The Archetype of the Shadow

[David Guyatt]

http://www.dreamhawk.com/shadow.htm

The Archetype of the Shadow

Tony Crisp


The archetype of the shadow is depicted as: A shadowy figure, often the same sex as dreamer but inferior; a zombie or walking dead; a dark shape; an unseen �Thing�; someone or something we feel uneasy about or in some measure repelled by; drug addict; pervert; what is behind one in a dream; anything dark or threatening; sometimes a younger brother or sister; a junior colleague; a foreigner; a servant; a gypsy; a prostitute; a burglar; a sinister figure in the dark. Often there is an air of disrepute about the person, or of danger, but that is not always so. Sometimes it appears as simply an indistinct figure, or someone difficult to really see clearly.

In literature we find the Shadow depicted in such stories as Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Frankenstein's monster or Lurch; Wilde�s The Picture Of Dorian Gray; Hesse�s Steppenwolf, and in many stories about werewolves or hauntings. Ackroyd, in his Dictionary of Dream Symbols, even points to Cinderella as a Shadow figure, as she is seen as inferior by her socially accepted sisters, and is kept shut in the house, thus repressed. And that is the key to the shadow, the parts of self unacceptable, repressed or held back.

In occult literature the Shadow is called The Guardian of the Threshold. It is described as a great - subjective - figure we meet at a certain stage of growth. The Guardian holds in it all the negative deeds and aspects of self committed or developed in the past, even in past lives, that must be met and transformed.

Lurch in the comedy in which he appeared, is an excellent image of the Shadow and the Guardian of the Threshold. Lurch represented Frankenstein's monster, and Frankenstein's monster was a composite made up of many dead bodies, dead people. So of course he is a wonderful depiction of the Dweller of the Threshold, the karma from past lives, the bits that need to be faced, healed, or met and integrated.

The Shadow is any part of ourselves that we reject, and so do not allow expression in our life. We may so dislike aspects of our nature we fail to see them altogether and instead see them in other people and criticise them. Nations as well as individuals do this. The Nazis projected all problems onto the Jews. The Americans have not wished to see their own social sickness, and looked instead at the Russians. No doubt the Irish blame the English, and the English use the class system, with its projections between employee and employer. It is easier than looking at one�s own Shadow. The foreigner is one of the favourite Shadow projections. This may be because through living in our culture we develop certain likes and dislikes, certain value judgements and ways of doing things. In other cultures their normal and acceptable values and ways of living may be vastly different. In dealing with the foreigner we therefore meet our own unconscious potential for living in a different way. Many individuals who worked in the British Commonwealth in vastly different cultures to their own, started out loathing the native customs, and then changing their own life to live within the new culture. In the English language it was called �going native�.

But the shadow can also hold in it the wonder of our spiritual nature that is rejected or unknown.


The Shadow develops in us, according to Jolande Jacobi, because as we grow and absorb our culture, we naturally repress parts of our nature because they are not acceptable to parents or society. These grow and mature in just the way our conscious personality does, through experience and further information - except the Shadow has a life under the surface like any socially unacceptable organisation or individual. But often it is the urges in us that date from prehistory, when present day social restraints did not have survival value, that make up a large part of the Shadow.

If you can think of the characteristics you loathe in others, that is a fair picture of what you repress in yourself. If you can define what you reject or criticise, whether that is religion, another culture, science or sex, that points to what you are hiding in shadows in yourself. The great �ladies man� may hide a Shadow that feels inadequate sexually. The loving Christian mother might meet a Shadow full of resentment and anger at how she has been taken for granted. Meeting the Shadow through our dreams is a meeting with our own reality, that in turn enables us to look at the world realistically. The shadow can be met - it leads to wholeness.

Fraser Boa tells the story of a man who told his analyst he had dreamt of Red Rooster - a cartoon character used in American national parks. Red Rooster is bossy and tells people to keep their litter and cigarettes. The analyst asked the man if he recognised Red Rooster in himself. After some thought he said no, he couldn�t see he was like that. The analyst suggested he go ask his wife if she could see Red Rooster in him. He did this and was astonished when she said she could. After a few minutes of his attempts to suggest she was mistaken, she suggested he ask each of his three children. He took each one aside and was amazed when each said that of course they could see Red Rooster in him. He was always bossing people around and being authoritative. Red Rooster was his shadow.

A main feature of many archetypal figures, and particularly of the Shadow, is their autonomous activity in us. This is called an autonomous complex, or in some schools �sub personality�. We experience this as an influence to act in particular ways that have a lot of feeling and drive in them, but may be very different to our image of ourselves. For instance we may deeply criticise a man for leaving his wife for another woman, only tofind later that we have the same urge, and had been denying it. Therefore, when we detest the shadow in another person, our dislike for them is very strong and often unreasonable in its degree. So much so that we cannot stop mentioning them or criticising them. See: autonomous complex; sub-personalities.

P. W. Martin says that the Shadow is �something which comes between a man and his fulfilment: his laziness, his fecklessness, his tendency to let things slide or to over-do things, his cowardice, his rashness, his self-indulgence, his carping and envious nature, his murkiness.� It is all the negatives which we prefer not to see about ourselves.

However, because the Shadow is the �out of sight� area of our psyche, it also holds in it great treasure through its connection with our unconscious potential. In fact a great deal of our energy is involved in our �negatives�. When we meet our shadow or our fears, we are enormously more energised. Meeting the Shadow and unfolding the possibilities held unexpressed is our life work. Without it we may never become the mature and full person we are capable of. As Prospero says of Caliban, we need to say �this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine�. Through this we gain not only our own greatness, whatever that might be, but also the acceptance of our common connection with humanity.

Jung says that if we could fully meet our Shadow, we would be immune to all any moral or verbal insinuations. We would already have seen this for ourselves. Finding this sort of transformation to a state beyond guilt is a task for the hero/ine who has the strength to descend into the underworld and wrestle dark creatures.



Meet Mr. Hyde (from TV series Jekyll)


Meet Count Dracula (Christopher Lee in classic film)


Meet Mr. Wolf


Meet Mrs ugly witch


For our Hobbit members, meet Gollum


Meet Yourself

[David Guyatt]

If a man is endowed with an ethical sense and is convinced of the sanctity of ethical values, he is on the surest road to a conflict of duty. And although this looks desperately like a moral catastrophe, it alone makes possible a higher differentiation of ethics and a broadening of consciousness. A conflict of duty forces us to examine our conscience and thereby to discover the shadow.

Carl G. Jung - Collected Works vol 18 - Depth Psychology and a New Ethic - P.17

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.

Carl G. Jung Collected Works vol 9, Part II: Aion P.14

Despite all attempts at denial and obfuscation there is an unconscious factor, a black sun, which is responsible for the surprisingly common phenomenon of masculine split-mindedness, when the right hand mustn't know what the left is doing.

Carl G Jung, Collected Works vol 15 - Mysterium Coniunctionis: p331 and p332

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the Shadow of the other.

Carl G Jung - Collected Works vol 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, P78

[David Guyatt]

The Shadow

Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131

It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware.

"On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35

We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women who pass by without exciting attention, and who betray to the world nothing of the conflicts that rage within them except possibly by a nervous breakdown. What is so difficult for the layman to grasp is the fact that in most cases the patients themselves have no suspicion whatever of the internecine war raging in their unconscious. If we remember that there are many people who understand nothing at all about themselves, we shall be less surprised at the realization that there are also people who are utterly unaware of their actual conflicts.

