The Project Gutenberg eBook of Psychology of the Unconscious, by C. G. Jung

291. The stem manth according to Kuhn becomes in German mangeln, rollen (referring to washing). Manthara is the butter paddle. When the gods generated the amrta (drink of immortality) by twirling the ocean around, they used the mountain Mandara as the paddle (see Kuhn: Ibid., p. 17). Steinthal calls attention to the Latin expression in poetical speech: mentula = male member, in which ment (manth) was used. I add here also, mentula is to be taken as diminutive for menta or mentha (μίνθα), Minze. In antiquity the Minze was called “Crown of Aphrodite” (Dioscorides, II, 154). Apuleius called it “mentha venerea”; it was an aphrodisiac. (The opposite meaning is found in Hippocrates: Si quis eam saepe comedat, ejus genitale semen ita colliquescit, ut effluat, et arrigere prohibet et corpus imbecillum reddit), and according to Dioscorides, Minze is a means of preventing conception. (See Aigremont: “Volkserotik und Pflanzenwelt,” Vol. I, p. 127). But the ancients also said of Menta: “Menta autem appellata, quod suo odore mentem feriat—mentae ipsius odor animum excitat.” This leads us to the root ment—in Latin mens; English, mind—with which the parallel development to pramantha, Προμηθεύς, would be completed. Still to be added is that an especially strong chin is called mento (mentum). A special development of the chin is given, as we know, to the priapic figure of Pulcinello, also the pointed beard (and ears) of the satyrs and the other priapic demon, just as in general all the protruding parts of the body can be given a masculine significance and all the receding parts or depressions a feminine significance. This applies also to all other animate or inanimate objects. See Maeder: Psycho.-Neurol. Wochenschr., X. Jahrgang. However, this whole connection is more than a little uncertain.

292. Abraham observes that in Hebrew the significance of the words for man and woman is related to this symbolism.

293. “What is called the gulya (pudendum) means the yoni (the birthplace) of the God; the fire, which was born there, is called ‘beneficent’” (“Kâtyâyanas Karmapradîpa,” I, 7; translated by Kuhn: “Herabkunft des Feuers,” p. 67). The etymologic connection between bohren—geboren is possible. The Germanic bŏrôn (to bore) is primarily related to the Latin forare and the Greek φαράω = to plow. Possibly it is an Indo-Germanic root bher with the meaning to bear; Sanscrit bhar-; Greek φερ-; Latin fer-; from this Old High German beran, English to bear, Latin fero and fertilis, fordus (pregnant); Greek φορός. Walde (“Latin Etym.,” s. Ferio) traces forare to the root bher-. Compare with this the phallic symbolism of the plough, which we meet later on.

294. Weber: “Indische Studien,” I, 197; quoted by Kuhn: Ibid., p. 71.

295. “Rigveda,” III, 29—1 to 3.

296. Or mankind in general. Viçpatni is the feminine wood, viçpati, an attribute of Agni, the masculine. In the instruments of fire lies the origin of the human race, from the same perverse logic as in the beforementioned shuttle and sword-hilt. Coitus as the means of origin of the human race must be denied, from the motive, to be more fully discussed later, of a primitive resistance against sexuality.

297. Wood as the symbol of the mother is well known from the dream investigation of the present time. See Freud: “Dream Interpretation.” Stekel (“Sprache des Traumes,” p. 128) explains it as the symbol of the woman. Wood is also a German vulgar term for the breast. (“Wood before the house.”) The Christian wood symbolism needs a chapter by itself. The son of Ilâ: Ilâ is the daughter of Manus, the one and only, who with the help of his fish has overcome the deluge, and then with his daughter again procreated the human race.

298. See Hirt: “Etymologie der neuhochdeutschen Sprache,” p. 348.

299. The capitular of Charlemagne of 942 forbade “those sacrilegious fires which are called Niedfyr.” See Grimm: “Mythologie,” 4th edition, p. 502. Here there are to be found descriptions of similar fire ceremonies.

