Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of ThoughtJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Philosophy
Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Libido (Psychology); Mother and child; Psychoanalysis; Subconsciousness; Symbolism (Psychology)
According to the testimony of Eusebius of Alexandria, the Christians
also shared in the worship of the rising sun, which lasted into the
fifth century:
οὐαῖ τοῖς προσκυνοῦσι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας.
Πολλοὺς γὰρ οἶδα τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας καὶ εὐχομένους εἰς τὸν ἥλιον. Ἤδη
γὰρ ἀνατείλαντος τοῦ ἡλίου, προσεύχονται καὶ λέγουσιν “Ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς”
καὶ οὐ μόνον Ἡλιογνώσται καὶ αἱρετικοὶ τοῦτο ποιοῦσιν ἀλλὰ καὶ
χριστιανοὶ καὶ ἀφέντες τὴν πίστιν τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς συναμίγνυνται.[178]
Augustine preached emphatically to the Christians:
“Non est Dominus Sol factus sed per quem Sol factus est—ne quis
carnaliter sapiens Solem istum (Christum) intelligendum putaret.”
Art has preserved much of the remnants of sun-worship,[179] thus the
nimbus around the head of Christ and the halo of the saints in general.
The Christian legends also attribute many fire and light symbols to the
saints.[180] The twelve apostles, for example, are likened to the twelve
signs of the zodiac, and are represented, therefore, with a star over
the head.[181]
It is not to be wondered at that the heathen, as Tertullian avows,
considered the sun as the Christian God. Among the Manichaeans God was
really the sun. One of the most remarkable works extant, where the
Pagan, Asiatic, Hellenic and Christian intermingle, is the Ἐξήγησις περὶ
των ἐν Περσίδι πραχθέντων, edited by Wirth.[182] This is a book of
fables, but, nevertheless, a mine for near-Christian phantasies, which
gives a profound insight into Christian symbolism. In this is found the
following magical dedication: Διὶ Ἡλίῳ θεῳ μεγάλῳ βασιλεῖ Ἰησοῦ—.[183]
In certain parts of Armenia the rising sun is still worshipped by
Christians, that “it may let its foot rest upon the faces of the
worshippers.”[184] The foot occurs as an anthropomorphic attribute, and
we have already met the theriomorphic attribute in the feathers and the
sun phallus. Other comparisons of the sun’s ray, as knife, sword, arrow,
and so on, have also, as we have learned from the psychology of the
dream, a phallic meaning at bottom. This meaning is attached to the foot
as I here point out,[185] and also to the feathers, or hair, of the sun,
which signify the power or strength of the sun. I refer to the story of
Samson, and to that of the Apocalypse of Baruch, concerning the phœnix
bird, which, flying before the sun, loses its feathers, and, exhausted,
is strengthened again in an ocean bath at evening.
Under the symbol of “moth and sun” we have dug down into the historic
depths of the soul, and in doing this we have uncovered an old buried
idol, the youthful, beautiful, fire-encircled and halo-crowned sun-hero,
who, forever unattainable to the mortal, wanders upon the earth, causing
night to follow day; winter, summer; death, life; and who returns again
in rejuvenated splendor and gives light to new generations. The longing
of the dreamer concealed behind the moth stands for him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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