Psychology of the Unconscious A Study of the...

529. Abyss of wisdom, book of wisdom, source of phantasies. See below.

530. Cleavage of the mother, see Kaineus; also rift, chasm = division of the earth, and so on.

531. “Schöpfung und Chaos.” Göttingen, 1895, p. 30.

532. Brugsch: Ibid., p. 161.

533. “In a Pyramid text, which depicts the battle of the dead Pharaoh for the dominance of heaven, it reads: Heaven weeps, the stars tremble, the guards of the gods tremble and their servants flee, when they see the king rise as a spirit, as a god, who lives upon his fathers and conquers his mothers.” Cited by Dieterich: “Mithrasliturgy,” p. 100.

534. Book II, p. 61.

535. By Ares, the Egyptian Typhon is probably meant.

536. In the Polynesian Maui myth, the act of the sun-hero is very plain: he robs his mother of her girdle. The robbery of the veil in myths of the type of the swan maiden has the same significance. In an African myth of Joruba, the sun-hero simply ravishes his mother (Frobenius).

537. The previously mentioned myth of Halirrhotios, who destroyed himself when he wished to cut down the holy tree of Athens, the Moria, contains the same psychology, also the priestly castration (Attis castration) in the service of the great mother. The ascetic self-torture in Christianity has its origin, as is self-evident, in these sources because the Christian form of symbol means a very intensive regression to the mother incest.

538. The tearing off from the tree of life is just this sin.

539. Compare Kuhn: “Herabkunft des Feuers.”

540. Nork: “Wörterbuch s. v. Mistel.”

541. Therefore in England mistletoe boughs were hung up at Christmas. Mistletoe as rod of life. Compare Aigremont: “Volkserotik und Pflanzenwelt.”

542. Just as the tree has the phallic nature as well as a maternal significance, so in myths the demonic old woman (she may be favorable or malicious) often has phallic attributes, for example, a long toe, a long tooth, long lips, long fingers, pendulous breasts, large hands, feet, and so on. This mixture of male and female motive has reference to the fact that the old woman is a libido symbol like the tree, generally determined as maternal. The bisexuality of the libido is expressed in its clearest form in the idea of the three witches, who collectively possessed but one eye and one tooth. This idea is directly parallel to the dream of a patient, who represented her libido as twins, one of which is a box, the other a bottle-like object, for eye and tooth represent male and female genitals. Relative to eye in this connection, see especially the Egyptian myths: referring to tooth, it is to be observed that Adonis (fecundity) died by a boar’s tooth, like Siegfried by Hagen’s spear: compare with this the Veronese Priapus, whose phallus was bitten by a snake. Tooth in this sense, like the snake, is a “negative” phallus.

543. Compare Grimm: Vol. II, Chap, iv, p. 802. The same motive in another application is found in a Low-Saxon legend: Once a young ash tree grew unnoticed in the wood. Each New Year’s Eve a white knight upon a white horse rides up to cut down the young shoot. At the same time a black knight arrives and engages him in combat. After a lengthy conflict, the white knight succeeds in overcoming the black knight and the white knight cuts down the young tree. But sometime the white knight will be unsuccessful, then the ash will grow, and when it becomes large enough to allow a horse to be tied under it, then a powerful king will come and a tremendous battle will occur (destruction of the world).

544. Chantepie de la Saussaye: “Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte,” Vol. II, p. 185.

545. Further examples in Frobenius: Ibid., passim.

546. See Jensen: “Gilgameshepos.”

547. In a Schlesian passionale of the fifteenth century Christ dies on the same tree which was connected with Adam’s sin. Cited from Zöckler: Ibid., p. 241.

548. For example, animal skins were hung on the sacrificial trees and afterwards spears were thrown at them.

549. “Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen,” p. 498.

550. Stephens: “Central America” (cited by Müller: Ibid., p. 498).

551. Zöckler: “Das Kreuz Christi,” p. 34.

552. H. H. Bancroft: “Native Races of the Pacific States of North America,” II, 506. (Cited by Robertson: “Evang. Myths,” p. 139.)

553. Rossellini: “Monumenti dell’ Egitto, etc.” Tom. 3. Tav. 23. (Cited by Robertson: Ibid., p. 142.)

554. Zöckler: Ibid., p. 7. In the representation of the birth of a king in Luxor one sees the following: The logos and messenger of the gods, the bird-headed Thoth, makes known to the maiden Queen Mautmes that she is to give birth to a son. In the following scene, Kneph and Athor hold the Crux ansata to her mouth so that she may be impregnated by this in a spiritual (symbolic) manner. Sharp: “Egyptian Mythology,” p. 18. (Cited by Robertson: “Evangelical Myths,” p. 43.)

555. The statues of the phallic Hermes used as boundary stones were often in the form of a cross with the head pointed (W. Payne Knight: “Worship of Priapus,” p. 30). In Old English the cross is called rod.

556. Robertson (Ibid., p. 140) mentions the fact that the Mexican priests and sacrificers clothed themselves in the skin of a slain woman, and placed themselves with arms stretched out like a cross before the god of war.

557. “Indian Antiquities,” VI, 49.

558. The primitive Egyptian cross form is meant: Τ.

559. Zöckler: Ibid., p. 19. The bud is plainly phallic. See the above-mentioned dream of the young woman.

560. I am indebted for my information about these researches to Professor Fiechter of Stuttgart.

561. Zöckler: Ibid., p. 33.

562. The sacrifice is submerged in the water, that is, in the mother.

563. Compare later the moon as gathering place of souls (the devouring mother).

564. Compare here what Abraham has to say in reference to pupilla (“Dreams and Myths”).

565. Retreat of Rê upon the heavenly cow. In a Hindoo rite of purification, the penitent must creep through an artificial cow in order to be born anew.

566. Schultze: “Psychologie der Naturvölker.” Leipzig 1900, p. 338.

567. Brugsch: Ibid., p. 290.

568. One need not be amazed at this formula because it is the animal in us, the primitive forces of which appear in religion. In this connection Dieterich’s words (“Mithrasliturgie,” p. 108) take on an especially important aspect. “The old thoughts come from below in new force in the history of religion. The revolution from below creates a new life of religion in primitive indestructible forms.”