300. Kuhn: Ibid., p. 43.

301. Instead of preserving the divine faith in its purity, the reader will call to mind the fact that in this year when the plague, usually called Lung sickness, attacked the herds of cattle in Laodonia, certain bestial men, monks in dress but not in spirit, taught the ignorant people of their country to make fire by rubbing wood together and to set up a statue of Priapus, and by that method to succor the cattle. After a Cistercian lay brother had done this near Fentone, in front of the entrance of the “Court,” he sprinkled the animals with holy water and with the preserved testicles of a dog, etc.

302. Preuss: “Globus,” LXXXVI, 1905, S. 358.

303. Compare with this Friedrich Schultze: “Psychologie der Naturvölker,” p. 161.

304. This primitive play leads to the phallic symbolism of the plough. Ἀροῦν means to plough and possesses in addition the poetic meaning of impregnate. The Latin arare means merely to plough, but the phrase “fundum alienum arare” means “to pluck cherries in a neighbor’s garden.” A striking representation of the phallic plough is found on a vase in the archeological museum in Florence. It portrays a row of six naked ithyphallic men who carry a plough represented phallically (Dieterich: “Mutter Erde,” p. 107). The “carrus navalis” of our spring festival (carnival) was at times during the Middle Ages a plough (Hahn: “Demeter und Baubo,” quoted by Dieterich: Ibid., p. 109). Dr. Abegg of Zurich called my attention to the clever work of R. Meringer (“Wörter und Sachen. Indogermanische Forschungen,” 16, 179/84, 1904). We are made acquainted there with a very far-reaching amalgamation of the libido symbols with the external materials and external activities, which support our previous considerations to an extraordinary degree. Meringer’s assumption proceeds from the two Indo-Germanic roots, ṷen and ṷeneti. Indo-Germanic *uen Holz, ai. ist. van, vana. Agni is garbhas vanām, “fruit of the womb of the woods.”

Indo-Germanic *ṷeneti signifies “he ploughs”: by that is meant the penetration of the ground by means of a sharpened piece of wood and the throwing up of the earth resulting from it. This verb itself is not verified because this very primitive working of the ground was given up at an early time. When a better treatment of the fields was learned, the primitive designation for the ploughed field was given to the pasture, therefore Gothic vinja, υομη, Old Icelandic vin, pasture, meadow. Perhaps also the Icelandic Vanen, as Gods of agriculture, came from that.

From ackern (to plough) sprang coïre (the connection might have been the other way); also Indo-Germanic *ṷenos (enjoyment of love), Latin venus. Compare with this the root ṷen = wood. Coïre = passionately to strive; compare Old High German vinnan, to rave or to storm; also the Gothic vēns; ἐλπις = hope; Old High German wân = expectation, hope; Sanscrit van, to desire or need; further, Wonne (delight, ecstasy); Old Icelandic vinr (beloved, friend). From the meaning ackern (to plough) arises wohnen (to live). This transition has been completed only in the German. From wohnen → gewöhnen, gewohnt sein (to be accustomed), Old Icelandic vanr = gewohnt (to be accustomed); from ackern further → sich mühen, plagen (to take much trouble, wearing work), Old Icelandic vinna, to work: Old High German winnan (to toil hard, to overwork); Gothic vinnan, πάσχειν; vunns, πάθημα. From ackern comes, on the other hand, gewinnen, erlangen (to win, to attain), Old High German giwinnan, but also verletzen (to injure): Gothic vunds (wund), wound. Wund in the beginning, the most primal sense, was therefore the ground torn up by the wooden implement. From verletzen (to injure) come schlagen (to strike), besiegen (to conquer): Old High German winna (strife); Old Saxon winnan (to battle).

305. The old custom of making the “bridal bed” upon the field, which was for the purpose of rendering the field fertile, contains the primitive thought in the most elementary form; by that the analogy was expressed in the clearest manner: Just as I impregnate the woman, so do I impregnate the earth. The symbol leads the sexual libido over to the cultivation of the earth and to its fruitfulness. Compare with that Mannhardt: “Wald- und Feldkulte,” where there are abundant illustrations.

