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Full text of "Psychology And Religion West And East"

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THE COLLECTED WORKS OF 

C.C.JUNG 

VOLUME 1 1 

PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION: 
WEST AND EAST 

Translated by R. F. C. Hull 

C. G. Jung's shorter works on religion and psychology 
are collected in this volume. Several, although of 
comparative brevity, are of major significance and 
take their place with two full-length works Psy- 
chology and Alchemy and Aion (in preparation) to 
complete Jung's statement on this central theme. The 
contents are as follows, with original dates given in 
brackets: 

Wesfern Religion 

Psychology and Religion [1938] "The Terry Lec- 
tures/ 1 revised and augmented 

A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity 
[1942/1948] 

Transformation Symbolism in the Mass [ 1 942/1 954] 

Forewords to White's God ana* fhe Unconscious and 
Werblowsky's Lucifer and Prometheus [1952] 

Brother Klaus [1933] 
Psychotherapists or the Clergy [ 1 932] 
Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls [1928] 
Answer to Job [1952] 

Eastern Religion 

Psychological Commentaries on The Tibetan Book of 
the Great, Liberation [1939/1954] and The Ti- 
betan Book of the Dead [1935/1953] 

Yoga and the West [1936] 

Foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism 

[1939] 

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation [1943] 
The Holy Men of India [1 944 ] 
Foreword to the / Ching [1950] 

An extensive bibliography and index round out this 
volume, which is the seventh to appear in this edition 
of Jung's collected works. 

Jacket design by E. McKnight fCauffer 



KANSAS CITY, MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY 




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G . G . JUNG 

22 



E > I T O R S 
SIR. JHGERJBERT 

3FOROKCADVT, OVt.O., IM. R.C.I*. 




Jean Fouquet: The Trinity with the Virgin Mary 
From the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier (Chantilly) 



PSYCHOLOGY 
AND RELIGION: 
WEST AND EAST 



C. G. JUNG 




TRANSLATED BY R. F. C. HULL 



BOLLINGEN SERIES XX 



PANTHEON BOOKS 



COPYRIGHT 1958 BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION INC., NEW YORK, N. Y. 
PUBLISHED FOR BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION INC. 
BY PANTHEON BOOKS, INC., NEW YORK, N. Y. 



THIS EDITION IS BEING PUBLISHED IN THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR THE BOL- 
LINGEN FOUNDATION BY PANTHEON BOOKS 
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KEG AN PAUL, LTD. IN THE AMERICAN EDI- 
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COLLECTED WORKS CONSTITUTE NUMBER 
XX IN BOLLINGEN SERIES. THE PRESENT 
VOLUME IS NUMBER 1 1 OF THE COLLECTED 
WORKS, AND IS THE SEVENTH TO APPEAR. 



Psychology and Religion (The Terry Lectures) copyright 1938 by Yale Uni- 
versity Press. Foreword to the / Ching copyright 1950 and "Transformation 
Symbolism in the Mass" copyright 1955 by Bollingen Foundation Inc. 
Foreword to White's God and the Unconscious copyright 1953 by Henry 
Regnery Co. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER! 52-8757 
MANUFACTURED IN THE U. S. A. BY H. WOLFF 

NEW YORK, N. Y. 



EDITORIAL NOTE 



The title Psychology and Religion: West and East calls for com- 
ment, since no single volume can cover Jung's publications on a 
subject that takes so prominent a place in all his later works. 
To a full understanding of Jung's thesis on religion a thorough 
grasp of his theory of the archetypes is essential, as well as a 
knowledge of several other of the volumes of the Collected 
Works, of which A ion and Psychology and Alchemy may be 
singled out. 

It could, therefore, be said that the Editors would have been 
better advised to group all these works under the general title 
Psychology and Religion, rather than confine this title to a 
single volume. It will not be out of place to remember that 
Jung's definition of religion is a wide one. Religion, he says, is 
"a careful and scrupulous observation of what Rudolf Otto 
aptly termed the numinosum" From this standpoint, Jung was 
struck by the contrasting methods of observation employed by 
religious men of the East and by those of the predominantly 
Christian West. 

The main part of the title is that of the Terry Lectures for 
1937, its general applicability being evident; but the volume 
has a particular aim, which the subtitle West and East clarifies. 
Thus the division into two parts, " Western Religion" and 
"Eastern Religion/' reflecting Jung's idea that the two are 
radically different. 

In the original "Psychology and Religion," which introduces 
Part One, Jung expounds the relation between Christianity and 
alchemy. This connection he has worked out in greater detail 
in Psychology and Alchemy, where he says that "alchemy seems 
like a continuation of Christian mysticism carried on in the 
subterranean darkness of the unconscious." There follow in 
this volume "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the 
Trinity," translated for the first time into English, and "Trans- 



EDITORIAL NOTE 



formation Symbolism in the Mass," which presents alchemical 
and Aztec parallels to the Christian ritual. Part One ends with 
the provocative essay "Answer to Job/' These three works, all 
original researches of distinctive importance, are especially sig- 
nificant because they penetrate to the heart of Christian sym- 
bolism and shed new light on its psychological meaning. Part 
One also contains two forewords, of particular interest because 
the books they introduce both illustrate the relevance of Jung's 
work for religious thinking; a short essay on the Swiss saint, 
Brother Klaus; and two essays on the relation between psycho- 
therapy and religious healing. 

It is worthy of note that most of the works on Eastern religion 
in Part Two are commentaries or forewords, in contrast with 
the authoritative tone of Jung's writings on Christianity and 
alchemy. This fact confirms what should be clear from all his 
work: that his main interest has been in the psychology of 
Western man and so in his religious life and development. 

It may be a matter for surprise that the foreword to the 
I Ching, which closes the volume, is included here; it is a docu- 
ment that would scarcely be termed religious, in the common 
usage of that word. If, however, Jung'$ definition cited above 
be kept in mind, and if it be remembered that the earlier inter- 
pretations of what is now known as synchronicity were essen- 
tially religious in Jung's sense and that the I Ching was studied 
by the most illustrious of the Eastern sages, the intention of the 
Editors will be apparent. Jung's commentary on The Secret of 
the Golden Flower might equally well have come into the 
second part of this volume, but because of the many analogies 
between this Taoist text and alchemy, the Editors have placed 
it in Volume 13, Alchemical Studies. 



Grateful acknowledgment is made to the School of American 
Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a quotation from the 
Anderson and Dibble translation of Sahagun; to the Clarendon 
Press, Oxford, for passages from M. R, James, The Apocryphal 
New Testament; the Oxford University Press, for Professor 
Jung's commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Great Libera- 

vi 



TRANSLATOR S NOTE 



tion; and the Harvill Press and the Henry Regnery Company 
for Professor Jung's foreword to God and the Unconscious. 
The frontispiece is from a photograph by Giraudon, Paris, 
of an illustration in the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier, 
Conde Museum, Chantilly. 



TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 



I wish to make grateful acknowledgment to the following per- 
sons, whose various translations have been consulted to a greater 
or less degree during the preparation of this volume; Miss 
Monica Curtis, for help derived from her perceptive translation 
of extensive portions of "Transformation Symbolism in the 
Mass," published as Guild Lecture No. 69 by the Guild of 
Pastoral Psychology, London, and of which certain passages are 
incorporated here almost verbatim; Father Victor White, O.P., 
for the use of his translation of the foreword to his book God 
and the Unconscious; Dr. Horace Gray, for reference to his 
translation of "Brother Klaus" in the Journal of Nervous and 
Mental Diseases; Mr. W. S. Dell and Mrs. Gary F. Baynes, for 
reference to their translation of "Psychotherapists or the 
Clergy" in Modern Man in Search of a Soul; Dr. James Kirsch, 
for making available to me his private translation of "Answer to 
Job/' prepared for members of a seminar he conducted at Los 
Angeles, 1952-53, and also for his helpful criticism during per- 
sonal discussions; Mrs. Gary F. Baynes, for reference to her 
translation of "Yoga and the West" in Prabuddha Bharata and 
for the use with only minor alterations of her translation of the 
foreword to the I Ching; Miss Constance Rolfe, for reference to 
her translation of the foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen 
Buddhism; and Mrs. Carol Baumann, for reference to her trans- 
lation of "The Psychology of Eastern Meditation" in Art and 
Thought. Acknowledgment is also made to Mr. A. S. B. Glover 
for his translations of many Latin passages throughout as well 
as for the index. 

vii 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



EDITORIAL NOTE V 

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE vii 



PART ONE: WESTERN RELIGION 



Psychology and Religion 

Originally published in English: The Terry Lectures of 1937 
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, and London: 
Oxford University Press, 1938); here revised and augmented 
in accordance with the Swiss edition (Zurich: Rascher, 1940). 

1. The Autonomy of the Unconscious, 5 

2. Dogma and Natural Symbols, 34 

3. The History and Psychology of a Natural Symbol, 64 



II 

A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity 1 07 

Translated from "Versuch zu einer psychologischen Deutung 
des Trinitatsdogmas," Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich: Rascher, 
1948). 

Introduction, 109 

i. Pre-Christian Parallels, 112 

i. Babylonia, us. n. Egypt, 115. - in. Greece, 117 

ix 



CONTENTS 



2. Father, Son, and Spirit, 129 

3. The Symbola, 138 

i. The Symbolum Apostolicum, 141. n. The Sym- 
bolum of Gregory Thaumaturgus, 142. in. The 
Nicaenum^ 143. rv. The Nicaeno-Constantinopoli- 
tanum, the Athanasianum, and the Lateranense, 144 

4. The Three Persons in the Light of Psychology, 148 

i. The Hypothesis of the Archetype, 148. n. Christ 
as Archetype, 152. in. The Holy Ghost, 157 

5. The Problem of the Fourth, 164 

i. The Concept of Quaternity, 164. n. The Psy- 
chology of the Quaternity, 180. in. General Re- 
marks on Symbolism, 187 

6. Conclusion, 193 



III 

Transformation Symbolism in the Mass 

Translated from "Das Wandlungssymbol in der Messe," Von 
den Wurzeln des Bewusstseins (Zurich: Rascher, 1954). 

1. Introduction, 203 

2. The Sequence of the Transformation Rite, 208 

i. Oblation of the Bread, 208. 11. Preparation of 
the Chalice, 209. m. Elevation of the Chalice, 212. 

iv. Censing of the Substances and the Altar, 212. 

v. The Epiclesis, 213. vi. The Consecration, 214. 

vn. The Greater Elevation, 216. vm. The Post- 
Consecration, 216. ix. End of the Canon, 218. 
x. Breaking of the Host ("Fractio"), 218. xi. Con- 
signatio, 219. xn. Commixtio, 219. xm. Con- 
clusion, 220 

3. Parallels to the Transformation Mystery, 222 

i. The Aztec "Teoqualo," 222. n. The Vision of 
Zosimos, 225 

4. The Psychology of the Mass, 247 

i. General Remarks on the Sacrifice, 547. n. The 
Psychological Meaning of Sacrifice, 252. in. The 
Mass and the Individuation Process, 273 



CONTENTS 



IV 
Foreword to White's God and the Unconscious 299 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in the book by Victor White (London: Harvill, 1952; 
Chicago: H. Regnery, 1953). 

Foreword to Werblowsky's Lucifer and Prometheus 311 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in the book by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (London: 
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952). 

Brother Klaus 316 

Translated from a book review in the Neue Schweizer Rund- 
schau (Zurich), new series, I (1933). 



V 

Psychotherapists or the Clergy 327 

Translated from Die Beziehungen der Psychotherapie zur 
Seelsorge (Zurich: Rascher, 1932) . 

Psychoanalysis and the Cure of Souls 348 

Translated from "Psychoanalyse und Seelsorge," Ethik: 
Sexual- und Gesellschafts-Ethik (Halle), V (1928). 



VI 

Answer to Job 355 

Translated from Antwort auf Hiob (Zurich: Rascher, 1952). 

Prefatory Note, 357 
Lectori Benevolo, 359 
Answer to Job, 365 

xi 



CONTENTS 



PART TWO: EASTERN RELIGION 



VII 

Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of 

the Great Liberation 475 

Originally published in English in the book (London and 
New York: Oxford University Press, 1954). 

1. The Difference between Eastern and Western Think- 

ing, 475 

2. Comments on the Text, 494 

Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of 

the Dead 509 

Translated from "Psychologischer Kommentar zum Bardo 
Thodol," in Das Tibetanische Totenbuch, 5th edition (Zu- 
rich: Rascher, 1953). 



VIII 

Yoga and the West 529 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in Prabuddha Bharata (Calcutta), February 1936. 

Foreword to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism 538 

Translated from the foreword to D. T. Suzuki, Die Grosse 
Befreiung: Einfuhrung in den Zen-Buddhismus (Leipzig: 
Curt Weller, 1939) . 

The Psychology of Eastern Meditation 558 

Translated from "Zur Psychologic ostlicher Meditation," 
Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich: Rascher, 1948). 

xii 



CONTENTS 



The Holy Men of India 576 

Translated from the introduction to Heinrich Zimmer, Der 
Weg zum Selbst (Zurich: Rascher, 1944). 



IX 
Foreword to the / Ching 589 

Originally translated from a manuscript and published in 
English in The I Ching, or Book of Changes, translated by 
Gary F. Baynes from the German translation of Richard Wil- 
helm (New York: Pantheon Books [Bollingen Series XIX] 
and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950) . This is the 
Baynes translation of the Foreword with minor revisions. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 609 

INDEX 641 



Xlll 



PART ONE 

WESTERN RELIGION 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



[Originally written in English and delivered in 1937, at Yale University, New 
Haven, Connecticut, as the fifteenth series of "Lectures on Religion in the Light 
of Science and Philosophy" under the auspices of the Dwight Harrington Terry 
Foundation. The lectures were published for the Terry Foundation by the Yale 
University Press (and by Oxford University Press, London) in 1938. They were 
then translated into German by Felicia Froboese, and the translation, revised by 
Toni Wolff and augmented by Professor Jung, was published at Zurich, 1940, as 
Psychologic und Religion. The present version is based on both the original 
English and the German versions and contains the revisions and additions of the 
latter. EDITORS.] 



i. THE AUTONOMY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS 



As it seems to be the intention of the founder of the Terry 
Lectures to enable representatives of science, as well as of phi- 
losophy and other spheres of human knowledge, to contribute 
to the discussion of the eternal problem of religion, and since 
Yale University has bestowed upon me the great honour of de- 
livering the Terry Lectures for 1937, 1 assume that it will be my 
task to show what psychology, or rather that special branch of 
medical psychology which I represent, has to do with or to say 
about religion. Since religion is incontestably one of the earliest 
and most universal expressions of the human mind, it is obvious 
that any psychology which touches upon the psychological struc- 
ture of human personality cannot avoid taking note of the fact 
that religion is not only a sociological and historical phenome- 
non, but also something of considerable personal concern to a 
great number of individuals. 

Although I have often been called a philosopher, I am an 
empiricist and adhere as such to the phenomenological stand- 
point. I trust that it does not conflict with the principles of scien- 
tific empiricism if one occasionally makes certain reflections 
which go beyond a mere accumulation and classification of ex- 
perience. As a matter of fact I believe that experience is not 
even possible without reflection, because "experience" is a 
process of assimilation without which there could be no under- 

5 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



standing. As this statement indicates, I approach psychological 
matters from a scientific and not from a philosophical stand- 
point. Inasmuch as religion has a very important psychological 
aspect, I deal with it from a purely empirical point of view, that 
is, I restrict myself to the observation of phenomena and I 
eschew any metaphysical or philosophical considerations. I do 
not deny the validity of these other considerations, but I cannot 
claim to be competent to apply them correctly. 

I am aware that most people believe they know all there is 
to be known about psychology, because they think that psychol- 
ogy is nothing but what they know of themselves. But I am 
afraid psychology is a good deal more than that. While having 
little to do with philosophy, it has much to do with empirical 
facts, many of which are not easily accessible to the experience 
of the average man. It is my intention to give you a few glimpses 
of the way in which practical psychology comes up against the 
problem of religion. It is self-evident that the vastness of the 
problem requires far more than three lectures, as the necessary 
elaboration of concrete detail takes a great deal of time and 
explanation. My first lecture will be a sort of introduction to 
the problem of practical psychology and religion. The second is 
concerned with facts which demonstrate the existence of an 
authentic religious function in the unconscious. The third deals 
with the religious symbolism of unconscious processes. 
[ Since I am going to present a rather unusual argument, I 
cannot assume that my audience will be fully acquainted with 
the methodological standpoint of the branch of psychology I 
represent. This standpoint is exclusively phenomenological, that 
is, it is concerned with occurrences, events, experiences in a 
word, with facts. Its truth is a fact and not a judgment. When 
psychology speaks, for instance, of the motif of the virgin birth, 
it is only concerned with the fact that there is such an idea, but 
it is not concerned with the question whether such an idea is 
true or false in any other sense. The idea is psychologically true 
inasmuch as it exists. Psychological existence is subjective in 
so far as an idea occurs in only one individual. But it is objec- 
tive in so far as that idea is shared by a society by a consensus 
gentium. 

This point of view is the same as that of natural science. 
Psychology deals with ideas and other mental contents as zool- 

6 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



ogy, for instance, deals with the different species of animals. An 
elephant is "true" because it exists. The elephant is neither an 
inference nor a statement nor the subjective judgment of a cre- 
ator. It is a phenomenon. But we are so used to the idea that 
psychic events are wilful and arbitrary products, or even the 
inventions of a human creator, that we can hardly rid ourselves 
of the prejudiced view that the psyche and its contents are noth- 
ing but our own arbitrary invention or the more or less illusory 
product of supposition and judgment. The fact is that certain 
ideas exist almost everywhere and at all times and can even 
spontaneously create themselves quite independently of migra- 
tion and tradition. They are not made by the individual, they 
just happen to him they even force themselves on his conscious- 
ness. This is not Platonic philosophy but empirical psychology. 

In speaking of religion I must make clear from the start what 
I mean by that term. Religion, as the Latin word denotes, is a 
careful and scrupulous observation of what Rudolf Otto l 
aptly termed the numinosum, that is, a dynamic agency or effect 
not caused by an arbitrary act of will. On the contrary, it seizes 
and controls the human subject, who is always rather its victim 
than its creator. The numinosum whatever its cause may be 
is an experience of the subject independent of his will. At all 
events, religious teaching as well as the consensus gentium al- 
ways and everywhere explain this experience as being due to a 
cause external to the individual. The numinosum is either a 
quality belonging to a visible object or the influence of an in- 
visible presence that causes a peculiar alteration of conscious- 
ness. This is, at any rate, the general rule. 

There are, however, certain exceptions when it comes to the 
question of religious practice or ritual. A great many ritualistic 
performances are carried out for the sole purpose of producing 
at will the effect of the numinosum by means of certain devices 
of a magical nature, such as invocation, incantation, sacrifice, 
meditation and other yoga practices, self-inflicted tortures of 
various descriptions, and so forth. But a religious belief in an 
external and objective divine cause is always prior to any such 
performance. The Catholic Church, for instance, administers 
the sacraments for the purpose of bestowing their spiritual bless- 
ings upon the believer; but since this act would amount to 

1 The Idea of the Holy. 

7 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



enforcing the presence of divine grace by an indubitably mag- 
ical procedure, it is logically argued that nobody can compel 
divine grace to be present in the sacramental act, but that it is 
nevertheless inevitably present since the sacrament is a divine 
institution which God would not have caused to be if he had 
not intended to lend it his support. 2 

Religion appears to me to be a peculiar attitude of mind 
which could be formulated in accordance with the original use 
of the word religio, which means a careful consideration and 
observation of certain dynamic factors that are conceived as 
"powers": spirits, daemons, gods, laws, ideas, ideals, or whatever 
name man has given to such factors in his world as he has found 
powerful, dangerous, or helpful enough to be taken into careful 
consideration, or grand, beautiful, and meaningful enough to 
be devoutly worshipped and loved. In colloquial speech one 
often says of somebody who is enthusiastically interested in a 
certain pursuit that he is almost "religiously devoted" to his 
cause; William James, for instance, remarks that a scientist often 
has no creed, but his "temper is devout." 3 

I want to make clear that by the term "religion" 4 I do not 
mean a creed. It is, however, true that every creed is originally 
based on the one hand upon the experience of the numinosum 
and on the other hand upon irkms, that is to say, trust or loyalty, 
faith and confidence in a certain experience of a numinous na- 
ture and in the change of consciousness that ensues. The con- 
version of Paul is a striking example of this. We might say, then, 
that the term "religion" designates the attitude peculiar to a 
consciousness which has been changed by experience of the 
numinosum. 

2 Gratia adiuvans and gratia sanctificans are the effects of the sacramentum ex 
opere operate. The sacrament owes its undoubted efficacy to the fact that it is 
directly instituted by Christ himself. The Church is powerless to connect the rite 
with grace in such a way that the sacramental act would produce the presence 
and effect of grace. Consequently the rite performed by the priest is not a causa 
instrumentalis, but merely a causa ministerialis. 

3 "But our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself 
almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout." Pragmatism, p. 14. 

4 "Religion is that which gives reverence and worship to some higher nature 
[which is called divine]." Cicero, De inventione rhetorica, II, 53, 161. For "testi- 
mony given under the sanction of religion on the faith of an oath" cf. Cicero, 
Pro Coelio, 55. 

8 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Creeds are codified and dogmatized forms of original re- 
ligious experience. 5 The contents of the experience have be- 
come sanctified and are usually congealed in a rigid, often 
elaborate, structure of ideas. The practice and repetition of the 
original experience have become a ritual and an unchangeable 
institution. This does not necessarily mean lifeless petrifaction. 
On the contrary, it may prove to be a valid form of religious 
experience for millions of people for thousands of years, without 
there arising any vital necessity to alter it. Although the Catholic 
Church has often been accused of particular rigidity, she never- 
theless admits that dogma is a living thing and that its formula- 
tion is therefore capable of change and development. Even the 
number of dogmas is not limited and can be multiplied in the 
course of time. The same holds true of the ritual. Yet all changes 
and developments are determined within the framework of the 
facts as originally experienced, and this sets up a special kind of 
dogmatic content and emotional value. Even Protestantism, 
which has abandoned itself apparently to an almost unlimited 
emancipation from dogmatic tradition and codified ritual and 
has thus split into more than four hundred denominations- 
even Protestantism is bound at least to be Christian and to ex- 
press itself within the framework of the belief that God revealed 
himself in Christ, who suffered for mankind. This is a definite 
framework with definite contents which cannot be combined 
with or supplemented by Buddhist or Islamic ideas and feelings. 
Yet it is unquestionably true that not only Buddha and Moham- 
med, Confucius and Zarathustra, represent religious phenom- 
ena, but also Mithras, Attis, Cybele, Mani, Hermes, and the dei- 
ties of many other exotic cults. The psychologist, if he takes up a 
scientific attitude, has to disregard the claim of every creed to 
be the unique and eternal truth. He must keep his eye on the 
human side of the religious problem, since he is concerned with 
the original religious experience quite apart from what the 
creeds have made of it. 

As I am a doctor and a specialist in nervous and mental dis- 
eases, my point of departure is not a creed but the psychology 
of the homo religiosuSj the man who takes into account and care- 
fully observes certain factors which influence him and, through 

5 Heinrich Scholz (Die Religionsphilosophie des Als-Ob) insists on a similar stand- 
point. Cf. also Pearcy, A Vindication of Paul 

9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



him, his general condition. It is easy to denominate and define 
these factors in accordance with historical tradition or ethnolog- 
ical knowledge, but to do the same thing from the standpoint 
of psychology is an uncommonly difficult task. What I can con- 
tribute to the question of religion is derived entirely from my 
practical experience, both with my patients and with so-called 
normal persons. As our experience with people depends to a 
large extent upon what we do with them, I can see no other way 
of proceeding than to give you at least a general idea of the line 
I take in my professional work. 

Since every neurosis is connected with man's most intimate 
life, there will always be some hesitation when a patient has to 
give a complete account of all the circumstances and complica- 
tions which originally led him into a morbid condition. But 
why shouldn't he be able to talk freely? Why should he be afraid 
or shy or prudish? The reason is that he is "carefully observing" 
certain external factors which together constitute what one calls 
public opinion or respectability or reputation. And even if he 
trusts his doctor and is no longer shy of him, he will be reluctant 
or even afraid to admit certain things to himself, as if it were 
dangerous to become conscious of himself. One is usually afraid 
of things that seem to be overpowering. But is there anything 
in man that is stronger than himself? We should not forget that 
every neurosis entails a corresponding amount of demoraliza- 
tion. If a man is neurotic, he has lost confidence in himself. A 
neurosis is a humiliating defeat and is felt as such by people who 
are not entirely unconscious of their own psychology. And one 
is defeated by something "unreal." Doctors may have assured the 
patient, long ago, that there is nothing the matter with him, 
that he does not suffer from a real heart-disease or from a real 
cancer. His symptoms are quite imaginary. The more he believes 
that he is a malade imaginaire, the more a feeling of inferiority 
permeates his whole personality. "If my symptoms are imagi- 
nary," he will say, "where have I picked up this confounded 
imagination and why should I put up with such a perfect nui- 
sance?" It is indeed pathetic to have an intelligent man almost 
imploringly assure you that he is suffering from an intestinal 
cancer and declare at the same time in a despondent voice that 
of course he knows his cancer is a purely imaginary affair. 

Our usual materialistic conception of the psyche is, I am 

10 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



afraid, not particularly helpful in cases of neurosis. If only the 
soul were endowed with a subtle body, then one could at least 
say that this breath- or vapour-body was suffering from a real 
though somewhat ethereal cancer, in the same way as the gross 
material body can succumb to a cancerous disease. That, at least, 
would be something real. Medicine therefore feels a strong aver- 
sion for anything of a psychic natureeither the body is ill or 
there is nothing the matter. And if you cannot prove that the 
body is really ill, that is only because our present techniques do 
not enable the doctor to discover the true nature of the un- 
doubtedly organic trouble. 

H But what, actually, is the psyche? Materialistic prejudice ex- 
plains it as a mere epiphenomenal by-product of organic proc- 
esses in the brain. Any psychic disturbance must therefore be 
an organic or physical disorder which is undiscoverable only 
because of the inadequacy of our present methods of diagnosis. 
The undeniable connection between psyche and brain gives this 
point of view a certain weight, but not enough to make it an 
unshakable truth. We do not know whether there is a real dis- 
turbance of the organic processes in the brain in a case of neuro- 
sis, and if there are disorders of an endocrine nature it is 
impossible to say whether they might not be effects rather than 
causes. 

15 On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that the real causes 
of neurosis are psychological. Not so long ago it was very diffi- 
cult to imagine how an organic or physical disorder could be 
relieved by quite simple psychological means, yet in recent years 
medical science has recognized a whole class of diseases, the 
psychosomatic disorders, in which the patient's psychology plays 
the essential part. Since my readers may not be familiar with 
these medical facts I may instance a case of hysterical fever, with 
a temperature of 1 02 , which was cured in a few minutes through 
confession of the psychological cause. A patient with psoriasis 
extending over practically the whole body was told that I did 
not feel competent to treat his skin trouble, but that I should 
concentrate on his psychological conflicts, which were numerous. 
After six weeks of intense analysis and discussion of his purely 
psychological difficulties, there came about as an unexpected 
by-product the almost complete disappearance of the skin dis- 
ease. In another case, the patient had recently undergone an 

11 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



operation for distention of the colon. Forty centimetres of it had 
been removed, but this was followed by another extraordinary 
distention. The patient was desperate and refused to permit a 
second operation, though the surgeon thought it vital. As soon 
as certain intimate psychological facts were discovered, the colon 
began to function normally again. 

16 Such experiences make it exceedingly difficult to believe that 
the psyche is nothing, or that an imaginary fact is unreal. Only, 
it is not there where a near-sighted mind seeks it. It exists, but 
not in physical form. It is an almost absurd prejudice to suppose 
that existence can only be physical. As a matter of fact, the only 
form of existence of which we have immediate knowledge is 
psychic. We might well say, on the contrary, that physical exist- 
ence is a mere inference, since we know of matter only in so far 
as we perceive psychic images mediated by the senses. 

*7 We are surely making a great mistake when we forget this 
simple yet fundamental truth. Even if a neurosis had no cause at 
all other than imagination, it would, none the less, be a very 
real thing. If a man imagined that I was his arch-enemy and 
killed me, I should be dead on account of mere imagination. 
Imaginary conditions do exist and they may be just as real and 
just as harmful or dangerous as physical conditions. I even be- 
lieve that psychic disturbances are far more dangerous than epi- 
demics or earthquakes. Not even the medieval epidemics of 
bubonic plague or smallpox killed as many people as certain 
differences of opinion in 1914 or certain political * 'ideals" in 
Russia. 

18 Although the mind cannot apprehend its own form of exist- 
ence, owing to the lack of an Archimedean point outside, it 
nevertheless exists. Not only does the psyche exist, it is existence 
itself. 

*9 What, then, shall we say to our patient with the imaginary 
cancer? I would tell him: "Yes, my friend, you are really suffer- 
ing from a cancer-like thing, you really do harbour in yourself 
a deadly evil. However, it will not kill your body, because it is 
imaginary. But it will eventually kill your soul. It has already 
spoilt and even poisoned your human relations and your personal 
happiness and it will go on growing until it has swallowed your 
whole psychic existence. So that in the end you will not be a 
human being any more, but an evil destructive tumour." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



It is obvious to our patient that he is not the author of his 
morbid imagination, although his theoretical turn of mind will 
certainly suggest that he is the owner and maker of his own 
imaginings. If a man is suffering from a real cancer, he never 
believes himself to be responsible for such an evil, despite the 
fact that the cancer is in his own body. But when it comes to the 
psyche we instantly feel a kind of responsibility, as if we were 
the makers of our psychic conditions. This prejudice is of rela- 
tively recent date. Not so very long ago even highly civilized 
people believed that psychic agencies could influence our minds 
and feelings. There were ghosts, wizards, and witches, daemons 
and angels, and even gods, who could produce certain psycho- 
logical changes in human beings. In former times the man with 
the idea that he had cancer might have felt quite differently 
about his idea. He would probably have assumed that somebody 
had worked witchcraft against him or that he was possessed. He 
never would have thought of himself as the originator of such a 
fantasy. 

As a matter of fact, I take his cancer to be a spontaneous 
growth, which originated in the part of the psyche that is 
not identical with consciousness. It appears as an autonomous 
formation intruding upon consciousness. Of consciousness one 
might say that it is our own psychic existence, but the cancer has 
its own psychic existence, independent of ourselves. This state- 
ment seems to formulate the observable facts completely. If we 
submit such a case to an association experiment, 6 we soon dis- 
cover that man is not master in his own house. His reactions will 
be delayed, altered, suppressed, or replaced by autonomous 
intruders. There will be a number of stimulus-words which can- 
not be answered by his conscious intention. They will be an- 
swered by certain autonomous contents, which are very often 
unconscious even to himself. In our case we shall certainly dis- 
cover answers that come from the psychic complex at the root 
of the cancer idea. Whenever a stimulus-word touches some- 
thing connected with the hidden complex, the reaction of the 
conscious ego will be disturbed, or even replaced, by an answer 
coming from the complex. It is just as if the complex were an 
autonomous being capable of interfering with the intentions of 

6 Cf. my "Studies in. Word Association." 

13 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the ego. Complexes do indeed behave like secondary or partial 
personalities possessing a mental life of their own. 

22 Many complexes are split off from consciousness because the 
latter preferred to get rid of them by repression. But there are 
others that have never been in consciousness before and there- 
fore could never have been arbitrarily repressed. They grow out 
of the unconscious and invade the conscious mind with their 
weird and unassailable convictions and impulses. Our patient 
belonged to the latter category. Despite his culture and intelli- 
gence, he was a helpless victim of something that obsessed and 
possessed him. He was unable to help himself in any way against 
the demonic power of his morbid idea. It proliferated in him 
like a carcinoma. One day the idea appeared and from then on 
it remained unshakable; there were only short intervals when 
he was free from it. 

2 3 The existence of such cases does something to explain why 
people are afraid of becoming conscious of themselves. There 
might really be something behind the screen one never knows 
and so people prefer "to consider and observe carefully" the 
factors external to their consciousness. In most people there is a 
sort of primitive dacndawovla with regard to the possible contents 
of the unconscious. Beneath all natural shyness, shame, and tact, 
there is a secret fear of the unknown "perils of the soul." Of 
course one is reluctant to admit such a ridiculous fear. But one 
should realize that this fear is by no means unjustified; on the 
contrary, it is only too well founded. We can never be sure that 
a new idea will not seize either upon ourselves or upon our 
neighbours. We know from modern as well as from ancient 
history that such ideas are often so strange, indeed so bizarre, 
that they fly in the face of reason. The fascination which is al- 
most invariably connected with ideas of this sort produces a 
fanatical obsession, with the result that all dissenters, no matter 
how well meaning or reasonable they are, get burnt alive or 
have their heads cut off or are disposed of in masses by the more 
modern machine-gun. We cannot even console ourselves with 
the thought that such things belong to the remote past. Unfor- 
tunately they seem to belong not only to the present, but, quite 
particularly, to the future. "Homo homini lupus" is a sad yet 
eternal truism. There is indeed reason enough for man to be 
afraid of the impersonal forces lurking in his unconscious. We 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



are blissfully unconscious of these forces because they never, or 
almost never, appear in our personal relations or under ordinary 
circumstances. But if people crowd together and form a mob, 
then the dynamisms of the collective man are let loose beasts 
or demons that lie dormant in every person until he is part of 
a mob. Man in the mass sinks unconsciously to an inferior moral 
and intellectual level, to that level which is always there, below 
the threshold of consciousness, ready to break forth as soon as it 
is activated by the formation of a mass. 

24 It is, to my mind, a fatal mistake to regard the human psyche 
as a purely personal affair and to explain it exclusively from a 
personal point of view. Such a mode of explanation is only 
applicable to the individual in his ordinary everyday occupa- 
tions and relationships. If, however, some slight trouble occurs, 
perhaps in the form of an unforeseen and somewhat unusual 
event, instantly instinctual forces are called up, forces which 
appear to be wholly unexpected, new, and strange. They can 
no longer be explained in terms of personal motives, being 
comparable rather to certain primitive occurrences like panics 
at solar eclipses and the like. To explain the murderous out- 
break of Bolshevism, for instance, as a personal father-complex 
appears to me singularly inadequate. 

25 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 pos- 
sible 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 im- 
personal, overwhelming forces. 

26 As a matter of fact, it only needs a neurosis to conjure up a 
force that cannot be dealt with by rational means. Our cancer 
case shows clearly how impotent man's reason and intellect are 
against the most palpable nonsense. I always advise my patients 
to take such obvious but invincible nonsense as the manifesta- 

15 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



tion of a power and a meaning they have not yet understood. 
Experience has taught me that it is much more effective to take 
these things seriously and then look for a suitable explanation. 
But an explanation is suitable only when it produces a hy- 
pothesis equal to the morbid effect. Our patient is confronted 
with a power of will and suggestion more than equal to anything 
his consciousness can put against it. In this precarious situation 
it would be bad strategy to convince him that in some incom- 
prehensible way he is at the back of his own symptom, secretly 
inventing and supporting it. Such a suggestion would instantly 
paralyse his fighting spirit, and he would get demoralized. It is 
far better for him to understand that his complex is an autono- 
mous power directed against his conscious personality. More- 
over, such an explanation fits the actual facts much better than 
a reduction to personal motives. An apparently personal motiva- 
tion does exist, but it is not made by his will, it just happens to 
him. 

27 When in the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh's arrogance and 
hybris defy the gods, they create a man equal in strength to 
Gilgamesh in order to check the hero's unlawful ambition. The 
very same thing has happened to our patient: he is a thinker 
who has settled, or is always going to settle, the world by the 
power of his intellect and reason. His ambition has at least suc- 
ceeded in forging his own personal fate. He has forced every- 
thing under the inexorable law of his reason, but somewhere 
nature escaped and came back with a vengeance in the form of 
an unassailable bit of nonsense, the cancer idea. This was the 
clever device of the unconscious to keep him on a merciless and 
cruel leash. It was the worst blow that could be dealt to all his 
rational ideals and especially to his belief in the all-powerful 
human will. Such an obsession can only occur in a person who 
makes habitual misuse of reason and intellect for egotistical 
power purposes. 

* 8 Gilgamesh, however, escaped the vengeance of the gods. He 
had warning dreams to which he paid attention. They showed 
him how he could overcome his enemy. Our patient, living in 
an age when the gods have become extinct and have fallen into 
bad repute, also had such dreams, but he did not listen to them. 
How could an intelligent man be so superstitious as to take 
dreams seriouslyl The very common prejudice against dreams is 

16 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



but one symptom of a far more serious undervaluation of the 
human psyche in general. The marvellous development of sci- 
ence and technics is counterbalanced by an appalling lack of 
wisdom and introspection. It is true that our religion speaks of 
an immortal soul; but it has very few kind words to say for the 
human psyche as such, which would go straight to eternal 
damnation were it not for a special act of Divine Grace. These 
two important factors are largely responsible for the general 
undervaluation of the psyche, but not entirely so. Older by far 
than these relatively recent developments are the primitive fear 
of and aversion to everything that borders on the unconscious. 

29 Consciousness must have been a very precarious thing in its 
beginnings. In relatively primitive societies we can still observe 
how easily consciousness gets lost. One of the "perils of the 
soul/' T for instance, is the loss of a soul. This is what happens 
when part of the psyche becomes unconscious again. Another ex- 
ample is "running amok," 8 the equivalent of "going berserk" in 
Germanic saga. 9 This is a more or less complete trance-state, often 
accompanied by devastating social effects. Even a quite ordinary 
emotion can cause considerable loss of consciousness. Primitives 
therefore cultivate elaborate forms of politeness, speaking in a 
hushed voice, laying down their weapons, crawling on all fours, 
bowing the head, showing the palms. Even our own forms of 
politeness still exhibit a "religious" consideration of possible 
psychic dangers. We propitiate fate by magically wishing one 
another a good day. It is not good form to keep the left hand in 
your pocket or behind your back when shaking hands. If you 
want to be particularly ingratiating you use both hands. Before 
people of great authority we bow with uncovered head, i.e., we 
offer our head unprotected in order to propitiate the powerful 
one, who might quite easily fall sudden prey to a fit of uncon- 
trollable violence. In war-dances primitives can become so 
excited that they may even shed blood. 

3 The life of the primitive is filled with constant regard for the 
ever-lurking possibility of psychic danger, and the procedures 
employed to diminish the risks are very numerous. The setting 
up of tabooed areas is an outward expression of this fact. The 

T Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. goff.; CraWley, The Idea of the 
Soul, pp. 82ff.; L6vy-Bruhl, Primitive Mentality. SFenn, Running Amok. 

9 Ninck, Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube* 

17 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



innumerable taboos are delimited psychic areas which are 
meticulously and fearfully observed. I once made a terrific mis- 
take when I was with a tribe on the southern slopes of Mount 
Elgon, in East Africa. I wanted to inquire about the ghost- 
houses I frequently found in the woods, and during a palaver I 
mentioned the word selelteni, meaning 'ghost' Instantly every- 
body was silent and painfully embarrassed. They all looked 
away from me because I had spoken aloud a carefully hushed-up 
word, and had thus invited most dangerous consequences. I had 
to change the subject in order to be able to continue the meet- 
ing. The same men assured me that they never had dreams; they 
were the prerogative of the chief and of the medicine man. The 
medicine man then confessed to me that he no longer had any 
dreams either, they had the District Commissioner instead. 
"Since the English are in the country we have no dreams any 
more," he said. "The District Commissioner knows everything 
about war and diseases, and about where we have got to live." 
This strange statement is based on the fact that dreams were 
formerly the supreme political guide, the voice of Mungu, 'God/ 
Therefore it would have been unwise for an ordinary man to 
suggest that he had dreams. 

3 1 Dreams are the voice of the Unknown, ever threatening new 
schemes, new dangers, sacrifices, warfare, and other troublesome 
things. An African Negro once dreamt that his enemies had 
taken him prisoner and burnt him alive. The next day he called 
his relatives together and implored them to burn him. They 
consented so far as to bind his feet together and put them in the 
fire. He was of course badly crippled but had escaped his foes. 10 

32 There are any amount of magical rites that exist for the sole 
purpose of erecting a defence against the unexpected, dangerous 
tendencies of the unconscious. The peculiar fact that the dream 
is a divine voice and messenger and yet an unending source of 
trouble does not disturb the primitive mind in the least. We 
find obvious remnants of this primitive thinking in the psychol- 
ogy of the Hebrew prophets. 11 Often enough they hesitate to 
listen to the voice. And it was, we must admit, rather hard on a 
pious man like Hosea to marry a harlot in order to obey the 

10 Lvy-Bruhl, How Natives Think, and Primitive Mentality, ch. 3, "Dreams," 
PP-97ff- 

11 Haeussermann, Wortempfang und Symbol in der alttestamentlichen Prophetic. 

18 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Lord's command. Since the dawn of humanity there has been a 
marked tendency to limit this unruly and arbitrary "super- 
natural" influence by means of definite forms and laws. And 
this process has continued throughout history in the form of 
a multiplication of rites, institutions, and beliefs. During the 
last two thousand years we find the institution of the Christian 
Church taking over a mediating and protective function be- 
tween these influences and man. It is not denied in medieval 
ecclesiastical writings that a divine influx may occur in dreams, 
but this view is not exactly encouraged, and the Church reserves 
the right to decide whether a revelation is to be considered 
authentic or not. 12 In spite of the Church's recognition that 

12 In his excellent treatise on dreams and their functions, Benedictus Pererius, S.J. 
(De Magia; De Observatione Somniorum et de Divinatione Astrologica libri tres, 
1598) says: "For God is not constrained by such laws of time, nor does he await 
opportune moments for his operation; for he inspires dreams where he will, when 
he will, and in whomsoever he will" (p. 147). The following passage throws an 
interesting light on the relation of the Church to the problem of dreams: "For 
we read in Cassian's 22nd Collation, that the old governors and directors of the 
monks were well versed in seeking out and testing the causes of certain dreams" 
(p. 142). Pererius classifies dreams as follows: "Many [dreams] are natural, some 
are of human origin, and some are even divine" (p. 145). There are four causes 
of dreams: (i) An affection of the body. (2) An affect or vehement commotion of 
the mind caused by love, hope, fear, or hatred (pp. 1266.). (3) The power and 
cunning of the demon, i.e. of a heathen god or the Christian devil. ("For the devil 
is able to know natural effects which will needs come about at some future time 
from fixed causes; he can know those things which he himself is going to bring 
about at a later time; he can know things, both present and past, which are 
hidden from men, and make them known to men in dreams" [p. 129]. Concern- 
ing the diagnosis of demonic dreams, the author says: "It can be surmised that 
dreams are sent by the devil, firstly if dreams often occur which signify future or 
hidden events, knowledge whereof is advantageous not to any useful end whether 
for oneself or for others, but only for the vain display of curious information, or 
even for the doing of some evil act . . ." [p. 130].) (4) Dreams sent by God. Con- 
cerning the signs indicating the divine nature of a dream, the author says: 
". . . from the importance of the matters made known by the dream, especially 
if, in the dream, those things are made known to a man of which certain knowl- 
edge can come to him only by God's leave and bounty. Of such sort are those 
things which in the schools of the theologians are called contingent future events; 
further, the secrets of the heart which are wholly hidden from all men's under- 
standing; and lastly, those highest mysteries of our faith which are known to no 
man unless he be taught them by God [!] That this [is divine] is especially 
declared by a certain enlightenment and moving of the spirits, whereby God so 
illumines t'he mind, so acts upon the will, and so assures the dreamer of the 

19 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



certain dreams are sent by God, she is disinclined, and even 
averse, to any serious concern with dreams, while admitting that 
some might conceivably contain an immediate revelation. Thus 
the change of mental attitude that has taken place in recent 
centuries is, from this point of view at least, not wholly unwel- 
come to the Church, because it effectively discouraged the 
earlier introspective attitude which favoured a serious considera- 
tion of dreams and inner experiences. 

credibility and authority of his dream that he so clearly recognizes and so cer- 
tainly judges God to be its author that he not only desires to believe it, but must 
believe it without any doubt whatsoever" (pp. 13 iff.). Since the demon, as stated 
above, is also capable of producing dreams accurately predicting future events, 
the author adds a quotation from Gregory the Great (Dialogorum Libri IV, cap. 
48, in Migne, P.L.> vol. 77, col. 412): "Holy men discern between illusions and 
revelations, the very words and images of visions, by a certain inward sensibility, 
so that they know what they receive from the good spirit and what they endure 
froin the deceiver. For if a man's mind were not careful in this regard, it would 
plunge itself into many vanities through the deceiving spirit, who is sometimes 
wont to foretell many true things, in order that he may entirely prevail to en- 
snare the soul by some one single falsity" (p. 132). It seemed to be a welcome 
safeguard against this uncertainty if dreams were concerned with the "highest 
mysteries of our faith." Athanasius, in his biography of St. Anthony, gives us 
some idea of how clever the devils are in foretelling future events. (Cf. Budge, 
The Book of Paradise, I, pp. 37ff.) The same author says they sometimes appear 
even in the shape of monks, singing psalms, reading the Bible aloud, and making 
disturbing remarks about the moral conduct of the brethren (pp. ggff. and 47). 
Pererius, however, seems to trust his own criterion, for he continues: "As there* 
fore the natural light of our minds enables us clearly to discern the truth of first 
principles, so that they are embraced by our assent immediately and without any 
argument; so in dreams sent by God the divine light shining upon our minds 
brings it about that we Understand and believe with certainty that those dreams 
are true and of God/' He does not touch on the delicate question of whether 
every unshakable conviction derived from a dream necessarily proves the divine 
origin of the dream. He merely takes it for granted that a dream of this sort 
would naturally exhibit a character consistent with the "highest mysteries of our 
faith," and not perchance with those of another one. The humanist Kaspar 
Peucer (in his Comrhentarius de praecipuis generibus divinationum, 1560) is fat 
more definite and restrictive in this respect. He says (p. 270): "Those dreams are 
of God which the sacred scriptures affirm to be sent from on high, not to every 
one promiscuously, nor to those who strive after and expect revelations of their 
own opinion, but to the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets by the will and judgment 
of God. [Such dreams are concerned] not with light matters, or with trifles and 
ephemeral things, but with Christ, the governance of the Church, with empires 
and their well ordering, and other remarkable events; and to these God always 
adds sure testimonies, such as the gift of interpretation and other things, by 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



33 Protestantism, having pulled down so many walls carefully 
erected by the Church, immediately began to experience the 
disintegrating and schismatic effect of individual revelation, As 
soon as the dogmatic fence was broken down and the ritual lost 
its authority, man had to face his inner experience without the 
protection and guidance of dogma and ritual, which are the 
very quintessence of Christian as well as of pagan religious ex- 
perience. Protestantism has, in the main, lost all the finer shades 
of traditional Christianity: the mass, confession, the greater part 
of the liturgy, and the vicarious function of priesthood. 

34 I must emphasize that this statement is not a value-judgment 
and is not intended to be one. I merely state the facts. Protestant- 
ism has, however, intensified the authority of the Bible as a 
substitute for the lost authority of the Church. But as history 
has shown, one can interpret certain biblical texts in many ways, 
Nor has scientific criticism of the New Testament been very 
helpful in enhancing belief in the divine character of the holy 
scriptures. It is also a fact that under the influence of a so-called 

which it is clear that they are not rashly to be objected to, nor are they of 
natural origin, but are divinely inspired," His crypto-Calvinism is palpably mani- 
fest in his words, particularly when one compares them with the natural theology 
of his Catholic contemporaries. It is probable that Peucer's hint about "revela- 
tions" refers to certain heretical innovations. At any rate, in the next paragraph, 
where he deals with dreams of diabolical origin, he says these are the dreams 
"which the devil shows nowadays to Anabaptists, and at all times to Enthusiasts 
and suchlike fanatics." Pererius with more perspicacity and human understand- 
ing devotes one chapter to the question "Whether it be lawful for a Christian 
man to observe dreams?" (pp. i4ff.) and another to the question "To what kind 
of man does it belong to interpret dreams aright?" (pp. 2452.). In the Erst he 
reaches the conclusion that important dreams should be considered. I quote his 
words: "Finally, to consider whether the dreams which ofttimes disturb us and 
move us to evil courses are put before us by the devil, as likewise on the other 
hand to ponder whether those by which we are aroused and incited to good, as 
for example to celibacy, almsgiving, and entering the religious life, are sent us 
by God, is the part not of a superstitious mind, but of one that is religious, 
prudent, and careful and solicitous for its salvation." Only stupid people would 
observe all the other futile dreams. In the second chapter, he answers that nobody 
should or could interpret dreams "unless he be divinely inspired and instructed.'^ 
"Even so," he adds, "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" 
(I Cor. 2:11). This statement, eminently true in itself, reserves the art of inter- 
pretation to such persons as are endowed by their office with the gift of the Holy 
Spirit. It is obvious, however, that a Jesuit author could not envisage a descent of 
the Holy Spirit outside the Church. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



scientific enlightenment great masses of educated people have 
either left the Church or become profoundly indifferent to it. 
If they were all dull rationalists or neurotic intellectuals the loss 
would not be regrettable. But many of them are religious 
people, only incapable of agreeing with the existing forms of 
belief. Otherwise, one could hardly explain the remarkable 
effect of the Buchman movement on the more-or-less educated 
Protestant classes. The Catholic who has turned his back on 
the Church usually develops a secret or manifest leaning towards 
atheism, whereas the Protestant follows, if possible, a sectarian 
movement. The absolutism of the Catholic Church seems to de- 
mand an equally absolute negation, whereas Protestant rela- 
tivism permits of variations. 

35 It may perhaps be thought that I have gone a bit too far into 
the history of Christianity, and for no other purpose than to 
explain the prejudice against dreams and inner experiences. 
But what I have just said might have been part of my conversa- 
tion with our cancer patient. I told him that it would be better 
to take his obsession seriously instead of reviling it as patholog- 
ical nonsense. But to take it seriously would mean acknowledg- 
ing it as a sort of diagnostic statement of the fact that, in a psyche 
which really existed, trouble had arisen in the form of a cancer- 
like growth. "But," he will certainly ask, "what could that 
growth be?" And I shall answer: "I do not know," as indeed I 
do not. Although, as I mentioned before, it is surely a compensa- 
tory or complementary unconscious formation, nothing is yet 
known about its specific nature or about its content. It is a spon- 
taneous manifestation of the unconscious, based on contents 
which are not to be found in consciousness. 

36 My patient is now very curious how I shall set about getting 
at the contents that form the root of the obsession. I then in- 
form him, at the risk of shocking him severely, that his dreams 
will provide us with all the necessary information. We will take 
them as if they issued from an intelligent, purposive, and, as it 
were, personal source. This is of course a bold hypothesis and 
at the same time an adventure, because we are going to give 
extraordinary credit to a discredited entity the psychewhose 
very existence is still denied by not a few contemporary psychol- 
ogists as well as by philosophers. A famous anthropologist, when 
I showed him my way of proceeding, made the typical remark; 

28 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



"That's all very interesting indeed, but dangerous." Yes, I ad- 
mit it is dangerous, just as dangerous as a neurosis. If you want 
to cure a neurosis you have to risk something. To do something 
without taking a risk is merely ineffectual, as we know only too 
well. A surgical operation for cancer is a risk too, and yet it has 
to be done. For the sake of better understanding I have often 
felt tempted to advise my patients to think of the psyche as a 
subtle body in which subtle tumours can grow. The prejudiced 
belief that the psyche is unimaginable and consequently less 
than air, or that it is a more or less intellectual system of logical 
concepts, is so great that when people are not conscious of cer- 
tain contents they assume these do not exist. They have no con- 
fidence and no belief in a reliable psychic functioning outside 
consciousness, and dreams are thought to be only ridiculous. 
Under such conditions my proposal arouses the worst suspicions. 
And indeed I have heard every argument under the sun used 
against the vague spectres of dreams. 

37 Yet in dreams we find, without any profound analysis, the 
same conflicts and complexes whose existence can also be demon- 
strated by the association test. Moreover, these complexes form 
an integral part of the existing neurosis. We have, therefore, 
reason to believe that dreams can give us at least as much in- 
formation as the association test can about the content of a neu- 
rosis. As a matter of fact, they give very much more. The symp- 
tom is like the shoot above ground, yet the main plant is an 
extended rhizome underground. The rhizome represents the 
content of a neurosis; it is the matrix of complexes, of symptoms, 
and of dreams. We have every reason to believe that dreams 
mirror exactly the underground processes of the psyche. And if 
we get there, we literally get at the "roots" of the disease. 

3 8 As it is not my intention to go any further into the psycho- 
pathology of neuroses, I propose to choose another case as an 
example of how dreams reveal the unknown inner facts of the 
psyche and of what these facts consist. The dreamer was another 
intellectual, of remarkable intelligence and learning. He was 
neurotic and was seeking my help because he felt that his neu- 
rosis had become overpowering and was slowly but surely under- 
mining his morale. Fortunately his intellectual integrity had not 
yet suffered and he had the free use of his fine intelligence. For 
this reason I set him the task of observing and recording his 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



dreams himself. The dreams were not analysed or explained to 
him and it was only very much later that we began their analysis. 
Thus the dreams I am going to relate have not been tampered 
with at all. They represent an entirely uninfluenced natural 
sequence of events. The patient had never read any psychology, 
much less any analytical psychology. 

