687. Published and prepared by Julius v. Negelein, in “Relig. Geschichte.” Vers. u. Vorarb. von Dieterich und Wünsch, Vol. XI. Giessen 1912.

688. Quoted, J. v. Negelein: “Der Traumschlüssel des Jagaddeva,” p. 256.

689. The pine-tree speaks the significant word, “Minne-wawa!”

690. In a fairy tale, the bird comes to the tree which grows upon the grave of the mother in order to give help.

691. Roscher: s. “Picus,” Sp. 2494, 62. Probably a symbol of rebirth.

692. The father of Picus is called Sterculus or Sterculius, a name which is clearly derived from stercus = excrementum; he is also said to be the devisor of manure. The primitive creator who also created the mother did so in the manner of infantile creation, which we have previously learned. The supreme god laid an egg, his mother, from which he was again produced—this is an analogous train of thought.

693. Introversion = to enter the mother; to sink into one’s own inner-world, or source of the libido, is symbolized by creeping in, passing through, boring. (Scratching behind the ear = making fire.) Boring into the ear, scratching with the nails, swallowing serpents. Thus the Buddhist legend is understandable. When Gautama had spent the whole day sitting in deep reflection under the sacred tree, at evening he became Buddha, the illumined one.

694. Compare φαλλός (phallus) above and its etymological connection.

695. Spielrein’s patient received from God three wounds through her head, breast and eye. “Then there came a resurrection of the Spirit” (Jahrbuch, III, p. 376).

In the Tibetan myth of Bogda Gesser Khan the sun-hero shoots his arrow into the forehead of the demoniacal old woman, who devours it and spits it up again. In a Calmuc myth, the hero shoots the arrow into the eye emitting rays, which is found on the forehead of the bull. Compare with that the victory of Polyphemus, whose character is signified upon an Attic vase because with it there is also a snake (as symbol of the mother. See the explanation of the sacrificium Mithriacum).

696. In the form of the father, for Megissogwon is the demon of the west, like Mudjekeewis.

697. Compare Deussen: “Geschichte der Philosophie,” Vol. I, p. 14.

698. An analogy is Zeus and Athene. In Rigveda 10, 31, the word of prayer becomes a pregnant cow. In Persian it is the “Eye of Ahura”; Babylonian Nabu: the word of fate; Persian vohu mano: the good thought of the creator God; in Stoic conceptions, Hermes is logos or world intellect; in Alexandria the Σοφία, in the Old Testament it is the angel of Jehovah, or the countenance of God. Jacob wrestled with the angel during the night at the ford of Jabbok, after he had crossed the water with all that he possessed. (Night journey on the sea, battle with the night snake, combat at the ford like Hiawatha.) In this combat, Jacob dislocated his thigh. (Motive of the twisting out of the arm. Castration on account of the overpowering of the mother.) This “face” of God was compared in the old Jewish philosophy to the mystic Metatron, the prince of the face of God (Josiah 5, 14), who brings “the prayer to God” and “in whom is the name of God.” The Naassens (Ophits) called the Holy Ghost the “first word,” the mother of all that lives; the Valentinians comprehended the descending dove of Pneuma as “the word of the mother from above, the Sophia.” (Drews: “Christ Myth,” I, pp. 16, 22, 80.) In Assyria, Gibil, the fire god, had the rôle of Logos. (Tiele: “Assyr. Gesch.”) In Ephrem, the Syrian writer of hymns, John the Baptist says to Christ: “A spark of fire in the air waits for thee over the Jordan. If thou followest it and willst be baptised, then take possession of thyself, wash thyself, for who has the power to take hold of burning fire with his hands? Thou, who art wholly fire, have mercy upon me.” Usener: “Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen.” Cited by Drews: Ibid., p. 81.