"New Paths in Psychology" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.425

If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House of the Gathering." Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.140

There is a deep gulf between what a man is and what he represents, between what he is as an individual and what he is as a collective being. His function is developed at the expense of the individuality. Should he excel, he is merely identical with his collective function; but should he not, then, though he may be highly esteemed as a function in society, his individuality is wholly on the level of his inferior, undeveloped functions, and he is simply a barbarian, while in the former case he has happily deceived himself as to his actual barbarism.

Psychological Types (1921). CW 6: P.III

Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it.

The Integration of the Personality. (1939).

How else could it have occurred to man to divide the cosmos, on the analogy of day and night, summer and winter, into a bright day-world and a dark night-world peopled with fabulous monsters, unless he had the prototype of such a division in himself, in the polarity between the conscious and the invisible and unknowable unconscious? Primitive man's perception of objects is conditioned only partly by the objective behaviour of the things themselves, whereas a much greater part is often played by intrapsychic facts which are not related to the external objects except by way of projection. This is due to the simple fact that the primitive has not yet experienced that ascetic discipline of mind known to us as the critique of knowledge. To him the world is a more or less fluid phenomenon within the stream of his own fantasy, where subject and object are undifferentiated and in a state of mutual interpenetration.

"Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype" (1939) In CW 9, Part 1: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P. 187

We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enormous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together.

"Answer to Job" (1952). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.12

The world is as it ever has been, but our consciousness undergoes peculiar changes. First, in remote times (which can still be observed among primitives living today), the main body of psychic life was apparently in human and in nonhuman Objects: it was projected, as we should say now. Consciousness can hardly exist in a state of complete projection. At most it would be a heap of emotions. Through the withdrawal of projections, conscious knowledge slowly developed. Science, curiously enough, began with the discovery of astronomical laws, and hence with the withdrawal, so to speak, of the most distant projections. This was the first stage in the despiritualization of the world. One step followed another: already in antiquity the gods were withdrawn from mountains and rivers, from trees and animals. Modern science has subtilized its projections to an almost unrecognizable degree, but our ordinary life still swarms with them. You can find them spread out in the newspapers, in books, rumours, and ordinary social gossip. All gaps in our actual knowledge are still filled out with projections. We are still so sure we know what other people think or what their true character is.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938) In CW II: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P. 140

When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.

"The Stages of Life" (1930). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.752

Everything that man should, and yet cannot, be or do- be it in a positive or negative sense - lives on as a mythological figure and anticipation alongside his consciousness, either as a religious projection or-what is still more dangerous-as unconscious contents which then project themselves spontaneously into incongruous objects, e.g., hygienic and other "salvationist" doctrines or practices. All these are so many rationalized substitutes for mythology, and their unnaturalness does more harm than good.

"The Psychology of the Child Archetype" (1940). In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P.287

The hero's main feat is to overcome the monster of darkness: it is the long-hoped-for and expected triumph of consciousness over the unconscious. The coming of consciousness was probably the most tremendous experience of primeval times, for with it a world came into being whose existence no one had suspected before. "And God said, 'Let there be light"' is the projection of that immemorial experience of the separation of consciousness from the unconscious.

"The Psychology of the Child Archetype" (1940). In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P.284

The symbol is a living body, corpus et anima; hence the "child" is such an apt formula for the symbol. The uniqueness of the psyche can never enter wholly into reality, it can only be realized approximately, though it still remains the absolute basis of all consciousness. The deeper "layers" of the psyche lose their individual uniqueness as they retreat farther and farther into darkness. "Lower down," that is to say as they approach the autonomous functional systems, they become increasingly collective until they are universalized and extinguished in the body's materiality, i.e., in chemical substances. The body's carbon is simply carbon. Hence "at bottom" the psyche is simply "world." In this sense I hold Kerenyi to be absolutely right when he says that in the symbol the world itself is speaking. The more archaic and "deeper," that is the more physiological, the symbol is, the more collective and universal, the more "material" it is. The more abstract, differentiated, and sp eci 'fie it is, and the more its nature approximates to conscious uniqueness and individuality, the more it sloughs off its universal character. Having finally attained full consciousness, it runs the risk of becoming a mere allegory which nowhere oversteps the bounds of conscious comprehension, and is then exposed to all sorts of attempts at rationalistic and therefore inadequate explanation.

"The Psychology of the Child Archetype" (1940). In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P.291

The masculinity of the woman and the femininity of the man are inferior, and it is regrettable that the full value of their personalities should be contaminated by something that is less valuable. On the other hand, the shadow belongs to the wholeness of the personality: the strong man must somewhere be weak, somewhere the clever man must be stupid, otherwise he is too good to be true and falls back on pose and bluff. Is it not an old truth that woman loves the weaknesses of the strong man more than his strength, and the stupidity of the clever man more than his cleverness ?

Die Anima als Schicksalsproblem des Mannes (1963) Foreward by C.G. Jung. In CW 18 261

To remain a child too long is childish, but it is just as childish to move away and then assume that childhood no longer exists because we do not see it. But if we return to the "children's land" we succumb to the fear of becoming childish, because we do not understand that everything of psychic origin has a double face. One face looks forward, the other back. It is ambivalent and therefore symbolic, like all living reality.

Psychology and Alchemy (1944). CW 12. P.74

No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans,* the demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey.... We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.

"The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans" (1945)
*Written I945.

Just as we tend to assume that the world is as we see it, we naively suppose that people are as we imagine them to be. In this latter case, unfortunately, there is no scientific test that would prove the discrepancy between perception and reality. Although the possibility of gross deception is infinitely greater here than in our perception of the physical world, we still go on naively projecting our own psychology into our fellow human beings. In this way everyone creates for himself a series of more or less imaginary relationships based essentially on projection.

"General Aspects of Dream Psychology" (1916). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.507

The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.25

It is the face of our own shadow that glowers at us across the Iron Curtain.

Man and His Symbols. In CW 18: P.85

Whenever contents of the collective unconscious become activated, they have a disturbing effect on the conscious mind, and contusion ensues. If the activation is due to the collapse of the individual's hopes and expectations, there is a danger that the collective unconscious may take the place of reality. This state would be pathological. If, on the other hand, the activation is the result of psychological processes in the unconscious of the people, the individual may feel threatened or at any rate disoriented, but the resultant state is not pathological, at least so far as the individual is concerned. Nevertheless, the mental state of the people as a whole might well be compared to a psychosis.

"The Psychological Foundation for the Belief in Spirits (1920). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.595

The individual ego could be conceived as the commander of a small army in the struggle with his environments war not infrequently on two fronts, before him the struggle for existence, in the rear the struggle against his own rebellious instinctual nature. Even to those of us who are not pessimists our existence feels more like a struggle than anything else. The state of peace is a desideratum, and when a man has found peace with himself and the world it is indeed a noteworthy event.

"Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung" (1928) In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.693

If a man is endowed with an ethical sense and is convinced of the sanctity of ethical values, he is on the surest road to a conflict of duty. And although this looks desperately like a moral catastrophe, it alone makes possible a higher differentiation of ethics and a broadening of consciousness. A conflict of duty forces us to examine our conscience and thereby to discover the shadow.

Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. (1949). In CW 18. P.17

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.

Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14

To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.

"Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology" (1959). In CW 10. Civilization in Transition. P.872

Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

"The Philosophical Tree" (1945). In CW 13: Alchemical Studies. P.335

A man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour.

"The Philosophical Tree" (1945). In CW 13: Alchemical Studies. P.335

Projections change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face.

Aion (1955). CW 14: P.17

The "other" may be just as one-sided in one way as the ego is in another. And yet the conflict between them may give rise to truth and meaning-but only if the ego is willing to grant the other its rightful personality.

