trusty servant Job might have some 
thing up his sleeve. . . . Hence Yahweh's surprising readiness 
to listen to Satan's insinuations against his better judgment. 

580 Without further ado Job is robbed of his herds, his servants 
are slaughtered, his sons and daughters are killed by a whirl 
wind, and he himself is smitten with sickness and brought to 
the brink of the grave. To rob him of peace altogether, his wife 
and his old friends are let loose against him, all of whom say 
the wrong things. His justified complaint finds no hearing 
with the judge who is so much praised for his justice. Job's right 
is refused in order that Satan be not disturbed in his play. 

5 Sl One must bear in mind here the dark deeds that follow one 
another in quick succession: robbery, murder, bodily injury 
with premeditation, and denial of a fair trial. This is further 
exacerbated by the fact that Yahweh displays no compunction, 
remorse, or compassion, but only rathlessness and brutality. 
The plea of unconsciousness is invalid, seeing that he flagrantly 
violates at least three of the commandments he himself gave out 
on Mount Sinai. 

5 8 * Job's friends do everything in their power to contribute to 
his moral torments, and instead of giving him, whom God has 
perfidiously abandoned, their warm-hearted support, they mor 
alize in an all too human manner, that is, in the stupidest fash 
ion imaginable, and "fill him with wrinkles." They thus deny 
him even the last comfort of sympathetic participation and 
human understanding, so that one cannot altogether suppress 
the suspicion of connivance in high places. 

583 Why Job's torments and the divine wager should suddenly 
come to an end is not quite clear. So long as Job does not actu 
ally die, the pointless suffering could be continued indefinitely. 
We must, however, keep an eye on the background of all these 
events: it is just possible that something in this background will 
gradually begin to take shape as a compensation for Job's un 
deserved suffering-something to which Yahweh, even if he had 
only a faint inkling of it, could hardly remain indifferent. With- 

376 



ANSWER TO JOB 



out Yahweh's knowledge and contrary to his intentions, the 
tormented though guiltless Job had secretly been lifted up to a 
superior knowledge of God which God himself did not possess. 
Had Yahweh consulted his omniscience, Job would not have 
had the advantage of him. But then, so many other things would 
not have happened either. 

584 Job realizes God's inner antinomy, and in the light of this 
realization his knowledge attains a divine numinosity. The pos 
sibility of this development lies, one must suppose, in man's 
"godlikeness," which one should certainly not look for in human 
morphology. Yahweh himself had guarded against this error by 
expressly forbidding the making of images. Job, by his insistence 
on bringing his case before God, even without hope of a hear 
ing, had stood his ground and thus created the very obstacle 
that forced God to reveal his true nature. With this dramatic 
climax Yahweh abruptly breaks off his cruel game of cat and 
mouse. But if anyone should expect that his wrath will now be 
turned against the slanderer, he will be severely disappointed. 
Yahweh does not think of bringing this mischief-making son of 
his to account, nor does it ever occur to him to give Job at least 
the moral satisfaction of explaining his behaviour. Instead, he 
comes riding along on the tempest of his almightiness and 
thunders reproaches at the half-crushed human worm: 

Who is this that darkens counsel 
by words -without insight? * 

5 8 5 In view of the subsequent words of Yahweh, one must really 
ask oneself: Who is darkening what counsel? The only dark 
thing here is how Yahweh ever came to make a bet with Satan. 
It is certainly not Job who has darkened anything and least of 
all a counsel, for there was never any talk of this nor will there 
be in what follows. The bet does not contain any "counsel" 
so far as one can see unless, of course, it was Yahweh himself 
who egged Satan on for the ultimate purpose of exalting Job. 
Naturally this development was foreseen in omniscience, and 
it may be that the word "counsel" refers to this eternal and abso 
lute knowledge. If so, Yahweh's attitude seems the more illogical 
and incomprehensible, as he could then have enlightened Job 
on this point whict, in view of the wrong done to him, would 
* job 38: 2 (IB). 

377 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



have been only fair and equitable. I must therefore regard this 
possibility as improbable. 

586 Whose words are without insight? Presumably Yahweh is 
not referring to the words of Job's friends, but is rebuking Job. 
But what is Job's guilt? The only thing he can be blamed for 
is his incurable optimism in believing that he can appeal to 
divine justice. In this he is mistaken, as Yahweh's subsequent 
words prove. God does not want to be just; he merely flaunts 
might over right. Job could not get that into his head, because 
he looked upon God as a moral being. He had never doubted 
God's might, but had hoped for right as well. He had, however, 
already taken back this error when he recognized God's contra 
dictory nature, and by so doing he assigned a place to God's 
justice and goodness. So one can hardly speak of lack of insight. 

5 8 7 The answer to Yahweh's conundrum is therefore: it is Yah 
weh himself who darkens his own counsel and who has no in 
sight. He turns the tables on Job and blames him for what he 
himself does: man is not permitted to have an opinion about 
him, and, in particular, is to have no insight which he himself 
does not possess. For seventy-one verses he proclaims his world- 
creating power to his miserable victim, who sits in ashes and 
scratches his sores with potsherds, and who by now has had 
more than enough of superhuman violence. Job has absolutely 
no need of being impressed by further exhibitions of this power. 
Yahweh, in his omniscience, could have known just how in 
congruous his attempts at intimidation were in such a situation. 
He could easily have seen that Job believes in his omnipotence 
as much as ever and has never doubted it or wavered in his 
loyalty. Altogether, he pays so little attention to Job's real situa 
tion that one suspects him of having an ulterior motive which 
is more important to him: Job is no more than the outward occa 
sion for an inward process of dialectic in God. His thunderings 
at Job so completely miss the point that one cannot help but see 
how much he is occupied with himself. The tremendous empha 
sis he lays on his omnipotence and greatness makes no sense in 
relation to Job, who certainly needs no more convincing, but 
only becomes intelligible when aimed at a listener who doubts 
it. This "doubting thought" is Satan, who after completing his 
evil handiwork has returned to the paternal bosom in order to 
continue his subversive activity there. Yahweh must have seen 

378 



ANSWER TO JOB 



that Job's loyalty was unshakable and that Satan had lost his 
bet. He must also have realized that, in accepting this bet, 
he had done everything possible to drive his faithful servant to 
disloyalty, even to the extent of perpetrating a whole series of 
crimes. Yet it is not remorse and certainly not moral horror 
that rises to his consciousness, but an obscure intimation of 
something that questions his omnipotence. He is particularly 
sensitive on this point, because "might" is the great argument. 
But omniscience knows that might excuses nothing. The said 
intimation refers, of course, to the extremely uncomfortable 
fact that Yahweh had let himself be bamboozled by Satan. This 
weakness of his does not reach full consciousness, since Satan is 
treated with remarkable tolerance and consideration. Evidently 
Satan's intrigue is deliberately overlooked at Job's expense. 

588 Luckily enough, Job had noticed during this harangue that 
everything else had been mentioned except his right. He has 
understood that it is at present impossible to argue the question 
of right, as it is only too obvious that Yahweh has no interest 
whatever in Job's cause but is far more preoccupied with his 
own affairs. Satan, that is to say, has somehow to disappear, and 
this can best be done by casting suspicion on Job as a man of 
subversive opinions. The problem is thus switched on to another 
track, and the episode with Satan remains unmentioned and 
unconscious. To the spectator it is not quite clear why Job is 
treated to this almighty exhibition of thunder and lightning, but 
the performance as such is sufficiently magnificent and im 
pressive to convince not only a larger audience but above all 
Yahweh himself of his unassailable power. Whether Job realizes 
what violence Yahweh is doing to his own omniscience by be 
having like this we do not know, but his silence and submission 
leave a number of possibilities open. Job has no alternative but 
formally to revoke his demand for justice, and he therefore an 
swers in the words quoted at the beginning: "I lay my hand on 
my mouth." 

589 He betrays not the slightest trace of mental reservation in 
fact, his answer leaves us in no doubt that he has succumbed 
completely and without question to the tremendous force of the 
divine demonstration. The most exacting tyrant should have 
been satisfied with this, and could be quite sure that his servant 
from terror alone, to say nothing of his undoubted loyalty 

379 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



would not dare to nourish a single improper thought for a very 
long time to come. 

59 Strangely enough, Yahweh does not notice anything of the 
kind. He does not see Job and his situation at all It is rather as 
if he had another powerful opponent in the place of Job, one 
who was better worth challenging. This is clear from his twice- 
repeated taunt: 

Gird up your loins like a man; 

I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 5 

59 1 One would have to choose positively grotesque examples to 
illustrate the disproportion between the two antagonists. Yah 
weh sees something in Job which we would not ascribe to him 
but to God, that is, an equal power which causes him to bring 
out his whole power apparatus and parade it before his oppo 
nent. Yahweh projects on to Job a sceptic's face which is hateful 
to him because it is his own, and which gazes at him with an 
uncanny and critical eye. He is afraid of it, for only in face of 
something frightening does one let off a cannonade of references 
to one's power, cleverness, courage, invincibility, etc. What has 
all that to do with Job? Is it worth the lion's while to terrify a 
mouse? 

59* Yahweh cannot rest satisfied with the first victorious round. 
Job has long since been knocked out, but the great antagonist 
whose phantom is projected on to the pitiable sufferer still 
stands menacingly upright. Therefore Yahweh raises his arm 
again: 

Will you even put me in the wrong? 

Will you condemn me that you may be justified? 
Have you an arm like God, 

and can you thunder with a voice like his? 6 

593 Man, abandoned without protection and stripped of his 
rights, and whose nothingness is thrown in his face at every 
opportunity, evidently appears to be so dangerous to Yahweh 
that he must be battered down with the heaviest artillery. What 
irritates Yahweh can be seen from his challenge to the ostensi 
ble Job: 

5 Job 38 : 3 and 40 : 7. 40 : 8-9. 

380 



ANSWER TO JOB 



Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; 

and tread down the wicked where they stand. 
Hide them in the dust together; 

bind their faces in the hidden place. 
Then will I also acknowledge to you 

that your own right hand can give you victory. 7 

594 Job is challenged as though he himself were a god. But in 
the contemporary metaphysics there was no deuteros theos, no 
other god except Satan, who owns Yahweh's ear and is able to 
influence him. He is the only one who can pull the wool over 
his eyes, beguile him, and put him up to a massive violation of 
his own penal code. A formidable opponent indeed, and, be 
cause of his close kinship, so compromising that he must be 
concealed with the utmost discretion even to the point of God's 
hiding him from his own consciousness in his own bosom! In 
his stead God must set up his miserable servant as the bugbear 
whom he has to fight, in the hope that by banishing the dreaded 
countenance to "the hidden place" he will be able to maintain 
himself in a state of unconsciousness. 

595 The stage-managing of this imaginary duel, the speechify 
ing, and the impressive performance given by the prehistoric 
menagerie would not be sufficiently explained if we tried to 
reduce them to the purely negative factor of Yahweh's fear of 
becoming conscious and of the relativization which this entails. 
The conflict becomes acute for Yahweh as a result of a new 
factor, which is, however, not hidden from omniscience though 
in this case the existing knowledge is not accompanied by any 
conclusion. The new factor is something that has never occurred 
before in the history of the world, the unheard-of fact that, with 
out knowing it or wanting it, a mortal man is raised by his moral 
behaviour above the stars in heaven, from which position of ad 
vantage he can behold the back of Yahweh, the abysmal world 
of "shards/' 8 

740: 12-14 r* n toe hidden place" is RSV alternative reading for "in the world 

below"). 

8 This is an allusion to an idea found in the later cabalistic philosophy. [These 

"shards," also called "shells" (Heb. kelipot), form ten counterpoles to the ten 

seprotk, which are the ten stages in the revelation of God's creative power. The 

shards, representing the forces of evil and darkness, were originally mixed with 

the light of the stfiroth. The Zohar describes evil as the by-product of the life 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



59 6 Does Job know what he has seen? If he does, he is astute or 
canny enough not to betray it. But his words speak volumes: 

I know that thou canst do all things, 

and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted. 9 

597 Truly, Yahweh can do all things and permits himself all 
things without batting an eyelid. With brazen countenance he 
can project his shadow side and remain unconscious at man's 
expense. He can boast of his superior power and enact laws 
which mean less than air to him. Murder and manslaughter are 
mere bagatelles, and if the mood takes him he can play the 
feudal grand seigneur and generously recompense his bondslave 
for the havoc wrought in his wheat-fields. "So you have lost 
your sons and daughters? No harm done, I will give you new and 
better ones." 

598 Job continues (no doubt with downcast eyes and in a low 
voice): 

"Who is this that hides counsel without insight?" 
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, 

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 
"Hear, and I will speak; 

I will question you, and you declare to me." 
I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, 

but now my eye sees thee; 
therefore I abhor myself, 

and repent in dust and ashes. 10 

599 Shrewdly, Job takes up Yahweh's aggressive words and pros 
trates himself at his feet as if he were indeed the defeated an 
tagonist Guileless as Job's speech sounds, it could just as well 
be equivocal. He has learnt his lesson well and experienced 
"wonderful things" which are none too easily grasped. Before, 
he had known Yahweh "by the hearing of the ear/' but now 
he has got a taste of his reality, more so even than David an 

process of the sefiroth. Therefore the sefirath had to be cleansed of the evil ad 
mixture of the shards. This elimination of the shards took place in what is de 
scribed in the cabalistic writings particularly of Luria and his school as the 
"breaking of the vessels." Through this the powers of evil assumed a separate 
and real existence. Cf. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 267. 
EDITORS.] 4*:s. 10 4* : 3-6 (modified). 

382 



ANSWER TO JOB 



incisive lesson that had better not be forgotten. Formerly he was 
naive, dreaming perhaps o a "good" God, or of a benevolent 
ruler and just judge. He had imagined that a "covenant" was a 
legal matter and that anyone who was party to a contract could 
insist on his rights as agreed; that God would be faithful and 
true or at least just, and, as one could assume from the Ten 
Commandments, would have some recognition of ethical values 
or at least feel committed to his own legal standpoint. But, to 
his horror, he has discovered that Yahweh is not human but, in 
certain respects, less than human, that he is just what Yahweh 
himself says of Leviathan (the crocodile): 

He beholds everything that is high: 
He is king over all proud beasts. 11 

600 Unconsciousness has an animal nature. Like all old gods 
Yahweh has his animal symbolism with its unmistakable borrow 
ings from the much older theriomorphic gods of Egypt, espe 
cially Horus and his four sons. Of the four animals of Yahweh 
only one has a human face. That is probably Satan, the god 
father of man as a spiritual being. Ezekiel's vision attributes 
three-fourths animal nature and only one-fourth human nature 
to the animal deity, while the upper deity, the one above the 
"sapphire throne," merely had the "likeness" of a man. 12 This 
symbolism explains Yahweh's behaviour, which, from the 
human point of view, is so intolerable: it is the behaviour of 
an unconscious being who cannot be judged morally. Yahweh is 
a phenomenon and, as Job says, "not a man." 13 

^o 1 One could, without too much difficulty, impute such a mean 
ing to Job's speech. Be that as it may, Yahweh calmed down at 
last. The therapeutic measure of unresisting acceptance had 
proved its value yet again. Nevertheless, Yahweh is still some- 

11 Job 41 : 25 (ZB); cf. 41 : 34 (AV and RSV). 12 Ezekiel x : 26. 

13 The naive assumption that the creator of the world is a conscious being must 
be regarded as a disastrous prejudice which later gave rise to the most incredible 
dislocations of logic. For example, the nonsensical doctrine of the privatio boni 
would never have been necessary had one not had to assume in advance that it 
is impossible for the consciousness of a good God to produce evil deeds. Divine 
unconsciousness and lack of reflection, on the other hand, enable us to form a 
conception of God which puts his actions beyond moral judgment and allows no 
conflict to arise between goodness and beastliness, 

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what nervous of Job's friends they "have not spoken of me what 
is right." 14 The projection of his doubt-complex extends 
comically enough, one must say to these respectable and 
slightly pedantic old gentlemen, as though God-knows-what de 
pended on what they thought. But the fact that men should 
think at all, and especially about him, is maddeningly disquiet 
ing and ought somehow to be stopped. It is far too much like 
the sort of thing his vagrant son is always springing on him, thus 
hitting him in his weakest spot. How often already has he bit 
terly regretted his unconsidered outbursts! 

602 One can hardly avoid the impression that Omniscience is 
gradually drawing near to a realization, and is threatened with 
an insight that seems to be hedged about with fears of self- 
destruction. Fortunately, Job's final declaration is so formu 
lated that one can assume with some certainty that, for the 
protagonists, the incident is closed for good and all. 

^ We, the commenting chorus on this great tragedy, which has 
never at any time lost its vitality, do not feel quite like that. 
For our modern sensibilities it is by no means apparent that 
with Job's profound obeisance to the majesty of the divine 
presence, and his prudent silence, a real answer has been given 
to the question raised by the Satanic prank of a wager with God. 
Job has not so much answered as reacted in an adjusted way. In 
so doing he displayed remarkable self-discipline, but an un 
equivocal answer has still to be given. 

604 To take the most obvious thing, what about the moral wrong 
Job has suffered? Is man so worthless in God's eyes that not even 
a tort moral can be inflicted on him? That contradicts the fact 
that man is desired by Yahweh and that it obviously matters to 
him whether men speak "right" of him or not. He needs Job's 
loyalty, and it means so much to him that he shrinks at nothing 
in carrying out his test. This attitude attaches an almost divine 
importance to man, for what else is there in the whole wide 
world that could mean anything to one who has everything? 
Yahweh's divided attitude, which on the one hand tramples on 
human life and happiness without regard, and on the other hand 
must have man for a partner, puts the latter in an impossible 
position. At one moment Yahweh behaves as irrationally as a 
cataclysm; the next moment he wants to be loved, honoured, 

i* Job 4* : 7. 

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ANSWER TO JOB 



worshipped, and praised as just. He reacts irritably to every 
word that has the faintest suggestion of criticism, while he him 
self does not care a straw for his own moral code if his actions 
happen to run counter to its statutes. 

605 One can submit to such a God only with fear and trembling, 
and can try indirectly to propitiate the despot with unctuous 
praises and ostentatious obedience. But a relationship of trust 
seems completely out of the question to our modern way of 
thinking. Nor can moral satisfaction be expected from an un 
conscious nature god of this kind. Nevertheless, Job got his 
satisfaction, without Yahweh's intending it and possibly with 
out himself knowing it, as the poet would have it appear. Yah 
weh's allocutions have the unthinking yet none the less 
transparent purpose of showing Job the brutal power of the 
demiurge: "This is I, the creator of all the ungovernable, ruth 
less forces of Nature, which are not subject to any ethical laws. 
I, too, am an amoral force of Nature, a purely phenomenal 
personality that cannot see its own back." 

&6 This is, or at any rate could be, a moral satisfaction of the 
first order for Job, because through this declaration man, in 
spite of his impotence, is set up as a judge over God himself. 
We do not know whether Job realizes this, but we do know from 
the numerous commentaries on Job that all succeeding ages 
have overlooked the fact that a kind of Moira or Dike rules over 
Yahweh, causing him to give himself away so blatantly. Anyone 
can see how he unwittingly raises Job by humiliating him in the 
dust. By so doing he pronounces judgment on himself and gives 
man the moral satisfaction whose absence we found so painful 
in the Book of Job. 

s7 The poet of this drama showed a masterly discretion in ring 
ing down the curtain at the very moment when his hero gave 
unqualified recognition to the <bro<ao- jueTaXt? of the Demiurge 
by prostrating himself at the feet of His Divine Majesty. No 
other impression was permitted to remain. An unusual scandal 
was blowing up in the realm of metaphysics, with supposedly 
devastating consequences, and nobody was ready with a saving 
formula which would rescue the monotheistic conception of 
God from disaster. Even in those days the critical intellect of a 
Greek could easily have seized on this new addition to Yahweh's 
biography and used it in his disfavour (as indeed happened, 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



though very much later) 15 so as to mete out to him the fate that 
had already overtaken the Greek gods. But a relativization of 
God was utterly unthinkable at that time, and remained so for 
the next two thousand years. 

608 The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when con 
scious reason is blind and impotent. The drama has been con 
summated for all eternity: Yahweh's dual nature has been 
revealed, and somebody or something has seen and registered 
this fact. Such a revelation, whether it reached man's conscious 
ness or not, could not fail to have far-reaching consequences. 



in 

Before turning to the question of how the germ of unrest 
developed further, we must turn back to the time when the 
Book of Job was written. Unfortunately the dating is uncer 
tain. It is generally assumed that it was written between 600 
and 300 B.C. not too far away, therefore, from the time of the 
Book of Proverbs (4th to grd century). Now in Proverbs we en 
counter a symptom of Greek influence which, if an earlier date 
is assigned to it, reached the Jewish sphere of culture through 
Asia Minor and, if a later date, through Alexandria. This is 
the idea of Sophia, or the Sapientia Dei, who is a coeternal and 
more or less hypostatized pneuma of feminine nature that 
existed before the Creation; 

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, 

before his works of old. 
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, 

or ever the earth was. 
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; 

when there were no fountains abounding with water. 

When he established the heavens, I was there, 

when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 
then I was by him, as a master workman, 

is [Cf. Gnostic interpretation of Yahweh as Saturn-Ialdabaoth in "Transforma 
tion S>mfaa!ism in the Mass," par. 550, above; Aion, par. i28.-EDrroRS.] 

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ANSWER TO JOB 



and I was daily his delight, 

rejoicing always before him, 
rejoicing in his habitable earth; 

and my delights were with the sons of men. 1 

610 This Sophia, who already shares certain essential qualities 
with the Johannine Logos, is on the one hand closely associated 
with the Hebrew Chochma, but on the other hand goes so far 
beyond it that one can hardly fail to think of the Indian Shakti. 
Relations with India certainly existed at that time (the time of 
the Ptolemy s). A further source is the Wisdom of Jesus the Son 
of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, written around 200 B.C. Here Wis 
dom says of herself: 

I came out of the mouth of the most High, 

and covered the earth as a cloud. 
I dwelt in high places, 

and my throne is in a cloudy pillar. 
1 alone encompassed the circuit of heaven, 

and walked in the bottom of the deep. 
I had power over the waves of the sea, and over all the 
earth, 

and over every people and nation. 

He created me from the beginning before the world, 

and I shall never fail. 
In the holy tabernacle I served before him; 

and so was I established in Sion. 
Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest, 

and in Jerusalem was my power. 

I was exalted like a cedar in Libamis, 
and as a cypress tree upon the mountains of Hermon. 

I was exalted like a palm tree in En-gaddi, 
and as a rose plant in Jericho, 
as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, 
and grew up as a plane tree by the water. 

I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus, 
and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh . . . 

As the turpentine tree I stretched out my branches, 
and my branches are the branches of honour and grace. 

i Proverbs 8:22-24 (AV), 27, 29-31 (AV mod.). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



As the vine brought I forth pleasant savour, 

and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. 

I am the mother of fair love, 
and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope: 
I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my children 
which are chosen of him. 2 

It is worth while to examine this text more closely. Wisdom 
describes herself, in effect, as the Logos, the Word of God ("I 
came out of the mouth of the most High"). As Ruach, the spirit 
of God, she brooded over the waters of the beginning. Like God, 
she has her throne in heaven. As the cosmogonic Pneuma she 
pervades heaven and earth and all created things. She corre 
sponds in almost every feature to the Logos of St. John. We 
shall see below how far this connection is also important as 
regards content. 

She is the feminine numen of the "metropolis" par ex 
cellence, of Jerusalem the mother-city. She is the mother-be 
loved, a reflection of Ishtar, the pagan city-goddess. This is 
confirmed by the detailed comparison of Wisdom with trees, 
such as the cedar, palm, terebinth ("turpentine-tree"), olive, 
cypress, etc. All these trees have from ancient times been sym 
bols of the Semitic love- and mother-goddess. A holy tree always 
stood beside her altar on high places. In the Old Testament oaks 
and terebinths are oracle trees. God or angels are said to appear 
in or beside trees. David consulted a mulberry-tree oracle. 3 The 
tree in Babylon represented Tammuz, the son-lover, just as it 
represented Osiris, Adonis, Attis, and Dionysus, the young dying 
gods of the Near East. All these symbolic attributes also occur 
in the Song of Songs, as characteristics of the sponsus as well as 
the sponsa. The vine, the grape, the vine flower, and the vine 
yard .play a significant role here. The Beloved is like an apple- 
tree; she shall come down from the mountains (the cult places 
of the mother-goddess), "from the lions' dens, from the moun 
tains of the leopards"; 4 her womb is "an orchard of pomegran 
ates, with pleasant fruits, camphire with spikenard, spikenard and 
saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, 
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices." 5 Her hands "dropped 

2 Ecclesfasticus 24 : 5-18 (AV mod.). 

3 II Samuel 5: 23!. *Songof Sokxaon4:8(AV). 54:15-15. 

388 



ANSWER TO JOB 



with myrrh" 6 (Adonis, we may remember, was born o the 
myrrh). Like the Holy Ghost, Wisdom is given as a gift to 
the elect, an idea that is taken up again in the doctrine of the 
Paraclete. 

613 The pneumatic nature of Sophia as well as her world-build 
ing Maya character come out still more clearly in the apocryphal 
Wisdom of Solomon. "For wisdom is a loving spirit/' 7 "kind 
to man." 8 She is "the worker of all things," "in her is an under 
standing spirit, holy." 9 She is "the breath of the power of God," 
"a pure effluence flowing from the glory of the Almighty," 10 
"the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of 
the power of God," n a being "most subtil," who "passeth and 
goeth through all things by reason of her pureness." 12 She is 
"conversant with God," and "the Lord of all things himself 
loved her." 13 "Who of all that are is a more cunning workman 
than she?" 14 She is sent from heaven and from the throne of 
glory as a "Holy Spirit." 15 As a psychopomp she leads the way 
to God and assures immortality. 16 

6*4 The Wisdom of Solomon is emphatic about God's justice 
and, probably not without pragmatic purpose, ventures to sail 
very close to the wind: "Righteousness is immortal, but ungodly 
men with their works and words call death upon themselves." 17 
The unrighteous and the ungodly, however, say: 

Let us oppress the poor righteous man, 

let us not spare the widow, 

nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged. 
Let our strength be the law of justice: 

for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth. 
Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; 

because ... he upbraideth us with our offending the law, 

and objecteth to our infamy. . . . 
He professeth to have the knowledge of God: 

and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. 
He was made to reprove our thoughts. 

6 Song of Solomon 5 : 5. 

7 Wisdom of Solomon i : 6. (<iX*0pxoF TJW/MI <ro#a.) s 7 : *3- 

9 7 : 22. (vAwxw Tx?t./w&iuL rcefd* &ywr.) 10 7 : 25 (AV mod.), 

11 7 : 26. 12 7 : 23, 24. 1S 8 : 3. (<rvri3k>w tx.r&*/T&rrv>v Snr6nfs.) 

1*8:6. 159:10,17. 16 6: 18 and 8: 13. w i : 15-16 (mod.) 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Let us see if his words be true: 

and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. 

Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, 

that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience. 18 

61 5 Where did we read but a short while before: "And the Lord 
said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there 
is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, 
who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his 
integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him 
without cause"? "Wisdom is better than might," saith the 
Preacher. 19 

616 Not from mere thoughtlessness and unconsciousness, but 
from a deeper motive, the Wisdom of Solomon here touches on 
th'e sore spot. In order to understand this more fully, we would 
have to find out in what sort of relation the Book of Job stands 
to the change that occurred in the status of Yahweh at about the 
same time, i.e., its relation to the appearance of Sophia. It is not 
a question of literary history, but of Yahweh's fate as it affects 
man. From the ancient records we know that the divine drama 
was enacted between God and his people, who were betrothed to 
him, the masculine dynamis, like a woman, and over whose 
faithfulness he watched jealously. A particular instance of this is 
Job, whose faithfulness is subjected to a savage test. As I have 
said, the really astonishing thing is how easily Yahweh gives in 
to the insinuations of Satan. If it were true that he trusted Job 
perfectly, it would be only logical for Yahweh to defend him, 
unmask the malicious slanderer, and make him pay for his defa 
mation of God's faithful servant. But Yahweh never thinks of 
it, not even after Job's innocence has been proved. We hear 
nothing of a rebuke or disapproval of Satan. Therefore, one can 
not doubt Yahweh's connivance. His readiness to deliver Job 
into Satan's murderous hands proves that he doubts Job pre 
cisely because he projects his own tendency to unfaithfulness 
upon a scapegoat. There is reason to suspect that he is about to 
loosen his matrimonial ties with Israel but hides this intention 
from himself. This vaguely suspected unfaithfulness causes him, 
with the help of Satan, to seek out the unfaithful one, and he 

182:10-19. i* Job 2:3; Eccksiastesg:i6. 

39 



ANSWER TO JOB 



infallibly picks on the most faithful of the lot, who is forthwith 
subjected to a gruelling test. Yahweh has become unsure of his 
own faithfulness. 

617 At about the same time, or a little later, it is rumoured what 
has happened: he has remembered a feminine being who is no 
less agreeable to him than to man, a friend and playmate from 
the beginning of the world, the first-born of all God's creatures, 
a stainless reflection of his glory and a master workman, nearer 
and dearer to his heart than the late descendants of the proto 
plast, the original man, who was but a secondary product 
stamped in his image. There must be some dire necessity re 
sponsible for this anamnesis of Sophia: things simply could not 
go on as before, the "just" God could not go on committing in 
justices, and the "Omniscient" could not behave any longer like 
a clueless and thoughtless human being. Self-reflection becomes 
an imperative necessity, and for this Wisdom is needed. Yahweh 
has to remember his absolute knowledge; for, if Job gains knowl 
edge of God, then God must also learn to know himself. It just 
could not be that Yahweh's dual nature should become public 
property and remain hidden from himself alone. Whoever 
knows God has an effect on him. The failure of the attempt to 
corrupt Job has changed Yahweh's nature. 

618 We shall now proceed to reconstruct, from the hints given 
in the Bible and from history, what happened after this change. 
For this purpose we must turn back to the time of Genesis, and 
to the protoplast before the Fall. He, Adam, produced Eve, his 
feminine counterpart, from his rib with the Creator's help, in 
the same way as the Creator had produced the hermaphroditic 
Adam from the prima materia and, along with him, the divinely 
stamped portion of humanity, namely the people of Israel and 
the other descendants of Adam. 20 Mysteriously following the 
same pattern, it was bound to happen that Adam's first son, like 
Satan, was an evildoer and murderer before the Lord, so that the 
prologue in heaven was repeated on earth. It can easily be sur 
mised that this was the deeper reason why Yahweh gave special 
protection to the unsuccessful Cain, for he was a faithful repro 
duction of Satan in miniature. Nothing is said about a proto 
type of the early-departed Abel, who was dearer to God than 

*0[As to that portion of humanity not divinely stamped, and presumably de 
scended from the pre-Adamic anthropoids, see par. 576, above. EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Cain, the go-ahead husbandman (who was no doubt instructed 
in these arts by one of Satan's angels). Perhaps this prototype 
was another son of God of a more conservative nature than 
Satan, no rolling stone with a fondness for new and black 
hearted thoughts, but one who was bound to the Father in child 
like love, who harboured no other thoughts except those that 
enjoyed paternal approval, and who dwelt in the inner circle of 
the heavenly economy. That would explain why his earthly 
counterpart Abel could so soon "hasten away from the evil 
world," in the words of the Book of Wisdom, and return to the 
Father, while Cain in his earthly existence had to taste to the 
full the curse of his progressiveness on the one hand and of his 
moral inferiority on the other. 

61 9 If the original father Adam is a copy of the Creator, his son 
Cain is certainly a copy of God's son Satan, and this gives us 
good reason for supposing that God's favourite, Abel, must also 
have his correspondence in a "supracelestial place." The omi 
nous happenings that occur right at the beginning of a seem 
ingly successful and satisfactory Creation the Fall and the frat 
ricidecatch our attention, and one is forced to admit that the 
initial situation, when the spirit of God brooded over the tohu- 
bohu, hardly permits us to expect an absolutely perfect result. 
Furthermore the Creator, who found every other day of his work 
"good," failed to give good marks to what happened on Mon 
day. He simply said nothing a circumstance that favours an 
argument from silence! What happened on that day was the final 
separation of the upper from the lower waters by the interposed 
"plate" of the firmament. It is clear that this unavoidable dual 
ism refused, then as later, to fit smoothly into the concept of 
monotheism, because it points to a metaphysical disunity. This 
split, as we know from history, had to be patched up again and 
again through the centuries, concealed and denied. It had made 
itself felt from the very beginning in Paradise, through a strange 
inconsequence which befell the Creator or was put over on him. 
Instead of following his original programme of letting man ap 
pear on the last day as the most intelligent being and lord of all 
creatures, he created the serpent who proved to be much more 
intelligent and more conscious than Adam, and, in addition, 
had been created before him. We can hardly suppose that Yah- 
weh would have played such a trick on himself; it is far more 

392 



ANSWER TO JOB 



likely that his son Satan had a hand in it. He is a trickster and 
spoilsport who loves nothing better than to cause annoying acci 
dents. Although Yahweh had created the reptiles before Adam, 
they were common or garden snakes, highly unintelligent, from 
among whom Satan selected a tree-snake to use as his disguise. 
From then on the rumour spread that the snake was "the most 
spiritual animal." 21 Later the snake became the favourite sym 
bol of the Nous, received high honours and was even permitted 
to symbolize God's second son, because the latter was interpreted 
as the world-redeeming Logos, which frequently appears as iden 
tical with the Nous. A legend of later origin maintains that the 
snake in the Garden of Eden was Lilith, Adam's first wife, with 
whom he begot a horde of demons. This legend likewise sup 
poses a trick that can hardly have been intended by the Creator. 
Consequently, the Bible knows only of Eve as Adam's legitimate 
wife. It nevertheless remains a strange fact that the original man 
who was created in the image of God had, according to tradi 
tion, two wives, just like his heavenly prototype. Just as Yahweh 
is legitimately united with his wife Israel, but has a feminine 
pneuma as his intimate playmate from all eternity, so Adam first 
has Lilith (the daughter or emanation of Satan) to wife, as a 
Satanic correspondence to Sophia. Eve would then correspond 
to the people of Israel. We naturally do not know why we should 
hear at such a late date that the Ruach Elohim, the "spirit of 
God," is not only feminine but a comparatively independent 
being who exists side by side with God, and that long before the 
marriage with Israel Yahweh had had relations with Sophia. 
Nor do we know why, in the older tradition, the knowledge 
of this first alliance had been lost. Likewise it was only quite 
late that one heard of the delicate relationship between Adam 
and Lilith. Whether Eve was as troublesome a wife for Adam 
as the children of Israel, who were perpetually flirting with un 
faithfulness, were for Yahweh, is equally dark to us. At any rate 
the family life of our first parents was not all beer and skittles: 
their first two sons are a typical pair of hostile brothers, for at 
that time it was apparently still the custom to live out mytholog 
ical motifs in reality. (Nowadays this is felt to be objectionable 
and is denied whenever it happens.) The parents can share the 
blame for original sin: Adam has only to remember his demon- 
si T TrevtiaTtK&Tarav $o?. A view that is found in Philo Judaeus. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



princess, and Eve should never forget that she was the first to 
fall for the wiles of the serpent. Like the Fall, the Cain-Abel 
intermezzo can hardly be listed as one of Creation's shining 
successes. One must draw this conclusion because Yahweh him 
self did not appear to be informed in advance of the above- 
mentioned incidents. Here as later there is reason to suspect 
that no conclusions were ever drawn from Omniscience: Yahweh 
did not consult his total knowledge and was accordingly sur 
prised by the result. One can observe the same phenomenon 
in human beings, wherever in fact people cannot deny them 
selves the pleasure of their emotions. It must be admitted that 
a fit of rage or a sulk has its secret attractions. Were that not so, 
most people would long since have acquired a little wisdom. 

From this point of view we may be in a better position to 
understand what happened to Job. In the pleromatic or (as the 
Tibetans call it) Bardo state, 22 there is a perfect interplay of 
cosmic forces, but with the Creation that is, with the division 
of the world into distinct processes in space and time events 
begin to rub and jostle one another. Covered by the hem of the 
paternal mantle, Satan soon starts putting a right touch here 
and a wrong touch there, thus giving rise to complications 
which were apparently not intended in the Creator's plan and 
which come as surprises. While unconscious creation animals, 
plants, and crystals functions satisfactorily so far as we know, 
things are constantly going wrong with man. At first his con 
sciousness is only a veiy little higher than that of the animals, 
for which reason his freedom of will is also extremely limited. 
But Satan takes an interest in him and experiments with him 
in his own way, leading him into all sorts of wickedness while 
his angels teach him the arts and sciences, which until now had 
been reserved for the perfection of the pleroma. (Even in those 
days Satan would have merited the name of "Lucifer"!) The 
peculiar, unforeseen antics of men arouse Yahweh's wrath and 
thereby involve him in his own creation. Divine interventions 
become a compelling necessity. Initatingly enough, they only 
meet with temporary success. Even the Draconian punishment 
of drowning all life with a few choice exceptions (a fate which, 
according to old Johann Jacob Scheuchzer on the evidence of 

22 [Cf. the commentary * the Tibet** Book of the Dcmd, pais. 831^., bdow.- 
EDrroits.] 

394 



ANSWER TO JOB 



the fossils, not even the fishes escaped), had no lasting effect. 
Creation remained just as tainted as before. The strange thing 
is that Yahweh invariably seeks the reason for this in man, who 
apparently refuses to obey, but never in his son, the father of 
all tricksters. This false orientation cannot fail to exasperate 
his already touchy nature, so that fear of God is regarded by 
man in general as the principle and even as the beginning of all 
wisdom. While mankind tried, under this hard discipline, to 
broaden their consciousness by acquiring a modicum of wisdom, 
that is, a little foresight and reflection, 23 it is clear from the his 
torical development that Yahweh had lost sight of his plero- 
matic coexistence with Sophia since the days of the Creation. 
Her place was taken by the covenant with the chosen people, 
who were thus forced into the feminine role. At that time the 
people consisted of a patriarchal society in which women were 
only of secondary importance. God's marriage with Israel was 
therefore an essentially masculine affair, something like the 
founding of the Greek polls, which occurred about die same 
time. The inferiority of women was a settled fact. Woman was 
regarded as less perfect than man, as Eve's weakness for the 
blandishments of the serpent amply proved. Perfection is a 
masculine desideratum, while woman inclines by nature to 
completeness. And it is a fact that, even today, a man can stand 
a relative state of perfection much better and for a longer period 
than a woman, while as a rule it does not agree with women 
and may even be dangerous for them. If a woman strives for 
perfection she forgets the complementary role of completeness, 
which, though imperfect by itself, forms the necessary counter 
part to perfection. For, just as completeness is always imperfect, 
so perfection is always incomplete, and therefore represents a 
final state which is hopelessly sterile. "Ex perfecto nihil fit," say 
the old masters, whereas the imperfectum carries within it the 
seeds of its own improvement. Perfectionism always ends in a 
blind alley, while completeness by itself lacks selective values. 
At the bottom of Yahweh 's marriage with Israel is a perfec 
tionist intention which excludes that kind of relatedness we 
know as "Eros/* The lack of Eros, of relationship to values, is 
painfully apparent in the Book of Job; the paragon of all crea 
tion is not a man but a monster! Yahweh has no Eros, no 
23 Cf. $povlpctt in the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16: 8). 

395 



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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



relationship to man, but only to a purpose man must help 
him fulfil. But that does not prevent him from being jealous and 
mistrustful like any other husband, though even here he has his 
purpose in mind and not man. 

622 The faithfulness of his people becomes the more important 
to him the more he forgets Wisdom. But again and again they 
slip back into unfaithfulness**despite the many proofs of his 
favour. This behaviour naturally does nothing to mollify Yah- 
weh's jealousy and suspicions, hence Satan's insinuations fall on 
fertile ground when he drips his doubt about Job's faithfulness 
into the paternal ear. Against his own convictions Yahweh 
agrees without any hesitation to inflict the worst tortures on 
him. One misses Sophia's "love of mankind" more than ever. 
Even Job longs for the Wisdom which is nowhere to be found. 24 

^3 Job marks the climax of this unhappy development. He 
epitomizes a thought which had been maturing in mankind 
about that time a dangerous thought that makes great demands 
on the wisdom of gods and men. Though conscious of these 
demands, Job obviously does not know enough about the Sophia 
who is coeternal with God. Because man feels himself at the 
mercy of Yahweh 's capricious will, he is in need of wisdom; 
not so Yahweh, who up to now has had nothing to contend with 
except man's nothingness. With the Job drama, however, the 
situation undergoes a radical change. Here Yahweh comes up 
against a man who stands firm, who clings to his rights until he 
is compelled to give way to brute force. He has seen God's face 
and the unconscious split in his nature. God was now known, 
and this knowledge went on working not only in Yahweh but 
in man too. Thus it was the men of the last few centuries before 
Christ who, at the gentle touch of the pre-existent Sophia, com 
pensate Yahweh and his attitude, and at the same time complete 
the anamnesis of Wisdom. Taking a highly personified form 
that is clear proof of her autonomy, Wisdom reveals herself to 
men as a friendly helper and advocate against Yahweh, and 
shows them the bright side, the kind, just, and amiable aspect 
of their God. 

6*4 At the time when Satan's practical joke with the snake com 
promised the paradise that was planned to be perfect, Yahweh 

2* Job *8: 12: "But where sfeaJI wisdom be found?" Whether this is a later in 
terpolation or not makes no difference. 

396 



ANSWER TO JOB 



banished Adam and Eve, whom he had created as images of his 
masculine essence and its feminine emanation, to the extra- 
paradisal world, the limbo of "shards." It is not clear how much 
of Eve represents Sophia and how much of her is Lilith. At any 
rate Adam has priority in every respect. Eve was taken out of 
his body as an afterthought. I mention these details from 
Genesis only because the reappearance of Sophia in the heavenly 
regions points to a coming act of creation. She is indeed the 
"master workman"; she realizes God's thoughts by clothing 
them in material form, which is the prerogative of all feminine 
beings. Her coexistence with Yahweh signifies the perpetual 
hieros gamos from which worlds are begotten and born. A 
momentous change is imminent: God desires to regenerate 
himself in the mystery of the heavenly nuptialsas the chief gods 
of Egypt had done from time immemorial and to become man. 
For this he uses the Egyptian model of the god's incarnation in 
Pharaoh, which in its turn is but a copy of the eternal hieros 
gamos in the pleroma. It would, however, be wrong to suppose 
that this archetype is merely repeating itself mechanically. So 
far as we know, this is never the case, since archetypal situations 
only return when specifically called for. The real reason for 
God's becoming man is to be sought in his encounter with Job. 
Later on we shall deal with this question in more detail. 



IV 

6*5 Just as the decision to become man apparently makes use of 
the ancient Egyptian model, so we can expect that the process 
itself will follow certain prefigurations. The approach of Sophia 
betokens a new creation. But this time it is not the world that 
is to be changed; rather it is God who intends to change his own 
nature. Mankind is not, as before, to be destroyed, but saved. 
In this decision we can discern the "philanthropic** influence of 
Sophia: no new human beings are to be created, but only one, 
the God-man. For this purpose a contrary procedure must be 
employed. The Second Adam shall not, like the first, proceed 
directly from the hand of the Creator, but shall be born of a 
human woman. So this time priority falls to the Second Eve, not 
only in a temporal sense but in a material sense as well. On the 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



basis of the so-called Proto-Evangelium, the Second Eve corre 
sponds to "the woman and her seed" mentioned in Genesis 
3: 15, which shall bruise the serpent's head. And just as Adam 
was believed to be originally hermaphroditic, so "the woman 
and her seed** are thought of as a human pair, as the Queen of 
Heaven and Mother of God and as the divine son who has no 
human father. Thus Mary, the virgin, is chosen as the pure 
vessel for the coming birth of God. Her independence of the 
male is emphasized by her virginity as the sine qua non of the 
process. She is a "daughter of God" who, as a later dogma will 
establish, is distinguished at the outset by the privilege of an 
immaculate conception and is thus free from the taint of orig 
inal sin. It is therefore evident that she belongs to the state be 
fore the Fall. This posits a new beginning. The divine immacu- 
lateness of her status makes it immediately clear that she not 
only bears the image of God in undiminished purity, but, as the 
bride of God, is also the incarnation of her prototype, namely 
Sophia. Her love of mankind, widely emphasized in the ancient 
writings, suggests that in this newest creation of his Yahweh has 
allowed himself to be extensively influenced by Sophia. For 
Mary, the blessed among women, is a friend and intercessor for 
sinners, which all men are. Like Sophia, she is a mediatrix who 
leads the way to God and assures man of immortality. Her 
Assumption is therefore the prototype of man's bodily resurrec 
tion. As the bride of God and Queen of Heaven she holds the 
place of the Old Testament Sophia. 

626 Remarkable indeed are the unusual precautions which sur 
round the making of Mary: immaculate conception, extirpation 
of the taint of sin, everlasting virginity. The Mother of God is 
obviously being protected against Satan's tricks. From this we 
can conclude that Yahweh has consulted his own omniscience, 
for in his omniscience there is a clear knowledge of the perverse 
intentions which lurk in the dark son of God. Mary must at all 
costs be protected from these corrupting influences. The in 
evitable consequence of all these elaborate protective measures 
is something that has not been sufficiently taken into account in 
the dogmatic evaluation of the Incarnation: her freedom from 
original sin sets Mary apart from mankind in general, whose 
common characteristic is original sin and therefore the need of 
redemption. The status ante lapsum is tantamount to a para- 

398 



ANSWER TO JOB 



disal, i.e., pleromatic and divine, existence. By having these 
special measures applied to her, Mary is elevated to the status of 
a goddess and consequently loses something of her humanity: 
she will not conceive her child in sin, like all other mothers, 
and therefore he also will never be a human being, but a god. 
To my knowledge at least, no one has ever perceived that this 
queers the pitch for a genuine Incarnation of God, or rather, 
that the Incarnation was only partially consummated. Both 
mother and son are not real human beings at all, but gods. 
627 This arrangement, though it had the effect of exalting Mary's 
personality in the masculine sense by bringing it closer to the 
perfection of Christ, was at the same time injurious to the 
feminine principle of imperfection or completeness, since this 
was reduced by the perfectionizing tendency to the little bit of 
imperfection that still distinguishes Mary from Christ. Phoebo 
pTopior lumina perdit! Thus the more the feminine ideal is bent 
in the direction of the masculine, the more the woman loses her 
power to compensate the masculine striving for perfection, and 
a typically masculine, ideal state arises which, as we shall see, is 
threatened with an enantiodromia. No path leads beyond per 
fection into the future there is only a turning back, a collapse 
of the ideal, which could easily have been avoided by paying 
attention to the feminine ideal of completeness. Yahweh's per 
fectionism is carried over from the Old Testament into the 
New, and despite all the recognition and glorification of the 
feminine principle this never prevailed against the patriarchal 
supremacy. We have not, therefore, by any means heard the 
last of it. 



6*8 The older son of the first parents was corrupted by Satan 
and not much of a success. He was an eidolon of Satan, and only 
the younger son, Abel, was pleasing to God. In Cain the God-im 
age was distorted, but in Abel it was considerably less dimmed. 
If Adam is thought of as a copy of God, then God's successful 
son, who served as a model for Abel (and about whom, as we 
have seen, there are no available documents), is the prefigura- 
tion of the God-man. Of the latter we know positively that, as 

399 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the Logos, he is preexistent and coeternal with God, indeed of 
the same substance (fyux>6eru>s) as he. One can therefore regard 
Abel as the imperfect prototype of God's son -who is about to be 
begotten in Mary. Just as Yahweh originally undertook to create 
a chthonic equivalent of himself in the first man, Adam, so 
now he intends something similar, but much better. The ex 
traordinary precautionary measures above-mentioned are de 
signed to serve this purpose. The new son, Christ, shall on the 
one hand be a chthonic man like Adam, mortal and capable of 
suffering, but on the other hand he shall not be, like Adam, a 
mere copy, but God himself, begotten by himself as the Father, 
and rejuvenating the Father as the Son. As God he has always 
been God, and as the son of Mary, who is plainly a copy of 
Sophia, he is the Logos (synonymous with Nous), who, like 
Sophia, is a master workman, as stated by the Gospel according 
to St. John. 1 This identity of mother and son is borne out over 
and over again in the myths. 

Although the birth of Christ is an event that occurred but 
once in history, it has always existed in eternity. For the layman 
in these matters, the identity of a nontemporal, eternal event 
with a unique historical occurrence is something that is ex 
tremely difficult to conceive. He must, however, accustom him 
self to the idea that "time" is a relative concept and needs to 
be complemented by that of the "simultaneous" existence, in 
the Bardo or pleroma, of all historical processes. What exists in 
the pleroma as an eternal process appears in time as an aperiodic 
sequence, that is to say, it is repeated many times in an irregular 
pattern. To take but one example: Yahweh had one good son 
and one who was a failure. Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, cor 
respond to this prototype, and so, in all ages and in all parts of 
the world, does the motif of the hostile brothers, which in in 
numerable modern variants still causes dissension in families 
ajad keeps the psychotherapist busy. Just as many examples, no 
less instructive, could be found for the two women prefigured 
in eternity. When these things occur as modern variants, there 
fore, they should not be regarded merely as personal episodes, 
moods, or chance idiosyncrasies in people, but as fragments of 
the pleromatic process itself, which, broken up into individual 

l John x : 3: "All things were made through him, and without him was not any 
thing mad$ that was made." 

400 



ANSWER TO JOB 



events occurring in time, is an essential component or aspect 
o the divine drama. 

630 When Yahweh created the world from his prima materia, 
the "Void," he could not help breathing his own mystery into 
the Creation which is himself in every part, as every reasonable 
theology has long been convinced. From this comes the belief 
that it is possible to know God from his Creation. When I say 
that he could not help doing this, I do not imply any limitation 
of his omnipotence; on the contrary, it is an acknowledgment 
that all possibilities are contained in him, and that there are in 
consequence no other possibilities than those which express 
him. 

631 All the world is God's, and God is in all the world from the 
very beginning. Why, then, the tour de force of the Incarnation? 
one asks oneself, astonished. God is in everything already, and 
yet there must be something missing if a sort of second entrance 
into Creation has now to be staged with so much care and cir 
cumspection. Since Creation is universal, reaching to the re 
motest stellar galaxies, and since it has also made organic life 
infinitely variable and capable of endless differentiation, we can 
hardly see where the defect lies. The fact that Satan has every 
where intruded his corrupting influence is no doubt regrettable 
for many reasons, but it makes no difference in principle. It is 
not easy to give an answer to this question. One would like to 
say that Christ had to appear in order to deliver mankind from 
evil. But when one considers that evil was originally slipped 
into the scheme of things by Satan, and still is, then it would 
seem much simpler if Yahweh would, for once, call this "prac 
tical joker" severely to account, get rid of his pernicious influ 
ence, and thus eliminate the root of all evil. He would then not 
need the elaborate arrangement of a special Incarnation with 
all the unforeseeable consequences which this entails. One 
should make clear to oneself what it means when God becomes 
man. It means nothing less than a world-shaking transformation 
of God. It means more or less what Creation meant in the begin 
ning, namely an objectivation of God. At the time of the Crea 
tion he revealed himself in Nature; now he wants to be more 
specific and become man. It must be admitted, however, that 
there was a tendency in this direction right from the start. For, 
when those other human beings, who had evidently been created 

401 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



before Adam, appeared on the scene along with the higher mam 
mals, Yahweh created on the following day, by a special act of 
creation, a man who was the image of God. This was the first 
prefiguration of his becoming man. He took Adam's descend 
ants, especially the people of Israel, into his personal possession, 
and from time to time he filled this people's prophets with his 
spirit. All these things were preparatory events and symptoms of 
a tendency within God to become man. But in omniscience 
there had existed from all eternity a knowledge of the human 
nature of God or of the divine nature of man. That is why, long 
before Genesis was written, we find corresponding testimonies 
in the ancient Egyptian records. These intimations and prefigura- 
tions of the Incarnation must strike one as either completely in 
comprehensible or superfluous, since all creation ex nihilo is 
God's and consists of nothing but God, with the result that man, 
like the rest of creation, is simply God become concrete. Pre- 
figurations, however, are not in themselves creative events, but 
are only stages in the process of becoming conscious. It was only 
quite late that we realized (or rather, are beginning to realize) 
that God is Reality itself and therefore last but not leastman. 
This realization is a millennial process. 



VI 

63* In view of the immense problem which we are about to dis 
cuss, this excursus on pleromatic events is not out of place as an 
introduction. 

633 What, then, is the real reason for the Incarnation as an his 
torical event? 

634 In order to answer this question we have to go rather far 
back. As we have seen, Yahweh evidently has a disinclination to 
take his absolute knowledge into account as a counterbalance 
to the dynamism of omnipotence. The most instructive example 
of this is his relation to Satan: it always looks as if Yahweh were 
completely uninformed about his son's intentions. That is be 
cause he never consults his omniscience. We can only explain 
this on the assumption that Yahweh was so fascinated by his 
successive acts of creation, so taken up with them, that he forgot 
about his omniscience altogether. It is quite understandable 

402 



ANSWER TO JOB 



that the magical bodying forth of the most diverse objects, which 
had never before existed in such pristine splendour, should have 
caused God infinite delight. Sophia's memory is not at fault 
when she says: 

when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 

then I was by him, like a master workman, 
and I was daily his delight. 1 

655 The Book of Job still rings with the proud joy of creating 
when Yahweh points to the huge animals he has successfully 
turned out: 

Behold, Behemoth, 
which I made as I made you. 

He is the first of the works of God, 
made to be lord over his companions. 2 

63$ So even in Job's day Yahweh is still intoxicated with the 
tremendous power and grandeur of his creation. Compared with 
this, what are Satan's pinpricks and the lamentations of human 
beings who were created with the behemoth, even if they do 
bear God's image? Yahweh seems to have forgotten this fact 
entirely, otherwise he would never have ridden so roughshod 
over Job's human dignity. 

637 It is only the careful and farsighted preparations for Christ's 
birth which show us that omniscience has begun to have a 
noticeable effect on Yahweh's actions. A certain philanthropic 
and universalistic tendency makes itself felt. The "children of 
Israel" take something of a second place in comparison with 
the "children of men." After Job, we hear nothing further about 
new covenants. Proverbs and gnomic utterances seem to be the 
order of the day, and a real not/urn now appears on the scene, 
namely apocalyptic communications. This points to metaphysi 
cal acts of cognition, that is, to "constellated" unconscious con 
tents which are ready to irrupt into consciousness. In all this, as 
we have said, we discern the helpful hand of Sophia. 

638 If we consider Yahweh's behaviour, up to the reappearance 
of Sophia, as a whole, one indubitable fact strikes us^-the fact 

1 Proverbs 8 : 29-30. 2 Job 40 : 1 5, 1 9 (last line, ZB). 

4<>3 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



that his actions are accompanied by an inferior consciousness. 
Time and again we miss reflection and regard for absolute 
knowledge. His consciousness seems to be not much more than 
a primitive "awareness" which knows no reflection and no 
morality. One merely perceives and acts blindly, without con 
scious inclusion of the subject, whose individual existence raises 
no problems. Today we would call such a state psychologically 
"unconscious," and in the eyes of the law it would be described 
as non compos mentis. The fact that consciousness does not per 
form acts of thinking does not, however, prove that they do not 
exist. They merely occur unconsciously and make themselves 
felt indirectly in dreams, visions, revelations, and "instinctive" 
changes of consciousness, whose very nature tells us that they 
derive from an "unconscious" knowledge and are the result of 
unconscious acts of judgment or unconscious conclusions. 

639 Some such process can be observed in the curious change 
which comes over Yahweh's behaviour after the Job episode. 
There can be no doubt that he did not immediately become 
conscious of the moral defeat he had suffered at Job's hands. In 
his omniscience, of course, this fact had been known from all 
eternity, and it is not unthinkable that the knowledge of it un 
consciously brought him into the position of dealing so harshly 
with Job in order that he himself should become conscious of 
something through this conflict, and thus gain new insight. 
Satan who, with good reason, later on received the name of 
"Lucifer," knew how to make more frequent and better use of 
omniscience than did his father. 4 It seems he was the only one 
among the sons of God who developed that much initiative. At 
all events, it was he who placed those unforeseen incidents in 
Yahweh's way, which omniscience knew to be necessary and 
indeed indispensable for the unfolding and completion of the 
divine drama. Among these the case of Job was decisive, and it 
could only have happened thanks to Satan's initiative. 

64 The victory of the vanquished and oppressed is obvious: 

3 In Christian tradition, too, there is a belief that God's intention to become man 
was known to the Devi! many centuries before, and that this was why he instilled 
the Dionysus myth into the Greeks, so that they could say, when the joyful tidings 
reached them in reality: "So what? We knew all that long ago." When the con- 
quistadores later discovered the crosses of the Mayas in Yucatan, the Spanish 
bishops used the same argument, 

404 



ANSWER TO JOB 



Job stands morally higher than Yahweh. In this respect the crea 
ture has surpassed the creator. As always when an external event 
touches on some unconscious knowledge, this knowledge can 
reach consciousness. The event is recognized as a ddja vu, and 
one remembers a pre-existent knowledge about it. Something 
of the kind must have happened to Yahweh. Job's superiority 
cannot be shrugged off. Hence a situation arises in which real 
reflection is needed. That is why Sophia steps in. She reinforces 
the much needed self-reflection and thus makes possible Yah- 
weh's decision to become man. It is a decision fraught with con 
sequences: he raises himself above his earlier primitive level of 
consciousness by indirectly acknowledging that the man Job is 
morally superior to him and that therefore he has to catch up 
and become human himself. Had he not taken this decision he 
would have found himself in flagrant opposition to his omnis 
cience. Yahweh must become man precisely because he has done 
man a wrong. He, the guardian of justice, knows that every 
wrong must be expiated, and Wisdom knows that moral law is 
above even him. Because his creature has surpassed him he 
must regenerate himself. 

64* As nothing can happen without a pre-existing pattern, not 
even creation ex nihilo, which must always resort to the treasure- 
house of eternal images in the fabulous mind of the "master 
workman," the choice of a model for the son who is now about 
to be begotten lies between Adam (to a limited extent) and Abel 
(to a much greater extent). Adam's limitation lies in the fact 
that, even if he is the Anthropos, he is chiefly a creature and a 
father. Abel's advantage is that he is the son well pleasing to 
God, begotten and not directly created. One disadvantage has 
to be accepted: he met with an early death by violence, too 
early to leave behind him a widow and children, which ought 
really to be part of human fate if lived to the full. Abel is not the 
authentic archetype of the son well pleasing to God; he is a 
copy, but the first of the kind to be met with in the Scriptures. 
The young dying god is also well known in the contemporary 
pagan religions, and so is the fratricide motif. We shall hardly 
be wrong in assuming that Abel's fate refers back to a meta 
physical event which was played out between Satan and another 
son of God with a "light" nature and more devotion to his 
father. Egyptian tradition can give us information on this point 

405 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



(Horus and Set). As we have said, the disadvantage prefigured 
in the Abel type can hardly be avoided, because it is an integral 
part of the mythical-son drama, as the numerous pagan variants 
of this motif show. The short, dramatic course of Abel's fate 
serves as an excellent paradigm for the life and death of a God 
become man. 

64* To sum up: the immediate cause of the Incarnation lies in 
Job's elevation, and its purpose is the differentiation of Yah- 
weh's consciousness. For this a situation of extreme gravity was 
needed, a peripeteia charged with affect, without which no 
higher level of consciousness can be reached. 



vn 

643 In addition to Abel, we have to consider, as a model for the 
impending birth of the son of God, the general pattern of the 
hero's life which has been established since time immemorial 
and handed down by tradition. Since this son is not intended 
merely as a national Messiah, but as the universal saviour of 
mankind, we have also to consider the pagan myths and revela 
tions concerning the life of one who is singled out by the gods. 

644 The birth of Christ is therefore characterized by all the usual 
phenomena attendant upon the birth of a hero, such as the an 
nunciation, the divine generation from a virgin, the coinci 
dence of the birth with the thrice-repeated coniunctio maxima 
(3 tf fc) in the sign of Pisces, which at that precise moment 
inaugurated the new era, the recognition of the birth of a king, 
the persecution of the newborn, his flight and concealment, his 
lowly birth, etc. The motif of the growing up of the hero is dis 
cernible in the wisdom of the twelve-year-old child in the 
temple, and there are several examples in the gospels of the 
breaking away from the mother. 

645 It goes without saying that a quite special interest attaches 
to the character and fate of the incarnate son of God. Seen from 
a distance of nearly two thousand years, it is uncommonly diffi 
cult to reconstruct a biographical picture of Christ from the 
traditions that have been preserved. Not a single text is extant 
which would fulfil even the minimum modern requirements 
for writing a history. The historically verifiable facts are ex- 

406 



ANSWER TO JOB 



tremely scanty, and the little biographically valid material that 
exists is not sufficient for us to create out of it a consistent career 
or an even remotely probable character. Certain theologians 
have discovered the main reason for this in the fact that Christ's 
biography and psychology cannot be separated from eschatology. 
Eschatology means in effect that Christ is God and man at the 
same time and that he therefore suffers a divine as well as a 
human fate. The two natures interpenetrate so thoroughly that 
any attempt to separate them mutilates both. The divine over 
shadows the human, and the human being is scarcely graspable 
as an empirical personality. Even the critical procedures of mod 
ern psychology do not suffice to throw light on all the obscuri 
ties. Every attempt to single out one particular feature for clar 
ity's sake does violence to another which is just as essential either 
with respect to his divinity or with respect to his humanity. The 
commonplace is so interwoven with the miraculous and the 
mythical that we can never be sure of our facts. Perhaps the most 
disturbing and confusing thing of all is that the oldest writings, 
those of St. Paul, do not seem to have the slightest interest in 
Christ's existence as a concrete human being. The synoptic gos 
pels are equally unsatisfactory as they have more the character 
of propaganda than of biography. 

646 With regard to the human side of Christ, if we can speak of 
a "purely human" aspect at all, what stands out particularly 
clearly is his love of mankind. This feature is already implied 
in the relationship of Mary to Sophia, and especially in his 
genesis by the Holy Ghost, whose feminine nature is personified 
by Sophia, since she is the preliminary historical form of the 
aytovTvwpa, who is symbolized by the dove, the bird belonging 
to the love-goddess. Furthermore, the love-goddess is in most 
cases the mother of the young dying god. Christ's love of man 
kind is, however, limited to a not inconsiderable degree by a 
certain predestinarian tendency which sometimes causes him to 
withhold his salutary message from those who do not belong to 
the elect. If one takes the doctrine of predestination literally, it 
is difficult to see how it can be fitted into the framework of the 
Christian message. But taken psychologically, as a means to 
achieving a definite effect, it can readily be understood that 
these allusions to predestination give one a feeling of distinc 
tion. If one knows that one has been singled out by divine choice 

407 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WZST 



and intention from the beginning of the world, then one feels 
lifted beyond the transitoriness and meaninglessness of ordinary 
human existence and transported to a new state of dignity and 
importance, like one who has a part in the divine world drama. 
In this way man is brought nearer to God, and this is in entire 
accord with the meaning of the message in the gospels. 

Besides his love of mankind a certain irascibility is notice 
able in Christ's character, and, as is often the case with people 
of emotional temperament, a manifest lack of self-reflection. 
There is no evidence that Christ ever wondered about himself, 
or that he ever confronted himself. To this rule there is only 
one significant exception the despairing cry from the Cross: 
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Here his 
human nature attains divinity; at that moment God experiences 
what it means to be a mortal man and drinks to the dregs what 
he made his faithful servant Job suffer. Here is given the answer 
to Job, and, clearly, this supreme moment is as divine as it is 
human, as "eschatologkal" as it is "psychological." And at this 
moment, too, where one can feel the human being so absolutely, 
the divine myth is present in full force. And both mean one 
and the same thing. How, then, can one possibly "demytholo- 
gize" the figure of Christ? A rationalistic attempt of that sort 
would soak all the mystery out of his personality, and what re 
mained would no longer be the birth and tragic fate of a God 
in time, but, historically speaking, a badly authenticated re 
ligious teacher, a Jewish reformer who was hellenistically inter 
preted and misunderstood a kind of Pythagoras, maybe, or, if 
you like, a Buddha or a Mohammed, but certainly not a son of 
God or a God incarnate. Nor does anybody seem to have realized 
what would be the consequences of a Christ disinfected of all 
trace of eschatology. Today we have an empirical psychology, 
which continues to exist despite the fact that the theologians 
have do*ie their best to ignore it, and with its help we can put 
certain of Christ's statements under the microscope. If these 
statements are detached from their mythical context, they can 
only be explained prrsooalistkally. But what sort of conclusion 
are we bound to arrive at if a statement like "I am the way, and 
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" l 
is reduced to personal psychology? Obviously the same con- 

* John 14:6. 



ANSWER TO JOB 



elusion as that reached by Jesus' relatives when, in their igno 
rance of eschatology, they said, "He is beside himself.*' 2 What 
is the use of a religion without a mythos, since religion means, 
if anything at all, precisely that function which links us back to 
the eternal myth? 

648 In view of these portentous impossibilities, it has been as 
sumed, perhaps as the result of a growing impatience with the 
difficult factual material, that Christ was nothing but a myth, in 
this case no more than a fiction. But myth is not fiction: it con 
sists of facts that are continually repeated and can be observed 
over and over again. It is something that happens to man, and 
men have mythical fates just as much as the Greek heroes do. 
The fact that the life of Christ is largely myth does absolutely 
nothing to disprove its factual truth quite the contrary. I would 
even go so far as to say that the mythical character of a life is just 
what expresses its universal human validity. It is perfectly pos 
sible, psychologically, for the unconscious or an archetype to 
take complete possession of a man and to determine his fate 
down to the smallest detail. At the same time objective, non- 
psychic parallel phenomena can occur which also represent the 
archetype. It not only seems so, it simply is so, that the archetype 
fulfils itself not only psychically in the individual, but objec 
tively outside the individual. My own conjecture is that Christ 
was such a personality. The life of Christ is just what it had to 
be if it is the life of a god and a man at the same time. It is a 
symbolum, a bringing together of heterogeneous natures, rather 
as if Job and Yahweh were combined in a single personality. 
Yahweh's intention to become man, which resulted from his 
- collision with Job, is fulfilled in Christ's life and suffering. 



vui 

649 When one remembers the earlier acts of creation, one won 
ders what has happened to Satan and his subversive activities. 
Everywhere he sows his tares among the wheat. One suspects he 
had a hand in Herod's massacre of the innocents. What is cer 
tain is his attempt to lure Christ into the role of a worldly ruler. 
Equally obvious is the fact, as is evidenced by the remarks of 

2 Mark 3 121. 

409 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the man possessed of devils, that he is very well informed about 
Christ's nature. He also seems to have inspired Judas, without, 
however, being able to influence or prevent the sacrificial death. 

His comparative ineffectiveness can be explained on the one 
hand by the careful preparations for the divine birth, and on 
the other hand by a curious metaphysical phenomenon which 
Christ witnessed: he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 1 
In this vision a metaphysical event has become temporal; it indi 
cates the historic and so far as we know final separation of 
Yahweh from his dark son. Satan is banished from heaven and 
no longer has any opportunity to inveigle his father into dubi 
ous undertakings. This event may well explain why he plays 
such an inferior role wherever he appears in the history of the 
Incarnation. His role here is in no way comparable to his for 
mer confidential relationship to Yahweh. He has obviously for 
feited the paternal affection and been exiled. The punishment 
which we missed in the story of Job has at last caught up with 
him, though in a strangely limited form. Although he is ban 
ished from the heavenly court he has kept his dominion over 
the sublunary world. He is not cast directly into hell, but upon 
earth. Only at the end of time shall he be locked up and made 
permanently ineffective. Christ's death cannot be laid at his 
door, because, through its prefiguration in Abel and in the 
young dying gods, the sacrificial death was a fate chosen by Yah 
weh as a reparation for the wrong done to Job on the one hand, 
and on the other hand as a fillip to the spiritual and moral 
development of man. There can be no doubt that man's impor 
tance is enormously enhanced if God himself deigns to become 
one. 

As a result of the partial neutralization of Satan, Yahweh 
identifies with his light aspect and becomes the good God and 
loving father. He has not lost his wrath and can still mete out 
punishment, but he does it with justice. Gases like the Job 
tragedy are apparently no longer to be expected. He proves 
himself benevolent and gracious. He shows mercy to the sinful 
children of men and is defined as Love itself. But although 
Christ has complete confidence in his father and even feels at 
one with him, he cannot help inserting the cautious petition 
and warning into the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into tempta- 
iLuke 10: 18. 

410 



ANSWER TO JOB 



tion, but deliver us from evil." God is asked not to entice us 
outright into doing evil, but rather to deliver us from it. The 
possibility that Yahweh, in spite of all the precautionary meas 
ures and in spite of his express intention to become the Sum- 
mum Bonum, might yet revert to his former ways is not so 
remote that one need not keep one eye open for it. At any rate, 
Christ considers it appropriate to remind his father of his de 
structive inclinations towards mankind and to beg him to desist 
from them. Judged by any human standards it is after all unfair, 
indeed extremely immoral, to entice little children into doing 
things that might be dangerous for them, simply in order to test 
their moral stamina! Especially as the difference between a child 
and a grown-up is immeasurably smaller than that between God 
and his creatures, whose moral weakness is particularly well 
known to him. The incongruity of it is so colossal that if this 
petition were not in the Lord's Prayer one would have to call it 
sheer blasphemy, because it really will not do to ascribe such 
contradictory behaviour to the God of Love and Summum 
Bonum. 

65* The sixth petition indeed allows a deep insight, for in face 
of this fact Christ's immense certainty with regard to his father's 
character becomes somewhat questionable. It is, unfortunately, 
a common experience that particularly positive and categorical 
assertions are met with wherever there is a slight doubt in the 
background that has to be stifled. One must admit that it would 
be contrary to all reasonable expectations to suppose that a God 
who, for all his lavish generosity, had been subject to intermit 
tent but devastating fits of rage ever since time began could 
suddenly become the epitome of everything good. Christ's 
unadmitted but none the less evident doubt in this respect is 
confirmed in the New Testament, and particularly in the Apoca 
lypse. There Yahweh again delivers himself up to an unheard-of 
fury of destruction against the human race, of whom a mere 
hundred and forty-four thousand specimens appear to survive. 2 

653 One is indeed at a loss how to bring such a reaction into line 
with the behaviour of a loving father, whom we would expect to 
glorify his creation with patience and love. It looks as if the 
attempt to secure an absolute and final victory for good is bound 
to lead to a dangerous accumulation of evil and hence to catas- 

2 Revelation 7 : 4. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



trophe. Compared with the end of the world, the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah and even the Deluge are mere child's 
play; for this time the whole of creation goes to pieces. As Satan 
was locked up for a time, then conquered and cast into a lake of 
fire, 3 the destruction of the world can hardly be the work of the 
devil, but must be an "act of God" not influenced by Satan. 
654 The end of the world is, however, preceded by the circum 
stance that even Christ's victory over his brother Satan Abel's 
counterstroke against Cain is not really and truly won, because, 
before this can come to pass, a final and mighty manifestation 
of Satan is to be expected. One can hardly suppose that God's 
incarnation in his son Christ would be calmly accepted by 
Satan. It must certainly have stirred up his jealousy to the high 
est pitch and evoked in him a desire to imitate Christ (a role 
for which he is particularly well suited as the xml^a aprt/u/iop), 
and to become incarnate in his turn as the dark God. (As we 
know, numerous legends were later woven round this theme.) 
This plan will be put into operation by the figure of the Anti 
christ after the preordained thousand years are over, the term 
allotted by astrology to the reign of Christ. This expectation, 
which is already to be found in the New Testament, reveals a 
doubt as to the immediate finality or universal effectiveness of 
the work of salvation. Unfortunately it must be said that these 
expectations gave rise to thoughtless revelations which were 
never even discussed with other aspects of the doctrine of salva 
tion, let alone brought into harmony with them. 



IX 

I mention these future apocalyptic events only to illustrate 
the doubt which is indirectly expressed in the sixth petition of 
the Lord's Prayer, and not in order to give a general interpreta 
tion of the Apocalypse. I shall come back to this theme later on. 
But, before doing so, we must turn to the question of how mat 
ters stood with the Incarnation after the death of Christ We 
have always been taught that the Incarnation was a unique his 
torical event No repetition of it was to be expected, any more 
than one could expect a further revelation of the Logos, for this 

Revelation 19: to. 

412 



ANSWER TO JOB 



too was included in the uniqueness of God's appearance on 
earth, in human form, nearly two thousand years ago. The sole 
source of revelation, and hence the final authority, is the Bible. 
God is an authority only in so far as he authorized the writings 
in the New Testament, and with the conclusion of the New 
Testament the authentic communications of God cease. Thus 
far the Protestant standpoint. The Catholic Church, the direct 
heir and continuator of historical Christianity, proves to be 
somewhat more cautious in this regard, believing that with the 
assistance of the Holy Ghost the dogma can progressively de 
velop and unfold. This view is in entire agreement with Christ's 
own teachings about the Holy Ghost and hence with the further 
continuance of the Incarnation. Christ is of the opinion that 
whoever believes in him believes, that is to say, that he is the 
son of God can "do the works that I do, and greater works than 
these." * He reminds his disciples that he had told them they 
were gods. 2 The believers or chosen ones are children of God 
and "fellow heirs with Christ/' 3 When Christ leaves the earthly 
stage, he will ask his father to send his flodc a Counsellor (the 
"Paraclete"), who will abide with them and in them for ever. 4 
The Counsellor is the Holy Ghost, who will be sent from the 
father. This "Spirit of truth" will teach the believers "all things" 
and guide them "into all truth." 5 According to this, Christ 
envisages a continuing realization of God in his children, and 
consequently in his (Christ's) brothers and sisters in the spirit, 
so that his own works need not necessarily be considered the 
greatest ones. 

656 Since the Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Trinity and 
God is present entire in each of the three Persons at any time, 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost means nothing less than an 
approximation of the believer to the status of God's son. One 
can therefore understand what is meant by the remark "you are 
gods." The deifying effect of the Holy Ghost is naturally as 
sisted by the imago Dei stamped on the elect. God, in the shape 
of the Holy Ghost, puts up his tent in man, for he is obviously 
minded to realize himself continually not only in Adam's de 
scendants, but in an indefinitely large number of believers, and 
possibly in mankind as a whole. Symptomatic of this is the 

l John 14: is. * 10: 34. 8 Romans 8: 17. * John 14: i6f. 

5 14:26 and 16: 13. 

4*3 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



significant fact that Barnabas and Paul were identified in Lystra 
with Zeus and Hermes: "The gods have come down to us in 
the likeness of men/' * This was certainly only the more naive, 
pagan view ot the Christian transmutation, but precisely for that 
reason it convinces. Tertullian must have had something of the 
sort in mind when he described the "sublimiorem Deum" as a 
sort of lender of divinity "who has made gods of men." 7 

657 God's Incarnation in Christ requires continuation and com 
pletion because Christ, owing to his virgin birth and his sinless- 
ness, was not an empirical human being at all. As stated in the 
first chapter of St. John, he represented a light which, though 
it shone in the darkness, was not comprehended by the darkness. 
He remained outside and above mankind. Job, on the other 
hand, was an ordinary human being, and therefore the wrong 
done to him, and through him to mankind, can, according to 
divine justice, only be repaired by an incarnation of God in an 
empirical human being. This act o expiation is performed by 
the Paraclete; for, just as man must suffer from God, so God 
must suffer from man. Otherwise there can be no reconciliation 
between the two. 

$58 The continuing, direct operation of the Holy Ghost on those 
who are called to be God's children implies, in fact, a broaden 
ing process of incarnation. Christ, the son begotten by God, is 
the first-born who is succeeded by an ever-increasing number of 
younger brothers and sisters. These are, however, neither begot 
ten by the Holy Ghost nor born of a virgin. This may be preju 
dicial to their metaphysical status, but their merely human birth 
will in no sense endanger their prospects of a future position of 
honour at the heavenly court, nor will it diminish their capacity 
to perform miracles. Their lowly origin (possibly from the mam 
mals) does not prevent them from entering into a close kinship 
with God as their father and Christ as their brother. In a meta 
phorical sense, indeed, it is actually a "kinship by blood," since 
they have received their share of the blood and flesh of Christ, 
which means more than mere adoption. These profound changes 
in man's status are the direct result of Christ's work of redemp 
tion. Redemption or deliverance has several different aspects, 

$ Acts 14: n. 

7 "Mancipem queadam diriniutis qui e=t borainibus deos foceriL"* Apolageticus. 

XI, in Migne, PZ, vol. i. col 386. 

414 



ANSWER TO JOB 



the most important of which is the expiation wrought by Christ's 
sacrificial death for the misdemeanours of mankind. His blood 
cleanses us from the evil consequences of sin. He reconciles God 
with man and delivers him from the divine wrath, which hangs 
over him like doom, and from eternal damnation. It is obvious 
that such ideas still picture God the father as the dangerous 
Yahweh who has to be propitiated. The agonizing death of his 
son is supposed to give him satisfaction for an affront he has 
suffered, and for this "moral injury" he would be inclined to 
take a terrible vengeance. Once more we are appalled by the 
incongruous attitude of the world creator towards his creatures, 
who to his chagrin never behave according to his expectations. 
It is as if someone started a bacterial culture which turned out 
to be a failure. He might curse his luck, but he would never 
seek the reason for the failure in the bacilli and want to punish 
them morally for it. Rather, he would select a more suitable cul 
ture medium. Yahweh's behaviour towards his creatures contra 
dicts all the requirements of so-called "divine" reason whose 
possession is supposed to distinguish men from animals. More 
over, a bacteriologist might make a mistake in his choice of a 
culture medium, for he is only human. But God in his omnis 
cience would never make mistakes if only he consulted with it. 
He has equipped his human creatures with a modicum of con 
sciousness and a corresponding degree of free will, but he must 
also know that by so doing he leads them into the temptation of 
falling into a dangerous independence. That would not be too 
great a risk if man had to do with a creator who was only kind 
and good. But Yahweh is forgetting his son Satan, to whose wiles 
even he occasionally succumbs. How then could he expect man 
with his limited consciousness and imperfect knowledge to do 
any better? He also overlooks the fact that the more conscious 
ness a man possesses the more he is separated from his instincts 
(which at least give him an inkling of the hidden wisdom of 
God) and the more prone he is to error. He is certainly not up 
to Satan's wiles if even his creator is unable, or unwilling, to 
restrain this powerful spirit. 



