Four Archetypes (24 page)

484

The fact is, that this old trichotomous hierarchy of psychic contents (hylic, psychic, and pneumatic) represents the polaristic structure of the psyche, which is the only immediate object of experience. The unity of our psychic nature lies in the middle, just as the living unity of the waterfall appears in the dynamic connection between above and below. Thus, the living effect of the myth is experienced when a higher consciousness, rejoicing in its freedom and independence, is confronted by the autonomy of a mythological figure and yet cannot flee from its
fascination, but must pay tribute to the overwhelming impression. The figure works, because secretly it participates in the observer’s psyche and appears as its reflection, though it is not recognized as such. It is split off from his consciousness and consequently behaves like an autonomous personality. The trickster is a collective shadow figure, a summation of all the inferior traits of character in individuals. And since the individual shadow is never absent as a component of personality, the collective figure can construct itself out of it continually. Not always, of course, as a mythological figure, but, in consequence of the increasing repression and neglect of the original mythologems, as a corresponding projection on other social groups and nations.

485

If we take the trickster as a parallel of the individual shadow, then the question arises whether that trend towards meaning, which we saw in the trickster myth, can also be observed in the subjective and personal shadow. Since this shadow frequently appears in the phenomenology of dreams as a well-defined figure, we can answer this question positively: the shadow, although by definition a negative figure, sometimes has certain clearly discernible traits and associations which point to a quite different background. It is as though he were hiding meaningful contents under an unprepossessing exterior. Experience confirms this; and what is more important, the things that are hidden usually consist of increasingly numinous figures. The one standing closest behind the shadow is the anima,
¹⁸
who is endowed with considerable powers of fascination and possession. She often appears in rather too youthful form, and hides in her turn the powerful archetype of the wise old man (sage, magician, king, etc.). The series could be extended, but it would be pointless to do so, as psychologically one only understands what one has experienced oneself. The concepts of complex psychology are, in essence, not intellectual formulations
but names for certain areas of experience, and though they can be described they remain dead and irrepresentable to anyone who has not experienced them. Thus, I have noticed that people usually have not much difficulty in picturing to themselves what is meant by the shadow, even if they would have preferred instead a bit of Latin or Greek jargon that sounds more “scientific.” But it costs them enormous difficulties to understand what the anima is. They accept her easily enough when she appears in novels or as a film star, but she is not understood at all when it comes to seeing the role she plays in their own lives, because she sums up everything that a man can never get the better of and never finishes coping with. Therefore it remains in a perpetual state of emotionality which must not be touched. The degree of unconsciousness one meets with in this connection is, to put it mildly, astounding. Hence it is practically impossible to get a man who is afraid of his own femininity to understand what is meant by the anima.

486

Actually, it is not surprising that this should be so, since even the most rudimentary insight into the shadow sometimes causes the greatest difficulties for the modern European. But since the shadow is the figure nearest his consciousness and the least explosive one, it is also the first component of personality to come up in an analysis of the unconscious. A minatory and ridiculous figure, he stands at the very beginning of the way of individuation, posing the deceptively easy riddle of the Sphinx, or grimly demanding answer to a “quaestio crocodilina.”
¹⁹

487

If, at the end of the trickster myth, the saviour is hinted at, this comforting premonition or hope means that some calamity or other has happened and been consciously understood. Only out of disaster can the longing for the saviour arise—in other words, the recognition and unavoidable integration of the shadow create such a harrowing situation that nobody but a saviour can undo the tangled web of fate. In the case of the individual, the problem constellated by the shadow is answered on the plane of the anima, that is, through relatedness. In the
history of the collective as in the history of the individual, everything depends on the development of consciousness. This gradually brings liberation from imprisonment in
, ‘unconsciousness,’
²⁰
and is therefore a bringer of light as well as of healing.

488

As in its collective, mythological form, so also the individual shadow contains within it the seed of an enantiodromia, of a conversion into its opposite.

¹
[Originally published as part 5 of
Der göttliche Schelm
, by Paul Radin, with commentaries by C. G. Jung and Karl Kerényi (Zurich, 1954). The present translation then appeared in the English version of the volume:
The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology
(London and New York, 1956); it is republished here with only minor revisions.—E
DITORS
.]

²
Du Cange,
Glossarium
, s.v. Kalendae, p. 1666. Here there is a note to the effect that the French title “sou-diacres” means literally ‘saturi diaconi’ or ‘diacres saouls’ (drunken deacons).

³
These customs seem to be directly modelled on the pagan feast known as “Cervula” or “Cervulus.” It took place on the kalends of January and was a kind of New Year’s festival, at which people exchanged
strenae
(étrennes, ‘gifts’), dressed up as animals or old women, and danced through the streets singing, to the applause of the populace. According to Du Cange (s.v. cervulus), sacrilegious songs were sung. This happened even in the immediate vicinity of St. Peter’s in Rome.