306. Spielrein’s patient (Jahrbuch, III, p. 371) associates fire and generation in an unmistakable manner. She says as follows concerning it: “One needs iron for the purpose of piercing the earth and for the purpose of creating fire.” This is to be found in the Mithra liturgy as well. In the invocation to the fire god, it is said: ὁ συνδήσας πνεύματι τὰ πὑρινα κλεῖθρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (Thou who hast closed up the fiery locks of heaven, with the breath of the spirit,—open to me). “With iron one can create cold people from the stone.” The boring into the earth has for her the meaning of fructification or birth. She says: “With the glowing iron one can pierce through mountains. The iron becomes glowing when one pushes it into a stone.”

Compare with this the etymology of bohren and gebären (see above). In the “Bluebird” of Maeterlinck the two children who seek the bluebird in the land of the unborn children, find a boy who bores into his nose. It is said of him: he will discover a new fire, so as to warm the earth again, when it will have grown cold.

307. Compare with this the interesting proofs in Bücher: “Arbeit und Rhythmus,” Leipzig 1899.

308. Amusement is undoubtedly coupled with many rites, but by no means with all. There are some very unpleasant things.

309. The Upanishads belong to the Brâhmana, to the theology of the Vedic writings, and comprise the theosophical-speculative part of the Vedic teachings. The Vedic writings and collections are in part of very uncertain age and may reach back to a very distant past because for a long period they were handed down only orally.

310. The primal and omniscient being, the idea of whom, translated into psychology, is comprehended in the conception of libido.

311. Âtman is also considered as originally a bisexual being—corresponding to the libido theory. The world sprang from desire. Compare Bṛihadâraṇyaka-Upaniṣhad, I, 4, 1 (Deussen):

“(1) In the beginning this world was Âtman alone—he looked around: Then he saw nothing but himself.

“(2) Then he was frightened; therefore, one is afraid, when one is alone. Then he thought: Wherefore should I be afraid, since there is nothing beside myself?

“(3) But also he had no joy, therefore one has no joy when one is alone. Then he longed for a companion.”

After this there follows the description of his division quoted above. Plato’s conception of the world-soul approaches very near to the Hindoo idea. “The soul in no wise needed eyes, because near it there was nothing visible. Nothing was separate from it, nothing approached it, because outside of it there was nothing” (“Timaios”).

312. Compare with this Freud’s “Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory.”

313. What seems an apparently close parallel to the position of the hand in the Upanishad text I observed in a little child. The child held one hand before his mouth and rubbed it with the other, a movement which may be compared to that of the violinist. It was an early infantile habit which persisted for a long time afterwards.

314. Compare Freud: “Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose.” 1912 Jahrbuch, Vol. I, p. 357.

315. As shown above, in the child the libido progresses from the mouth zone into the sexual zone.

316. Compare what has been said above about Dactyli. Abundant examples are found in Aigremont: “Fuss- und Schuhsymbolik.”

317. When, in the enormously increased sexual resistance of the present day, women emphasize the secondary signs of sex and their erotic charm by specially designed clothing, that is a phenomenon which belongs in the same general scheme for the heightening of allurement.

318. It is well known that the orifice of the ear has also a sexual value. In a hymn to the Virgin it is called “quæ per aurem concepisti.” Rabelais’ Gargantua was born through his mother’s ear. Bastian (“Beiträge z. vergl. Psychologie,” p. 238) mentions the following passage from an old work, “There is not to be found in this entire kingdom, even among the very smallest girls, a maiden, because even in her tender youth she puts a special medicine into her genitals, also in the orifice of her ears; she stretches these and holds them open continuously.”—Also the Mongolian Buddha was born from the ear of his mother.

319. The driving motive for the breaking up of the ring might be sought, as I have already intimated in passing, in the fact that the secondary sexual activity (the transformed coitus) never is or would be adapted to bring about that natural satiety, as is the activity in its real place. With this first step towards transformation, the first step towards the characteristic dissatisfaction was also taken, which later drove man from discovery to discovery without allowing him ever to attain satiety. Thus it looks from the biological standpoint, which however is not the only one possible.

