Four Archetypes (13 page)

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.

256

Here Dhulqarnein takes over the role of Khidr and builds an unscalable rampart for the people living “between Two Mountains.” This is obviously the same place in the middle which is to be protected against Gog and Magog, the featureless, hostile masses. Psychologically, it is again a question of the self, enthroned in the place of the middle, and referred to in Revelation as the beloved city (Jerusalem, the centre of the earth). The self is the hero, threatened already at birth by envious collective forces; the jewel that is coveted by all and arouses jealous strife; and finally the god who is dismembered by the old, evil power of darkness. In its psychological meaning, individuation is an
opus contra naturam
, which creates a
horror vacui
in the collective
layer and is only too likely to collapse under the impact of the collective forces of the psyche. The mystery legend of the two helpful friends promises protection
²⁴
to him who has found the jewel on his quest. But there will come a time when, in accordance with Allah’s providence, even the iron rampart will fall to pieces, namely, on the day when the world comes to an end, or psychologically speaking, when individual consciousness is extinguished in the waters of darkness, that is to say when a
subjective
end of the world is experienced. By this is meant the moment when consciousness sinks back into the darkness from which it originally emerged, like Khidr’s island: the moment of death.

257

The legend then continues along eschatological lines: on that day (the day of the Last Judgment) the light returns to eternal light and the darkness to eternal darkness. The opposites are separated and a timeless state of permanence sets in, which, because of the absolute separation of opposites, is nevertheless one of supreme tension and therefore corresponds to the improbable initial state. This is in contrast to the view which sees the end as a
complexio oppositorum
.

258

With this prospect of eternity, Paradise, and Hell the Eighteenth Sura comes to an end. In spite of its apparently disconnected and allusive character, it gives an almost perfect picture of a psychic transformation or rebirth which today, with our greater psychological insight, we would recognize as an individuation process. Because of the great age of the legend and the Islamic prophet’s primitive cast of mind, the process takes place entirely outside the sphere of consciousness and is projected in the form of a mystery legend of a friend or a pair of friends and the deeds they perform. That is why it is all so allusive and lacking in logical sequence. Nevertheless, the legend expresses the obscure archetype of transformation so admirably that the passionate religious
eros
of the Arab finds it completely satisfying. It is for this reason that the figure of Khidr plays such an important part in Islamic mysticism.

¹
[The Dawood trans. of the Koran is quoted, sometimes with modifications. The 18th Sura is at pp. 89–98.—E
DITORS
.]

²
Cumont,
Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra
, II.

³
Cf. especially the crowning vision in the dream of Zosimos: “And another [came] behind him, bringing one adorned round with signs, clad in white and comely to see, who was named the Meridian of the Sun.” Cf. “The Visions of Zosimos,” par. 87 (III, v bis).

⁴
Matthews,
The Mountain Chant
, and Stevenson,
Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis
.

⁵
An account of the secret doctrine hinted at in this treatise may be found in my “Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,” pars. 169ff.

⁶
The different versions of the legend speak sometimes of seven and sometimes of eight disciples. According to the account given in the Koran, the eighth is a dog. The 18th Sura mentions still other versions: “Some will say: ‘The sleepers were three: their dog was the fourth.’ Others, guessing at the unknown, will say: ‘They were five; their dog was the sixth.’ And yet others: ‘Seven; their dog was the eighth.’ ” It is evident, therefore, that the dog is to be taken into account. This would seem to be an instance of that characteristic wavering between seven and eight (or three and four, as the case may be), which I have pointed out in
Psychology and Alchemy
, pars. 200ff. There the wavering between seven and eight is connected with the appearance of Mephistopheles, who, as we know, materialized out of the black poodle. In the case of three and four, the fourth is the devil or the female principle, and on a higher level the Mater Dei. (Cf. “Psychology and Religion,” pars. 124ff.) We may be dealing with the same kind of ambiguity as in the numbering of the Egyptian nonad (
paut
= ‘company of gods’; cf. Budge,
The Gods of the Egyptians
, I, p. 88). The Khidr legend relates to the persecution of the Christians under Decius (
c
.
A.D.
250). The scene is Ephesus, where St. John lay “sleeping,” but not dead. The seven sleepers woke up again during the reign of Theodosius II (408–450); thus they had slept not quite 200 years.