415 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



659 The fact of God's "unconsciousness" throws a peculiar light 
on the doctrine of salvation. Man is not so much delivered from 
his sins, even if he is baptized in the prescribed manner and thus 
washed clean, as delivered from fear of the consequences of sin, 
that is, from the wrath of God. Consequently, the work of sal 
vation is intended to save man from the fear of God. This is 
certainly possible where the belief in a loving father, who has 
sent his only-begotten son to rescue the human race, has re 
pressed the persistent traces of the old Yahweh and his dangerous 
affects. Such a belief, however, presupposes a lack of reflection 
or a sacrificium intellectus, and it appears questionable whether 
either of them can be morally justified. We should never forget 
that it was Christ himself who taught us to make usurious use of 
the talents entrusted to us and not hide them in the ground. One 
ought not to make oneself out to be more stupid and more un 
conscious than one really is, for in all other aspects we are called 
upon to be alert, critical, and self-aware, so as not to fall into 
temptation, and to "examine the spirits'* who want to gain influ 
ence over us and "see whether they are of God," l so that we may 
recognize the mistakes we make. It even needs superhuman in 
telligence to avoid the cunning snares of Satan. These obliga 
tions inevitably sharpen our understanding, our love of truth, 
and the urge to know, which as well as being genuine human 
virtues are quite possibly effects of that spirit which "searches 
everything, even the depths of God." 2 These intellectual and 
moral capacities are themselves of a divine nature, and therefore 
cannot and must not be cut off. It is just by following Christian 
morality that one gets into the worst collisions of duty. Only 
those who habitually make five an even number can escape them. 
The fact that Christian ethics leads to collisions of duty speaks in 
its favour. By engendering insoluble conflicts and consequently 
an afflictio anim&e, It brings man nearer to a knowledge of God. 
All opposites are of God, therefore man must bend to this bur 
den; and in so doing he finds that God in his "oppositeness" has 
taken possession of him, incarnated himself in him. He becomes 
a vessel filled with divine conflict. We rightly associate the idea 

1 1 John 4: i (mod.). 2 1 Corinthians 2 : ia 

416 



ANSWER TO JOB 



of suffering with a state in which the opposites violently collide 
with one another, and we hesitate to describe such a painful 
experience as being "redeemed." Yet it cannot be denied that 
the great symbol of the Christian faith, the Cross, upon which 
hangs the suffering figure of the Redeemer, has been emphati 
cally held up before the eyes of Christians for nearly two thou 
sand years. This picture is completed by the two thieves, one of 
whom goes down to hell, the other into paradise. One could 
hardly imagine a better representation of the "oppositeness" 
of the central Christian symbol. Why this inevitable product 
of Christian psychology should signify redemption is difficult 
to see, except that the conscious recognition of the opposites, 
painful though it may be at the moment, does bring with it a 
definite feeling of deliverance. It is on the one hand a deliver 
ance from the distressing state of dull and helpless unconscious 
ness, and on the other hand a growing awareness of God's oppo- 
siteness, in which man can participate if he does not shrink from 
being wounded by the dividing sword which is Christ. Only 
through the most extreme and most menacing conflict does the 
Christian experience deliverance into divinity, always provided 
that he does not break, but accepts the burden of being marked 
out by God. In this way alone can the imago Dei realize itself in 
him, and God become man. The seventh petition in the Lord's 
Prayer, "But deliver us from evil/' is to be understood in the 
same sense as Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: 
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." 3 In 
principle it does not seem to fit God's purpose to exempt a man 
from conflict and hence from evil. It is altogether human to ex 
press such a desire but it must not be made into a principle, 
because it is directed against God's will and rests only on human 
weakness and fear. Fear is certainly justified up to a point, for, 
to make the conflict complete, there must be doubt and uncer 
tainty as to whether man's strength is not being overtaxed. 
660 Because the imago Dei pervades the whole human sphere 
and makes mankind its involuntary exponent, it is just possible 
that the four-hundred-year-old schism in the Church and the 
present division of the political world into two hostile camps 
are both expressions of the unrecognized polarity of the domi 
nant archetype. 
3 Matthew 26; 59. 

417 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



661 The traditional view of Christ's work of redemption reflects 
a one-sided way of thinking, no matter whether we regard that 
one-sidedness as purely human or as willed by God. The other 
view, which regards the atonement not as the payment of a hu 
man debt to God, but as reparation for a wrong done by God to 
man, has been briefly outlined above. This view seems to me to 
be better suited to the power situation as it actually exists. The 
sheep can stir up mud in the wolfs drinking water, but can do 
him no other harm. So also the creature can disappoint the 
creator, but it is scarcely credible that he can do him a painful 
wrong. This lies only in the power of the creator with respect to 
the powerless creature. On this view, a wrong is imputed to God, 
but it is certainly no worse than what has already been imputed 
to him if one assumes that it was necessary to torture the son to 
death on the Cross merely in order to appease the father's wrath. 
What kind of father is it who would rather his son were slaugh 
tered than forgive his ill-advised creatures who have been cor 
rupted by his precious Satan? What is supposed to be demon 
strated by this gruesome and archaic sacrifice of the son? God's 
love, perhaps? Or his implacability? We know from chapter 22 
of Genesis 4 and from Exodus 22 : 29 that Yahweh has a tendency 
to employ such means as the killing of the son and the first-born 
in order to test his people's faith or to assert his will, despite 
the fact that his omniscience and omnipotence have no need 
whatever of such savage procedures, which moreover set a bad 
example to the mighty ones of the earth. It is very understand 
able, therefore, that a naive mind is apt to run away from such 
questions and excuse this manoeuvre as a beautiful sacrificium 
intellects. If one prefers not to read the Eighty-ninth Psalm, 
the matter will not end there. He who cheats once will cheat 
again, particularly when it comes to self-knowledge. But self- 
knowledge, in the form of an examination of conscience, is de 
manded by Christian ethics. They were very pious people who 
maintained that self-knowledge paves the way to knowledge of 



* Abraham and Isaac. 



ANSWER TO JOB 



XI 

662 To believe that God is the Summum Bonum is impossible 
for a reflecting consciousness. Such a consciousness does not feel 
in any way delivered from the fear of God, and therefore asks 
itself, quite rightly, what Christ means to it. That, indeed, is the 
great question: can Christ still be interpreted in our day and 
age, or must one be satisfied with the historical interpretation? 

663 One thing, anyway, cannot be doubted: Christ is a highly 
numinous figure. The interpretation of him as God and the son 
of God is in full accord with this. The old view, which is based 
on Christ's own view of the matter, asserts that he came into the 
world, suffered, and died in order to save mankind from the 
wrath to come. Furthermore he believed that his own bodily 
resurrection would assure all God's children of the same future. 

664 We have already pointed out at some length how curiously 
God's Salvationist project works out in practice. All he does is, 
in the shape of his own son, to rescue mankind from himself. 
This thought is as scurrilous as the old rabbinical view of Yah- 
weh hiding the righteous from his wrath under his throne, 
where of course he cannot see them. It is exactly as if God the 
father were a different God from the son, which is not the mean 
ing at all. Nor is there any psychological need for such an as 
sumption, since the undoubted lack of reflection in God's con 
sciousness is sufficient to explain his peculiar behaviour. It is 
quite right, therefore, that fear of God should be considered the 
beginning of all wisdom. On the other hand, the much-vaunted 
goodness, love, and justice of God should not be regarded as 
mere propitiation, but should be recognized as a genuine experi 
ence, for God is a coincidentia oppositorum. Both are justified, 
the fear of God as well as the love of God. 

665 A more differentiated consciousness must, sooner or later, 
find it difficult to love, as a kind father, a God whom on account 
of his unpredictable fits of wrath, his unreliability, injustice, 
and cruelty, it has every reason to fear. The decay of the gods 
of antiquity has proved to our satisfaction that man does not 
relish any all-too-human inconsistencies and weaknesses in his 
gods. Likewise, it is probable that Yahweh's moral defeat in his 
dealings with Job had its hidden effects: man's unintended 

419 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



elevation on the one hand, and on the other hand a disturb 
ance of the unconscious. For a while the first-mentioned effect 
remains a mere fact, not consciously realized though regis 
tered by the unconscious. This contributes to the disturbance in 
the unconscious, which thereby acquires a higher potential than 
exists in consciousness. Man then counts for more in the uncon 
scious than he does consciously. In these circumstances the po 
tential starts flowing from the unconscious towards conscious 
ness, and the unconscious breaks through in the form of dreams, 
visions, and revelations. Unfortunately the Book of Job cannot 
be dated with any certainty. As mentioned above, it was written 
somewhere between 600 and 300 B.C. During the first half of 
the sixth century, Ezekiel, 1 the prophet with the so-called "path 
ological" features, appears on the scene. Although laymen are 
inclined to apply this epithet to his visions, I must, as a psychia 
trist, emphatically state that visions and their accompanying 
phenomena cannot be uncritically evaluated as morbid. Visions, 
like dreams, are unusual but quite natural occurrences which 
can be designated as "pathological" only when their morbid 
nature has been proved. From a strictly clinical standpoint 
EzekiePs visions are of an archetypal nature and are not 
morbidly distorted in any way. There is no reason to regard 
them as pathological. 2 They are a symptom of the split which 
already existed at that time between conscious and unconscious. 
The first great vision is made up of two well-ordered compound 
quaternities, that is, conceptions of totality, such as we fre 
quently observe today as spontaneous phenomena. Their quinta 
essentia is represented by a figure which has "the likeness of a 
human form." 8 Here Ezekiel has seen the essential content 
of the unconscious, namely the idea of the higher man by whom 
Yahweh was morally defeated and whom he was later to become. 
666 In India, a more or less simultaneous symptom of the same 
tendency was Gautama the Buddha (b. 562 B.C.), who gave the 
maximum differentiation of consciousness supremacy even over 
the highest Brahman gods. This development was a logical con- 

1 The vision in which he received his call occurred in 59* B.C. 

2 It is altogether wrong to assume that visions as such are pathological. They 
occur with normal people also not very frequently, it is true, but they are by no 
means rare. 

* Ezekiel i:s& 

4*0 



ANSWER TO JOB 



sequence of the purusha-atman doctrine and derived from the 
inner experience of yoga practice. 

667 Ezekiel grasped, in a symbol, the fact that Yahweh was draw 
ing closer to man. This is something which came to Job as an 
experience but probably did not reach his consciousness. That 
is to say, he did not realize that his consciousness was higher 
than Yahweh's, and that consequently God wants to become 
man. What is more, in Ezekiel we meet for the first time the 
title "Son of Man/* which Yahweh significantly uses in address 
ing the prophet, presumably to indicate that he is a son of the 
"Man" on the throne, and hence a prefiguration of the much 
later revelation in Christ. It is with the greatest right, therefore, 
that the four seraphim on God's throne became the emblems of 
the evangelists, for they form the quaternity which expresses 
Christ's totality, just as the four gospels represent the four pillars 
of his throne. 

668 The disturbance of the unconscious continued for several 
centuries. Around 165 B.C., Daniel had a vision of four beasts 
and the "Ancient of Days," to whom "with the clouds of heaven 
there came one like a son of man." 4 Here the "son of man" is 
no longer the prophet but a son of the "Ancient of Days" in his 
own right, and a son whose task it is to rejuvenate the father. 

669 The Book of Enoch, written around 100 B.C., goes into con 
siderably more detail. It gives a revealing account of the advance 
of the sons of God into the world of men, another prefiguration 
which has been described as the "fall of the angels." Whereas, 
according to Genesis, 5 Yahweh resolved that his spirit should 
not "abide in man for ever," and that men should not live to be 
hundreds of years old as they had before, the sons of God, by 
way of compensation, fell in love with the beautiful daughters 
of men. This happened at the time of the giants. Enoch relates 
that after conspiring with one another, two hundred angels 
under the leadership of Samiazaz descended to earth, took the 
daughters of men to wife, and begat with them giants three 
thousand ells long. 6 The angels, among whom Azazel particu 
larly excelled, taught mankind the arts and sciences. They 
proved to be extraordinarily progressive elements who broad 
ened and developed man's consciousness, just as the wicked 
Cain had stood for progress as contrasted with the stay-at-home 

3. 5 Genesis 6 : $f. 

4*1 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Abel. In this way they enlarged the significance of man to 
"gigantic" proportions, which points to an inflation of the cul 
tural consciousness at that period. An inflation, however, is 
always threatened with a counter-stroke from the unconscious, 
and this actually did happen in the form of the Deluge. So 
corrupt was the earth before the Deluge that the giants "con 
sumed all the acquisitions of men" and then began to devour 
each other, while men in their turn devoured the beasts, so 
that "the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones." 7 
67 The invasion of the human world by the sons of God there 
fore had serious consequences, which make Yahweh's precau 
tions prior to his appearance on the earthly scene the more 
understandable. Man was completely helpless in face of this 
superior divine force. Hence it is of the greatest interest to see 
how Yahweh behaves in this matter. As the later Draconian 
punishment proves, it was a not unimportant event in the 
heavenly economy when no less than two hundred of the sons 
of God departed from the paternal household to carry out ex 
periments on their own in the human world. One would have 
expected that information concerning this mass exodus would 
have trickled through to the court (quite apart from the fact 
of divine omniscience). But nothing of the sort happened. Only 
after the giants had long been begotten and had already started 
to slaughter and devour mankind did four archangels, apparent 
ly by accident, hear the weeping and wailing of men and dis 
cover what was going on on earth. One really does not know 
which is the more astonishing, the bad organization of the an 
gelic hosts or the faulty communications in heaven. Be that as 
it may, this time the archangels felt impelled to appear before 
God with the following peroration: 

All things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all 
things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee. Thou seest what 
Azazel hath done, who taught all unrighteousness on earth and re 
vealed the eternal secrets which were preserved in heaven. . . . 
[And enchantments hath Samiazaz taught], to whom Thou hast 
given authority to bear rule over his associates. . . . And Thou 

^ Enoch 7:3-6. [The translations of the Book of Eaocfa aie from Cfaarfes, ed., The 
Apocrypha and Pxudepigraphe. oj the Old Testmcnt m English, H, sometimes 
slightly BK>dified.-T*AN&.] 

4*2 



ANSWER TO JOB 



knowest all things before they come to pass, and Thou seest these 
things and Thou dost suffer them, and Thou dost not say to us what 
we are to do to them in regard to these. 8 

67* Either all that the archangels say is a lie, or Yahweh, for 
some incomprehensible reason, has drawn no conclusions from 
his omniscience, or what is more likely the archangels must 
remind him that once again he has preferred to know nothing 
of his omniscience. At any rate it is only on their intervention 
that retaliatory action is released on a global scale, but it is not 
really a just punishment, seeing that Yahweh promptly drowns 
all living creatures with the exception of Noah and his relatives. 
This intermezzo proves that the sons of God are somehow more 
vigilant, more progressive, and more conscious than their father. 
Yahweh's subsequent transformation is therefore to be rated all 
the higher. The preparations for his Incarnation give one the 
impression that he has really learnt something from experi 
ence and is setting about things more consciously than be 
fore. Undoubtedly the recollection of Sophia has contributed 
to this increase of consciousness. Parallel with this, the revela 
tion of the metaphysical structure becomes more explicit. 
Whereas in Ezekiel and Daniel we find only vague hints about 
the quaternity and the Son of Man, Enoch gives us clear and 
detailed information on these points. The underworld, a sort 
of Hades, is divided into four hollow places which serve as 
abodes for the spirits of the dead until the Last Judgment. 
Three of these hollow places are dark, but one is bright and 
contains a "fountain of water.*' 9 This is the abode of the 
righteous. 

67* With statements of this type we enter into a definitely psy 
chological realm, namely that of mandala symbolism, to which 
also belong the ratios i : 3 and 3 : 4. The quadripartite Hades of 
Enoch corresponds to a chthonic quaternity, which presumably 
stands in everlasting contrast to a pneumatic or heavenly one. 
The former corresponds in alchemy to the quaternio of the ele 
ments, the latter to a fourfold, or total, aspect of the deity, as for 
instance Barbelo, Kolorbas, Mercurius quadratus, and the four- 
faced gods all indicate. 

67$ In fact, Enoch in his vision sees the four faces of God. Three 
8 Enoch 9:5-1 1. 822:2. 

423 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



of them are engaged in praising, praying, and supplicating, but 
the fourth in "fending off the Satans and forbidding them to 
come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on 
earth." 10 

674 The vision shows us an essential differentiation of the God- 
image: God now has four faces, or rather, four angels of his face, 
who are four hypostases or emanations, of which one is ex 
clusively occupied in keeping his elder son Satan, now changed 
into many, away from him, and in preventing further experi 
ments after the style of the Job episode. 11 The Satans still dwell 
in the heavenly regions, since the fall of Satan has not yet oc 
curred. The above-mentioned proportions are also suggested 
here by the fact that three of the angels perform holy or bene 
ficial functions, while the fourth is a militant figure who has 
to keep Satan at bay. 

675 This quaternity has a distinctly pneumatic nature and is 
therefore expressed by angels, who are generally pictured with 
wings, i.e., as aerial beings. This is the more likely as they are 
presumably the descendants of Ezekiel's four seraphim. 12 The 
doubling and separation of the quaternity into an upper and a 
lower one, like the exclusion of the Satans from the heavenly 
court, points to a metaphysical split that had already taken 
place. But the pleromatic split is in its turn a symptom of a 
much deeper split in the divine will: the father wants to become 
the son, God wants to become man, the amoral wants to become 
exclusively good, the unconscious wants to become consciously 
responsible. So far everything exists only in statu nascendi. 

676 Enoch's unconscious is vastly excited by all this and its con 
tents burst out in a spate of apocalyptic visions. It also causes 
him to undertake the peregrinatio, the journey to the four 
quarters of heaven and to the centre of the earth, so that he 
draws a mandala with his own movements, in accordance with 
the "journeys" o the alchemistic philosophers and the corre 
sponding fantasies of our modern unconscious. 

677 When Yahweh addressed Ezekiel as "Son of Man," this was 
no more at first than a dark and enigmatic hint. But now it be- 

10 Enoch 40 17. 

11 Cf. also ch. 87! . Of the four "beings who were like white men," three take 
Enoch by the hand, while the other seizes a star and hurls it into the abyss. 

12 Three had animal faces, one a human face. 

4*4 



ANSWER TO JOB 



comes clear: the man Enoch is not only the recipient of divine 
revelation but is at the same time a participant in the divine 
drama, as though he were at least one of the sons of God him 
self. This can only be taken as meaning that in the same measure 
as God sets out to become man, man is immersed in the plero- 
matic process. He becomes, as it were, baptized in it and is made 
to participate in the divine quaternity (i.e., is crucified with 
Christ). That is why even today, in the rite of the benedictio 
fonttS; the water is divided into a cross by the hand of the priest 
and then sprinkled to the four quarters. 

678 Enoch is so much under the influence of the divine drama, 
so gripped by it, that one could almost suppose he had a quite 
special understanding of the coming Incarnation. The "Son of 
Man" who is with the "Head [or Ancient] of Days" looks like 
an angel (i.e., like one of the sons of God). He "hath righteous 
ness"; "with him dwelleth righteousness"; the Lord of Spirits 
has "chosen him"; "his lot hath the preeminence before the 
Lord of Spirits in uprightness." ls It is probably no accident 
that so much stress is laid on righteousness, for it is the one 
quality that Yahweh lacks, a fact that could hardly have re 
mained hidden from such a man as the author of the Book of 
Enoch. Under the reign of the Son of Man ". . . the prayer of 
the righteous has been heard, and the blood of the righteous 
. . . [avenged] before the Lord of Spirits." 14 Enoch sees a 
"fountain of righteousness which was inexhaustible/' 15 The 
Son of Man 



. . . shall be a staff to the righteous. . . . 

For this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before 

him, 

Before the creation of the world and for evermore. 
And the wisdom of the Lord of Spirits hath revealed 

him . . . , 

For he hath preserved the lot of the righteous. 1 * 
For wisdom is poured out like water. . . . 
He is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness, 
And unrighteousness shall disappear as a shadow. . . * 
In him dwells the spirit of wisdom, 

is Enoch 46: 1-3. W 47:4- 1848:1. 1*48:4,6-7. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



And the spirit which gives insight, 

And the spirit of understanding and of might. 17 

679 Under the reign of the Son of Man 

. . . shall the earth also give back that which has been 

entrusted to it, 

And Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, 
And hell 1S shall give back that which it owes. . . 

The Elect One shall in those days sit on My throne, 
And his mouth shall pour forth all the secrets of 
wisdom and counsel. 19 

680 "All shall become angels in heaven." Azazel and his hosts 
shall be cast into the burning fiery furnace for "becoming sub 
ject to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth." * 

68* At the end of the world the Son of Man shall sit in judgment 
over all creatures. "The darkness shall be destroyed, and the 
light established for ever." 21 Even Yahweh's two big exhibits, 
Leviathan and Behemoth, are forced to succumb: they are 
carved up and eaten. In this passage Enoch is addressed by 
the revealing angel with the title "Son of Man/' a further indica 
tion that he, like Ezekiel, has been assimilated by the divine 
mystery, is included in it, as is already suggested by the bare 
fact that he witnesses it. Enoch is wafted away and takes his seat 
in heaven. In the "heaven of heavens" he beholds the house of 
God built of crystal, with streams of living fire about it, and 
guarded by winged beings that never sleep. 2 * The "Head of 
Days" comes forth with the angelic quaternity (Michael, Ga 
briel, Raphael, Phanuel) and speaks to him, saying: "This is the 
Son of Man who is born unto righteousness, and righteousness 
abides over him, and the righteousness of the Head of Days for 
sakes him not." ** 

* It is remarkable that the Son of Man and what he means 
should be associated again and again with righteousness. It 
seems to be his leitmotif, his chief concern. Only where injustice 

IT Enoch 49: 1-5. * Synonym teSbeoL 1*51:1,3. 

54:6. Here at last we hear that the exodus of the tro hundred angels was a 

prank of Satan's. 

21 58: 6 (mod.). 2260:10. 2871:5-6. ^71:14. 

4*6 



ANSWER TO JOB 



threatens or has already occurred does such an emphasis on 
righteousness make any sense. No one, only God, can dispense 
justice to any noticeable degree, and precisely with regard to 
him there exists the justifiable fear that he may forget his justice. 
In this case his righteous son would intercede with him on man's 
behalf. Thus "the righteous shall have peace/' 25 The justice 
that shall prevail under the son is stressed to such an extent that 
one has the impression that formerly, under the reign of the 
father, injustice was paramount, and that only with the son is 
the era of law and order inaugurated. It looks as though, with 
this, Enoch had unconsciously given an answer to Job. 

683 The emphasis laid on God's agedness is logically connected 
with the existence of a son, but it also suggests that he himself 
will step a little into the background and leave the government 
of the human world more and more to the son, in the hope that 
a juster order will emerge. From all this we can see the after 
effects of some psychological trauma, the memory of an injustice 
that cries to heaven and beclouds the intimate relationship with 
God. God himself wants a son, and man also wants a son to take 
the place of the father. This son must, as we have conclusively 
seen, be absolutely just, and this quality is given priority over all 
other virtues. God and man both want to escape from blind 
injustice. 

684 Enoch, in his ecstasy, recognizes himself as the Son of Man, 
or as the son of God, although neither by birth nor by predesti 
nation does he seem to have been chosen for such a role. 26 He 
experiences that godlike elevation which, in the case of Job, we 
merely assumed, or rather inferred as the inevitable outcome. 
Job himself seems to have suspected something of the sort when 
he declares: "I know that my Vindicator lives." 27 This highly 
remarkable statement can, under the circumstances, only refer 
to the benevolent Yahweh. The traditional Christian interpre 
tation of this passage as an anticipation of Christ is correct in so 
far as Yahweh's benevolent aspect incarnates itself, as its own 
hypostasis, in the Son of Man, and in so far as the Son of Man 

2571:17. 

26 The author of the Book of Enoch chose, as the hero of his tale, Enoch the son 
of Jared, the seventh after Adam, who "walked with God," and, instead of dying, 
simply disappeared, i.e., was carried away by God (". . . and he was not, for God 
took him." Genesis 5 : 24). 21 Job 1 9 : 25. 

427 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



proves in Enoch to be a representative of justice and, in Chris 
tianity, the justifier of mankind. Furthermore, the Son of Man 
is pre-existent, and therefore Job could very well appeal to him. 
Just as Satan plays the role of accuser and slanderer, so Christ, 
God's other son, plays the role of advocate and defender. 

685 Despite the contradiction, certain scholars have wished to 
see Enoch's Messianic ideas as Christian interpolations. For 
psychological reasons this suspicion seems to me unjustified. One 
has only to consider what Yahweh's injustice, his downright im 
morality, must have meant to a devout thinker. It was no laugh 
ing matter to be burdened with such an idea of God. A much 
later document tells us of a pious sage who could never read the 
Eighty-ninth Psalm, "because he could not bear it." When one 
considers with what intensity and exclusiveness not only Christ's 
teaching, but the doctrines of the Church in the following cen 
turies down to the present day, have emphasized the goodness 
of the loving Father in heaven, the deliverance from fear, the 
Summum Bonum, and the privatio boni, one can form some 
conception of the incompatibility which the figure of Yahweh 
presents, and see how intolerable such a paradox must appear 
to the religious consciousness. And this has probably been so 
ever since the days of Job. 

686 The inner instability of Yahweh is the prime cause not only 
of the creation of the world, but also of the pleromatic drama 
for which mankind serves as a tragic chorus. The encounter with 
the creature changes the creator. In the Old Testament writ 
ings we find increasing traces of this development from the sixth 
century B.C. on. The two main climaxes are formed firstly by the 
Job tragedy, and secondly by Ezekiel's revelation. Job is the 
innocent sufferer, but Ezekiel witnesses the humanization and 
differentiation of Yahweh. By being addressed as "Son of Man," 
it is intimated to him that Yahweh's incarnation and quater- 
nity are, so to speak, the pleromatic model for what is going to 
happen, through the transformation and humanization of God, 
not only to God's son as foreseen from all eternity, but to man 
as such. This is fulfilled as an intuitive anticipation in Enoch. 
In his ecstasy he becomes the Son of Man in the pleroma, and 
his wafting away in a chariot (like Elijah) prefigures the resur 
rection of the dead. To fulfil his role as minister of justice he 
must get into immediate proximity to God, and as the pre- 
428 



ANSWER TO JOB 



existing Son of Man he is no longer subject to death. But in so 
far as he was an ordinary human being and therefore mortal, 
other mortals as well as he can attain to the vision of God; they 
too can become conscious of their saviour, and consequently 
immortal. 

687 All these ideas could easily have become conscious at the 
time on the basis of the assumptions then current, if only some 
one had seriously reflected on them. For that no Christian 
interpolations were needed. The Book of Enoch was an anticipa 
tion in the grand manner, but everything still hung in mid air 
as mere revelation that never came down to earth. In view of 
these facts one cannot, with the best will in the world, see how 
Christianity, as we hear over and over again, is supposed to have 
burst upon world history as an absolute novelty. If ever any 
thing had been historically prepared, and sustained and sup 
ported by the existing Weltanschauung, Christianity would be 
a classic example. 



XII 

Jesus first appears as a Jewish reformer and prophet of an ex 
clusively good God. In so doing he saves the threatened re 
ligious continuity, and in this respect he does in fact prove 
himself a erwr^p, a saviour. He preserves mankind from loss of 
communion with God and from getting lost in mere conscious 
ness and rationality. That would have brought something like a 
dissociation between consciousness and the unconscious, an un 
natural and even pathological condition, a "loss of soul" such as 
has threatened man from the beginning of time. Again and 
again and in increasing measure he gets into danger of overlook 
ing the necessary irrationalities of his psyche, and of imagining 
that he can control everything by will and reason alone, and thus 
paddle his own canoe. This can be seen most clearly in the great 
socio-political movements, such as Socialism and Communism: 
under the former the state suffers, and under the latter, man. 

Jesus, it is plain, translated the existing tradition into his 
own personal reality, announcing the glad tidings: "God has 
good pleasure in mankind. He is a loving father and loves you 
as I love you, and has sent me as his son to ransom you from the 

4*9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



old debt." He offers himself as an expiatory sacrifice that shall 
effect the reconciliation with God. The more desirable a real 
relationship of trust between man and God, the more astonish 
ing becomes Yahweh's vindictiveness and irreconcilability to 
wards his creatures. From a God who is a loving father, who is 
actually Love itself, one would expect understanding and for 
giveness. So it comes as a nasty shock when this supremely good 
God only allows the purchase of such an act of grace through a 
human sacrifice, and, what is worse, through the killing of his 
own son. Christ apparently overlooked this anticlimax; at any 
rate all succeeding centuries have accepted it without opposi 
tion. One should keep before one's eyes the strange fact that the 
God of goodness is so unforgiving that he can only be appeased 
by a human sacrifice! This is an insufferable incongruity which 
modern man can no longer swallow, for he must be blind if he 
does not see the glaring light it throws on the divine character, 
giving the lie to all talk about love and the Summum Bonum. 
69 Christ proves to be a mediator in two ways: he helps men 
against God and assuages the fear which man feels towards this 
being. He holds an important position midway between the two 
extremes, man and God, which are so difficult to unite. Clearly 
the focus of the divine drama shifts to the mediating God-man. 
He is lacking neither in humanity nor in divinity, and for this 
reason he was long ago characterized by totality symbols, because 
he was understood to be all-embracing and to unite all opposites. 
The quaternity of the Son of Man, indicating a more differen 
tiated consciousness, was also ascribed to him (vide Cross and 
tetramorph). This corresponds by and large to the pattern in 
Enoch, but with one important deviation: Ezekiel and Enoch, 
the two bearers of the title "Son of Man," were ordinary human 
beings, whereas Christ by his descent, 1 conception, and birth is 
a hero and half-god in the classical sense. He is virginally be 
gotten by the Holy* Ghost and, as he is not a creaturely human 
being, has no inclination to sin. The infection of evil was in his 
case precluded by the preparations for the Incarnation. Christ 
therefore stands more on the divine than on the human level. 
He incarnates God's good will to the exclusion of all else and 
therefore does not stand exactly in the middle, because the essen- 

i As a consequence of her immaculate conception Mary is already different from 
other mortals, and this act is confirmed by her assumption. 



ANSWER TO JOB 



tial thing about the creaturely human being, sin, does not touch 
him. Sin originally came from the heavenly court and entered 
into creation with the help of Satan, which enraged Yahweh to 
such an extent that in the end his own son had to be sacrificed 
in order to placate him. Strangely enough, he took no steps to 
remove Satan from his entourage. In Enoch a special archangel, 
Phanuel, was charged with the task of defending Yahweh from 
Satan's insinuations, and only at the end of the world shall 
Satan, in the shape of a star, 2 be bound hand and foot, cast into 
the abyss, and destroyed. (This is not the case in the Book of 
Revelation, where he remains eternally alive in his natural 
element.) 

691 Although it is generally assumed that Christ's unique sacri 
fice broke the curse of original sin and finally placated God, 
Christ nevertheless seems to have had certain misgivings in this 
respect. What will happen to man, and especially to his own 
followers, when the sheep have lost their shepherd, and when 
they miss the one who interceded for them with the father? He 
assures his disciples that he will always be with them, nay more, 
that he himself abides within them. Nevertheless this does not 
seem to satisfy him completely, for in addition he promises to 
send them from the father another wapa^ros (advocate, "Coun 
sellor"), in his stead, who will assist them by word and deed and 
remain with them forever. 8 One might conjecture from this 
that the "legal position" has still not been cleared up beyond 
a doubt, or that there still exists a factor of uncertainty. 

69* The sending of the Paraclete has still another aspect. This 
Spirit of Truth and Wisdom is the Holy Ghost by whom Christ 
was begotten. He is the spirit of physical and spiritual procrea 
tion who from now on shall make his abode in creaturely man. 
Since he is the Third Person of the Deity, this is as much as to 
say that God will be begotten in creaturely man. This implies 
a tremendous change in man's status, for he is now raised to son- 
ship and almost to the position of a man-god. With this the pre- 
figuration in Ezekiel and Enoch, where, as we saw, the title "Son 
of Man" was already conferred on the creaturely man, is ful 
filled. But that puts man, despite his continuing sinfulness, in 

2 Presumably the "morning star" (cf. Revelation 2:28 and 22:16). This is the 
planet Venus in her psychological implications and not, as one might ffoint, either 
of the two malefici, Saturn and Mars. 3 John 14 : 16, 

43 * 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the position of the mediator, the unifier of God and creature. 
Christ probably had this incalculable possibility in mind when 
he said: ". . . . he who believes in me, will also do the works 
that I do; and greater works than these will he do," 4 and, re 
ferring to the sixth verse of the Eighty-second Psalm, "I say, 
'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you/ " he added, 
"and scripture cannot be broken.*' 5 

69* The future indwelling of the Holy Ghost in man amounts 
to a continuing incarnation of God. Christ, as the begotten son 
of God and pre-existing mediator, is a first-born and a divine 
paradigm which will be followed by further incarnations of the 
Holy Ghost in the empirical man. But man participates in the 
darkness of the world, and therefore, with Christ's death, a 
critical situation arises which might well be a cause for anxiety. 
When God became man all darkness and evil were carefully kept 
outside. Enoch's transformation into the Son of Man took place 
entirely in the realm of light, and to an even greater extent this 
is true of the incarnation in Christ. It is highly unlikely that the 
bond between God and man was broken with the death ol 
Christ; on the contrary, the continuity of this bond is stressed 
again and again and is further confirmed by the sending of the 
Paraclete. But the closer this bond becomes, the closer becomes 
the danger of a collision with evil. On the basis of a belief that 
had existed quite early, the expectation grew up that the light 
manifestation would be followed by an equally dark one, and 
Christ by an Antichrist. Such an opinion is the last thing one 
would expect from the metaphysical situation, for the power oi 
evil is supposedly overcome, and one can hardly believe that a 
loving father, after the whole complicated arrangement of salva 
tion in Christ, the atonement and declaration of love for man 
kind, would again let loose his evil watch-dog on his children 
in complete disregard of all that had gone before. Why this 
wearisome forbearance towards Satan? Why this stubborn pro 
jection of evil on man, whom he has made so weak, so faltering, 
and so stupid that we are quite incapable of resisting his wicked 
sons? Why not pull up evil by the roots? 

694 God, with his good intentions, begot a good and helpful son 
and thus created an image of himself as the good father unfor 
tunately, we must admit, again without considering that there 
* John 14: is. * 10:35. 

43* 



ANSWER TO JOB 



existed in him a knowledge that spoke a very different truth. 
Had he only given an account of his action to himself, he would 
have seen what a fearful dissociation he had got into through his 
incarnation. Where, for instance, did his darkness go that dark 
ness by means of which Satan always manages to escape his well- 
earned punishment? Does he think he is completely changed 
and that his amorality has fallen from him? Even his "light" son, 
Christ, did not quite trust him in this respect. So now he sends 
to men the "spirit of truth," with whose help they will discover 
soon enough what happens when God incarnates only in his 
light aspect and believes he is goodness itself, or at least wants 
to be regarded as such. An enantiodromia in the grand style is 
to be expected. This may well be the meaning of the belief in 
the coming of the Antichrist, which we owe more than anything 
else to the activity of the "spirit of truth." 

695 Although the Paraclete is of the greatest significance meta 
physically, it was, from the point of view of the organization of 
the Church, most undesirable, because, as is authoritatively 
stated in scripture, the Holy Ghost is not subject to any control. 
In the interests of continuity and the Church the uniqueness of 
the incarnation and of Christ's work of redemption has to be 
strongly emphasized, and for the same reason the continuing 
indwelling of the Holy Ghost is discouraged and ignored as 
much as possible. No further individualistic digressions can be 
tolerated. Anyone who is inclined by the Holy Ghost towards 
dissident opinions necessarily becomes a heretic, whose persecu 
tion and elimination take a turn very much to Satan's liking. 
On the other hand one must realize that if everybody had tried 
to thrust the intuitions of his own private Holy Ghost upon 
others for the improvement of the universal doctrine, Christian 
ity would rapidly have perished in a Babylonian confusion of 
tongues a fate that lay threateningly close for many centuries. 

96 It is the task of the Paraclete, the "spirit of truth," to 
dwell and work in individual human beings, so as to remind 
them of Christ's teachings and lead them into the light. A good 
example of this activity is Paul, who knew not the Lord and 
received his gospel not from the apostles but through revelation. 
He is one of those people whose unconscious was disturbed and 
produced revelatory ecstasies. The life of the Holy Ghost reveals 
itself through its own activity, and through effects which not 

433 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



only confirm the things we all know, but go beyond them. In 
Christ's sayings there are already indications of ideas which go 
beyond the traditionally "Christian" morality for instance the 
parable of the unjust steward, the moral of which agrees with 
the Logion of the Codex Bezae,* and betrays an ethical standard 
very different from what is expected. Here the moral criterion 
is consciousness, and not law or convention. One might also 
mention the strange fact that it is precisely Peter, who lacks self- 
control and is fickle in character, whom Christ wishes to make 
the rock and foundation of his Church. These seem to me to be 
ideas which point to the inclusion of evil in what I would call a 
differential moral valuation. For instance, it is good if evil is 
sensibly covered up, but to act unconsciously is evil. One might 
almost suppose that such views were intended for a time when 
consideration is given to evil as well as to good, or rather, when 
it is not suppressed below the threshold on the dubious assump 
tion that we always know exactly what evil is. 
697 Again, the expectation of the Antichrist is a far-reaching 
revelation or discovery, like the remarkable statement that de 
spite his fall and exile the devil is still "prince of this world" 
and has his habitation in the all-surrounding air. In spite of his 
misdeeds and in spite of God's work of redemption for mankind, 
the devil still maintains a position of considerable power and 
holds all sublunary creatures under his sway. This situation can 
only be described as critical; at any rate it does not correspond 
to what could reasonably have been expected from the "glad 
tidings." Evil is by no means fettered, even though its days are 
numbered, God still hesitates to use force against Satan. Presum 
ably he still does not know how much his own dark side favours 
the evil angel. Naturally this situation could not remain in 
definitely hidden from the "spirit of truth" who has taken up his 
abode in man. He therefore created a disturbance in man's un 
conscious and produced, at the beginning of the Christian era, 
another great revelation which, because of its obscurity, gave 
rise to numerous interpretations and misinterpretations in the 
centuries that followed. This is the Revelation of St. John. 

An apocryphal insertion at Luke 6:4. ["Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou 
doest, thou art blessed; but if tbou knowest not, thou art cursed, and a trans 
gressor of the law" (trans, ia James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 35). 

TRANS,] 

434 



ANSWER TO JOB 



XIII 

698 One could hardly imagine a more suitable personality for 
the John of the Apocalypse than the author of the Epistles of 
John. It was he who declared that God is light and that "in him 
is no darkness at all." * (Who said there was any darkness in 
God?) Nevertheless, he knows that when we sin we need an 
"advocate with the Father/' and this is Christ, "the expiation 
for our sins," 2 even though for his sake our sins are already for 
given. (Why then do we need an advocate?) The Father has be 
stowed his great love upon us (though it had to be bought at the 
cost of a human sacrifice!), and we are the children of God. He 
who is begotten by God commits no sin. 3 (Who commits no sin?) 
John then preaches the message of love. God himself is love; 
perfect love casteth out fear. But he must warn against false 
prophets and teachers of false doctrines, and it is he who an 
nounces the coming of the Antichrist. 4 His conscious attitude is 
orthodox, but he has evil forebodings. He might easily have 
dreams that are not listed on his conscious programme. He talks 
as if he knew not only a sinless state but also a perfect love, 
unlike Paul, who was not lacking in the necessary self-reflection. 
John is a bit too sure, and therefore he runs the risk of a dissocia 
tion. Under these circumstances a counterposition is bound to 
grow up in the unconscious, which can then irrupt into con 
sciousness in the form of a revelation. If this happens, the revela 
tion will take the form of a more or less subjective myth, because, 
among other things, it compensates the one-sidedness of an indi 
vidual consciousness. This contrasts with the visions of Ezekiel 
or Enoch, whose conscious situation was mainly characterized 
by an ignorance (for which they were not to blame) and was 
therefore compensated by a more or less objective and uni 
versally valid configuration of archetypal material. 

699 So far as we can see, the Apocalypse conforms to these con 
ditions. Even in the initial vision a fear-inspiring figure appears: 
Christ blended with the Ancient of Days, having the likeness 
of a man and the Son of Man. Out of his mouth goes a "sharp 
two-edged sword," which would seem more suitable for fighting 
and the shedding of blood than for demonstrating brotherly 

5. 2 2: i- 2 . 83:9. 4 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



love. Since this Christ says to him, "Fear not," we must as 
sume that John was not overcome by love when he fell "as 
though dead," 5 but rather by fear. (What price now the perfect 
love which casts out fear?) 

7 Christ commands him to write seven epistles to the churches 
in the province of Asia. The church in Ephesus is admonished 
to repent; otherwise it is threatened with deprivation of the 
light ("I will come . . . and remove your candlestick from its 
place"). 6 We also learn from this letter that Christ "hates" the 
Nicolaitans. (How does this square with love of your neigh 
bour?) 

70* The church in Smyrna does not come off so badly. Its 
enemies supposedly are Jews, but they are "a synagogue of 
Satan," which does not sound too friendly. 

70* Pergamum is censured because a teacher of false doctrines 
is making himself conspicuous there, and the place swarms with 
Nicolaitans. Therefore it must repent "if not, I will come to 
you soon." This can only be interpreted as a threat. 

73 Thyatira tolerates the preaching of "that woman Jezebel, 
who calls herself a prophetess." He will "throw her on a sick 
bed" and "strike her children dead." But "he who . . . keeps 
my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, 
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots 
are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from 
my Father; and I will give him the morning star." 7 Christ, as 
we know, teaches "Love your enemies," but here he threatens 
a massacre of children all too reminiscent of Bethlehem! 

74 The works of the church in Sardis are not perfect before 
God. Therefore, "repent." Otherwise he will come like a thief, 
"and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you" 8 
a none too friendly warning. 

75 In regard to Philadelphia, there is nothing to be censured. 
But Laodicea he will spew out of his mouth, because they are 
lukewarm. They too must repent. His explanation is character 
istic: "Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten." 9 It would 
be quite understandable if the Laodiceans did not want too 
much of this "love." 

706 Fi ve O f the seven churches get bad reports. This apocalyptic 
"Christ" behaves rather like a bad-tempered, power-conscious 

5 Cf. Rev. x : iS-17. *Rar.*:5, ?2:*of. 83:3. $3:19- 

436 



ANSWER TO JOB 



"boss" who very much resembles the "shadow" of a love-preach 
ing bishop. 

707 As if in confirmation of what I have said, there now follows 
a vision in the style of EzekieL But he who sat upon the throne 
did not look like a man, but was to look upon "like jasper and 
carnelian." 10 Before him was "a sea of glass, like crystal"; 
around the throne, four "living creatures" (faa), which were 
"full of eyes in front and behind ... all round and within." u 
The symbol of Ezekiel appears here strangely modified: stone, 
glass, crystal dead and rigid things deriving from the inorganic 
realm characterize the Deity. One is inevitably reminded of 
the preoccupation of the alchemists during the following cen 
turies, when the mysterious "Man," the homo altus, was named 
\l8os ob Xtflos, 'the stone that is no stone/ and multiple eyes 
gleamed in the ocean of the unconscious. 12 At any rate, some 
thing of John's psychology comes in here, which has caught a 
glimpse of things beyond the Christian cosmos. 

7 08 Hereupon follows the opening of the Book with Seven Seals 
by the "Lamb." The latter has put off the human features of the 
"Ancient of Days" and now appears in purely theriomorphic 
but monstrous form, like one of the many other horned animals 
in the Book of Revelation. It has seven eyes and seven horns, 
and is therefore more like a ram than a lamb. Altogether it must 
have looked pretty awful. Although it is described as "standing, 
as though it had been slain," 13 it does not behave at all like an 
innocent victim, but in a very lively manner indeed. From the 
first four seals it lets loose the four sinister apocalyptic horse 
men. With the opening of the fifth seal, we hear the martyrs 
crying for vengeance ("O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how 
long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who 
dwell upon the earth?"). 14 The sixth seal brings a cosmic catas 
trophe, and everything hides from the "wrath of the Lamb," 
"for the great day of his wrath is come." 15 We no longer recog 
nize the meek Lamb who lets himself be led unresistingly to the 
slaughter; there is only the aggressive and irascible ram whose 
rage can at last be vented. In all this I see less a metaphysical 

104:3. ii 4 :6f. 

12 This refers to the "luminosity" of the archetypes. [Cf. Jung, "On the Nature 

of the Psyche," pp. igoff. EDITORS.] 

:6. 1*6:10. is6 



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mystery than the outburst of long pent-up negative feelings such 
as can frequently be observed in people who strive for perfec 
tion. We can take it as certain that the author of the Epistles of 
John made every effort to practise what he preached to his fellow 
Christians. For this purpose he had to shut out all negative feel 
ings, and, thanks to a helpful lack of self-reflection, he was able 
to forget them. But though they disappeared from the conscious 
level they continued to rankle beneath the surface, and in the 
course of time spun an elaborate web of resentments and venge 
ful thoughts which then burst upon consciousness in the form 
of a revelation. From this there grew up a terrifying picture 
that blatantly contradicts all ideas of Christian humility, toler 
ance, love of your neighbour and your enemies, and makes non 
sense of a loving father in heaven and rescuer of mankind. A 
veritable orgy of hatred, wrath, vindictiveness, and blind de 
structive fury that revels in fantastic images of terror breaks out 
and with blood and fire overwhelms a world which Christ had 
just endeavoured to restore to the original state of innocence 
and loving communion with God. 

709 The opening of the seventh seal naturally brings a new flood 
of miseries which threaten to exhaust even St. John's unholy 
imagination. As if to fortify himself, he must now eat a "little 
scroll" in order to go on with his "prophesying." 

7* When the seventh angel had finally ceased blowing his 
trumpet, there appeared in heaven, after the destruction of Jeru 
salem, a vision of the sun-woman, "with the moon under her 
feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." 1S She was in the 
pangs o birth, and before her stood a great red dragon that 
wanted to devour her child. 

711 This vision is altogether out of context. Whereas with the 
previous visions one has the impression that they were after 
wards revised, rearranged, and embellished, one feels that this 
image is original and not intended for any educational purpose. 
The vision is introduced by the opening of the temple in heaven 
and the sight of the Ark of the Covenant. 17 This is probably a 
prelude to the descent of the heavenly bride, Jerusalem, an 
equivalent of Sophia, for it is all part of the heavenly hieros 
gamoSj whose fruit is a divine man-child. He is threatened with 
the fate of Apollo, the son of Leto, who was likewise pursued 

IS Rev. 12:1. l? Rev. 11:19. The area foederis is an allcgoria Mariae, 

438 



ANSWER TO JOB 



by a dragon. But here we must dwell for a moment on the figure 
of the mother. She is "a woman clothed with the sun." Note the 
simple statement "a woman" an ordinary woman, not a goddess 
and not an eternal virgin immaculately conceived. No special 
precautions exempting her from complete womanhood are 
noticeable, except the cosmic and naturalistic attributes which 
mark her as an anima mundi and peer of the primordial cosmic 
man, or Anthropos. She is the feminine Anthropos, the counter 
part of the masculine principle. The pagan Leto motif is emi 
nently suited to illustrate this, for in Greek mythology matri 
archal and patriarchal elements are about equally mixed. The 
stars above, the moon below, in the middle the sun, the rising 
Horus and the setting Osiris, and the maternal night all round, 
ovpavos cbco, ovpwbs KO.TW 1S this symbolism reveals the whole mys 
tery of the "woman": she contains in her darkness the sun of 
"masculine" consciousness, which rises as a child out of the noc 
turnal sea of the unconscious, and as an old man sinks into it 
again. She adds the dark to the light, symbolizes the hierogamy 
of opposites, and reconciles nature with spirit. 
7*2 The son who is born of these heavenly nuptials is perforce a 
complexio oppositorum, a uniting symbol, a totality of life. 
John's unconscious, certainly not without reason, borrowed 
from Greek mythology in order to describe this strange eschato- 
logical experience, for it was not on any account to be confused 
with the birth of the Christ-child which had occurred long be 
fore under quite different circumstances. Though obviously the 
allusion is to the "wrathful Lamb," i.e., the apocalyptic Christ, 
the new-born man-child is represented as his duplicate, as one 
who will "rule the nations with a rod of iron." 19 He is thus 
assimilated to the predominant feelings of hatred and venge 
ance, so that it looks as if he will needlessly continue to wreak 
his judgment even in the distant future. This interpretation 
does not seem consistent, because the Lamb is already charged 
with this task and, in the course of the revelation, carries it to 
an end without the newborn man-child ever having an oppor 
tunity to act on his own. He never reappears afterwards. I am 
therefore inclined to believe that the depiction of him as a son 
of vengeance, if it is not an interpretative interpolation, must 
have been a familiar phrase to John and that it slipped out as 
is "Heaven above, heaven below/' 19 Rev. 12:5; cf. 2 : 27. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the obvious interpretation. This is the more probable in that 
the intermezzo could not at the time have been understood in 
any other way, even though this interpretation is quite meaning 
less. As I have already pointed out, the sun-woman episode is a 
foreign body in the flow of the visions. Therefore, I believe, 
it is not too far-fetched to conjecture that the author of the 
Apocalypse, or perhaps a perplexed transcriber, felt the need 
to interpret this obvious parallel with Christ and somehow 
bring it into line with the text as a whole. This could easily be 
done by using the familiar image of the shepherd with the iron 
crook. I cannot see any other reason for this association. 

The man-child is "caught up" to God, who is manifestly his 
father, and the mother is hidden in the wilderness. This would 
seem to indicate that the child-figure will remain latent for an 
indefinite time and that its activity is reserved for the future. 
The story of Hagar may be a prefiguration of this. The similarity 
between this story and the birth of Christ obviously means no 
more than that the birth of the man-child is an analogous event, 
like the previously mentioned enthronement of the Lamb in all 
his metaphysical glory, which must have taken place long before 
at the time of the ascension. In the same way the dragon, i.e., 
the devil, is described as being thrown down to earth, 20 although 
Christ had already observed the fall of Satan very much earlier. 
This strange repetition or duplication of the characteristic 
events in Christ's life gave rise to the conjecture that a second 
Messiah is to be expected at the end of the world. What is meant 
here cannot be the return of Christ himself, for we are told that 
he would come "in the clouds of heaven," but not be born a 
second time, and certainly not from a sun-moon conjunction. 
The epiphany at the end of the world corresponds iftore to the 
content of Revelation i and 19:1 iff. The fact that John uses 
the myth of Leto and Apollo in describing the birth may be an 
indication that the vision, in contrast to the Christian tradition, 
is a product of the unconscious. 21 But in the unconscious is 
everything that has been rejected by consciousness, and the more 
Christian one's consciousness is, the more heathenishly does the 

20 Rev. isrg. 

21 It is very probable that John knew the Leto myth and used it consciously. 
What was unconscious and most unexpected, however, was the fact that his un 
conscious used this pagan myth to describe the birth of the second Messiah. 

440 



ANSWER TO JOB 



unconscious behave, if in the rejected heathenism there are 
values which are important for life if, that is to say, the baby 
has been thrown out with the bath water, as so often happens. 
The unconscious does not isolate or differentiate its objects as 
consciousness does. It does not think abstractly or apart from 
the subject: the person of the ecstatic or visionary is always 
drawn into the process and included in it. In this case it is John 
himself whose unconscious personality is more or less identified 
with Christ; that is to say, he is born like Christ, and born to a 
like destiny. John is so completely captivated by the archetype 
of the divine son that he sees its activity in the unconscious; in 
other words, he sees how God is born again in the (partly pagan) 
unconscious, indistinguishable from the self of John, since the 
"divine child" is a symbol of the one as much as the other, just 
as Christ is. Consciously, of course, John was very far from think 
ing of Christ as a symbol. For the believing Christian, Christ is 
everything, but certainly not a symbol, which is an expression 
for something unknown or not yet knowable. And yet he is a 
symbol by his very nature. Christ would never have made the 
impression he did on his followers if he had not expressed some 
thing that was alive and at work in their unconscious. Christian 
ity itself would never have spread through the pagan world with 
such astonishing rapidity had its ideas not found an analogous 
psychic readiness to receive them. It is this fact which also makes 
it possible to say that whoever believes in Christ is not only 
contained in him, but that Christ then dwells in the believer as 
the perfect man formed in the image of God, the second Adam. 
Psychologically, it is the same relationship as that in Indian 
philosophy between man's ego-consciousness and purusha, or 
atman. It is the ascendency of the "complete" T&W or total 
human being, consisting of the totality of the psyche, of con 
scious and unconscious, over the ego, which represents only 
consciousness and its contents and knows nothing of the un 
conscious, although in many respects it is dependent on the 
unconscious and is often decisively influenced by it. This rela 
tionship of the self to the ego is reflected in the relationship of 
Christ to man. Hence the unmistakable analogies between cer 
tain Indian and Christian ideas, which have given rise to con 
jectures of Indian influence on Christianity. 

714 This parallelism, which has so far remained latent in John, 

441 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



now bursts into consciousness in the form of a vision. That this 
invasion is authentic can be seen from the use of pagan mytho 
logical material, a most improbable procedure for a Christian 
of that time, especially as it contains traces of astrological influ 
ence, That may explain the thoroughly pagan remark, "And the 
earth helped the woman." M Even though the consciousness of 
that age was exclusively filled with Christian ideas, earlier or 
contemporaneous pagan contents lay just below the surface, as 
for example in the case of St. Perpetua. 23 With a Judaeo-Chris- 
tian and the author of the Apocalypse was probably such 
another possible model to be considered is the cosmic Sophia, to 
whom John refers on more than one occasion. She could easily 
be taken as the mother of the divine child, 24 since she is obvi 
ously a woman in heaven, i.e., a goddess or consort of a god. 
Sophia comes up to this definition, and so does the transfigured 
Mary. If the vision were a modern dream one would not hesitate 
to interpret the birth of the divine child as the coming to con 
sciousness of the self. In John's case the conscious attitude of 
faith made it possible for the Christ-image to be received into 
the material of the unconscious; it activated the archetype of 
the divine virgin mother and of the birth of her son-lover, and 
brought it face to face with his Christian consciousness. As a 
result, John became personally involved in the divine drama. 
7*5 His Christ-image, clouded by negative feelings, has turned 
into a savage avenger who no longer bears any real resemblance 
to a saviour. One is not at all sure whether this Christ-figure 
may not in the end have more of the human John in it, with his 
compensating shadow, than of the divine saviour who, as the 
lumen dc luminc, contains "no darkness." The grotesque para 
dox of the "wrathful Lamb" should have been enough to arouse 
our suspicions in this respect. We can turn and twist it as we 
like, but, seen in the light of the gospel of love, the avenger and 
judge remains a most sinister figure. This, one suspects, may 
have been the reason whkh moved John to assimilate the new 
born man-child to the figure of the avenger, thereby blurring 
his mythological character as the lovely and lovable divine youth 



2[Cf. Marie-Louise TOG Franz, "Die Passio Perpetoae." EDITORS.] 
24 The son would then oomspotid to the filius sapientuu of medieval alchemy. 

442 



ANSWER TO JOB 



whom we know so well in the figures of Tammuz, Adonis, and 
Balder. The enchanting springlike beauty of this divine youth 
is one of those pagan values which we miss so sorely in Chris 
tianity, and particularly in the sombre world of the apocalypse 
the indescribable morning glory of a day in spring, which after 
the deathly stillness of winter causes the earth to put forth and 
blossom, gladdens the heart of man and makes him believe in a 
kind and loving God. 

716 As a totality, the self is by definition always a complexio 
oppositorum, and the more consciousness insists on its own 
luminous nature and lays claim to moral authority, the more 
the self will appear as something dark and menacing. We may 
assume such a condition in John, since he was a shepherd of his 
flock and also a fallible human being. Had the apocalypse been 
a more or less personal affair of John's, and hence nothing but 
an outburst of personal resentment, the figure of the wrathful 
Lamb would have satisfied this need completely. Under those 
conditions the new-born man-child would have been bound to 
have a noticeably positive aspect, because, in accordance with his 
symbolic nature, he would have compensated the intolerable 
devastation wrought by the outburst of long pent-up passions, 
being the child of the conjunction of opposites, of the sunfilled 
day world and the moonlit night world. He would have acted as 
a mediator between the loving and the vengeful sides of John's 
nature, and would thus have become a beneficent saviour who 
restored the balance. This positive aspect, however, must have 
escaped John's notice, otherwise he could never have conceived 
of the child as standing on the same level as the avenging Christ. 
717 But John's problem was not a personal one. It was not a 
question of his personal unconscious or of an outburst of ill 
humour, but of visions which came up from a far greater and 
more comprehensive depth, namely from the collective uncon 
scious. His problem expresses itself far too much in collective 
and archetypal forms for us to reduce it to a merely personal 
situation. To do so would be altogether too easy as well as being 
wrong in theory and practice. As a Christian, John was seized 
by a collective, archetypal process, and he must therefore be ex 
plained first and foremost in that light. He certainly also had 
his personal psychology, into which we, if we may regard the 

443 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



author of the Epistles and the apocalyptist as one and the same 
person, have some insight. That the imitation o Christ creates 
a corresponding shadow in the unconscious hardly needs demon 
strating. The fact that John had visions at all is evidence of an 
unusual tension between conscious and unconscious. If he is 
identical with the author of the Epistles, he must have been 
quite old when he wrote the Book of Revelation. In confinio 
mortis and in the evening of a long and eventful life a man will 
often see immense vistas of time stretching out before him. Such 
a man no longer lives in the everyday world and in the vicissi 
tudes of personal relationships, but in the sight of many aeons 
and in the movement of ideas as they pass from century to cen 
tury. The eye of John penetrates into the distant future of the 
Christian aeon and into the dark abyss of those forces which his 
Christianity kept in equilibrium. What burst upon him is the 
storm of the times, the premonition of a tremendous enantio- 
dromia which he could only understand as the final annihilation 
of the darkness which had not comprehended the light that 
appeared in Christ. He failed to see that the power of destruc 
tion and vengeance is that very darkness from which God had 
split himself off when he became man. Therefore he could not 
understand, either, what that sun-moon-child meant, and he 
could only interpret it as another figure of vengeance. The 
passion that breaks through in his revelation bears no trace of 
the feebleness or serenity of old age, because it is infinitely more 
than personal resentment: it is the spirit of God itself, which 
blows through the weak mortal frame and again demands man's 
fear of the unfathomable Godhead. 



XIV 

718 The torrent of negative feelings seems to be inexhaustible, 
and the dire events continue their course. Out of the sea come 
monsters "with horns" (i.e., endowed with power), the horrid 
progeny of the deep. Faced with all this darkness and destruc 
tion, man's terrified consciousness quite understandably looks 
round for a mountain of refuge, an island of peace and safety. 
John therefore weaves in a vision of the Lamb on Mount Zion, 
where the hundred and forty-four thousand elect and redeemed 

444 



ANSWER TO JOB 



are gathered round the Lamb. 1 They are the rapB&oi, the male 
virgins, "which were not defiled with women." 2 They are the 
ones who, following in the footsteps of the young dying god, 
have never become complete human beings, but have volun 
tarily renounced their share in the human lot and have said no 
to the continuance of life on earth. 3 If everyone were converted 
to this point of view, man as a species would die out in a few 
decades. But of such preordained ones there are relatively few. 
John believed in predestination in accordance with higher 
authority. This is rank pessimism. 

Everything created 

Is worth being liquidated 

ays Mephisto. 

719 This only moderately comforting prospect is immediately 
interrupted by the warning angels. The first angel proclaims an 
"everlasting gospel," the quintessence of which is "Fear God!" 
There is no more talk of God's love. What is feared can only be 
something fearful. 4 

720 The Son of Man now appears holding a sharp sickle in his 
hand, together with an auxiliary angel who also has a sickle. 5 
But the grape harvest consists in an unparalleled blood-bath: 
the angel "gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into 
the great winepress of the wrath of God . . . and blood flowed 
from the winepress" in which human beings were trodden! 
"as high as a horse's bridle, for one thousand six hundred 
stadia." 6 

7* * Seven angels then come out of the heavenly temple with the 
seven vials of wrath, which they proceed to pour out on the 
earth. 7 The piece de resistance is the destruction of the Great 

iRev. 14: i. It may be significant that there is no longer any talk of the "great 

multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and 

peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb," who were 

mentioned in 7 : 9. 2 14 : 4 (AV). 

SThey really belong to the cult of the Great Mother, since they correspond to 

the emasculated Galli. Cf. the strange passage in Matthew 19:12, about the 

eunuchs "who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of 

heaven," like the priests of Cybele who used to castrate themselves in honour of 

her son Attis. 4 Cf. also Rev. 19:5. 

5 14: 14 and 17. The auxiliary angel^might well be John himself. 

614:19-20. 7 15 16-7 and 16: iff. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Whore o Babylon, the counterpart of the heavenly Jerusalem. 
The Whore is the chthonic equivalent of the sun-woman Sophia, 
with, however, a reversal in moral character. If the elect turn 
themselves into "virgins" in honour of the Great Mother Sophia, 
a gruesome fantasy of fornication is spawned in the unconscious 
by way of compensation. The destruction of Babylon therefore 
represents not only the end of fornication, but the utter erad 
ication of all life's joys and pleasures, as can be seen from 
18:22-23: 

and the sound of harpers and minstrels, of flute players 

and trumpeters, 
shall be heard in thee no more; 

and the light of a lamp 

shall shine in thee no more; 
and the voice of bridegroom and bride 

shall be heard in thee no more . . . 

7 As we happen to be living at the end of the Christian aeon 
Pisces, one cannot help but recall the doom that has overtaken 
our modern art, 

7*5 Symbols like Jerusalem, Babylon, etc. are always overdeter- 
mined, that is, they have several aspects of meaning and can 
therefore be interpreted in different ways. I am only concerned 
with the psychological aspect, and do not wish to express an 
opinion as to their possible connection with historical events, 

7*4 The destruction of all beauty and of all life's joys, the un 
speakable suffering of the whole of creation that once sprang 
from the hand of a lavish Creator, would be, for a feeling heart, 
an occasion for deepest melancholy. But John cries: "Rejoice 
over her, thou heaven, ye holy apostles and prophets, for God 
hath avenged you on her [Babylon]," 8 from which we can see 
how far vindictiveness and lust for destruction can go, and what 
the "thorn in the flesh* 1 means. 

7*5 It is Christ who, leading the hosts of angels, treads "the wine 
press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." * His robe 
"is dipped in blood." l * He rides a white horse* and with the 



8 Rev. i8:so(AV). fii 

n 19: IK Here again astrological speculations concerning the second half of the 

Christian aeon may be implied, with Pegasus as paranateUon of Aquarius. 

446 



ANSWER TO JOB 



sword which issues out of his mouth he kills the beast and the 
"false prophet," presumably his or John's dark counterpart, 
i.e., the shadow. Satan is locked up in the bottomless pit for a 
thousand years, and Christ shall reign for the same length of 
time. "After that he must be loosed a little season." 12 These 
thousand years correspond astrologically to the first half of the 
Pisces aeon. The setting free of Satan after this time must there 
fore correspond one cannot imagine any other reason for it 
to the enantiodromia of the Christian aeon, that is, to the reign 
of the Antichrist, whose coming could be predicted on astrolog 
ical grounds. Finally, at the end of an unspecified period, the 
devil is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone for ever and 
ever (but not completely destroyed as in Enoch), and the whole 
of the first creation disappears. 13 

7* 6 The kieros gamos, the marriage of the Lamb with "his 
Bride," which had been announced earlier, 14 can now take place. 
The bride is the "new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven." 1S 
Her "radiance [was] like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as 
crystal." 16 The city was built foursquare and was of pure gold, 
clear as glass, and so were its streets. The Lord God himself and 
the Lamb are its temple, and the source of never-ending light. 
There is no night in the city, and nothing unclean can enter in to 
defile it. 17 (This repeated assurance allays a doubt in John that 
has never been quite silenced.) From the throne of God and the 
Lamb flows the river of the water of life, and beside it stands the 
tree of life, as a reminder of paradise and pleromatic pre-exist- 
ence. 18 

7*7 This final vision, which is generally interpreted as referring 
to the relationship of Christ to his Church, has the meaning o 
a "uniting symbol" and is therefore a representation of perfec 
tion and wholeness: hence the quaternity, which expresses itself 
in the city as a quadrangle, in paradise as the four rivers, in 
Christ as the four evangelists, and in God as the four living 
creatures. While the circle signifies the roundness of heaven and 
the all-embracing nature of the "pneumatic" deity, the square 
refers to the earth. 19 Heaven is masculine, but the earth is femi 
nine. Therefore God has his throne in heaven, while Wisdom 

12 Rev. 20: 3 (AV). 13 20: 10 and 21 : i. 14 i9:7- 15 *i:a. 

16 21 : u. 17 21 : 16-27. 1S 22 : l ~*- 

is In China, heaven is round and the earth square. 

447 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



has hers on the earth, as she says in Ecclesiasticus: "Likewise in 
the beloved city he gave me rest, and in Jerusalem was my 
power." She is the "mother of fair love," 20 and when John pic 
tures Jerusalem as the bride he is probably following Ecclesi 
asticus. The city is Sophia, who was with God before time began, 
and at the end of time will be reunited with God through the 
sacred marriage. As a feminine being she coincides with the 
earth, from which, so a Church Father tells us, Christ was born, 21 
and hence with the quaternity of the four living creatures in 
whom God manifests himself in Ezekiel. In the same way that 
Sophia signifies God's self-reflection, the four seraphim represent 
God's consciousness with its four functional aspects. The many 
perceiving eyes 22 which are concentrated in the four wheels 
point in the same direction. They represent a fourfold synthesis 
of unconscious luminosities, corresponding to the tetrameria of 
the lapis philosophorum, of which die description of the heaven 
ly city reminds us: everything sparkles with precious gems, 
crystal, and glass, in complete accordance with Ezekiel's vision 
of God. And just as the hieros gamos unites Yahweh with Sophia 
(Shekinah in the Cabala), thus restoring the original pleromatic 
state, so the parallel description of God and city points to their 
common nature: they are originally one, a single hermaphroditic 
being, an archetype of the greatest universality. 
7*8 No doubt this is meant as a final solution of the terrible con 
flict of existence. The solution, however, as here presented, does 
not consist in the reconciliation of the opposites, but in their 
final severance, by which means those whose destiny it is to be 
saved can save themselves by identifying with the bright pneu 
matic side of God. An indispensable condition for this seems to 
be the denial of propagation and of sexual life altogether. 

20 Ecclesiasticus 24: 11 and 18 (AV). 

aiTertullian, Aduersus Judaeos, XIII (Migne, PX V *ot 2, col. 635): ". . . . ilia 
terra virgo ncmdum pluviis rigata nee imbribus foecundata, ex qua homo tune 
primum plasmatus est, ex qua nunc Christus secundum carnem ex virgine natus 
est** (. . . that virgin soil, not yet watered by the rains nor fertilized by the 
showers, from which man was originally formed [and] from which Christ is now 
born of a Virgin through the fiesh). 
22 Ezekiel i : 18. 



448 



ANSWER TO JOB 



XV 

729 The Book of Revelation is on the one hand so personal and 
on the other so archetypal and collective that one is obliged to 
consider both aspects. Our modern interest would certainly turn 
first to the person of John. As I have said before, it is possible 
that John the author of the Epistles is identical with the apoca- 
lyptist. The psychological findings speak in favour of such an 
assumption. The "revelation" was experienced by an early 
Christian who, as a leading light of the community, presumably 
had to live an exemplary life and demonstrate to his flock the 
Christian virtues of true faith, humility, patience, devotion, self 
less love, and denial of all worldly desires. In the long run this 
can become too much, even for the most righteous. Irritability, 
bad moods, and outbursts of affect are the classic symptoms of 
chronic virtuousness. 1 In regard to his Christian attitude, his 
own words probably give us the best picture: 

Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who 
loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not 
know God; for God is love. ... In this is love, not that we loved 
God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for 
our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one 
another. ... So we know and believe the love God has for us. God 
is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in 
him. . . . There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 
For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not per 
fected in love. ... If any one says, "I love God," and hates his 
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he 
has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this command 
ment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his 
brother also. 2 

73 But who hates the Nicolaitans? Who thirsts for vengeance 
and even wants to throw "that woman Jezebel** on a sickbed 
and strike her children dead? Who cannot have enough of blood 
thirsty fantasies? Let us be psychologically correct, however: It 
is not the conscious mind of John that thinks up these fantasies, 

1 Not for nothing was the apostle John nicknamed "son of thunder** by Christ. 
21 John 4 17-21. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



they come to him in a violent "revelation." They fall upon him 
involuntarily with an unexpected vehemence and with an in 
tensity which, as said, far transcends anything we could expect 
as compensation of a somewhat one-sided attitude of conscious 
ness. 

73 * I have seen many compensating dreams of believing Chris 
tians who deceived themselves about their real psychic constitu 
tion and imagined that they were in a different condition from 
what they were in reality. But I have seen nothing that even 
remotely resembles the brutal impact with which the opposites 
collide in John's visions, except in the case of severe psychosis. 
However, John gives us no grounds for such a diagnosis. His 
apocalyptic visions are not confused enough; they are too con 
sistent, not subjective and scurrilous enough. Considering the 
nature of their subject, the accompanying affects are adequate. 
Their author need not necessarily be an unbalanced psychopath. 
It is sufficient that he is a passionately religious person with an 
otherwise well-ordered psyche. But he must have an intensive 
relationship to God which lays him open to an invasion far 
transcending anything personal. The really religious person, in 
whom the capacity for an unusual extension of consciousness is 
inborn, must be prepared for such dangers. 

732 The purpose of the apocalyptic visions is not to tell John, as 
an ordinary human being, how much shadow he hides beneath 
his luminous nature, but to open the seer's eye to the immensity 
of God, for he who loves God will know God. We can say that 
just because John loved God and did his best to love his fellows 
also, this "gnosis," this knowledge of God, struck him. Like Job, 
he saw the fierce and terrible side o Yahweh. For this reason 
he felt his gospel of love to be one-sided, and he supplemented 
it with the gospel of fear: God can be loved but must be feared. 

733 With this, the seer's range of vision extends far beyond the 
first half of the Christian aeon: he divines that the reign of Anti 
christ will begin after a thousand years, a clear indication that 
Christ was not an unqualified victor, John anticipated the 
alchemists and Jakob B6hme; maybe he even sensed his own 
personal implication in the divine drama, since he anticipated 
the possibility of God's birth in man, which the alchemists, 
Meister Eckhart, and Angelus Silesius also intuited. He thus 
outlined the programme for the whole aeon of Pisces, with its 

450 



ANSWER TO JOB 



dramatic enantiodromia, and its dark end which we have still 
to experience, and before whose without exaggerationtruly 
apocalyptic possibilities mankind shudders. The four sinister 
horsemen, the threatening tumult of trumpets, and the brim 
ming vials of wrath are still waiting; already the atom bomb 
hangs over us like the sword of Damocles, and behind that lurk 
the incomparably more terrible possibilities of chemical war 
fare, which would eclipse even the horrors described in the 
Apocalypse. Luciferi vires accendit Aquarius acres "Aquarius 
sets aflame Lucifer's harsh forces." Could anyone in his right 
senses deny that John correctly foresaw at least some of the pos 
sible dangers which threaten our world in the final phase of the 
Christian aeon? He knew, also, that the fire in which the devil 
is tormented burns in the divine pleroma for ever. God has a 
terrible double aspect: a sea of grace is met by a seething lake 
of fire, and the light of love glows with a fierce dark heat of 
which it is said "ardet non lucet" it burns but gives no light 
That is the eternal, as distinct from the temporal, gospel: one 
can love God but must fear him. 



XVI 

734 The book of Revelation, rightly placed at the end of the 
New Testament, reaches beyond it into a future that is all too 
palpably close with its apocalyptic terrors. The decision of an 
ill-considered moment, made in some Herostratic head, 1 can 
suffice to unleash the world cataclysm. The thread by which 
our fate hangs is wearing thin. Not nature, but the "genius 
of mankind," has knotted the hangman's noose with which 
it can execute itself at any moment. This is simply another 
jagon de parler for what John called the "wrath of God." 

735 Unfortunately we have no means of envisaging how John 
if, as I surmise, he is the same as the author of the Epistles- 
would have come to terms with the double aspect of God. It is 
possible, even probable, that he was not aware of any contrast. 
It is altogether amazing how little most people reflect on nu 
minous objects and attempt to come to terms with them, and 

l [Herostratus, in order to make his name immortal, burned down the temple o 
Artemis in Ephesus, in 565 B.C. EDITORS.] 

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how laborious such an undertaking is once we have embarked 
upon it. The numinosity of the object makes it difficult to 
handle intellectually, since our affectivity is always involved. 
One always participates for or against, and "absolute objec 
tivity" is more rarely achieved here than anywhere else. If one 
has positive religious convictions, i.e., if one believes, then 
doubt is felt as very disagreeable and also one fears it. For 
this reason, one prefers not to analyse the object of belief. If 
one has no religious beliefs, then one does not like to admit 
the feeling of deficit, but prates loudly about one's liberal- 
mindedness and pats oneself on the back for the noble frankness 
of one's agnosticism. From this standpoint, it is hardly possible 
to admit the numinosity of the religious object, and yet its 
very numinosity is just as great a hindrance to critical thinking, 
because the unpleasant possibility might then arise that one's 
faith in enlightenment or agnosticism would be shaken. Both 
types feel, without knowing it, the insufficiency of their argu 
ment. Enlightenment operates with an inadequate rationalistic 
concept of truth and points triumphantly to the fact that beliefs 
such as the virgin birth, divine filiation, the resurrection of the 
dead, transubstantiation, etc., are all moonshine. Agnosticism 
maintains that it does not possess any knowledge of God or 
of anything metaphysical, overlooking the fact that one never 
possesses a metaphysical belief but is possessed by iL Both are 
possessed by reason, which represents the supreme arbiter who 
cannot be argued with. But who or what is this "reason" and 
why should it be supreme? Is not something that is and has real 
existence for us an authority superior to any rational judgment, 
as has been shown over and over again in the history of the 
human mind? Unfortunately the defenders of "faith" operate 
with the same futile arguments, only the other way about. The 
only thing which is beyond doubt is that there are metaphysical 
statements which are asserted or denied with considerable affect 
precisely because of their numinosity. This act gives us a sure 
empirical basis from which to proceed. It is objectively real as 
a psychic phenomenon. The same applies naturally to all 
statements, even the most contradictory, that ever were or still 
are numinous. From now on we shall have to consider religious 
statements in their totality. 

45* 



ANSWER TO JOB 



XVII 

73 6 Let us turn back to the question of coming to terms with 
the paradoxical idea of God which the Apocalypse reveals to us. 
Evangelical Christianity, in the strict sense, has no need to 
bother with it, because it has as an essential doctrine an idea of 
God that, unlike Yahweh, coincides with the epitome of good. 
It would have been very different if the John of the Epistles 
had been obliged to discuss these matters with the John of 
Revelation. Later generations could afford to ignore the dark 
side of the Apocalypse, because the specifically Christian 
achievement was something that was not to be frivolously en 
dangered. But for modern man the case is quite otherwise. We 
have experienced things so unheard of and so staggering that 
the question of whether such things are in any way reconcilable 
with the idea of a good God has become burningly topical. It 
is no longer a problem for experts in theological seminaries, 
but a universal religious nightmare, to the solution o which 
even a layman in theology like myself can, or perhaps must, 
make a contribution. 

737 I have tried to set forth above the inescapable conclusions 
which must, I believe, be reached if one looks at tradition 
with critical common sense. If, in this wise, one is confronted 
with a paradoxical idea of God, and if, as a religious person, 
one considers at the same time the full extent of the problem, 
one finds oneself in the situation of the author of Revelation, 
who we may suppose was a convinced Christian. His possible 
identity with the writer of the letters brings out the acuteness 
of the contradiction: What is the relationship of this man to 
God? How does he endure the intolerable contradiction in the 
nature of Deity? Although we know nothing of his conscious 
decision, we believe we may find some clue in the vision of the 
sun-woman in travail. 

738 The paradoxical nature of God has a like effect on man: it 
tears him asunder into opposites and delivers him over to a 
seemingly insoluble conflict. What happens in such a condition? 
Here we must let psychology speak, for psychology represents the 
sum of all the observations and insights it has gained from the 
empirical study of severe states of conflict. There are, for 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



example, conflicts of duty no one knows how to solve. Con 
sciousness only knows: tertium non datur! The doctor therefore 
advises his patient to wait and see whether the unconscious will 
not produce a dream which proposes an irrational and there 
fore unexpected third thing as a solution. As experience shows, 
symbols of a reconciling and unitive nature do in fact turn up 
in dreams, the most frequent being the motif of the child-hero 
and the squaring of the circle, signifying the union of opposites. 
Those who have no access to these specifically medical experi 
ences can derive practical instruction from fairy tales, and par 
ticularly from alchemy. The real subject of Hermetic philosophy 
is the coniunctio oppositorum. Alchemy characterizes its "child" 
on the one hand as the stone (e.g., the carbuncle), and on the 
other hand as the homunculus, or the filiits sapientiae or even 
the homo altus. This is precisely the figure we meet in the 
Apocalypse as the son of the sun-woman, whose birth story seems 
like a paraphrase o the birth of Christ a paraphrase which was 
repeated in various forms by the alchemists. In fact, they posit 
their stone as a parallel to Christ (this, with one exception, 
without reference to the Book of Revelation). This motif ap 
pears again in corresponding form and in corresponding situa 
tions in the dreams of modern man, with no connection with 
alchemy, and always it has to do with the bringing together of 
the light and the dark, as though modern man, like the alche 
mists, had divined what the problem was that the Apocalypse set 
the future. It was this problem on which the alchemists laboured 
for nearly seventeen centuries, and it is the same problem that 
distresses modern man. Though in one respect he knows more, 
in another respect he knows less than the alchemists. The prob 
lem for him is no longer projected upon matter, as it was for 
them; but on the other hand it has become psychologically 
acute, so that the psychotherapist has more to say on these 
matters than the theologian, who has remained caught in his 
archaic figures of speech. The doctor, often very much against 
his will, is forced by the problems of psychoneurosis to look 
more closely at the religious problem. It is not without good 
reason that I myself have reached the age o seventy-six before 
venturing to catechize myself as to the nature of those "ruling 
ideas" which decide our ethical behaviour and have such an im 
portant influence on our practical life. They are in the last resort 

454 



ANSWER TO JOB 



the principles which, spoken or unspoken, determine the moral 
decisions upon which our existence depends, for weal or woe. 
All these dominants culminate in the positive or negative con 
cept of God. 1 

739 Ever since John the apocalyptist experienced for the first 
time (perhaps unconsciously) the conflict into which Christian 
ity inevitably leads, mankind has groaned under this burden: 
God wanted to become man, and still wants to. That is probably 
why John experienced in his vision a second birth of a son from 
the mother Sophia, a divine birth which was characterized by a 
coniunctio oppositorum and which anticipated the films sapi- 
entiae, the essence of the individuation process. This was the 
effect of Christianity on a Christian of early times, who had 
lived long and resolutely enough to be able to cast a glance into 
the distant future. The mediation between the opposites was 
already indicated in the symbolism of Christ's fate, in the cruci 
fixion scene where the mediator hangs between two thieves, one 
of whom goes to paradise, the other down to hell. Inevitably, 
in the Christian view, the opposition had to lie between God 
and man, and man was always in danger of being identified 
with the dark side. This, and the predestinarian hints dropped 
by our Lord, influenced John strongly: only the few preor 
dained from eternity shall be saved, while the great mass of 
mankind shall perish in the final catastrophe. The opposition 
between God and man in the Christian view may well be a 
Yahwistic legacy from olden times, when the metaphysical prob 
lem consisted solely in Yahweh's relations with his people. The 
fear of Yahweh was still too great for anybody to dare despite 
Job's gnosis to lodge the antinomy in Deity itself. But if you 
keep the opposition between God and man, then you finally 
arrive, whether you like it or not, at the Christian conclusion 
"omne bonum a Deo, omne malum ab homine," with the ab 
surd result that the creature is placed in opposition to its creator 
and a positively cosmic or daemonic grandeur in evil is imputed 
to man. The terrible destructive will that breaks out in John's 
ecstasies gives some idea of what it means when man is placed 
in opposition to the God of goodness: it burdens him with the 
dark side of God, which in Job is still in its right place. But 

1 Psychologically the God-concept includes every idea of the ultimate, of the first 
or last, of the highest or lowest. The name makes no difference. 

