The Adversarial Unconscious Part 1: The Great Father

To introduce this new multi-part series, I start with an amplification of the symbol of the lion and its dual nature. Next, an explanation is given on how the unconscious can turn adversarial. By focusing on the Great Father, this episode eventually concludes on the symbol of Abraxas.

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Show notes

- A discussion on concupiscence (source)

Note: Some quotes have been modified to improve the flow of the delivery.

- "At the same time he represents the king in his theriomorphic form, that is, as he appears in his unconscious state. The animal form emphasizes that the king is overpowered or overlaid by his animal side and consequently expresses himself only in animal reactions, which are nothing but emotions. Emotionality in the sense of uncontrollable affects is essentially bestial, for which reason people in this state can be approached only with the circumspection proper to the jungle, or else with the methods of the animal-trainer." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 405)

- "Therefore we have the lion as a zodiac sign standing for "the intense heat of the sun." (The Symbolic Life, CW 18, par 1077)

- "The lion has indeed something of the nature of the rabid dog we met with earlier, and this brings him into proximity with sulphur, the fiery dynamism of Sol. In the same way the lion is the “potency” of King Sol. The aggressive strength of the lion has, like sulphur, an evil aspect." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 407-408)

- "the Messiah is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” . . . The devil, too, “as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”" (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 524-525)

- "Basilius Valentinus takes the lion as the arcane substance, calling it the trinity composed of Mercurius, Sal, and Sulphur, and the equivalent of draco, aquila, rex, spiritus, and corpus. The “Gloria Mundi” calls the green lion the mineral stone that “consumes a great quantity of its own spirit,” meaning self-impregnation by one’s own soul (imbibitio, cibatio, nutritio, penetratio, etc.)." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 334)

- "Because of his fiery nature, the lion is the “affective animal” par excellence. " (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 512, infra 394)

- "The lion, the zodiacal sign for the torrid heat of summer,25 is the symbol of concupiscentia effrenata, ‘frenzied desire.’ (“My soul roars with the voice of a hungry lion,” says Mechthild of Magdeburg.)" (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 425)

- "Lion and peacock, emblems of concupiscence and pride, signify the overweening pretensions of the human shadow, which we so gladly project on our fellow man in order to visit our own sins upon him with apparent justification." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 513)

- "“Presumption” drives man away from the mother and from the earth, and estranges him from the “sacred ray of his father,” until his defiance changes into fear. As a child of nature he falls into discord with her, precisely because he tries to resemble the “mother of gods.” No reason guides him, only the Dionysian libido effrenata:" (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 624)

- "As we have seen, the danger comes from both parents: from the father, because he apparently makes regression impossible, and from the mother, because she absorbs the regressing libido and keeps it to herself, so that he who sought rebirth finds only death." (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 511)

- "We would then have a patrilineal and a matrilineal source of anxiety to match the primitive conditions." (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 216)

- "The rubedo then follows direct from the albedo as the result of raising the heat of the fire to its highest intensity." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14, par 334)

- "The father is the representative of the spirit, whose function it is to oppose pure instinctuality. That is his archetypal role, which falls to him regardless of his personal qualities; hence he is very often an object of neurotic fears for the son." (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 396)

- "This fact points to the father as being the cause of the fear, which as we know prompted Freud to his famous aetiological myth of the primal horde with the jealous old patriarch at the top. The immediate model for this is obviously the jealous Yahweh, struggling to protect his wife Israel from whoredoms with strange gods. The father represents the world of moral commandments and prohibitions[.]" (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 396)

- "Here the bull has the same significance as the monster and may be compared with the bull that was conquered by Gilgamesh. He represents the father who—paradoxically—enforces the incest prohibition as a giant and dangerous animal. The paradox lies in the fact that, like the mother who gives life and then takes it away again as the “terrible” or “devouring” mother, the father apparently lives a life of unbridled instinct and yet is the living embodiment of the law that thwarts instinct. There is, however, a subtle though important distinction to be made here: the father commits no incest, whereas the son has tendencies in that direction. The paternal law is directed against incest with all the violence and fury of uninhibited instinct." (Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 396)

- To know more about the development of Satan, refer to Foreword to Werblowsky’s “Lucifer and Prometheus” in Psychology and Religion, CW 11 or refer to Rivkah Schärf Kluger's Satan in the Old Testament.

- "This is a God you knew nothing about, because mankind forgot him. We call him by his name ABRAXAS. He is even more indefinite than God and the devil. To distinguish him from God, we call God HELIOS or sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing stands opposed to him but the ineffective; hence his effective nature unfolds itself freely. The ineffective neither exists nor resists. Abraxas stands above the sun and above the devil. He is improbable probability, that which takes unreal effect. If the Pleroma had an essence, Abraxas would be its manifestation." (The Red Book, Scrutinies)