SECTION V

THE PROBLEM OF MULTIPLE INTERPRETATION
AFTER what has been said it is clear that the Para- ble contains instruction in the sense of the higher alchemy. Whoever has attentively read this 4th chapter will certainly be in a position to understand the parable, in large part, in a hermetic sense. I do not wish to develop this interpretation now, for to a certain extent it develops itself without further ef- fort, and what goes beyond that can be treated only in the second part of this volume. I shall limit my- self now to a few suggestions.
In regard to the external setting of the parable as a piece of rosicrucian literature, we must remember that it was published in 1788, the time of the later gold- and rose-cross societies, and in a book whose theosophic and religious character is seen in all the figures contained in it as well as in the greater part of the text. It is continually reiterated tliat gold is not common gold but our gold, that the stone is a spiritual stone (Jesus Christ), etc. The creation of the world, the religious duty of mankind, the mystic path to the experiencing of divinity — all is repre- sented in detailed pictures with predominantly chemi- cal symbolism. This higher conception of alchemy,
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that corresponds throughout to the ideal of the so- called old or true rosicrucian, does not prevent the editor from believing in the possibility of miraculous gifts which are to be gained through the hermetic art. Many parts of the book make us suspect a certain naivete that may go several degrees beyond the simplicity required for religious development.
As for the origin of the parable there are two possibilities. Either the editor is himself the au- thor and as such retires into the background, while he acts as collector of old rosicrucian manuscripts, that he now in publishing, discloses to amateurs in the art, or the editor is merely editor. In either case the obligation remains to interpret the parable hermetically. The educational purpose of the editor is established. If he is himself the author, he him- self has clothed his teachings in the images of the parable. If, on the contrary, the author is some one else (either a contemporary and so O R C. ^ or an old hermetic philosopher, Fr. R. C.), the editor has found in the piece edited by him a sub- ject suitable to his purpose, a material that voices his doctrines. We can evidently also rest satisfied, in order to evade the question of authorship, that the writing itself gets its own character from the hermetic interpretations, and shows in detail its cor- respondingly theosophic material. Nevertheless I desire to show the directing hand of the collector and editor.
Several controlling elements pointing toward a hermetic theosophic interpretation, which the reader
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probably looks for in the parable, may be shown if I mention the ethical purposes that here and there emerge in our psychoanalytic interpretation of the parable. I might remind the reader that the wan- derer is a killer of dragons like St. George; the holy Mary is represented standing over a dragon; also under the Buddha enthroned upon a lotus flower, there curls not infrequently a vanquished dragon; etc. I might mention the religious sym- bolism of the narrow path that leads to the true life. Many occurrences in the parable are to be conceived as trials, and we can see the wanderer overcome the elemental world (Nature triumphs over Nature), wherein he is proved by all four ele- ments and comes off victorious from all tests. The fight with the lion in the den can be regarded as a world test, the walk on the cloud capped wall (like the flying up in the vessel) as an air test, the mill episode (and the flood in the vessel) as a water ordeal, and the stay in the heated vessel as a fire ordeal. The old miller is God, the ten mill wheels are the ten commandments, and likewise the ten Sephiroth that create the whole world. We are also reminded of the Ophanim (wheels, a class of an- gels).
Several particulars suggest the admission of the seeker into a hermetic fraternity, which, as far as I am concerned, might be called rosicrucian. There was also among the cabbalists, as apparently is shown by Reuchlin (De Vero Mirifico), an initiation into a mystery. Fludd (in his Tractatus theologo-philo-
sophicus de vita, morte et resurrectione, Chap. XVI) apostrophizes the rosicrucians: " With open eyes I saw from your brief answer to two men whom you intended, at the exhortation of the Holy Ghost, to choose to your cloister or house, that you possessed the same knowledge of the true mystery and the same keys of knowledge that unlock the Paradise of Joy, as the patriarchs and prophets of holy scripture pos- sess." And in another place, " Believe that your (the R C. >!«) palace or abode is situated at the con- fines of the earthly paradise [locus voluptatis terres- tris]. . . ." In our parable it is a paradise of joy [pratum felicitatis] where the wanderer meets the company into which he desires admission. He must undergo examinations like every neophyte. The collegium sapientiae of the parable refers to the rosicrucian Collegium Sancti Spiritus, which is actually named in another passage of the book that contains the parable.