39 Since the series consists of over four hundred dreams, I could 
not possibly convey an impression of the whole material; but I 
have published elsewhere a selection of Seventy-four dreams con- 
taining motifs of special religious interest. 13 The dreamer, it 
should be said, was a Catholic by education, but no longer a 
practising one, nor was he interested in religious problems. He 
was one of those scientifically minded intellectuals who would 
be simply amazed if anybody should saddle them with religious 
views of any kind. If one holds that the unconscious has a psychic 
existence independent of consciousness, a case such as that of 
our dreamer might be of particular interest, provided we are 
not mistaken in our conception of the religious character of 
certain dreams. And if one lays stress on the conscious mind 
alone and does not credit the unconscious with an independent 
existence, it will be interesting to find out whether or not the 
dreams really derive their material from conscious contents. 
Should the facts favour the hypothesis of the unconscious, one 
could then use dreams as possible sources of information about 
the religious tendencies of the unconscious. 

4 One cannot expect dreams to speak of religion as we know it. 
There are, however, two dreams among the four hundred that 
obviously deal with religion. I will now give the text which the 
dreatner himself had taken down: 

All the houses have something theatrical about them> with 
stage scenery and decorations. The name of Bernard Shaw is 
mentioned. The play is supposed to take place in the distant 
future. There is a notice in English and German on one of 
the sets: 



is "Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process." [Orig. in Eranos-Jahrbuch 
A revised and expanded version of this appears in Psychology and Alchemy, as 
Part IL~EDITORS,] Although the dreams cited here are mentioned in the above 
publication, they are examined there from a different standpoint. Since dreams 
have many aspects they can be studied from various angles. 

24 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



This is the universal Catholic Church. 

It is the Church of the Lord. 

All those who feel that they are the instruments of the Lord 

enter. 



Under this is printed in smaller letters: "The Church was 
founded by Jesus and Paul" like a firm advertising its long 
standing. 

I say to my friend, "Come on, let's have a look at this." He 
replies, "I do not see why a lot of people have to get together 
when they're feeling religious/' I answer, "As a Protestant you 
will never understand." A woman nods emphatic approval. 
Then I see a sort of proclamation on the wall of the church. 
It runs: 

Soldiers! 

When you feel you are under the power of the Lord, do not ad- 
dress him directly. The Lord cannot be reached by words. We also 
strongly advise you not to indulge in any discussions among your- 
selves concerning the attributes of the Lord. It is futile., for every- 
thing valuable and important is ineffable. 

(Signed) Pope . . . (Name illegible) 

Now we go in. The interior resembles a mosque, more par- 
ticularly the Hagia Sophia: no seats wonderful effect of space; 
no images^ only framed texts decorating the walls (like the 
Koran texts in the Hagia Sophia). One of the texts reads "Do 
not flatter your benefactor." The woman who had nodded ap- 
proval bursts into tears and cries, "Then there's nothing left!" 
I reply ? "I find it quite right!" but she vanishes. At first I stand 
with a pillar in front of me and can see nothing. Then I change 
my position and see a crowd of people. I do not belong to them 
and stand alone. But they are quite clear,, so that I can see their 
faces. They all say in unison, "We confess that we are under the 
power of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us." They 
repeat this three times with great solemnity. Then the organ 
starts to play and they sing a Bach fugue with chorale. But the 
original text is omitted; sometimes there is only a sort of colora- 
tura singing, then the words are repeated: "Everything else is 
paper" (meaning that it does not make a living impression on 

25 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



me). When the chorale has faded away the gemiitlich part of the 
ceremony begins; it is almost like a students' party. The people 
are all cheerful and equable. We move about, converse^ and 
greet one another, and wine (from an episcopal seminary) is 
served with other refreshments. The health of the Church is 
drunk and, as if to express everybody's pleasure at the increase 
in membership, a loudspeaker blares a ragtime melody with the 
refrain, "Charles is also with us now." A priest explains to me: 
"These somewhat trivial amusements are officially approved 
and permitted. We must adapt a little to American methods. 
With a large crowd such as we have here this is inevitable. But 
we differ in principle from the American churches by our de- 
cidedly anti-ascetic tendency." Thereupon I awake with a feel- 
ing of great relief. 

4 1 There are, as you know, numerous works on the phenome- 
nology of dreams, but very few that deal with their psychology. 
This for the obvious reason that a psychological interpretation 
of dreams is an exceedingly ticklish and risky business. Freud 
has made a courageous attempt to elucidate the intricacies of 
dream psychology with the help of views which he gathered in 
the field of psychopathology. 14 Much as I admire the boldness 
of his attempt, I cannot agree either with his method or with its 
results. He explains the dream as a mere facade behind which 
something has been carefully hidden. There is no doubt that 
neurotics hide disagreeable things, probably just as much as 
normal people do. But it is a serious question whether this 
category can be applied to such a normal and world-wide phe- 
nomenon as the dream. I doubt whether we can assume that a 
dream is something other than it appears to be. I am rather in- 
clined to quote another Jewish authority, the Talmud, which 
says: "The dream is its own interpretation." In other words 
/ take the dream for what it is. The dream is such a difficult 
and complicated thing that I do not dare to make any assump- 

14 Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams. Silberer (Der Traum, 1919) presents a 
more cautious and more balanced point of view. As to the difference between 
Freud's and my own views, I would refer the reader to my little essay on this 
subject, "Freud and Jung: Contrasts." Further material in Two Essays on Analy- 
tical Psychology, pp. i8ff.; Kranefeldt, Secret Ways of the Mind; Gerhard Adler, 
Entdeckung der Seele; and Toni Wolff, "Emfiihrung in die Grundlagen der 
komplexen Psychologic," in Die kulturelle Bedeutung der komplexen Psychologie. 

26 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tions about its possible cunning or its tendency to deceive. The 
dream is a natural occurrence, and there is no earthly reason 
why we should assume that it is a crafty device to lead us astray. 
It occurs when consciousness and will are to a large extent ex- 
tinguished. It seems to be a natural product which is also found 
in people who are not neurotic. Moreover, we know so little 
about the psychology of the dream process that we must be more 
than careful when we introduce into its explanation elements 
that are foreign to the dream itself. 

4% For all these reasons I hold that our dream really is speaking 
of religion and that it intends to do so. Since the dream has a 
coherent and well-designed structure, it suggests a certain logic 
and a certain intention, that is, it has a meaningful motivation 
which finds direct expression in the dream-content. 

43 The first part of the dream is a serious statement in favour 
of the Catholic Church. A certain Protestant point of view- 
that religion is just an individual experience is discouraged by 
the dreamer. The second, more grotesque part is the Church's 
adaptation to a decidedly worldly standpoint, and the end is a 
statement in favour of an anti-ascetic tendency which would 
not and could not be backed up by the real Church. Neverthe- 
less the dreamer's anti-ascetic priest makes it a matter of prin- 
ciple. Spiritualization and sublimation are essentially Christian 
principles, and any insistence upon the contrary would amount 
to blasphemous paganism. Christianity has never been worldly 
nor has it ever looked with favour on good food and wine, and 
it is more than doubtful whether the introduction of jazz into 
the cult would be a particular asset. The "cheerful and equable" 
people who peripatetically converse with each other in more or 
less Epicurean style remind one much more of an ancient philo- 
sophical ideal which is rather distasteful to the contemporary 
Christian. In the first and second part the importance of masses 
or crowds of people is emphasized. 

44 Thus the Catholic Church, though highly recommended, 
appears coupled with a strange pagan point of view which is ir- 
reconcilable with a fundamentally Christian attitude. The actual 
irreconcilability does not appear in the dream. It is hushed up 
as it were by a cosy ("gemutlich") atmosphere in which dangerous 
contrasts are blurred and blended. The Protestant conception of 
an individual relationship to God is swamped by mass organiza- 

27 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



tion and a correspondingly collective religious feeling. The in- 
sistence on crowds and the insinuation of a pagan ideal are 
remarkable parallels to things that are actually happening in 
Europe today, Everybody was astonished at the pagan tendencies 
of modern Germany because nobody knew how to interpret 
Nietzsche's Dionysian experience. Nietzsche was but one of the 
thousands and millions of Germans yet unborn in whose uncon- 
scious the Teutonic cousin of Dionysus Wotan came to birth 
during the Great War. 15 In the dreams of the Germans whom I 
treated then I could clearly see the Wotanistic revolution com- 
ing on, and in 1918 I published an article in which I pointed out 
the peculiar kind of new development to be expected in Ger- 
many. 16 Those Germans were by no means people who had 
studied Thus Spake Zarathustra, and certainly the young people 
who resurrected the pagan sacrifices of sheep knew nothing of 
Nietzsche's experience. 17 That is why they called their god 
Wotan and not Dionysus. In Nietzsche's biography you will find 
irrefutable proof that the god he originally meant was really 
Wotan, but, being a philologist and living in the seventies and 
eighties of the nineteenth century, he called him Dionysus. 
Looked at from a comparative point of view, the two gods have 
much in common. 

45 There is apparently no opposition to collective feeling, mass 
religion, and paganism anywhere in the dream of my patient, 
except for the Protestant friend who is soon reduced to silence. 
One curious incident merits our attention, and that is the un- 
known woman who at first backs up the eulogy of Catholicism 
and then suddenly bursts into tears, saying: "Then there's noth- 
ing left," and vanishes without returning. 

15 Cf, the relation of Odin as the god of poets, seers, and raving enthusiasts, and of 
Mimir, the Wise One, to Dionysus and Silenus. The word Odin has a root-connec- 
tion with Gall, ouarcts, Ir. faith,, L. vales, similar to vavTLs and jucuj>ojuai. Ninck, 
Wodan und germanischer Schicksalsglaube, pp. goff. 

16 "The Role of the Unconscious." 

17 Cf. my "Wotan" (Neue Schweizer Rundschau, 1936; an abbreviated version in 
the Saturday Review of Literature, Oct. 16, 1937; subsequently published in 
Essays on Contemporary Events, 1947). The Wotan parallels in Nietzsche's work 
are to be found In the poem "To the Unknown God" (Werke, ed. Baeumler, V, p. 
457); Thus Spake Zarathustra, trans, by Thomas Common, pp. sggff., 150, and 
iS^t; and the Wotan dream of 1859 in Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche, Der werdende 
Nietzsche, pp. 84ff. 

28 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



46 Who is this woman? To the dreamer she is a vague and un- 
known person, but when he had that dream he was already well 
acquainted with her as the "unknown woman" who had fre- 
quently appeared in previous dreams. 

47 As this figure plays a great role in men's dreams, it bears the 
technical name of the "anima," 18 with reference to the fact that, 
from time immemorial, man in his myths has expressed the idea 
of a male and female coexisting in the same body. Such psycho- 
logical intuitions were usually projected in the form of the 
divine syzygy, the divine pair, or in the idea of the hermaphro- 
ditic nature of the creator. 19 Edward Maitland, the biographet 
of Anna Kingsford, relates in our own day an inner experience 
of the bisexual nature of the Deity. 20 Then there is Hermetic 
philosophy with its hermaphrodite and its androgynous inner 
man, 21 the homo Adamicus^ who, "although he appears in 

18 Cf. My Two Essays, Part II, ch. 2; Psychological Types, Defs. 48, 49; "Archetypes 
of the Collective Unconscious'*; and "Concerning the Archetypes." 

19 Cf. my "Concerning the Archetypes." 

20 Maitland, Anna Kingsford, I, pp. isgff. 

21 The statement about the hermaphroditic nature of the Deity in Corpus 
Hermeticum, Lib. I (ed. Scott, Hermetica, I, p. 118): "For the first Mind was 
bisexual/' is probably taken from Plato, Symposium, XIV. It is questionable 
whether the later medieval representations of the hermaphrodite stem from 
"Poimanclres" (Hermetica, I), since the hermaphrodite figure was practically un- 
known in the West before the Poimander was printed by Marsilio Ficino in 1471. 
It is possible, however, that one of the few scholars of those days who Understood 
Greek got the idea from one of the Greek codices then extant, as for instance the 
Codex Laurentianus 71, 33, the Codex Parisinus Graecus 1220, or the Codices 
Vaticanus Graecus 237 and 951, all from the i4th century. There are no older 
codices. The first Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino had a sensational effect. 
But before that date we have the hermaphroditic symbols from the Codex 
Germanicus Monacensis 598, dated 1417. It seems to me more probable that the 
hermaphrodite symbol derives from Arabic or Syriac MSS. translated in the 
nth or i2th century. In the old Latin "Tractatulus Avicennae," which is strongly 
influenced by Arabic tradition, we find: "[The elixir] is a voluptuous serpent 
impregnating itself" (Artis auriferae, I, 1593, p. 406). Although the author was a 
Pseudo-Avicenna and not the authentic Ibn Sina (970-1037), he is one of the 
Arabic-Latin sources for medieval Hermetic literature. We find the same passage 
in "Rosinus ad Sarratantam" (Artis aurif., I, p. 309). "Rosinus" is an Arabic-Latin 
corruption of "Zosimos," a Greek neo-Platonic philosopher of the 3rd century. 
His treatise "Ad Sarratantam" belongs to the same class of literature, and since 
the history of these texts is still shrouded in darkness, nobody can say who copied 
from whom. The Turba philosophorum, Sermo LXV, a Latin text of Arabic 

29 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



masculine form, always carries about with him Eve, or his wife, 
hidden in his body/' as a medieval commentator on the Her- 
metis Tractatus aureus says. 22 

48 The anima is presumably a psychic representation of the 
minority of female genes in a man's body. This is all the more 
probable since the same figure is not to be found in the imagery 
of a woman's unconscious. There is a corresponding figure, how- 
ever, that plays an equivalent role, yet it is not a woman's image 
but a man's. This masculine figure in a woman's psychology has 
been termed the "animus." 23 One of the most typical manifesta- 
tions of both figures is what has long been called "animosity." 
The anima causes illogical moods, and the animus produces 
irritating platitudes and unreasonable opinions. Both are fre- 
quent dream-figures. As a rule they personify the unconscious 
and give it its peculiarly disagreeable or irritating character. 
The unconscious in itself has no such negative qualities. They 
appear only when it is personified by these figures and when 
they begin to influence consciousness. Being only partial per- 
sonalities, they have the character either of an inferior woman 
or of an inferior man hence their irritating effect. A man 
experiencing this influence will be subject to unaccountable 



origin, makes the same allusion: "The composite brings itself forth." (Ruska, 
Turba philosophcrum, 1931, p. 165.) So far as I can judge, the first text that 
definitely mentions the hermaphrodite is the "Liber de arte chymica" of the i6th 
century (Artis aurif., I, pp. 5758:.). On p. 610 it says: "For that Mercurius is all 
metals, male and female, and an hermaphroditic monster even in the marriage of 
soul and body." Of the later literature I mention only Hieronymus Reusner, 
Pandora (1588); "Splendor Solis" (Aureum vellus, 1598); Michael Maier, Symbola 
aureae mensae (1617) and Atalanta fugiens (1618); J. D. Mylius, Philosophia 
reformata (1622). 

22 The "Tractatus aureus Hermetis" is of Arabic origin and does not belong to 
the Corpus Hermeticum. Its history is unknown (first printed in Ars chemica, 
1566). Dominicus Gnosius wrote a commentary on the text in his Hermetis 
Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus de Lapide philosophici secreto (1610). On p. 
101 he says: "As a shadow continually follows the body of one who walks in the 
sun ... so our Adamic hermaphrodite, though he appears in masculine form, 
nevertheless always carries about with him Eve, or his feminine part, hidden in 
his body." This commentary, together with the text, is reproduced in Manget, 
Bibliotheca chemica curiosa f I (1702), pp. 40iff. 

23 There is a description of both these figures in Two Essays, Part II, pp. i86ff. 
See also Psychological Types, Def. 48, and Emma Jung, "Ein Beitrag zum Problem 
des Animus." 

30 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



moods, and a woman will be argumentative and produce opin- 
ions that are beside the mark. 24 

49 The negative reaction of the anima to the church dream indi- 
cates that the dreamer's feminine side, his unconscious, disagrees 
with his conscious attitude. The disagreement started with the 
text on the wall: "Do not flatter your benefactor/' which the 
dreamer agreed with. The meaning of the text seems sound 
enough, so that one does not understand why the woman should 
feel so desperate about it. Without delving further into this 
mystery, we must content ourselves for the time being with the 
statement that there is a contradiction in the dream and that a 
very important minority has left the stage under vivid protest 
and pays no more attention to the proceedings. 

5 We gather, then, from the dream that the unconscious func- 
tioning of the dreamer's mind has produced a pretty flat com- 
promise between Catholicism and pagan joie de vivre. The 
product of the unconscious is manifestly not expressing a fixed 
point of view or a definite opinion, rather it is a dramatic exposi- 
tion of an act of reflection. It could be formulated perhaps as 
follows: "Now what about this religious business? You are a 
Catholic, are you not? Is that not good enough? But asceticism- 
well, well, even the church has to adapt a little movies, radio, 
spiritual five o'clock tea and all that why not some ecclesiastical 
wine and gay acquaintances?" But for some secret reason this 
awkward mystery woman, well known from many former 
dreams, seems to be deeply disappointed and quits. 

5 1 I must confess that I find myself in sympathy with the anima. 
Obviously the compromise is too cheap and too superficial, but 
it is characteristic of the dreamer as well as of many other people 
to whom religion does not matter very much. Religion was of 
no concern to my patient and he certainly never expected that 
it would concern him in any way. But he had come to me be- 
cause of a very alarming experience. Being highly rationalistic 
and intellectual he had found that his attitude of mind and his 
philosophy forsook him completely in the face of his neurosis 
and its demoralizing forces. He found nothing in his whole 

24 Anima and animus do not only occur in negative form. They may sometimes 
appear as a source of enlightenment, as messengers ( 776X01 )> an( i as mystagogues. 
[Cf. Jung, Aion, par. 33 (Swiss edn., p. 34); "Psychology of the Transference," p. 
293. EDITORS.] 

31 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Weltanschauung that would help him to gain sufficient control 
of himself. He was therefore very much in the situation of a 
man deserted by his hitherto cherished convictions and ideals. 
It is by no means extraordinary that under such conditions a 
man should return to the religion of his childhood in the hope 
of finding something helpful there. It was, however, not a con- 
scious attempt or decision to revivify his earlier religious beliefs. 
He merely dreamed it; that is, his unconscious produced a pe- 
culiar statement about his religion. It is just as if the spirit and 
the flesh, the eternal enemies in a Christian consciousness, had 
made peace with each other in the form of a curious mitigation 
of their contradictory nature. Spirituality and world liness come 
together in unexpected amity. The effect is slightly grotesque 
and comical. The inexorable severity of the spirit seems to be 
undermined by an almost antique gaiety perfumed with wine 
and roses. At all events the dream describes a spiritual and 
worldly atmosphere that dulls the sharpness of a inoial conflict 
and swallows up in oblivion all mental pain and distress. 

52 If this was a wish-fulfilment it was surely a conscious one, 
for it was precisely what the patient had already done to excess. 
And he was not unconscious of this either, since wine was one 
of his most dangerous enemies. The dream, on the other hand, 
is an impartial statement of the patient's spiritual condition. It 
gives a picture of a degenerate religion corrupted by worldliness 
and mob instincts. There is religious sentimentality instead of 
the numinosum of divine experience. This is the well-known 
characteristic of a religion that has lost its living mystery. It is 
readily understandable that such a religion is incapable of giv- 
ing help or of having any other moral effect. 

53 The over-all aspect of the dream is definitely unfavourable, 
although certain other aspects of a more positive nature are 
dimly visible. It rarely happens that dreams are either exclu- 
sively positive or exclusively negative. As a rule one finds both 
aspects, but usually one is stronger than the other. It is obvious 
that such a dream provides the psychologist with enough ma- 
terial to raise the problem of a religious attitude. If our dream 
were the only one we possess we could hardly hope to unlock 
its innermost meaning, but we have quite a number of dreams 
in our series which point to a remarkable religious problem. I 
never, if I can help it, interpret one dream by itself. As a rule a 

32 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



dream belongs in a series. Since there is a continuity of con- 
sciousness despite the fact that it is regularly interrupted by 
sleep, there is probably also a continuity of unconscious proc- 
essesperhaps even more than with the events of consciousness. 
In any case my experience is in favour of the probability that 
dreams are the visible links in a chain of unconscious events. 
If we want to shed any light on the deeper reasons for the dream, 
we must go back to the series and find out where it is located in 
the long chain of four hundred dreams. 

54 We find our dream wedged in between two important 
dreams of an uncanny quality. The dream before reports that 
there is a gathering of many people and that a peculiar ceremony 
is taking place, apparently of magical character, for the purpose 
of "reconstructing the gibbon." The dream after is concerned 
with a similar theme the magical transformation of animals 
into human beings. 23 

55 Both dreams are intensely disagreeable and very alarming 
to the patient. Whereas the church dream manifestly moves on 
the surface and expresses opinions which in other circumstatices 
could just as well have been thought consciously, these two 
dreams are strange and remote in character and their emotional 
effect is such that the dreamer would avoid them if possible. As 
a matter of fact, the text of the second dream says: "If one runs 
away, all is lost." Curiously enough, this remark coincides with 
that of the unknown woman: "Then there's nothing left." The 
inference to be drawn from these remarks is that the church 
dream was an attempt to escape from other dream ideas of a 
much deeper significance. These ideas appear in the dreams 
occurring immediately before and after it. 

25 [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 1646., 1838:. EDITORS.] 



2. DOGMA AND NATURAL SYMBOLS 



5 6 The first of these dreams the one preceding the church 
dream speaks of a ceremony whereby an ape is to be recon- 
structed. To explain this point sufficiently would require too 
many details. I must, therefore, restrict myself to the mere 
statement that the "ape" refers to the dreamer's instinctual per- 
sonality, 1 which he had completely neglected in favour of an 
exclusively intellectual attitude. The result had been that his 
instincts got the better of him and attacked him at times in the 
form of uncontrollable outbursts. The * 'reconstruction" of the 
ape means the rebuilding of the instinctual personality within 
the framework of the hierarchy of consciousness. Such a recon- 
struction is only possible if accompanied by important changes 
in the conscious attitude. The patient was naturally afraid of 
the tendencies of the unconscious, because hitherto they had 
revealed themselves to him in their most unfavourable form. 
The church dream that followed represents an attempt to seek 
refuge from this fear in the shelter of a church religion. The 
third dream, in speaking of the "transformation of animals into 
human beings," obviously continues the theme of the first one; 
that is, the ape is reconstructed solely for the purpose of being 
transformed later into a human being. In other words, the pa- 

1 [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, par. 175 .EDITORS.] 

34 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tient has to undergo an Important change through the reintegra- 
tion of his hitherto split-off instinctuality, and is thus to be 
made over into a new man. The modern mind has forgotten 
those old truths that speak of the death of the old man and the 
making of a new one, of spiritual rebirth and such-like old- 
fashioned "mystical absurdities." My patient, being a scientist 
of today, was more than once seized by panic when he realized 
how much he was gripped by such thoughts. He was afraid he 
was going mad, whereas the man of two thousand years ago 
would have welcomed such dreams and rejoiced in the hope of 
a magical rebirth and renewal of life. But our modern attitude 
looks back arrogantly upon the mists of superstition and of 
medieval or primitive credulity, entirely forgetting that we 
carry the whole living past in the lower storeys of the skyscraper 
of rational consciousness. Without the lower storeys our mind 
is suspended in mid air. No wonder it gets nervous. The true 
history of the mind is not preserved in learned volumes but in 
the living psychic organism of every individual. 

57 I must admit, however, that the idea of renewal took on 
shapes that could easily shock a modern mind. It is indeed diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to connect "rebirth/* as we understand 
it, with the way it is depicted in the dreams. But before we 
discuss the strange and unexpected transformation there hinted 
at, we should turn our attention to the other manifestly religious 
dream to which I alluded before. 

5 8 While the church dream comes relatively early in the long 
series, the following dream belongs to the later stages of the 
process. 2 This is the literal text: 

I come to a strange, solemn house the "House of the Gather- 
ing." Many candles are burning in the background, arranged in 
a peculiar pattern with four points running upward. Outside, 
at the door of the house, an old man is posted. People are going 
in. They say nothing and stand motionless in order to collect 
themselves inwardly. The man at the door says of the visitors 
to the house, "When they come out again they are cleansed" 

1 go into the house myself and find I can concentrate perfectly. 
Then a voice says: "What you are doing is dangerous. Religion is 
not a tax to be paid so that you can rid yourself of the woman's 

2 [Cf. ibid., par. 293. EBITORS.] 

35 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Cj for this image cannot be got rid of. Woe unto them who 
use religion as a substitute for the other side of the soul's life; 
they are in error and will be accursed. Religion is no substitute; 
it is to be added to the other activities of the soul as the ultimate 
completion. Out of the fulness of life shall you bring forth your 
religion; only then shall you be blessed!" While the last sentence 
is btfing spoken in ringing tones I hear distant music, simple 
chords on an organ. Something about it reminds me of Wagner's 
Fire Music. As I leave the house I see a burning mountain and 
I feel: "The fire that is not put out is a holy fire" (Shaw, Saint 
Joan). 

59 The patient was deeply impressed by this dream. It was a 
solemn and powerful experience for him, one of several which 
produced a far-reaching change in his attitude to life and 
humanity. 

60 It is not difficult to see that this dream forms a parallel to 
the church dream. Only this time the church has become a 
house of solemnity and self-collection. There are no indications 
of ceremonies or of any other known attributes of the Catholic 
Church, with the sole exception of the burning candles, which 
are arranged in a symbolic form probably derived from the 
Catholic cult. 3 They form four pyramids or points, which per- 
haps anticipate the final vision of the flaming mountain. The 
appearance of the number four is, however, a regular feature in 
the patient's dreams and plays a very important role. The holy 
fire refers to Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan., as the dreaitier himself 
observes. The unquenchable fire, on the other hand, is a well- 
known attribute of the Deity, not only in the Old Testament, 
but also as an allegoria Christi iti an uncanonical logion cited 
in Origen's Homilies: 4 "Ait ipse salvator: qui iuxta me est, 
iuxta ignem est, qui longe est a me, longe est a regno" (the 
Saviour himself says: Whoever is tiear to me is near to the fire; 
whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom). Since the time 
of Heraclitus life has been conceived as a irvp &d fwp, an ever- 

3 A bishop is allowed four candles for a private mass. Some of the more solemn 
forms of the Mass, such as the Missa cantata, also have four. Still higher forms 
have six or seven. 

4 Origin, In Jererhium homiliae, XX, 3, in Migtie, P.G.j vol. 13, col, 532. Also in 
James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 35. 

36 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



living fire; and as Christ calls himself 'The Life," the un- 
canonical saying is quite understandable. The fire signifying 
"life" fits into the frame of the dream, for it emphasizes that 
"fulness of life" is the only legitimate source of religion. Thus 
the four fiery points function almost as an icon denoting the 
presence of the Deity or an equivalent being. In the system of 
Barbelo-Gnosis, four lights surround the Autogenes (the Self- 
Born, or Uncreated). 5 This strange figure may correspond to 
the Monogenes of Coptic Gnosis, mentioned in the Codex 
Brucianus. There too the Monogenes is characterized as a qua- 
ternity symbol. 

61 As I said before, the number four plays an important role 
in these dreams, always alluding to an idea akin to the Pytha- 
gorean tetraktys. 6 

62 The quaternarium or quaternity has a long history. It ap- 
pears not only in Christian iconology and mystical speculation 7 
but plays perhaps a still greater role in Gnostic philosophy 8 

5 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, trans, by Keble, p. 81. 

6 Cf. Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen, where all the sources are collected, 
"Four is the origin and root of eternal nature" (I, p. 291). Plato derives the human 
body from the four. According to the Neoplatonists, Pythagoras himself called 
the soul a square (Zeller, III, n, p. 120). 

7 The "four" in Christian iconography appears chiefly in the form of the four 
evangelists and their symbols, arranged in a rose, circle, or melothesia, or as a 
tetramorph, as for instance in the Hortus delidarum of Herrad of Landsberg and 
in works of mystical speculation. Of these I mention only: (i) Jakob Bohme, XL 
Questions concerning the Soule (1647). (2) Hildegard of Bingen, Codex Luccensis, 
fol. 372, and Codex Heidelbergensis, "Scivias," representations of the mystic uni- 
verse; cf . Singer, Studies in the History and Method of Science. (3) The remarkable 
drawings of Opicinus de Canistris in the Codex Palatinus Latinus 1993, Vatican; 
cf. Salomon, Weltbild und Bekenntnisse eines avignonesischen Klerikers des 14. 
Jahrhunderts. (4) Heinrich Khunrath,Fom hylealischen, das ist, pri-materialischen 
catholischen, oder algemeinen naturlichen Chaos (1597), pp. 204 and 281, where 
he says the "Monas catholica" arises from the rotation of the "Quaternarium" 
and interprets it as an image and allegory of Christ (further material in Khun- 
rath, Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, 1604). (5) The speculations about the 
cross: "It is said . . . that the cross was made of four kinds of wood," St. Bernard, 
Vitis mystica, cap. XLVI, in Migne, PJL., vol. 184, col. 752; cf. W. Meyer, Die 
Qeschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christus, p. 7. For the quaternity see also Dunbar, 
Symbolism in Mediaeval Thought and Its Consummation in the Divine Comedy. 

8 Cf. the systems of Isidorus, Valentinus, Marcus, and Secundus. A most instruc- 
tive example is the symbolism of the Monogenes in the Codex Brucianus 
(Bodleian library, Oxford, MS. Bruce 96), trans, by C. A. Baynes, A Coptic 
Gnostic Treatise, pp. 59ff,, 70$. 

37 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



and from then on down through the Middle Ages until well 
into the eighteenth century. 9 

63 In the dream under discussion, the quaternity appears as 
the most significant exponent of the religious cult created by 
the unconscious. 10 The dreamer enters the "House of the Gath- 
ering" alone, instead of with a friend as in the church dream. 
Here he meets an old man, who had already appeared in an 
earlier dream as the sage who had pointed to a particular 
spot on the earth where the dreamer belonged. The old man 
explains the character of the cult as a purification ritual. It is 
not clear from the dream-text what kind of purification is meant, 
or from what it should purify. The only ritual that actually takes 
place seems to be a concentration or meditation, leading up to 
the ecstatic phenomenon of the voice. The voice is a frequent 
occurrence in this dream-series. It always utters an authoritative 
declaration or command, either of astonishing common sense 
or of profound philosophic import. It is nearly always a final 
statement, usually coming toward the end of a dream, and it is, 
as a rule, so clear and convincing that the dreamer finds no 
argument against it. It has, indeed, so much the character of 
indisputable truth that it can hardly be understood as anything 
except a final and trenchant summing up of a long process of 
unconscious deliberation and weighing of arguments. Fre- 

9 I am thinking of the mystical speculations about the four "roots" (the rhizomata 
of Empedocles), i.e., the four elements or four qualities (wet, dry, warm, cold), 
peculiar to Hermetic or alchemical philosophy. Descriptions in Petrus Bonus, 
Pretiosa margarita novella (1546); Joannes Pantheus, Ars transmutationis metal- 
licae (1519), p. 5, based on a quaternatio; Raymund Lull, "Theorica et practica" 
(Theatrum chemicum, IV, 1613, p. 174), a quaternatio elementorum and of chem- 
ical processes; Michael Maier, Scrutinium chymicum (1687), symbols of the four 
elements. The last-named author wrote an interesting treatise called De circulo 
physico quadrato (1616). There is much the same symbolism in Mylius, Philoso- 
phia reformata (1622). Pictures of the Hermetic redemption in the form of a 
tetrad with symbols of the four evangelists (from Reusner's Pandora and the 
Codex Germanicus Monacensis 598) are reproduced in Psychology and Alchemy, 
figs. 231 and 232; quaternity symbolism, ibid., pp. 2o8ff. Further material in 
Kuekelhaus, Urzahl und Gebarde. Eastern parallels in Zimmer, Kunstform und 
Yoga im indischen Kultbild; Wilhelm and Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower. 
The literature on the symbolism of the cross is also relevant here. 

10 This sentence may sound presumptuous, for I seem to be forgetting that we 
are concerned here with a single and unique dream from which no far-reaching 
conclusions can be drawn. My conclusions, however, are based not on this dream 
alone but on many similar experiences to which I have alluded elsewhere. 

3 8 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



quently the voice issues from an authoritative figure, such as a 
military commander, or the captain o a ship, or an old physi- 
cian. Sometimes, as in this case, there is simply a voice coining 
apparently from nowhere. It was interesting to see how this 
very intellectual and sceptical man accepted the voice; often it 
did not suit him at all, yet he accepted it unquestioningly, even 
humbly. Thus the voice revealed itself, in the course of several 
hundred carefully recorded dreams, as an important and even 
decisive spokesman of the unconscious. Since this patient is by 
no means the only one I have observed who exhibited the phe- 
nomenon of the voice in dreams and in other peculiar states of 
consciousness, I am forced to admit that the unconscious is capa- 
ble at times of manifesting an intelligence and purposiveness 
superior to the actual conscious insight. There can be no doubt 
that this is a basic religious phenomenon, observed here in a 
person whose conscious mental attitude certainly seemed most 
unlikely to produce religious phenomena. I have not infre- 
quently made similar observations in other cases and I must 
confess that I am unable to formulate the facts in any other way. 
I have often met with the objection that the thoughts which the 
voice represents are no more than the thoughts of the individual 
himself. That may be; but I would call a thought my own only 
when / have thought it, just as I would call money my own only 
when I have earned or acquired it in a conscious and legitimate 
manner. If somebody gives me the money as a present, then I 
shall certainly not say to my benefactor, "Thank you for my 
money," although to a third person I might say afterwards: 
"This is my own money." With the voice I am in a similar situa- 
tion. The voice gives me certain contents, exactly as if a friend 
were informing me of his ideas. It would be neither decent nor 
truthful to suggest that what he says are my own ideas. 
64 This is the reason why I differentiate between what I have 
produced or acquired by my own conscious effort and what is 
clearly and unmistakably a product of the unconscious. Someone 
may object that the so-called unconscious mind is merely my 
own mind and that, therefore, such a differentiation is super- 
fluous. But I am not at all convinced that the unconscious mind 
is merely my mind, because the term "unconscious" means that 
I am not even conscious of it. As a matter of fact, the concept of 
the unconscious is an assumption for the sake of convenience. 

39 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



In reality I am totally unconscious of or, in other words, I 
do not know at all where the voice comes from. Not only am I 
incapable of producing the phenomenon at will, I am unable to 
anticipate what the voice will say. Under such conditions it 
would be presumptuous to refer to the factor that produces the 
voice as my unconscious or my mind. This would not be ac- 
curate, to say the least. The fact that you perceive the voice in 
your dream proves nothing at all, for you can also hear the 
noises in the street, which you would never think of calling 
your own. 

6 5 There is only one condition under which you might legiti- 
mately call the voice your own, and that is when you assume 
your conscious personality to be a part of a whole or to be a 
smaller circle contained in a bigger one. A little bank-clerk, 
showing a friend around town, who points to the bank building 
with the words, "And this is my bank/' is making use of the 
same privilege. 

66 We may suppose that human personality consists of two 
things: first, consciousness and whatever this covers, and second, 
an indefinitely large hinterland of unconscious psyche. So far as 
the former is concerned, it can be more or less clearly defined 
and delimited; but as for the sum total of human personality, 
one has to admit the impossibility of a complete description or 
definition. In other words, there is bound to be an illimitable 
and indefinable addition to every personality, because the latter 
consists of a conscious and observable part which does not con- 
tain certain factors whose existence, however, we are forced to 
assutne in order to explain certain observable facts. The un- 
known factors form what we call the unconscious part of the 
personality. 

6 7 Of what those factors consist we have no idea, since we can 
observe only their effects. We may assume that they are of a 
psychic nature comparable to that of conscious contents, yet 
there is no certainty about this. But if we suppose such a likeness 
we can hardly refrain from going further. Since psychic con- 
tents are conscious and perceivable only when they are asso- 
ciated with an ego, the phenomenon of the voice, having a 
Strongly personal character, may also issue from a centre but a 
centre which is not identical with the conscious ego. Such Reason- 
ing is permissible if we conceive of the ego as being subordi- 

40 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



nated to, or contained in, a supraordinate self as centre of the 
total, illimitable, and indefinable psychic personality. 

68 I do not enjoy philosophical arguments that amuse by their 
own complications. Although rny argument may seem abstruse, 
it is at least an honest attempt to formulate the observed facts. 
To put it simply one could say: Since we do not know every- 
thing, practically every experience, fact, or object contains 
something unknown. Hence, if we speak of the totality of an 
experience, the word "totality" can refer only to the conscious 
part of it. As we cannot assume that our experience covers the 
totality of the object, it is clear that its absolute totality must 
necessarily contain the part that has not been experienced. The 
same holds true, as I have mentioned, of every experience and 
also of the psyche, whose absolute totality covers a greater area 
than consciousness. In other words, the psyche is no exception to 
the general rule that the universe can be established only so far 
as our psychic organism permits. 

69 My psychological experience has shown time and again that 
certain contents issue from a psyche that is more complete than 
consciousness. They often contain a superior analysis or insight 
or knowledge which consciousness has not been able to produce. 
We have a suitable word for such occurrences intuition. In 
uttering this word most people have an agreeable feeling, as if 
something had been settled. But they never consider that you 
do not make an intuition. On the contrary, it always comes to 
you; you have a hunch, it has come of itself, and you only catch 
it if you are clever or quick enough. 

7 Consequently, I explain the voice, in the dream of the sacred 
house, as a product of the more complete personality of which 
the dreamer's conscious self is a part, and I hold that this is the 
reason why the voice shows an intelligence and a clarity superior 
to the dreamer's actual consciousness. This superiority is the 
reason for the absolute authority of the voice. 

7 1 The message of the voice contains a strange criticism of the 
dreamer's attitude. In the church dream, he made an attempt 
to reconcile the two sides of life by a kind of cheap compromise. 
As we know, the unknown woman, the anima, disagreed and left 
the scene. In the present dream the voice seems to have taken 
the place of the anima, making not a merely emotional protest 
but a masterful statement on two kinds of religion. According 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION t WEST 



to this statement, the dreamer is inclined to use religion as 
a substitute for the "woman's image," as the text says. The 
"woman" refers to the anima. This is borne out by the next 
sentence, which speaks of religion being used as a substitute for 
"the other side of the soul's life." The anima is the "other side," 
as I explained before. She is the representative of the female 
minority hidden below the threshold of consciousness, that is to 
say, in the unconscious. The criticism, therefore, would read as 
follows: "You try religion in order to escape from your uncon- 
scious. You use it as a substitute for a part of your soul's life. 
But religion is the fruit and culmination of the completeness of 
life, that is, of a life which contains both sides." 

72 Careful comparison with other dreams of the same series 
shows unmistakably what the "other side" is. The patient always 
tried to evade his emotional needs. As a matter of fact he was 
afraid they might get him into trouble, for instance into mar- 
riage, and into other responsibilities such as love, devotion, 
loyalty, trust, emotional dependence, and general submission to 
the soul's needs. All this had nothing to do with science or an 
academic career; moreover, the word "soul" was nothing but 
an intellectual obscenity, not fit to be touched with a barge pole. 

73 The "mystery" of the anima is the mysterious allusion to 
religion. This was a great puzzle to my patient, who naturally 
enough knew nothing of religion except as a creed. He also 
knew that religion can be a substitute for certain awkward emo- 
tional demands which one might circumvent by going to church. 
The prejudices of our age are visibly reflected in the dreamer's 
apprehensions. The voice, on the other hand, is unorthodox, 
indeed shockingly unconventional: it takes religion seriously, 
puts it on the very apex of life, a life containing "both sides," 
and thus upsets his most cherished intellectual and rationalistic 
prejudices. This was such a revolution that my patient wa$ often 
afraid he would go crazy. Well, I should say that weknowing 
the average intellectual of today and yesterday can easily sym- 
pathize with his predicament. To take the "woman's image" 
in other words, the unconscious seriously into account, what a 
blow to enlightened common sense! n 

11 Cf. the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). This book is supposed to have been 
written by a monk of the i5th century. It is an excellent example of an anima- 
romance. [Fierz-David's study The Dream of Poliphilo treats it as such. EDITORS.] 

42 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



74 I began his personal treatment only after he had observed 
the first series of about three hundred and fifty dreams. Then I 
got the whole backwash of his upsetting experiences. No won- 
der he wanted to run away from his adventure! But, fortunately, 
the man had religio, that is, he "carefully took account of" his 
experience and he had enough mo-ris, or loyalty to his experi- 
ence, to enable him to hang on to it and continue it. He had the 
great advantage of being neurotic and so, whenever he tried to 
be disloyal to his experience or to deny the voice, the neurotic 
condition instantly came back. He simply could not "quench 
the fire" and finally he had to admit the incomprehensibly 
numinous character of his experience. He had to confess that the 
unquenchable fire was "holy." This was the sine qua non of 
his cure. 

75 One might, perhaps, consider this case an exception inasmuch 
as fairly complete human beings are exceptions. It is true that 
an overwhelming majority of educated people are fragmentary 
personalities and have a lot of substitutes instead of the genuine 
goods. But being like that meant a neurosis for this man, and it 
means the same for a great many other people too. What is ordi- 
narily called "religion" is a substitute to such an amazing degree 
that I ask myself seriously whether this kind of "religion," 
which I prefer to call a creed, may not after all have an impor- 
tant function in human society. The substitute has the obvious 
purpose of replacing immediate experience by a choice of suit- 
able symbols tricked out with an organized dogma and ritual. 
The Catholic Church maintains them by her indisputable 
authority, the Protestant "church" (if this term is still applica- 
ble) by insistence on belief in the evangelical message. So long 
as these two principles work, people are effectively protected 
against immediate religious experience. 12 Even if something of 
the sort should happen to them, they can refer to the Church, 
for she would know whether the experience came from God 
or from the devil, and whether it is to be accepted or rejected. 

76 In my profession I have encountered many people who have 
had immediate experience and who would not and could not 
submit to the authority of ecclesiastical decision. I had to go 

12 Ecclesiastical vestments are not for adornment only, they also serve to protect 
the officiating priest. "Fear of God" is no groundless metaphor, for at the back of 
it there is a very real phenomenology. Cf. Exodus 20: i8f. 

43 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



with them through the crises of passionate conflicts, through the 
panics of madness, through desperate confusions and depressions 
which were grotesque and terrible at the same time, so that I 
am fully aware of the extraordinary importance of dogma and 
ritual, at least as methods of mental hygiene. If the patient is a 
practising Catholic, I invariably advise him to confess and to 
receive communion in order to protect himself from immediate 
experience, which might easily prove too much for him, With 
Protestants it is usually not so easy, because dogma and ritual 
have become so pale and faint that they have lost their efficacy to 
a very great extent. There is also, as a rule, no confession, and 
the clergy share the common dislike of psychological problems 
and also, unfortunately, the common ignorance of psychology. 
The Catholic "director of conscience" often has infinitely more 
psychological skill and insight. Protestant parsons, moreover, 
have gone through a scientific training at a theological faculty 
which, with its critical spirit, undermines naivete of faith, 
whereas the powerful historical tradition in a Catholic priest's 
training is apt to strengthen the authority of the institution. 

77 As a doctor I might, of course, espouse a so-called "scientific" 
creed, holding that the contents of a neurosis are nothing but 
repressed infantile sexuality or will to power. By thus depreci- 
ating these contents, it would be possible, up to a point, to 
shield a number of patients from, the risk of immediate experi- 
ence. But I know that this theory is only partially true, which 
means that it formulates only certain aspects of the neurotic 
psyche. And I cannot tell my patients what I myself do not fully 
believe. 

78 Now people may ask me: "But if you tell your practising 
Catholic to go to the priest and confess, you are telling him 
something you do not believe" that is, assuming that I am a 
Protestant. 

79 In order to answer this critical question I must first of all 
explain that, if I can help it, I never preach my belief. If askeci 
I shall certainly stand by my convictions, but these do not go 
beyond what I consider to be my actual knowledge. I believe 
only what I know. Everything else is hypothesis and beyond that 
I can leave a lot of things to the Unknown. They do not bother 
me. But they would begip. to bother me, I am sure, if I felt that 
I ought to know about them, If, therefore, a patient is convinced, 

44 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



of the exclusively sexual origin of his neurosis, I would not dis- 
turb him in his opinion because I know that such a conviction, 
particularly if it is deeply rooted, is an excellent defence against 
an onslaught of immediate experience with its terrible am- 
biguity. So long as such a defence works I shall not break it 
down, since I know that there must be cogent reasons why the 
patient has to think in such a narrow circle. But if his dreams 
should begin to destroy the protective theory, I have to support 
the wider personality, as I have done in the case of the dream 
described. In the same way and for the same reason I support 
the hypothesis of the practising Catholic while it works for him. 
In either case, I reinforce a means of defence against a grave 
risk, without asking the academic question whether the defence 
is an ultimate truth. I am glad when it works and so long as 
it works. 

80 With our patient, the Catholic defence had broken down 
long before I ever touched the case. He would have laughed at 
me if I had advised him to confess or anything of that sort, just 
as he laughed at the sexual theory, which he had no use for 
either. But I always let him see that I was entirely on the side of 
the voice, which I recognized as part of his future greater per- 
sonality, destined to relieve him of his one-sidedness. 

81 For a certain type of intellectual mediocrity characterized by 
enlightened rationalism, a scientific theory that simplifies mat- 
ters is a very good means of defence because of the tremendous 
faith modern man has in anything which bears the label "scien- 
tific." Such a label sets your mind at rest immediately, almost 
as well as Roma locuta causa finita: "Rome has spoken, the 
matter is settled." In itself any scientific theory, no matter how 
subtle, has, I think, less value from the standpoint of psycho- 
logical truth than religious dogma, for the simple reason that a 
theory is necessarily highly abstract and exclusively rational, 
whereas dogma expresses an irrational whole by means of im- 
agery. This guarantees a far better rendering of an irrational 
fact like the psyche. Moreover, dogma owes its continued exist- 
ence and its form on the one hand to so-called "revealed" or 
immediate experiences of the "Gnosis" 13 for instance, the God- 
man, the Cross, the Virgin Birth, the Immaculate Conception, 

13 Gnosis, as a special kind of knowledge, should not be confused with. "Gnosti- 
cism." 

45 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the Trinity, and so on, and on the other hand to the ceaseless 
collaboration of many minds over many centuries. It may not 
be quite clear why I call certain dogmas "immediate experi- 
ences/' since in itself a dogma is the very thing that precludes 
immediate experience. Yet the Christian images I have men- 
tioned are not peculiar to Christianity alone (although in Chris- 
tianity they have undergone a development and intensification 
of meaning not to be found in any other religion). They occur 
just as often in pagan religions, and besides that they can reap- 
pear spontaneously in all sorts of variations as psychic phenom- 
ena, just as in the remote past they originated in visions, dreams, 
or trances. Ideas like these are never invented. They came into 
being before man had learned to use his mind purposively. Be- 
fore man learned to produce thoughts, thoughts came to him. 
He did not think he perceived his mind functioning. Dogma 
is like a dream, reflecting the spontaneous and autonomous ac- 
tivity of the objective psyche, the unconscious. Such an expres- 
sion of the unconscious is a much more efficient means of defence 
against further immediate experiences than any scientific theory. 
The theoi~y has to disregard the emotional values of the experi- 
ence. The dogma, on the other hand, is extremely eloquent in 
just this respect. One scientific theory is soon superseded by 
another. Dogma lasts for untold centuries. The suffering God- 
Man may be at least five thousand years old and the Trinity is 
probably even older. 

Dogma expresses the soul more completely than a scientific 
theory, for the latter gives expression to and formulates the 
conscious mind alone. Furthermore, a theory can do nothing 
except formulate a living thing in abstract terms. Dogma, on the 
contrary, aptly expresses the living process of the unconscious 
in the form of the drama of repentance, sacrifice, and redemp- 
tion. It is rather astonishing, from this point of view, that the 
Protestant schism could not have been avoided. But since 
Protestantism became the creed of the adventurous Germanic 
tribes with their characteristic curiosity, acquisitiveness, and 
recklessness, it seems possible that their peculiar nature was un- 
able to endure the peace of the Church, at least not for any 
length o time. It looks as if they were not yet advanced enough 
to suffer a process of salvation and to submit to a deity who 
was made visible in the magnificent structure of the Church. 

46 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



There was, perhaps, too much of the Imperium Romanum or 
of the Pax Romana in the Church too much, at least, for their 
energies, which were and still are insufficiently domesticated. 
It is quite likely that they needed an unmitigated and less con- 
trolled experience of God, as often happens to adventurous and 
restless people who are too youthful for any form of conserva- 
tism or domestication. They therefore did away with the inter- 
cession of the Church between God and man, some more and 
some less. With the demolition of protective walls, the Protes- 
tant lost the sacred images that expressed important unconscious 
factors, together with the ritual which, from time immemorial, 
has been a safe way of dealing with the unpredictable forces of 
the unconscious. A vast amount of energy was thus liberated and 
instantly went into the old channels of curiosity and acquisitive- 
ness. In this way Europe became the mother of dragons that 
devoured the greater part of the earth. 

83 Since those days Protestantism has become a hotbed of 
schisms and, at the same time, of rapid advances in science and 
technics which cast such a spell over man's conscious mind that 
it forgot the unpredictable forces of the unconscious. The catas- 
trophe of the first World War and the extraordinary manifesta- 
tions of profound spiritual malaise that came afterwards were 
needed to arouse a doubt as to whether all was well with the 
white man's mind. Before the war broke out in 1914 we were 
all quite certain that the world could be righted by rational 
means. Now we behold the amazing spectacle of states taking 
over the age-old totalitarian claims of theocracy, which are in- 
evitably accompanied by suppression of free opinion. Once more 
we see people cutting each other's throats in support of childish 
theories of how to create paradise on earth. It is not very diffi- 
cult to see that the powers of the underworld not to say of hell 
which in former times were more or less successfully chained up 
in a gigantic spiritual edifice where they could be of some use, 
are now creating, or trying to create, a State slavery and a State 
prison devoid of any mental or spiritual charm. There are not a 
few people nowadays who are convinced that mere human rea- 
son is not entirely up to the enormous task of putting a lid on 
the volcano. 

84 This whole development is fate. I would not lay the blame 
either on Protestantism or on the Renaissance. But one thing is 

47 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



certainthat modem man, Protestant or otherwise, has lost the 
protection of the ecclesiastical walls erected and reinforced so 
carefully since Roman days, and because of this loss has ap- 
proached the zone of world-destroying and world-creating fire. 
Life has become quickened and intensified. Our world is shot 
through with waves of uneasiness and fear. 

8 5 Protestantism was, and still is, a great risk and at the same 
time a great opportunity. If it goes on disintegrating as a church, 
it must have the effect of stripping man of all his spiritual safe- 
guards and means of defence against immediate experience of 
the forces waiting for liberation in the unconscious. Look at all 
the incredible savagery going on in our so-called civilized world: 
it all comes from human beings and the spiritual condition they 
are in! Look at the devilish engines of destruction! They are 
invented by completely innocuous gentlemen, reasonable, re- 
spectable citizens who are everything we could wish. And when 
the whole thing blows up and an indescribable hell of destruc- 
tion is let loose, nobody seems to be responsible. It simply hap- 
pens, and yet it is all man-made. But since everybody is blindly 
convinced that he is nothing more than his own extremely un- 
assuming and insignificant conscious self, which performs its 
duties decently and earns a moderate living, nobody is aware 
that this whole rationalistically organized conglomeration we 
call a state or a nation is driven on by a seemingly impersonal, 
invisible but terrifying power which nobody and nothing can 
check. This ghastly power is mostly explained as fear of the 
neighbouring nation, which is supposed to be possessed by a 
malevolent fiend. Since nobody is capable of recognizing just 
where and how much he himself is possessed and unconscious, 
he simply projects his own condition upon his neighbour, and 
thus it becomes a sacred duty to have the biggest guns and the 
most poisonous gas. The worst of it is that he is quite right. All 
one's neighbours are in the grip of some uncontrolled and un- 
controllable fear, just like oneself. In lunatic asylums it is a well- 
known fact that patients are far more dangerous when suffering 
from fear than when moved by rage or hatred. 

86 The Protestant is left to God alone. For him there is no con^ 
fession, no absolution, no possibility of an expiatory opus 
divinum of any kind. He has to digest his sins by himself; and, 
because the absence of a suitable ritual has put it beyond bis 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



reach, he is none too sure of divine grace. Hence the present 
alertness of the Protestant conscience and this bad conscience 
has all the disagreeable characteristics of a lingering illness 
which makes people chronically uncomfortable. But, for this 
very reason, the Protestant has a unique chance to make himself 
conscious of sin to a degree that is hardly possible for a Catholic 
mentality, as confession and absolution are always at hand to 
ease excess of tension. The Protestant, however, is left to his 
tensions, which can go on sharpening his conscience. Con- 
science, and particularly a bad conscience, can be a gift from 
heaven, a veritable grace if used in the interests of the higher 
self-criticism. And self-criticism, in the sense of an introspective, 
discriminating activity, is indispensable in any attempt to under- 
stand your own psychology. If you have done something that 
puzzles you and you ask yourself what could have prompted you 
to such an action, you need the sting of a bad conscience and its 
discriminating faculty in order to discover the real motive of 
your behaviour. It is only then that you can see what motives are 
governing your actions. The sting of a bad conscience even 
spurs you on to discover things that were unconscious before, 
and in this way you may be able to cross the threshold of the 
unconscious and take cognizance of those impersonal forces 
which make you an unconscious instrument of the wholesale 
murderer in man. If a Protestant survives the complete loss of 
his church and still remains a Protestant, that is to say a man 
who is defenceless against God and no longer shielded by walls 
or communities, he has a unique spiritual opportunity for 
immediate religious experience. 

