SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 

Fig. 6. The mercurial serpent, alchemical symbol of psychic transformation 
From Barchusen, Elementa chemiae, I7IB 

my own soul"). We saw, however, that the snake is to be taken not only in the phallic sense, but as an attribute of the sun's image (the Egyptian uraeus) and as a libido-symbol. It is therefore possible for the sun-disc to be equipped not only with hands and feet (fig. 7; cf. also pI. Ib), but also with a phallus. We find proof of this in a strange vision in the Mithraic liturgy: 

"And likewise the so-called tube, the origin of the ministering wind. For you will see hanging down from the disc of the sun something that looks like a tube." 46 
	150 	This remarkable vision of a tube hanging down from the sun 

would be absolutely baffling in a religious text were it not that the tube has a phallic significance: the tube is the origin of the wind. The phallic significance of this attribute is not apparent at first sight, but we must remember that the wind, just as much as the sun, is a fructifier and creator.47 There is a painting by an 46 Dieterich, pp. 6-7: 'Op.o[w~ Of Kal 0 KaAOU}1.EPO~ auM~, 1, apx1, 'mv AHrovP'Yovpro~ o.Pfp.oV • I5fH 'Yap 0.11"0 'TOV iiLITKOV W~ aUAoP KpE}1.a.}1.EPOP. 
47 According to ancient superstition, the mares of Lusitania and the Egyptian vultures were fertilized by the wind. 

100 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 

early German artist which depicts the fructification of Mary in the following manner: a sort of tube or hose-pipe comes down from heaven and passes under the robe of the Virgin, and we can see the Holy Ghost flying down it in the form of a dove to fecundate the Mother of God.48 (Cf. pI. VIII; cf. also pI. Ill.) 
	151 	I once came across the following hallucination in a schizo- 

phrenic patient: he told me he could see an erect phallus on the sun. When he moved his head from side to side, he said, the sun's phallus moved with it, and that was where the wind came from. This bizarre notion remained unintelligible to me for a long time, until I got to know the visions in the Mithraic liturgy. The hallucination, it seems to me, also throws light on a very obscure passage in the text which comes immediately after the one quoted above: 

Els Of Ta. pJPT/ Ta. 7rPOS Al(3a a7r~paPTOP oTop a7rT/ALWTT/P. 'Ea.p V KEKAT/PWP.~pos Els Ta. p.~PT/ TOU a7rT/ALWTOU 0 tTEPOS, op.olws Eis Ta. p.~PT/ Ta. ~KElpou rn/m T~P a7rocf>opap TOU opap.aTOs. 

	152 	Mead translates as follows: 

And towards the regions Westward, as though it were an infinite East-Wind. But if the other wind, toward the regions of the East, should be in service, in like fashion shalt thou see, toward the regions of that (side), the converse of the sight.49 

Fig. 7. The Sun's hands Reliet, Spitalkirche, Tubingen 
~}j;i'~iW®;f~"(i\!1'~~~;M~~~;~~*~~£r:\t{\\~~~~~i' 
~;~1~~lj~{~l:~·~a:;~I~?ii;~~~.~~!.~ri~';:;:(:~;~t;;'t;.:~;~)i.~~~~~~~ 

48 St. Jerome (Adversus ]ovinianum, I, 7, in Migne, P.L., vo!. 23, col. 219) says of Mithras, who was born in a miraculous manner from a rock (cf. fig. 9), that his birth was caused "solo aestu libidinis"-by the sole heat of libido. (Cumont, Textes, I, p. 163.) 
49 Mead, A Mithraic Ritual, p. 22. 

101 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
	153 	Basing ourselves on Dieterich, we would say: 
And towards the regions westward it is as though there were an infinite east wind. But if the other wind should prevail towards the regions of the east, you will in like manner see the vision veering in that direction.50 
	154 	"Opaj.la is the vision, the thing seen; Q.7rocpopa really means a 
carrying away, or taking away. The probable meaning is that the vision moves or is carried hither and thither according to the direction of the wind. The thing seen is the tube, the "origin of the wind," which turns now to the east, now to the west, and presumably generates the corresponding wind. The vision of our schizophrenic tallies in the most astonishing way with this movement of the tube.51 This remarkable case prompted me to undertake various researches on mentally deranged Negroes.52 I was able to convince myself that the wellknown motif of Ixion on the sun-wheel (cf. pI. XLVlb) did in fact occur in the dream of an uneducated Negro. These and other experiences like them were sufficient to give me a clue: it is not a question of a specifically racial heredity, but of a universally human characteristic. Nor is it a question of inherited ideas) but of a functional disposition to produce the same, or very similar, ideas. This disposition I later called the archetype.53 
	155 	The various attributes of the sun appear one after another in 
the Mithraic liturgy. After the vision of Helios, seven maidens appear with faces like snakes, and seven gods with the faces of black bulls. The maiden can easily be understood as a causative libido analogy. The serpent in Paradise is usually thought of as feminine, as the seductive principle in woman, and is represented as feminine by the old painters.54 (Fig. 8.) Through a 50 Dieterich, p. 7. 
51 I am indebted to my late colleague Dr. Franz Riklin for the following case, which presents an interesting symbolism. It concerns a paranoid woman patient who developed the stage of manifest megalomania in the following way: She suddenly saw a strong light, a wind blew upon her, she felt as if her "heart turned over," and from that moment she knew that God had visited her and was in her. 
52 Permission for me to do this was kindly given by Dr. William Alanson White, 
late superintendent of the St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in Washington, D.C. 
53 Further material in my "Psychology of the Child Archetype" and my "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1954/55 edn., pp. 4ollI.). 
54 See my "Psychology and Religion," pars. 104f. (Swiss edn., pp. 110£.). 
102 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
similar change of meaning the snake in antiquity became a symbol of the earth, which has always been considered feminine. The bull is a notorious fertility-symbol. In the Mithraic liturgy, the bull-gods are called KvwoaKocpvAaKH, 'guardians of the world's axis,' who turn the "axle of the wheel of heaven." The same attribute falls also to Mithras: sometimes he is the Sol invictus itself, sometimes the companion and ruler of Helios (cf. pIs. xXlva, XL); in his right hand he holds "the constellation of the Bear, which moves and turns the heavens round." The bullheaded deities, Lepot Kat aAKtj.lOt veavLat, 'sacred and valorous youths' like Mithras himself, who is also given the attribute vewupos, 'the younger one,' are merely aspects of the same divinity. The chief god of the Mithraic liturgy is himself divided into Mithras and 

Fig. 8. The Tempting of Eve 
From the Speculum humanae salvation is, Augsburg, I47° 
Helios (cf. pI. xXlva), both of whom have closely related attributes. Speaking or Helios, the text says: 
You will see a god, young, comely, with glowing locks, in a white tunic and a scarlet cloak, with a fiery crown. 55 
And of Mithras: 
You will see a god of enormous power, with a shining countenance, young, with golden hair, in a white tunic and a golden crown, with 
55 Dieterich, p. 11: 51ftEt eEOV VEWUPOV EUEtOV 1rVPLVOrPLXa. ~v XLTWVL AEVKce Ka.' xAa}J.VOL KOKKIV!1, lxovra. 1rUPLPOV UTEq,avov. 
103 

	
I mention these images in order to show how the light-symbolism gradually develops,62 as the intensity of the vision increases, into the figure of the sun-hero, the "well-beloved." 63 
62 The development of the sun-symbolism in Faust (Part I, Scene 1) does not go as far as an anthropomorphic vision; it stops in the suicide scene (Wayne, p. 54) at the chariot of Helios ("As if on wings, a chariot of fire draws near me"). The fiery chariot comes to receive the dying or departing hero, as in the ascension of Elijah or Mithras (and also with St. Francis of Assisi). Faust in his flight passes over the sea, just as Mithras does; the early Christian paintings of the ascension of Elijah are based partly on the corresponding Mithraic representations, where the horses of the sun-chariot mounting up to heaven leave the solid earth behind them and gallop away over the figure of a water-god-Oceanuslying at their feet. Cf. Cumont, Textes, I, p. 178. 
63 Title of Mithras in the Vendidad, XIX, 28, cited by Cumont, Textes, I, p. 37. 
105 
156 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
wide trousers, holding in his right hand the golden shoulder of a young bull. This is the constellation of the Bear, which moves and turns the heavens round, wandering upwards and downwards according to the hour. Then you will see lightnings leap from his eyes, and from his body, stars.56 
If we equate gold and fire as essentially similar, then there is a large measure of agreement in the attributes of the two gods. To these mystical pagan ideas we must add the visions of the Johannine Apocalypse, which are probably not much older: 
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars:57 and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword:58 and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. [Rev. 1 : 12fI.] 
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown,59 and in his hand a sharp sickle. [Rev. 14: 14.] 
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns . . . . And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood .... 60 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.61 [Rev. 19: 12fI.] 
56 Ibid., p. 15: i'4EL (JEOV ;nrEpjLeY€()T/, qx"TLV~V ExovTa T';'V i5if;LV, VEWTEPOV, XPVUOkOjLaV, EV XLTWVL AEVKc{! Ka! XPVU4:> uTEq,aV'f! Ka! ava~vpluL, KaTExovra TV OE~L(i XELp! jLOUXOV 6)jLOV XpVUWJJ, OS EUTLV apKTOS .q KtVOVua Kat. aVTLCT7pEct>ouua TOJ) oupaVOll, Kara. wpav a.Va,7rOAEVOVO"o. Ka.l Kara7roXdJOvuQ.. E7rEt:Ta Ot/tEt avrou Ex rwv 0JLJl.G.rwJI o.UTpa7rG.s Kat. EK TOU (n:V,.,.aros o.UTfpas 
	Q.AAOjLfVOVS. 	57 The Great Bear consists of seven stars. 
58 Mithras is frequently represented with a short sword in one hand and a torch in the other (fig. 9)' The sword as sacrificial instrument plays a considerable role in the Mithraic myth and also in Christian symbolism. See my "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," par. 324 (1955/56 edn., p. 284). 
59 uTEq,avov xpvuovv, lit. 'golden wreath: 
60 Cf. the scarlet mantle of Helios. An essential feature in the rites of many different cults was that the worshippers dressed themselves in the bloody pelts of the sacrificed animals, as at the Lupercalia, Dionysia, and Saturnalia. The last of these lingers on in the Carnival; in Rome the typical Carnival figure was the priapic Punchinello. 
61 Cf. the linen-clad retinue of the god Helios. The bull-headed gods wore white 1rEpLrWjLaTa (aprons?). 
104 

