PART II

The Cosmogonic Cycle

 C H A 1> T K K

Emanations

• l •

From Psychology to Metaphysics

IT is not difficult for the modern intellectual to concede that the

symbolism of mythology has a psychological significance. Partic-
ularly after the work of the psychoanalysts, there can be little
doubt, either that myths are of the nature of dream, or that dreams
are symptomatic of the dynamics of the psyche. Sigmund Freud,
Carl G. Jung, Wilhelm Stekel, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Geza
Roheim, and many others have within the past few decades de-
veloped a vastly documented modern lore of dream and myth in-
terpretation; and though the doctors differ among themselves,
they are united into one great modern movement by a consider-
able body of common principles. With their discovery that the
patterns and logic of fairy tale and myth correspond to those of
dream, the long discredited chimeras of archaic man have re-
turned dramatically to the foreground of modern consciousness.
According to this view it appears that through the wonder tales—
which pretend to describe the lives of the legendary heroes, the
powers of the divinities of nature, the spirits of the dead, and the
totem ancestors of the group—symbolic expression is given to
the unconscious desires, fears, and tensions that underlie the
conscious patterns of human behavior. Mythology, in other
words, is psychology misread as biography; history, and cosmol-
ogy. The modern psychologist can translate it back to its proper
denotations and thus rescue for the contemporary world a rich

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and eloquent document of the profoundest depths of human the Divine Comedy of Dante, the Book of Genesis, and the time-
character. Exhibited here, as in a fluoroscope, stand revealed the less temples of the Orient? Until the most recent decades, these
hidden processes of the enigma Homo sapiens—Occidental and were the support of all human life and the inspiration of philoso-
Oriental, primitive and civilized, contemporary and archaic. The phy, poetry, and the arts. Where the inherited symbols have been
entire spectacle is before us. We have only to read it, study its touched by a Lao-tse, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ, or Mohammed—
constant patterns, analyze its variations, and therewith come to employed by a consummate master of the spirit as a vehicle of
an understanding of the deep forces that have shaped man's des- the profoundest moral and metaphysical instruction—obviously
tiny and must continue to determine both our private and our we are in the presence rather of immense consciousness than of
public lives. darkness.
But if we are to grasp the full value of the materials, we must And so, to grasp the full value of the mythological figures that
note that myths are not exactly comparable to dream. Their have come down to us, we must understand that they are not
figures originate from the same sources—the unconscious wells only symptoms of the unconscious (as indeed are all human
of fantasy—and their grammar is the same, but they are not the thoughts and acts) but also controlled and intended statements
spontaneous products of sleep. On the contrary, their patterns of certain spiritual principles, which have remained as constant
are consciously controlled. And their understood function is to throughout the course of human history as the form and nervous
serve as a powerful picture language for the communication of structure of the human physique itself. Briefly formulated, the
traditional wisdom. This is true already of the so-called primi- universal doctrine teaches that all the visible structures of the
tive folk mythologies. The trance-susceptible shaman and the world—all things and beings — are the effects of a ubiquitous
initiated antelope-priest are not unsophisticated in the wisdom power out of which they rise, which supports and fills them dur-
of the world, nor unskilled in the principles of communication ing the period of their manifestation, and back into which they
by analogy. The metaphors by which they live, and through which must ultimately dissolve. This is the power known to science as
they operate, have been brooded upon, searched, and discussed energy, to the Melanesians as mana, to the Sioux Indians as
for centuries —even millenniums; they have served whole soci- ivakonda, the Hindus as sliakti, and the Christians as the power
eties, furthermore, as the mainstays of thought and life. The cul- of God. Its manifestation in the psyche is termed, by the psycho-
ture patterns have been shaped to them. The youth have been analysts, libido) And its manifestation in the cosmos is the struc-
educated, and the aged rendered wise, through the study, expe- ture and flux of the universe itself.
rience, and understanding of their effective initiatory forms. For
The apprehension of the source of this undifferentiated yet
they actually touch and bring into play the vital energies of the
everywhere particularized substratum of being is rendered frus-
whole human psyche. They link the unconscious to the fields of
practical action, not irrationally, in the manner of a neurotic pro- trate by the very organs through which the apprehension must
jection, but in such fashion as to permit a mature and sobering, be accomplished. The forms of sensibility and the categories of
practical comprehension of the fact-world to play back, as a stern human thought,2 which are themselves manifestations of this
control, into the realms of infantile wish and fear. And if this be power,3 so confine the mind that it is normally impossible not
true of the comparatively simple folk mythologies (the systems
of myth and ritual by which the primitive hunting and fishing 1
Cf. C. G. Jung, "On Psychic Energy" (orig. 1928; Collected Works, vol. 8),
tribes support themselves), what may we say of such magnificent entitled in its earliest draft "The Theory of the Libido."
cosmic metaphors as those reflected in the great Homeric epics, - See Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.
3
Sanskrit: mdya-sakti.