87 I do not know whether I have succeeded in conveying what 
the experience of the unconscious meant to my patient. There 
is, however, no objective criterion by which such an experience 
can be valued. We have to take it for what it is worth to the per- 
son who has the experience. Thus you may be impressed by the 
fact that the apparent futility of certain dreams should mean 
something to an intelligent person. But if you cannot accept 
what he says, or if you cannot put yourself in his place, you 
should not judge his case. The genius religiosus is a wind that 
bloweth where it listeth. There is no Archimedean point from 
which to judge, since the psyche is indistinguishable from its 
manifestations. The psyche is the object of psychology, and 

49 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



fatally enough also its subject. There is no getting away from 
this fact. 

The few dreams I have chosen as examples of what I call 
"immediate experience" certainly look very insignificant to the 
unpractised eye. They are not spectacular, and are only modest 
witnesses to an individual experience. They would cut a better 
figure if I could present them in their sequence, together with 
the wealth of symbolic material that was brought up in the 
course of the entire process. But even the sum total of the dreams 
in the series could not compare in beauty and expressiveness 
with any part of a traditional religion. A dogma is always the 
result and fruit of many minds and many centuries, purified of 
all the oddities, shortcomings, and flaws of individual experi- 
ence. But for all that, the individual experience, by its very pov- 
erty, is immediate life, the warm red blood pulsating today. It is 
more convincing to a seeker after truth than the best tradition. 
Immediate life is always individual since the carrier of life is 
the individual, and whatever emanates from the individual is in 
a way unique, and hence transitory and imperfect, particularly 
when it comes to spontaneous psychic products such as dreams 
and the like. No one else will have the same dreams, although 
many have the same problem. But just as no individual is differ- 
entiated to the point of absolute uniqueness, so there are no in- 
dividual products of absolutely unique quality. Even dreams are 
made of collective material to a very high degree, just as, in the 
mythology and folklore of different peoples, certain motifs re- 
peat themselves in almost identical form. I have called these 
motifs "archetypes," 14 and by this I mean forms or images of a 
collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as 
constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous, 
individual products of unconscious origin. The archetypal mo- 
tifs presumably derive from patterns of the human mind that 
are transmitted not only by tradition and migration but also by 
heredity. The latter hypothesis is indispensable, since even 
complicated archetypal images can be reproduced spontane- 
ously without there being any possibility of direct tradition. 

The theory of preconscious primordial ideas is by no means 
my own invention, as the term "archetype," which stems from 

14 Cf. Psychological Types, Def. 26. [Also "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1954/55 
edn., pp. 4236:.). EDITORS.] 

5 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



the first centuries of our era, proves. 15 With special reference to 
psychology we find this theory in the works of Adolf Bastian 16 
and then again in Nietzsche. 17 In French literature Hubert and 
Mauss, 18 and also Levy-Bruhl, 19 mention similar ideas. I only 
gave an empirical foundation to the theory of what were for- 
merly called primordial or elementary ideas, "categories" or 
"habitudes directrices de la conscience/' "representations col- 
lectives," etc., by setting out to investigate certain details. 
9 In the second of the dreams discussed above, we met with an 
archetype which I have not yet considered. This is the peculiar 
arrangement of the burning candles in four pyramid-like points. 
The arrangement emphasizes the symbolic importance of the 
number four by putting it in place of the altar or iconostasis 
where one would expect to find the sacred images. Since the 
temple is called the "House of the Gathering," we may assume 
that this character is expressed if the image or symbol appears 

15 The term "archetypus" is used by Cicero, Pliny, and others. It appears in the 
Corpus Hermeticum, Lib. I (Scott, Hermetica, I, p. 116, 8a) as a definitely philo- 
sophical concept: "Thou knowest in thy mind the archetypal form [ro fapxtrvKov 
eldos], the beginning before the beginning, the unbounded." 

16 Das Bestandige in den Menschenrassen, p. 75; Die Vorstellungen von der 
Seele, p. 306; Der Volkergedanke im Aufbau einer Wissenschaft vom Menschen; 
Ethnische Elementargedanken in der Lehre vom Menschen. 

I? "In sleep and in dreams we pass through the whole thought of earlier human- 
ity. ... I mean, as a man now reasons in dreams, so humanity also reasoned 
for many thousands of years when awake: the first cause which occurred to the 
mind as an explanation of anything that required explanation was sufficient and 
passed for truth. . . . This atavistic element in man's nature continues to mani- 
fest itself in our dreams, for it is the foundation upon which the higher reason 
has developed and still develops in every individual. Dreams carry us back to 
remote conditions of human culture and afford us a ready means of understand- 
ing it better." Nietzsche, Human All-Too-Human, I, pp. 24-25, trans, by 
Zimmern and Cohn, modified. 

18 Hubert and Mauss, Melanges d'Histoire des Religions, p. xxix: "Constantly 
set before us in language, though not necessarily explicit in it, ... the cate- 
gories . . . generally exist rather under the form of habits that guide conscious- 
ness, themselves remaining unconscious. The notion of mana is one of these 
principles; it is a datum of language; it is implied in a whole series of judgments 
and reasonings concerned with attributes that are those of mana. We have de- 
scribed mana as a category, but it is a category not confined to primitive thought; 
and today, in a weakened degree, it is still the primal form that certain other 
categories which always function in our minds have covered over: those of sub- 
stance, cause . . ." etc. 

19 Lvy-Bruhl, How Natives Think. 

51 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



in the place of worship. The tetraktys to use the Pythagorean 
termdoes indeed refer to an "inner gathering," as our 
patient's dream clearly demonstrates. The symbol appears in 
other dreams, usually in the form of a circle divided into four 
or containing four main parts. In other dreams of the same series 
it takes the form of an undivided circle, a flower, a square place 
or room, a quadrangle, a globe, a clock, a symmetrical garden 
with a fountain in the centre, four people in a boat, in an aero- 
plane, or at a table, four chairs round a table, four colours, a 
wheel with eight spokes, an eight-rayed star or sun, a round hat 
divided into eight parts, a bear with four eyes, a square prison 
cell, the four seasons, a bowl containing four nuts, the world 
clock with a disc divided into 4X8 = 32 partitions, and so on. 20 
9 1 These quaternity symbols occur no less than seventy-one 
times in a series of four hundred dreams. 21 My case is no excep- 
tion in this respect. I have observed many cases where the num- 
ber four occurred and it always had an unconscious origin, that 
is, the dreamer got it first from a dream and had no idea of its 
meaning, nor had he ever heard of the symbolic importance of 
the number four. It would of course be a different thing with the 
number three, since the Trinity represents a symbolic number 
known to everybody. But for us, and particularly for a modern 
scientist, four conveys no more than any other number. Number 
symbolism and its venerable history is a field of knowledge com- 
pletely outside our dreamer's intellectual interests. If under 
such conditions dreams insist upon the importance of four, we 
have every right to call its origin an unconscious one. The 
numinous character of the quaternity is obvious in the second 
dream. From this we must conclude that it points to a meaning 
which we have to call "sacred." Since the dreamer was unable to 
trace this peculiar character to any conscious source, I apply a 
comparative method in order to elucidate the meaning of the 
symbolism. It is of course impossible to give a complete account 
of this procedure here, so I must restrict myself to the barest 
hints. 

20 For the psychology of the tetraktys, see The Secret of the Golden Flower, pp. 
96-105; Two Essays, Part II, pp. 225$.; and Hauer, "Symbole und Erfahrung des 
Selbstes in der Indo-Arischen Mystik." 

21 [A selection of these dreams is to be found in Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 
47ff. EDITORS.] 

52 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



92 Since many unconscious contents seem to be remnants of 
historical states of mind, we need only go back a few hundred 
years in order to reach the conscious level that forms the paral- 
lel to our dreams. In our case we step back not quite three hun- 
dred years and find ourselves among scientists and natural phi- 
losophers who were seriously discussing the enigma of squaring 
the circle. 22 This abstruse problem was itself a psychological pro- 
jection of something much older and completely unconscious. 
But they knew in those days that the circle signified the Deity: 
"God is an intellectual figure whose centre is everywhere and 
the circumference nowhere," 23 as one of these philosophers said, 
repeating St. Augustine. A man as introverted and introspective 
as Emerson 24 could hardly fail to touch on the same idea and 
likewise quote St. Augustine. The image of the circleregarded 
as the most perfect form since Plato's Timaeus, the prime au- 
thority for Hermetic philosophywas assigned to the most per- 
fect substance, to the gold, also to the anima mundi or anima 
media natum, and to the first created light. And because the 
macrocosm, the Great World, was made by the creator "in a 
form round and globose," 25 the smallest part of the whole, the 
point, also possesses this perfect nature. As the philosopher says : 
"Of all shapes the simplest and most perfect is the sphere, which 
rests in a point." 26 This image of the Deity dormant and 

22 There is an excellent presentation of the problem, in Maier, De circulo (1616), 

23 [On the source of this saying, see par, 229, n. 6, below. EDITORS.] 

24 Cf. his essay "Circles" (Essays, Everyman edn., p. 167). 

25 Plato, Timaeus, 7; Steeb, Coelum Sephiroticum Hebraeorum (1679), p. 15. 

26 Steeb, p. 19. Maier (De circulo, p. 27) says: "The circle is a symbol of eternity 
or an indivisible point." Concerning the "round element," see Turba philoso- 
phorum, Sermo XLI (ed, Ruska, p. 148), where the "rotundum which turns 
copper into four" is mentioned. Ruska says there is no similar symbol in the 
Greek sources. This is not quite correct, since we find a o-rotxelov a-rpoyytiKov 
(round element) in the -rrept opyavuv of Zosimos (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, xlix, 
i). The same symbolism may also occur in his -rofyjua (Berthelot, III, v bis), in 
the form of the irepiyKoviffukvov, which Berthelot translates as "objet circulaire." 
(The correctness of this translation, however, is doubtful.) A better parallel might 
be Zosimos' "omega element." He himself describes it as "round" (Berthelot, III, 
xlix, i). 

The idea of the creative point in matter is mentioned in Sendivogius, "Novum 
lumen" (Musaeum hermeticum, 1678, p. 559; cf. The Hermetic Museum Restored 
and Enlarged, trans, by A. E. Waite, II, p. 89: "For there is in -every body a. 
centre, the seeding-place or spermatic point." This point is a "point born of 
God" (p. 59). Here we encounter the doctrine of the "panspermia" (all-embracing 

53 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



concealed in matter was what the alchemists called the original 
chaos, or the earth of paradise, or the round fish in the sea, 27 or 
the egg, or simply the rotundum. That round thing was in pos- 
session of the magical key which unlocked the closed doors of 
matter. As is said in the Timaeus, only the demiurge, the perfect 
being, is capable of dissolving the tetraktys, the embrace of the 
four elements. 28 One of the great authorities since the thirteenth 
century, the Turba philosophorum,, says that the rotundum can 
dissolve copper into four. 29 Thus the much-sought-for aurum 
philosophicum was round. 30 Opinions were divided as to the 
procedure for procuring the dormant demiurge. Some hoped to 
lay hold of him in the form of a prima materia containing a 
particular concentration or a particularly suitable variety of this 
substance. Others endeavoured to produce the round substance 
by a sort of synthesis, called the coniunctio; the anonymous 
author of the Rosarium philosophorum says: "Make a round 
circle of man and woman, extract therefrom a quadrangle and 
from it a triangle. Make the circle round, and you will have the 
Philosophers' Stone." 31 

seed-bed), about which Athanasius Kircher, S.J, (Mundus subterraneus, 1678, II, 
p. 347) says: "Thus from the holy words of Moses ... it appears that God, the 
creator of all things, in the beginning created from nothing a certain Matter, 
which we not unfittingly call Chaotic . . . within which something . . . confused lay 
hidden as if in a kind of panspermia ... as though he brought forth afterward 
from the underlying material all things which had already been fecundated and 
incubated by the divine Spirit. . . . But he did not forthwith destroy the 
Chaotic Matter, but willed it to endure until the consummation of the world, 
as at the first beginning of things so to this very day, a panspermia replete with 
all things. . . ." These ideas lead us back to the "descent" or "fall of the deity" 
in the Gnostic systems. Cf. Bussell, Religious Thought and Heresy in the Middle 
Ages, pp. 55gff.; Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 50; Mead, Pistis Sophia, pp. $6ff., 
and Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 470. 

27 "There is in the sea a round fish, lacking bones and sinews, and it hath in it- 
self a fatness" (the humidum radicalethe anima mundi imprisoned in matter). 
From "Allegoriae super Turbam," Art. aurif., I (1593), p. 141. 

28 Timaeus 7. 29 See above, n. 22. 

so "For as the heaven which is visible is round in form and motion ... so is the 
Gold" (Maier, De circulo, p. 39). 

31 Rosarium philosophorum (Art. aurif., II, p. 261). This treatise is ascribed to 
Petrus Toletanus, who lived in Toledo about the middle of the 13th century. He 
is said to have been either an older contemporary or a brother of Arnold of Villa- 
nova, the famous physician and philosopher. The present form of the Rosarium, 
based on the first printing of 1550, is a compilation and probably does not date 

54 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



93 This marvellous stone was symbolized as a perfect living be- 
ing of hermaphroditic nature corresponding to the Empedoclean 
cr^cupos, the euSaijuo^oraros Ot6$ and all-round bisexual being in 
Plato. 32 As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, the 
lapis was compared by Petrus Bonus to Christ, as an allegoria 
Christi. 3B In the Aurea horn, a Pseudo-Thomist tract from the 
thirteenth century, the mystery of the stone is rated even higher 
than the mysteries of the Christian religion. 34 I mention these 
facts merely to show that the circle or globe containing the four 
was an allegory of the Deity for not a few of our learned fore- 
fathers. 

94 From the Latin treatises it is also evident that the latent 
demiurge, dormant and concealed in matter, is identical with 
the so-called homo philosophicus, the second Adam. 35 He is the 
spiritual man, Adam Kadmon, often identified with Christ. 
Whereas the original Adam was mortal, because he was made of 
the corruptible four elements, the second Adam is immortal, 
because he consists of one pure and incorruptible essence. Thus 
Pseudo-Thomas says: "The Second Adam passed from the pure 
elements into eternity. Therefore, since he consists of a simple 
and pure essence, he endures forever." 36 The same treatise quotes 
a Latinized Arabic author called Senior, a famous authority 

back further than the i5th century, though certain parts may have originated 
early in the igth century. 32 Symposium XIV. 

33 Petrus Bonus in Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa margarita novella (1546). For the 
allegoria Christi, see Psychology and Alchemy, "The Lapis-Christus Parallel." 
S^Beati Thomae de Aquino Aurora sive Aurea hora. Complete text in the rare 
printing of 1625: Harmoniae Inperscrutabilis Chymico-philosophicae sive 
Philosophorum Antiquorum Consentientium Decas I (Francofurti apud Conrad 
Eifridum. Anno MDCXXV). (British Museum 1033 d.u.) The interesting part of 
this treatise is the first part, "Tractatus parabolarum," which was omitted on 
account of its "blasphemous" character from the printings of Artis auriferae in 
1572 and 1593. In the so-called Codex Rhenovacensis (Zurich Central Library), 
about four chapters of the "Parabolarum" are missing. The Codex Parisinus 
Fond. Lat. 14006 (Bibliotheque nationale) contains a complete text. 

35 A good example is the commentary of Gnosius on the "Tractatus aureus 
Hermetis," reproduced in Theatr. chern., IV, pp. Sysff., and in Manget, Bibl 
chem. f I, pp. 40off. 

36 In Aurea hora (see n. 34). Zosimos (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, xlix, 4-5), quot- 
ing from a Hermetic writing, says that 6 0eou vlos TravTajevofievos was Adam or 
Thoth, who was made of the four elements and the four cardinal points. Cf. 
Psychology and Alchemy f pp. 3485. 

55 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



throughout the Middle Ages, as saying: "There is one substance 
which never dies, because it abides in continued increase," and 
Interprets this substance as the second Adam. 37 

95 It is clear from these quotations that the round substance 
searched for by the philosophers was a projection very similar 
to our own dream symbolism. We have historical documents 
which prove that dreams, visions, and even hallucinations were 
often mixed up with the great philosophic opus. 38 Our fore- 
fathers, being even more naively constituted than ourselves, pro- 
jected their unconscious contents directly into matter. Matter, 
however, could easily take up such projections, because at that 
time it was a practically unknown and incomprehensible entity. 
And whenever man encounters something mysterious he pro- 
jects his own assumptions into it without the slightest self- 
criticism. But since chemical matter nowadays is something we 
know fairly well, we can no longer project as freely as our ances- 
tors. We have, at last, to admit that the tetraktys is something 
psychic; and we do not yet know whether, in a more or less dis- 
tant future, this too may not prove to be a projection. For the 
time being we must be satisfied with the fact that an idea of God 
which is entirely absent from the conscious mind of modern man 
returns in a form known consciously three hundred or four hun- 
dred years ago. 

9 6 I do not need to emphasize that this piece of history was com- 
pletely unknown to my dreamer. One could say with the classical 
poet: "Naturam expelles furca tamen usque recurret" (Drive 
out nature with a pitchfork and she always turns up again). 39 

97 The idea of those old philosophers was that God manifested 
himself first in the creation of the four elements. They were sym- 
bolized by the four partitions of the circle. Thus we read in a 
Coptic treatise of the Codex Brucianus 40 concerning the Only- 
Begotten (Monogenes or Anthropos): 

This same is he who dwelleth in the Monad, which is in the 
Setheus [creator], and which came from the place of which none can 
say where it is. ... From Him it is the Monad came, in the manner 
of a ship, laden with all good things, and in the manner of a field, 
filled or planted with every kind of tree, and in the manner of a city, 

37 In Aurea hora. For the full Latin title, see n. 34 above. 

38 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pp. j>35ff. 39 Horace, Epistles, I, x, 24. 
40 Baynes, ed., A Coptic Gnostic Treatise, pp. 22, 89, 94. 

56 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



filled with all races of mankind . . . And to its veil which surround- 
eth it in the manner of a defence there are twelve Gates . . . This, 
same is the Mother-City (^rpoxoXts) of the Only-Begotten. 

In another place the Anthropos himself is the city and his mem- 
bers are the four gates. The Monad is a spark of light (<rmv&ip) f 
an atom of the Deity. The Monogenes is thought of as standing 
upon a rerpaTefa, a platform supported by four pillars, corre- 
sponding to the Christian quaternarium of the Evangelists, or 
to the Tetramorph, the symbolic steed of the Church, composed 
of the symbols of the four evangelists: the angel, eagle, ox or 
calf, and lion. The analogy with the New Jerusalem of the Apoc- 
alypse is obvious. 

98 The division into four, the synthesis of the four, the miracu- 
lous appearance of the four colours, and the four stages of the 
work nigredo, dealbatio, rubefactio, and citrinitasare con- 
stant preoccupations of the old philosophers. 41 Four symbolizes 
the parts, qualities, and aspects of the One. But why should my 
patient recapitulate these old speculations? 

99 I do not know why he should. I only know that this is not an 
isolated case; many others under my observation or under that 
of my colleagues have spontaneously produced the same sym- 
bolism. I naturally do not think that it originated three or four 
hundred years ago. That was simply another epoch when this 
same archetypal idea was very much in the foreground. As a 
matter of fact, it is much older than the Middle Ages, as the 
Timaeus proves. Nor is it a classical or an Egyptian heritage, 
since it is to be found practically everywhere and in all ages. 
One has only to remember, for instance, how great an impor- 
tance was attributed to the quaternity by the American In- 
dians. 42 

10 Although the quaternity is an age-old and presumably 
prehistoric symbol, 43 always associated with the idea of a 
world-creating deity, it is curiously enough rarely under- 
stood as such by those moderns in whom it occurs. I have always 
been particularly interested to see how people, if left to their 

41 The Rosarium philosophorum is one of the first attempts at a synopsis and 
gives a fairly comprehensive account of the medieval quaternity. 

42 Cf v for instance, the 5th and 8th Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington (1887 and 1892). 

43 Cf. the paleolithic (?) "sun wheels" of Rhodesia. 

57 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



own devices and not informed about the history of the symbol, 
would interpret it to themselves. I was careful, therefore, not 
to disturb them with my own opinions, and as a rule I discov- 
ered that they took it to symbolize themselves or rather some- 
thing in themselves. They felt it belonged intimately to them- 
selves as a sort of creative background, a life-producing sun in 
the depths of the unconscious. Though it was easy to see that 
certain mandala-dra wings were almost an exact replica of Ezek- 
iel's vision, it very seldom happened that people recognized the 
analogy even when they knew the vision which knowledge, by 
the way, is pretty rare nowadays. What one could almost call a 
systematic blindness is simply the effect of the prejudice that 
God is outside man. Although this prejudice is not exclusively 
Christian, there are certain religions which do not share it at all. 
On the contrary they insist, as do certain Christian mystics, 
on the essential identity of God and man, either in the form of 
an a priori identity or of a goal to be attained by certain prac- 
tices or initiations, as known to us, for instance, from the meta- 
morphoses of Apuleius, not to speak of certain yoga methods. 

The use of the comparative method shows without a doubt 
that the quaternity is a more or less direct representation of the 
God who is manifest in his creation. We might, therefore, con- 
clude that the symbol spontaneously produced in the dreams of 
modern people means something similar the God within. Al- 
though the majority of the persons concerned do not recognize 
this analogy, the interpretation might nevertheless be correct. 
If we consider the fact that the idea of God is an "unscientific" 
hypothesis, we can easily explain why people have forgotten to 
think along such lines. And even if they do cherish a certain be- 
lief in God they would be deterred from the idea of a God within 
by their religious education, which has always depreciated this 
idea as "mystical." Yet it is precisely this "mystical" idea which 
is forced upon the conscious mind by dreams and visions. I my- 
self, as well as my colleagues, have seen so many cases developing 
the same kind of symbolism that we cannot doubt its existence 
any longer. My observations, moreover, date back to 1914, and 
I waited fourteen years before alluding to them publicly. 44 

It would be a regrettable mistake if anybody should take my 

44 [in his commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower, first pub. (in Ger- 
man) in 1929. EDITORS.] 

58 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



observations as a kind of proof of the existence of God. They 
prove only the existence of an archetypal God-image, which to 
my mind is the most we can assert about God psychologically. 
But as it is a very important and influential archetype, its rela- 
tively frequent occurrence seems to be a noteworthy fact for any 
theologia naturalis. And since experience of this archetype has 
the quality of numinosity, often in very high degree, it comes 
into the category of religious experiences. 

103 I cannot refrain from calling attention to the interesting fact 
that whereas the central Christian symbolism is a Trinity, the 
formula presented by the unconscious is a quaternity. In reality 
the orthodox Christian formula is not quite complete, because 
the dogmatic aspect of the evil principle is absent from the 
Trinity and leads a more or less awkward existence on its own as 
the devil. Nevertheless it seems that the Church does not exclude 
an inner relationship between the devil and the Trinity. A Cath- 
olic authority expresses himself on this question as follows: "The 
existence of Satan, however, can only be understood in relation 
to the Trinity." "Any theological treatment of the devil that is 
not related to God's trinitarian consciousness is a falsification of 
the actual position." 45 According to this view, the devil pos- 
sesses personality -and absolute freedom. That is why he can be 
the true, personal "counterpart of Christ." "Herein is revealed a 
new freedom in God's being: he freely allows the devil to sub- 
sist beside him and permits his kingdom to endure for ever." 
"The idea of a mighty devil is incompatible with the conception 
of Yahweh, but not with the conception of the Trinity. The 
mystery of one God in Three Persons opens out a new freedom 
in the depths of God's being, and this even makes possible the 
thought of a personal devil existing alongside God and in op- 
position to him." 46 The devil, accordingly, possesses an autono- 
mous personality, freedom, and eternality, and he has these 
metaphysical qualities so much in common with God that he 
can actually subsist in opposition to him. Hence the relation- 
ship or even the (negative) affinity of the devil with the Trinity 
can no longer be denied as a Catholic idea. 

*4 The inclusion of the devil in the quaternity is by no means 
a modern speculation or a monstrous fabrication of the uncon- 
scious. We find in the writings of the sixteenth-century natural 

45 Koepgen, Die Gnosis des Christentums, pp. 189, 190. 46 Ibid., pp. 185^. 

59 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



philosopher and physician, Gerard Dorn, a detailed discussion 
of the symbols o the Trinity and the quaternity, the latter 
being attributed to the devil. Dorn breaks with the whole al- 
chemical tradition inasmuch as he adopts the rigidly Christian 
standpoint that Three is One but Four is not, because Four 
attains to unity in the quinta essentia. According to this author 
the quaternity is in truth a "diabolical fraud" or "deception of 
the devil/' and he holds that at the fall of the angels the devil 
"fell into the realm of quaternity and the elements" (in quater- 
nariam et elementariam regionem decidif). He also gives an 
elaborate description of the symbolic operation whereby the 
devil produced the "double serpent" (the number 2) "with the 
four horns" (the number 4). Indeed, the number 2 is the devil 
himself, the quadricornutus binarius.^ 

10 5 Since a God identical with the individual man is an exceed- 
ingly complex assumption bordering on heresy, 48 the "God 

47 Dorn thinks that God created the binarius on the second day of Creation, 
when he separated the upper waters from the lower, and that this was the reason 
why he omitted to say on the evening of the second day what he said on all 
the others, namely that "it was good." The emancipation of the binarius, Dorn 
holds, was the cause of "confusion, division, and strife." From the binarius issued 
"its quaternary offspring (sua proles quaternaria). Since the number 2 is femi- 
nine, it also signified Eve, whereas the number 3 was equated with Adam. There- 
fore the devil tempted Eve first: "For [the devil] knew, being full of all guile, 
that Adam was marked with the unarius, and for this cause he did not at first 
attack him, for he greatly doubted whether he could do anything against him. 
Moreover, he was not ignorant that Eve was divided from her husband as a 
natural binary from the unity of its ternary [tanquam naturalem binarium ab 
unario sui ternarii]. Accordingly, armed with a certain likeness of binary to 
binary, he made his attack on the woman. For all even numbers are feminine, of 
which two, Eve's proper and original number, is the first." (Dorn, "De tenebris 
contra nattiram et vita brevi," Theatr. chem., 1602, I, p. 527. In this treatise 
and the one that follows it, "De Duello Animi cum Corpore," pp. 535^., the 
reader will find everything I have mentioned here.) The reader will have noticed 
how Dorn, with great cunning, discovers in the binarius a secret affinity between 
the devil and woman. He was the first to point out the discord between threeness 
and fourness, between God as Spirit and Empedoclean nature, thus albeit un- 
consciouslycutting the thread of alchemical projection. Accordingly, he speaks 
of the quaternarius as "fundamental to the medicine of the infidels." We must 
leave it an open question whether by "infidels" he meant the Arabs or the pagans 
of antiquity. At any rate Dorn suspected that there was something ungodly in 
the quaternity, which was intimately associated with the nature of woman. Cf. 
my remarks concerning the "virgo terrae" in the next section. 
48 1 am not referring here to the dogma of the human nature of Christ. 

60 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



within" also presents a dogmatic difficulty. But the quaternity 
as produced by the modern psyche points directly not only to 
the God within, but to the identity of God and man. Contrary 
to the dogma, there are not three, but four aspects. It could easily 
be inferred that the fourth represents the devil. Though we have 
the logion "I and the Father are one: who seeth me seeth the 
Father," it would be considered blasphemy or madness to stress 
Christ's dogmatic humanity to such a degree that man could 
identify himself with Christ and his homoousia. 49 But this is 
precisely what seems to be meant by the natural symbol. From 
an orthodox standpoint, therefore, the natural quaternity could 
be declared a diabolica fraus, and the chief proof of this would 
be its assimilation of the fourth aspect which represents the 
reprehensible part of the Christian cosmos. The Church, it 
seems to me, probably has to repudiate any attempt to take such 
conclusions seriously. She may even have to condemn any ap- 
proach to these experiences, since she cannot admit that Nature 
unites what she herself has divided. The voice of Nature is 
clearly audible in all experiences of the quaternity, and this 
arouses all the old mistrust of anything even remotely con- 
nected with the unconscious. Scientific investigation of dreams 
is simply the old oneiromancy in new guise and therefore just as 
objectionable as any other of the "occult" arts. Close parallels 
to the symbolism of dreams can be found in the old alchemical 
treatises, and these are quite as heretical as dreams. 50 Here, it 
would seem, was reason enough for secrecy and protective meta- 
phors. 51 The symbolic statements of the old alchemists issue 
from the same unconscious as modern dreams and are just as 
much the voice of nature. 

If we were still living in a medieval setting where there was 
not much doubt about the ultimate things and where every his- 
tory of the world began with Genesis, we could easily brush 

49 This identification has nothing to do with the Catholic conception of the 
assimilation of the individual's life to the life of Christ and his absorption into 
the corpus mysticum of the Church. It is rather the opposite of this view. 

50 I ana thinking chiefly of works that contain alchemical legends and didactic 
tales. A good example would be Maier's Symbola aureae mensae (1617), with its 
symbolic peregrinatio (pp. 5696:.). 

51 So far as I know, there are no complaints in alchemical literature of persecu- 
tion by the Church. The authors allude usually to the tremendous secret of the 
magistery as a reason for secrecy. 

01 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



aside dreams and the like. Unfortunately we live in a modern 
setting where all the ultimate things are doubtful, where there 
is a prehistory of enormous extension, and where people are 
fully aware that if there is any numinous experience at all, it is 
the experience of the psyche. We can no longer imagine an 
empyrean world revolving round the throne of God, and we 
would not dream of seeking for him somewhere behind the 
galactic systems. Yet the human soul seems to harbour mysteries, 
since to an empiricist all religious experience boils down to a 
peculiar psychic condition. If we want to know anything of what 
religious experience means to those who have it, we have every 
chance nowadays of studying it in every imaginable form. And if 
it means anything, it means everything to those who have it. 
This is at any rate the inevitable conclusion one reaches by a 
careful study of the evidence. One could even define religious 
experience as that kind of experience which is accorded the 
highest value, no matter what its contents may be. The modern 
mind, so far as it stands under the verdict "extra ecclesiam nulla 
salus," will turn to the psyche as the last hope. Where else could 
one obtain experience? And the answer will be more or less of 
the kind which I have described. The voice of nature will answer 
and all those concerned with the spiritual problem of man will 
be confronted with new and baffling problems. Because of the 
spiritual need of my patients I have been forced to make a seri- 
ous attempt to understand some of the symbols produced by the 
unconscious. As it would lead much too far to embark on a dis- 
cussion of the intellectual and ethical consequences, I shall have 
to content myself with a mere sketch. 

The main symbolic figures of a religion are always expressive 
of the particular moral and mental attitude involved. I would 
mention, for instance, the cross and its various religious mean- 
ings. Another main symbol is the Trinity. It is of exclusively 
masculine character. The unconscious, however, transforms it 
into a quaternity, which is at the same time a unity, just as the 
three persons of the Trinity are one and the same God. The nat- 
ural philosophers of antiquity represented the Trinity, so far as 
it was imaginata in natura, as the three acrco/mra or ' 'spirits," also 
called "volatilia," namely water, air, and fire. The fourth con- 
stituent, on the other hand, was TO cr&narov, the earth or the body. 

6* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



They symbolized the latter by the Virgin. 52 In this way they 
added the feminine element to their physical Trinity, thereby 
producing the quaternity or circulus quadratus, whose symbol 
was the hermaphroditic rebis^ the filius sapientiae. The natural 
philosophers of the Middle Ages undoubtedly meant earth and 
woman by the fourth element. The principle of evil was not 
openly mentioned, but it appears in the poisonous quality of the 
prima materia and in other allusions. The quaternity in modern 
dreams is a creation of the unconscious. As I explained in the 
first chapter, the unconscious is often personified by the anima, 
a feminine figure. Apparently the symbol of the quaternity is- 
sues from her. She would be the matrix of the quaternity, a 
Georo/cos or Mater Dei, just as the earth was understood to be the 
Mother of God. But since woman, as well as evil, is excluded 
from the Deity in the dogma of the Trinity, the element of evil 
would form part of the religious symbol if the latter should be 
a quaternity. It needs no particular effort of imagination to 
guess the far-reaching spiritual consequences of such a develop- 
ment. 

52 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, fig. 232, showing the glorification of the body in 
the form of the Assumption of the Virgin (from Reusner, Pandora , 1588). St. 
Augustine used the earth to symbolize the Virgin: "Truth is arisen from the 
earth, for Christ is born of a virgin" (Sermones, 189, II, in Migne, P.L., vol. 38, 
col. 1006). Likewise Tertullian: "That virgin earth, not yet watered by the rains 
nor fertilized by the showers" (Adversus Judaeos, 13, in Migne, P.L., vol. 2, 
col. 655). 

53 The rebis ('made of two') is the philosophers' stone, for in it the masculine 
and the feminine nature are united. [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, p. 232 and 
fig. 125. EDITORS.] 



THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF A 

NATURAL SYMBOL 



108 Although I have no wish to discourage philosophical curi- 
osity, I would rather not lose myself in a discussion of the ethical 
and intellectual aspects of the problem raised by the quaternity 
symbol. Its psychological importance is far-reaching and plays a 
considerable role in practical treatment. While we are not con- 
cerned here with psychotherapy, but with the religious aspect of 
certain psychic phenomena, I have been forced through my 
studies in psychopathology to dig out these historical symbols 
and figures from the dust of their graves. 1 When I was a young 
alienist I should never have suspected myself of doing such a 
thing. I shall not mind, therefore, if this long discussion of the 
quaternity symbol, the circulus quadratus, and the heretical 
attempts to improve on the dogma of the Trinity seem to be 
somewhat far-fetched and exaggerated. But, in point of fact, my 
whole discourse on the quaternity is no more than a regrettably 
short and inadequate introduction to the final and crowning 
example which illustrates my case. 

109 Already at the very beginning of our dream-series the circle 
appears. It takes the form, for instance, of a serpent, which 
describes a circle 2 round the dreamer. It appears in later dreams 

1 Cf. Symbols of Transformation. 

% A recurrence of the ancient symbol of the uroboros, 'tail-eater ' 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



as a clock, a circle with a central point, a round target for shoot- 
ing practice, a clock that is a perpetuum mobile 3 a ball, a globe, 
a round table, a basin, and so on. The square appears also, about 
the same time, in the form of a city square or a garden with a 
fountain in the centre. Somewhat later it appears in connection 
with a circular movement: 3 people walking round in a square; 
a magic ceremony (the transformation of animals into human 
beings) that takes place in a square room, in the corners of which 
are four snakes, with people again circulating round the four 
corners; the dreamer driving round a square in a taxi; a square 
prison cell; an empty square which is itself rotating; and so on. 
In other dreams the circle is represented by rotation for in- 
stance, four children carry a "dark ring" and walk in a circle. 
Again, the circle appears combined with the quaternity, as a 
silver bowl with four nuts at the four cardinal points, or as a 
table with four chairs. The centre seems to be particularly em- 
phasized. It is symbolized by an egg in the middle of a ring; by 
a star consisting of a body of soldiers; by a star rotating in a 
circle, the cardinal points of which represent the four seasons; 
by the pole; by a precious stone, and so on. 

All these dreams lead up to one image which came to the 
patient in the form of a sudden visual impression. He had had 
such glimpses or visualizations on several occasions before, but 
this time it was a most impressive experience. As he himself 
says: "It was an impression of the most sublime harmony/ 5 In 
such a case it does not matter at all what our impression is or 
what we think about it. It only matters how the patient feels 
about it. It is his experience, and if it has a deeply transforming 
influence upon his condition there is no point in arguing against 
it. The psychologist can only take note of the fact and, if he feels 
equal to the task, he might also make an attempt to under- 
stand why such a vision had such an effect upon such a person. 
The vision was a turning point in the patient's psychological 
development. It was what one would call in the language of 
religion a conversion. 
L This is the literal text of the vision: 

3 An Eastern parallel is the "circulation of the light" mentioned in the Chinese 
alchemical treatise, The Secret of the Golden Flower, edited by R. Wilhelm and 
myself. 

65 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



There is a vertical and a horizontal circle, having a common 
centre. This is the world clock. It is supported by the black 
bird* 

The vertical circle is a blue disc with a white border divided 
into 4 X 8 = 32, partitions. A pointer rotates upon it. 

The horizontal circle consists of four colours. On it stand four 
little men with pendulums, and round about it is laid the ring 
that was once dark and is now golden (formerly carried by four 
children). 

The world clock has three rhythms or pulses: 
/. The small pulse: the pointer on the blue vertical disc 

advances by 1/32. 

2. The middle pulse: one complete rotation of the pointer. 

At the same time the horizontal circle 
advances by 1/32. 

3. The great pulse: 32 middle pulses are equal to one com- 

plete rotation of the golden ring. 

The vision sums up all the allusions in the previous dreams. 
It seems to be an attempt to make a meaningful whole of the 
formerly fragmentary symbols, then characterized as circle, 
globe, square, rotation, clock, star, cross, quaternity, time, and 
so on. 

It is of course difficult to understand why a feeling of "most 
sublime harmony" should be produced by this abstract struc- 
ture. But if we think of the two circles in Plato's Timaeus, and 
of the harmonious all-roundness of his anima mundi,, we might 
find an avenue to understanding. Again, the term "world clock" 
suggests the antique conception of the musical harmony of the 
spheres. It would thus be a sort of cosmological system. If it 
were a vision of the firmament and its silent rotation, or of the 
steady movement of the solar system, we could readily under- 
stand and appreciate the perfect harmony of the picture. We 
might also assume that the platonic vision of the cosmos was 
faintly glimmering through the mist of a dreamlike conscious- 
ness. But there is something in the vision that does not quite 
accord with the harmonious perfection of the platonic picture. 
The two circles are each of a different nature. Not only is their 

4 This refers to a previous vision, where a black eagle carried away a golden ring. 
[For this entire clock vision, cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 3076:. EDITORS.] 

66 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



movement different, but their colour too. The vertical circle is 
blue and the horizontal one containing four colours is golden. 
The blue circle might easily symbolize the blue hemisphere of 
the sky, while the horizontal circle would represent the horizon 
with its four cardinal points, personified by the four little men 
and characterized by the four colours. (In a former dream, the 
four points were represented once by four children and another 
time by the four seasons.) This picture immediately calls to 
mind the medieval representations of the world in the form of 
a circle or in the shape of the rex gloriae with the four evan- 
gelists, or the melothesia? where the horizon is formed by the 
zodiac. The representation of the triumphant Christ seems to be 
derived from similar pictures of Horus and his four sons. 6 There 
are also Eastern analogies: the Buddhist mandalas or circles, 
usually of Tibetan origin. These consist as a rule of a circular 
padma or lotus which contains a square sacred building with 
four gates, indicating the four cardinal points and the seasons. 
The centre contains a Buddha, or more often the conjunction 
of Shiva and his Shakti, or an equivalent dorje (thunderbolt) 
symbol. 7 They are yantras or ritualistic instruments for the pur- 
pose of contemplation, concentration, and the final transforma- 
tion of the yogi's consciousness into the divine all-consciousness. 8 
However striking these analogies may be, they are not en- 
tirely satisfactory, because they all emphasize the centre to such 
an extent that they seem to have been made in order to express 
the importance of the central figure. In our case, however, the 
centre is empty. It consists only of a mathematical point. The 
parallels I have mentioned depict the world-creating or world- 
ruling deity, or else man in his dependence upon the celestial 
constellations. Our symbol is a clock, symbolizing time. The 

5 The "blood-letting manikins" are melothesiae. [These are the little figures 
which medieval physicians used to draw inside a circle or mandala on the part 
of the body affected, when bleeding or "cupping" a patient. Melothesia is the 
"assignment of parts of the body to the tutelage of signs or planets" (Liddell and 
Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1099). Woodcuts of melothesiae are reproduced 
in Jacobi, ed., Paracelsus: Selected Writings, figs. 56 and 45. EDITORS.] 

6 Budge, Osiris and the 'Egyptian Resurrection, I, 3; The Egyptian Book of the 
Dead (facsimile), pi. 5. In a manuscript from the 7th century (Gellone), the evan- 
gelists are represented with the heads of their symbolic animals instead of human 
heads. 7 There is an example in The Secret of the Golden Flower, 

8 Shnchakrasambhdra Tantra, ed. by Avalon. 

67 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



only analogy I can think of to such a symbol is the design of the 
horoscope. It too has four cardinal points and an empty centre. 
And there is another remarkable correspondence: rotation is 
often mentioned in the previous dreams, and this is usually 
reported as moving to the left. The horoscope has twelve houses 
that progress numerically to the left, that is, counter-clockwise. 

U 5 But the horoscope consists of one circle only and moreover 
contains no contrast between two obviously different systems. 
So the horoscope too is an unsatisfactory analogy, though it sheds 
some light on the time aspect of our symbol. We would be 
forced to give up our attempt to find psychological parallels 
were it not for the treasure-house of medieval symbolism. By a 
lucky chance I came across a little-known medieval author of 
the early fourteenth century, Guillaume de Digulleville, prior 
of a monastery at Chalis, a Norman poet who wrote three 
"Pelerinages" between 1330 and 1355- 9 They are called Les 
Pelerinages de la vie humaine, de I'dme., and de Jesus Christ. In 
the last canto of the Pelerinage de Yame we find a vision of 
paradise. 

116 Paradise consists of forty-nine rotating spheres. They are 
called "siecles," centuries, being the prototypes or archetypes of 
the earthly centuries. But, as the angel who serves as a guide to 
Guillaume explains, the ecclesiastical expression "in saecula 
saeculoram" means eternity and not ordinary time. A golden 
heaven surrounds all the spheres. When Guillaume looked up to 
the golden heaven he suddenly became aware of a small circle, 
only three feet wide and of the colour of sapphire. He says of this 
circle: "It came out of the golden heaven at one point and re- 
entered it at another, and it made the whole tour of the golden 
heaven." Evidently the blue circle was rolling like a disc upon a 
great circle which intersected the golden sphere of heaven. 

U 7 Here, then, we have two different systems, the one golden, 
the other blue, and the one cutting through the other. What is 
the blue circle? The angel again explains to the wondering 
Guillaume: 

Abbe" Joseph Delacotte, Guillaume de Digulleville, Trois romans-poemes du 
XlVe siecle. [A i5th-cent. verse translation of the "Pilgrimage" by John Lydgate 
was published by the Early English Text Society (1899-1904). For other early 
English translations, published in recent times, see the Oxford History of English 
Literature, II, part i, p. 308. EDITORS.] 

68 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



Ce cercle que tu vois est le calendrier, 
Qui en faisant son tour entier, 
Montre des Saints les journees 
Quand elles doivent tre fetees. 
Chacun en fait le cercle un tour, 
Chacune etoile y est pour jour, 
Chacun soleil pour Fespace 
De jours trente ou zodiaque. 

(This circle is the calendar 

Which spinning round the course entire 

Shows the feast day of each saint 

And when it should be celebrate. 

Each saint goes once round all the way, 

Each star you see stands for a day, 

And every sun denotes a spell 

Of thirty days zodiacal.) 

The blue circle is the ecclesiastical calendar. So here we have 
another parallel the element of time. It will be remembered 
that time, in our vision, is characterized or measured by three 
pulses. Guillaume's calendar circle is three feet in diameter. 
Moreover, while Guillaume is gazing at the blue circle, three 
spirits clad in purple suddenly appear. The angel explains that 
this is the feast-day of the three saints, and he goes on to dis- 
course about the whole zodiac. When he comes to the sign of the 
Fishes he mentions the feast of the twelve fishermen which pre- 
cedes that of the Holy Trinity. Whereupon Guillaume tells the 
angel that he has never quite understood the symbol of the 
Trinity. He asks him to be good enough to explain this mystery. 
Whereupon the angel answers: "Well, there are three principal 
colours: green, red, and golden." One can see them united in 
the peacock's tail. And he goes on: "The almighty King who 
puts three colours in one, cannot he also make one substance to 
be three?" The golden colour, he says, belongs to the Father, the 
red to the Son, and the green to the Holy Ghost. 10 Then the 
angel warns the poet not to ask any more questions and dis- 
appears. 

We know, happily enough, from the angel's teaching, that 
three has to do with the Trinity. So we also know that our 

10 The Holy Ghost is the cause of the viriditas (greenness). Cf. below, pp. 91-92. 

69 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



former digression into the field of mystical speculation on the 
Trinity was not far off the mark. At the same time we meet with 
the motif of the colours, but unfortunately our patient has four, 
whereas Guillaume, or rather the angel, speaks only of three- 
gold, red, and green. Here we might quote the opening words 
of the Timaeus: 'Three there are, but where is the fourth?" Or 
we could quote the very same words fiom Goethe's Faust, from 
the famous Cabiri scene in Part II, where the Cabiri bring the 
vision of that mysterious "streng Geblide," the "severe image," 
from the sea. 

!so The four little men of our vision are dwarfs or Cabiri. They 
represent the four cardinal points and the four seasons, as well 
as the four colours and the four elements. In the Timaeus, as 
also in Faust and the Pelerinage, something seems to be wrong 
with the number four. The missing fourth colour is obviously 
blue. It is the one that belongs to the series yellow, red, and 
green. Why is blue missing? What is wrong with the calendar? 
or with time? or with the colour blue? n 

121 Poor old Guillaume has evidently been stumped by the same 
problem. Three there are, but where is the fourth? He was 
eager to learn something about the Trinity which, as he says, 
he had never quite understood. And it is slightly suspicious that 
the angel is in such a hurry to get away before Guillaume can 
ask any more awkward questions. 

122 Well, I suppose Guillaume was unconscious when he went to 
heaven, otherwise he surely would have drawn certain conclu- 
sions from what he saw. Now what did he actually see? First 
he saw the spheres or "sicles" inhabited by those who had at- 

11 Gerhard Dorn had a similar conception of circular figures intersecting and dis- 
turbing one another: on the one hand the circular system of the Trinity and on 
the other the devil's attempt to construct a system of his own. He says: "It is to be 
noted, moreover, that the centre is unary, and its circle is ternary, but whatever 
is inserted between the centre [and the circumference], and enters the enclosed 
realm, is to be taken as binary, be it another circle ... or any other figure what- 
ever." So the devil fabricated a circle of sorts for himself and tried to devise a 
circular system with it, but for various reasons the attempt failed. In the end all 
he produced was the "figure of a twofold serpent lifting up four horns, and 
therefore is the kingdom of the monomachy [rnonomachiae regnum] divided 
against itself." Being the binarius in person, the devil could hardly have produced 
anything else. ("De Duello," Theatrum chemicum, 1602, I, p. 547.) Already in the 
alchemy of Zosimos the devil appears as fortjjufjLcs, the imitator, ape of God. 
(Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, xlix, 9. Cf. also Mead, Pistis Sophia f passim,) 

70 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



tained eternal bliss. Then he beheld the heaven of gold, the 
"del d'or," and there was the King of Heaven sitting upon a 
golden throne and, beside him, the Queen of Heaven sitting 
upon a round throne of brown crystal. This latter detail refers 
to the fact that Mary is supposed to have been taken up to 
heaven with her body, as the only mortal being permitted to 
unite with the body before the resurrection of the dead. The 
king is usually represented as the triumphant Christ in conjunc- 
tion with his bride, the Church. But the all-important point is 
that the king, being Christ, is at the same time the Trinity, and 
that the introduction of a fourth person, the Queen, makes it a 
quaternity. The royal pair represents in ideal form the unity of 
the Two under the rule of the One"binarius sub monarchia 
unarii," as Dorn would say. Moreover, in the brown crystal, the 
"realm of quaternity and the elements" into which the "four- 
horned binarius" was cast has been exalted to the throne of the 
supreme intercessor, Mary. Consequently the quaternity of 
the natural elements appears not only in close conjunction with 
the corpus mysticum of the bridal Church or Queen of Heaven 
often it is difficult to distinguish between the two but in im- 
mediate relationship to the Trinity. 12 

123 Blue is the colour of Mary's celestial cloak; she is the earth 
covered by the blue tent of the sky. 13 But why should the Mother 
of God not be mentioned? According to the dogma she is only 
beata } not divine. Moreover, she represents the earth, which is 
also the body and its darkness. That is the reason why she, the 
all-merciful, has the power of attorney to plead for all sinners, 
but also why, despite her privileged position (it is not possible 
for the angels to sin), she has a relationship with the Trinity 
which is rationally not comprehensible, since it is so close and 
yet so distant. As the matrix, the vessel, the earth, she can be 
interpreted allegorically as the rotundum, which is character- 
ized by the four cardinal points, and hence as the globe with 
the four quarters, God's footstool, or as the "four-square" 
Heavenly City, or the "flower of the sea, in which Christ lies 

12 A peculiar coincidence of three and four is to be found in Wernher vom 
Niederrhein's allegory of Mary, where, besides the three men in the burning fiery 
furnace, a fourth appears who is interpreted as Christ. Cf. Salzer, Die Sinnbilder 
und Beiworte Mariens, p. 21. 

13 Eisler, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt, I, pp. 852. 

7 1 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



hidden" 14 in a word, as a mandala. This, according to the 
Tantric idea of the lotus, is feminine, and for readily under- 
standable reasons. The lotus is the eternal birthplace of the 
gods. It corresponds to the Western rose in which the King of 
Glory sits, often supported by the four evangelists, who corre- 
spond to the four quarters. 

124 From this precious piece of medieval psychology we gain 
some insight into the meaning of our patient's mandala. It 
unites the four and they function together harmoniously. My 
patient had been brought up a Catholic and thus, unwittingly, 
he was confronted with the same problem which caused not a 
little worry to old Guillaume. It was, indeed, a great problem 
to the Middle Ages, this problem of the Trinity and the exclu- 
sion, or the very qualified recognition, of the feminine element, 
of the earth, the body, and matter in general, which were yet, in 
the form of Mary's womb, the sacred abode of the Deity and 
the indispensable instrument for the divine work of redemp- 
tion. My patient's vision is a symbolic answer to this age-old 
question. That is probably the deeper reason why the image of 
the world clock produced the impression of "most sublime 
harmony." It was the first intimation of a possible solution of 
the devastating conflict between matter and spirit, between the 
desires of the flesh and the love of God. The miserable and 
ineffectual compromise of the church dream is completely over- 
come in this mandala vision, where all opposites are reconciled. 
If we hark back to the old Pythagorean idea that the soul is a 
square, 15 then the mandala would express the Deity through its 
threefold rhythm and the soul through its static quaternity, the 
circle divided into four colours. And thus its innermost mean- 
ing would simply be the union of the soul with God. 