⁷
The seven are the planetary gods of the ancients. Cf. Bousset,
Hauptprobleme der Gnosis
, pp. 23ff.

⁸
Obedience under the law on the one hand, and the freedom of the “children of God,” the reborn, on the other, is discussed at length in the Epistles of St. Paul. He distinguishes not only between two different classes of men, who are separated by a greater or lesser development of consciousness, but also between the higher and lower man in one and the same individual. The
sarkikos
(carnal man) remains eternally under the law; the
pneumatikos
(spiritual man) alone is capable of being reborn into freedom. This is quite in keeping with what seems such an insoluble paradox: the Church demanding absolute obedience and at the same time proclaiming freedom from the law. So, too, in the Koran text, the legend appeals to the
pneumatikos
and promises rebirth to him that has ears to hear. But he who, like the
sarkikos
, has no inner ear will find satisfaction and safe guidance in blind submission to Allah’s will.

⁹
Vollers, “Chidher,”
Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
, XII, p. 241. All quotations from the commentaries are extracted from this article.

¹⁰
Ibid., p. 253.

¹¹
Cf.
Aion
, pars. 195ff.

¹²
Vollers, p. 244.

¹³
Ibid., p. 260.

¹⁴
Ibid., p. 258.

¹⁵
Cf. the myth in the “Visio Arislei,” especially the version in the
Rosarium philosophorum
(
Art. aurif
., II, p. 246), likewise the drowning of the sun in the Mercurial Fountain and the green lion who devours the sun (
Art. aurif
., II, pp. 315, 366). Cf. “The Psychology of the Transference,” pars. 467ff.

¹⁶
The white stone appears on the edge of the vessel, “like Oriental gems, like fish’s eyes.” Cf. Joannes Isaacus Hollandus,
Opera mineralia
(1600), p. 370. Also Lagneus, “Harmonica chemica.”
Theatrum chemicum
, IV (1613), p. 870. The eyes appear at the end of the
nigredo
and with the beginning of the
albedo
. Another simile of the same sort is the
scintillae
that appear in the dark substance. This idea is traced back to Zacharias 4:10 (DV): “And they shall rejoice and see the tin plummet in the hand of Zorobabel. These are the seven eyes of the Lord that run to and fro through the whole earth.” (Cf. Eirenaeus Orandus, in the introduction to Nicholas Flamel’s
Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures
, 1624, fol. A 5.) They are the seven eyes of God on the corner-stone of the new temple (Zach. 3 : 9). The number seven suggests the seven stars, the planetary gods, who were depicted by the alchemists in a cave under the earth (Mylius,
Philosophia reformata
, 1622, p. 167). They are the “sleepers enchained in Hades” (Berthelot,
Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs
, IV, xx, 8). This is an allusion to the legend of the seven sleepers.

¹⁷
Vollers, p. 254. This may possibly be due to Christian influence: one thinks of the fish meals of the early Christians and of fish symbolism in general. Vollers himself stresses the analogy between Christ and Khidr. Concerning the fish symbolism, see
Aion
.

¹⁸
Further examples in
Symbols of Transformation
, Part II. I could give many more from alchemy, but shall content myself with the old verse:

“This is the stone, poor and of little price,
 Spurned by the fool, but honoured by the wise.”

(
Ros. phil
., in
Art. aurif
., II, p. 210.) The “lapis exilis” may be a connecting-link with the “lapsit exillis,” the grail of Wolfram von Eschenbach.

¹⁹
[The Ojibway legend of Mondamin was recorded by H. R. Schoolcraft and became a source for Longfellow’s
Song of Hiawatha
. Cf. M. L. Williams,
Schoolcraft’s Indian Legends
, pp. 58ff.—E
DITORS
.)

²⁰
Rhine,
New Frontiers of the Mind
. [Cf. also “Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle.”—E
DITORS
.)