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 EMANATIONS FROM PSYCHOLOGY TO M E T A P H Y S I C S

only to see, but even to conceive, beyond the colorful, fluid, source of the universal power but only the phenomenal forms
infinitely various and bewildering phenomenal spectacle. The reflected from that power, turns superconsciousness into uncon-
function of ritual and myth is to make possible, and then to facil- sciousness and, at the same instant and by the same token, creates
itate, the jump—by analogy. Forms and conceptions that the the world. Redemption consists in the return to superconscious-
mind and its senses can comprehend are presented and arranged ness and therewith the dissolution of the world. This is the great
in such a way as to suggest a truth or openness beyond. And theme and formula of the cosmogonic cycle, the mythical image
then, the conditions for meditation having been provided, the in- of the world's coming to manifestation and subsequent return
dividual is left alone. Myth is but the penultimate; the ultimate into the nonmanifest condition. Equally, the birth, life, and death
is openness—that void, or being, beyond the categories4—into of the individual may be regarded as a descent into unconscious-
which the mind must plunge alone and be dissolved. Therefore, ness and return. The hero is the one who, while still alive, knows
God and the gods are only convenient means—themselves of the and represents the claims of the superconsciousness which
nature of the world of names and forms, though eloquent of, and throughout creation is more or less unconscious. The adventure
ultimately conducive to, the ineffable. They are mere symbols to of the hero represents the moment in his life when he achieved
move and awaken the mind, and to call it past themselves.5 illumination—the nuclear moment when, while still alive, he
Heaven, hell, the mythological age, Olympus and all the other found and opened the road to the light beyond the dark walls of
habitations of the gods, are interpreted by psychoanalysis as our living death.
symbols of the unconscious. The key to the modern systems of And so it is that the cosmic symbols are presented in a spirit
psychological interpretation therefore is this: the metaphysical of thought-bewildering sublime paradox. The kingdom of God
realm = the unconscious. Correspondingly, the key to open the is within, yet without, also; God, however, is but a convenient
door the other way is the same equation in reverse: the uncon- means to wake the sleeping princess, the soul. Life is her sleep,
scious = the metaphysical realm. "For," as Jesus states it, "be- death the awakening. The hero, the waker of his own soul, is
hold, the kingdom of God is within you."6 Indeed, the lapse of himself but the convenient means of his own dissolution. God,
superconsciousness into the state of unconsciousness is precisely the waker of the soul, is therewith his own immediate death.
the meaning of the Biblical image of the Fall. The constriction of Perhaps the most eloquent possible symbol of this mystery is
consciousness, to which we owe the fact that we see not the that of the god crucified, the god offered, "himself to himself.'"
Read in one direction, the meaning is the passage of the phe-
* Beyond the categories, and therefore not denned by either of the pair of oppo- nomenal hero into superconsciousness: the body with its five
sites called "void" and "being.'1 Such terms are only clues to the transcendency.
senses—like that of Prince Five-weapons stuck to Sticky-hair—
This recognition of the secondary nature of the personality of whatever
deity is worshiped is characteristic of most of the traditions of the world (see, is left hanging to the cross of the knowledge of life and death,
for example, supra, p. 164, note 154). In Christianity, Mohammedanism, and pinned in five places (the two hands, the two feet, and the head
Judaism, however, the personality of the divinity is taught to be final—which crowned with thorns).8 But also, God has descended voluntar-
makes it comparatively difficult for the members of these communions to un-
derstand how one may go beyond the limitations of their own anthropomor- ily and taken upon himself this phenomenal agony. God assumes
phic divinity. The result has been, on the one hand, a general obfuscation of the life of man and man releases the God within himself at
the symbols, and on the other, a god-ridden bigotry such as is unmatched else- the mid-point of the cross-arms of the same "coincidence of
where in the history of religion. For a discussion of the possible origin of this
aberration, see Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (translated by James
Strachey; Standard Edn., XXIII, 1964). (Orig. 1939.) ' Supra, p. 176.
[i 8
Luke, 17:21. Supra, pp. 79-80.