125 As the world clock also represents the quadratures circuit and 
the perpetuum mobile, both these preoccupations of the medi- 
eval mind find adequate expression in our mandala. The golden 
circle and its contents represent the quaternity in the form of 
the four Cabiri and the four colours, and the blue circle repre- 
sents the Trinity and the movement of time, according to 
Guillaume. In our case, the hand of the blue circle has the 

14 Salzer, p. 66. 

15 Zeller, Die Philosophic der Grtechen, III, ii, p. 120. According to Archytas, the 
soul is a circle or sphere. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



fastest movement, while the golden circle moves slowly. Whereas 
the blue circle seems to be somewhat incongruous in Guil- 
laume's golden heaven, the circles in our case are harmoniously 
combined. The Trinity is now the life, the "pulse" of the whole 
system, with a threefold rhythm based, however, on thirty-two, 
a multiple of four. This agrees with the view I expressed before, 
that the quaternity is the sine qua non of divine birth and, con- 
sequently, of the inner life of the Trinity. Thus circle and 
quaternity on one side and the threefold rhythm on the other 
interpenetrate so that each is contained in the other. In Guil- 
laume's version the Trinity is obvious enough, but the quater- 
nity is concealed in the duality of the King and Queen of 
Heaven. What is more, the blue colour does not belong to the 
queen but to the calendar, which represents time and is char- 
acterized by trinitarian attributes. There seems to be a mutual 
interpenetration of symbols, just as in our case. 
126 Interpenetrations of qualities and contents are typical not 
only of symbols in general, but also of the essential similarity of 
the contents symbolized. Without this similarity no interpene- 
tration would be possible at all. We therefore find interpenetra- 
tion also in the Christian conception of the Trinity, where the 
Father appears in the Son, the Son in the Father, the Holy 
Ghost in Father and Son, or both these in the Holy Ghost as 
the Paraclete. The progression from Father to Son and the 
Son's appearance on earth at a particular moment would repre- 
sent the time element, while the spatial element would be per- 
sonified by the Mater Dei. (The mother quality was originally 
an attribute of the Holy Ghost, and the latter was known as 
Sophia-Sapientia by certain early Christians. 16 This feminine 
quality could not be completely eradicated; it still adheres to 
the symbol of the Holy Ghost, the columba spiritus sancti). But 
the quaternity is entirely absent from the dogma, though it ap- 
pears in early ecclesiastical symbolism. I refer to the cross with 
equal arms enclosed in the circle, the triumphant Christ with 
the four evangelists, the tetramorph, and so on. In later ecclesi- 
astical symbolism the rosa mystica, the vas devotionis, the fons 

16 Cf. the invocation in the Acts of Thomas (Mead, Fragments of a Faith For- 
gotten, pp. 422ff.)- Also the "seat of wisdom" in the Litany of Loreto, and the 
readings from Proverbs on Mary's feast-days, e.g., the Immaculate Conception 
(Prov. 8:22-35). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



signatus, and the hortus conclusus appear as attributes of the 
Mater Dei and o the spiritualized earth. 17 

127 It would hardly be worth while to look at all these relation- 
ships in a psychological light if the conceptions of the Trinity 
were nothing more than the ingenuities of human reason. I 
have always taken the view that they belong to the type of revela- 
tion to which Koepgen has recently given the name of "Gnosis" 
(not to be confused with Gnosticism). Revelation is an "unveil- 
ing" of the depths of the human soul first and foremost, a "lay- 
ing bare"; hence it is an essentially psychological event, though 
this does not, of course, tell us what else it might be. That lies 
outside the province of science. My view comes very close to 
Koepgen's lapidary formula, which moreover bears the ecclesi- 
astical imprimatur: "The Trinity is a revelation not only of 
God but at the same time of man." 18 

128 Our mandala is an abstract, almost mathematical represen- 
tation of some of the main problems discussed in medieval 
Christian philosophy. The abstraction goes so far, indeed, that 
if it had not been for the help of Guillaume's vision we might 
have overlooked its widespread system of roots in human his- 
tory. The patient did not possess any real knowledge of the 
historical material. He knew only what anybody who had re- 
ceived a smattering of religious instruction in early childhood 
would know. He himself saw no connection between his world 
clock and any religious symbolism. One can readily understand 
this, since the vision contains nothing at first sight that would 
remind anyone of religion. Yet the vision itself came shortly 
after the dream of the "House of the Gathering." And that 
dream was the answer to the problem of three and four repre- 
sented in a still earlier dream. There it was a matter of a rec- 
tangular space, on the four sides of which were four goblets 
filled with coloured water. One was yellow, another red, the 
third green, and the fourth colourless. Obviously blue was 
missing, yet it had been connected with the three other colours 
in a previous vision, where a bear appeared in the depths of a 
cavern. The bear had four eyes emitting red, yellow, green, and 

17 For the Gnostics the quaternity was decidedly feminine. Cf. Irenaeus, Against 
Heresies, I, ch. xi (Keble trans., p. 36). 
13 Die Gnosis des Christentums f p. 194. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



blue light. Astonishingly enough, in the later dream the blue 
colour had disappeared. At the same time the customary square 
was transformed into an oblong, which had never appeared 
before. The cause of this manifest disturbance was the dreamer's 
resistance to the feminine element represented by the anima. In 
the dream of the "House of the Gathering" the voice confirms 
this fact. It says: "What you are doing is dangerous. Religion 
is not the tax you pay in order to get rid of the woman's image, 
for this image cannot be got rid of." The "woman's image" is 
exactly what we would call the "anima." 19 

129 It is normal for a man to resist his anima, because she repre- 
sents, as I said before, the unconscious and all those tendencies 
and contents hitherto excluded from conscious life. They were 
excluded for a number of reasons, both real and apparent. Some 
are suppressed and some are repressed. As a rule those tendencies 
that represent the antisocial elements in man's psychic struc- 
turewhat I call the "statistical criminal" in everybody are 
suppressed, that is, they are consciously and deliberately dis- 
posed of. But tendencies that are merely repressed are usually 
of a somewhat doubtful character. They are not so much anti- 
social as unconventional and socially awkward. The reason why 
we repress them is equally doubtful. Some people repress them 
from sheer cowardice, others from conventional morality, and 
others again for reasons of respectability. Repression is a sort of 
half-conscious and half-hearted letting go of things, a dropping 
of hot cakes or a reviling of grapes which hang too high, or a 
looking the other way in order not to become conscious of one's 
desires. Freud discovered that repression is one of the main 
mechanisms in the making of a neurosis. Suppression amounts 
to a conscious moral choice, but repression is a rather immoral 
"penchant" for getting rid of disagreeable decisions. Suppres- 
sion may cause worry, conflict and suffering, but it never 
causes a neurosis. Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate 
suffering. 

130 If one discounts the "statistical criminal," there still remains 
the vast domain of inferior qualities and primitive tendencies 
which belong to the psychic structure of the man who is less 

i See Psychological Types, Defs. 48 and 49. [Also Aion, par. 19 (Swiss edn., pp. 
25!.) EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



ideal and more primitive than we should like to be. 20 We have 
certain ideas as to how a civilized or educated or moral being 
should live, and we occasionally do our best to fulfil these am- 
bitious expectations. But since nature has not bestowed the 
same blessings upon each of her children, some are more and 
others less gifted. Thus there are people who can just afford to 
live properly and respectably; that is to say, no manifest flaw is 
discoverable. They either commit minor sins, if they sin at all, 
or their sins are concealed from them by a thick layer of un- 
consciousness. One is rather inclined to be lenient with sinners 
who are unconscious of their sins. But nature is not at all lenient 
with unconscious sinners. She punishes them just as severely as 
if they had committed a conscious offence. Thus we find, as the 
pious Henry Drummond 21 once observed, that it is highly 
moral people, unaware of their other side, who develop particu- 
larly hellish moods which make them insupportable to their 
relatives. The odour of sanctity may be far reaching, but to live 
with a saint might well cause an inferiority complex or even a 
wild outburst of immorality in individuals less morally gifted. 
Morality seems to be a gift like intelligence. You cannot pump 
it into a system to which it is not indigenous. 

131 Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the 
whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Every- 
one carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the indi- 
vidual'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 cor- 
rected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of 
unawareness. At all events, it forms an unconscious snag, block- 
ing the most well-meant attempts. 

132 We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior 
man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enor- 
mous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If 
it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a consid- 

20 A special instance is the "inferior function." See Psychological Types, Def. 40. 
[And Aion, pars. igff. (Swiss edn., pp. 2 2 ff.). EDITORS.] 

21 Widely known because of his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World. The 
quotation conies from The Greatest Thing in the World. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



erably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be 
cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious per- 
sonality and his shadow can live together. 

133 This is a very serious problem for all those who are them- 
selves in such a predicament or have to help sick people back 
to normal life. Mere suppression of the shadow is as little of a 
remedy as beheading would be for headache. To destroy a man's 
morality does not help either, because it would kill his better 
self, without which even the shadow makes no sense. The recon- 
ciliation of these opposites is a major problem, and even in 
antiquity it bothered certain minds. Thus we know of an other- 
wise legendary personality of the second century, Carpocrates, 22 
a Neoplatonist philosopher whose school, according to Irenaeus, 
taught that good and evil are merely human opinions and that 
the soul, before its departure from the body, must pass through 
the whole gamut of human experience to the very end if it is not 
to fall back into the prison of the body. It is as if the soul could 
only ransom itself from imprisonment in the somatic world of 
the demiurge by complete fulfilment of all life's demands. The 
bodily existence in which we find ourselves is a kind of hostile 
brother whose conditions must first be known. It was in this 
sense that the Carpocratians interpreted Matthew 5:25^ (also 
Luke 12 : 58f.): "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou 
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver 
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and 
thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by 
no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost 
farthing/' Remembering the other Gnostic doctrine that no 
man can be redeemed from a sin he has not committed, we are 
here confronted with a problem of the very greatest importance, 
obscured though it is by the Christian abhorrence of anything 
Gnostic. Inasmuch as the somatic man, the "adversary," is none 
other than "the other in me," it is plain that the Carpocratian 
mode of thought would lead to the following interpretation of 
Matthew 5 : zzL: "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry 
with himself without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: 
and whosoever shall say to himself, Raca, shall be in danger of 
the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in 
danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, 

22 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, XXV (Keble trans., p. 75). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



and there rememberest that thou hast aught against thy self > 
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be 
reconciled to thyself, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree 
with thyself quickly, whiles thou art in the way with thyself; 
lest at any time thou deliverest thyself to the judge." From here 
it is but a step to the uncanonical saying: "Man, if indeed thou 
knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed; but if thou knowest 
not, thou art cursed, and a transgressor of the law/' 23 But the 
problem comes very close indeed in the parable of the unjust 
steward, which is a stumbling-block in more senses than one. 
"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had 
done wisely" (Luke 16:8). In the Vulgate the word for 'wisely' 
is prudenter, and in the Greek text it is <j>povinw (prudently, 
sensibly, intelligently). There's no denying that practical intelli- 
gence functions here as a court of ethical decision. Perhaps, 
despite Irenaeus, we may credit the Carpocratians with this 
much insight, and allow that they too, like the unjust steward, 
were commendably aware of how to save face. It is natural that 
the more robust mentality of the Church Fathers could not 
appreciate the delicacy and the merit of this subtle and, from a 
modern point of view, immensely practical argument. It was 
also dangerous, and it is still the most vital and yet the most 
ticklish ethical problem of a civilization that has forgotten why 
man's life should be sacrificial, that is, offered up to an idea 
greater than himself. Man can live the most amazing things if 
they make sense to him. But the difficulty is to create that sense. 
It must be a conviction, naturally; but you find that the most 
convincing things man can invent are cheap and ready-made, and 
are never able to convince him against his personal desires and 
fears. 

If the repressed tendencies, the shadow as I call them, were 
obviously evil, there would be no problem whatever. But the 
shadow is merely somewhat inferior, primitive, unadapted, and 
awkward; not wholly bad. It even contains childish or primitive 
qualities which would in a way vitalize and embellish human 
existence, but it is "not done." The educated public, the flower 
of our present civilization, has detached itself from its roots, 
and is about to lose its connection with the earth as well. There 

23 James, trans., The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 33. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



is no civilized country nowadays where the lowest strata of the 
population are not in a state of unrest and dissent. In a number 
of European nations such a condition is overtaking the upper 
strata too. This state of affairs demonstrates our psychological 
problem on a gigantic scale. Inasmuch as collectivities are mere 
accumulations of individuals, their problems are accumulations 
of individual problems. One set of people identifies itself with 
the superior man and cannot descend, and the other set identi- 
fies itself with the inferior man and wants to get to the top. 

135 Such problems are never solved by legislation or by tricks. 
They are solved only by a general change of attitude. And the 
change does not begin with propaganda and mass meetings, or 
with violence. It begins with a change in individuals. It will con- 
tinue as a transformation of their personal likes and dislikes, of 
their outlook on life and of their values, and only the accumula- 
tion of these individual changes will produce a collective solu- 
tion. 

*3 6 The educated man tries to repress the inferior man in him- 
self, not realizing that by so doing he forces the latter into re- 
volt. It is characteristic of my patient that he once dreamt of a 
military party that wanted "to strangle the left completely." 
Somebody remarks that the left is weak enough anyway, but the 
military party answers that this is just why it ought to be 
strangled completely. The dream shows how my patient dealt 
with his own inferior man. This is clearly not the right method. 
The dream of the "House of the Gathering," on the contrary, 
shows a religious attitude as the correct answer to his question. 
The mandala seems to be an amplification of this particular 
point. Historically, as we have seen, the mandala served as a 
symbol to clarify the nature of the deity philosophically, or to 
represent the same thing in a visible form for the purpose of 
adoration, or, as in the East, as a yantra for yoga practices. The 
wholeness ("perfection") of the celestial circle and the square- 
ness of the earth, combining the four principles or elements or 
psychic qualities, 24 express completeness and union. Thus the 
mandala has the status of a "uniting symbol." 25 As the union of 

24 in Tibetan Buddhism the four colours are associated with psychic qualities (the 
four forms of wisdom). Cf. my psychological commentary to the Tibetan Book 
of the Dead, below, p. 522. 

25 See Psychological Types, Def. 51. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



God and man is expressed in the symbol of Christ or the cross, 26 
we would expect the patient's world clock to have a similar 
reconciling significance. Prejudiced by historical analogies, we 
would expect a deity to occupy the centre of the mandala. The 
centre is, however, empty. The seat of the deity is unoccupied, 
in spite of the fact that, when we analyse the mandala in terms 
of its historical models, we arrive at the god symbolized by the 
circle and the goddess symbolized by the square. Instead of 
"goddess" we could also say "earth" or "soul." Despite the his- 
torical prejudice, however, the fact must be insisted upon that 
(as in the "House of the Gathering," where the place of the 
sacred image was occupied by the quaternity) we find no trace 
of a deity in the mandala, but, on the contrary, a mechanism. I 
do not believe that we have any right to disregard such an im- 
portant fact in favour of a preconceived idea. A dream or a 
vision is just what it seems to be. It is not a disguise for some- 
thing else. It is a natural product, which is precisely a thing with- 
out ulterior motive. I have seen many hundreds of mandalas, 
done by patients who were quite uninfluenced, and I have found 
the same fact in an overwhelming majority of cases: there was 
never a deity occupying the centre. The centre, as a rule, is 
emphasized. But what we find there is a symbol with a very 
different meaning. It is a star, a sun, a flower, a cross with equal 
arms, a precious stone, a bowl filled with water or wine, a ser- 
pent coiled up, or a human being, but never a god. 27 
*37 When we find a triumphant Christ in the rose window of a 
medieval church, we rightly assume that this must be a central 
symbol of the Christian cult. At the same time we also assume 
that any religion which is rooted in the history of a people is 
as much an expression of their psychology as the form of polit- 
ical government, for instance, that the people have developed. 

26 The cross has also the meaning of a boundary-stone between heaven and hell, 
since it is set up in the centre of the cosmos and extends to all sides. (Cf. Kroll, 
Gott und Holle, p. 18, n. 3.) The Tibetan mandala occupies a similar central 
position, its upper half rising up to heaven out of the earth (like the hemispher- 
ical stupas at Sanchi, India), with hell lying below. I have often found the same 
construction in individual mandalas: the light world on top, the dark below, as 
if they were projecting into these worlds. There is a similar design in Jakob 
Bohme's "reversed eye" or "philosophical mirror" (XL Questions concerning the 
Soule, 1647). 

27 [Cf. the illustrations in Jung, "On Mandala Symbolism." EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



If we apply the same method to the modern mandates that 
people have seen in dreams or visions, or have developed through 
"active imagination," 28 we reach the conclusion that mandalas 
are expressions of a certain attitude which we cannot help call- 
ing "religious." Religion is a relationship to the highest or most 
powerful value, be it positive or negative. The relationship is 
voluntary as well as involuntary, that is to say you can accept, 
consciously, the value by which you are possessed unconsciously. 
That psychological fact which wields the greatest power in your 
system functions as a god, since it is always the overwhelming 
psychic factor that is called "God." As soon as a god ceases to 
be an overwhelming factor he dwindles to a mere name. His 
essence is dead and his power is gone. Why did the gods of an- 
tiquity lose their prestige and their effect on the human soul? 
Because the Olympians had served their time and a new mystery 
began: God became man. 

If we allow ourselves to draw conclusions from modern 
mandalas we should ask people, first, whether they worship stars, 
suns, flowers, and snakes. They will deny this, and at the same 
time they will assert that the globes, stars, crosses, and the like 
are symbols for a centre in themselves. And if asked what they 
mean by this centre, they will begin to stammer and to refer to 
this or that experience which may turn out to be something very 
similar to the confession of my patient, who found that the 
vision of his world clock had left him with a wonderful feeling 
of perfect harmony. Others will confess that a similar vision 
came to them in a moment of extreme pain or profound despair. 
To others again it is the memory of a sublime dream or of a 
moment when long and fruitless struggles came to an end and a 
reign of peace began. If you sum up what people tell you about 
their experiences, you can formulate it this way: They came to 
themselves, they could accept themselves, they were able to be- 
come reconciled to themselves, and thus were reconciled to 
adverse circumstances and events. This is almost like what used 
to be expressed by saying: He has made his peace with God, 

28 This is a technical term referring to a method I have proposed for raising un- 
conscious contents to consciousness. [Cf. "The Relations between the Ego and the 
Unconscious," pp. 22off.; "The Psychological Aspects of the Kore" (1950/51 edn., 
pp. 228ff.), and Mysterium Coniunctionis (Swiss edn., II, pp. goyff.), EDITORS.] 

81 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



he has sacrificed his own will, he has submitted himself to the 
will of God. 

A modern mandala is an involuntary confession of a peculiar 
mental condition. There is no deity in the mandala, nor is there 
any submission or reconciliation to a deity. The place of the 
deity seems to be taken by the wholeness of man. 29 

When one speaks of man, everybody means his own ego- 
personality that is, his personality so far as he is conscious of 
it and when one speaks of others one assumes that they have a 
very similar personality. But since modern research has ac- 
quainted us with the fact that individual consciousness is based 
on and surrounded by an indefinitely extended unconscious 
psyche, we must needs revise our somewhat old-fashioned preju- 
dice that man is nothing but his consciousness. This naive 
assumption must be confronted at once with the critical ques- 
tion: Whose consciousness? The fact is, it would be a difficult 
task to reconcile the picture I have of myself with the one which 
other people have of me. Who is right? And who is the real indi- 
vidual? If we go further and consider the fact that man is also 
what neither he himself nor other people know of himan un- 
known something which can yet be proved to exist the problem 
of identity becomes more difficult still. Indeed, it is quite im- 
possible to define the extent and the ultimate character of 
psychic existence. When we now speak of man we mean the 
indefinable whole of him, an ineffable totality, which can only 
be formulated symbolically. I have chosen the term "self" to 
designate the totality of man, the sum total of his conscious and 
unconscious contents. 30 I have chosen this term in accordance 
with Eastern philosophy, 31 which for centuries has occupied it- 
self with the problems that arise when even the gods cease to 
incarnate. The philosophy of the Upanishads corresponds to a 
psychology that long ago recognized the relativity of the gods. 32 
This is not to be confused with a stupid error like atheism. The 

29 For the psychology of the mandala, see my commentary on The Secret of the 
Golden Flower (1931 edn., pp. g6ff.) [Also "On Mandala Symbolism" (Swiss edn., 
pp. iS^ff.). EDITORS.] 

30 See Psychological Types, Def. 51. [Also "The Relations between the Ego and 
the Unconscious," par. 274; Aion 3 pars. 436:. (Swiss edn., pp. 446:.) EDITORS.] 

31 Cf. Hauer, "Symbole und Erfahrung des Selbstes," p. 33, 

32 Concerning the concept of the "relativity of God," see Psychological Types 
(1933 edn., pp. 2972.). 

82 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



world is as it ever has been, but our consciousness undergoes 
peculiar changes. First, in remote times (which can still be ob- 
served among primitives living today), the main body o psychic 
life was apparently in human and in nonhuman objects: it was 
projected, as we should say now. 33 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 with- 
drawn from mountains and rivers, from trees and animals. 
Modern science has subtilized its projections to an almost un- 
recognizable 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. We are convinced that certain people have all the 
bad qualities we do not know in ourselves or that they practise 
all those vices which could, of course, never be our own. We 
must still be exceedingly careful not to project our own shadows 
too shamelessly; we are still swamped with projected illusions. 
If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all 
these projections, then you get an individual who is conscious 
of a considerable 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. These 
problems are mostly so difficult because they are poisoned by 
mutual projections. How can anyone see straight when he does 
not even see himself and the darkness he unconsciously carries 
with him into all his dealings? 

33 This fact accounts for the theory of animism. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Modern psychological development leads to a much better 
understanding as to what man really consists of. The gods at 
first lived in superhuman power and beauty on the top of snow- 
clad mountains or in the darkness of caves, woods, and seas. 
Later on they drew together into one god, and then that god 
became man. But in our day even the God-man seems to have 
descended from his throne and to be dissolving himself in the 
common man. That is probably why his seat is empty. Instead, 
the common man suffers from a hybris of consciousness that 
borders on the pathological. This psychic condition in the indi- 
vidual corresponds by and large to the hypertrophy and totali- 
tarian pretensions of the idealized State. In the same way that 
the State has caught the individual, the individual imagines 
that he has caught the psyche and holds her in the hollow of his 
hand. He is even making a science of her in the absurd supposi- 
tion that the intellect, which is but a part and a function of the 
psyche, is sufficient to comprehend the much greater whole. In 
reality the psyche is the mother and the maker, the subject and 
even the possibility of consciousness itself. It reaches so far be- 
yond the boundaries of consciousness that the latter could easily 
be compared to an island in the ocean. Whereas the island is 
small and narrow, the ocean is immensely wide and deep and 
contains a life infinitely surpassing, in kind and degree, anything 
known on the island so that if it is a question of space, it does 
not matter whether the gods are "inside" or "outside." It might 
be objected that there is no proof that consciousness is nothing 
more than an island in the ocean. Certainly it is impossible to 
prove this, since the known range of consciousness is confronted 
with the unknown extension of the unconscious, of which we 
only know that it exists and by the very fact of its existence 
exerts a limiting influence on consciousness and its freedom. 
Wherever unconsciousness reigns, there is bondage and posses- 
sion. The immensity of the ocean is simply a comparison; it 
expresses in allegorical form the capacity of the unconscious to 
limit and threaten consciousness. Empirical psychology loved, 
until recently, to explain the "unconscious" as mere absence of 
consciousness the term itself indicates as much just as shadow 
is an absence of light. Today accurate observation of uncon- 
scious processes has recognized, with all other ages before us, 
that the unconscious possesses a creative autonomy such as a 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



mere shadow could never be endowed with. When Carus, YOU 
Hartmann and, in a sense, Schopenhauer equated the uncon- 
scious with the world-creating principle, they were only sum* 
ming up all those teachings of the past which, grounded iu 
inner experience, saw the mysterious agent personified as the 
gods. It suits our hypertrophied and hybristic modern conscious- 
ness not to be mindful of the dangerous autonomy of the 
unconscious and to treat it negatively as an absence of conscious- 
ness. The hypothesis of invisible gods or daemons would be, 
psychologically, a far more appropriate formulation, even 
though it would be an anthropomorphic projection. But since 
the development of consciousness requires the withdrawal of 
all the projections we can lay our hands on, it is not possible 
to maintain any non-psychological doctrine about the gods. If 
the historical process of world despiritualization continues as 
hitherto, then everything of a divine or daemonic character out- 
side us must return to the psyche, to the inside of the unknown 
man, whence it apparently originated, 

142 The materialistic error was probably unavoidable at first. 
Since the throne of God could not be discovered among the 
galactic systems, the inference was that God had never existed. 
The second unavoidable error is psychologism: if God is any- 
thing, he must be an illusion derived from certain motives 
from will to power, for instance, or from repressed sexuality. 
These arguments are not new. Much the same thing was said 
by the Christian missionaries who overthrew the idols of 
heathen gods. But whereas the early missionaries were conscious 
of serving a new God by combatting the old ones, modern 
iconoclasts are unconscious of the one in whose name they are 
destroying old values, Nietzsche thought himself quite conscious 
and responsible when he smashed the old tablets, yet he felt a 
peculiar need to back himself up with a revivified Zarathustra, 
a sort of alter ego, with whom he often identifies himself in his 
great tragedy Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche was no atheist, 
but his God was dead. The result of this demise was a split in 
himself, and he felt compelled to call the other self "Zarathustra" 
or, at times, "Dionysus." In his fatal illness he signed his letters 
"Zagreus," the dismembered god of the Thracians. The tragedy 
of Zarathustra is that, because his God died, Nietzsche himself 
became a ^od; and this happened because he was no atheist. He 

85 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



was of too positive a nature to tolerate the urban neurosis of 
atheism. It seems dangerous for such a man to assert that "God 
is dead": he instantly becomes the victim of inflation. 34 Far 
from being a negation, God is actually the strongest and most 
effective "position" the psyche can reach, in exactly the same 
sense in which Paul speaks of people "whose God is their belly" 
(Phil. 3: 19). The strongest and therefore the decisive factor in 
any individual psyche compels the same belief or fear, sub- 
mission or devotion which a God would demand from man. 
Anything despotic and inescapable is in this sense "God," and it 
becomes absolute unless, by an ethical decision freely chosen, 
one succeeds in building up against this natural phenomenon a 
position that is equally strong and invincible. If this psychic 
position proves to be absolutely effective, it surely deserves to be 
named a "God," and what is more, a spiritual God, since it 
sprang from the freedom of ethical decision and therefore from 
the mind. Man is free to decide whether "God" shall be a 
"spirit" or a natural phenomenon like the craving of a morphine 
addict, and hence whether "God" shall act as a beneficent or a 
destructive force. 

143 However indubitable and clearly understandable these psy- 
chic events or decisions may be, they are very apt to lead people 
to the false, unpsychological conclusion that it rests with them 
to decide whether they will create a "God" for themselves or 
not. There is no question of that, since each of us is equipped 
with a psychic disposition that limits our freedom in high degree 
and makes it practically illusory. Not only is "freedom of the 
will" an incalculable problem philosophically, it is also a mis- 
nomer in the practical sense, for we seldom find anybody who 
is not influenced and indeed dominated by desires, habits, im- 
pulses, prejudices, resentments, and by every conceivable kind 
of complex. All these natural facts function exactly like an 
Olympus full of deities who want to be propitiated, served, 
feared and worshipped, not only by the individual owner of this 
assorted pantheon, but by everybody in his vicinity. Bondage 
and possession are synonymous. Always, therefore, there is 
something in the psyche that takes possession and limits or 
suppresses our moral freedom. In order to hide this undeniable 

34 Concerning the concept "inflation," see "The Relations between the Ego and 
the Unconscious," pp. 140(1, 

86 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



but exceedingly unpleasant fact from ourselves and at the same 
time pay lip-service to freedom, we have got accustomed to 
saying apotropaically, "/ have such and such a desire or habit 
or feeling of resentment/' instead of the more veracious "Such 
and such a desire or habit or feeling of resentment has me." The 
latter formulation would certainly rob us even of the illusion 
of freedom. But I ask myself whether this would not be better 
in the end than fuddling ourselves with words. The truth is 
that we do not enjoy masterless freedom; we are continually 
threatened by psychic factors which, in the guise of "natural 
phenomena/' may take possession of us at any moment. The 
withdrawal of metaphysical projections leaves us almost defence- 
less in the face of this happening, for we immediately identify 
with every impulse instead of giving it the name of the "other," 
which would at least hold it at arm's length and prevent it from 
storming the citadel of the ego. "Principalities and powers" are 
always with us; we have no need to create them even if we could. 
It is merely incumbent on us to choose the master we wish to 
serve, so that his service shall be our safeguard against being 
mastered by the "other" whom we have not chosen. We do not 
create "God," we choose him. 

144 Though our choice characterizes and defines "God," it is 
always man-made, and the definition it gives is therefore finite 
and imperfect. (Even the idea of perfection does not posit per- 
fection.) The definition is an image, but this image does not 
raise the unknown fact it designates into the realm of intelligi- 
bility, otherwise we would be entitled to say that we had created 
a God. The "master" we choose is not identical with the image 
we project of him in time and space. He goes on working as 
before, like an unknown quantity in the depths of the psyche. 
We do not even know the nature of the simplest thought, let 
alone the ultimate principles of the psyche. Also, we have no 
control over its inner life. But because this inner life is in- 
trinsically free and not subject to our will and intentions, it may 
easily happen that the living thing chosen and defined by us will 
drop out of its setting, the man-made image, even against our 
will. Then, perhaps, we could say with Nietzsche, "God is dead." 
Yet it would be truer to say, "He has put off our image, and 
where shall we find him again?" The interregnum is full of 
danger, for the natural facts will raise their claim in the form 

8? 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



of various -isms, which ate productive of nothing but anarchy 
and destruction because inflation and man's hybris between 
them have elected to make the ego, in all its ridiculous paltri- 
ness, lord of the universe. That was the case with Nietzsche, the 
uncomprehended portent of a whole epoch, 

The individual ego is much too small, its brain is much too 
feeble, to incorporate all the projections withdrawn from the 
world. Ego and brain burst asunder in the effort; the psychia- 
trist calls it schizophrenia. When Nietzsche said "God is dead/' 
he uttered a truth which is valid for the greater part of Europe. 
People were influenced by it not because he said so, but because 
it stated a widespread psychological fact. The consequences were 
not long delayed: after the fog of -isms, the catastrophe. Nobody 
thought of drawing the slightest conclusions from Nietzsche's 
pronouncement. Yet it has, for some ears, the same eerie sound 
as that ancient cry which came echoing over the sea to mark 
the end of the nature gods: "Great Pan is dead." 85 

The life of Christ is understood by the Church on the one 
hand as an historical, and on the other hand as an eternally exist- 
ing, mystery. This is especially evident in the sacrifice of the 
Mass. From a psychological standpoint this view can be trans- 
lated as follows: Christ lived a concrete, personal, and unique 
life which, in all essential features* had at the same time an 
archetypal character. This character can be recognized from the 
numerous connections of the biographical details with world- 
wide myth-motifs. These undeniable connections are the main 
reason why it is so difficult for researchers into the life of Jesus 
to construct from the gospel reports an individual life divested 
of myth. In the gospels themselves factual reports, legends, and 
myths are woven into a whole. This is precisely what constitutes 
the meaning of the gospels, and they would immediately lose 
their character of wholeness if one tried to separate the indi- 
vidual from the archetypal with a critical scalpel. The life of 
Christ is no exception in that not a few of the great figures of 
history have realized, more or less clearly, the archetype of the 
hero's life with its characteristic changes of fortune. But the 
ordinary man, too, unconsciously lives archetypal forms, and if 
these are no longer valued it is only because of the prevailing 
psychological ignorance. Indeed, even the fleeting phenomena 

35 plutatdh, Zte defettu orctdulorum, 17* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



of dreams often reveal distinctly archetypal patterns. At bottom, 
all psychic events are so deeply grounded in the archetype and 
are so much interwoven with it that in every case considerable 
critical effort is needed to separate the unique from the typical 
with any certainty. Ultimately, every individual life is at the 
same time the eternal life of the species. The individual is con- 
tinuously "historical" because strictly time-bound; the relation 
of the type to time, on the other hand, is irrelevant. Since the 
life of Christ is archetypal to a high degree, it represents to just 
that degree the life of the archetype. But since the archetype 
is the unconscious precondition of every human life, its life, 
when revealed, also reveals the hidden, unconscious ground- 
life of every individual. That is to say, what happens in the life 
of Christ happens always and everywhere. In the Christian 
archetype all lives of this kind are prefigured and are expressed 
over and over again or once and for all. And in it, too, the ques- 
tion that concerns us here of God's death is anticipated in perfect 
form. Christ himself is the typical dying and self-transforming 
God. 

147 The psychological situation from which we started is tanta- 
mount to "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not 
here" (Luke 24: si). But where shall we find the risen Christ? 

*48 I do not expect any believing Christian to pursue these 
thoughts of mine any further, for they will probably seem to him 
absurd. I am not, however, addressing myself to the happy 
possessors of faith, but to those many people for whom the light 
has gone out, the mystery has faded, and God is dead. For most 
of them there is no going back, and one does not know either 
whether going back is always the better way. To gain an under- 
standing of religious matters, probably all that is left us today 
is the psychological approach. That is why I take these thought- 
forms that have become historically fixed, try to melt them down 
again and pour them into moulds of immediate experience. It 
is certainly a difficult undertaking to discover connecting links 
between dogma and immediate experience of psychological 
archetypes, but a study of the natural symbols of the unconscious 
gives us the necessary raw material. 

J 49 God's death, or his disappearance, is by no means only a 
Christian symbol. The search which follows the death is still 
repeated today after the death of a Dalai Lama, and in antiquity 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



it was celebrated in the annual search for the Kore. Such a wide 
distribution argues in favour of the universal occurrence of 
this typical psychic process: the highest value, which gives life 
and meaning, has got lost. This is a typical experience that has 
been repeated many times, and its expression therefore occupies 
a central place in the Christian mystery. The death or loss must 
always repeat itself: Christ always dies, and always he is born; 
for the psychic life of the archetype is timeless in comparison 
with our individual time-boundness. According to what laws 
now one and now another aspect of the archetype enters into 
active manifestation, I do not know. I only know and here I am 
expressing what countless other people know that the present 
is a time of God's death and disappearance. The myth says he 
was not to be found where his body was laid. "Body" means the 
outward, visible form, the erstwhile but ephemeral setting for 
the highest value. The myth further says that the value rose 
again in a miraculous manner, transformed. It appears as a 
miracle, for, when a value disappears, it always seems to be lost 
irretrievably. So it is quite unexpected that it should come back. 
The three days' descent into hell during death describes the 
sinking of the vanished value into the unconscious, where, by 
conquering the power of darkness, it establishes a new order, 
and then rises up to heaven again, that is, attains supreme clarity 
of consciousness. The fact that only a few people see the Risen 
One means that no small difficulties stand in the way of finding 
and recognizing the transformed value. 

15 I showed earlier, with the help of dreams, how the uncon- 
scious produces a natural symbol, technically termed a mandala, 
which has the functional significance of a union of opposites, or 
of mediation. These speculative ideas, symptomatic of an acti- 
vated archetype, can be traced back to about the time of the 
Reformation, which we find them formulated in the alchemical 
treatises as symbolic geometrical figures which sought to express 
the nature of the Deus terrenus, the philosophers' stone. For 
instance, we read in the commentary to the Tractatus aureus: 

This one thing to which the elements must be reduced is that little 
circle holding the place of the centre in this squared figure. It is a 
mediator making peace between enemies or the elements, that they 
may love one another in a meet embrace. He alone brings about the 

90 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



squaring of the circle, which many hitherto have sought, but few 
have found. 36 

Of this "mediator," the wonderful stone, Orthelius says: 

For as ... the supernatural and eternal good, Christ Jesus our 
Mediator and Saviour, who delivers us from eternal death, from the 
devil, and from all evil, partakes of two natures, the divine and the 
human, so likewise is that earthly saviour composed of two parts, 
the heavenly and the earthly. With these he has restored us to health, 
and delivers us from diseases heavenly and earthly, spiritual and 
corporeal, visible and invisible. 37 

Here the "saviour" does not come down from heaven but out 
of the depths of the earth, i.e., from that which lies below con- 
sciousness. These philosophers suspected that a "spirit" was im- 
prisoned there, in the vessel of matter; a "white dove" compara- 
ble to the Nous in the krater of Hermes, of which it is said: 
"Plunge into this krater, if thou canst, by recognizing to what 
end thou wast created, 38 and by believing that thou wilt rise up 
to Him, who hath sent the krater down to earth." 39 
15* This Nous or spirit was known as "Mercurius," 40 and it is 
to this arcanum that the alchemical saying refers: "What- 
ever the wise seek is in mercury." A very ancient formula, at- 
tributed by Zosimos to the legendary Ostanes, runs: "Go to the 
waters of the Nile, and there thou wilt find a stone that hath a 
spirit [pneuma]." A commentator explains that this refers to 
quicksilver (hydrargyron, mercury). 41 This spirit, coming from 
God, is also the cause of the "greenness," the benedicta viriditas, 
much praised by the alchemists. Mylius says of it: "God has 
breathed into created things ... a kind of germination, which 
is the viridescence." In Hildegard of Bingen's Hymn to the Holy 
Ghost, which begins "O ignis Spiritus paraclite," we read: 
"From you the clouds rain down, the heavens move, the stones 
have their moisture, the waters give forth streams, and the earth 

36 Manget, Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, I (1702), p. 408. 

37 Theatrum chemicum, VI (1661), p. 431. 

38 Cf. the very similar formula in the "Fundamentum" of St. Ignatius Loyola's 
Spiritual Exercises. 39 Corpus Hermeticum, IV, 4. 

40 Mercury is "wholly aerial and spiritual." Theobald de Hoghelande, "De 
alchemiae difficultatibus," Theatr. chem., I (1602), p. 183. 

41 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, vi, 5. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



sweats out greenness." This water of the Holy Ghost played an 
important role in alchemy since the remotest times, as the 
vdo)p Otlov or aqua permanens, a symbol of the spirit assimilated 
to matter, which according to Heraclitus turned to water. The 
Christian parallel was naturally Christ's blood, for which reason 
the water of the philosophers was named "spiritualis sanguis." 42 
The arcane substance was also known simply as the rotun- 
dum, by which was understood the anima media natura, iden- 
tical with the anima mundi. The latter is a virtus Dei, an organ 
or a sphere that surrounds God. Of this Mylius says: "[God has] 
love all round him. Others have declared him to be an intellec- 
tual and fiery spirit, 43 having no form, but transforming himself 
into whatsoever he wills and making himself equal to all things; 
who by a manifold relation is in a certain measure bound up 
with his creatures." M This image of God enveloped by the 
anima is the same as Gregory the Great's allegory of Christ and 
the Church: "A woman shall compass a man" (Jeremiah 31: 
22). 45 This is an exact parallel to the Tantric conception of Shiva 
in the embrace of his Shakti. 46 From this fundamental image of 
the male-female opposites united in the centre is derived 
another designation of the lapis as the ' 'hermaphrodite"; it is 
also the basis for the mandala motif. The extension of God as 
the anima media natura into every individual creature means 
that there is a divine spark, the scintilla, 47 indwelling even in 

42 Mylius, Philosophia reformata, p. 42; Hildegard's hymn in Daniel, Thesaurus, 
V, pp. 201-2; Dorn, "Congeries," Theatr. chem., I, p. 584; "Turba philoso- 
phorum," Arils auriferae, I (1593), P- ^9- 

43 Originally a Platonic idea. 44 Mylius, p. 8. 

45 St. Gregory, Expositiones in Hbrum I Regum, I, i, i; Migne, P.L., vol. 79, 
col. 23. 

46 Barbelo or Ennoia plays the role of the anima in Barbelo-Gnosis. Bousset 
thinks the name "Barbelo" is a corruption of parthenos, Virgin.' It is also trans- 
lated as 'God is in the Four.' 

47 This idea was formulated in the conception of the "anima in compedibus," the 
fettered or imprisoned soul. (Cf. Dorn, "Speculativa philosophia," Theatr. chem., 
I, pp. 272, 298; "De spagirico artificio," etc., ibid., I, pp. 457, 497.) So far, I 
have found no evidence that the medieval natural philosophers based themselves 
consciously on any heretical traditions. But the parallels are astonishing. Those 
"enchained in Hades" are mentioned very early on, in the Comarius text dating 
from the ist century (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, IV, xx, 8.) For the spark in the dark- 
ness and the spirit imprisoned in matter, see Leisegang, Die Gnosis, pp. i54f. and 
233. A similar motif is the conception of the "natura abscondita," which is dis- 

92 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



dead matter, in utter darkness. The medieval natural philoso- 
phers endeavoured to make this spark rise up again as a divine 
image from the "round vessel." Such ideas can only be based on 
the existence of unconscious psychic processes, for otherwise we 
simply could not understand how the same ideas crop up every- 
where. Our dream-example shows that such images are not in- 
ventions o the intellect; rather, they are natural revelations. 
And they will probably be found again and again in exactly 
the same way. The alchemists themselves say that the arcanum 
is sometimes revealed in a dream. 48 

153 The old natural philosophers not only felt pretty clearly, but 
actually said, that the miraculous substance whose essential 
nature they symbolized by a circle divided into four parts, was 
man himself. The "Aenigmata philosophorum" 49 speaks of 
the homo albus who is formed in the hermetic vessel. This 
"white man" is the equivalent of the priest figure in the visions 
of Zosimos. In the Arabic-transmitted "Book of Krates" 50 we 
find an equally significant allusion in the dialogue between the 
spiritual and the worldly man (corresponding to the pneu- 
matikos and sarkikos of the Gnostics). The spiritual man says 
to the worldly man: "Are you capable of knowing your soul in 
a complete manner? If you knew it as is fitting, and if you knew 
what makes it better, you would be able to recognize that the 
names which the philosophers formerly gave it are not its true 
names. . . . O dubious names which resemble the true names, 
what errors and agonies you have provoked among men!" The 
names refer in turn to the philosophers' stone. A treatise 
ascribed to Zosimos, though it more likely derives from the 

coverable in man and in all things, and is of the same nature as the anima. Thus 
Dorn ("De spagirico artificio," p. 457) says: "In the body of man there is hidden 
a certain substance of heavenly nature known to very few.*' In his "Philosophia 
specUlativa" (p. 298) the same author says: ''There is in natural things a certain 
truth not seen by the outward eye but perceived by the mind alone. Of this the 
philosophers had experience, and found its virtue to be such that it worked 
miracles." The idea of the "hidden nature" occurs already in Pseudo-DemocritUs. 
(Berthelot, II, iii, 6.) 

48 A classical example is the "Visio Arislei" (Art. autif., I, pp. 146^.). Also the 
visions of Zosimos (Berthelot, III, i-vi; and my "Some Observations on the Visions 
of ZOsimos." Revelation of the magistery in a dream in Setidivogius, "Parabola" 
(Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, II, 1702, p. 475). 

49 Art. aurif., I, p. 151. so Berthelot, La Chimie au moyen age, III, p* 56. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



Arabic-Latinist school of literature, says unmistakably o the 
stone: ''Thus it comes from man, and you are its mineral (raw 
material); in you it is found, and from you it is extracted . . . 
and it remains inseparably in you." 51 Solomon Trismosin ex- 
presses it most clearly of all: 

Study what thou art, 
Whereof thou art a part, 
What thou knowest of this art, 
This is really what thou art. 
All that is without thee 
Also is within. 
Thus wrote Trismosin. 52 

And Gerhard Dorn cries out: "Transform yourselves into 
living philosophical stones!" 53 There can hardly be any doubt 
that not a few of those seekers had the dawning knowledge that 
the secret nature of the stone was man's own self. This "self" 
was evidently never thought of as an entity identical with the 
ego, and for this reason it was described as a "hidden nature" 
dwelling in inanimate matter, as a spirit, daemon, 54 or fiery 
spark. By means of the philosophical opus, which was mostly 
thought of as a mental one, 55 this entity was freed from darkness 
and imprisonment, and finally it enjoyed a resurrection, often 
represented in the form of an apotheosis and equated with the 
resurrection of Christ. 56 It is clear that these ideas can have 

5i"Rosinus ad Sarratantam," Art. aurif., I, p. 311. 

52 Aureum vellus (1598), p. 5. Trans, by J. K. in Splendor soils (1920). 

53 "Speculativa philosophia," Theatr. chem., I, p. 267. 

54 Olympiodorus (Berthelot, Alch. grecs f II, iv, 43). 

55 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 2436:. 

56 Mylius (Phil, ref., p. 106) says that the masculine and feminine components of 
the stone must first be killed "that they may be brought to life again in a new 
and incorruptible resurrection, so that thereafter they may be immortal." The 
stone is also compared to the future resurrected body as a "corpus glorificatum." 
The "Aurea hora/' or "Aurora consurgens" (Art. aurif., I, p. 200) says it is "like 
to a body which is glorified in the day of judgment." Cf. de Hoghelande, Theatr. 
chem., I, p. 189; "Consilium coniugii," Ars chemica (1566), p. 128; "Aurea hora," 
Art. aurtf., I, p. 195; Djabir, "Le Livre de la mis&ricorde," in Berthelot, La Chimie 
au moyen age, III, p. 188; "Le Livre d'Ostanes," in ibid., p. 117; Comarius, in 
Berthelot, Alch. grecs, IV, xx, 15; Zosimos, in ibid., Ill, viii, 2, and III, i, 2; Turba 
phil., ed. Ruska, p. 139; Michael Maier, Symbola aureae mensae (1617), p. 599; 
Rosarium philosophorum (1550), fol. 2a, IV, illustration. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



nothing to do with the empirical ego, but are concerned with a 
"divine nature" quite distinct from it, and hence, psycholog- 
ically speaking, with a consciousness-transcending content issu- 
ing from the realm of the unconscious. 

155 With this we come back to our modern experiences. They 
are obviously similar in nature to the basic medieval and clas- 
sical ideas, and can therefore be expressed by the same, or at any 
rate similar, symbols. The medieval representations of the circle 
are based on the idea of the microcosm, a concept that was also 
applied to the stone. 57 The stone was a 'little world' ' like man 
himself, a sort of inner image of the cosmos, reaching not into 
immeasurable distances but into an equally immeasurable 
depth-dimension, i.e., from the small to the unimaginably small- 
est. Mylius therefore calls this centre the "punctum cordis." 58 

*5 6 The experience formulated by the modern mandala is typi- 
cal of people who cannot project the divine image any longer. 
Owing to the withdrawal and introjection of the image they are 
in danger of inflation and dissociation of the personality. The 
round or square enclosures built round the centre therefore 
have the purpose of protective walls or of a vas hermeticum, to 
prevent an outburst or a disintegration. Thus the mandala de- 
notes and assists exclusive concentration on the centre, the self. 
This is anything but egocentricity. On the contrary, it is a much 
needed self-control for the purpose of avoiding inflation and 
dissociation. 

157 The enclosure, as we have seen, has also the meaning of what 
is called in Greek a temenos, the precincts of a temple or any 
isolated sacred place. The circle in this case protects or isolates 
an inner content or process that should not get mixed up with 
things outside. Thus the mandala repeats in symbolic form 
archaic ways and means which were once concrete realities. As I 
have already mentioned, the inhabitant of the temenos was a 
god. But the prisoner, or the well-protected dweller in the man- 
dala, does not seem to be a god, since the symbols used stars, 
crosses, globes, etcdo not signify a god but an obviously im- 
portant part of the human personality. One might almost say 
that man himself, or his innermost soul, is the prisoner or the 

57 "Aphorism! Basiliani," Theatr. chern., IV (1613), p. 368; de Hoghelande, ibid., 
I (1602), p. 178; Dorn, "Congeries," ibid., I, p. 585; and many other places. 

58 philosophia reformata (1622), p. 21. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



protected inhabitant of themandala. Since modern mandalas are 
amazingly close parallels to the ancient magical circles, which 
usually have a deity in the centre, it is clear that in the modern 
mandala manthe deep ground, as it were, of the self is not a 
substitute but a symbol for the deity. 

*58 It is a remarkable fact that this symbol is a natural and spon- 
taneous occurrence and that it is always an essentially uncon- 
scious product, as our dream shows. If we want to know what 
happens when the idea of God is no longer projected as an 
autonomous entity, this is the answer of the unconscious psyche. 
The unconscious produces the idea of a deified or divine man 
who is imprisoned, concealed, protected, usually depersonalized, 
and represented by an abstract symbol. The symbols often con- 
tain allusions to the medieval conception of the microcosm, as 
was the case with my patient's world clock, for instance. Many 
of the processes that lead to the mandala, and the mandala it- 
self, seem to be direct confirmations of medieval speculation. 
It looks as if the patients had read those old treatises on the 
philosophers' stone, the divine water, the rotundum, the squar- 
ing of the circle, the four colours, etc. And yet they have never 
been anywhere near alchemical philosophy and its abstruse 
symbolism. 

*59 It is difficult to evaluate such facts properly. They could be 
explained as a sort of regression to archaic ways of thinking, if 
one's chief consideration was their obvious and impressive 
parallelism with medieval symbolism. But whenever such re- 
gressions occur, the result is always inferior adaptation and a 
corresponding lack of efficiency. This is by no means typical 
of the psychological development depicted here. On the con- 
trary, neurotic and dissociated conditions improve considerably 
and the whole personality undergoes a change for the better. 
For this reason I do not think the process in question should be 
explained as regression, which would amount to saying that it 
was a morbid condition. I am rather inclined to understand the 
apparently retrograde connections of mandala psychology 59 as 
the continuation of a process of spiritual development which 
began in the early Middle Ages, and perhaps even further back, 

< r >9 Koepgen (see above, p, 5911.), rightly speaks of the "circular thinking" of the 
Gnostics. This is only another term for totality or "all-round" thinking, since, 
symbolically, roundness is the same as wholeness. 

96 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



in early Christian times. There is documentary evidence that 
the essential symbols of Christianity were already in existence 
in the first century. I am thinking of the Greek treatise entitled: 
"Comarius, the Archpriest, teaches Cleopatra the Divine Art/* 60 
The text is of Egyptian origin and bears no trace of Christian 
influence. There are also the mystical texts of Pseudo-Democritus 
and Zosimos. 61 Jewish and Christian influences are noticeable 
in the last-named author, though the main symbolism is Neo- 
platonist and is closely connected with the philosophy of the 
Corpus Hermeticum. Q2 

The fact that the symbolism connected with the mandala 
traces its near relatives back to pagan sources casts a peculiar 
light upon these apparently modern psychological occurrences. 
They seem to continue a Gnostic trend of thought without be- 
ing supported by direct tradition. If lam right in supposing that 
every religion is a spontaneous expression of a certain predomi- 
nant psychological condition, then Christianity was the formula- 
tion of a condition that predominated at the beginning of our 
era and lasted for several centuries. But a particular psycholog- 
ical condition which predominates for a certain length of time 
does not exclude the existence of other psychological conditions 
at other times, and these are equally capable of religious ex- 
pression. Christianity had at one time to fight for its life against 
Gnosticism, which corresponded to another psychological condi- 
tion. Gnosticism was stamped out completely and its remnants 
are so badly mangled that special study is needed to get any in- 
sight at all into its inner meaning. But if the historical roots of 
our symbols extend beyond the Middle Ages they are certainly 
to be found in Gnosticism. It would not seem to me illogical if 
a psychological condition, previously suppressed, should re- 
assert itself when the main ideas of the suppressive condition 
begin to lose their influence. In spite of the suppression of the 
Gnostic heresy, it continued to flourish throughout the Middle 
Ages under the disguise of alchemy. It is a well-known fact that 
alchemy consisted of two parts which complement one another 
on the one hand chemical research proper and on the other the 

60 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, IV, xx. According to F. Sherwood Taylor, in "A Survey 
of Greek Alchemy," pp. logff., this is probably the oldest Greek text of the ist 
century. Cf. also Jensen, Die alteste Alchemic. 

61 Berthelot, III, i. 62 Scott, Hermetica. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



"theoria" or "philosophia." 63 As is clear from the writings of 
Pseudo-Democritus in the first century, entitled rd <wt*a /cat rd 
jtiucrrocd, 64 the two aspects already belonged together at the be- 
ginning of our era. The same holds true of the Leiden papyri 
and the writings of Zosimos in the third century. The religious 
or philosophical views of ancient alchemy were clearly Gnostic. 
The later views seem to cluster round the following central idea: 
The anima mundi, the demiurge or divine spirit that incubated 
the chaotic waters of the beginning, remained in matter in a 
potential state, and the initial chaotic condition persisted with 
it. 65 Thus the philosophers, or the "sons of wisdom" as they 

63 Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 276ff. 

64 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, II, i f. 

65 Very early among the Greek alchemists we encounter the idea of the "stone 
that has a spirit" (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, III, vi). The "stone" is the prima 
materia, called hyle or chaos or massa confusa. This alchemical terminology was 
based on Plato's Timaeus. Joannes C. Steeb (Coelum sephiroticum Hebraeorum, 
1679) says: "Neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor those things which are 
made of these things nor those things of which these are made, should be called 
the prima materia, which must be the receptacle and the mother of that which 
is made and that which can be beheld, but a certain species which cannot be 
beheld and is formless and sustains all things" (p. 26). The same author calls the 
prima materia "the primeval chaotic earth, Hyle, Chaos, the abyss, the mother of 
things. . . . That first chaotic matter . . . was watered by the streams of heaven, 
and adorned by God with numberless Ideas of the species." He explains how the 
spirit of God descended into matter and what became of him there (p. 33): "The 
spirit of God fertilized the upper waters with a peculiar fostering warmth and 
made them as it were milky. . . . The fostering warmth of the Holy Spirit 
brought about, therefore, in the waters that are above the heavens [aquis 
supracoelestibus; cf. Genesis 1:7], a virtue subtly penetrating and nourish- 
ing all things, which, combining with light, generated in the mineral kingdom 
of the lower regions the mercurial serpent [this could refer just as well to the 
caduceus of Aesculapius, since the serpent is also the origin of the medicina 
catholica, the panacea], in the vegetable kingdom the blessed greenness [chloro- 
phyll], in the animal kingdom a formative virtue, so that the supracelestial spirit 
of the waters united in marriage with light may justly be called the soul of the 
world." "The lower waters are darksome, and absorb the outflowings of light in 
their capacious depths" (p. 38). This doctrine is based on nothing less than the 
Gnostic legend of the Nous descending from the higher spheres and being caught 
in the embrace of Physis. The Mercurius of the alchemists is winged ("volatile"). 
Abul-Qasim Muhammad (Kitab al'ilm al muktasab, etc., ed. Holmyard), speaks 
of "Hermes, the volatile" (p. 37), and in many other places he is called a 
"spiritus." Moreover, he was understood to be a Hermes psychopompos, showing 
the way to Paradise (Michael Maier, Symbola, p. 592). This is very much the 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



called themselves, took their prima materia to be a part of the 
original chaos pregnant with spirit. By "spirit" they understood 
a semimaterial pneuma, a sort of "subtle body," which they also 
called "volatile*' and identified chemically with oxides and other 
dissoluble compounds. They called this spirit Mercurius, which 
was chemically quicksilver though "Mercurius noster" was no 
ordinary Hgl and philosophically Hermes, the god of revela- 
tion, who, as Hermes Trismegistus, was the arch-authority on 

role of a redeemer, which was attributed to the Nous in "Epfiou Trpfo Tar." (Scott, 
Hermetica, I, pp. 1496:.)* For the Pythagoreans the soul was entirely devoured by 
matter, except for its reasoning part. (Zeller, Die Philosophic der Griechen, III, 

n, P- 138-) 

In the old "Commentariolum in Tabulam smaragdinam" (Ars chemica), 
Hortulanus speaks of the "massa confusa" or the "chaos confusum" from which 
the world was created and from which also the mysterious lapis is generated. The 
lapis was identified with Christ from the beginning of the i4th century (Petrus 
Bonus, Pretiosa margarita, 1546). Orthelius (Theatr. chem., VI, p. 431) says: "Our 
Saviour Jesus Christ . . . partakes of two natures. ... So likewise is that earthly 
saviour made up of two parts, the heavenly and the earthly." In the same way 
the Mercurius imprisoned in matter was identified with the Holy Ghost. Johannes 
Grasseus ("Area arcani," Theatr. chem. f VI. p. 314) quotes: "The gift of the Holy 
Spirit, that is the lead of the philosophers which they call the lead of the air, 
wherein is a resplendent white dove which is called the salt of the metals, in 
which consists the magistery of the work." 