⁴
Part of the
festum fatuorum
in many places was the still unexplained ballgame played by the priests and captained by the bishop or archbishop, “ut etiam sese ad lusum pilae demittent” (that they also may indulge in the game of pelota).
Pila
or
pelota
is the ball which the players throw to one another. See Du Cange, s.v. Kalendae and pelota.

⁵
“Puella, quae cum asino a parte Evangelii prope altare collocabatur” (the girl who stationed herself with the ass at the side of the altar where the gospel is read). Du Cange, s.v. festum asinorum.

⁶
Caetera
instead of
vetera
? [Trans. by A. S. B. Glover:

From the furthest Eastern clime
Came the Ass in olden time,
Comely, sturdy for the road,
Fit to bear a heavy load.

Sing then loudly, master Ass,
Let the tempting titbit pass:
You shall have no lack of hay
And of oats find good supply.

Say Amen, Amen, good ass, (
here a genuflection is made
)
Now you’ve had your fill of grass;
Ancient paths are left behind:
Sing Amen with gladsome mind.]

⁷
Cf. also Tertullian,
Apologeticus adversus gentes
, XVI.

⁸
[Reproduced in
Symbols of Transformation
, pl. XLIII.—E
DITORS
.]

⁹
Thus Spake Zarathustra
, Part. IV, ch. LXXVIII.

¹⁰
I am thinking here of the series called “Balli di Sfessania.” The name is probably a reference to the Etrurian town of Fescennia, which was famous for its lewd songs. Hence “Fescennina licentia” in Horace, Fescenninus being the equivalent of

¹¹
Cf. the article “Daily Paper Pantheon,” by A. McGlashan, in
The Lancet
(1953), p. 238, pointing out that the figures in comic-strips have remarkable archetypal analogies.

¹²
Earlier stages of consciousness seem to leave perceptible traces behind them. For instance, the chakras of the Tantric system correspond by and large to the regions where consciousness was earlier localized,
anahata
corresponding to the breast region,
manipura
to the abdominal region,
svadhistana
to the bladder region, and
visuddha
to the larynx and the speech-consciousness of modern man. Cf. Avalon,
The Serpent Power
.

¹³
The same idea can be found in the Church Father Irenaeus, who calls it the “umbra.”
Adversus haereses
, I, ii, 1.

¹⁴
For instance, the ducking of the “Ueli” (from Udalricus = Ulrich, yokel, oaf, fool) in Basel during the second half of January was, if I remember correctly, forbidden by the police in the 1860’s, after one of the victims died of pneumonia.

¹⁵
Not to forget something means keeping it in consciousness. If the enemy disappears from my field of vision, then he may possibly be behind me—and even more dangerous.

¹⁶
Radin,
The World of Primitive Man
, p. 3.

¹⁷
Ibid., p. 5.

¹⁸
By the metaphor “standing behind the shadow” I am attempting to illustrate the fact that, to the degree in which the shadow is recognized and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated. It is understandable that the encounter with the shadow should have an enduring effect on the relations of the ego to the inside and outside world, since the integration of the shadow brings about an alteration of personality. Cf.
Aion
, Part II of this vol., pars. 13ff.

¹⁹
A crocodile stole a child from its mother. On being asked to give it back to her, the crocodile replied that he would grant her wish if she could give a true answer to his question: “Shall I give the child back?” If she answers “Yes,” it is not true, and she won’t get the child back. If she answers “No,” it is again not true, so in either case the mother loses the child.

²⁰
Neumann,
The Origins and History of Consciousness
, passim.

A
ELIAN
.
De natura animalium
, etc. Edited by Rudolf Hercher. Paris, 1858.

A
FANAS
’
EV
, E. N.
Russian Fairy Tales
. Translated by Norbert Guterman. New York, [1946].

A
LDROVANDUS
, U
LYSSES
[Ulisse Aldrovandi].
Dendrologiae libri duo
. Bologna, 1668; another edn., 1671.

A
VALON
, A
RTHUR
, pseud. (Sir John Woodroffe) (ed. and trans.)
The Serpent Power
(
Shat-chakra-nirupana and Paduka-panchaka
). (Tantrik Texts.) London, 1919.

B
ELLOWS
, H
ENRY
A
DAMS
(trans.).
The Poetic Edda
. New York, 1923.

B
ERTHELOT
, M
ARCELLIN
.
Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs
. Paris, 1887-88. 3 vols.

B
IN
G
ORION
, M
ICHA
J
OSEPH
(pseud. of Micah Joseph Berdyczewski).
Der Born Judas
. Leipzig, 1916-23. 6 vols.

B
OUSETT
, W
ILHELM
.
Hauptprobleme der Gnosis
. (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, 10.) Göttingen, 1907.

B
UDGE
, E. A. W
ALLIS
.
The Gods of the Egyptians
. London, 1904. 2 vols.

B
URI
, F. “Theologie und Philosophie,”
Theologische Zeitschrift
(Basel), VIII (1952), 116-34.

C
ANTRIL
, H
ADLEY
.
The Invasion from Mars
. Princeton, 1940.