"Concerning Rebirth" (1940) In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. P.237

Good does not become better by being exaggerated, but worse, and a small evil becomes a big one through being disregarded and repressed. The shadow is very much a part of human nature, and it is only at night that no shadows exist.

"A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity" (1942) In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.286

We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women who pass by without exciting attention, and who betray to the world nothing of the conflicts that rage within them except possibly by a nervous breakdown. What is so difficult for the layman to grasp is the fact that in most cases the patients themselves have no suspicion whatever of the internecine war raging in their unconscious. If we remember that there are many people who understand nothing at all about themselves, we shall be less surprised at the realization that there are also people who are utterly unaware of their actual conflicts.

"New Paths in Psychology" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.425

In reality, the acceptance of the shadow-side of human nature verges on the impossible. Consider for a moment what it means to grant the right of existence to what is unreasonable, senseless, and evil! Yet it is just this that the modern man insists upon. He wants to live with every side of himself-to know what he is. That is why he casts history aside. He wants to break with tradition so that he can experiment with his life and determine what value and meaning things have in themselves, apart from traditional resuppositions.

"Psychotherapist or the Clergy" (1932). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.528

[David Guyatt]

Extracts from:

Man and His Symbols
edited by Dr. Carl Jung

The Process of Individuation
By Marie-Louise von Franz

The Pattern of Psychic Growth

By observing a great many people, (at least 80,000 dreams) Jung found that not only were all dreams relevant . . . but , , , they seem to follow an arrangement or pattern. This process Jung called "the process of individuation". P. 159

These changes can be accelerated if the dreamer's conscious attitude is influenced by appropriate interpretation of the dreams and their symbolic content. P. 161

Gradually a wider and more mature personality emerges . . . and even visible to others . Psychic growth cannot be brought about by a conscious effort of will power, but happens involuntarily and naturally . . . fulfilling a definite pattern. P. 161

The organizing center . . . a sort of nuclear "atom" . . . Jung called the "Self" and described it as the totality of the whole psyche, in order to distinguish it from the "ego", which constitutes only a small part of the psyche. P. 162

Throughout the ages men have been intuitively aware of the existence of an inner center. Greeks . . .daimon . . . Egypt . . . Ba-soul . . . Romans . . . genius. P. 162

The Self can be defined as an inner guiding factor that is different from the conscious personality and that can be grasped only through the investigation of one's own dreams. P. 163

How far it develops depends on whether or not the ego is willing to listen to the messages of the Self. Such a person also becomes a more complete human being. P. 163

One could picture this in the following way: The seed of a mountain pine cone contains the whole future tree in a latent form; but each seen falls at a certain time onto a particular place, in which there are a number of special factors, such as the quality of the soil and the stones . . . its exposure to the sun and wind. Thus an individual pine slowly comes into existence . . . the realization of this uniqueness in the individual man is the goal of the process of individuation. P. 162

. . . the process of individuation is real only if the individual is aware of it and consciously makes a living connection with it. P. 164

The guiding hints or impulses come, not from the ego, but from the totality of the psyche: the Self. P. 167

It is, moreover, useless to cast furtive glances at the way someone else is developing, because each of us has a unique task of self-realization. P. 167

The First Approach of the Unconscious

. . . .the years of youth are characterized by a state of gradual awakening . . . slowly becomes aware of the world and of himself. Childhood is a period of great emotional intensity . . . p. 168
When a child reaches school age, the phase of building up the ego and of adapting to the outer world begins. This . . . brings a number of painful shocks. P. 168

. . . some children begin to feel very different from others . . . brings a certain sadness . . . part of the loneliness of many youngsters. P. 168

If the development of consciousness is disturbed in its normal unfolding, children frequently retire. . . . into an "inner fortress" p. 169

In this early phase . . . many children . . .earnestly seek for some meanings in life . . . there are others .. . who are still . . . carried along by dynamism of inherited and instinctive patterns. P. 169

The actual processes of individuation . . . the conscious coming-to-terms with one's own inner center or Self . . . generally begins with a wounding of the personality and the suffering that accompanies it. This initial "shock" amounts to a sort of "call", although it is not often recognized as such. P. 169

. . . the ego feels hampered . . . projects the obstruction onto something external . . . accuses God . . . economics . . . boss . . . marriage partner . . . p. 169

Or perhaps everything seems outwardly all right, but beneath the surface a person is suffering from a deadly boredom that makes everything seem meaningless and empty. P. 170

Many myths and fairy tales symbolically describe this initial stage of individuation by telling of a king who has fallen ill, or grown old. P. 170

Thus, it seems as if the initial encounter with the Self casts a dark shadow ahead of time . . . to catch the helplessly struggling ego in his snare. P. 170

. . . in the initial crisis in the life of an individual . . . one is seeking something that is impossible to find or about which nothing is known. P. 170

In such moments all well-mean, sensible advice is completely useless . . . none of that helps, or at best only rarely. P. 170

There is only one thing that seems to work . . . to turn directly toward the approaching darkness without prejudice and totally naively . . . find out what its secret aim is and what it wants from you. P. 170

Sometimes it first offers a series of painful realizations of what is wrong with oneself and one's own conscious attitudes. Then one must begin the process by swallowing all sorts of bitter truths. P. 171

The Realization of the Shadow

. . . one becomes acquainted with aspects of one's own personality that for various reasons one has preferred not to look at too closely. P. 174
"realization of the shadow" . . . used because it actually often appears in dreams in a personified form. P. 174

The shadow is not the whole . . . it represents unknown or little-known attributes of the ego. P. 174

When an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in other people . . . such as egotism, mental laziness, sloppiness, unreal fantasies, schemes, plots, carelessness, cowardice, inordinate love of money and possessions . . . in short, all the little sins about which he might previously have told himself: "that doesn't matter". P. 174

If you feel an overwhelming rage coming up in you when a friend reproaches you about a fault, you can be fairly sure . . . you will find a part of your shadow, of which you are unconscious. P. 174

. . . the work of self-education begins . . . a work, we might say, that is the psychological equivalent of the labors of Hercules. P. 174

. . . a task so enormous that the ordinary mortal would be overcome by discouragement at the mere thought of it. P. 174

. . . shadow does not consist only of omissions. . . just as often in an impulsive or inadvertent act. . . the shadow is exposed to collective infections . . . when a man is alone . . . he feels all right, but as soon as "the others" do dark . . . things, he begins to fear that if he doesn't join in he will be considered a fool. P. 175

. . . he gives way to impulses that do not belong to him at all. P. 175

If people observe their own unconscious tendencies in other people, this is called "projection". Projections of all kinds obscure our view of our fellow men, spoiling its objectivity, and . .. all possibility of genuine human relations. P. 181

Whether our shadow becomes our friend or enemy depends largely upon ourselves. The shadow becomes hostile only when he is ignored or misunderstood. P. 182

Sometimes . . . an individual feels impelled to live out the worse side of his nature and to repress his better side. P. 182

So, whatever form it takes, the function of the shadow is to represent the opposite side of the ego and to embody just those qualities that one dislikes most in other people. P. 182

There is such a passionate drive within the shadow that reason may not prevail against it. A bitter experience coming from outside may occasionally help; a brick, so to speak, has to drop on one's head to put a stop to shadow drives and impulses. At times a heroic decision may serve to halt them, but such a superhuman effort is usually possible only if the Great Man within (the Self) helps the individual to carry it through. P. 182

The discovery of the unconscious is one of the most far-reaching discoveries of recent times. But the fact that recognition of its unconscious reality involves honest self-examination and reorganization of one's life causes many people to continue to behave as if nothing at all has happened. P. 185

It takes a lot of courage to . . . tackle the problems it raises. Most people are too indolent to think deeply about even those moral aspects of their behavior of which they are conscious; they are certainly too lazy to consider how the unconscious affects them. P. 185

[Peter Presland]

This thread seems like a good place to broach (and heartily recommend) 'The Archdruid Report' to the forum.