Concerning the extraction and transformation of the Chaos, Christopher of 
Paris ("Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 228) writes: 
"In this Chaos the said precious substance and nature truly exists potentially, in 
a single confused mass of the elements. Human reason ought therefore to apply 
itself to bringing our heaven into actuality." "Our heaven" refers to the micro- 
cosm and is also called the "quintessence." It is "incorruptible" and "immaculate." 
Johannes de Rupescissa (La Vertu et la Proprie'te de la Quinte Essence, 1581) 
calls it "le ciel humain." It is clear that the philosophers projected the vision of 
the golden and blue circle onto their aurum philosophicum (which was named 
the "rotundum"; see Maier, De circulo, 1616, p. 15) and onto the blue quin- 
tessence. The terms chaos and massa confusa were in general use, according to 
the testimony of Bernardus Sylvestris, a contemporary of William of Champeaux 
(1070-1121). His work, De mundi universitate libri duo, had a widespread influ- 
ence. He speaks of the "confusion of the primary matter, that is, Hyle" (p. 5, li. 
18), the "congealed mass, formless chaos, refractory matter, the face of being, a 
discolored mass discordant with itself" (p. 7, li. 18-19), "a mass of confusion" (p. 
56, XI, li. 10). Bernardus also mentions the descensus spiritus as follows: "When 
Jove comes down into the lap of his bride, all the world is moved and would 
urge the soil to bring forth" (p. 51, li. 21-22). Another variant is the idea of the 
King submerged or concealed in the sea (Maier, Symbola, p. 380; "Visio Arislei," 
Art. aurif., I, pp. 1466:.). 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



alchemy. 66 Their aim was to extract the original divine spirit 
out of the chaos, and this extract was called the quinta essentia, 
aqua permanens, Mwp 0w, 0a<^ or tinctura. A famous alche- 
mist, Johannes de Rupescissa (d. 1375)> 6T calls the quintessence 
"le ciel humain," the human sky or heaven. For him it was a 
blue liquid and incorruptible like the sky. He says that the 
quintessence is of the colour of the sky "and our sun has adorned 
it, as the sun adorns the sky." The sun is an allegory of gold. 
He says: "This sun is true gold." He continues: "These two 
things joined together influence in us ... the condition of the 
Heaven of heavens, and of the heavenly Sun." His idea is, obvi- 
ously, that the quintessence, the blue sky with the golden sun 
in it, evokes corresponding images of the heaven and the heaven- 
ly sun in ourselves. It is a picture of a blue and golden micro- 
cosm, 68 and I take it to be a direct parallel to Guillaume's celes- 
tial vision. The colours are, however, reversed; with Rupescissa 
the disc is golden and the sky blue. My patient, therefore, hav- 
ing a similar arrangement, seems to lean more towards the 
alchemical side. 

The miraculous liquid, the divine water, called sky or 
heaven, probably refers to the supra-celestial waters of Genesis 
1:7. In its functional aspect it was thought to be a sort of bap- 
tismal water which, like the holy water of the Church, possesses 
a creative and transformative quality. 69 The Catholic Church 

66 For instance, the genius of the planet Mercury reveals the mysteries to Pseudo- 
Democritus. (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, I, Introduction, p. 236.) 

67 j. de Rupescissa, La Vertu, p. 19. 

68 Djabir, in La Lime de la Misericorde, says that the philosophers' stone is equal 
to a microcosm. (Berthelot, La Chimie au moyen age, III, p. 179.) 

69 It is difficult not to assume that the alchemists were influenced by the alle- 
gorical style of patristic literature. They even claimed some of the Fathers as 
representatives of the Royal Art, for instance Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, 
Alanus de Insulis. A text like the "Aurora consurgens" is full of allegorical inter- 
pretations of the scriptures. It has even been ascribed to Thomas Aquinas. Never- 
theless, water was in fact used as an allegory of the Holy Spirit: "Water is the 
living grace of the Holy Spirit" (Rupert, Abbot of Deutz, in Migne, PZ., vol. 169, 
col. 353). "Flowing water is the Holy Spirit" (Bruno, Bishop of Wiirzburg, in 
Migne, P.L., vol. 142, col. 293). "Water is the infusion of the Holy Spirit" (Gar- 
nerius of St. Victor, in Migne, PZ., vol. 193, col. 279). Water is also an allegory 
of Christ's humanity (Gaudentius, in Migne, PZ., vol. 20, col. 983). Very often 
water appears as dew (ros Gedeonis), and dew, likewise, is an allegory of Christ: 

10O 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



still performs the rite of the benedictio fontis on Holy Saturday 
before Easter. 70 The rite consists in a repetition of the descensus 
spiritus sancti in aquam. The ordinary water thereby acquires 
the divine quality of transforming and giving spiritual rebirth 
to man. This is exactly the alchemical idea of the divine water, 
and there would be no difficulty whatever in deriving the aqua 
permanens of alchemy from the rite of the benedictio fontis 
were it not that the former is of pagan origin and certainly the 
older of the two. We find the miraculous water mentioned in 
the first treatises of Greek alchemy, which belong to the first 
century. 71 Moreover the descent of the spirit into Physis is a 
Gnostic legend that greatly influenced Mani. And it was possibly 
through Manichean influences that it became one of the main 
ideas of Latin alchemy. The aim of the philosophers was to 
transform imperfect matter chemically into gold, the panacea, 
or the elixir vitae, but philosophically or mystically into the 

"Dew is seen in the fire" (Romanus, De theophania, in Pitra, Analecta sacra, I, p. 
21). "Now has Gideon's dew flowed on earth" (Romanus, De nativitate, ibid., p. 
237). The alchemists thought that their aqua permanens was endued with a virtue 
which they called "flos" (flower). It had the power of changing body into spirit 
and giving it an incorruptible quality (Turba phil, ed. Ruska, p. 197). The 
water was also called "acetum" (acid), "whereby God finished his work, whereby 
also bodies take on spirit and are made spiritual" (Turba, p. 126). Another name 
for it is "spiritus sanguis" (blood spirit, Turba, p. 129). The Turba is an early 
Latin treatise of the isth century, translated from an originally Arabic compila- 
tion dating back to the Qth and loth centuries. Its contents, however, stem from 
Hellenistic sources. The Christian allusion in "spiritualis sanguis" might be due 
to Byzantine influence. Aqua permanens is quicksilver, argentum -vivum (Hg). 
"Our living silver is our clearest water" (Rosarium phil, in Art. aurif., II, p. 
213). The aqua is also called fire (ibid., p. 218). The body, or substance, is trans- 
formed by water and fire, a complete parallel to the Christian idea of baptism 
and spiritual transformation. 

70 Missale Romanum. The rite is old and was known as the "lesser (or greater) 
blessing of salt and water" from about the 8th century. 

71 In "Isis the Prophetess to her Son Horus" (Berthelot, Alch. grecs, I, xiii), an 
angel brings Isis a small vessel filled with transparent water, the arcanum. This 
is an obvious parallel to the krater of Hermes (Corpus Hermeticum, I) and of 
Zosimos (Berthelot, III, li, 8), which was filled with nous. In the ^uo-tica Kal ^arma. 
of Pseudo-Democritus (Berthelot, II, i, 63), the divine water is said to effect a 
transformation by bringing the "hidden nature" to the surface. And in the 
treatise of Comarius we find the miraculous waters that produce a new springtime 
(Berthelot, Traductions, p. 281). 



101 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



divine hermaphrodite, the second Adam, 72 the glorified, incor- 
ruptible body of resurrection, 73 or the lumen luminum the 
illumination of the human mind, or sapientia. As I have shown, 
together with Richard Wilhelm, Chinese alchemy produced the 
same idea, that the goal of the opus magnum is the creation of 
the "diamond body." 75 

All these parallels are an attempt to put my psychological 
observations into their historical setting. Without the historical 
connection they would remain suspended in mid air, a mere 
curiosity, although one could find numerous other modern 
parallels to the dreams described here. For instance, there is the 
following dream of a young woman. The initial dream was 
mainly concerned with the memory of an actual experience, a 
baptizing ceremony in a Protestant sect that took place under 
particularly grotesque and even repulsive conditions. The asso- 
ciations were a precipitate of all the dreamer's disappointments 
with religion. But the dream that came immediately after 
showed her a picture which she did not understand and could 
not relate to the previous dream. One could have aided her 
understanding by the simple device of prefacing her second 
dream with the words "on the contrary." This was the dream: 
She was in a planetarium, a very impressive place overhung by 
the vault of the sky. In the sky two stars were shining; a white 
one, which was Mercury, but the other star emitted warm red 

72 Gnosius (in Hermetis Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus, cum Scholiis Dominici 
Gnosii, 1610, pp. 44 and 101) speaks of "Hermaphroditus noster Adamicus" when 
treating of the quaternity in the circle. The centre is the "mediator making peace 
between enemies," obviously a uniting symbol (cf. Psychological Types, 1923 edn., 
pp. 2346:. and Def. 51). [Also Aion, par. 304 (Swiss edn., pp. 2 8sff. EDITORS.] The 
hermaphrodite is born of the "self-impregnating dragon" (Art. aurif., I, p. 303), 
who is none other than Mercurius, the anima mundi. (Maier, Symbola, p. 43; 
Berthelot, I, 87.) The uroboros is an hermaphroditic symbol. The hermaphrodite 
is also called the Rebis ("made of two"), frequently depicted in the form of an 
apotheosis (for instance in the Rosarium, in Art. aurif., II, pp. 291 and 359; 
Reusner, Pandora, 1588, p, 253). 

73 The "Aurora consurgens" (Part I) says, quoting Senior: "There is one thing 
which never dies, for it lives by continual increase, when the body shall be 
glorified in the final resurrection of the dead. . . . Then shall the second Adam 
say to the first and to his children: Come ye blessed of my Father/' etc. 

74 Alphidius (i2th cent.?): "Of them is born the modern light (lux moderna), to 
which no light is like in all the world." (Rosarium, in Art. aurif., II, p. 248; 
"Tractatus aureus," Ars chem.) 

75 Jung and Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower. 

102 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



waves of light and was unknown to her. She now saw that the 
walls underneath the vault were covered with frescoes. But she 
could recognize only one of them: it was an antique picture of 
the tree-birth of Adonis. 

163 The "red waves of light" she took to be "warm feelings/' i.e., 
love, and she now thought the star must have been Venus. She 
had once seen a picture of the tree-birth in a museum and had 
fancied that Adonis, as the dying and resurgent god, must also 
be a god of rebirth. 

164 In the first dream, then, there was violent criticism of 
Church religion, followed in the second dream by the mandala 
vision of a world clock which is what a planetarium is in the 
fullest sense. In the sky the divine pair stands united, he white, 
she red, thus reversing the famous alchemical pair, where he is 
red and she is white, whence she was called Beya (Arabic al 
baida, 'the White One'), and he was called "servus rubeus," 
the 'red slave/ although, as Gabricius (Arabic kibrit> 'sulphur'), 
he is her royal brother. The divine pair makes one think of 
Guillaume de Digulleville's Christian allegory. The allusion to 
the tree-birth of Adonis corresponds to those dreams of my 
patient which had to do with mysterious rites of creation and 
renewal. 76 

165 So in principle these two dreams largely repeat the thought- 
processes of my patient, although having nothing in common 
with the latter except the spiritual malaise of our time. As I 
have already pointed out, the connection of spontaneous mod- 
ern symbolism with ancient theories and beliefs is not estab- 
lished by direct or indirect tradition, nor even by a secret 
tradition as has sometimes been surmised, though there are no 
tenable proofs of this. 77 The most careful inquiry has never 
revealed any possibility of my patients' being acquainted with 
the relevant literature or having any other information about 
such ideas. It seems that their unconscious worked along the 
same line of thought which has manifested itself time and again 
in the last two thousand years. Such a continuity can only exist 
if we assume a certain unconscious condition as an inherited 
a priori factor. By this I naturally do not mean the inheritance 
of ideas, which would be difficult if not impossible to prove. I 

76 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, Part II. 

77 Waite, The Secret Tradition in Alchemy. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



suppose, rather, the inherited quality to be something like the 
formal possibility of producing the same or similar ideas over 
and over again. I have called this possibility the "archetype.' 1 
Accordingly, the archetype would be a structural quality or con- 
dition peculiar to a psyche that is somehow connected with the 
brain. 78 

166 In the light of these historical parallels the mandala symbol- 
izes either the divine being hitherto hidden and dormant in the 
body and now extracted and revivified, or else the vessel or the 
room in which the transformation of man into a divine being 
takes place. I know such formulations are fatally reminiscent 
of the wildest metaphysical speculations. I am sorry if it sounds 
crazy, but this is exactly what the human psyche produces and 
always has produced. Any psychology which assumes it can do 
without these facts must exclude them artificially. I would call 
this a philosophical prejudice, inadmissible from the empirical 
point of view. I should perhaps emphasize that we do not estab- 
lish any metaphysical truth with these formulations. It is merely 
a statement that the psyche functions in such a way. And it is a 
fact that my patient felt a great deal better after the vision of 
the mandala. If you understand the problem it solved for him, 
you can also understand why he had such a feeling of "sublime 
harmony." 

16 7 I would not hesitate for a moment to suppress all specula- 
tions about the possible consequences of an experience as ab- 
struse and remote as the mandala, if this were feasible. But for 
me, unfortunately, this type of experience is neither abstruse nor 
remote. On the contrary, it is an almost daily occurrence in my 
profession. I know a fair number of people who have to take 
their experience seriously if they want to live at all. They can 
only choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. The devil 
is the mandala or something equivalent to it and the deep blue 
sea is their neurosis. The well-meaning rationalist will point 
out that I am casting out the devil with Beelzebub and replacing 
an honest neurosis by the swindle of a religious belief. As to the 
former charge, I have nothing to say in reply, being no metaphys- 
ical expert. But as to the latter one, I beg leave to point out that 
it is not a question of belief but of experience. Religious experi- 
ence is absolute; it cannot be disputed. You can only say that 

78 Cf. my "Psychological Factors Determining Human Behaviour." 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 



you have never had such an experience, whereupon your oppo- 
nent will reply: "Sorry, I have." And there your discussion will 
come to an end. No matter what the world thinks about re- 
ligious experience, the one who has it possesses a great treasure, 
a thing that has become for him a source o life, meaning, and 
beauty, and that has given a new splendour to the world and to 
mankind. He has pistis and peace. Where is the criterion by 
which you could say that such a life is not legitimate, that such 
an experience is not valid, and that such pistis is mere illusion? 
Is there, as a matter of fact, any better truth about the ultimate 
things than the one that helps you to live? That is the reason 
why I take careful account religiol of the symbols produced 
by the unconscious. They are the one thing that is capable of 
convincing the critical mind of modern man. And they are con- 
vincing for a very old-fashioned reason: They are overwhelming, 
which is precisely what the Latin word conmncere means. The 
thing that cures a neurosis must be as convincing as the neurosis, 
and since the latter is only too real, the helpful experience must 
be equally real. It must be a very real illusion, if you want to 
put it pessimistically. But what is the difference between a real 
illusion and a healing religious experience? It is merely a differ- 
ence of words. You can say, for instance, that life is a disease 
with a very bad prognosis: it lingers on for years, only to end 
with death; or that normality is a general constitutional defect; 
or that man is an animal with a fatally overgrown brain. This 
kind of thinking is the prerogative of habitual grumblers with 
bad digestions. No one can know what the ultimate things are. 
We must therefore take them as we experience them. And if 
such experience helps to make life healthier, more beautiful, 
more complete and more satisfactory to yourself and to those 
you love, you may safely say: "This was the grace of God." 

No transcendental truth is thereby demonstrated, and we 
must confess in all humility that religious experience is extra 
ecclesiam, subjective, and liable to boundless error. Yet, if the 
spiritual adventure of our time is the exposure of human con- 
sciousness to the undefined and indefinable, there would seem 
to be good reasons for thinking that even the Boundless is per- 
vaded by psychic laws, which no man invented, but of which 
he has "gnosis" in the symbolism of Christian dogma. Only heed- 
less fools will wish to destroy this; the lover of the soul, never. 

105 



II 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE 
DOGMA OF THE TRINITY 



Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi; 

in interiore homine habitat veritas. 

(Go not outside, return into thyself: 
Truth dwells in the inward man.) 

St. Augustine, 
Liber de vera religione, xxix (72) 



INTRODUCTION 



The present study grew up out of a lecture I gave at the 
Eranos meeting in 1940, under the title "On the Psychology of 
the Idea of the Trinity." The lecture, though subsequently 
published, 1 was no more than a sketch, and it was clear to me 
from the beginning that it needed improving. Hence I felt 
under a kind of moral obligation to return to this theme in 
order to treat it in a manner befitting its dignity and importance. 

From the reactions the lecture provoked, it was plain that 
some of my readers found a psychological discussion of Chris- 
tian symbols objectionable even when it carefully avoided any 
infringement of their religious value. Presumably my critics 
would have found less to object to had the same psychological 
treatment been accorded to Buddhist symbols, whose sacredness 
is just as indubitable. Yet, what is sauce for the goose is sauce 
for the gander. I have to ask myself also, in all seriousness, 
whether it might not be far more dangerous if Christian symbols 
were made inaccessible to thoughtful understanding by being 
banished to a sphere of sacrosanct unintelligibility. They can 
easily become so remote from us that their irrationality turns 

i"Zur Psychologic der Trinitatsidee," Eranos-Jahrbuch 1940-41 (Zurich, 1942). 
[Later revised and expanded as "Versuch zu einer psychologischen Deutung des 
Trinitatsdogmas," Symbolik des Geistes (Zurich, 1948), pp. 321-446, from which 
version the present translation is made. EDITORS.] 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



into preposterous nonsense. Faith is a charisma not granted to 
all; instead, man has the gift of thought, which can strive after 
the highest things. The timid defensiveness certain moderns 
display when it comes to thinking about symbols was certainly 
not shared by St. Paul or by many of the venerable Church 
Fathers. 2 This timidity and anxiety about Christian symbols is 
not a good sign. If these symbols stand for a higher truth which, 
presumably, my critics do not doubt then science can only 
make a fool of itself if it proceeds incautiously in its efforts to 
understand them. Besides, it has never been my intention to 
invalidate the meaning of symbols; I concern myself with them 
precisely because I am convinced of their psychological validity. 
People who merely believe and don't think always forget that 
they continually expose themselves to their own worst enemy: 
doubt. Wherever belief reigns, doubt lurks in the background. 
But thinking people welcome doubt: it serves them as a valuable 
stepping-stone to better knowledge. People who can believe 
should be a little more tolerant with those of their fellows who 
are only capable of thinking. Belief has already conquered the 
summit which thinking tries to win by toilsome climbing. The 
believer ought not to project his habitual enemy, doubt, upon 
the thinker, thereby suspecting him of destructive designs. If 
the ancients had not done a bit of thinking we would not possess 
any dogma about the Trinity at all. The fact that a dogma is 
on the one hand believed and on the other hand is an object of 
thought is proof of its vitality. Therefore let the believer rejoice 
that others, too, seek to climb the mountain on whose peak 
he sits. 

My attempt to make the most sacred of all dogmatic symbols, 
the Trinity, an object of psychological study is an undertaking 
of whose audacity I am very well aware. Not having any theolog- 
ical knowledge worth mentioning, I must rely in this respect 
on the texts available to every layman. But since I have no in- 
tention of involving myself in the metaphysics of the Trinity, 

1 am free to accept the Church's own formulation of the dogma, 
without having to enter into all the complicated metaphysical 
speculations that have gathered round it in the course of history. 
For the purposes of psychological discussion the elaborate ver- 

2 Of the older ones I refer chiefly to Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 216), Origen 
(d. 253), and Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite (d. end of 5th cent,). 

11O 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

sion contained in the Athanasian Creed would be sufficient, as 
this shows very clearly what Church doctrine understands by the 
Trinity. Nevertheless, a certain amount o historical explana- 
tion has proved unavoidable for the sake of psychological under- 
standing. My chief object, however, is to give a detailed exposi- 
tion of those psychological views which seem to me necessary if 
we are to understand the dogma as a symbol in the psychological 
sense. Yet my purpose would be radically misunderstood if it 
were conceived as an attempt to "psychologize' * the dogma. 
Symbols that have an archetypal foundation can never be re- 
duced to anything else, as must be obvious to anybody who 
possesses the slightest knowledge of my writings. To many 
people it may seem strange that a doctor with a scientific train- 
ing should interest himself in the Trinity at all. But anyone 
who has experienced how closely and meaningfully these 
representations collectives are bound up with the weal and woe 
of the human soul will readily understand that the central sym- 
bol of Christianity must have, above all else, a psychological 
meaning, for without this it could never have acquired any uni- 
versal meaning whatever, but would have been relegated long 
ago to the dusty cabinet of spiritual monstrosities and shared the 
fate of the many-armed and many-headed gods of India and 
Greece. But since the dogma stands in a relationship of living 
reciprocity to the psyche, whence it originated in the first place, 
it expresses many of the things I am endeavouring to say over 
again, even though with the uncomfortable feeling that there 
is much in my exposition that still needs improvement. 



111 



i. PRE-CHRISTIAN PARALLELS 



I. BABYLONIA 

172 In proposing to approach this central symbol of Christianity, 
the Trinity, from the psychological point of view, I realize that 
I am trespassing on territory that must seem very far removed 
from psychology. But everything to do with religion, everything 
it says, impinges so closely on the human soul that psychology 
cannot, in my opinion, afford to overlook it, A conception like 
the Trinity pertains so much to the realm of theology that the 
only one of the profane sciences to pay any attention to it nowa- 
days is history. Indeed, most people have ceased even to think 
about dogma, especially about a concept as hard to visualize 
as the Trinity. Even among professing Christians there are very 
few who think seriously about the Trinity as a matter of dogma 
and would consider it a possible subject for reflection not to 
mention the educated public. A recent exception is Georg 
Koepgen's very important book, Die Gnosis des Chris tent urns, 1 - 
which, unfortunately, soon found its way onto the Index despite 
the episcopal "Placet." For all those who are seriously concerned 
to understand dogmatic ideas, this book of Koepgen's is a per- 
fect example of thinking which has fallen under the spell of 
trinitarian symbolism. 

1 Salzburg, 1939. 

112! 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

173 Triads of gods appear very early, at a primitive level. The 
archaic triads in the religions of antiquity and of the East are 
too numerous to be mentioned here. Arrangement in triads is 
an archetype in the history of religion, which in all probability 
formed the basis of the Christian Trinity. Often these triads do 
not consist of three different deities independent of one another; 
instead, there is a distinct tendency for certain family relation- 
ships to arise within the triads. I would mention as an example 
the Babylonian triads, of which the most important is Anu, 
Bel, and Ea. Ea, personifying knowledge, is the father of Bel 
("Lord"), who personifies practical activity. 2 A secondary, rather 
later triad is the one made up of Sin (moon), Shainash (sun), 
and Adad (storm). Here Adad is the son of the supreme god, 
Anu. 3 Under Nebuchadnezzar, Adad was the "Lord of heaven 
and earth." This suggestion of a father-son relationship comes 
out more clearly at the time of Hammurabi: Marduk, the son 
of Ea, was entrusted with Bel's power and thrust him into the 
background. 4 Ea was a "loving, proud father, who willingly 
transferred his power and rights to his son." 5 Marduk was 
originally a sun-god, with the cognomen "Lord" (Bel); 6 he was 
the mediator between his father Ea and mankind. Ea declared 
that he knew nothing that his son did not know. 7 Marduk, as 
his fight with Tiamat shows, is a redeemer. He is "the com- 
passionate one, who loves to awaken the dead"; the "Great- 
eared," who hears the pleadings of men. He is a helper and 
healer, a true saviour. This teaching about a redeemer flour- 
ished on Babylonian soil all through the Christian era and goes 
on living today in the religion of the Mandaeans (who still exist 
in Mesopotamia), especially in their redeemer figure Manda d' 
Hayya or Hibil Ziwa. 8 Among the Mandaeans he appears also as 
a light-bringer and at the same time as a world-creator. 9 Just 
as, in the Babylonian epic, Marduk fashions the universe out of 
Tiamat, so Mani, the Original Man, makes heaven and earth 
from the skin, bones, and excrement of the children of dark- 
ness. 10 "The all-round influence which the myth of Marduk 

2 Jastroxv, Die Religion Bdbyloniens und Assyriens, I, p. 61. 

3 Ibid., pp. 102, 143! 4P.112. SP.lgO. 6P.M2. 

7 p. 130. Cf. John 16: 15. 

3 Jereniias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, I, p. 137. 

9 Cf. John 1:3. 10 Kessler, Mani, pp. 26>jfi. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION .' WEST 



had on the religious ideas of the Israelites is surprising/' n 
*74 It appears that Hammurabi worshipped only a dyad, Anu 
and Bel; but, as a divine ruler himself, he associated himself 
with them as the "proclaimer of Anu and Bel," 12 and this at a 
time when the worship of Marduk was nearing its height. Ham- 
murabi felt himself the god of a new aeon 13 the aeon of Aries, 
which was then beginning and the suspicion is probably justi- 
fied that tacit recognition was given to the triad Anu-Bel- 
Hammurabi. 14 

*75 The fact that there is a secondary triad, Sin-Shamash-Ishtar, 
is indicative of another intra-triadic relationship. Ishtar 15 ap- 
pears here in the place of Adad, the storm god. She is the mother 
of the gods, and at the same time the daughter 16 of Anu as well 
as of Sin. 

176 Invocation of the ancient triads soon takes on a purely 
formal character. The triads prove to be ''more a theological 
tenet than a living force." 17 They represent, in fact, the earliest 
beginnings of theology. Anu is the Lord of heaven, Bel is the 
Lord of the lower realm, earth, and Ea too is the god of an 
"underworld," but in his case it is the watery deep. 18 The knowl- 
edge that Ea personifies comes from the "depths of the waters." 
According to* one Babylonian legend, Ea created Uddushu- 
namir, a creature of light, who was the messenger of the gods 
on Ish tar's journey to hell. The name means: "His light (or 
rising) shines." 19 Jeremias connects him with Gilgamesh, the 
hero who was more than half a god. 20 The messenger of the gods 
was usually called Girru (Sumerian "Gibil"), the god of fire. 
As such he has an ethical aspect, for with his purifying fire he 
destroys evil. He too is a son of Ea, but on the other hand he is 
also described as a son of Anu. In this connection it is worth 
mentioning that Marduk as well has a dual nature, since in one 

11 Roscher, Lexikon, II, 2, cols. 237 if., s.v. "Marduk." 

12 Jastrow, p 139. Cf. John 1:18. 13 Cf. the Christian fish-symbol. 

14 "Anu and Bel called me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, the worshipper of 
the Gods, to go forth like the sun ... to enlighten the land." Harper, The Code 
of Hammurabi^ p. 3. 

15 Cf. the invocation of the Holy Ghost as "Mother" in the Acts of Thomas 
(James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 376). Also the feminine nature of 
Sophia, who frequently represents the Holy Ghost. 

16 Cf. Mary as creature and as 0or6Kos. 

17 Jastrow, p. 141. 18 p. 61. 19 P. 133. 20 Jeremias, I, pp. 247**. 

114 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

hymn he is called Mar Mummi, 'son of chaos/ In the same hymn 
his consort Sarpanitu is invoked along with Ea's wife, the 
mother of Marduk, as the "Silver-shining One." This is probably 
a reference to Venus, the femina alba. In alchemy the albedo 
changes into the moon, which, in Babylonia, was still mascu- 
line. 21 Marduk's companions were four dogs. 22 Here the number 
four may signify totality, just as it does in the case of the four 
sons of Horus, the four seraphim in the vision of Ezekiel, and 
the four symbols of the evangelists, consisting of three animals 
and one angel. 



n. EGYPT 

17? The ideas which are present only as intimations in Babylo- 
nian tradition are developed to full clarity in Egypt. I shall pass 
lightly over this subject here, as I have dealt with the Egyptian 
prefigurations of the Trinity at greater length elsewhere, in an 
as yet unfinished study of the symbolical bases of alchemy. 1 I 
shall only emphasize that Egyptian theology asserts, first and 
foremost, the essential unity (homoousia) of God as father and 
son, both represented by the king. 2 The third person appears in 
the form of Ka-mutef ("the bull of his mother"), who is none 
other than the ka, the procreative power of the deity. In it and 
through it father and son are combined not in a triad but in a 
triunity. To the extent that Ka-mutef is a special manifestation 
of the divine ka> we can "actually speak of a triunity of God, 
king, and ka y in the sense that God is the father, the king is the 
son, and ka the connecting-link between them." 3 In his con- 
cluding chapter Jacobsohn draws a parallel between this Egyp- 
tian idea and the Christian credo. Apropos the passage "qui 
conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria virgine," he 

21 Cf. Mary's connections with the moon in Rahner, Griechische Mythen in 
christlicher Deutung, pp. sooff., and "Mysterium Lunae," p. 80. 

22 A possible reference to the realm of the dead on the one hand and to Nimrod 
the mighty hunter on the other. See Roscher, Lexikon, II, cols. 2371!, s.v. 
"Marduk." 

1 [Mysterium Coniunctionis: now complete in the Swiss edn., 1955-57. -EDITORS.] 

2 Jacobsohn, "Die dogmatische Stellung des Konigs in der Theologie der alten 
Aegypter," p. 17. 

3 Ibid., p. 58. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION t WEST 



cites Karl Earth's formulation: "There is indeed a unity of God 
and man; God himself creates it. ... It is no other unity than 
his own eternal unity as father and son. This unity is the Holy 
Ghost." 4 As procreator the Holy Ghost would correspond to 
Ka-mutef, who connotes and guarantees the unity of father and 
son. In this connection Jacobsohn cites Earth's comment on 
Luke i : 35 ("The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God"): "When the Bible speaks of the Holy Ghost, it is 
speaking of God as the combination of father and son, of the 
vinculum caritatis." 5 The divine procreation of Pharaoh takes 
place through Ka-mutef, in the human mother of the king. But, 
like Mary, she remains outside the Trinity. As Preisigke points 
out, the early Christian Egyptians simply transferred their tra- 
ditional ideas about the ka to the Holy Ghost. 6 This explains the 
curious fact that in the Coptic version of Pistis Sophia, dating 
from the third century, Jesus has the Holy Ghost as his double, 
just like a proper ka. 7 The Egyptian mythologem of the unity of 
substance of father and son, and of procreation in the king's 
mother, lasted until the Vth dynasty (about 2500 B.C.), Speak- 
ing of the birth of the divine boy in whom Horus manifests 
himself, God the Father says: "He will exercise a kingship of 
grace in this land, for my soul is in him," and to the child he 
says: "You are the son of my body, begotten by me." 8 "The 
sun he bears within him from his father's seed rises anew in 
him." His eyes are the sun and moon, the eyes of Horus. 9 We 
know that the passage in Luke 1:78!: "Through the tender 
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath 
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the 
shadow of death," refers to Malachi 4:2: "But unto you that 
fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing 
in his wings." Who does not think here of the winged sun-disc 
of Egypt? 

4 P. 64. arth, Credo, p. 70. 5 Barth, Bihehtunden tiber Luk I, p. 36. 

6 Preisigke, Die Gotteskraft der friihchristlichen Zeit;also Vom gottlichen Flutdum 
nach dgypttscher Anschauung. 

7 Pistis Sophia (trans, by Mead), p. n. 

s Cf. Hebrews 1:5: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten trjee." 
9 A. Moret, "Bu caractere religieux de la royaute pharaonique." 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

178 These ideas 10 passed over into Hellenistic syncretism and 
were transmitted to Christianity through Philo and Plutarch. 11 
So it is not true, as is sometimes assetted even by modern theo- 
logians, that Egypt had little if any influence on the formation 
of Christian ideas. Quite the contrary. It is, indeed, highly im- 
probable that only Babylonian ideas should have penetrated 
into Palestine, considering that this small buffer state had long 
been under Egyptian hegemony and had, moreover, the closest 
cultural ties with its powerful neighbour, especially after a flour- 
ishing Jewish colony established itself in Alexandria, several 
centuries before the birth of Christ. It is difficult to understand 
what could have induced Protestant theologians, whenever pos- 
sible, to make it appear that the world of Christian ideas 
dropped straight out of heaven. The Catholic Church is liberal 
enough to look upon the Osiris-Horus-Isis myth, or at any rate 
suitable portions of it, as a prefiguration of the Christian legend 
of salvation. The numinous power of a mythologem and its 
value as truth are considerably enhanced if its archetypal char- 
acter can be proved. The archetype is "that which is believed 
always, everywhere, and by everybody," and if it is not recog- 
nized consciously, then it appears from behind in its "wrathful" 
form, as the dark "son of chaos," the evil-doer, as Antichrist 
instead of Saviour a fact which is all too clearly demonstrated 
by contemporary history. 



III. GREECE 

179 In enumerating the pre-Christian sources of the Trinity con- 
cept, we should not omit the mathematical speculations of the 
Greek philosophers. As we know, the philosophizing temper of 
the Greek mind is discernible even in St, John's gospel, a work 
that is, very obviously, of Gnostic inspiration. Later, at the time 
of the Greek Fathers, this spirit begins to amplify the archetypal 
content of the Revelation, interpreting it in Gnostic terms. 
Pythagoras and his school probably had the most to do with the 
moulding of Greek thought, and as one aspect of the Trinity is 
based on number symbolism, it would be worth our while to 

10 Further material concerning pagan sources in Nielsen, Der dreieinige Gott, I. 

11 Cf. Norden, Die Geburt des Kindts, pp. 77ff. 

117 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



examine the Pythagorean system of numbers and see what it has 
to say about the three basic numbers with which we are con- 
cerned here. Zeller * says: "One is the first from which all other 
numbers arise, and in which the opposite qualities of numbers, 
the odd and the even, must therefore be united; two is the first 
even number; three the first that is uneven and perfect, because 
in it we first find beginning, middle, and end." 2 The views 
of the Pythagoreans influenced Plato, as is evident from his 
Timaeus; and, as this had an incalculable influence on the philo- 
sophical speculations of posterity, we shall have to go rather 
deeply into the psychology of number speculation. 
180 The number one claims an exceptional position, which we 
meet again in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages. Ac- 
cording to this, one is not a number at all; the first number is 
two. 3 Two is the first number because, with it, separation and 
multiplication begin, which alone make counting possible. With 
the appearance of the number two, another appears alongside 
the one, a happening which is so striking that in many languages 
"the other" and "the second" are expressed by the same word. 
Also associated with the number two is the idea of right and 
left, 4 and remarkably enough, of favourable and unfavourable, 
good and bad. The "other" can have a "sinister" significance 
or one feels it, at least, as something opposite and alien. There- 
fore, argues a medieval alchemist, God did not praise the second 
day of creation, because on this day (Monday, the day of the 
moon) the binarius, alias the devil, 5 came into existence. Two 
implies a one which is different and distinct from the "number- 
less" One. In other words, as soon as the number two appears, 
a unit is produced out of the original unity, and this unit is none 
other than that same unity split into two and turned into a 
"number." The "One" and the "Other" form an opposition, but 
there is no opposition between one and two, for these are simple 
numbers which are distinguished only by their arithmetical 

1 A History of Greek Philosophy, I, p. 429. 

2 Authority for the latter remark in Aristotle, De coelo, I, i, s68a. 

3 The source for this appears to be Macrobius, Commentarius in Somnium 
Scipionis, I, 6, 8. 

4 Cf. "the movement of the Different to the left" in the Timaeus g6C (trans, by 
Cornford, p. 73). 

5 Cf. the etymological relations between G. zwei, 'two/ and Zweifler, 'doubter/ [In 
Eng., cf. duplicity, double-dealer, double-cross, two-faced.TRANS.] 

118 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

value and by nothing else. The "One," however, seeks to hold 
to its one-and-alone existence, while the "Other" ever strives to 
be another opposed to the One. The One will not let go o the 
Other because, if it did, it would lose its character; and the 
Other pushes itself away from the One in order to exist at all. 
Thus there arises a tension of opposites between the One and 
the Other. But every tension of opposites culminates in a re- 
lease, out of which comes the "third." In the third, the tension 
is resolved and the lost unity is restored. Unity, the absolute 
One, cannot be numbered, it is indefinable and unknowable; 
only when it appears as a unit, the number one, is it knowable, 
for the "Other" which is required for this act'of knowing is lack- 
ing in the condition of the One. Three is an unfolding of the 
One to a condition where it can be known unity become recog- 
nizable; had it not been resolved into the polarity of the One 
and the Other, it would have remained fixed in a condition de- 
void of every quality. Three therefore appears as a suitable 
synonym for a process of development in time, and thus forms, 
a parallel to the self-revelation of the Deity as the absolute One 
unfolded into Three. The relation of Threeness to Oneness can 
be expressed by an equilateral triangle, 6 A = B =: C, that is, by 
the identity of the three, threeness being contained in its en- 
tirety in each of the three angles. This intellectual idea of the 
equilateral triangle is a conceptual model for the logical image 
of the Trinity. 

In addition to the Pythagorean interpretation of numbers, 
we have to consider, as a more direct source of trinitarian ideas 
in Greek philosophy, the mystery-laden Timaeus of Plato. I 
shall quote, first of all, the classical argument in sections 



Hence the god, when he began to put together the body of the uni- 
verse, set about making it of fire and earth. But two things alone 
cannot be satisfactorily united without a third; for there must be 
some bond between them drawing them together. And of all bonds 
the best is that which makes itself and the terms it connects a unity 
in the fullest sense; and it is of the nature of a continued geometrical 
proportion to effect this most perfectly. For whenever, of three num- 
bers, the middle one between any two that are either solids or planes 

6Harnack (Dogmengeschichte, II, p. 303) compares the scholastic conception of 
the Trinity to an equilateral triangle. 

"9 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



[i.e., cubes or squares] is such that, as the first is to it, so is it to the 
last, and conversely as the last is to the middle, so is the middle to 
the first, then since the middle becomes first and last, and again the 
last and first become middle, in that way all will necessarily come 
to play the same part towards one another, and by so doing they 
will all make a unity. 7 

In a geometrical progression, the quotient (q) of a series of 
terms remains the same, e.g.: 2: i === 4 : 2 =; 8:4 = 2, or, alge- 
braically expressed: a, aq, aq 2 . The proportion is therefore as 
follows: 2 is to 4 as 4 is to 8, or a is to aq as aq is to aq 2 . 
182 This argument is now followed by a reflection which has far- 
reaching psychological implications: if a simple pair of opposites, 
say fire and earth, are bound together by a mean (AJ&JW), and if 
this bond is a geometrical proportion, then one mean can only 
connect plane figures, since two means are required to connect 
solids: 

Now if it had been required that the body of the universe should be 
a plane surface with no depth, a single mean would have been 
enough to connect its companions and itself; but in fact the world 
was to be solid in form, and solids are always conjoined, not by one 
mean, but by two. 8 

Accordingly, the two-dimensional connection is not yet a physi- 
cal reality, for a plane without extension in the third dimension 
is only an abstract thought. If it is to become a physical reality, 
three dimensions and therefore two means are required. Sir 
Thomas Heath 9 puts the problem in the following algebraic 
formulae: 

Union in two dimensions of earth (p 2 ) and fire (q 2 ): 

P 2 >.pq=pq:q 2 
Obviously the mean is pq. 

Physical union pf earth and fire, represented by p B and q* 
respectively: 

P*:p*q^p 2 q:pf-pq 2 ;q* 

The two means are p 2 q and pq*, corresponding to the physical 
elements water and air. 

T Trans, by Cornford, p. 44. * Ibid., p. 44. 

9 A History of Greek Mathematics, I, p. 89; Cornford, p. 47. 

120 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Accordingly, the god set water and air between fire and earth, and 
rfiade them, so far as was possible, proportional to one another, so 
that as fire is to air, so is air to Water, afid as ait is to water, so is 
water to earth, and thus he bound together the frame of a world 
visible and tangible. For these reasons and from such constituents, 
four in number, the body of the universe was brought into being, 
coming into concord by means of proportion, and from these it ac- 
quired Amity, so that united with itself it became indissoluble by 
any other power save him who bound it together. 10 

183 The union of one pair of opposites only produces a two- 
dimensional triad: p 2 + pq + q 2 . This, being a plane figure, is 
not a reality but a thought. Hence two pairs of opposites, mak- 
ing a quaternio (p* + p*q + pq 2 + <J 3 ), are needed to represent 
physical reality. Here we meet, at any rate in veiled form, the 
dilemma of three and four alluded to in the opening words of 
the Timaeus. Goethe intuitively grasped the significance of this 
allusion when he says of the fourth Cabir in Faust: "He was the 
right one / Who thought for them all," and that "You might ask 
on Olympus" about the eighth "whom nobody thought of." n 

184 It is interesting to note that Plato begins by representing the 
union of opposites two-dimensionally, as an intellectual prob- 
lem to be solved by thinking, but then comes to see that its solu- 
tion does not add up to reality. In the former case we have to do 
with a self-subsistent triad, and in the latter with a quaternity. 
This was the dilemma that perplexed the alchemists for more 
than a thousand years, and, as the "axiom of Maria Prophetissa" 
(the Jewess or Copt), it appears in modern dreams, 12 and is also 
found in psychology as the opposition between the functions of 
consciousness, three of which are fairly well differentiated, while 
the fourth, undifferentiated, "inferior" function is undomesti- 
cated, unadapted, uncontrolled, and primitive. Because of its 
contamination with the collective unconscious, it possesses 
archaic and mystical qualities, and is the complete opposite of 
the most differentiated function. For instance, if the most differ- 
entiated is thinking, or the intellect, then the inferior, 13 fourth 

10 Cornford, pp. 44-45, slightly modified. 

11 For a detailed account see Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 1508:. 

12 As the dream in Psychology and Alchemy, pp. 147!, shows. 

13 Judging, of course, from the Standpoint of thfe most differentiated function. 

121 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



function will be feeling. 14 Hence the opening words of the 
Timaeus "One, two, three but where, my dear Timaeus, is 
the fourth . . . ?"- all familiarly upon the ears of the psycholo- 
gist and alchemist, and for him as for Goethe there can be no 
doubt that Plato is alluding to something of mysterious import. 
We can now see that it was nothing less than the dilemma as to 
whether something we think about is a mere thought or a real- 
ity, or at least capable of becoming real. And this, for any phi- 
losopher who is not just an empty babbler, is a problem of the 
first order and no whit less important than the moral problems 
inseparably connected with it. In this matter Plato knew from 
personal experience how difficult is the step from two-dimen- 
sional thinking to its realization in three-dimensional fact. 15 
Already with his friend Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, 
he had so many disagreements that the philosopher-politician 
contrived to sell him as a slave, from which fate he was preserved 
only because he had the good fortune to be ransomed by friends. 
His attempts to realize his political theories under Dionysius the 
Younger also ended in failure, and from then on Plato aban- 
doned politics for good. Metaphysics seemed to him to offer 
more prospects than this ungovernable world. So, for him per- 
sonally, the main emphasis lay on the two-dimensional world of 
thought; and this is especially true of the Timaeus, which was 
written after his political disappointments. It is generally reck- 
oned as belonging to Plato's late works. 

185 In these circumstances the opening words, not being attrib- 
utable either to the jocosity of the author or to pure chance, 
take on a rather mournful significance: one of the four is absent 
because he is "unwell." If we regard the introductory scene as 
symbolical, this means that of the four elements out of which 
reality is composed, either air or water is missing. If air is miss- 
ing, then there is no connecting link with spirit (fire), and if 
water is missing, there is no link with concrete reality (earth). 
Plato certainly did not lack spirit; the missing element he so 
much desired was the concrete realization of ideas. He had to 

14 cf. Psychological Types, Def. 30. 

15 "The world is narrow and the brain is wide; 

Thoughts in the head dwell lightly side by side, 
Yet things in space run counter and fall foul." 

Schiller, Wallensteins Tod, II, 2. 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

content himself with the harmony o airy thought-structures 
that lacked weight, and with a paper surface that lacked depth. 
The step from three to four brought him sharply up against 
something unexpected and alien to his thought, something 
heavy, inert, and limited, which no *>?) 6V' 16 and no "privatio 
boni" can conjure away or diminish. Even God's fairest creation 
is corrupted by it, and idleness, stupidity, malice, discontent, 
sickness, old age and death fill the glorious body of the "blessed 
god/' Truly a grievous spectacle, this sick world-soul, and unfor- 
tunately not at all as Plato's inner eye envisaged it when he 
wrote: 

All this, then, was the plan of the everlasting god for the god who was 
going to be. According to this plan he made the body of the world 
smooth and uniform, everywhere equidistant from its centre, a body 
whole and complete, with complete bodies for its parts. And in the 
centre he set the soul and caused it to extend throughout the whole 
body, and he further wrapped the body round with soul on the out- 
side. So he established one world alone, round and revolving in a 
circle, solitary but able by reason of its excellence to bear itself com- 
pany, needing no other acquaintance or friend but sufficient unto 
itself. On all these accounts the world which he brought into being 
was a blessed god. 17 

186 This world, created by a god, is itself a god, a son of the self- 
manifesting father. Further, the demiurge furnished it with a 
soul which is "prior" to the body (346). The world-soul was 
fashioned by the demiurge as follows: he made a mixture of the 
indivisible (d^pes) and the divisible (ptpiffrbv), thus producing a 
third form of existence. This third form had a nature independ- 
ent of the "Same" (TO avrov) and the "Different" (TO trepov). At 
first sight the "Same" seems to coincide with the indivisible 
and the "Different" with the divisible. 18 The text says: 19 From 

16 "Not being." * 7 Cornford, p. 58, slightly modified. 

iSTheodor Gomperz (Greek Thinkers, III, p. 215) mentions two primary sub- 
stances which are designated as follows in Plato's Philebus: limit, unlimited; the 
same, the other; the divisible, the indivisible. He adds that Plato's pupils would 
have spoken of "unity" and of "the great and the small" or of "duality." From 
this it is clear that Gomperz regards the "Same" and the "indivisible" as synon- 
ymous, thus overlooking the resistance of the "Other," and the fundamentally 
fourfold nature of the world soul. (See below.) 

19 [The version here given is translated from the German text of Otto Apelt 
(Plato: Timaios und Kritias, p. 52) cited by the author. TRANS.] 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



the indivisible and ever the same substance [Cornford's "Same- 
ness"], and that which is physically divisible, he mixed an inter- 
mediate, third form of existence which had its own being beside 
the Same and the Different, and this form he fashioned accord- 
ingly [/card raurd] as a mean between the indivisible and the 
physically divisible (35 A). Then he took all three existences 
and mixed them again, "forcing the nature of the Different, 
though it resisted the mixture, into union with the Same." 
Thus, "with the admixture of being (ofola), the three became 



one. 51 



187 The world-soul, representing the governing principle bf the 
whole physical world, therefore possesses a triune nature. And 
since, for Plato, the world is a <$e&repos 8e&s (second god), the 
world-soul is a revelation or unfolding of the God-image. 21 

188 Plato's account of the actual process of creation is very curi- 
ous and calls for some elucidation. The first thing that strikes 
us is the twice-repeated (rwKp<l(raro ('he mixed'). Why should the 
mixture be repeated, since it consists of three elements in the 
first place and contains no more than three at the end, and, in 
the second place, Same and Different appear to correspond with 
indivisible and divisible? Appearances, however, are deceptive. 
During the first mixture there is nothing to suggest that the 
divisible was recalcitrant and had to be forcibly united with 
the indivisible, as was the case with their supposed analogues. 
In both mixtures it is rather a question of combining two sepa- 



20 TTJS apeplcrrov Kal ael /caret rubra kxofxn]S abfflas Kal TTJS av irepi ra crcojuara 
jcicptcrrfjs, rpirop <= a^olv kv ju<rcp <rvveKpacraro oixrLas eldos' TTJS re raflrou Screws aD 
irkpi Kdl TTJS rov erepov, Kal Kara ravra avvkcrryGev ev pecrc*) rov re ayepovs abr&v Kal rov 
Kara ra <r&jj,ara juepttrrou' /cat rpta Xa/3cw abra bvra avveKepacraro els uLav iravra idkav, 
rrjv darepov <i>v<Ti,v dvcrjjLetKrov ovvav els ravr6v <rvvapfj.6rr(av fiia, peiyvvs Se /zero, rijs 
o^crlas. 

Cornford (pp. 59-60) translates as follows: "Between the indivisible Existence 
that is ever in the same state and the divisible Existence that becomes in bodies, 
he compounded a third form of Existence composed of both. Again, in the case 
of Sameness and in that of Difference, he also on the same principle made a 
compound intermediate between that kind of them which is indivisible and the 
kind that is divisible in bodies. Then, taking the three, he blended them all into 
a unity, forcing the nature of Difference, hard as it was to mingle, into union 
with Sameness, and mixing them together with Existence." 
21 Cf. Timaeus 37 C, where the first God is described as the "father" and his 
creation as the copy of an original "pattern," which is himself (Cornford> p. 97). 

124 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

rate pairs of opposites, 22 which, because they are called upon to 
make a unity, may be thought o as arranged in a quaternio: 



Same 



Indivisible 



Divisible 



Different 

Indivisible and divisible, together with their mean, form a 
simple triad which has "its own being" beside the Same and the 
Different. This triad corresponds to the condition of "thought" 
not yet become "reality." For this a second mixture is needed, 
in which the Different (i.e., the "Other") is incorporated by 
force. The "Other" is therefore the "fourth" element, whose 
nature it is to be the "adversary" and to resist harmony. But the 
fourth, as the text says, is intimately connected with Plato's de- 
sire for "being." One thinks, not unnaturally, of the impatience 
the philosopher must have felt when reality proved so intracta- 
ble to his ideas. That reasonableness might, under certain cir- 
cumstances, have to be imposed by force is a notion that must 
sometimes have crossed his mind. 

i The passage as a whole, however, is far from simple. It can 
be translated in many ways and interpreted in many more. The 
critical point for us is vwk<rrti<r& kv itrq TOV re a^iepovs, literally, he 
compounded (a form of the nature of sameness and difference) 
in the middle (kv ^) of the indivisible (and the divisible)/ 
Consequently the middle term of the second pair of opposites 
would coincide with the middle term of the first pair. The re- 
sultant figure is a quincunx, since the two pairs of opposites have 
a common mean or "third form" (rplrov eI5os): 

22 This seems borne out by the fact that the first pair of opposites is correlated 
with oMa, (being), and the second with & ffa (nature). If one had to choose be- 
tween dWa and *fcw, the latter would probably be considered the more concrete 
of the two. 

125 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



Indivisib le Divisib le 




Different Same 

I have placed the pairs of opposites side by side, instead of 
facing one another (as in the previous diagram), in order to illus- 
trate their union in a single mean. Three elements are to be 
distinguished in our diagram: the two pairs of opposites and 
their common mean, and I understand the text as referring to 
these three elements when it says: "Then, taking these three 
existences . . ." Since the mean is called the "third form," each 
pair of opposites can presumably be taken as representing the 
first and second forms: Indivisible = first form, Divisible = 
second form, mean = third form, and so on. Their union in a 
quincunx signifies union of the four elements in a world-body. 
Thomas Taylor, who was strongly influenced by Proclus, says 
in his commentary to the Timaeus: "For those which are con- 
nected with her essence in a following order, proceed from her 
[the anima mundi] according to the power of the fourth term (4), 
which possesses generative powers; but return to her according 
to the fifth (9) which reduces them to one." 23 Further confirma- 
tion of the quaternary nature of the world-soul and world-body 
may be found in the passage where the demiurge splits this 
whole fabric lengthwise into two halves and joins them up again 
in the form of a X- 24 According to Porphyry, a X i* 1 a circle 

23 Reprinted as Bollingen Series III, Plato: Timaeus and Critias, p. 71. 

24 Timaeus 366 (Cornford, p. 73). 

126 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

signified the world-soul for the Egyptians. 25 It is, in fact, the 
hieroglyph for 'city/ 26 Perhaps Plato was trying, in this passage, 
to bring forth the mandala structure that later appeared as the 
capital of Atlantis in his Critias. 

19 1 The two mixtures could be regarded as a parallel to the two 
means of the physical elements. Cornford, on the other hand, 
considers that Plato is referring to three intermedia, which he 
calls "Intermediate Existence/' 'Intermediate Sameness/' "In- 
termediate Difference/' 27 His main insistence is on the three- 
fold procedure and not on the four substances. The Middle 
Ages were also familiar with the quatuor elementa (A B C D) 
and the tria regimina (three procedures) which united them as 
follows: AB, BC, CD. From this point of view, Cornford fails 
to catch Plato's subtle allusion to the recalcitrant fourth. 

192 We do not wish it to be supposed that the thought-processes 
we have deduced from the text of the Timaeus represent Plato's 
conscious reflections. However extraordinary his genius may 
have been, it by no means follows that his thoughts were all 
conscious ones. The problem of the fourth, for instance, which 
is an absolutely essential ingredient of totality, can hardly have 
reached his consciousness in complete form. If it had, he would 
have been repelled by the violence with which the elements were 
to be forced into a harmonious system. Nor would he have been 
so illogical as to insist on the threefoldness of his world-soul. 
Again, I would not venture to assert that the opening words of 
the Timaeus are a conscious reference to the underlying prob- 
lem of the recalcitrant fourth. Everything suggests that the same 
unconscious spiritus rector was at work which twice impelled the 
master to try to write a tetralogy, the fourth part remaining 
unfinished on both occasions. 28 This factor also ensured that 
Plato would remain a bachelor to the end of his life, as if affirm- 
ing the masculinity of his triadic God-image. 

