Four Archetypes (21 page)

⁶
Even if one accepts the view that a self-revelation of spirit—an apparition for instance—is nothing but an hallucination, the fact remains that this is a spontaneous psychic event not subject to our control. At any rate it is an autonomous complex, and that is quite sufficient for our purpose.

⁷
Cf.
Psychology and Alchemy
, par. 115.

⁸
Cf. the vision of the “naked boy” in Meister Eckhart (trans. by Evans, I, p. 438).

⁹
I would remind the reader of the “boys” in Bruno Goetz’s novel
Das Reich ohne Raum
.

¹⁰
Cf. the paper on the “Child Archetype” in this volume, pars. 268f.

¹¹
Hence the many miraculous stories about rishis and mahatmas. A cultured Indian with whom I once conversed on the subject of gurus told me. when I asked him who his guru had been, that it was Shankaracharya (who lived in the 8th and 9th cents.) “But that’s the celebrated commentator.” I remarked in amazement. Whereupon he replied, “Yes, so he was; but naturally it was his spirit.” not in the least perturbed by my Western bewilderment.

¹²
I am indebted to Mrs. H. von Roques and Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the fairytale material used here.

¹³
Finnische und estnische Volksmärchen
, No. 68, p. 208 [“How an Orphan Boy Unexpectedly Found His Luck”]. [All German collections of tales here cited are listed under “Folktales” in the bibliography, q.v. English titles of tales are given in brackets, though no attempt has been made to locate published translations.—E
DITORS
.]

¹⁴
The mountain stands for the goal of the pilgrimage and ascent, hence it often has the psychological meaning of the self. The
I Ching
describes the goal thus: “The king introduces him / To the Western Mountain” (Wilhelm/Baynes trans., 1967, p. 74—Hexagram 17,
Sui
, “Following”). Cf. Honorius of Autun (
Expositio ir Cantica canticorum
, col. 389): “The mountains are prophets.” Richard of St. Victor says: “Vis videre Christum transfiguratum? Ascende in montem istum, disce cognoscere to ipsum” (Do you wish to see the transfigured Christ? Ascend that mountain and learn to know yourself). (
Benjamin minor
, cols. 53–56.)

¹⁵
In this respect we would call attention to the phenomenology of yoga.

¹⁶
There are numerous examples of this:
Spanische und Portugiesische Volksmärchen
, pp. 158, 199 [“The White Parrot” and “Queen Rose, or Little Tom”];
Russische Volksmärchen
, p. 149 [“The Girl with No Hands”];
Balkanmärchen
, p. 64 [“The Shepherd and the Three Samovilas (Nymphs)”];
Märchen aus Iran
, pp. 150ff. [“The Secret of the Bath of Windburg”];
Nordische Volksmärchen
, I, p. 231 [“The Werewolf”].

¹⁷
To the girl looking for her brothers he gives a ball of thread that rolls towards them (
Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen
, p. 260 [“The Contending Brothers”]). The prince who is searching for the kingdom of heaven is given a boat that goes by itself (
Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm
, pp. 381f. [“The Iron Boots”]). Other gifts are a flute that sets everybody dancing (
Balkanmärchen
, p. 173 [“The Twelve Crumbs”]), or the path-finding ball, the staff of invisibility (
Nordische Volksmärchen, I
, p. 97 [“The Princess with Twelve Pairs of Golden Shoes”]), miraculous dogs (ibid., p. 287 [“The Three Dogs”]), or a book of secret wisdom (
Chinesische Volksmärchen
, p. 258 [“Jang Liang”]).

¹⁸
Finnische und estnische Volksmärchen
, loc. cit.

¹⁹
Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm
, p. 382 [op. cit.]. In one Balkan tale (
Balkanmärchen
, p. 65 [“The Shepherd and the Three Samovilas”]) the old man is called the “Czar of all the birds.” Here the magpie knows all the answers. Cf. the mysterious “master of the dovecot” in Gustav Meyrink’s novel
Der weisse Dominikaner
.

²⁰
Märchen aus Iran
, p. 152 [op. cit.].

²¹
Spanische und Portugiesische Märchen
, p. 158 [“The White Parrot”].

²²
Ibid., p. 199 [“Queen Rose, or Little Tom”].

²³
Nordische Volksmärchen
, Vol. I, p. 231f. [“The Werewolf”].

²⁴
Kaukasische Märchen
, pp. 35f. [“The False and the True Nightingale”].