455 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



either way man is identified with evil, with the result that he 
sets his face against goodness or else tries to be as perfect as his 
father in heaven. 

740 Yahweh's decision to become man is a symbol of the develop 
ment that had to supervene when man becomes conscious of the 
sort of God-image he is confronted with. 2 God acts out of the un 
conscious of man and forces him to harmonize and unite the 
opposing influences to which his mind is exposed from the un 
conscious. The unconscious wants both: to divide and to unite. 
In his striving for unity, therefore, man may always count on 
the help of a metaphysical advocate, as Job clearly recognized. 
The unconscious wants to flow into consciousness in order to 
reach the light, but at the same time it continually thwarts it 
self, because it would rather remain unconscious. That is to say, 
God wants to become man, but not quite. The conflict in his 
nature is so great that the incarnation can only be bought by an 
expiatory self-sacrifice offered up to the wrath of God's dark 
side. 

74 * At first, God incarnated his good side in order, as we may 
suppose, to create the most durable basis for a later assimilation 
of die other side. From the promise of the Paraclete we may 
conclude that God wants to become wholly man; in other words, 
to reproduce himself in his own dark creature (man not re 
deemed from original sin). The author of Revelation has left 
us a testimony to the continued operation of the Holy Ghost 
in the sense of a continuing incarnation. He was a creaturely 
man who was invaded by the dark God of wrath and vengeance 
a ventus urens, a 'burning wind/ (This John was possibly the 
favourite disciple, who in old age was vouchsafed a premonition 
of future developments.) This disturbing invasion engendered 
in him the image of the divine child, of a future saviour, born 
of the divine consort whose reflection (the anima) lives in every 
man that child whom Meister Eckhart also saw in a vision. It 
was he who knew that God alone in his Godhead is not in a 
state of bliss, but must be born in the human soul ("Gott ist selig 

2 The God-concept, as the idea of an all-embracing totality, also includes the 
unconscious, and hence, in contrast to consciousness, it includes the objective 
psyche, which so often frustrates the will and intentions of the conscious mind. 
Prayer, for instance, reinforces the potential of the unconscious, thus accounting 
for the sometimes unexpected effects of prayer. 

456 



ANSWER TO JOB 



in der Seele"). The incarnation in Christ is the prototype which 
is continually being transferred to the creature by the Holy 
Ghost. 

742 Since our moral conduct can hardly be compared with that 
of an early Christian like John, all manner of good as well as 
evil can still break through in us, particularly in regard to love. 
A sheer will for destruction, such as was evident in John, is not 
to be expected in our case. In all my experience I have never 
observed anything like it, except in cases of severe psychoses and 
criminal insanity. As a result of the spiritual differentiation 
fostered by the Reformation, and by the growth of the sciences 
in particular (which were originally taught by the fallen angels), 
there is already a considerable admixture of darkness in us, so 
that, compared with the purity of the early Christian saints (and 
some of the later ones too), we do not show up in a very favour 
able light. Our comparative blackness naturally does not help 
us a bit. Though it mitigates the impact of evil forces, it makes 
us more vulnerable and less capable of resisting them. We there 
fore need more light, more goodness and moral strength, and 
must wash off as much of the obnoxious blackness as possible, 
otherwise we shall not be able to assimilate the dark God who 
also wants to become man, and at the same time endure him 
without perishing. For this all the Christian virtues are needed 
and something else besides, for the problem is not only moral: 
we also need the Wisdom that Job was seeking. But at that time 
she was still hidden in Yahweh, or rather, she was not yet re 
membered by him. That higher and "complete" (reXetos) man is 
begotten by the "unknown" father and born from Wisdom, and 
it is he who, in the figure of the puer aeternus "vultu mutabilis 
albus et ater" 3 represents our totality, which transcends con 
sciousness. It was this boy into whom Faust had to change, aban 
doning his inflated onesidedness which saw the devil only 
outside. Christ's "Except ye become as little children" prefigures 
this change, for in them the opposites lie close together; but 
what is meant is the boy who is born from the maturity of the 
adult man, and not the unconscious child we would like to re 
main. Looking ahead, Christ also hinted, as I mentioned before, 
at a morality of evil. 
743 Strangely, suddenly, as if it did not belong there, the sun- 

s "Of changeful countenance, both white and black/' Horace, Epistulae, H, *. 

457 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



woman with her child appears in the stream of apocalyptic 
visions. He belongs to another, future world. Hence, like the 
Jewish Messiah, the child is "caught up" to God, and his mother 
must stay for a long time hidden in the wilderness, where she is 
nourished by God. For the immediate and urgent problem in 
those days was not the union of opposites, which lay in the 
future, but the incarnation of the light and the good, the subju 
gation of concupiscentia, the lust of this world, and the consoli 
dation of the civitas Dei against the advent of the Antichrist, 
who would come after a thousand years to announce the horrors 
of the last days, the epiphany of the wrathful and avenging God. 
The Lamb, transformed into a demonic ram, reveals a new 
gospel, the Evangelium Aetemum, which, going right beyond 
the love of God, has the fear of God as its main ingredient. 
Therefore the Apocalypse closes, like the classical individuation 
process, with the symbol of the hieros gamos, the marriage of 
the son with the mother-bride. But the marriage takes place in 
heaven, where "nothing unclean" enters, high above the devas 
tated world. Light consorts with light. That is the programme 
for the Christian aeon which must be fulfilled before God can 
incarnate In the creaturely man. Only in the last days will the 
vision of the sun-woman be fulfilled. In recognition of this truth, 
and evidently inspired by the workings of the Holy Ghost, the 
Pope has recently announced the dogma of the Assumptio 
Mariac, very much to the astonishment of all rationalists. Mary 
as the bride is united with the son in the heavenly bridal- 
chamber, and, as Sophia, with the Godhead.* 
744 This dogma is in every respect timely. In the first place it 
is a symbolical fulfilment of John's vision. 5 Secondly, it con- 

4 Apostolic Constitution ("Munificmtissimus Dfcus") of . . . Pius XII, 22: 
"Oportebat speasan, quam Piter desponsaverat, in thalamis caelestibus habitare" 
(The place of the bride wbom the Father had espoused was in the heavenly 
courts). St. Jofca Damascene, Encomium in Dormitionfm, etc., Homily II, 14 (cf. 
Migne, P.G., *ai 36, cot 74*). 30: Comparison with the Bride in the Song of 
Solomon. 33: **. . . ita pariter surreal et Area sancti&eationis suae, cum in hac 
die Virgo Mater ad aethereum thalamum est assurapta" (. . . so in like manner 
arose the Ark which lie had sanctified, when oa tfeis day the Virgin Mother was 
taken up to fcer beavesJy bridal-chamber). St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones 
Dominiceles, etc. (ed. Locatetti, HI, p. 790). 

5 Apostolic Ctmstitutum, 31: "Ac praeterea scholastic! doctores son raodo in 
variis Veteris Testament! figuris, sed in ilia etiam Muliere amicta sole, quam 
Joannes Apo&tolus in insula Patnao [Rev. 12: iff.] oonteroplatiis est, Assumptionem 

458 



ANSWER TO JOB 



tains an allusion to the marriage of the Lamb at the end of time, 
and, thirdly, it repeats the Old Testament anamnesis of Sophia. 
These three references foretell the Incarnation of God. The 
second and third foretell the Incarnation in Christ, 6 but the first 
foretells the Incarnation in creaturely man. 



XVIII 

745 Everything now depends on man: immense power of destruc 
tion is given into his hand, and the question is whether he can 
resist the will to use it, and can temper his will with the spirit 
of love and wisdom. He will hardly be capable of doing so on 
his own unaided resources. He needs the help of an "advocate" 
in heaven, that is, of the child who was caught up to God and 
who brings the "healing" and making whole of the hitherto 
fragmentary man. Whatever man's wholeness, or the self, may 
mean per se, empirically it is an image of the goal of life spon 
taneously produced by the unconscious, irrespective of the 
wishes and fears of the conscious mind. It stands for the goal of 
the total man, for the realization of his wholeness and individu 
ality with or without the consent of his will. The dynamic of 
this process is instinct, which ensures that everything which be 
longs to an individual's life shall enter into it, whether he con 
sents or not, or is conscious of what is happening to him or not. 
Obviously, it makes a great deal of difference subjectively 
whether he knows what he is living out, whether he understands 
what he is doing, and whether he accepts responsibility for what 
he proposes to do or has done. The difference between conscious 
realization and the lack of it has been roundly formulated in the 
saying of Christ already quoted: "Man, if indeed thou knowest 
what thou doest, thou art blessed: but if thou knowest not, thou 
art cursed, and a transgressor of the law." l Before the bar of 

Deiparae Virginia significatam viderunt" (Moreover, the Scholastic doctors saw 

the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God signified not only in the various 

figures of the Old Testament, but also in the Woman clothed with the sun, whom 

the Apostle John contemplated on the island of Patmos). 

6 The marriage of the Lamb repeats the Annunciation and the Overshadowing 

of Mary. 

l Codex Bezae, apocryphal insertion at Luke 6:4. fTrans. by James; see above, par. 

696, n. 6.-TRANS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



nature and fate, unconsciousness is never accepted as an excuse; 
on the contrary there are very severe penalties for it- Hence all 
unconscious nature longs for the light of consciousness while 
frantically struggling against it at the same time. 
746 The conscious realization of what is hidden and kept secret 
certainly confronts us with an insoluble conflict; at least this is 
how it appears to the conscious mind. But the symbols that rise 
up out of the unconscious in dreams show it rather as a con 
frontation of opposites, and the images of the goal represent 
their successful reconciliation. Something empirically demon 
strable comes to OUT aid from the depths of our unconscious 
nature. It is the task of the conscious mind to understand these 
hints. If this does not happen, the process of individuation will 
nevertheless continue. The only difference is that we become 
its victims and are dragged along by fate towards that inescap 
able goal which we might have reached walking upright, if only 
we had taken the trouble and been patient enough to under 
stand in time the meaning of the numina that cross our path. 
The only thing that really matters now is whether man can 
climb up to a higher moral level, to a higher plane of conscious 
ness, in order to be equal to the superhuman powers which the 
fallen angels have played into his hands. But he can 'make no 
progress with himself unless he becomes very much better ac 
quainted with his own nature. Unfortunately, a terrifying ig 
norance prevails in this respect, and an equally great aversion 
to increasing the knowledge of his intrinsic character. However, 
in the most unexpected quarters nowadays we find people who 
can no longer blink the fact that something ought to be done 
with man in regard to his psychology. Unfortunately, the little 
word "ought" tells us that they do not know what to do, and do 
not know the way that leads to the goal. We can, of course, hope 
for the undeserved grace of God, who hears our prayers. But 
God, who also does not hear our prayers, wants to become man, 
and for that purpose he has chosen, through the Holy Ghost, the 
creaturely man filled with darkness the natural man who is 
tainted with original sin and who learnt the divine arts and 
sciences from the fallen angels. The guilty man is eminently 
suitable and is therefore chosen to become the vessel for the 
continuing incarnation, not the guiltless one who holds aloof 

460 



ANSWER TO JOB 



from the world and refuses to pay his tribute to life, for in him 
the dark God would find no room. 

747 Since the Apocalypse we now know again that God is not 
only to be loved, but also to be feared. He fills us with evil as 
well as with good, otherwise he would not need to be feared; 
and because he wants to become man, the uniting of his an 
tinomy must take place in man. This involves man in a new 
responsibility. He can no longer wriggle out of it on the plea of 
his littleness and nothingness, for the dark God has slipped the 
atom bomb and chemical weapons into his hands and given him 
the power to empty out the apocalyptic vials of wrath on his 
fellow creatures. Since he has been granted an almost godlike 
power, he can no longer remain blind and unconscious. He must 
know something of God's nature and of metaphysical processes 
if he is to understand himself and thereby achieve gnosis of the 
Divine. 



XIX 

748 The promulgation of the new dogma of the Assumption of 
the Virgin Mary could, in itself, have been sufficient reason for 
examining the psychological background. It was interesting to 
note that, among the many articles published in the Catholic 
and Protestant press on the declaration of the dogma, there was 
not one, so far as I could see, which kid anything like the proper 
emphasis on what was undoubtedly the most powerful motive: 
namely, the popular movement and the psychological need be 
hind it. Essentially, the writers of the articles were satisfied with 
learned considerations, dogmatic and historical, which have no 
bearing on the living religious process. But anyone who has 
followed with attention the visions of Mary which have been 
increasing in number over the last few decades, and has taken 
their psychological significance into account, might have known 
what was brewing. The fact, especially, that it was largely chil 
dren who had the visions might have given pause for thought, 
for in such cases the collective unconscious is always at work. 
Incidentally, the Pope himself is rumoured to have had several 
visions of the Mother of God on the occasion of the declaration. 
One could have known for a long time that there was a deep 

461 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



longing in the masses for an intercessor and mediatrix who 
would at last take her place alongside the Holy Trinity and be 
received as the "Queen of Heaven and Bride at the heavenly 
court." For more than a thousand years it had been taken for 
granted that the Mother of God dwelt there, and we know from 
the Old Testament that Sophia was with God before the crea 
tion. From the ancient Egyptian theology of the divine Pharaohs 
we know that God wants to become man by means of a human 
mother, and it was recognized even in prehistoric times that the 
primordial divine being is both male and female. But such a 
truth eventuates in time only when it is solemnly proclaimed 
or rediscovered. It is psychologically significant for our day that 
in the year 1950 the heavenly bride was united with the bride 
groom. In order to interpret this event, one has to consider not 
only the arguments adduced by the Papal Bull, but the pre- 
figurations in the apocalyptic marriage of the Lamb and in the 
Old Testament anamnesis of Sophia. The nuptial union in the 
thalamus (bridal-chamber) signifies the hieros games, and this 
in turn is the first step towards incarnation, towards the birth 
of the saviour who, since antiquity, was thought of as the filius 
solis t lunae, the filius sapientiae, and the equivalent of Christ. 
When, therefore, a longing for the exaltation of the Mother of 
God passes through the people, this tendency, if thought to its 
logical conclusion, means the desire for the birth of a saviour, a 
peacemaker, a "mediator pacem faciens inter mimicos." * Al 
though he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can 
only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and de 
clared by man. 

749 The motive and content of the popular movement which 
contributed to the Pope's decision solemnly to declare the new 
dogma consist not in the birth of a new god, but in the continu 
ing incarnation of God which began with Christ. Arguments 
based on historical criticism will never do justice to the new 
dogma; on the contrary, they are as lamentably wide of the 
mark as are the unqualified fears to which the English arch 
bishops have given expression. In the first place, the declaration 
of the dogma has changed nothing in principle in the Catholic 
ideology as it has existed for more than a thousand years; and 
in the second place, the failure to understand that God has 

1 "A mediator making peace between enemies. 1 * 

462 



ANSWER TO JOB 



eternally wanted to become man, and for that purpose con 
tinually incarnates through the Holy Ghost in the temporal 
sphere, is an alarming symptom and can only mean that the 
Protestant standpoint has lost ground by not understanding the 
signs of the times and by ignoring the continued operation of 
the Holy Ghost. It is obviously out of touch with the tremendous 
archetypal happenings in the psyche of the individual and the 
masses, and with the symbols which are intended to compensate 
the truly apocalyptic world situation today. 2 It seems to have 
succumbed to a species of rationalistic historicism and to have 
lost any understanding of the Holy Ghost who works in the 
hidden places of the soul. It can therefore neither understand 
nor admit- a further revelation of the divine drama. 
75<> This circumstance has given me, a layman in things theolog 
ical, cause to put forward my views on these dark matters. My 
attempt is based on the psychological experience I have har 
vested during the course of a long life. I do not underestimate 
the psyche in any respect whatsoever, nor do I imagine for a 
moment that psychic happenings vanish into thin air by being 
explained. Psychologism represents a still primitive mode of 
magical thinking, with the help of which one hopes to conjure 
the reality of the soul out of existence, after the manner of the 
"Proktophantasmist" in Faust: 

Are you still here? Nay, it's a thing unheard. 
Vanish at oncel We've said the enlightening word. 

75 i One would be very ill advised to identify me with such a 
childish standpoint. However, I have been asked so often 
whether I believe in the existence of God or not that I am 
somewhat concerned lest I be taken for an adherent of "psy- 
chologism" far more commonly than I suspect. What most 

2 The papal rejection of psychological symbolism may be explained by the fact 
that the Pope is primarily concerned with the reality of metaphysical happenings. 
Owing to the undervaluation of the psyche that everywhere prevails, every at 
tempt at adequate psychological understanding is immediately suspected of psy- 
chologism. It is understandable that dogma must be protected from this danger. 
If, in physics, one seeks to explain the nature of light, nobody expects that as a 
result there will be no light. But in the case of jeychology everybody believes that 
what it explains is explained away. However, I cannot expect that my particular 
deviationist point of view could be known in any competent quarter. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



people overlook or seem unable to understand Is the fact that I 
regard the psyche as real. They believe only in physical facts, 
and must consequently come to the conclusion that either the 
uranium itself or the laboratory equipment created the atom 
bomb. That is no less absurd than the assumption that a non- 
real psyche is responsible for it. God is an obvious psychic and 
non-physical fact, i.e., a fact that can be established psychically 
but not physically. Equally, these people have still not got it 
into their heads that the psychology of religion falls into two cate 
gories, which must be sharply distinguished from one another: 
firstly, the psychology of the religious person, and secondly, the 
psychology of religion proper, i.e., of religious contents. 
75* It is chiefly my experiences in the latter field which have 
given me the courage to enter into the discussion of the religious 
question and especially into the pros and cons of the dogma of 
the Assumption which, by the way, I consider to be the most 
important religious event since the Reformation. It is a petra 
scandali for the unpsychological mind: how can such an un 
founded assertion as the bodily reception of the Virgin into 
heaven be put forward as worthy of belief? But the method 
which the Pope uses in order to demonstrate the truth of the 
dogma makes sense to the psychological mind, because it bases 
itself firstly on the necessary prefigurations, and secondly on a 
tradition of religious assertions reaching back for more than a 
thousand years. Clearly, the material evidence for the existence 
of this psychic phenomenon is more than sufficient. It does not 
matter at all that a physically impossible fact is asserted, because 
all religious assertions are physical impossibilities. If they were 
not so, they would, as I said earlier, necessarily be treated in the 
text-books of natural science. But religious statements without 
exception have to do with the reality of the psyche and not with 
the reality of physis. What outrages the Protestant standpoint in 
particular is the boundless approximation of the Deipara to the 
Godhead and, in consequence, the endangered supremacy of 
Christ, from which Protestantism will not budge. In sticking to 
this point it has obviously failed to consider that its hymnology 
is full of references to the "heavenly bridegroom," who is now 
suddenly supposed not to have a bride with equal rights. Or has, 
perchance, the "bridegroom," in true psychologistic manner, 
been understood as a mere metaphor? 

464 



ANSWER TO JOB 



753 The logical consistency of the papal declaration cannot be 
surpassed, and it leaves Protestantism with the odium of being 
nothing but a man's religion which allows no metaphysical 
representation of woman. In this respect it is similar to Mithra- 
ism, and Mithraism found this prejudice very much to its detri 
ment. Protestantism has obviously not given sufficient attention 
to the signs of the times which point to the equality of women. 
But this equality requires to be metaphysically anchored in the 
figure of a "divine" woman, the bride of Christ. Just as the per 
son of Christ cannot be replaced by an organization, so the bride 
cannot be replaced by the Church. The feminine, like the 
masculine, demands an equally personal representation. 

754 The dogmatizing of the Assumption does not, however, 
according to the dogmatic view, mean that Mary has attained 
the status of a goddess, although, as mistress of heaven (as op 
posed to the prince of the sublunary aerial realm, Satan) and 
mediatrix, she is functionally on a par with Christ, the king and 
mediator. At any rate her position satisfies the need of the arche 
type. The new dogma expresses a renewed hope for the fulfil 
ment of that yearning for peace which stirs deep down in the 
soul, and for a resolution of the threatening tension between 
the opposites. Everyone shares this tension and everyone ex 
periences it in his individual form of unrest, the more so the 
less he sees any possibility of getting rid of it by rational means. 
It is no wonder, therefore, that the hope, indeed the expectation 
of divine intervention arises in the collective unconscious and at 
the same time in the masses. The papal declaration has given 
comforting expression to this yearning. How could Protestant 
ism so completely miss the point? This lack of understanding 
can only be explained by the fact that the dogmatic symbols 
and hermeneutic allegories have lost their meaning for Protes 
tant rationalism. This is also true, in some measure, of the 
opposition to the new dogma within the Catholic Church itself, 
or rather to the dogmatization of the old doctrine. Naturally, a 
certain degree of rationalism is better suited to Protestantism 
than it is to the Catholic outlook. The latter gives the archetypal 
symbolisms the necessary freedom and space in which to develop 
over the centuries while at the same time insisting on their 
original form, unperturbed by intellectual difficulties and the 
objections of rationalists. In this way the Catholic Church 

465 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



demonstrates her maternal character, because she allows the tree 
growing out of her matrix to develop according to its own laws. 
Protestantism, in contrast, is committed to the paternal spirit. 
Not only did it develop, at the outset, from an encounter with 
the worldly spirit of the times, but it continues this dialectic 
with the spiritual currents of every age; for the pneuma, in 
keeping with its original wind nature, is flexible, ever in living 
motion, comparable now to water, now to fire. It can desert its 
original haunts, can even go astray and get lost, if it succumbs 
too much to the spirit of the age. In order to fulfil its task, the 
Protestant spirit must be full of unrest and occasionally trouble 
some; it must even be revolutionary, so as to make sure that 
tradition has an influence on the change of contemporary values. 
The shocks it sustains during this encounter modify and at the 
same time enliven the tradition, which in its slow progress 
through the centuries would, without these disturbances, finally 
arrive at complete petrifaction and thus lose its effect. By merely 
criticizing and opposing certain developments within the Catho 
lic Church, Protestantism would gain only a miserable bit of 
vitality, unless, mindful of the fact that Christianity consists of 
two separate camps, or rather, is a disunited brother-sister pair, 
it remembers that besides defending its own existence it must 
acknowledge Catholicism's right to exist too. A brother who for 
theological reasons wanted to cut the thread of his elder sister's 
life would rightly be called inhuman to say nothing of Chris 
tian charity and the converse is also true. Nothing is achieved 
by merely negative criticism. It is justified only to the degree 
that it is creative. Therefore it would seem profitable to me if, 
for example, Protestantism admitted that it is shocked by the 
new dogma not only because it throws a distressing light on the 
gulf between brother and sister, but because, for fundamental 
reasons, a situation has developed within Christianity which 
removes it further than ever from the sphere of worldly under 
standing. Protestantism knows, or could know, how much it 
owes its very existence to the Catholic Church. How much or 
how little does the Protestant still possess if he can no longer 
criticize or protest? In view of the intellectual skandalon which 
the new dogma represents, he should remind himself of his 
Christian responsibility "Am I my brother's (or in this case, my 
sister's) keeper?" and examine in all seriousness the reasons, 

466 



ANSWER TO JOB 



explicit or otherwise, that decided the declaration of the new 
dogma. In so doing, he should guard against casting cheap 
aspersions and would do well to assume that there is more in it 
than papal arbitrariness. It would be desirable for the Protestant 
to understand that the new dogma has placed upon him a new 
responsibility toward the worldly spirit of our age, for he cannot 
simply deny his problematical sister before the eyes of the world. 
He must, even if he finds her antipathetic, be fair to her if he 
does not want to lose his self-respect. For instance, this is a 
favourable opportunity for him to ask himself, for a change, 
what is the meaning not only of the new dogma but of all more 
or less dogmatic assertions over and above their literal con- 
cretism. Considering the arbitrary and protean state of his own 
dogmas, and the precarious, schism-riven condition of his 
Church, he cannot afford to remain rigid and impervious to 
the spirit of the age. And since, in accordance with his obli 
gations to the Zeitgeist, he is more concerned to come to terms 
with the world and its ideas than with God, it would seem 
clearly indicated that, on the occasion of the entry of the Mother 
of God into the heavenly bridal-chamber, he should bend to 
the great task of reinterpreting all the Christian traditions. If 
it is a question of truths which are anchored deep in the soul 
and no one with the slightest insight can doubt this fact then 
the solution of this task must be possible. For this we need the 
freedom of the spirit, which, as we know, is assured only in 
Protestantism. The dogma of the Assumption is a slap in the face 
for the historical and rationalistic view of the world, and would 
remain so for all time if one were to insist obstinately on the 
arguments of reason and history. This is a case, if ever there was 
one, where psychological understanding is needed, because the 
mythologem coming to light is so obvious that we must be de 
liberately blinding ourselves if we cannot see its symbolic nature 
and interpret it in symbolic terms. 

755 The dogmatization of the Assumptio Mariae points to the 
hieros gamos in the pleroma, and this in turn implies, as we have 
said, the future birth of the divine child, who, in accordance 
with the divine trend towards incarnation, will choose as his 
birthplace the empirical man. The metaphysical process is 
known to the psychology of the unconscious as the individuation 
process. In so far as this process, as a rule, runs its course un- 

467 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



unconsciously as it has from time immemorial, it means no 
more than that the acorn becomes an oak, the calf a cow, and the 
child an adult. But if the individuation process is made con 
scious, consciousness must confront the unconscious and a 
balance between the opposites must be found. As this is not 
possible through logic, one is dependent on symbols which make 
the irrational union of opposites possible. They are produced 
spontaneously by the unconscious and are amplified by the con 
scious mind. The central symbols of this process describe the 
self, which is man's totality, consisting on the one hand of that 
which is conscious to him, and on the other hand of the contents 
of the unconscious. The self is the T&OQS foQpwros, the whole 
man, whose symbols are the divine child and its synonyms. This 
is only a very summary sketch of the process, but it can be ob 
served at any time in modern man, or one can read about it in 
the documents of Hermetic philosophy from the Middle Ages. 
The parallelism between the symbols is astonishing to anyone 
who knows both the psychology of the unconscious and alchemy. 

75 6 The difference between the "natural** individuation process, 
which runs its course unconsciously, and the one which is con 
sciously realized, is tremendous. In the first case consciousness 
nowhere intervenes; the end remains as dark as the beginning. 
In the second case so much darkness comes to light that the per 
sonality is permeated with light, and consciousness necessarily 
gains in scope and insight. The encounter between conscious 
and unconscious has to ensure that the light which shines in the 
darkness is not only comprehended by the darkness, but com 
prehends it. The filius solis et lunoe is the symbol of the union 
of opposites as well as the catalyst of their union. It is the alpha 
and omega of the process, the mediator and intermedius. "It has 
a thousand names," say the alchemists, meaning that the source 
from which the individuation process rises and the goal towards 
which it aims is nameless, ineffable. 

757 It is only through the psyche that we can establish that God 
acts upon us, but we are unable to distinguish whether these 
actions emanate from God or from the unconscious. We cannot 
tell whether God and the unconscious are two different entities. 
Both are border-line concepts for transcendental contents. But 
empirically it can be established, with a sufficient degree of 
probability, that there is in the unconscious an archetype of 

468 



ANSWER TO JOB 



wholeness which manifests itself spontaneously in dreams, etc., 
and a tendency, independent of the conscious will, to relate 
other archetypes to this centre. Consequently, it does not seem 
improbable that the archetype of wholeness occupies as such a 
central position which approximates it to the God-image. The 
similarity is further borne out by the peculiar fact that the 
archetype produces a symbolism which has always characterized 
and expressed the Deity. These facts make possible a certain 
qualification of our above thesis concerning the indistinguish- 
ableness of God and the unconscious. Strictly speaking, the God- 
image does not coincide with the unconscious as such, but with 
a special content of it, namely the archetype of the self. It is 
this archetype from which we can no longer distinguish the God- 
image empirically. We can arbitrarily postulate a difference 
between these two entities, but that does not help us at all. On 
the contrary, it only helps us to separate man from God, and 
prevents God from becoming man. Faith is certainly right when 
it impresses on man's mind and heart how infinitely far away 
and inaccessible God is; but it also teaches his nearness, his im 
mediate presence, and it is just this nearness which has to be 
empirically real if it is not to lose all significance. Only that 
which acts upon me do I recognize as real and actual. But that 
which has no effect upon me might as well not exist. The re 
ligious need longs for wholeness, and therefore lays hold of the 
images of wholeness offered by the unconscious, which, inde 
pendently of the conscious mind, rise up from the depths of our 
psychic nature. 



XX 

758 It will probably have become clear to the reader that the 
account I have given of the development of symbolic entities 
corresponds to a process of differentiation of human conscious 
ness. But since, as I showed in the introduction, the archetypes 
in question are not mere objects of the mind, but are also auton 
omous factors, i.e., living subjects, the differentiation of con 
sciousness can be understood as the effect of the intervention 
of transcendentally conditioned dynamisms. In this case it would 
be the archetypes that accomplish the primary transformation. 

4 6 9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



But since, in our experience, there are no psychic conditions 
which could be observed through introspection outside the 
human being, the behaviour of the archetypes cannot be in 
vestigated at all without the interaction of the observing con 
sciousness. Therefore the question as to whether the process is 
initiated by consciousness or by the archetype can never be 
answered; unless, in contradiction to experience, one either 
robbed the archetype of its autonomy or degraded consciousness 
to a mere machine. We find ourselves in best agreement with 
psychological experience if we concede to the archetype a defi 
nite measure of independence, and to consciousness a degree of 
creative freedom proportionate to its scope. There then arises 
that reciprocal action between two relatively autonomous factors 
which compels us, when describing and explaining the processes, 
to present sometimes the one and sometimes the other factor 
as the acting subject, even when God becomes man. The Chris 
tian solution has hitherto avoided this difficulty by recognizing 
Christ as the one and only God-man. But the indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost, the third Divine Person, in man, brings about a 
Christification of many, and the question then arises whether 
these many are all complete God-men* Such a transformation 
would lead to insufferable collisions between them, to say noth 
ing of the unavoidable inflation to which the ordinary mortal, 
who is not freed from original sin, would instantly succumb. 
In these circumstances it is well to remind ourselves of St. Paul 
and his split consciousness: on one side he felt he was the apostle 
directly called and enlightened by God, and, on the other side, 
a sinful man who could not pluck out the "thorn in the flesh" 
and rid himself of the Satanic angel who plagued him. That is 
to say, even the enlightened person remains what he is, and is 
never more than his own limited ego before the One who dwells 
within him, whose form has no knowable boundaries, who en 
compasses him on all sides, fathomless as the abysms of the earth 
and vast as the sky. 



470 



PART TWO 

EASTERN RELIGION 



VII 

PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMENTARIES ON 
"THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE 

GREAT LIBERATION" AND 
"THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD" 



PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMENTARY ON "THE 
TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 



1. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN 

THINKING 

759 Dr. Evans- Wentz has entrusted me with the task of com 
menting on a text which contains an important exposition of 
Eastern "psychology." The very fact that I have to use quota 
tion marks shows the dubious applicability of this term. It is 
perhaps not superfluous to mention that the East has produced 
nothing equivalent to what we call psychology, but rather 
philosophy or metaphysics. Critical philosophy, the mother of 
modern psychology, is as foreign to the East as to medieval 
Europe. Thus the word "mind," as used in the East, has the 
connotation of something metaphysical. Our Western concep 
tion of mind has lost this connotation since the Middle Ages, 
and the word has now come to signify a "psychic function." 
Despite the fact that we neither know nor pretend to know what 
"psyche" is, we can deal with the phenomenon of "mind." We 
do not assume that the mind is a metaphysical entity or that 

l [Written in English in 1939 and first published in The Tibetan Book of the 
Great Liberation, the texts of which were translated from Tibetan by various 
hands and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz (London and New York, 1954), pj>. xxix- 
Ixiv. The commentary is republished here with only minor alterations. EDITORS.] 

475 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



there is any connection between an individual mind and a hypo 
thetical Universal Mind. Our psychology is, therefore, a science 
of mere phenomena without any metaphysical implications. 
The development of Western philosophy during the last two 
centuries has succeeded in isolating the mind in its own sphere 
and in severing it from its primordial oneness with the uni 
verse* Man himself has ceased to be the microcosm and eidolon 
of the cosmos, and his "anima" is no longer the consubstantial 
scintilla, or spark of the Anima Mundi, the World Soul. 

7&> Psychology accordingly treats all metaphysical claims and 
assertions as mental phenomena, and regards them as statements 
about the mind and its structure that derive ultimately from 
certain unconscious dispositions. It does not consider them to be 
absolutely valid or even capable of establishing a metaphysical 
truth. We have no intellectual means of ascertaining whether 
this attitude is right or wrong. We only know that there is no 
evidence for, and no possibility of proving, the validity of a 
metaphysical postulate such as "Universal Mind." If the mind 
asserts the existence of a Universal Mind, we hold that it is 
merely making an assertion. We do not assume that by such an 
assertion the existence of a Universal Mind has been established. 
There is no argument against this reasoning, but no evidence, 
either, that our conclusion is ultimately right. In other words, 
it is just as possible that our mind is nothing but a perceptible 
manifestation of a Universal Mind. Yet we do not know, and 
we cannot even see, how it would be possible to recognize 
whether this is so or not. Psychology therefore holds that the 
mind cannot establish or assert anything beyond itself. 

7*5* If, then, we accept the restrictions imposed upon the capacity 
of our mind, we demonstrate our common sense. I admit it is 
something of a sacrifice, inasmuch as we bid farewell to that 
miraculous world in which mind-created things and beings move 
and live. This is the world of the primitive, where even inani 
mate objects are endowed with a living, healing, magic power, 
through which they participate in us and we in them. Sooner 
or later we had to understand that their potency was really ours, 
and that their significance was our projection. The theory of 
knowledge is only the last step out of humanity's childhood, out 
of a world where mind-created figures populated a metaphysical 
heaven and hell. 

476 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

762 Despite this inevitable epistemological criticism, however, 
we have held fast to the religious belief that the organ of faith 
enables man to know God. The West thus developed a new dis 
ease: the conflict between science and religion. The critical 
philosophy of science became as it were negatively metaphysical 
in other words, materialistic on the basis of an error in judg 
ment; matter was assumed to be a tangible and recognizable 
reality. Yet this is a thoroughly metaphysical concept hyposta- 
tized by uncritical minds. Matter is an hypothesis. When you 
say "matter/* you are really creating a symbol for something un 
known, which may just as well be "spirit" or anything else; it 
may even be God. Religious faith, on the other hand, refuses to 
give up its pre-critical Weltanschauung. In contradiction to the 
saying of Christ, the faithful try to remain children instead of 
becoming as children. They cling to the world of childhood. A 
famous modern theologian confesses in his autobiography that 
Jesus has been his good friend "from childhood on." Jesus is the 
perfect example of a man who preached something different 
from the religion of his forefathers. But the imitatio Christi does 
not appear to include the mental and spiritual sacrifice which he 
had to undergo at the beginning of his career and without which 
he would never have become a saviour. 

7 6 3 The conflict between science and religion is in reality a mis 
understanding of both. Scientific materialism has merely intro 
duced a new hypostasis, and that is an intellectual sin. It has 
given another name to the supreme principle of reality and has 
assumed that this created a new thing and destroyed an old 
thing. Whether you call the principle of existence "God," 
"matter," "energy," or anything else you like, you have created 
nothing; you have simply changed a symbol. The materialist is 
a metaphysician malgre lui. Faith, on the other hand, tries to 
retain a primitive mental condition on merely sentimental 
grounds. It is unwilling to give up the primitive, childlike rela 
tionship to mind-created and hypostatized figures; it wants to 
go on enjoying the security and confidence of a world still pre 
sided over by powerful, responsible, and kindly parents. Faith 
may include a sacrificium intellectus (provided there is an in 
tellect to sacrifice), but certainly not a sacrifice of feeling. In this 
way the faithful remain children instead of becoming as chil 
dren, and they do not gain their life because they have not lost 

477 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! EAST 



it. Furthermore, faith collides with science and thus gets its 
deserts, for it refuses to share in the spiritual adventure of our 
age. 

764 Any honest thinker has to admit the insecurity of all meta 
physical positions, and in particular of all creeds. He has also 
to admit the unwarrantable nature of all metaphysical assertions 
and face the fact that there is no evidence whatever for the abil 
ity of the human mind to pull itself up by its own bootstrings, 
that is, to establish anything transcendental. 

765 Materialism is a metaphysical reaction against the sudden 
realization that cognition is a mental faculty and, if carried be 
yond the human plane, a projection. The reaction was "meta 
physical" in so far as the man of average philosophical educa 
tion failed to see through the implied hypostasis, not realizing 
that "matter" was just another name for the supreme principle. 
As against this, the attitude of faith shows how reluctant people 
were to accept philosophical criticism. It also demonstrates how 
great is the fear of letting go one's hold on the securities of child 
hood and of dropping into a strange, unknown world ruled by 
forces unconcerned with man. Nothing really changes in either 
case; man and his surroundings remain the same. He has only to 
realize that he is shut up inside his mind and cannot step 
beyond it, even in insanity; and that the appearance of his 
world or of his gods very much depends upon his own mental 
condition. 

766 In the first place, the structure of the mind is responsible for 
anything we may assert about metaphysical matters, as I have 
already pointed out. We have also begun to understand that 
the intellect is not an ens per se, or an independent mental 
faculty, but a psychic function dependent upon the conditions 
of the psyche as a whole. A philosophical statement is the prod 
uct of a certain personality living at a certain time in a certain 
place, and not the outcome of a purely logical and impersonal 
procedure. To that extent it is chiefly subjective; whether it has 
an objective validity or not depends on whether there are few 
or many persons who argue in the same way. The isolation of 
man within his mind as a result of epistemological criticism has 
naturally led to psychological criticism. This kind of criticism 
is not popular with the philosophers, since they like to consider 
the philosophic intellect as the perfect and unconditioned in- 

478 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

strument of philosophy. Yet this intellect of theirs is a function 
dependent upon an individual psyche and determined on all 
sides by subjective conditions, quite apart from environmental 
influences. Indeed, we have already become so accustomed to 
this point of view that "mind" has lost its universal character 
altogether. It has become a more or less individualized affair, 
with no trace of its former cosmic aspect as the anima rationalis. 
Mind is understood nowadays as a subjective, even an arbitrary, 
thing. Now that the formerly hypostatized "universal ideas" 
have turned out to be mental principles, it is dawning upon us 
to what an extent our whole experience of so-called reality is 
psychic; as a matter of fact, everything thought, felt, or per 
ceived is a psychic image, and the world itself exists only so far 
as we are able to produce an image of it. We are so deeply im 
pressed with the truth of our imprisonment in, and limitation 
by, the psyche that we are ready to admit the existence in it even 
of things we do not know: we call them "the unconscious." 

7 6 7 The seemingly universal and metaphysical scope of the mind 
has thus been narrowed down to the small circle of individual 
consciousness, profoundly aware of its almost limitless subjectiv 
ity and of its infantile-archaic tendency to heedless projection 
and illusion. Many scientifically-minded persons have even 
sacrificed their religious and philosophical leanings for fear of 
uncontrolled subjectivism. By way of compensation for the loss 
of a world that pulsed with our blood and breathed with our 
breath, we have developed an enthusiasm for facts mountains 
of facts, far beyond any single individual's power to survey. 
We have the pious hope that this incidental accumulation of 
facts will form a meaningful whole, but nobody is quite sure, 
because no human brain can possibly comprehend the gigantic 
sum total of this mass-produced knowledge. The facts bury us, 
but whoever dares to speculate must pay for it with a bad con 
scienceand rightly so, for he will instantly be tripped up by 
the facts. 

768 Western psychology knows the mind as the mental function 
ing of a psyche. It is the "mentality" of an individual. An im 
personal Universal Mind is still to be met with in the sphere of 
philosophy, where it seems to be a relic of the original human 
"soul." This picture of our Western outlook may seem a little 
drastic, but I do not think it is far from the truth. At all events, 

479 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



something of the kind presents itself as soon as we are con 
fronted with the Eastern mentality. In the East, mind is a cosmic 
factor, the very essence of existence; while in the West we have 
just begun to understand that it is the essential condition of 
cognition, and hence of the cognitive existence of the world. 
There is no conflict between religion and science in the East, 
because no science is there based upon the passion for facts, and 
no religion upon mere faith; there is religious cognition and 
cognitive religion. 2 With us, man is incommensurably small 
and the grace of God is everything; but in the East, man is God 
and he redeems himself. The gods of Tibetan Buddhism belong 
to the sphere of illusory separateness and mind-created projec 
tions, and yet they exist; but so far as we are concerned an illu 
sion remains an illusion, and thus is nothing at all. It is a 
paradox, yet nevertheless true, that with us a thought has no 
proper reality; we treat it as if it were a nothingness. Even 
though the thought be true in itself, we hold that it exists only 
by virtue of certain facts which it is said to formulate. We can 
produce a most devastating fact like the atom bomb with the 
help of this ever-changing phantasmagoria of virtually non 
existent thoughts, but it seems wholly absurd to us that one 
could ever establish the reality of thought itself. 
7% "Psychic reality" is a controversial concept, like "psyche" 
or "mind." By the latter terms some understand consciousness 
and its contents, others allow the existence of "dark" or "sub 
conscious" representations. Some include instincts in the psychic 
realm, others exclude them. The vast majority consider the 
psyche to be a result of biochemical processes in the brain cells. 
A few conjecture that it is the psyche that makes the cortical 
cells function. Some identify "life" with psyche. But only an 
insignificant minority regards the psychic phenomenon as a 
category of existence per se and draws the necessary conclusions. 
It is indeed paradoxical that t he category of existence, the indis 
pensable sine qua non of all existence, namely the psyche, should 
be treated as if it were only semi-existent Psychic existence is 
the only category of existence of which we have immediate 
knowledge, since nothing can be known unless it first appears as 
a psychic image. Only psychic existence is immediately verifi 
able. To the extent that the world does not assume the form of 

2 1 am purposely leaving out of account the modernized East. 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

a psychic image, it is virtually non-existent. This is a fact which, 
with few exceptions as for instance in Schopenhauer's philoso 
phy the West has not yet fully realized. But Schopenhauer was 
influenced by Buddhism and by the Upanishads. 
77 Even a superficial acquaintance with Eastern thought is 
sufficient to show that a fundamental difference divides East and 
West. The East bases itself upon psychic reality, that is, upon 
the psyche as the main and unique condition of existence. It 
seems as if this Eastern recognition were a psychological or tem 
peramental fact rather than a result of philosophical reasoning. 
It is a typically introverted point of view, contrasted with the 
equally typical extraverted point of view of the West. 8 Intro 
version and extraversion are known to be temperamental or 
even constitutional attitudes which are never intentionally 
adopted in normal circumstances. In exceptional cases they may 
be produced at will, but only under very special conditions. 
Introversion is, if one may so express it, the "style" of the East, 
an habitual and collective attitude, just as extraversion is the 
"style" of the West. Introversion is felt here as something ab 
normal, morbid, or otherwise objectionable. Freud identifies it 
with an autoerotic, "narcissistic" attitude of mind. He shares 
his negative position with the National Socialist philosophy of 
modern Germany, 4 which accuses introversion of being an 
offence against community feeling. In the East, however, our 
cherished extraversion is depreciated as illusory desirousness, as 
existence in the samsara, the very essence of the nidana-chain 
which culminates in the sum of the world's sufferings. 5 Anyone 
with practical knowledge of the mutual depreciation of values 
between introvert and extravert will understand the emotional 
conflict between the Eastern and the Western standpoint. For 
those who know something of the history of European philoso 
phy the bitter wrangling about "universals" which began with 
Plato will provide an instructive example. I do not wish to go 
into all the ramifications of this conflict between introversion 
and extraversion, but I must mention the religious aspects of the 
problem. The Christian West considers man to be wholly de 
pendent upon the grace of God, or at least upon the Church as 
the exclusive and divinely sanctioned earthly instrument of 

s Psychological Types, Defe. 19 and 34. * Written in the year 1939. 

5 Samyutta-nikaya 12, Niddna-samyutta. 

481 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



man's redemption. The East, however, insists that man is the 
sole cause of his higher development, for it believes in "self- 
liberation." 

771 The religious point of view always expresses and formulates 
the essential psychological attitude and its specific prejudices, 
even in the case of people who have forgotten, or who have 
never heard of, their own religion. In spite of everything, the 
West is thoroughly Christian as far as its psychology is con 
cerned. Tertullian's anima naturaliter Christiana holds true 
throughout the West not, as he thought, in the religious sense, 
but in a psychological one. Grace comes from elsewhere; at 
all events from outside. Every other point of view is sheer 
heresy. Hence it is quite understandable why the human psyche 
is suffering from undervaluation. Anyone who dares to estab 
lish a connection between the psyche and the idea of God is 
immediately accused of "psychologism" or suspected of morbid 
"mysticism." The East, on the other hand, compassionately 
tolerates those "lower" spiritual stages where man, in his blind 
ignorance of karma, still bothers about sin and tortures his 
imagination with a belief in absolute gods, who, if he only 
looked deeper, are nothing but the veil of illusion woven by his 
own unenlightened mind. The psyche is therefore all-im 
portant; it is the all-pervading Breath, the Buddha-essence; it 
is the Buddha-Mind, the One, the Dharmakdya. All existence 
emanates from it, and all separate forms dissolve back into it. 
This is die basic psychological prejudice that permeates Eastern 
man in every fibre of his being, seeping into all his thoughts, 
feelings, and deeds, no matter what creed he professes. 

77* In the same way Western man is Christian, no matter to what 
denomination his Christianity belongs. For him man is small 
inside, he is next to nothing; moreover, as Kierkegaard says, 
"before God man is always wrong." By fear, repentance, prom 
ises, submission, self-abasement, good deeds, and praise he 
propitiates the great power, which is not himself but totaliter 
aliter, the Wholly Other, altogether perfect and "outside," the 
only reality.* If you shift the formula a bit and substitute for 
God some other power, for instance the world or money, you 
get a complete picture of Western man assiduous, fearful, de 
vout, self-abasing, enterprising, greedy, and violent in his pur- 

6 [Cf. Otto, The Idea of the Holy, pp. ^ff.- 

482 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION 

suit of the goods of this world: possessions, health, knowledge, 
technical mastery, public welfare, political power, conquest, and 
so on. What are the great popular movements of our time? At 
tempts to grab the money or property of others and to protect 
our own. The mind is chiefly employed in devising suitable 
"isms" to hide the real motives or to get more loot. I refrain 
from describing what would happen to Eastern man should he 
forget his ideal of Buddhahood, for I do not want to give such 
an unfair advantage to my Western prejudices. But I cannot 
help raising the question of whether it is possible, or indeed 
advisable, for either to imitate the other's standpoint. The 
difference between them is so vast that one can see no reason 
able possibility of this, much less its advisability. You cannot 
mix fire and water. The Eastern attitude stultifies the Western, 
and vice versa. You cannot be a good Christian and redeem 
yourself, nor can you be a Buddha and worship God. It is much 
better to accept the conflict, for it admits only of an irrational 
solution, if any. 

773 By an inevitable decree of fate the West is becoming ac 
quainted with the peculiar facts of Eastern spirituality. It is 
useless either to belittle these facts, or to build false and treach 
erous bridges over yawning gaps. Instead of learning the spir 
itual techniques of the East by heart and imitating them in a 
thoroughly Christian way imitatio Christil with a correspond 
ingly forced attitude, it would be far more to the point to find 
out whether there exists in the unconscious an introverted 
tendency similar to that which has become the guiding spiritual 
principle of the East. We should then be in a position to build 
on our own ground with our own methods. If we snatch these 
things directly from the East, we have merely indulged our 
Western acquisitiveness, confirming yet again that "everything 
good is outside/ 1 whence it has to be fetched and pumped into 
our barren souls. 7 It seems to me that we have really learned 
something from the East when we understand that the psyche 
contains riches enough without having to be primed from out 
side, and when we feel capable of evolving out of ourselves with 

7 "Whereas who holdeth not God as such an inner possession, but with every 
means must fetch Him from without . . . verily such a man hath Him not, and 
easily something cometh to trouble him." Meister Eckhart (Buttner, II, p. 185). 
Cf. Mtister Eckhart, trans, by Evans, II, p. 8, 

483 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



or without divine grace. But we cannot embark upon this am 
bitious enterprise until we have learned how to deal with our 
spiritual pride and blasphemous self-assertiveness. The Eastern 
attitude violates the specifically Christian values, and it is no 
good blinking this fact. If our new attitude is to be genuine, i.e., 
grounded in our own history, it must be acquired with full con 
sciousness of the Christian values and of the conflict between 
them and the introverted attitude of the East. We must get at 
the Eastern values from within and not from without, seeking 
them in ourselves, in the unconscious. We shall then discover 
how great is our fear of the unconscious and how formidable 
are our resistances. Because of these resistances we doubt the 
very thing that seems so obvious to the East, namely, the self- 
liberating power of the introverted mind. 

774 This aspect of the mind is practically unknown to the West, 
though it forms the most important component of the uncon 
scious. Many people flatly deny the existence of the unconscious, 
or else they say that it consists merely of instincts, or of repressed 
or forgotten contents that were once part of the conscious mind. 
It is safe to assume that what the East calls "mind" has more to 
do with our "unconscious" than with mind as we understand 
it, which is more or less identical with consciousness. To us, 
consciousness is inconceivable without an ego; it is equated with 
the relation of contents to an ego. If there is no ego there is no 
body to be conscious of anything. The ego is therefore indis 
pensable to the conscious process. The Eastern mind, however, 
has no difficulty in conceiving of a consciousness without an 
ego. Consciousness is deemed capable of transcending its ego 
condition; indeed, in its "higher" forms, the ego disappears 
altogether. Such an ego-less mental condition can only be un 
conscious to us, for the simple reason that there would be no 
body to witness it. I do not doubt the existence of mental states 
transcending consciousness. But they lose their consciousness to 
exactly the same degree that they transcend consciousness. I 
cannot imagine a conscious mental state that does not relate to 
a subject, that is, to an ego. The ego may be depotentiated 
divested, for instance, of its awareness of the body but so long 
as there is awareness of something, there must be somebody who 
is aware. The unconscious, however, is a mental condition of 
which no ego is aware. It is only by indirect means that we even- 

484 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION 

tually become conscious of the existence of an unconscious. We 
can observe the manifestation of unconscious fragments of the 
personality, detached from the patient's consciousness, in insan 
ity. But there is no evidence that the unconscious contents are 
related to an unconscious centre analogous to the ego; in fact 
there are good reasons why such a centre is not even probable. 

775 The fact that the East can dispose so easily of the ego seems 
to point to a mind that is not to be identified with our "mind." 
Certainly the ego does not play the same role in Eastern thought 
as it does with us. It seems as if the Eastern mind were less ego 
centric, as if its contents were more loosely connected with the 
subject, and as if greater stress were laid on mental states which 
include a depotentiated ego. It also seems as if hatha yoga were 
chiefly useful as a means for extinguishing the ego by fettering 
its unruly impulses. There is no doubt that the higher forms 
of yoga, in so far as they strive to reach samadhi, seek a mental 
condition in which the ego is practically dissolved. Conscious 
ness in our sense of the word is rated a definitely inferior condi 
tion, the state of avidya (ignorance), whereas what we call the 
"dark background of consciousness" is understood to be a 
"higher" consciousness. 8 Thus our concept of the "collective 
unconscious" would be the European equivalent of buddhi, the 
enlightened mind. 

77 6 In view of all this, the Eastern form of "sublimation" 
amounts to a withdrawal of the centre of psychic gravity from 
ego-consciousness, which holds a middle position between the 
body and the ideational processes of the psyche. The lower, 
seini-physiological strata of the psyche are subdued by askesis, 
i.e., exercises, and kept under control. They are not exactly 
denied or suppressed by a supreme effort of the will, as is cus 
tomary in Western sublimation. Rather, the lower psychic strata 
are adapted and shaped through the patient practice of hat ha 
yoga until they no longer interfere with the development of 
"higher" consciousness. This peculiar process seems to be aided 
by the fact that the ego and its desires are checked by the greater 

8 In so far as "higher** and "lower*' are categorical judgments of consciousness, 
Western psychology does not differentiate unconscious contents in this way. It 
appears that the East recognizes subhuman psychic conditions, a real "subcoo- 
sdousness" comprising the instincts and semi-physiological psychisms, bet classed 
as a "higher consciousness," 

485 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



importance which the East habitually attaches to the "sub 
jective factor/' * By this I mean the "dark background*' of 
consciousness, the unconscious. The introverted attitude is char 
acterized in general by an emphasis on the a priori data of 
apperception. As is well known, the act of apperception consists 
of two phases; first the perception of the object, second the 
assimilation of the perception to a preexisting pattern or con 
cept by means of which the object is "comprehended." The 
psyche is not a nonentity devoid of all quality; it is a definite 
system made up of definite conditions and it reacts in a specific 
way. Every new representation, be it a perception or a spontane 
ous thought, arouses associations which derive from the store 
house of memory. These leap immediately into consciousness, 
producing the complex picture of an "impression," though this 
is already a sort of interpretation. The unconscious disposition 
upon which the quality of the impression depends is what I call 
the "subjective factor." It deserves the qualification "subjective" 
because objectivity is hardly ever conferred by a first impression. 
Usually a rather laborious process of verification, comparison, 
and analysis is needed to modify and adapt the immediate reac 
tions of the subjective factor. 

777 The prominence of the subjective factor does not imply a 
personal subjectivism, despite the readiness of the extraverted 
attitude to dismiss the subjective factor as "nothing but" sub 
jective. The psyche and its structure are real enough. They even 
transform material objects into psychic images, as we have said. 
They do not perceive waves, but sound; not wave-lengths, but 
colours. Existence is as we see and understand it. There are in 
numerable things that can be seen, felt, and understood in a 
great variety of ways. Quite apart from merely personal preju 
dices, the psyche assimilates external facts in its own way, which 
is based ultimately upon the laws or patterns of apperception. 
These laws do not change, although different ages or different 
parts of the world call them by different names. On a primitive 
level people are afraid of witches; on the modern level we are 
apprehensively aware of microbes. There everybody believes in 
ghosts, here everybody believes in vitamins. Once upon a time 
men were possessed by devils, now they are not less obsessed by 
ideas, and so on. 

^ Psychological Typ&, pars. toff. 

4 86 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

778 The subjective factor is made up, in the last resort, of the 
eternal patterns of psychic functioning. Anyone who relies upon 
the subjective factor is therefore basing himself on the reality of 
psychic law. So he can hardly be said to be wrong. If by this 
means he succeeds in extending his consciousness downwards, to 
touch the basic laws of psychic life, he is in possession of that 
truth which the psyche will naturally evolve if not fatally inter 
fered with by the non-psychic, i.e., the external, world. At any 
rate, his truth could be weighed against the sum of all knowl 
edge acquired through the investigation of externals. We in 
the West believe that a truth is satisfactory only if it can be 
verified by external facts. We believe in the most exact observa 
tion and exploration of nature; our truth must coincide with 
the behaviour of the external world, otherwise it is merely 
"subjective." In the same way that the East turns its gaze from 
the dance of prakriti (physis) and from the multitudinous il 
lusory forms of mayd, the West shuns the unconscious and its 
futile fantasies. Despite its introverted attitude, however, the 
East knows very well how to deal with the external world. And 
despite its extraversions the West, too, has a way of dealing with 
the psyche and its demands; it has an institution called the 
Church, which gives expression to the unknown psyche of man 
through its rites and dogmas. Nor are natural science and mod 
ern techniques by any means the invention of the West Their 
Eastern equivalents are somewhat old-fashioned, or even primi 
tive. But what we have to show in the way of spiritual insight 
and psychological technique must seem, when compared with 
yoga, just as backward as Eastern astrology and medicine when 
compared with Western science. I do not deny the efficacy of 
the Christian Church; but, if you compare the Exercitia of 
Ignatius Loyola with yoga, you will take my meaning. There is 
a difference, and a big one. To jump straight from that level 
into Eastern yoga is no more advisable than the sudden trans 
formation of Asian peoples into half-baked Europeans. I have 
. serious doubts as to the blessings of Western civilization, and I 
have similar misgivings as to the adoption of Eastern spirituality 
by the West. Yet the two contradictory worlds have met. The 
East is in full transformation; it is thoroughly and fatally dis 
turbed. Even the most efficient methods of European warfare 
have been successfully imitated. The trouble with us seems to 

487 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



be far more psychological. Our blight is ideologies-they are the 
long-expected Antichrist! National Socialism comes as near to 
being a religious movement as any movement since A.D. 622. 9a 
Communism claims to be paradise come to earth again. We are 
far better protected against failing crops, inundations, epi 
demics, and invasions from the Turk than we are against our 
own deplorable spiritual inferiority, which seems to have little 
resistance to psychic epidemics. 

779 In its religious attitude, too, the West is extraverted. Nowa 
days it is gratuitously offensive to say that Christianity implies 
hostility, or even indifference, to the world and the flesh. On 
the contrary, the good Christian is a jovial citizen, an enterpris 
ing business man, an excellent soldier, the very best in every 
profession there is. Worldly goods are often interpreted as 
special rewards for Christian behaviour, and in the Lord's 
Prayer the adjective crio&nos, supersubstantialis, 10 referring to 
the bread, has long since been omitted, for the real bread obvi 
ously makes so very much more sense! It is only logical that 
extraversion, when carried to such lengths, cannot credit man 
with a psyche which contains anything not imported into it 
from outside, either by human teaching or divine grace. From 
this point of view it is downright blasphemy to assert that man 
has it in him to accomplish his own redemption. Nothing in our 
religion encourages the idea of the self-liberating power of the 
mind. Yet a very modern form of psychology "analytical" or 
"complex" psychology envisages the possibility of there being 
certain processes in the unconscious which, by virtue of their 
symbolism, compensate the defects and anfractuosities of the 
conscious attitude. When these unconscious compensations are 
made conscious through the analytical technique, they produce 
such a change in the conscious attitude that we are entitled to 
speak of a new level of consciousness. The method cannot, how 
ever, produce the actual process of unconscious compensation; 
for that we depend upon the unconscious psyche or the "grace 
of God" names make no difference. But the unconscious proc 
ess itself hardly ever reaches consciousness without technical 
aid. When brought to the surface, it reveals contents that offer 

[Date of Mohammed's flight (hegrra) to Medina: beginning ol Moslem era.] 
10 This is not the unacceptable translation of ia-to&rto* by Jerome but the ancient 
spiritual interpretation by Tamilian, Origen, and others. 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

a striking contrast to the general run of conscious thinking and 
feeling. If that were not so, they would not have a compensatory 
effect. The first effect, however, is usually a conflict, because the 
conscious attitude resists the intrusion of apparently incom 
patible and extraneous tendencies, thoughts, feelings, etc. 
Schizophrenia yields the most startling examples of such intru 
sions of utterly foreign and unacceptable contents. In schizo 
phrenia it is, of course, a question of pathological distortions 
and exaggerations, but anybody with the slightest knowledge of 
the normal material will easily recognize the sameness of the 
underlying patterns. It is, as a matter of fact, the same imagery 
that one finds in mythology and other archaic thought-forms. 

780 Under normal conditions, every conflict stimulates the mind 
to activity for the purpose of creating a satisfactory solution. 
Usually i.e., in the West the conscious standpoint arbitrarily 
decides against the unconscious, since anything coming from 
inside suffers from the prejudice of being regarded as inferior 
or somehow wrong. But in the cases with which we are here con 
cerned it is tacitly agreed that the apparently incompatible con 
tents shall not be suppressed again, and that the conflict shall 
be accepted and suffered. At first no solution appears possible, 
and this fact, too, has to be borne with patience. The suspension 
thus created "constellates" the unconscious in other words, the 
conscious suspense produces a new compensatory reaction in the 
unconscious. This reaction (usually manifested in dreams) is 
brought to conscious realization in its turn. The conscious mind 
is thus confronted with a new aspect of the psyche, which arouses 
a different problem or modifies an old one in an unexpected way. 
The procedure is continued until the original conflict is satisfac 
torily resolved. The whole process is called the "transcendent 
function." It is a process and a method at the same time. The 
production of unconscious compensations is a spontaneous 
process; the conscious realization is a method. The function is 
called "transcendent" because it facilitates the transition from 
one psychic condition to another by means of the mutual con 
frontation of opposites. 

7 Sl This is a very sketchy description of the transcendent func 
tion, and for details I must refer the reader to the relevant 
literature. 11 But I felt it necessary to call attention to these 

11 Psychological Types, Def. 51. [Cf. also The Transcendent Function/*] 

489 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



psychological observations and methods because they indicate 
the way by which we may find access to the sort of "mind" re 
ferred to in our text. This is the image-creating mind, the 
matrix of all those patterns that give apperception its peculiar 
character. These patterns are inherent in the unconscious 
"mind"; they are its structural elements, and they alone can 
explain -why certain mythological motifs are more or less ubiqui 
tous, even where migration as a means of transmission is exceed 
ingly improbable. Dreams, fantasies, and psychoses produce 
images to all appearances identical with mythological motifs of 
which the individuals concerned had absolutely no knowledge, 
not even indirect knowledge acquired through popular figures 
of speech or through the symbolic language of the Bible. 12 The 
psychopathology of schizophrenia, as well as the psychology of 
the unconscious, demonstrate the production of archaic material 
beyond a doubt. Whatever the structure of the unconscious may 
be, one thing is certain: it contains an indefinite number of 
motifs or patterns of an archaic character, in principle identical 
with the root ideas of mythology and similar thought-forms. 
78* Because the unconscious is the matrix mind, the quality of 
creativeness attaches to it. It is the birthplace of thought-forms 
such as our text considers the Universal Mind to be. Since we 
cannot attribute any particular form to the unconscious, the 
Eastern assertion that the Universal Mind is without form, the 
arupaloka, yet is the source of all forms, seems to be psychologi 
cally justified. In so far as the forms or patterns of the uncon 
scious belong to no time in particular, being seemingly eternal, 
they convey a peculiar feeling of timelessness when consciously 
realized. We find similar statements in primitive psychology: 
for instance, the Australian word aljira 1S means 'dream' as well 
as 'ghostland* and the 'time* in which the ancestors lived and 
still live. It is, as they say, the 'time when there was no time/ 
This looks like an obvious concretization and projection of the 

12 Some people find such statements incredible. But either they have no knowl 
edge of primitive psychology, or they are ignorant of the results of psychopatho- 
logical research. Specific observations occur in my Symbols of Transformation 
and Psychology and Alchemy, Part II; Nelken, "Analytische Beobachtungen 
fiber Phantasien eines Schizophrenen," pp. 5048.; Spielrein, "Cber den psycho- 
logischen Inhalt eines Falls von Schizophrenic, 1 * pp. 5295.; and C. A. Meier, 
"Spontanmanifestationen des kollektiven Unbewussien." 

13 Levy-Bruhl, La Mythologie primitive, pp. xxiii ff. 

49 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

unconscious with all its characteristic qualities its dream mani 
festations, its ancestral world o thought-forms, and its timeless- 
ness. 

783 An introverted attitude, therefore, which withdraws its em 
phasis from the external world (the world of consciousness) and 
localizes it in the subjective factor (the background of conscious 
ness) necessarily calls forth the characteristic manifestations of 
the unconscious, namely, archaic thought-forms imbued with 
"ancestral" or "historic" feeling, and, beyond them, the sense 
of indefiniteness, timelessness, oneness. The extraordinary feel 
ing of oneness is a common experience in all forms of "mysti 
cism" and probably derives from the general contamination of 
contents, which increases as consciousness dims. The almost 
limitless contamination of images in dreams, and particularly 
in the products of insanity, testifies to their unconscious origin. 
In contrast to the clear distinction and differentiation of forms 
in consciousness, unconscious contents are incredibly vague and 
for this reason capable of any amount of contamination. If we 
tried to conceive of a state in which nothing is distinct, we 
should certainly feel the whole as one. Hence it is not unlikely 
that the peculiar experience of oneness derives from the sublim 
inal awareness of all-contamination in the unconscious. 

784 By means of the transcendent function we not only gain 
access to the "One Mind" but also come to understand why the 
East believes in the possibility of self-liberation. If, through 
introspection and the conscious realization of unconscious com 
pensations, it is possible to transform one's mental condition 
and thus arrive at a solution of painful conflicts, one would seem 
entitled to speak of "self-liberation." But, as I have already 
hinted, there is a hitch in this proud claim to self-liberation, for 
a man cannot produce these unconscious compensations at will. 
He has to rely upon the possibility that they may be produced. 
Nor can he alter the peculiar character of the compensation: 
est ut est aut non est'it is as it is or it isn't at all/ It is a 
curious thing that Eastern philosophy seems to be almost un 
aware of this highly important fact. And it is precisely this fact 
that provides the psychological justification for the Western 
point of view. It seems as if the Western mind had a most pene 
trating intuition of man's fateful dependence upon some dark 
power which must co-operate if all is to be well. Indeed, when- 

49* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



ever and wherever the unconscious fails to co-operate, man is 
instantly at a loss, even in his most ordinary activities. There 
may be a failure of memory, of co-ordinated action, or of in 
terest and concentration; and such failure may well be the cause 
of serious annoyance, or of a fatal accident, a professional dis 
aster, or a moral collapse. Formerly, men called the gods un 
favourable; now we prefer to call it a neurosis, and we seek the 
cause in lack of vitamins, in endocrine disturbances, overwork, 
or sex. The co-operation of the unconscious, which is something 
we never think of and always take for granted, is, when it sud 
denly fails, a very serious matter indeed. 

7 8 5 In comparison with other races the Chinese for instance 
the white man's mental equilibrium, or, to put it bluntly, 
his brain, seems to be his tender spot. We naturally try to get as 
far away from our weaknesses as possible, a fact which may 
explain the sort of extraversion that is always seeking security 
by dominating its surroundings. Extraversion goes hand in 
hand with mistrust of the inner man, if indeed there is any 
consciousness of him at all. Moreover, we all tend to undervalue 
the things we are afraid of. There must be some such reason 
for our absolute conviction that nihil est in intellects, quod non 
an tea fuerit in sensu, which is the motto of Western extraver 
sion. But, as we have emphasized, this extraversion is psycho 
logically justified by the vital fact that unconscious compensa 
tion lies beyond man's control. I know that yoga prides itself 
on being able to control even the unconscious processes, so 
that nothing can happen in the psyche as a whole that is not 
ruled by a supreme consciousness. I have not the slightest doubt 
that such a condition is more or less possible. But it is possible 
only at the price of becoming identical with the unconscious. 
Such an identity is the Eastern equivalent of our Western fetish 
of "complete objectivity," the machine-like subservience to one 
goal, to one idea or cause, at the cost of losing every trace of 
inner life. From the Eastern point of view this complete ob 
jectivity is appalling, for it amounts to complete identity with 
the samsara; to the West, on the other hand, samadhi is nothing 
but a meaningless dream-state. In the East, the inner man has 
always had such a firm hold on the outer man that the world 
had no chance of tearing him away from his inner roots; in the 
West, the outer man gained the ascendancy to such an extent 

492 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION'* 

that he was alienated from his innermost being. The One Mind, 
Oneness, indefiniteness, and eternity remained the prerogative 
of the One God. Man became small, futile, and essentially in 
the wrong. 

7 s6 I think it is becoming clear from my argument that the two 
standpoints, however contradictory, each have their psychologi 
cal justification. Both are one-sided in that they fail to see and 
take account of those factors which do not fit in with their 
typical attitude. The one underrates the world of consciousness, 
the other the world of the One Mind. The result is that, in their 
extremism, both lose one half of the universe; their life is shut 
off from total reality, and is apt to become artificial and inhu 
man. In the West, there is the mania for "objectivity," the 
asceticism of the scientist or of the stockbroker, who throw away 
the beauty and universality of life for the sake of the ideal, or 
not so ideal, goal. In the East, there is the wisdom, peace, de 
tachment, and inertia of a psyche that has returned to its dim 
origins, having left behind all the sorrow and joy of existence 
as it is and, presumably, ought to be. No wonder that one-sided- 
ness produces very similar forms of monasticism in both cases, 
guaranteeing to the hermit, the holy man, the monk or the 
scientist unswerving singleness of purpose. I have nothing 
against one-sidedness as such. Man, the great experiment of na 
ture, or his own great experiment, is evidently entitled to all 
such undertakings if he can endure them. Without one-sided- 
ness the spirit of man could not unfold in all its diversity. But 
I do not think there is any harm in trying to understand both 
sides. 

7 8 7 The extraverted tendency of the West and the introverted 
tendency of the East have one important purpose in common: 
both make desperate efforts to conquer the mere naturalness of 
life. It is the assertion of mind over matter, the opus contra 
naturam, a symptom of the youthfulness of man, still delighting 
in the use of the most powerful weapon ever devised by nature: 
the conscious mind. The afternoon of humanity, in a distant 
future, may yet evolve a different ideal. In time, even conquest 
will cease to be the dream. 



493 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



2. COMMENTS ON THE TEXT 

788 Before embarking upon the commentary proper, I must not 
omit to call the reader's attention to the very marked difference 
between the tenor of a psychological dissertation and that ot a 
sacred text. A scientist forgets all too easily that the impartial 
handling of a subject may violate its emotional values, often to 
an unpardonable degree. The scientific intellect is inhuman 
and cannot afford to be anything else; it cannot avoid being 
ruthless in effect, though it may be well-intentioned in motive. 
In dealing with a sacred text, therefore, the psychologist ought 
at least to be aware that his subject represents an inestimable 
religious and philosophical value which should not be dese 
crated by profane hands. I confess that I myself venture to deal 
with such a text only because I know and appreciate its value. 
In commenting upon it I have no intention whatsoever of 
anatomizing it with heavy-handed criticism. On the contrary, 
my endeavour will be to amplify its symbolic language so that 
it may yield itself more easily to our understanding. To this 
end, it is necessary to bring down its lofty metaphysical con 
cepts to a level where it is possible to see whether any of the 
psychological facts known to us have parallels in, or at least 
border upon, the sphere of Eastern thought. I hope this will not 
be misunderstood as an attempt to belittle or to banalize; my 
aim is simply to bring ideas which are alien to our way of think 
ing within reach of Western psychological experience. 

789 What follows is a series of notes and comments which should 
be read together with the textual sections indicated by the titles. 

The Obeisance 

790 Eastern texts usually begin with a statement which in the 
West would come at the end, as the conclusio finalis to a long 
argument. We would begin with things generally known and 
accepted, and would end with the most important item of our 
investigation. Hence our dissertation would conclude with the. 
sentence: "Therefore the Trikaya is the All-Enlightened Mind 
itself." In this respect, the Eastern mentality is not so very dif 
ferent from the medieval. As late as the eighteenth century our 
books on history or natural science began, as here, with God's 

494 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

decision to create a world. The idea of a Universal Mind is a 
commonplace in the East, since it aptly expresses the introverted 
Eastern temperament. Put into psychological language, the 
above sentence could be paraphrased thus: The unconscious is 
the root of all experience of oneness (dharmakayd), the matrix 
of all archetypes or structural patterns (sambhogakaya), and the 
conditio sine qua non of the phenomenal world (nirmanakaya). 

The Foreword 

791 The gods are archetypal thought-forms belonging to the 
sambhogakaya.^ Their peaceful and wrathful aspects, which play 
a great role in the meditations of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, 
symbolize the opposites. In the nirmdnakaya these opposites are 
no more than human conflicts, but in the sambhogakaya they 
are the positive and negative principles united in one and the 
same figure. This corresponds to the psychological experience, 
also formulated in Lao-tzu's Tao Teh Ching, that there is no 
position without its negation. Where there is faith, there is 
doubt; where there is doubt, there is credulity; where there is 
morality, there is temptation. Only saints have diabolical visions, 
and tyrants are the slaves of their valets de chambre. If we 
carefully scrutinize our own character we shall inevitably find 
that, as Lao-tzu says, "high stands on low," which means that 
the opposites condition one another, that they are really one 
and the same thing. This can easily be seen in persons with an 
inferiority complex: they foment a little megalomania some 
where. The fact that the opposites appear as gods comes from 
the simple recognition that they are exceedingly powerful. 
Chinese philosophy therefore declared them to be cosmic prin 
ciples, and named them yang and yin. Their power increases 
the more one tries to separate them. "When a tree grows up to 
heaven its roots reach down to hell," says Nietzsche. Yet, above 
as below, it is the same tree. It is characteristic of our Western 
mentality that we should separate the two aspects into antag 
onistic personifications: God and the Devil. And it is equally 
characteristic of the worldly optimism of Protestantism that it 
should have hushed up the Devil in a tactful sort of way, at any 

w Cf, the Shri-CkakTa-Sambhara Tantra, in Avalon, ecL, Tantric Texts, VBL 

495 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



rate in recent times. Omne bonum a Deo, omne malum ab 
homine is the uncomfortable consequence. 

79* The "seeing of reality" clearly refers to Mind as the supreme 
reality. In the West, however, the unconscious is considered to 
be a fantastic irreality. The "seeing of the Mind" implies self- 
liberation. This means, psychologically, that the more weight 
we attach to unconscious processes the more we detach our 
selves from the world of desires and of separated opposites, and 
the nearer we draw to the state of unconsciousness with its qual 
ities of oneness, indefiniteness, and timelessness. This is truly 
a liberation of the self from its bondage to strife and suffering. 
"By this method, one's mind is understood." Mind in this con 
text is obviously the individual's mind, that is, his psyche. 
Psychology can agree in so far as the understanding of the un 
conscious is one of its foremost tasks. 

Salutation to the One Mind 

793 This section shows very clearly that the One Mind is the 
unconscious, since it is characterized as "eternal, unknown, 
not visible, not recognized." But it also displays positive fea 
tures which are in keeping with Eastern experience. These are 
the attributes "ever clear, ever existing, radiant and unob- 
scured.'* It is an undeniable psychological fact that the more 
^ne concentrates on one's unconscious contents the more they 
become charged with energy; they become vitalized, as if il 
luminated from within. In fact they turn into something like a 
substitute reality. In analytical psychology we make methodical 
use of this phenomenon. I have called the method "active 
imagination." Ignatius Loyola also made use of active imagina 
tion in his Exercitia* There is evidence that something similar 
was used in the meditations of alchemical philosophy, 15 

The Result of Not Knowing the One Mind 

794 "Knowledge of that which is vulgarly called mind is wide 
spread." This clearly refers to the conscious mind of every 
body, in contrast to the One Mind which is unknown, i.e., 
unconscious. These teachings "will also be sought after by ordi- 

15 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pare. $90$. {Also Mysterium Coniunctionis, pars. 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION 

nary individuals who, not knowing the One Mind, do not know 
themselves/' Self-knowledge is here definitely identified with 
"knowing the One Mind," which means that knowledge of the 
unconscious is essential for any understanding of one's own 
psychology. The desire for such knowledge is a well-established 
fact in the West, as evidenced by the rise of psychology in our 
time and a growing interest in these matters. The public desire 
for more psychological knowledge is largely due to the suffering 
which results from the disuse of religion and from the lack of 
spiritual guidance. "They wander hither and thither in the 
Three Regions . . . suffering sorrow." As we know what a 
neurosis can mean in moral suffering, this statement needs no 
comment. This section formulates the reasons why we have such 
a thing as the psychology of the unconscious today. 

795 Even if one wishes "to know the mind as it is, one fails." 
The text again stresses how hard it is to gain access to the basic 
mind, because it is unconscious. 

The Results of Desires 

796 Those "fettered by desires cannot perceive the Clear Light" 
The "Clear Light" again refers to the One Mind. Desires crave 
for external fulfilment. They forge the chain that fetters man 
to the world of consciousness. In that condition he naturally 
cannot become aware of his unconscious contents. And indeed 
there is a healing power in withdrawing from the conscious 
world up to a point. Beyond that point, which varies with indi 
viduals, withdrawal amounts to neglect and repression. 

797 Even the "Middle Path" finally becomes "obscured by de 
sires." This is a very true statement, which cannot be dinned too 
insistently into European ears. Patients and normal individuals, 
on becoming acquainted with their unconscious material, hurl 
themselves upon it with the same heedless desirousness and 
greed that before had engulfed them in their extraversion. The 
problem is not so much a withdrawal from the objects of de 
sire, as a more detached attitude to desire as such, no matter 
what its object. We cannot compel unconscious compensation 
through the impetuousness of uncontrolled desire. We have to 
wait patiently to see whether it will come of its own accord, 
and put up with whatever form it takes. Hence we are forced 

497 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



into a sort of contemplative attitude which, in itself, not rarely 
has a liberating and healing effect. 

The Transcendent At-one-ment 

798 "There being really no duality, pluralism is untrue." This is 
certainly one of the most fundamental truths of the East. There 
are no opposites it is the same tree above and below. The Tab 
ula smaragdina says: "Quod est inferius est sicut quod est su- 
perius, Et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad 
perpetranda miracula rei unius." 16 Pluralism is even more 
illusory, since all separate forms originate in the indistinguish 
able oneness of the psychic matrix, deep down in the uncon 
scious. The statement made by our text refers psychologically 
to the subjective factor, to the material immediately constel 
lated by a stimulus, i.e., the first impression which, as we have 
seen, interprets every new perception in terms of previous ex 
perience. "Previous experience'* goes right back to the instincts, 
and thus to the inherited and inherent patterns of psychic func 
tioning, the ancestral and "eternal" laws of the human mind. 
But the statement entirely ignores the possible transcendent 
reality of the physical world as such, a problem not unknown 
to Sankhya philosophy, where prakriti and purushaso far as 
they are a polarization of Universal Being form a cosmic dual 
ism that can hardly be circumvented. One has to close one's eyes 
to dualism and pluralism alike, and forget all about the exist 
ence of a world, as soon as one tries to identify oneself with the 
monistic origin of life. The questions naturally arise: "Why 
should the One appear as the Many, when ultimate reality is 
All-One? What is the cause of pluralism, or of the illusion of 
pluralism? If the One is pleased with itself, why should it mirror 
itself in the Many? Which after all is the more real, the one that 
mirrors itself, or the mirror it uses?" Probably we should not 
ask such questions, seeing that there is no answer to them. 

799 It is psychologically correct to say that "At-one-ment" is 
attained by withdrawal from the world of consciousness. In the 
stratosphere of the unconscious there are no more thunder- 
is "What is below is like what is above. And what is above is like what is below, 
so that the miracle of the One may be accomplished." Cf, Ruska, Tabula Smarag- 

, p. 2. 