25 Taylor, p. 75. ^. 

26 Griffith, A Collection of Hieroglyphs, p. 34 B. Fig. 142: B?%| =Plan of a vil- 
lage with cross-streets. ^O^ 

27 p. 61. The intermedia are constructed on the assumption that Indivisible and 
Divisible are opposite attributes of each of the three principles, Existence, Same- 
ness, Difference. I do not know whether the text permits of such an operation. 

28 Gomperz, III, p. 200 [The two unfinished tetralogies are (a) Republic, Timaeus, 
Critias (left incomplete), (Hermocrates, never written); (b) Theaetetus, Sophist, 
Statesman, (Philosopher, never written). TRANS.] 

127 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



*93 As history draws nearer to the beginning of our era, the gods 
become more and more abstract and spiritualized. Even Yahweh 
had to submit to this transformation. In the Alexandrian phi- 
losophy that arose in the last century B.C., we witness not only 
an alteration of his nature but an emergence of two other divini- 
ties in his immediate vicinity: the Logos and Sophia. Together 
with him they form a triad, 29 and this is a clear prefiguration of 
the post-Christian Trinity. 

29 Leisegang, Der Heilige Geist, p. 86. 



128 



2. FATHER, SON, AND SPIRIT 



194 I have dwelt at some length on the views of the Babylo- 
nians and Egyptians, and on Platonist philosophy, in order to 
give the reader some conception of the trinitarian and Unitarian 
ideas that were in existence many centuries before the birth of 
Christianity. Whether these ideas were handed down to poster- 
ity as a result of migration and tradition or whether they arose 
spontaneously in each case is a question of little importance. 
The important thing is that they occurred because, once having 
sprung forth from the unconscious of the human race (and not 
just in Asia Minor!), they could rearise anywhere at any time. 
It is, for instance, more than doubtful whether the Church 
Fathers who devised the homoousios formula were even re- 
motely acquainted with the ancient Egyptian theology of king- 
ship. Nevertheless, they neither paused in their labours nor 
rested until they had finally reconstructed the ancient Egyptian 
archetype. Much the same sort of thing happened when, in 
A.D. 431, at the Council of Ephesus, whose streets had once rung 
with hymns of praise to many-breasted Diana, the Virgin Mary 
was declared the BZOTOKOS, 'birth-giver of the god/ l As we 
from Epiphanius, 2 there was even a sect, the Collyridians, 



l Here one might recall the legend that, after the death of Christ, Mary betook 
herself with John to Ephesus, where she is said to have lived until her death. 
zpanarium (Contra octeginta haereses) LXXIX. See Migne, P.G., vol. 41, cols. 

739^- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



who worshipped Mary after the manner of an antique goddess. 
Her cult had its chief centres in Arabia, Thrace, and Upper 
Scythia, the most enthusiastic devotees being women. Their 
provocations moved Epiphanius to the rebuke that "the whole 
female sex is slippery and prone to error, with a mind that is 
very petty and narrow." 3 It is clear from this chastening sermon 
that there were priestesses who on certain feast days decorated 
a wagon or four-cornered seat and covered it with linen, on 
which they placed offerings of bakemeats "in the name of 
Mary" (els ovo^a -njs Mapias), afterwards partaking of the sacri- 
ficial meal. This plainly amounted to a Eucharistic feast in 
honour of Mary, at which wheaten bread was eaten. The ortho- 
dox standpoint of the time is aptly expressed in the words of 
Epiphanius: "Let Mary be held in honour, and let the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Ghost be adored, but let no one adore 
Mary." 

195 Thus the archetype reasserted itself, since, as I have tried to 
show, archetypal ideas are part of the indestructible foundations 
of the human mind. However long they are forgotten and 
buried, always they return, sometimes in the strangest guise, 
with a personal twist to them or intellectually distorted, as in 
the case of the Arian heresy, but continually reproducing them- 
selves in new forms representing the timeless truths that are 
innate in man's nature. 4 

196 Even though Plato's influence on the thinkers of the next 
few centuries can hardly be overestimated, his philosophically 
formulated triad cannot be held responsible for the origins of 
the Christian dogma of the Trinity. For we are concerned here 
not with any philosophical, that is conscious, assumptions but 
with unconscious, archetypal forms. The Platonic formula for 
the triad contradicts the Christian Trinity in one essential 
point: the triad is built on opposition, whereas the Trinity con- 
tains no opposition of any kind, but is, on the contrary, a com- 
plete harmony in itself. The three Persons are characterized in 
such a manner that they cannot possibly be derived from Pla- 

3 "Quod genus lubricum et in errorem proclive, ac pusilli admodum et angusti 
animi esse solet." 

4 The special emphasis I lay on archetypal predispositions does not mean that 
mythologems are of exclusively psychic origin. I am not overlooking the social 
conditions that are just as necessary for their production. 

IgO 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

tonic premises, while the terms Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do 
not proceed in any sense from the number three. At most, the 
Platonic formula supplies the intellectual scaffolding for contents 
that come from quite other sources. The Trinity may be con- 
ceived platonically as to its form, but for its content we have to 
rely on psychic factors, on irrational data that cannot be 
logically determined beforehand. In other words, we have to 
distinguish between the logical idea of the Trinity and its 
psychological reality. The latter brings us back to the very much 
more ancient Egyptian ideas and hence to the archetype, which 
provides the authentic and eternal justification for the existence 
of any trinitarian idea at all. 

197 The psychological datum consists of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. If we posit "Father/' then "Son" logically follows; but 
"Holy Ghost" does not follow logically from either "Father" 
or "Son." So we must be dealing here with a special factor that 
rests on a different presupposition. According to the old doc- 
trine, the Holy Ghost is "vera persona, quae a filio et patre missa 
est" (a real person who is sent by the Son and the Father). The 
"processio a patre filioque" (procession from the Father and the 
Son) is a "spiration" and not a "begetting," This somewhat 
peculiar idea corresponds to the separation, which still existed 
in the Middle Ages, of "corpus" and "spiramen," the latter be- 
ing understood as something more than mere "breath." What 
it really denoted was the anima, which, as its name shows, is a 
breath-being (anemos = wind). Although an activity of the 
body, it was thought of as an independent substance (or hyposta- 
sis) existing alongside the body. The underlying idea is that the 
body "lives," and that "life" is something superadded and auton- 
omous, conceived as a soul unattached to the body. Applying 
this idea to the Trinity formula, we would have to say: Father, 
Son, and Life the life proceeding from both or lived by both. 
The Holy Ghost as "life" is a concept that cannot be derived 
logically from the identity of Father and Son, but is, rather, a 
psychological idea, a datum based on an irrational, primordial 
image. This primordial image is the archetype, and we find it 
expressed most clearly in the Egyptian theology of kingship. 
There, as we have seen, the archetype takes the form of God the 
father, Ka-mutef (the begetter), and the son. The ka is the life- 
spirit, the animating principle of men and gods, and therefore 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



can be legitimately interpreted as the soul or spiritual double. 
He is the "life" of the dead man, and thus corresponds on the 
one hand to the living man's soul, and on the other to his 
"spirit" or "genius." We have seen that Ka-mutef is a hyposta- 
tization of procreative power. 5 In the same way, the Holy Ghost 
is hypostatized procreative power and life-force. 6 Hence, in the 
Christian Trinity, we are confronted with a distinctly archaic 
idea, whose extraordinary value lies precisely in the fact that it 
is a supreme, hypostatic representation of an abstract thought 
(two-dimensional triad). The form is still concretistic, in that 
the archetype is represented by the relationship "Father" and 
"Son." Were it nothing but that, it would only be a dyad. The 
third element, however, the connecting link between "Father" 
and "Son," is spirit and not a human figure. The masculine 
father-son relationship is thus lifted out of the natural order 
(which includes mothers and daughters) and translated to a 
sphere from which the feminine element is excluded: in ancient 
Egypt as in Christianity the Theotokos stands outside the Trin- 
ity. One has only to think of Jesus's brusque rejection of his 
mother at the marriage in Cana: "Woman, what have I to do 
with thee?" (John 2:4), and also earlier, when she sought the 
twelve-year-old child in the temple: "How is it that ye sought 
me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" 
(Luke 2 149). We shall probably not be wrong in assuming that 
this special sphere to which the father-son relationship is re- 
moved is the sphere of primitive mysteries and masculine initia- 
tions. Among certain tribes, women are forbidden to look at the 
mysteries on pain of death. Through the initiations the young 
men are systematically alienated from their mothers and are 
reborn as spirits. The celibacy of the priesthood is a continua- 
tion of this archetypal idea. 7 

The intellectual operation that lies concealed in the higher 
father-son relationship consists in the extrapolation of an invisi- 

5 The ka of the king even has an individual name. Thus "the living ka of the 
Lord of the Two Lands," Thutmosis III, was called the "victorious bull which 
shines in Thebes." Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 307. 

6 The "doubling" of the spirit occurs also in the Old Testament, though more 
as a "potency" emanating from God than as an hypostasis. Nevertheless, Isaiah 
48: 16 looks very like a hypostasis in the Septuagint text: Kfyuos K6pios d7recrraXj> 
/ze Kal TO irvevfta afrrou (The Lord the Lord sent me and his spirit). 

? For an instructive account of the Greek background see Harrison, Themis, ch. i. 

132 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ble figure, a "spirit" that is the very essence of masculine life. 
The life of the body or of a man is posited as something differ- 
ent from the man himself. This led to the idea of a ka or 
immortal soul, able to detach itself from the body and not de- 
pendent on it for its existence. In this respect, primitives have 
extraordinarily well developed ideas about a plurality of souls. 
Some are immortal, others are only loosely attached to the body 
and can wander off and get lost in the night, or they lose their 
way and get caught in a dream. There are even souls that belong 
to a person without being lodged in his body, like the bush-soul, 
which dwells outside in the forest, in the body of an animal. 
The juxtaposition of a person and his "life" has its psychological 
basis in the fact that a mind which is not very well differentiated 
cannot think abstractly and is incapable of putting things into 
categories. It can only take the qualities it perceives and place 
them side by side: man and his life, or his sickness (visualized 
as a sort of demon), or his health or prestige (mana, etc.). This is 
obviously the case with the Egyptian ka. Father-son-life (or 
procreative power), together with rigorous exclusion of the 
Theo tokos, constitute the patriarchal formula that was "in the 
air" long before the advent of Christianity. 

The Father is, by definition, the prime cause, the creator, the 
auctor rerum, who, on a level of culture where reflection is still 
unknown, can only be One. The Other follows from the One by 
splitting off from it. This split need not occur so long as there 
is no criticism of the auctor rerum so long, that is to say, as a 
culture refrains from all reflection about the One and does not 
start criticizing the Creator's handiwork. A feeling of oneness, 
far removed from critical judgment and moral conflict, leaves 
the Father's authority unimpaired. 

I had occasion to observe this original oneness of the father- 
world when I was with a tribe of Negroes on Mount Elgon. 
These people professed to believe that the Creator had made 
everything good and beautiful. "But what about the bad animals 
that kill your cattle?" I asked. They replied: "The lion is good 
and beautiful." "And your horrible diseases?" "You lie in the 
sun, and it is beautiful." I was impressed by their optimism. 
But at six o'clock in the evening this philosophy came to a sud- 
den stop, as I was soon to discover. After sunset, another world 
took over the dark world of the Ayik, who is everything evil, 

133 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



dangerous, and terrifying. The optimistic philosophy ends and 
a philosophy of fear, ghosts, and magical spells for averting the 
Evil One begins. Then, at sunrise, the optimism starts off again 
without any trace of inner contradiction. 

201 Here man, world, and God form a whole, a unity unclouded 
by criticism. It is the world of the Father, and of man in his 
childhood state. Despite the fact that twelve hours out of every 
twenty-four are spent in the world of darkness, and in agonizing 
belief in this darkness, the doubt never arises as to whether God 
might not also be the Other. The famous question about the 
origin of evil does not yet exist in a patriarchal age. Only with 
the coming of Christianity did it present itself as the principal 
problem of morality. The world of the Father typifies an age 
which is characterized by a pristine oneness with the whole of 
Nature, no matter whether this oneness be beautiful or ugly or 
awe-inspiring. But once the question is asked: "Whence comes 
the evil, why is the world so bad and imperfect, why are there 
diseases and other horrors, why must man suffer?*' then reflec- 
tion has already begun to judge the Father by his manifest 
works, and straightway one is conscious of a doubt, which is it- 
self the symptom of a split in the original unity. One comes to 
the conclusion that creation is imperfect nay more, that the 
Creator has not done his job properly, that the goodness and 
almightiness of the Father cannot be the sole principle of the 
cosmos. Hence the One has to be supplemented by the Other, 
with the result that the world of the Father is fundamentally 
altered and is superseded by the world of the Son. 

202 This was the time when the Greeks started criticizing the 
world, the time of "gnosis" in its widest sense, which ultimately 
gave birth to Christianity. The archetype of the redeemer-god 
and first man is age-old we simply do not know how old. 
The Son, the revealed god, who voluntarily or involuntarily 
offers himself for sacrifice as a man, in order to create the world 
or redeem it from evil, can be traced back to the Purusha of 
Indian philosophy, and is also found in the Persian conception 
of the Original Man, Gayomart. Gayomart, son of the god of 
light, falls victim to the darkness, from which he must be set 
free in order to redeem the world. He is the prototype of the 
Gnostic redeemer-figures and of the teachings concerning Christ, 
redeemer of mankind. 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

203 It is not hard to see that a critique which raised the question 
of the origin of evil and of suffering had in mind another world 
a world filled with longing for redemption and for that state 
of perfection in which man was still one with the Father. Long- 
ingly he looked back to the world of the Father, but it was lost 
forever, because an irreversible increase in man's consciousness 
had taken place in the meantime and made it independent. 
With this mutation he broke away from the world of the Father 
and entered upon the world of the Son, with its divine drama 
of redemption and the ritualistic retelling of those things which 
the God-man had accomplished during his earthly sojourn. 8 
The life of the God-man revealed things that could not possibly 
have been known at the time when the Father ruled as the One. 
For the Father, as the original unity, was not a defined or de- 
finable object; nor could he, strictly speaking, either be called 
the "Father" or be one. He only became a "Father" by incarnat- 
ing in the Son, and by so doing became defined and definable. 
By becoming a father and a man he revealed to man the secret 
of his divinity. 

204 One of these revelations is the Holy Ghost. As a being who 
existed before the world was, he is eternal, but he appears em- 
pirically in this world only when Christ had left the earthly 
stage. He will be for the disciples what Christ was for them. 
He will invest them with the power to do works greater, per- 
haps, than those of the Son (John 14: 12). The Holy Ghost is 
a figure who deputizes for Christ and who corresponds to what 
Christ received from the Father. From the Father comes the 
Son, and common to both is the living activity of the Holy 
Ghost, who, according to Christian doctrine, is breathed forth 
("spirated") by both. As he is the third term common to Father 
and Son, he puts an end to the duality, to the "doubt" in the 
Son. He is, in fact, the third element that rounds out the Three 
and restores the One. The point is that the unfolding of the 
One reaches its climax in the Holy Ghost after polarizing itself 
as Father and Son. Its descent into a human body is sufficient 
in itself to make it become another, to set it in opposition to 
itself. Thenceforward there are two: the "One" and the "Other," 

8 Cf. the detailed exposition of the death and rebirth of the divine icoupos in Har- 
rison, Themis. 

135 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



which results in a certain tension. 9 This tension works itself out 
in the suffering and fate of the Son 10 and, finally, in Christ's 
admission of abandonment by God (Matthew 27:46). 

205 Although the Holy Ghost is the progenitor of the Son 
(Matthew 1:18), he is also, as the Paraclete, a legacy from him. 
He continues the work of redemption in mankind at large, by 
descending upon those who merit divine election. Consequently, 
the Paraclete is, at least by implication, the crowning figure in 
the work of redemption on the one hand and in God's revelation 
of himself on the other. It could, in fact, be said that the Holy 
Ghost represents the final, complete stage in the evolution of 
God and the divine drama. For the Trinity is undoubtedly a 
higher form of God-concept than mere unity, since it corre- 
sponds to a level of reflection on which man has become more 
conscious. 

206 The trinitarian conception of a life-process within the Deity, 
which I have outlined here, was, as we have seen, already in 
existence in pre-Christian times, its essential features being a 
continuation and differentiation of the primitive rites of re- 
newal and the cult-legends associated with them. Just as the gods 
of these mysteries become extinct, so, too, do the mysteries them- 
selves, only to take on new forms in the course of history. A 
large-scale extinction of the old gods was once more in progress 
at the beginning of our era, and the birth of a new god, with 
new mysteries and new emotions, was an occurrence that healed 
the wound in men's souls. It goes without saying that any con- 
scious borrowing from the existing mystery traditions would 
have hampered the god's renewal and rebirth. It had to be an 
entirely unprejudiced revelation which, quite unrelated to any- 
thing else, and if possible without preconceptions of any kind, 
would usher into the world a new dp&pevov and a new cult- 
legend. Only at a comparatively late date did people notice the 
striking parallels with the legend of Dionysus, which they then 
declared to be the work of the devil. This attitude on the part 
of the early Christians can easily be understood, for Christianity 

a The relation of Father to Son is not arithmetical, since both the One and the 
Other are still united in the original Unity and are, so to speak, eternally on the 
point of becoming two. Hence the Son is eternally being begotten by the Father, 
and Christ's sacrificial death is an eternally present act. 
10 The irddrj of Dionysus would be the Greek parallels. 

136 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

did indeed develop in this unconscious fashion, and furthermore 
its seeming lack of antecedents proved to be the indispensable 
condition for its existence as an effective force. Nobody can 
doubt the manifold superiority of the Christian revelation over 
its pagan precursors, for which reason it is distinctly superfluous 
today to insist on the unheralded and unhistorical character of 
the gospels, seeing that they swarm with historical and psycho- 
logical assumptions of very ancient origin. 



. THE SYMBOLA 



207 The trinitarian drama of redemption (as distinct from the 
intellectual conception of it) burst upon the world scene at the 
beginning of a new era, amid complete unconsciousness of its re- 
suscitation from the past. Leaving aside the so-called prefigura- 
tions in the Old Testament, there is not a single passage in the 
New Testament where the Trinity is formulated in an intellec- 
tually comprehensible manner. 1 Generally speaking, it is more 
a question of formulae for triple benediction, such as the end of 
the second epistle to the Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the 
Holy Ghost, be with you all," 2 or the beginning of the first 

1 The so-called "Comma Johanneum," which would seem to be an exception, is a 
demonstrably late interpolation of doubtful origin. Regarded as a dogmatic and 
revealed text per se f it would afford the strongest evidence for the occurrence of 
the Trinity in the New Testament. The passage reads (I John 5:8: "And there 
are three that bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these 
three are one" (DV). That is to say, they agree in their testimony that Christ 
"came in water and in blood" (verse 6, DV). [In verse 8, AV has "and these three 
agree in one"; RSV: "and these three agree." TRANS.] The Vulgate has the late 
interpolation in verse 7: "Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant m ca<?/o; Pater, 
Verbum et Spiritus Sanctus: et hi tres unum sunt/' Note that in the Greek text 
the three neuter nouns x^Cjua, 55wp, and al/m are followed by a masculine plural: 
ol rpeis els r6 %v daw. 

2 II Cor. 13: 14 (AV). The baptismal formula "In the name of the Father and the 
Son and the Holy Ghost" comes into this category, though its authenticity is 

138 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

epistle of Peter: ". . chosen and destined by God the Father 
and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and 
for sprinkling with his blood," 3 or Jude 20-21. Another passage 
cited in favour of the Trinity is I Corinthians 12 14-6, but this 
only gives the emphatic assurance that the Spirit is one (repeated 
in Ephesians 4 : 4-6), and may be taken more as an incantation 
against polytheism and polydemonism than an assertion of the 
Trinity. Triadic formulae were also current in the post-apostolic 
epoch. Thus Clement says in his first letter (46:6): ". . . Have 
we not one God, and one Christ, and one Spirit . . ." 4 Epipha- 
nius even reports that Christ taught his disciples that "the 
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are the same." 5 

208 Epiphanius took this passage from the apocryphal "Gospel 
according to the Egyptians," 6 of which unfortunately only frag- 
ments are preserved. The formula is significant insofar as it pro- 
vides a definite starting-point for a "modalistic" concept of the 
Trinity. 

209 Now the important point is not that the New Testament con- 
tains no trinitarian formulae, but that we find in it three figures 
who are reciprocally related to one another: the Father, the 
Son, begotten through the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost. 
Since olden times, formulae for benediction, all solemn agree- 
ments, occasions, attributes, etc. have had a magical, threefold 
character (e.g., the Trishagion). 7 Although they are no evidence 
for the Trinity in the New Testament, they nevertheless occur 
and, like the three divine Persons, are clear indications of an 
active archetype operating beneath the surface and throwing up 
triadic formations. This proves that the trinitarian archetype is 

doubted. It seems that originally people were baptized only in the name of Jesus 
Christ. The formula does not occur in Mark and Luke. Cf. Krueger, Das Dogma 
von der Dreieinigkeit und Gottmenschheit in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, 
p. 11. 3 1 Peter i : 2 (RSV). 

4 Apostolic Fathers, trans, by Lake, I, p. 89. Clement was the third bishop of 
Rome after Peter, according to Irenaeus. His dating is unsure, but he seems to 
have been born in the second half of the 2nd cent. 

5 Panarium, LXII, n, in Migne, P.O., vol. 41, cols. 1052-53. 

6 Cf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, pp. lof. 

T We might also mention the division of Christ's forbears into 3 x H generations 
in Matthew 1:17. Cf. the role of the 14 royal ancestors in ancient Egypt: Jacob- 
sohn, "Die dogmatische Stellung des Konigs in der Theologie der alten Aegypter," 
pp. 66ff. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



already at work in the New Testament, for what comes after 
is largely the result of what has gone before, a proposition which 
is especially apposite when, as in the case of the Trinity, we are 
confronted with the effects of an unconscious content or arche- 
type. From the creeds to be discussed later, we shall see that at 
the synods of the Fathers the New Testament allusions to the 
divine trio were developed in a thoroughly consistent manner 
until the homoousia was restored, which again happened un- 
consciously, since the Fathers knew nothing of the ancient 
Egyptian model that had already reached the homoousian level. 
The after-effects on posterity were inevitable consequences of 
the trinitarian anticipations that were abroad in the early days 
of Christianity, and are nothing but amplifications of the con- 
stellated archetype. These amplifications, so far as they were 
naive and unprejudiced, are direct proof that what the New 
Testament is alluding to is in fact the Trinity, as the Church 
also believes. 

210 Since people did not actually know what it was that had so 
suddenly revealed itself in the "Son of Man/' but only believed 
the current interpretations, the effects it had over the centuries 
signify nothing less than the gradual unfolding of the archetype 
in man's consciousness, or rather, its absorption into the pattern 
of ideas transmitted by the cultures of antiquity. 8 From this 
historical echo it is possible to recognize what had revealed it- 
self in a sudden flash of illumination and seized upon men's 
minds, even though the event, when it happened, was so far 
beyond their comprehension that they were unable to put it 
into a clear formula. Before "revealed" contents can be sorted 
out and properly formulated, time and distance are needed. 
The results of this intellectual activity were deposited in a series 
of tenets, the dogmata, which were then summed up in the 
"symbolum" or creed. This breviary of belief well deserves the 
name "symbolum," for, from a psychological point of view, it 
gives symbolical expression to, and paints an anthropomorphic 
picture of, a transcendent fact that cannot be demonstrated or 
explained rationally, the word "transcendent" being used here 
in a strictly psychological sense. 9 

8 As we know, St. John's gospel marks the beginning of this process. 

9 Cf. Psychological Types, Def. 51, 

140 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 
L THE SYMBOLUM APOSTOLICUM 

The first of these summaries was attempted fairly early, if 
tradition may be relied on. St. Ambrose, for instance, reports 
that the confession used at baptism in the church of Milan 
originated with the twelve apostles. 10 This creed of the old 
Church is therefore known as the Apostles' Creed. As established 
in the fourth century, it ran: 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only 
begotten Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the 
Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, and on 
the third day rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of the Father, whence he shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. And [I believe] in the Holy Ghost, 
the holy Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh. 

This creed is still entirely on the level of the gospels and 
epistles: there are three divine figures, and they do not in any 
way contradict the one God. Here the Trinity is not explicit, 
but exists latently, just as Clement's second letter says of the 
pre-existent Church: "It was spiritually there." Even in the very 
early days of Christianity it was accepted that Christ as Logos 
was God himself (John 1:1). For Paul he is pre-existent in God's 
form, as is clear from the famous "kenosis" passage in Philip- 
pians 2 : 6 (AV): "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God'* (TO elmt lea 0eo> = esse se 
aequalem Deo). There are also passages in the letters where the 
author confuses Christ with the Holy Ghost, or where the three 
are seen as one, as in II Corinthians 3:17 (DV): "Now the Lord 
is the spirit" (6 Be ttvpios TO irvevpa. kvnv =2 Dominus autem spirt- 
tus est). When the next verse speaks of the "glory of the 
Lord" (56a wptou = gloria Domini], "Lord" seems to refer to 
Christ. But if you read the whole passage, from verses 7 to 18, 
it is evident that the "glory" refers equally to God, thus proving 
the promiscuity of the three figures and their latent Trinity. 

10 Explanatio symboli ad initiandos. 



141 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION *. WEST 



II. THE SYMBOLUM OF GREGORY THAUMATURGUS 

213 Although the Apostles' Creed does not stipulate the Trinity 
in so many words, it was nevertheless "spiritually there" at a 
very early date, and it is nothing but a quibble to insist, as many 
people do, that the Trinity was "invented only long afterwards/* 
In this connection, therefore, I must mention the vision of 
Gregory Thaumaturgus (210-70), in which the Blessed Virgin 
and St. John appeared to him and enunciated a creed which he 
wrote down on the spot. 11 It runs: 

One God, Father of the living Word, [of his] self-subsistent wisdom 
and power, [of his] eternal likeness, perfect Begetter of what is per- 
fect, Father of the only begotten Son. One Lord, Alone of the Alone, 
God of God, veritable likeness of Godhead, effectual Word, com- 
prehensive Wisdom by which all things subsist, Power that creates 
all Creation, true Son of the true Father, unseen [Son] of the unseen 
[Father], incorruptible of the incorruptible, deathless of the death- 
less, everlasting of the everlasting. And one Holy Spirit, having 
existence from God and appearing through the Son, Image of the 
Son and perfect [Image] of the perfect [Father], Life and cause of 
life, holy Fount, Ringleader [Xopi?7os] of holiness: in whom is mani- 
fest God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, 
who pervades all. Perfect Trinity, whose glory and eternity and 
dominion is not divided and not separate. 12 

214 This trinitarian creed had already established itself in a 
position of authority long before the appearance of the Apostles' 
Creed, which is far less explicit. Gregory had been a pupil of 
Origen until about 238. Origen (182-251) employed the concept 
of the Trinity 13 in his writings and gave it considerable thought, 
concerning himself more particularly with its internal econ- 
omy (okovo/xla, oeconomia) and the management of its power: 
"I am of the opinion, then, that the God and Father, who holds 
the universe together, is superior to every being that exists, for 
he imparts to each one from his own existence that which each 
one is. The Son, being less than the Father, is superior to 

11 Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita S. Gregorii Thaumaturgi, in Migne, P.G., vol. 46, 
cols. 911-14. 

12 Caspar!, Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, pp. 10-17. 
is First mentioned in Tertullian (d. 220). 

142 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

rational creatures alone (for he is second to the Father), The 
Holy Spirit is still less, and dwells within the saints alone. So 
that in this way the power of the Father is greater than that of 
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and in turn the power of the 
Holy Spirit exceeds that of every other holy being." 14 He is not 
very clear about the nature of the Holy Spirit, for he says: "The 
Spirit of God, therefore, who, as it is written, moved upon the 
waters in the beginning of the creation of the world, I reckon 
to be none other than the Holy Spirit, so far as I can under- 
stand.'* 15 Earlier he says: "But up to the present we have been 
able to find no passage in the holy scriptures which would war- 
rant us in saying that the Holy Spirit was a being made or cre- 
ated." 16 



III. THE NICAENUM 

215 Trinitarian speculation had long passed its peak when the 
Council of Nicaea, in 325, created a new creed, known as the 
"Nicene." It runs: 

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things 
visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, the 
only begotten of the Father, being of the substance [ovala] of the 
Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten 
not made, consubstantial [6/ioofonos] with the Father, through whom 
all things have been made which are in heaven and on earth. Who 
for us men and for our salvation descended and was made flesh, be- 
came man, suffered, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, 
and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy 
Spirit. As for those who say, "There was a time when He was not," 
or "Before He was begotten He was not," or "He was made from 
that which was not, or from another subsistence [wrocrao-w], or sub- 
stance," or "The Son of God is created, changeable, or subject to 
change/' these the Catholic Church anathematizes. 17 

2*6 Jt was, apparently, a Spanish bishop, Hosius of Cordoba, 
who proposed to the emperor the crucial word o/iooixrtos. It did 

i* Origen, On First Principles, trans, by Butterworth, pp. 33!. 

15 Ibid., p. 31. 16 Ibid. 

17 Cf. J. R. Palanque and others, The Church in the Christian Roman Empire, I: 

The Church and the Arian Crisis, p. 96. 

143 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



not occur then for the first time, for it can be found in Tertul- 
lian, as the "unitas subs tan tiae." The concept of homoousia can 
also be found in Gnostic usage, as for instance in Irenaeus' refer- 
ences to the Valentinians (140-^. 200), where the Aeons are said 
to be of one substance with their creator, Bythos. 18 The Nicene 
Creed concentrates on the father-son relationship, while the 
Holy Ghost receives scant mention. 



IV. THE NICAENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITANUM, 
THE ATHANASIANUM, AND THE LATERANENSE 

217 The next formulation in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan 
Creed of 381 brings an important advance. It runs: 

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before 
all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, be- 
gotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom 
all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came 
down from heaven and was made flesh by the Holy Ghost and the 
Virgin Mary and became man, and was crucified for us under 
Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, and on the third day rose 
again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, whence he shall come 
again in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and whose kingdom 
shall have no end. And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord 
and Giver of life, who proceeded! from the Father, 19 who with the 
Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake 
through the prophets. And [we believe] in one holy Catholic and 
Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission 
of sins. And we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the 
world to come. Amen. 

18 More accurately, the unity of substance consists in the fact that the Aeons 
are descended from the Logos, which proceeds from Nous, the direct emanation 
of Bythos. Cf. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, II, 17, 4, in Migne, P.G., vol. 7, cols. 
762-63 (trans, by Roberts and Rambaut, p. 174). 

19 [The addition at this point of the words "and from the Son" (Filioque), which, 
though never accepted by the Eastern Churches, has been universal in the West, 
both Catholic and Protestant, since the beginning of the eleventh century, is 
still one of the principal points of contention between the two main sections of 
the Christian body .EDITORS.] 

144 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

218 Here the Holy Ghost is given due consideration: he is called 
"Lord" and is worshipped together with Father and Son. But he 
proceeds from the Father only. It was this point that caused the 
tremendous controversy over the "filioque" question, as to 
whether the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only, or from 
the Son as well. In order to make the Trinity a complete unity, 
the filioque was just as essential as the homoousia. The (falsely 
so-called) Athanasian Creed 20 insisted in the strongest possible 
terms on the equality of all three Persons. Its peculiarities have 
given much offence to rationalistic and liberal-minded theolo- 
gians. I quote, as a sample, a passage from the beginning: 

Now the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, 
and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing 
the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the 
Son, another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, the 
majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such 
is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the 
Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father infinite, the Son infinite, the 
Holy Ghost infinite. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy 
Ghost eternal. And yet not three Eternals, but one Eternal. As also 
there are not three Uncreated, nor three Infinites, but one Infinite 
and one Uncreated. So likewise is the Father almighty, the Son al- 
mighty, the Holy Ghost almighty; and yet there are not three Al- 
mighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, 
the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one 
God. Likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost 
is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. For just 
as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge each 
Person by himself to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by 
the Catholic religion to say there are three Gods or three Lords. 
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son 
is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The 
Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor 
begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; 
one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. 
And in this Trinity none is before or after, none is greater or less; 
but all three Persons are coeternal together and coequal. So that in 

20 it is also known as the "Symbolum Quicumque," on account of the opening 
words: "Quicumque vult salvus esse" (Whosoever would be saved). It does not go 
back to Athanasius. 

H5 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



all ways, as is aforesaid, both the Trinity is to be worshipped in 
Unity, and the Unity in Trinity. He, therefore, that would be saved, 
let him think thus of the Trinity. 21 

219 Here the Trinity is a fully developed conceptual schema in 
which everything balances, the homoousia binding all three Per- 
sons equally. The Creed of the Lateran Council, 1215, brings a 
further differentiation. I shall quote only the beginning: 

We firmly believe and wholeheartedly confess that there is only one 
true God, eternal, infinite, and unchanging; incomprehensible, 
almighty, and ineffable; Father and Son and Holy Ghost; three 
Persons, but one essence; entirely simple in substance and nature. 
The Father is of none, the Son is of the Father alone, and the Holy 
Ghost is of both equally; for ever without beginning and without 
end; the Father begetting, the Son being born, and the Holy Ghost 
proceeding; consubstantial and coequal and coalmighty and co- 
eternal. 22 

220 The "filioque" is expressly taken up into this creed, thus 
assigning the Holy Ghost a special activity and significance. So 
far as I can judge, the later Creed of the Council of Trent adds 
nothing further that would be of interest for our theme. 

221 Before concluding this section, I would like to call attention 
to a book well known in the Middle Ages, the Liber de Spiritu 
et Anima^ which attempts a psychological interpretation of the 
Trinity. The argument starts with the assumption that by self- 
knowledge a man may attain to a knowledge o God. 24 The 
mens rationalis is closest to God, for it is "excellently made, and 
expressly after his likeness." If it recognizes its own likeness to 
God it will the more easily recognize its creator. And thus 
knowledge of the Trinity begins. For the intellect sees how wis- 
dom (sapientia) proceeds from it and how it loves this wisdom. 
But, from intellect and wisdom, there proceeds love, and thus 
all three, intellect, wisdom, and love, appear in one. The origin 
of all wisdom, however, is God. Therefore intellect (vovs) corre- 
sponds to the Father, the wisdom it begets corresponds to the 

21 [Official version from the Revised Book of Common Prayer (1928), with alterna- 
tive readings. TRANS.] 

22 [From the Decrees of the Lateran Council, ch. i. TRANS,] 

23 Erroneously ascribed to St. Augustine. Cf. Opera, VI. 

24 Ibid., p. 1194, B. 

146 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Son (XOTOS), and love corresponds to the Spirit (TVGJpa) breathed 
forth between them. 25 The wisdom of God was often identified 
with the cosmogonic Logos and hence with Christ. The medieval 
mind finds it natural to derive the structure of the psyche from 
the Trinity, whereas the modern mind reverses the procedure. 

25 "The begetter is the Father, the begotten is the Son, and that which proceeds 
from both is the Holy Spirit." Ibid., p. 1195, D. 



147 



THE THREE PERSONS IN THE LIGHT OF 
PSYCHOLOGY 



I. THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE ARCHETYPE 

222 The sequence of creeds illustrates the evolution o the Trin- 
ity idea through the centuries. In the course of its development 
it either consistently avoided, or successfully combated, all 
rationalistic deviations, such as, for instance, the so-plausible- 
looking Arian heresy. The creeds superimposed on the trini- 
tarian allusions in the Holy Scriptures a structure of ideas that 
is a perpetual stumbling-block to the liberal-minded rationalist. 
Religious statements are, however, never rational in the ordi- 
nary sense of the word, for they always take into consideration 
that other world, the world of the archetype, of which reason in 
the ordinary sense is unconscious, being occupied only with ex- 
ternals. Thus the development of the Christian idea of the Trin- 
ity unconsciously reproduced the archetype of the homoousia 
of Father, Son, and Ka-mutef which first appeared in Egyptian 
theology. Not that the Egyptian model could be considered the 
archetype of the Christian idea. The archetype an sich, as I have 
explained elsewhere, 1 is an "irrepresentable" factor, a "disposi- 
tion" which starts functioning at a given moment in the de- 

i Cf. my "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1954/55 *&&> PP- 4ioff.). 

148 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

velopment of the human mind and arranges the material of 
consciousness into definite patterns. 2 That is to say, man's con- 
ceptions of God are organized into triads and trinities, and a 
whole host of ritualistic and magical practices take on a triple 
or trichotomous character, as in the case of thrice-repeated 
apotropaic spells, formulae for blessing, cursing, praising, giving 
thanks, etc. Wherever we find it, the archetype has a compelling 
force which it derives from the unconscious, and whenever its 
effect becomes conscious it has a distinctly numinous quality. 
There is never any conscious invention or cogitation, though 
speculations about the Trinity have often been accused of this. 
All the controversies, sophistries, quibbles, intrigues, and out- 
rages that are such an odious blot on the history of this dogma 
owe their existence to the compelling nuniinosity of the arche- 
type and to the unexampled difficulty of incorporating it in the 
world of rational thought. Although the emperors may have 
made political capital out of the quarrels that ensued, this singu- 
lar chapter in the history of the human mind cannot possibly 
be traced back to politics, any more than social and economic 
causes can be held responsible for it. The sole reason for the 
dogma lies in the Christian "message," which caused a psychic 
revolution in Western man. On the evidence of the gospels, and 
of Paul's letters in particular, it announced the real and vera- 
cious appearance of the God-man in this humdrum human 
world, accompanied by all the marvellous portents worthy of 
the son of God. However obscure the historical core of this 
phenomenon may seem to us moderns, with our hankering for 
factual accuracy, it is quite certain that those tremendous 
psychic effects, lasting for centuries, were not causelessly called 
21 have often been asked where the archetype comes from and whether it is 
acquired or not. This question cannot be answered directly. Archetypes are, by 
definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain 
images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recog- 
nized only from the effects they produce. They exist preconsdously, and pre- 
sumably they form the structural dominants of the psyche in general. They may 
be compared to the invisible presence of the crystal lattice in a saturated solution. 
As a priori conditioning factors they represent a special, psychological instance of 
the biological "pattern of behaviour," which gives all living organisms their spe- 
cific qualities. Just as the manifestations of this biological ground plan may 
change in the course of development, so also can those of the archetype. Em- 
pirically considered, however, the archetype did not ever come into existence as a 
phenomenon of organic life, but entered into the picture with life itself. 

149 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION .* WEST 



forth, by just nothing at all. Unfortunately the gospel reports, 
originating in missionary zeal, form the meagrest source imag- 
inable for attempts at historical reconstruction. But, for that 
very reason, they tell us all the more about the psychological re- 
actions of the civilized world at that time. These reactions and 
assertions are continued in the history of dogma, where they are 
still conceived as the workings of the Holy Ghost. This interpre- 
tation, though the psychologist has nothing to say in regard to 
its metaphysical validity, is of the greatest moment, for it proves 
the existence of an overwhelming opinion or conviction that 
the operative factor in the formation of ideas is not man's in- 
tellect but an authority above and beyond consciousness. This 
psychological fact should on no account be overlooked, for any 
theoretical reasons whatsoever. Rationalistic arguments to the 
effect that the Holy Ghost is an hypothesis that cannot be proved 
are not commensurable with the statements of the psyche. A 
delusional idea is real, even though its content is, factually con- 
sidered, nonsense. Psychology's concern is with psychic phe- 
nomena and with nothing else. These may be mere aspects of 
phenomena which, in themselves, could be subjected to a num- 
ber of quite different modes of observation. Thus the statement 
that dogmas are inspired by the Holy Ghost indicates that they 
are not the product of conscious cogitation and speculation but 
are motivated from sources outside consciousness and possibly 
even outside man. Statements of this kind are the rule in arche- 
typal experiences and are constantly associated with the sensed 
presence of a numen. An archetypal dream, for instance, can so 
fascinate the dreamer that he is very apt to see in it some kind 
of illumination, warning, or supernatural help. Nowadays most 
people are afraid of surrendering to such experiences, and their 
fear proves the existence of a "holy dread" of the numinous. 
Whatever the nature of these numinous experiences may be, 
they all have one thing in common: they relegate their source to 
a region outside consciousness. Psychology uses instead the con- 
cept of the unconscious, and specially that of the collective un- 
conscious as opposed to the personal unconscious. People who 
reject the former and give credence only to the latter are forced 
into persoiialistic explanations. But collective and, above all, 
manifestly archetypal ideas can never be derived from the per- 
sonal sphere. If Communism, for instance, refers to Engels, 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Marx, Lenin, and so on as the ''fathers" of the movement, it 
does not know that it is reviving an archetypal order of society 
that existed even in primitive times, thereby explaining, inci- 
dentally, the "religious" and "numinous" (i.e., fanatical) char- 
acter of Communism. Neither did the Church Fathers know that 
their Trinity had a prehistory dating back several thousand 
years. 

223 There can be no doubt that the doctrine of the Trinity 
originally corresponded with a patriarchal order of society. But 
we cannot tell whether social conditions produced the idea or, 
conversely, the idea revolutionized the existing social order. 
The phenomenon of early Christianity and the rise of Islam, to 
take only these two examples, show what ideas can do. The lay- 
man, having no opportunity to observe the behaviour of autono- 
mous complexes, is usually inclined, in conformity with the 
general trend, to trace the origin of psychic contents back to 
the environment. This expectation is certainly justified so far 
as the ideational contents of consciousness are concerned. In 
addition to these, however, there are irrational, affective reac- 
tions and impulses, emanating from the unconscious, which 
organize the conscious material in an archetypal way. The more 
clearly the archetype is constellated, the more powerful will 
be its fascination, and the resultant religious statements will 
formulate it accordingly, as something "daemonic" or "divine." 
Such statements indicate possession by an archetype. The ideas 
underlying them are necessarily anthropomorphic and are there- 
by distinguished from the organizing archetype, which in itself 
is irrepresentable because unconscious. 3 They prove, however, 
that an archetype has been activated. 4 

224 Thus the history of the Trinity presents itself as the gradual 
crystallization of an archetype that moulds the anthropomorphic 
conceptions of father and son, of life, and of different persons 
into an archetypal and numinous figure, the "Most Holy Three- 
in-One." The contemporary witnesses of these events appre- 
hended it as something that modern psychology would call a 
psychic presence outside consciousness. If there is a consensus of 

3Cf. my detailed argument in "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1Q54/55 edn - 
pp. 4ioff.). 

4 It is very probable that the activation of an archetype depends on an alteration 
of the conscious situation, which requires a new form of compensation. 

151 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



opinion in respect of an idea, as there is here and always has 
been, then we are entitled to speak of a collective presence. 
Similar "presences" today are the Fascist and Communist ideol- 
ogies, the one emphasizing the power of the chief, and the other 
communal ownership of goods in a primitive society. 

"Holiness" means that an idea or thing possesses the highest 
value, and that in the presence of this value men are, so to speak, 
struck dumb. Holiness is also revelatory: it is the illuminative 
power emanating from an archetypal figure. Nobody ever feels 
himself as the subject of such a process, but always as its object. 5 
He does not perceive holiness, it takes him captive and over- 
whelms him; nor does he behold it in a revelation, it reveals 
itself to him, and he cannot even boast that he has understood 
it properly. Everything happens apparently outside the sphere 
of his will, and these happenings are contents of the uncon- 
scious. Science is unable to say anything more than this, for it 
cannot, by an act of faith, overstep the limits appropriate to its 
nature. 



II. CHRIST AS ARCHETYPE 

226 The Trinity and its inner life process appear as a closed 
circle, a self-contained divine drama in which man plays, at 
most, a passive part. It seizes on him and, for a period of several 
centuries, forced him to occupy his mind passionately with all 
sorts of queer problems which today seem incredibly abstruse, 
if not downright absurd. It is, in the first place, difficult to see 
what the Trinity could possibly mean for us, either practically, 
morally, or symbolically. Even theologians often feel that specu- 
lation on this subject is a more or less otiose juggling with ideas, 
and there are not a few who could get along quite comfortably 
without the divinity of Christ, and for whom the role of the 
Holy Ghost, both inside and outside the Trinity, is an em- 
barrassment of the first order. Writing of the Athanasian Creed, 
D. F. Strauss remarks: "The truth is that anyone who has sworn 

5 Koepgen makes the following trenchant remark in his Gnosis des Christentums, 
p. 198: "If there is such a thing as a history of the Western mind ... it would 
have to be viewed from the standpoint of the personality of Western man, which 
grew up under the influence of trinitarian dogma." 

152 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

to the Symbolum Quicuinque has abjured the laws of human 
thought." Naturally, the only person who can talk like that is 
one who is no longer impressed by the revelation of holiness 
and has fallen back on his own mental activity. This, so far as 
the revealed archetype is concerned, is an inevitably retrograde 
step: the liberalistic humanization of Christ goes back to the 
rival doctrine of homoiousia and to Arianism, while modern 
anti-trinitarianism has a conception of God that is more Old 
Testament or Islamic in character than Christian. 

227 Obviously, anyone who approaches this problem with ra- 
tionalistic and intellectualistic assumptions, like D. F. Strauss, 
is bound to find the patristic discussions and arguments com- 
pletely nonsensical. But that anyone, and especially a theologian, 
should fall back on such manifestly incommensurable criteria 
as reason, logic, and the like, shows that, despite all the mental 
exertions of the Councils and of scholastic theology, they failed 
to bequeath to posterity an intellectual understanding of the 
dogma that would lend the slightest support to belief in it. 
There remained only submission to faith and renunciation of 
one's own desire to understand. Faith, as we know from experi- 
ence, often comes off second best and has to give in to criticism 
which may not be at all qualified to deal with the object of faith. 
Criticism of this kind always puts on an air of great enlighten- 
mentthat is to say, it spreads round itself that thick darkness 
which the Word once tried to penetrate with its light: "And 
the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness compre- 
hended it not." 

228 Naturally, it never occurs to these critics that their way of 
approach is incommensurable with their object. They think 
they have to do with rational facts, whereas it entirely escapes 
them that it is and always has been primarily a question of 
irrational psychic phenomena. That this is so can be seen plainly 
enough from the unhistorical character of the gospels, whose 
only concern was to represent the miraculous figure of Christ 
as graphically and impressively as possible. Further evidence of 
this is supplied by the earliest literary witness, Paul, who was 
closer to the events in question than the apostles. It is frankly 
disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus 
of Nazareth to get a word in. Even at this early date (and not 
only in John) he is completely overlaid, or rather smothered, 

153 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



by metaphysical conceptions: he is the ruler over all daemonic 
forces, the cosmic saviour, the mediating God-man. The whole 
pre-Christian and Gnostic theology of the Near East (some of 
whose roots go still further back) wraps itself about him and 
turns him before our eyes into a dogmatic figure who has no 
more need of historicity. At a very early stage, therefore, the real 
Christ vanished behind the emotions and projections that 
swarmed about him from far and near; immediately and almost 
without trace he was absorbed into the surrounding religious 
systems and moulded into their archetypal exponent. He be- 
came the collective figure whom the unconscious of his con- 
temporaries expected to appear, and for this reason it is pointless 
to ask who he "really" was. Were he human and nothing else, 
and in this sense historically true, he would probably be no 
more enlightening a figure than, say, Pythagoras, or Socrates, 
or Apollonius of Tyana. He opened men's eyes to revelation pre- 
cisely because he was, from everlasting, God, and therefore un- 
historical; and he functioned as such only by virtue of the con- 
sensus of unconscious expectation. If nobody had remarked that 
there was something special about the wonder-working Rabbi 
from Galilee, the darkness would never have noticed that a light 
was shining. Whether he lit the light with his own strength, or 
whether he was the victim of the universal longing for light 
and broke down under it, are questions which, for lack of re- 
liable information, only faith can decide. At any rate the 
documentary reports relating to the general projection and 
assimilation of the Christ-figure are unequivocal. There is 
plenty of evidence for the co-operation of the collective uncon- 
scious in view of the abundance of parallels from the history of 
religion. In these circumstances we must ask ourselves what it 
was in man that was stirred by the Christian message, and what 
was the answer he gave. 

229 If we are to answer this psychological question, we must first 
of all examine the Christ-symbolism contained in the New 
Testament, together with the patristic allegories and medieval 
iconography, and compare this material with the archetypal con- 
tent of the unconscious psyche in order to find out what arche- 
types have been constellated. The most important of the 
symbolical statements about Christ are those which reveal the 
attributes of the hero's life: improbable origin, divine father, 

154 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

hazardous birth, rescue in the nick of time, precocious develop- 
ment, conquest of the mother and of death, miraculous deeds, a 
tragic, early end, symbolically significant manner of death, post- 
mortem effects (reappearances, signs and marvels, etc.). As the 
Logos, Son of the Father, Rex gloriae, Judex mundi, Redeemer, 
and Saviour, Christ is himself God, an all-embracing totality, 
which, like the definition of Godhead, is expressed iconograph- 
ically by the circle or mandala. 6 Here I would mention only the 
traditional representation of the Rex gloriae in a mandala, 
accompanied by a quaternity composed of the four symbols of 
the evangelists (including the four seasons, four winds, four 
rivers, and so on). Another symbolism of the same kind is the 
choir of saints, angels, and elders grouped round Christ (or God) 
in the centre. Here Christ symbolizes the integration of the 
kings and prophets of the Old Testament. As a shepherd he is 
the leader and centre of the flock. He is the vine, and those that 
hang on him are the branches. His body is bread to be eaten, 
and his blood wine to be drunk; he is also the mystical body 
formed by the congregation. In his human manifestation he is 
the hero and God-man, born without sin, more complete and 
more perfect than the natural man, who is to him what a child 
is to an adult, or an animal (sheep) to a human being. 
*3 These mythological statements, coming from within the 
Christian sphere as well as from outside it, adumbrate an arche- 
type that expresses itself in essentially the same symbolism and 
also occurs in individual dreams or in fantasy-like projections 
upon living people (transference phenomena, hero-worship, 
etc.). The content of all such symbolic products is the idea of 
an overpowering, all-embracing, complete or perfect being, 
represented either by a man of heroic proportions, or by an 
animal with magical attributes, or by a magical vessel or some 
other " treasure hard to attain/' such as a jewel, ring, crown, or, 

6"Deus est circulus cuius centrum est ubique, circumferentia vero nusquam" 
(God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere). This 
definition occurs in the later literature. In the form "Deus est sphaera infmita" 
(God is an infinite sphere) it is supposed to have come from the Liber Hermetis, 
Liber Termegisti, Cod. Paris. 6319 (i4th cent.); Cod. Vat. 3060 (1315). Cf. Baum- 
gartner, Die Philosophie des Alanus de Insults, p. 118. In this connection, men- 
tion should be made of the tendency of Gnostic thought to move in a circle, e.g.: 
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the 
Word." Cf. Leisegang, Denkformen, pp. 6off. 

155 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



geometrically, by a mandala. This archetypal idea is a reflection 
of the individual's wholeness, i.e., of the self, which is present 
in him as an unconscious image. The conscious mind can form 
absolutely no conception of this totality, because it includes not 
only the conscious but also the unconscious psyche, which is, as 
such, inconceivable and irrepresentable. 

231 It was this archetype of the self in the soul of every man that 
responded to the Christian message, with the result that the 
concrete Rabbi Jesus was rapidly assimilated by the constellated 
archetype. In this way Christ realized the idea of the self. 7 But 
as one can never distinguish empirically between a symbol of 
the self and a God-image, the two ideas, however much we try 
to differentiate them, always appear blended together, so that 
the self appears synonymous with the inner Christ of the 
Johannine and Pauline writings, and Christ with God ("of one 
substance with the Father"), just as the atman appears as the 
individualized self and at the same time as the animating prin- 
ciple of the cosmos, and Tao as a condition of mind and at the 
same time as the correct behaviour of cosmic events. Psycholog- 
ically speaking, the domain of "gods" begins where conscious- 
ness leaves off, for at that point man is already at the mercy of 
the natural order, whether he thrive or perish. To the symbols 
of wholeness that come to him from there he attaches names 
which vary according to time and place. 

232 The self is defined psychologically as the psychic totality of 
the individual. Anything that a man postulates as being a 
greater totality than himself can become a symbol of the self. 
For this reason the symbol of the self is not always as total as 
the definition would require. Even the Christ-figure is not a 
totality, for it lacks the nocturnal side of the psyche's nature, 
the darkness of the spirit, and is also without sin. Without the 
integration of evil there is no totality, nor can evil be "added 
to the mixture by force." One could compare Christ as a sym- 
bol to the mean of the first mixture: he would then be the 
middle term of a triad, in which the One and Indivisible is 
represented by the Father, and the Divisible by the Holy Ghost, 
who, as we know, can divide himself into tongues of fire. But 

TKoepgen (p. 307) puts it very aptly: "J esus relates everything to his ego, but 
f&is ego is not the subjective ego, it is a cosmic ego." 

156 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

this triad, according to the Timaeus, is not yet a reality. Conse- 
quently a second mixture is needed. 