The blood of the lion, which the wanderer gets by cutting him up, refers to the rose-colored blood of the cross that we gain through deep digging and hammering. The wanderer picks roses and puts them in his hat, a mark of honor. The master is generally seen provided with a hat in the old pic- tures. " Rose garden " (the garden of the parable is quadrangular) was a name applied apparently to alchemistic lodges. The philosophical xwork itself is compared to the rose; the white rose is the white tincture, the red rose is the red tincture (different degrees of completion that follow the degrees of
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black) . They are plucked in the " alchemistic para- dise," but one must set about it in obedience to na- ture. Basilius Valentinus in the third of his twelve keys writes of the great magisterium : "So who- ever wishes to compare our incombustible sulphur of all the wise men, must first take heed for himself, that he look for our sulphur in one who is inwardly incombustible ; which cannot occur unless the salt sea has swallowed the corpse and completely cast it up again. Then raise it in its degree, so that it sur- pass in brilliance all the stars of heaven, and become in its nature as rich in blood, as the pelican when he wounds himself in his breast, so that his young may be well nourished without malady to his body, and can eat of his blood. [The pelican possesses under its bill a great pouch in which he can preserve food, principally fish. If he regurgitates the food out of his crop to feed his young he rests his bill against his breast. That gave rise to the belief that it tore open its breast in order to feed its young with its blood. From early times the pelican is therefore used as a symbol of Christ, who shed his blood for mankind. The alchemists represented the philoso- pher's stone, the red tincture, as a pelican; for by its projection on the baser metals it sacrificed itself and, as it were, gave its blood to tincture them. The Christian and the hermetic symbolism are con- current as in higher sense the stone Christ, i.e., the Messiah, is on our hearts.] That is the rose of our master with color of scarlet and red dragon's blood, written of by many, also the purple mantle of the
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highest commanders in our art, with which the Queen of Salvation is clothed, and by which all the poor metals can be warmed. Keep well this mantle of honor."
It is interesting that dream parallels can support us in both directions on the path of hermetic inter- pretation. I have in the second section of this vol- ume reported the " dream of the Flying Post." I must now complete its interpretation. Stekel writes (1. c., p. 399) : " If we examine the birth and uterus phantasies, Mr. X. Z., the dreamer, turns out to be a base criminal. He struggles with con- scious murder ideas. He is afraid he may kill his uncle or his mother. He is very pious. But his soul is black as the coal-dust-strewn street. His evil thoughts ( the homosexual) pursue him. He enters the mill. It is God's mill that grinds slowly but surely. His weight (his burden of sin) drives the mill. He is expelled. He enters the Flying Post. It is the post that unites heaven and earth. He is to pay, i.e., do penance for his sins. His sins are erotic (three heller = the genitals). His sins and misdeeds stink before heaven (dirty feet). The conductor is death. . . . The wheel room refers to the wheel of criminals. The water is blood." The perilous situation in the dream, God's mill, the black- ness, the water or blood, which arc their analogues, are found in the parable without further reference being necessary. Especially would I select the un- usual detail of the stinking, dirty feet, for which probably no one would see any association in the
215
parable. It is found in the episode of the rotting of the bridal pair in the receptacle. It is expressly stated that the putrefying corpses (i.e., the disinte- grating sinful bodies of men in the theosophic work) stink. The opposite is the odor of sanctity. Ac- tually this opposition recurs frequently in hermetic manuals. The conductor in the dream is described hermetically as a messenger of heaven $ , Hermes, conveyor of souls. His first appearance in the life of man is conscience. This causes our sins, which would be otherwise indifferent, to stink. In alchemy the substances stink on their dissolution in mercuri- ous purifying liquid. Only later does the agreeable fragrance appear.
If we find on the one hand that the parable ap- pears as a hermetic writing, which allows us to de- velop theosophical principles from its chemical analogues, on the other hand the psychoanalytic interpretation is not thereby shaken. Consequently the question arises for us how it is possible to give several interpretations of a long series of symbols that stand in complete opposition. [If we were concerned with individual symbols merely, the mat- ter would not be at all extraordinary.] Our re- search has showft that they are possible. The psy- choanalytic interpretation brings to view elements of a purposeless and irrational life of impulse, which works out its fury in the phantasies of the parable; and now the analysis of hermetic writings shows us that the parable, like all deep alchemistic books, is an introduction to a mystic religious life, — according
2i6 PROBLEMS OF MYSTICISM
to the degree of clearness with which the ideas hov- ered before the author. For just as the psychoana- lytically derived meaning of the phantasies does not occur to him, so possibly even the mystical way on which he must travel must have appeared only hazily before him. So no matter what degree of clearness the subjective experience may have had from the au- thor's point of view, we have for the solution of our own problem, to stick to the given object and to the possibilities of interpretation that are so extraordi- narily coherent.
The interpretations are really three; the psycho- analytic, which leads us to the depths of the impul- sive life; then the vividly contrasting hermetic re- ligious one, which, as it were, leads us up to high ideals and which I shall call shortly the anagogic; and third, the chemical (natural philosophical), which, so to speak, lies midway and, in contrast to the two others, appears ethically indifferent. The third meaning of this work of imagination lies in different relations half way between the psychoana- lytic and the anagogic, and can, as alchemistic litera- ture shows, be conceived as the bearer of the ana- gogic.