157 
158 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
There is no need to assume any direct connection between the Apocalypse and Mithraic ideas. The visionary images in both texts are drawn from a source not limited to anyone place, but found in the souls of many people. The symbols it produces are far too typical to belong to anyone individual. 
Fig. 9. Mithras with sword and torch Roman sculPture 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
These visionary processes are the psychological roots of the suncoronations in the mystery religions. (PI. VI.) The religious experience behind the ritual had congealed into liturgy, but it was a regular enough occurrence to be accepted as a valid outward form. In view of all this it is evident that the early Church stood in a special relationship to Christ as the Sol novus, and on the other hand had some difficulty in shaking off the pagan symbol. Philo Judaeus saw in the sun the image of the divine Logos, or even the deity itself.64 And in a hymn of St. Ambrose, Christ is invoked with the words "0 sol salutis," etc. At the time of Marcus Aurelius, Melito, in his treatise IIEpL Aovrpou, called Christ "The sun of the East .... As the only sun he rose in the heavens." 65 
	159 	Even more explicit is a passage from Pseudo-Cyprian: 
o how wonderful is Providence, that Christ should be born on the same day on which the sun was created, the 28th of March! Therefore the prophet Malachi said to the people concerning him: "The Sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in his wings." This is the sun of righteousness in whose wings healing was foreshown.66 
	160 	In a treatise attributed to St. John Chrysostom, "De solstitiis 
et aequinoctiis," it is said: 
But the Lord, too, was born in wintertime, on the 25th of December, when the ripe olives are pressed in order to produce the oil for anointing, the chrism. They also call this day the birthday of the Unconquerable One. Yet who is as unconquerable as our Lord, who overthrew and conquered death itself? As for their calling it the birthday of the sun, he himself is the sun of righteousness of whom the prophet Malachi spoke.-He is the Lord of light and darkness, 
64 De somniis, I, 85. 
65 "HALOS avaroA'ijs .•• p.ovos !]ALOS oUros aVfTE'AEV {nI" ovpavov. Cf. Pitra, A nalecta sacra, 11, p. 5, cited in Cumont, Textes, I, p. 355. 
66 De Pascha Compotus, in Migne, P.L., 4, col. 964. Cited in Usener, Weihnachtstest, p. 5.-"0 quam praecJara ... providentia ut in ilIo die quo factus est sol. in ipso die nasceretur Christus, v. Kal. Apr. feria IV. Et ideo de ipso merito ad plebem dicebat Malachias propheta: 'Orietur vobis sol iustitiae et curatio est in pennis ejus,' hie est sol iustitiae cuius in pennis curatio praeostendebatur." The passage occurs in Malachi 4: 2: "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings," This image recalls the winged sun-disc of ancient Egypt. (PI. IXa; cf. also pI. VII.) 
106 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
the creator and separator, who is called by the prophet the sun of righteousness.67 
	161 	According to the testimony of Eusebius of Alexandria, Chris- 
tians, too, shared in the worship of the rising sun until well into the fifth century: 
Woe to those who prostrate themselves before the sun and the moon and the stars! For I know of many who prostrate themselves and pray to the sun. At sunrise they address their prayers to him, saying: 
"Have pity on us!" And this is done not only by sun-worshippers and heretics, but by Christians too, who forget their faith and mix with heretics.68 
	162 	Augustine remonstrated with his Christian followers, telling 
them emphatically: "Christ the Lord has not been made [like unto] the sun, but is he through whom the sun is made." 69 
	163 	Not a few traces of sun-worship are preserved in ecclesi- 
astical art,70 for instance the nimbus round the head of Christ, and the haloes of the saints. Numerous fire- and light-symbols are attributed to the saints in Christian legend.71 The twelve apostles, for example, were likened to the twelve signs of the zodiac and were therefore represented each with a star over his head.72 No wonder the heathen, as Tertullian reports, took the 
67 "Sed et dominus nascitur mense Decembri hiemis tempore, VIII. kal. Januarias, quando oleae maturae premuntur ut unctio, id est chrisma, nascatur-sed et Invicti natalem appellant. Quis utique tarn invietus nisi Dominus noster qui mortem subactam devieit? Vel quod dicant Solis esse natalem, ipse est sol iustitiae, de quo Malachias propheta dixit.-Dominus lucis ac noctis conditor et discretor qui a propheta Sol justitiae cognominatus est," Cumont, Textes, p. 355. 68 OvaL TOLS 7rPO<TKVVOVcn TOP ?jALOP Kat rt]J' (n:A~p'Y}V lCal Taus Q..UTfpas. llOAAOVS 'YJp oroa Tavs 7rPOO'KVVOVPTas /(al EUxoj.J.Evovs Eis TOP 7]ALOJI. "H017 'Yap avaTElAUPTOS TOU i]'Alov, 7rPOfTEVxoPTat. Kal XE')'OVO"LP " 'EX6,croJl r,p.at; "Kal. ov P.OJlOP tHXLOl'v&crTat. "al. aCpfTt.KOl TOVTO 1rot.Ovut.JI tl.AAtt xa.1 xp,a-na.voi xai tI.<I>EVTE~ r>}v 7rla-nv TO'S aipEnKo,s tl.vap.l-yvvvra,.- Oratio VI: 
ITEpl tl.a-Tpov6p.wv, cited in Cumont, p. 356. 
69 "Non est Dominus Christus sol factus, sed per quem Solfactus est,"-In Johannis Evang., Tract. XXXIV, 2. [Trans. from author's version.] 
70 The pictures in the catacombs likewise contain a good deal of sun symbolism. For instance there is a swastika (sun·wheel) on the robe of Fossor Diogenes in the cemetery of Peter and Marcellinlls. The symbols of the rising sun-bull and ram-are found in the Orpheus frescoes in the cemetery of Domitilla; also the ram and peacock (a sun-symbol like the phoenix) on an epitaph in the Callistus 
	catacomb. 	71 Numerous examples in Gones, Die Christliche Mystik. 
72 Le Blant, Sarcophages de la Gaule. In the Homilies of Clement of Rome (Romil. 11, 23, cited in Cumont, Textes, I, p. 356) we read: T<ji KVp1'l' -YE-YOVOla-,V 
107 

	
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
sun for the God of the Christians! "Some, in a more human and probable way, believe the Sun to be our god." 73 Among the Manichees the sun actually was God. One of the most remarkable records of this period, an amalgam of paganAsiatic, Hellenistic, and Christian beliefs, is the 'E~~'Y'I]O"'s 7r~PL TWII h II~plTL8, 7rpax8ElI7'wlI, 74 a book of fables which affords deep 
Fig. 10. Serpent representing the orbit of the moon 
Assyrian boundary stone, Susa 
insight into syncretistic symbolism. There we find the following magical dedication: t.,L 'HAL,!, 8~0 p.eyaA,!, (3a(nA~i '17]O"oV. 75 In certain parts of Armenia, Christians still pray to the rising 
~W~EKo. 6:/r6uTOAOt TWV TOU r,Alou ~C;;O,"o. P:r]VWV "'.POVTES TOP aptlJllov (The Lord had twelve apostles, bearing the number of the twelve months of the sun) (trans. by Roberts and Donaldson, p. 42). This image evidently refers to the sun's course through the zodiac. The course of the sun (like the course of the moon in Assyria; cf. fig. 10) was represented as a snake carrying the signs of the zodiac on its back (like the Deus leontocephalus of the Mithraic mysteries; cf. pI. XLIV). This view is supported by a passage from a Vatican Codex edited by Cumont (190, 13th cent., p. 229; in Textes, I, p. 35): TOrE ° 7ravuo<f>os OT/Iltoup/,os aKP'l' vEbllo.n actJn1O'E 'fOV j.LE'Yav Opo.KOVTtJ. UVV r4) KEKO(1'J.L"f7J.LEV~ (1'TEcJ>av~, XE'"'(W or, Ta t{3' r~(ha) (3o.UTa\OVTo. •.•. i TOU vWrou o.brou (Then the all-wise Demiurge, by his highest command, set in motion the great dragon with the spangled crown, I mean the twelve signs of the zodiac which are borne on his back). In the Manichaean system, the symbol of the snake, and actually the snake on the tree of Paradise, was attributed to Christ. Cf. John 3: 14: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." (PI. Ixb.) 
73 Apologia 16: "Alii humanius et verisimilius Solem credunt deum nostrum." 74 "Report on the Happenings in Persia," from an 11th-cent. MS. in Munich: 
Wirth, ed., Aus orientalischen Chroniken, p. 151. 
75 "To the great God Zeus Helios, King Jesus" (p. 166, § 22). 108 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
sun, that it may "let its foot rest on the face of the worshipper." 76 
	164 	Under the symbol of "moth and sun" we have dug deep 
down into the historical layers of the psyche, and in the course of our excavations have uncovered a buried idol, the sun-hero, "young, comely, with glowing locks and fiery crown," who, forever unattainable to mortal man, revolves round the earth, causing night to follow day, and winter summer, and death life, and who rises again in rejuvenated splendour to give light to new generations. For him the dreamer longs with her very soul, for him the "soul-moth" burns her wings. 
	165 	The ancient civilizations of the Near East were familiar with 
a sun-worship dominated by the idea of the dying and resurgent god-Osiris (cf. fig. 23), Tammuz, Attis-Adonis,77 Christ, Mithras,78 and the phoenix. The beneficent as well as the destroying power was worshipped in the fire. The forces of nature are always two-faced, as is plainly the case with the God of Job. This ambivalence brings us back to Miss Miller's poem. Her recollections as to its antecedents bear out our earlier supposition that the image of the moth and the sun is a condensation of two ideas, one of which we have just discussed. The other is the idea of the moth and the flame. As the title of a play, about whose contents the author tells us absolutely nothing, "The Moth and the Flame" could easily have the hackneyed meaning of flying round the flame of passion until one's wings are burned. This passionate longing has two sides: it is the power which beautifies everything, but, in a different set of circumstances, is quite as likely to destroy everything. Hence a violent desire is either accompanied by anxiety at the start, or is remorselessly pursued by it. All passion is a challenge to fate, and what it does cannot be undone. Fear of fate is a very understandable phenomenon, for it is incalculable, immeasurable, full of unknown dangers. The perpetual hesitation of the neurotic to launch out into life 
76 Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube, p. 43. 
77 Attis was later assimilated to Mithras, and like him was represented with the Phrygian cap (cf. fig. 9)' Cumont, Mysteries, p. 87. According to the testimony of St. Jerome (Ep. 58 ad Paulinum), the birth-cave at Bethlehem was originally a sanctuary (spelaeum) of Attis-Adonis (Usener, Weihnachtsfest, p. 283). 
78 Cumont (pp. iv-v) says: "The two adversaries discovered with amazement, but with no inkling of their origin, the similarities which united them." 
109 