498 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

storms, because nothing is differentiated enough to produce 
tensions and conflicts. These belong to the surface of our reality. 

800 The Mind in which the irreconcilables samsara and nir 
vanaare united is ultimately our mind. Does this statement 
spring from profound modesty or from overweening hybris? 
Does it mean that the Mind is "nothing but" our mind? Or that 
our mind is the Mind? Assuredly it means the latter, and from 
the Eastern point of view there is no hybris in this; on the con 
trary, it is a perfectly acceptable truth, whereas with us it would 
amount to saying "I am God." This is an incontestable "mysti 
cal" experience, though a highly objectionable one to the 
Westerner; but in the East, where it derives from a mind that 
has never lost touch with the instinctual matrix, it has a very 
different value. The collective introverted attitude of the East 
did not permit the world of the senses to sever the vital link with 
the unconscious; psychic reality was never seriously disputed, 
despite the existence of so-called materialistic speculations. The 
only known analogy to this fact is the mental condition of the 
primitive, who confuses dream and reality in the most bewilder 
ing way. Naturally we hesitate to call the Eastern mind primi 
tive, for we are deeply impressed with its remarkable civiliza 
tion and differentiation. Yet the primitive mind is its matrix, 
and this is particularly true of that aspect of it which stresses 
the validity of psychic phenomena, such as relate to ghosts and 
spirits. The West has simply cultivated the other aspect of primi- 
tivity, namely, the scrupulously accurate observation of nature 
at the expense of abstraction. Our natural science is the epitome 
of primitive man's astonishing powers of observation. We have 
added only a moderate amount of abstraction, for fear of being 
contradicted by the facts. The East, on the other hand, cultivates 
the psychic aspect of primitivity together with an inordinate 
amount of abstraction. Facts make excellent stories but not 
much more. 

80* Thus, if the East speaks of the Mind as being inherent in 
everybody, no more hybris or modesty is involved than in the 
European's belief in facts, which are mostly derived from map's 
own observation and sometimes from rather less than his ob 
servation, to wit, his interpretation- He is, therefore, quite right 
to be afraid of too much abstraction. 

499 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



The Great Self -Liberation 

Soa I have mentioned more than once that the shifting o the 
basic personality-feeling to the less conscious mental sphere has 
a liberating effect I have also described, somewhat cursorily, 
the transcendent function which produces the transformation 
of personality, and I have emphasized the importance of spon 
taneous unconscious compensation. Further, I have pointed out 
the neglect of this crucial fact in yoga. This section tends to 
confirm my observations. The grasping of "the whole essence 
of these teachings" seems also to be the whole essence of "self- 
liberation." The Westerner would take this to mean: "Learn 
your lesson and repeat it, and then you will be self-liberated." 
That, indeed, is precisely what happens with most Western 
practitioners of yoga. They are very apt to "do" it in an ex- 
traverted fashion, oblivious of the inturning of the mind which 
is the essence of such teachings. In the East, the "truths" are so 
much a part of the collective consciousness that they are at least 
intuitively grasped by the pupil. If the European could turn 
himself inside out and live as an Oriental, with all the social, 
moral, religious, intellectual, and aesthetic obligations which 
such a course would involve, he might be able to benefit by 
these teachings. But you cannot be a good Christian, either in 
your faith or in your morality or in your intellectual make-up, 
and practise genuine yoga at the same time. I have seen too 
many cases that have made me sceptical in the highest degree. 
The trouble is that Western man cannot get rid of his history as 
easily as his short-legged memory can. History, one might say, 
is written in the blood. I would not advise anyone to touch yoga 
without a careful analysis of his unconscious reactions. What is 
the use of imitating yoga if your dark side remains as good a 
medieval Christian as ever? If you can afford to seat yourself 
on a gazelle skin under a Bo-tree or in the cell of a gompa for 
the rest of your life without being troubled by politics or the 
collapse of your securities, I will look favourably upon your 
case. But yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place 
which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake. 

803 Taking the mental equipment of Eastern man into account, 
we may suppose that the teaching is effective. But unless one is 
prepared to turn away from the world and to disappear into the 

500 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

unconscious for good, mere teaching has no effect, or at least 
not the desired one. For this the union of opposites is necessary, 
and in particular the difficult task of reconciling extraversion 
and introversion by means of the transcendent function, 

The Nature of Mind 

804 This section contains a valuable piece of psychological in 
formation. The text says: "The mind is of intuitive ("quick- 
knowing") Wisdom." Here "mind" is understood to be identical 
with immediate awareness of the "first impression" which con 
veys the whole sum of previous experience based upon instinc 
tual patterns. This bears out our remarks about the essentially 
introverted prejudice of the East. The formula also draws atten 
tion to the highly differentiated character of Eastern intuition. 
The intuitive mind is noted for its disregard of facts in favour 
of possibilities. 17 

805 The assertion that the Mind "has no existence" obviously 
refers to the peculiar "potentiality" of the unconscious. A thing 
seems to exist only to the degree that we are aware of it, which 
explains why so many people are disinclined to believe in the 
existence of an unconscious. When I tell a patient that he is 
chock full of fantasies, he is often astonished beyond all measure, 
having been completely unaware of the fantasy-life he was 
leading. 

The Names Given to the Mind 

&>6 The various terms employed to express a "difficult" or "ob 
scure" idea are a valuable source of information about the ways 
in which that idea can be interpreted, and at the same time an 
indication of its doubtful or controversial nature even in the 
country, religion, or philosophy to which it is indigenous. If the 
idea were perfectly straightforward and enjoyed general ac 
ceptance, there would be no reason to call it by a number of 
different names. But when something is little known, or ambigu 
ous, it can be envisaged from different angles, and then a mul 
tiplicity of names is needed to express its peculiar nature* A 
classical example of this is the philosophers' stone; many of the 
old alchemical treatises give long lists of its names. 

17 Cf. Psychological Types, Def. 55. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



807 The statement that "the various names given to it [the Mind] 
are innumerable" proves that the Mind must be something as 
vague and indefinite as the philosophers' stone. A substance 
that can be described in "innumerable" ways must be expected 
to display as many qualities or facets. If these are really "innum 
erable,* 1 they cannot be counted, and it follows that the sub 
stance is well-nigh indescribable and unknowable. It can never 
be realized completely. This is certainly true of the unconscious, 
and a further proof that the Mind is the Eastern equivalent of 
our concept of the unconscious, more particularly of the collec 
tive unconscious. 

808 In keeping with this hypothesis, the text goes on to say that 
the Mind is also called the "Mental Self/' The "self" is an im 
portant concept in analytical psychology, where much has been 
said that I need not repeat here. I would refer the interested 
reader to the literature given below. 18 Although the symbols of 
the "self are produced by unconscious activity and are mostly 
manifested in dreams, 19 the facts which the idea covers are not 
merely mental; they include aspects of physical existence as well. 
In this and other Eastern texts the "Self" represents a purely 
spiritual idea, but in Western psychology the "self" stands for a 
totality which comprises instincts, physiological and semi-physio 
logical phenomena. To us a purely spiritual totality is incon 
ceivable for the reasons mentioned above. 20 

809 it is interesting to note that in the East, too, there are 
"heretics" who identify the Self with the ego. 21 With us this 
heresy is pretty widespread and is subscribed to by all those 
who firmly believe that ego-consciousness is the only form of 
psychic life. 

810 The Mind as "the means of attaining the Other Shore" 
points to a connection between the transcendent function and 
the idea of the Mind or Self. Since the unknowable substance 
of the Mind, i.e., of the unconscious, always represents itself to 
consciousness in the form of symbols the self being one such 

38 Cf. Two Essvys on Analytical Psychology, index, s.v. "self; Psychological Types, 
Def. 16 [and 46 in Coll. Works* 6]; Psychology find Alchemy, Part II; Aion, cfa. IV. 
i* One such case is described in Part II of Psychology end Akhemy. 

20 This is no criticism of the Eastern point of view rn toto; for, according to the 
Amitayur-dhy&ne Sutra, the Buddha's body is included in the meditation. 

21 Cf. for ir^^rxy, Chhondogy* U pan i shad, viii. 8. 

502 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION 

symbol the symbol functions as a "means of attaining the Other 
Shore," in other words, as a means of transformation. In my 
essay on psychic energy I said that the symbol acts as a trans 
former of energy. 22 

8n My interpretation of the Mind or Self as a symbol is not 
arbitrary; the text itself calls it "The Great Symbol." 

812 It is also remarkable that our text recognizes the "potential 
ity" of the unconscious, as formulated above, by calling the 
Mind the "Sole Seed" and the "Potentiality of Truth." 

813 The matrix-character of the unconscious comes out in the 
term "All-Foundation." 

The Timelessness of Mind 

814 I have already explained this "timelessness" as a quality 
inherent in the experience of the collective unconscious. The 
application of the "yoga of self-liberation" is said to reintegrate 
all forgotten knowledge of the past with consciousness. The 
motif of avoKCLTao-Tdo-is (restoration, restitution) occurs in many 
redemption myths and is also an important aspect of the psychol 
ogy of the unconscious, which reveals an extraordinary amount 
of archaic material in the dreams and spontaneous fantasies of 
normal and insane people. In the systematic analysis of an indi 
vidual the spontaneous reawakening of ancestral patterns (as a 
compensation) has the effect of a restoration. It is also a fact that 
premonitory dreams are relatively frequent, and this substan 
tiates what the text calls "knowledge of the future." 

815 The Mind's "own time" is very difficult to interpret. From 
the psychological point of view we must agree with Dr. Evans- 
Wentz's comment here. 2a The unconscious certainly has its "own 
time" inasmuch as past, present, and future are blended together 
in it. Dreams of the type experienced by J. W. Dunne, 24 where 
he dreamed the night before what he ought logically to have 
dreamed the night after, are not infrequent. 

22 "On Psychic Energy/' p, 48. 

23 Cf . his Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, p. 2 10, n. 3. 

24 An Experiment with Time. [Cf. Jung's "SynchronicUy: An Acausal ConnfctiBg 
Principle/' p. ^ 



53 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



Mind in Its True State 

816 This section describes the state of detached consciousness ** 
which corresponds to a psychic experience very common 
throughout the East. Similar descriptions are to be found in 
Chinese literature, as, for instance, in the Hui Ming Ch'ing: 

A luminosity surrounds the world of spirit. 

We forget one another when, still and pure, we draw strength from 

the Void. 

The Void is filled with the light of the Heart of Heaven . . . 
Consciousness dissolves in vision. 26 

81 7 The statement "Nor is one's own mind separable from 
other minds" is another way of expressing the fact of "all-con 
tamination." Since all distinctions vanish in the unconscious 
condition, it is only logical that the distinction between separate 
minds should disappear too. Wherever there is a lowering of 
the conscious level we come across instances of unconscious 
identity, 27 or what Lvy-Bruhl calls "participation mystique." 28 
The realization of the One Mind is, as our text says, the "at-one- 
ment of the Trikdya"; in fact it creates the at-one-ment. But we 
are unable to imagine how such a realization could ever be 
complete in any human individual. There must always be some 
body or something left over to experience the realization, to say 
"I know at-one-ment, I know there is no distinction." The very 
fact of the realization proves its inevitable incompleteness. One 
cannot know something that is not distinct from oneself. Even 

251 have explained this in my "Commentary on The Secret of the Golden 
Flower/' pars. 64*!. 26 From the [German] trans, of L. C. Lo, I, p. 114. [Cf. 

Golden Flower, 1965, pp. 77!] ^Psychological Types, Def. 25. 

28 Cf. Levy-Bruhl, How Natives Think. Recently this concept as well as that of 
the e"Utt prtlogique have been severely criticized by ethnologists, and moreover 
Levy-Bruhl himself began to doubt their validity in the last years of his life. 
First he cancelled the adjective "mystique," growing afraid of the term's bad 
reputation in intellectual circles. It is rather to be regretted that he made such a 
concession to rationalistic superstition, since "mystique** is just the right word to 
characterize the peculiar quality of "unconscious identity."" There is always some 
thing numinous about it, Uncaosdous identity is a weH-known psychological and 
psychopathological phenomenon (identity with persons, things, functions, roles, 
positions, creeds, etc), which is only a shade more characteristic of the primitive 
than of the civilized mind. LeVy-Brahl, unfortunately having no psychological 
knowledge, was not aware of this fact, and his opponents ignore it, 

5<>4 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

when I say "I know myself," an infinitesimal ego the knowing 
"I" is still distinct from "myself." In this as it were atomic ego, 
which is completely ignored by the essentially non-dualist 
standpoint of the East, there nevertheless lies hidden the whole 
unabolished pluralistic universe and its unconquered reality, 

818 The experience of "at-one-ment" is one example of those 
"quick-knowing" realizations of the East, an intuition of what 
it would be like if one could exist and not exist at the same time. 
If I were a Moslem, I should maintain that the power of the 
All-Compassionate is infinite, and that He alone can make a 
man to be and not to be at the same time. But for my part I can 
not conceive of such a possibility. I therefore assume that, in this 
point, Eastern intuition has overreached itself. 

Mind Is Non-Created 

819 This section emphasizes that as the Mind is without charac 
teristics, one cannot assert that it is created. But then, it would 
be illogical to assert that it is non-created, for such a qualifica 
tion would amount to a "characteristic." As a matter of fact you 
can make no assertion whatever about a thing that is indistinct, 
void of characteristics and, moreover, "unknowable." For pre 
cisely this reason Western psychology does not speak of the One 
Mind, but of the unconscious, regarding it as a thing-in-itself, 
a noumenon, "a merely negative borderline concept," to quote 
Kant. 29 We have often been reproached for using such a negative 
term, but unfortunately intellectual honesty does not allow a 
positive one. 

The Yoga of Introspection 

820 Should there be any doubt left concerning the identity of 
the One Mind and the unconscious, this section certainly ought 
to dispel it. "The One Mind being verily of the Voidness and 
without any foundation, one's mind is, likewise, as vacuous as 
the sky." The One Mind and the individual mind are equally 
void and vacuous. Only the collective and the personal uncon 
scious can be meant by this statement, for the conscious mind is 
in no circumstances "vacuous." 

* Cf. The Critique of Pure Reason, sec. i, Part I, 2, 3 (ct trans, by Mtifciejoim, 

p. 188). 

55 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



8 As I have said earlier, the Eastern mind insists first and fore 
most upon the subjective factor, and in particular upon the 
intuitive "first impression/' or the psychic disposition. This is 
borne out by the statement that "AH appearances are verily one's 
own concepts, self-conceived in the mind/' 

The Dharma Within 

Dharma> law, truth, guidance, is said to be "nowhere save in 
the mind." Thus the unconscious is credited with all those 
faculties which the West attributes to God. The transcendent 
function, however, shows how right the East is in assuming that 
the complex experience of dharma comes from "within/* i.e., 
from the unconscious. It also shows that the phenomenon of 
spontaneous compensation, being beyond the control of man, is 
quite in accord with the formula "grace" or the "will of God." 

8 *3 This and the preceding section insist again and again that 
introspection is the only source of spiritual information and 
guidance. If introspection were something morbid, as certain 
people in the West opine, we should have to send practically the 
whole East, or such parts of it as are not yet infected with the 
blessings of the West, to the lunatic asylum. 

The Wondrousness of These Teachings 

8*4 This section calls the mind "Natural Wisdom," which is very 
much the same expression that I used in order to designate the 
symbols produced by the unconscious. I called them "natural 
symbols." * I chose the term before I had any knowledge of this 
text. I mention this fact simply because it illustrates the close 
parallelism between the findings of Eastern and Western psy 
chology. 

8 *5 The text also confirms what we said earlier about the im 
possibility of a "knowing" ego. "Although it is Total Reality, 
there is no perceiver of it Wondrous is this." Wondrous indeed, 
and incomprehensible; for how could such a thing ever be 
realized in the true sense of the word? "It remains undefiled by 
evil" and "it remains unallied to good." One is reminded of 
Nietzsche's "six thousand feet beyond good and evil." But the 
consequences of such a statement are usually ignored by the 

s& Cf . the first paper ia this volume, cfas, 2 and 5. 

506 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE GREAT LIBERATION" 

emulators of Eastern wisdom. While one is safely ensconced in 
one's cosy flat, secure in the favour of the Oriental gods, one is 
free to admire this lofty moral indifference. But does it agree 
with our temperament, or with our history, which is not thereby 
conquered but merely forgotten? I think not. Anyone who 
affects the higher yoga will be called upon to prove his profes 
sions of moral indifference, not only as the doer of evil but, even 
more, as its victim. As psychologists well know, the moral con 
flict is not to be settled merely by a declaration of superiority 
bordering on inhumanity. We are witnessing today some terrify 
ing examples of the Superman's aloofness from moral principles. 
I do not doubt that the Eastern liberation from vices, as well 
as from virtues, is coupled with detachment in every respect, so 
that the yogi is translated beyond this world, and quite inoffen 
sive. But I suspect every European attempt at detachment of 
being mere liberation from moral considerations. Anybody who 
tries his hand at yoga ought therefore to be conscious of its far- 
reaching consequences, or else his so-called quest will remain a 
futile pastime. 

The Fourfold Great Path 

The text says: "This meditation [is] devoid of mental con 
centration." The usual assumption about yoga is that it chiefly 
consists in intense concentration. We think we know what con 
centration means, but it is very difficult to arrive at a real under 
standing of Eastern concentration. Our sort may well be just the 
opposite of the Eastern, as a study of Zen Buddhism will show. 31 
However, if we take "devoid of mental concentration" literally, 
it can only mean that the meditation does not centre upon any 
thing. Not being centred, it would be rather like a dissolution 
of consciousness and hence a direct approach to the unconscious 
condition. Consciousness always implies a certain degree of con j 
centration, without which there would be no clarity of mental 
content and no consciousness of anything. Meditation without 
concentration would be a waking but empty condition, on the 
verge of falling asleep. Since our text calls this "the most ex 
cellent of meditations" we must suppose the existence of less 
excellent meditations which, we infer, would be characterized 

31 Cf. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism. 

507 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



by more concentration. The meditation our text has in mind 
seems to be a sort of Royal Road to the unconscious. 

The Great Light 

The central mystical experience of enlightenment is aptly 
symbolized by Light in most of the numerous forms of mysti 
cism. It is a curious paradox that the approach to a region which 
seems to us the way into utter darkness should yield the light 
of illumination as its fruit. This is, however, the usual enantio- 
dromia per tenebras ad litcem. Many initiation ceremonies 32 
stage a xarofrwris fc ayrpo* (descent into the cave), a diving down 
into the depths of the baptismal water, or a return to the womb 
of rebirth. Rebirth symbolism simply describes the union of 
opposites conscious and unconscious by means of concretistic 
analogies. Underlying all rebirth symbolism is the transcendent 
function. Since this function results in an increase of conscious 
ness (the previous condition augmented by the addition of 
formerly unconscious contents), the new condition carries more 
insight, which is symbolized by more light. 33 It is therefore a 
more enlightened state compared with the relative darkness of 
the previous state. In many cases the Light even appears in the 
form of a vision. 

The Yoga of the Nirvanic Path 

*$ This section gives one of the best formulations of the com 
plete dissolution of consciousness, which appears to be the goal 
of this yoga: "There being no two such things as action and 
performer of action, if one seeks the performer of action and 
no performer of action be found anywhere, thereupon the goal 
of all fruit-obtaining is reached and also the final consummation 
itself." 

With this very complete formulation of the method and its 
aim, I reach the end of my commentary. The text that follows, 
in Book II, is of great beauty and wisdom, and contains nothing 
that requires further comment. It can be translated into psy 
chological language and interpreted with the help of the prin 
ciples I have here set forth in Part I and illustrated in Part II. 

32 AS in the EJeusinian mysteries and the Mithras and Attis cults. 

33 in alchemy the philosophers' stone was called, among other things, lux 
modema, lux lucis, lumen famxnum, etc. 

508 



PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMENTARY ON 
'THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD" 



Before embarking upon the psychological commentary, I 
should like to say a few words about the text itself. The Tibetan 
Book of the Dead, or the Bardo Thodol, is a book of instruc 
tions for the dead and dying. Like the Egyptian Book of the 
Dead, it is meant to be a guide for the dead man during the 
period of his Bardo existence, symbolically described as an inter 
mediate state of forty-nine days' duration between death and 
rebirth. The text falls into three parts. The first part, called 
Chikhai Bardo, describes the psychic happenings at the moment 
of death. The second part, or Chonyid Bardo, deals with the 
dream-state which supervenes immediately after death, and with 
what are called "karmic illusions/' The third part, or Sidpa 
Bardo, concerns the onset of the birth-instinct and of prenatal 

l [Originally published as "Psychologischer Kommentar zum Bardo ThSdol" (pre 
ceded by an "Einfuhrung," partially translated in the first two pars, here), in Das 
Tibetanische Totenbuch, translated into German by Louise Gopfert-March 
(Zurich, 1935). As ultimately revised for the 5th (revised and expanded) Swiss 
edition (1953), the commentary was translated by R. F. C. Hull for publication in 
the $rd (revised and expanded) English edition (the original) of The Tibetan 
Book of the Dead, or The After-Death Experience on the "Bardo" Plane* accord 
ing to Lama Kazi Bawa-Samdup's English rendering, edited by W. Y. Evans- 
Wentz, with foreword by Sir John Woodroffe (London and New York, 1957). 
With only minor alterations, it is the translation presented here. EDITORS,] 

509 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



events. It is characteristic that supreme insight and illumination, 
and hence the greatest possibility of attaining liberation, are , 
vouchsafed during the actual process of dying. Soon afterward, 
the "illusions" begin which lead eventually to reincarnation, 
the illuminative lights growing ever fainter and more multifari 
ous, and the visions more and more terrifying. This descent 
illustrates the estrangement of consciousness from the liberating 
truth as it approaches nearer and nearer to physical rebirth. 
The purpose of the instruction is to fix the attention of the dead 
man, at each successive stage of delusion and entanglement, on 
the ever-present possibility of liberation, and to explain to him 
the nature of his visions. The text of the Bardo Thodol is re 
cited by the lama in the presence of the corpse. 
83* I do not think I could better discharge my debt of thanks to 
the two previous translators of the Bardo Thodol, the late Lama 
Razi Dawa-Samdup and Dr. Evans- Wentz, than by attempting, 
with the aid of a psychological commentary, to make the mag- 
nifkent world of ideas and the problems contained in this trea 
tise a little more intelligible to the Western mind. I am sure 
that all who read this book with open eyes, and who allow it to 
impress itself upon them without prejudice, will reap a rich 

reward. 

* 

833 The Bardo Thodol, fitly named by its editor, Dr, W. Y. 
Evans-Wentz, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead/' caused a con 
siderable stir in English-speaking countries at the time of its first 
appearance in 1927, It belongs to that class of writings which are 
not only of interest to specialists in Mahayana Buddhism, but 
which also, because of their deep humanity and their still deeper 
insight into the secrets of the human psyche, make an especial 
appeal to the layman who is seeking to broaden his knowledge 
of life. For years, ever since it was first published, the Bardo 
ThSdol has been my constant companion, and to it I owe not 
only many stimulating ideas and discoveries, but also many 
fundamental insights. Unlike the Egyptian Book of the Dead, 
which always prompts one to say too much or too little, the 
Bardo Th&dol offers one an intelligible philosophy addressed to 
human beings rather than to gods or primitive savages. Its phi 
losophy contains the quintessence of Buddhist psychological 
criticism; and, as such, one can truly say that it is of an unex- 

510 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD 



ampled sublimity. Not only the "wrathful'* but also the "peace 
ful" deities are conceived as samsaric projections of the human 
psyche, an idea that seems all too obvious to the enlightened 
European, because it reminds him of his own banal simplifica 
tions. But though the European can easily explain away these 
deities as projections, he would be quite incapable of positing 
them at the same time as real. The Bardo Thodol can do that, 
because, in certain of its most essential metaphysical premises, 
it has the enlightened as well as the unenlightened European at 
a disadvantage. The ever-present, unspoken assumption of the 
Bardo Thodol is the antinomian character of all metaphysical 
assertions, and also the idea of the qualitative difference of the 
various levels of consciousness and of the metaphysical realities 
conditioned by them. The background of this unusual book is 
not the niggardly European "either-or," but a magnificently 
affirmative "both-and." This statement may appear objection 
able to the Western philosopher, for the West loves clarity and 
unambiguity; consequently, one philosopher clings to the posi 
tion, "God is," while another clings equally fervently to the 
negation, "God is not." What would these hostile brethren make 
of an assertion like the following [p. 96]: 

Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood, 
and knowing it at the same time to be thine own consciousness, thou 
shalt abide in the state of the divine mind of the Buddha. 

854 Such an assertion is, I fear, as unwelcome to our Western 
philosophy as it is to our theology. The Bardo Thodol is in the 
highest degree psychological in its outlook; but, with us, phi 
losophy and theology are still in the medieval, pre-psychological 
stage where only the assertions are listened to, explained, de 
fended, criticized and disputed, while the authority that makes 
them has, by general consent, been deposed as outside the scope 
of discussion. 

835 Metaphysical assertions, however, are statements of the 
psyche, and are therefore psychological. To the Western mind, 
which compensates its well-known feelings of resentment by a 
slavish regard for "rational" explanations, this obvious truth 
seems all too obvious, or else it is seen as an inadmissible nega 
tion of metaphysical "truth." Whenever the Westerner hears 
the word "psychological," it always sounds to him like "only 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



psychological/' For him the "soul" is something pitifully small, 
unworthy, personal, subjective, and a lot more besides. He there 
fore prefers to use the word "mind" instead, though he likes to 
pretend at the same time that a statement which may in fact be 
very subjective indeed is made by the "mind," naturally by the 
"Universal Mind," or even at a pinchby the "Absolute" itself. 
This rather ridiculous presumption is probably a compensation 
for the regrettable sinallness of the soul. It almost seems as if 
Anatole France had uttered a truth which were valid for the 
whole Western world when, in his Penguin Island, Catherine 
d'Alexandrie offers this advice to God: "Donnez-leur une ame, 
mais une petite!" 

8 3 6 It is the psyche which, by the divine creative power inherent 
in it, makes the metaphysical assertion; it posits the distinctions 
between metaphysical entities. Not only is it the condition of 
all metaphysical reality, it is that reality. 

8 37 With this great psychological truth the Bar do Thodol opens. 
The book is not a ceremonial of burial, but a set of instructions 
for the dead, a guide through the changing phenomena of the 
Bardo realm, that state of existence which continues for forty- 
nine days after death until the next incarnation. If we disregard 
for the moment the supratemporality of the soul which the 
East accepts as a self-evident fact we, as readers of the Bardo 
Thodol, shall be able to put ourselves without difficulty in the 
position of the dead man, and shall consider attentively the teach 
ing set forth in the opening section, which is outlined in the 
quotation above. At this point, the following words are spoken, 
not presumptuously, but in a courteous manner [pp. 



O nobly born (so and so), listen. Now thou art experiencing the 
Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Reality. Recognize it. O nobly- 
born, thy present intellect, in real nature void, not formed into any 
thing as regards characteristics or colour, naturally void, is the very 
Reality, the All-Good. 

Thine own intellect, which is now voidness, yet not to be regarded 
as of the voidness of nothingness, but as being the intellect itself, 
unobstructed, shining, thrilling, and blissful, is the very conscious 
ness, the Ail-good Buddha. 

838 This realization is the Dkarmakaya state of perfect enlight 
enment; or, as we should express it in our own language, the 

512 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD*' 



creative ground of all metaphysical assertion is consciousness, as 
the invisible, intangible manifestation of the soul. The "Void- 
ness*' is the state transcendent over all assertion and all predica 
tion. The fulness of its discriminative manifestations still lies 
latent in the soul. 

839 The text continues: 

Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the 
Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Im 
mutable Light Buddha Amitabha. 

840 The soul is assuredly not small, but the radiant Godhead it 
self. The West finds this statement either very dangerous, if not 
downright blasphemous, or else accepts it unthinkingly and 
then suffers from a theosophical inflation. Somehow we always 
have a wrong attitude to these things. But if we can master our 
selves far enough to refrain from our chief error of always want 
ing to do something with things and put them to practical use, 
we may perhaps succeed in learning an important lesson from 
these teachings, or at least in appreciating the greatness of the 
Bardo Thodol, which vouchsafes to the dead man the ultimate 
and highest truth, that even the gods are the radiance and reflec 
tion of our own souls. No sun is thereby eclipsed for the Ori 
ental as it would be for the Christian, who would feel robbed 
of his God; on the contrary, his soul is the light of the Godhead, 
and the Godhead is the soul. The East can sustain this paradox 
better than the unfortunate Angelus Silesius, who even today 
would be psychologically far in advance of his time. 

841 It is highly sensible of the Bardo Thodol to make clear to 
the dead man the primacy of the psyche, for that is the one thing 
which life does not make clear to us. We are so hemmed in by 
things which jostle and oppress that we never get a chance, in 
the midst of all these "given" things, to wonder by whom they 
are "given." It is from this world of "given" things that the dead 
man liberates himself; and the purpose of the instruction is to 
help him towards this liberation. We, if we put ourselves in his 
place, shall derive no lesser reward from it, since we learn from 
the very first paragraphs that the "giver" of all "given" things 
dwells within us. This is a truth which in the face of all evi 
dence, in the greatest things as in the smallest, is never known, 
although it is often so very necessary, indeed vital, for us to 

513 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



know it. Such knowledge, to be sure, is suitable only for con- 
templatives who are minded to understand the purpose of ex 
istence, for those who are Gnostics by temperament and there 
fore believe in a saviour who, like the saviour of the M andaeans, 
is called "knowledge of life" (Manda d'Hayye). Perhaps it is not 
granted to many of us to see the world as something "given." 
A great reversal of standpoint, calling for much sacrifice, is 
needed before we can see the world as "given" by the very 
nature of the psyche. It is so much more straightforward, more 
dramatic, impressive, and therefore more convincing, to see 
all the things that happen to me than to observe how I make 
them happen. Indeed, the animal nature of man makes him 
resist seeing himself as the maker of his circumstances. That is 
why attempts of this kind were always the object of secret initia 
tions, culminating as a rule in a figurative death which sym 
bolized the total character of this reversal. And, in point of 
fact, the instruction given in the Barda Thodol serves to recall 
to the dead man the experiences of his initiation and the teach 
ings of his guru, for the instruction is, at bottom, nothing less 
than an initiation of the dead into the Bardo life, just as the 
initiation of the living was a preparation for the Beyond. Such 
was the case, at least, with all the mystery cults in ancient civili 
zations from the time of the Egyptian and Eleusinian mysteries. 
In the initiation of the living, however, this "Beyond" is not a 
world beyond death, but a reversal of the mind's intentions and 
outlook, a psychological "Beyond" or, in Christian terms, a 
"redemption" from the trammels of the world and of sin. Re 
demption is a separation and deliverance from an earlier condi 
tion of darkness and unconsciousness, and leads to a condition 
of illumination and releasedness, to victory and transcendence 
over everything "given." 

Thus far the Bardo Thodol is, as Dr. Evans- Wentz also feels, 
an initiation process whose purpose it is to restore to the soul 
the divinity it lost at birth. Now it is a characteristic of Oriental 
religious literature that the teaching invariably begins with the 
most important item, with the ultimate and highest principles 
which, with us, would come lastas for instance in Apuleius, 
where Lucius is worshipped as Helios only right at the end. 
Accordingly, in the Bardo Thodol, the initiation is a series o 
diminishing climaxes ending with rebirth in the womb. The 

5*4 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD" 



only "initiation process" that is still alive and practised today 
in the West is the analysis of the unconscious as used by doctors 
for therapeutic purposes. This penetration into the ground- 
layers of consciousness is a kind of rational maieutics in the 
Socratic sense, a bringing forth of psychic contents that are still 
germinal, subliminal, and as yet unborn. Originally, this therapy 
took the form of Freudian psychoanalysis and was mainly con 
cerned with sexual fantasies. This is the realm that corresponds 
to the last and lowest region of the Bardo, known as the Sidpa 
Bardo, where the dead man, unable to profit by the teachings 
of the Chikhai and Chonyid Bardo, begins to fall a prey to 
sexual fantasies and is attracted by the vision of mating couples. 
Eventually he is caught by a womb and born into the earthly 
world again. Meanwhile, as one might expect, the Oedipus com 
plex starts functioning. If his karma destines him to be reborn 
as a man, he will fall in love with his mother-to-be and will find 
his father hateful and disgusting. Conversely, the future daugh 
ter will be highly attracted by her father-to-be and repelled by 
her mother. The European passes through this specifically 
Freudian domain when his unconscious contents are brought to 
light under analysis, but he goes in the reverse direction. He 
journeys back through the world of infantile-sexual fantasy to 
the womb. It has even been suggested in psychoanalytical 
circles that the trauma par excellence is the birth-experience it 
selfnay more, psychoanalysts even claim to have probed back 
to memories of intra-uterine origin. Here Western reason reaches 
its limit, unfortunately. I say "unfortunately/* because one 
rather wishes that Freudian psychoanalysis could have happily 
pursued these so-called intra-uterine experiences still further 
back. Had it succeeded in this bold undertaking, it would surely 
have come out beyond the Sidpa Bardo and penetrated from 
behind into the lower reaches of the Chonyid Bardo. It is true 
that, with the equipment of our existing biological ideas, such 
a venture would not have been crowned with success; it would 
have needed a wholly different kind of philosophical prepara 
tion from that based on current scientific assumptions. But, had 
the journey back been consistently pursued, it would undoubt 
edly have led to the postulate of a pre-uterine existence, a true 
Bardo life, if only it had been possible to find at least some trace 
of an experiencing subject. As it was, the psychoanalysts never 

515 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



got beyond purely conjectural traces of intra-uterine experi 
ences, and even the famous "birth trauma' ' has remained such 
an obvious truism that it can no longer explain anything, any 
more than can the hypothesis that life is a disease with a bad 
prognosis because its outcome is always fatal. 

8 4S Freudian psychoanalysis, in all essential aspects, never went 
beyond the experiences of the Sidpa Bar do; that is, it was unable 
to extricate itself from sexual fantasies and similar "incompati 
ble" tendencies which cause anxiety and other affective states. 
Nevertheless, Freud's theory is the first attempt made by the 
West to investigate, as if from below, from the animal sphere of 
instinct, the psychic territory that corresponds in Tantric 
Lamaism to the Sidpa Bardo* A very justifiable fear of meta 
physics prevented Freud from penetrating into the sphere of 
the "occult." In addition to this, the Sidpa state, if we are to 
accept the psychology of the Sidpa Bardo, is characterized by the 
fierce wind of karma, which whirls the dead man along until he 
comes to the "womb-door." In other words, the Sidpa state 
permits of no going back, because it is sealed off against the 
Chonyid state by an intense striving downwards, towards the 
animal sphere of instinct and physical rebirth. That is to say, 
anyone who penetrates into the unconscious with purely bio 
logical assumptions will become stuck in the instinctual sphere 
and be unable to advance beyond it, for he will be pulled back 
again and again into physical existence. It is therefore not pos 
sible for Freudian theory to reach anything except an essentially 
negative valuation of the unconscious. It is a "nothing but." At 
the same time, it must be admitted that this view of the psyche 
is typically Western, only it is expressed more blatantly, more 
plainly, and more ruthlessly than others would have dared to 
express it, though at bottom they think no differently. As to 
what "mind" means in this connection, we can only cherish the 
hope that it will carry conviction. But, as even Max Scheler 2 
noted with regret, the power of this "mind" is, to say the least 
of it, doubtfuL 

8 44 I think, then, we can state it as a fact that with the aid of 
psychoanalysis the rationalizing mind of the West has pushed 
forward into what one might call the neuroticism of the Sidpa 

* [German philosopher and sociologist (1874-1028) working mainly in the field of 
values, Eorroas.] 

516 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD 



state, and has there been brought to an inevitable standstill by 
the uncritical assumption that everything psychological is sub 
jective and personal. Even so, this advance has been a great gain, 
inasmuch as it has enabled us to take one more step behind our 
conscious lives. This knowledge also gives us a hint of how we 
ought to read the Bardo Thodol that is, backwards. If, with 
the help of our Western science, we have to some extent suc 
ceeded in understanding the psychological character of the 
Sidpa Bardo, our next task is to see if we can make anything 
of the preceding Chonyid Bardo. 

845 The Chonyid state is one of karmic illusion that is to say, 
illusions which result from the psychic residua of previous 
existences. According to the Eastern view, karma implies a 
sort of psychic theory of heredity based on the hypothesis of 
reincarnation, which in the last resort is an hypothesis of the 
supratemporality of the soul. Neither our scientific knowledge 
nor our reason can keep in step with this idea. There are too 
many if s and but's. Above all, we know desperately little about 
the possibilities of continued existence of the individual soul 
after death, so little that we cannot even conceive how anyone 
could prove anything at all in this respect. Moreover, we know 
only too well, on epistemological grounds, that such a proof 
would be just as impossible as the proof of God. Hence we may 
cautiously accept the idea of karma only if we understand it 
as psychic heredity in the very widest sense of the word. Psychic 
heredity does exist that is to say, there is inheritance of psychic 
characteristics such as predisposition to disease, traits of char 
acter, special gifts, and so forth. It does no violence to the 
psychic nature of these complex facts if natural science reduces 
them to what appear to be physical aspects (nuclear structures 
in cells, and so on). They are essential phenomena of life which 
express themselves, in the main, psychically, just as there are 
other inherited characteristics which express themselves, in 
the main, physiologically, on the physical level. Among these 
inherited psychic factors there is a special class which is not 
confined either to family or to race. These are the universal 
dispositions of the mind, and they are to be understood as 
analogous to Plato's forms (eidola), in accordance with which 
the mind organizes its contents. One could also describe these 
forms as categories analogous to the logical categories which are 

517 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! EAST 



always and everywhere present as the basic postulates of reason. 
Only, in the case o our "forms," we are not dealing with cate 
gories of reason but with categories of the imagination. As the 
products of imagination are always in essence visual, their 
forms must, from the outset, have the character of images and 
moreover of typical images, which is why, following St. Augus 
tine, I call them "archetypes/* Comparative religion and my 
thology are rich mines of archetypes, and so is the psychology of 
dreams and psychoses. The astonishing parallelism between 
these images and the ideas they serve to express has frequently 
given rise to the wildest migration theories, although it would 
have been far more natural to think of the remarkable similarity 
of the human psyche at all times and in all places. Archetypal 
fantasy-forms are, in fact, reproduced spontaneously anytime 
and anywhere, without there being any conceivable trace of 
direct transmission. The original structural components of the 
psyche are of no less surprising a uniformity than are those of 
the visible body. The archetypes are, so to speak, organs of the 
pre-rational psyche. They are eternally inherited forms and 
ideas which have at first no specific content. Their specific 
content only appears in the course of the individual's life, when 
personal experience is taken up in precisely these forms. If the 
archetypes were not pre-existent in identical form everywhere, 
how could one explain the fact, postulated at almost every turn 
by the Bardo Thodol, that the dead do not know that they are 
dead, and that this assertion is to be met with just as often in 
the dreary, half-baked literature of European and American 
Spiritualism? Although we find the same assertion in Sweden- 
borg, knowledge of his writings can hardly be sufficiently 
widespread for this little bit of information to have been picked 
up by every small-town medium. And a connection between 
Swedenborg and the Bardo Thodol is completely unthinkable. 
It is a primordial, universal idea that the dead simply continue 
their earthly existence and do not know that they are disem 
bodied spirits an archetypal idea which enters into immediate, 
visible manifestation whenever anyone sees a ghost. It is signi 
ficant, too, that ghosts all over the world have certain features 
in common. I am naturally aware of the uaverifiable spiritu 
alistic hypothesis, though I have no wish to make it my own. 
I must content myself with the hypothesis of an omnipresent, 

518 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD" 



but differentiated, psychic structure which is inherited and 
which necessarily gives a certain form and direction to all 
experience. For, just as the organs of the body are not mere 
lumps of indifferent, passive matter, but are dynamic, func 
tional complexes which assert themselves with imperious ur 
gency, so also the archetypes, as organs of the psyche, are 
dynamic, instinctual complexes which determine psychic life 
to an extraordinary degree. That is why I also call them dom 
inants of the unconscious. The layer of unconscious psyche 
which is made up of these universal dynamic forms I have 
termed the collective unconscious. 

846 So far as I know, there is no inheritance of individual pre 
natal, or pre-uterine, memories, but there are undoubtedly 
inherited archetypes which are, however, devoid of content, 
because, to begin with, they contain no personal experiences. 
They only emerge into consciousness when personal experiences 
have rendered them visible. As we have seen, Sidpa psychol 
ogy consists in wanting to live and to be born. (The Sidpa 
Bardo is the "Bardo of Seeking Rebirth.") Such a state, there 
fore, precludes any experience of transubjective psychic realities, 
unless the dead man refuses categorically to be born back again 
into the world of consciousness. According to the teachings 
of the Bardo Thodol, it is still possible for him, in each of the 
Bardo states, to reach the Dharmakdya by transcending the 
four-faced Mount Meru, provided that he does not yield to his 
desire to follow the "dim lights." This is as much as to say that 
the individual must desperately resist the dictates of reason, 
as we understand it, and give up the supremacy of egohood, 
regarded by reason as sacrosanct. What this means in practice 
is complete capitulation to the objective powers of the psyche, 
with all that this entails; a kind of figurative death, corre 
sponding to the Judgment of the Dead in the Si dpa Bardo. It 
means the end of all conscious, rational, morally responsible 
conduct of life, and a voluntary surrender to what the Bardo 
Thodol calls "karmic illusion." Karmic illusion springs from 
belief in a visionary world of an extremely irrational nature, 
which neither accords with nor derives from our rational 
judgments but is the exclusive product of uninhibited imagi 
nation. It is sheer dream or "fantasy," and every well-meaning 
person will instantly caution us against it; nor indeed can one 

519 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



see at first sight what is the difference between fantasies of 
this kind and the phantasmagoria of a lunatic. Very often only 
a slight abatement du niveau mental is needed to unleash this 
world of illusion. The terror and darkness of this moment are 
reflected in the experiences described in the opening sections 
of the Sidpa Bardo. But the contents of the Chonyid Bardo 
reveal the archetypes, the karmic images which appear first in 
their terrifying form. The Chonyid state is equivalent to a 
deliberately induced psychosis. 

847 One often hears and reads about the dangers of yoga, particu 
larly of the ill-reputed kundalini yoga. The deliberately in 
duced psychotic state, which in certain unstable individuals 
might easily lead to a real psychosis, is a danger that needs to 
be taken very seriously indeed. These things really are danger 
ous and ought not to be meddled with in our typically Western 
way. It is a meddling with fate, which strikes at the very roots 
of human existence and can let loose a flood of sufferings of 
which no sane person ever dreamed. These sufferings corre 
spond to the hellish torments of the Chonyid state, described in 
the text as follows: 

Then the Lord of Death will place round thy neck a rope and drag 
thee along; he will cut off thy head, tear out thy heart, pull out thy 
intestines, lick up thy brain, drink thy blood, eat thy flesh, and 
gnaw thy bones; but thou wilt be incapable of dying. Even when 
thy body is hacked to pieces, it will revive again. The repeated hack 
ing will cause intense pain and torture. 8 

848 These tortures aptly describe the real nature of the danger: 
it is a disintegration of the wholeness of the Bardo body, which 
is a kind of "subtle body" constituting the visible envelope 
of the psychic self in the after-death state. The psychological 
equivalent of this dismemberment is psychic dissociation. In 
its deleterious form it would be schizophrenia (split mind). 
This most common of all mental illnesses consists essentially 
in a marked abaissement du nweau mental which abolishes the 
normal checks imposed by the conscious mind and thus gives 
unlimited scope to the play of the unconscious "dominants." 

849 The transition, then, from the Sidpa state to the Chonyid 
3 [Actually from the Sidp* B*rdo aectioa (p. 166), bat smflar torments figure in 
the "Wrathful Deities" section (pp. ijifc) of the Chonyti 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD ' 



state is a dangerous reversal of the aims and intentions of the 
conscious mind. It is a sacrifice of the ego's stability and a sur 
render to the extreme uncertainty of what must seem like a 
chaotic riot of phantasmal forms. When Freud coined the phrase 
that the ego was "the true seat of anxiety," he was giving 
voice to a very true and profound intuition. Fear of self-sac 
rifice lurks deep in every ego, and this fear is often only the 
precariously controlled demand of the unconscious forces to 
burst out in full strength. No one who strives for selfhood 
(individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which 
is feared also belongs to the wholeness of the self the sub 
human, or supra-human, world of psychic "dominants" from 
which the ego originally emancipated itself with enormous 
effort, and then only partially, for the sake of a more or less 
illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very necessary 
and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: 
it is merely the creation of a subject, who, in order to find ful 
filment, has still to be confronted by an object. This, at first 
sight, would appear to be the world, which is swelled out with 
projections for that very purpose. Here we seek and find our 
difficulties, here we seek and find our enemy, here we seek and 
find what is dear and precious to us; and it is comforting to 
know that all evil and all good is to be found out there, in the 
visible object, where it can be conquered, punished, destroyed, 
or enjoyed. But nature herself does not allow this paradisal 
state of innocence to continue for ever. There are, and always 
have been, those who cannot help but see that the world and 
its experiences are in the nature of a symbol, and that it really 
reflects something that lies hidden in the subject himself, in 
his own transubjective reality. It is from this profound intui 
tion, according to lamaist doctrine, that the Chonyid state de 
rives its true meaning, which is why the Chonyid Bardo is 
entitled "The Bardo of the Experiencing of Reality." 
8 5 The reality experienced in the Chonyid state is, as the 
last section [pp. 1436?.] of this Bardo teaches, the reality of 
thought. The "thought-forms" appear as realities, fantasy takes 
on real form, and the terrifying dream evoked by karma and 
played out by the unconscious "dominants" begins. The first 
to appear (if we read the text backwards) is the all-destroying 
God of Death, the epitome of all terrors; he is followed by the 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



twenty-eight "power-holding" and sinister goddesses and the 
fifty-eight "blood-drinking" goddesses. In spite of their demonic 
aspect, which appears as a confusing chaos of terrifying attri 
butes and monstrosities, a certain order is already discernible. 
We find that there are companies of gods and goddesses who 
are arranged according to the four directions and are distin 
guished by typical mystic colours. It gradually becomes clearer 
that all these deities are organized into mandalas, or circles, 
containing a cross of the four colours. The colours are co 
ordinated with the four aspects of wisdom: 

(1) White = the light-path of the mirror-like wisdom; 

(2) Yellow = the light-path of the wisdom of equality; 

(3) Red = the light-path of the discriminative wisdom; 

(4) Green = the light-path of the all-performing wisdom. 
On a higher level of insight, the dead man knows that the 

real thought-forms all emanate from himself, and that the four 
light-paths of wisdom which appear before him are the radia 
tions of his own psychic faculties. This takes us straight to the 
psychology of the lamaistic mandala, which I have already dis 
cussed in the book I brought out with the late Richard Wilhelm, 
The Secret of the Golden Flower. 

Continuing our ascent backwards through the region of the 
Chdnyid Bardo, we come finally to the vision of the Four Great 
Ones: the green Amogha-Siddhi, the red Amitabha, the yellow 
Ratna-Sambhava, and the white Vajra-Sattva. The ascent ends 
with the effulgent blue light of the Dharmadhdtu, the Buddha- 
body, which glows in the midst of the mandala from the heart 
of VairochansL 

With this final vision the karmic illusions cease; conscious 
ness, weaned away from all form and from all attachment to 
objects, returns to the timeless, inchoate state of the Dharma- 
kaya. Thus (reading backwards) the Chikhai state, which 
appeared at the moment of death, is reached. 

I think these few hints will suffice to give the attentive reader 
some idea of the psychology of the B&rdo ThodoL The book de 
scribes a way of initiation in reverse, which, unlike the eschato- 
logical expectations of Christianity, prepares the soul for a 
descent into physical being. The thoroughly intellectualistic and 
rationalistic worldly-mindedness of the European makes it ad 
visable for us to reverse the sequence of the Bardo Thodol and 

522 



ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD" 



to regard it as an account of Eastern initiation experiences, 
though one is perfectly free, if one chooses, to substitute Chris 
tian symbols for the gods of the Chonyid Bardo. At any rate, 
the sequence of events as I have described it offers a close parallel 
to the phenomenology of the European unconscious when it is 
undergoing an "initiation process," that is to say, when it is be 
ing analysed. The transformation of the unconscious that occurs 
under analysis makes it the natural analogue of the religious ini 
tiation ceremonies, which do, however, differ in principle from 
the natural process in that they anticipate the natural course 
of development and substitute for the spontaneous production 
of symbols a deliberately selected set of symbols prescribed by 
tradition. We can see this in the Exercitia of Ignatius Loyola, 
or in the yoga meditations of the Buddhists and Tantrists. 
855 The reversal of the order of the chapters, which I have sug 
gested here as an aid to understanding, in no way accords with 
the original intention of the Bardo ThodoL Nor is the psycho 
logical use we make of it anything but a secondary intention, 
though one that is possibly sanctioned by lamaist custom. The 
real purpose of this singular book is the attempt, which must 
seem very strange to the educated European of the twentieth 
century, to enlighten the dead on their journey through the 
regions of the Bardo. The Catholic Church is the only place in 
the world of the white man where any provision is made for the 
souls of the departed. Inside the Protestant camp, with its world- 
affirming optimism, we only find a few mediumistic "rescue 
circles," whose main concern is to make the dead aware of the 
fact that they are dead. 4 But, generally speaking, we have nothing 
in the West that is in any way comparable to the Bardo Thodol, 
except for certain secret writings which are inaccessible to the 
wider public and to the ordinary scientist. According to tradi 
tion, the Bardo Thodol, too, seems to have been included among 
the "hidden" books, as Dr. Evans-Wentz makes clear in his In 
troduction. As such, it forms a special chapter in the magical 
"cure of the soul" which extends even beyond death. This cult 
of the dead is rationally based on the belief in the supra-tem- 
porality of the soul, but its irrational basis is to be found in the 
psychological need of the living to do something for the de- 

4 Information on this spiritualistic activity will be found in Lord Dowding's writ 
ings: Many Mansions (1943), Lychgate (1945), God's Magic 

523 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



parted. This is an elementary need which forces itself upon even 
the most "enlightened" individuals when faced by the death of 
relatives and friends. That is why, enlightenment or no en 
lightenment, we still have all manner of ceremonies for the 
dead. If Lenin had to submit to being embalmed and put on 
show in a sumptuous mausoleum like an Egyptian pharaoh, we 
may be quite sure it was not because his followers believed in 
the resurrection of the body. Apart, however, from the Masses 
said for the soul in the Catholic Church, the provisions we make 
for the dead are rudimentary and on the lowest level, not be 
cause we cannot convince ourselves of the soul's immortality, 
but because we have rationalized the above-mentioned psycho 
logical need out of existence. We behave as if we did not have 
this need, and because we cannot believe in a life after death we 
prefer to do nothing about it. Simpler-minded people follow 
their own feelings, and, as in Italy, build themselves funeral 
monuments of gruesome beauty. The Catholic Masses for the 
soul are on a level considerably above this, because they are ex 
pressly intended for the psychic welfare of the deceased and are 
not a mere gratification of lachrymose sentiments. But the high 
est application of spiritual effort on behalf of the departed is 
surely to be found in the instructions of the Bardo ThodoL 
They are so detailed and thoroughly adapted to the apparent 
changes in the dead man's condition that every serious-minded 
reader must ask himself whether these wise old lamas might not, 
after all, have caught a glimpse of the fourth dimension and 
twitched the veil from the greatest of life's secrets. 

Even if the truth should prove to be a disappointment, one 
almost feels tempted to concede at least some measure of reality 
to the vision of life in the Bardo. At any rate, it is unexpectedly 
original, if nothing else, to find the after-death state, of which 
our religious imagination has formed the most grandiose con 
ceptions, painted in lurid colours as a terrifying dream-state of 
a progressively degenerative character. 5 The supreme vision 
comes not at the end of the Bardo, but right at the beginning, 
at the moment of death; what happens afterward is an ever- 
deepening descent into illusion and obscuration, down to the 
ultimate degradation of new physical birth. The spiritual 
5 A similar view in Akfcns Huxley, Time Must Hevc Stop (1945). 

5*4 



ON "THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD' 



climax is reached at the moment when life ends. Human life, 
therefore, is the vehicle of the highest perfection it is possible 
to attain; it alone generates the karma that makes it possible for 
the dead man to abide in the perpetual light of the Voidness 
without clinging to any object, and thus to rest on the hub of 
the wheel of rebirth, freed from all illusion of genesis and decay. 
Life in the Bardo brings no eternal rewards or punishments, but 
merely a descent into a new life which shall bear the individual 
nearer to his final goal. But this eschatological goal is what he 
himself brings to birth as the last and highest fruit of the labours 
and aspirations of earthly existence. This view is not only lofty, 
it is manly and heroic. 

The degenerative character of Bardo life is corroborated by 
the spiritualistic literature of the West, which again and again 
gives one a sickening impression of the utter inanity and banal 
ity of communications from the "spirit world." The scientific 
mind does not hesitate to explain these reports as emanations 
from the unconscious of the mediums and of those taking part 
in the stance, and even to extend this explanation to the de 
scription of the Hereafter given in the Tibetan Book of the 
Dead. And it is an undeniable fact that the whole book is cre 
ated out of the archetypal contents of the unconscious. Behind 
these there lie and in this our Western reason is quite right- 
no physical or metaphysical realities, but "merely" the reality of 
psychic facts, the data of psychic experience. Now whether a 
thing is "given" subjectively or objectively, the fact remains 
that it is. The Bardo Thddol says no more than this, for its five 
Dhyani-Buddhas are themselves no more than psychic data. 
That is just what the dead man has to recognize, if it has not 
already become clear to him during life that his own psychic 
self and the giver of all data are one and the same. The world 
of gods and spirits is truly "nothing but" the collective uncon 
scious inside me. To turn this sentence round so that it reads 
"The collective unconscious is the world of gods and spirits out 
side me," no intellectual acrobatics are needed, but a whole 
human lifetime, perhaps even many lifetimes of increasing 
completeness. Notice that I do not say "of increasing perfec 
tion," because those who are "perfect" make another kind of 
discovery altogether. 

525 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



858 The Bardo Thodol began by being a "closed" book, and so it 
has remained, no matter what kind of commentaries may be 
written upon it. For it is a book that will only open itself to 
spiritual understanding, and this is a capacity which no man is 
born with, but which he can only acquire through special train 
ing and special experience. It is good that such to all intents 
and purposes "useless" books exist. They are meant for those 
"queer folk" who no longer set much store by the uses, aims, 
and meaning of present-day "civilization." 



526 



VIII 

YOGA AND THE WEST 



FOREWORD TO SUZUKI'S 
"INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN 
MEDITATION 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



YOGA AND THE WEST l 



859 Less than a century has passed since yoga became known to 
the West. Although all sorts of miraculous tales had come to 
Europe two thousand years before from the fabled land of India, 
with its wise men, its gymnosophists and omphalosceptics, yet 
no real knowledge of Indian philosophy and philosophical prac 
tices can be said to have existed until, thanks to the efforts of 
the Frenchman, Anquetil du Perron, the Upanishads were tran&- 
mitted to the West. A general and more profound knowledge 
was first made possible by Max Miiller, of Oxford, and the 
Sacred Books of the East edited by him. To begin with, this 
knowledge remained the preserve of Sanskrit scholars and phi 
losophers. But it was not so very long before the theosophicai 
movement inaugurated by Mme. Blavatsky possessed itself of 
the Eastern traditions and promulgated them among the gen 
eral public. For several decades after that, knowledge of yoga 
in the West developed along two separate lines. On the one 
hand it was regarded as a strictly academic science, and on the 
other it became something very like a religion, though it did not 
develop into an organized Church despite the endeavours of 
Annie Besant and Rudolf Steiner. Although he was the founder 
of the anthroposophical secession, Steiner was originally a fol 
lower of Mme. Blavatsky. 

l [Originally published in Prabuddha Bharata (Calcutta), February 1936, Shri 
Ramakrishna Centenary Number, Sec. HI, in a translation by Cary F. Baynes, 
upon which the present translation is based. Eatress,] 

529 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



860 The peculiar product resulting from this Western develop 
ment can hardly be compared with what yoga means in India. 
In the West, Eastern teaching encountered a special situation, 
a condition of mind such as the earlier India, at any rate, had 
never known. This was the strict line of division between sci 
ence and philosophy, which had already existed, to a greater or 
lesser degree, for some three hundred years before yoga teachings 
began to be known in the West. The beginning of this split 
a specifically Western phenomenonreally set in with the 
Renaissance, in the fifteenth century. At that time, there arose 
a widespread and passionate interest in antiquity, stimulated by 
the fall of the Byzantine Empire under the onslaught of Islam. 
Then, for the first time, knowledge of the Greek language and 
of Greek literature was carried to every corner of Europe. As a 
direct result of this invasion of so-called pagan philosophy, there 
arose the great schism in the Roman Church Protestantism, 
which soon covered the whole of northern Europe. But not even 
this renewal of Christianity was able to hold the liberated minds 
in thrall. 

8$ The period of world discovery in the geographical and scien 
tific sense had begun, and to an ever-increasing degree thought 
emancipated itself from the shackles of religious tradition. The 
Churches, of course, continued to exist because they were main 
tained by the strictly religious needs of the public, but they lost 
their leadership in the cultural sphere. While the Church of 
Rome, thanks to her unsurpassed organization, remained a 
unity, Protestantism split into nearly four hundred denomina 
tions. This is a proof oh the one hand of its bankruptcy, and, 
on the other, of a religious vitality which refuses to be stifled. 
Gradually, in the course of the nineteenth century, this led to 
syncretistic outgrowths and to the importation on a mass scale 
of exotic religious systems, such as the religion of Abdul Baha, 
the Sufi sects, the Ramakrishna Mission, Buddhism, and so on. 
Many of these systems, for instance anthroposophy, were syn- 
cretized with Christian elements. The resultant picture corre 
sponds roughly to the Hellenistic syncretism of the third and 
fourth centuries A.D., which likewise showed traces of Indian 
thought. (Cf. Apollonius of Tyana, the Orphic-Pythagorean 
secret doctrines, the Gnosis, etc) 

86* All these systems moved on the religious plane and recruited 

530 



YOGA AND THE WEST 



the great majority of their adherents from Protestantism. They 
are thus, fundamentally, Protestant sects. By directing its main 
attack against the authority of the Roman Church, Protestant 
ism largely destroyed belief in the Church as the indispensable 
agent of divine salvation. Thus the burden of authority fell to 
the individual, and with it a religious responsibility that had 
never existed before. The decline of confession and absolution 
sharpened the moral conflict of the individual and burdened 
him with problems which previously the Church had settled for 
him, since her sacraments, particularly that of the Mass, guaran 
teed his salvation through the priest's enactment of the sacred 
rite. The only things the individual had to contribute were 
confession, repentance, and penance. With the collapse of the 
rite, which did the work for him, he had to do without God's 
answer to his plans. This dissatisfaction explains the demand 
for systems that promise an answer the visible or at least notice 
able favour of another (higher, spiritual, or divine) power. 

European science paid no attention to these hopes and ex 
pectations. It lived its intellectual life unconcerned with re 
ligious needs and convictions. This historically inevitable 
split in the Western mind also affected yoga so far as this had 
gained a footing in the West, and led to its being made an ob 
ject of scientific study on the one hand, while on the other it 
was welcomed as a way of salvation. But inside the religious 
movement there were any number of attempts to combine sci 
ence with religious belief and practice, as for instance Christian 
Science, theosophy, and anthroposophy. The last-named, espe 
cially, likes to give itself scientific airs and has, therefore, like 
Christian Science, penetrated into intellectual circles. 

Since the way of the Protestant is not laid down for him in 
advance, he gives welcome, one might say, to practically any 
system which holds out the promise of successful development. 
He must now do for himself the very thing which had always 
been done by the Church as intermediary, and he does not know 
how to do it. If he is a man who has taken his religious needs 
seriously, he has also made untold efforts towards faith, because 
his doctrine sets exclusive store by faith. But faith is a charisma, 
a gift of grace, and not a method. The Protestant is so entirely 
without a method that many of them have seriously interested 
themselves in the rigorously Catholic exercises of Ignatius 

53* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



Loyola. Yet, do what they will, the thing that disturbs them most 
is naturally the contradiction between religious and scientific 
truth, the conflict between faith and knowledge, which reaches 
far beyond Protestantism into Catholicism itself. This conflict 
is due solely to the historical split in the European mind. Had 
it not been fox the psychologically speakingunnatural com 
pulsion to believe, and an equally unnatural belief in science, 
this conflict would have had no reason to exist. One can easily 
imagine a state of mind in which one simply knows and in 
addition believes a thing which seems probable for such and 
such reasons. There are no grounds whatsoever for any conflict 
between these two things. Both are necessary, for knowledge 
alone, like faith alone, is always insufficient. 

865 When, therefore, a "religious" method recommends itself at 
the same time as "scientific," it can be sure of finding a public 
in the West. Yoga fulfils this expectation. Quite apart from the 
charm of the new and the fascination of the half-understood, 
there is good reason for yoga to have many adherents. It offers 
not only the much-sought way, but also a philosophy of un 
rivalled profundity. It holds out the possibility of controllable 
experience, and thus satisfies the scientist's need for "facts." 
Moreover, by reason of its breadth and depth, its venerable age, 
its teachings and methods which cover every sphere of life, it 
promises undreamt of possibilities which the missionaries of 
yoga seldom omit to emphasize. 

866 I will remain silent on the subject of what yoga means for 
India, because I cannot presume to judge something I do not 
know from personal experience. I can, however, say something 
about what it means for the West. Our lack of direction borders 
on psychic anarchy. Therefore, any religious or philosophical 
practice amounts to a psychological discipline; in other words, 
it is a method of psychic hygiene. The numerous purely physical 
procedures of yoga are a physiological hygiene as well, which is 
far superior to ordinary gymnastics or breathing exercises in 
that it is not merely mechanistic and scientific but, at the same 
time, philosophical. In its training of the parts of the body, it 
unites them with the whole of the mind and spirit, as is quite 
clear, for instance, in the pranaydma exercises, where prana is 
both the breath and the universal dynamics of the cosmos. When 
the doing of the individual is at the same time a cosmic happen- 

532 



YOGA AND THE WEST 



ing, the elation of the body (innervation) becomes one with the 
elation of the spirit (the universal idea), and from this there 
arises a living whole which no technique, however scientific, can 
hope to produce. Yoga practice is unthinkable, and would also 
be ineffectual, without the ideas on which it is based. It works 
the physical and the spiritual into one another in an extraordi 
narily complete way. 

867 In the East, where these ideas and practices originated, and 
where an uninterrupted tradition extending over some four 
thousand years has created the necessary spiritual conditions, 
yoga is, as I can readily believe, the perfect and appropriate 
method of fusing body and mind together so that they form a 
unity that can hardly be doubted. They thus create a psycholog 
ical disposition which makes possible intuitions that transcend 
consciousness. The Indian mentality has no difficulty in oper 
ating intelligently with a concept like prdna. The West, on the 
contrary, with its bad habit of wanting to believe on the one 
hand, and its highly developed scientific and philosophical 
critique on the other, finds itself in a real dilemma. Either it 
falls into the trap of faith and swallows concepts like prdna, 
atman, chakra, samadhi, etc., without giving them a thought, or 
its scientific critique repudiates them one and all as "pure 
mysticism." The split in the Western mind therefore makes it 
impossible at the outset for the intentions of yoga to be realized 
in any adequate way. It becomes either a strictly religious 
matter, or else a kind of training like Pelmanism, breath-control, 
eurhythmies, etc., and not a trace is to be found of the unity and 
wholeness of nature which is characteristic of yoga. The Indian 
can forget neither the body nor the mind, while the European 
is always forgetting either the one or the other. With this ca 
pacity to forget he has, for the time being, conquered the world. 
Not so the Indian. He not only knows his own nature, but he 
knows also how much he himself is nature. The European, on 
the other hand, has a science of nature and knows astonishingly 
little of his own nature, the nature within him. For the Indian, 
it comes as a blessing to know of a method which helps him to 
control the supreme power of nature within and without. For 
the European, it is sheer poison to suppress his nature, which 
is warped enough as it is, and to make out of it a willing robot. 

868 it is said of the yogi that he can remove mountains, though 

533 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! EAST 



it would be difficult to furnish any real proof of this. The power 
of the yogi operates within limits acceptable to his environment 
The European, on the other hand, can blow up mountains, and 
the World War has given us a bitter foretaste of what he is capa 
ble of when free rein is given to an intellect that has grown 
estranged from human nature. As a European, I cannot wish the 
European more "control" and more power over the nature 
within and around us. Indeed, I must confess to my shame that 
I owe my best insights (and there are some quite good ones 
among them) to the circumstance that I have always done just 
the opposite of what the rules of yoga prescribe. Through his 
historical development, the European has become so far re 
moved from his roots that his mind was finally split into faith 
and knowledge, in the same way that every psychological exag 
geration breaks up into its inherent opposites. He needs to 
return, not to Nature in the manner of Rousseau, but to his 
own nature. His task is to find the natural man again. Instead 
of this, there is nothing he likes better than systems and methods 
by which he can repress the natural man who is everywhere at 
cross purposes with him. He will infallibly make a wrong use 
of yoga because his psychic disposition is quite different from 
that of the Oriental. I say to whomsoever I can: "Study yoga 
you will learn an infinite amount from it but do not try to 
apply it, for we Europeans are not so constituted that we apply 
these methods correctly, just like that. An Indian guru can ex 
plain everything and you can imitate everything. But do you 
know who is applying the yoga? In other words, do you know 
who you are and how you are constituted?'* 

The power of science and technics in Europe is so enormous 
and indisputable that there is little point in reckoning up all 
that can be done and all that has been invented. One shudders 
at the stupendous possibilities. Quite another question begins 
to loom up: Who is applying this technical skill? in whose hands 
does this power lie? For the present, the state is a provisional 
means of protection, because, apparently, it safeguards the citi 
zen from the enormous quantities of poison gas and other in 
fernal engines of destruction which can be manufactured by the 
thousand tons at a moment's notice. Our technical skill has 
grown to be so dangerous that the most urgent question today is 
not what more can be done in this line, but how the man who is 

534 



YOGA AND THE WEST 



entrusted with the control of this skill should be constituted, 
or how to alter the mind of Western man so that he would re 
nounce his terrible skill. It is infinitely more important to strip 
him of the illusion of his power than to strengthen him still 
further in the mistaken idea that he can do everything he wills. 
The slogan one hears so often in Germany, " Where there's a 
will there's a way," has cost the lives of millions of human 
beings. 

870 Western man has no need of more superiority over nature, 
whether outside or inside. He has both in almost devilish per 
fection. What he lacks is conscious recognition of his inferiority 
to the nature around and within him. He must learn that he 
may.not do exactly as he wills. If he does not learn this, his own 
nature will destroy him. He does not know that his own soul is 
rebelling against him in a suicidal way. 

871 Since Western man can turn everything into a technique, it 
is true in principle that everything that looks like a method is 
either dangerous or condemned to futility. In so far as yoga is a 
form of hygiene, it is as useful to him as any other system. In 
the deepest sense, however, yoga does not mean this but, if I 
understand it correctly, a great deal more, namely the final 
release and detachment of consciousness from all bondage to 
object and subject. But since one cannot detach oneself from 
something of which one is unconscious, the European must first 
learn to know his subject. This, in the West, is what one calls 
the unconscious. Yoga technique applies itself exclusively to the 
conscious mind and will. Such an undertaking promises success 
only when the unconscious has no potential worth mention 
ing, that is to say, when it does not contain large portions of the 
personality. If it does, then all conscious effort remains futile, 
and what comes out of this cramped condition of mind is a 
caricature or even the exact opposite of the intended result. 

87* The rich metaphysic and symbolism of the East express the 
larger and more important part of the unconscious and in this 
way reduce its potential. When the yogi says "prana," he means 
very much more than mere breath. For him the word prana 
brings with it the full weight of its metaphysical components, 
and it is as if he really knew what prana meant in this respect. 
He does not know it with his understanding, but with his heart, 
belly, and blood. The European only imitates and learns ideas 

535 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



by rote, and is therefore incapable of expressing his subjective 
facts through Indian concepts. I am more than doubtful whether 
the European, if he were capable of the corresponding experi 
ences, would choose to express them through intuitive ideas like 
prana. 

873 Yoga was originally a natural process of introversion, with 
all manner of individual variations. Introversions of this sort 
lead to peculiar inner processes which change the personality. 
In the course of several thousand years these introversions be 
came organized as methods, and along widely differing lines. 
Indian yoga itself recognizes numerous and extremely diverse 
forms. The reason for this lies in the original diversity of indi 
vidual experience. This is not to say that any one of these 
methods is suited to the peculiar historical structure of the 
European. It is much more likely that the yoga natural to 
the European proceeds from historical patterns unknown to the 
East. As a matter of fact, the two cultural achievements which, 
in the West, have had to concern themselves most with the 
psyche in the practical sense, namely medicine and the Catholic 
cure of souls, have both produced methods comparable to yoga. 

1 have already referred to the exercises of Ignatius Loyola. With 
respect to medicine, it is the modern psychotherapeutic methods 
which come closest to yoga. Freud's psychoanalysis leads the 
conscious mind of the patient back to the inner world of child 
hood reminiscences on one side, and on the other to wishes and 
drives which have been repressed from consciousness. The latter 
technique is a logical development of confession. It aims at an 
artificial introversion for the purpose of making conscious the 
unconscious components of the subject. 

874 A somewhat different method is the so-called "autogenic 
training" of Professor Schultz, 2 which consciously links up with 
yoga. His chief aim is to break down the conscious cramp and 
the repression of the unconscious this has caused. 

875 My method, like Freud's, is built up on the practice of con 
fession. Like him, I pay close attention to dreams, but when it 
comes to the unconscious our views part company. For Freud 
it is essentially an appendage of consciousness, in which all the 
individual's incompatibilities are heaped up. For me the un- 

2 [The German psychiatrist J. H. Schultz. The reference is to his book Das 
autogene Training (Berlin, 1932). EDITORS.] 

536 



YOGA AND THE WEST 



conscious is a collective psychic disposition, creative in character. 
This fundamental difference of viewpoint naturally produces 
an entirely different evaluation of the symbolism and the meth 
od of interpreting it. Freud's procedure is, in the main, analyt 
ical and reductive. To this I add a synthesis which emphasizes 
the purposiveness of unconscious tendencies with respect to 
personality development. In this line of research important 
parallels with yoga have come to light, especially with kundalini 
yoga and the symbolism of tantric yoga, lamaism, and Taoistic 
- yoga in China. These forms of yoga with their rich symbolism 
afford me invaluable comparative material for interpreting the 
collective unconscious. However, I do not apply yoga methods 
in principle, because, in the West, nothing ought to be forced on 
the unconscious. Usually, consciousness is characterized by an 
intensity and narrowness that have a cramping effect, and this 
ought not to be emphasized still further. On the contrary, every 
thing must be done to help the unconscious to reach the con 
scious mind and to free it from its rigidity. For this purpose I 
employ a method of active imagination, which consists in a spe 
cial training for switching off consciousness, at least to a relative 
extent, thus giving the unconscious contents a chance to develop. 
876 If I remain so critically averse to yoga, it does not mean that 
I do not regard this spiritual achievement of the East as one of 
the greatest things the human mind has ever created. I hope 
my exposition makes it sufficiently clear that my criticism is 
directed solely against the application of yoga to the peoples of 
the West. The spiritual development of the West has been along 
entirely different lines from that of the East and has therefore 
produced conditions which are the most unfavourable soil one 
can think of for the application of yoga. Western civilization is 
scarcely a thousand years old and must first of all free itself from 
its barbarous one-sidedness. This means, above all, deeper in 
sight into the nature of man. But no insight is gained by repress 
ing and controlling the unconscious, and least of all by imitating 
methods which have grown up under totally different psycholog 
ical conditions. In the course of the centuries the West will pro 
duce its own yoga, and it will be on the basis laid down by 
Christianity. 



537 



FOREWORD TO SUZUKI'S 
"INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" l 



8 77 Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among 
the best contributions to the knowledge o living Buddhism that 
recent decades have produced, and Zen itself is the most im 
portant fruit to have sprung from the tree whose roots are the 
collections of the Pali Canon. 2 We cannot be sufficiently grate 
ful to the author, first for having brought Zen closer to Western 
understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has 
performed this task. Oriental religious conceptions are usually 
so very different from our Western ones that even the bare 
translation of the words often presents the greatest difficulties, 
quite apart from the meaning of the terms used, which in cer 
tain circumstances are better left untranslated. I need only 
mention the Chinese "tao," which no European translation has 

1 [Originally published as a foreword to Suzuki, Die grosse Befreiung: Einfuhrung 
in den Zen-Buddhismus (Leipzig, 1939). The Suzuki text had been translated into 
German by Heinrich Zimmer from the original edition of An Introduction to 
Zen Buddhism. The foreword by Jung was published in an earlier translation by 
Constance Rolfe in a new edition of the Suzuki work (London and New York, 
1949). EDITORS.] 

2 The origin of Zen, as Oriental authors themselves admit, is to be found in 
Buddha's Flower Sermon. On this occasion he held up a flower to a gathering of 
disciples without uttering a word. Only Kasyapa understood him. Cf. Shuei 
Ohazama, Zen: Der lebendige Buddhismus in Japan, p. 3. 

538 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

yet got near. The original Buddhist writings contain views and 
ideas which are more or less unassimilable for ordinary Euro 
peans. I do not know, for instance, just what kind of mental (or 
perhaps climatic?) background or preparation is necessary before 
one can form any completely clear idea of what is meant by the 
Buddhist "kamma." Judging by all we know of the nature of 
Zen, here too we are up against a central conception of unsur 
passed singularity. This strange conception is called "satori," 
which may be translated as "enlightenment." "Satori is the 
raison d'etre of Zen without which Zen is not Zen," says Suzuki. 3 
It should not be too difficult for the Western mind to grasp what 
a mystic understands by "enlightenment," or what is known as 
such in religious parlance. Satori, however, designates a special 
kind and way of enlightenment which it is practically impossible 
for the European to appreciate. By way of illustration, I would 
refer the reader to the enlightenment of Hyakujo (Pai-chang 
Huai-hai, A.D. 724-814) and of the Confucian poet and states 
man Kozankoku (Huang Shan-ku), 4 as described by Suzuki. 

878 The following may serve as a further example: A monk 
once went to Gensha, and wanted to learn where the entrance 
to the path of truth was. Gensha asked him, "Do you hear the 
murmuring of the brook?" "Yes, I hear it," answered the monk. 
"There is the entrance," the Master instructed him. 

879 I will content myself with these few examples, which aptly 
illustrate the opacity of satori experiences. Even if we take ex 
ample after example, it still remains exceedingly obscure how 
any enlightenment comes and of what it consists in other 
words, by what or about what one is enlightened. Kaiten 
Nukariya, who was himself a professor at the So-to-shu Buddhist 
College in Tokyo, says, speaking of enlightenment: 

Having set ourselves free from the mistaken conception of self, next 
we must awaken our innermost wisdom, pure and divine, called the 
Mind of Buddha, or Bodhi, or Prajna by Zen masters. It is the divine 
light, the inner heaven, the key to all moral treasures, the centre of 
thought and consciousness, the source of all influence and power, 
the seat of kindness, justice, sympathy, impartial love, humanity, 
and mercy, the measure of all things. When this innermost wisdom 
is fully awakened, we are able to realize that each and every one 
of us is identical in spirit, in essence, in nature with the universal 

3 Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1949), p. 95- * Ibid - PP- 8 9 and 9 a - 

539 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



life or Buddha, that each ever lives face to face with Buddha, that 
each is beset by the abundant grace of the Blessed One, that He 
arouses his moral nature, that He opens his spiritual eyes, that He 
unfolds his new capacity, that He appoints his mission, and that 
life is not an ocean of birth, disease, old age, and death, nor the vale 
of tears, but the holy temple of Buddha, the Pure Land, where he 
can enjoy the bliss of Nirvana. 5 

8 That is how an Oriental, himself an adept in Zen, describes 
the essence of enlightenment. One must admit that this passage 
would need only a few trifling alterations in order to find its 
way into a Christian mystical book of devotion. Yet somehow 
it sends us away empty as regards understanding the satori ex 
perience described again and again in the literature. Presumably 
Nukariya is addressing himself to Western rationalism, of which 
he himself acquired a good dose, and that is why it all sounds so 
flatly edifying. The abstruse obscurity of the Zen anecdotes is 
distinctly preferable to this adaptation ad usum Delphini: it 
conveys a great deal more by saying less. 

881 Zen is anything but a philosophy in the Western sense of 
the word. 6 This is also the opinion of Rudolf Otto, who says in 
his foreword to Ohazama's book on Zen that Nukariya has "im 
ported the magical world of Oriental ideas into our Western 
philosophical categories" and confused it with these. "If psycho- 
physical parallelism, that most wooden of all doctrines, is in 
voked in order to explain this mystical intuition of Non-duality 
and Oneness and the coincidentia oppositorum^ then one is 
completely outside the sphere of the koan, the kwatsu, and 
satori" 7 It is far better to allow oneself to become deeply im 
bued at the outset with the exotic obscurity of the Zen anec 
dotes, and to bear in mind the whole time that satori is a 
mysterium ineffabile^ as indeed the Zen masters wish it to be. 
Between the anecdote and the mystical enlightenment there is, 
to our way of thinking, a gulf, and the possibility of bridging it 
can at best be hinted but never in practice achieved. 8 One has 

5 The Religion of the Samurai, p. 133. 

6 "Zen is neither psychology nor philosophy." 7 In Ohazama, p. viii. 

8 If in spite of this I attempt "explanations" in what follows, I am nevertheless 
fully aware that in the sense of satori I have said nothing valid. All the same, I 
had to make an attempt to manoeuvre our Western understanding into at least 
the proximity of an understanding a task so difficult that in doing it one must 
take upon oneself certain crimes against the spirit of Zen. 

540 



FOREWORD TO ' 'INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

the feeling of touching upon a true secret, and not one that is 
merely imagined or pretended. It is not a question of mystifica 
tion and mumbo-jumbo, but rather of an experience which 
strikes the experient dumb. Satori comes upon one unawares, as 
something utterly unexpected. 

882 When, in the sphere of Christianity, visions of the Holy 
Trinity, the Madonna, the Crucified, or of the patron saint are 
vouchsafed after long spiritual preparation, one has the im 
pression that this is all more or less as it should be. That Jakob 
Bohme should obtain a glimpse into the centrum naturae by 
means of a sunbeam reflected in a tin platter is also understand 
able. It is harder to digest Meister Eckhart's vision of the "little 
naked boy," not to speak of Swedenborg's "man in the purple 
coat," who wanted to dissuade him from overeating, and whom, 
in spite or perhaps becauseof this, he recognized as the Lord 
God. 9 Such things are difficult to swallow, bordering as they do 
on the grotesque. Many of the Zen anecdotes, however, not only 
border on the grotesque but are right there in the middle of it, 
and sound like the most crashing nonsense. 

