object:4.05 - THE DARK SIDE OF THE KING
book class:Mysterium Coniunctionis
author class:Carl Jung
subject class:Psychology
subject class:Occultism
class:chapter
5. THE DARK SIDE OF THE KING
[464] Besides the Cantilena, there are various other descriptions274 of the kings renewal, enriched with numerous details, which I will not discuss here so as not to overburden this chapter. The material we have adduced may suffice to illustrate the essential features of the transformation process. Nevertheless, the myth of the kings renewal has so many ramifications that our exposition so far does not cover the entire range of the symbol. In this section, therefore, I shall try to shed a little more light on the critical phase of the nigredo, the phase of decay and death.
[465] The kings decline, as we saw, was due to imperfection or sickness. In the Cantilena his sickness was sterility. The figure of the sterile king may perhaps come from the Arisleus Vision,275 where the King of the Sea rules over an unfruitful country, although he himself is not sterile. Usually the king is connected in some way with the world of darkness. Thus, in the Introitus, he is at first the secret, infernal fire,276 but as the reborn puellus regius (kingly boy) he is an allegory of Christ. In Michael Maier the king is dead and yet imprisoned alive in the depths of the sea, whence he calls for help.277 The following story of the king is from Trismosins Splendor solis:
The old Philosophers declared they saw a Fog rise, and pass over the whole face of the earth, they also saw the impetuosity of the Sea, and the streams over the face of the earth, and how these same became foul and stinking in the darkness. They further saw the king of the Earth sink, and heard him cry out with eager voice,278 Whoever saves me shall live and reign with me for ever in my brightness on my royal throne, and Night enveloped all things. The day after, they saw over the King an apparent Morning Star, and the light of Day clear up the darkness, and bright Sunlight pierce through the clouds, with manifold coloured rays of brilliant brightness, and a sweet perfume from the earth, and the Sun shining clear. Herewith was completed the Time when the King of the Earth was released and renewed, well apparelled, and quite handsome, surprising with his beauty the Sun and Moon. He was crowned with three costly crowns, the one of Iron, the other of Silver, and the third of pure Gold. They saw in his right hand a Sceptre with Seven Stars, all of which gave a golden Splendour [etc., etc.].279
[466] The seven stars are a reference to Rev. 1 : 16: And he had in his right hand seven stars. He who held them was like unto the Son of man, in agreement with the puellus regius in the Introitus. The king sinking in the sea is the arcane substance, which Maier calls the antimony of the philosophers. 280 The arcane substance corresponds to the Christian dominant, which was originally alive and present in consciousness but then sank into the unconscious and must now be restored in renewed form. Antimony is associated with blackness: antimony trisulphide is a widely used Oriental hair-dye (kohl). On the other hand antimony pentasulphide, gold-sulphur (Sulphur auratum antimonii) is orange-red.
[467] The sunken king of alchemy went on living as the metal king, the regulus of metallurgy. This is the name for the lumps of metal formed beneath the slag in melting and reducing ores. The term Sulphur auratum antimonii, like gold-sulphur, indicates the strong predominance of sulphur in combination with antimony. Sulphur, as we have seen, is the active substance of Sol and is foul-smelling: sulphur dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen give one a good idea of the stink of hell. Sulphur is an attri bute of Sol as Leo is of Rex. Leo, too, is ambiguous: on the one hand he is an allegory of the devil and on the other is connected with Venus. The antimony compounds known to the alchemists (Sb2S5, Sb2S3) therefore contained a substance which clearly exemplified the nature of Rex and Leo, hence they spoke of the triumph of antimony.281
[468] As I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy,282 the sunken king forms a parallel to Parable VII of Aurora Consurgens:282a Be turned to me with all your heart and do not cast me aside because I am black and swarthy, because the sun hath changed my colour and the waters have covered my face and the land hath been polluted and defiled in my works; for there was darkness over it, because I stick fast in the mire of the deep and my substance is not disclosed. Wherefore out of the depths have I cried, and from the abyss of the earth with my voice to all you that pass by the way. Attend and see me, if any shall find one like unto me, I will give into his hand the morning star.