699. Perhaps the great significance of the name arose from this phantasy.

700. Grimm mentions the legend that Siegfried was suckled by a doe. (Compare Hiawatha’s first deed.)

701. Compare Grimm’s “Mythology.” Mime or Mîmir is a gigantic being of great wisdom, “a very old Nature God,” with whom the Norse gods associate. Later fables make of him a demon and a skilful smith (closest relation to Wieland). Just as Wotan obtained advice from the wise woman (compare the quotation from Julius Cæsar about the German matron), so does Odin go to the brook of Mîmir in which wisdom and judgment lie hidden, to the spiritual mother (mother-imago). There he requests a drink (drink of immortality), but no sooner does he receive it than he sacrifices his eye to the well (death of the sun in the sea). The well of Mîmir points undoubtedly to the mother significance of Mîmir. Thus Mîmir gets possession of Odin’s other eye. In Mîmir, the mother (wise giant) and the embryo (dwarf, subterranean sun, Harpocrates) is condensed; likewise, as mother, he is the source of wisdom and art. (“Mother-imago” therefore may be translated as “phantasy” under certain circumstances.)

702. The magic sleep is also present in the Homeric celebration of the Hierosgamos. (See above.)

703. This is proved by Siegfried’s words:

704. The cave dragon is the “terrible mother.” In the German legends the maiden to be rescued often appears as a snake or dragon, and must be kissed in this form, through which the dragon is changed into a beautiful woman. A fish’s or a serpent’s tail is attributed to certain wise women. In the “golden mountain” a king’s daughter was bewitched into a snake. In the Oselberg near Dinkelsbühl there lives a snake with a woman’s head and a bunch of keys around her neck. (Grimm.)

705. Faust (II Part):

706. “Etymol. Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache,” sub. Hort.

707. “Griechische Etymologie,” sub. κεύθω.

708. Pausanias: I, 18, 7.

709. Ocean, who arose to be the producer of all.

710. Rohde: “Psyche,” IV. Aufl., Vol. I, p. 214.

711. J. Maehly: “Die Schlange im Mythus und Kultus der klassischen Völker,” 1867.

712. Duchesne: “Lib. pontifical.,” I, S. CIX. Cited by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” Vol. I, p. 351.

713. There was a huge dragon on Mount Tarpeius, where the Capitolium stands. Once a month, with sacrilegious maidens, the priests descended 365 steps into the hell of this dragon, carrying expiatory offerings of food for the dragon. Then the dragon suddenly and unexpectedly arose, and, though he did not come out, he poisoned the air with his breath. Thence came the mortality of man and the deepest sorrow for the death of the children. When, for the defence of truth, St. Silvester had had a conflict with the heathen, it came to this that the heathen said: “Silvester, go down to the dragon, and in the name of thy God make him desist from the killing of mankind.”

714. Cited by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” Vol. I, p. 351.

715. Like his counterpart, the apocalyptic “son of man,” from whose mouth proceeds a “sharp two-edged sword.” Rev. i:16. Compare Christ as serpent and the Antichrist seducing the people. Rev. xx:3. We come across the same motive of the guardian dragon who pierces women, in the myth from Van Diemen’s Land: “A horn-back lay in the cavity of a rock, a huge horn-back! The horn-back was large and he had a very long spear. From his cavity he espied the women; he saw them dive into the water, he pierced them with his spear, he killed them, he carried them away. For some time they were to be seen no longer.” The monster was then killed by the two heroes. They made fire(!) and brought the women to life again. (Cited by Frobenius: Ibid., p. 77.)

716. The eyes of the Son of man are like a flame of fire. Rev. i:15.

717. Near the city of Rome there was a certain cavern in which appeared a dragon of remarkable size, mechanically produced, brandishing a sword in his mouth, his eyes glittering like gems, fearful and terrible. Hither came virgins every year, devoted to this service, adorned with flowers, who were given to him in sacrifice. Bringing these gifts, they unknowingly descended the steps to a point where, with diabolical cunning, the dragon was suspended, striking those who came a blow with the sword, so that the innocent blood was shed. Now, there was a certain monk who, on account of his good deeds, was well known to Stilico, the patrician; he killed this dragon as follows: He examined each separate step carefully, both with a rod and his own hand, until, discovering the false step, he exposed the diabolical fraud. Then, jumping over this step, he went down and killed the dragon, cutting him to pieces, demonstrating that one who could be destroyed by human hand could not be a divinity.