320. Translated by Mead and Chattopâdhyâya. Sec. 1, Pt. II.

321. In a song of the Rigveda it is said that the hymns and sacrificial speeches, as well as all creation in general, have proceeded from the “entirely fire consumed” Purusha (primitive man-creator of the world).

322. To shine; to show forth; reveal;—light.

323. I said; they said; a saying; an oracle.

324. Compare Brugsch: “Religion und Myth. d. alt. Aegypter,” p. 255 f., and the Egyptian dictionary.

325. The German word “Schwan” belongs here, therefore it sings when dying. It is the sun. The metaphor in Heine supplements this very beautifully.

“Es singt der Schwan im Weiher
Und rudert auf und ab,
Und immer leiser singend,
Taucht er ins Flutengrab.”

Hauptmann’s “Sunken Bell” is a sun myth in which bell = sun = life = libido.

326. Why is it wonderful to understand the universe, if men are able? i.e., men in whose very being the universe exists and each one (of whom) is a representative of God in miniature? Or is it right to believe that men have sprung in any way except from heaven—He alone stands in the midst of the citadel, a conqueror, his head erect and his shining eyes fixed on the stars.

327. Loosely connected with ag-ilis. See Max Müller: “Vorl. über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Religion,” p. 237.

328. An Eranian name of fire is Nairyôçağha = masculine word. The Hindoo Narâçam̆sa means wish of men (Spiegel: “Erân. Altertumskunde,” II, 49). Fire has the significance of Logos (compare Ch. 7, “Siegfried”). Of Agni (fire), Max Müller, in his introduction to “The Science of Comparative Religions,” says: “It was a conception familiar to India to consider the fire upon the altar as being at the same time subject and object. The fire burned the sacrifice and was thereby similar to the priest, the fire carried the sacrifice to the gods, and was thereby an intercessor between men and the gods: fire itself, however, represented also something divine, a god, and when honor was to be shown to this god, then fire was as much the subject as the object of the sacrifice. Hence the first conception, that Agni sacrificed itself, i.e. that it produced for itself its own sacrifice, and next that it brings itself to the sacrifice.” The contact of this line of thought with the Christian symbol is plainly apparent. Krishna utters the same thought in the “Bhagavad-Gîtâ,” b. IV (translated by Arnold, London 1910):

“All’s then God!
The sacrifice is Brahm, the ghee and grain
Are Brahm, the fire is Brahm, the flesh it eats
Is Brahm, and unto Brahm attaineth he
Who, in such office, meditates on Brahm.”

The wise Diotima sees behind this symbol of fire (in Plato’s symposium, c. 23). She teaches Socrates that Eros is “the intermediate being between mortals and immortals, a great Demon, dear Socrates; for everything demoniac is just the intermediate link between God and man.” Eros has the task “of being interpreter and messenger from men to the gods, and from the gods to men, from the former for their prayers and sacrifices, from the latter for their commands and for their compensations for the sacrifices, and thus filling up the gap between both, so that through his mediation the whole is bound together with itself.” Eros is a son of Penia (poverty, need) generated by Poros intoxicated with nectar. The meaning of Poros is dark; πόρος means way and hole, opening. Zielinski: “Arch. f. Rel. Wissensch.,” IX, 43 ff., places him with Phoroneus, identical with the fire-bringer, who is held in doubt; others identify him with primal chaos, whereas others read arbitrarily Κόρος and Μόρος. Under these circumstances, the question arises whether there may not be sought behind it a relatively simple sexual symbolism. Eros would be then simply the son of Need and of the female genitals, for this door is the beginning and birthplace of fire. Diotima gives an excellent description of Eros: “He is manly, daring, persevering, a strong hunter (archer, compare below) and an incessant intriguer, who is constantly striving after wisdom,—a powerful sorcerer, poison mixer and sophist; and he is respected neither as an immortal nor as a mortal, but on the same day he first blooms and blossoms, when he has attained the fulness of the striving, then dies in it but always awakens again to life because of the nature of his father (rebirth!); attainment, however, always tears him down again.” For this characterization, compare Chs. V, VI and VII of this work.