883 For anyone who has devoted himself, with love and sympa 
thetic understanding, to studying the flowerlike mind of the Far 
East, many of these puzzling things, which drive the naive 
European from one perplexity to another, simply disappear. Zen 
is indeed one of the most wonderful blossoms of the Chinese 
spirit 10 a spirit fertilized by the immense world of Buddhist 
thought. Anyone who has really tried to understand Buddhist 
doctrine eveji if only to the extent of giving up certain Western 
prejudices will begin to suspect treacherous depths beneath 
the bizarre surface of individual satori experiences, or will sense 
disquieting difficulties which the religion and philosophy of the 
West have up to now thought fit to disregard. If he is a philoso 
pher, he is exclusively concerned with the kind of understand 
ing that has nothing to do with life. And if he is a Christian, he 
has of course no truck with heathens ("God, I thank thee that I 

9 Cf. Spamer, eel., Texte aus der deutschen Mystik des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, 
p. 143; Evans, Meister Eckhart, I, p. 438; William White, Emanuel Swedenborg, 
I, p. 243. 

10 "There is no doubt that Zen is one of the most precious and in many respects 
the most remarkable [of the] spiritual possessions bequeathed to Eastern people." 
Suzuki, Essays on Zen Buddhism, I, p. 264. 

541 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



am not as other men are"). There is no satori within these 
Western limitsthat is a purely Oriental affair. But is this really 
so? Have we in fact no satori? 

884 When one reads the Zen texts attentively, one cannot escape 
the impression that, however bizarre, satori is a natural occur 
rence, something so very simple, 11 even, that one fails to see the 
wood for the trees, and in attempting to explain it invariably 
says the very thing that throws others into the greatest con 
fusion. Nukariya is therefore right when he says that any at 
tempt to explain or analyse the content of Zen, or of the 
enlightenment, is futile. Nevertheless he does venture to assert 
that enlightenment "implies an insight into the nature of 
self/* 12 and that it is an "emancipation of mind from illusion 
concerning self." 13 The illusion concerning the nature of self 
is the common confusion of the self with the ego. Nukariya 
understands by "self" the All-Buddha, i.e., total consciousness 
of life. He quotes Pan Shan, who says: "The moon of mind com 
prehends all the universe in its light," adding: "It is Cosmic 
life and Cosmic spirit, and at the same time individual life and 
individual spirit." 14 

* 8 5 However one may define the self, it is always something 
other than the ego, and inasmuch as a higher insight of the ego 
leads over to the self, the self is a more comprehensive thing 
which includes the experience of the ego and therefore tran 
scends it. Just as the ego is a certain experience 1 have of myself, 
so is the self an experience of my ego. It is, however, no longer 
experienced in the form of a broader or higher ego, but in the 
form of a non-ego. 

886 Such thoughts were familiar to the anonymous author of the 
Theologia Germanica: 

In whatsoever creature the Perfect shall be known, therein crea 
ture-nature, created state, I-hood, selfhood, and the like must all be 
given up and done away. 15 

11 "Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are 
waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen, through the instruction of 
a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; 
after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more 
mountains and waters are waters." Ibid., pp. ssf. 

12 Religion of the Samurai, p. 123. 13 Ibid., p. 124. l* Ibid., p. 132. 
15 Theologia Germanica, ed. by Trask, p. 115. 

54* 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

Now that I arrogate anything good to myself, as if I were, or had 
done, or knew, or could perform any good thing, or that it were 
mine; that is all out of blindness and folly. For if the real truth 
were in me, I should understand that I am not that good thing, and 
that it is not mine nor of me. 

Then the man says: "Behold! I, poor fool that I was, thought it 
was I, but behold! it is, and was, of a truth, God!" 16 

887 This tells us a good deal about the "content of enlighten 
ment." The occurrence of satori is interpreted and formulated 
as a break-through, by a consciousness limited to the ego-form, 
into the non-ego-like self. This view is in accord not only with 
the essence of Zen, but also with the mysticism of Meister 
Eckhart: 

When I flowed out from God, all things declared, "God is!" Now 
this cannot make me blessed, for thereby I acknowledge myself a 
creature. But in the breakthrough 17 I stand empty in the will of 
God, and empty also of God's will, and of all his works, even of God 
himself then I am more than all creatures, then I am neither God 
nor creature: I am what I was, and that I shall remain, now and ever 
more! Then I receive a thrust which carries me above all angels. By 
this thrust I become so rich that God cannot suffice me, despite all 
that he is as God and all his godly works; for in this breakthrough 
I receive what God and I have in common. I am what I was, 18 I 
neither increase nor diminish, for I am the unmoved mover that 
moves all things. Here God can find no more place in man, for man 
by his emptiness has won back that which he was eternally and ever 
shall remain. 19 

888 Here the Master may actually be describing a satori experi 
ence, a supersession of the ego by the self, which is endued with 
the "Buddha nature" or divine universality. Since, out of scien 
tific modesty, I do not presume to make a metaphysical state 
ment, but am referring only to a change of consciousness that 
can be experienced, I treat satori first of all as a psychological 

16 Ibid., pp. 120-21. 

17 There is a similar image in Zen: When a Master was asked what Buddhahood 
consisted in, he answered, "The bottom of a pail is broken through" (Suzuki, 
Essays, I, p. 229). Another analogy is the "bursting of the bag" (Essays, II, p. 117). 
is Cf. Suzuki, Essays, I, pp. 231, 255. Zen means catching a glimpse of the original 
nature of man, or the recognition of the original man (p. 157). 

19 Cf. Evans, Meister Eckhart, p. 221; also Meister Eckhart: A Modem Transla 
tion, by Blakney, pp. 23 if. 

543 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



problem. For anyone who does not share or understand this 
point of view, the "explanation" will consist of nothing but 
words which have no tangible meaning. He is then incapable of 
throwing a bridge from these abstractions to the facts reported; 
that is to say, he cannot understand how the scent of the blos 
soming laurel or the tweaked nose 20 could bring about so 
formidable a change of consciousness. Naturally the simplest 
thing would be to relegate all these anecdotes to the realm of 
amusing fairytales, or, if one accepts the facts as they are, to write 
them off as instances of self-deception. (Another favourite ex 
planation is "auto-suggestion," that pathetic white elephant 
from the arsenal of intellectual inadequacies!) But no serious 
and responsible investigation can pass over these facts unheed- 
ingly. Of course, we can never decide definitely whether a per 
son is really "enlightened" or "released," or whether he merely 
imagines it. We have no criteria to go on. Moreover, we know 
well enough that an imaginary pain is often far more agonizing 
than a so-called real one, since it is accompanied by a subtle 
moral suffering caused by a dull feeling of secret self-accusation. 
In this sense, therefore, it is not a question of "actual fact" but 
of psychic reality, i.e., the psychic process known as satori. 
889 Every psychic process is an image and an "imagining," other 
wise no consciousness could exist and the occurrence would lack 
phenomenality. Imagination itself is a psychic process, for which 
reason it is completely irrelevant whether the enlightenment be 
called "real" or "imaginary." The person who has the enlighten 
ment, or alleges that he has it, thinks at all events that he is 
enlightened. What others think about it decides nothing what 
ever for him in regard to his experience. Even if he were lying, 
his lie would still be a psychic fact. Indeed, even if all the reports 
of religious experiences were nothing but deliberate inventions 
and falsifications, a very interesting psychological treatise could 
still be written about the incidence of such lies, and with the 
same scientific objectivity with which one describes the psycho- 
pathology of delusional ideas. The fact that there is a religious 
movement upon which many brilliant minds have worked over 
a period of many centuries is sufficient reason for at least ventur 
ing a serious attempt to bring such processes within the realm of 
scientific understanding. 

20 Suzuki, Introduction, pp. 93, 84. 

544 



FOREWORD TO " INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

890 Earlier, I raised the question of whether we have anything 
like satori in the West. If we discount the sayings of our Western 
mystics, a superficial glance discloses nothing that could be 
likened to it in even the faintest degree. The possibility that 
there are stages in the development of consciousness plays no 
role in our thinking. The mere thought that there is a tre 
mendous psychological difference between consciousness of the 
existence of an object and "consciousness of the consciousness" 
of an object borders on a quibble that hardly needs answering. 
For the same reason, one could hardly bring oneself to take 
such a problem seriously enough to consider the psychological 
conditions in which it arose. It is significant that questions of 
this kind do not, as a rule, arise from any intellectual need, but, 
where they exist, are nearly always rooted in an originally re 
ligious practice. In India it was yoga and in China Buddhism 
which supplied the driving force for these attempts to wrench 
oneself free from bondage to a state of consciousness that was 
felt to be incomplete. So far as Western mysticism is concerned, 
its texts are full of instructions as to how man can and must 
release himself from the "I-ness" of his consciousness, so that 
through knowledge of his own nature he may rise above it and 
attain the inner (godlike) man. John of Ruysbroeck makes use 
of an image which was also known to Indian philosophy, that 
of the tree whose roots are above and its branches below: 21 
"And he must climb up into the tree of faith, which grows from 
above downwards, for its roots are in the Godhead." 22 He also 
says, like the yogi: "Man must be free and without ideas, re 
leased from all attachments and empty of all creatures." 23 "He 
must be untouched by joy and sorrow, profit and loss, rising and 
falling, concern for others, pleasure and fear, and not be at 
tached to any creature." 24 It is in this that the "unity" of his 
being consists, and this means "being turned inwards." Being 
turned inwards means that "a man is turned within, into his 
own heart, that he may understand and feel the inner working 

21 "Its root is above, its branches belowthis eternal fig-tree! . . . That is 
Brahma, that is called the Immortal.*' Katha Upanishad, 6, i, trans, by Hume, 
The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, p. 358. 

22 John of Ruysbroeck, The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, p. 47. One can , 
hardly suppose that this Flemish mystic, who was born in 1275, borrowed this 
image from any Indian text. 23 Ibid., p. 51. 2* P. 57, modified. 

545 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



and the inner words' of God." 23 This new state of conscious 
ness born of religious practice is distinguished by the fact that 
outward things no longer affect an ego-bound consciousness, 
thus giving rise to mutual attachment, but that an empty con 
sciousness stands open to another influence. This "other* 1 influ 
ence is no longer felt as one's own activity, but as that of a 
non-ego which has the conscious mind as its object. 26 It is as if 
the subject-character of the ego had been overrun, or taken over, 
by another subject which appears in place of the ego. 2T This is a 
well-known religious experience, already formulated by St. 
Paul. 28 Undoubtedly a new state of consciousness is described 
here, separated from the earlier state by an incisive process of 
religious transformation. 

89 1 It could be objected that consciousness in itself has not 
changed, only the consciousness of something, just as though one 
had turned over the page of a book and now saw a different pic 
ture with the same eyes. I am afraid this is no more than an 
arbitrary interpretation, for it does not fit the facts. The fact is 
that in the texts it is not merely a different picture or object 
that is described, but rather an experience of transformation, 
often occurring amid the most violent psychic convulsions. The 
blotting out of one picture and its replacement by another is 
an everyday occurrence which has none of the attributes of a 
transformation experience. It is not that something different is 
seen, but that one sees differently. It is as though the spatial act 
of seeing were changed by a new dimension. When the Master 
asks: "Do you hear the murmuring of the brook?" he obviously 
means something quite different from ordinary "hearing." 29 
Consciousness is something like perception, and like the latter 
is subject to conditions and limitations. You can, for instance, 
be conscious at various levels, within a narrower or wider field, 

25 ibid., p. 62, modified. 

26 "O Lord . . . instruct me in the doctrine of the non-ego, which is grounded 
in the self-nature of mind." Cited from the Lankavatara Sutra, in Suzuki, 
Essays, I, p. 89. 

27 A Zen Master says: "Buddha is none other than the mind, or rather, him who 
strives to see this mind." 

28 Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." 

29 Suzuki says of this change, "The old way of viewing things is abandoned and 
the world acquires a new signification ... a new beauty which exists in the 
'refreshing breeze* and in the 'shining jewel/ " Essays, I, p. 249. See also p. 138. 

546 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM*' 

more on the surface or deeper down. These differences in 
degree are often differences in kind as well, since they depend 
on the development of the personality as a whole; that is to 
say, on the nature of the perceiving subject. 

892 The intellect has no interest in the nature of the perceiving 
subject so far as the latter only thinks logically. The intellect 
is essentially concerned with elaborating the contents of con 
sciousness and with methods of elaboration. A rare philosophic 
passion is needed to compel the attempt to get beyond intellect 
and break through to a "knowledge of the knower." Such a 
passion is practically indistinguishable from the driving force 
of religion; consequently this whole problem belongs to the 
religious transformation process, which is incommensurable 
with intellect. Classical philosophy subserves this process on a 
wide scale, but this can be said less and less of the newer phi 
losophy. Schopenhauer is still with qualifications classical, but 
Nietzsche's Zarathustra is no longer philosophy at all: it is a 
dramatic process of transformation which has completely swal 
lowed up the intellect. It is no longer concerned with thought, 
but, in the highest sense, with the thinker of thought and this 
on every page of the book. A new man, a completely trans 
formed man, is to appear on the scene, one who has broken the 
shell of the old and who not only looks upon a new heaven and 
a new earth, but has created them. Angelus Silesius puts it 
rather more modestly than Zarathustra: 

My body is a shell in which a chick lies closed about; 
Brooded by the spirit of eternity, it waits its hatching out. 30 

893 Satori corresponds in the Christian sphere to an experience 
of religious transformation. As there are different degrees and 
kinds of such an experience, it may not be superfluous to define 
more accurately the category which corresponds most closely to 
the Zen experience. This is without doubt the mystic experi 
ence, which differs from other types in that its preliminary 
stages consist in "letting oneself go/' in "emptying oneself of 
images and ideas," as opposed to those religious experiences 
which, like the exercises of Ignatius Loyola, are based on the 
practice of envisaging sacred images. In this latter class I would 

30 From Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann. [Trans, by W. R. Trask (unpub.).] 

547 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



include transformation through faith and prayer and through 
collective experience in Protestantism, since a very definite 
expectation plays the decisive role here, and not by any means 
"emptiness" or "freeness." The characteristically Eckhartian 
assertion that "God is Nothingness" may well be incompatible 
in principle with the contemplation of the Passion, with faith 
and collective expectations. 

894 Thus the correspondence between satori and Western ex 
perience is limited to those few Christian mystics whose para 
doxical statements skirt the edge of heterodoxy or actually 
overstep it. As we know, it was this that drew down on Meister 
Eckhart's writings the condemnation of the Church. If Bud 
dhism were a "Church" in our sense of the word, she would 
undoubtedly find Zen an insufferable nuisance. The reason 
for this is the extreme individualism of its methods, and also 
the iconoclastic attitude of many of the Masters. 31 To the extent 
that Zen is a movement, collective forms have arisen in the 
course of the centuries, as can be seen from Suzuki's Training 
of the Zen Buddhist Monk (Kyoto, 1934). But these concern 
externals only. Apart from the typical mode of life, the spiritual 
training or development seems to lie in the method of the koan. 
The koan is understood to be a paradoxical question, statement, 
or action of the Master. Judging by Suzuki's description, it 
seems to consist chiefly of master-questions handed down in the 
form of anecdotes. These are submitted by the teacher to the 
student for meditation. A classic example is the Wu anecdote. 
A monk once asked the Master: "Has a dog a Buddha nature 
too?" Whereupon the Master replied: "Wu!" As Suzuki re 
marks, this "Wu" means quite simply "bow-wow," obviously 
just what the dog himself would have said in answer to such 
a question. 32 

8 95 At first sight it seems as if the posing of such a question as 

31 "Satori is the most intimate individual experience." Essays, I, p. 261. 

A Master says to his pupil: "I have really nothing to impart to you, and if I 
tried to do so you might have occasion to make me an object of ridicule. Besides, 
whatever I can tell you is my own and can never be yours." Introduction, p. 91. 

A monk says to the Master: "I have been seeking for the Buddha, but do not 
yet know how to go on with my research." Said the Master: "It is very much like 
looking for an ox when riding on one." Essays, II, p. 74. 

A Master says: "The mind that does not understand is the Buddha: there is 
no other." Ibid., p. 72. 32 Essays, II, pp. 84, 90. 

548 



FOREWORD TO INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

an object of meditation would anticipate or prejudice the end- 
result, and that it would therefore determine the content of 
the experience, just as in the Jesuit exercises or in certain yoga 
meditations the content is determined by the task set by the 
teacher. The koans, however, are so various, so ambiguous, and 
above all so boundlessly paradoxical that even an expert must 
be completely in the dark as to what might be considered a 
suitable solution. In addition, the descriptions of the final 
result are so obscure that in no single case can one discover any 
rational connection between the koan and the experience of 
enlightenment. Since no logical sequence can be demonstrated, 
it remains to be supposed that the koan method puts not the 
smallest restraint upon the freedom of the psychic process and 
that the end-result therefore springs from nothing but the in 
dividual disposition of the pupil. The complete destruction 
of the rational intellect aimed at in the training creates an 
almost perfect lack of conscious presuppositions. These are ex 
cluded as far as possible, but not unconscious presuppositions 
that is, the existing but unrecognized psychological disposition, 
which is anything but empty or a tabula rasa. It is a nature- 
given factor, and when it answersthis being obviously the 
satori experience it is an answer of Nature, who has succeeded 
in conveying her reaction direct to the conscious mind. 33 What 
the unconscious nature of the pupil presents to the teacher or 
to the koan by way of an answer is, manifestly, satori. This 
seems, at least to me, to be the view which, to judge by the 
descriptions, formulates the nature of satori more or less cor 
rectly. It is also supported by the fact that the "glimpse into 
one's own nature," the "original man," and the depths of one's 
being are often a matter of supreme concern to the Zen master. 34 

33 "Zen consciousness is to be nursed to maturity. When it is fully matured, it is 
sure to break out as satori, which is an insight into the unconscious." Essays, II, 
p. 60. 

34 The fourth maxim of Zen is "Seeing into one's nature and the attainment of 
Buddhahood" (I, p. 18). When a monk asked Hui-neng for instruction, the 
Master told him: "Show me your original face before you were born" (I, p. 224). 
A Japanese Zen book says: "If you wish to seek the Buddha, you ought to see 
into your own nature; for this nature is the Buddha himself" (I, p. 231). A satori 
experience shows a Master the "original man" (I, p. 255). Hui-neng said: "Think 
not of good, think not of evil, but see what at the .moment your own original 
features are, which you had even before coming into existence" (II, p. 42). 

549 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



896 Zen differs from all other exercises in meditation, whether 
philosophical or religious, in its total lack of presuppositions. 
Often Buddha himself is sternly rejected, indeed, almost blas 
phemously ignored, although or perhaps just because he could 
be the strongest spiritual presupposition of the whole exercise. 
But he too is an image and must therefore be set aside. Nothing 
must be present except what is actually there: that is, man with 
all his unconscious presuppositions, of which, precisely because 
they are unconscious, he can never, never rid himself. The 
answer which appears to come from the void, the light which 
flares up from the blackest darkness, these have always been 
experienced as a wonderful and blessed illumination. 

897 The world of consciousness is inevitably a world full of 
restrictions, of walls blocking the way. It is of necessity one 
sided, because of the nature of consciousness itself. No con 
sciousness can harbour more than a very small number of 
simultaneous perceptions. All else must lie in shadow, with 
drawn from sight. Any increase in the simultaneous contents 
immediately produces a dimming of consciousness, if not con 
fusion to the point of disorientation. Consciousness not only 
requires, but is of its very nature strictly limited to, the few 
and hence the distinct. We owe our general orientation simply 
and solely to the fact that through attention we are able to 
register a fairly rapid succession of images. But attention is 
an effort of which we are not capable all the time. We have 
to make do, so to speak, with a minimum of simultaneous 
perceptions and successions of images. Hence in wide areas 
possible perceptions are continuously excluded, and conscious 
ness is always bound to the narrowest circle. What would 
happen if an individual consciousness were able to take in at 
a single glance a simultaneous picture of every possible per 
ception is beyond imagining. If man has already succeeded in 
building up the structure of the world from the few distinct 
things that he can perceive at one and the same time, what 
godlike spectacle would present itself to his eyes if he were able 
to perceive a great deal more all at once and distinctly? This 
question applies only to perceptions that are possible to us. If 
we now add to these the unconscious contents i.e., contents 
which are not yet, or no longer, capable of consciousness and 
then try to imagine a total vision, why, this is beyond the most 

550 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

audacious fantasy. It is of course completely unimaginable 
in any conscious form, but in the unconscious it is a fact, since 
everything subliminal holds within it the ever-present pos 
sibility of being perceived and represented in consciousness. 
The unconscious is an irrepresentable totality of all subliminal 
psychic factors, a "total vision" in potentia. It constitutes the 
total disposition from which consciousness singles out tiny 
fragments from time to time. 

Now if consciousness is emptied as far as possible of its 
contents, they will fall into a state of unconsciousness, at least 
for the time being. In Zen, this displacement usually results 
from the energy being withdrawn from conscious contents and 
transferred either to the conception of "emptiness" or to the 
koan. As both of these must be static, the succession of images is 
abolished and with it the energy which maintains the kinetics 
of consciousness. The energy thus saved goes over to the uncon 
scious and reinforces its natural charge to bursting point. This 
increases the readiness of the unconscious contents to break 
through into consciousness. But since the emptying and shutting 
down of consciousness is no easy matter, a special training of 
indefinite duration S5 is needed in order to set up that maximum 
tension which leads to the final break-through of unconscious 
contents. 

The contents that break through are far from being random 
ones. As psychiatric experience with insane patients shows, 
specific relations exist between the conscious contents and the 
delusional ideas that break through in delirium. They are the 
same relations as exist between the dreams and the waking 
consciousness of normal people. The connection is an essentially 
compensatory relationship: 86 the unconscious contents bring 
to the surface everything that is necessary 8T in the broadest sense 

35 Bodhidarma, the founder of Zen in China, says: "The incomparable doctrine 
of Buddhism can be comprehended only after a long hard discipline and by 
enduring what is most difficult to endure, and by practising what is most difficult 
to practise. Men of inferior virtue and wisdom are not allowed to understand any 
thing about it. All the labours of such ones will come to naught" (Ibid., I, p. 188.) 

36 This is more probable than one that is merely "complementary." 

37 This "necessity" is a working hypothesis. People can, and do, hold very differ 
ent views on this point. For instance, are religious ideas "necessary"? Only the 
course of the individual's life can decide this, i.e., his individual experience. 
There are no abstract criteria. 

551 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION Z EAST 



for the completion and wholeness o conscious orientation. If 
the fragments offered by, or forced up from, the unconscious 
are meaningfully built into conscious life, a form of psychic 
existence results which corresponds better to the whole of the 
individual's personality, and so abolishes the fruitless conflicts 
between his conscious and unconscious self. Modern psycho 
therapy is based on this principle, in so far as it has been able 
to free itself from the historical prejudice that the unconscious 
consists only of infantile and morally inferior contents. There 
is certainly an inferior corner in it, a lumber-room full of dirty 
secrets, though these are not so much unconscious as hidden 
and only half forgotten. But all this has about as much to do 
with the whole of the unconscious as a decayed tooth has with 
the total personality. The unconscious is the matrix of all 
metaphysical statements, of all mythology, of all philosophy 
(so far as this is not merely critical), and of all expressions of 
life that are based on psychological premises. 

9 Every invasion of the unconscious is an answer to a definite 
conscious situation, and this answer follows from the totality 
of possible ideas present, i.e., from the total disposition \vhich, 
as explained above, is a simultaneous picture in potentia of 
psychic existence. The splitting up into single units, its one 
sided and fragmentary character, is of the essence of conscious 
ness. The reaction coming from the disposition always has a 
total character, as it reflects a nature which has not been divided 
up by any discriminating consciousness. 38 Hence its overpow 
ering effect. It is the unexpected, all-embracing, completely 
illuminating answer, which works all the more as illumination 
and revelation since the conscious mind has got itself wedged 
into a hopeless blind alley. 39 

9i When, therefore, after many years of the hardest practice 
and the most strenuous demolition of rational understanding, 
the Zen devotee receives an answer the only true answerfrom 
Nature herself, everything that is said of satori can be under 
stood. As one can see for oneself, it is the naturalness of the 
answer that strikes one most about the Zen anecdotes. Yes, one 

38 "When the mind discriminates, there is manifoldness of things; when it does 
not it looks into the true state of things,*' Essays, I, p. 99. 

39 See the passage beginning "Have your mind like unto space. . . ." Suzuki, 
Essays, I, p. 225. 

552 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

can accept with a sort of old-roguish satisfaction the story of 
the enlightened pupil who gave his Master a slap in the face as 
a reward. 40 And how much wisdom there is in the Master's 
"Wu," the answer to the question about the Buddha-nature of 
the dog! One must always bear in mind, however, that there 
are a great many people who cannot distinguish between a 
metaphysical joke and nonsense, and just as many who are so 
convinced of their own cleverness that they have never in their 
lives met any but fools. 

902 Great as is the value of Zen Buddhism for understanding 
the religious transformation process, its use among Western 
people is very problematical. The mental education necessary 
for Zen is lacking in the West. Who among us would place such 
implicit trust in a superior Master and his incomprehensible 
ways? This respect for the greater human personality is found 
only in the East. Could any of us boast that he believes in the 
possibility of a boundlessly paradoxical transformation experi 
ence, to the extent, moreover, of sacrificing many years of his 
life to the wearisome pursuit of such a goal? And finally, who 
would dare to take upon himself the responsibility for such an 
unorthodox transformation experience except a man who was 
little to be trusted, one who, maybe for pathological reasons, 
has too much to say for himself? Just such a person would have 
no cause to complain of any lack of following among us. But 
let a "Master" set us a hard task, which requires more than mere 
parrot-talk, and the European begins to have doubts, for the 
steep path of self-development is to him as mournful and gloomy 
as the path to hell. 

905 I have no doubt that the satori experience does occur also 
in the West, for we too have men who glimpse ultimate goals 
and spare themselves no pains to draw near to them. But they 
will keep silent, not only out of shyness, but because they know 
that any attempt to convey their experience to others is hope 
less. There is nothing in our civilization to foster these strivings, 
not even the Church, the custodian of religious values. Indeed, 
it is the function of the Church to oppose all original experi 
ence, because this can only be unorthodox. The only movement 
inside our civilization which has, or should have, some under 
standing of these endeavours is psychotherapy. It is therefore 

40 Introduction to Zen Buddhism, p. 94. 

553 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



no accident that it is a psychotherapist who is writing this 
foreword. 

94 Psychotherapy is at bottom a dialectical relationship between 
doctor and patient. It is an encounter, a discussion between two 
psychic wholes, in which knowledge is used only as a tool. The 
goal is transformation not one that is predetermined, but 
rather an indeterminable change, the only criterion of which 
is the disappearance of egohood. No efforts on the part of the 
doctor can compel this experience. The most he can do is to 
smooth the path for the patient and help him to attain an atti 
tude which offers the least resistance to the decisive experience. 
If knowledge plays no small part in our Western procedure, 
this is equivalent to the importance of the traditional spiritual 
atmosphere of Buddhism in Zen. Zen and its technique could 
only have arisen on the basis of Buddhist culture, which it pre 
supposes at every turn. You cannot annihilate a rationalistic 
intellect that was never there no Zen adept was ever the prod 
uct of ignorance and lack of culture. Hence it frequently 
happens with us also that a conscious ego and a cultivated 
understanding must first be produced through analysis before 
one can even think about abolishing egohood or rationalism. 
What is more, psychotherapy does not deal with men who, like 
Zen monks, are ready to make any sacrifice for the sake of truth, 
but very often with the most stubborn of all Europeans. Thus 
the tasks of psychotherapy are much more varied, and the in 
dividual phases of the long process much more contradictory, 
than is the case in Zen. 

905 For these and many other reasons a direct transplantation 
of Zen to our Western conditions is neither commendable nor 
even possible. All the same, the psychotherapist who is seriously 
concerned with the question of the aim of his therapy cannot 
remain unmoved when he sees the end towards which this 
Eastern method of psychic "healing"-i.e., "making whole" is 
striving. As we know, this question has occupied the most ad 
venturous minds of the East for more than two thousand years, 
and in this respect methods and philosophical doctrines have 
been developed which simply put all Western attempts along 
these lines into the shade. Our attempts have, with few excep 
tions, all stopped short at either magic (mystery cults, amongst 
which we must include Christianity) or intellectualism (philos- 

554 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

ophy from Pythagoras to Schopenhauer). It is only the tragedies 
of Goethe's Faust and Nietzsche's Zarathustra which mark the 
first glimmerings of a break-through of total experience in our 
Western hemisphere. 41 And we do not know even today what 
these most promising of all products of the Western mind may 
at length signify, so overlaid are they with the materiality and 
concreteness of our thinking, as moulded by the Greeks. 42 De 
spite the fact that our intellect has developed almost to perfec 
tion the capacity of the bird of prey to espy the tiniest mouse 
from the greatest height, yet the pull of the earth drags it down, 
and the samskaras entangle it in a world of confusing images 
the moment it no longer seeks for booty but turns one eye in 
wards to find him who seeks. Then the individual falls into the 
throes of a daemonic rebirth, beset with unknown terrors and 
dangers and menaced by deluding mirages in a labyrinth of 
error. The worst of all fates threatens the venturer: mute, abys 
mal loneliness in the age he calls his own. What do we know of 
the hidden motives for Goethe's "main business," as he called 
his Faust, or of the shudders of the "Dionysus experience"? 
One has to read the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the 
Dead, backwards, as I have suggested, 43 in order to find an 
Eastern parallel to the torments and catastrophes of the Western 
"way of release" to wholeness. This is the issue here not 
good intentions, clever imitations, or intellectual acrobatics. 
And this, in Shadowy hints or in greater or lesser fragments, is 
what the psychotherapist is faced with when he has freed himself 
from over-hasty and short-sighted doctrinal opinions. If he is 
a slave to his quasi-biological credo he will always try to reduce 
what he has glimpsed to the banal and the known, to a ration 
alistic denominator which satisfies only those who are content 
with illusions. But the foremost of all illusions is that anything 
can ever satisfy anybody. That illusion stands behind all that 
is unendurable in life and in front of all progress, and it is one 
of the most difficult things to overcome. If the psychotherapist 
can take time off from his helpful activities for a little reflection, 

41 In this connection I must also mention the English mystic, William Blake. Cf. 
an excellent account in Percival, William Blake's Circle of Destiny. 

42 The genius of the Greeks lay in the break-through of consciousness into the 
materiality of the world, thus robbing the world of its original dreamlike quality. 

43 [Cf. above, par. 844.] 

555 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



or if by any chance he is forced into seeing through his own 
illusions, it may dawn on him how hollow and flat, how inimical 
to life, are all rationalistic reductions when they come upon 
something that is alive, that wants to grow. Should he follow 
this up he will soon get an idea of what it means to "open wide 
that gate / Past which man's steps have ever flinching trod." 44 
9 06 I would not under any circumstances like it to be under 
stood that I am making any recommendations or offering any 
advice. But when one begins to talk about Zen in the West I 
consider it my duty to show the European where our entrance 
lies to that "longest road" which leads to satori, and what kind 
of difficulties bestrew the path which only a few of our great 
ones have trodbeacons, perhaps, on high mountains, shining 
out into the dim future. It would be a disastrous mistake to 
assume that satori or samadhi are to be met with anywhere 
below these heights. As an experience of totality it cannot be 
anything cheaper or smaller than the whole. What this means 
psychologically can be seen from the simple reflection that con 
sciousness is always only a part of the psyche and therefore never 
capable of psychic wholeness: for that the indefinite extension 
of the unconscious is needed. But the unconscious can neither 
be caught with clever formulas nor exorcized by means of scien 
tific dogmas, for something of destiny clings to it indeed, it 
is sometimes destiny itself, as Faust and Zarathustra show all too 
clearly. The attainment of wholeness requires one to stake one's 
whole being. Nothing less will do; there can be no easier con 
ditions, no substitutes, no compromises. Considering that both 
Faust and Zarathustra, despite the highest recognition, stand on 
the border-line of what is comprehensible to the European, one 
could hardly expect the educated public, which has only just 
begun to hear about the obscure world of the psyche, to form 
any adequate conception of the spiritual state of a man caught 
in the toils of the individuation process which is my term for 
"becoming whole." People then drag out the vocabulary of pa 
thology and console themselves with the terminology of neurosis 
and psychosis, or else they whisper about the "creative secret." 
But what can a man "create" if he doesn't happen to be a poet? 
This misunderstanding has caused not a few persons in recent 
times to call themselves by their own grace "artists," just as 

44 Faust, Part I, trans, by Wayne, p. 54. 

556 



FOREWORD TO "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" 

if art had nothing to do with ability. But if you have nothing at 
all to create, then perhaps you create yourself. 
907 Zen shows how much "becoming whole" means to the East. 
Preoccupation with the riddles of Zen may perhaps stiffen the 
spine of the faint-hearted European or provide a pair of spec 
tacles for his psychic myopia, so that from his "damned hole 
in the wall" 45 he may enjoy at least a glimpse of the world of 
psychic experience, which till now lay shrouded in fog. No harm 
can be done, for those who are too frightened will be effectively 
protected from further corruption, as also from everything of 
significance, by the helpful idea of "auto-suggestion." 46 1 should 
like to warn the attentive and sympathetic reader, however, not 
to underestimate the spiritual depth of the East, or to assume 
that there is anything cheap and facile about Zen. 47 The assidu 
ously cultivated credulity of the West in regard to Eastern 
thought is in this case a lesser danger, as in Zen there are for 
tunately none of those marvellously incomprehensible words 
that we find in Indian cults. Neither does Zen play about with 
complicated hatha-joga. techniques, 48 which delude the physio 
logically minded European into the false hope that the spirit 
can be obtained by just sitting and breathing. On the contrary, 
Zen demands intelligence and will power, as do all greater 
things that want to become realities. 

48 Ibid., p. 44. 46 Introduction, p. 95. 

47 "it is no pastime but the most serious task in life; no idlers will ever dare 
attempt it." Suzuki, Essays, I, p. 27; cf. also p. 92. 

48 Says a Master: "If thou seekest Buddhahood by thus sitting cross-legged, thou 
murderest him. So long as thou freest thyself not from sitting so, thou never 
comest to the truth." Essays, I, p. 235. Cf. also II, p. &$L 



557 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION * 



908 The profound relationship between yoga and the hieratic 
architecture of India has already been pointed out by my friend 
Heinrich Zimmer, whose unfortunate early death is a great 
loss to Indology. Anyone who has visited Borobudur or seen 
the stupas at Bharhut and Sanchi can hardly avoid feeling that 
an attitude of mind and a vision quite foreign to the European 
have been at work here if he has not already been brought to 
this realization by a thousand other impressions of Indian life. 
In the overflowing wealth of Indian spirituality there is re 
flected a vision of the soul which at first appears strange and 
inaccessible to the Greek-trained European mind. Our minds 
perceive things, our eyes, as Gottfried Keller says, "drink what 
the eyelids hold of the golden abundance of the world/' and we 

i [Delivered as a lecture to the Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde ostasia- 
tischer Kultur, In Zurich, Basel, and Bern, during March-May 1943, and pub 
lished as "Zur Psychologic ostlicher Meditation" in the Society's Mitteilungen (St. 
Gallen), V (1943), 33-53; repub. in Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich, 1948), pp. 447- 
72. Previously trans, by Carol Baumann in Art and Thought, a volume in honour 
of Ananda K, Coomaraswamy (London, 1948), pp. 169-79. 

[The work of Heinrich Zimmer's which the author refers to in the opening 
sentence was his Kunstform und Yoga im indischen Kultbild (1926), the central 
argument of which has been restated in his posthumous English works, particu 
larly Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946) and The Art of 
Indian Asia (1955). Cf. also the next paper in this volume. EDITORS.] 

558 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



draw conclusions about the inner world from our wealth of out 
ward impressions. We even derive its content from outside on 
the principle that "nothing is in the mind which was not pre 
viously in the senses." This principle seems to have no validity 
in India. Indian thought and Indian art merely appear in the 
sense-world, but do not derive from it. Although often expressed . 
with startling sensuality, they are, in their truest essence, unsen- 
sual, not to say suprasensual. It is not the world of the senses, 
of the body, of colours and sounds, not human passions that are 
born anew in transfigured form, or with realistic pathos, 
through the creativity of the Indian soul, but rather an under 
world or an overworld of a metaphysical nature, out of which 
strange forms emerge into the familiar earthly scene. For 
instance, if one carefully observes the tremendously impressive 
impersonations of the gods performed by the Kathakali dancers 
of southern India, there is not a single natural gesture to be 
seen. Everything is bizarre, subhuman and superhuman at once. 
The dancers do not walk like human beings they glide; they 
do not think with their heads but with their hands. Even their 
human faces vanish behind blue-enamelled masks. The world 
we know offers nothing even remotely comparable to this gro 
tesque splendour. Watching these spectacles one is transported 
to a world of dreams, for that is the only place where we might 
conceivably meet with anything similar. But the Kathakali 
dancers, as we see them in the flesh or in the temple sculptures, 
are no nocturnal phantoms; they are intensely dynamic figures, 
consistent in every detail, or as if they had grown organically. 
These are no shadows or ghosts of a bygone reality, they are 
more like realities which have not yet been, potential realities 
which might at any moment step over the threshold. 

909 Anyone who wholeheartedly surrenders to these impressions 
will soon notice that these figures do not strike the Indians 
themselves as dreamlike but as real. And, indeed, they touch 
upon something in our own depths, too, with an almost terri 
fying intensity, though we have no words to express it. At the 
same time, one notices that the more deeply one is stirred the 
more our sense-world fades into a dream, and that we seem to 
wake up in a world of gods, so immediate is their reality. 

910 What the European notices at first in India is the outward 
corporeality he sees everywhere. But that is not India as the 

559 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



Indian sees it; that is not his reality. Reality, as the German 
word "Wirklichkeit" implies, is that which works. For us the 
essence of that which works is the world of appearance; for the 
Indian it is the soul. The world for him is a mere show or 
facade, and his reality comes close to being what we would call 
a dream. 

9 1L This strange antithesis between East and West is expressed 
most clearly in religious practice. We speak of religious uplift 
and exaltation; for us God is the Lord of the universe, we have 
a religion of brotherly love, and in our heaven-aspiring churches 
there is a high altar. The Indian, on the other hand, speaks of 
dhyana, of self-immersion, and of sinking into meditation; God 
is within all things and especially within man, and one turns 
away from the outer world to the inner. In the old Indian 
temples the altar is sunk six to eight feet deep in the earth, and 
what we hide most shamefacedly is the holiest symbol to the 
Indian. We believe in doing, the Indian in impassive being. 
Our religious exercises consist of prayer, worship, and singing 
hymns. The Indian's most important exercise is yoga, an im 
mersion in what we would call an unconscious state, but which 
he praises as the highest consciousness. Yoga is the most elo 
quent expression of the Indian mind and at the same time the 
instrument continually used to produce this peculiar attitude 
of mind. 

912 What, then, is yoga? The word means literally "yking," 
i.e., the disciplining of the instinctual forces of the psyche, 
which in Sanskrit are called kleshas. The yoking aims at con 
trolling these forces that fetter human beings to the world. The 
kleshas would correspond, in the language of St. Augustine, to 
superbia and concupiscentia. There are many different forms 
of yoga, but all of them pursue the same goal. Here I will only 
mention that besides the purely psychic exercises there is also a 
form called hatha yoga, a sort of gymnastics consisting chiefly 
of breathing exercises and special body postures. In this lecture 
I have undertaken to describe a yoga text which allows a deep 
insight into the psychic processes of yoga. It is a little-known 
Buddhist text, written in Chinese but translated from the ori 
ginal Sanskrit, and dating from A.D. 424. It is called the Amita- 
yur-dhydna Sutra, the Sutra of Meditation on Amitayus. This 

560 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



sutra, highly valued in Japan, belongs to the sphere of theistic 
Buddhism, in which is found the teaching that the Adi-Buddha 
or Mahabuddha, the Primordial Buddha, brought forth the five 
Dhyani-Buddhas or Dhyani-Bodhisattvas. One of the five is 
Amitabha, "the Buddha of the setting sun of immeasurable 
light," the Lord of Sukhavati, land of supreme bliss. He is the 
protector of our present world-period, just as Shakyamuni, the 
historical Buddha, is its teacher. In the cult of Amitabha there 
is, oddly enough, a kind of Eucharistic feast with consecrated 
. bread. He is sometimes depicted holding in his hand the vessel 
of the life-giving food of immortality, or the vessel of holy 
water. 

913 The text 2 begins with an introductory story that need not 
detain us here. A crown prince seeks to take the life of his 
parents, and in her extremity the Queen calls upon the Buddha 
for help, praying him to send her his two disciples Maudgal- 
yayana and Ananda. The Buddha fulfils her wish, and the two 
appear at once. At the same time Shakyamuni, the Buddha him 
self, appears before her eyes. He shows her in a vision all the 
ten worlds, so that she can choose in which one she wishes to 
be reborn. She chooses the western realm of Amitabha. He then 
teaches her the yoga which should enable her to retain rebirth 
in the Amitabha land, and after giving her various moral 
instructions he speaks to her as follows: 

9 X 4 You and all other beings besides ought to make it their only aim, 
with concentrated thought, to get a perception of the western 
quarter. You will ask how that perception is to be formed. I will 
explain it now. All beings, if not blind from birth, are uniformly 
possessed of sight, and they all see the setting sun. You should sit 
down properly, looking in the western direction, and prepare your 
thought for a close meditation on the sun: cause your mind to be 
firmly fixed on it so as to have an unwavering perception by the 
exclusive application of your thought, and gaze upon it more par 
ticularly when it is about to set and looks like a suspended drum. 
After you have thus seen the sun, let that image remain clear and 
fixed, whether your eyes be shut or open. Such is the perception of 
the sun, which is the First Meditation. 

2 In Buddhist Mahay ana Sutras (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49), Part II, pp. 
159-201, trans, by J. Takakusu, slightly modified. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



9*5 As we have already seen, the setting sun is an allegory of the 
immortality-dispensing Amitabha. The text continues: 

Next you should form the perception of water; gaze on the water 
clear and pure, and let this image also remain clear and fixed after 
wards; never allow your thought to be scattered and lost. 

9 l6 As already mentioned, Amitabha is also the dispenser of the 
water of immortality. 

9*7 When you have thus seen the water you should form the percep 
tion of ice. As you see the ice shining and transparent, so you should 
imagine the appearance of lapis lazuli. After that has been done, 
you will see the ground consisting of lapis lazuli transparent and 
shining both within and without. Beneath this ground of lapis lazuli 
there will be seen a golden banner with the seven jewels, diamonds, 
and the rest, supporting the ground. It extends to the eight points 
of the compass, and thus the eight corners of the ground are per 
fectly filled up. Every side of the eight quarters consists of a hundred 
jewels, every jewel has a thousand rays, and every ray has eighty-four 
thousand colours which, when reflected in the ground of lapis lazuli, 
look like a thousand millions of suns, and it is difficult to see them 
all one by one. Over the surface of that ground of lapis lazuli there 
are stretched golden ropes intertwined crosswise; divisions are made 
by means of [strings of] seven jewels with every part clear and dis 
tinct. . . . 

When this perception has been formed, you should meditate on 
its constituents one by one and make the images as clear as possible, 
so that they may never be scattered and lost, whether your eyes be 
shut or open. Except only during the time of your sleep, you should 
always keep this in mind. One who has reached this stage of per 
ception is said to have dimly seen the Land of Highest Happiness 
[Sukhavati], One who has obtained samadhi [the state of super 
natural calm] is able to see the land of that Buddha country clearly 
and distinctly; this state is too much to be explained fully. Such is 
the perception of the land, and it is the Third Meditation. 

9 1 Samadhi is 'withdrawnness/ i.e., a condition in which all 
connections with the world are absorbed into the inner world. 
Samadhi is the eighth phase of the Eightfold Path. 

9*9 After the above comes a meditation on the Jewel Tree of the 
Amitabha land, and then follows the meditation on water: 

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



In the Land of Highest Happiness there are waters in eight lakes; 
the water in every lake consists of seven jewels which are soft and 
yielding. Its source derives from the king of jewels that fulfils every 
wish [cintamani, the wishing-pearl]. ... In the midst of each lake 
there are sixty millions of lotus-flowers, made of seven jewels; all 
the flowers are perfectly round and exactly equal in circumference. 
. . . The water of jewels flows amidst the flowers and . . . the 
sound of the streaming water is melodious and pleasing. It pro 
claims all the perfect virtues \paramitas\, "suffering," "non-exist 
ence," "impermanence" and "non-self"; it proclaims also the praise 
of the signs of perfection, and minor marks of excellence, of all 
Buddhas. From the king of jewels that fulfils every wish stream 
forth the golden-coloured rays excessively beautiful, the radiance of 
which transforms itself into birds possessing the colours of a hundred 
jewels, which sing out harmonious notes, sweet and delicious, ever 
praising the remembrance of the Buddha, the remembrance of the 
Law, and the remembrance of the Church. Such is the perception of 
the water of eight good qualities, and it is the Fifth Meditation. 

9*0 Concerning the meditation on Amitabha himself, the 
Buddha instructs the Queen in the following manner: "Form 
the perception of a lotus-flower on a ground of seven jewels/' 
The flower has 84,000 petals, each petal 84,000 veins, and each 
vein possesses 84,000 rays, "of which each can clearly be seen." 

921 When you have perceived this, you should next perceive the 
Buddha himself. Do you ask how? Every Buddha Tathagata is one 
whose spiritual body is the principle of nature [Dharmadhatu-kaya], 
so that he may enter into the mind of all beings. Consequently, 
when you have perceived the Buddha, it is indeed that mind of 
yours that possesses those thirty-two signs of perfection and eighty 
minor marks of excellence which you see in the Buddha. In fine, it 
is your mind that becomes the Buddha, nay, it is your mind that is 
indeed the Buddha. The ocean of true and universal knowledge of 
all the Buddhas derives its source from one's own mind and thought. 
Therefore you should apply your thought with undivided attention 
to a careful meditation on that Buddha Tathagata, the Arhat, the 
Holy and Fully Enlightened One. In forming the perception of that 
Buddha, you should first perceive the image of that Buddha; 
whether your eyes be open or shut, look at him as at an image like to 
Jambunada 8 gold in colour, sitting on the flower. 

3 Jambunadi = Jambu-tree. A river formed of the juice of the fruit of the Jambu- 
tree flows in a circle round Mount Meru and returns to the tree. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



When you have seen the seated figure your mental vision will be 
come clear, and you will be able to see clearly and distinctly the 
adornment of that Buddha-country, the jewelled ground, etc. In 
seeing these things let them be clear and fixed just as you see the 
palms of your hands. . . . 

If you pass through this experience, you will at the same time see 
all the Buddhas of the ten quarters. . * . Those who have practised 
this meditation are said to have contemplated the bodies of all the 
Buddhas. Since they have meditated on the Buddha's body, they will 
also see the Buddha's mind. It is great compassion that is called the 
Buddha's mind. It is by his absolute compassion that he receives all 
beings. Those who have practised this meditation will, when they die, 
be born in the presence of the Buddhas in another life, and obtain 
a spirit of resignation wherewith to face all the consequences which 
shall hereafter arise. Therefore those who have wisdom should direct 
their thought to the careful meditation upon that Buddha Amitayus. 

922 Of those who practise this meditation it is said that they no 
longer live in an embryonic condition but will "obtain free 
access to the excellent and admirable countries of Buddhas." 

9*3 After you have had this perception, you should imagine yourself to 
be born in the World of Highest Happiness in the western quarter, 
and to be seated, cross-legged, on a lotus-flower there. Then imagine 
that the flower has shut you in and has afterwards unfolded; when 
the flower has thus unfolded, five hundred coloured rays will shine 
over your body, your eyes will be opened so as to see the Buddhas 
and Bodhisattvas who fill the whole sky; you will hear the sounds 
of waters and trees, the notes of birds, and the voices of many 
Buddhas. . . . 

924 The Buddha then says to Ananda and Vaidehi (the Queen): 

Those who wish, by means of their serene thoughts, to be born in the 
western land, should first meditate on an image of the Buddha, 
which is sixteen cubits high, seated on a lotus-flower in the water of 
the lake. As was stated before, the real body and its measurements 
are unlimited, incomprehensible to the ordinary mind. But by the 
efficacy of the ancient prayer of that Tathagata, those who think of 
and remember him shall certainly be able to accomplish their 
aim. . . . 

925 The Buddha's speech continues for many pages, then the 
text says: 

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



When the Buddha had finished this speech, Vaidehi, together with 
her five hundred female attendants, guided by the Buddha's words, 
could see the scene of the far-stretching World of the Highest Happi 
ness, and could also see the body of the Buddha and the bodies of 
the two Bodhisattvas. With her mind filled with joy she praised 
them, saying: "Never have I seen such a wonderl" Instantly she be 
came wholly and fully enlightened, and attained a spirit of resigna 
tion, prepared to endure whatever consequences might yet arise. 
Her five hundred female attendants too cherished the thought of 
obtaining the highest perfect knowledge, and sought to be born in 
that Buddha-country. The World-Honoured One predicted that 
they would all be born in that Buddha-country, and be able to ob 
tain samadhi of the presence of many Buddhas. 

9*6 In a digression on the fate of the unenlightened, the Buddha 
sums up the yoga exercise as follows: 

But, being harassed by pains, he will have no time to think of the 
Buddha. Some good friend will then say to him: "Even if you cannot 
exercise the remembrance of the Buddha, you may, at least, utter the 
name, 'Buddha Amitayus/ " Let him do so serenely with his voice 
uninterrupted; let him be continually thinking of the Buddha until 
he has completed ten times the thought, repeating the formula, 
"Adoration to Buddha Amitayus." On the strength of his merit in 
uttering the Buddha's name he will, during every repetition, expiate 
the sins which involve him in births and deaths duringeighty millions 
of kalpas. He will, while dying, see a golden lotus-flower like the 
disc of the sun appearing before his eyes; in a moment he will be 
born in the World of Highest Happiness. 

927 The above quotations form the essential content of the yoga 
exercise which interests us here. The text is divided into sixteen 
meditations, from which I have chosen only certain parts, but 
they will suffice to portray the intensification of the meditation, 
culminating in samadhi, the highest ecstasy and enlightenment. 

928 The exercise begins with the concentration on the setting 
sun. In southern latitudes the intensity of the rays of the setting 
sun is so strong that a few moments of gazing at it are enough to 
create an intense after-image. With closed eyes one continues to 
see the sun for some time. As is well known, one method of 
hypnosis consists in fixating a shining object, such as a diamond 
or a crystal. Presumably the fixation of the sun is meant to pro 
duce a similar hypnotic effect. On the other hand it should not 

565 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



have a soporific effect, because a "meditation" of the sun must 
accompany the fixation. This meditation is a reflecting, a "mak 
ing clear," in fact a realization of the sun, its form, its qualities, 
and its meanings. Since the round form plays such an important 
role in the subsequent meditations, we may suppose that the 
sun's disk serves as a model for the later fantasies of circular 
structures, just as, by reason of its intense light, it prepares the 
way for the resplendent visions that come afterwards. In this 
manner, so the text says, "the perception is to be formed." 

9 2 9 The next meditation, that of the water, is no longer based on 
any sense-impression but creates through active imagination 
the image of a reflecting expanse of water. This, as we know, 
throws back the full light of the sun. It should now be imagined 
that the water changes into ice, "shining and transparent." 
Through this procedure the immaterial light of the sun-image 
is transformed into the substance of water and this in turn into 
the solidity of ice. A concretization of the vision is evidently 
aimed at, and this results in a materialization of the fantasy-crea 
tion, which appears in the place of physical nature, of the world 
as we know it. A different reality is created, so to speak, out of 
soul-stuff. The ice, of a bluish colour by nature, changes into 
blue lapis lazuli, a solid, stony substance, which then be 
comes a "ground," "transparent and shining." With this 
"ground" an immutable, absolutely real foundation has been 
created. The blue translucent floor is like a lake of glass, and 
through its transparent layers one's gaze penetrates into the 
depths below. 

93 The so-called "golden banner" then shines forth out of these 
depths. It should be noted that the Sanskrit word dhvaja also 
means 'sign' or 'symbol 1 in general. So we could speak just as 
well of the appearance of the "symbol." It is evident that the 
symbol "extending to the eight points of the compass" repre 
sents the ground plan of an eight-rayed system. As the text says, 
the "eight corners of the ground are perfectly filled up" by the 
banner. The system shines "like a thousand millions of suns," 
so that the shining after-image of the sun has enormously in 
creased its radiant energy, and its illuminative power has now 
been intensified to an immeasurable degree. The strange idea 
of the "golden ropes" spread over the system like a net presum 
ably means that the system is tied together and secured in this 

566 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



way, so that it can no longer fall apart. Unfortunately the text 
says nothing about a possible failure of the method, or about the 
phenomena of disintegration which might supervene as the re 
sult of a mistake. But disturbances of this kind in an imaginative 
process are nothing unexpected to an expert on the contrary, 
they are a regular occurrence. So it is not surprising that a kind 
of inner reinforcement of the image is provided in the yoga 
vision by means of golden ropes. 

93 1 Although not explicitly stated in the text, the eight-rayed 
system is already the Amitabha land. In it grow wonderful trees, 
as is meet and proper, for this is paradise. Especial importance 
attaches to the water of the Amitabha land. In accordance with 
the octagonal system it is arranged in the form of eight lakes, 
and the source of these waters is a central jewel, cintdmanij the 
wishing pearl, a symbol of the "treasure hard to attain," 4 the 
highest value. In Chinese an it appears as a moonlike image, 
frequently associated with a dragon. 5 The wondrous sounds of 
the water consist of two pairs of opposites which proclaim the 
dogmatic ground truths of Buddhism: "suffering and non-exist 
ence, impermanence and non-self/' signifying that all existence 
is full of suffering, and that everything that clings to the ego is 
impermanent. Not-being and not-being-ego deliver us from these 
errors. Thus the singing water is something like the teaching of 
the Buddha a redeeming water of wisdom, an aqua doctrinae, 
to use an expression of Origen. The source of this water, the 
pearl without peer, is the Tathagata, the Buddha himself. Hence 
the imaginative reconstruction of the Buddha-image follows 
immediately afterwards, and while this structure is being built 
up in the meditation it is realized that the Buddha is really 
nothing other than the activating psyche of the yogi the medi 
tator himself. It is not only that the image of the Buddha is pro 
duced out of "one's own mind and thought,'* but the psyche 
which produces these thought-forms is the Buddha himself. 

93 2 The image of the Buddha sits in the round lotus in the 
centre of the octagonal Amitabha land. He is distinguished by 
the great compassion with which he "receives all beings," in 
cluding the meditator. This means that the inmost being which 
is the Buddha is bodied forth in the vision and revealed as the 

4 Cf. Symbols of Transformation, Part II, chs. 6 and 7, especially par. 510. 

5 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 61. 

567 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



true self of the meditator. He experiences himself as the only 
thing that exists, as the highest consciousness, even the Buddha. 
In order to attain this final goal it was necessary to pass through 
all the laborious exercises of mental reconstruction, to get free 
of the deluded ego-consciousness which is responsible for the 
sorrowful illusion of the world, and to reach that other pole of 
the psyche where the world as illusion is abolished. 



933 Although it appears exceedingly obscure to the European, 
this yoga text is not a mere literary museum piece. It lives in the 
psyche of every Indian, in this form and in many others, so that 
his life and thinking are permeated by it down to the smallest 
details. It was not Buddhism that nurtured and educated this 
psyche, but yoga. Buddhism itself was born of the spirit of yoga, 
which is older and more universal than the historical reforma 
tion wrought by the Buddha. Anyone who seeks to understand 
Indian art, philosophy, and ethics from the inside must of neces 
sity befriend this spirit. Our habitual understanding from the 
outside breaks down here, because it is hopelessly inadequate 
to the nature of Indian spirituality. And I wish particularly to 
warn against the oft-attempted imitation of Indian practices and 
sentiments. As a rule nothing comes of it except an artificial 
stultification of our Western intelligence. Of course, if anyone 
should succeed in giving up Europe from every point of view, 
and could actually be nothing but a yogi and sit in the lotus 
position with all the practical and ethical consequences that this 
entails, evaporating on a gazelle-skin under a dusty banyan tree 
and ending his days in nameless non-being, then I should have 
to admit that such a person understood yoga in the Indian man 
ner. But anyone who cannot do this should not behave as if he 
did. He cannot and should not give up his Western under 
standing; on the contrary, he should apply it honestly, without 
imitation or sentimentality, to understanding as much of yoga 
as is possible for the Western mind. The secrets of yoga mean 
as much or even more to the Indian than our own Christian 
mysteries mean to us, and just as we would not allow any for 
eigner to make our mysterium fidei ludicrous, so we should not 
belittle these strange Indian ideas and practices or scorn them as 
absurd errors. By so doing we only block the way to a sensible 

568 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



understanding. Indeed, we in Europe have already gone so far 
in this direction that the spiritual content of our Christian 
dogma has disappeared in a rationalistic and "enlightened" fog 
of alarming density, and this makes it all too easy for us to 
undervalue those things which we do not know and do not 
understand. 

934 If we wish to understand at all, we can do so only in the 
European way. One can, it is true, understand many things 
with the heart, but then the head often finds it difficult to fol 
low up with an intellectual formulation that gives suitable 
expression to what has been understood. There is also an under 
standing with the head, particularly of the scientific kind, where 
there is sometimes too little room for the heart. We must there 
fore leave it to the good will and co-operation of the reader to 
use first one and then the other. So let us first attempt, with the 
head, to find or build that hidden bridge which may lead to a 
European understanding of yoga. 

955 For this purpose we must again take up the series of sym 
bols we have already discussed, but this time we shall consider 
their sense-content. The sun, with which the series begins, is 
the source of warmth and light, the indubitable central point of 
our visible world. As the giver of life it is always and everywhere 
either the divinity itself or. an image of the same. Even in the 
world of Christian ideas, the sun is a favourite allegory of Christ. 
A second source of life, especially in southern countries, is water, 
which also plays an important role in Christian allegory, for 
instance as the four rivers of paradise and the waters which 
issued from the side of the temple (Ezekiel 47). The latter were 
compared to the blood that flowed from the wound in Christ's 
side. In this connection I would also mention Christ's talk with 
the woman of Samaria at the well, and the rivers of living water 
flowing from the body of Christ (John 7: 38). A meditation on 
sun and water evokes these and similar associations without 
fail, so that the meditator will gradually be led from the fore 
ground of visible appearances into the background, that is, to 
the spiritual meaning behind the object of meditation. He is 
transported to the psychic sphere, where sun and water, divested 
of their physical objectivity, become symbols of psychic con 
tents, images of the source of life in the individual psyche. For 
indeed our consciousness does not create itself it wells up from 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



unknown depths. In childhood it awakens gradually, and all 
through life it wakes each morning out o the depths of sleep 
from an unconscious condition. It is like a child that is born 
daily out of the primordial womb of the unconscious. In fact, 
closer investigation reveals that it is not only influenced by the 
unconscious but continually emerges out of it in the form of 
numberless spontaneous ideas and sudden flashes of thought, 
Meditation on the meaning of sun and water is therefore some 
thing like a descent into the f ountainhead of the psyche, into the 
unconscious itself. 

93 6 Here, then, is a great difference between the Eastern and the 
Western mind. It is the same difference as the one we met be 
fore: the difference between the high and the low altar. The 
West is always seeking uplift, but the East seeks a sinking or 
deepening. Outer reality, with its bodiliness and weight, ap 
pears to make a much stronger and sharper impression on the 
European than it does on the Indian. Therefore the European 
seeks to raise himself above this world, while the Indian likes to 
turn back into the maternal depths of Nature. 

937 Just as the Christian contemplative, for instance in the 
Exercitia spiritualia of Loyola, strives to comprehend the holy 
image as concretely as possible, with all the senses, so the yogi 
solidifies the water he contemplates first to ice and then to lapis 
lazuli, thereby creating a firm "ground," as he calls it. He makes, 
so to speak, a solid body for his vision. In this way he endows the 
figures of his psychic world with a concrete reality which takes 
the place of the outer world. At first he sees nothing but a re 
flecting blue surface, like that of a lake or ocean (also a favourite 
symbol of the unconscious in our Western dreams); but under 
the shining surface unknown depths lie hidden, dark and mys 
terious. 

93 8 As the text says, the blue stone is transparent, which informs 
us that the gaze of the meditator can penetrate into the depths 
of the psyche's secrets. There he sees what could not be seen be 
fore, i.e., what was unconscious. Just as sun and water are the 
physical sources of life, so, as symbols, they express the essential 
secret of the life of the unconscious. In the banner, the symbol 
the yogi sees through the floor of lapis lazuli, he beholds, as it 
were, an image of the source o consciousness, which before 
was invisible and apparently without form. Through dhyana, 

57 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



through the sinking and deepening of contemplation, the un 
conscious has evidently taken on form. It is as if the light of 
consciousness had ceased to illuminate the objects of the outer 
world of the senses and now illumines the darkness of the un 
conscious. If the world of the senses and all thought of it are 
completely extinguished, then the inner world springs into re 
lief more distinctly. 

939 Here the Eastern text skips over a psychic phenomenon that 
is a source of endless difficulties for the European. If a European 
tries to banish all thought of the outer world and to empty his 
mind of everything outside, he immediately becomes the prey 
of his own subjective fantasies, which have nothing whatever 
to do with the images mentioned in our text. Fantasies do not 
enjoy a good reputation; they are considered cheap and worth 
less and are therefore rejected as useless and meaningless. They 
are the kleshas, the disorderly and chaotic instinctual forces 
which yoga proposes to yoke. The Exercitia spiritualia pursue 
the same goal, in fact both methods seek to attain success by 
providing the meditator with an object to contemplate and 
showing him the image he has to concentrate on in order to 
shut out the allegedly worthless fantasies. Both methods, Eastern 
as well as Western, try to reach the goal by a direct path. I do 
not wish to question the possibilities of success when the medi 
tation exercise is conducted in some kind of ecclesiastical set 
ting. But, outside of some such setting, the thing does not as a 
rule work, or it may even lead to deplorable results. By throw 
ing light on the unconscious one gets first of all into the chaotic 
sphere of the personal unconscious, which contains all that one 
would like to forget, and all that one does not wish to admit to 
oneself or to anybody else, and which one prefers to believe is 
not true anyhow. One therefore expects to come off best if one 
looks as little as possible into this dark corner. Naturally anyone 
who proceeds in that way will never get round this corner and 
will never obtain even a trace of what yoga promises. Only the 
man who goes through this darkness can hope to make any fur 
ther progress. I am therefore in principle against the uncritical 
appropriation of yoga practices by Europeans, because I know 
only too well that they hope to avoid their own dark corners. 
Such a beginning is entirely meaningless and worthless. 

94<> This is also the deeper reason why we in the West have never 

57* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



developed anything comparable to yoga, aside from the very 
limited application of the Jesuit Exercitia. We have an abysmal 
fear of that lurking horror, our personal unconscious. Hence the 
European much prefers to tell others "how to do it." That the 
improvement of the whole begins with the individual, even 
with myself, never enters our heads. Besides, many people think 
it morbid to glance into their own interiors it makes you 
melancholic, a theologian once assured me. 

941 I have just said that we have developed nothing that could 
be compared with yoga. This is not entirely correct. True to 
our European bias, we have evolved a medical psychology deal 
ing specifically with the kleshas. We call it the "psychology of 
the unconscious." The movement inaugurated by Freud recog 
nized the importance of the human shadow-side and its influ 
ence on consciousness, and then got entangled in this problem. 
Freudian psychology is concerned with the very thing that our 
text passes over in silence and assumes is already dealt with. 
The yogi is perfectly well aware of the world of the kleshas, but 
his religion is such a natural one that he knows nothing of the 
moral conflict which the kleshas represent for us. An ethical 
dilemma divides us from our shadow. The spirit of India grows 
out of nature; with us spirit is opposed to nature. 
<H* The floor of lapis lazuli is not transparent for us because the 
question of the evil in nature must first be answered. This ques 
tion can be answered, but surely not with shallow rationalistic 
arguments and intellectual patter. The ethical responsibility of 
the individual can give a valid answer, but there are no cheap 
recipes and no licences one must pay to the last penny before 
the floor of lapis lazuli can become transparent. Our sutra pre 
supposes that the shadow world of our personal fantasies the 
personal unconscious has been traversed, and goes on to de 
scribe a symbolical figure which at first strikes us as very strange. 
This is a geometrical structure raying out from a centre 
and divided into eight parts an ogdoad. In the centre there is 
a lotus with the Buddha sitting in it, and the decisive experience 
is the final knowledge that the meditator himself is the Buddha, 
whereby the fateful knots woven in the opening story are ap 
parently resolved. The concentrically constructed symbol evi 
dently expresses the highest concentration, which can be 
achieved only when the previously described withdrawal and 

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



canalization of interest away from the impressions of the sense- 
world and from object-bound ideas is pushed to the limit and 
applied to the background of consciousness. The conscious 
world with its attachment to objects, and even the centre of 
consciousness, the ego, are extinguished, and in their place the 
splendour of the Amitabha land appears with ever-increasing 
intensity. 

943 Psychologically this means that behind or beneath the world 
of personal fantasies and instincts a still deeper layer of the un 
conscious becomes visible, which in contrast to the chaotic dis 
order of the kleshas is pervaded by the highest order and 
harmony, and, in contrast to their multiplicity, symbolizes the 
all-embracing unity of the bodhimandala, the magic circle of 
enlightenment. 

944 What has our psychology to say about this Indian assertion 
of a supra-personal, world-embracing unconscious that appears 
when the darkness of the personal unconscious grows trans 
parent? Modern psychology knows that the personal unconscious 
is only the top layer, resting on a foundation of a wholly differ 
ent nature which we call the collective unconscious. The reason 
for this designation is the circumstance that, unlike the personal 
unconscious and its purely personal contents, the images in the 
deeper unconscious have a distinctly mythological character. 
That is to say, in form and content they coincide with those 
widespread primordial ideas which underlie the myths. They 
are no longer of a personal but of a purely supra-personal nature 
and are therefore common to all men. For this reason they are to 
be found in the myths and legends of all peoples and all times, 
as well as in individuals who have not the slightest knowledge 
of mythology. 

945 Our Western psychology has, in fact, got as far as yoga in that 
it is able to establish scientifically a deeper layer of unity in the 
unconscious. The mythological motifs whose presence has been 
demonstrated by the exploration of the unconscious form in 
themselves a multiplicity, but this culminates in a concentric or 
radial order which constitutes the true centre or essence of the 
collective unconscious. On account of the remarkable agreement 
between the insights of yoga and the results of psychological 
research, I have chosen the Sanskrit term mandala for this cen 
tral symbol. 

573 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



94 6 You will now surely ask: but how in the world does science 
come to such conclusions? There are two paths to this end. The 
first is the historical path. If we study, for instance, the intro 
spective method of medieval natural philosophy, we find that it 
repeatedly used the circle, and in most cases the circle divided 
into four parts, to symbolize the central principle, obviously 
borrowing this idea from the ecclesiastical allegory of the quater- 
nity as found in numerous representations of the Rex gloriae 
with the four evangelists, the four rivers of paradise, the four 
winds, and so on. 

947 The second is the path of empirical psychology. At a cer 
tain stage in the psychological treatment patients sometimes 
paint or draw such mandalas spontaneously, either because they 
dream them or because they suddenly feel the need to compen 
sate the confusion in their psyches through representations of 
an ordered unity. For instance, our Swiss national saint, the 
Blessed Brother Nicholas of Flue, went through a process of this 
kind, and the result can still be seen in the picture of the Trinity 
in the parish church at Sachseln. With the help of circular draw 
ings in a little book by a German mystic, 6 he succeeded in as 
similating the great and terrifying vision that had shaken him to 
the depths. 

948 But what has our empirical psychology to say about the 
Buddha sitting in the lotus? Logically one would expect Christ 
to be enthroned in the centre of our Western mandalas. This 
was once true, as we have already said, in the Middle Ages. But 
our modern mandalas, spontaneously produced by numerous 
individuals without any preconceived ideas or suggestions from 
outside, contain no Christ-figure, still less a Buddha in the lotus 
position. On the other hand, the equal-armed Greek cross, or 
even an unmistakable imitation of the swastika, is to be found 
fairly often. I cannot discuss this strange fact here, though in it 
self it is of the greatest interest. 7 

949 Between the Christian and the Buddhist mandala there 
is a subtle but enormous difference. The Christian during con 
templation would never say "I am Christ," but will confess with 
Paul: "Not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2 : 20). Our sutra, 

Cf. Stoeckli, Die Visionen des Seligen Bruder Klaus. Cf. also the sixth paper in 

this volume, pars. 474ff. 

7 Cf. the first paper in this volume, pars. 1365. 

574 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EASTERN MEDITATION 



however, says: "Thou wilt know that thou art the Buddha." 
At bottom the two confessions are identical, in that the Buddhist 
only attains this knowledge when he is anatman, 'without self/ 
But there is an immeasurable difference in the formulation. 
The Christian attains his end in Christ, the Buddhist knows he 
is the Buddha. The Christian gets out of the transitory and ego- 
bound world of consciousness, but the Buddhist still reposes on 
the eternal ground of his inner nature, whose oneness with 
Deity, or with universal Being, is confirmed in other Indian 
testimonies. 



575 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 1 



95<> Heinrich Zimmer had been interested for years in the 
Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai, and the first question he asked me 
on my return from India concerned this latest holy and wise 
man from southern India. I do not know whether my friend 
found it an unforgivable or an incomprehensible sin on my 
part that I had not sought out Shri Ramana. I had the feeling 
that he would certainly not have neglected to pay him a visit, so 
warm was his interest in the life and thought of the holy man. 
This was scarcely surprising, as I know how deeply Zimmer had 
penetrated into the spirit of India. His most ardent wish to see 
India in reality was unfortunately never fulfilled, and the one 
chance he had of doing so fell through in the last hours before 
the outbreak of the second World War. As if in compensation, 
his vision of the spiritual India was all the more magnificent. 
In our work together he gave me invaluable insights into the 
Oriental psyche, not only through his immense technical knowl- 

1 [Introduction to Heinrich Zimmer, Der Weg zum Selbst: Lehre und Leben des 
indischen Hciligen Shri Ramana Maharshi aus Tiruvannamalai (Zurich, 1944), 
edited by C. G. Jung. The work consists of 167 pages translated by Zimmer from 
English publications of the Sri Ramanasramam Book Depot, Tiruvannamalai, 
India, preceded by a brief (non-significant) foreword and this introduction, both 
by Jung, an obituary notice by Emil Abegg of Zimmer's death in New York in 
1944, and an introduction to the Shri Ramana Maharshi texts by Zimmer. 
EDITORS.] 

576 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



edge, but above all through his brilliant grasp of the meaning 
and content of Indian mythology. Unhappily, the early death of 
those beloved of the gods was fulfilled in him, and it remains 
for us to mourn the loss of a spirit that overcame the limitations 
of the specialist and, turning towards humanity, bestowed upon 
it the joyous gift of "immortal fruit." 

95 * The carrier of mythological and philosophical wisdom in 
India has been since time immemorial the "holy man" a West 
ern title which does not quite render the essence and outward 
appearance of the parallel figure in the East. This figure is the 
embodiment of the spiritual India, and we meet him again 
and again in the literature. No wonder, then, that Zimmer was 
passionately interested in the latest and best incarnation of this 
type in the phenomenal personage of Shri Ramana. He saw in 
this yogi the true avatar of the figure of the rishi, seer and phi 
losopher, which strides, as legendary as it is historical, down the 
centuries and the ages. 

952 Perhaps I should have visited Shri Ramana. Yet I fear that 
if I journeyed to India a second time to make up for my omis 
sion, it would fare with me just the same: I simply could not, 
despite the uniqueness of the occasion, bring myself to visit this 
undoubtedly distinguished man personally. For the fact is, I 
doubt his uniqueness; he is of a type which always was and will 
be. Therefore it was not necessary to seek him out. I saw him all 
over India, in the pictures of Ramakrishna, in Ramakrishna's 
disciples, in Buddhist monks, in innumerable other figures of 
the daily Indian scene, and the words of his wisdom are the 
sous-entendu of India's spiritual life. Shri Ramana is, in a sense, 
a hominum homo, a true "son of man" of the Indian earth. He 
is "genuine," and on top of that he is a "phenomenon" which, 
seen through European eyes, has claims to uniqueness. But in 
India he is merely the whitest spot on a white surface (whose 
whiteness is mentioned only because there are so many surfaces 
that are just as black). Altogether, one sees so much in India 
that in the end one only wishes one could see less: the enormous 
variety of countries and human beings creates a longing for 
complete simplicity. This simplicity is there too; it pervades the 
spiritual life of India like a pleasant fragrance or a melody. It is 
everywhere the same, but never monotonous, endlessly varied. 
To get to know it, it is sufficient to read an Upanishad or any 

577 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



discourse of the Buddha. What is heard there is heard every 
where; it speaks out of a million eyes, it expresses itself in count 
less gestures, and there is no village or country road where that 
broad-branched tree cannot be found in whose shade the ego 
struggles for its own abolition, drowning the world of multi 
plicity in the All and All-Oneness of Universal Being. This note 
rang so insistently in my ears that soon I was no longer able to 
shake off its spell. I was then absolutely certain that no one 
could ever get beyond this, least of all the Indian holy man him 
self; and should Shri Ramana say anything that did not chime 
in with this melody, or claim to know anything that transcended 
it, his illumination would assuredly be false. The holy man is 
right when he intones India's ancient chants, but wrong when 
he pipes any other tune. This effortless drone of argumentation, 
so suited to the heat of southern India, made me refrain, with 
out regret, from a visit to Tiruvannamalai. 

953 Nevertheless, the unfathomableness of India saw to it that I 
should encounter the holy man after all, and in a form that was 
more congenial to me, without my seeking him out: in Trivan- 
drum, the capital of Travancore, I ran across a disciple of the 
Maharshi. He was an unassuming little man, of a social status 
which we would describe as that of a primary-school teacher, 
and he reminded me most vividly of the shoemaker of Alexan 
dria who (in Anatole France's story) was presented to St. 
Anthony by the angel as an example of an even greater saint 
than he. Like the shoemaker, my little holy man had innumer 
able children to feed and was making special sacrifices in order 
that his eldest son might be educated. (I will not enter here into 
the closely allied question as to whether holy men are always 
wise, and conversely, whether all wise men are unconditionally 
holy. In this respect there is room for doubt.) Be that as it may, 
in this modest, kindly, devout, and childlike spirit I en 
countered a man who had absorbed the wisdom of the Maharshi 
with utter devotion, and at the same time had surpassed his 
master because, notwithstanding his cleverness and holiness, he 
had "eaten" the world. I acknowledge with deep gratitude this 
meeting with him; nothing better could have happened to me. 
The man who is only wise and only holy interests me about as 
much as the skeleton of a rare saurian, which would not move 
me to tears. The insane contradiction, on the other hand, be- 

578 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



tween existence beyond Maya in the cosmic Self, and that amia 
ble human weakness which fruitfully sinks many roots into the 
black earth, repeating for all eternity the weaving and rend 
ing of the veil as the ageless melody of India this contradiction 
fascinates me; for how else can one perceive the light with 
out the shadow, hear the silence without the noise, attain wis 
dom without foolishness? The experience of holiness may well 
be the most painful of all. My man thank God was only a 
little holy man; no radiant peak above the dark abysses, no shat 
tering sport of nature, but an example of how wisdom, holiness, 
and humanity can dwell together in harmony, richly, pleasantly, 
sweetly, peacefully, and patiently, without limiting one another, 
without being peculiar, causing no surprise, in no way sensa 
tional, necessitating no special post-office, yet embodying an age- 
old culture amid the gentle murmur of the coconut palms fan 
ning themselves in the light sea wind. He has found a meaning 
in the rushing phantasmagoria of Being, freedom in bondage, 
victory in defeat. 

954 Unadulterated wisdom and unadulterated holiness, I fear, 
are seen to best advantage in literature, where their reputation 
remains undisputed. Lao-tzu reads exquisitely, unsurpassably 
well, in the Tao Teh Ching; Lao-tzu with his dancing girl on 
the Western slope of the mountain, celebrating the evening of 
life, is rather less edifying. But even less can one approve of the 
neglected body of the "unadulterated" holy man, especially if 
one believes that beauty is one of the most excellent of God's 
creations. 

955 Shri Ramana's thoughts are beautiful to read. What we find 
here is purest India, the breath of eternity, scorning and 
scorned by the world. It is the song of the ages, resounding, like 
the shrilling of crickets on a summer's night, from a million 
beings. This melody is built up on the one great theme, which, 
veiling its monotony under a thousand colourful reflections, 
tirelessly and everlastingly rejuvenates itself in the Indian spirit, 
whose youngest incarnation is Shri Ramana himself. It is the 
drama of ahamkara, the "I-maker" or ego-consciousness, in 
opposition and indissoluble bondage to the atman, the self or 
non-ego. The Maharshi also calls the atman the "ego-ego" 
significantly enough, for the self is indeed experienced as the 
subject of the subject, as the true source and controller of the 

579 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



ego, whose (mistaken) strivings are continually directed towards 
appropriating the very autonomy which is intimated to it by 
the self. 

956 This conflict is not unknown to the Westerner: for him 
it is the relationship of man to God. The modern Indian, as I 
can testify from my own experience, has largely adopted Euro 
pean habits of language, "self" or "atman" being essentially 
synonymous with "God." But, in contradistinction to the West 
ern "man and God," the Indian posits the opposition (or corre 
spondence) between "ego and self." "Ego," as contrasted with 
"man," is a distinctly psychological concept, and so is "self 'to 
our way of thinking. We might therefore be inclined to assume 
that in India the metaphysical problem "man and God" has 
been shifted on to the psychological plane. On closer inspection 
it is clear that this is not so, for the Indian concept of "ego" and 
"self" is not really psychological but one could well say just 
as metaphysical as our "man and God." The Indian lacks the 
epistemological standpoint just as much as our own religious lan 
guage does. He is still "pre-Kantian." This complication is un 
known in India and it is still largely unknown with us. In India 
there is no psychology in our sense of the word. India is "pre- 
psychological": when it speaks of the "self," it posits such a 
thing as existing. Psychology does not do this. It does not in any 
sense deny the existence of the dramatic conflict, but reserves 
the right to the poverty, or the riches, of not knowing about the 
self. Though very well acquainted with the self's peculiar and 
paradoxical phenomenology, we remain conscious of the fact 
that we are discerning, with the limited means at our disposal, 
something essentially unknown and expressing it in terms of 
psychic structures which may not be adequate to the nature of 
what is to be known. 