First a quick disclaimer I am not a Druid; I don't know much about Druidism; nor am I inclined to dig into it.

That said, I have followed Jean Michael Greer's Blog since he started it a few years ago. He is North America's 'Archdruid' - but please don't let that put you off. I have stayed with his blog for the very simple reason that most of his weekly posts have nothing whatsoever to do with Druidism. Instead they offer uniformly insightful commentary on the plight of humanity as we enter the decline of the industrial age.

His latest post is no exception. In the context of a constructive criticism of Carolyn Baker's latest book he says: .... psychologically, this might best be described in Jungian terms as a bad case of projecting the shadow". Hence my choice of this thread to draw attention to it. Here is the opening paragraph:

"Of all the fallacies that surround the contemporary crisis of industrial civilization, and have done so much to bring that crisis down on us, the most seductive is the assumption that it’s a technical problem that can be solved by technical means. That’s an easy assumption to make, for a variety of reasons, but it puts us in the situation of the drunkard in the old joke who looks for his keys under the street light half a block from the dark side walk where he dropped them, since under the street light he can at least see what he’s doing."

The rest is well worth reading - as are most of his posts - IMHO of course.

PS
I guess further discussion of the substantive issues it deals with (as opposed to a psychological examination of what underlies them) would be better conducted under a separate category

[David Guyatt]

I particularly liked the following quote from above:

No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans,* the demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey.... We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.
"The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans" (1945)
*Written I945.

Were he alive today I wonder where he might have directed his thought as to the identity of the self-righteous "new victim" sought by the demons to replace 1940's Germany?

However, the truly great danger to mankind, as Jung has repeatedly noted throughout his work, is the Collective Shadow - and to the extent that each one of us comprise an atom in that vast lurching body, we are each individually responsible for the approaching storm.

We must hope that a sufficient number of courageous souls step forward and take the responsibility of reclaiming their shadow projections, thus reducing the Collective darkness that is now huffing and puffing at our door, threatening to blow our house down.

[David Guyatt]

This thread seems like a good place to broach (and heartily recommend) 'The Archdruid Report' to the forum.

First a quick disclaimer I am not a Druid; I don't know much about Druidism; nor am I inclined to dig into it.

That said, I have followed Jean Michael Greer's Blog since he started it a few years ago. He is North America's 'Archdruid' - but please don't let that put you off. I have stayed with his blog for the very simple reason that most of his weekly posts have nothing whatsoever to do with Druidism. Instead they offer uniformly insightful commentary on the plight of humanity as we enter the decline of the industrial age.

His latest post is no exception. In the context of a constructive criticism of Carolyn Baker's latest book he says: .... psychologically, this might best be described in Jungian terms as a bad case of projecting the shadow". Hence my choice of this thread to draw attention to it. Here is the opening paragraph:

"Of all the fallacies that surround the contemporary crisis of industrial civilization, and have done so much to bring that crisis down on us, the most seductive is the assumption that it’s a technical problem that can be solved by technical means. That’s an easy assumption to make, for a variety of reasons, but it puts us in the situation of the drunkard in the old joke who looks for his keys under the street light half a block from the dark side walk where he dropped them, since under the street light he can at least see what he’s doing."

The rest is well worth reading - as are most of his posts - IMHO of course.

PS
I guess further discussion of the substantive issues it deals with (as opposed to a psychological examination of what underlies them) would be better conducted under a separate category

Thanks Peter. I haven't heard of him before and will now step over and take a closer look. I also very much enjoyed the opening paragraph you quoted.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131


It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware.

"On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35

I have met my shadow.

I know my shadow.

I have fought my shadow.

I have not always won.

But the history of great men is the history of those shadows that have been indulged, encouraged, given power over armies, intelligence agencies, nations.

Given the power of life and death.

From a distance.

From behind a desk of polished oak.

With tragic and catastrophic consequences.

These men believe their shadow speaks truth.

In fact, they are the slaves of their shadow, slaves to the shadow incubus, possessed by the shadow succubus.

They are murderers.

[David Guyatt]

Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.

"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131


It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware.

"On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35

I have met my shadow.

I know my shadow.

I have fought my shadow.

I have not always won.

But the history of great men is the history of those shadows that have been indulged, encouraged, given power over armies, intelligence agencies, nations.

Given the power of life and death.

From a distance.

From behind a desk of polished oak.

With tragic and catastrophic consequences.

These men believe their shadow speaks truth.

In fact, they are the slaves of their shadow, slaves to the shadow incubus, possessed by the shadow succubus.

They are murderers.

How true Jan. Hitler would never have had the power he gained had the German people not been deeply captured by their inferiority/Wotan Shadow and thus ripe for stiff right arm brutality and horror.

Those who are conscious of their shadow are far harder to engage. Hence becoming conscious of and doing battle with one's own dark splinter was said by Jung to be the task of the hero - mythologically speaking - or in the Arthurian cycle it is those Knights who, facing great perils, ultimately achieved the Grail.

http://erelshalit.blogspot.com/2008/08/hero.html

Excerpt from Erel Shalit's Enemy, Cripple & Beggar:
Shadows in the Hero's Path

The Hero

“Where id was, there ego shall be,” proclaims Freud.7 By interpretation, the unconscious is made conscious. Interpretation is the sword of psychoanalysis, splitting the enigmas of the unconscious into intelligible slices of consciousness. A symbol’s multitude of meanings becomes the unitary signs and banners of consciousness. The ego, which in Jungian thought stands at the center of consciousness and conscious identity, may be stiffly bound to the totem of collective consciousness, to norms and conventions. Alternatively, the ego may bravely turn around to face what lies in the unconscious.

For this purpose, the ego needs the hero. The notion of the hero in Jung’s analytical psychology represents that particular aspect of the ego that ventures into the darkness of the shadow, searches for “the treasure, the princess, the ring, the golden egg, elixir of life, etc.,” which, as Daryl Sharp says, all are “metaphors for one’s true feelings and unique potential.”8 By means of its hero-function, the ego turns toward the Self and a vital and dynamic relationship between them is made possible. As Joseph Campbell succinctly says, “The effect of the successful adventure of the hero is the unlocking and release again of the flow of life into the body of the world.”9

While on the one hand “the hero symbolizes a man’s unconscious self,”10 he also brings victory to consciousness; “The hero’s main feat is to overcome the monster of darkness: it is the long-hoped-for and expected triumph of consciousness over the unconscious,” says Jung.11 The hero must defeat the dragon, escape being devoured by it, and then return safely, even if marked by bitter strife, to the kingdom of the ego. As Jung says:
In myths the hero is the one who conquers the dragon, not the one who is devoured by it. And yet both have to deal with the same dragon. Also, he is no hero who never met the dragon, or who, if he once saw it, declared afterwards that he saw nothing. Equally, only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the hoard, the “treasure hard to attain.”12
And there, upon his return, the hero himself risks being devoured by consciousness, losing his heroic stamina, establishing the new rule with its new norms and conventions, yielding to his own uncompromising kingship.