169 
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
is readily explained by his desire to stand aside so as not to get involved in the dangerous struggle for existence. But anyone who refuses to experience life must stifle his desire to live-in other words, he must commit partial suicide. This explains the death-fantasies that usually accompany the renunciation of desire. Miss Miller had already given vent to these fantasies in her poem, and she now comments: 
I had been reading a selection of Byron's poems that pleased me greatly and that I often dipped into. Moreover, there is a great similarity of rhythm between my two last lines, "For I, the source, etc." and these two of Byron's: 
"Now, let me die as I have lived in faith 
Nor tremble tho' the Universe should quake!" 
	166 	This reminiscence, the last link in her chain of associations, 
corroborates the death-fantasies born of renunciation. The quotation comes-a point not mentioned by Miss Miller-from an unfinished poem of Byron's called "Heaven and Earth." The passage reads: 
Still blessed be the Lord, For what is past, 
For that which is: 
For all are his, From first to last- 
Time, space, eternity, life, death- 
The vast known and immeasurable unknown, He made, and can unmake; 
And shall I) for a little gasp of breath, Blaspheme and groan? 
No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith, 
Nor quiver, though the universe may quake! 79 
	167 	These words form part of a panegyric or prayer spoken by a 
"mortal" who is in headlong flight before the oncoming Deluge. Quoting them, Miss Miller puts herself in a similar situation: she hints that her own feelings are very like the hopeless despair of the unfortunates who saw themselves threatened by the rising waters. She thus allows us to peer into the dark abyss of her longing for the sun-hero. We see that her longing is in vain, for she too is a mortal, momentarily upborne on the wings of her 79 Works, p. 559. 
110 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
longing into the light and then sinking down to death-or should we perhaps say, driven by deadly fear to climb higher and higher, like the people in the flood, and yet despite the most desperate struggles irretrievably doomed to destruction. One is forcibly reminded of the closing scene in Cyrano de Bergerac: 
	CYRANO: 	But since Death comes, 
I meet him still afoot, and sword in hand! ... What say you? It is useless? Ay, I know! 
But who fights ever hoping for success? 
I fought for lost cause, and for fruitless quest! I know that you will lay me low at last.80 
	168 	Her human expectations are futile, because her whole long- 
ing is directed towards the Divine, the "well-beloved," who is worshipped in the sun's image. The existing material makes it clear that there is no question of any conscious decision or choice on her part: it is rather that she is confronted, against her will and inclinations, with the disquieting fact that a divine hero has stepped into the shoes of the handsome officer. Whether this betokens a good thing or a bad remains to be seen. 
Byron's "Heaven and Earth" is a "mystery, founded on the 
following passage in Genesis: 'And it came to pass ... that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.' " 81 Besides that, Byron used as a motto for his poem the following words from Coleridge: "And woman wailing for her demon-lover." 82 The poem is composed of two major episodes, one psychological, the other telluric: a passion that breaks down all barriers, and the terrors of the unleashed forces of Nature. The angels Samiasa and Azaziel burn with sinful love for the beautiful daughters of Cain, Anah and Aholibamah, and thus break through the barrier between mortals and immortals. Like Lucifer, they rebel ~gainst God, and the archangel Raphael raises his voice in warnmg: 
But man hath listen'd to his voice, And ye to woman's-beautiful she is, 
	80 Trans. by Thomas and Guillemard, p. 293. 	81 Geneiiis 6: 2. 
82 [Cf. "Kubla Khan," Poems, p. 297.-EDITORS.] 
III 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
The serpent's voice less subtle than her kiss. 
The snake but vanquish'd dust; but she will draw A second host from heaven, to break heaven's law.B3 
	170 	The power of God is menaced by the seductions of passion; 
heaven is threatened with a second fall of angels. If we translate this projection back into the psychological sphere from whence it came, it would mean that the good and rational Power which rules the world with wise laws is threatened by the chaotic, primitive force of passion. Therefore passion must be exterminated, which means, in mythological projection, that the race of Cain and the whole sinful world must be wiped out, root and branch, by the Flood. That is the inevitable result of a passion that sweeps away all barriers. It is like the sea breaking through its dykes, like the waters of the deep and the torrential rains,84 the creative, fructifying, "motherly" waters, as Indian mythology calls them. Now they depart from their natural courses and surge over the mountain-tops and engulf all living things. As a power which transcends consciousness the libido is by nature daemonic: it is both God and devil. If evil were to be utterly destroyed, everything daemonic, including God himself, would suffer a grievous loss; it would be like per- 
83 Byron, p. 556. 
84 Nature, the object par excellence, reflects all those contents of the unconscious which as such are not conscious to us. Many nuances of pleasure and pain perceived by the senses are unthinkingly attributed to the object, without our pausing to consider how far the object can be made responsible for them. An example of direct projection can be seen in the following modern Greek folksong: 
"Down on the strand, down on the shore, 
A maiden washed the kerchief of her lover ..• And a soft west wind came sighing over the shore, And lifted her skirt a little with its breath, 
So that a little of her ankles could be seen, 
And the seashore grew bright as all the world." 
(Sanders, Das Volksleben der Neug;riechen, p. 81, cited in the Zeitschrift dei Vereins filr Volkskunde, XII, 1902, p. 166.) Here is a Germanic variant, from the Edda: 
"In Gymir's farm I saw 
A lovely maid coming towards me. With the glory of her arm glowed The sky and all the everlasting sea." 
(Gering, p. 53, cited in the Zeitschrift, p. 167.) Projection also accounts for all the miraculous reports of "cosmic" events at the birth and death of heroes. 
112 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
forming an amputation on the body of the Deity. Raphael's lament over the rebel angels, Samiasa and Azaziel, suggests as much: 
Why Cannot this earth be made, or be destroy'd, Without involving ever some vast void 
In the immortal ranks? 
	171 	Passion raises a man not only above himself, but also above 
the bounds of his mortality and earthliness, and by the very act of raising him, it destroys him. This "rising above himself" is expressed mythologically in the building of the heaven-high tower of Babel that brought confusion to mankind,85 and in the revolt of Lucifer. In Byron's poem it is the overweening ambition of the race of Cain, whose strivings make the stars subservient and corrupt the sons of God themselves. Even if a longing for the highest is legitimate in itself, the sinful presumption and inevitable corruption lie in the very fact that it goes beyond the fixed human boundaries. The longing of the moth is not made pure by reaching for the stars, nor does it cease to be a moth on account of such noble aspirations. Man continues to be man. Through excess of longing he can draw the gods down into the murk of his passion.86 He seems to be raising himself up to the Divine, but in so doing he abandons his humanity. Thus the love of Anah and Aholibamah for their angels becomes the ruin of gods and men. Their impassioned invocation of the angels is an exact paralled to Miss Miller's poem: 
ANAH: 87 Seraph! From thy sphere! 
Whatever star 88 contain thy glory; In the eternal depths of heaven 
Albeit thou watchest with "the seven"; Though through space infinite and hoary Before thy bright wings worlds be driven, 
Yet hear! 
85 Cf. the mythical heroes, who after their greatest deeds fall into spiritual 
	confusion. 	86 The history of religion is full of such aberrations. 
87 Anah is the beloved of Japhet, the son of Noah. She deserts him for the seraph. 88 The one invoked is actually a star. Cf. Miss Miller's "morning stars," par. 60 above. 
113 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
Oh! think of her who holds thee dear! And though she nothing is to thee, Yet think that thou art all to her. 
E terni ty is in thine ears, 
Unborn, undying beauty in thine eyes; With me thou canst not sympathize, Except in love, and there thou must Acknowledge that more loving dust Ne'er wept beneath the skies. 
Thou walk'st thy many worlds,89 thou see'st The face of him who made thee great, 
As he hath made of me the least 
Of those cast out from Eden's gate; 
Yet, Seraph dearl 
Oh hear! 
For thou hast loved me, and I would not die Until I know what I must die in knowing, That thou forgett'st in thine eternity 
Her whose heart death could not keep from o'erflowing For thee, immortal essence as thou art! 
Great is their love who love in sin and fear; 
And such, I feel, are waging in my heart 
A war unworthy: to an Adamite 
Forgive, my Seraph! that such thoughts appear, For sorrow is our element. 
The hour is near 
Which tells me we are not abandon'd quite. 
Appear! Appear! Seraph! 
My own Azaziel! be but here, 
And leave the stars to their own light. 
AHoLIBAMAH: I call thee, I await thee, and I love thee. Though I be form'd of clay, 
And thou of beams 
More bright than those of day On Eden's streams, 
Thine immortality cannot repay With love more warm than mine My love. There is a ray 90 
89 This is an attribute of the "wandering sun," 90 The light substance of her own psyche. 
114 

V. THE SONG OF THE MOTH In me, which, though forbidden yet to shine, I feel was lighted at thy God's and thine.91 
It may be hidden long: death and decay 
Our mother Eve bequeath'cl us-but my heart Defies it: though this life must pass away, 
Is that a cause for thee and me to part? ... 
I can share all things, even immortal sorrow; For thou hast ventured to share life with me) And shall I shrink from thine eternity? 
No! though the serpent's sting should pierce me thorough, And thou thyself wert like the serpent, coil 
Around me still! 92 and I will smile, 
And curse thee not; but hold 
Thee in as warm a fold. 
... descend, and prove 
A mortal's love 
For an immortal. ... 
	172 	The apparition of both angels which follows the invocation 
is, as always, a glorious vision of light: 
AHoLIBAMAH: The clouds from off their pinions flinging, As though they bore tomorrow's light. 
ANAH: But if our father see the sight! 
AHoLIBAMAH: He would but deem it was the moon Rising unto some sorcerer's tune 
An hour too soon .... 
ANAH: La! they have kindled all the west, Like a returning sunset; lo! 
On Ararat's late secret crest 
A mild and many-colour'd bow, The remnant of their flashing path, Now shines! 
	173 	At the sight of this rainbow-hued vision both women are 
filled with longing and expectation, and Anah makes use of a 91 The bringing together of the two light substances shows their common origin: they are libido images. According to Me~hthild of Magdeburg (Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit), the soul is compounded of "Minne" (love). 
92 Cf. the paintings by Stuck-"Sin," (pI. x), "Vice," and "Sensuality"-where a woman's naked body is encircled by a huge snake. At bottom it portrays the fear of death. 
115 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: ONE 
pregnant simile. Once more the abyss opens, and we catch a brief but terrifying glimpse of the theriomorphic nature of the mild god of light: 
... and now, behold! it hath Return'd to night, as rippling foam, Which the leviathan hath lash'd From his unfathomable home, 
When sporting on the face of the calm deep, Subsides soon after he again hath dash'd 
Down, down, to where the ocean's fountains sleep. 
	174 	Leviathan-we remember this prize exhibit that tips the 
scales of Yahweh's justice so heavily against Job. There, where the deep fountains of the ocean are, dwells Leviathan; from there the all-destroying flood ascends, the tidal wave of animal passion. The choking, heart-constricting surge of instinct is projected outwards as a mounting flood to destroy everything that exists, so that a new and better world may arise from the ruins of the old: 
]APHET: The eternal Will 
Shall deign to expound this dream Of good and evil; and redeem Unto himself all times, all things; 
And, gather'd under his almighty wings, Abolish hell! 
And to the expiated Earth Restore the beauty of her birth. 
SPIRITS: And when shall take effect this wondrous spell? ]APHET: When the Redeemer cometh; first in pain, And then in glory .... 
SPIRITS: New times, new climes, new arts, new men; but still The same old tears, old crimes, and oldest ill, 
Shall be amongst your race in different forms; 
But the same moral storms 
Shall oversweep the future, as the waves 
In a few hours the glorious giants' graves.93 
	175 	Japhet's prognostications have an almost prophetic meaning 
for our poetess and must therefore be understood on the "sub· 93 Byron, p. 551. 
116 

v. THE SONG OF THE MOTH 
jective level." 94 With the death of the moth in the light t danger has been removed for the time being, though the prc lem is still far from solved. The conflict must begin again fro the beginning; but this time there is a promise in the air, premonition of the redeemer, the "well-beloved," who mour to the zenith with the sun and then sinks again into night ar the cold darkness of winter-the young dying god, who has ev been our hope of renewal and of the world to come. 
94 Interpretation of the products of the unconscious, for instance of a person a dream, has a double aspect: what that person means in himself (the "objecti level") and what he means as a projection ("subjective level"). Cf. "On the Ps chology of the Unconscious," Two Essays, p. 83. 
117 