957 This epistemological limitation keeps us at a remove from 
what we term "self" or "God." The equation self = God is 
shocking to the European. As Shri Ramana's statements and 
many others show, it is a specifically Eastern insight, to which 
psychology has nothing further to say except that it is not within 
its competence to differentiate between the two. Psychology can 
only establish that the empiricism of the "self exhibits a re 
ligious symptomatology, just as does that category of assertions 
associated with the term "God." Although the phenomenon of 

580 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



religious exaltation transcends epistemological criticism a fea 
ture it shares with all manifestations of emotion yet the human 
urge to knowledge asserts itself again and again with "ungodly" 
or "Luciferian" obstinacy and wilfulness, indeed with necessity, 
whether it be to the loss or gain of the thinking man. Sooner or 
later he will place his reason in opposition to the emotion that 
grips him and seek to withdraw from its entangling grasp in 
order to give an account of what has happened. If he proceeds 
prudently and conscientiously, he will continually discover that 
at least a part of his experience is a humanly limited interpreta 
tion, as was the case with Ignatius Loyola and his vision of the 
snake with multiple eyes, which he at first regarded as of divine, 
and later as of diabolical, origin. (Compare the exhortation in 
I John 4:1: "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to 
see whether they are of God/') To the Indian it is clear that the 
self as the originating ground of the psyche is not different from 
God, and that, so far as a man is in the self, he is not only con 
tained in God but actually is God. Shri Ramana is quite explicit 
on this point. No doubt this equation, too, is an "interpreta 
tion." Equally, it is an interpretation to regard the self as the 
highest good or as the goal of all desire and fulfilment, although 
the phenomenology of such an experience leaves no doubt that 
these characteristics exist a priori and are indispensable com 
ponents of religious exaltation. But that will not prevent the 
critical intellect from questioning the validity of these charac 
teristics. It is difficult to see how this question could be answered, 
as the intellect lacks the necessary criteria. Anything that might 
serve as a criterion is subject in turn to the critical question of 
validity. The only thing that can decide here is the preponder 
ance of psychic facts. 

95& The goal of Eastern religious practice is the same as that 
of Western mysticism: the shifting of the centre of gravity from 
the ego to the self, from man to God. This means that the ego 
disappears in the self, and, man in God. It is evident that Shri 
Ramana has either really been more or less absorbed by the 
self, or has at least struggled earnestly all his life to extinguish 
his ego in it. The Exercitia spiritualia reveal a similar striving: 
they subordinate "self-possession" (possession of an ego) as much 
as possible to possession by Christ. Shri Ramana's elder con 
temporary, Ramakrishna, had the same attitude concerning 

581 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



the relation to the self, only in his case the dilemma between 
ego and self seems to emerge more distinctly. Whereas Shri 
Ramana displays a "sympathetic" tolerance towards the worldly 
callings of his disciples, while yet exalting the extinction of the 
ego as the real goal of spiritual exertion, Ramakrishna shows 
a rather more hesitant attitude in this respect. He says: "So 
long as ego-seeking exists, neither knowledge (jfidna) nor liber 
ation (mukti) is possible, and to births and deaths there is no 
end." 2 All the same, he has to admit the fatal tenacity of aham- 
kdra (the "I-maker"): "Very few can get rid of the sense of T 
through samddhL . . . We may discriminate a thousand times, 
but the sense of 'I* is bound to return again and again. You may 
cut down the branches of a fig-tree today, but tomorrow you 
will see that new twigs are sprouting." 3 He goes so far as to 
suggest the indestructibility of the ego with the words: "If this 
sense of 'I* will not leave, then let it stay on as the servant of 
God." 4 Compared with this concession to the ego, Shri Ramana 
is definitely the more radical or, in the sense of Indian tradition, 
the more conservative. Though the elder, Ramakrishna is the 
more modern of the two, and this is probably to be attributed 
to the fact that he was affected by the Western attitude of mind 
far more profoundly than was Shri Ramana. 

959 If we conceive of the self as the essence of psychic wholeness, 
i.e., as the totality of conscious and unconscious, we do so 
because it does in fact represent something like a goal of psychic 
development, and this irrespective of all conscious opinions and 
expectations. The self is the subject-matter of a process that 
generally runs its course outside consciousness and makes its 
presence felt only by a kind of long-range effect. A critical atti 
tude towards this natural process allows us to raise questions 
which are excluded at the outset by the formula self = God. 
This formula shows the dissolution of the ego in the atman to 
be the unequivocal goal of religion and ethics, as exemplified 
in the life and thought of Shri Ramana. The same is obviously 
true of Christian mysticism, which differs from Oriental phi 
losophy only through having a different terminology. The in 
evitable consequence is the depreciation and abolition of the 
physical and psychic man (i.e., of the living body and ahamkdra) 

2 Worte des Ramakrishna, ed. by Emma von Pelet, p. 77. 
S The Gospel of Ramakrishna, p. 56. 4 Ibid. 

582 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



in favour of the pneumatic man. Shri Ramana speaks of his 
body as "this clod." As against this, and taking into considera 
tion the complex nature of human experience (emotion plus 
interpretation), the critical standpoint admits the importance 
of ego-consciousness, well knowing that without ahamkdra there 
would be absolutely no one there to register what was happen 
ing. Without the Maharshi's personal ego, which, as a matter 
of brute experience, only exists in conjunction with the said 
"clod" (= body), there would be no Shri Ramana at all. Even 
if we agreed with him that it is no longer his ego, but the atman 
speaking, it is still the psychic structure of consciousness in asso 
ciation with the body that makes speech communication pos 
sible. Without this admittedly very troublesome physical and 
psychic man, the self would be entirely without substance, as 
Angelas Silesius has already said: 

I know that without me 
God can no moment live; 
Were I to die, then he 
No longer could survive. 

960 The intrinsically goal-like quality of the self and the urge 
to realize this goal are, as we have said, not dependent on the 
participation of consciousness. They cannot be denied any more 
than one can deny one's ego-consciousness. It, too, puts forward 
its claims peremptorily, and very often in overt or covert oppo 
sition to the needs of the evolving self. In reality, i.e., with few 
exceptions, the entelechy of the self consists in a succession of 
endless compromises, ego and self laboriously keeping the scales 
balanced if all is to go well. Too great a swing to one side or the 
other is often no more than an example of how not to set about 
it. This certainly does not mean that extremes, when they occur 
in a natural way, are in themselves evil. We make the right use 
of them when we examine their meaning, and they give us 
ample opportunity to do this in a manner deserving our grati 
tude. Exceptional human beings, carefully hedged about and 
secluded, are invariably a gift of nature, enriching and widening 
the scope of our consciousness but only if our capacity for re 
flection does not suffer shipwreck. Enthusiasm can be a veritable 
gift of the gods or a monster from hell. With the hybris which 
attends it, corruption sets in, even if the resultant clouding of 

583 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



consciousness seems to put the attainment of the highest goals 
almost within one's grasp. The only true and lasting gain is 
heightened and broadened reflection. 

961 Banalities apart, there is unfortunately no philosophical or 
psychological proposition ^that does not immediately have to 
be reversed. Thus reflection as an end in itself is nothing but 
a limitation if it cannot stand firm in the turmoil of chaotic 
extremes, just as mere dynamism for its own sake leads to in 
anity. Everything requires for its existence its own opposite, or 
else it fades into nothingness. The ego needs the self and vice 
versa. The changing relations between these two entities con 
stitute a field of experience which Eastern introspection has 
exploited to a degree almost unattainable to Western man. The 
philosophy of the East, although so vastly different from ours, 
could be an inestimable treasure for us too; but, in order to 
possess it, we must first earn it. Shri Ramana's words, which 
Heinrich Zimmer has bequeathed to us, in excellent translation, 
as the last gift of his pen, bring together once again the loftiest 
insights that the spirit of India has garnered in the course of the 
ages, and the individual life and work of the Maharshi illustrate 
once again the passionate striving of the Indian for the liberat 
ing "Ground." I say "once again," because India is about to 
take the fateful step of becoming a State and entering into a 
community of nations whose guiding principles have anything 
and everything on the programme except detachment and 
peace of the soul. 

962 The Eastern peoples are threatened with a rapid collapse 
of their spiritual values, and what replaces them cannot always 
be counted among the best that Western civilization has pro 
duced. From this point of view, one could regard Ramakrishna 
and Shri Ramana as modern prophets, who play the same com 
pensatory role in relation to their people as that of the Old 
Testament prophets in relation to the "unfaithful" children 
of Israel. Not only do they exhort their compatriots to remem 
ber their thousand-year-old spiritual culture, they actually 
embody it and thus serve as an impressive warning, lest the 
demands of the soul be forgotten amid the novelties of Western 
civilization with its materialistic technology and commercial 
acquisitiveness. The breathless drive for power and aggrandize 
ment in the political, social, and intellectual sphere, gnawing 

584 



THE HOLY MEN OF INDIA 



at the soul of the Westerner with apparently insatiable greed, 
is spreading irresistibly in the East and threatens to have in 
calculable consequences. Not only in India but in China, too, 
much has already perished where once the soul lived and throve. 
The externalization of culture may do away with a great many 
evils whose removal seems most desirable and beneficial, yet 
this step forward, as experience shows, is all too dearly paid for 
with a loss of spiritual culture. It is undeniably much more 
comfortable to live in a well-planned and hygienically equipped 
house, but this still does not answer the question of who is the 
dweller in this house and whether his soul rejoices in the same 
order and cleanliness as the house which ministers to his outer 
life. The man whose interests are all outside is never satisfied 
with what is necessary, but is perpetually hankering after some 
thing more and better which, true to his bias, he always seeks 
outside himself. He forgets completely that, for all his outward 
successes, he himself remains the same inwardly, and he there 
fore laments his poverty if he possesses only one automobile 
when the majority have two. Obviously the outward lives of 
men could do with a lot more bettering and beautifying, but 
these things lose their meaning when the inner man does not 
keep pace with them. To be satiated with "necessities" is no 
doubt an inestimable source of happiness, yet the inner man 
continues to raise his claim, and this can be satisfied by no out 
ward possessions. And the less this voice is heard in the chase 
after the brilliant things of this world, the more the inner man 
becomes the source of inexplicable misfortune and uncompre- 
hended unhappiness in the midst of living conditions whose 
outcome was expected to be entirely different. The externali 
zation of life turns to incurable suffering, because no one can 
understand why he should suffer from himself. No one wonders 
at his insatiability, but regards it as his lawful right, never 
thinking that the one-sidedness of this psychic diet leads in the 
end to the gravest disturbances of equilibrium. That is the 
sickness of Western man, and he will not rest until he has in 
fected the whole world with his own greedy restlessness. 
963 The wisdom and mysticism of the East have, therefore, very 
much to say to us, even when they speak their own inimitable 
language. They serve to remind us that we in our culture pos 
sess something similar, which we have already forgotten, and to 

585 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I EAST 



direct our attention to the fate of the inner man, which we set 
aside as trifling. The life and teaching of Shri Ramana are of 
significance not only for India, but for the West too. They are 
more than a document humain: they are a warning message to 
a humanity which threatens to lose itself in unconsciousness and 
anarchy. It is perhaps, in the deeper sense, no accident that 
Heinrich Zimmer's last book should leave us, as a testament, the 
life-work of a modern Indian prophet who exemplifies so im 
pressively the problem of psychic transformation. 



586 



IX 

FOREWORD TO THE "I CHING" 



FOREWORD TO THE "I CHING" 



96* Since I am not a Sinologue, a foreword to the Book of 
Changes from my hand must be a testimonial of my individual 
experience with this great and singular book. It also affords 
'me a welcome opportunity to pay tribute again to the memory 
of my late friend, Richard Wilhelm. He himself was profoundly 
aware of the cultural significance of his translation of the / 
Ching; a version unrivalled in the West. 

965 If the meaning of the Book of Changes were easy to grasp, 
the work would need no foreword. But this is far from being 
the case, for there is so much that is obscure about it that 
Western scholars have tended to dispose of it as a collection of 
"magic spells/ 1 either too abstruse to be intelligible or of no 
value whatsoever. Legge's translation of the / Ching, up to now 
the only version available in English, has done little to make the 
work accessible to Western minds. 2 Wilhelm, however, has made 

1 [Grateful acknowledgment is made here to Gary F. Baynes for permission to use, 
with a few minor changes, her translation of this Foreword, which Professor Jung 
wrote specially for the English edition of the 7 Ching or Book of Changes, trans 
lated by Mrs. Baynes from the German translation of Richard Wilhelm (New York 
and London, 1950); 2nd edn. in i vol., 1961; grd edn. in small format, 1967. Refer 
ences are to the $rd edn. TRANS.] 

2 Legge makes the following comment on the explanatory text for the individual 
lines: "According to our notions, a framer of emblems should be a good deal of 
a poet, but those of the Yi only make us think of a dryasdust. Out of more than 
three hundred and fifty, the greater number are only grotesque" (The Yi King, 

589 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



every effort to open the way to an understanding of the sym 
bolism of the text. He was in a position to do this because he 
himself was taught the philosophy and the use of the / Ching 
by the venerable sage Lao Nai-hsiian; moreover, he had over a 
period of many years put the peculiar technique of the oracle 
into practice. His grasp of the living meaning of the text gives 
his version of the I Ching a depth of perspective that an exclu 
sively academic knowledge of Chinese philosophy could never 
provide. 

9 66 I am greatly indebted to Wilhelm for the light he has thrown 
upon the complicated problem of the I Ghing, and for insight 
into its practical application. For more than thirty years I have 
interested myself in this oracle technique, for it seemed to me 
of uncommon significance as a method of exploring the uncon 
scious. I was already fairly familiar with the / Ching when I 
first met Wilhelm in the early nineteen twenties; he confirmed 
then what I already knew, and taught me many things more. 

9 6 7 I do not know Chinese and have never been in China. I can 
assure my reader that it is not altogether easy to find the right 
approach to this monument of Chinese thought, which departs 
so completely from our ways of thinking. In order to understand 
what such a book is all about, it is imperative to cast off certain 
of our Western prejudices. It is a curious fact that such a 
gifted and intelligent people as the Chinese has never devel 
oped what we call science. Our science, however, is based upon 
the principle of causality, and causality is considered to be an 
axiomatic truth. But a great change in our standpoint is setting 
in. What Kant's Critique of Pure Reason failed to do is being 
accomplished by modern physics. The axioms of causality are 
being shaken to their foundations: we know now that what we 
term natural laws are merely statistical truths and thus must 
necessarily allow for exceptions. We have not sufficiently taken 
into account as yet that we need the laboratory with its incisive 
restrictions in order to demonstrate the invariable validity of 
natural law. If we leave things to nature, we see a very different 

p. 22). Of the "lessons'* of the hexagrams, the same author says: "But why, it 
may be asked, why should they be conveyed to us by such an array of lineal 
figures, and in such a farrago of emblematic representations" (p. 25). However, 
we are nowhere told that Legge ever bothered to put the method to a practical 
test. 

590 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING" 



picture: every process is partially or totally interfered with by 
chance, so much so that under natural circumstances a course 
of events absolutely conforming to specific laws is almost an 
exception. 

968 The Chinese mind, as I see it at work in the I Ching, seems 
to be exclusively preoccupied with the chance aspect of events. 
What we call coincidence seems to be the chief concern of this 
peculiar mind, and what we worship as causality passes almost 
unnoticed. We must admit that there is something to be said 
for the immense importance of chance. An incalculable amount 
of human effort is directed to combatting and restricting the 
nuisance or danger that chance represents. Theoretical consid 
erations of cause and effect often look pale and dusty in com 
parison with the practical results of chance. It is all very well 
to say that the crystal of quartz is a hexagonal prism. The state 
ment is quite true in so far as an ideal crystal is envisaged. But 
in nature one finds no two crystals exactly alike, although all 
are unmistakably hexagonal. The actual form, however, seems 
to appeal more to the Chinese sage than the ideal one. The 
jumble of natural laws constituting empirical reality holds more 
significance for him than a causal explanation of events that, 
in addition, must usually be separated from one another in 
order to be properly dealt with. 

969 The manner in which the I Ching tends to look upon reality 
seems to disfavour our causal procedures. The moment under 
actual observation appears to the ancient Chinese view more 
of a chance hit than a clearly defined result of concurrent causal 
chains. The matter of interest seems to be the configuration 
formed by chance events at the moment of observation, and not 
at all the hypothetical reasons that seemingly account for the 
coincidence. While the Western mind carefully sifts, weighs, 
selects, classifies, /isolates, the Chinese picture of the moment 
encompasses everything down to the minutest nonsensical detail, 
because all of the ingredients make up the observed moment. 

97<> Thus it happens that when one throws the three coins, or 
counts through the forty-nine yarrow-stalks, these chance details 
enter into the picture of the moment of observation and form a 
part of it a part that is insignificant to us, yet most meaningful 
to the Chinese mind. With us it would be a banal and almost 
meaningless statement (at least on the face of it) to say that 

59* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



whatever happens in a given moment has inevitably the quality 
peculiar to that moment. This is not an abstract argument but 
a very practical one. There are certain connoisseurs who can tell 
you merely from the appearance, taste, and behaviour of a wine 
the site of its vineyard and the year of its origin. There are 
antiquarians who with almost uncanny accuracy will name the 
time and place of origin and the maker of an objet d'art or 
piece of furniture on merely looking at it. And there are even 
astrologers who can tell you, without any previous knowledge 
of your nativity, what the position of sun and moon was and 
what zodiacal sign rose above the horizon at the moment of 
your birth. In the face of such facts, it must be admitted that 
moments can leave long-lasting traces. 

97 1 In other words, whoever invented the / Ching was con 
vinced that the hexagram worked out in a certain moment coin 
cided with the latter in quality no less than in time. To him the 
hexagram was the exponent of the moment in which it was cast 
even more so than the hours of the clock or the divisions of 
the calendar could be inasmuch as the hexagram was under 
stood to be an indicator of the essential situation prevailing at 
the moment of its origin. 

972 This assumption involves a certain curious principle which 
I have termed synchronicity, 3 a concept that formulates a point 
of view diametrically opposed to that of causality. Since the 
latter is a merely statistical truth and not absolute, it is a sort 
of working hypothesis of how events evolve one out of another, 
whereas synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space 
and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely, 
a peculiar interdependence of objective events among them 
selves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of the ob 
server or observers. 

973 The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way 
comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny 
that his model of the world is a decidedly psychophysical struc 
ture. The microphysical event includes the observer just as 
much as the reality underlying the / Ching comprises subjec 
tive, i.e., psychic conditions in the totality of the momentary 

8 [Cf. Jung's "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle." In that work 
(pp. 450-55) he is concerned with the synchronistic aspects of the I Ching. 
EDITORS.] 

592 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING" 



situation. Just as causality describes the sequence of events, so 
synchronicity to the Chinese mind deals with the coincidence 
of events. The causal point of view tells us a dramatic story 
about how D came into existence: it took its origin from C, 
which existed before D, and C in its turn had a father, B, etc. 
The synchronistic view on the other hand tries to produce an 
equally meaningful picture of coincidence. How does it happen 
that A', B'; C', D' y etc., appear all at the same moment and in 
the same place? It happens in the first place because the physical 
events A f and ' are of the same quality as the psychic events 
C' and D', and further because all are the exponents of one and 
the same momentary situation. The situation is assumed to 
represent a legible or understandable picture. 
974 Now the sixty-four hexagrams of the / Ching are the in 
strument by which the meaning of sixty-four different yet 
typical situations can be determined. These interpretations 
are equivalent to causal explanations. Causal connection can 
be determined statistically and can be subjected to experiment. 
Inasmuch as situations are unique and cannot be repeated, 
experimenting with synchronicity seems to be impossible under 
ordinary conditions. 4 In the / Ching, the only criterion of the 
validity of synchronicity is the observer's opinion that the text 
of the hexagram amounts to a true rendering of his psychic 
condition. It is assumed that the fall of the coins or the result 
of the division of the bundle of yarrow-stalks is what it neces 
sarily must be in a given "situation," inasmuch as anything 
happening at that moment belongs to it as an indispensable 
part of the picture. If a handful of matches is thrown to the 
floor, they form the pattern characteristic of that moment. But 
such an obvious truth as this reveals its meaningful nature only 
if it is possible to read the pattern and to verify its interpre 
tation, partly by the observer's knowledge of the subjective and 
objective situation, partly by the character of subsequent events. 
It is obviously not a procedure that appeals to a critical mind 
used to experimental verification of facts or to factual evidence. 
But for someone who likes to look at the world at the angle 
from which ancient China saw it, the / Ching may have some 
attraction. 
975 My argument as outlined above has of course never entered 

4 Cf. J. B. Rhine, The Reach of the Mind. 

593 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



a Chinese mind. On the contrary, according to the old tradition, 
it is "spiritual agencies/' acting in a mysterious way, that make 
the yarrow-stalks give a meaningful answer. 5 These powers form, 
as it were, the living soul of the book. As the latter is thus a sort 
of animated being, the tradition assumes that one can put ques 
tions to the / Ching and expect to receive intelligent answers. 
Thus it occurred to me that it might interest the uninitiated 
reader to see the / Ching at work. For this purpose I made an 
experiment strictly in accordance with the Chinese conception: 
I personified the book in a sense, asking its judgment about its 
present situation, i.e., my intention to introduce it to the Eng 
lish-speaking public, 

97 6 Although this procedure is well within the premises of 
Taoist philosophy, it appears exceedingly odd to us. However, 
not even the strangeness of insane delusions or of primitive 
superstition has ever shocked me. I have always tried to remain 
unbiased and curious rerum novarum cupidus. Why not ven 
ture a dialogue with an ancient book that purports to be ani 
mated? There can be no harm in it, and the reader may watch 
a psychological procedure that has been carried out time and 
again throughout the millennia of Chinese civilization, repre 
senting to a Confucius or a Lao-tzu both a supreme expression 
of spiritual authority and a philosophical enigma. I made use 
of the coin method, and the answer obtained was hexagram 50, 

Ting, THE CAULDRON. 6 

977 In accordance with the way my question was phrased, the 
text of the hexagram must be regarded as though the / Ching 
itself were the speaking person. Thus it describes itself as a 
cauldron, that is, as a ritual vessel containing cooked food. 
Here the food is to be understood as spiritual nourishment. 
Wilhelm says about this: 

The ting, as a utensil pertaining to a refined civilization, suggests 
the fostering and nourishing of able men, which redounded to the 
benefit of the state. . . . Here we see civilization as it reaches its 
culmination in religion. The ting serves in offering sacrifice to God. 
. . . The supreme revelation of God appears in prophets and holy 
men. To venerate them is true veneration of God. The will of God, 
as revealed through them, should be accepted in humility. 
5 They are shn, that is, 'spirit-like/ "Heaven produced the 'spirit-like things' " 
(Legge, p. 41). 6 [Cf. the / Ching, pp. ig^ff. -EDITORS,] 

594 



FOREWORD TO THE I CHING 



978 Keeping to our hypothesis, we must conclude that the / 
Ching is here testifying concerning itself. 

979 When any of the lines of a given hexagram have the value 
of six or nine, it means that they are specially emphasized and 
hence important in the interpretation. 7 In my hexagram the 
"spiritual agencies" have given the emphasis of a nine to the 
lines in the second and in the third place. The text says: 

Nine in the second place means: 

There is food in the ting. 
My comrades are envious, 
But they cannot harm me. 
Good fortune. 

9 80 Thus the I Ching says of itself: "I contain (spiritual) nour 
ishment." Since a share in something great always arouses envy, 
the chorus of the envious 8 is part of the picture. The envious 
want to rob the I Ching of its great possession, that is, they seek 
to rob it of meaning, or to destroy its meaning. But their enmity 
is in vain. Its richness of meaning is assured; that is, it is con 
vinced of its positive achievements, which no one can take away. 
The text continues: 

Nine in the third place means: 

The handle of the ting is altered. 
One is impeded in his way of life. 
The fat of the pheasant is not eaten. 
Once rain falls, remorse is spent. 
Good fortune comes in the end. 

981 The handle [German Griff] is the part by which the ting 
can be grasped [ge griff en]. Thus it signifies the concept 9 
[Begriff] one has of the I Ching (the ting). In the course of time 
this concept has apparently changed, so that today we can no 
longer grasp [begreifen] the I Ching. Thus "one is impeded in 

7 See the explanation of the method, ibid., pp. 72 iff. 

8 For example, the invidi ('the envious') are a constantly recurring image in the 
old Latin books on alchemy, especially in the Turba philosophorum (nth or lath 
cent.). 

From the Latin conciperc, 'to take together/ e.g., in a vessel: conciperc derives 
from capere, *to take/ 'to grasp.' 

595 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



his way o life." We are no longer supported by the wise counsel 
and deep insight of the oracle; therefore we no longer find our 
way through the mazes of fate and the obscurities of our own 
natures. The fat of the pheasant, that is, the best and richest 
part of a good dish, is no longer eaten. But when the thirsty 
earth finally receives rain again, that is, when this state of want 
has been overcome, "remorse," that is, sorrow over the loss of 
wisdom, is ended, and then comes the longed-for opportunity. 
Wilhelm comments: "This describes a man who, in a highly 
evolved civilization, finds himself in a place where no one 
notices or recognizes him. This is a severe block to his effec 
tiveness." The / Ching is complaining, as it were, that its 
excellent qualities go unrecognized and hence lie fallow. It 
comforts itself with the hope that it is about to regain recogni 
tion. 

The answer given in these two salient lines to the question 
I put to the / Ching requires no particular subtlety for its inter 
pretation, no artifices, and no unusual knowledge. Anyone with 
a little common sense can understand the meaning of the 
answer; it is the answer of one who has a good opinion of him 
self, but whose value is neither generally recognized nor even 
widely known. The answering subject has an interesting notion 
of itself: it looks upon itself as a vessel in which sacrificial offer 
ings are brought to the gods, ritual food for their nourishment. 
It conceives of itself as a cult utensil serving to provide spiritual 
nourishment for the unconscious elements or forces ("spiritual 
agencies") that have been projected as godsin other words, to 
give these forces the attention they need in order to play their 
part in the life of the individual. Indeed, this is the original 
meaning of the word religio'a. careful observation and taking 
account of (from relegere 10 ) the numinous. 

The method of the / Ching does indeed take into account 
the hidden individual quality in things and men, and in one's 
own unconscious self as well. I questioned the / Ching as 
one questions a person whom one is about to introduce to 
friends: one asks whether or not it will be agreeable to him. In 
answer the / Ching tells me of its religious significance, of the 
fact that at present it is unknown and misjudged, of its hope of 

10 This is the classical etymology. The derivation of relfgio from rtligare, 'recon 
nect/ 'link back/ originated with the Church Fathers. 

596 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING" 



being restored to a place of honour-this last obviously with a 
sidelong glance at my as yet unwritten foreword, 11 and above 
all at the English translation. This seems a perfectly understand 
able reaction, such as one could expect also from a person in a 
similar situation. 

#4 But how has this reaction come about? Simply because I 
threw three small coins into the air and let them fall, roll, and 
come to rest, heads up or tails up as the case might be. This 
peculiar fact that a reaction that makes sense arises out of a tech 
nique which at the outset seemingly excludes all sense is the 
great achievement of the I Ching. The instance I have just 
given is not unique; meaningful answers are the rule. Western 
sinologues and distinguished Chinese scholars have been at 
pains to inform me that the / Ching is a collection of obsolete 
"magic spells." In the course of these conversations my inform 
ant has sometimes admitted having consulted the oracle through 
a fortune teller, usually a Taoist priest. This could be "only 
nonsense" of course. But oddly enough, the answer received 
apparently coincided with the questioner's psychological blind 
spot remarkably well. 

985 I agree with Western thinking that any number of answers 
to my question were possible, and I certainly cannot assert that 
another answer would not have been equally significant. How 
ever, the answer received was the first and only one; we know 
nothing of other possible answers. It pleased and satisfied me. 
To ask the same question a second time would have been tact 
less and so I did not do it: "the master speaks but once." The 
heavy-handed pedagogic approach that attempts to fit irrational 
phenomena into a preconceived rational pattern is anathema to 
me. Indeed, such things as this answer should remain as they 
were when they first emerged to view, for only then do we know 
what nature does when left to herself undisturbed by the med 
dlesomeness of man. One ought not to go to dead bodies to study 
life. Moreover, a repetition of the experiment is impossible, for 
the simple reason that the original situation cannot be recoo- 
structed. Therefore in each instance there is only a first and 
single answer. 

9*6 To return to the hexagram itself. There is nothing strange 
in the fact that all of Ting, THE CAUtmoN, amplifies the themes 

11 1 made this experiment before I actually wrote the 

597 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



announced by the two salient lines. 12 The first line of the hexa 
gram says: 

A t ing with kgs upturned 

Furthers removal of stagnating stuff. 

One takes a concubine for the sake of her son* 

No blame. 

987 A ting that is turned upside down is not in use. Hence the 
I Ching is like an unused cauldron. Turning it over serves to 
remove stagnating matter, as the line says. Just as a man takes 
a concubine when his wife has no son, so the / Ching is called 
upon when one sees no other way out. Despite the quasi-legal 
status of the concubine in China, she is in reality only a some 
what awkward makeshift; so likewise the magic procedure of 
the oracle is an expedient that may be utilized for a higher 
purpose. There is no blame, although it is an exceptional re 
course. 

988 The second and third lines have already been discussed. The 
fourth line says: 

The legs of the ting are broken. 
The prince's meal is spilled 
And his person is soiled. 
Misfortune. 

989 Here the ting has been put to use, but evidently in a very 
clumsy manner, that is, the oracle has been abused or misinter 
preted. la this way the divine food is lost, and one puts oneself 
to shame. Legge translates as follows: "Its subject will be made 
to blush Cor shame." Abuse of a cult utensil such as the ting 
(ie., the / Ching) is a gross profanation. The I Ching is evi 
dently insisting here on its dignity as a ritual vessel and pro 
testing against being profanely used. 

99 The fifth line says: 

The ting has yellow handles, golden carrying rings, 
Perseverance furthers, 



i*The Chinese interpret only the fbangfrg lines in the hexagram obtained by 
use of the oracle, I fewe faoad aQ the tines of the hexagxrat to be relevant i 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING* 



991 The / Ching has, it seems, met with a new, correct (yellow) 
understanding, that is, a new concept [Begriff\ by which it can 
be grasped. This concept is valuable (golden). There is indeed 
a new edition in English, making the book more accessible to 
the Western world than before. 

99* The sixth line says: 

The ting has rings of jade. 

Great good fortune. 

Nothing that would not act to further. 

995 Jade is distinguished for its beauty and soft sheen. If the 
carrying rings are of jade, the whole vessel is enhanced in 
beauty, honour, and value. The I Ching expresses itself here as 
being not only well satisfied but indeed very optimistic. One 
can only await further events and in the meantime remain con 
tent with the pleasant conclusion that the / Ching approves of 
the new edition. 

994 I have shown in this example as objectively as I can how the 
oracle proceeds in a given case. Of course the procedure varies 
somewhat according to the way the question is put. If for in 
stance a person finds himself in a confusing situation, he may 
himself appear in the oracle as the speaker. Or, if the question 
concerns a relationship with another person, that person may 
appear as the speaker. However, the identity of the speaker does 
not depend entirely on the manner in which the question is 
phrased, inasmuch as our relations with our fellow beings are 
not always determined by the latter. Very often our relations 
depend almost exclusively on our own attitudes, though we may 
be quite unaware of this fact. Hence, if an individual is uncon 
scious of his role in a relationship, there may be a surprise in 
store for him; contrary to expectation, he himself may appear as 
the chief agent, as is sometimes unmistakably indicated by the 
text. It may also happen that we take a situation too seriously 
and consider it extremely important, whereas the answer we get 
on consulting the I Ching draws attention to same unsuspected 
other aspect implicit in the question. 

995 Such instances might at first lead one to think that the oracle 
is fallacious. Confucius is said to have received only one in 
appropriate answer, i.e., hexagram 22, GRACE a thoroughly 
aesthetic hexagram. This is reminiscent of the advice given to 

599 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



Socrates by his daemon "You ought to make more music" 
whereupon Socrates took to playing the flute. Confucius and 
Socrates compete for first place as far as rationality and a 
pedagogic attitude to life are concerned; but it is unlikely that 
either of them occupied himself with "lending grace to the 
beard on his chin," as the second line of this hexagram advises. 
Unfortunately, reason and pedagogy often lack charm and grace, 
and so the oracle may not have been wrong after all. 

996 To come back once more to our hexagram. Though the 
/ Ching not only seems to be satisfied with its new edition, but 
even expresses emphatic optimism, this still does not foretell 
anything about the effect it will have on the public it is intended 
to reach. Since we have in our hexagram two yang lines stressed 
by the numerical value nine, we are in a position to find out 
what sort of prognosis the 1 Ching makes for itself. Lines desig 
nated by a six or a nine have, according to the ancient concep 
tion, an inner tension so great as to cause them to change into 
their opposites, that is, yang into yin, and vice versa. Through 
this change we obtain in the present instance hexagram 35, 
Chin, PROGRESS. 

997 The subject of this hexagram is someone who neets with all 
sorts of vicissitudes of fortune in his climb upward, and the text 
describes how he should behave. The I Ching is In this same 
situation: it rises like the sun and declares itself, but it is re 
buffed and finds no confidence ft is "progressing, but in sor 
row." However, "one obtains great happiness from one's 
ancestress." Psychology can help us to elucidate this obscure 
passage. In dreams and feiry tales the grandmother, or ancestress, 
often represents the unconscious, because the latter in a man 
contains the feminine component of the psyche. If the / Ching 
is not accepted by the conscious, at least the unconscious meets 
it halfway, for the / Ching is more closely connected with the 
unconscious than with the rational attitude of consciousness. 
Since the unconscious is often represented in dreams by a femi 
nine figure, this may be the explanation here. The feminine 
person might be the translator, who has given the book her 
maternal care, and this might easily appear to the / Ching a 
"great happiness." It anticipates general understanding, but is 
afraid of misuse "Progress like a hamster/* But it is mindful 
of the admonition, '*Take not gain and loss to heart." It remains 

600 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING" 



free of "partisan motives." It does not thrust itself on anyone. 

998 The / Ching therefore faces its future on the American book 
market calmly and expresses itself here just about as any reason 
able person would in regard to the fate of so controversial a 
work. This prediction is so very reasonable and full of common 
sense that it would be hard to think of a more fitting answer. 

999 All this happened before I had written the foregoing para 
graphs. When I reached this point, I wished to know the attitude 
of the / Ching to the new situation. The state of things had 
been altered by what I had written, inasmuch as I myself had 
now entered upon the scene, and I therefore expected to hear 
something referring to my own action. I must confess that I 
had not been feeling too happy in the course of writing this 
foreword, for, as a person with a sense of responsibility toward 
science, I am not in the habit of asserting something I cannot 
prove or at least present as acceptable to reason. It is a dubious 
task indeed to try to introduce a collection of archaic "magic 
spells" to a critical modern public with the idea of making them 
more or less acceptable, I have undertaken it because I myself 
think that there is more to the ancient Chinese way of thinking 
than meets the eye. But it is embarrassing to me that I must ap 
peal to the good will and imagination of the reader, instead of 
giving him conclusive proofs and scientifically watertight ex 
planations. Unfortunately I am only too well aware of the argu 
ments that can be brought against this ageold oracle technique. 
We are not even certain that the ship that is to carry us over the 
unknown seas has not sprung a leak somewhere. May not the 
old text be corrupt? Is Wilhelm's translation accurate? Are we 
not self-deluded in our explanations? 

1000 The / Ching insists upon self-knowledge throughout. The 
method by which this is to be achieved is open to every kind of 
misuse, and is therefore not for the frivolous-minded and imma 
ture; nor is it for intellectualists and rationalists. It is appropri 
ate only for thoughtful and reflective people who like to think 
about what they do and what happens to thema predilection 
not to be confused with the morbid brooding of the hypochon 
driac. As I have indicated above, I have no answer to the multi 
tude of problems that arise when we seek to harmonize the 
oracle of the / Ching with our accepted scientific canons. But 
needless to say, nothing "occult" is to be inferred. My position 

601 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



in these matters is pragmatic, and the great disciplines that have 
taught me the practical usefulness of this viewpoint are psycho 
therapy and medical psychology. Probably in no other field do 
we have to reckon with so many unknown quantities, and no 
where else do we become more accustomed to adopting methods 
that work even though for a long time we may not know why 
they work. Unexpected cures may arise from questionable thera 
pies and unexpected failures from allegedly reliable methods. 
In the exploration of the unconscious we come upon very 
strange things, from which a rationalist turns away with horror, 
claiming afterward that he did not see anything. The irrational 
fulness of life has taught me never to discard anything, even 
when it goes against all our theories (so short-lived at best) or 
otherwise admits of no immediate explanation. It is of course 
disquieting, and one is not certain whether the compass is point 
ing true or not; but security, certitude, and peace do not lead to 
discoveries. It is the same with this Chinese mode of divination. 
Clearly the method aims at self-knowledge, though at all times 
it has also been put to superstitious use. 

1 I of course am thoroughly convinced of the value of self- 
knowledge, but is there any use in recommending such insight, 
when the wisest of men throughout the ages have preached the 
need of it without success? Even to the most biased eye It is obvi 
ous that this book represents one long admonition to careful 
scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives. This 
attitude appeals to me and has induced me to undertake the 
foreword. Only once before have I expressed myself in regard 
to the problem of the / Ching: this was in a memorial address 
in tribute to Richard Wilhelm. u For the rest I have maintained 
a discreet silence. If is by no means easy to feel one's way into 
such a remote and mysterious mentality as that underlying the 
I Ching. One cannot easily disregard such great minds as Con 
fucius and Lao-tzu, if one is at all able to appreciate the quality 
of the thoughts they represent; much less can one overlook the 
fact that the J Ching was their main source of inspiration. I 
know that previously I would not have dared to express myself 

i* [Cf. WOhelm and Jirag, The Secret of the Golden Flower (1931), in which this 

address appeal* as an appendix. The book did not appear in Eng?Hh until a year 

after Wiiheim's death. c. F. E.] 

[For the address see *oL 15 <* the CoU. 

Got 



FOREWORD TO THE "l CHING" 



so explicitly about so uncertain a matter. I can take this risk 
because I am now in my eighth decade, and the changing opin 
ions of men scarcely impress me any more; the thoughts of the 
old masters are of greater value to me than the philosophical 
prejudices of the Western mind. 

100* I do not like to burden my reader with these personal con 
siderations; but, as already indicated, one's own personality is 
very often implicated in the answer of the oracle. Indeed, in 
formulating my question I even invited the oracle to comment 
directly on my action. The answer was hexagram 29, K'an, THE 
ABYSMAL. Special emphasis is given to the third place by the fact 
that the line is designated by a six. This line says: 

Forward and backward, abyss on abyss. 
In danger like this, pause at first and wait, 
Otherwise you will fall into a pit in the abyss. 
Do not act in this way. 

1005 Formerly I would have accepted unconditionally the advice, 
"Do not act in this way," and would have refused to give my 
opinion of the / Ching, for the sole reason that I had none. But 
now the counsel may serve as an example of the way in which the 
/ Cking functions. It is a fact that if one begins to think about 
it, the problems of the / Ching do represent "abyss on abyss," 
and unavoidably one must "pause at first and wait" in the midst 
of the dangers of limitless and uncritical speculation; otherwise 
one really will lose one's way in the darkness. Could there be a 
more uncomfortable position intellectually than that of Boating 
in the thin air of unproven possibilities, not knowing whether 
what one sees is truth or illusion? This is the dreamlike atmos 
phere of the / Ching, and in it one has nothing to rely upon 
except one's own so fallible subjective judgment. I cannot but 
admit that this line represents very appropriately the feelings 
with which I wrote the foregoing passages. Equally fitting is the 
comforting beginning of this hexagram "If you are sincere, you 
have success in your heart" for it indicates that the decisive 
thing here is not the outer danger but the subjective condition, 
that is, whether one believes oneself to be "sincere" or not. 

The hexagram compares the dynamic action in this situa 
tion to the behaviour of flowing water, which is not afraid of 
any dangerous place but plunges over cliffs and fills up the pits 

603 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



that lie in Its course (K'an also stands for water). This is the way 
in which the "superior man" acts and "carries on the business 
of teaching." 

K'an is definitely one o the less agreeable hexagrams. It 
describes a situation in which the subject seems in grave danger 
of being caught in all sorts of pitfalls. I have found that K'an 
often turned up with patients who were too much under the 
sway of the unconscious (water) and hence threatened with the 
possible occurrence of psychotic phenomena. If one were super 
stitious, one would be inclined to assume that some such mean 
ing attaches intrinsically to this hexagram. But just as, in 
interpreting a dream, one must follow the dream-text with the 
utmost exactitude, so in consulting the oracle one must keep in 
mind the form of the question put, for this sets a definite limit 
to the interpretation of the answer. When I consulted the oracle 
the first time, I was thinking above all of the meaning for the 
I Ching of the foreword I had still to write. I thus put the book 
in the foreground and made it, so to speak, the acting subject. 
But in my second question, it is I who am the acting subject. 
So it would be illogical to take the J Ching as the subject in this 
case too, and, in addition, the interpretation would become 
unintelligible. But if I am the subject, the interpretation is 
meaningful to me, because it expresses the undeniable feeling 
of uncertainty and risk present in my mind. If one ventures 
upon such uncertain ground, it is easy to come dangerously 
under the influence of the unconscious without knowing it. 
1006 The first line of the hexagram notes the presence of the dan 
ger: "In the abyss one falls into a pit" The second line does the 
same, then adds the counsel: "One should strive to attain small 
things only/* I apparently anticipated this advice by limiting 
myself in this foreword to a demonstration of how the / Ching 
fuactions in the Chinese mind, and by renouncing the more 
ambitious project of writing a psychological commentary on 
the whole book. 

The simplification of my task is expressed in the fourth line, 
which says: 

A jug of wine, a bowl of rice with It; 
Earthen vessels 

Simply handed in through the window. 
There is certainly no blame in this. 

604 



FOREWORD TO THE "j CHING** 



1008 Wilhelm makes the following comment here: 

Although as a rule it is customary for an official to present certain 
introductory gifts and recommendations before he is appointed, 
here everything is simplified to the utmost. The gifts are insig 
nificant, there is no one to sponsor him, he introduces himself; yet 
all this need not be humiliating if only there is the honest intention 
of mutual help in danger. 

1009 The fifth line continues the theme of limitation. If one 
studies the nature of water, one sees that it fills a pit only to the 
rim and then flows on. It does not stay caught there: 

The abyss is not filled to overflowing, 
It is filled only to the rim. 

1010 But if, tempted by the danger, and just because of the un 
certainty, one were to insist on forcing conviction by special 
efforts, such as elaborate commentaries and the like, one would 
only be bogged down in the difficulty, which the top line de 
scribes very accurately as a tied-up and caged-in condition. In 
deed, the last line often shows the consequences that result when 
one does not take the meaning of the hexagram to heart. 

ion In our hexagram we have a six in the third place. This yin 
line of mounting tension changes into a yang line and thus pro 
duces a new hexagram showing a new possibility or tendency. 
We now have hexagram 48, Ching, THE WELL. The water hole 
no longer means danger, however, but rather something bene 
ficial, a well: 

Thus the superior man encourages the people at 

their work, 
And exhorts them to help one another* 

1012 The image of people helping one another would seem to 
refer to the reconstruction of the well, for it is broken down 
and full of mud. Not even animals drink from it There are 
fishes living in it, and one can catch these, but the well is not 
used for drinking, that is, for human needs. This description is 
reminiscent of the overturned and unused ting that is to receive 
a new handle. Moreover, like the ting, "the well is cleaned, but 
no one drinks from it": 

605 



PSYCHOLOGY ANB RELIGION ! EAST 



This is my heart's sorrow, 
For one might draw from it. 

The dangerous water-hole or abyss pointed to the / Ching, 
and so does the well, but the latter has a positive meaning: it 
contains the waters of life. It should be restored to use. But one 
has no concept [Bcgriff] of it, no utensil with which to carry the 
water; the jug is broken and leaks. The ting needs new handles 
and carrying rings by which to grasp it, and so also the well must 
be newly lined, for it contains "a clear, cold spring from which 
one can drink." One may draw water from it, because "it is de 
pendable." 

101 4 It is clear that in this prognosis the speaking subject is once 
more the / Ching, representing itself as a spring of living water. 
The previous hexagram described in detail the danger confront 
ing the person who accidentally falls into the pit within the 
abyss. He must work his way out of it, in order to discover that 
it is an old, ruined well, buried in mud, but capable of being 
restored to use again. 

10| 5 I submitted two questions to the method of chance repre 
sented by the coin oracle, the second question being put after 
I had written my analysis of the answer to the first. The first 
question was directed, as it were, to the I Ching: what had it 
to say about my intention to write a foreword? The second ques 
tion concerned my own action, or rather the situation in which 
I was the acting subject who had discussed the first hexagram. 
To the first question the / Ching replied by comparing itself to 
a cauldron, a ritual vessel in need of renovation, a vessel that 
was finding only doubtful favour with the public To the second 
question the reply was that I had fallen into a difficulty, for the 
I Ching represented a deep and dangerous water-hole in which 
CHIC might easily be bogged down. However, the water-hole 
proved to be an old well that needed only to be renovated in 
order to be put to useful purposes once more. 

1016 These four hexagrams are in the main consistent as regards 
theme (vessel, pit, well); and as regards intellectual content, 
they seem to be meaningful. Had a human being made such 
replies, I should, as a psychiatrist, have had to pronounce him 
of sound mind, at least on the basis of the material presented. 

606 



FOREWORD TO THE I CHING" 



Indeed, I should not have been able to discover anything de 
lirious, idiotic, or schizophrenic in the four answers. In view of 
the / Chings extreme age and its Chinese origin, I cannot con 
sider its archaic, symbolic, and flowery language abnormal. On 
the contrary, I should have had to congratulate this hypothetical 
person on the extent of his insight into my unexpressed state of 
doubt. On the other hand, any person of clever and versatile 
mind can turn the whole thing around and show how I have 
projected my subjective contents into the symbolism of the 
hexagrams. Such a critique, though catastrophic from the stand 
point of Western rationality, does no harm to the function of 
the / Ching. On the contrary, the Chinese sage would smilingly 
tell me: "Don't you see how useful the I Ching is in making you 
project your hitherto unrealized thoughts into its abstruse sym 
bolism? You could have written your foreword without ever 
realizing what an avalanche of misunderstanding might be re 
leased by it." 

The Chinese standpoint does not concern itself with the atti 
tude one takes toward the performance of the oracle. It is only 
we who are puzzled, because we trip time and again over our 
prejudice, viz., the notion of causality. The ancient wisdom of 
the East lays stress upon the fact that the intelligent individual 
realizes his own thoughts, but not in the least upon the way in 
which he does it. The less one thinks about the theory of the 
/ Ching, the more soundly one sleeps. 

1018 it would seem to me that on the basis of this sample an un 
prejudiced reader should now be in a position to form at least a 
tentative judgment on the operation of the / Ching More can 
not be expected from a simple introduction. If by means of this 
demonstration I have succeeded in elucidating the psychological 
phenomenology of the I Ching, I shall have carried out my pur 
pose. As to the thousands of questions, doubts, and criticisms 
that this singular book stirs up I cannot answer these. The 
/ Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not 
vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it 
waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but 
for lovers of self-knowledge, of wisdom if there be such it 

i* The reader will find it helpful to look up all four of these hexagrams in the 
[Baynes-Wilhelm] text and to read them together with the relevant commentaries. 

607 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : EAST 



seems to be the right book. To one person its spirit appears as 
clear as day; to another, shadowy as twilight; to a third, dark as 
night. He who is not pleased by it does not have to use it, and 
he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go forth 
into the world for the benefit of those who can discern its 
meaning. 



608 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The items of the bibliography are arranged alphabetically under two 
headings: A. Ancient volumes containing collections of alchemical 
tracts by various authors; B. General bibliography, including cross- 
references to the material in section A. Short titles of the ancient 
volumes are printed in capital letters. 



A. ANCIENT VOLUMES CONTAINING 

COLLECTIONS OF ALCHEMICAL TRACTS 

BY VARIOUS AUTHORS 

ARS CHEMICA, quod sit licita recte exercentibus, probationes 
doctissimorum iurisconsultorum. . . Argentorati [Strasbourg], 
1566. 

Contents quoted in this volume: 
i Septem tractatus seu capitula Hermetis Trismegisti aurei 

[pp. 7-31; usually referred to as "Tractatus aureus"] 
ii Hortulanus: Commentariolum in Tabulam smaragdinam 

[PP- 35-47] 
iii Studium Consilii coniugii de massa solis et lunae [pp. 48- 

263; usually referred to as "Consilium coniugii"] 
ARTIS AURIFERAE quam chemiam vacant. . . . Basileae [Basel], 
[1593]. si vols. 

Contents quoted in this volume: 

VOLUME I 

i Turba philosophorum [(a) First edition, pp. 1-65; (b) Sec 
ond edition, pp. 66-139] 

ii Allegoriae super librum Turbae jjpp. 139-45] 
iii Aenigmata ex Visione Arislei et allegoriis sapientuxn [pp. 

146-54; usually referred to as "Visio Arislei"] 
iv Aurora consurgens, quae dicitur Aurea hora [pp. 185-246] 
v [Zosimus:] Rosinus ad Saxratantam episcopum [pp. 277- 

3*9] 

611 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

vi Tractatulus Avicennae [pp. 405-37] 
vii Liber de arte chymica [pp. 575-63 l ] 

VOLUME II 

viii Rosarium philosophorum [pp. 204-384; contains a second 
version of the "Visio Arislei" at pp. 2462.] 

AUREUM VELLUS, oder Guldin Schatz und Kunstkammer . . . 
von dem . . . bewehrten Philosopho Salomone Trismosino. Ror- 
schach, 1598. (Other editions appeared at Rorschach, 1599; Basel, 
1604; Hamburg, 1708.) 

Contents quoted in this volume: 
[Trismosin:] Splendor solis [Tractatus III, pp. 3-59] 

MANGKTUS, JOANNES JACOBUS (ed.). BIBLIOTHECA CHEMICA 
CURIOSA, seu Rerum ad alchemiam pertinentium thesaurus in- 
structissimus. . . . Coloniae Allobrogum [Geneva], 1702. 2 vols. 

Contents quoted in this volume: 

VOLUME I 

1 Hoghelande: De alchemiae difficultatibus [pp. 336-68] 
ii Hermes Trismegistus: Tractatus aureus de lapidis physici 

secreto [pp. 4o-445] 
iii Turba philosophorum [pp. 445-65; another version, pp. 

480-94] 
iv AUegoriae sapientum supra librum Turbae philosophorum 

XXIX distinctiones [pp. 467-79] 

VOLUME n 

v Bonus: Margarita pretiosa novella correctissima [pp. 1-80] 
T! Rosarium philosophorum [pp. 87-1 19] 
vii Consilium coniugii seu De massa solis et lunae libri III 

[pp. 235-65] 

viii Sendivogius: Novum lumen chymicum [pp. 463-73] 
fac Sendivogius: Parabola, seu Aenigma philosophicum [pp. 

474-75] 
x Orthelius: Epilogus et recapitulatio in Novum lumen 

Sendivogii [pp. 526-30] 

MUSAEUM HERMETICUM reformatum et amplificatum . . . 
continent tractatus chimicos XXI praestantissimos. . . . Franco- 
furti [Frankfurt a. M.], 1678. For translation, see WATTE. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Contents quoted in this volume: 

Madathanus: Aureum saeculum redivivum [pp. 53-72] 
Sendivogius: Novum lumen chemicum e naturae fonte et 

manual! experientia depromptum [pp. 545-600] 
iii [Sendivogius:] Novi luminis chemici tractatus alter de 
sulphure [pp. 601-46] 

THEATRUM CHEMICUM, praecipuos selectorum auctorum 
tractatus . . . continent. Ursellis [Ursel] and Argentorati [Stras 
bourg], 1602-61. 6 vols. (Vols. I-III, Ursel, 1602; Vols. IV-VI, 
Strasbourg, 1613, 1622, 1661 respectively.) 

Contents quoted in this volume: 

VOLUME I 

i Hoghelande: Liber de alchemiae difficultatibus [pp. 121- 

2*5] 

ii Dorn: Speculativae philosophiae, gradus septem vel decem 

continens [pp. 255-310] 
iii Dorn: De spagirico artificio Trithemii sententia [pp. 437- 

50] 

iv Dorn: Philosophia meditativa [pp. 450-72] 
v Dorn: Philosophia chemica ad meditativam comparata 

DPP- 475-517] 

vi Dorn: De tenebris contra naturam et vita brevi [pp. 518-35] 
vii Dorn: Congeries Paracelsicae chemicae de transmutatione 

metallorum [pp. 557-646] 
viii Dorn: De duello animi cum corpore [pp. 535-50] 

VOLUME IV 

ix Raymundi Lulli: Theorica et practica [pp. 1191] 
x Aphorismi Basiliani sive Canones HenneticL De spiritu, 

anima, et corpore medio, majoris et minoris mundi 

[pp. 368-71] 
xi Hermetis Trismegisti Tractatus vere aureus de Lapide 

philosophic! secreto [pp. 672-797] 

VOLUME v 
xii Allegoriae Sapientum . , . supra libnua Turbae [pp. 64- 

100] 

xiii Tractatus Micreris suo discipulo Mirnefindo [pp. 101-13] 
xiv Liber Platonis quartorum . . . [pp. 114-208] 

613 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



xv Bonus [Lacinius]: Margarita novella correctissima [pp. 
589-794] 

VOLUME VI 

xvi Christopher of Paris: Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae 

[PP- 195-293] 

xvii Grasseus: Area arcani . . . [pp. 294-3 8l J 
xviii Orthelius: Epilogus et recapimlatio ... in Novum lumen 
chymicum Sendivogii [pp. 43-5 8 ] 

JB. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ABU'L KASIM. See HOLMYARD. 

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JAMES, The Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 658. 

ADLER, GERHAKD. Entdeckung der Seele. Zurich, 1934. 

AEUAN (Claudius Aelianus). Varia historia. Edited by Rudolf 
Hercher. Leipzig, 1866. For translation, see: 

. Claudius Aelianus his Various History. Translated by 

Thomas Stanley. London, 1665. 

"Allegoriae sapientum supra librum Turbae." See (A) Artis auri- 
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AiPHronis. See (A) Artis auriferae, viii: "Rosarium philosophorum/* 
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AMBROSE, SAINT. Explanatio symboli ad initiandos. Text with in 
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Amitayur-dky&na Sutra. Translated by Junjiro Takakusu. In: 
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ANDKEAE, JOHANN VAUENTIN. (Chiistian Rosencreutz, pseud.) 
Chymische Hochzeit . . . Anno 1459. Reprinted from a Stras 
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For translation, see: 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

. The Hermetick Romance; or, The Chymical Wedding. 

Translated by E. Foxcroft. London, 1690. 

ANGELUS SILESIUS (Johann Scheffler). Der Cherubinische Wanders- 
mann. In: Samtliche Poetische Werke. Munich, 1949-52 3 vols 
(III, 7-218.) 

ANTHONY OF PADUA, SAINT. S. Antonii Patavini Sermones domini- 
cales et in solemnitatibus. Edited by Antonio Maria Locatelli. 
Padua, 1895. 3 vols. 

"Aphorismi Basiliani." See (A) Theatrum chemicum, x. 

ARISLEUS (Archelaos). "Visio Arislei." See (A) Artis auriferae f iii, 
viii. 

ARISTOTLE. [De coelo.] ... On the Heavens. With an English 
translation by W. K. C. Guthrie. (Loeb Classical Library.) Lon 
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AUGUSTINE, SAINT. Sermones. See Migne, PJL., vol. 38. 

. Tractatus in Joannem. See Migne, P.L., vol. 35. For trans- 

lation, see: Works. Edited by Marcus Dods. Edinburgh, 1874, (VoL 
1 1, translated by James Innes.) 

AUGUSTINE, pseud. De Spiritu et Anima. See: Opera Omnia S. 
AugustinL Paris, 1836. 11 vols. (Vol. 6.) 

"Aurea hora." See (A) Artis auriferae, iv; Codices and MSS., vi xiii; 
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AVALON, ARTHUR, pseud. (Sir John Woodroffe) (ed.). Shfichak- 
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AVICENNA, pseud. See (A) Artis auriferae, vi 

BARBARUS, HERMOLAUS (Ermolao Baibaro). In Dioscoridem coral- 
larium libris quinque absolutum. Venice, 1516. 

BARTH, KARL. Bibelstunden ilber Luk /. (Theologische Existenz 
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. Credo. Translated by J. Strathearn McNab. London, 1936. 

BASTIAN, ADOIJF. Das Bestdndige in den Menschmrassen. Berlin, 
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. Ethnische Element argedanken in der Lehre vom Menschen. 

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. Der Vdlkergedanke im Aufbau finer Wissenschaft vom 

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-. Die Vorstellunge* von der Seele. In: RUDOLF VIRCHOW and 



FRANZ VON HOLTZENDORFF. Sammlung gemeinverstandlicher wis- 
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BAUMGARTNER, MATTHIAS. Die Philosophic des Alanus de Insults. 
In: CLEMENS BAEUMKER and GEORG FREIHERR VON HERTLING. 
Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters, Vol. 2, 
Heft 4. Miinster, 1896. 

BAYNES, CHARLOTTE AUGUSTA. A Coptic Gnostic Treatise Contained 
in the Codex Brucianus Bruce MS. $6, Bodleian Library, Ox 
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BERNARD, SAINT, pseud. Vitis Mystica. In Migne, PX., vol. 184, cols. 
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BERNARD, JOHN HENRY (ed.). The Odes of Solomon. (Texts and 
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BERNARDINO DE SARACEN. General History of the Things of New 

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(Monographs of the School of American Research, 14, Part IV.) 

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BERNARDUS SYLVESTOS. De mundi universitate libri duo. Edited by 
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B&tOAUQg De VERVIIJJ, FRANCOIS (trans.). Le tableau des riches 
inventions . , . representies dans ie Songe de Poliphile. Paris, 
1600. See also COLONNA; Fiotz-DAViD, 

BERTHEIJOT, MAXCUXIH. La Ckimie au moyen Age. Paris, 1893. 3 
vols. 

. Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs. Paris, 1887-88. 3 

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616 



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Bible. The following versions are cited textually: 

[AV] Authorized ("King James") Version (cited unless other 
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[DV] Douay-Reims Version. 
[RSV] Revised Standard Version (1952). 
[ZB] Ziircher Bibel (first trans. i6th cent.; cited in English 
trans, from a 1932 edn. published by the Consistory of 
Canton Zurich on the order of the Zurich Church Synod, 
being the German version generally used by the author). 

BOHME, JAKOB. XL Questions Concerning the Soule. Propounded 
by Dr. Balthasar Walter and answered by Jacob Behmen. Lon 
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BONUS, PETRUS. Pretiosa margarita novella de thesauro ac pretiosis- 
simo philosophorum lapide . . . Edited by Janus Lacinius 
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Pearl; see also (A) MANGETUS, Bibliotheca chcmica curiosa, T; 
(A) Theatrum chemicurn, xv. 

BOUCH&LECLERCQ, AUGUSTE. L'Astrologie grecque. Paris, 1899. 

BOUSSET, WILHELM. Hauptproblemc der Gnosis. (Forschungen zur 
Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, 10.) 
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BOVILLUS, KARL (Charles de Bouelles). Ein gesichte Bruder Clausen 
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BRADFORD, ROARK. Of Man Adam an* His Chillun. New York. 1928. 

BRINKTRINE, JOHANNES. Die Heilige Messe in ihrem Warden und 
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BRUNO OF WURZBURG, SAINT. Expositio Psalmorum* See Migne, 
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BUDGE, E. A. WALOS. Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. Lon 
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. (ed. and trans.) . The Book of the Dead, Facsimiles of the 

Papyrus of Hunefer, etc. London, 1899. 

. The Book of Paradise, being the Histories and Sayings of 

the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian fcesert* London, 1904. 
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BUSSELL, FREDERICK WILUAM. Religious Thought and Heresy in 
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BUTTNER, EL Meister Eckharfs Schriften und Predigten. Jena, 
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CAMPBELL, COLIN. The Miraculous Birth of King Arnon-Hotep III. 
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CASPARI, CARL PAUL. Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des 
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CHARLES, ROBERT HENRY (ed.). The Apocrypha and Pseudepi- 
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CICERO, MARCUS TUULIUS, De invention* rhetorica, De Optimo 
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. Pro Sestio, In Vatinium, Pro Caelio, etc. With an English 

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CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA* SAINT. Stramata. See Migne, F.G^ vol. 8, 
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. The Writings of Clement of Alexandria. Translated by 

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618 



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Codices and Manuscripts: 

i Florence. Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana. Codex Lauren- 

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ii Lucca. Biblioteca governativa. Saint Hildegarde o Bingen, 

"Liber divinorum operum." Codex 1942. i2th cent. 
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der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit und Beschreibung der Heimlich- 
keit von Veranderung der Metallen." Offenbahret anno 
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iv Oxford. Bodleian Library. Codex Brucianus (Bruce MS. 96). 
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63, 



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640 



INDEX 



INDEX 



In entries relating to the books of the Bible, the numbers in parentheses 
indicate the chapter and verse(s) referred to. 



Aarau, 334 

abaissement du niveau mental, 520 

abandonment, and helpful powers, 

34 

Abbas, prefect of Mesopotamia, 340 

Abdul Baha, 530 

Abel, 17371, 217, 391-92, 399-400, 
405-6, 410, 412, 422; see also Cain 

Abraham, 217-18, 261-62, 268, 26gn, 
418 

absolute, the, 512 

absolution, 353; decline of, 531; 
Protestants and, 48, 49 

abstraction, 166,499 

Abu'I-Qasim Muhammad, 98*1 

Abysmal, the (hexagram), 6o$ff 

abyss, 173 

acceptance: by doctor, 339; of one- 
seli 339-40 

acquisitiveness, Western, 483 

active imagination, 81, 496, 537 

Acts of the Apostles, (10 : 19), 279; 
(14: 11), 414 

Acts of John, see John, Acts of 

Acts of Peter, see Peter, Acts of 

actus punts, 194, 195 

Adad, 113, 114 

Adam, 305*1, 391^, 397, 402; An- 
thropos/original man, 373; copy/ 
hthonic equivalent of God, 392, 
399, 400; hermaphroditic, 102*1, 
*34 39 1 * 39^ Kadmon, 55; limi 
tation of, 405; the second, 55-56, 
102, 273, 397, 441; and number 
three, 6on; see also First Parents 

adaptation, 348 



645 



Adi-Buddha, 561 

Adler, Alfred, 329, 333; Adlerian 
psychology, 330, 348-49 

Adler, Gerhard, 26n 

Adonis, 388, 443; birth of, 103, 389 

adulthood, 183; criterion of, 184 

adversary, the, 77, 174, 187, 196, 
313; see also devil; Satan 

advice, good, 352 

advocate, see Paraclete 

Aelian, 244 

Aenigmata ex visione Arislei, 93 

Aeon(s), 144, 237 

aeon, Christian, 44^i7> 45** 4#8 

aeroplane, 52 

Aesculapius, g8n 

affect(s), 406; author's, 366; symp 
tom of virtuousness, 449; of Yah- 
weh, 416 

affectivity, 321 

Agathodalmon, 185 

agnosticism, 452 

ahamkara, 579, 582, 584 

Ahriman, 174, 175, 313, 3751* 

Ahura-Mazda, 174, 177; see also 
Ormuzd 

Aion, image of, 244 

Alanus de Insulis, icon 

albedo, 115, 24371 

Albertus Magnus, loon 

alchemy, 91^, 225^, 279, 288, 313- 
14, 437, 450; and chemistry, 296; 
Chinese, 102; and dreams, paral 
lels, 61; and Gnosticism, 97-98; 
Greek, 177; and humanization of 
self, 262; meditations of, 496; 
parables in, 225; philosophical 
side of, 295; quatemity in, 423; 



INDEX 



alchemy (cont.): 

symbols of, 468; terms used in, 

263; two aspects of, 97-98; and 

union of opposites, 454; see also 

Zosimos 
Alexandria, 117; Alexandrian phi 

losophy, 128 
aljira, 490 
Allah, 305 
Allegoriae sapientum supra librum 

Turbae f 238 
Allegoriae super librum Turbae, 

*S8 

Allegoriae super Turbam, 5411 
allegory (-ies): in alchemy, 225; 

Christian, 507 
Alphidius, loin 
altar: censing of, 212; high and low, 

560, 570; and no. four, 51 
ambiguity, conviction and, 45 
Ambrose, St.: and Apostles' creed, 
141; on water as symbol, 209-10 
American Indians, 57 
Amitabha/Buddha, 513, 522, 561- 

3> 5^7, 573 

Amitayur-dhyana-Sutra, 50271, 560$ 

Amitayus, 560, 564-65 

Amnael, 233 

Amogha-siddhi, 522 

"amok, running," 17 

Anabaptists, tin 

analysis: as initiation process, 515, 
523; and production of conscious 
ego, 554; see also psychoanalysis 

analytical psychology: and active 
imagination, 496; dash of doctor 
and clergyman in, 353; and Prot 
estantism, 351; self in, 502; and 

_ tLBconsoous, 488 

Ananda, 561, 564 

anarchy, 88; psychic, 552 

&n&tman f 575 

anatomist, 307 

ancestors, and totem meal, 222 

ancestral patterns, reawakening of, 



ancestress, 600 
anchorite, 317 



"Ancient of Days," 421, 435, 437 
Andreae, Johann Valentin, zzytrn 
androgynity; of Christ, 221; of God, 
*75 n > 3**; se a ^ hermaphro 
ditic nature 
anecdotes, Zen, 539-41, 54371, 548*1, 

549 n > 552-53* 557 71 
angel(s), 13, 155, 446; auxiliary, 
445; devil as, 173, 196; fallen, 305, 
39** 394. 4**ft 457> 460; of God's 
face, 424, 426; in the Mass, 2177 
Angelus Silesius (Johannes Schef- 
fler), 190, 450, 513, 547, 583 

anima, 29-31, 41-42, 75, 456; a 
Gnostic concept, 306; "hidden" 
nature and, 9371; insight and, 
161; man's, and anima mundi, 
476; resisting the, 75; unconscious 
personified by, 63 

anima (breath-being), 131 

animal(s), 155; creation of, 402, 403; 
four, of Yahweh, 383; transforma 
tion into human beings, 34, 65; 
see also bear; behemoth; bull; 
cock; crocodile; dove; dragon; 
fish; hoopoe; horse; Iamb; levia 
than; lion; monoceros; ox; ram; 
rhinoceros; scorpion; sea mon 
sters; serpent; snake; unicorn; 
viper 

anima media natura, 53, 92 

anima mundi f 92, 98, 178, 476; 
circle and, 53; Mercurius as, 
iO2tt; Plato's, 66, 126; sun-woman 
as, 439; see also world-soul 

anima rationales, 479 

animation, suf&x of, 255 

animism, 8371 

animosity, manifestation o animus/ 
anima, 30 

animus, 30 

Anthony (of Egypt), St^ son, 578 

Anthony of Padua, St., 45871 

anthropoids: African, 307; pre- 
Adamic, 374, 391*1 

anthiopoiocarphk:: ideas, 151, 185; 
images of God, 361; projections, 



<H4 



INDEX 



anthropomorphism, in symbolism 
of the Mass, 207 

anthropophagy, ritual, 222 

Anthropos (&r9ptmro*), 5657, 185, 
252, 280, 439; Adam as, 373, 405; 
as archetype, 277; self as, 292; 
sun-woman as feminine, 439; see 
also man, original; man, primor 
dial; Protanthropos 

anthroposophy, 529-31 

Antichrist, 172, 174, 357, 412, 432- 
35 45 8 488; archetype as, 117; 
expectation of, 433-35; reign of, 

447^ 45 
antimimonpneuma (tortfiifLov 



antinomy, see opposites 

antiquarians, 592 

antithesis(-es), 306; religious, East/ 
West, 560; see also opposites, 
pairs of 

anti-Trinity, infernal, 172 

Anu, 113, 114 

anxiety, ego as seat of, 521 

ape, 34; of God, devil as, 7on, 172 

Apelt, Otto, 12371 

Aphorismi Basiliani, 957* 

Apocalypse, see Revelation 

apocatastasis (<*-ojcarcwrra<r), 265, 
503; of the Father, 187 

Apollo, 438, 440 

Apollonius of Tyana, 154, 530 

Apostles' Creed, see Creeds 

apotheosis, 94, io2n, 295 

apperception, 486, 490 

Apuleius, 58, 514 

aqua doctrinae, 567 

aqua permanens, 92, 100, ioi&-n, 
2 1 in, 277; see also water, perma 
nent 

Aquarius, 446^ 451 

Arabia, 130 

archaic patterns, see archetypes; 
motifs, mythological 

archetype(s), 104, 345, 361, 362, 409, 
469-70, 518, et passim; activation 
of, 151; a priori conditions of 
psychic events, 188; author and. 



645 



303; an auxiliary idea, 306; Christ 
as, 88, 152$, 409; and conscious 
ness, 4^9~7 a* dominants of un 
conscious, 519; and dreams, 300; 
fascination of, 151; of God, 265, 
303, 362; God as, 59; identifica 
tion with conscious mind, 315; 
importance of, 190; indestructible 
foundations of human mind, 130; 
and individual life, 89; "irrepre- 
sentable," 148-49, 151; luminos 
ity of, 43772; meaning of, 50; 
metaphysical significance, 200; 
multiplicity of, 288; numinosity 
o 59 1 49 3*5* possession by, 
151; psychic life timeless, 90; rec 
ognized only by effects, 149*1; 
religious statements and, 148; 
supplanting ego, 345; Trinity as, 
see Trinity; whether acquired, 
14971; of wholeness, 469; wrathful 
form, 117; see also anima; ani 
mus; Anthropos; Christ; divine 
child; duality; God-image; hero; 
mandala; self 

architecture, Indian hieratic, 558 

archon(s), 270; see also laMabaoth; 
Saturn 

Archonides, 244 

Archytas, 72*1 

Arian heresy, 130, 148, 153 

Aries, aeon of, 114 

Aristotle, n8 

Ark of the Covenant, 438 

Armenians, 209 

Arnold of Villanova, 5471 

Ars chernica, 3071, 9471, 99*1, io*n, 
23271, 23871 

art, 556-57; Indian, 568; modern, 
446 

Artis auriferae, 2971, 3071, 54*1, 5571, 

9271, 937*, 9471, 997*, 101 tt, 10271, 

23 in, 238n, s$gn 
arts and sciences, taught by fallen 

angels, 421, 457, 460 
arupaloka, 490 
asceticism, 26, 27, 31, 493; see oho 

askesis 



INDEX 



askesis, 485 

assimilation, 302; experience as, 5; 

of God-experience, 320; phenom 

ena of, 288; of split-off contents, 

264; of vision, 319 
association(s), 303,, 486; experiment/ 

test, 13, 23 

association test, complexes and, 23 
Assumption, of Virgin Mary, 170671, 

3**, 353, 398, 430n; proclamation 

of dogma, 458;, 46i 
Astanus, see Ostanes 
astrologers, 592 
astrology, 1*7411, 259* 4 44* 
astronomical laws, 83 
Athanasian Creed,, see Creeds 
Athanaslus, Sc, 2on 
atheism, 22, 82, 192; urban neuro 

sis of. 86 
Atlantis, 127 
atman, 156, 284, 533, 579-80, 582; 

see Abo punisha-atman doctrine 
atom bomb, 451, 461, 464, 480 
atonement, 418 
at-ooe-ment, 498, 504-5 
attention, 550 

Attis, 9, 228, 388, 445*1, 5082* 
attitude(s): connection with earlier, 

166; conscious, 34, 337; contem 

plative, 498; doctor's/psychother 

apist's, 338, 342, 346; introvert 

and extravert, 481, 486, 491; re 

ligious, 32 

auctor rerum, 133, 186, 264, 270 
Augustine, St^ 53. 63*, 107, 14611, 

210ft, 322, 518, & 
Aurea hora, 55, 94*; see also Aurora 

consurgens 

Aureum vellus, ym f 9411, 
Aurora 



230, 

attrutn pkilasopkicum, 54 

autoerotisoi. 481 

Aatogcfies, 37 

autogenk training, 536 

autonomy: of archetypes, 362; in 

divine process, 196 
autos-da-fe*, 197 



auto-suggestion, 544, 557 

Avalon, Arthur, 67^, 495*1 

Avkenna, zgn 

avidya, 485 

awareness, 484; mind and, 501; 

unreflecting, 182; see also con- 

scious(ness) 
Ayik, the, 133 
Azazel, 421, 422, 426 
Aztecs, 223-24, 269 



B 



Baal, 230 

Babylon, 388, 446 

Babylonia, ii2# 

Bahaism, 530 

Balder, 443 

ball, 65 

banner, golden, 562, 566, 570 

baptism, 279, 416; and cammixtio, 

220; dream of, 102 
Barabbas, 268 
barbarians, 308 
Barbelo, 92n, 190, 219, 423 
Barbelo-Gnosis, 37, 92n, 264 
barber, 227, 228/ 
Bardo state, 394, 400, 509, 512^; see 

aisopleroma 
Bardo Thodol, 509$, 555 
Barnabas, 414 
Barth, KarinG 
Basilides, 279 
basin, 65; Hermetic, 210; see also 

krater 

Baumgartner, Matthias, 
Baynes, Charlotte A., 37?*, 
bear, 52, 74 
bearskin, vision of man with, 323 
beauty, 579; in Mass ritual, 249-50 
behaviour, pattern of, 14971 
behemoth, 403, 426 
Being, Universal, 578 



***-* **3* 

belief(s): collective, 308; content of, 
and psychology, 247; and doubt, 

200; "invention" of, 223; uncom- 

* i * 



646 



INDEX 



bells, in Mithraic ritual, 224 

benedictio fontis, 100-101, 265, 425 

Bernard, St., 3771 

Bernardino de Sahagun, 223, 22471 

BernardusSylvestris, 9971 

Broalde de Verville, Frangois, 23071 

"berserk, going," 17 

Berthelot, Marcellin, 5371, 70*1, 9171, 
927Z, 9371, 9471, 9771, 9871, icon, 
loin, 1O27I, 21O7Z, 21 in, 225, 22671, 
228/1, 23171, 23271, 23371, 24071 

Besant, Annie, 529 

Bethlehem, 436 

"Beyond," 514 

Bharhut, 558 

Bible, 362, 363, 365, 367, 374, 413, 
490; Protestantism and, 21; see 
also New Testament, Old Testa 
ment, and names of specific books 

Bin Gorion, Josef, 241, 242/1 

binarius, 71, 174; created on Mon 
day, n 8; devil as, 60, 707*, 177 

biological process, individuation a, 

307 
biology, 327, 329; inadequate basis 

for therapy, 300 
bird, black, 66 
birth: hazardous, of Christ, 155; 

rites at, 193; trauma of, 515; 
Blake, William, 55571 
Blavatsky, Madame, 529 
blessing, formulae for, 149 
blindness, symbolical, 280 
blood: in alchemy, 232, 237; see 

also Christ 
blue (colour), 71, 73, 74-75; in 

alchemy, 100 
boat, 52 
Bodhi,539 
Bodhidhanna, 55 1 n 
bodhimandala, 573 
body: Bardo, 520; ego's awareness 

of, 484; glorified, 209; mystical, 

155, 221; resurrection of, 524; in 

sacramental meal, 205 
Bohme, Jakob, 3771, Son, 31 3f, 450, 



647 



Bolshevism/Bolshevist, 15, 320, 336, 
MO 

Bonaventura, St,, 270*1 

Bonus, Petrus, 3871, 55, 9971 

Book of Changes, see / Ching 

Book of the Dead: Egyptian, 510; 
Tibetan, see Bardo Thodol 

books, "useless," 526 

Borobudur, 558 

Bouchd-Leclercq, Auguste, 233n 

Bouelles, Charles de, see Bovillus 

boundary, cross as, 282, 285, 292 

Bousset, Wilhelm, 23on 

Bovillus (de Bouelles), Karl, 319 

bowl, 52, 65, 80 

boy, sacrificed, 241-42 

Brahma, 545n 

Brahman, 322 

brain, and psyche, 10, 480 

Brazen Man, 227-28 

bread: breaking of, see Fractio; 
Christ's body as, 155; consecra 
tion formula, in Mass, 214; in the 
Mass, 208, 252-53, 254 

break-through: beyond intellect, 
547; in Goethe and Nietzsche, 
555; Greeks and, 555n; in satori, 

543 
breath: and consciousness, 244; 

Holy Ghost as, 158, 160, 185 
breath-control, 533 
bridge: life of Christ as, 182; m% 

as, 177, 179 

bridegroom, heavenly, 464 
Brinktrine, Johannes, *o8n, 2i5n 
Bronze Age, 321 
brook, 539, 546 
brothers, hostile, 17371, 400; see also 

Abel; Cain; fratricide 
Bruno, bishop of Wurzburg, ioo-n 
Buchman, Frank, 18471 
Buchman movement, 22 
Buchner, Ludwig, 334 
Buddha, 9, 337/, 420, 540, 550, 563^, 

578; in mandala, 67; meditator as; 

5ft 57** 575> primordial, 561; 

see also Adi-Buddha; Amitabha; 

Amitayus; Dhanaakaya; Dhyani- 



INDEX 



Buddha (con*.): 

Boddhisattvas/Buddhas; Flower 

Sermon; Mahabuddha; Shakya- 

muni; Tathagata 
Buddha-essence, 482 
Buddha-Mind, 482, 539 
Buddha-nature, 543, 548, 54971 
buddhi, 485 
Buddhism, 336, 344, 481; in China, 

545; circumambulation in, 21271; 

Ma hay ana, 510; mandalas, 67; 

meditations, 523; theistic, 561; 

Tibetan, 79*1, 252, 394, 480; in 

West, 530; and yoga, 568; Zen, 

5<*7> $&ff> 554 

Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis, 2on, &jn 
bull: in Egyptian ritual, 22871; in 

Mithrak ritual, 224-25 
burnt offering, 206 
bush-soul, 133 
Bussell, Frederick W., 5471 
Bythos, 144 

Byzantine empire, fall of, 530 
Byzantine rite, 219 



Cabala, 38172, 448 
Cabasilas, Nicholas, 215 
Cabiri. 70, 72, 121, 164, 165, 241 
caduceus, 98*4 

Cain, i73 n > 374* 394. 399/> 4**. 4^> 
sat copy of Satan, 39 if; sec oho 
Abel 

calendar, ecclesiastical, 69 

Campbell, Colin, 228*1., 22991 

Cana, marriage miracle at, 132, 253 

cancer, imaginary, iof f 14, 15* 2* 

candies, 36, 51 

Canon of the Mass, *i$f 

Caipocrates/OurpacratiaBs* 77^ 

Cams, C. G. t 85, 245 

Caspari, Carl Pawl, 14*1* 

Cassian, John, ig 

castes, four, 167 

castration, 44574 

categories, mental* 17? 