718. Cited by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” I, p. 352.

719. Compare Roscher: “Lexicon,” I, 2, 1885.

720. Out of dark places she rushes on children and women.

721. The triple form also related to the moon (waxing, full, and waning moon). However, such cosmic relations are primarily projections of metapsychology.

722. Faust (II Part): The Scene of the mothers: The key belongs to Hecate, προθυραία, as the guardian of Hades, and psychopompic Divinity. Compare Janus, Peter and Aion.

723. Attribute of the “terrible mother”: Ishtar has “tormented the horse with goad and whip and tortured him to death.” (Jensen: “Gilgamesh Epic,” p. 18.) Also an attribute of Helios.

724. Phallic symbol of fear.

725. Murderous weapon as symbol of the fructifying phallus.

726. Plato has already testified to this as a phallic symbol, as is mentioned above.

727. White-leaved.

728. Far-shooting Hecate.

729. Far-shooting, the far-darting.

730. Goddess of birth.

731. Cited by Roscher: I, 2, Sp. 1909.

732. Hecate.

733. Compare the symbolism in the hymn to Mary of Melk (12th century).

The same symbolism occurs in an erotic verse:

734. Sacrificial cakes offered to the gods.

735. Herzog: “Aus dem Asklepieion von Kos.” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, Vol. X, H. 2, p. 219 ff.

736. A Mithraic sanctuary was, when at all possible, a subterranean grotto; often the cavern was merely an artificial one. It is conceivable that the Christian crypts and subterranean churches are of similar meaning.

737. Compare Schultze: “Die Katakomben,” 1882, p. 9.

738. In the Taurobolia a bull was sacrificed over a grave, in which lay the one to be consecrated. His initiation consisted in being covered with the blood of the sacrifice. Also a regeneration and rebirth, baptism. The baptized one was called Renatus.

739. Additional proof in Herzog: Ibid., p. 224.

740. Ibid., p. 225.

741. Ritual sacrificial food offered to the gods.

742. Indeed sacred serpents were kept for display and other purposes.

743. Ritual sacrificial food offered to the gods.

744. Rohde: “Psyche,” chap. 1, p. 244.

745. Vol. I, p. 28.

746. Fick. Compare “Wörterbuch,” I, p. 424.

747. Compare the stable cleaning of Hercules. The stable, like the cavern, is a place of birth. We find stable and cavern in Mithracism combined with the bull symbolism, as in Christianity. (See Robertson: “Christ and Krishna.”) In a Basuto myth, the stable birth also occurs. (Frobenius.) The stable birth belongs to the mythologic animal fable; therefore the legend of the conceptio immaculata, allied to the history of the impregnation of the barren Sarah, appears very early in Egypt as an animal fable. Herodotus, III, 28, relates: “This Apis or Epaphos is a calf whose mother was unable to become impregnated, but the Egyptians said that a ray from heaven fell upon the cow, and from that she brought forth Apis.” Apis symbolizes the sun, therefore his signs: upon the forehead a white spot, upon his back a figure of an eagle, upon his tongue a beetle.

748. According to Philo, the serpent is the most spirited of all animals; its nature is that of fire, the rapidity of its movements is great and this without need of any especial limbs. It has a long life and sheds age, with its skin. Therefore it was inculcated in the mysteries, because it is immortal. (Maehly: “Die Schlange in Mythologie und Kultus der klassischen Völker,” 1867, p. 7.)

749. For example, the St. John of Quinten Matsys (see illustration); also two pictures by an unknown Strassburg master in the Gallery at Strassburg.