[469] The mire of the deep refers to Psalm 68 : 3 (Vulgate) : Infixus sum in limo profundi et non est substantia (AV 69 : 2: I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing). Davids words are interpreted by Epiphanius 283 as follows: there is a material which consists of miry reflections and muddy thoughts of sin. But of Psalm 130 : 1: Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord, he gives the following interpretation: After the saints are so graced that the Holy Ghost dwells within them, he gives them, after having made his habitation in the saints, the gift to look into the deep things of God, that they may praise him from the depths, as also David declares: Out of the depths, he says, have I cried to thee, O Lord. 284
[470] These contradictory interpretations of the depths (profunda) come much closer together in alchemy, often so close that they seem to be nothing more than two different aspects of the same thing. It is natural that in alchemy the depths should mean now one and now the other, to the despair of all lovers of consistency. But the eternal images are far from consistent in meaning. It is characteristic of the alchemists that they never lost sight of this polarity, thereby compensating the world of dogma, which, in order to avoid ambiguity, emphasizes the one pole to the exclusion of the other. The tendency to separate the opposites as much as possible and to strive for singleness of meaning is absolutely necessary for clarity of consciousness, since discrimination is of its essence. But when the separation is carried so far that the complementary opposite is lost sight of, and the blackness of the whiteness, the evil of the good, the depth of the heights, and so on, is no longer seen, the result is one-sidedness, which is then compensated from the unconscious without our help. The counterbalancing is even done against our will, which in consequence must become more and more fanatical until it brings about a catastrophic enantiodromia. Wisdom never forgets that all things have two sides, and it would also know how to avoid such calamities if ever it had any power. But power is never found in the seat of wisdom; it is always the focus of mass interests and is therefore inevitably associated with the illimitable folly of the mass man.
[471] With increasing one-sidedness the power of the king decays, for originally it had consisted just in his ability to unite the polarity of all existence in a symbol. The more distinctly an idea emerges and the more consciousness gains in clarity, the more monarchic becomes its content, to which everything contradictory has to submit. This extreme state has to be reached, despite the fact that the climax always presages the end. Mans own nature, the unconscious, immediately tries to compensate, and this is distasteful to the extreme state, which always considers itself ideal and is moreover in a position to prove its excellence with the most cogent arguments. We cannot but admit that it is ideal, but for all that it is imperfect because it expresses only one half of life. Life wants not only the clear but also the muddy, not only the bright but also the dark; it wants all days to be followed by nights, and wisdom herself to celebrate her carnival, of which indeed there are not a few traces in alchemy. For these reasons, too, the king constantly needs the renewal that begins with a descent into his own darkness, an immersion in his own depths, and with a reminder that he is related by blood to his adversary.
[472] According to the Ancoratus of Epiphanius, the phoenix emerges from his ashes first in the form of a worm:
When the bird is dead, indeed utterly consumed, and the flames are extinguished, there are left only the crude remnants of the flesh. From this there comes forth in one day an unseemly worm, which puts on wings and becomes as new; but on the third day it matures, and after growing to full stature with the aid of the medicines found in that place, it shows itself, and hastens upward once more to its own country, and there rests.285
So, too, the king rises from his infernal fire as a crowned dragon.286 He is the Mercurial serpent, which is especially connected with evil-smelling places (it is found on the dunghills).287 The fact that the passage in the Ancoratus stresses the one day may perhaps throw some light on the apparently unique reference in Khunraths Amphitheatrum to the filius unius (SVI) diei288 as a designation for the Hermaphrodite of nature, i.e., the arcane substance. He is there synonymous with Saturn,289 the ambisexual Philosophic Man of the philosophers, the lead of the sages, the Philosophic World-Egg . . . the greatest wonder of the world, the Lion, green and red . . . A lily among thorns.290
[473] As we have seen, the filius regius is identical with Mercurius and at this particular stage also with the Mercurial serpent. This stage is indicated in Khunrath by Saturn, the dark, cold maleficus; by the world-egg, obviously signifying the initial state, and finally by the green and red lion, representing the animal soul of the king. All this is expressed by the dragon or serpent as the summa summarum. The dragon as the lowest and most inchoate form of the king is, we are constantly told, at first a deadly poison but later the alexipharmic itself.