Catharists, 313 

Catholic Church, 192, 304, 347, 352; 
absolutism of, 22; and blessing of 
font, 100-101; and departed souls, 
523; and dogma, 9; and dogma 
of the Assumption, 462, 465; and 
dreams, 19-20; in dream, 25, 27; 
"Pax Romana" and, 47; priest 
and, 333; and Protestantism, 465- 
66; on revelation, 413; and sacra 
ments, 7; and symbols, 43; see also 
Catholics; Church 
Catholics, 334-35; and psychological 

analysis, 352-53 
cauldron, 594, 597?, 606; see also 

ting 

causa instrumentalis, Sn 
causa ministerialis, 8n 
causality, 590, 607; opposed view 
point, 592-93 
causation, material, 328 
cause(s): divine, belief in, 7; of neu 
rosis, 337-38 
Caussin, Nicolas, 270 
celibacy, of priesthood, 132 
censing, 206, 2i2f, 266 
centre, 285; in self, mandala as sym 
bol of, 81; unconscious, improba 
ble, 485; see also mandala 
chairs, 52 
chakra, 533 

chalice: consecration formula, in 
Mass, 214; elevation of, 212; 
preparation of, 209-1 1 
chance: Chinese mind and, 591; 
and natural law, 591; and syn- 
dhronkity, 592 

change, from father to son, 162 
chaos, 9971, 344; original, 54, 99, 

234; prima materia as, 9871 
character, change of, from uprush 

of collective forces, 15 
Charles, TL EU 42* 
chemical warfare, 451, 461 
chemistry, 296, 327 
Chh&ndogya Upanishad, 502 
Chikhai Berdo, 509, 515, 522 
child, divine, see divine child 
648 



INDEX 



childhood, faith and, 477 

chin, 600 

China, 44771, 585, 590^; sun-wheels 

in, 322; yoga in, 537 
Chinese: alchemy, 102; art, 567; 

and Europeans, compared, 492; 

philosophy, 197, 245, 495, 590^; 

see also Confucianism; / Ching; 

Tao 

ching (hexagram), 605 
Chochma, 387 
Chonyid Bardo, 509, 515-17, 520- 

**, 523 

Christ, 9, 264; and Antichrist, 357; 
apocalyptic, 439^, 446^; as Arche 
type, 88, i52#; archetypal life, 
symbolizes conscious life of man, 
157; birth of, 359, 400, 403, 406, 
414, 430, 439, 440, 448, 454; blood 
of, 92, 567; bride of, 458, 465; 
chthonic man, 400; and Church, 
88, 447; and confidence/doubt in 
God, 410-11, 429, 431, 433; and 
consciousness, 459; as Cosmic/ 
Original Man/saviour, 154, 185, 
273; crucifixion/death of, 155, 
248, 337^ 4io, 415, 418, 430, 432, 
455; and dance, in Acts of John, 
273/fc demythologization of, 408; 
devil as counterpart/adversary of, 
59* l6 9 ijfr dual nature of, 251; 
Ezekiel as prefiguring, 421, 431; 
-figure, not a totality, 156; Gnos 
tic, 173, 292; as God (incarnation) 
see Incarnation; God's right hand, 
3*3> 35 8 >" as God's second son, 
170; in the gospels, 153; as hero 
of myth, 406, 409, 430; historicity 
of, 406-7, 409; and Holy Ghost/ 
Paraclete, 135, 413, 431; human- 
ization of, 153; imitation of, 340, 
341, 444; immanence of, 441; 
inner, 156; irascibility of, 408, 
43^-37; as Jewish prophet/re 
former, 408, 429; lacks a dark 
side, 191; as "life," 37; life of, 
visualized in Mass, 248; man and, 
60; as man, 406-7, 408-9; and 



649 



Mary, 399* 4<x>; meaning of, 360, 
430; as mediator/redeemer, 134, 
277> 4i4, 4i8, 428, 430, 432-33, 
455 465; middle term of triad, 
156; and morality of evil, 457; 
New Testament symbolism and, 
1 545 r / offering and offerer, united 
in, 221; perfection of, 399; and 
philosophers' stone, 55, 91, 9971, 
454; presence in the Mass, 207, 
215; as priest, 255; realized idea 
of self, 156; relativity of, 293; 
represented by priest, 207; and 
Satan, 409, 412, 440; as saviour 
(soter), 406, 429; as second Adam, 
55; second coming of, 440, 447; 
as Son of God, 410, 412, 414, 428, 
43> 432, 433J as Son of Man, 
264, 430; supremacy of, in Protes 
tantism, 464; as sword, 234; as 
symbol, 409, 441; of self, 191, 
194; thousand-year reign of, 447; 
totality/wholeness of, 155, 293, 
421, 430; triumphant, 80; typical 
dying God, 89; unhistorical, 154; 
"within" and historical, 293; see 
also Gethsemane; Jesus; Logos; 
passion 

Christianity, 22, 273, 344, 466; doc 
trinal rationalization, 291; early, 
151; essential symbols of, 97; 
ethics of, 416; evangelical, 453; 
and evil, 168-69; historical prepa 
ration for, 429; ullages in, 46; 
Indian influence on, 441; not 
worldly, 27; opposition of God/ 
man in, 455; primitive peoples 
and, 347; seeming lack of ante 
cedents, 137; spread of, 441; 
Western man and, 482; and the 
world, 488; and yoga, 537 

Christians, medieval, 308-9 

Christian Science, 531 

Christian Students' Conference, 334 

Christification, 470 

Christ-image, 442 

Christopher of Paris, 99*1 

Chrysostom, see John Chrysostom 



INDEX 



Church: authority of, 183; and 
Christ, 88; doctrines of, 4*8; ex 
perience of God and, 321; and 
evil, 169; as expression of psyche, 
487; and Holy Ghost, 195, 433; as 
instrument of redemption, 481- 
8*; its intercession, 47; mass exo 
dus from, 333; mystical body of, 
221; opposes original experience, 
553; Protestant destruction of be 
lief in, 531; see also Catholic 
Church; Protestantism 

CibiiiensiSy Meichior, 245 

Cicero, 8n, 5111 

cintdmani, 563, 567 

circle, 52, fyf, 90, 185; expressing 
Christ, 155; four partitions of, 52, 
56; God as a, 53, 55, 80, 1557*, 
276, 322; representing heaven, 
447; magical, 96; man symbolized 
by, 93; in medieval philosophy, 
574; and microcosm, 95; squaring 
the, 53, 91, 96, 454; sun as, 566; 
as temenos, 95; wholeness of, 79, 
96*1, 167; see also mandala(s) 

circulus qu&drntusj 64 

circumambulation, 212, 275-76, 280 

ritrinitas, 57 

civilization, 178, 198, 487 

day, while, 243 

Clement of Alexandria, i ion, i8m 

Clement of lx*e, 313^, 357; Firs* 
Epistle &f f 139; Second Epistle of, 
141 

deomeno, 244 

clergyman, $1-33. S34~35* 558; and 
cure of mdft, 34$f *' a^ ethical 
probleim, $$2; expectations from, 
352; and HM-anmg of life, 336; 
misimerpretatioQ of, 354; psycho 
logical interest legitimate, 353; 
and psydbodbcrapiBt, $46^7, 353; 
*?<? flijo prieit 

Clock, 52, &&. $7; *roid dock, 6, 
74, 8o/, 96, 103 

cock, 238 

Codices: Bear, 275, 434, 45911; Bru- 
cianus, 37, 56; Marciamis, 225, 



650 



2297*; Rhenoviensis, 5571 

cogitatio, 278-79 

cognition, 306; essential to con 
sciousness, 1 60; a mental faculty, 
478; mind the condition of, 480 

coincidence, 59 1# 

coincidentia oppositorum, 540; see 
also opposites, union of 

coins, 591, 593 

collective unconscious, 345, 465, 519, 
573; and buddhi, 485; Christ and, 
154; St. John and, 443; One 
Mind and, 502; and personal un 
conscious, 150, 573; and visions, 
461; yoga and, 537; see also arche 
types 

Collyridians, 129 

colours: four, 52, 57, 66/, 6g/> 72, 
74, 96, 167; and functions of con 
sciousness, 189; symbolic, in Bar- 
do state, 522 

Comarius (Komarios), 92, 947*, 97, 
loin, 21 in 

Comma Johanneum, 13871 

Commixtio, in the Mass, 219$ 

communio, among Aztecs, 224 

Communion, Holy, 44, 350; see also 
Mass 

Communism, 150^,429,488 

compassion, 564, 567 

compensation (s), unconscious, 488, 
500, 506; cannot be compelled, 
497; realization of, 491 

complementarity, human-divine, 157 

completeness, 167; as feminine, 395, 

399 

completes): autonomous, 13, 16, 
151; domination of will by, 86; 
is dreams, 23; resembles second 
ary personality, 14; repressed 
ad nnrepressed, 14; see also 
father-complex; inferiority com 
plex; Oedipus complex 

complex w oppositoTum, 358; self 
as, 191, 443; sun-woman's son as, 
439; see also opposites 

coeaplex psychology, see analytical 
psychology 



INDEX 



concentration, 58, 572; Eastern, 
507; failure of, 492 

concept, 595&n, 599, 606 

Conception, Immaculate, see Im 
maculate Conception 

concubine, 598 

condemnation, 339 

confession (s), 295, 536; in Catholic 
Church, 192, 350, 353; decline of, 
531; effect of, 49, 351; in Mass, 
257; patient's, 338; Protestants 
and, 21,44,48, 351 

confidence in self, loss of, 10 

conflict, 291, 34i/, 344, 489; 
clergyman and psychic, 353; 
conscious/unconscious, 260; in 
dreams, 23; East/West, 481; faith/ 
knowledge, 532; inner, accept 
ance of, 346; moral, 349, 572; 
science/religion, 477, 480; uncon 
scious, Protestantism and, 352; 
see also opposites 

conflict situation, 174-75; "Son" 
stage as, 182 

Confucianism, 336 

Confucius, 9, 594, 599^ 602 

congregation: function in the Mass, 
206; represented by Eucharistic 
water, 209; as sacrificial gift, 266 

coniunctio: maxima, 54; opposi- 
torum, see opposites, union of 

Connelly, Marc, 17971 

connoisseurs, 592 

Connolly, R. Hugh, 2 ion 

conscience, Protestant, 49 

conscious (mmd) / consciousness, 

4*5> 439 5*3> 55& et pax; 
Adlerian psychology and, 348; 
alteration of, caused by numi- 
nosum, 7; as our own psychic 
existence, 13; as the Buddha, 513; 
building up of, in child, 345; of 
consciousness, 545; continuity of, 
33; dark background of, 485^- 
detached, 504; detachment of, by 
yoga, 535; development/enhance 
ment of, 166, 289; differentiation 
of, 180, 469; dissolution of, 508; 



Eastern view of, 484; ego-, see 
ego-consciousness; emancipation 
from unconscious, 290; empty, 
545-46, 551; freedom won by, 
165; and God, 373, 381, 404; 
Greeks and, 244; higher, 485; in 
dividual, 479; levels of, 546-47; 
man more than, 82; masculine, in 
sun-woman, 439; modern, low 
level of, 289; moral, collective, 
258; as moral criterion, 434; na 
ture of, 550; new level of, 488; 
passion for, 350; precariousness 
of, 17; of primitives, 17, 223; and 
projection, 83; psyche greater 
than, 41, 84, 556; of self, fear of, 
14; stages of, i8o#, 545; switching 
off, 537; and unconscious, in 
human personality, 40; , re 
union, 292; whence it comes, 345; 
world's, splitting of, 291; Yah- 
weh's, 404; see also satori; uncon- 
scious(ness) 

conscious mind: Adlerian psychol 
ogy and, 348; complexes and, 14; 
not whole man, 258; and religion, 
360, 362 

Consecration, hi the Mass, *o6f, 
214-16, 220; essentially a miracle, 
250; inner meaning, 207; words 
of, 248; and shaving the head, 
228 

consensus omnium, 199 

Consignation 219, 221 

Consilium coniugii, 94*1, 232*1, 238 

contamination: "all-," 504; of im 
ages, 491 

contemplation, Christian and yogic, 

contract, between Yahweh and man, 
370-71, 374, 383, 395, 403; sec 
also covenant 

conversion^), 65, 183 

Coolidge, Calvin, 338 

I Corinthians, (2:10), 416; (11: 
23^203-4; (12: 4-6), 139 

II Corinthians, 278;; (3:5), 279; 



INBEX 



II Corinthians (cont.): 

(3:7^18), 141; (10:7), 278; (13: 

14), i$8 

Cornford, Francis M., 127 

corn spirit, 254 

Corpus Hermeticum, 2971, 5 in, gin, 
97, 2 ion; set aho Scott, Walter 

corpus mysticum, 71, 214 

correspondence theory, 290 

cortical cells, 480 

Cosmic Man, see man 

cosmos: Chinese view of, 592; stone 
as image of, 95 

Councils, of the Church, 153 

counter-will, 198 

covenant, 370, 383, 395; see aho 
contract 

cramp, 536 

Crawley, Alfred Ernest, i7 

creation, 367, 392, 394, 401; of a 
god, 86; imperfection of, 134; of 
man, 37 2/, 402; second day of, 
118, 173, 177; and Trinity, 195 

creativeness, 331, 490 

creative secret, 556 

creed(s), 9; Apostles', 14 if; Athana- 
sian, 111, 145, i52/; and develop 
ment of Trinity idea, 148; of 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, I42/; in 
security of all, 478; Nicene, 143^; 
Nicene-Constantinopolitan, 144; 
and religion, 8, 43; "scientific," 44 

criminal, statistical, 75 

crocodile, 383 

cross, 45, 224, 284$, 417; in Acts of 
Peter, 285/; condition of transfor 
mation, 221; expressing union o 
God and man, 80; Greek, 574; 
historical and ideal, 283; of light, 
281-83; in mandate, So; of the 
Mayas, 40471; a quaternity, 73, 
170, 430; serpent on, 2*9; sym 
bolic meanings, 62, 178; symbol 
of order, 284; use in the Mass, 
208; see aho crucifixion 

crown, 155 

crucifixion, 268, 283, 417; between 
two thieves, 225, 269, 455; of 



Peter, 286; a quaternity, 283, 425; 

see aho Christ 
cruelty, 271 
crystals: brown, 71; dissimilarity of, 

59i 

cube, 167 

Cuesta, bishop of Leon, 215 
culture: bread and wine as expres 
sion of, 253; externalization of, 

585 

Cumont, Franz, 224n 
cure of souls, 348$ 
cursing, as spell, 149 
customs, religious, "invention" of, 

223 

Cybele, 9, 228, 
Cyprian, St., 209 



dadophors, 224 

daemon (s), 8, 13, 85; archetype 
"daemonic," 151, 162; self as, 94 
Dalai Lama, 89 
Damascus, Paul's journey to, 332, 

343 

Damascus chalice, 253 
damnation, eternal, 17, 197 
dance(s): of primitives, 559; round, 

of Jesus and his disciples, 273$ 
dancers, Kathakali, 559 
danger, psychic, primitives and, i7/ 
Daniel (book), 421, 423; (7: 13), 421 
Daniel, H. A., 9*n 
Dante, 172,280,311 
David, 241, 37o/, 374, 382; consults 

oracle, 388 
dead: ceremonies for, 523-24; do 

not know they are dead, 518; 

Masses for, 524 
dead body, washing of, 279 
dealbatio, 57 
defence: dogma as, 46; scientific 

theory as, 45; and truth, 45 
defence-mechanisms, instinctive, 345 
degenerates, 336 
ddpnon, 204$, 227 



652 



INDEX 



deisidaimonia (dcuriScLitiovia), 14 
deities, peaceful and wrathful, 511; 

see also gods 
Deity: bisexual nature of, 29; circle 

as symbol of, 53; life-process with 

in, 136; and mandala, 82; see also 

God; gods 
deja vu, 405 
Delacotte, Joseph, 68n 
deliberation, unconscious, 38 
Deluge, the, 374, 412, 422; 
delusional idea(s), see delusions 
delusions, 362; in delirium, 551; re 

ality of, 150; schizophrenic, 304 
demiurge, the: concealed in matter, 

54/; devil as, 173, 313; Gnostic, 

98, 270; Somatic, 77; in Timaeus, 

123 
Democritus, pseudo-, 93?*, 97, 98, 

loon, loin 
demons, 320: planetary, 226, 228, 

239 

demoralization, neurosis and, 10, 16 
demythologization, of Christ, 408 
denominations, Protestant, 9, 350 
Denzinger, H., and Bannwart, d, 



"Deo concedente," 296 
depotentiation of ego, ^.S^f 
despiritualization, of the world, 83, 

85 
destruction, 48, 344; man's power 

of, 459; powers of, 345; and sacri 

fice, 256; of the world, 412, 455 
detachment: Christian ideal of, 349; 

from father, 181; in yoga, 507, 

545 

determinism, 259 

deus absconditus, 175, 195, 236 

Deus terrenus, 90 

deuteros theos, 381 

development: precocious, of Christ, 
155; in religion, 9; spiritual, four 
ways of, 167; see also conscious 
(mind) 

devil, the, 43, 70*1, 168$; as autono 
mous, 169, 173, 195; as binarius, 
118; counterpart of Christ, 59; 



and dreams, ign; eternality of, 
195; God's first son,. 1 70; as left 
hand of God, 3i3/; materiality 
the abode of, 171; in Protestant 
ism, 495; relation to Trinity, 169;; 
shadow as, 309; see also "lord of 
this world"; Satan 

devils, possession by, 486 

devotion, "devoted," "devout," 8 

dew, loon 

dharma, 506 

Dharmadhatu, 522, 563 

Dharmakdya, 482, 495, 512, 519, 522 

dhvaja, 566 

dhyana, 560, 570 

Dhyani-Boddhisattvas/Buddhas, 525, 
561 

diamond, 185 

diamond body, 102 

Diana, 129 

dichotomy: of God, 25 if; of uni 
verse, 285 

Dieterich, Albrecht, 23 in 

"Different, the/' in Timaeus, iz$ff 

differentiation: of consciousness, 
Trinity and, 180; in unconscious, 
288; of unconscious from con 
scious products, 39 

Digulleville, Guillaume de, 68-72, 
100, 103 

Dike, 385 

Diogenes Laertius, 23on 

Dionysian, 28 

Dionysus, 388; 404^; Christian par 
allels, 136; dismembered, 264; 
miracle of, 253; Nietzsche's, 28, 
85; orgiastic cult of, 231; as pneu- 
ma, 255; Zagreus, 85, 231, 255 

Dionysius (pseudo-), the Areopagite, 
non 

Dionysius the Elder (of Syracuse), 

122 

Dionysius the Younger (of Syracuse), 

122 

Dionysius I (Jacobite patriarch), 239 
director of conscience, 44, 192; 

Church as, 



653 



INDEX 



disciples, Christ's, 273, 275-76; sec 
also dance 

discrimination, in alchemy, 37* 

disease, physical, and psyche, 11 

disintegration, 567 

dismemberment, 227^71, 27 if 

disobedience, shadow and, 198 

disposition, 328 

dissenters, fate of, 14 

dissociation, 182, 291, 435; of con 
scious and unconscious, 188, 429; 
inferior function and, 198; neu 
rotic, 184, 191; psychic, 520 

distinction, vanishing of, in uncon 
scious, 504 

"divine," archetype as, 151 

divine child, 441^ 444, 454, 456, 
4&7/; as symbol of self, 441 

divine youth, 442/; set also dying 
god 

divisio, 272 

Bjabir, 9471, loon 

Docetism, 28 1# 

doctor{s): and clergyman, 331-33, 
334/* 338, 347* 3531 and ethics, 
352; and meaning of life, 336; 
neurotic's attitude to, 10; and 
patient, in psychotherapy, 554; 
and religion, 301, 353, 454; so 
matic, 310; words of, 330; see also 
psychotherapist 

dogma(s), 43, 306; and archetypes, 
links, 89, 306; of the Assumption, 
see Assumption of Virgin Mary; 
in Catholic Church, 192; current 
neglect of, 112; development of, 
312; expression of psyche, 487; 
fruit of many minds and cen 
turies, 50; history of, 150; Holy 
Ghost and, 150; importance for 
mental hygiene, 44; loss of, in 
Protestantism, 21; Protestantism 
and, 467; psychological vahie of, 
45, 111, 200; unconscious reflected 
in, 46; value of, 199 

dominants, psychic, 521; see also 
archetypes 

door, 281 



654 



dorje, 67 

Born, Gerhard, 60, 7071, 9211., 93*1, 

94* 95 n > iT 6 /* *34/' *3 6 /* 272, 295 

doubt(s), 452; philosophical and re 
ligious, 337; stepping-stone to 
knowledge, no; see also belief 

dove (Christian symbol), 185, 28471, 
323, 407; white, 91, 99*1 

Itazy, R., and de Goeje, M. J., 23071, 
24071 

dragon: in alchemy, 229/, 234, 267, 
278; in Chinese art, 567; in St. 
John's visions, 438, 439, 440 

dread, holy, of the numinous, 150, 
S4 6 

dream(s), 404, 454, 460, 490; alchem 
ical parallels, 61; apparent futil 
ity of, 49; arcanum revealed in, 
93; archetypal, 89, 150, 300, 469; 
causes of, 1971; the Church and, 
19-20; compensatory, 450, 489; 
conflicts and complexes in, 23; 
contamination of images in, 491; 
and content of neuroses, 23; dog 
ma compared to, 46; Freud and, 
26, 536; in Gilgamesh epic, 16; 
individuality of, 50; language of, 
and environment, 289; links of 
unconscious events, 33; are natu 
ral, 27, 80, 420; of a neurotic in 
tellectual, 24$; number motifs in, 
189; Pererius on, 19-2 in; both 
positive and negative, 32; preju 
dice against, 16-17; premonitory, 
503; prerogative of medicine-men, 
18; psychological interpretation 
of, 26; and psychotherapy, 300; 
symbols of self and, 502; time 
and, 503; Trinity as a, 181; trin 
ity and quaternity symbols in, 
189; usually in series, 33; voice of 
the Unknown, 18; see also alche 
my; visions 

drr*e(s), 329; psychology of, 301 

Drummond, Henry, 76 

Drusiana, 27771 

dualism: in Christianity, 358; -Per 
sian, 173,, 187; see also duality 



INDEX 



duality, 362, 498; tension of, 159; 

see also God; opposites 
Dubois, 348 
Dunbar, Helen F., 3771 
Dunne, J. W., 503 
DunsSootus, 215 
Durrer, Robert, 31871 
duty, conflicts of, 416, 453-54 
dwarfs, sec Cabiri 
dyad, 132 

dying, process of, 510 
dying god(s), 225, 228, 254, 388, 405, 

443, 445; Christ as, 89, 410; 

mother of, 407 



earth: cube and, 16771; feminine 

nature of, 448; of paradise, 54 
Eastern/Western man, contrasted, 

483 

Eastern/Western thought, com 
pared, 481 

eating, 278 

eccentrics, 336-37 

Ecclesiastes, (9 : 16), 390 

Ecclesiasticus, (24 : 3-18), 387^ (24 : 
ii, 18), 448 

Eckhart, Meister, 450, 456, 48371, 

54*> 543> 54& 
ecstasy, 255 

Eden, Garden of, 196, 287, 375, 393 
educated persons, psychology and, 

334f 

egg, 65; in alchemy, 54, 238; philo 
sophical, 234 

ego, 281, 580$, el passim; can be 
made an object, 258; and con 
sciousness, 485; depotentiated, 
484-85; dissolved in self, 293; 
Eastern view of, 485; impossibil 
ity of a "knowing ego," 506; in 
tentions of, interfered with by 
complex, 13-14; of Jesus, cosmic, 
15671; relation to self, 40-^41, 94, 
259, 262; and sacrifice, 255, 258^; 



655 



and self, identification of, 502, 
542; suffering and, 157; sup 
planted by archetypes, 345; too 
small to incorporate projections, 
88; and unconscious, 441; see also 
self 

ego-consciousness, 185, 259, 292-93, 
441,484^,502,568,579 

ego-ego, 580 

egoism, 341-42 

Egypt: barbers in, 22971; and Chris 
tian ideas, 117; medical lore of, 
194; "Osirification" in, 295; 
triads of gods in, 1 15-17 

Egyptian: mysteries, 514; mythol 
ogy* 3 8 3> 397* 4s> 45* 4 6 *; the 
ology, 148 

Egyptians, Gospel according to ike, 

139 

eidola, 517 

Eisler, Robert, 7171, 15371 
elation, of body and spirit, 533 
elders, surrounding Christ, 155 
electrons, 187 
El 'Elyon, 217 
elements, four, 3871, 56, 167 
Eleusinian mysteries, 50871, 514 
elevation, greater, in Mass, 216 
Elgon, Mount, 18, 133 
Eliade, Mircea, 22771, 27 in, 29471 
Elihu the Buzite, 368 
Elijah, 17111,428 
elixir vitae, 101 
Elohim, 373 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 53 
emotional needs, evasion of, 42 
Empedocles, 3871, 55, 6on, 16771 
empiricism, scientific, 5, 6 
empiricist, and theologian, 300-301, 

3<H-5. 307-8 
enantiodromia, 342, 399, 433, 444, 

451, 508; Christ/Antichrist, 447; 

Christianity/irrationalism, 292; 

Yin/Yang, 245 
Enchained One, 252 
enclosure, 95 
endocrine disorders, and neurosis, 

11, 492; see also glands 



INDEX 



energy: liberated by Reformation, 
47; primordial, 187; as principle 
of existence, 477; psychic, an 
auxiliary idea, 506; , tension of, 
320; symbol as transformer of, 
503; unconscious contents and, 

496> 55i 

Engeis, Friedrich* 150 
English archbishops, 462 
enlightenment, 314, 540^; koan and, 

549; see also satori 



Enoch (patriarch), 17171, 423-29* 

43~32> 435 

Enoch (book), 284^ 42 1& 447; 
(7 : 2), 421; (7 : 3-6), 422; (9 = 5- *)> 
423; (22:2), 423; (4:7). 424; 
(46:1-3), 425; (47:4), 425: (4S: 
i, 4, 6, 7), 425; (49: 1-3), 426; (51 : 
i, 3), 426; (54:6), 426; (58:6), 
426; (60:10), 426; (71:5-6* *4> 



ens absolutum, 303 
ens Tcalissimum, 363 
entelechy, 583 
enthusiasm, 583 

cv rb var, 288 

environment, and origin of psychic 

contents, 151 
envy, envious, 595 
Ephesians, Epistle to the, (4:4-6), 

139 

Ephesians, goddess of, 3 1 2 
Ephesus: Council of, 129; letter 

{Apocalypse} to Church of, 436 
cpiclesis, 213 
Epicureanism, 27 
epioiLsios, 488 

Epiphanius, 129/, 139, 170*1, 23811 
epistemology, India and, 580 
epistles: New Testament, see names 

of specific epistles; to Seven 

Churches (Apocalypse), 436^ 
Epistolae Apostolorum, 218 
Erman, Adolf, igsn, 229*1 
Eros, 395 

error, in psychotherapy, 343 
Esau, 400 



eschatology, 407^ 
essence, God's, 170, 195-96 
eternity: divine attribute, 303, 493; 

the Mass and, 207; signified by 

four, 219 
ethical problems, doctor and, 352; 

see also morality 
Eucharist, earliest evidence for, 204; 

see also Mass 
Eucharistic feast: in Amitabha cult, 

561; in honour of Mary, 130; 

round dance and, 280 
eunuchs, 445*1 
eurhythmies, 533 
Euripides, 23 in 
Europe, 47 

European man, mental state of, 336 
Eusebius, 217*1 
Evangelists, the four, 57, 67, 72/, 

1 15* i55 *9.574 
Evangelium aeternum, see gospel, 

everlasting/eternal . 

Eve, 391; in alchemy, 30; as binary, 
6on, 177; as Israel, 393; as Lilith, 
397; as Sophia, 397; Second, 397; 
see also Adam; First Parents 

events, psychic, 7; psychic and phys 
ical, relation, 592-93 

evil, 39if, 401, 411, 430, 432-34, 
461; Christian view of, 168-69; 
decomposition of good, 30571; in 
tegration necessary to totality, 
156; man identified with, 456/; 
man's responsibility for, 197; 
morality of, 434; in nature, ques 
tion of, 572; origin of, i34/, i6gf; 
principle of, 63, 313; problem of, 
342; relative, 197, 337; substan 
tiality of, 1 68; and unconscious 
ness, 197; see also good and evil; 
privatio boni 

Evil One, 357; see also devil; Satan 

exaltation, religious, 581 

execution, as punishment, 269 

Exercitia spiritualia, see Ignatius 
Loyola, St. 

exhortation, 352 

existence; physical and psychic, 12; 
656 



INDEX 



principle of, 477; psyche as, 12, 
480; psychological, subjective and 
objective, 6 

existentialism, 290 

Exodus, (22:29), 418 

exorcism, 16371 

experience, 331-32; immediate, see 
below; individual, and collective 
truths, 308; and reflection, 5; re 
ligious, see below; and thought, 
312 

experience, immediate, 89; defence 
against, 46, 48; dreams and, 50; 
replacement by symbols, 43; risks 

of, 43/ 

experience, religious, 62; absolute 
ness of, 104-5; creeds and, 9; 

definition of, 62; reality of, 544; 

subjectivity of, 105 
extraversion, 497, 501; "style" of 

West, 481; Western, 488, 492 
Ezekiel (prophet), 42O/, 424, 426, 

428, 430; visions of, see vision(s) 
Ezekiel (book), 421, 423, 431, 437, 

448; (1:18), 448; (1:26), 383; 

420; {47)>5&9; (47 :)'* 1O 



face(s): four, of God, 423^; human, 
in vision, 3i8/ 

factor(s): constituting unconscious, 
40; ordering/transcending con 
sciousness, 294; pathogenic, 328; 
psychic, and freedom, 87; psychic, 
inherited, 517; subjective, 486/, 
498,506 

facts, 303; enthusiasm for, 479; 
European belief in, 499; psychic, 
360; rational, 153 

fairy tales, 189, 454 

faith, 199, 291; of Catholic and 
Protestant, 192; childlikeness of, 
477; Christian confession of, 348; 
and criticism, 153; doctor and, 
33 1> 332; and knowledge, conflict, 
532; organ of, 477; Protestantism 



and, 531; a rarity, 192; and rights 
of man, 392 

fake, spiritual, Yoga in West as, 500 
fall: of the angels, 421; of man, 375, 
39 1 > 39* 39 6 /; of Satan, 410, 424, 
440 

fantasy(-ies), 345/, 490; karmic illu 
sion as, 519-20; subjective, 571; 
unawareness of, 501 
Fascism, 152 
fate, propitiation of, 17 
Father, (God) the, 73, 131, i82/, 
249, 322; dual aspect of, 175; in 
definable, 135; as prime cause, 
133; relation to Holy Ghost, 131, 
i58/; represents One and Indi 
visible, 156; a union of opposites, 
187; world of, i34/; see also Trin- 
ity 

father: Abraham as, 217; denotes 
earlier state of consciousness, 18 1; 
divine, of Christ, 154; see also 
Father below; self as the, 263 
father: -complex, Bolshevism as, 15; 
-murder, 181; -son relationship, 
132; -world, oneness of, 133 
Fathers, Church, and knowledge, 

181; and Trinity, 151, 170 
Faust, see Goethe 

fear: in contemporary world, 48; of 
God, 43 n > *97 373' 4*6, 41 9, 444/* 
45% 458> 461; in lunatic asylums, 
48; salvation as deliverance from, 
416, 428, 430; of self -conscious 
ness, 14; of unconscious, 17 
feeling: "ancestral," 491; faith and, 
477; function, 122, 165, 167; see 
also freedom 

feet, Jesus' washing of, 204 
feminine nature, 177 
"femme inspiratrice," 161 
Fenn, G. Manville, 1771 
fertility rites, 222; Attic, 228; Mith- 

raic, 224 

Ficino, Marsilio, 2971 
fictions, influence in disease, 
Fierz-David, Linda, 42*1 
filiatio, 182, 194 



657 



INDEX 



Filioque clause, 14471, 145^ 194 

filius macrocosmi, 234 

filius philosophorum, 263, 314 

filius sapientiae, 44271, 454^ 462 

filius solis et lunae f 462, 468 

fire, 185; and blood, 237; sacrificial, 

205; signifying life, 36-37; tongues 

of, 156, 186; unquenchable, 36, 

43; and water, in alchemy, 232 
Firmicus Maternus, Julius, 26471 
first fruits, 255 
First Parents, 375, 393, 399; see also 

Adam; Eve 
fish(es): eucharistic meal of, 22571; 

round, in sea, 54; symbol of the 

son, 174; two, 357 
Fishes, sign of the, 69, 17471, 406; 

see also Pisces 
five, the number, in Mozarabic 

Mass, 219 
flaying, 228 
flesh, in sacramental meal, 205 

"F10S," 10171 

flower, 52, 80, loin 

Flower Sermon, Buddha's, 53871 

Foerster-Nietzsche, Elisabeth, 2871 

folklore motifs, 306 

fons signatus f 73-74 

font, baptismal, 210; blessing of, see 
benedictio fontis 

forces, instinctual, 15 

forgiveness, 341, 347, 352 

forms: actual and ideal, 591; Pla 
tonic, 5i7/; Universal Mind source 
of all, 490 

fornication, 446 

four, the number, 36/, 51$, 164$; 
in Christian iconography, 3771; 
"God is in the Four,** 2; Pyth 
agorean school and, 37, 167; re 
calcitrant fourth, 187, 196; sig 
nifying totality, 115; see also 
quaterniry; tetraktys 

fowl, 238 

Fractio, in the Mass, 2i8/, 221 

France, Anatole, 512, 578 

Franz, Marie-Louise von, 5571, 5671, 

10271, 2307J, 323?!, 44271 



fratricide, 392, 400, 405; see also 
brothers, hostile 

Frazer, Sir James G., 1771, 22571, 
22871, 254 

freedom: of the devil, 59; of the in 
dividual, 292; "from the law," 
182; man's feeling of, 259; moral, 
86-87; and reflection, 15871 

French Revolution, 228 

Freud, Sigmund, 302, 348^ 536;, 
572; on anxiety, 521; author's 
difference with, 349; on dreams, 
26; The Future of an Illusion, 
349; on introversion, 48 1 ; on neu 
roses, 329/7 and repression, 75; 
and shadow-side, 343, 572; and 
superego, 258, 26o/; theory of sex 
uality, 333, 337; and unconscious, 
MS/' 349' 5S 6 ** c *ko psycho 
analysis 

"Friends of God," 317, 322 

Fromer, J., and Schnitzer, M., 26971 

function(s): of consciousness, 166; 
, opposition between, 121; four, 
167, 189; Goethe's thinking, 164; 
Holy Ghost a, 159; inferior, 7671, 
121, 166, 198; loss of one, 166; 
psychic, mind as, 475; three avail 
able to consciousness, 165; tran 
scendent, 489, 491, 500^, 506, 
508; unconscious, 166 

funeral monuments, 524 



Gabricius and Beya, 103 

Gabriel, 426 

galactophagy, 211 

Galatians, Epistle to, (2:20), 54671, 

574* 

Galli, 44571 

Gallkan liturgy, 213 

garden: of Eden, see Eden; sym 
metrical, 52 

Garnerius of St. Victor, icxm 

Gaudentius, icon 



INDEX 



Gautama, see Buddha 

Gayomart, 134 

genes, 30 

Genesis, 196, 391-97; (1:27), 

(3:5), 287*; (5:15), 398; <3:24)> 
*37; (5 : 24) 4*7*; < 6: 3# 4**; 
(6:5 and 8:21), 278; (22: iff), 
418 

genius religiosus, 49 

Gensha, 539 

Gentiles, 373 

geometrical progression, 1 19-21 

Gerbert, 241 

Germanic tribes, 46 

Germany: Nazism in, 481; pagan 
ism in, 28 

Gethsemane, Christ's prayer in, 261, 

417 

"getting stuck," 184, 198, 516, 552 

Ghaya al-hakim, 239/ 

ghost-houses, 19 

ghosts, 13, 166, 486, 499, 518 

giants, 42 1/ 

Gibil, 114 

gifts, relation to ego, 256 

Gilgamesh, 16, 114 

Girru, 114 

glands, 329; see also endocrine dis 
orders 

globe, 52, 55, 65, 71 

glory of the Lord, 141 

glossolalia, 28471 

Gnosis, 74, 134, 183, 530; Coptic, 
37; faith and, i8in; and Gnosti 
cism, 4572, 74; "of life/' 514; loss 
of, 192; of the Ophites, 236; see 
also Barbelo-Gnosis 

Gnosius, Dominicus, 30*1, 5571, io2n 

Gnostics(-ism), 93, 97, 190, 262, 263, 
270, 284^, 289;, 3o6f, 514; and 
alchemy, 97/; and Christ, 154, 
i66n, 279, 29272; and Christianity, 
97, 291; and circle, 15571; "circu 
lar thinking" of, 96; and the 
cross, 284^; demiurge in, 313; and 
the devil, 173, 177; dualism in, 
169; and gnosis, 4571, 74; Holy 
Ghost in, 159, 161-62; and man- 



659 



dala, 97; paradox in, 275; and 
Physis, 209; redeemer figures, 134; 
and sin, 77; see elso Barbelo- 
Gnosis 

goal: of Eastern and Western re 
ligion, 581; of psychic develop 
ment, 582; self as, 58$ 

goats' hair, 241 

goblets, 74 

God/Yahweh [.<*., the personal God 
of the Old and New Testament 
and derived or allied concepts; 
for other concepts see entry gods 
below]: S$ff; affect aroused by f 
366; antinomies/opposites in, 377, 
384, 41 6/, 419, 428, 45s/, 458, 
461; anti-trinitarian conception 
of, 153; archetypal image of, 59; 
changes in concept of , 360/7 chosen 
not created, 87; Christ as, 155; as 
current of vital energy, 361; dark 
aspect of, 371, 38111, 41 1, 428, 430, 
43*#> 45<>, 455: and David, 370;, 
374, 382; death of, 88f; defini 
tion of, imperfect, 87; devil's re 
lation to, 59; doubk aspect/dual 
ity of, 365;, 369, 372, 384^, 3910, 
411, 419, 428, 444, 450^ 454#, 
461; as Elohim, 373; of empiricist 
and theologian, 503; and Enoch, 
42 iff; experience of , 32 1 ; needed 
by Germans, 47; , and God, dis 
tinction, 321; , and Ezekiel, 
42O/, 428; the "good," 320; iden 
tity with man, 61, 263; incarna 
tion of, see Incarnation; inten 
tion/desire to become man, 397, 
4047?, 409, 4*of, 424, 456/, 460, 
462;; and Israel, 374, 390, 393, 
395/, 402f; and Jofe, 367$; light 
aspect of, 410, 433; as love/good 
ness, 419, 450, 435, 443, 449; and 
man, 370, 455; man's conception 
of, triadic, 149; Nietzsche's, 85, 
88; and Noah, 374, 423; "nothing 
but" psychology, 16371; of Old/ 
New Testament, *$, 236, 365; as 
outside man, 58? overwhelming 



INDEX 



God/Yahweh (con*.): 

psychic factor, 81; a primordial 
experience, 330; as principle of 
existence, 477; psyche and, 86; 
a psychic fact, 464; a psychic 
quantity, 509; pure reality, 194; 
sacred marriage, with Israel, 390, 
393 395; -. with Sophia, 393, 397, 
448; and Satan, 375-77, 379, 381, 

3 8 3/> 39#> 4*> 404 49#> 4 1 5> 
418, 43 if f 434; and self/atman, 
58o/; self -offering of, in Mass, 
248; and Sophia/ Wisdom, 386^, 

39** 393> 395#* 43, 448, 45, 462; 
the soul as, 513; as Summum 
Bonum,4ii, 419, 428; as tetraktys, 
56; Trinity and, 194; unconscious 
ness of, 365, 37*, 373, 376, 383, 
404, 416; vision of Father, Son, 
and Mother, 322; "within," 6o/; 
within, quaternity as symbol of, 
58; and Zeus, compared, 370; see 
aha Father; Yahweh 

God-concept, 455/1, 4567* 

goddesses, "power-holding" and 
"blood-drinking," 52 if 

god-eating, Aztec, 223 

Godhead, essence of the, 318 

God-image, 363, 456; in Cain and 
Abel, 399; self and, 156, 160, 190, 
194; see also imago Dei 

God-man, 45;, 84, 135, 149, 397, 
470; Jesus as, 154;, 399^ 470 

gods: absolute, East and, 482; as 
agents of psychological change, 
13; domain of, and consciousness, 
156; dying, see dying gods; in 
Gilgamcsh epic* 16; personifica 
tions of unconscious contents, 
163; relativity of, 82; renewal 
through sacrifice, 222; Tibetan 
Buddhist. 252, 4% 

Goethe, J. W. von: Faust, 70, i2i/, 

*64A 77 3*4/. 34i 445* 447- 4^3- 
555- 55 6 />" n * thinking function, 
164 

Gogarten, Friedrich, 320 

gold, 53, 185; sun as allegory of, 100 



660 



gompa, 500 

Gomperz, Theodor, 1237;, 1277* 
good, decomposition of, 30571 
good and evil, 77, 168, 173, 180, 306, 
342, 357, 411, 457, 506; "beyond 
good and evil," 174, 180; in God, 
196; in Protestantism, 352 
gospel(s), 149; everlasting/eternal, 
445, 451, 458; as historical source, 
150; meaning of, 88; and myth, 
301; synoptic, 407; see also John; 
Luke; Mark; Matthew 
grace: divine, 8, 17; external origin 
of, 482; gifts of, 33 if; gratia adiu- 
van$ and sanctificans, 8; man's 
dependence on, 481; and the 
Mass, so6n, 266; means of, 350; 
and spontaneous compensation, 

306 

grandmother, 600 

Grasseus, Johannes, 9971 

gravity, spirit of, 165 

Great Mother, 44571, 446; see also 
mother 

Greece: oracle head in, 244; triads 
of gods in, 1 17-28 

Greek: alchemy, 177; influence, on 
modern thought, 555; , on Old 
Testament, 386; language and 
literature, 530; mythology, 386, 
439/; matriarchal-patriarchal ele 
ments in, 439 

Greek Church, 19171, 216 

greenness, see viriditas 

Gregory the Great, St., 2on, 92 

Gregory of Nyssa, St., 142*1 

Gregory Thaumaturgus, St., creed 
of, i42f 

Griffith, F. L., 12771 

ground* 575* 5^ divine, 322; of 
lapis lazuli, 562, 566, 570 

guidance, divine, 345 

Guillen, Jorge, 2767* 

guilt, God's, 270; 

GiindoiBngen (Gundelfingen, Gun- 
delfiager), Heinrich, 318 

gymncsophists, 529 



INDEX 



H 



habit, 181 

Hades, 423; as quaternity, 423 

Haeussermann, Friedrich, 1871 

Hagar, 440 

Hagia Sophia, 25 

hallucinations, 316 

Hammurabi, 1 1 3/ 

hand, right and left, of God, 358 

harmony: of the spheres, 66; sub 
lime, 104; of wisdom, 282, 285 

Harnack, Adolf, 11972 

Harper, R. F., 11471 

Harranite(s), 230, 233, 240^ 244 

Harrison, Jane Ellen, 132, 13571 

Hartmann, E. von, 85, 245 

hat, 52 

hate/hatred, 48, 436, 449 

hatha yoga, see yoga 

Hauck, Albert, 21571 

Hauer, J. W., 5271, 8271 

head: golden, Gerbert's, 241; Har- 
ranite, 240, 242; oracle, 240$; 
people of the, 240; shaving the, 
228-29; see a ho face 

healing: initiation as, 271; a re 
ligious problem, 341 

Heath, Sir Thomas, 120 

heaven: in alchemy, 9971, 100; four 
quarters of, 167; Host as repre 
senting, 216; vision of, 322 

Hebrews, Epistle to the, (4:12), 

(7 : 17), 205; (13 : 10-15), 205 

hegira, 48871 

Helios, 514 

hell, Son, 90, 218, 221, 26571 

Hennecke, Edgar, 282*1 

Heraclitus, 36, 92 

heredity: archetypes and, 50; psy 
chic, 517 

heresiologists, 238 

heresy, 322; unconscious, 321 

heretical movements, in Christian- 



>, 

heretics, saints as, 321 
hermaphrodite: creator as, 29; di- 



661 



vine, 102; philosophers' stone as, 
55^92 

hermaphrodite nature: of Adam, see 
Adam; of primordial divine be 
ing, 462; of Yahweh/Sophia, 448 

Hermaphroditus, 23771 

Hermes, 99, 233, 414; krater of, 91, 
10 in; Kyllenios, 278; as Nous and 
Logos, 278; psychopompos, 9871; 
"the volatile/* 98/1; see also Mer- 
curius 

Hermes Trismegistus, 99, 233, 263, 
278; Tabula smaragdina, 314, 
498; Tractatus aureus, $an f 5571, 

90/, 10271 

Hermetic philosophy, 29, 176; 
coniunctio oppositorum as real 
subject of, 454; documents of, 
468; four elements in, 3871; Ti- 
maeus and, 53; see also alchemy 

hermit, 317, 493 

Hermolaus Barbarus, 23171 

hero(es): child-, 454; Christ as 
archetype, 88, 154-55, 46, 408, 
430; loses hair, 229; virgin birth 
of, 199 

Herod, 409 

Herodotus, 228 

Herostratus, 4516*71 

hero-worship, 155 

Herrad of Landsberg, 3771 

hexagrams, 59 2# 

HibilZiwa, 113 

hiereus, see priest 

hieros games/sacred marriage, 438, 
439> 447/> 462; first step to incar 
nation, 462; Israel/Yahweh, 390, 
393* 395 J of the Lamb, 447; in 
pleroma, 397, 467; of son and 
mother-bride, 458; Sophia/Yah- 
weh, 393, 397, 448 

Hildegard of Bingen, St., 3771, 91, 

9271 

Hippolytus, 287; Church Order, 
210, 220; Elenchos, 23671, 237, 
26571 

history, modern man and, 343 

Hogg, James, 265*1 



INDEX 



Hoghelande, Theobald de, gin, 

94*, 95". *3* 
holiness, 152 

Holy Ghost/Spirit, 6gn, 73, 131, 
*35/> i57ft *%- 43oft 458, 460; 
abstract nature of, 160; based on 
archetype, 131; a comforter, 176; 
concept begotten by man, 161; 
continuing incarnation of God, 
413, 414, 432, 456, 462;, 470; de 
scent of, i 4; and dogma, 150; as 
double of Jesus, 116; and dream- 
interpretation, 2 in; fading away 
of, 163; feminine nature of, 323, 
407; a function, 159; gifts of, 195; 
has no personal quality, 186; as 
life, 13 1/; Mercurius and, 99*1; 
as Mother, 73, 114*1, 159, 161, 
162; Origen on, 143; procession 
of, 145; progenitor of the Son, 
136, 278; a real person, 131; re 
lation to Father and Son, i5$/; 
represents the Divisible, 156; 
revelation out of man, 179; seiz 
ure of individual by, 158; Sophia 
as, 389; Unity of God and Man, 
116; warmth of, 9871; water of, 
93?; water as allegory of, loon; see 
also Paraclete; Trinity 
holy man, 493; Indian, 577f 
Holy Spirit, &* Holy Ghost/Spirit 
homo: Ad*micui, t; /**, 437, 454; 
maximw, 377; philosophic**, 55; 
religion**, 
homoiousia, 153, 134 
homoousia, 14% 144^ 148, 1331,400 
homo&usioa (1*9 firms) formula, 129, 

143-44 
homuncnlos, **7* tt$, a^tf, 278, 

454 

honey, 219 
Honorius of Aetna, 256 

hoopoe, 23$ 
nope, 331; 
Horace, 56* 
horoscope, 68 
horse, white, 446 
Hortulanus, 99*1 



74 
Honis, 67, 383, 406, 439; eyes of, 

116; four sons of, 67, 115, 383 
Hosea, 18, 260 

Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, 143 
"House of the Gathering," 35, 38, 



Huang Shan-ku, see Kozankoku 

Hubert, H., and Mauss, M., 51 

H ui Ming Ch'ing, 504 

Hui-neng, 549/1 

Huitzilopochtli, 22$f, 303 

hunting, 254 

Hyakujo, 539 

hybris, 88, 275, 499, 583; of con 

sciousness, 260 
hygiene, psychic and physiological, 

53* 

hyle, 98*1, 99*, 267 
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 4271 
hypnosis/hypnotism, 328, 565 
hypostasis, 160 
hypothesis, 16, 44; Holy Ghost as, 

150 
hysterical fever, case of, 1 1 



"I," sense of, 582; see also ego; I- 

Thou relationship, 353 
laldabooth, 173, 230 
Ibn Siaa, see Arkenna 
'Ibri, al-, 230 
ice, 562, 566 
I Cking, 45, 5^ 
iconography, medieval, 154 



662 



ideals), 486; aBthropOf&orphic, 151; 
formed by authority above con 
sciousness, 150; inborn, 307; 
inheritance of, 103; morbid, de- 
BM>fuc power of, 14; names used 
lor, 501; often opposed to reason, 
14; primordial, see archetypes; 
rel%ion and, 8; spontaneous cre 
ation of, 7; universal, 479 



INDEX 



ideals, 8 

identity: of Christ and adversary, 
178; with gift, 257; mystical, 245; 
of priest and Christ, 273; prob 
lem of, 82; unconscious, 255/, 
504; see also participation mys 
tique 

ideologies, 488 

Ignatius Loyola, St., Exercitia spiri- 
tualia, gin, 259, 487, 496, 523, 

53*/> 536, 547> 57-7* 581 

ignorance, in Church Fathers, 182; 
in Yoga (avidyd), 485 

iUatio, 213 

ills: and evil, 169; physical and 
moral, 169; see also evil 

illuminations, as spiritual transfor 
mation, 183 

illusion(s), 350; descent into, after 
death, 524; karmic, see karmic 
illusions; projected, 83; and re 
ligious experience, 105 

image(s); contamination of, 491; 
definition of God an, 87; helpful, 
345; metaphysical, 312; and 
mythological motifs, 490; numi 
nous, 312; primordial, and scien 
tific ideas, 289; psychic, 486; 
sacred, envisaging, 547; , lost by 
Protestants, 47; simultaneous and 
successive, 550; typical, 518; see 
also archetypes 

imagination: active, see active im 
agination; categories of the, 518; 
and neurosis, 10; a psychic proc 
ess, 544; reality of, 12 

imago Dei, 413, 417; see also God- 
image 

imitatio Christi, 273, 477, 483; false, 

293 
Immaculate Conception, 45, 312, 

398, 43on 
Immolatio, 213 

imp(s): Cabiri as, 164; devil as, 168 
Imperium Romanum, 47 
impression, first, 486, 506 
incantation, for producing numi- 

nosum, 7 



663 



Incarnation, 157, 397$, 400$, 409^ 
41 2#, 428, 456;, 459, 470; cause 
of, 406; commemorated in the 
Mass, 221, 248; continuing, 41 3/, 
432, 456* 460* 462, 4 6 3; devil and, 
169; Egyptian, 397, 462; Enoch 
and, 425; hieros games as first 
step to, 462, 467; Mass a repeti 
tion of, 273; only partially con 
summated, 399; preparations for, 
4*3 43<>; purpose of, 40 if, 406, 
414, 419; and reality of world, 
195; Satan and, 410; see also 
Holy Ghost 

incense: representing prayer, 213; 
see also censing 

incest, 342, 374 

indefiniteness, 496; and the One 
God, 493 

Index, the, 1 1 2 

India, 387, 420, 558^ 568, 576^, 
584; influence on Christianity, 
441; and psychology, 580; and 
religious syncretism, 530; rela 
tions with Near East, 387; sun 
wheels in, 322; see also mythol 
ogy, Indian; philosophy, Indian 

Indians, American, see American 
Indians 

indifference, moral, 507 

indistinguishability, of self/God- 
image, 194 

individual, 50, 82, 301; normaliza 
tion of, 348; not absolutely 
unique, 50; and species, 89; 
weakening of Church authority, 

53i 

individuality, 258 

individuation, 157, 258, 296, 455, 
460, 467^ 521, 556; devil and, 
314; and hieros gamos, 458; in 
volves suffering, 272; Mass as rite 
of individuation process, 273; 
matter and, 171; numinous ex 
perience of, 294; shadow and, 
1 97-98? symbolism of, 3o6/; both 
synthesis and revelation, 263; 
urge to, 265 



INDEX 



inference, rational, 312 
inferior function, see function^) 
inferiority, 76, 305; spiritual, 488 
inferiority complex, 495 
inferior man, 79 

inflation, 86, 88, 95, 179, 470; in 
Acts of John, 387, 293; before the 
Deluge, 422; and integration of 
archetype, 315; theosophical, 513 
"in-fluences," 161 
inheritance, 3*8; see also heredity 
initiation process: analysis as, 515; 

Bardo Thodol as, 514, 522 
initiation rites, 13*. iQ3/; dismem 
berment and, 227*1, 271; and re 
birth, 508, 514; and transforma 
tion into spirits, 166 
innervation, 533 

insanity, 478, 551; contamination of 
images in, 491; unconscious and, 
485; see also madness 
insight(s) > 302, 349, 537^ and aninia, 

161 

inspiration, 183 
"in-spiration," 16 1 

instinct(s), 34, 480, 498; emancipa 
tion from, 166; and morality, 
25871; nature of, 329; neurosis 
and, 300; not personal, 277; and 
psychoneuroses, 329; unconscious 
and, 484; see also forces, in 
stinctual 
instinctuality, 35 
instinctual sphere, disturbance of, 

337 

integration: of conscious and un 
conscious, 157, 188, 198; of 
numen, 315; of the self, 263, 264 

intellect, 16, 275; demand for au 
tonomy, 291; not independent, 
478; and perceiving subject, 547; 
philosophic, 478/; and wisdom, 

146 

intellectualism, 554 
interdependence of events, 592 
interest, failure of, 492 
interpretation, 581; of unconscious 

material, 349^ 



intervention, active, in confession, 

intoxication, 253, 255 
intra-uterine experiences, 515 
introspection, 491, 506, 584; lack of, 

introversion, 481, 483, 486, 491, 

501; artificial, 536; yoga as, 536 
introverted mind, self-liberating 

powers of, 484 
intuition, 41, 165, 167, 292, 491; 

Eastern, 501, 505 

"inventing," among primitives, 223 
invocation, 7 
Ion, 227 

Irenaeus, 37*1, 74*1, 77/, 144 
irrational, Christianity and the, 292 
irrealism, Gnostic, 287 
Isaac, sacrifice of, 268, 269*1, 418; 

see also Abraham 
Isaiah (book), (53 : 5> *7on; (5 8: 

ll), 210 

Ishtar, 114,388 

Isidorus, 37*1, 166*1 

Isis, loin, 229 

Isis to HQTUS, 233 

Islam, 9; conception of God in, 

153; rise of, 151,530 
-isms, 88, 483 

isolation, result of will of God, 342 
Israel: as bride of God, 390, 393, 

395; children of, 393, 403; people 

of, 39*> 393. 4* 



J 



Jacob, 157*1, 4 

Jacobi, Jolande, 6711 

Jacobsohn, H., us/, 139*1, 28 9 n 

jade, 599 

Jambu-tree, 563*1 

James, M. R., Apocryphal New 
Testament, $6n, 78*1, 114", 139*1, 
15911, 17011, 178, 19771, 260*1, 273**, 
27571, 27711, 279*1, *&on, 281*1, 
282*1, 286*1, 287*1, 434*1, 459*1 

James, William, 8 



664 



INDEX 



Jared, 

Jastrow, Morris, 11371, 114.11 

Jehovah's Witnesses, 184 

Jensen, Ingeboig H., gjn 

Jeremias, Alfred, 11371, 114 

Jerome, St., 48871 

Jerusalem, heavenly, 438, 446; New, 
447; numen of, 388 

jester, cosmogonic, 313 

Jesuit, 333 

Jesuit exercises, see Ignatius Loyola, 
St. 

Jesus, 173, 260, 477; apocryphal 
sayings of, 197, 2 Son; assimilated 
by archetype, 156; cross and, 284; 
first autonomous personality, 
18171; Holy Ghost as double of, 
116; relation to his mother, 132; 
sacrificed king, 268; see also 
Christ; God-man; Logos 

Jesus the son of Sirach, see Ecclesi- 
asticus 

jewel, 155 

Jewish Encyclopedia, 24 in 
Jews, 334; as chosen people, 374 
Jezebel, 436, 449 

Job (patriarch), 169, i8m, 358, 
365/7 passim, 456; afflicted/ tested 
by Yahweh, 375^ 390, 408, 414, 
428; doubted by Yahweh, 375/7 
396; faith/trust in Yahweh, 367$, 

375- S?8, 379 3 8 4* 39* 39 6 45 6 * 
and incarnation, 397, 406, 409, 
410, 414; vindication of, 369, 385, 
39<>/> 405, 410- 4*9> 427; and Wis 
dom, 396, 405 

Job (book), 365^; dating of, 386, 
420; and dualism, 187; (i : 7), 375 
(2 : 3) 39; (9 : 2-32), 368; ( 10 : 7% 
368; (10:35), 432; (13:3, 15, 18), 
368; (13:25), 368; (14:12), 432; 
(16:19-21), 368; (19:6-7), 368; 
(19:25)* 369* 427; (27:2, 5-6)' 
368; (28 : 12), 396; (34 : 12, 18, 19), 
368; (38:2), 377: (38:3) 38o; 
(40:4-5), 367; (40:7, 8-9), 380; 
(40: 12-14), 381; (40: 15, 19), 403; 
(4i:34). 383; (42:2), 382; (42: 



82; (42:7), 384 
John, St. (author of Epistles), 455, 

438, 444, 449, 451, 453 
John, St. (author of Revelation), 

435ft 439ft 449ft 453- 455// in 
old age, 444, 456; see also Revela 
tion (book) 
John, Acts of, i7on, 178, 273$, 

sSiff, 286, 292 

John (gospel), 117, 14071, 153; (i), 
414; (1:1), 141; (1:3), 40071; (*: 4), 
132; (3 :1 4) 229; (4:14)' 21 : 
(6:44), 24971; (7:37-39)> 210; (7: 
38), 569; (10:30), 251; (10:34), 
158, 275, 28771, 413; (10:35), 432; 
(12:31), 170; (14:6), 408; (14:9). 
251; (14:12), 135, 413, 432; (14: 
i6/), 4*3> 431"; (14 : 26), 413; (14: 
30), 170; (15 : i, 4, 5), 204; (15 : 5), 
276; (16:13), 413; (i9:34)> *** 
I John (epistle); (i :$), 435; (*: 1-2, 
i8/), 435"- (3:9) 435? (4:0' 4i6, 
581; (4:3), 435; (4:7-2!)' 449 
John Chrysostom, St., 211, 214, 231, 

266 

John of Damascus, St., 215; Encom 
ium in Dormitionem, 458n 
John of Ruysbroeck, 545 
Joyce, James, 26571 
Jud, Gallus, 2O3n 
Judas, 410 
Jude, Epistle of, 139 
Judex mundi, Christ as, 155 
judgment, 338; acts of, and con 
sciousness, 160; moral, good and 
evil in, 168; quaternity, basis of, 
167 

Judgment of the Dead, 519 
Jung, Carl Gustav: 

GASES IN SUMMARY (in order of 
presentation, numbered for refer 
ence): 

[i] of hysterical fever, cured 
by confession of psychological 
cause, 1 1 
[2] of psoriasis, cured by analysis, 

11 
[3] of distended colon, i* 



665 



INDEX 



[4] of intellectual with series of 
400 dreams, 23$ 

[5] * y un g woman who dreamed 
of baptism, planetarium, 102 ff 

[6] of adherent of privatio boni 
doctrine, 304-5 

WORKS: A ion, gon, 31 n, 54n, 75n, 
n, i66n, 225n, 
n, 283n, 295^ 
n; "Arche 
types "of the Collective Uncon 
scious," 29n; Civilization in 
Transition, 28n; "Commentary 
on The Secret of the Golden 
Flower" zgn, 52n, 82", 322n, 
504n; "Concerning the Arche 
types," 2gn; "Concerning Man- 
dala Symbolism," 67n, Son, 
82n; "Dream Symbols of the 
Individuation Process," 24n; 
"Freud and Jung: Contrasts," 
26n; Mysterium Coniunctionis, 
8 in, iisn, 4g6n; "On the Na 
ture of the Psyche/' 5on, i48n, 
15 in, i6on, 437^ "On Psy 
chic Energy," 503^ "On the 
Psychology of the Trickster 
Figure," 313^ "The Philosoph 
ical Tree," 235^ "Psychological 
Aspects of Kore," 8 in; Psychol. 
Factors Determining Human 
Behaviour," iO4n; Psychologi 
cal Types, 29n, 3on, son, 75n, 



n, i65tt> _ 

48 in, 4&6n, 489^ 

n, 504n; Psychology and Al 
chemy, 24n, 33, 34n, 35^ jn f 
38n, 52n, 55^ 56n, 63, 66n, 94n, 
98n, 99t, iO3n, 12 in, i64n, 
i7on, i75n, i8sn, 189, 190, 
ig6n, 26n, 229n, 2gon, 245, 

Psychology of the Transfer 
ence," 3 in, 63n, 229n; "Rela 
tions between the Ego and the 
Unconscious," 8 in, 8sn, 86n; 



"The Role of the Uncon 
scious," 28n; "The Spirit Mer- 
curius/' 234n, 277n; "Studies in 
Word Association," ign; "A 
Study in the Process of Individ 
uation," Son; Symbols of Trans 
formation, 6<$n, 228n, 229n, 
49on, 567n; "Synchronicity," 
i74n, 2&5n, 592n; "The Tavi- 
stock Lectures," 322n; "The 
Transcendent Function/' 81 n, 
48972; Two Essays on Analytical 
Psychology, 26n, 29n, 3on, 52 n, 
292n, 502n; "The Visions of 
Zosimos/' 53n, 225n, 228n, 
23 in, 233n; c *Wotan/' 28n; and 
Wilhelm, The Secret of the 
Golden Flower, $8n, 58n, 6$n, 
i02n, 504^ 522, 6o2n 

Jung, Emma, 3on 

Justin Martyr, i8in, 199, 208 

K 

ka, 115,116,131-32,133 

Ka-mutef, 115;, i3i/, i4 8 

k'an (hexagram), 603$ 

Kant, Immanuel, 245, 262n, 505, 

59<> 

karma, 482, 515$, 5 2 5> 559 
karmic illusion(s), 509, 517, 519 
Kasemann, Ernst, 20571 
Kasyapa, 538n 
Kathakali dancers, 559 
Katha Upanishad, $4$n 
Keller, Gottfried, 558 
kenosis, 141, 29 
Kenya, 243 
Kessler, Konrad, : 
Khunrath, Heinrich, 37n, 232, 



9' l6 



666 



Kierkegaard, S0ren, 482 

king(s): in alchemy, 234; Jesus as 
sacrificed, 268; Old Testament, 
155; ritual slaying, 222, 269, 271 

Kingsford, Anna, 29 

kingship, Egyptian theology of, 131 

Kircher, Athanashis, 54n 

Klaus, Brother, 316^, 



INDEX 



kleshas, 560, 57 1# 

Klopstock, G,, 311 

Klug, Ignaz, 21511 

knife, sacrificial, 215 

knowledge, 554; in Church Fathers, 

18 1 ; and faith, conflict, 532; of 

the knower, 547; of self and of 

God, 146; theory of, 476; urge to, 

581 

koan, 540,548/^551 
Koepgen, Georg, 59*1, 74, 9671, 112, 

15271, 15671, 161, 17271, i8in 
Kolorbas, 423 
Komarios, see Comarius 
Kore, search for, 90 
Kozankoku, 539 
Kramp, Joseph, 20671, 207, 216, 

22171, 252 

Kranefeldt, Wolfgang M., 2671 
krater: of Hermes, 91, loin; of 

Poimandres, 210, 233; Zosimos 

and the, 225 
Krates, Book of, 93, 232 
Kroll, Josef, Son 
Kronos, 230 
Krueger, Gustav, 139 
Kuekelhaus, Hugo, 38n 
kundalini yoga, 520, 537 
kwatsu, 540 
Kyrios, 284 



Lacinius, Janus, 55*1 

lamb, 185 

Lamb: in Revelation, 437, 43/, 

442#, 447, 458; marriage of the, 

459, 462 
lamp, 280 

Lamprecht, Karl, 374 
language: primitive, 223, 255; of 

theologian and empiricist, 303 
Lankauatdra Sutra f 54671 
Laodicea, 436 
Lao Nai-hsiian, 590 
Lao-tzu, 495, 579, 594, 602 
lapis, see philosophers* stone 



lapis lazuli, 562, 566, 570 

Lateran Council, 146, 195 

laws, 8; natural, 590 

lay analyst, 351 

lead, 22671 

Legge, James, 589, 589-9071, 598 

Leibniz, Gottfried W., 245 

Leiden papyri, 98 

Leisegang, Hans, 9271, i*8n, 15571, 

23671, 23771, 25571 
Lenin, V. I., 151,524 
Leonine Sacramentary, 220 
lepers, the cleansed, 208 
Lessius, Joannes, 215 
Leto, 438^ 

Leviathan, 170, 383, 426 
Ldvy-Bruhl, L., 1771, i8n, 51, 2*171, 



667 



Liber de arte chymica, 307* 

Liber de Spiritu et Anima, 146 

Liber H ermetis, 15571 

Liber quarto-rum, 233, 239, 240, 241 

liberation, see self-liberation; of 
ego, 521 

libido, desexualized, 349 

Uddell and Scott, 6771 

life: as disease with bad prognosis, 
105, 516; Holy Ghost as, 131, 161; 
ka as, 132; meaning(lessness) of, 
336* 337; and psyche, 480; rela 
tion to body, 131; renewal of, 35; 
as vehicle of human perfection, 

524 

light: Christ and, 154; the Clear, 
497; Man of Light, 252; in mysti 
cism, 508; vision of, 318-19, 320 

Lilith, 393, 397 

lion, in alchemy, 230, 234 

Lippmann, Eduard Oskar you, 23071 

Upsius, Richard A,, and Bonnet, 
Max, 27971 

liquefactio, 232 

Litany of Loreto, 7371 

liturgy: loss of, by Protestants, *i; 
of the Mass, 268; sec also Byzan 
tine rite; Gallican liturgy; Moza- 
rabic liturgy; Uniate rites 

Logos, the, 237, 279, 284, 387, 393, 



INDEX 



Logos, the (cont.): 
412; Christ/Jesus as, 141, 155, 
173, 264, 400; Hermes as, 278; 
incarnation of, 221; man's ad 
vance towards, 290; Melchisedec 
as, 206; and Sophia, 128, 162; as 
sword, 254; wisdom identified 
with, 147, 388; sec also Nous 

loneliness, 542, 345, 555 

"Lord of this world/' devil as, 170, 

i?3 *77/> *95 434 4^5 
Lord's Prayer, 275, 410^ 417, 488 
lotus, 67, 72, 563^, 567, 572, 574 
love, 146, 33 1/, 449; of enemies, 341 
love-goddess, 388, 407 
Loyola, see Ignatius Loyola 
Lucifer, 168, 173, 178, 196, 314, 394, 

404, 451; see also Satan 
Lucius (in Apuleius), 514 
Luke, Gospel of, 204; (1:55), 116; 

(i:78/), 116; (2:49), 132; (6:4), 

75* 454 459*V (10: 18), 410; (16), 

275; ^6: 8), 395* 
Lully, Raymond, 3871 
Luna, 238 
lunatics, 321 
lungs, 244 
Lu Pu-wei, 16771 
Luria, Isaac, cabalism of, 38 an 
Luther, Martin, 175 
Lydgate, John, 68n 
Lystra, 414 

M 

Macrobius, n8rc 

macrocosm, 53, 259, 288 

mactatio, 21571, 266; mactation 

theory, 215 

madness, 226; see also insanity 
magic, 226, 228, 344, 554; and the 

Mass, 215; and propitiation of 

fate, 17; and sacramental grace, 

7-8; word-, 290 

magical: animal/vessel, 155; rites, 18 
Mahabuddha, 561 
Maier, Michael, 3071, 38^ 53*1, 54*1, 



668 



6m, 9471, 9871, 9971, io2n, 23171, 

233 
Maid and, Edward, 29 

Malachi (book), (1:10-11), 20571,- 

< 4 :*), n6 

malade imaginaire, neurotic as, 10 

malaise, spiritual, after first World 
War, 47 

Mamun, Caliph, 240 

man: animal nature of, 349; bridge 
between world and Trinity, 177, 
179; collective, 15; Cosmic, 185; 
as a creature, 259; in divine proc 
ess, 196; and ego-personality, 82; 
first, 286, see also Adam, First 
Parents; "higher," 293, 457; 
hylical, 272; included in God's 
sonship, 158; inner, claims of, 
585; in the Mass, 250; modern, 
see modern man; original, 234, 
252, 264, 273, 277, see also Christ, 
man, cosmic; original (in Zen), 
549; pneumatic, 295, 583; pre 
dominantly unconscious, 263; 
primordial, 265; prisoner of man 
date, 95/; somatic, 77; as Son of 
heavenly Father and Mother, 323; 
spiritual and worldly, dialogue, 
93; of twentieth century, 309-10, 
see also modern man; unity of, 
277; an unknown something, 82; 
Western, see Western man; 
"white," 93 

mana, 5171, 133, 243, 254, 363 

Manda d'Hayya, 1 13, 514 

Mandaeans, 113, 514 

mandala(s), 72, 79^, 95 /, 276, 522, 
573; Buddhist, 67, 574; Christian, 
*55 3** 574J cross as, 284^ 
Enoch's, 423/; and EzekieFs vis 
ion, 58; lamaistic, 522; and 
medieval speculation, 74, 96; 
ogdoad and, 279; and pagan 
sources, 97; in Plato, 127; repre 
sentation of perfect being, 156; 
spontaneous, 96, 574; symbolism 
of, 104; as union of opposites, 90, 
9* 



INDEX 



Manget(us), J. J., 30*1, 5511, gin, 
23871 

Manheim, Ralph, 274*1 

Mani (original man), 1 13 

Mani/Manichaean/Manichaeism, 9, 
j 01, 313, 357; and light-substance, 
264; "Original Man/' 252 

mania, 316 

manikin, see homunculus 

Many, see One and Many 

Marcionites, 270 

Marcus (Gnostic), 3771 

Marduk, 113^ 

Maria Prophetissa, axiom of, 121, 
196 

Mark, Gospel of, 204; (3:21), 409 

Mar Mummi, 115 

marriage: rite* at, 193; sacred, see 
hieros gamos 

Mars (planet), 43 in 

Marsyas, 228 

Marx, Karl, 151 

Marxist philosophy, 30411 

Mary, the Virgin, 71, 27071; Annun 
ciation of, 459; Assumption of, 
see Assumption; cult of, 130; di 
vinity of, 171-72; Eucharist in 
honour of, 130; as Goddess, 399, 
465; Immaculate Conception of, 
see Immaculate Conception; Je 
sus' relation to, 132; as mediatrix, 
312, 398, 462, 465; miracles of, 
312; mother of Christ/God/ 
Theotokos, 114*1, 129, 161, 398- 
99, 400, 461-62; in pleroma, 399; 
Sophia as, 398, 400, 407, 442, 
458; and the Trinity, 161; see also 
Virgin 

masculine/feminine principle, 395, 
399; symbols of, 447-48 

Mass, the, 192, 203^, 295, 531; ac 
counts of institution, 203^; an 
artifact, 266/; candles at, 36?*; 
compared with Zosimos visions, 
26/; for the dead, 524; deipnon 
and thysia in, 204; see also deip 
non, thysia; dual aspect, 251; 
ethnological prefigurations, 222; 



events commemorated in, 248; 
and life of Christ, 88, 268; loss 
of, in Protestantism, 21; meaning 
of, 221; mystical unity of parts 
in, 221; originates in divine 
prompting, 249; priest and con 
gregation in, 206; psychological 
efficacy, 203; as representation of 
Christ's life, 220; rite of individu- 
ation process, 273; sacrificer and 
sacrificed in, 263; structural for 
mula, 204; a symbol, 207; sym 
bolism rooted in psyche, 222; see 
also Canon of the Mass; ritual; 
sacrifice 

mass/mob, man in, 15, 291, 333 

massa confuse, 98 n, 99*1 

masses, 27; and the educated, 335; 
industrial, 291 

mass movements, psychic, 184 

materialism, 85; Freud and, 349; 
and metaphysics, 478; scientific, 

3** 349> S5*> 477 
matrix: instinctual, 498^ 503; un 

conscious as, 552 
matter, 56, 195, 245; and individu- 

ation, 171; as principle of ex 

istence, 477; Saturn and, 230; 

science and, 477; a symbol of the 

unknown, 477; see also prima 

materia 
Matthew, Gospel of, 204; (i : 17), 

139*; (1 : 18), 136; (10 : 16), 275; 

(10:26), 275; (19:1*), 445; 

(*6: 39)> 4*7; <*7'-4<5), 13$ 
Maudgalyayana, 561 
Max Miiller, F., 529 
Maya (illusion), 487, 579 
Maya character of Sophia, 389 
Mayas, of Yucatan, 40411 
Mead, G. R. $., 54*1, 7011, 7311, 77**, 

ii6n, i66n, 230*1 
meal, sacred, 205; Aztec, *3g/; in 

Mithraism, 224 
mean, in Timaeus, u$ff 
meaning, 330; self-demonstrating, 



669 



mediation, mandala and, go 



INDEX 



mediator/mediatrix: Christ as, 415, 
430, 432, 455, 465; clergyman not 
a, 350; "making peace between 
enemies," 10271, 462; man as, 432; 
Mary as, 312, 398, 462, 465; Mer- 
curius as, *33/; stone as, 91; 
sun-moon-child as, 468; sun- 
woman's child as, 443; uncon 
scious as, 277; Wisdom (Sophia) 

as* 396, 39?, 405 

medicine, scientific materialism of, 
3*8 

medicine-men, 18, 22772, 294, 344 

meditation(s), 7, 38, 507; of alche 
my, 226, 496; Eastern and West 
ern, 571; imaginative, 226; "sink 
ing into," 560; on sun and water, 
569;; unknown to New Testa 
ment, 278 

mediums, spiritualistic, 525 

megalomania, 495 

Meier, G. A., 49071 

Melanesia, 243 

Melchisedec, so5/, 2i7/ 

melothcsia, 67 & n 

memories, prenatal, not inherited, 

5*9 

memory, 486; failure of, 492; loss 
of, 166 

mental disease, 328 

mentality, 479 

Mercurius, *33/, 279; anima mundi, 
iO27i; "capable of anything," 314; 
giver of life, 234; hermaphroditic, 
$on; identified with Holy Ghost, 
9911; Nous/spirit as, 91, 99; senex, 
263; and "spirit,** 233; uncon 
scious as, 277; as ueritas, 278; 
winged, 9811 

Mercurius quadratus, 423 

mercury (quicksilver), in alchemy, 

9* 

Meru, Mount, 519, 56571 
message, Christian, 149 
Messiah, 406, 458; second, 440 
metals, spirits of, 228 
metaphysical: entities, 3Q5/; factors, 

and psychic factors, 18371; figures, 



670 



psychic quality of, 309; state- 
ment(s), of the psyche, 511; 
, and psychological explanation, 
247/; , unprovable, 160; status of 
Satan, 314 

metaphysics: Indian, 568; material 
ism and, 478; psychology and, 
476 

methodology, 6 

methods, 332; religious and scien 
tific, 532 

Mexico, ancient, 228, 322; see aho 
Aztecs; Mayas 

Meyer, Wilhelm, 3771 

Michael, 426 

Michal, 241 

Micreris, Tractatus, 238 

microbes, 486 

microcosm, 95/, 100, 476; collective 
unconscious represents, 244; man 
as, 259, 288 

Middle Ages, 97, 1 27 

Middle Path, 497 

migration, archetypes and, 50, 518 

Milan, 141 

milk, 219, 237 

Milton, 311,313-15 

Mimaut Papyrus, 239 

Mimir, 2871 

mind: Eastern view of, 480, 484/; 
history of the, 35; image-creating, 
490; individualized, 479; and in 
tuition, 501; man cannot escape 
from his, 478; metaphysics and, 
476; names given to, 50 1#; non- 
created, 505; One, 496^; see also 
Universal below; as "psychic 
function/* 475; real existence of, 
12; subjective, 479; as supreme 
reality, 496; Universal, 476, 479, 

490/7 493' 495/k 5 1 *; use o term 
in East, 475; Western, split in, 
53 1/; see also conscious mind 
"minenesV* *55f 

minister, Protestant, see clergyman 
miracle(s), 360; of Christ, 155; of 
transubstantlation, 306, 250; of 
the Virgin Mary, 312 



INDEX 



mirror, 280 

missionaries, Christian, 85 

Mithraism, 224}, 465 

Mithras, 9, s*4/, 50871 

mob, see mass 

Moctezuma, 223/ 

models, 306 

modern man, 48, 341, 3707, 454, 
585; dreams of, 454; and the 
mystical, 184; spiritual outlook 
of, 346; and tradition, 336, 343?; 
see also art 

Mohammed, 9, 488** 

Moira, 385 

Monad, 56^ 

monasticism, 493 

monistic origin of life, 498 

monk(s), 340, 493; Buddhist, 577 

monoceros, 175 

Monogenes, 37, 56, 57 

Monoimos, 264 

Monophysites, 209 

monotheism, 358 

mood, born of life's meaningless- 
ness, 337 

moon, in alchemy, 115 

Moon-goddess, 228 

moral distinctions, 306 

morality, 258&n; Christian, and 
collisions of duty, 416; and the 
ego, 260; a gift, 76; and yoga, 507 

Moral Rearmament Movement, 
18472 

Moret, Alexandre, n6n 

morning star, 43 in 

Moses, serpent of, 229 

mother: Christ's conquest of the, 
*55; conceived in sin, 399; of 
dying god, 407; earth as, 448; 
"God the," 322; goddess, 388; 
Holy Ghost as, 159, i6i/; sun- 
woman as, 439/, 458; in the Trin 
ity, i58/; see also Great Mother; 
Mary 

motifs: archetypal, see archetypes; 
mythological, 362, 490, 573 

motives, conscience and, 49 

Mozarabic liturgy, 2126*71, 213, 219 



671 



mukti, 582 

Miiller, see Max Miiller 

multitude, formless, 282, 284, 286 

Mungu, 18 

Musaeum hermeticum, 5371, 256*1 

Mylius, J. D., 3071, 38*1, 91, 92, 94*1, 
95, 23272, 23371 

mysteries, 295; Christianity and, 
295 Egyptian, 514; Eleusinian, 
50871, 514; new forms of, 136; 
women and the, 132 

mysterium, Mass as, 250 

mysterium fidei, 206 

mystery religions, Greek, 295; see 
also Egyptian mysteries 

mystical: experiences, 184, 322, 499, 
547; idea of God, 58 

mystics, 288 

myth(s), 435, 573; mean ; ng for em 
piricist, 301 ; psycho therapeutic 
value, 194; religion and, 409; 
theologian and, 301; therapeutic, 
196, 198 

myth-motifs, and Christ, 88 

mythologem(s), 193, 306; and arche 
type, 117; in Assumption dogma, 
467; and dreams, 300; not exclu 
sively psychic, 13071; and religion, 
300/7 Satan as, 312; universal, 
304; see also archetypes 

mythology: Egyptian, see Egyptian 
mythology; Greek, see Greek my 
thology; Indian, 577; language 
of, 289; Persian, 313, 37571; un 
conscious matrix of, 552 