²¹
He spoke in Kiswahili, the lingua franca of East Africa. It contains many words borrowed from Arabic, as shown by the above example:
kitab
= book.

²²
There are similar indications in the Jewish tales about Alexander. Cf. Bin Corion,
Der Born Judas
, III, p. 133, for the legend of the “water of life,” which is related to the 18th Sura.

²³
[For a fuller discussion of these relationships, see
Symbols of Transformation
, pars. 282ff.—E
DITORS
.]

²⁴
Just as the Dioscuri come to the aid of those who are in danger at sea.

384

One of the unbreakable rules in scientific research is to take an object as known only so far as the inquirer is in a position to make scientifically valid statements about it. “Valid” in this sense simply means what can be verified by facts. The object of inquiry is the natural phenomenon. Now in psychology, one of the most important phenomena is the
statement
, and in particular its form and content, the latter aspect being perhaps the more significant with regard to the nature of the psyche. The first task that ordinarily presents itself is the description and arrangement of events, then comes the closer examination into the laws of their living behaviour. To inquire into the
substance
of what has been observed is possible in natural science only where there is an Archimedean point outside. For the psyche, no such outside standpoint exists—only the psyche can observe the psyche. Consequently, knowledge of the psychic substance is impossible for us, at least with the means at present available. This does not rule out the possibility that the atomic physics of the future may supply us with the said Archimedean point. For the time being, however, our subtlest lucubrations can establish no more than is expressed in the statement: this is how the psyche behaves. The honest investigator will piously refrain from meddling with questions of substance. I do not think it superfluous to acquaint my reader with the necessary limitations that psychology voluntarily imposes on itself, for he will then be in a position to appreciate the phenomenological standpoint of modern psychology, which is not always understood. This
standpoint does not exclude the existence of faith, conviction, and experienced certainties of whatever description, nor does it contest their possible validity. Great as is their importance for the individual and for collective life, psychology completely lacks the means to prove their validity in the scientific sense. One may lament this incapacity on the part of science, but that does not enable it to jump over its own shadow.

385

The word “spirit” possesses such a wide range of application that it requires considerable effort to make clear to oneself all the things it can mean. Spirit, we say, is the principle that stands in opposition to matter. By this we understand an immaterial substance or form of existence which on the highest and most universal level is called “God.” We imagine this immaterial substance also as the vehicle of psychic phenomena or even of life itself. In contradiction to this view there stands the antithesis: spirit and nature. Here the concept of spirit is restricted to the supernatural or anti-natural, and has lost its substantial connection with psyche and life. A similar restriction is implied in Spinoza’s view that spirit is an attribute of the One Substance. Hylozoism goes even further, taking spirit to be a quality of matter.

386

A very widespread view conceives spirit as a higher and psyche as a lower principle of activity, and conversely the alchemists thought of spirit as the
ligamentum animae et corporis
, obviously regarding it as a
spiritus vegetativus
(the later life-spirit or nerve-spirit). Equally common is the view that spirit and psyche are essentially the same and can be separated only arbitrarily. Wundt takes spirit as “the inner being, regardless of any connection with an outer being.” Others restrict spirit to certain psychic capacities or functions or qualities, such as the capacity to think and reason in contradistinction to the more “soulful” sentiments. Here spirit means the sum-total of all the phenomena of rational thought, or of the intellect, including the will, memory, imagination, creative power, and aspirations motivated by ideals. Spirit has the further connotation of
sprightliness
, as when we say that a person is “spirited,” meaning
that he is versatile and full of ideas, with a brilliant, witty, and surprising turn of mind. Again, spirit denotes a certain attitude or the principle underlying it, for instance, one is “educated in the spirit of Pestalozzi,” or one says that the “spirit of Weimar is the immortal German heritage.” A special instance is the time-spirit, or spirit of the age, which stands for the principle and motive force behind certain views, judgments, and actions of a collective nature. Then there is the “objective spirit,”
²
by which is meant the whole stock of man’s cultural possessions with particular regard to his intellectual and religious achievements.