233 The goal of psychological, as of biological, development is 
self-realization, or individuation. But since man knows himself 
only as an ego, and the self, as a totality, is indescribable and 
indistinguishable from a God-image, self-realization to put it 
in religious or metaphysical terms amounts to God's incarna- 
tion. That is already expressed in the fact that Christ is the son 
of God. And because individuation is an heroic and often tragic 
task, the most difficult of all, it involves suffering, a passion of 
the ego: the ordinary, empirical man we once were is burdened 
with the fate of losing himself in a greater dimension and being 
robbed of his fancied freedom of will. He suffers, so to speak, 
from the violence done to him by the self. 8 The analogous 
passion of Christ signifies God's suffering on account of the in- 
justice of the world and the darkness of man. The human and 
the divine suffering set up a relationship of complementarity 
with compensating effects. Through the Christ-symbol, man can 
get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way 
towards realizing his wholeness. As a result of the integration of 
conscious and unconscious, his ego enters the "divine" realm, 
where it participates in "God's suffering." The cause of the 
suffering is in both cases the same, namely "incarnation," which 
on the human level appears as "individuation." The divine hero 
born of man is already threatened with murder; he has nowhere 
to lay his head, and his death is a gruesome tragedy. The self 
is no mere concept or logical postulate; it is a psychic reality, 
only part of it conscious, while for the rest it embraces the life 
of the unconscious and is therefore inconceivable except in the 
form of symbols. The drama of the archetypal life of Christ de- 
scribes in symbolic images the events in the conscious lifeas 
well as in the life that transcends consciousness of a man who 
has been transformed by his higher destiny. 



III. THE HOLY GHOST 

234 The psychological relationship between man and the trini- 
tarian life process is illustrated first by the human nature of 
8 Cf . Jacob's struggle with the angel at the ford. 

157 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION t WEST 



Christ, and second by the descent of the Holy Ghost and his in- 
dwelling in man, as predicted and promised by the Christian 
message. The life of Christ is on the one hand only a short, his- 
torical interlude for proclaiming the message, but on the other 
hand it is an exemplary demonstration of the psychic experi- 
ences connected with God's manifestation of himself (or the 
realization of the self). The important thing for man is not 
the dewvbjjLevov and the bp^vov (what is "shown" and "done"), 
but what happens afterwards: the seizure of the individual by 
the Holy Ghost. 

2 35 Here, however, we run into a great difficulty. For if we fol- 
low up the theory of the Holy Ghost and carry it a step further 
(which the Church has not done, for obvious reasons), we come 
inevitably to the conclusion that if the Father appears in the Son 
and breathes together with the Son, and the Son leaves the Holy 
Ghost behind for man, then the Holy Ghost breathes in man, 
too, and thus is the breath common to man, the Son, and the 
Father. Man is therefore included in God's sonship, and the 
words of Christ "Ye are gods" (John 10:34) appear in a sig- 
nificant light. The doctrine that the Paraclete was expressly left 
behind for man raises an enormous problem. The triadic for- 
mula of Plato would surely be the last word in the matter of 
logic, but psychologically it is not so at all, because the psycho- 
logical factor keeps on intruding in the most disturbing way. 
Why, in the name of all that's wonderful, wasn't it "Father, 
Mother, and Son?" That would be much more "reasonable" 
and "natural" than "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." To this we 
must answer: it is not just a question of a natural situation, but 
of a product of human reflection 9 added on to the natural se- 
quence of father and son. Through reflection, "life" and its 
"soul" are abstracted from Nature and endowed with a separate 
existence. Father and son are united in the same soul, or, accord- 
ing to the ancient Egyptian view, in the same procreative force, 

9 "Reflection" should be understood not simply as an act of thought, but rather 
as an attitude. [Cf, Psychological Types, Def. 8. EDITORS.] It is a privilege born 
of human freedom in contradistinction to the compulsion of natural law. As 
the word itself testifies ("reflection" means literally "bending back"), reflection is 
a spiritual act that runs counter to the natural process; an act whereby we stop, 
call something to mind, form a picture, and take up a relation to and come to 
terms with what we have seen. It should, therefore, be understood as an act of 
becoming conscious. 

158 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

Ka-mutef. Ka-mutef is exactly the same hypostatization of an 
attribute as the breath or "spiration" of the Godhead. 10 

This psychological fact spoils the abstract perfection of the 
triadic formula and makes it a logically incomprehensible con- 
struction, since, in some mysterious and unexpected way, an 
important mental process peculiar to man has been imported 
into it. If the Holy Ghost is, at one and the same time, the breath 
of life and a loving spirit and the Third Person in whom the 
whole trinitarian process culminates, then he is essentially a 
product of reflection, an hypostatized noumenon tacked on to 
the natural family-picture of father and son. It is significant that 
early Christian Gnosticism tried to get round this difficulty by 
interpreting the Holy Ghost as the Mother. 11 But that would 
merely have kept him within the archaic family-picture, within 
the tritheism and polytheism of the patriarchal world. It is, 
after all, perfectly natural that the father should have a family 
and that the son should embody the father. This train of thought 
is quite consistent with the father-world. On the other hand, 
the mother-interpretation would reduce the specific meaning 
of the Holy Ghost to a primitive image and destroy the most 
essential of the qualities attributed to him: not only is he the 
life common to Father and Son, he is also the Paraclete whom 
the Son left behind him, to procreate in man and bring forth 
works of divine parentage. It is of paramount importance that 
the idea of the Holy Ghost is not a natural image, but a recog- 
nition of the living quality of Father and Son, abstractly con- 
ceived as the "third" term between the One and the Other. Out 
of the tension of duality life always produces a "third" that 
seems somehow incommensurable or paradoxical. Hence, as the 
"third," the Holy Ghost is bound to be incommensurable and 
paradoxical too. Unlike Father and Son, he has no name and no 
character. He is a function, but that function is the Third Per- 
son of the Godhead. 

10 "Active spiration" is a manifestation of life, an immanent act of Father and 
Son; "passive spiration," on the other hand, is a quality of the Holy Ghost. 
According to St. Thomas, spiration does not proceed from the intellect but from 
the will of the Father and Son, In relation to the Son the Holy Ghost is not a 
spiration, but a procreative act of the Father. 

11 Cf. the Acts of Thomas (trans, by James, p. 388): "Come, O communion of the 
male; come, she that knoweth the mysteries of him that is chosen. . . . Come, 
holy dove that beareth the twin young; come, hidden mother." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



2 37 He is psychologically heterogeneous in that he cannot be 
logically derived from the father-son relationship and can only 
be understood as an idea introduced by a process of human 
reflection. The Holy Ghost is an exceedingly "abstract" concep- 
tion, since a "breath" shared by two figures characterized as dis- 
tinct and not mutually interchangeable can hardly be conceived 
at all. Hence one feels it to be an artificial construction of the 
mind, even though, as the Egyptian Ka-mutef concept shows, 
it seems somehow to belong to the very essence of the Trinity. 
Despite the fact that we cannot help seeing in the positing of 
such a concept a product of human reflection, this reflection 
need not necessarily have been a conscious act. It could equally 
well owe its existence to a "revelation," i.e., to an unconscious 
reflection, 12 and hence to an autonomous functioning of the un- 
conscious, or rather of the self, whose symbols, as we have al- 
ready said, cannot be distinguished from God-images. A religious 
interpretation will therefore insist that this hypostasis was a 
divine revelation. While it cannot raise any objections to such a 
notion, psychology must hold fast to the conceptual nature of 
the hypostasis, for in the last analysis the Trinity, too, is an 
anthropomorphic configuration, gradually taking shape through 
strenuous mental and spiritual effort, even though already 
preformed by the timeless archetype. 

238 This separating, recognizing, and assigning of qualities is a 
mental activity which, although unconscious at first, gradually 
filters through to consciousness as the work proceeds. What 
started off by merely happening to consciousness later becomes 
integrated in it as its own activity. So long as a mental or indeed 
any psychic process at all is unconscious, it is subject to the law 
governing archetypal dispositions, which are organized and 
arranged round the self. And since the self cannot be dis- 
tinguished from an archetypal God-image, it would be equally 
true to say of any such arrangement that it conforms to natural 
law and that it is an act of God's will. (Every metaphysical state- 
ment is, ipso facto , unprovable). Inasmuch, then, as acts of cogni- 
tion and judgment are essential qualities of consciousness, any 
accumulation of unconscious acts of this sort 13 will have the 

12 For this seeming contradictio in adjecto see "On the Nature of the Psyche" 
0954/55 edn., p. 383). 

13 The existence of such processes is evidenced by the content of dreams. 

160 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

effect of strengthening and widening consciousness, as one can 
see for oneself in any thorough analysis of the unconscious. 
Consequently, man's achievement of consciousness appears as 
the result of prefigurative archetypal processes or to put it 
metaphysically as part of the divine life-process. In other 
words, God becomes manifest in the human act of reflection. 

239 The nature of this conception (i.e., the hypostatizing of a 
quality) meets the need evinced by primitive thought to form a 
more or less abstract idea by endowing each individual quality 
with a concrete existence of its own. Just as the Holy Ghost is 
a legacy left to man, so, conversely, the concept of the Holy 
Ghost is something begotten by man and bears the stamp of its 
human progenitor. And just as Christ took on man's bodily 
nature, so through the Holy Ghost man as a spiritual force is 
surreptitiously included in the mystery of the Trinity, thereby 
raising it far above the naturalistic level of the triad and thus 
beyond the Platonic triunity. The Trinity, therefore, discloses 
itself as a symbol that comprehends the essence of the divine and 
the human. It is, as Koepgen 14 says, "a revelation not only of 
God but at the same time of man." 

240 The Gnostic interpretation of the Holy Ghost as the Mother 
contains a core of truth in that Mary was the instrument of 
God's birth and so became involved in the trinitarian drama as 
a human being. The Mother of God can, therefore, be regarded 
as a symbol of mankind's essential participation in the Trinity. 
The psychological justification for this assumption lies in the 
fact that thinking, which originally had its source in the self- 
revelations of the unconscious, was felt to be the manifestation 
of a power external to consciousness. The primitive does not 
think; the thoughts come to him. We ourselves still feel certain 
particularly enlightening ideas as "in-fluences," "in-spirations," 
etc. Where judgments and flashes of insight are transmitted by 
unconscious activity, they are often attributed to an archetypal 
feminine figure, the anima or mother-beloved. It then seems as 
if the inspiration came from the mother or from the beloved, 
the "femme inspiratrice." In view of this, the Holy Ghost 
would have a tendency to exchange his neuter designation (TO 
7rpVfj,(i ) for a feminine one. (It may be noted that the Hebrew 
word for spirit ruach is predominantly feminine.) Holy Ghost 

14 Die Gnosis des Ghristentums, p. 194. 

161 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



and Logos merge in the Gnostic idea of Sophia, and again in the 
Sapientia of the medieval natural philosophers, who said of her: 
"In gremio matris sedet sapientia patris" (the wisdom of the 
father lies in the lap of the mother). These psychological rela- 
tionships do something to explain why the Holy Ghost was 
interpreted as the mother, but they add nothing to our under- 
standing of the Holy Ghost as such, because it is impossible to 
see how the mother could come third when her natural place 
would be second. 

241 Since the Holy Ghost is an hypostasis of "life," posited by an 
act of reflection, he appears, on account of his peculiar nature, 
as a separate and incommensurable "third/ 5 whose very pecu- 
liarities testify that it is neither a compromise nor a mere 
triadic appendage, but rather the logically unexpected reso- 
lution of tension between Father and Son. The fact that it is 
precisely a process of human reflection that irrationally creates 
the uniting "third" is itself connected with the nature of the 
drama of redemption, whereby God descends into the human 
realm and man mounts up to the realm of divinity. 

242 Thinking in the magic circle of the Trinity, or trinitarian 
thinking, is in truth motivated by the "Holy Spirit" in so far as 
it is never a question of mere cogitation but of giving expression 
to imponderable psychic events. The driving forces that work 
themselves out in this thinking are not conscious motives; they 
come from an historical occurrence rooted, in its turn, in those 
obscure psychic assumptions for which one could hardly find a 
better or more succinct formula than the "change from father to 
son," from unity to duality, from non-reflection to criticism. To 
the extent that personal motives are lacking in trinitarian think- 
ing, and the forces motivating it derive from impersonal and 
collective psychic conditions, it expresses a need of the un- 
conscious psyche far surpassing all personal needs. This need, 
aided by human thought, produced the symbol of the Trinity, 
which was destined to serve as a saving formula of wholeness in 
an epoch of change and psychic transformation. Manifestations 
of a psychic activity not caused or consciously willed by man 
himself have always been felt to be daemonic, divine, or "holy," 
in the sense that they heal and make whole. His ideas of God 
behave as do all images arising out of the unconscious: they com- 
pensate or complete the general mood or attitude of the mo- 

162 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ment, and it is only through the integration of these unconscious 
images that a man becomes a psychic whole. The "merely con- 
scious" man who is all ego is a mere fragment, in so far as he 
seems to exist apart from the unconscious. But the more the un- 
conscious is split off, the more formidable the shape in which it 
appears to the conscious mind if not in divine form, then in 
the more unfavourable form of obsessions and outbursts of 
affect. 15 Gods are personifications of unconscious contents, for 
they reveal themselves to us through the unconscious activity of 
the psyche. 16 Trinitarian thinking had something of the same 
quality, and its passionate profundity rouses in us latecomers 
a naive astonishment. We no longer know, or have not yet dis- 
covered, what depths in the soul were stirred by that great turn- 
ing-point in human history. The Holy Ghost seems to have 
faded away without having found the answer to the question he 
set humanity. 

15 In the Rituale Romanum ("On the Exorcism of Persons Possessed by the 
Devil": 1952 edn., pp. 8398:.), states of possession are expressly distinguished from 
diseases. We are told that the exorcist must learn to know the signs hy which 
the possessed person may be distinguished from "those suffering from melancholy 
or any morbid condition." The criteria of possession are: "... speaking fluently 
in unknown tongues or understanding those who speak them; revealing things 
that take place at a distance or in secret; giving evidence of greater strength 
than is natural in view of one's age or condition; and other things of the same 
kind." The Church's idea of possession, therefore, is limited to extremely rare 
cases, whereas I would use it in a much wider sense as designating a frequently 
occurring psychic phenomenon: any autonomous complex not subject to the 
conscious will exerts a possessive effect on consciousness proportional to its 
strength and limits the latter's freedom. On the question of the Church's distinc- 
tion between disease and possession, see Tonquedec, Les Maladies nerueuses ou 
mentales et les manifestations diaboliques. 

16 1 am always coming up against the misunderstanding that a psychological treat- 
ment or explanation reduces God to "nothing but" psychology. It is not a question 
of God at all, but of man's ideas of God, as I have repeatedly emphasized. There 
are people who do have such ideas and who form such conceptions, and these 
things are the proper study of psychology. 



163 



5. THE PROBLEM OF THE FOURTH 



I. THE CONCEPT OF QUATERNITY 

243 The TimaeuSy which was the first to propound a triadic for- 
mula for the God-image in philosophical terms, starts off with 
the ominous question: "One, two, three but . , . where is the 
fourth?" This question is, as we know, taken up again in the 
Cabiri scene in Faust: 

Three we brought with us, 

The fourth would not come. 
He was the right one 

Who thought for them all. 

244 When Goethe says that the fourth was the one "who thought 
for them all/' we rather suspect that the fourth was Goethe's 
own thinking function. 1 The Cabiri are, in fact, the mysterious 
creative powers, the gnomes who work under the earth, i.e., 
below the threshold of consciousness, in order to supply us with 
lucky ideas. As imps and hobgoblins, however, they also play 
all sorts of nasty tricks, keeping back names and dates that were 

i "Feeling is all; / Names are sound and smoke." [This problem of the "fourth" 
in Faust is also discussed in Psychology and Alchemy, pp. i48ff. -EDITORS.] 

164 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

"on the tip of the tongue," making us say the wrong thing, etc. 
They give an eye to everything that has not already been antici- 
pated by the conscious mind and the functions at its disposal. 
As these functions can be used consciously only because they 
are adapted, it follows that the unconscious, autonomous func- 
tion is not or cannot be used consciously because it is unadapted. 
The differentiated and differentiable functions are much easier 
to cope with, and, for understandable reasons, we prefer to leave 
the "inferior" function round the corner, or to repress it alto- 
gether, because it is such an awkward customer. And it is a fact 
that it has the strongest tendency to be infantile, banal, primi- 
tive, and archaic. Anybody who has a high opinion of himself 
will do well to guard against letting it make a fool of him. On 
the other hand, deeper insight will show that the primitive and 
archaic qualities of the inferior function conceal all sorts of 
significant relationships and symbolical meanings, and instead 
of laughing off the Cabiri as ridiculous Tom Thumbs he may 
begin to suspect that they are a treasure-house of hidden wis- 
dom. Just as, in Faust, the fourth thinks for them all, so the 
whereabouts of the eighth should be asked "on Olympus." 
Goethe showed great insight in not underestimating his inferior 
function, thinking, although it was in the hands of the Cabiri 
and was undoubtedly mythological and archaic. He character- 
izes it perfectly in the line: "The fourth would not come." 
Exactly! It wanted for some reason to stay behind or below. 2 
245 Three of the four orienting functions are available to con- 
sciousness. This is confirmed by the psychological experience 
that a rational type, for instance, whose superior function is 
thinking, has at his disposal one, or possibly two, auxiliary func- 
tions of an irrational nature, namely sensation (the "fonction du 
reel") and intuition (perception via the unconscious). His in- 
ferior function will be feeling (valuation), which remains in a 
retarded state and is contaminated with the unconscious. It 
refuses to come along with the others and often goes wildly off 
on its own. This peculiar dissociation is, it seems, a product of 
civilization, and it denotes a freeing of consciousness from any 
excessive attachment to the "spirit of gravity." If that function, 
which is still bound indissolubly to the past and whose roots 

2 Cf. Psychological Types, Del 30. 

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PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



reach back as far as the animal kingdom, 3 can be left behind 
and even forgotten, then consciousness has won for itself a new 
and not entirely illusory freedom. It can leap over abysses on 
winged feet; it can free itself from bondage to sense-impressions, 
emotions, fascinating thoughts, and presentiments by soaring 
into abstraction. Certain primitive initiations stress the idea of 
transformation into ghosts and invisible spirits and thereby 
testify to the relative emancipation of consciousness from the 
fetters of non-differentiation. Although there is a tendency, 
characteristic not only of primitive religions, to speak rather 
exaggeratedly of complete transformation, complete renewal 
and rebirth, it is, of course, only a relative change, continuity 
with the earlier state being in large measure preserved. Were it 
otherwise, every religious transformation would bring about a 
complete splitting of the personality or a loss of memory, which 
is obviously not so. The connection with the earlier attitude is 
maintained because part of the personality remains behind in 
the previous situation; that is to say it lapses into unconscious- 
ness and starts building up the shadow. 4 The loss makes itself 
felt in consciousness through the absence of at least one of the 
four orienting functions, and the missing function is always the 
opposite of the superior function. The loss need not necessarily 
take the form of complete absence; in other words, the inferior 
function may be either unconscious or conscious, but in both 
cases it is autonomous and obsessive and not influenceable by 
the will. It has the "all-or-none" character of an instinct. Al- 
though emancipation from the instincts brings a differentiation 
and enhancement of consciousness, it can only come about at the 
expense of the unconscious function, so that conscious orienta- 
tion lacks that element which the inferior function could have 
supplied. Thus it often happens that people who have an amaz- 
ing range of consciousness know less about themselves than the 
veriest infant, and all because "the fourth would not come" 

3Cf. the Hymn of Valentinus (Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 307): 
"All things depending in spirit I see; all things supported in spirit I view; flesh 
from soul depending; soul by air supported; air from aether hanging; fruits born 
of the deep; babe born of the womb." Cf. also the Trpocr^vTfc \pvxfj of Isidorus, 
who supposed that all manner of animal qualities attached to the human soul 
in the form of "outgrowths." 

4 Cf. the alchemical symbol of the umbra soils and the Gnostic idea that Christ 
was born "not without some shadow." 

166 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

it remained down below or up above in the unconscious 
realm. 

246 As compared with the trinitarian thinking o Plato, ancient 
Greek philosophy favoured thinking of a quaternary type. In 
Pythagoras the great role was played not by three but by four: 
the Pythagorean oath, for instance, says that the tetraktys "con- 
tains the roots of eternal nature." 5 The Pythagorean school was 
dominated by the idea that the soul was a square and not a 
triangle. The origin of these ideas lies far back in the dark pre- 
history of Greek thought. The quaternity is an archetype of 
almost universal occurrence. It forms the logical basis for any 
whole judgment. If one wishes to pass such a judgment, it must 
have this fourfold aspect. For instance, if you want to describe 
the horizon as a whole, you name the four quarters of heaven. 
Three is not a natural coefficient of order, but an artificial one. 
There are always four elements, four prime qualities, four 
colours, four castes, four ways of spiritual development, etc. 
So, too, there are four aspects of psychological orientation, be- 
yond which nothing fundamental remains to be said. In order 
to orient ourselves, we must have a function which ascertains 
that something is there (sensation); a second function which 
establishes what it is (thinking); a third function which states 
whether it suits us or not, whether we wish to accept it or not 
(feeling); and a fourth function which indicates where it came 
from and where it is going (intuition). When this has been done, 
there is nothing more to say. Schopenhauer proves that the 
"Principle of Sufficient Reason" has a fourfold root. 6 This is 
so because the fourfold aspect is the minimum requirement for 
a complete judgment. The ideal of completeness is the circle 
or sphere, but its natural minimal division is a quaternity. 

247 Now if Plato had had the idea of the Christian Trinity 7 
which of course he did not and had on that account placed his 
triad above everything, one would be bound to object that this 
cannot be a whole judgment. A necessary fourth would be left 

5 The four pif&juara of Empedocles. 

6 "On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason," in Two Essays 
by Arthur Schopenhauer. 

i In Plato the quaternity takes the form of a cube, which he correlates with earth. 
Lii Pu-wei (Friihling und Herbst, trans, into German by Wilhelm, p. 38) says: 
"Heaven's way is round, earth's way is square." 

167 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



out; or, if Plato took the three-sided figure as symbolic of the 
Beautiful and the Good and endowed it with all positive quali- 
ties, he would have had to deny evil and imperfection to it. In 
that case, what has become of them? The Christian answer is 
that evil is a privatio boni. This classic formula robs evil of 
absolute existence and makes it a shadow that has only a relative 
existence dependent on light. Good, on the other hand, is 
credited with a positive substantiality. But, as psychological ex- 
perience shows, "good" and "evil" are opposite poles of a moral 
judgment which, as such, originates in man. A judgment can be 
made about a thing only if its opposite is equally real and pos- 
sible. The opposite of a seeming evil can only be a seeming 
good, and an evil that lacks substance can only be contrasted 
with a good that is equally non-substantial. Although the op- 
posite of "existence" is "non-existence," the opposite of an 
existing good can never be a non-existing evil, for the latter is 
a contradiction in terms and opposes to an existing good some- 
thing incommensurable with it; the opposite of a non-existing 
(negative) evil can only be a non-existing (negative) good. If, 
therefore, evil is said to be a mere privation of good, the opposi- 
tion of good and evil is denied outright. How can one speak of 
"good" at all if there is no "evil"? Or of "light" if there is no 
"darkness," or of "above" if there is no "below"? There is no 
getting round the fact that if you allow substantiality to good, 
you must also allow it to evil. If evil has no substance, good must 
remain shadowy, for there is no substantial opponent for it to 
defend itself against, but only a shadow, a mere privation of 
good. Such a view can hardly be squared with observed reality. 
It is difficult to avoid the impression that apotropaic tendencies 
have had a hand in creating this notion, with the understand- 
able intention of settling the painful problem of evil as optimis- 
tically as possible. Often it is just as well that we do not know 
the danger we escape when we rush in where angels fear to 
tread. 

248 Christianity also deals with the problem in another way, by 
asserting that evil has substance and personality as the devil, or 
Lucifer. There is one view which allows the devil a malicious, 
goblin-like existence only, thus making him the insignificant 
head of an insignificant tribe of wood-imps and poltergeists. An- 
other view grants him a more dignified status, depending on the 

168 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

degree to which it identifies him with "ills" in general. How far 
"ills" may be identified with "evil" is a controversial question. 
The Church distinguishes between physical ills and moral ills. 
The former may be willed by divine Providence (e.g., for man's 
improvement), the latter not, because sin cannot be willed by 
God even as a means to an end. It would be difficult to verify the 
Church's view in concrete instances, for psychic and somatic dis- 
orders are "ills," and, as illnesses, they are moral as well as physi- 
cal. At all events there is a view which holds that the devil, 
though created, is autonomous and eternal. In addition, he is 
the adversary of Christ: by infecting our first parents with origi- 
nal sin he corrupted creation and made the Incarnation neces- 
sary for God's work of salvation. In so doing he acted according 
to his own judgment, as in the Job episode, where he was even 
able to talk God round. The devil's prowess on these occasions 
hardly squares with his alleged shadow-existence as the privatio 
boni, which, as we have said, looks very like a euphemism. The 
devil as an autonomous and eternal personality is much more in 
keeping with his role as the adversary of Christ and with the 
psychological reality of evil. 

249 But if the devil has the power to put a spoke in God's Crea- 
tion, or even corrupt it, and God does nothing to stop this nefari- 
ous activity and leaves it all to man (who is notoriously stupid, 
unconscious, and easily led astray), then, despite all assurances 
to the contrary, the evil spirit must be a factor of quite incal- 
culable potency. In this respect, anyhow, the dualism of the 
Gnostic systems makes sense, because they at least try to do jus- 
tice to the real meaning of evil. They have also done us the 
supreme service of having gone very thoroughly into the ques- 
tion of where evil comes from. Biblical tradition leaves us very 
much in the dark on this point, and it is only too obvious why 
the old theologians were in no particular hurry to enlighten us. 
In a monotheistic religion everything that goes against God can 
only be traced back to God himself. This thought is objection- 
able, to say the least of it, and has therefore to be circumvented. 
That is the deeper reason why a highly influential personage like 
the devil cannot be accommodated properly in a trinitarian cos- 
mos. It is difficult to make out in what relation he stands to the 
Trinity. As the adversary of Christ, he would have to take up an 

169 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



equivalent counterposition and be, like him, a "son of God." 8 
But that would lead straight back to certain Gnostic views ac- 
cording to which the devil, as Satanael, 9 is God's first son, Christ 
being the second. 9a A further logical inference would be the abo- 
lition of the Trinity formula and its replacement by a quater- 
nity. 

*5 The idea of a quaternity of divine principles was violently 
attacked by the Church Fathers when an attempt was made to 
add a fourth God's "essence" to the Three Persons of the 
Trinity. This resistance to the quaternity is very odd, consider- 
ing that the central Christian symbol, the Cross, is unmistakably 
a quaternity. The Cross, however, symbolizes God's suffering 
in his immediate encounter with the world. 10 The "prince of 
this world," the devil (John 12 : 31, 14: 30), vanquishes the God- 
man at this point, although by so doing he is presumably pre- 
paring his own defeat and digging his own grave. According to 
an old view, Christ is the "bait on the hook" (the Cross), with 
which he catches "Leviathan" (the devil). 11 It is therefore sig- 
nificant that the Cross, set up midway between heaven and hell 
as a symbol of Christ's struggle with the devil, corresponds to 
the quaternity. 

5* Medieval iconology, embroidering on the old speculations 
about the Theotokos, evolved a quaternity symbol in its repre- 
sentations of the coronation of the Virgin 12 and surreptitiously 
put it in place of the Trinity. The Assumption of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, i.e., the taking up of Mary's soul into heaven with 
her body,, is admitted as ecclesiastical doctrine but has not yet 
become dogma. 13 Although Christ, too, rose up with his body, 

8 In her "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament" (Symbolik des Geistes, pp. 
i53ff.), Riwkah Scharf shows that Satan is in fact one of God's sons, at any rate 
in the Old Testament sense. 

9 The suffix -el means god, so Satanael = Satan-God. 

9a Michael Psellus, "De Daemonibus," 1497, fol. NVv, ed. M. Ficino. Cf. also 
Epiphanius, Panarium, Haer. XXX, in Migne, P.G., vol. 41, cols. 4o6ff. 

10 Cf. Przywara's meditations on the Cross and its relation to God in Deus Semper 
Major., I. Also the early Christian interpretation of the Cross in the Acts of John, 
trans, by James, pp. 2s8ff. n Herrad of Landsberg, Hortus Deliciarum. 

12 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 315$., and the first paper in this volume, 
pars. i22ff. 

13 As this doctrine has already got beyond the stage of "conclusio probabilis" and 
has reached that of "conclusio certa," the "definitio sollemnis" is now only a 
matter of time. The Assumption is, doctrinally speaking, a "revelatum im- 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

this has a rather different meaning, since Christ was a divinity 
in the first place and Mary was not. In her case the body would 
have been a much more material one than Christ's, much more 
an element of space-time reality. 14 Ever since the Timaeus the 
"fourth" has signified "realization/' i.e., entry into an essentially 
different condition, that o worldly materiality, which, it is 
authoritatively stated, is ruled by the Prince of this world for 
matter is the diametrical opposite of spirit. It is the true abode 
of the devil, whose hellish hearth-fire burns deep in the interior 
of the earth, while the shining spirit soars in the aether, freed 
from the shackles of gravity. 

252 The Assumptio Mariae paves the way not only for the di- 
vinity of the Theotokos (i.e., her ultimate recognition as a 
goddess), 15 but also for the quaternity. At the same time, matter 
is included in the metaphysical realm, together with the cor- 
rupting principle of the cosmos, evil. One can explain that 
matter was originally pure, or at least capable of purity, but this 
does not do away with the fact that matter represents the con- 
creteness of God's thoughts and is, therefore, the very thing that 
makes individuation possible, with all its consequences. The 
adversary is, quite logically, conceived to be the soul of matter, 
because they both constitute a point of resistance without which 

plicitum"; that is to say, it has never been revealed explicitly, but, in the gradual 
course of development, it became clear as an original content of the Revelation. 
(Cf. Wiederkehr, Die leibliche Aufnahme der allerseligsten Jungfrau Maria in 
den Himmel.) From the psychological standpoint, however, and in terms of the 
history of symbols, this view is a consistent and logical restoration of the 
archetypal situation, in which the exalted status of Mary is revealed implicitly 
and must therefore become a "conclusio certa" in the course of time. 

[This note was written in 1948, two years before the promulgation of the 
dogma. The bodily assumption of Mary into heaven was defined as a dogma of 
the Catholic faith by Pope Pius XII in November 1950 by the Apostolic Consti- 
tution Munificentissimus Deus (Ada Apostolicae Sedis, Rome, XLII, pp. 753ff-)> 
and in an Encyclical Letter, Ad Caeli Reginam, of October 11, 1954, the same 
Pope instituted a feast to be observed yearly in honour of Mary's "regalis dig- 
nitas" as Queen of Heaven and Earth (Ada Apostolicae Sedis, XLVI, pp. 625^.). 
EDITORS.] 

14 Although the assumption of Mary is of fundamental significance, it was not 
the first case of this kind. Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven with their 
bodies, and many holy men rose from their graves when Christ died, 
is Her divinity may be regarded as a tacit conclusio probabilis, and so too may 
the worship or adoration (Tpoovcforjo-w) to which she is entitled. 

171 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



the relative autonomy of individual existence would be simply 
unthinkable. The will to be different and contrary is character- 
istic of the devil, just as disobedience was the hallmark of orig- 
inal sin. These, as we have said, are the necessary conditions for 
the Creation and ought, therefore, to be included in the divine 
plan and ultimately in the divine realm. 16 But the Christian 
definition of God as the summum bonum excludes the Evil One 
right from the start, despite the fact that in the Old Testament 
he was still one of the "sons of God." Hence the devil remained 
outside the Trinity as the "ape of God" and in opposition to it. 
Medieval representations of the triune God as having three 
heads are based on the three-headedness of Satan, as we find it, 
for instance, in Dante. This would point to an infernal Anti- 
trinity, a true "umbra trinitatis" analogous to the Antichrist. 17 
The devil is, undoubtedly, an awkward figure: he is the "odd 
man out" in the Christian cosmos. That is why people would 
like to minimize his importance by euphemistic ridicule or by 
ignoring his existence altogether; or, better still, to lay the 
blame for him at man's door. This is in fact done by the very 
people who would protest mightily if sinful man should credit 
himself, equally, with the origin of all good. A glance at the 
Scriptures, however, is enough to show us the importance of 
the devil in the divine drama of redemption. 18 If the power of 
the Evil One had been as feeble as certain persons would wish it 
to appear, either the world would not have needed God himself 
to come down to it or it would have lain within the power of 
man to set the world to rights, which has certainly not hap- 
pened so far. 

16 Koepgen (p. 185) expresses himself in similar terms: "The essence of the devil 
is his hatred for God; and God allows this hatred. There are two things which 
Divine Omnipotence alone makes possible: Satan's hatred and the existence of 
the human individual. Both are by nature completely inexplicable. But so, too, 
is their relationship to God." 

IT Just how alive and ingrained such conceptions are can be seen from the title 
of a modern book by Sosnosky, Die rote Dreifaltigkeit: Jakobiner und Bolsche- 
viken ["The Red Trinity: Jacobins and Bolsheviks"]. 

18 Koepgen's views are not so far from my own in certain respects. For instance, 
he says that "Satan acts, in a sense, as God's power. . . . The mystery of one God 
in Three Persons opens out a new freedom in the depths of God's being, and this 
even makes possible the thought of a personal devil existing alongside God and 
in opposition to him" (p. 186). 

172 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

253 Whatever the metaphysical position of the devil may be, in 
psychological reality evil is an effective, not to say menacing, 
limitation of goodness, so that it is no exaggeration to assume 
that in this world good and evil more or less cancel each other 
out, like day and night, and that this is the reason why the vic- 
tory of the good is always a special act of grace. 

254 If we disregard the specifically Persian system of dualism, it 
appears that no real devil is to be found anywhere in the early 
period of man's spiritual development. In the Old Testament, 
he is vaguely foreshadowed in the figure of Satan. But the real 
devil first appears as the adversary of Christ, 19 and with him we 
gaze for the first time into the luminous realm of divinity on 
the one hand and into the abyss of hell on the other. The devil 
is autonomous; he cannot be brought under God's rule, for if 
he could he would not have the power to be the adversary of 
Christ, but would only be God's instrument. Once the inde- 
finable One unfolds into two, it becomes something definite: the 
man Jesus, the Son and Logos. This statement is possible only 
by virtue of something else that is not Jesus, not Son or Logos. 
The act of love embodied in the Son is counterbalanced by 
Lucifer's denial. 

255 Inasmuch as the devil was an angel created by God and "fell 
like lightning from heaven/' he too is a divine "procession" 
that became Lord of this world. It is significant that the Gnostics 
thought of him sometimes as the imperfect demiurge and some- 
times as the Saturnine archon, laldabaoth. Pictorial representa- 
tions of this archon correspond in every detail with those of a 
diabolical demon. He symbolized the power of darkness from 
which Christ came to rescue humanity. The archons issued from 
the womb of the unfathomable abyss, i.e., from the same source 
that produced the Gnostic Christ. 

256 A medieval thinker observed that when God separated the 
upper waters from the lower on the second day of Creation, he 
did not say in the evening, as he did on all the other days, that 
it was good. And he did not say it because on that day he had 

l Since Satan, like Christ, is a son of God, it is evident that we have here the 
archetype of the hostile brothers. The Old Testament prefiguration would there- 
fore be Cain and Abel and their sacrifice. Cain has a Luciferian nature because 
of his rebellious progressiveness, but Abel is the pious shepherd. At all events, 
the vegetarian trend got no encouragement from Yahweh. 

173 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



created the binariuSj the origin of all evil. 20 We come across a 
similar idea in Persian literature, where the origin of Ahriman 
is attributed to a doubting thought in Ahura-Mazda's mind. If 
we think in non-trinitarian terms, the logic of the following 
schema seems inescapable: 



257 So it is not strange that we should meet the idea of Antichrist 
so early. It was probably connected on the one hand with the 
astrological synchronicity of the dawning aeon of Pisces, 21 and 
on the other hand with the increasing realization of the duality 
postulated by the Son, which in turn is prefigured in the fish 
symbol: )-(, showing two fishes, joined by a commissure, moving 
in opposite directions. 22 It would be absurd to put any kind of 
causal construction on these events. Rather, it is a question of 
preconscious, prefigurative connections between the archetypes 
themselves, suggestions of which can be traced in other constella- 
tions as well and above all in the formation of myths. 

258 In our diagram, Christ and the devil appear as equal and 
opposite, thus conforming to the idea of the "adversary." This 
opposition means conflict to the last, and it is the task of human- 
ity to endure this conflict until the time or turning-point is 
reached where good and evil begin to relativize themselves, to 
doubt themselves, and the cry is raised for a morality "beyond 
good and evil." In the age of Christianity and in the domain of 
trinitarian thinking such an idea is simply out of the question, 
because the conflict is too violent for evil to be assigned any 
other logical relation to the Trinity than that of an absolute 
opposite. In an emotional opposition, i.e., in a conflict situation, 

20 See the first paper in this volume, par. 104. 

21 In antiquity, regard for astrology was nothing at all extraordinary. [Cf. "Syn- 
chronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle" (1955 e ^n., pp. 6off.) and Aion, ch. 
6. EDITORS.] 

22 This applies to the zodion of the Fishes. In the astronomical constellation it- 
self, the fish that corresponds approximately to the first 1,000 years of our era is 
vertical, but the other fish is horizontal. 

174 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

thesis and antithesis cannot be viewed together at the same time. 
This only becomes possible with cooler assessment of the rela- 
tive value of good and the relative non-value of evil. Then it 
can no longer be doubted, either, that a common life unites not 
only the Father and the "light" son, but the Father and his dark 
emanation. The unspeakable conflict posited by duality resolves 
itself in a fourth principle, which restores the unity of the first 
in its full development. The rhythm is built up in three steps, 
but the resultant symbol is a quaternity. 




SPIRIT 



259 The dual aspect of the Father is by no means unknown to 
religious speculation. 23 This is proved by the allegory of the 
monoceros, or unicorn, who symbolizes Yahweh's angry moodi- 
ness. Like this irritable beast, he reduced the world to chaos and 
could only be moved to love in the lap of a pure virgin. 24 
Luther was familiar with a deus absconditus. Murder, sudden 
death, war, sickness, crime, and every kind of abomination fall 
in with the unity of God. If God reveals his nature and takes on 
definite form as a man, then the opposites in him must fly apart: 
here good, there evil. So it was that the opposites latent in the 
Deity flew apart when the Son was begotten and manifested 
themselves in the struggle between Christ and the devil, with 
the Persian Ormuzd-Ahriman antithesis, perhaps, as the under- 

23 God's antithetical nature is also expressed in his androgynity. Priscillian there- 
fore calls him "masculofoemina," on the basis of Genesis i : 27: "So God created 
man in his own image . . . male and female created he them." 

24 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 52off. 

175 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



lying model. The world of the Son is the world of moral discord, 
without which human consciousness could hardly have pro- 
gressed so far as it has towards mental and spiritual differentia- 
tion. That we are not unreservedly enthusiastic about this 
progress is shown by the fits of doubt to which our modern con- 
sciousness is subject. 

260 Despite the fact that he is potentially redeemed, the Chris- 
tian is given over to moral suffering, and in his suffering he 
needs the Comforter, the Paraclete. He cannot overcome the 
conflict on his own resources; after all, he didn't invent it. He 
has to rely on divine comfort and mediation, that is to say on 
the spontaneous revelation of the spirit, which does not obey 
man's will but comes and goes as it wills. This spirit is an 
autonomous psychic happening, a hush that follows the storm, 
a reconciling light in the darknesses of man's mind, secretly 
bringing order into the chaos of his soul. The Holy Ghost is a 
comforter like the Father, a mute, eternal, unfathomable One 
in whom God's love and God's terribleness come together in 
wordless union. And through this union the original meaning 
of the still-unconscious Father-world is restored and brought 
within the scope of human experience and reflection. Looked at 
from a quaternary standpoint, the Holy Ghost is a reconciliation 
of opposites and hence the answer to the suffering in the God- 
head which Christ personifies. 

261 The Pythagorean quaternity was a natural phenomenon, an 
archetypal image, but it was not yet a moral problem, let alone 
a divine drama. Therefore it "went underground." It was a 
purely naturalistic, intuitive idea born of the nature-bound 
mind. The gulf that Christianity opened out between nature 
and spirit enabled the human mind to think not only beyond 
nature but in opposition to it, thus demonstrating its divine 
freedom, so to speak. This flight from the darkness of nature's 
depths culminates in trinitarian thinking, which moves in a 
Platonic, "supracelestial" realm. But the question of the fourth, 
rightly or wrongly, remained. It stayed down "below," and from 
there threw up the heretical notion of the quaternity and the 
speculations of Hermetic philosophy. 

* 6 2 In this connection I would like to call attention to Gerhard 
Dorn, a physician and alchemist, and a native of Frankfurt. He 
took great exception to the traditional quaternity of the basic 

176 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

principles of his art, and also to the fourfold nature of its goal, 
the lapis philosophorum. It seemed to him that this was a heresy, 
since the principle that ruled the world was a Trinity. The 
quaternity must therefore be of the devil. 25 Four, he maintained, 
was a doubling of two, and two was made on the second day of 
Creation, but God was obviously not altogether pleased with the 
result of his handiwork that evening. The binarius is the devil 
of discord and, what is worse, of feminine nature. (In East and 
West alike even numbers are feminine.) The cause of dissatis- 
faction was that, on this ominous second day of Creation, just 
as with Ahura-Mazda, a split was revealed in God's nature. Out 
of it crept the "four-horned serpent/' who promptly succeeded 
in seducing Eve, because she was related to him by reason of her 
binary nature. ("Man was created by God, woman by the ape of 
God.") 

263 The devil is the aping shadow of God, the torliunQv OTeu/za, 
in Gnosticism and also in Greek alchemy. He is "Lord of this 
world," in whose shadow man was born, fatally tainted with the 
original sin brought about by the devil. Christ, according to the 
Gnostic view, cast off the shadow he was born with and re- 
mained without sin. His sinlessness proves his essential lack of 
contamination with the dark world of nature-bound man, 
who tries in vain to shake off this darkness. ("Uns bleibt ein 
Erdenrest / zu tragen peinlich." 26 ) Man's connection with 
physis, with the material world and its demands, is the cause of 
his anomalous position: on the one hand he has the capacity for 
enlightenment, on the other he is in thrall to the Lord of this 
world. ("Who will deliver me from the body of this death?") 
On account of his sinlessness, Christ on the contrary lives in 
the Platonic realm of pure ideas whither only man's thought can 
reach, but not he himself in his totality. Man is, in truth, the 
bridge spanning the gulf between "this world" the realm of 
the dark Tricephalus and the heavenly Trinity. That is why, 
even in the days of unqualified belief in the Trinity, there was 
always a quest for the lost fourth, from the time of the Neo- 
pythagoreans down to Goethe's Faust. Although these seekers 
thought of themselves as Christians, they were really Christians 

25 Cf. above, pars. io4ff. 

26 Faust, Part II, Act 5. ("Earth's residue to bear / Hath sorely pressed us." Trans, 
by Bayard Taylor.) 

177 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



only on the side, devoting their lives to a work whose purpose it 
was to redeem the "four-horned serpent," the fallen Lucifer, 
and to free the anima mundi imprisoned in matter. What in 
their view lay hidden in matter was the lumen luminum, the 
Sapientia Dei, and their work was a "gift of the Holy Spirit." 
Our quaternity formula confirms the Tightness of their claims; 
for the Holy Ghost, as the synthesis of the original One which 
then became split, issues from a source that is both light and 
dark. 'Tor the powers of the right and the left unite in the 
harmony of wisdom/' we are told in the Acts of John. 27 
264 It will have struck the reader that two corresponding ele- 
ments cross one another in our quaternity schema. On the one 
hand we have the polaristic identity of Christ and his adversary, 
and on the other the unity of the Father unfolded in the multi- 
plicity of the Holy Ghost. The resultant cross is the symbol of 
the suffering Godhead that redeems mankind. This suffering 
could not have occurred, nor could it have had any effect at all, 
had it not been for the existence of a power opposed to God, 
namely "this world" and its Lord. The quaternity schema recog- 
nizes the existence of this power as an undeniable fact by fetter- 
ing trinitarian thinking to the reality of this world. The Platonic 
freedom of the spirit does not make a whole judgment possible: 
it wrenches the light half of the picture away from the dark half. 
This freedom is to a large extent a phenomenon of civilization, 
the lofty preoccupation of that fortunate Athenian whose lot it 
was not to be born a slave. We can only rise above nature if 
somebody else carries the weight of the earth for us. What sort 
of philosophy would Plato have produced had he been his own 
house-slave? What would the Rabbi Jesus have taught if he had 
had to support a wife and children? if he had had to till the soil 
in which the bread he broke had grown, and weed the vineyard 
in which the wine he dispensed had ripened? The dark weight 
of the earth must enter into the picture of the whole. In "this 
world" there is no good without its bad, no day without its 
night, no summer without its winter. But civilized man can live 
without the winter, for he can protect himself against the cold; 
without dirt, for he can wash; without sin, for he can prudently 
cut himself off from his fellows and thereby avoid many an occa- 
sion for evil. He can deem himself good and pure, because hard 

27 Cf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 255. 

178 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

necessity does not teach him anything better. The natural man, 
on the other hand, has a wholeness that astonishes one, though 
there is nothing particularly admirable about it. It is the same 
old unconsciousness, apathy, and filth. 

265 If, however, God is born as a man and wants to unite man- 
kind in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, he must suffer the 
terrible torture of having to endure the world in all its reality. 
This is the cross he has to bear, and he himself is a cross. The 
whole world is God's suffering, and every individual man who 
wants to get anywhere near his own wholeness knows that this 
is the way of the cross. 

266 These thoughts are expressed with touching simplicity and 
beauty in the Negro film The Green Pastures?* For many years 
God ruled the world with curses, thunder, lightning, and floods, 
but it never prospered. Finally he realized that he would have 
to become a man himself in order to get at the root of the 
trouble. 

267 After he had experienced the world's suffering, this God who 
became man left behind him a Comforter, the Third Person of 
the Trinity, who would make his dwelling in many individuals 
still to come, none of whom would enjoy the privilege or even 
the possibility of being born without sin. In the Paraclete, there- 
fore, God is closer to the real man and his darkness than he is 
in the Son. The light God bestrides the bridgeManfrom the 
day side; God's shadow, from the night side. What will be the out- 
come of this fearful dilemma, which threatens to shatter the 
frail human vessel with unknown storms and intoxications? It. 
may well be the revelation of the Holy Ghost out of man him- 
self. Just as man was once revealed out of God, so, when the 
circle closes, God may be revealed out of man. But since, in this 
world, an evil is joined to every good, the torlpuwv irvev^a 
will twist the indwelling of the Paraclete into a self-deification 
of man, thereby causing an inflation of self-importance of which 
we had a foretaste in the case of Nietzsche. The more uncon- 
scious we are of the religious problem in the future, the greater 
the danger of our putting the divine germ within us to some 
ridiculous or demoniacal use, puffing ourselves up with it in- 
stead of remaining conscious that we are no more than the 

28 [From a play by Marc Connelly, adapted from stories by Roark Bradford 
based on American Negro folk-themes. EDITORS.] 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



manger in which the Lord is born. Even on the highest peak 
we shall never be "beyond good and evil," and the more we 
experience of their inextricable entanglement the more uncer- 
tain and confused will our moral judgment be. In this conflict, 
it will not help us in the least to throw the moral criterion on 
the rubbish heap and to set up new tablets after known patterns; 
for, as in the past, so in the future the wrong we have done, 
thought, or intended will wreak its vengeance on our souls, no 
matter whether we turn the world upside down or not. Our 
knowledge of good and evil has dwindled with our mounting 
knowledge and experience, and will dwindle still more in the 
future, without our being able to escape the demands of ethics. 
In this utmost uncertainty we need the illumination of a holy 
and healing spirit a spirit that can be anything rather than our 
own minds. 



II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE QUATERNITY 

*68 As I have shown in the previous chapter, one can think out 
the problem of the fourth without having to discard a religious 
terminology. The development of the Trinity into a quaternity 
can be represented in projection on metaphysical figures, and 
at the same time the exposition gains in plasticity. But any 
statements of this kind canand for scientific reasons, must-- 
be reduced to man and his psychology, since they are mental 
products which cannot be presumed to have any metaphysical 
validity. They are, in the first place, projections of psychic proc- 
esses, and nobody really knows what they are "in themselves," 
i.e., if they exist in an unconscious sphere inaccessible to man. 
At any rate, science ought not to treat them as anything other 
than projections. If it acts otherwise, it loses its independence. 
And since it is not a question of individual fantasies but at 
least so far as the Trinity is concernedof a collective phenome- 
non, we must assume that the development of the idea of the 
Trinity is a collective process, representing a differentiation of 
consciousness that has been going on for several thousand years. 

269 In order to interpret the Trinity-symbol psychologically, we 
have to start with the individual and regard the symbol as an 
expression of his psyche, rather as if it were a dream-image. It is 

180 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

possible to do this because even collective ideas once sprang 
from single individuals and, moreover, can only be "had" by 
individuals. We can treat the Trinity the more easily as a dream 
in that its life is a drama, as is also the case with every dream 
that is moderately well developed. 

270 Generally speaking, the father denotes the earlier state of 
consciousness when one was still a child, still dependent on a 
definite, ready-made pattern of existence which is habitual and 
has the character of law. It is a passive, unreflecting condition, a 
mere awareness of what is given, without intellectual or moral 
judgment. 1 This is true both individually and collectively. 

271 The picture changes when the accent shifts to the son. On 
the individual level the change usually sets in when the son 
starts to put himself in his father's place. According to the 
archaic pattern, this takes the form of quasi-father-murder in 
other words, violent identification with the father followed by 
his liquidation. This, however, is not an advance; it is simply a 
retention of the old habits and customs with no subsequent 
differentiation of consciousness. No detachment from the father 
has been effected. Legitimate detachment consists in conscious 
differentiation from the father and from the habitus represented 
by him. This requires a certain amount of knowledge of one's 
own individuality, which cannot be acquired without moral 
discrimination and cannot be held on to unless one has under- 
stood its meaning. 2 Habit can only be replaced by a mode of life 
consciously chosen and acquired. The Christianity symbolized 
by the "Son" therefore forces the individual to discriminate and 
to reflect, as was noticeably the case with those Church Fathers 8 
who laid such emphasis on en-ion^ (knowledge) as opposed to 

lYahweh approaches the moral problem comparatively late only in Job. Cf. 
"Answer to Job," in this volume. 

SKoepgen (p. 231) therefore calls Jesus, quite rightly, the first "autonomous" 
personality. 

3 Justin Martyr, Apologia II: "that we may not remain children of necessity and 
ignorance, but of choice and knowledge." Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, I, 9: 
"And how necessary is it for him who desires to be partaker of the power of God, 
to treat of intellectual subjects by philosophizing!" II, 4: "Knowledge accordingly 
is characterized by faith; and faith, by a kind of divine mutual and reciprocal 
correspondence, becomes characterized by knowledge." VII, 10: "For by it 
(Gnosis) faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely by it that the believer becomes 
perfect." "And knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of what is re- 
ceived by faith/' (Trans, by Wilson, I, p. 380; II, pp. 10, 446-47-) 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION ! WEST 



(necessity) and ayvoia (Ignorance). The same tendency is 
apparent in the New Testament controversies over the Jews' 
righteousness in the eyes o the law, which stands exclusively 
for the old habitus. 

272 The third step, finally, points beyond the "Son" into the 
future, to a continuing realization of the "spirit/' i.e., a living 
activity proceeding from "Father" and "Son" which raises the 
subsequent stages of consciousness to the same level of inde- 
pendence as that of "Father" and "Son." This extension of the 
filiatiO; whereby men are made children of God, is a meta- 
physical projection of the psychic change that has taken place. 
The "Son" represents a transition stage, an intermediate state, 
part child, part adult. He is a transitory phenomenon, and it is 
thanks to this fact that the "Son"-gods die an early death. "Son" 
means the transition from a permanent initial stage called 
"Father" and "auctor rerum" to the stage of being a father one- 
self. And this means that the son will transmit to his children 
the procreative spirit of life which he himself has received and 
from which he himself was begotten. Brought down to the level 
of the individual, this symbolism can be interpreted as follows: 
the state of unreflecting awareness known as "Father" changes 
into the reflective and rational state of consciousness known as 
"Son." This state is not only in opposition to the still-existing 
earlier state, but, by virtue of its conscious and rational nature, 
it also contains many latent possibilities of dissociation. In- 
creased discrimination begets conflicts that were unconscious 
before but must now be faced, because, unless they are clearly 
recognized, no moral decisions can be taken. The stage of the 
"Son" is therefore a conflict situation par excellence: the choice 
of possible ways is menaced by just as many possibilities of error. 
"Freedom from the law" brings a sharpening of opposites, in 
particular of the moral opposites. Christ crucified between two 
thieves is an eloquent symbol of this fact. The exemplary life 
of Christ is in itself a "transitus" and amounts therefore to a 
bridge leading over to the third stage, where the initial stage of 
the Father is, as it were, recovered. If it were no more than a 
repetition of the first stage, everything that had been won in 
the second stagereason and reflection would be lost, only to 
make room for a renewed state of semiconsciousness, of an irra- 
tional and unreflecting nature. To avoid this, the values of the 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

second stage must be held fast; in other words, reason and re- 
flection must be preserved intact. Though the new level of 
consciousness acquired through the emancipation of the son 
continues in the third stage, it must recognize that it is not the 
source of the ultimate decisions and flashes of insight which 
rightly go by the name of "gnosis," but that these are inspired 
by a higher authority which, in projected form, is known as the 
"Holy Ghost." Psychologically speaking, "inspiration" comes 
from an unconscious function. To the naive-minded person the 
agent of inspiration appears as an "intelligence" correlated with, 
or even superior to, consciousness, for it often happens that an 
idea drops in on one like a saving deus ex machina. 