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 EMANATIONS THE UNIVERSAL ROUND

1
opposites," ' the same sun door through which God descends revolves throughout a lifetime. According to an Aztec version,
and Man ascends—each as the other's food.1" each of the four elements—water, earth, air, and fire—terminates
The modern student may, of course, study these symbols as he a period of the world: the eon of the waters ended in deluge,
will, either as a symptom of others1 ignorance, or as a sign to that of the earth with an earthquake, that of air with a wind, and
him of his own, either in terms of a reduction of metaphysics to the present eon will be destroyed by flame."
psychology, or vice versa. The traditional way was to meditate on According to the Stoic doctrine of the cyclic conflagration, all
the symbols in both senses. In any case, they are telling metaphors souls are resolved into the world soul or primal fire. When this
of the destiny of man, man's hope, man's faith, and man's dark universal dissolution is concluded, the formation of a new uni-
mystery. verse begins (Cicero's renovatio), and all things repeat them-
selves, every divinity, every person, playing again his former
part. Seneca gave a description of this destruction in his "De
Consolatione ad Marciam," and appears to have looked forward
to living again in the cycle to come.1"2
A magnificent vision of the cosmogonic round is presented in
The Universal Round the mythology of the Jains. The most recent prophet and savior
of this very ancient Indian sect was Mahavira, a contemporary of
the Buddha (sixth century B.C.). His parents were already fol-
As the consciousness of the individual rests on a sea of night into lowers of a much earlier Jaina savior-prophet, Parshvanatha,
which it descends in slumber and out of which it mysteriously who is represented with snakes springing from his shoulders
wakes, so, in the imagery of myth, the universe is precipitated and is reputed to have flourished 872-772 B.C. Centuries before
out of, and reposes upon, a timelessness back into which it again Parshvanatha, there lived and died the Jaina savior Neminatha,
dissolves. And as the mental and physical health of the individ- declared to have been a cousin of the beloved Hindu incarnation,
ual depends on an orderly flow of vital forces into the field of Krishna. And before him, again, were exactly twenty-one others,
waking day from the unconscious dark, so again in myth, the going all the way back to Rishabhanatha, who existed in an ear-
continuance of the cosmic order is assured only by a controlled flow lier age of the world, when men and women were always born
of power from the source. The gods are symbolic personifications in wedded couples, were two miles tall, and lived for a period
of the laws governing this flow. The gods come into existence of countless years. Rishabhanatha instructed the people in the
with the dawn of the world and dissolve with the twilight. They seventy-two sciences (writing, arithmetic, reading of omens,
are not eternal in the sense that the night is eternal. Only from etc.), the sixty-four accomplishments of women (cooking, sewing,
the shorter span of human existence does the round of a cosmo- etc.), and the one hundred arts (pottery, weaving, painting,
gonic eon seem to endure. smithing, barbering, etc.); also, he introduced them to politics
The cosmogonic cycle is normally represented as repeating it- and established a kingdom.
self, world without end. During each great round, lesser dissolu-
1
tions are commonly included, as the cycle of sleep and waking Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Historia de la Nation Chichimeca (1608),
Capitulo I (published in Lord Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico; London,
1830-48, Vol. IX, p. 205; also by Alfredo Chavero, Obras Historicas de Alva
9 Ixtlilxochitl; Mexico, 1891-92, Vol. II, pp. 21-22).
Supra, p. 81.
13
"' Supra, pp. 38-39. Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. V, p. 375.

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