N 



Naassene symbols, 287 

name(s): multiplicity of, 501; of the 
soul, 93; spirit has no proper, 186 

Nandi tribe, 243 

narcissism, 481 

National Socialism, 184, 481, 488 

nature, 344; aristocratic, 347; Chris 
tianity and, 176; divine, 95; ,and 
Trinity, 194; esoteric, 347; Euro 
pean man and, 534; hidden, 92 



INDEX 



nature (cont.): 

g$n t 94, loin; man's identity 
with, 245; observation of, in 
primitives, 499; oneness with, 
134; perfected by the an, 208; 
roots of eternal, 167 

Nebuchadnezzar, 113 

necessity, in Church Fathers, 182 

Nelken, Jan, 49071 

neologisms, 290 

neophyte(s), 229, 243, 271 

Neoplatonists(-ism), tfn, 77, 97 

Neopythagoreans, 177 

Neumann, Erich, 29571 

neurology, 328 

neurosis(-es), 328;, 335^, 492; Ad- 
ler's theory of, 329; advantage of, 
43; belief in sexual origin of, 45; 
causes are psychic, 11, 328; com 
plexes in, 23; cure involves risk, 
23; Freud's theory of, 329; a 
humiliation, 10; increasing fre 
quency, 335/; an inner cleavage, 
340; and moral suffering, 497; 
organic therapy and, 329; pa 
tient's account of, 10; psycho- 
genie, 191, 328; reaction of whole 
man, 300; real though imaginary, 
12; replacement by religion, 104; 
repression and, 75; and rise of 
irrational forces, 15; self-decep 
tions and, 305; uncomplicated, 

35 
neurotic disturbances, 290 

New Testament, 21, 77, 182, 270, 
399, 4 lift 451; Trinity in, 138;; 
see also Bible; Lord's Prayer; 
names of specific books 

Nicaea, Council of, 143 

Nicene Creed, see Creeds 

Nicholas of Cusa, 187 

Nicholas of Flue, St., 316$ , 574 

Nicolaitans, 436, 449 

mdna-chain, 481 

Nielsen, D., 11771 

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 28, 51, 85, 87, 

88, 179, 3*5> 495> $<&> 547* 555> 
556 



night sea journey, 229 

nigrcdo, 57, 279 

Nimrod, 115*1 

Ninck, Martin, 17*1, 28n 

nine, in / Ching, 595, 600 

nirdvanda, 285 

nirmdnakdya, 495 

nirvana, 499, 540 

Noah, 374, 423 

non-duality, 540; see also nirdvanda 

nonsense, meaning of and attitude 

to, i5/ 

Nola, Church of St. Felix, 284*1 
Norden, Eduard, 117*1 
normalization, 348 
"nothing but," 251, 486, 499, 516, 

525 

nothingness, God as, 548 

Nous, 91, 236, 400; Christ as, 279; 
descent of, 98*1, 209; Gnostic, 
185, 252; Hermes as, 278; and 
Mercurius, 233; as redeemer, 
9911; snake symbol of, 393; see 
also Logos 

Nukariya, Kaiten, 539^ 542 

numbers: even, as feminine, 177; 
Pythagorean, nSff; symbolism of, 
51; see abo dyad; ogdoad; qua- 
ternity; one; two; three; third; 
four; five; six; seven; nine; twelve 

numen, 460; divine, bread as sym 
bol of, 255; of the Gentiles, 373; 
presence of, and dogma, 150; 
Wisdom as feminine, 388 

numinosity: of archetype, 59, 149, 
315; of Christ, 419; of the cross, 
284; of God-images, 303, 363; of 
Job's knowledge, 377; of meta 
physical statement, 452; of mysti 
cal experience, 184; of symbol, 



672 



numinosum: creeds and, 8; defined, 
7; effect of, produced by ritual, 7 

numinous, 596; character of changes 
of consciousness, 183; "holy 
dread" of, 150, 246; in individua- 
tion, 294; in religious statement, 
300/ 



INDEX 



oath, Pythagorean, 167 
objective psychic, 320 
objectivity, 493; absolute, 452; com 
plete, 492; need of, 338;; un 
prejudiced, 339f 
oblong, 75 

observer: necessity of, 309; and ob 
served, identical in psychology, 
248; subjective states of, 592 
obsession, 14, 16, 22, 162; see also 

possession 
Ochwiabiano, 317 
octagon, 185, 567 
Odin, 2871; see also Wotan 
Oedipus complex, 515 
Offertory, of the Mass, 208-12 
ogdoad, 279, 572; see also octagon 
Ohazama, Shuei, 538?*, 540 
old man, dream-symbol, 38 
Old Testament, 399, 428; concep 
tion of God in, 153, 365; devil 
(Satan) in, 173, 312; fire in, 36; 
God of, 270, see also God; Greek 
influence on, 386; oracle trees in, 
388; prefigurations of Mass in, 
222; and relativity of God, 187; 
sacrifices in, 217; see also Ten 
Commandments; names of spe 
cific books 

Olympiodorus, 9471, 226n 
Olympus, 228; Christian, 314 
omnipotence, omniscience, Divine 

attributes, 303 
omphalosceptics, 529 
one, the number, 1 18/ 
One and Many, 498 
oneiromancy, 61 
oneness, 540; feeling of, 491, 493, 



one-sidedness, 45, 493, 537 

Onians, R. B., 244 

Only-Begotten, 56; see also Mono- 

genes 

Ophites, 236 
Opicinus de Canistris, 3771 



opinion(s), 330; free, suppression 

of, 47 

opposites, 416; in alchemy, 454; 
confrontation of, 489; cross and 
problem of, 286; and dogma of 
the Assumption, 465; free from, 
285; in God, 377, 384;, 419, 48, 
453/, 461; Holy Ghost as recon 
ciliation of, 176; life needs, 197; 
non-existence of, 498; pairs of, 
see below; reconciliation of, 77; 
in St. John's visions, 450; in self, 
443; severance/opposition of, 448, 
455; in Tao Teh Ching, 495; ten 
sion of, 119, 197; union of, see 
below; see also duality; enantio 
dromia 

opposites, pairs of, 567; child/ 
man, 457; Christ/ Antichrist, 357; 
Christ/devil, 174; conscious/un 
conscious, 468; doubt/credulity 
(faith), 495; extraversion/ intro 
version, 501; God/devil, 495; see 
also Satan; God/man, 455; good/ 
evil, 168; see also good and evil; 
impermanence/non-self, 567; mo 
rality/temptation, 495; "one"/ 
"other," n8/; Ormuzd/Ahrinian, 
175; samsara/nirvana, 499; sub 
ject/object, 52 1 ; suffering/non- 
existence, 567; see also euantio- 
dromia; yang and yin 
opposites, union of, 287, 501; Christ 
as, 430, 439; and divine birth, 
455; Father as, 187; in God, 369, 
416, 419; Holy Ghost a, 186; 
mandala and, 90, 92; in Plato, 
1*1 ; rebirth symbolism and, 508; 
self as, 261; in son of Sophia, 
455; subject of alchemy, 454; sym 
bols of, 454, 460, 468; see also 
coincidentia oppositorum 
opposition, in triad and Trinity, 

130 

optimism, of Negroes, 1337 

opus, alchemical, 94, 295; goal of, 
102; as a Mass, 245; perfects im 
perfect substance, 208 



673 



INDEX 



opus diuinum, expiatory, 48 

oracles, see I Ching 

oracle trees, 388 

order, cross as symbol of, 284 

orientation, psychological, four ways 

of, 167 
Origen, 36*1, lion, 142, 186, 23071, 

48871, S 6 ? 

origin, improbable, of Christ, 154 
original man, see man 
Ormuzd, 175, 3757*; &e also Ahura- 

Mazda 
Orpheus, 244 

Orphic-Pythagorean doctrines, 530 
Orthelius, 91,997* 
orthopedics, psychic, 348 
Osirification, 295 

Osiris, 22871, 239, 4391 and Chris 
tianity, 117; head of, 241, 244; 
tree as representing, 388 
Ostanes, 91, 9471, 233, 238 
"other," the, 87, 546; God as, 134, 
159, 482; and the number two, 
118; splitting off from the One, 

*33 
"other in me," the, 77 

Other Shore, 5O2/ 

"other side" of soul's life, see anima 

Otto, Rudolf, 7, 48271, 540 

outlook, religious, 334; and scien 
tific, 337 

ox, 228 

Oxford Groups, 184; see also Buch- 
man Movement 

Oxford Movement, 184 

oxides, in akhemy, 99 



paganism: in eighteenth century, 

228; images in, 46 
Pai-chang Huai-hai, see Hyakujo 
Palanque, J. JL, 14311 
Pan, 88 

panacea, 9811, 101 
panic(s), 15, 44, 337 
Pan Shan, 542 



Panspermia, 53-54** 

Pantheus, Joannes, 3871 

papal rejection of psychological 

symbolism, 46371 
parables, 225/ 
Paracelsus, 23871 
Paraclete, 158^ 4i3/, 45^; expiatory, 

414; as legacy of the Son, 136, 

158, 179, 4\3> 43*> man ' s need of 
176; as spirit of procreation, 431; 
as spirit of truth, 413, 431, 433; as 
Wisdom, 389; work in individu 
als, 433; see also Christ; Holy 
Ghost 

Paradise, 238; earthly, 233; in 
Guillaume de Digulleville, 68 

paradox, 275 

parallelism, psychophysical, 540 

paramitds, 563 

parapsychology, 290 

paredros(-oi) f 226, 228, 236, 239 

parents, 477 

parthenoi, 445 

participation mystique, 22in, 255, 
259, 273, 277, 504**" 

passion of Christ, 157, 221, 248, 548; 
see also Mass 

Pater nosier, 218 

patients: confessions of, 338; expec 
tations from analyst, 352; religion 

of, 334 

patriarchal: social order, 151; 
world, polytheism of, 159 

patristic allegories, 154 

Paul, St., no, 195, 354, 433. 435> 
546; attitude to Christ/ Jesus, 141, 
149, 153; conversion of, 8; epistles 
of, 149, 407, see also under names 
of specific epistles; identified with 
Hermes, 414; soma and sarx in, 
205; split consciousness of, 470; 
see also Damascus 

Pauli, W., 28971 

Pax Romana, 47 

Pearcy, Henri R., gn 

pearl, wishing, see cintamani 

pedagogics, Adlerian, 348 

Pegasus, 44671 



674 



INDEX 



Pelmanism, 533 
pelota, 276 
penance, 553, 531 
penetratioj 278 
pentagram, man as, 219 
Pentecost, 186 
Peratic symbols, 287 
perception (s): always psychic, 248; 
and consciousness, compared, 546; 
simultaneous, 550 
Percival, Milton A., 55571 
peregrinatio^ 424 
Pererius, Benedictus, 19-2 in 
perfection: accidental lack of, 305^ 
of Christ, 399; idea of, 87; as 
masculine, 395; symbol of, 447 
perfectionism, 395, 399 
Pergamum, 436 
"perils of the soul," 14, 17 
peripeteia, 406 
Perpetua, St., 442 
perpetuum mobile, 72 
Persian: dualism, 173, 187; litera 
ture, 174; mythology, 313, 37571 
personality, 82; fragmentary, 43; 
and gifts, 256; growth of, 258; 
human, consists of conscious and 
unconscious, 40; instinctual re 
construction of, 34/; possessed by 
the devil, 59; psychological struc 
ture of, 5; respect for greater, 553; 
self and ego in, 41; splitting of, 
341; total, 273; transformation of, 
500 

Peter, St., 434 
Peter, Acts of, 279/, 285? 
Peter, First Epistle of, (i : 2), 138^ 

(4:1), 278 

Petrus Toletanus, 5471 
Peucer, Kaspar, 2on 
Phanuel, 426, 431 
Pharaoh, 116,295 
pheasant, fat of, 595/ 
phenomenology, 5 
phenomenon, 7 
Philadelphia, 436 

Philippians, Epistle to, (2 : 5/), 29371; 
(2:6), 141 



Philo, 117,217,29371 

philosopher, 306, 331; and meaning 
of life, 336 

philosophers' stone, 54/, gof, 96, 185; 
Dorn and, 177; identified with/ 
parallel of Christ, 9973, 454; names 
of, 501, 50872; resurrection and, 
94; tetrameria of, 448; as total 
man, 314 

philosophy, 554/; alchemical, see 
alchemy; Alexandrian, 128; Chi 
nese, see Chinese; critical, 475; 
Eastern, 475, 584; Greek, 167; In 
dian, 190, 441, 529$, 568; see also 
Sankhya; natural, medieval, 358; 
and science, division, 530; state 
ments of, chiefly subjective, 478; 
Western, mind in, 476 

photons, 187 

physician, see doctor 

physicist, modern, 592 

physics, 187, 310, 327; and causality, 

590 
Physis, 177, 464, 487; descent of 

spirit/Nous into, 9871, 101, 209, 

252, 277 

Picinelli, Filippo, 27071 
pictures, visionary, 346 
"Pilgrim's Tract," 318 
Pindar, 244 
Pisces: aeon of, 174, 446, 447, 450; 

sign of, 406; see also Fishes 
p istis (r&rrw), 8, 43, 105 
Pistis Sophia, 5471, 7071, 1 16, 23071 
Pius XII, Pope, 316, 45871, 461; 
planetarium, ios/ 
Plato, 2971, 3771, 55, 167*1, 178, 283; 

and forms/universals, 481, 517; 

on numbers and creation, 119$; 

Timaeus, 53, 57, 66, 70, 9871, 

triadic/trinitarian thinking of, 
130, 158, 167; unfinished tetralo 
gies of, 127 

pleroma/pleromatic, 394, 400, 424, 
4*5> 45* > 4^2; Bardo State, 394; 
Ezekiel as son of man in, 428; 
hieros gamos in, 397, 467; pre- 



675 



INDEX 



pleroma/pleromatic (cont.): 

existence of Yahweh and Sophia 



Pliny, 5171 

pluralism, 498 

Plutarch, 88, 117, 230*1, 3 

pncuma (*j*5isu*), 161, 2*7, 3*31, 233, 
*&1> *73; antirnimon, 177, 179, 
41*; circle as symbol of, 447; flexi 
bility of, 466; hagion, 407, see also 
Holy Ghost; equivalent to Nous, 
*33 pneumatic nature of quater- 
nity, 424^ signified by water, 210; 
Sophia as, 38$; 388, 393; as subtle 
material substance, 205, 221, 231; 
wine as symbol of, 255; see also 
Nous; Spirit 

pneumatic, 267; man, see man 

Poimandres, 210; sect, 225, 233 

Poliphilo, sec Be>oalde de Verville; 
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili 

politeness: among primitives, 17; 
and psychic danger, 17 

politics: superman and, 315; Trin 
ity and, 149 

Polynesia, 243 

pope, sec Pius XII 

Porphyry, 126 

Portmann, Adolf, 29471 

possession, ig/, 48, 86, 1637*; by 
archetype, 151; criteria of, 16371; 
distinguished from disease, 1637* 

postulates, metaphysical, 306 

potentiality, of unconscious, 501, 



power: technical, dangers of, 

a*e *>, 529, 333 
"powers," religion and, 8 
power words, 290 
praising, formulae for, 149 
Prajapati, 261 a 
Prajna, 539 
prakrti, 487, 498 
prana, 532^, 535 
praneydma exercises, 532 
prayer, 45671; common, 350 
predestination, 407, 445, 455 
Preface, of the Mass, 213 



676 



Preisendanz, Karl, 23971 
Preisigke, Friedrich, 116 
presence: collective, 152; psychic, 

151 

prickly poppy, 223 

priest, 332/; causa ministerialist 
215; Christ as, 255; and confes 
sion, 350; and cure of souls, 348; 
function in the Mass, 206, 215; 
psychotherapist as, 344; and trans 
ference, 353; in Zosimos' vision, 
226/, 245; see also clergyman 

priesthood: eternal, 206; vicarious 
function of, 21; see also celibacy 

prima materia, 98/, 238, 279, 401; 
Adam produced from, 391; and 
chaos, $&f; as demiurge, 54; called 
meretrix, 209; and principle of 
evil, 63; and ultima materia, 231 

Priraas, 230 

primitive(s): awe in, 246; confuses 
dream and reality, 499; conscious 
ness in, 289; "inventing" among, 
223; and plurality of souls, 133; 
psychic life in, 83; and religion, 
347, 361; and thought, 161, 312; 
world of the, 476 

primitive societies: and ceremonies, 
254; consciousness in, 17, 226; 
politeness in, 17; and psychic 
danger, i7/ 

"Prince of this world," see "Lord 
of this world" 

principium indwiduationis, 264; 
devil as, 314 

Priscillian, 17571 

prison cell, 52, 85 

prw&tio boni, i68/, 304^ 313, 357, 
3831*, 48 

process, psychk: as image, 544; in 
dependent, 294 

procession: of the devil, 173; of 
Holy Ghost, 131, 194 

Produs, it6 

prohibition, in U.S.A., 197 

projection^), 56, 256, 521; 'cogni 
tion a, 478; in modern life, 83; 
of psyche, deities as, 511; of 



INDEX 



psychic life, 83, 180; withdrawal 
of, 87, 245 

Prometheus, 314 

prophets, modern, 584; Old Testa 
ment, 18, 155, 584 

propitiation, 257 

Protanthropos, 264; see also An- 
thropos; man, original 

Protestant(s), 304, 333^, 347; 
Church, German, 333; see also 
clergyman; denominations 

Protestantism, 27, 46$, 192, 350; 
absence of method in, 53 if; and 
departed souls, 523; and the 
devil, 314, 495; on dogma of 
Assumption, 462$; and exotic 
sects, 531; fragmentation of, 47, 
530; framework of, 9; good and 
evil in, 352; and Holy Ghost, 
463; a man's religion, 465; prot- 
estants against, 347; relativism 
of, 22; on revelation, 413; revolu 
tionary role, 466; rise of, 530; as 
risk and opportunity, 48; sola fide 
standpoint, soon; and symbols, 
43/; and totalitarianism, 47; and 
tradition, 21; transformation in, 
548; see also denominations 

Proverbs (book), 386; (8:22-31), 

3 86/; (8: 29/),403 

Providence, 169 

Przywara, Erich, 17071 

Psalms (book), 374; (27:8), 216; 
(82:6), 432; (89), 372, 374, 418, 
428; (89:28, 34, 35), 370; (89:46, 

47' 49). 37i 

Psellus, Michael, 170*1 

psoriasis, 10 

psyche, 345; an arbitrary invention, 
7; autonomous, 360; , contents 
of, 13; awakening to spontaneous 
activity, 345/; as breath, 482; as 
the Buddha, 567; category of ex 
istence, 480; causal factor in dis 
ease, 328; collective, adaptation 
to, 348; and consciousness, 13, 84; 
discovery of, 330; Eastern view 
of, 481; feeling of responsibility 



677 



for, 13; indistinguishable from its 
manifestations, 49; its inner life 
uncontrollable, 87; instincts and, 
329; intellect dependent on, 479; 
medical distrust of, 11; as meta 
physical reality, 512; nature of, 
11; , unknown, 475; and neu 
rosis, 10-11, 329; not identical with 
consciousness, 41, 256, 289; not 
purely personal, 15; original, has 
no consciousness, 289; primacy 
of, 513; production of mandala 
by, 104; reality of, 12, 330, 464, 
486; religion and, 17; return to 
its origin, 493; structure of, and 
the Trinity, 147; subject and 
object of psychology, 49-50; 
"tumours" in, 23; unconscious, 
245; and unconscious, 244; under 
ground processes mirrored in 
dreams, 23; undervaluation of, 
17, 482; various meanings, 480 

psychiatry, 327^ 351 

psychic: factor, in psychoneuroses, 
328; , as combination of in 
stincts, 329; laws, 487; "merely," 
296; phenomena, 499; and pneu 
matic, 267 

psychoanalysis, 348$; Freudian, 343, 

349> 5'5/> 536 
psychologism, 85, 309, 321, 362, 

463. 48* 

psychologist, and religious experi 
ence, 9 

psychology: Adlerian, see Adler, 
Alfred; analytical, see analytical 
psychology; and belief, 247; 
concerned only with psychic pne- 
nomena, 150; and dogma of As 
sumption, 461^; the East and, 
475; empirical, 4o8/, 574; experi 
mental, and psyche, 328; and the 
homo religiosus, gf; idea of Cod 
and, 16372; Indian attitude to, 
580; interest in, 333; interpreta 
tive methods, 296; and knowl 
edge of self, 6; and man of twen 
tieth century, 3og/; "medievaV' 



INDEX 



psychology (cont.): 

191; and nature of God, 453^; 
needs hypotheses, 306; and phi 
losophy, 6; Protestant attitude to, 
44; of quaternity, iBoff; and re 
ligion, 5; of religion, two cate 
gories, 464; a science of phenom 
ena, 476; of the unconscious, 
572; Western, Christian, 482; 
Western desire for knowledge of, 
497; without the psyche, 330, 333 

psychoneuroses, 3*8#, 454; see also 
psychosis(-es) 

psychopathology, 37/; and religion, 
454; visions and, 420 

psychosis(-es), 3*8, 490; Chdnyid state 
as, 5*0; latent, 351; yoga and, 520 

psychosomatic disorders, 1 1 

psychotherapist, 192, 309, 343, 555;; 
and clergyman/theologian, 299^ 
308, 334; Freudian and Adlerian, 
333; as priest, 344; and his work, 
346 

psychotherapy, 552^ 602; and con 
flicts of duty, 454; a dialectical re 
lationship, 554; its goal, 554; and 
hostile brothers motif, 400; Jung- 
ian and Freudian, compared, 
5367; and yoga, 536; and Zen, 
compared, 554 

puberty, 193 

public opinion, 20 

Pueblo Indian, 317 

puer aeternus, 457; see also divine 
child 

Pulver, Max, *74 

punishment, *6$f, 27 if 

Pure Land, 540 

purification 279 

purification ritual, 38 

purple robe, 268 

Purush*, 154, 277, 498; pvrush*- 
atman doctrine,. 421, 441 

Purusha Narayaaa, 26 in 

Pythagoras, Pythagorean(s), 154* 
555; number symbolism of, u8jf, 
167; quateraity/tetraktys, 37, 167, 
176 



678 



quadrangle, 52 

quadrature, circuli, 72; see also 
squaring the circle 

quadricornutus binarius, 60 

qualities, prime, four, 167 

quaternarium, see quaternity 

quaternary thinking, 167 

quaternio, 121, 125, 423 

quaternity, 37/, 56$, 64, 164^, 28471, 
447/* 574? in alchemy, 423; and 
Byzantine liturgy, 219; Christian 
resistance to, 170; cross as, 283; 
the devil and, 59/, 170; and the 
Deity, 190; divine, 425; in Ezek- 
iel and Enoch, 42of, 423$; Hades 
of Enoch as, 423; in mandala, So, 
155; Monogenes as symbol of, 37; 
pleromatic split in, 424; pneu 
matic nature of, 423; of Son of 
Man, 430; symbol of self, 190; 
symbols of, 52, 307, 430, 437; un 
godliness of, 6ow; universal arche 
type, 167; see also four 

questionnaire, 334/ 

questions, in confession, 350 

Quetzalcoatl, 223 

quicksilver, 91, 99, IOITJ, 185; ex 
pulsion of, 233; see also Mercury 

Quicumque, see Creed(s), Atha- 
nasian 

quinta essentia /quintessence, 60, 
997*, loo 



R 

Rabamis Maurus, 236 
radium, 294 

rage, in mental patients, 48 
Rahoer, Hugo, 1 15*1 
rainbow, sign of contraa, 374 
ram, 26971,437,458 
Ramakrishna, 577, 58i/, 584 
Ramakxishna Mission, 530 
Ramana Maharshi, Shri, 576^ 
Raphael, 426 



INDEX 



rationalism, 309; analysis and, 554; 
enlightened, 45; and Holy Ghost, 
150; and Zen, 540 

rationalistic methods, 333 

rationalization, 184 

rational type, 165 

Ratna-Sambhava, 522 

reality: Chinese view of, 591; ex 
periencing of, 479, 521; God as 
pure, 194; Indian view of, 560; 
psychic, 247, 479#, 544; thought 
and, 188 

realization, 171, 194; of unconscious 
contents, 349; 

reason, 16, i82/, 344; and the arche 
type, 148; and Christian doctrine, 
291; limitations of, 47; supremacy 
of, 452 

rebis, 63, loan 

receptor, see assimilation 

reconciliation of opposites, see op- 
posites, union of 

redeemer: archetype of, 134; Christ 
as, 155; Hermes as, 9971; Marduk 
as, 113 

redemption, 337/, 414^ 514; Chris 
tian theory of, 358; Christ's work 
of, 414, 417;, 433; the devil and, 
172; doctrine of, 357; drama of, 
138, 162; God's work of, 434; 
Holy Ghost and, 136; longing for, 
135; myths of, 503 

reductive standpoint, 352 

reeducation de la volonte, 348 

reflection, 158, i82/, 278/, 584; God 
manifest in, 16 1; Holy Ghost a 
product of, i59/, 162 

Reformation, 47, 190, 313, 457 

regression, to archaic thinking, 96 

reincarnation, 510; and karma, 517 

Reitzenstein, Richard, 5471, 23071 

relativism, Protestant, 22 

relativity: of God, 187, 303; of the 
gods, 82 

religio, 43, 303, 596 

religion, 334; cognitive, 480; East/ 
West antithesis in, 560; as ex 
pressed in dreams, 24^; expresses 



679 



psychological condition, 80, 97; 
and fulness of life, 37; meaning 
of term, 7; medical psychology 
and, 5; and mythologems, 300; 
and the numinosurn, 8; primitive, 
347; psychological approach to, 
89; relationship to highest value, 
81; return to religion of child 
hood, 32; as a substitute, 43; used 
as anima, 42; as way of salvation, 
199 

religious life, decline of, and neu 
roses, 335 

religious statements: never rational, 
148; unrelated to physical facts, 
360 

religious viewpoint, and psycholog 
ical attitude, 482 

remorse, in 7 Ching, $g$f 

Renaissance, 47, 530 

Reni, Guido, 224 

repentance, 295, 531 

representations collectives, 51, in, 

19** 3* 

repression, 14, 75, 350 
reputation, 10 
rescue, of Christ, 155 
resistances, against psychological 

standpoint, 309 
respect, for facts, 339 
respectability, 10, 75 
resurrection: body of f 102; of 

Christ, 217, 220, 221, 248; of 

Osiris, 241 ; of self, 94 
Reusner, H., 30*1, 3871, 6371, 10271, 

23071 
Revelation (book), 234, 411 /, 431, 

434#/ <i)> 44>; (1:16-17), 215^ 

436; (2:5, 20/), 436; (2:27), 439; 

(2:28), 43171; (3:3, 19), 436; 

(4 : 3, 6/), 437; (5 : 6), 437; 6 : 10, 

i7)> 437; (7 : 4). 4 1 *; (7 = 9) 445 
(11 : 19), 438; (12 : 1,0), 438/, 45871; 
(12:9), 440; (12:16), 442; (14:1, 
4), 445; (14:14, 17, i9/), 445; 
(15:6;), 445; (i6:i#), 445; (17: 
15), 209; (18:20), 446; (i8:*2/), 
446; (*9 : 5) 4451 (i9 : 7) 447; 



INDEX 



Revelation (book) (con*.): 

(19: uff), 440; (19:11, 15, 15), 
446; (19:20), 412; (20:3), 447; 
(20 : 10), 447; (21 : i, 2, 11, 16-27), 
447; (22:1, 2), 447; (22:16), 
43 in; see also John, St. (author of 
Revelation) 

revelation(s), 412, 420, 433$; Christ 
and, 154; Gnosis as, 74; Holy 
Ghost and, 160; individual, 21; 
John's, 444, 450; and morality, 
195*; Paul's, 433; truth of, 301 

rex gloriae, 190; Christ as, 155; in 
mandala, 67, 155, 574 

Rhine, J. B., 26571, 59371 

rhinoceros, 270 

right and left, 282, 285, 286 

righteousness, 182, 389; and Son of 
Man, 425^ 

rights of man, 292 

Rig- Veda, 26 in 

ring, 155 

Ripley, Sir George, 232n, 2$3n 

rishi, 577 

rites, of Church, 487; see also Byzan 
tine rite; Mozarabic liturgy; Uni- 
ate rites 

rites d' entree f 2541* 

ritual, 9, 43, 192; creeds as, 9; 
dual aspect, 248; importance for 
mental hygiene, 44; lost by Prot 
estants, 21, 47, 350, 353/, 531; 
magical aspect of, 249; of the 
Mass, 206, 248; Mithraist, 224f; 
purpose of, 7; see also purifica 
tion ritual 

Rituale Romanum t i63n 

rivers, four, 155,574 

rock-drawings, Rhodesian, 321 

Roman Catholicism, see Catholic 
Church 

Romans, Epistle to the, (8 : 17), 413 

Romans, and mystery religions, 295 

Romanus, loin 

Roman world, disorientation of, 291 

Rome, Church of, see Catholic 
Church 

Rome, San Clemente, 



680 



"roots," the four, 3871 
ropes, golden, 562, 566; 
rasa mystica, 73 
Rosarium philosophorum, 54, 

94 n J 95 n > loin > 102n > 23 in, 
Roscher, W. H., ii4n, 115^ 23on 
"Rosencreutz, Christian," 
Rosinus ad Sarratantam, zgn, 
Rossi, G. B. de', 284n 
rotation, 68 

rotundum, 54, 71, 92, 96, 
round element, 240 
round substance, 54^ 
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 534 
ruach, 161 

Ruach Elohim, 388, 393 
rubefactio, 57 
ruby, 185 

Riicker, Adolf, 22on 
Ruland, Martin, 226, 233 
Rupert, Abbot of Deutz, loon 
Rupescissa, Johannes de, 99n, 100 
Ruska, Julius, 3on, 53^ 94^ loin, 

49 8n 
Ruysbroeck,$e John of Ruysbroeck 



Sabbath, 230; defiler of, 26n 

Sachseln, 319/^574 

sacral action, and unconscious con 
tents, 350 

sacraments, 295, 531; Christ and, 
Sn; grace and, 7/ 

sacred, the, 301 

Sacred Books of the East, 529 

sacred texts, psychology and, 494 

sacrifice, 7, 205; in alchemy, 238^; 
Aztec, 224; Christ's, 415, 430; gift 
and, 256; human, 222; magical, 
239; in the Mass, 206, 254^; ob 
lation of bread and, 208; of son, 
268, 418; see also Mass 

sacrificer: in the Mass, 255, 26 in; 
and sacrificed, unity of, 231 

sacrificium intellectus, 477 

saints: sometimes heretics, 321; sur 
rounding Christ, 155 



INDEX 



Salomon, Richard, 3771 

salvation, 46, 195, 196, 348;; re 

ligion and, 199, 348 
Salzer, Anselm, 7 in, jsn 
samadhi, 485, 492, 533, 556, 56*, 



Samaria, woman of, 569 
sambhogakaya, 495 
"same, the," in Timaeus, 
Samiazaz, 42 1/ 
samsara, 481, 492, 499 
samskaras, 555 

I Samuel, (19: i$f), 241 

II Samuel, (i : 26), 359; (5 : 23^), 388 
Samyutta-nikaya, 48 in 

Sanchi, Son, 558 

Sanctus (in Mass), 213 

Sankhya philosophy, 498 

Sapientia, 162, 178, 236 

Sapientia Dei, 386; see also Sophia/ 
Wisdom 

Sardis, 436 

Sarpanitu, 115 

Satan, 311^, 375^; and Christ, 409^ 
412, 440; as dark God, 412, 433; 
daughter of, see Lilith; eternal in 
damnation, 358; fall/destruction 
of, 410, 424, 431, 440; and God/ 
Yahweh, 37571, 377, 379, 383, 
39& 402. 4<>4> 4 10 & 4*8 43i/, 
434; godfather of man, 383; God's 
left hand, 358; influence every 
where, 401; and Mary, 398, 465; 
in Old Testament, 173; Satans, 
in Enoch, 424; as snake, 185; 
thousand-year confinement of, 
447; three-headed, 172; and the 
Trinity, 59; see also adversary; 
devil; Lucifer 

Satanael, 170 

satori, 539^; a natural occurrence, 
542; in the West, 545 

Saturn (planet), 43 in 

Saturn(us), 229;, 263, 267 

Saul, see Paul 

Saul, king, 241 

saviour, 91, 344; Christ as, 154, 155, 
277; Mandaean, 514; Mercurius 



68l 



^ *34 277; see also mediator; 

redeemer 

scalping, 227;, 242, 267 
Schaer, Hans, 2997; 
Scharf, Riwkah, i7on, 187 
Scheffier, Johannes, see Angelas 

Silesius 

Scheler, Max, 5 16 
Schelling, Friedrich W., 245 
Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob, 394 
Schiller, Friedrich, i22n 
schizophrenia, 88, 316;, 489;, 520; 

schizophrenic delusions, 304; 

schizophrenics, 290 
scholastic: philosophy, 193; theol- 

gy>i53 

Scholem, Gershom, 38 2n 
Scholz, Heinrich, 8n 
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 85, 167, 481, 

547 555 

Schultz, J. H., 536 

science: China and, 590; and faith, 
152; modern man's faith in, 45; 
natural, 487, 499; and philosophy, 
division, 530; philosophy of, 477; 
power of, in Europe, 534; and re 
ligion, conflict, 477, 531; and 
subtilization of projections, 83; 
see also arts and sciences 

scientist, asceticism of, 493 

scintilla, 476; see also spark 

scorpion, 237n 

Scott, Walter, 29^ 5in, 97n, ggn, 
2 ion, 233n 

scourging, of Jesus, 268 

Scriptures, Holy, see Bible; New 
Testament; Old Testament; 
names of specific books 

Scythia, Upper, 130 

Scythians, 228 

sea-monsters, 444; see also be 
hemoth; leviathan 

seasons, the four, 52, 65, 155 

second half of life, 334 

sectarianism, 22 

Secundus, 37n 

sefiroth, 3 

selelteni, 19 



INDEX 



Seler, Eduard, 22871 

self, 26471, 44 if; archetype of, 469; 
Christ and idea of, 156; Christ 
symbol of, 191, 194; Eastern and 
Western conceptions, 502; ego 
and, 41, 94, 281, 542, 579/; en 
lightenment and the, 542; as the 
father, 263; as God-image, 156, 
160, 190, 194; in Indian philoso 
phy, 190, 580; "Mental Self," 502; 
is more than conscious personal 
ity, 26271; passing into conscious 
ness, 262; philosophers' stone as, 
94; a psychic reality, 157; reflec 
tion of, 156; and sacrifice, 258^7 
symbols of, 502; as total personal 
ity, 273, 276; as totality, 82, 156, 
443, 468: unconscious prefigura- 
tion of ego, 259 

self-: assertiveness, 484; born, the, 
37; criticism, 49; knowledge, 257, 
272, 497, 601, 602; liberation, 482, 
484, 488, 491, 496, 500, 510, 513, 
582; -, yoga of, 503; possession, 
581; realization, sec individua- 
tion; recollection, 263^; reliance, 
198; renunciation, 258; sacrifice, 
26o/, 263; , fear of, 521; sur 
render, 258 

semen, 237 

Sendivogius, Michael, 53*1, 9371, 
25671 

Senior, 55, io2n 

Sennezem, 22971 

sensation, 165, 167 

sensuality, in Indian art, 559 

sententia communis, 304 

separateness, in divine process, 196 

scparatio, 234, 272, 278 

seraphim, 115 

sermon, 351 

serpent: circle as, 614; on cross, 229; 
in Eden, 196, 287, 30571, 392; four- 
horned, i77/; in mandala, 80; 
Mercurius as, 233; Nous as, 252; 
serpens mercurialis, 9871, 236/; tee 
also snake; uroboros 

Set, 313,406 



329, 



682 



Seth, 374 

Setheus, 56 

seven, in Bible, 437, 445 

Seven Seals, 437/ 

sexual fantasies, 5i5/ 

sexual instinct, and neuroses, 

492; see also sexuality 
sexuality: Freud's theory of, 333, 

349; infantile, 44; repressed, 337; 

, God and, 85 
sexual life, denial of, 445, 448 
sexual theory, Freudian, 349 
shadow, 76^ 166, 186, 193, 196^, 

309, 342, 447; St. Ambrose on, 

2ioi*n/ Christ and, i66n, 177, 

444; conflict with ego, 341; Freud 

ian psychology and, 343, 572; 

projection of, 83 
Shakti, 322, 387 

Shakyamuni, 561; see also Buddha 
shamans / shamanism / shamanistic, 

22771, 27i/, 294, 306 
Shamash, ng/ 
shards, 381^71,, 397 
Shatapatha-Brahmana, 26171 
shaving the head, 228 
Shaw, Bernard, 24, 36 
Shekinah, 448 
shen, 59471 
Sheol, 426 

shepherd, Christ as, 155 
Shiva, 67, 92, 303, 322 
shocks, emotional, 183 
shoemaker, 578 

Shri-Chakra-Sambhara Tantra, 49571 
sickle, 445 
sickness, rites, 194 
Sidik, 2i8n 

Sidpa Bardo, 509, 515^ $igf 
Sigismund of Seon, 23871 
Silberer, Herbert, 2671 
Silenus, 2871 

similarity, see homoiousia 
Simon Magus, *36/ 
simplification, Puritan, 350 
Sin (Babylonian god), ii3/ 
sin(s), 435; Christ born without, 155; 

consciousness of, 49; forgiveness 



INDEX 



of many, 347; Gnostics and, 77; 
God cannot will, 169; Mary and, 
398; original, 169, 172, 177, 393, 
398, 431, 460, 470; Protestantism 
and, 352; see also forgiveness 

Singer, Charles, 3771 

sinners, unconscious, 76 

situation, momentary, 593 

six, in / Cking, 600 

skull worship, 2437 

sky: the human, 100; quintessence 
and, 100 

slang, American, 223 

slaughter, mystical, 216; see. also 
mactation 

sleep, and consciousness, 33 

smoke: of incense, 212; sacrificial, 
205 

Smyrna, 436 

snake(s), 65, 393^; in Eden, 393/f; 
St. Ignatius Loyola's vision of, 
581; renewal of, 228; spirit sym 
bol, 185; see also serpent 

Socialism, 429 

social order, and Trinity, 151 

social problems, and projections, 83 

Socrates, 154, 600 

Sodom and Gomorrah, 412 

Solomon, Odes of, 211 

solutio, 232, 234, 272 

solvent, in alchemy, 278 

somatic man, 77 

son: devil as God's, 170; sacrifice of, 
217; 

Son, (God) the, 73, 131, i82/, 322; 
Christ as, 155; eternal begetting 
of, 13671; as redeemer, 134/; rela 
tion to Holy Ghost, 158^; a tran 
sitory phenomenon, 182; unity 
of nature with Father, 269; world 
of the, 135, 176; see also Trinity 

Son of Man, 140, 277, 4*3#, 4355 ** 
benevolent aspect of Yahweh, 
427; Christ as, 264, 273, 430; 
Enoch as, 426, 43O/; Ezekiel as, 
421, 424, 428, 43of; quaternity of, 
430; symbol of righteousness, 425 
Song of Solomon, (4:8), 388; (4:8, 



i3-*5)* 388; (5:5)* 3*9 

Sons of God, two, 313, 357 

Sophia/ Wisdom: 162, 236, 323; 
anamnesis of, 391, 423, 457, 459, 
462; and Chochma, 387; coexist 
ence/oneness with God, 386, 395, 
448, 462; cosmic, 442; and dogma 
of the Assumption, 458; as earth, 
447/; in Ecdesiasticus, 3877; as 
feminine pneuma, 386, 389, 393, 
407; as Holy Ghost, 11471, 389, 
407; as Jerusalem, 388, 438, 448; 
and Lilith, 393; as the Logos, 128, 
387; Mary as, 398, 400, 407, 442, 
458; as "master workman," 386, 
391, 397, 400, 403; Maya char 
acter of, 389; as mother, 407, 438, 
442, 448, 457; as playmate of 
God* 39 if 393? in Proverbs, 386, 
403; and Ruach, 388, 393; as 
Shekinah, 448; as sun-woman, 



683 



Sophonias, Apocalypse of, 28471 

Sosnosky, Theodor von, 17271 

So-to-shu college, 539 

soul(s), 12, 17, 351; analyst and pa 
tient's, 353? cure of, 523, see also 
cure; existence after death, 517; 
fettered, 9271; as the Godhead, 
513; in grain and wine, 254; loss 
of, 429; names of, 93; Pindar and, 
244; plurality of, 133; psychoneu- 
roses and, 329; supra-temporality 
of, 512, 517, 523; testimony of 
the, 361; its union with God, 72; 
Universal Mind as relic of, 479; 
Western idea of, 512; see also 
"perils of the soul" 

space, 26571 

Spain, 335 

spark, divine, 92/ 

spells: apotropaic, 149; magic, 597, 
601 

sphere, 53, 167, 185 

Spielrein, S., 49071 

spiration, 131, 135, 159; active and 
passive, 15971 

spirit(s), 8, 499; in alchemy, 99; 



INDEX 



spirit (s) (con*.): 

darkness of the, 156; descent into 
water, 100-101; discernment of, 
19311; doubling of the, 132; and 
Eucharistic wine, 211; evil, cens 
ing and, 212; familiar, in al 
chemy, 226, 239; God a formless, 
92; and human will, 176; im 
prisoned in matter, 91; living, 
347; and nature, gulf between, 
176; not a personal designation, 
186; primordial experience of, 
346; as subtle material entity, 
22 1 ; and water, 23 1-32 
spirit (volatile substance), 185, 205; 

wine as, 553 

Spirit, Holy, see Holy Ghost/Spirit 
spiritualism, 518, 525 
spirituality, 32; Eastern, 483; , and 

the West, 487; Indian, 568 
spiritualization, 27, 193, 221, 231; 
censing and, 212; of Eucharistic 
wine, 212; oblation of bread and, 
208; of substance, 206 
spiritus niger, 230 
Splendor Solis, $on, 94*1, 234n 
split, in European mind, 53 1# 
splitting of personality, 166 
sponsa and sponsus, 388 
square, 65, 75; in alchemy, 185; god 
dess symbolized by, 80; New 
Jerusalem as, 447; soul as a, 3771, 
72, 167; see also quaternity 
squaring the circle, 53, 91, 96, 454 
stagnation, spiritual, 331 
Stans, Diet of, 317^71 
star(s), 52, 65, 80; dance of, 376; 

vision of, 320 
State, the, 534; totalitarian claims 

of, 47, 84 

Steeb, Joannes C, $$n, 98*1, 23311 
Steiner, Rudolf, 529 
sterility, psychic, 331 
Stern, L., 284*1 
steward, unjust, parable of, 260, 

275 395*> 434 
stigmata, 185 
stimulus-words, 13 



Stoeckli, Alban, 316, 319, 322, 574*1 

stone: "that hath a spirit," 91, 98*2, 
233; "that is no stone," 437; see 
also philosophers' stone 

Strack, H, L., and Billerbeck, Paul, 
2iin 

Strauss, David Friedrich, I52/ 

subconsciousness, 48571 

subjective factor, see factor(s) 

subjectivism, personal, 486 

subjectivity: of consciousness, 479; 
relation to events, 592$ 

sublimatio, 232 

sublimation, 27, 349; Eastern and 
Western, 485 

submission, to unconscious, 1836*71 

substance: imperfect, perfected by 
alchemical opus, 208; incorrupti 
ble, 268 

"subtle body," 99 

suffering, 341; in Buddhism, 567; 
Godhead's redemptive, 157, 178;, 
in Acts of John, 274, 281; inescap 
able, 197; moral, of Christian, 
176; psychic, 330/; spiritual, 332, 

344 

Sufi sects, 530 
Sukhavati, 56i/ 
summum bonum, 428, 530; God as, 

i?2 3*3' 3*9> 4i9 Yahweh as, 

411, 428 
sun, 52, 80, 569; after-image of, 566; 

in alchemy, 100; and Amitabha, 

562; setting, 565 
sun-disc, winged, 1 16 
sun-wheels, 5771, 32 1/ 
sun-woman, 438$, 453, 458; son of, 

454* 45^ & also divine child 
superego, 258, 26qf 
superman, 315 

Supper, the Last, 204, 248, 275 
supposition, lack of, in Zen, 550 
suppression, 75, 489 
Suso, Henry, 322 
Suzuki, D. T, 507*1, 538$ 
swastika, 574 
Swazi people, 242 
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 518, 541 



684 



INDEX 



Switzerland, 321 

sword, 278, 447; in alchemy, 234, 
236/; flaming, 236; sacrificial, 215, 

Sylvester II, Pope, 241 

symbiosis, 294 

symbol(s), 255, 566; use of, by Cath 
olic Church, 352; of Christ, 155; 
Christian, 109-10; early, 97; 
convincingness of, 105; in dreams, 
259; individual formation of, 306; 
interpenetration of, 73; the Mass 
a, 207; migration of, 490; natural, 
285, 506; never simple, 254; ob 
jective and subjective aspects, 
25372; overdetennined, 446; re 
ligion expressed in, 199; religious, 
beginnings of, 223; replacing ex 
perience, 43; representing deified 
man, 96; spontaneous and pre 
scribed, 523; ternary and quater 
nary, 191; theriomorphic, 185; 
of totality, 421, 430, 457; uncon 
scious represented by, 502; and 
union of opposites, 468; of unity, 
447, 454, 468; see also mandala 

Symbola, see Creeds 

symbol-formation, process of, 312 

symbolism, 187^; alchemical, 185; 
in Catholic Church, 353; Christ-, 
I 54ff>' f individuation process, 
306; Mithraist, 224^; paradox 
ical, 186; religious, of unconscious 
processes, 6; sacrificial, 222; tradi 
tion and, 103; of unconscious 
processes, 488 

sympathy, of all things, 290 

symptoms: Freud and, 349; imagi 
nary 10, 16, 349; sexual, 337; 
therapy of, 300 

synchronicity, 174, 592/; and ex 
perimentation, 593 

syncretism, modern and Hellenistic, 
53<> 

synthesis: of conscious and uncon 
scious, 192; in Jungian psychology, 

537 
syzygy, divine, 29 



table, 52, 65; round, 275 

taboos, i7/ 

Tabula smaragdina, 314, 498 

Talmud, 26, 2690 

Tamnauz, 388, 443 

Tantric, Tantrism, 92, 322, 516, 

523; tantric yoga, 537 
Tao, 156, 538; Taoist philosophy, 

594; taoistic yoga, 537 
Tao Teh Ching, 495, 579 
target, 65 
Tathagata, 563;, 567; see also 

Buddha 
tauroctony, 225 
tauroktonos, 224 
Taylor, F. Sherwood, 97 
Taylor, Thomas, 126 
teachers, 302 

technics, 291; dangers of, 534 
technique(s): Freudian, aim of, $49; 

modern, 487; spiritual, Eastern, 

483 

teleios (r<?Xew} (anthropos), 457, 468 
telepathy, 26671 
telum passionis, 278 
temenos, 95 

Ten Commandments, 376, 383 
tension: Father-Son, 136, 162; in 

/ Ching hexagrams, 600; of psy 
chic energy, 320 
Teoqualo, 223/ 
teraphim, 241 
Tertullian, 14211, 144, 251, 354, 482, 

48871; Adversus Judaeos, 6311, 

44871; Apalogeticus, 414; DC testi- 

monio animae, 36 if 
tetraktys, 37, 52, 167; dissolution of, 

by demiurge, 54; see also four; 

quaternity 

Tetramorph, 3771, 57, 73, 430 
thanks, giving, 149 
Theatrum ckemicum, 55*1, 6on, 

7072, 9172, 9272, #1, 9511, ggn, 

23272, 23472, 235*1, 238*1, 239*1, 

27272 
theocracy, totalitarian claims of, 47 



INDEX 



Theodore of Mopsuestia, 219 
Theologia Germanica, $zf 
theologian, 544; co-operation with, 

299, 302 
theology, 192; philosophy and, 511; 

and psychotherapy, 299, 335 
Theophrastus, 264 
theory, 46; lack of psychological 

value, 45 

theosophy, 529, 531 
Theotokos, 170, 312; in Egypt, 132; 



Timothy, First Epistle to, (4:15)* 
2787* 

tinctura, 100 

ting (hexagram), 594, 59?^ 6o5/ 

Tiruvannamalai, 576, 578 

Titans, 231 

tohu-bohu, 392 

tomcat, 239 

Tom Thumb, 189 

tongues: speaking with, 28471; un 
known, 163*1 



excluded from patriarchal formu- Tonqudec, Joseph de, 16371 



la, 133; see also Mary; Virgin 
thieves, two, see crucifixion 
thinking, 161, 278/7 all-round, 9671; 
function, 121, 167; Goethe's, 164/7 
purposive, 312; rationalistic, 312; 
trinitarian, i62/ 

third, 454; see also Trinity 

Thomas, Acts of, 7371, 11471, 159* 

Thomas Aquinas, St., loon, 1597*, 
i86n, 195 

Thomas Aquinas (pseudo-), 55 

Thorndike, Lynn, 24 in 

thorns, crowning with, 268 

Thoth, 5571 

thought(s): laws of, 153; meaning of 
a, 188; as perceived functioning 
of mind, 46; in the primitive, 
161, 312; reality of, 521; Western, 
lacks reality, 480 

thought-forms: archaic, 491; in 
Bardo state, 521 

Thrace, 130 

three: the number, 51, u&ff, 185; 
Adam and, 6on; artificial coeffi 
cient of order, 167 

Thutmosis III, 1327? 

Thyatira, 436 

thysia, 204$, 212, 215, 227, 266 

Tiamat, 113 

Tibet, 322 

Timaeus, see Mato 

time, 69, 26571; mind's own, 503; a 
relative concept, 400; "when 
there was no time," 490; see also 
pleroma 

timelessness, 490;, 496, 503 



tonsure, 229 
torment, see torture 
torture: of Chonyid state, 520; at 
initiation, 271; self-inflicted, 7; 
in Zosimos' vision, 227 
totalitarianism, 47, 84 
totality: conscious mind is not, 258; 
of experience, 41; including con 
scious and unconscious, 156, 582; 
man an ineffable, 82; supraordi- 
nate, 185; symbols of non-human 
character of, 185; of thinking, 96; 
Trinity and, 196; see also Christ; 
wholeness 
totem meal, 222 
Tractatulus Avicennae, 2971 
Tract atus aureus, 3071, 9O/, iO2n 
tradition, 341; archetypes and, 50; 
historical, and Catholicism, 44; 
Jewish, 230; modern man and, 
336, 342; secret, and symbolism, 
103 

trance(s), states, 17, 46 
transcendental, the, 478 
transcendent function, see func 
tion^) 
transference, 353; clergyman and, 

353; phenomena, 155, 353 
transformation, 237, 586; censing 
and, 212; complete, 166; flaying 
and, 228; goal of psychotherapy, 
554; God's, in the Mass, 221; in 
the Mass, 2o6f; of personality, 
500; purpose of process, 231; re 
ligious, 546$; spiritual, 183; sym- 



686 



INDEX 



bol of, 204; symbol as means of, 
503; in Zen, 553 

transitus, in Mithraism, 224 

transiibstantiation, 206, 214, 250, 
294/; efficient cause of, 249; see 
also Mass 

"treasure hard to attain," 155, 567 

treatment, 308; methods of, 346 

tree of faith, 545 

tree of life, 237 

tree symbolism, 388, 447 

Trent, Council of, 146, 215 

triad(s), 191; Babylonian, n$ff; 
Egyptian, u$ff; of gods, 113^; 
Greek, 117^; Plato's, 167 

triangle, equilateral, 119 

Tricephalus, 177 

trickster, Satan as, 393, 395 

Trikaya, 494, 504 

Trinity, 46, 51, 62, 72^ 109^, 312, 
413; an anthropomorphic config 
uration, 160; as archetype, 131, 
1 39A *5if 189; central Christian 
symbol, 59; in Christianity, 191; 
controversies regarding, 149; de 
velopment of idea a collective 
process, 180; the devil's relation 
to, 59, i6gf; exclusively mascu 
line, 62; and feminine element, 
63; form and content of, 131; 
formulations in New Testament, 
138; Gnostic, 323; Guillaume de 
Digulleville and, 6g/; higher con 
ception than unity, 136; logical 
idea and psychological reality, 
131; Mary's relation to, 71; must 
have meaning, 189; noetic char 
acter of, 193; and patriarchal 
society, 151; and Platonic triad, 
130; prehistory of, 151; as process, 
196; as psychological symbol, 193; 
and quaternity, 62; a revelation 
of man, 74; saving effect of, 188; 
and structure of psyche, 147 

Trinity vision, 3i8/ 

Trishagion, 139 

Trismosin, Solomon, 94 

Trithemius of Spanheim, 238n 



687 



triunity, 115, 161 

Trivandrum, 578 

troglodytes, 308 

truth(s): collective, 308; and ex 
ternal world, 487; metaphysical, 
200; psychic, 359; revealed, 301, 
344; statistical, 590, 592; subjec 
tive, 487; traditional, repudiation 
ot 337? universal, 302 

tuberculosis, 338 

Turba philosophorum, 29*1, 5371, 54, 
92^,9471, 10171,5957* 

twelve, the number, 279 

two, the number, 60, 118; associa 
tions of, 118; the first number, 
118 



U 



Uddushu-namir, 114 

umbra solis, i66n 

unconsciousness), 288, 476^, 550^, 
et passim; alchemy and, 245; 
anima and animus in, 30; and 
archetypes, 160; an assumption, 
39; autonomy of, 85; breaking 
through / disturbance / emergence 
of, 420^ 424, 435, 438, 456, 460, 
469; cannot be discriminated, 
277; and conscious in human per 
sonality, 40; vs. consciousness, 
420, 440/, 456, 459, 468; constella 
tion of, 489; contents of, 404, 424, 
437* 43 8 454 4&>; continuity of, 
33; conveys experience of unity, 
288; creativity of, 537; crossing 
threshold of, 49; deeper unity in, 
573; and evil, 197; extension un 
known, 84; fear of impersonal 
forces in, i4/; Freud's conception, 
536; of God, 373, 382;, 404, 416; 
God and the, 4$8/; and God- 
image, 456; growth of complexes 
from, 14; / Chtng and, 600; in 
definite in extent, 258; individua- 
tion in, 468; invasions of, 345; 
longs for consciousness, 460; lum- 



INDEX 



unconscious(ness) (cont.): 

ber-room of, 552; magical rites as 
defence against, 18; manifesta 
tions of, 289; manifests purpo- 
siveness, 39; mankind's unwritten 
history, 188; the numinous and, 
150; opening up of, 544; per 
sonal, 57 1/; , and collective, 150, 
2 77* 57SJ possession by, 409; per- 
ceptiveness of, 386, 404, 454; 
primitive fear of, 17; products of, 
differentiated from those of con 
scious mind, 39; psychoanalysis 
and, 348; psychology of the, 572; 
reflected in dogma, 46; in rela 
tion to dream-series, 24; religion 
as escape from, 42; and religious 
experience, 360/7 religious func 
tion in, 6; spontaneous manifes 
tation of, 22; symbolism of, 488; 
as "total vision," 551; transforma 
tion under analysis, 523; yoga 
and, 535; see also archetype(s); 
collective unconscious 

unconscious material, interpreta 
tion of, 349 

Uncreated, the, 37 

understanding, 331; attitude of, 338 

Uniate rites, 20971 

unicorn, 175, 270 

union: of conscious and uncon 
scious, 191; of God and man, 280 

uniting symbols, 439, 454; see also 
opposites, union of 

unity: of cosmos, 288; of God and 
man, 116; of God, man, and 
world, 134; loss of feeling of, 290; 
mystical, in Mass, 248; original, 
292; of redeemer and redeemed, 
in alchemy, 231; see also one 

Universal Mind, 476, 479, 4go/ 

universals, 481 

unknowable, the, 275 

Upanishads, 82, 481, 529, 577; see 
also names of specific Upanishads 

Uroboros, 6472, 10271, 230*1, 231, 237, 
278 



v 



Vaidehi, 564; 

Vairochana, 522 

Vajra-Sattva, 522 

Valentinians, 144 

Valentinus, 37^ i66n, 279 

valuation, 165 

value (s): Christian, and Eastern 
thought, 484; holiness and, 152; 
introvert and extravert, 481; loss 
and return of, 90; and myth, 301 

Van der Post, Laurens, 2427 

v as devotionis, 73 

vas hermeticum, 95 

Venus, 115 

Venus (planet), 43 in 

vessel, round, 93; see also rotundum 

vestments, ecclesiastical, 4371 

vine, Christ as, 155, 204, 253, 275; 

vineyard symbolism, 388, 445 

viper, 238 

Virgin (Mary): coronation of, 170; 
divine motherhood of, 359, 406; 
symbol of earth, 63; and unicorn, 
270; see also Mary 

Virgin Birth, 45; psychology and, 6; 
see also Christ 

virgins, male, 445 

Viridarium chymicum, 23071 

viriditas, 6971, 91, 9871 

virtue: disadvantages of, 197; and 
vice, liberation from, 507 

tfir units, 277 

virus, 294 

Fisio Arislei, 9371, 9971 

vision(s), 46, 65, 80, 420; Bardo, 
512^; in Christianity, 541; con- 
cretization of, 570; of Daniel, 
421; Enoch's, 424, 435; Ezekiel's, 
58, 115, 28471, 383, 420, 435, 448; 
St. Ignatius Loyola's, 581; John's, 
435ft 444ft 455* 45^; of Mary, 
461; Meister Eckhart's, 456, 541; 
St. Nicholas of Flue's, 31 6ff, 574; 
Pope Pius XII's, 461; Zosimos', 



688 



vitamins, 486; lack of, 492 



INDEX 



voice(s): Bohme's, 541; dream-sym- 

bo 1 * 35> 3 8 #, 75; inn e r > M 6 
Swedenborg's, 541 

Voidness, 505, 511^525 
"volatile," cock's name in alchemy, 
238 



W 

Wagner, Richard, 36 
Waite, A. E., 5372, 103*1 
war, civil, 34 1,344 
war, rites, 194 
War, World, 47, 344, 534 
washing, 279; of feet, by Jesus, 204 
water(s), 185, 566^ 603^ 606; alle 
gory of Holy Spirit, ioon, 232; 
in Amitabha meditation, $6zf; 
baptismal, ioo/; and blood, 232; 
in Christian allegory, 569; divine, 
92, 96, ioo/, 226, 232, 236, 266f; 
and fire, 232; mixture with Eu- 
charistic wine, 2og/f; permanent, 
234, 236, see also aqua perma 
nent; production of the, 231, 
272; represents man's material 
nature, 209; and spirit, 23 if; sym 
bolism in Bible, 210 
"way," 281 
Weizsacker, Karl von (version of 

New Testament), 20471 
well, 6o5/ 

Well, vision of the, 323 
Weltanschauung, 309, 429, 477 
Werner von Niederrhein, 7 in 
Western land/quarter, 561, 564 
Western man, 48 2/; and nature, 

534/ 

wheel, 52, 3i8/, 321 

White, Victor, O. P., i86n, 19571 

White, William, 54 in 

wholeness, 281, 556; archetype of, 
469; of the gospels, 88; in man- 
dala, 82; man's, 459; of natural 
man, 179; quaternity and, 219; 
self as essence of, 582; suffering 
and, 157; symbol(s) of, 156, 191, 



447; Trinity a formula of, 262; 

way of release to, 555; *ce oho 

circle; individuation; totality 
whore, the, in alchemy, 209 
Whore of Babylon, 446 
WickhoflE, Franz, 28411 
Wiederkehr, Karl, 17111 
wig(s), 22971, 241, 242 
Wilhelm, Richard, 38*1, 102, 589* 

594, 596, 60*, 605; see also Jung. 

C. G., WORKS, s.v. and Wilhelm 

will, 349; divine, 339, 54 if, 549; 
freedom of the, 86/, 157; human, 
16; necessary for creation, 196; 
and the spirit, 176 

will to power, 44, 85 

winds, four, 155, 574 

wine: Christ's blood as, 155; Eucha- 
ristic, 25*$; mixing of water with, 
209$; preparation of, 209 

winepress, 445 

wisdom, 146; four aspects of, 522; 
lack of, 17; natural, mind as, 506; 
see also Sophia/Wisdom 

Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach. 
see Ecclesiasticus 

Wisdom of Solomon, 392; (i : 6), 
389; (i : 10), 37271; (i : is/), 389; 
(2:10-19), 389;; (6:8), 389; (7: 
22#), 389; (8:3, 6, 13), 389; (9: 
10, 17), 389 

wish-fantasies, 353 

wish-fulfilment, 32 

witches, 13,486 

withdrawal, from the conscious, 497 

wizards, 13 

Wolff, Toni, 2671 

Wolfiin, Heinrich, 319 

woman: and the devil, affinity, 6on; 
excluded from Triaity, 63; inferi 
ority of, in Biblical times; 395; 
and perfection, 395; in Protes 
tantism, 465; sun-woman in Reve 
lation, 4$8f 

Woolley, Sir Leonard, 2i8 

Word, the, 153, 234; see also Logos, 
Son 



680 



INDEX 



words: dependence on, 290; doc 
tor's, 330; tabooed, 18 

world: dependent on our image of 
it, 479; material, real or illusion, 
195; as object, 5x1; physical, 
transcendent reality of, 498; phys 
icist's model of, 592; seen as 
"given," 514; as symbol, 521 

world-soul, 595; Mercurius as, 178; 
in Tt'motfwj, 123$, 185, 295; see 
also anima mundi 

Wotan, 28 

Wu anecdote, 548, 553 

X/Y/Z 

Xyrourgo*, 227 

Yahweh, 128, 175, i8in, 185, 270, 
305: see also God 

jang and yin, 197, 245, 495, 600 

yantra(s), 67, 79 

yarrow-stalks, 591, 593, 594 

Yoga, 7, 58, 79, 421, 487, 492, 500, 
5<>8> 545> 560* 568f; and architec 
ture, 558; dangers of, 520, 534; 
diverse forms of, 536; European 
parallels, 536; h&tha, 485, 557, 
560; kund&lini, 520, 537; mean 



ing, 560; meditations, 549; of self- 
liberation, 503; tantric, 537; tao- 
istic, 537; Western man and, 500, 
5*9& 537 S 68 ; se al *o detach 
ment 

Yves, bishop of Chartres, 2O9n 

Zagreus, see Dionysus 

Zarathustra, Nietzsche's, 85 

Zechariah, (4 : 10), 37271 

Zeller, Heinrich, 37*1, 7271, 9971, 1 18 

Zen: fourth maxim of, 549; natural 
ness of, 552; and the West, 553$; 
see also Buddhism 

Zephaniah, see Sophonias 

Zeus, 254, 303, 370,414 

Zimmer, Heinrich, 3871, 32 2n, 558, 

5?6> 577^ 584, 5^6 

Zion, Mount, 444 

zodiac, 69, 276, 357; zodiacal con 
stellations, 276 

Zohar, 381-8271 

zoology, 7 

Zosimos, 29n, 53, 55*1, 70*1, 91, 93, 
9471, 97/, loin, 203, 21571, 225^, 
240, 244;, 265, 271^, 278; com 
parison of his visions with Mass, 
266/ 

Zurcher Bibel, 36771 



690 



THE COLLECTED WORKS OF 

C. G. JUNG 



JL HE PUBLICATION of the first complete edition, in English, of the works 
of C. G. Jung was undertaken by Routledge and Regan Paul, Ltd., in 
England and by Bollingen Foundation in the United States. The Ameri 
can edition is number XX in Bollingen Series, which since 1967 has been 
published by Princeton University Press. The edition contains revised 
versions of works previously published, such as Psychology of the Uncon 
scious, which is now entitled Symbols of Transformation; works originally 
written in English, such as Psychology and Religion; works not previously 
translated, such as A ion; and, in general, new translations of virtually all 
of Professor Jung's writings. Prior to his death, in 1961, the author super 
vised the textual revision, which in some cases is extensive. Sir Herbert 
Read (d. 1968), Dr. Michael Fordham, and Dr. Gerhard Adler (d. 1988) 
compose the Editorial Committee; the translator is R. F. C. Hull (except 
for Volume 2) and William McGuire is executive editor. 

The price of the volumes varies according to size; they are sold sepa 
rately, and may also be obtained on standing order. Several of the volumes 
are extensively illustrated. Each volume contains an index and, in most 
cases, a bibliography; the final volumes contain a complete bibliography 
of Professor Jung's writings and a general index to the entire edition. 

In the following list, dates of original publication are given in paren 
theses (of original composition, in brackets). Multiple dates indicate 
revisions. 



i. PSYCHIATRIC STUDIES 

On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena 

(1902) 

On Hysterical Misreading (1904) 
Cryptomnesia ( 1 905) 
On Manic Mood Disorder (1903) 

A Case of Hysterical Stupor in a Prisoner in Detention (1902) 
On Simulated Insanity (1903) 

A Medical Opinion on a Case of Simulated Insanity (1904) 
A Third and Final Opinion on Two Contradictory Psychiatric Diag 

noses (1906) 
On the Psychological Diagnosis of Facts (1905) 

f2. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES 

Translated by Leopold Stein in collaboration with Diana Riviere 



STUDIES IN WORD ASSOCIATION" (1904-7, 

The Associations of Normal Subjects (by Jung and F. Riklin) 

An Analysis of the Associations of an Epileptic 

The Reaction-Time Ratio in the Association Experiment 

Experimental Observations on the Faculty of Memory 

Psychoanalysis and Association Experiments 

The Psychological Diagnosis of Evidence 

Association, Dream, and* Hysterical Symptom 

The Psychopathological Significance of the Association Experiment 

Disturbances -in Reproduction in the Association Experiment 

The Association Method 

The Family Constellation 

PSYCHOFHYSICAL RESEARCHES (1907-8) 

On the Psychophysicai Relations of the Association Experiment 
Psychophysical Investigations with the Galvanometer and Pneumo- 
graph in Normal and Insane Individuals (by F. Peterson and 



Further Investigations on the Galvanic Phenomenon and Respiration 
in Normal and Insane Individuals (by C. Ricksher and Jung) 

Appendix: Statistical Details of Enlistment (1906); New Aspects of 
Criminal Psychology (1908); The Psychological Methods of 
Investigation Used in the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of 
Zurich (1910); On the Doctrine of Complexes ([1911] 1913); On 
the Psychological Diagnosis of Evidence (1937) 

Published 1957; 2nd edn., 1970. t Published 1973. 



* 3 . THE PSYCHOGENESIS OF MENTAL DISEASE 
The Psychology of Dementia Praecox (1907) 
The Content of the Psychoses (1908/1914) 
On Psychological Understanding (1914) 

A Criticism of Bleuler's Theory of Schizophrenic Negativism (1911) 
On the Importance of the Unconscious in Psychopathology (1914) 
On the Problem of Psychogenesis in Mental Disease (1919) 
Mental Disease and the Psyche (1928) 
On the Psychogenesis of Schizophrenia (1939) 
Recent Thoughts on Schizophrenia (1957) 
Schizophrenia (1958) 

f4- FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Freud's Theory of Hysteria: A Reply to Aschaffenburg (1906) 

The Freudian Theory of Hysteria (1908) 

The Analysis of Dreams (1909) 

A Contribution to the Psychology of Rumour (1910-11) 

On the Significance of Number Dreams (1910-11) 

Morton Prince, "The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams": A 

Critical Review (1911) 
On the Criticism of Psychoanalysis (1910) 
Concerning Psychoanalysis (1912) 
The Theory of Psychoanalysis (1913) 
General Aspects of Psychoanalysis (1913) 
Psychoanalysis and Neurosis (1916) 
Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis: A Correspondence between 

Dr. Jung and Dr. Loy (1914) 

Prefaces to "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology" (1916, 1917) 
The Significance of the Father in the Destiny of the Individual 

(i99/ 1 949) 

Introduction to Kranefeldt's "Secret Ways of the Mind" (1930) 
Freud and Jung: Contrasts (1929) 

+5. SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION (1911-12/1952) 

PART I 

Introduction 

Two Kinds of Thinking 

The Miller Fantasies: Anamnesis 

The Hymn of Creation 

The Song of the Moth (continued) 

Published 1960. t Published 1961. 

J Published 1956; and edn., 1967. (65 plates, 43 text figures.) 



5. (continued) 

PART n 
Introduction 
The Concept of Libkb 
The Transformation of Libido 
The Origin of the Hero 
Symbols of the Mother and of Rebirth 
The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother 
The Dual Mother 
The Sacrifice 
Epilogue 
Appendix: The Miller Fantasies 

"6. PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES (19*1) 
Introduction 
The Problem of Types in the History of Classical and Medieval 

Thought 

Schiller's Ideas on the Type Problem 
The Apollinian and the Dionyslan 
The Type Problem in Human Character 
The Type Problem in Poetry 
The Type Problem in Psychopathology 
The Type Problem in Aesthetics 
The Type Problem in Modern Philosophy 
The Type Problem in Biography 
General Description of the Types 
Definitions 
Epilogue 
Four Papers on Psychological Typology (1913, 1925, 1931, 1936) 

f7. TWO ESSAYS ON ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 
On the Psychology ol the Unconscious (1917/19*6/1943) 
The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious (1928) 
Appendix: New Paths in Psychology (1912); The Structure of the 
Unconscious (1916) (new versions, with variants, 1966) 

J8. THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE PSYCHE 
On Psydik Energy (1928) 
The Transcendent Function (Ii9i6]/i957) 
A Review of the Complex Theory (1934) 
The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology (1929) 

Published 1971. f Published 1953; ind edn., 1966. 

t Published 1960; 2nd edn., 1969. 



Psychological Factors Determining Human Behavior (1937) 

Instinct and the Unconscious (1919) 

The Structure of the Psyche (1927/1931) 

On the Nature of the Psyche (1947/1954) 

General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1916/1948) 

On the Nature of Dreams (1945/1948) 

The Psychological Foundations of Belief in Spirits (1920/1948) 

Spirit and Life (1926) 

Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology (1931) 

Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung (1928/1931) 

The Real and the Surreal (1933) 

The Stages of Life (1930-1931) 

The Soul and Death (1934) 

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1952) 

Appendix: On Synchronicity (1951) 

9 . PART i. THE ARCHETYPES AND THE 
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS 
Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (1934/1954) 
The Concept of the Collective Unconscious (1936) 
Concerning the Archetypes, -with Special Reference to the Anima 

Concept (i93 6 / 1 954) 

Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype (1938/1954) 
Concerning Rebirth (1940/1950) 
The Psychology of the Child Archetype (1940) 
The Psychological Aspects of the Kore (1941) 
The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales (1945/1948) 
On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure (1954) 
Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation (1939) 
A Study in the Process of Individuation (1934/1950) 
Concerning Mandala Symbolism (1950) 
Appendix: Mandalas (1955) 

*9. PART IL AION (1951) 

RESEARCHES INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SELF 

The Ego 

The Shadow 

The Syzygy: Anima and Animus 

The Self 

Christ, a Symbol of the Self 

The Sign of the Fishes (continued) 

Published 1959; and cdn., 1968. (Part I: 79 platen with 19 in colour.) 



g. (continued) 

The Prophecies of Nostradamus 

The Historical Significance of the Fish 

The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol 

The Fish in Alchemy 

The Alchemical Interpretation of the Fish 

Background to the Psychology of Christian Alchemical Symbolism 

Gnostic Symbols of the Self 

The Structure and Dynamics of the Self 

Conclusion 

*io. CIVILIZATION IN TRANSITION 
The Role of the Unconscious (1918) 
Mind and Earth (1927/1931) 
Archaic Man (1931) 

The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man (1928/1931) 
The Love Problem of a Student (1928) 
Woman in Europe (1927) 

The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man (1933/1934) 
The State of Psychotherapy Today (1934) 

Preface and Epilogue to "Essays on Contemporary Events" (1946) 
Wotan (1936) 

After the Catastrophe (1945) 
The Fight with the Shadow (1946) 
The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future) (1957) 
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth (1958) 
A Psychological View of Conscience (1958) 
Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology (1959) 
Introduction to Wolffs "Studies in Jungian Psychology" (1959) 
The Swiss Line in the European Spectrum (1928) 
Reviews of Keyserling's "America Set Free" (1930) and "La Rvo- 

lution Mondiale" (1934) 

The Complications of American Psychology (1930) 
The Dreamlike World of India (1939) 
What India Can Teach Us (1939) 
Appendix: Documents (1933-1938) 

ft i. PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION: WEST AND EAST 

WESTERN RELIGION 

Psychology and Religion (The Terry Lectures) (1938/1940) 

* Published 1964; nd edn., 1970. (8 plates.) 
t Published 1958; 2nd edn., 1969. 



A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity (1942/1948) 

Transformation Symbolism in the Mass (1942/1954) 

Forewords to White's "God and the Unconscious" and Werblowsky's 

"Lucifer and Prometheus" (1952) 
Brother Klaus (1933) 
Psychotherapists or the Clergy (1932) 
Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls (1928) 
Answer to Job (1952) 

EASTERN RELIGION 

Psychological Commentaries on "The Tibetan Book of the Great 
Liberation" 0939/*954) and "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" 



Yoga and the West (1936) 

Foreword to Suzuki's "Introduction to Zen Buddhism" (1939) 

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation (1943) 

The Holy Men of India: Introduction to Zimmer's "Der Weg zum 

Selbst" (1944) 
Foreword to the "I Ching" (1950) 

*i2. PSYCHOLOGY AND ALCHEMY (1944) 

Prefatory note to the English Edition ([1951?] added 1967) 
Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Problems of Alchemy 
Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy (1936) 
Religious Ideas in Alchemy (1937) 
Epilogue 

fis- ALCHEMICAL STUDIES 

Commentary on "The Secret of the Golden Flower" (1929) 
The Visions of Zosimos (1938/1954) 
Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon (1942) 
The Spirit Mercurius (1943/1948) 
The Philosophical Tree (1945/1954) 

14. MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS (1955-56) 

AN INQUIRY INTO THE SEPARATION AND 
SYNTHESIS OF PSYCHIC OPPOSITES IN ALCHEMY 

The Components of the Coniunctio 

The Paradoxa 

The Personification of the Opposites 

Rex and Regina (continued) 

* Published 1953; and edn., completely revised, 1968. (270 illustrations.) 
t Published 1968. (50 plates, 4 text figures.) 
J Published 1963; 2nd edn., 1970. (10 plates.) 



14. (continued) 
Adam and Eve 
The Conjunction 

15. THE SPIRIT IN MAN, ART, AND LITERATURE 
Paracelsus (19x9) 
Paracelsus the Physician (1941) 
Sigmund Freud in His Historical Setting (1932) 
In Memory of Sigmund Freud (1939) 
Richard Wilhelm: In Memoriam (1930) 
On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry (1922) 
Psychology and Literature (1930/1950) 
"Ulysses": A Monologue (1932) 
Picasso (1932) 

fi6. THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY 

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY 

Principles of Practical Psychotherapy (1935) 

What Is Psychotherapy? (1935) 

Some Aspects of Modern Psychotherapy (1930) 

The Aims of Psychotherapy (1931) 

Problems of Modern Psychotherapy (1929) 

Psychotherapy and a Philosophy of Life (1943) 

Medicine and Psychotherapy (1945) 

Psychotherapy Today (1945) 

Fundamental Questions of Psychotherapy (1951) 

SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY 

The Therapeutic Value of Abreactkm (1921/1928) 

The Practical Use of Dream-Analysis (1934) 

The Psychology of the Transference (1946) 

Appendix: The Realities of Practical Psychotherapy {[1937] added, 



17. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 
Psychk Conflicts in a Child (1910/1946) 

Intxodttctioe to Wkkes's "Analyses der Uoderseek" (1927/1931) 
Child Development and Education (19128) 

Anatytkal Psychology and Education: Three Lectures (1926/1946) 
The Gifted Child (1943) 
The Significance of the Unconscious in Individual Education (1928) 

* Published 1966. 

t Published 1954; 2nd eda^ revijcd and augmented, 1966. (13 ffiustraticwi.) 
J Published 1954. ' 



The Development of Personality (1934) 
Marriage as a Psychological Relationship (1925) 

*i8. THE SYMBOLIC LIFE 
Miscellaneous writings 

fi9. COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF C. G.JUNG'S WRITINGS 
$20. GENERAL INDEX TO THE COLLECTED WORKS 

THE ZOFINGIA LECTURES 

Supplementary Volume A to The Collected Works Edited by William 
McGuire, translated by Jan van Heurck, introduction by Marie-Louise 
von Franz 

Related publications: 

C. G. JUNG: LETTERS 

Selected and edited by Gerhard Adler, in collaboration with Aniela Jaff6. 

Translations from the German by R. F. C. Hull. 

VOL. i: 1906-1950 

VOL. 2: 1951-1961 

C. G. JUNG SPEAKING: Interviews and Encounters 
Edited by William McGuire and R. F. C. Hull 

C. G. JUNG: Word and Image 
Edited by Aniela Jaff6 

THE ESSENTIAL JUNG 

Selected and introduced by Anthony Storr 

Notes of C. G. Jung's Seminars: 

11 DREAM ANALYSIS (1928-1930) 
Edited by William McGuire 

# NIETZSCHE'S ZARATHUSTRA (iQW^SQ) 
Edited by James L. Jarrett (2 vols.) 

** ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY (1925) 
Edited by William McGuire 

CHILDREN'S DREAMS (193^941) 
Edited by Lorenz Jung 

* Published 1954. II Published 1984. 

t Published 1976. # Published 1988. 

$ Published 1979. ** Published 1989. 
Published 1983. 



THE COLLECTED WORKS OF C G. JUNG 

Editors: Sir Herbert Read, Michael Ford- 
ham, Gerhard Adler; executive editor, William 
McGuire. Translated from the German by 
R.F.C. Hull (except Yd. 2), The entire edition 
constitutes No. XX in BoHingen Series. 

1. Psychiatric Studies 

2. Experimental Researches (trans, by Leo 
pold Stein in collaboration with Diana 
Riviere) 

3. The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease 

4. Freud and Psychoanalysis 

5. Symbols of Transformation 

6. Psychological Types 

7. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology 

8. The Structure and Dynamics of me 
Psyche 

9. Part I. The Archetypes and the Collective 
Unconscious 

9. Part II. Aion: Researches into the Phe 
nomenology of the Self 

10. Civilization in Transition 

11. Psychology and Religion: West and East 

12. Psychology and Alchemy 

13. Alchemical Studies 

14. Mysterium Coniunctionis 

15. The Spirit in Man, Art, and Uterafure 

16. The Practice of Psychotherapy 

17. The Development of Personality 

18. The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writ- 
ings 

19. General Bibliography of Jung's Writings 

20. General Index 

C. G. Jung: Psyctabgjca/ Refactions: A flew Anftofc&r 
otf W$ Writings, 7906-7967, edited by Jotaode Jacob* 
and R-F.C. Hufl (B.S. XXXI) 



a a Ja^r: $&$, selected and edited by 

Adter in coftafeoiafSon wfth Mate Jam, 2 vofe. (B.S. 

X3CV) 

Ihe Freud/ Jung Letters, edted by Wttam McGuire (B.S. 




102671 



03 < 

5> m 

3? 



ISBN 0-691-09772-0 




90000 




9 780691 097725