I 
INTRODUCTION 
	176 	Before I enter upon the contents of this second part, it seems 
necessary to cast a backward glance over the singular train of thought which the analysis of the poem "The Moth to the Sun" has revealed. Although this poem is very different from the preceding "Hymn of Creation," closer investigation of the longing for the sun has led us into a realm of mythological ideas that are closely related to those considered in the first poem: the Creator God, whose dual nature was plainly apparent in the case of Job, has now taken on an astromythological, or rather an astrological, character. He has become the sun, and thus finds a natural expression that transcends his moral division into a Heavenly Father and his counterpart the devil. The sun, as Renan has observed, is the only truly "rational" image of God, whether we adopt the standpoint of the primitive savage or of modern science.~ either case_ the sun is the father-god from wh~m_ all living thirigs draw life; he is the fructifier and creator, the source of energy for our WODa.. Tlie discord into which the human soul has fiillen can be harmoniously resolved through the sun as a natural object which knows no inner conflict. The sun is not only beneficial, but also destructive; hence the zodiacal sign for August heat is the ravaging lion which Samson 1 slew in order to rid the parched earth of its torment. Yet it is in the nature of the sun to scorch, and its scorching power seems natural to man. It shines equally on the just and the unjust, and allows useful creatures to flourish as well as the harmful. Theretore the sun is perfectly suited to r~senv the visi.ble God ofthis world, i. e., the creative power of our own soul, which we call libido, and whose nature it is to bri~g forth ili~ useful and the~mful, the go~d and the baa. That this comparison is not 
1 Samson as a sun-god. See Stein thaI, "Die Sage van Simson." The killing of the lion, like the Mithraic bull-sacrifice, is an anticipation of the god's self-sacrifice. 
121 

text, we come upon further attributes which tell us in what form Rudra dwells in man: 
A mighty Lord is Purusha, spurring on the highest in us to purest attainment, inexhaustible light. 
That Person, no bigger than a thumb, the inner Self, seated forever in the heart of man, is revealed by the heart, the thought, the mind. They who know That, become immortal. 
Thousand-headed, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed is Purusha. He encompasses the earth on every side and rules over the ten-finger space. 
That Person is this whole world, whatever has been and what will be. He is Lord of immortality, he is whatever grows by food. 
5 Whoever has God, the sun, in himself is immortal like the sun. Cf. Part I, ch. 5, above. 
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
just a matter of words can be seen from the teachings of the mystics: when they descend into the depths of their own being they find "in their heart" the image of the sun, they find their own life-force which they call the "sun" for a legitimate and, I would say, a physical reason, because our source of energy and life actually is the sun. Our physiological life, regarded as an energy process, is entirely solar. The peculiar nature of this solar energy as inwardly perceived by the mystic is made dear in Indian mythology. The following passages, referring to Rudra,2 are taken from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad: 
There is one Rudra only, they do not allow a second, who rules all the worlds by his powers. Behind all creatures he stands, the Protector; having created them, he gathers all beings together at the end of time. 
He has eyes on all sides, faces on all sides, arms on all sides, feet on all sides. He is the one God who created heaven and earth, forging all things together with his hands and wings. 
You who are the source and origin of the gods, the ruler of all, Rudra, the great seer, who of old gave birth to the Golden Seedgive us enlightenment! 3 
	177 	Behind these attributes we can discern the All-Creator, and 
behind him the sun, who is winged and scans the world with a thousand eyes.4 (Cf. fig. 11.) This is confirmed by the following passages, which bring out the important point that God is contained in the individual creature: 
Beyond this is Brahma, the highest, hidden in the bodies of all, encompassing all. Those who know him as the Lord become immortal. 
2 Rudra, properly-as father of the Maruts (winds)-a wind- or storm-god, appears here as the sole creator-god, as the text shows. The role of creator and fertilizer naturally falls to him as a wind'god. Cf. my comments on Anaxagoras in pars. 67 and 76, above. 
3 Trans. of this and the following passages (Shver. Up. 2-4; 7, 8, 11; 12-15) based on Hume, The Thirteen PrinciPal Upanishads, pp. 399-401; and Max Muller, The Upanishads, n, pp. 244ff. 
4 Similarly, the Persian sun-god Mithras is equipped with an immense number of eyes. It is possible that Loyola's vision of the snake with multiple eyes is a variant of this motif. See my "On the Nature of the Psyche" (1954/55, p. 409)' 
122 

178 

1. INTRODUCTION 
I know this mighty Person (purusha), who is like to the sun, transcendent over darkness. Those who know him truly pass beyond death; by no other road can they go. 
He is in the face, the head, the neck of all, he dwells in the heart of all things, all-pervading, bountiful, omnipresent, kindly. 
The all-powerful God, who is "like to the sun," is in every one of us, and whoever knows him is immorta1.5 Following the 
Fig. 11. Bes, with Horus-eyes Bronze figure, Egypt, c. 6th century B.e. 

12~ 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
179 
There is a famous parallel passage in the Katha Upanishad: 

That Person in the heart, no bigger than a thumb, burning like flame without smoke, maker of past and future, the same today and tomorrow, that is Self.6 
180 
We know that Tom Thumbs, dactyls, and Cabiri have a phallic aspect, and this is understandable enough, because they are personifications of creative forces, of which the phallus, too, is a symbol. It represents the libido, or psychic energy in its creative aspect. The same is true of many other sexual images which are found not only in dreams and fantasies but in everyday speech. In neither case should they be taken literally, for they are not to be understood semiotically, as signs for definite things, but as symbols. A symbol is an indefinite expression with many meanings, pointing to something not easily defined and therefore not fu}ly known. But the sign always has a fixed meaning, because it is a conventional abbreviation for, or a commonly accepted indication of, something known. The symbol therefore has a large number of analogous variants, and the more of these variants it has at its disposal, the more complete and clear-cut will be the image it projects of its object. The same creative force which is symbolized by Tom Thumb, ete., can also be represented by the phallus or by numerous other symbols (pI. xIb), which delineate further aspects of the process underlying them all. Thus the creative dwarfs toil away in secret; the phallus) also working in darkness, begets a living being; and the key unlocks the mysterious forbidden door behind which some wonderful thing awaits discovery. One thinks, in this connection, of "The Mothers" in Faust: 
MEPHISTOPHELES: Congratulations, before you part from me! You know the devil, that is plain to see. 
Here, take this key. 
FAusT: 
That little thing! But why? 
MEPHISTOPHELES: First grasp it; it is nothing to decry. 

64, 13: trans. by Purohit Swami and Yeats, p. 34. [Or, in Rene Guenon's trans" Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, p. 45: "This Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is of a clear luminosity like a smokeless fire; it is the Lord of the past and of the future; it is today, and it will be tomorrow, such as it is," -TRANS.] 
124 
181 
1. INTRODUCTION 

FAusT: It glows, it shines, increases in my handl 7 MEPHISTOPHELES: How great its worth, you soon shall understand The key will smell the right place from all others: 
Follow it down, it leads you to the Mothers! 8 

Here the devil again puts into Faust's hand the marvellow tool, as once before when,' in the form of the black dog, he in, troduced himself to Faust as: 

Part of that power which would Ever work evil, but engenders good.9 

What he is describing here is the libido, which is not only creative and procreative, but possesses an intuitive faculty, a 
i82 
	
lJ<!!/ 
*~~ 

Fig. 12. The birth-giving orifice From a Mexican liemo 

strange power to "smell the right place," almost as if it were a live creature with an independent life of its own (which is why it is so easily personified). It is purposive, like sexuality itself, a favourite object of comparison. The "realm of the Mothers" has not a few connections with the womb (fig. 12), with the matrix, which frequently symbolizes the creative aspect of the unconscious. This libido is a force of nature, good and bad at once, or morally neutral. Uniting himself with it, Faust succeeds in accomplishing his real life's work, at first with evil results and then for the benefit of mankind. In the realm of the Mothers he finds the tripod, the Hermetic vessel in which the "royal marriage" is consummated. But he needs the phallic 
7 The light symbolism in the etymology of <l>a.AX6~ is discussed in pars. 321f., 
	below. 	8 Faust, Part 11, trans. based on MacNeice, P.I77. 
9 Ibid., Part I, trans. by Wayne, p. 75, modified. 
12.1) 

184 
183 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
wand in order to bring off the greatest wonder of all-the creation of Paris and Helen.lO The insignificant-looking tool in Faust's hand is the dark creative power of the unconscious, which reveals itself to those who follow its dictates and is indeed capable of working miracles.u This paradox appears to be very ancient, for the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (19, 20) goes on to say of the dwarf-god, the cosmic purusha: 
Without feet, without hands, he moves, he grasps; eyeless he sees, earless he hears; he knows all that is to be known, yet there is no knower of him. Men call him the Primordial Person, the Cosmic Man. 
Smaller than small, greater than great .... 
The phallus often stands for the creative divinity, Hermes being an excellent example. It is sometimes thought of as an independent being, an idea that is found not only in antiquity but in the drawings of children and artists of our own day. So we ought not to be surprised if certain phallic characteristics are also to be found in the seers, artists, and wonder-workers of mythology. Hephaestlls, Wieland the Smith, and Mani (the founder of Manichaeism, famous also for his artistic gifts), had crippled feet. The foot, as I shall explain in due course, is supposed to possess a magical generative power. The ancient seer Melampus, who is said to have introduced the cult of the phallus, had a very peculiar name-Blackfoot,12 and it also seems characteristic of seers to be blind. Ugliness and deformity are especially characteristic of those mysterious chthonic gods, the sons of Hephaestus, the Cabiri,13 to whom mighty wonderworking powers were ascribed. (Fig. 13.) Their Samothracian cult was closely bound up with that of the ithyphallic Hermes, who according to Herodotus was brought to Attica by the Pelasgians. They were called p.E'yaAoL BEOL, 'great gods.' Their near relatives were the Idaean dactyls (fingers or else Tom 10 Psychology and Alchemy, index, s.v. "conillnctio." For a psychological account of the problem. see my "Psychology of the Transference." 
11 Goethe is here referring to the "miracle" of the Chrysopoea, or gold-making. 12 It is also said that, out of gratitude to him for having buried the mother of the serpents, the young serpents cleaned his ears, so that he became clairaudient. 13 Cf. the vase painting from the Cabirion at Thebes (fig. 14), where the Cabiri are depicted in a noble as well as a caricatured form (Roscher, Lexikon, s.v. "Megaloi Theoi"). CL also Kerenyi, "The Mysteries of the Kabeiroi." 
126 

I. INTRODUCTION 
Thumbs 14), to whom the mother of the gods had taught tf blacksmith's art. ("Follow it down, it leads you to the Mothers!' They were the first Wise Men, the teachers of Orpheus, and was they who invented the Ephesian magic formulae and th musical rhythms.15 The characteristic disparity which we note in the Upanishads and Faust crops up again here, since the giar. Hercules was said to be an Idaean dactyl. Also the coloss;; Phrygians, Rhea's technicians,16 were dactyls. The two DioscUl are related to the Cabiri; 17 they too wear the queer littl pointed hat, the pileus,18 which is peculiar to these mysteriou gods and was thenceforward perpetuated as a secret mark 0 identification. Attis and Mithras both wore the pileus. (Cf. figl 9, 20.) It has become the traditional headgear of our infantil, chthonic gods today, the pixies and goblins. 
The dwarf motif brings us to the figure of the divine boy the puer aeternus) 7rais, the young Dionysus, Jupiter Anxurus Tages, etc. In the Theban vase-painting already mentioned (fig 14), there is a bearded Dionysus who is designated as KABIP02; together with the figure of a boy labelled I1AI2;, followed b) a caricatured boy's figure labelled as I1PATOAA02;, and ther another bearded caricature labelled MIT02;.19 MLTOS really mean! 'thread,' but in Orphic speech it stands for semen. It is con jectured that this group corresponded to a set of cult-imagel in the sanctuary. The conjecture is supported by what Wt know of the history of the cult, which is supposed to have been originally a Phoenician cult of father and son,20 an old and a young Cabir who were more or less assimilated to the Greek gods. The double figure of the adult and infant Dionysus lends 
14 Justification for caIling the dactyls "Thumblings" may be found in a note in Pliny (VII, 57; Bostock and Riley trans., 11, p. 225), where he says that in Crete there were precious stones, iron-coloured and shaped like a thumb, which were known as Idaean dactyls. 
	15 Hence the dactylic metre in poetry. 	16 Roscher, s.v. "Daktyloi." 
17 Varro identifies the p.eyaAoL OwL with the penates. He says the "simulacra duo virilia Castoris et Pollucis" in the harbour of Samothrace were Cabiri. 
18 Statues only a foot high, with caps on their heads, were found at Prasiae, on the Laconian coast, and at Pephnos. 
19 Next to him is a female figure labelled KPATEIA, orphicaIly interpreted as "she who brings forth." 
20 Roscher, s.v. "Megaloi Theoi." Today an ancient Mediterranean, pre-Grecian origin is regarded as more probable. Cf. Kerenyi, Die Geburt der Helena, p. 59. 
127 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
itself particularly well to this assimilation. One might also call it the cult of the big and little man. Now Dionysus, under his various aspects, is a god in whose cult the phallus occupied a prominent position, as for instance in the worship of the Argive Dionysus-bull. Moreover the phallic herm of the god gave rise to a personification of the phallus of Dionysus in the form of the god Ph ales, who was nothing but a Priapus. He was called ETaipos or u{rYKW/LOS BaKxEou.21 The paradox of great and small, giant and dwarf in the Upanishadic text is expressed less dras- 