²⁵
Balkanmärchen, p. 217 [“The Lubi (She-Devil) and the Fair of the Earth”].

²⁶
This occurs in the tale of the griffin, No. 84 in the volume of children’s fairytales collected by the brothers Grimm (1912), II, pp. 84ff. The text swarms with phonetic mistakes. [The English text (trans. by Margaret Hunt, rev. by James Stern, no. 165) has “hoary.”—T
RANS
.]

²⁷
Goethe, “Die neue Melusine.”

²⁸
Cf. “The Visions of Zosimos,” par. 87 (III, i, 2–3).

²⁹
In one Siberian fairytale (
Märchen aus Sibirien
, no. 13 [“The Man Turned to Stone”]) the old man is a white shape towering up to heaven.

³⁰
Indianermärchen aus Südamerika
, p. 285 [“The End of the World and the Theft of Fire”—Bolivian].

³¹
Indianermärchen aus Nordamerika
, p. 74 [Tales of Manabos: “The Theft of Fire”].

³²
Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm
, pp. 189ff.

³³
In his “Cantilena” (15 cent.). [Cf.
Mysterium Coniunctionis
, par. 374.].

³⁴
Prudentius,
Contra Symmachum
, I, 94 (trans. by Thompson, I, p. 356). See Hugo Rahner, “Die seelenheilende Blume.’

³⁵
Balkanmärchen
, pp. 34ff. [“The Deeds of the Czar’s Son and His Two Companions”].

³⁶
Ibid., pp. 177ff. [“The Son-in-Law from Abroad”].

³⁷
Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm
, pp. 1ff. [“The Princess in the Tree”].

³⁸
With reference to the quaternity I would call attention to my earlier writings, and in particular to
Psychology and Alchemy
and “Psychology and Religion.”

³⁹
The oldest representation I know of this problem is that of the four sons of Horus, three of whom are occasionally depicted with the heads of animals, and the other with the head of a man. Chronologically this links up with Ezekiel’s vision of the four creatures, which then reappear in the attributes of the four evangelists. Three have animal heads and one a human head (the angel). [Cf. frontispiece to
Psychology and Religion: West and East
.—E
DITORS
.]

⁴⁰
According to the dictum in the “Tabula smaragdina,” “Quod est inferius, est sicut quod est superius” (That which is below is like that which is above).

⁴¹
Cf.
Psychology and Alchemy
, fig. 54 and par. 539; and, for a more detailed account, “The Spirit Mercurius,” par. 271.

⁴²
This unexplained passage has been put down to Plato’s “drollery.”

⁴³
In
Deutsche Märchen seit Grimm
(I, p. 256 [“The Mary-Child”]) it is said that the “Three-in-One” is in the forbidden room, which seems to me worth noting.

⁴⁴
Aelian (
De natura animalium
, I, 47) relates that Apollo condemned the ravens to perpetual thirst because a raven sent to fetch water dallied too long. In German folklore it is said that the raven has to suffer from thirst in June or August, the reason given being that he alone did not mourn at the death of Christ, and that he failed to return when Noah sent him forth from the ark. (Köhler,
Kleinere Schriften zur Märchenforschung
, p. 3.) For the raven as an allegory of evil, see the exhaustive account by Hugo Rahner, “Earth Spirit and Divine Spirit in Patristic Theology.” On the other hand the raven is closely connected with Apollo as his sacred animal, and in the Bible too he has a positive significance. See Psalm 147: 9: “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry”; Job 38 : 41: “Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.” Cf. also Luke 12 : 24. Ravens appear as true “ministering spirits” in I Kings 17 : 6, where they bring Elijah the Tish-bite his daily fare.

⁴⁵
Pictured as three princesses, buried neck deep, in
Nordische Volksmärchen
, II, pp. 126ff. [“The Three Princesses in the White Land”].

⁴⁶
For the function theory, see
Psychological Types
.

⁴⁷
I would like to add, for the layman’s benefit, that the theory of the psyche’s structure was not derived from fairytales and myths, but is grounded on empirical observations made in the field of medico-psychological research and was corroborated only secondarily through the study of comparative symbology, in spheres very far removed from ordinary medical practice.

⁴⁸
A typical enantiodromia is played out here: as one cannot go any higher along this road, one must now realize the other side of one’s being, and climb down again.

⁴⁹
The young man asks himself, on catching sight of the tree, “How would it be if you were to look at the world from the top of that great tree?”