273 Accordingly, the advance to the third stage means something 
like a recognition of the unconscious, if not actual subordina- 
tion to it. 4 Adulthood is reached when the son reproduces his 
own childhood state by voluntarily submitting to a paternal 
authority, either in psychological form, or factually in pro- 
jected form, as when he recognizes the authority of the Church's 
teachings. This authority can, of course, be replaced by all man- 
ner of substitutes, which only proves that the transition to the 
third stage is attended by unusual spiritual dangers, consisting 
chiefly in rationalistic deviations that run counter to the in- 
stincts. 5 Spiritual transformation does not mean that one should 
remain a child, but that the adult should summon up enough 
honest self-criticism admixed with humility to see where, and 
in relation to what, he must behave as a child irrationally, and 
with unreflecting receptivity. Just as the transition from the 
first stage to the second demands the sacrifice of childish de- 
pendence, so, at the transition to the third stage, an exclusive 
independence has to be relinquished. 

274 It is clear that these changes are not everyday occurrences, 
but are very fateful transformations indeed. Usually they have a 
numinous character, and can take the form of conversions, 
illuminations, emotional shocks, blows of fate, religious or 

4 Submission to any metaphysical authority is, from the psychological standpoint, 
submission to the unconscious. There are no scientific criteria for distinguishing 
so-called metaphysical factors from psychic ones. But this does not mean that 
psychology denies the existence of metaphysical factors. 

5 The Church knows that the "discernment of spirits" is no simple matter. It 
knows the dangers of subjective submission to God and therefore reserves the 
right to act as a director of conscience. 

18* 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



mystical experiences, or their equivalents. Modem man has 
such hopelessly muddled ideas about anything "mystical/' or 
else such a rationalistic fear of it, that, if ever a mystical experi- 
ence should befall him, he is sure to misunderstand its true 
character and will deny or repress its numinosity. It will then 
be evaluated as an inexplicable, irrational, and even patho- 
logical phenomenon. This sort of misinterpretation is always 
due to lack of insight and inadequate understanding of the com- 
plex relationships in the background, which as a rule can only 
be clarified when the conscious data are supplemented by ma- 
terial derived from the unconscious. Without this, too many 
gaps remain unfilled in a man's experience of life, and each gap 
is an opportunity for futile rationalizations. If there is even the 
slightest tendency to neurotic dissociation, or an indolence verg- 
ing upon habitual unconsciousness, then false causalities will 
be preferred to truth every time. 

275 The numinous character of these experiences is proved by 
the fact that they are overwhelming an admission that goes 
against not only our pride, but against our deep-rooted fear 
that consciousness may perhaps lose its ascendency, for pride is 
often only a reaction covering up a secret fear. How thin these 
protective walls are can be seen from the positively terrifying 
suggestibility that lies behind all psychic mass movements, be- 
ginning with the simple folk who call themselves "Jehovah's 
Witnesses," the "Oxford Groups" (so named for reasons of 
prestige 6 ) among the upper classes, and ending with the National 
Socialism of a whole nation all in search of the unifying mysti- 
cal experience! 

276 Anyone who does not understand the events that befall him 
is always in danger of getting stuck in the transitional stage of 
the Son. The criterion of adulthood does not consist in being a 
member of certain sects, groups, or nations, but in submitting 
to the spirit of one's own independence. Just as the "Son" 
proceeds from the "Father," so the "Father" proceeds from the 

6 The "Oxford Movement" was originally the name of the Catholicizing trend 
started by the Anglican clergy in Oxford, 1833. [Whereas the "Oxford Groups," or 
"Moral Rearmament Movement," were founded in 1921, also at Oxford, by Frank 
Buchman as "a Christian revolution . . the aim of which is a new social order 
under the dictatorship of the Spirit of God, and which issues in personal, social 
racial, national, and supernational renaissance" (Buchman, cited in Webster's 
International Dictionary, and edn., 1950). EDITORS.] 

184 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

stage of the "Son," but this Father is not a mere repetition of 
the original Father or an identification with him, but one in 
whom the vitality of the "Father" continues its procreative 
work. This third stage, as we have seen, means articulating one's 
ego-consciousness with a supraordinate totality, of which one 
cannot say that it is "I," but which is best visualized as a more 
comprehensive being, though one should of course keep oneself 
conscious all the time of the anthropomorphism of such a con- 
ception. Hard as it is to define, this unknown quantity can be 
experienced by the psyche and is known in Christian parlance as 
the "Holy Ghost/' the breath that heals and makes whole. Chris- 
tianity claims that this breath also has personality, which in the 
circumstances could hardly be otherwise. For close on two 
thousand years history has been familiar with the figure of the 
Cosmic Man, the Anthropos, whose image has merged with that 
of Yahweh and also of Christ. Similarly, the saints who received 
the stigmata became Christ-figures in a visible and concrete 
sense, and thus carriers of the Anthropos-image. They symbolize 
the working of the Holy Ghost among men. The Anthropos is 
a symbol that argues in favour of the personal nature of the 
"totality," i.e., the self. If, however, you review the numerous 
symbols of the self, you will discover not a few among them that 
have no characteristics of human personality at all. I won't back 
up this statement with psychological case histories, which are 
terra incognita to the layman anyway, but will only refer to the 
historical material, which fully confirms the findings of mod- 
ern scientific research. Alchemical symbolism has produced, 
aside from the personal figures, a whole series of non-human 
forms, geometrical configurations like the sphere, circle, square, 
and octagon, or chemical symbols like the Philosophers'^ Stone, 
the ruby, diamond, quicksilver, gold, water, fire, and spirit (in 
the sense of a volatile substance). This choice of symbols tallies 
more or less with the modern products of the unconscious. 7 I 
might mention in this connection that there are numerous 
theriomorphic spirit symbols, the most important Christian ones 
being the lamb, the dove, and the snake (Satan). The snake 
symbolizing the Gnostic Nous and the Agathodaimon has a 
pneumatic significance (the devil, too, is a spirit). These symbols 
express the non-human character of the totality or self, as was 

T Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, Part I. 

185 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



reported long ago when, at Pentecost, the spirit descended on 
the disciples in tongues o fire. From this point of view we can 
share something of Origen's perplexity as to the nature of the 
Holy Ghost. It also explains why the Third Person of the Trin- 
ity, unlike Father and Son, has no personal quality. 8 "Spirit" is 
not a personal designation but the qualitative definition of a 
substance of aeriform nature. 

277 When, as in the present instance, the unconscious always 
makes such sweepingly contradictory statements, experience 
tells us that the situation is far from simple. The unconscious is 
trying to express certain facts for which there are no conceptual 
categories in the conscious mind. The contents in question need 
not be "metaphysical," as in the case of the Holy Ghost. Any 
content that transcends consciousness, and for which the apper- 
ceptive apparatus does not exist, can call forth the same kind 
of paradoxical or antinomial symbolism. For a naive conscious- 
ness that sees everything in terms of black and white, even the 
unavoidable dual aspect of "man and his shadow* ' can be tran- 
scendent in this sense and will consequently evoke paradoxical 
symbols. We shall hardly be wrong, therefore, if we conjecture 
that the striking contradictions we find in our spirit symbolism 
are proof that the Holy Ghost is a complexio oppositorum 
(union of opposites). Consciousness certainly possesses no con- 
ceptual category for anything of this kind, for such a union is 
simply inconceivable except as a violent collision in which the 
two sides cancel each other out. This would mean their mutual 
annihilation. 

278 But the spontaneous symbolism of the complexio opposi- 
torum points to the exact opposite of annihilation, since it 
ascribes to the product of their union either everlasting dura- 
tion, that is to say incorruptibility and adamantine stability, or 
supreme and inexhaustible efficacy. 9 

279 Thus the spirit as a complexio oppositorum has the same 
formula as the "Father/' the auctor rerum, who is also, accord- 

8 Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologica, I, xxxvi, art. i): "Non habet nomen 
proprium" (he has no proper name). I owe this reference to the kindness of 
Fr. Victor White, O.P. 

9 Both these categories are, as we know, attributes of the lapis philosophorum 
and of the symbols of the self. 

186 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

ing to Nicholas of Cusa, a union of opposites. 10 The "Father/* 
in fact, contains the opposite qualities which appear in his son 
and his son's adversary. Riwkah Scharf 11 has shown just how far 
the monotheism of the Old Testament was obliged to make 
concessions to the idea of the ' 'relativity" of God. The Book of 
Job comes within a hair's breadth of the dualism which flowered 
in Persia for some centuries before and after Christ, and which 
also gave rise to various heretical movements within Christianity 
itself. It was only to be expected, therefore, that, as we said 
above, the dual aspect of the "Father" should reappear in the 
Holy Ghost, who in this way effects an apocatastasis of the 
Father. To use an analogy from physics, the Holy Ghost could 
be likened to the stream of photons arising out of the destruc- 
tion of matter, while the "Father" would be the primordial 
energy that promotes the formation of protons and electrons 
with their positive and negative charges. This, as the reader will 
understand, is not an explanation, but an analogy which is pos- 
sible because the physicist's models ultimately rest on the same 
archetypal foundations that also underlie the speculations of the 
theologian. Both are psychology, and it too has no other founda- 
tion. 



III. GENERAL REMARKS ON SYMBOLISM 

280 Although it is extremely improbable that the Christian 
Trinity is derived directly from the triadic World-Soul in the 
Timaeus, it is nevertheless rooted in the same archetype. If we 
wish to describe the phenomenology of this archetype, we shall 
have to consider all the aspects which go to make up the total 
picture. For instance, in our analysis of the Timaeus, we found 
that the number three represents an intellectual schema only, 
and that the second mixture reveals the resistance of the "recalci- 
trant fourth" ingredient, which we meet again as the "adver- 
sary" of the Christian Trinity. Without the fourth the three 
have no reality as we understand it; they even lack meaning, 

10 It should not be forgotten, however, that the opposites which Nicholas had in 
mind were very different from the psychological ones. 

11 Cf. "Die Gestalt des Satans im Alten Testament," in Symbolik des Geistes, pp. 

l8 7 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



for a "thought" has meaning only if it refers to a possible or 
actual reality. This relationship to reality is completely lacking 
in the idea of the Trinity, so much so that people nowadays tend 
to lose sight of it altogether, without even noticing the loss. But 
we can see what this loss means when we are faced with the prob- 
lem of reconstruction that is to say in all those cases where 
the conscious part of the psyche is cut off from the unconscious 
part by a dissociation. This split can only be mended if con- 
sciousness is able to formulate conceptions which give adequate 
expression to the contents of the unconscious. It seems as if the 
Trinity plus the incommensurable "fourth" were a conception 
of this kind. As part of the doctrine of salvation it must, indeed, 
have a saving, healing, wholesome effect. During the process of 
integrating the unconscious contents into consciousness, un- 
doubted importance attaches to the business of seeing how the 
dream-symbols relate to trivial everyday realities. But, in a 
deeper sense and on a long-term view, this procedure is not 
sufficient, as it fails to bring out the significance of the arche- 
typal contents. These reach down, or up, to quite other levels 
than so-called common sense would suspect. As a priori condi- 
tions of all psychic events, they are endued with a dignity which 
has found immemorial expression in godlike figures. No other 
formulation will satisfy the needs of the unconscious. The un- 
conscious is the unwritten history of mankind from time unre- 
corded. Rational formulae may satisfy the present and the 
immediate past, but not the experience of mankind as a whole. 
This calls for the all-embracing vision of the myth, as expressed 
in symbols. If the symbol is lacking, man's wholeness is not 
represented in consciousness. He remains a more or less acci- 
dental fragment, a suggestible wisp of consciousness, at the 
mercy of all the Utopian fantasies that rush in to fill the gap left 
by the totality symbols. A symbol cannot be made to order as 
the rationalist would like to believe. It is a legitimate symbol 
only if it gives expression to the immutable structure of the 
unconscious and can therefore command general acceptance. 
So long as it evokes belief spontaneously, it does not require to 
be understood in any other way. But if, from sheer lack of under- 
standing, belief in it begins to wane, then, for better or worse, 
one must use understanding as a tool if the incalculable conse- 
quences of a loss are to be avoided. What should we then put 

188 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

in place of the symbol? Is there anybody who knows a better 
way o expressing something that has never yet been under- 
stood? 

281 As I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy and elsewhere, 
trinity and quaternity symbols occur fairly frequently in dreams, 
and from this I have learnt that the idea of the Trinity is based 
on something that can be experienced and must, therefore, have 
a meaning. This insight was not won by a study of the tradi- 
tional sources. If I have succeeded in forming an intelligible 
conception of the Trinity that is in any way based on empirical 
reality, I have been helped by dreams, folklore, and the myths in 
which these number motifs occur. As a rule they appear spon- 
taneously in dreams, and such dreams look very banal from the 
outside. There is nothing at all of the myth or fairytale about 
them, much less anything religious. Mostly it is three men and a 
woman, either sitting at a table or driving in a car, or three men 
and a dog, a huntsman with three hounds, three chickens in a 
coop from which the fourth has escaped, and suchlike. These 
things are indeed so banal that one is apt to overlook them. 
Nor do they wish to say anything more specific, at first, than that 
they refer to functions and aspects of the dreamer's personality, 
as can easily be ascertained when they appear as three or four 
known persons with well-marked characteristics, or as the four 
principal colours, red, blue, green, and yellow. It happens with 
some regularity that these colours are correlated with the four 
orienting functions of consciousness. Only when the dreamer 
begins to reflect that the four are an allusion to his total per- 
sonality does he realize that these banal dream-motifs are like 
shadow pictures of more important things. The fourth figure is, 
as a rule, particularly instructive: it soon becomes incompatible, 
disagreeable, frightening, or in some way odd, with a different 
sense of good and bad, rather like a Tom Thumb beside his 
three normal brothers. Naturally the situation can be reversed, 
with three odd figures and one normal one. Anybody with a 
little knowledge of fairytales will know that the seemingly 
enormous gulf that separates the Trinity from these trivial hap- 
penings is by no means unbridgeable. But this is not to say that 
the Trinity can be reduced to this level. On the contrary, the 
Trinity represents the most perfect form of the archetype in 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



question. The empirical material merely shows, in the smallest 
and most insignificant psychic detail, how the archetype works. 
This is what makes the archetype so important, firstly as an 
organizing schema and a criterion for judging the quality of 
an individual psychic structure, and secondly as a vehicle of the 
synthesis in which the individuation process culminates. This 
goal is symbolized by the putting together of the four; hence the 
quaternity is a symbol of the self, which is of central im- 
portance in Indian philosophy and takes the place of the Deity. 
In the West, any amount of quaternities were developed during 
the Middle Ages; here I would mention only the Rex gloriae 
with the four symbols of the evangelists (three theriomorphic, 
one anthropomorphic). In Gnosticism there is the figure of 
Barbelo ("God is four"). These examples and many others like 
them bring the quaternity into closest relationship with the 
Deity, so that, as I said earlier, it is impossible to distinguish 
the self from a God-image. At any rate, I personally have found 
it impossible to discover a criterion of distinction. Here faith 
or philosophy alone can decide, neither of which has anything 
to do with the empiricism of the scientist. 

282 One can, then, explain the God-image aspect of the quater- 
nity as a reflection of the self, or, conversely, explain the self as 
an imago Dei in man. Both propositions are psychologically 
true, since the self, which can only be perceived subjectively as 
a most intimate and unique thing, requires universality as a 
background, for without this it could not manifest itself in its 
absolute separateness. Strictly speaking, the self must be re- 
garded as the extreme opposite of God. Nevertheless we must 
say with Angelus Silesius: "He cannot live without me, nor I 
without him." So although the empirical symbol requires two 
diametrically opposite interpretations, neither of them can be 
proved valid. The symbol means both and is therefore a para- 
dox. This is not the place to say anything more about the role 
these number symbols play in practice; for this I must refer the 
reader to the dream material in Psychology and Alchemy, Part I. 



283 In view of the special importance of quaternity symbolism 
one is driven to ask how it came about that a highly differenti- 
ated form of religion like Christianity reverted to the archaic 

190 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

triad in order to construct its trinitarian God-image. 1 With 
equal justification one could also ask (as has, in fact, been done) 
with what right Christ is presumed to be a symbol of the self, 
since the self is by definition a complexio oppositorum, whereas 
the Christ figure wholly lacks a dark side? (In dogma, Christ is 
sine macula peccati 'unspotted by sin/) 

284 Both questions touch on the same problem, I always seek 
the answer to such questions on empirical territory, for which 
reason I must now cite the concrete facts. It is a general rule 
that most geometrical or numerical symbols have a quaternary 
character. There are also ternary or trinitarian symbols, but in 
my experience they are rather rare. On investigating such cases 
carefully, I have found that they were distinguished by some- 
thing that can only be called a "medieval psychology." This does 
not imply any backwardness and is not meant as a value judg- 
ment, but only as denoting a special problem. That is to say, 
in all these cases there is so much unconsciousness, and such a 
large degree of primitivity to match it, that a spiritualization 
appears necessary as a compensation. The saving symbol is 
then a triad in which the fourth is lacking because it has to be 
unconditionally rejected. 

285 In my experience it is of considerable practical importance 
that the symbols aiming at wholeness should be correctly under- 
stood by the doctor. They are the remedy with whose help 
neurotic dissociations can be repaired, by restoring to the con- 
scious mind a spirit and an attitude which from time immemo- 
rial have been felt as solving and healing in their effects. They 
are "representations collectives" which facilitate the much- 
needed union of conscious and unconscious. This union cannot 
be accomplished either intellectually or in a purely practical 
sense, because in the former case the instincts rebel and in the 
latter case reason and morality. Every dissociation that falls 
within the category of the psychogenic neuroses is due to a con- 
flict of this kind, and the conflict can only be resolved through 
the symbol. For this purpose the dreams produce symbols which 
in the last analysis coincide with those recorded throughout his- 
tory. But the dream-images can be taken up into the dreamer's 
consciousness, and grasped by his reason and feeling, only if his 
conscious mind possesses the intellectual categories and moral 

l In the Greek Church the Trinity is called 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



feelings necessary for their assimilation. And this is where the 
psychotherapist often has to perform feats that tax his patience 
to the utmost. The synthesis of conscious and unconscious can 
only be implemented by a conscious confrontation with the lat- 
ter, and this is not possible unless one understands what the 
unconscious is saying. During this process we come upon the 
symbols investigated in the present study, and in coming to 
terms with them we re-establish the lost connection with ideas 
and feelings which make a synthesis of the personality possible. 
The loss of gnosis, i.e., knowledge of the ultimate things, weighs 
much more heavily than is generally admitted. Faith alone would 
suffice too, did it not happen to be a charisma whose true posses- 
sion is something of a rarity, except in spasmodic form. Were 
it otherwise, we doctors could spare ourselves much thankless 
work. Theology regards our efforts in this respect with mistrust- 
ful mien, while pointedly declining to tackle this very necessary 
task itself. It proclaims doctrines which nobody understands, 
and demands a faith which nobody can manufacture. This is 
how things stand in the Protestant camp. The situation in the 
Catholic camp is more subtle. Of especial importance here is 
the ritual with its sacral action, which dramatizes the living 
occurrence of archetypal meaning and thus makes a direct im- 
pact on the unconscious. Can any one, for instance, deny the 
impression made upon him by the sacrament of the Mass, if 
he has followed it with even a minimum of understanding? 
Then again, the Catholic Church has the institution of confes- 
sion and of the director of conscience, which are of the greatest 
practical value when these activities devolve upon suitable per- 
sons. The fact that this is not always so proves, unfortunately, 
to be an equally great disadvantage. Thirdly, the Catholic 
Church possesses a richly developed and undamaged world of 
dogmatic ideas, which provide a worthy receptacle for the 
plethora of figures in the unconscious and in this way give visi- 
ble expression to certain vitally important truths with which 
the conscious mind should keep in touch. The faith of a Catho- 
lic is not better or stronger than the faith of a Protestant, but a 
person's unconscious is gripped by the Catholic form no matter 
how weak his faith may be. That is why, once he slips out of 
this form, he may easily fall into a fanatical atheism, of a kind 
that is particularly to be met with in Latin countries. 

192 



6. CONCLUSION 



286 Because of its noetic character, the Trinity expresses the 
need for a spiritual development that demands independence 
of thought. Historically we can see this striving at work above 
all in scholastic philosophy, and it was these preliminary exer- 
cises that made the scientific thinking of modern man possible. 
Also, the Trinity is an archetype whose dominating power not 
only fosters spiritual development but may, on occasion, actu- 
ally enforce it. But as soon as the spiritualization of the mind 
threatens to become so one-sided as to be deleterious to health, 
the compensatory significance of the Trinity necessarily recedes 
into the background. 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. 

287 As a psychological symbol the Trinity denotes, first, the 
homoousia or essential unity of a three-part process, to be 
thought of as a process of unconscious maturation taking place 
within the individual. To that extent the three Persons are 
personifications of the three phases of a regular, instinctive 
psychic occurrence that always tends to express itself in the form 
of mythologems and ritualistic customs (for instance, the initia- 
tions at puberty, and the various rites for birth, marriage, 

193 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



sickness, war, and death). As the medical lore of the ancient 
Egyptians shows, myths as well as rites have a psychotherapeutic 
value, and they still have today. 

288 Second, the Trinity denotes a process of conscious realiza- 
tion continuing over the centuries. 

289 Third, the Trinity lays claim not only to represent a per- 
sonification of psychic processes in three roles, but to be the 
one God in three Persons, who all share the same divine nature. 
In God there is no advance from the potential to the actual, 
from the possible to the real, because God is pure reality, the 
"actus purus" itself. The three Persons differ from one another 
by reason of the different manner of their origin, or their pro- 
cession (the Son begotten by the Father and the Holy Ghost 
proceeding from both procedit a patre filioque). The ho- 
moousia, whose general recognition was the cause of so many 
controversies, is absolutely necessary from a psychological stand- 
point, because, regarded as a psychological symbol, the Trinity 
represents the progressive transformation of one and the same 
substance, namely the psyche as a whole. The homoousia to- 
gether with the filioque assert that Christ and the Holy Ghost 
are both of the same substance as the Father. But since, psycho- 
logically, Christ must be understood as a symbol of the self, 
and the descent of the Holy Ghost as the self's actualization in 
man, it follows that the self must represent something that is 
of the substance of the Father too. This formulation is in agree- 
ment with the psychological statement that the symbols of the 
self cannot be distinguished empirically from a God-image. 
Psychology, certainly, can do no more than establish the fact 
that they are indistinguishable. This makes it all the more re- 
markable that the ''metaphysical" statement should go so much 
further than the psychological one. Indistinguishability is a 
negative constatation merely; it does not rule out the possibility 
that a distinction may exist. It may be that the distinction is 
simply not perceived. The dogmatic assertion, on the other 
hand, speaks of the Holy Ghost making us "children of God," 
and this filial relationship is indistinguishable in meaning from 
the uterus (sonship) or filiatio of Christ. We can see from this how 
important it was that the homoousia should triumph over the 
homoiousia (similarity of substance); for, through the descent 
of the Holy Ghost, the self of man enters into a relationship of 

194 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

unity with the substance o God. As ecclesiastical history shows, 
this conclusion is of immense danger to the Church it was, in- 
deed, the main reason why the Church did not insist on any 
further elaboration of the doctrine o the Holy Ghost. Its con- 
tinued development would lead, on a negative estimate, to ex- 
plosive schisms, and on a positive estimate straight into psy- 
chology. Moreover, the gifts of the Holy Ghost are somewhat 
mixed: not all of them are unreservedly welcome, as St. Paul 
has already pointed out. Also, St. Thomas Aquinas observes that 
revelation is a gift of the spirit that does not stand in any clearly 
definable relationship to moral endowment. 1 The Church must 
reserve the right to decide what is a working of the Holy Ghost 
and what is not, thereby taking an exceedingly important and 
possibly disagreeable decision right out of the layman's hands. 
That the spirit, like the wind, "bloweth where it listeth" is 
something that alarmed even the Reformers. The third as well 
as the first Person of the Trinity can wear the aspect of a deus 
absconditus, and its action, like that of fire, may be no less de- 
structive than beneficial when regarded from a purely human 
standpoint. 

290 "Creation" in the sense of "matter" is not included in the 
Trinity formula, at any rate not explicitly. In these circum- 
stances there are only two possibilities: either the material world 
is real, in which case it is an intrinsic part of the divine "actus 
purus," or it is unreal, a mere illusion, because outside the 
divine reality. The latter conclusion is contradicted firstly by 
God's incarnation and by his whole work of salvation, secondly 
by the autonomy and eternality of the "Prince of this world," 
the devil, who has merely been "overcome" but is by no means 
destroyed and cannot be destroyed because he is eternal. But 
if the reality of the created world is included in the "actus 
purus," then the devil is there too Q.E.D. This situation gives 
rise to a quaternity, albeit a very different quaternity from the 
one anathematized by the fourth Lateran Council. The question 
there debated was whether God's essence could claim a place 

i "St. Thomas emphasizes that prophetic revelation is, as such, independent of 
good morals not to speak of personal sanctity (De veritate, xii, 5; Summa theoL, 
II-II, p. 172). I take this remark from the MS. of an essay on "St. Thomas's Con- 
ception of Revelation," by Fr. Victor White, O.P., with the kind permission 
of the author. 

195 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



alongside the three Persons or not. But the question we are con- 
fronted with here is the independent position of a creature 
endowed with autonomy and eternality: the fallen angel. He is 
the fourth, "recalcitrant" figure in our symbolical series, the 
intervals between which correspond to the three phases of the 
trinitarian process. Just as, in the Timaeus y the adversary is 
the second half of the second pair of opposites, without whom 
the world-soul would not be whole and complete, so, too, the 
devil must be added to the trios as TO lv Tfraprov (the One as the 
Fourth), 2 in order to make it a totality. If the Trinity is under- 
stood as a process^ as I have tried to do all along, then, by the 
addition of the Fourth, this process would culminate in a condi- 
tion of absolute totality. Through the intervention of the Holy 
Ghost, however, man is included in the divine process, and this 
means that the principle of separateness and autonomy over 
against God which is personified in Lucifer as the God-oppos- 
ing will is included in it too. But for this will there would have 
been no creation and no work of salvation either. The shadow 
and the opposing will are the necessary conditions for all actual- 
ization. An object that has no will of its own, capable, if need be, 
of opposing its creator, and with no qualities other than its crea- 
tor's, such an object has no independent existence and is in- 
capable of ethical decision. At best it is just a piece of clock- 
work which the Creator has to wind up to make it function. 
Therefore Lucifer was perhaps the one who best understood the 
divine will struggling to create a world and who carried out that 
will most faithfully. For, by rebelling against God, he became 
the active principle of a creation which opposed to God a coun- 
ter-will of its own. Because God willed this, we are told in Gene- 
sis 3 that he gave man the power to will otherwise. Had he not 
done so, he would have created nothing but a machine, and then 
the incarnation and the redemption would never have come 
about. Nor would there have been any revelation of the Trinity, 
because everything would have been one for ever. 

The Lucifer legend is in no sense an absurd fairytale; like 
the story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, it is a " thera- 
peutic" myth. We naturally boggle at the thought that good and 
evil are both contained in God, and we think God could not pos^ 
sibly want such a thing. We should be careful, though, not td 

2 The Axiom of Maria. C. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. sogf. 

196 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

pare down God's omnipotence to the level of our human opin- 
ions; but that is just how we do think, despite everything. Even 
so, it would not do to impute all evil to God: thanks to his moral 
autonomy, man can put down a sizable portion of it to his own 
account. Evil is a relative thing, partly avoidable, partly fate- 
just as virtue is, and often one does not know which is worse. 
Think of the fate of a woman married to a recognized saint! 
What sins must not the children commit in order to feel their 
lives their own under the overwhelming influence of such a 
father! Life, being an energic process, needs the opposites, for 
without opposition there is, as we know, no energy. Good and 
evil are simply the moral aspects of this natural polarity. The 
fact that we have to feel this polarity so excruciatingly makes 
human existence all the more complicated. Yet the suffering that 
necessarily attaches to life cannot be evaded. The tension of 
opposites that makes energy possible is a universal law, fittingly 
expressed in the yang and yin of Chinese philosophy. Good and 
evil are feeling-values of human provenance, and we cannot ex- 
tend them beyond the human realm. What happens beyond this 
is beyond our judgment: God is not to be caught with human 
attributes. Besides, where would the fear of God be if only good 
i.e., what seems good to us were to be expected from him? 
After all, eternal damnation doesn't bear much resemblance to 
goodness as we understand it! Although good and evil are un- 
shakable as moral values, they still need to be subjected to a bit 
of psychological revision. Much, that is to say, that proves to be 
abysmally evil in its ultimate effects does not come from man's 
wickedness but from his stupidity and unconsciousness. One has 
only to think of the devastating effects of Prohibition in Amer- 
ica or of the hundred thousand autos-da-fe in Spain, which were 
all caused by a praiseworthy zeal to save people's souls. One of 
the toughest roots of all evil is unconsciousness, and I could 
wish that the saying of Jesus, "Man, if thou knowest what thou 
doest, thou art blessed, but if thou knowest not, thou art ac- 
cursed, and a transgressor of the law," 3 were still in the gospels, 
even though it has only one authentic source. It might well be 
the motto for a new morality. 

29* The individuation process is invariably started off by the 
patient's becoming conscious of the shadow, a personality 

3 Cf. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 33. 

197 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



component usually with a negative sign. This "inferior" person- 
ality is made up of everything that will not fit in with, and adapt 
to, the laws and regulations of conscious life. It is compounded 
of "disobedience" and is therefore rejected not on moral grounds 
only, but also for reasons of expediency. Closer investigation 
shows that there is at least one function in it which ought to 
collaborate in orienting consciousness. Or rather, this function 
does collaborate, not for the benefit of conscious, purposive in- 
tentions, but in the interests of unconscious tendencies pursuing 
a different goal. It is this fourth, "inferior" function which acts 
autonomously towards consciousness and cannot be harnessed 
to the latter's intentions. It lurks behind every neurotic dissocia- 
tion and can only be annexed to consciousness if the correspond- 
ing unconscious contents are made conscious at the same time. 
But this integration cannot take place and be put to a useful 
purpose unless one can admit the tendencies bound up with the 
shadow and allow them some measure of realization tempered, 
of course, with the necessary criticism. This leads to disobedi- 
ence and self-disgust, but also to self-reliance, without which 
individuation is unthinkable. The ability to "will otherwise" 
must, unfortunately, be real if ethics are to make any sense at 
all. Anyone who submits to the law from the start, or to what is 
generally expected, acts like the man in the parable who buried 
his talent in the earth. Individuation is an exceedingly difficult 
task: it always involves a conflict of duties, whose solution re- 
quires us to understand that our "counter-will" is also an aspect 
of God's will. One cannot individuate with mere words and con- 
venient self-deceptions, because there are too many destructive 
possibilities in the offing. One almost unavoidable danger is that 
of getting stuck in the conflict and hence in the neurotic dissoci- 
ation. Here the therapeutic myth has a helpful and loosening 
effect, even when the patient shows not a trace of conscious 
understanding. The felt presence of the archetype is enough; it 
only fails to work when the possibility of conscious understand- 
ing is there, within the patient's reach. In those circumstances it 
is positively deleterious for him to remain unconscious, though 
this happens frequently enough in our Christian civilization 
today. So much of what Christian symbolism taught has gone by 
the board for large numbers of people, without their ever having 
understood what they have lost. Civilization does not consist in 

198 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TRINITY 

progress as such and in mindless destruction of the old values, 
but in developing and refining the good that has been won. 

293 Religion is a "revealed" way of salvation. Its ideas are prod- 
ucts of a pre-conscious knowledge which, always and everywhere, 
expresses itself in symbols. Even if our intellect does not grasp 
them, they still work, because our unconscious acknowledges 
them as exponents of universal psychic facts. For this reason 
faith is enough if it is there. Every extension and intensification 
of rational consciousness, however, leads us further away from 
the sources of the symbols and, by its ascendency, prevents us 
from understanding them. That is the situation today. One can- 
not turn the clock back and force oneself to believe "what one 
knows is not true." But one could give a little thought to what 
the symbols really mean. In this way not only would the incom- 
parable treasures of our civilization be conserved, but we should 
also gain new access to the old truths which have vanished from 
our "rational" purview because of the strangeness of their sym- 
bolism. How can a man be God's Son and be born of a virgin? 
That is a slap in the face of reason. But did not Justin Martyr 
point out to his contemporaries that exactly the same thing was 
said of their heroes, and get himself listened to? That was be- 
cause man's consciousness in those days did not find the symbols 
as outlandish as they are for us. Today such dogmas fall on deaf 
ears, because nothing in our known world responds to such asser- 
tions. But if we understand these things for what they are, as 
symbols, then we can only marvel at the unfathomable wisdom 
that is in them and be grateful to the institution which has not 
only conserved them, but developed them dogmatically. The 
man of today lacks the very understanding that would help him 
to believe. 

294 If I have ventured to submit old dogmas, now grown stale, to 
psychological scrutiny, I have certainly not done so in the prig- 
gish conceit that I knew better than others, but in the sincere 
conviction that a dogma which has been such a bone of conten- 
tion for so many centuries cannot possibly be an empty fantasy. 
I felt it was too much in line with the consensus omnium, with 
the archetype, for that. It was only when I realized this that I 
was able to establish any relationship with the dogma at all. As 
a metaphysical "truth" it remained wholly inaccessible to me, 
and I suspect that I am by no means the only one to find himself 

199 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



in that position. A knowledge of the universal archetypal back- 
ground was, in itself, sufficient to give me the courage to treat 
"that which is believed always, everywhere, by everybody" as a 
psychological fact which extends far beyond the confines of 
Christianity, and to approach it as an object of scientific study, 
as a phenomenon pure and simple, regardless of the "metaphysi- 
cal" significance that may have been attached to it. I know from 
my own experience that this latter aspect has never contributed 
in the slightest to my belief or to my understanding. It told me 
absolutely nothing. However, I was forced to admit that the 
"symbolum" possesses the highest degree of actuality inasmuch 
as it was regarded by countless millions of people, for close on 
two thousand years, as a valid statement concerning those things 
which one cannot see with the eyes or touch with the hands. It is 
this fact that needs to be understood, for of "metaphysical truth" 
we know only that part which man has made, unless the unbid- 
dable gift of faith lifts us beyond all dubiety and all uneasy in- 
vestigation. It is dangerous if these matters are only objects of 
belief; 4 for where there is belief there is doubt, and the fiercer 
and nai'ver the belief the more devastating the doubt once it 
begins to dawn. One is then infinitely cleverer than all the be- 
nighted heads of the Middle Ages. 

295 These considerations have made me extremely cautious in 
my approach to the further metaphysical significance that may 
possibly underlie archetypal statements. There is nothing to 
stop their ultimate ramifications from penetrating to the very 
ground of the universe. We alone are the dumb ones if we fail to 
notice it. Such being the case, I cannot pretend to myself that 
the object of archetypal statements has been explained and dis- 
posed of merely by our investigation of its psychological aspects. 
What I have put forward can only be, at best, a more or less 
successful or unsuccessful attempt to give the inquiring mind 
some access to one side of the problemthe side that can be 
approached. It would be presumptuous to expect more than this. 
If I have merely succeeded in stimulating discussion, then my 
purpose is more than fulfilled. For it seems to me that the world, 
if it should lose sight of these archetypal statements, would be 
threatened with unspeakable impoverishment of mind and soul. 

4 1 am thinking here of the sola fide standpoint of the Protestants. 

200 



Ill 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM 
IN THE MASS 



[First published as a lecture in Eranos Jahrbuch 1940/41; later published in re- 
vised and expanded form in Von den Wurzeln des Bewusstseins (Zurich, 1954). 
The present translation is made from the 1954 version. It was published in 
slightly different form in The Mysteries (Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, 2; 
New York, 1955; London, 1956). EDITORS.] 



i. INTRODUCTION 1 



*96 The Mass is a still-living mystery, the origins of which go 
back to early Christian times. It is hardly necessary to point out 
that it owes its vitality partly to its undoubted psychological 
efficacy, and that it is therefore a fit subject for psychological 
study. But it should be equally obvious that psychology can only 
approach the subject from the phenomenological angle, for the 
realities of faith lie outside the realm of psychology. 

2 97 My exposition falls into four parts: in this introduction I 
indicate some of the New Testament sources of the Mass, with 
notes on its structure and significance. In section 2, I recapitu- 
late the sequence of events in the rite. In 3, I cite a parallel 
from pagan antiquity to the Christian symbolism of sacrifice and 
transformation: the visions of Zosimos. Finally, in 4, I attempt 
a psychological discussion of the sacrifice and transformation. 

* 

298 The oldest account of the sacrament of the Mass is to be 
found in I Corinthians 11 : agff.: 

1 The following account and examination of the principal symbol in the Mass is 
not concerned either with the Mass as a whole, or with its liturgy in particular, 
but solely with the ritual actions and texts which relate to the transformation 
process in the strict sense. In order to give the reader an adequate account of this, 
I had to seek professional help. I am especially indebted to the theologian Dr, 
Callus Jud for reading through and correcting the first two sections. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



For the tradition which I have received of the Lord and handed 
down to you is that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, 
took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said: This is my body for you; 
do this in remembrance of me. And after he had supped, he took the 
chalice also, and said: This chalice is the new testament in my blood. 
As often as you drink, do this in remembrance of me. For as often as 
you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you declare the death of 
the Lord, until he comes. 2 

*99 Similar accounts are to be found in Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke. In John the corresponding passage speaks of a "supper/ 5 3 
but there it is connected with the washing of the disciples' feet. 
At this supper Christ utters the words which characterize the 
meaning and substance of the Mass (John 15 : i, 4, 5). "I am the 
true vine." "Abide in me, and I in you." "I ain the vine, ye are 
the branches." The correspondence between the liturgical ac- 
counts points to a traditional source outside the Bible. There is 
no evidence of an actual feast of the Eucharist until after 
A.D. 150. 

3 The Mass is a Eucharistic feast with an elaborately developed 
liturgy. It has the following structure: 

CONSECRATION 

7< \ 

OBLATION COMMUNION 

x* \ 

PRELIMINARIES CONCLUSION 

3i As this investigation is concerned essentially with the symbol 
of transformation, I must refrain from discussing the Mass as a 
whole. 

302 In the sacrifice of the Mass two distinct ideas are blended 
together: the ideas of deipnon and thysia. Thysia comes from the 
verb 0fcw, 'to sacrifice' or 'to slaughter'; but it also has the mean- 

2 [This is a translation of the Karl von Weizsacker version (1875) use( * here by 
the author. Elsewhere the Biblical quotations are taken from the AV and 
occasionally from the RSV and the DV. Following are the Greek and Latin 
(Vulgate) versions of the italicized portion of this passage. TRANS.] 

. . . TOUTO /ZO6 <TTW T& (TtO/m TO VTTfp VJA&V. TOUTO 7TOtlr6 6tS T"f]V kfJt^V CLVafJ,V7)(riV. 

&crauTcos Kal TO iror'fjpLov jucra TO deLTrvrjo-ai \kyuv' TOUTO rb voriipiov 17 Kaivf} 8ia97]Kri 
karlv kv r<3 kfj,& atjuart." 

"... hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis tradetur: hoc facite in meam 
commemorationem. Similiter et calicem, postquam coenavit, dicens: Hie calix 
novum testamentum est in meo sanguine/' 3 $ct7n>oj>, 'coena.' 

204 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



ing of 'blazing' or 'flaring up.' This refers to the leaping sacrifi- 
cial fire by which the gift offered to the gods was consumed. 
Originally the food-offering was intended for the nourishment 
of the gods; the smoke of the burnt sacrifice carried the food up 
to their heavenly abode. At a later stage the smoke was conceived 
as a spiritualized form of food-offering; indeed, all through the 
Christian era up to the Middle Ages, spirit (or pneuma) contin- 
ued to be thought of as a fine, vaporous substance. 4 

303 Deipnon means 'meal.' In the first place it is a meal shared by 
those taking part in the sacrifice, at which the god was believed 
to be present. It is also a "sacred" meal at which "consecrated" 
food is eaten, and hence a sacrifice (from sacriftcare, 'to make 
sacred/ 'to consecrate'). 

304 The dual meaning of deipnon and thysia is implicitly con- 
tained in the words of the sacrament: "the body which (was 
given) for you." 5 This may mean either "which was given to you 
to eat" or, indirectly, "which was given for you to God." The 
idea of a meal immediately invests the word 'body 5 with the 
meaning of <r&p, 'flesh' (as an edible substance). In Paul, ao^a 
and o-dp are practically identical. 6 

305 Besides the authentic accounts of the institution of the sacra- 
ment, we must also consider Hebrews 13:10-15 as a possible 
source for the Mass: 

We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the 
tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought 
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the 
camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with 
his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore 
unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we 
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us 
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. . . . 

306 As a further source we might mention Hebrews 7 : 17: "Thou 
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." 7 The idea 
4 This of course has nothing to do with the official conception of spirit by the 
Church. 5 'V6 cr5/xa TO forep vpuv." 

6 Kasemann, Leib und Leib Christi, p. 120. 

7 Dr. Jud kindly drew my attention to the equally relevant passage in Malachi 
i: 10-11 : "Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? 
neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. . . . And in every place 
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering . . ." 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



of perpetual sacrifice and of an eternal priesthood is an essential 
component of the Mass. Melchisedec, who according to Hebrews 
7 : 3 was " without father, without mother, without descent, hav- 
ing neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like 
unto the Son of God," was believed to be a pre-Christian incar- 
nation of the Logos. 

307 The idea of an eternal priesthood and of a sacrifice offered to 
God ' 'continually " brings us to the true mysterium fidei, the 
transformation of the substances, which is the third aspect of the 
Mass. The ideas of deipnon and thysia do not in themselves 
imply or contain a mystery, although, in the burnt offering 
which is reduced to smoke and ashes by the fire, there is a primi- 
tive allusion to a transformation of substance in the sense of its 
spiritualization. But this aspect is of no practical importance in 
the Mass, where it only appears in subsidiary form in the cens- 
ing, as an incense-offering. The mysterium, on the other hand, 
manifests itself clearly enough in the eternal priest "after the 
order of Melchisedec" and in the sacrifice which he offers to God 
"continually." The manifestation of an order outside time in- 
volves the idea of a miracle which takes place "vere, realiter, 
subs tan tialiter" at the moment of transubstantiation, for the 
substances offered are no different from natural objects, and 
must in fact be definite commodities whose nature is known to 
everybody, namely pure wheaten bread and wine. Furthermore, 
the officiating priest is an ordinary human being who, although 
he bears the indelible mark of the priesthood upon him and is 
thus empowered to offer sacrifice, is nevertheless not yet in a 
position to be the instrument of the divine self-sacrifice enacted 
in the Mass. 8 Nor is the congregation standing behind him yet 
purged from sin, consecrated, and itself transformed into a sac- 
rificial gift. The. ritual of the Mass takes this situation and 
transforms it step by step until the climax is reached the Conse- 

8 That is to say, not before he has accomplished the preparatory part of the serv- 
ice. In offering these gifts the priest is not the "master" of the sacrifice. "Rather 
that which causes them to be sacrificed in the first place is sanctifying grace. For 
that is what their sacrifice means: their sanctification. The man who each time 
performs the sacred act is the servant of grace, and that is why the gifts and their 
sacrifice are always pleasing to God. The fact that the servant may be bad does 
not affect them in any way. The priest is only the servant, and even this he has 
from grace, not from himself." Joseph Kramp, S.J., Die Opferanschauungen der 
romischen Messliturgie, p. 148. 

206 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



cration, when Christ himself, as sacrificer and sacrificed, speaks 
the decisive words through the mouth of the priest. At that 
moment Christ is present in time and space. Yet his presence is 
not a reappearance, and therefore the inner meaning of the con- 
secration is not a repetition of an event which occurred once in 
history, but the revelation of something existing in eternity, a 
rending of the evil of temporal and spatial limitations which 
separates the human spirit from the sight of the eternal. This 
event is necessarily a mystery, because it is beyond the power of 
man to conceive or describe. In other words, the rite is neces- 
sarily and in every one of its parts a symbol. Now a symbol is not 
an arbitrary or intentional sign standing for a known and 
conceivable fact, but an admittedly anthropomorphic hence 
limited and only partly valid expression for something supra- 
human and only partly conceivable. It may be the best expres- 
sion possible, yet it ranks below the level of the mystery it seeks 
to describe. The Mass is a symbol in this sense. Here I would 
like to quote the words of Father Kramp: "It -is generally ad- 
mitted that the sacrifice is a symbolic act, by which I mean that 
the offering of a material gift to God has no purpose in itself, 
but merely serves as a means to express an idea. And the choice 
of this means of expression brings a wide range of anthropo- 
morphism into play: man confronts God as he confronts his 
own kind, almost as if God were a human being. We offer a gift 
to God as we offer it to a good friend or to an earthly ruler." 9 
308 in so far, then, as the Mass is an anthropomorphic symbol 
standing for something otherworldly and beyond our power to 
conceive, its symbolism is a legitimate subject for comparative 
psychology and analytical research. My psychological explana- 
tions are, of course, exclusively concerned with the symbolical 
expression. 

s Ibid., p. 17. 



07 



2. THE SEQUENCE OF THE TRANSFORMATION 

RITE 

509 The rite of transformation may be said to begin with the 
Offertory, an antiphon recited during the offering of the sacrifi- 
cial gifts. Here we encounter the first ritual act relating to the 
transformation. 1 



I. OBLATION OF THE BREAD 

3 10 The Host is lifted up towards the cross on the altar, and the 
priest makes the sign of the cross over it with the paten. The 
bread is thus brought into relation with Christ and his death on 
the cross; it is marked as a "sacrifice" and thereby becomes 
sacred. The elevation exalts it into the realm of the spiritual: 
it is a preliminary act of spiritualization. Justin makes the inter- 
esting remark that the presentation of the cleansed lepers in the 
temple was an image of the Eucharistic bread. 2 This links up 
with the later alchemical idea of the imperfect or "leprous" sub- 
stance which is made perfect by the opus. (Quod natura relin- 
quit imperfectum,, arte perftcitur.' l What nature leaves imper- 
fect is perfected by the art.") 

1 In the account that follows I have made extensive use of Brinktrine, Die Heilige 
Messe in ihrem Werden und Wesen. 

2 "Tiwos TOU aprov rijs i>xapt<mas." 

208 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



II. PREPARATION OF THE CHALICE 

This is still more solemn than that of the bread, correspond- 
ing to the "spiritual" nature of the wine, which is reserved for 
the priest. 3 Some water is mingled with the wine. 

The mixing of water with the wine originally referred to the 
ancient custom of not drinking wine unless mixed with water. 
A drunkard was therefore called akratopotes, an 'unmixed 
drinker/ In modern Greek, wine is still called K paal (mixture). 
From the custom of the Monophysite Armenians, who did not 
add any water to the Eucharistic wine (so as to preserve the 
exclusively divine nature of Christ), it may be inferred that 
water has a hylical, or physical, significance and represents man's 
material nature. The mixing of water and wine in the Roman 
rite would accordingly signify that divinity is mingled with 
humanity as indivisibly as the wine with the water. 4 St. Cyprian 
(bishop of Carthage, d. 258) says that the wine refers to Christ, 
and the water to the congregation as the body of Christ. The 
significance of the water is explained by an allusion to the Book 
of Revelation 17:15: "The waters which thou sawest, where the 
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
tongues." (In alchemy, meretrix the whore is a synonym for the 
prima materia^ the corpus imperfectum which is sunk in dark- 
ness, like the man who wanders in darkness, unconscious and 
unredeemed. This idea is foreshadowed in the Gnostic image of 
Physis, who with passionate arms draws the Nous down from 
heaven and wraps him in her dark embrace.) As the water is an 
imperfect or even leprous substance, it has to be blessed and 
consecrated before being mixed, so that only a purified body 
may be joined to the wine of the spirit, just as Christ is to be 
united only with a pure and sanctified congregation. Thus this 
part of the rite has the special significance of preparing a perfect 
body the glorified body of resurrection. 

At the time of St. Cyprian the communion was generally cele- 
brated with water. 5 And, still later, St. Ambrose (bishop of 

3 That is, in the Roman rite. In the Greek Uniate rites, communion is received 
in bread and wine. 

4 This is the interpretation of Yves, bishop of Chartres (d. 1116). 

5 Cyprian attacks this heretical custom in his letter to Caecilius. Letter 6 to 
Caecilius, Migne, PX V vol. 4, cols. 3728:. (trans, by Carey, pp. i8iff.). 

209 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION I WEST 



Milan, d. 397) says: "In the shadow there was water from the 
rock, as it were the blood of Christ." 6 The water communion 
is prefigured in John 7:37-39: "If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture 
hath said, out of his belly flow rivers of living water. (But this 
he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should 
receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus 
was not yet glorified.)" And also in John 4: 14: "But whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but 
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life." The words "as the scripture 
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" do 
not occur anywhere in the Old Testament. They must therefore 
come from a writing which the author of the Johannine gospel 
obviously regarded as holy, but which is not known to us. It is 
just possible that they are based on Isaiah 58:11: "And the Lord 
shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and 
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and 
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Another possibil- 
ity is Ezekiel 47 : i : "Afterward he brought me again unto the 
door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the 
threshold of the house eastward . . . and the waters came down 
from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of 
the altar." In the Church Order of Hippolytus (d. c. 235) the 
water chalice is associated with the baptismal font, where the 
inner man is renewed as well as the body. 7 This interpretation 
comes very close to the baptismal krater of Poimandres 8 and 
to the Hermetic basin filled with nous which God gave to those 
seeking cpyoia. 9 Here the water signifies the pneuma, i.e., the 
spirit of prophecy, and also the doctrine which a man receives 

6 "In umbra erat aqua de petra quasi sanguis ex Christo." The umbra, 'shadow/ 
refers to the foreshadowing in the Old Testament, in accordance with the saying: 
"Umbra in lege, imago in evangelic, veritas in coelestibus" (The shadow in the 
Law, the image in the Gospel, the truth in Heaven). Note that this remark of 
Ambrose does not refer to the Eucharist but to the water symbolism of early 
Christianity in general; and the same is true of the passages from John. St. 
Augustine himself says: "There the rock was Christ; for to us that is Christ which 
is placed on the altar of God." Tractatus in Joannem, XLV, 9 (trans, by Innes). 

7 Connolly, ed., The So-called Egyptian Church Order and Derived Documents. 

8 Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, III, li. 8. 

9 Corpus Hermeticum, Lib. IV, 4, in Hermetica, I, p. 151. 

21O 



TRANSFORMATION SYMBOLISM IN THE MASS 



and passes on to others. 10 The same image of the spiritual water 
occurs in the "Odes of Solomon": n 

For there went forth a stream, and became a river great and broad; 
. . . and all the thirsty upon earth were given to drink of it; and 
thirst was relieved and quenched; for from the Most High the 
draught was given. Blessed then are the ministers of that draught 
who are entrusted with that water of His; they have assuaged the 
dry lips, and the will that had fainted they have raised up; and souls 
that were near departing they have caught back from death; and 
limbs that had fallen they straightened and set up; they gave strength 
for their feebleness and light to their eyes. For everyone knew them 
in the Lord, and they lived by the water of life for ever. 12 

314 The fact that the Eucharist was also celebrated with water 
shows that the early Christians were mainly interested in the 
symbolism of the mysteries and not in the literal observance of 
the sacrament. (There were several other variants "galactoph- 
agy/' for instance- which all bear out this view.) 

315 Another, very graphic, interpretation of the wine and water 
is the reference to John 19:34: "And forthwith came there out 
blood and water/' Deserving of special emphasis is the remark 
of St. John Chrysostom (patriarch of Constantinople, d. 407), 
that in drinking the wine Christ drank his own blood. (See Sec- 
tion in, on Zosimos.) 

316 In this section of the Mass we meet the important prayer: 

O God, who in creating human nature, didst wonderfully dignify it, 
and hast still more wonderfully renewed it; grant that, by the mys- 
tery of this water and wine, we may be made partakers of his divin- 
ity who vouchsafed to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus 
Christ. . . . 13 

lOStrack and Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aits Talmud und 
Midrasch, II, p. 492. n A collection of Gnostic hymns from the and cent. 

12 Ode VI in The Odes of Solomon, ed. Bernard, p. 55, after the J. Rendel Harris 
version. Cf. the vSajp Beiov, the aqua permanent of early alchemy, also the treatise 
of Komarius (Berthelot, IV, xx). 

13 "Deus, qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius 
reformasti; da nobis per huius aquae et vini mysterium, eius divinitatis esse 
consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps, Jesus Christus . . ." 
[Here and throughout this essay the English translation is taken from The Small 
Missal, London, 1924. TRANS.] 

211 



PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION : WEST 



III. ELEVATION OF THE CHALICE 

3*7 The lifting up of the chalice in the air prepares the spiritual- 
ization (i.e., volatilization) of the wine