Freud’s myth circles around psychosexual development and genital maturity, attaining the capacity for love and work. Jung’s myth is the myth of meaning, and the meaning that is to be found in the mythical, as it has so pertinently been expressed.

Jung said that the problem of modern man is mythlessness. Without a guiding myth and a sense for the mythical, when exclusively relying on the ego and concrete reality, and by being disconnected from the archetypal energies of the gods, man experiences meaninglessness. “The loss of a central myth brings about a truly apocalyptic condition,” says Edinger.13

The central, nuclear myth of Jungian psychoanalysis is the Hero-myth, because the psychological essence of the hero is to abandon the kingdom of the ego, to challenge the norms and obsessions of collective consciousness and the persona—the face of social adaptation—and to search for meaning. The absence of meaning is the essence of neurosis, which, Jung says, “must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.”14 When Sartre says that man is “the incontestable author” who, condemned to freedom, “is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being,”15 he speaks of heroic man. For Freud, “heroism involves relations with parents and instincts,” says Robert Segal,16 while for Jung the hero’s grand opus concerns the relation with the unconscious. The hero goes forth into the netherworld of the shadow, in spite of being threatened by the monsters that lurk in the darkness of the unconscious, to save an endangered soul, an anima in captivity, or to redeem a dormant myth or mythical motif, which he has to bring into consciousness. The hero thereby creates a new sense of meaning and relatedness.

That is, the Jungian myth of meaning is consciousness, not in the sense of an ego-consciousness that replaces the unconscious (“Where id was, there ego shall be”), but in the sense of the hero who awakens the soul that otherwise lies dormant and barren in the unconscious. We might call this the ensouled ego—an ego-consciousness that turns toward the unknown, the gods, the world soul, and the self. Yes, toward sexuality as well, making the blood pulsate, streaming through the soul. It is Prometheus not just stealing the fire from the gods, but a human consciousness that keeps the fire of eros and logos, of heart and spirit, burning.


Erel Shalit's Enemy, Cripple, & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published book The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego can be purchased at http://www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799

7 Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, SE 22, p. 80. (SE refers throughout to The Standard Edition of the Works of Sigmund Freud)
8 Daryl Sharp, Jung Lexicon, p. 59.
9 The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 40
10 “The Dual Mother,” CW 5, par. 516.
11 “The Psychology of the Child Archetype,” CW 9i, par. 284.
12 “The Conjunction,” CW 14, par. 756.
13 Edward Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness, p. 10.
14 “Psychotherapists or the Clergy,” CW 11, par. 497.
15 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, p. 707.
16 Robert A. Segal, Introduction, In Quest of the Hero, p. xvi.

[David Guyatt]

For any who have an interest....