[474] In the myth of the phoenix as reported by Pliny we again meet the worm: from its bones and marrow is born first a sort of maggot, and this grows into a chicken.291 This version is repeated in Clement of Rome,292 Artemidorus,293 Cyril of Jerusalem,294 St. Ambrose,295 and Cardan.296 In order to understand the phoenix myth it is important to know that in Christian hermeneutics the phoenix is made an allegory of Christ, which amounts to a reinterpretation of the myth.297 The self-burning of the phoenix corresponds to Christs self-sacrifice, the ashes to his buried body, and the miraculous renewal to his resurrection.298 According to Horapollo (4th cent.), whose views were taken over by later writers,299 the phoenix signifies the soul and its journey to the land of rebirth.300 It stands for the long-lasting restitution of things (
); indeed, it is renewal itself.301 The idea of apocatastasis or restitution (Acts 3 : 21) and re-establishment in Christ (Ephesians 1 : 10, DV)302 may well have helped the assimilation of the phoenix allegory, quite apart from the main motif of renewal.
[475] Khunraths insertion of the word SVI, in capital letters, after unius plainly indicates that he was referring to something divine. This can only be some analogy of God or Christ. Nowhere else in the alchemical texts is this one day mentioned, except for an occasional remark that by the special grace of God the opus could be completed in one day. Khunraths SVI seems to refer rather to God, in the sense that the filius regius is born on His day, the day that belongs to God or is chosen by him. Since the phoenix is mainly an allegory of resurrection, this one day of birth and renewal must be one of the three days of Christs burial and descent into hell. But there is nothing about this one day in Christian dogma, unless Khunrath, who had a speculative mind, was anticipating the arguments of certain Protestant dogmaticians who, following Luke 23 : 43,303 propounded the theory that after his death Christ did not immediately descend into hell (as in Catholic dogma), but remained in paradise until Easter morning. And just as there was an earthquake at the moment when Christs soul separated from his body in death, so there was another earthquake on Easter morning (Matthew 28 : 2). During this earthquake Christs soul was reunited with his body,304 and only then did he descend into hell to preach to the spirits in prison (I Peter 3 : 19). Meanwhile the angel at the tomb appeared in his place and spoke to the women. The descent into hell is supposed to be limited to this short space of time.305
[476] On this view the one day would be Easter Day. In alchemy the uniting of the soul with the body is the miracle of the coniunctio, by which the lapis becomes a living body. The phoenix signifies precisely this moment.306 The alchemical transformation was often compared to the rising of the sun. But apart from the fact that there is not the slightest ground for supposing that such speculations ever entered Khunraths head, the Easter morning hypothesis does not seem very satisfactory. The special element of the worm is missing, which Epiphanius stresses in connection with the one day. It seems as though this element should not be overlooked in explaining the filius unius diei. The one day probably refers to Genesis 1:5: And there was evening and there was morning, one day (RSV).307 This was after the separation of light from darkness (or the creation of light), and here it should be remembered that darkness precedes the light and is its mother.308 The son of this one day is the Light, the Logos (John 1:5), who is the Johannine Christ.309 So interpreted, the son of one day immediately becomes related to the Hermaphrodite of nature, 310 the Philosophic Man, and to Saturn, the tempter and oppressor,311 who, as Ialdabaoth and the highest archon, is correlated with the lion. All these figures are synonyms for Mercurius.
[477] There is a didactic poem, Sopra la composizione della pietra dei Philosophic by Fra Marcantonio Crasselame, which was published in a work significantly entitled La Lumire sortant par soi-mesme des Tnbres.312 As the title shows, this is not the light that was created by the Logos, but a spontaneous, self-begotten light. The poem begins with the creation of the world and declares that the Word created chaos:
At the Omnipotents first word, shadowy Chaos, formless mass, came from the void.
But who knows how all things were made? Only the sons of the Art:
O emulous Sons of Divine Hermes, to whom the paternal Art makes Nature visible without any veil, you, you alone, know how the eternal Hand fashioned earth and Heaven out of shapeless Chaos. Your own great Work clearly shows you that God made Everything in the same manner as the Physical Elixir is produced.