329. Compare Riklin: “Wish Fulfilment and Symbolism in Fairy Tales,” translated by Wm. White, M.D., where a child is produced by the parents placing a little turnip in the oven. The motive of the furnace where the child is hatched is also found again in the type of the whale-dragon myth. It is there a regularly recurring motive because the belly of the dragon is very hot, so that as the result of the heat the hero loses his hair—that is to say, he loses the characteristic covering of hair of the adult and becomes a child. (Naturally the hair is related to the sun’s rays, which are extinguished in the setting of the sun.) Abundant examples of this motive are in Frobenius: “Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes,” Vol. I. Berlin 1904.

330. A potion of immortality.

331. This aspect of Agni is similar to Dionysus, who bears a remarkable parallel to both the Christian and the Hindoo mythology.

332. “Now everything in the world which is damp, he created from sperma, but this is the soma.” Bṛihadâraṇyaka-Upaniṣhad, 1–4.

333. The question is whether this significance was a secondary development. Kuhn seems to assume this. He says (“Herabkunft des Feuers,” p. 18): “However, together with the meaning of the root manth already evolved, there has also developed in the Vedas the conception of ‘tearing off’ due naturally to the mode of procedure.”

334. Examples in Frobenius: “Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes.”

335. See in this connection Stekel: “Die sexuelle Wurzel der Kleptomanie,” Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, 1908.

336. Even in the Roman Catholic church at various places the custom prevailed for the priest to produce once a year the ceremonial fire.

337. I must remark that the designation of onanism as a “great discovery” is not merely a play with words on my part. I owe it to two young patients who pretended that they were in possession of a terrible secret; that they had discovered something horrible, which no one had ever known before, because had it been known great misery would have overtaken mankind. Their discovery was onanism.

338. One must in fairness, however, consider that the demands of life, rendered still more severe by our moral code, are so heavy that it simply is impossible for many people to attain that goal which can be begrudged to no one, namely the possibility of love. Under the cruel compulsion of domestication, what is left but onanism, for those people possessed of an active sexuality? It is well known that the most useful and best men owe their ability to a powerful libido. This energetic libido longs for something more than merely a Christian love for the neighbor.

339. I am fully conscious that onanism is only an intermediate phenomenon. There always remains the problem of the original division of the libido.

340. In connection with my terminology mentioned in the previous chapter, I give the name of autoerotic to this stage following the incestuous love. Here I emphasize the erotic as a regressive phenomenon; the libido blocked by the incest barrier regressively takes possession of an older way of functioning anterior to the incestuous object of love. This may be comprehended by Bleuler’s terminology, Autismus, that is, the function of pure self-preservation, which is especially distinguished by the function of nutrition. However, the terminology “autismus” cannot very well be longer applied to the presexual material, because it is already used in reference to the mental state of dementia praecox where it has to include autoerotism plus introverted desexualized libido. Autismus designates first of all a pathological phenomenon of regressive character, the presexual material, however, of a normal functioning, the chrysalis stage.

CHAPTER IV

341. Therefore that beautiful name of the sun-hero Gilgamesh: Wehfrohmensch (pain-joy human being). See Jensen: “Gilgamesh Epic.”

342. Compare here the interesting researches of H. Silberer. 1912 Jahrbuch, Vol. I, p. 513.

343. See Bleuler: Psychiatr.-neurol. Wochenschrift, XII. Jahrgang, Nr. 18 to 21.

344. Compare with this my explanations in Jahrbuch, Vol. III, p. 469.

345. Compare the exhortation by Krishna to the irresolute Arjuna in Bhagavad-Gîtâ: “But thou, be free of the pairs of opposites!” Bk. II, “The Song Celestial,” Edwin Arnold.

346. “Pensées,” LIV.

347. See the following chapter.

348. Compare John Müller: “Über die phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen,” Coblenz 1826; and Jung: “Occult Phenomena,” in Collected Papers on Analytic Psychology.