The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 m http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
The Emerald Tablet of Hermes: The Wisdom and Responsibility of the Rosicrucians
Zoran Petrowanowitsch
Herrgasse 2b
D – 79294 Soelden
Abstract
The ancient text of the Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), after it had been translated into Latin, has taken a prominent position within the spirituality of the West. The few surviving lines have inspired a whole epoch, so that one may speak of a time before and a time after its discovery. As a graphic enhancement, the text later received an emblem and the whole was included into the book Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.1
After this contribution initially outlines the history of the text and the emblems, it will concentrate, with the aid of selected images from Rosicrucian and alchemical literature of the late middle ages, on the interpretation of the individual symbols of the emblem. When these different images of the emblem in their symbolic meaning, as well as in their relationship to each other, are analyzed and become clear, they will open themselves up to modern consciousness. Thus it will become apparent that the emblem of the Emerald Tablet deserves to take a central place within the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, as it represents the essence of Rosicrucian wisdom.
Introduction
If there are only a few references to other contributions in this paper, then this is due to the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, there is little pertinent literature on the subject in existence. Since “outer science” can be of little help in the analysis of the enigma of the Emerald Tablet and its emblem, one has to find an “inner” way. However, scientific methodology has its application in the comprehension of the law of evolution of the human soul.
Since a certain knowledge of a subject is a precondition for creating and confirming a scientific work, there is also a certain degree of “inner” knowledge required to confirm and corroborate the results that are presented here.
With that, we will turn to the text of the Emerald Tablet and especially the emblem that is part of it, to interpret step by step the meaning that is contained in them.
The text of the Tabula Smaragdina (Latin for Emerald Tablet), was first cited in only a few lines at the end of the book “Sirr”, an Arabic work of the 7th Century and early Islam. The term “Sirr” is derived from the Arabic and translated means “On the secret of Creation.”2 The author was Balinus, and the text was supposedly first translated by a Christian priest. Through research and comparison with literature of the time, the name Balinus could be determined as the Arabic form of Apollonius of Tyana.
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 n http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
Appollonios of Tyana was a Greek sage, well known in the first Christian century, who, supposedly lived to be a hundred years. He influenced the political fate of Rome and thus that of Christianity, and for the last part of his life he lived with John the Evangelist, who was of approximately the same age, on the Isle of Patmos. Whether there had been exchanges between the two sages, is not historically confirmed.
During the first half of the 13th Century the book “Sirr,” and thus the text of the Tabula Smaragdine was translated into Latin, which introduced it to the West. The several translations do not differ materially. However, the sequence of the particular sentences and the statements therein evoke the impression that they do not represent the entire text.
It is true without lie, it is certain in the truest!
That which is below is equal to that which is above. And what is above is equal to what is below to realize the miracle of the unique thing.
As all things are created by the One and His plan, so are all things originating from the One, by adaptation.
Its father is the sun, its mother is the moon.
The wind has born it in its belly.
Its nurturer is the earth.
It is the father of all perfection of all the world and all its virtue is perfect.
When it is changed into earth, all its power is gathered together.
Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, step by step and with great understanding.
It rises to heaven from the earth and down again to the earth and thereby receives the power of the upper and the lower.
Thus you gain the glory of all the world. Above, all ignorance will leave you. The unique is of all the strengths the strongest strength. It defeats all subtle things and permeates all solids.
In this way, the cosmic was created.
This is from whence stem all the magnificent emulations, the way of which is described herein.
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 o http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
he human soul and that
f the earth.
f
he
miracle of the unique thing”.
This is why I am called the trice-great Hermes because I possess the three parts of the wisdom of all the world.
What I have said of the workings of the sun is complete and perfect.
In 1604 in a different book, the Aureum Vellus3, an emblem was printed along with the accompanying, explanatory text. The interpretation of the emblem by the text is marked by strongly alchemical methods of expression. The emblem originally appears without coloration. Then, over time it takes on different colored characteristics and finally, in 1785 is integrated into the here represented as the antique text of the Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis and into the book of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians (figure 1).
Though the Rosicrucians used the symbolic language of the alchemists, they did so, not seeking to turn base metals into gold. Rather, they sought to broaden the human consciousness to, responsibly, participate in the evolution of culture. Yet it is striking, how the different symbolicimages of the alchemists, from the metamorphoses of the elements to the imaginative experience contained therein, relate to the evolution of t
o
It is therefore reasonable to assumethat the alchemists applied the law-governed process of the evolution othe inner soul to the outer world of the elements in accordance with the statement of ttabula: “That which is below is equal to that which is above. And that which is above is equal to that which is below to realize the
Interpretation of the emblems of the “Emerald Tablet”
To better illustrate the individual steps in the interpretation of the emblem of the Emerald Tablet, let us think of it as four equal quarters, divided by a cross. Thus, the upper left quarter shows the sun (gold-yellow), the planet Mars (red), and Saturn (gray-black). The right quarter shows the moon (blue-crescent silver-white) and the planets Venus (green), and Jupiter (blue). Thus the following groups and oppositions emerge:
Sun – Moon
Mars – Venus
Saturn - Jupiter
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 p http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
tly
y of
On the left sun-side, the qualities of Saturn and Mars, and on the right, moon-side the Mars and Jupiter qualities are concentrated.
When we look separately at the left side, because of the missing Venus and Jupiter, Saturn (because of the constriction) and Mars (of the ego) stand for the heightened experience and understanding of the world through the intellect.
In the symbolism of the imagination, this state of the soul is expressed as a “dragon.”
When we look at the right side separately, Jupiter and Venus, because of the absence of the consciously structuring qualities of Mars and Saturn, stand for the lack of structure and the one-sided devotion (Jupiter) and emotions (Venus) that arises from it, which we find expressed by the imaginative image of the snake.
Viewed in this way, the masculine and feminine qualities face each other in their one-sided-ness as dragon and snake.
The harmonization of the polar soul-life
Figure 2 shows the each-other devouring dragon and snake as the first level of polarity. Dragon and snake stand for the two polar principles of our consciousness. Emotions that emerge from unclear thoughts, and thoughts that emerge from emotions create a constanself- consuming and out of itself, newly born realitunreality, which determine our life in its progression. The background of the image is sparse but the unfolding flower points at further-evolving possibilities outside of this circle-bound movement. In its purity, the flower stands for an inner attitude, in which the one-sided aspects are not denied but, through the respective inclusion of the opposite poles, are harmonized. This power that binds the ego increasingly to the head, and thus permits the world mainly to be experienced through the intellect, can therefore be changed into a positive quality of conscious concentration, of attentiveness.
The power of this lack of structure, which leaves the soul to the emotions without limitation, we may therefore turn into conscious, loving devotion.
While the soul qualities of attentiveness and devotion compliment each other in the main, the soul mood of the “holy sobriety”, the reason of the middle, emerges in turn. This will be of important significance on the further path of spirituality.
2
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 q http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
ebirth
son”
e
Sun and moon, situated over the planets represent in the emblem the second plane of polarity, the purified aspect of the planets, which have changed into the mental ability of conscious attentiveness and the ability of the soul for loving devotion. Together, they build the condition to bring forth the “new person,” who will lead us to the next step of the Rosicrucian teachings, the intuitive experience of the macrocosmic equivalent.
The Birth of The “New Person” as The Prerequisite for The Intuitive Experience of The Equivalent Of Macro- And Microcosm
Figure 3 represents the birth of the new person from the loins of the cosmic virgin Sophia, corresponding to the following lines of the Tabula.
His father is the sun, his mother is the moon. The wind carried him in his belly.
These images contain no poetic analogies but real inner experiences. Human beings, through the harmonization of the polarities, overcome their common point of reference in the head, whereby we descend into the belly cavity, and, in the darkness, and experience “intermittently,” from which they “ascend” as “new persons,” and “heavenly children.”
In the emblem of the Emerald Tablet this process of ris represented through the flowing together of the purifiedqualities of mind and soul, and thus bear the “new perMercury (Hermes), showing that the planet sign, Mercury,is the only symbol that unites the qualities of the other planets that are expressed in the symbolic elements of bowl, circle and cross. Thereby Hermes harmonizes thpolarities of male and female and becomes the androgynous messenger of heaven, who acts on the vertical plane of up and down, of heaven and earth, as the mediator.
Such a being we see depicted in figure 4. The picture also points to the next phase of awakening, the “ascension to heaven.”
A blue eagle carries aloft the purified, naked being (the synthesis of sun and moon). The polar, sensual sexuality of the male and the female is united by the overcoming of the
3
4
