Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/573

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pp. 87-126]
THE SONG OF THE MOTH
503

among the Greeks, where it was characterized as a fiery breath of air. The Holy Ghost of the New Testament appears in the form of flames around the heads of the Apostles, because the πνεῦμα was understood to mean "fiery" (Dieterich: Ibid., p. 116). Very similar is the Iranian conception of Hvarenô, by which is meant the "Grace of Heaven" through which a monarch rules. By "Grace" is understood a sort of fire or shining glory, something very substantial (Cumont: Ibid., p. 70). We come across conceptions allied in character in Kerner's "Seherin von Prevorst," and in the case published by me, "Psychologie und Pathologie sogenannter occulter Phänomene." Here not only the souls consist of a spiritual light-substance, but the entire world is constructed according to the white-black system of the Manichæans—and this by a fifteen-year-old girl! The intellectual over-accomplishment which I observed earlier in this creation, is now revealed as a consequence of energetic introversion, which again roots up deep historical strata of the soul and in which I perceive a regression to the memories of humanity condensed in the unconscious.

41 I add to this a quotation from Firmicus Maternus (Mathes. I, 5, 9, cit. by Cumont: "Textes et Monuments," I, p. 40): "Cui (animo) descensus per orbem solis tribuitur" (To this spirit the descent through the orb of the sun is attributed).

42 St. Hieronymus remarks, concerning Mithra who was born in a miraculous manner from a rock, that this birth was the result of "solo aestu libidinis" (merely through the heat of the libido) (Cumont: "Textes et Monuments," I, p. 163).

43 Mead: "A Mithraic Ritual." London 1907, p. 22.

44 I am indebted to my friend and co-worker, Dr. Riklin, for the knowledge of the following case which presents an interesting symbolism. It concerns a paranoic who passed over into a manifest megalomaniac 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.

I wish to refer here to the interesting correlation of mythological and pathological forms disclosed in the analytical investigation of Dr. S. Spielrein, and expressly emphasize that she has discovered the symbolisms presented by her in the Jahrbuch, through independent experimental work, in no way connected with my work.

45 According to the Chaldean teaching the sun occupies the middle place in the choir of the seven planets.

46 The Great Bear consists of seven stars.

47 Mithra is frequently represented with a knife in one hand and a torch in the other. The knife as an instrument of sacrifice plays an important role in his myth.

48 Ibid.

49 Compare with this the scarlet mantle of Helios in the Mithra liturgy. It was a part of the rites of the various cults to be dressed in the bloody skins of the sacrificial animals, as in the Lupercalia, Dionysia and Saturnalia, the last of which has bequeathed to us the Carnival, the typical figure of which, in Rome, was the priapic Pulcinella.