The parable may serve as an academic illustration for the entire hermetic (philosophy) . The problem of multiple interpretation is quite universal, in the sense namely that one encounters it everywhere where the imagination is creatively active. So our study opens wide fields and art and mythology espe- cially appear to invite us. I will depart as little as
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possible, however, from the province chosen as an example, i.e., alchemy. But in two fables I shall work out the problem of multiple interpretation. In the choice of the fables I am influenced by the fact that a psychoanalytic elaboration (Rank's) lies ready to hand, and that both are subjected to an anagogic interpretation by Hitchcock, who wrote the book on alchemy. This enables me to take the mat- ter up briefly because I can simply refer to the de- tailed treatment in the above mentioned books. The two stories belong to Grimm's collection and are called the Six Swans, and the Three Feathers. (K. H. M., Nos. 49 and 63.)
Rank (Lohenginsage) connects the story of the six swans and numerous similar stories with the knight of the swan saga. It is shown that the mythi- cal contents of all these narratives have at bottom those elemental forces of the impulse life that we have found in the parable, and that they are spe- cially founded on family conflicts, i.e., on those un- controlled love and hate motives that come out in their crassest form in the neurotic as his (phan- tasied) " family romance." To this family romance belongs, among others, incest in different forms, the illicit love for the mother, the rescuing of the mother from peril, the rescuing of the father, the wish to be the father, etc., phantasies whose meaning is ex- plained in the writings of Freud and Rank (Myth of the Birth of the Hero 1). According to Hitch-
1 Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series. Tr. by Jelliffe.
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cock, on the contrary, the same story tells of a man who in the decline of life falls into error, takes the sin to his heart, but then, counseled by his conscience, seeks his better self and completes the (alchemic- creative) work of the six days. (Hitchcock, Red Book.)
It is incontestable that there is, besides the psycho- analytic and anagogic interpretation of this tale (and almost all others), a nature mythological and in the special sense, an astronomical interpretation. Sig- nificant indications of this are the seven children and the seven years, the sewing of clothes made of star flowers, the lack of an arm as in the case of Marduk, and the corresponding heroes of astral myths, and many others. One of the seven is particularly dis- tinguished like the sun among the so-called planets. The ethically indifferent meaning of the tale along- side of the psychoanalytic and the anagogic corre- sponds to the chemical contents of the hermetic writ- ings. As object of the indifferent meaning there always stands the natural science content of the spirit's creation. There is generally a certain rela- tionship between the astronomical and the alchemis- tic meanings. It is now well known that alchemy was influenced by astrology, that the seven metals correspond to the seven planets, that, as the sun is distinguished among the planets, so is gold among the metals; and as in astrology combustion takes place in heaven, so it occurs also in the alembic of the alchemists. And the fact that the sun maiden at the end of the story releases her six planet broth-
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ers, sounds exactly as when the tincturing power of gold at the end of six days perfects the six imperfect metals and makes the ill, well.
In the second story I will emphasize to a some- what greater degree the opposition of the two con- trasting interpretations (psychoanalytic and ana- gogic), as I must return to it again. The story is suited to a detailed treatment on account of its brev- ity. I will first present it.
There was once a king who had three sons, two of whom were clever and shrewd, but the third did not talk much, was simple and was merely called the Simpleton. When the king grew old and feeble and expected his end, he did not know which one of his sons should inherit the kingdom after him. So he said to them, " Go forth, and whoever brings me the finest carpet shall be king after my death." And lest there be any disagreement among them, he led them before his castle, blew three feathers into the air, and said : " As they fly, so shall you go." One flew towards the east, the other towards the west, the third, however, flew straight ahead, but flying only a short distance soon fell to earth. Now one brother went to the right, the other went to the left, and they laughed at Simpleton, who had to stay with the third feather where it had fallen.
Simpleton sat down and was sad. Suddenly he noticed that near the feather lay a trap door. He raised it, found a stairway, and went down. Then he came before another door, knocked and listened, while inside a voice called :
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" Maiden green and small, Shrunken old crone, Old crone's little dog, Crone here and there, Let us see quickly who is out there."
The door opened and he saw a big fat toad and round about her a crowd of little toads. The fat toad asked what his wish was. He answered, " I should have liked the most beautiful and finest car- pet." Then she called a young one and said:
" Maiden green and small, Shrunken old crone, Crone's little dog, Crone here and there, Fetch here the big box."
The young toad brought the box and the fat toad opened it and gave Simpleton a carpet from it, so beautiful and so fine as up above on the earth could not have been woven. Then he thanked her and climbed up again.
The two others had, however, considered their youngest brother so weak-minded that they believed that he would not find and bring anything back. " Why should we take so much trouble," said they, and took from the back of the first shepherd's wife that met them her coarse shawl and carried it home to the king. At the same time Simpleton returned and brought his beautiful carpet, and when the king saw it he was astonished and said : " If justice must be done, the kingdom belongs to the youngest."