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 r http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
restless thoughts (hare/day) on the one hand and the purified emotions (bat/night) on the other. However, the heads of the man and woman still show a duality, which points to the still existing, yet now no longer exclusive but complementing polarity of the newly reached plane of consciousness beyond the sensual. This symbol of the purified self, the new being, is where the eagle carries it. It “blooms” into a “blue flower,” becomes “space” and thus experiences its macrocosmic equivalence.
For Rosicrucians, this is the sphere of the “cosmic virgin Sophia,” the primordial face of the soul, shines in its purified, wisdom-filled state in a star-spangled pure blue.
In the emblem of the Emerald Tablet, this state of consciousness, the intuitive experience of the equivalence of micro- and macrocosm is represented by a circle in the center of the image.
When we summarize what has been described so far, we will recognize that what is depicted in the upper half of the emblem of the Emerald Tablet is the personal, spiritual path of evolution of humanity from the harmonization of the polar life of the soul, through the birth of the “new person,” to the “heavenly ascension,” the intuitive experience of the sphere of Sophia.
The lower half of the Emerald Tablet - the return to earth
The lower half of the emblem is marked by the three shields, which are connected to one another, as well as to the middle ring, by a golden chain.
On the left side, the shield shows a double eagle colored red on a white background on one side and colored white on a red background on the other. On the right, we see a green lion on a yellow background. Below in the image the trinity is concluded with a seven-pointed star, which in its rays represents the seven planets. To the sides of the star are shown cosmos and earth. They signify that on this plane of evolution, cosmic as well secular powers have to fertilize each other to further the evolution in time. In the picture of the earth, the land is shown brown and the oceans are shown blue. The cosmos symbolizes the blue level of consciousness of the Sophia, the fixed star contained in this sphere and the polar qualities of sun and moon. The meaning of the imperial orb, red with a yellow ring and topped with a yellow cross, that sits on the seven-pointed star, will become apparent through the further contemplation of the three shields.
Let us continue with the further interpretation of the emblem with a look at the double eagle.
The Double Eagle as the Continuing Polarity of the Consciousness of the Sphere of Sophia
To understand the meaning of the double eagle, let us return to the image of the blue eagle that carries aloft the androgynous being, the reborn soul beyond the sensual
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 s http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
polarity, and which stands symbolically for the purified soul and the self. It lifts it to heaven and into the sphere of the cosmic Sophia.
As we have determined with the representation of the androgynous being, the consciousness for which it stands, though it is to be found beyond the sensual polarity, remains polar but corresponding to itself and not, as on the sensual plane, in a self exclusive way. The qualities of male and female remain intact.
This remaining polarity in the sphere of Sophia is what the double eagle points to. Although the consciousness, symbolized by the circle, is a self-contained unity, it shows itself in its passive-female (moon-silver-devotion) and male-active aspect (Mars-red-self). Thus the white eagle expresses the quality of the moon and the red eagle that of the sun in its self-quality on the level of Sophia. Their backgrounds represent the opposite colors, which points to the inseparable connection of the two qualities. One pole comes out of the other and in turn bears the first in its great revelation.
The empty circle symbolizes the still undeveloped nature of consciousness, which in its “emptiness” is nonetheless, directly creative and forth-bringing since the greatest “emptiness” by the spiritual principle as we have encountered with the double eagle, simultaneously brings forth an opposite pole from itself.
From the Rosicrucian standpoint, however, there is a danger in the state of consciousness that is symbolized by the double eagle. To understand this, let us once more return to figure 3 of “The Ergon and Parergon of the Rosicrucians” by Theophilus Schweighart.
The Ergon and Parergon of the Rosicrucians as the “golden” and the “silver” path.
The meaning of the title of the picture is: The primary work (Ergon) and the secondary work (Parergon). As is apparent from the picture, the individual, the inner development of humanity is understood by the Rosicrucians as the secondary work. Were men and women to remain in their inner development on the plane of the “secondary work,” according to Schweighart, they would be better off sunk to the bottom of the ocean with a mill stone around their necks.”4
Thus, the Rosicrucians divide the inner path of development into a “minor work” and a “major work”. The “minor work” is completed when the seeker, as shown in the picture, changes base metals into silver, as the alchemists tried to accomplish in reality.
Understood on a deeper level, the object is to master the starry sphere, to which has been attached the metal silver and the moon sphere. So, the “minor work” or parergon corresponds to the level of the intuitive experience of the Sophia. The Rosicrucian understands this level of consciousness to be the secondary work, since it “only” represents the precondition, to behold this spiritual sun, this spiritual being, the Christ, which, to him, is the actual source of his work.
The Rose+Croix Journal 2009 – Vol 6 t http://www.rosecroixjournal.org
In the symbols of sun and moon, when they are shown together, we see the polarities of masculine and feminine. According to the understanding of the Rosicrucians, when the sun is depicted by itself in its spiritual aspect, it represents the Christ., which is expressed in figure 5, an image from the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians. From Jesse, the father of King David of Israel, grows the root of the family tree of Christ, the spiritual sun.
So, through figure 5, we are led to a significant moment within the Rosicrucian initiation. Should students decide on the “silver path,” the one of the moon, they will -- in the sphere of cosmic wisdom -- take possession of such an all inclusive place in this life, that they will detach themselves from the “Evolution of the earth in time.” If, on the other hand, they seek the powers of the sun with the ego, which seed-like are slumbering in the sphere of Sophia, in order to awaken them in this renewed direction towards earth in time, then they follow the “golden path,” the one of the Christ.
Through the realization of the “minor work,” individuality is born in the experience of the sphere of the Sophia. However, it only comes to unfoldment through the dedication to and cooperation with the evolution of the earth, the “major work,” which comes to expression in the following sentences of the Emerald Tablet:
It climbs to heaven from earth and down again to the earth and thereby receives the power of the upper and the lower.
Thus you gain the glory of all the world. Above, all ignorance will leave you. The unique is of all the strengths the strongest strength because it defeats all subtle things and penetrates all solids.
The green lion, the uniting with the suns, the Christ powers
The second shield coming out of the circle is a green lion on a yellow background. It carries the quality of the sun in the seekers that they have internalized from the sphere of Sophia as a seed, which is the path, the truth and the goal for them. This is expressed in the yellow background. As nature, though the affect of the sun, begins to become green again, so too, in the picture of the lion, the newborn individuality seeks to internalize in its heart the sun quality, the Christ.
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This inner process is clarified in the next image figure 6. The moon drifts on the mirror- smooth ocean. In realizing the sphere of the Sophia, the consciousness, through the calming of the turbulent waves of the emotions and imaginations, is turned into a “mirror,” which permits it to view reality without distortion. The seven stars on its body indicate that together with the qualities of the seven planets in the flow of time, it goes the way of the sun by devouring it in the emblem.
The Seven-Pointed Star: The Way of Transforming the Earth by Turning to its Center.
The shield of the double eagle and that of the green lion surround the lowest shield of the seven-pointed star in the emblem. Wisdom and the self-powers that slumber seed-like in this sphere, now turn to the seven-count of time when individuality recognizes wisdom not as an end in itself but as a prerequisite. Out of this understanding, Rosicrucians attached a special meaning to the symbol of the seven-pointed star.
Through figure 7, we can understand in greater detail the different planes of inner evolution, as they are shown in the seven-pointed star in the emblem of the Emerald Tablet.
In the upper part of the triangle, we see the sun and the moon as the two aspects of the mirror-like consciousness of the Sophia, as depicted by the wing. When those two qualities, as they are represented in the shields of the green lion and the eagle, turn towards the lover point of the triangle, the body that is the earth in the space of evolution of the number 7 then the soul starts on the way that is indicated by the seven points.
The inscription around the circle in the Emerald Tablet has the same meaning as the one around the picture of the seven-pointed star: “ Vista interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem.” Which means: “Search out the nether part of the earth, perfect it, and you will find the hidden stone.” This statement is called the VITRIOL formula since the initials of the seven words form the word VITRIOL, which to the alchemists meant the transformation of base matter into gold and to the Rosicrucians the transformation of earth into sun.
The soul, which in the beginning of the way to heaven, turned to the sphere of fixed stars beyond Saturn to experience its pure, cosmic, original state, shall now turn to the center of the earth. There, it is said, it will find the hidden stone. As the outermost of the planets, Saturn marked the gate to the sphere of the fixed-stars. However, in the seven-pointed star, it represents the gate to the center of the earth.
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When, in the sequence of numbers one to seven we begin with Saturn and proceed clockwise to the Moon, then the human soul is directed again on its way from heaven to the earth.
1
Saturn
2
Jupiter
3
Mars
4
Sun
5
Venus
6
Mercury
7
Moon
The next plane of evolution opens up through the seven-pointed star, when we follow the flow of time, signified by the rays of the star.
Saturn
Sun
Moon
Mars
Mercury
Jupiter
Venus