Fig. 13. Odysseus as a Cabiric dwarf, with Circe From a bowl by the Cabiri Painter (7), c. 400 B.C. 
tically here as man and boy, or father and son. The motif of deformity (cf. fig. 13), which constantly appears in the Cabiric cult, is also present in the vase-painting, where the parallel figures to Dionysus and l1ais are the caricatured METOS and I1paToAaos.22 Just as formerly the difference in size led to their separation, so now they are separated by deformity. 
	85 	All this goes to show that though the Freudian term "libido" 
is not without a sexual connotation,23 an exclusively sexual 
21 "Companion and fellow-reveller of Bacchus." -Roscher, s.v. "Phales." 
22 Illustrated in Kerenyi, "The Mysteries of the Kabeiroi," fig. 1 (and our fig. 14). .23 Freud, in his ·"Notes on a Case of Paranoia," p. 387, which appeared simultaneously with Part I of this book (1st [1912] edition), makes an observation that closely parallels my own remarks concerning the "libido theory" based on the fantasies of the insane Schreber: "Schreber's 'rays of God: which are made up of a condensation of the sun's rays, of nerve-fibres, and of spermatozoa, are in reality nothing else than a concrete representation and external projection of libidinal cathexes; and they thus lend his delusions a striking similarity with our theory. His belief that the world must come to an end because his ego was 
128 

I. INTRODUCTION 
definition of this concept is one-sided and must therefore be rejected. Appetite and compulsion are the specific features of all impulses and automatisms. No more than the sexual metaphors of common speech can the corresponding analogies in instinctual processes, and the symptoms and dreams to which they give rise, be taken literally. The sexual theory of psychic automatisms is an untenable prejudice. The very fact that it is impossible to derive the whole mass of psychic phenomena from a single instinct forbids a one-sided definition of "libido." I use this term 

Fig. 14. The banquet of the Cabir 
From a bowl by the Cabiri Painter, c. 435 B.C. 
in the general sense in which it was understood by the classical authors. Cicero gives it a very wide meaning: 
They hold that from two kinds of expected good arise desire and delight, in the sense that delight is concerned with present good, and desire with future good ... since desire, being tempted and en. flamed, is carried away towards what seems good .... For all men naturally pursue those things that seem good and shun their opposites. Wherefore, as soon as anything presents itself that seems good, nature herself impels them to obtain it. If this is done with moderation and prudence, the Stoics call that kind of striving (3oVAT/ULS, and we call it will. In their opinion this is found only in the wise man, and they define it as follows: will is a rational desire, but when it is 

187 
131 
vicacia; est libido gloriandi, quae iactantia nuncupatur. Sunt multae variaeque libidines, quarum nonnullae habent etiam vocabula propria, quaedam vero non habent. Quis enim facile dixerit, quid vocetur libido dominandi, quam tamen plurimum valere in tyrannorum animis, etiam civiIia bella testantur?) 
30 Ibid. (Voluptatem vero praecedit appetitus quidam, qui sentitur in came quasi cupiditas eius, sicut fames et sitis,) 
31 Walde, W6rlerbuch, p. 426. s.v. "libet." Liberi, 'children,' is grouped with libel by Nazari (pp. 573f.). If this is correct, then Libel', the ancient Italian god of procreation, who is most certainly connected with liberi, would also be related to libet. Libitina, the goddess of the dead, is supposed to have nothing to do with Lubentina or Lubentia (an attribute of Venus), which is related to libet. The name is as yet unexplained .. 
32 See my "On Psychic Energy" (Swiss edn., pp. 36ff.). 
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
divorced from reason and is too violently aroused, that is "libido," or unbridled desire, which is found in all fools.24 
	186 	Here libido means a 'want' or a 'wish,' and also, in con- 
tradistinction to the 'will' of the Stoics, 'unbridled desire.' Cicero uses it in this sense when he says: "[Gerere rem aliquam] libidine, non ratione" (to do something from wilful desire and not from reason).25 Similarly Sallust: "Iracundia pars est libidinis" (rage is a part of desire), or, in a milder and more general sense which comes closer to our use of the word: "Magisque in decor is armis et militaribus equis, quam in scortis atque conviviis libidinem habebant" (they took more pleasure in fine weapons and war-horses than in whores and drinking parties).26 Or again: "Quod si tibi bona libido fuerit patriae" (if you have a proper concern for your country).27 The use of libido is so general that the phrase "libido est scire" merely means '1 like,' 'it pleases me.' 28 In the phrase "aliquam libido urinae lacessit," libido has the meaning of 'urge.' It can also have the nuance of 'lasciviousness.' St. Augustine aptly defines libido as a "general term for all desire" and says: 
There is a lust for revenge, which is called rage; a lust for having money, which is called avarice; a lust for victory at all costs, which is called stubbornness; a lust for self-glorification, which is called boastfulness. There are many and varied kinds of lust, some of which are specifically named, others not. For who could easily give a name to the lust for domination, which, as we know from the civil wars, is nevertheless very powerful in the minds of tyrants? 29 
24 Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Book IV, vi, 12. ([volunt ex duobus opinatis] bonis [nasci] ... libidinem et laetitiam, ut sit laetitia praesentium bonorum, 
	libido futurorum 	cum libido ad id, quod videtur bonum, illecta et inflam- 
	mata rapiatur 	natura enim omnes ea quae bona videntur, sequuntur, fugiunt- 
que contraria; quam ob rem simul obiecta species est cuiuspiam, quod bonum videatur, ad id adipiscendum impeIlit ipsa natura. Id cum constanter prudenterque fit, eiusmodi appetitionem Stoici (30{iA1/U'P appellant, nos appeIIemus voluntatem; earn illi putant in solo esse sapiente, quam sic definiunt: voluntas est quae quid cum ratione desiderat; quae autem a ratione aversa incitata est vehementius, ea 'libido est, vel cupiditas effrenata, quae in omnibus stultis invenitur.) 
25 Pro Quinctio, 14. 
26 The War with Catiline, VII, trans. by RoUe, pp. 14-15. 27 Letter to Caesar, XIII, trans. ibid., pp. 488-8g. 
28 In this sense the word libidine is stilI commonly used in Tuscany today. 
29 De Civitate Dei, XIV, xv. (Est igitur libido ulciscendi, quae ira didtur; est libido habendi pecuniam, quae avaritia; est libido quomodocumque vincendi, quae per- 
13° 

188 
18g 

I. INTRODUCTION 
For him libido denotes an appetite like hunger and thirst, and so far as sexuality is concerned he says: "Pleasure is preceded by an appetite that is felt in the flesh, a kind of desire like hunger and thirst." 30 This very wide use of the term in the classics coincides with the etymological context: 
Libido or lubido (with libet) formerly lubet), 'it pleases'; libens or lubens) 'gladly, willingly'; Skr. lubhyati) 'to experience violent longing,' lobhayati) 'excites longing,' lubdha-h) 'eager,' lobha-h) 'longing, eagerness'; Goth. liufs) OHG. liob) 'love.' Also associated with Goth. lubains) 'hope,' and OHG. lobon) loben) lob) 'praise, glory'; OBulg. ljubiti) 'to love,' ljuby) 'love,' Lith. litiupsinti) 'to praise.' 31 
We can say, then, that the concept of libido in psychology has functionally the same significance as the concept of energy in physics since the time of Robert Mayer.32 

II 
THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
	190 	Freud introduced his concept of libido in his ThTee Essays 
on the Theory of Sexuality/ and there, as we have said, he defined it sexually. The libido appears subject to displacement, and in the form of "libidinal afHuxes" can communicate itself to various other functions and regions of the body which in themselves have nothing to do with sex. This fact led Freud to compare the libido with a stream, which is divisible, can be dammed up, overflows into collaterals, and so on.2 Thus, despite his definition of libido as sexuality, Freud does not explain "everything" in terms of sex, as is commonly supposed, but recognizes the existence of special instinctual forces whose nature is not clearly known, but to which he was bound to ascribe the faculty of taking up these "libidinal afHuxes." At the back of all this lies the hypothetical idea of a "bundle of instincts," 3 in which the sexual instinct figures as a partial instinct. Its encroachment into the sphere of other instincts is a fact of experience.4 The resultant Freudian theory, which held that the instinctual forces of a neurotic system correspond to the libidinal afHuxes taken up by other, non-sexual, instinctual functions,5 
1 [Originally Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1905·-EDITORS.] 2 "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality," pp. 13Sff. 
3 An idea which M6bius tried to resuscitate. Fouilll~e, Wundt, Beneke, Spencer, and Ribot are among the more modern writers who recognize the psychological primacy of the instincts. 
4 But the same is also true of hunger. I once had a patient whom I had freed pretty well from her symptoms. One day she suddenly turned up with what looked like a complete relapse into her earlier neurosis. I was unable to explain it at first, until I discovered that she was so engrossed in a lively fantasy that she had forgotten to eat lunch. A glass of milk and a slice of bread successfully removed the "hunger afllux." 
5 Freud ("Essays on the Theory of Sexuality," p. 163) says: "I must first explain ... that all my experience shows that these psychoneuroses are based on sexual in- 
132 

11. THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
has become the keystone of the psychoanalytical theory of neurosis and the dogma of the Viennese school. Later, however, Freud was forced to ponder whether libido might not in the end coincide with inteTest in general. (Here I would remark that it was a case of paranoid schizophrenia that gave rise to these considerations.) The operative passage, which I set down word for word, runs: 
A third consideration which arises from the views that have been developed in these pages is as follows. Are we to suppose that a general detachment of the libido from the external world would be an 
. effective enough agent to account for the idea of the "end of the world"? Or would not the egoistic cathexes which still remained in existence have been sufficient to maintain rapport with the external world? To meet this difficulty we should either have to assume that what we call libidinal cathexis (that is, interest emanating from erotic sources) coincides with interest in general, or we should have to consider the possibility that a very widespread disturbance in the distribution of the libido may bring about a corresponding disturbance in the egoistic cathexes. But these are problems with which we are still quite unaccustomed to deal, and before which we stand helpless. It would be otherwise if we could start out from some wellgrounded theory of instincts; but in fact we have nothing of the kind at our disposal. We regard instinct as being a term situated on the frontier-line between the somatic and the mental, and consider it as denoting the mental representative of organic forces. Further, we accept the popular distinction between egoistic instincts and a sexual instinct; for such a distinction seems to agree with the biological conception that the individual has a double orientation, aiming on the one hand at self-preservation and on the other at the preservation of the species. But beyond this are only hypotheses which we have taken up-and are quite ready to drop again-in order to help us to find our bearings in the chaos of the obscurer processes of the mind. What we expect from psychoanalytic investigations of pathological mental processes is precisely that they shall drive us to some conclusions on questions involving the theory of instincts. These investigations, however, are in their infancy and are only 
stinctual forces. By this I do not merely mean that the energy of the sexual instinct makes a contribution to the forces that maintain the pathological manifestations (the symptoms). I mean expressly to assert that that contribution is the mQSt important and only constant source of energy of the neurosis and that in consequence the sexual life of the persons in question is expressed-whether exclusively or principally or only partly-in these symptoms." 
133 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
being carried out by isolated workers, so that the hopes we place in them must still remain unfulfilled.6 
	191 	Nevertheless, Freud finally decides that the paranoidal altera- 
tion is sufficiently explained by the recession of sexual libido. He says: 
It therefore appears to me far more probable that the paranoiac's altered relation to the world is to be explained entirely or in the main by the loss of his libidinal interest.7 
	192 	In this passage Freud broaches the question of whether the 
well-known loss of reality in paranoia and schizophrenia,s to which I have drawn attention in my Psychology of Dementia Praecox)9 is to be traced back solely to the recession of the "libidinal condition," or whether this condition ordinarily coincides with "objective interest." It can hardly be supposed that the normal "fonction du reel," to use Janet's term,10 is maintained only through afHuxes of libido or erotic interest. The fact is that in very many cases reality disappears entirely, so that the patient shows no trace of psychological adaptation. (In these states, reality has been buried under the contents of the unconscious.) One is compelled to admit that not only the erotic interest, but all interest whatsoever, has completely disappeared except for a few feeble flickers, and with it the man's whole relation to reality. If the libido were really nothing but sexuality, what would happen in the case of eunuchs? In their case it is precisely the "libidinal" interest that has been cut off, but they do not necessarily react with schizophrenia. The term "afHux of libido" connotes something that is highly questionable. Many apparently sexual contents and processes are mere metaphors and analogies, as for instance "fire" for passion, "heat" for anger, "marriage" for a bond or union, ete. Presumably no one imagines that all plumbers who connect up male and female pipe-joints, or all electricians who work with 
	6 "Notes on a Case of Paranoia," pp. 460f. 	7 Ibid., p. 462. 
8 Schreber's case, which Freud is here discussing, is not a pure paranoia. See Schreber, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. 
9 [Originally a book (1906); in Coli. Works, Vol. 7.] Also see "The Content of the Psychoses." 
10 Cf. "The Psychology of Dementia Praecox" (1936 edn., p. 89)' 
134 

11. THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
male and female outlets, are blessed with particularly potent "afHuxes of libido"? 
	193 	Earlier, in The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, I made use 
of the term "psychic energy," because what is lacking in this disease is evidently more than erotic interest as such. If one tried to explain the loss of relationship, the schizophrenic dissociation between man and world, purely by the recession of eroticism, the inevitable result would be to inflate the idea of sexuality in a typically Freudian manner. One would then be forced to say that every relationship to the world was in essence a sexual relationship, and the idea of sexuality would become so nebulous that the very word "sexuality" would be deprived of all meaning. The fashionable term "psychosexuality" is a clear symptom of this conceptual inflation. But in schizophrenia far more is lacking to reality than could ever be laid at the door of sexuality in the strict sense of the word. The "fonction du reel" is absent to such a degree as to include the loss of certain instinctual forces which cannot possibly be supposed to have a sexual character, for no one in his senses would maintain that reality is nothing but a function of sex! And even if it were, the introversion of libido in the neuroses would necessarily be followed by a loss of reality comparable with that which occurs in schizophrenia. But that is far from being the case. As Freud himself has pointed out, introversion and regression of sexual libido leads, at the worst, to neurosis, but not to schizophrenia. 
	194 	The attitude of reserve which I adopted towards the sexual 
theory in the preface to The Psychology of Dementia Praecox) despite the fact that I recognized the psychological mechanisms pointed out by Freud, was dictated by the general position of the libido theory at that time. The theory as it then stood did not permit me to explain functional disturbances which affect the sphere of other instincts just as much as that of sex, solely in the light of a one-sided sexual theory. An interpretation in terms of energy seemed to me better suited to the facts than the doctrine set forth in Freud's Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. It allowed me to identify "psychic energy" with "libido." The latter term denotes a desire or impulse which is unchecked by any kind of authority, moral or otherwise. Libido is appetite in its natural state. From the genetic point of view it is bodily needs like hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex, and emo- 
135 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
tional states or affects, which constitute the essence of libido. All these factors have their differentiations and subtle ramifications in the highly complicated human psyche. There can be no doubt that even the highest differentiations were developed from simpler forms. Thus, many complex functions, which today must be denied all trace of sexuality, were originally derived from the reproductive instinct. As we know, an important change occurred in the principles of propagation during the ascent through the animal kingdom: the vast numbers of gametes which chance fertilization made necessary were progressively reduced in favour of assured fertilization and effective protection of the young. The decreased production of ova and spermatozoa set free considerable quantities of energy which soon sought and found new outlets. Thus we find the first stirrings of the artistic impulse in animals, but subservient to the reproductive instinct and limited to the breeding season. The original sexual character of these biological phenomena gradually disappears as they become organically fixed and achieve functional independence. Although there can be no doubt that music originally belonged to the reproductive sphere, it would be an unjustified and fantastic generalization to put music in the same category as sex. Such a view would be tantamount to treating of Cologne Cathedral in a text-book of mineralogy, on the ground that it consisted very largely of stones. 
	195 	Consequently, to speak of libido as the urge to propagation 
is to remain within the confines of a view which distinguishes libido from hunger in the same way that the instinct for the preservation of the species is distinguished from the instinct for self-preservation. In nature, of course, this artificial distinction does not exist. There we see only a continuous life-urge, a will to live which seeks to ensure the continuance of the whole species through the preservation of the individual. Thus far our conception of libido coincides with Schopenhauer's Will, inasmuch as a movement perceived from outside can only be grasped as the manifestation of an inner will or desire. This throwing of psychological perceptions into material reality is known in philosophy as "introjection." 11 Through introjection one's world picture becomes subjectivized, and it is to this same 
11 Ferenczi's use of the term "introjection" denotes the exact opposite: taking the external world into oneself. CL his "Introjection and Transference," p. 47. 
136 

n. THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
process that the physical concept of force owes its existence. As Galileo aptly remarked, its origin is to be sought in the subjective perception of our own muscular power. Similarly, the concept of libido as desire or appetite is an interpretation of the process of psychic energy, which we experience precisely in the form of an appetite. We know as little about what underlies it as we know about what the psyche is perse. 
	196 	Having once made the bold conjecture that the libido which 
was originally employed in the production of ova and spermatozoa is now firmly organized in the function of nest-building, for instance, and can no longer be employed otherwise, we are compelled to regard every striving and every desire, including hunger and instinct however understood, as equally a phenomenon of energy. 
	197 	This view leads to a conception of libido which expands into 
a conception of intentionality in general. As the above quotation from Freud shows, we know far too little about the nature of human instincts and their psychic dynamism to risk giving priority to anyone instinct. We would be better advised, therefore, when speaking of libido, to understand it as an energyvalue which is able to communicate itself to any field of activity whatsoever, be it power, hunger, hatred, sexuality, or religion, without ever being itself a specific instinct. As Schopenhauer says: "The Will as a thing-in-itself is quite different from its phenomenal manifestation, and entirely free from all forms of phenomenality, which it assumes only when it becomes mani fest, and which therefore affect its objectivity only, and are foreign to the Will itself." 12 
	198 	Numerous mythological and philosophical attempts have 
been made to formulate and visualize the creative force which man knows only by subjective experience. To give but a few examples, I would remind the reader of the cosmogonic significance of Eros in Hesiod,13 and also of the Orphic figure of Phanes (pI. XII), The Shining One, the First-Created, the "Father of Eros." Orphically, too, he has the significance of Priapus; he is bisexual and equated with the Theban Dionysus Lysius.14 The Orphic significance of Phanes is akin to that of the Indian Kama, the god of love, who is likewise a cosmogonic 12 The World as Will and Idea, trans. by Haldane and Kemp, I, p. 145. modified. 
	13 Theogony, 120. 	14 Cf. Roscher, Lexikon, Ill, II, 2248ff. 
137 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
principle. To the N eoplatonist Plotinus, the world-soul is the energy of the intellectY He compares the One, the primordial creative principle, with light, the intellect with the sun (if), and the world-soul with the moon (<:;?). Or again, he compares the One with the Father and the intellect with the Son.16 The One, designated as Uranos, is transcendent; the Son (Kronos) has dominion over the visible world; and the world-soul (Zeus) is subordinate to him. The One, or the ousia of existence in totality, is described by Plotinus as hypostatic, and so are the three forms of emanation; thus we have j.lLa oVCTLa h TPLCT(V V7rOCTTQCTECTLV (one being in three hypostases). As Drews has observed, this is also the formula for the Christian Trinity as laid down at the councils of N icaea and of ConstantinopleP We might add that certain early Christian sects gave a maternal significance to the Holy Ghost (world-soul or moon). According to Plotinus, the world-soul has a tendency towards separation and divisibility, the sine qua non of all change, creation, and reproduction. It is an "unending All of life" and wholly energy; a living organism of ideas which only become effective and real in it.18 The intellect is its progenitor and father, and what the intellect conceives the world-soul brings to birth in reality.19 "What lies enclosed in the intellect comes to birth in the world-soul as Logos, fills it with meaning and makes it drunken as if with nectar." 20 Nectar, like soma, is the drink of fertility and immortality. The soul is fructified by the intellect; as the "oversoul" it is called the heavenly Aphrodite, as the "undersoul" the earthly Aphrodite. It knows "the pangs of birth." 21 It is not without reason that the dove of Aphrodite is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. 
	199 	The energic standpoint has the effect of freeing psychic en- 
ergy from the bonds of a too narrow definition. Experience shows that instinctual processes of whatever kind are often intensified to an extraordinary degree by an afHux of energy, no matter where it comes from. This is true not only of sexuality, but of hunger and thirst too. One instinct can temporarily be depotentiated in favour of another instinct, and this is true of psychic activities in general. To assume that it is always and 
	15 Drews, Plotin, p. 127. 	16 Ibid., p. 132. 	17 Ibid., p. 135. 
	18 Plotinus, Enneads, Il, 5, 3. 	19 Ibid., IV, 8, 3. 	20 Ibid., Ill, 5, 9. 
21 Drews, p. 141. 
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H. THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
only sexuality which is subject to these depotentiations would be a sort of psychic equivalent of the phlogiston theory in physics and chemistry. Freud himself was somewhat sceptical about the existing theories of instinct, and rightly so. Instinct is a very mysterious manifestation of life, partly psychic and partly physiological by nature. It is one of the most conservative functions in the psyche and is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change. Pathological maladjustments, such as the neuroses, are therefore more easily explained by the patient's attitude to instinct than by a sudden change in the latter. But the patient's attitude is a complicated psychological problem, which it would certainly not be if his attitude depended on instinct. The motive forces at the back of neurosis come from all sorts of congenital characteristics and environmental influences, which together build up an attitude that makes it impossible for him to lead a life in which the instincts are satisfied. Thus the neurotic perversion of instinct in a young person is intimately bound up with a similar disposition in the parents, and the disturbance in the sexual sphere is a secondary and not a primary phenomenon. Hence there can be no sexual theory of neurosis, though there may very well be a psychological one. 
	200 	This brings us back to our hypothesis that it is not the sexual 
instinct, but a kind of neutral energy, which is responsible for the formation of such symbols as light, fire, sun, and the like. The loss of the reality function in schizophrenia does not produce a heightening of sexuality: it produces a world of fantasy with marked archaic features.22 This is not to deny that, particularly at the beginning of the illness, violent sexual disturbances may sometimes occur, though they occur just as often in any intensive experience, such as panic, rage, religious mania, etc. The fact that an archaic world of fantasy takes the place of reality in schizophrenia proves nothing about the nature of the reality function as such; it only demonstrates the well-known biological fact that whenever a more recent system suffers deterioration it is likely to be replaced by a more primitive and therefore obsolete one. To use Freud's simile, one begins firing with bows and arrows instead of with guns. A loss of the latest 22 Cf. Spielrein, "-aber den psychologischen Inhalt eines Falles von Schizophrenie," p. 329. 
139 

SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
201 
acquisitions of the reality function (or adaptation) must of necessity be replaced, if at all, by an earlier mode of adaptation. We find this principle in the theory of neurosis which holds that any failure of adaptation is compensated by an older one, that is, by a regressive reactivation of the parental imagos. In neurosis the substitute product is a fantasy of individual origin and scope with hardly a trace of those archaic features which are characteristic of the fantasies of schizophrenics. Again, in neurosis there is never an actual loss of reality, only a falsification of it. In schizophrenia, on the other hand, reality has all but disappeared. I must thank my erstwhile pupil J. Honegger, whose work 23 was unfortunately cut short by an early death, for a simple illustration of this: A paranoid patient of good intelligence, who knew very well that the earth was a sphere and rotated round the sun, superseded all our modern views of astronomy by an elaborate system of his own devising, where the earth was a flat disc over which the sun travelled. Spielrein, too, gives somes interesting examples of archaic definitions which, in the course of the illness, begin superimposing themselves on the meanings of words. Thus, one of her women patients declared that the mythological analogue of alcohol was an "emission of seed," i.e., soma.24 She also hit upon a symbolism of cooking which parallels the alchemical vision of Zosimos, who saw, in the "bowl" of the altar, people being transformed in boiling water.25 The patient substituted earth,26 and also water,27 for "mother." (Cf. pIs. Xlva) XXVI.) 
What I said above about a disturbed reality function being replaced by an archaic substitute is supported by a remark of Spielrein's: "I often had the illusion that the patients might simply be victims of a deep-rooted folk superstition." 28 As a matter of fact, patients do set up, in place of reality, fantasies very like certain archaic ideas which once had a reality function. But, as the vision of Zosimos shows, the old superstitions were 
23 It was never published. [He committed suicide in 1911.-EDITORS.] 
24 Spielrein, pp. 338, 353, 387. See par. 246, n. 41, below, for soma as "seminal fluid." 
25 Berthelot, Collection, Ill, 1, 2ff. (Textes, pp. 107-12; Traductions, pp. 117-21). [Cf. "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," pars. 344ff. (1955/56 edn., pp. 293ff. 
-EDITORS.] 
26 Spiel rein, p. 345. 
27 Ibid., p. 338. 14° 
28 Ibid., p. 397. 
202 
11. THE CONCEPT OF LIBIDO 
symbols 29 that sought to give adequate expression to the unknown in the world (and in the psyche). The "conception" (A ufjassung) gives us a "handle" (Grifj) by which to "grasp hold" of things (tassen) begreifen), and the resultant "concept" (Begrifj) enables us to take possession of them. Functionally, the concept corresponds to the magically powerful name which gets a grip on the object. This not only renders the object harmless, but incorporates it into the psychic system, thus increasing the meaning and power of the human mind. (Compare the primitive respect for name-giving in the Alvissmal of the Elder Edda.) Spielrein evidently thinks symbols have a similar significance when she says: 
Thus a symbol seems to me to owe its origin to the striving of a complex for dissolution in the common totality of thought. ... The complex is thus robbed of its personal quality .... This tendency towards dissolution or transformation of every individual complex is the mainspring of poetry, painting, and every form of art.30 
If, for "complex," we substitute the idea of "energy value," i.e., the total affectivity of the complex, it is clear that Spielrein's views fall into line with my own. 
It seems as if this process of analogy-making had gradually altered and added to the common stock of ideas and names, with the result that man's picture of the world was considerably broadened. Specially colourful or intense contents (the "feeling-toned" complexes) were reflected in countless analogies, and gave rise to synonyms whose objects were thus drawn into the magic circle of the psyche. In this way there came into being those intimate relationships by analogy which U~vy-Bruhl fittingly describes as "participation mystique." It is evident that this tendency to invent analogies deriving from feeling-toned contents has been of enormous significance for the development of the human mind. We are in thorough agreement with Steinthal when he says that a positively overwhelming importance attaches to the little word "like" in the history of human thought. One can easily imagine that the canalization of libido into analogy-making was responsible for some of the most important discoveries ever made by primitive man. 
29 Here I might also mention those American Indians who believe that the first human beings arose from the union of a sword-hilt and a shuttle. 
30 Spielrein, p. 399. 
203 
141 

lW4 

III 
THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIBIDO 
In what follows I should like to give some concrete examples of this canalization of libido. I once had to treat a woman patient who suffered from catatonic depressions. As there was a mild degree of psychosis, I was not surprised by the numerous hysterical symptoms she exhibited. At the beginning of the treatment, while she was telling me of a very painful experience, she fell into an hysterical dream-state in which she showed all the signs of sexual excitement. (It was abundantly evident that during this state she was completely unaware of my presence.) The excitement culminated in an act of masturbation. This act was accompanied by a singular gesture: she kept on making a violent rotary movement with the forefinger of the left hand against the left temple, as though she were boring a hole there. Afterwards there was complete amnesia for what had happened, and nothing could be elicited about the singular gesture with the hand. Although this performance could easily be recognized as an act of thumb-sucking, or of nose- or earpicking, transferred to the temple, and hence as an analogy of the masturbatory act, it nevertheless struck me as somehow significant, though at first I did not know why. Weeks later I had an opportunity of speaking with the patient's mother, and she told me what a very exceptional child her daughter had been. When only two years old she would sit for hours with her back to an open cupboard door, rhythmically banging it shut with her head 1 and driving the whole household distracted. A little later, instead of playing like the other children, she began boring holes in the plaster of the wall with her finger. She did this with little turning and scraping movements, which she would 
1 I have seen this pendulum movement of the head in a catatonic patient, gradually building itself up from what Freud has termed the "upward displacement" of coitus movements. 
142 

205 
206 

III. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIBIDO 
keep up for hours on end. To her parents she was a complete mystery. From about her fourth year she began to masturbate. So it is clear that in the earlier infantile occupation we have the preliminary stage of the later activity. 
The boring with the finger, then, can be traced back to a very early stage of childhood which antedates the period of masturbation. That period is very obscure psychologically, because there were no individual memories. Such a peculiar mode of behaviour is highly remarkable in a child of that age. "Ve know from her subsequent history that her development-which was, as always, bound up with parallel external events-led to a mental illness which is well known for the individuality and originality of its products, namely schizophrenia. The peculiarity of this disease lies in the startling emergence of an archaic psychology. That accounts for the innumerable points of contact with mythological material, and what we take to be original and individual creations are mostly products which can only be compared with those of antiquity. "Ve have to apply this criterion to probably all the products of this remarkable illness, including perhaps this odd symptom of boring. As we have seen, it dates from a very early period, and it was revived from the distant past only when the patient, after several years of marriage, fell back into her early masturbatory habits following the death of her child, with whom she had identified herself through an over-indulgent love. When the child died, the infantile symptoms again inflicted themselves on the still healthy mother in the form of fits of masturbation, accompanied by this same act of boring. The primary boring, as we have said, appeared some time before the infantile masturbation. This fact is important inasmuch as the boring is seen to be distinct from a similar and later habit which supervened after she began masturbating. 
We know that in infants the libido first manifests itself exclusively in the nutritional zone, where, in the act of sucking, food is taken in with a rhythmic movement. At the same time there develops in the motor sphere in general a pleasurable rhythmic movement of the arms and legs (kicking, etc.). With the growth of the individual and development of his organs the libido creates for itself new avenues of activity. The primary model of rhythmic movement, producing pleasure and satisfac- 
143 

SYMBOLS OF TRANS,FORMATION: TWO 
tion, is transferred to the zone of other functions, with sexuality as its ultimate goal. This is not to say that the rhythmic activity derives from the act of nutrition. A considerable part of the energy supplied by nutrition for growth has to convert itself into sexual libido and other forms of activity. This transition does not take place suddenly at the time of puberty, as is commonly supposed, but only very gradually during the course of childhood. In this transitional period there are, so far as I am able to judge, two distinct phases: the phase of sucking, and the phase of rhythmic activity in general. Sucking still belongs to the sphere of the nutritive function, but outgrows it by ceasing to be a function of nutrition and becoming an analogom rhythmic activity without intake of nourishment. At this point the hand comes in as an auxiliary organ. It appears even more clearly as an auxiliary organ in the phase of rhythmic activity, which then leaves the oral zone and turns to other regions. Numerous possibilities now present themselves. As a rule, it is the other body openings that become the main object of interest; then the skin, or special parts of it; and finally rhythmic movements of all kinds. These, expressed in the form of rubbing, boring, picking, and so forth, follow a certain rhythm. It is clear that this activity, once it reaches the sexual zone, may provide occasion for the first attempts at masturbation. In the course of its migrations the libido carries traces of the nutritional phase into its new field of operations, which accounts for the many intimate connections between the nutritive and the sexual function. Should this more developed activity meet with an obstacle that forces it to regress, the regression will be to an earlier stage of development. The phase of rhythmic activity generally coincides with the development of mind and speech. I therefore propose to call the period from birth up to the time of the first clear manifestations of sexuality the "presexual stage." As a rule it falls between the first and the fourth year, and is comparable to the chrysalis stage in butterflies. It is characterized by a varying mixture of elements from the nutritional and sexual phases. Certain regressions go right back to the presexual stage: so far as one can judge from experience, this seems to be the rule with regressions in schizophrenia and epilepsy. I will give two examples. One is the case of a young girl who developed a catatonic state during her engagement. 
144 