750. “And the woman—having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication” (Rev. xvii:4). The woman is “drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”: a striking image of the terrible mother (here, cup = genitals). In the Tibetan myth of Bogda Gesser Khan there is a beetle (treasure attainable with difficulty), which the demoniac old woman guards. Gesser says to her: “Sister, never since I was born have you shown me the beetle my soul.” The mother libido is also the soul. It is significant that the old woman desired the hero as a husband. (Frobenius.)

751. This is also the significance of the mysteries. Their purpose is to lead the useless, regressive incestuous libido over the bridges of symbolism into rational activity, and through that transform the obscure compulsion of the libido working up from the unconscious into social communion and higher moral endeavor.

752. An excellent example of this is the description of the orgies of the Russian sectarian by Mereschkowski, in his book, “Peter the Great and Alexei.” In the cult of the Asiatic Goddesses of love (Anaïtis, Mylitta, etc.), prostitution in the temple was an organized institution. The orgiastic cult of Anâhita (Anaïtis) has been preserved in modern sects, with the Ali Illâhîja, the so-called “extinguishers of light”; with the Yezêds and Dushikkurds, who celebrate nocturnal religious orgies which end in a wild sexual debauch, during which incestuous unions also occur. (Spiegel: “Erân. Altertumskunde,” II, p. 64.) Further examples are to be found in the valuable work of Stoll (“Das Sexualleben in der Völkerpsychologie,” Leipzig 1908).

753. Concerning the kiss of the snake, compare Grimm, II, p. 809. By this means, a beautiful woman was set free. The sucking refers to the maternal significance of the snake, which exists along with the phallic. It is a coitus act on the presexual stage. Spielrein’s insane patient (Jahrbuch, III, p. 344) says as follows: “Wine is the blood of Jesus.—The water must be blessed, and was blessed by him. The one buried alive becomes the vineyard. That wine becomes blood—the water is mingled with ‘childishness’ because God says, ‘become like little children.’ There is also a spermatic water which can be drunken with blood. That perhaps is the water of Jesus.” Here we find a commingling of all the various meanings of the way to win immortality. Wiedemann (“Der alte Orient,” II, 2, p. 18; cited by Dieterich: Ibid., p. 101) asserts that it is an Egyptian idea that man draws in the milk of immortality by suckling the breast of a goddess. (Compare with that the myth of Hercules, where the hero attains immortality by a single draw at the breast of Hera.)

754. From the writings of the sectarian Anton Unternährer: “Geheimes Reskript der bernischen Regierung an die Pfarr- und Statthalterämter,” 1821. I owe the knowledge of this fragment to Rev. Dr. O. Pfister.

755. Nietzsche: “Zarathustra”: “And I also give this parable to you: Not a few who wished to drive out the devil from themselves, by that lead themselves into the slough.”

756. Compare the vision of Zosimos.

757. The significance of the communion ritual as a unio mystica with God is at bottom sexual and very corporeal. The primitive significance of the communion is that of a Hierosgamos. Therefore in the fragment of the Attis mysteries handed down by Firmicus it is said that the mystic eats from the Tympanon, drinks from the Kymbalon, and he confesses: ὑπὸ τὸν παστὸν ὑπέδυον, which means the same as: “I have entered the bridal chamber.” Usener (in Dieterich: Ibid., p. 126) refers to a series of quotations from the patristic literature, of which I mention merely one sentence from the speeches of Proclus of Constantinople: ἡ παστας εν ἡ ὁ λογος ενυμφευσατο την σακρα (The bridal chamber in which the Logos has espoused the flesh). The church is also to some extent the bridal chamber, where the spirit unites with the flesh, really the Cömeterium. Irenaeus mentions some more of the initiatory customs of certain gnostic sects, which were undoubtedly nothing but spiritual weddings. (Compare Dieterich: Ibid., p. 127 ff.) In the Catholic church, even yet, a Hierosgamos is celebrated on the installation of a priest. A young maiden there represents the church as bride.