[478] The opus alchymicum recapitulates the secret of creation which began with the incubation of the waters. Mercurius, a living and universal spirit, descends into the earth and mingles with the impure sulphurs, thus becoming fixed:
If I be clearly understood, your unknown Mercury is nothing other than a living innate universal Spirit which, ever agitated in aerial vapour, descends from the Sun to fill the empty Centre of the Earth; whence it later issues forth from the impure Sulphurs and, from volatile, becomes fixed and, having taken form, imparts its form to the radical moisture.
[479] But through his descent Mercurius is made captive and can be freed only by the art:
But where is this golden Mercury, this radical moisture, which, dissolved in sulphur and salt, becomes the animated seed of the metals? Ah, he is incarcerated and held so fast that even Nature cannot release him from the harsh prison, unless the Master Art open the way.
[480] It is a spirit of light that descends from the sun,313 a living spirit that lives in all creatures as the spirit of wisdom,314 and teaches man the art whereby the soul enchained in the elements may be freed. From Mercurius comes the illumination of the adept, and it is through his work that Mercurius is freed from his chains. This Mercurius duplex, who ascends and descends, is the uroboros, by definition an increatum. 315 It is the snake that begets itself from itself.316 Although the poem takes Mercurius chiefly as a spirit of light, the uroboros is a
(subterranean Hermes). Mercurius is a compound of opposites, and the alchemists were primarily concerned with his dark side, the serpent.
[481] It is an age-old mythological idea that the hero, when the light of life is extinguished, goes on living as a snake and is worshipped as a snake.317 Another widespread primitive idea is the snake-form of the spirits of the dead. This may well have given rise to the worm version of the phoenix myth.
[482] In Amente, the Egyptian underworld, dwells the great seven-headed snake,318 and in the Christian underworld is the most celebrated snake of all, the devil, that old serpent. 319 Actually it is a pair of brothers that inhabit hell, namely death and the devil, the devil being characterized by the snake and death by worms. In old German the concepts of worm, snake, and dragon coalesce, as they do in Latin (vermis, serpens, draco). The underworld signifies hell320 and the grave.321 The worm or serpent is all-devouring death. The dragon-slayer is therefore always a conqueror of death. In Germanic mythology, too, hell is associated with worms. The Edda says:
A hall did I see
Far from the sun,
On the shore of death,
The door to the north.
Dripping poison
Drops from the roof;
The chamber walls
Are bodies of worms.322
Hell in Old English is called the worms hall (wyrmsele) and in Middle High German it is the worm-garden. 323
[483] Like the heroes and spirits of the dead, the gods too (particularly the earth-gods), are associated with the snake, as are Hermes and Asklepios.324 Indeed, the Greek god of healing, on being hatched from the egg, seems to have taken the form of a snake.325 An inscription on the temple of Hathor at Dendereh reads:326
The sun, who has existed from the beginning, rises up like a falcon out of the midst of his lotus-bud. When the doors of his petals open in sapphire-coloured splendour, he has sundered the night from the day. Thou risest up like the sacred snake as a living spirit, creating the beginnings and shining in thy glorious form in the barge of the sunrise. The divine Lord whose image dwells in secret in the temple at Dendereh is made the creator of the world by his work. Coming as one, he multiplies himself a millionfold when the light goes forth from him in the form of a child.327
The comparison of the god to a snake reminds us of his chthonic form in the underworld, just as the rejuvenated phoenix (falcon) first takes the form of a worm.328 As Christianity borrowed a good deal from the Egyptian religion it is not surprising that the allegory of the snake found its way into the world of Christian ideas (John 3 : 14) and was readily seized on by the alchemists.329 The dragon is an allegory of Christ as well as of the Antichrist.330 A remarkable parallel occurs in the anonymous treatise, De promissionibus (5th cent.).331 It concerns a version of the legend of St. Sylvester, according to which this saint imprisoned a dragon in the Tarpeian Rock and so rendered him harmless. The other version of this story is related by a certain monk who discovered that the alleged dragon, to whom offerings of virgins were made, was nothing but a mechanical device. St. Sylvester locked the dragon up with a chain, as in Rev. 20 : 1; but in the parallel story the artificial dragon brandished a sword in its mouth, like the Son of Man in Rev. 1 : 16.332
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