349. Also the related doctrine of the Upanishad.

350. Bertschinger: “Illustrierte Halluzinationen,” Jahrbuch, Vol. III, p. 69.

351. How very important is the coronation and sun identification, is shown not alone from countless old customs, but also from the corresponding ancient metaphors in the religious speech: the Wisdom of Solomon v: 17: “Therefore, they will receive a beautiful crown from the hand of the Lord.” I Peter v: 4: “Feed the flock of God ... and when the chief shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

In a church hymn of Allendorf it is said of the soul: “The soul is liberated from all care and pain and in dying it has come to the crown of joy; she stands as bride and queen in the glitter of eternal splendor, at the side of the great king,” etc. In a hymn by Laurentius Laurentii it is said (also of the soul): “The crown is entrusted to the brides because they conquer.” In a song by Sacer we find the passage: “Adorn my coffin with garlands just as a conqueror is adorned,—from those springs of heaven, my soul has attained the eternally green crown: the true glory of victory, coming from the son of God who has so cared for me.” A quotation from the above-mentioned song of Allendorf is added here, in which we have another complete expression of the primitive psychology of the sun identification of men, which we met in the Egyptian song of triumph of the ascending soul.

(Concerning the soul, continuation of the above passage:) “It [the soul] sees a clear countenance [sun]: his [the sun’s] joyful loving nature now restores it through and through: it is a light in his light.—Now the child can see the father: He feels the gentle emotion of love. Now he can understand the word of Jesus. He himself, the father, has loved you. An unfathomable sea of benefits, an abyss of eternal waves of blessing is disclosed to the enlightened spirit: he beholds the countenance of God, and knows what signifies the inheritor of God in light and the co-heir of Christ.—The feeble body rests on the earth: it sleeps until Jesus awakens it. Then will the dust become the sun, which now is covered by the dark cavern: Then shall we come together with all the pious, who knows how soon, and will be for eternity with the Lord.” I have emphasized the significant passages by italics: they speak for themselves, so that I need add nothing.

352. In order to avoid misunderstanding I must add that this was absolutely unknown to the patient.

353. The analysis of an eleven-year-old girl also confirms this. I gave a report of this in the I Congrès International de Pédologie, 1911, in Brussels.

354. The identity of the divine hero with the mystic is not to be doubted. In a prayer written on papyrus to Hermes, it is said: σὺ γὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ ἐγὼ σύ· τὸ σόν ὄνομα ἐμὸν καὶ τὸ ἐμὸν σὸν· ἐγὼ γὰρ εἰμι τὸ εἴθολόν σου (For thou art I and I am thou, thy name is mine, and mine is thine; for I am thy image). (Kenyon: Greek Papyrus, in the British Museum, 1893, p. 116, Pap. CXXII, 2. Cited by Dieterich: “Mithrasliturgie,” p. 79.) The hero as image of the libido is strikingly illustrated in the head of Dionysus at Leiden (Roscher, I, Sp. 1128), where the hair rises like flame over the head. He is—like a flame: “Thy savior will be a flame.” Firmicus Maternus (“De Errore Prof. Relig.,” 104, p. 28) acquaints us with the fact that the god was saluted as bridegroom, and “young light.” He transmits the corrupt Greek sentence, δε νυνφε χαιρε νυνφε νεον φως, with which he contrasts the Christian conception: “Nullum apud te lumen est nec est aliquis qui sponsus mereatur audire: unum lumen est, unus est sponsus. Nominum horum gratiam Christus accepit.” To-day Christ is still our hero and the bridegroom of the soul. These attributes will be confirmed in regard to Miss Miller’s hero in what follows.

355. The giving of a name is therefore of significance in the so-called spiritual manifestations. See my paper, 1902, “Occult Phenomena,” Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology.

356. The ancients recognized this demon as συνοπαδός, the companion and follower.

357. A parallel to these phantasies are the well-known interpretations of the Sella Petri of the pope.

358. When Freud called attention through his analytic researches to the connection between excrements and gold, many ignorant persons found themselves obliged to ridicule in an airy manner this connection. The mythologists think differently about it. De Gubernatis says that excrement and gold are always associated together. Grimm tells us of the following magic charm: “If one wants money in his house the whole year, one must eat lentils on New Year’s Day.” This notable connection is explained simply through the physiological fact of the indigestibility of lentils, which appear again in the form of coins. Thus one becomes a mint.