758. Compare also the phantasies of Felicien Rops: The crucified Priapus.

759. Compare with that the symbolism in Nietzsche’s poem: “Why enticest thou thyself into the paradise of the old serpent?”

760. “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”

761. Nietzsche himself must have shown at times a certain predilection for loathsome animals. Compare C. A. Bernoulli: “Franz Oberbeck und Friedrich Nietzsche,” Vol. I, p. 166.

762. I recall Nietzsche’s dream, which is cited in Part I of this book.

763. The Germanic myth of Dietrich von Bern, who had fiery breath, belongs to this idea: He was wounded in the forehead by an arrow, a piece of which remained there fixed; from this, he was called the immortal. In a similar manner, half of Hrûngnir’s wedge-shaped stone fastened itself in Thor’s head. See Grimm: “Mythology,” I, p. 309.

764. “Geschichte der Philosophie,” Vol. I, p. 181.

765. Sa tapo atapyata.

766. The Stoic idea of the creative primal warmth, in which we have already recognized the libido (Part I, Chap. IV), belongs in this connection, also the birth of Mithra from a stone, which resulted solo aestu libidinis (through the heat of the libido only).

767. The place of discipline.

768. In the accurate prose translation this passage reads: “There Kâma developed from him in the beginning” (Deussen: “Gesch. d. Phil.,” Vol. I, p. 123). Kâma is the libido. “The sages found the root of being in the non-being, in the heart, searching with introspection.”

769. “Fame and Eternity.”

770. Grimm: “Mythology,” III. The heroes have serpent’s eyes, as do the kings: ormr î auga. Sigurdr is called Ormr î Auga.

771. Nietzsche’s

772. From “The Poverty of the Richest.”

773. Nietzsche’s “Fragments of Dionysus-Dithyrambs.”

774. He is pregnant with the sun.

775. Galatians iii:27 alludes to this primitive idea: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

776. Just as is Mânî so is Marsyas a crucified one. (See Robertson: “Evangelical Myths,” p. 66.) Both were hung, a punishment which has an unmistakable symbolic value, because the suspension (“to suffer and fear in the torment of suspension”) is the symbol of an unfulfilled wish. (See Freud: “The Interpretation of Dreams.”) Therefore Christ, Odin, Attis hung on trees (= mother). The Talmudic Jesus ben Pandira (apparently the earliest historic Jesus) suffered a similar death, on the eve of a Passover festival in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (106–79 B.C.). This Jesus may have been the founder of the “Essenes,” a sect (see Robertson: “Evang. Myths,” p. 123) which stood in a certain relation to subsequent Christianity. The Jesus ben Stada identified with the preceding Jesus, but removed into the second Christian century, was also hung. Both were first stoned, a punishment which was, so to speak, a bloodless one like hanging. The Christian church, which spills no blood, therefore burned. This may not be without significance for a peculiar ceremony reported from Uganda: “When a king of Uganda wished to live forever, he went to a place in Busiro, where a feast was given by the chiefs. At the feast the Mamba Clan was especially held in honor, and during the festivities a member of this clan was secretly chosen by his fellows, caught by them, and beaten to death with their fists; no stick or other weapon might be used by the men appointed to do the deed. After death, the victim’s body was flayed and the skin made into a special whip, etc. After the ceremony of the feast in Busiro, with its strange sacrifice, the king of Uganda was supposed to live forever, but from that day he was never allowed to see his mother again.” (Quoted from Frazer: “Golden Bough,” Part IV, p. 415.) The sacrifice, which is chosen to purchase everlasting life for another, is here given over to a bloodless death and after that skinned. That this sacrifice has an absolutely unmistakable relation to the mother—as we already know—is corroborated very plainly by Frazer.