⁵⁰
The “omniscience” of the unconscious components is naturally an exaggeration. Nevertheless they do have at their disposal—or are influenced by—subliminal perceptions and memories of the unconscious, as well as by its instinctive archetypal contents. It is these that give unconscious activities their unexpectedly accurate information.

⁵¹
The hunter has reckoned without his host, as generally happens. Seldom or never do we think of the price exacted by the spirit’s activity.

⁵²
Cf. the Heracles cycle.

⁵³
The alchemists stress the long duration of the work and speak of the “longissima via,” “diuturnitas immensae meditationis,” etc. The number 12 may he connected with the ecclesiastical year, in which the redemptive work of Christ is fulfilled. The lamb-sacrifice probably comes from this source too.

⁵⁴
“Daughter of the sea.”—Afanas’ev,
Russian Fairy Tales
, pp. 553ff.

⁵⁵
The old man puts the dismembered body into a barrel which he throws into the sea. This is reminiscent of the fate of Osiris (head and phallus).

⁵⁶
From
kost
, ‘bone,’ and
pakost, kapost
, ‘disgusting, dirty.’

⁵⁷
Ka-mutef means “bull of his mother.” See Jacobsohn, “Die dogmatische Stellung des Königs in der Theologie der alten Aegypter,” pp. 17, 35, 41ff.

⁵⁸
Cf.
Symbols of Transformation
, pp. 249–51, 277.

⁵⁹
The fact that she is no ordinary girl, but is of royal descent and moreover the
electa
of the evil spirit, proves her nonhuman, mythological nature. I must assume that the reader is acquainted with the idea of the anima.

⁶⁰
“I ween that I hung / on the windy tree,

Hung there for nights full nine;

With the spear I was wounded, / and offered I was

To Othin, myself to myself,

On the tree that none / may ever know

What root beneath it runs.”

—Hovamol
, 139 (trans. by H. A. Bellows, p. 60).

⁶¹
Cf. the experience of God as described by Nietzsche in “Ariadne’s Lament”:

“I am but thy quarry,
 Cruellest of hunters!
 Thy proudest captive,
 Thou brigand back of the clouds!”

—Gedichte und Sprüche
, pp. 155ff.

⁶²
Cf. Emma Jung, “On the Nature of the Animus.”

⁶³
As regards the triadic nature of Wotan cf. Ninck,
Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube
, p. 142. His horse is also described as, among other things, three-legged.

⁶⁴
The assumption that they are a brother-sister pair is supported by the fact that the stallion addresses the mare as “sister.” This may be just a figure of speech; on the other hand sister means sister, whether we take it figuratively or non-figuratively. Moreover, incest plays a significant part in mythology as well as in alchemy.

⁶⁵
Human in so far as the anima is replaced by a human person.

⁶⁶
The great tree corresponds to the
arbor philosophica
of the alchemists. The meeting between an earthly human being and the anima, swimming down in the shape of a mermaid, is to be found in the so-called “Ripley Scrowle.” Cf.
Psychology and Alchemy
, fig. 257.

⁶⁷
Cf. my “Wotan.”

456

It is no light task for me to write about the figure of the trickster in American Indian mythology within the confined space of a commentary. When I first came across Adolf Bandelier’s classic on this subject,
The Delight Makers
, many years ago, I was struck by the European analogy of the carnival in the medieval Church, with its reversal of the hierarchic order, which is still continued in the carnivals held by student societies today. Something of this contradictoriness also inheres in the medieval description of the devil as
simia dei
(the ape of God), and in his characterization in folklore as the “simpleton” who is “fooled” or “cheated.” A curious combination of typical trickster motifs can be found in the alchemical figure of Mercurius; for instance, his fondness for sly jokes and malicious pranks, his powers as a shape-shifter, his dual nature, half animal, half divine, his exposure to all kinds of tortures, and—last but not least—his approximation to the figure of a saviour. These qualities make Mercurius seem like a daemonic being resurrected from primitive times, older even than the Greek Hermes. His rogueries relate him in some measure to various figures met with in folklore and universally known in fairytales: Tom Thumb, Stupid Hans, or the buffoon-like Hanswurst, who is an altogether negative hero and yet manages to achieve through his stupidity what others fail to accomplish with their best efforts. In Grimm’s fairytale, the “Spirit Mercurius” lets himself be outwitted by a peasant lad, and then has to buy his freedom with the precious gift of healing.