This new figure of a seven-pointed star corresponds to the sequence of the days of the week in the flow of time and, when we begin with Saturn, to the evolutionary development of the earth through the different planetary states in time.5 Thus, through the symbol of the seven-pointed star, reference is made also to the cosmic development of the earth and therefore to the actual task of the Rosicrucian initiate. The turning of the individuality from the sphere of the Sophia to the earth and to the flow of time, and then further to the center of the earth, opens a new dimension of being, which connects directly to the Christ and the evolution of the earth.
Before we turn to the last symbol in the emblem of the Emerald Tablet, the “Orb of Empire,” above the seven-pointed star, we must deal with further, inner planes of human evolution that are necessary to its realization, and that lead from the cosmic through the human heart to the inner part of the earth.
“Three Natural Suns of the World” As Threefold Revelation of the Christ
Attention should be given to an easily overlooked
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representation from the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians. It is called “Drey natürliche Sonnen in der Welt” (Three natural suns of the World) (Figure 8)
The representation names as follows:
“The great sun in the sky. Father and Mother of all creatures.”
then “the small sun within us” and
“the lowest sun inside the earth.”
From the point of view of the Rosicrucians, the Christ is revealed to humanity in this image of the three suns, in a three-fold way, where the Sophia-consciousness is not understood as an end in itself but as a gift, to once again turn from the vastness of space to time. The same wisdom is expressed in the prologue to the Gospel of John. We will here present only the pertinent sentences:
In the beginning there was only the word…Through it, all things became.
In it there was life and life was the light of humanity.
And the light shone in the darkness; but darkness did not accept it.6
The cosmic sun is the Christ in the first revelation as the original word SELF. The second, smaller sun is the Christ in the second revelation in humanity as the source of life itself, the intrinsic light that comes to us from the heart. The third, lowest sun inside the earth, we find once more depicted separately in the book, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians (Figure 9). It is the imagination of the crucified Christ inside the earth, who has taken upon himself anew the cross of the material.
In the “minor work,” metals are turned into silver, that is, the soul/body is purified of subjectivity. In the “major work,” a “desire to redeem” is achieved, through this completed sacrificial action in the harmonization of the three suns. Through this, men and women work consciously with the Christ in the transformation of the earth to gold, to a new sun. However, this requires our exertion of free will, to which the Christ, as represented in figure 9, holds forth his arms in an attitude of expectation. It is an “invitation,” rather than a moral demand on us to cooperate in the completion of the “great work.”
The “Cosmic Rose”
The second, central sun in us we find represented in the symbolic language of the Rosicrucians by figure 10, and in Christian representations by figure 11. It shows Christ
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pointing to a burning heart on his chest that has a burning flame on top. On the one hand, the heart is the source of life but it is also the gate through which the soul finds the Christ. Here we not only have suggestive imagery but also realistic Statements. This level of evolution is expressed in Rosicrucianism in the imaginary picture of the phoenix.
When the green lion devours the sun and turns into the red lion, the rose that is in the center of the cross, unfolds. The door of the heart opens up and the liberated soul soars, as the firebird phoenix, up to the Christ-sun to embrace it longingly with its wings.
The symbol of the Rosy Cross is derived from the inner experience. It is meant to remind us that we carry in our hearts the way to the Christ, the actual source of Rosicrucian wisdom.
Since this process of the coming-closer to the Christ, our true being, is an everlasting one, the sun-bird phoenix has to repeat forever this transformation, the death and resurrection.
Thus we now have two levels of experience for the rebirth of the soul. In the eagle, image of the purified soul, humanity enters through the first door to the intuitive experience of consciousness, the cosmic wisdom of the Sophia. In the imaginative image of the fire/sun bird phoenix we move through the second door of the heart and seek union with the macrocosmic equivalent of his self with the Christ.
The process described here we find depicted in the following emblem of figure 12. The picture bears a Latin inscription of “ IN HOC SIGNO VINCES”, which means: “In this sign you will be victorious.” It shows a sun with five main flames and eight smaller ones in between. The five stands for humanity and for the rose, the eight for the exaltation of the four elements, the resurrection. Thus we have in the picture of the “cosmic Rose,” the resurrection of humanity (phoenix) and the endeavor to unite with the cosmic Christ, the archetype of the self.
The unfolding of the cosmic rose begins a new plane of evolution of the soul, in which men and women find themselves at the beginning of an -- as yet un-dreamt of -- dimension of the active will. We sense the infinite expanse of a mystery, which will always be a living enigma to us.
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If we have, in the realization of the cosmic Sophia, experienced and recognized the eternal part of our soul, the consciousness then begins, with the approach to the Christ, with the rising of the soul from the heart – imaged by the sunbird phoenix -- to the Christ-sun, the active co-responsibility towards the evolution of the earth. These are events that happen within us as within the earth. Thus, we will be able to understand the final symbol on the emblem of the Tabula, the red imperial orb above the seven-pointed star. Through the power of the awakened self, it is the Christ-suffused earth that is turned into gold, a new sun, a cosmic heart in the evolution through the seven levels of the planetary evolution in time.
This journey receives the blessing of the spiritual world by the two hands that reach out from the clouds.
Closing Remarks
Though the aid of a series of emblems, primarily from the Rosicrucian literature, we have attempted a differentiated explanation of the meaning of the text and especially the emblem of the Emerald Tablet.
Research revealed that the upper half of the emblem showed a microcosmic path of evolution of the human soul, while the symbols of the lower half dealt with the macrocosmic path, the task of humanity with regard to the evolution of the earth. It is further pointed out that the heart, the source of Rosicrucian wisdom, constitutes the way to unity with the Christ, our true nature. From these connections, we also recognized the actual experience, from which the symbol of the Rosy Cross is derived.
As one approaches the text of the Tabula, it would appear that there are gaps in the inner levels of evolution. However, as was shown by our research, the emblem, which had been added to the text later, not only pictorially supplements the text but also serves as a stand-alone representation. Though it lends substance to the statements of the text, it also goes far beyond as it indicates the wisdom and task of Rosicrucianism for the evolution of humanity and the earth.
Bibliography:
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Arndt, Ulrich, Metall Essenzen (Metal Essences), Freiburg 2003
Bachmann, Manuel/Hofmeier, Thomas, Geheimnisse der Alchemie (Secrets of Alchemy) Basel 1978.
Die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreuz (The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz), Basel 1978.
Evola, Julius, Die Hermetische Tradition (The Hermetic Tradition), Munich 2001
Frick, Karl R., Licht und Finsterniss (Light and Darkness), Graz 1973
Frick, Karl R., Die Erleuchteten (The Illuminati), Graz 1973
Gebelein, Helmut, Alchemie (Alchemy), Munich 2000
Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer (Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians), Hamburg, 1785/88, new edition, Berlin 1919
Jung, C. G., Psychologie und Alchemie (Psychology and Alchemy), Olten 1972
Kiesewetter, Carl, Die Geheimwissenschaften (The Secret Sciences), Wiesbaden 2005
Kiesewetter, Carl, Geschichte des neueren Okkultismus (The Story of The More Recent Occultism), Munich 2004
Peuckert, Will-Erich, Geheimkulte (Secret Cults), Hamburg 2005
Peuckert, Will-Erich, Die Rosenkreuzer (The Rosicrucians), Jena 1928
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Salomon Trismosin, Aureum Vellus oder Gueldin Schatz und Kunstkammer (Aureum Vellus or Golden Treasure and Art Chamber), Basel 1604, III, 409
Schick, Dr. Hans Das aeltere Rosenkreuzertum (The older Rosicrucianism), Berlin 1942
Schweighart, Theophilus, Speculum Sophicum Rhodo – Stauroticum, Frankfurt 1618
Steiner, Rudolf, Die Theosuphie des Rosenkreu
.zers ( The Theosophy of the Rosicrucian), Dornach 1968
Steiner, Rudolf, Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss (Outline of the Secret Science), Dornach 1968
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Steiner, Rudolf, Theosophie (Theosophy), Dornach 1961
Stracke, Viktor, Das Geistesgebaeude der Rosenkreuzer (The Spiritual House of the Rosicrucians), Dornach 2000
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Illustration Source
1 Tabula Smaragdina (Geheime Figuren dr Rosenkreuzer (Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians), Altona, 1785/88, new edition, Berlin 1919, Pg. 17
2 Abraham Eleazar, Uraltes chymisches Werk (Ancient Chymical Work), Leipzig, 1760
3 Theophilus Schweighart, Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum, Frankfurt 1618
4 Aurora Consurgens, 15th century, author unknown
5 Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians: “ The spiritual Sun”, Altona 1785/88, new edition, Berlin, 1919, Pg. 25
6 Stolcenberg, Stolcius von, Viridarium Chymicum, Berlin 1624
7 ebd.
8 Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, “The three natural suns of the world”. Altona , 1785/88, new edition, Berlin, 1919, pg. 14
9 Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, “The lowest sun in the earth”, Altona, 1785/88, new edition, Berlin, 1919. pg. 10
10 Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, “Illustration of the human heart of the old and the new creature”, Altona, 1785/88, new edition, Berlin, 1919, pg. 16
11 J. Mueller, Munich, ca. 1900
12 Heinrich Khumrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, “The Cosmic Rose”, Hamburg, 1595
Endnotes:
1 Geheime Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, Altona, 1785/88, new edition , Berlin 1919
2 Ursula Weisser, Das Buch ueber das Geheimnis der Schoepfung von Psuedo-Apollonios von Tyana ( The Book of the Secrets of Creation by Pseudo-Apollonios of Tyana), Berlin 1980
3 Trismosin, Salomon. Aureum Vellus oder Gueldin Schatz und Kunstkammer (Aureum Vellus or the golden Treasure and Art Chamber), Berlin 1604, III
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4 Schweighart, Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum, Frankfurt 1618
5 The evolution of the earth through the seven Phases is also dealt with by Rudolf Steiner in his book, Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss ( Outline of the Secret Science), Dornach, 1968
6 Emil Emil Bock, “Das neue Testament” (The New Testament), 1987