777. Frazer: “Adonis, Attis, Osiris,” p. 242.

778. Frazer: Ibid., p. 246.

779. Frazer: Ibid., p. 249.

780. Cited by Dieterich in “Mithrasliturgie,” p. 215.

781. The bull, father of the serpent, and the serpent, father of the bull.

782. Another attempt at solution seems to be the Dioscuri motive: The sun consists of two brothers similar to each other, the one mortal, the other immortal. This motive is found, as is well known, in the two Açvins, who, however, are not further differentiated. In the Mithraic doctrine, Mithra is the father, Sol the son, and yet both are one as ὁ μέγας θεὸς Ἥελιος Μίθρας. The motive of twins emerges, not infrequently, in dreams. In a dream, where it is related that a woman had given birth to twins, the dreamer found, instead of the expected children, a box and a bottle-like object. Here the twins had male and female significance. This observation hints at a possible significance of the Dioscuri as the sun and its re-bearing mother—daughter (?).

783. Among the daughters of the desert.

784. Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, Vol. II, p. 169.

785. This problem has frequently been employed in the ancient sun myths. It is especially striking that the lion-killing heroes, Samson and Hercules, are weaponless in the combat. The lion is the symbol of the most intense summer heat, astrologically he is the Domicilium Solis. Steinthal (Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Vol. II, p. 133) reasons about this in a most interesting manner, which I quote word for word:

“When the Sun-god fights against the summer heat, he fights against himself; when he kills it, he kills himself. Most certainly! The Phœnician, Assyrian and Lydian ascribes self-destruction to his sun-god, for he can comprehend the lessening of the sun’s heat only as a self-murder. He believed that the sun stood at its highest in the summer and its rays scorched with destroying heat: thus does the god burn himself, but he does not die, only rejuvenates himself.—Also Hercules burns himself, but ascends to Olympus in the flames. This is the contradiction in the pagan gods. They, as forces of nature, are helpful as well as harmful to men. In order to do good and to redeem they must work against themselves. The opposition is dulled, when either of the two sides of the forces of nature is personified in an especial god, or when the power of nature is conceived of as a divine personage; however, each of its two modes of action, the benevolent and the injurious, has an especial symbol. The symbol is always independent, and finally is the god himself; and while originally the god worked against himself, destroyed himself, now symbol fights against symbol, god against god, or the god with the symbol.”

Certainly the god fights with himself, with his other self, which we have conceived of under the symbol of mother. The conflict always appears to be the struggle with the father and the conquering of the mother.

786. The old Etruscan custom of covering the urn of ashes, and the dead buried in the earth, with the shield, is something more than mere chance.

787. Incest motive.

788. Compare the idea of the Phœnix in the Apocalypse of Baruch, Part I of this book.

789. The kingdom of the mother is the kingdom of the (unconscious) phantasy.

790. Behind nature stands the mother, in continuation of our earlier discussions and in the foregoing poem of Hölderlin. Here the mother hovers before the poet’s mind as a tree, on which the child hangs like a blossom.

791. Once he called the “stars his brothers.” Here I must call to mind the remarks in the first part of this work, especially that mystic identification with the stars: εγω ειμι συμπλανος ὑμιν αστερ (I am a star who wanders together with you). The separation and differentiation from the mother, the “individuation” creates that transition of the subjective into the objective, that foundation of consciousness. Before this, man was one with the mother. That is to say, with the world as a whole. At that period man did not know the sun as brother. This occurred for the first time, when after the resulting separation and placing of the object, the libido, regressing to the infantile, perceived in that first state its possibilities and the suspicion of his relationship to the stars forced itself upon him. This occurrence appears not infrequently in the introversion psychoses. A young peasant, an ordinary laboring man, developed an introversion psychosis (Dementia Praecox). His first feelings of illness were shown by a special connection which he felt with the sun and the stars. The stars became full of meaning to him, and the sun suggested ideas to him. This apparently entirely new perception of nature is met with very often in this disease. Another patient began to understand the language of birds, which brought him messages from his beloved (mother). Compare Siegfried.