207 
208 

Ill. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIBIDO 
The first time she saw me she suddenly came up to me and gave me a kiss, saying, "Papa, give me something to eat!" The other case concerns a young servant-girl who complained that people were pursuing her with electricity, and that this caused a queer feeling in her genitals, "as if it ate and drank down there." 
These things show that the earlier phases of libido are capable of regressive reactivation. It is a road that is easily travelled, and has often been travelled in the past. If this assumption is correct, it is very likely that in earlier stages of human development this way of transformation was not just a pathological symptom, but a frequent and normal occurrence. It would therefore be interesting to see whether it has left any historical traces. 
We are indebted to Abraham 2 for drawing attention to the ethnological connection between boring and fire-making. The latter subject has been elaborated in the work of Adalbert Kuhn.3 From these investigations we learn that the fire-bringer Prometheus may possibly be brother to the Indian pramantha, the masculine fire-stick. The Indian fire-bringer was called Matarisvan, and the activity of fire-making is always referred to in the sacred texts by means of the verb manthiimi,4 'to shake, to rub, to bring forth by rubbing.' Kuhn relates this verb to Gr. J.tapOapw, 'to learn,' and has also explained the conceptual relationship between them.5 The tertium comparationis may lie in the rhythm, the movement to and fro in the mind. According to Kuhn, the root manth- or math- leads, via /l-apOapw (11a017,ua,/l-MJ'r/ulS) and 7rpO-/l-'r/O~O/l-al, to IIpo/l-'r/6eus, the well-known Greek fire-robber. He points out that just as the Thuric Zeus bore the especially interesting cognomen IIpo-/l-apOeus, so IIpo-/l-'r/Oeus might be not an original Indo-European word related to the Skr. pramantha) but only a cognomen. This view is supported by a gloss of Hesychius, explaining the name IOas as 0 TWP TlTapwp KflPV~ IIpofJ.'r/Od:s (Prometheus, the herald of the titans). Another gloss of Hesychius explains 18a[poJ.tal (la[pw, 'to heat, melt') as OepJ.ta[pojJ.al, 
2 Dreams and Myths. 
3 Mythologische Studien, I: Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des G6ttertranks. (Cr. pI. xv.) A resume of the contents is to be found in Steinthal, "Die urspriingliche Form der Sage von Prometheus." and in Abraham, Dreams and Myths. 
4 Also mathniimi and miithiiyati. The root is manth or math. 
5 Kuhn, in Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung, 11, p. 395 and IV, p. 124. 
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SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
'to grow hot,' so that 'lOlls acquires the meaning 'Flaming One,' similar to A'lOwv or <I>Xeyvas.6 The relation of Prometheus to jnamantha is therefore questionable. On the other hand, IIpol-L170eVS is highly significant as a cognomen for 'IOas, since the "Flaming One" is the "Forethinker." T (Pramati) 'precaution,' is also an attribute of Agni, the god of fire, although pramati is of different derivation.) Prometheus, however, belongs to the line of Phlegians whom Kuhn puts into incontestable relationship with the Indian priestly family of Bhrigu.8 The Bhrigu, like Matarisvan ("he who swells in the mother"), were also firebringers. Kuhn cites a passage to show that the Bhrigu arose from the fire like Agni. ("Bhrigu arose in the flame; Bhrigu roasted, but did not burn.") This idea leads to a root cognate with Bhrigu: Skr. bhriiy} 'to shine,' Lat. fulgeo} Cr. c/>XE-yw (Skr. bhargas) 'splendour,' Lat. fulgur). Bhrigu therefore appears as the "Shining One." <I>Xeyvas denotes a certain species of eagle distinguished for its burnished yellow colour. The connection with c/>XE-yELV, 'to burn,' is obvious. Hence the Phlegians were fiery eagles.9 Prometheus, too, was a Phlegian. The line from pramantha to Prometheus does not go via the word, but more probably through the idea or image, so that Prometheus may in the end have the same meaning as pramantha.1° Only, it would 6 K. Bapp, in Roscher, Lexikon, Ill, 3034. 
7 ["The one who thinks ahead" is the meaning of Prometheus now accepted as philologically correct.-EDITORS.] An interesting parallel is the Balinese fire-god, who has his seat in man's brain and is always represented as dancing on a fiery wheel (a sun-symbol). He is regarded as the highest and most popular god of the Balinese. (PI. XIIIa.) 
8 Bhrigu = q,"AE'YV, an accepted phonetic equivalence. See Roscher, In, 3034, 54· 9 For the eagle as a fire-totem among the Indians, see Roscher, nI, 3034, 60_ 
10 According to Kuhn the root manth becomes in German mange In (Eng. 'to mangle'). Manthara is the stick used for churning butter. (Cf. pI. xv.) When the gods produced the amrita (drink of immortality: ambrosia) by churning the ocean round, they used Mt. Mandara as a churning-stick (Kuhn, Mythologische Studien, I, pp. 16ft). Steinthal calls attention to Lat. mentula, a poetic expression for the male organ, presumably derived from ment or manth. I would add that mentula can be taken as a diminutive of menta or mentha (}LlvOo.), 'mint.' In antiquity mint was called "Aphrodite's crown" (Dioscorides, n, 154). Apuleius calls it "mentha venerea," because it was held to be an aphrodisiac. Hippocrates ("On Diet," n, 54) gives it the opposite meaning: "Si quis earn saepe comedat, eius genitale semen ita colliquescit, ut effluat, et arrigere prohibet et corpus imbecillum reddit" (If one eats of it often, the genital seed becomes so liquid that it flows out; it prevents erection and renders the body weak), and accord- 
146 

209 
210 

Ill. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIBIDO 
be an archetypal parallel and not a case of linguistic transmisSIOn. 
For some time it was believed that Prometheus took over the meaning "Forethinker" (as the figure of Epimetheus, the "After-thinker," testifies) only quite late, and that the word was originally connected with pramantha) manthiimi) mathiiyati and had, etymologically, nothing to do with 7rPOI-L170kol-La~, J.La017J.La, l-LavBavw. Conversely, pramati) 'precaution,' which is associated with Agni, has no connection with manthiimi. Lately, however, there has been a tendency to derive Prometheus from l-Lav06.vw after allY The only thing that can be established with any certainty in this complicated situation is that we find thinking, precaution, or foresight somehow connected with fire-boring, without there being any demonstrable etymological connections between the words used for them. In considering the etymology, therefore, we have to take into account not only the migTation of the root-words, but the autochthonous revival of certain primordial images. 
The pramantha) or instrument of the manthana (fire-sacrifice), is conceived under a purely sexual aspect in India, the fire-stick being the phallus or man, and the bored wood underneath the vulva or woman. The fire that results from the boring is the child, the divine son Agni. (PI. xmb.) The two pieces of wood are ritually known as pururavas and urvasi) and, when personified, are thought of as man and woman. The fire is born 12 from the genitals of the woman. Weber gives the following account of the fire-producing ceremony: 
ing to Dioscorides (Ill, 34) mint is a contraceptive (cf. Aigremont, Volkseratik, I, p. 127). But the ancients also said: "Menta autem appellata, quod suo adore mentem feriat ... mentae ipsius odor ani mum excitat" (It is called menta because it strikes the mind [mentem] with its smell ... the smell of the mint excites the mind). This leads us to the root ment, as in mens (mind), so that the development of the parallel to pramantha would be complete. One might also add that a strong chin was called mento or mentum. As we know, the priapic figure of Pulchinello was given a powerfully developed chin, and the pointed beards (and ears) of the satyrs and other priapic demons have a similar meaning, just as in general all the protruding parts of the body can be given a masculine, and all its con- 
	cavities a feminine, significance. 	11 Cf. Kerenyi, Prametheus. 
12 "What is named the gulya (pudendum) means the yoni (the birthplace) of the god; the fire that is born there is called beneficent": Katyayanas KarmapradiPa, I, 7 (Kuhn, Mythal. Studien, I, p. 67). Kuhn's suggestion of an etymological con- 
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SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION: TWO 
A sacrificial fire is kindled by rubbing two fire-sticks together. One of the fire-sticks is taken up with the words: "Thou art the birthplace of fire," and two blades of grass are placed upon it: "Ye are the two testicles." The priest then places on them the adhararani (the underlying piece of wood), saying: "Thou art Urvasi," and anoints the uttarlJ.rani (uppermost piece) with butter: "Thou art the power" (semen). This is then placed on the adhararani, with the words: "Thou art Pururavas." Rubbing them together three times the priest says: "I rub thee with the Gayatrimetrum: I rub thee with the Trishtubhmetrum: I rub thee with the Jagatimetrum." 13 
	211 	The sexual symbolism is unmistakable. We find the same 
idea and symbolism in a hymn of the Rig-Veda: 
Here is the gear for friction, here tinder is made ready for the spark. Bring the mistress of the people: 14 we will rub Agni in ancient 
fashion forth. 
In the two fire-sticks lies J atavedas, safe as the seed in pregnant women; 
Daily let Agni be praised by men who watch and worship with oblations. 
Let this (staff) enter into her as she lies there outstretched, 0 you skilled ones; 
Straightway she conceives, has given birth to the fructifier: 
With his red pillar lighting his path, the son of Ila is born from the precious wood.1S 
	212 	It is to be noted that in this hymn the pramantha is also 
Agni, the begotten son: the phallus is the son, or the son is the phallus. In colloquial German today there are distant echoes of 
nection between G. bohren, 'to bore: and geboren, 'born: is very unlikely. According to him, G. boron (bohren) is primarily related to Lat. forare and Gr. cf>apaw, 'to plough.' He conjectures an Indo-European root "bher, meaning 'to bear: Skr. bhar-, Gr. cf>EP -, Lat. fer-, whence OHG, beran, 'to bear'; Lat. fero, fertilis, and ford us, 'pregnant'; Gr. cf>opo<, 'pregnant.' Walde, in Lateinisches Worterbuch (s.v. ferio), however, definitely relates forare to the root bher. Cf. the plough symbolism, below, par. 214, n. 22, and fig. 15· 
13 Weber, Indische Studien, I, p. 197, cited in Kuhn, p. 71. 
14 Or of mankind in general. Vispatni is the feminine fire-stick; vispati, an attribute of Agni, the masculine. 
15 Rig-Veda, Ill, 29, 1-3, trans. based on Griflith, 11, p. 25. For wood as a mothersymbol, see Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, p. 355. "The son of Ila"; Ila was the daughter of Manu, the Indian Noah, who with the help of his fish survived the deluge and then begat a new race of human beings with his daughter. 
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Ill. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIBIDO 
this primitive symbolism: a lout or urchin is known as a Bengel. 'club, cudgel,' and in the Hessian dialect as a Stift) 'peg,' Ol Bolz-en) 'bolt.' 16 The plant Artemisia abrotanum) called in Ger· man Stabwurz) 'stick-root,' is known in English as "boy's-love." The vulgar designation of the penis as "boy" was remarked even by the brothers Grimm. Ceremonial fire-making lingered on in Europe as a superstitious custom until well into the nine· teenth century. Kuhn mentions one sl1.ch case which occurred in Germany in 1828. This magical rite, practised with due ceremony, was called the "Nodfyr" (need-fire)p and the charm was used mainly against cattle epidemics. Kuhn quotes from the Chronicles of Lanercost, in the year 1268, a particularly interesting case of "Nodfyr" which plainly reveals the sexual symbolism of the ceremonies: 
In order to safeguard the integrity of divine faith, let the reader remember that when the herds of cattle in Laodonia were ravaged this year by the pest called lung-sickness, certain cattle-breeders, monastery folk by habit or dress but not by disposition, taught the ignorant rustics to make fire by rubbing pieces of wood together, and to set up an image of Priapus, and in this wise to help their animals. After a Cistercian lay brother had done this near Fenton in front of the courtyard, he dipped the testicles of a dog in holy water and sprinkled the animals with it .... 18 
	213 	These examples, coming from different periods of history 
and from different peoples, prove the existence of a widespread tendency to equate fire-making with sexuality. The ceremonial or magical repetition of this age-old discovery shows how persistently the human mind clings to the old forms, and how deeprooted is the memory of fire-boring. One might be inclined to 
16 Cf. Hirt, Etymologie, p. 348. 
17 The capitulary of Charlemagne in 942 expressly forbids "illos sacrilegos ignes quos niedfyr vocant" (those sacrilegious fires which are called Niedfyr). Cf. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 11, p. 604, where similar fire ceremonies are described. 
18 Mythologische Studien, I, p. 43. (Pro fidei divinae integritate servanda recolat lector, quod cum hoc anno in Laodonia pestis grassaretur in pecudes armenti. quam vocant usitate Lungessouth, quidam bestiales, habitu claustrales non animo, docebant idiotas patriae ignem confrictione de lignis educere et simulacrum Priapi statuere, et per haec bestiis succurrere. Quod cum un us laicus Cisterciensis apud Fentone fecisset ante atrium aulae, ac intinctis testiculis canis in aquam benedictarn super animalia sparsisset.) 
149