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But the two others gave their father no peace, and said that it was impossible that Simpleton, who lacked understanding in all things, could be a king, and begged him to make a new condition. Then the father said, " The one that brings me the most beau- tiful ring shall be king," led the three brothers out and blew three feathers into the air for them to fol- low. The two oldest again went east and west, and Simpleton's feather flew straight ahead and fell down near the door in the earth. So he went down again to the fat toad and told her that he needed the most beautiful ring. She immediately had her big box fetched and from it gave him a ring that glittered with jewels and was more beautiful than any gold- smith upon the earth could have made. The two eldest laughed about Simpleton, who was going to look for a gold ring, but they took no trouble, and knocked the pin out of an old wagon ring and brought the ring to the king. But when Simpleton showed his gold ring the father again said, " The kingdom belongs to him." The two eldest did not cease importuning the king till he made a third con- dition and declared that the kingdom should go to the one that brought home the fairest woman. Again he blew the three feathers into the air and they flew as before.
So Simpleton without more ado went down to the fat toad and said, " I have to take home the fairest woman." 'The fairest woman, hey? She is not right here, but none the less you shall have her." She gave him a hollowed out carrot to which were
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harnessed six little mice. Then Simpleton sadly said, " What shall I do with it? " The toad replied, " Just put one of my little toads in it." So he took one by chance from the circle and put it in the yellow carriage, but hardly had she taken her seat when she became a surpassingly beautiful maiden, the carrot a coach, and the six little mice, horses. So he kissed the maiden, drove away with the horses and took them to the king. His brothers came afterwards. They had not taken any trouble to find a fair lady but had brought the first good looking peasant woman. As the king looked at them he said, " The youngest gets the kingdom after my death." But the two oldest deafened the king's ears with their outcry: " We cannot allow the Simpleton to be king," and gained his consent that the one whose woman should jump through a ring that hung in the middle of the room should have the preference. They thought, " The peasant women can do it easily, they are strong enough, but the delicate miss will jump her- self to death." The old king consented to this also. So the two peasant women jumped, even jumped through the ring, but were so clumsy that they fell and broke their awkward arms and legs. Then the beautiful woman whom Simpleton had brought leaped through as easily as a roe, and all opposition had to cease. So he received the crown and ruled long and wisely.
I offer first a neat psychoanalytic interpretation of this narrative. Like the dream, the fairy tale is regularly a phantastic fulfillment of wishes, and, of
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such indeed, as we realize, but which life does not satisfy, as well as of such as we are hardly aware of in consciousness, and would not entertain if we knew them clearly. Reality denies much, especially to the weak, or to those who feel themselves weak, or who have a smaller capacity for work in the strug- gle for existence in relation to their fellow men. The efficient person accomplishes in his life what he wishes, the wishes of the weak remain unfulfilled, and for this reason the weak, or whoever in com- parison with the magnitude of his desires, thinks himself weak, avails himself of the phantastic wish fulfillment. He desires to attain the unattainable at least in imagination. This is the psychological reason why so many fairy stories are composed from the standpoint of the weak, so that the experiencing Ego of the fairy tale, the hero, is a simpleton, the smallest or the weakest or the youngest one who is oppressed, etc. The hero of the foregoing tale is a simpleton and the youngest. In his phantasy, that is, in the story, he stamps his brothers, who are in real life more efficient, and whom he envies, as ma- licious, disagreeable characters. (In real life we can generally observe how suspicious are, for in- stance, physically deformed people. Their sensi- tiveness is well known.) Like the fox to whom the grapes are sour, he declares that what his stronger fellows accomplish is bad, their performance of their duty defective, and their aims contemptible, espe- cially in the sexual sphere, where he feels himself openly most injured. The tale treats specifically
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from the outset the conquest of a woman. The car- pet, the ring, are female symbols, the first is the body of the woman, the ring is the vagina (Greek kteis = comb = pudenda muliebria). (The carpet is still more specifically marked as a female symbol in that the brothers take it from the body of a shep- herdess. Shepherdess — a coarse " rag " — coarse " cloth " — in contrast to the fine carpet of the hero.)
The simpleton is one who does not like much work. When he also ascribes negligence to his brothers he betrays to us his own nature, in that his " feather," i.e., himself, does not go far, while his brothers' feathers go some distance. In order to invalidate this view of himself the distribution of the feathers is put off on chance, as if to a higher determining power. This has always been a favor- ite excuse with lazy and inefficient people.
One of the means of consoling himself for the un- attainableness of his wishes is the belief in miracles. (Cf. my work on Phantasy and Mythos.) The sim- pleton gains his advantage in a miraculous manner; roasted pigeons fly into his mouth.
In his erotic enterprises he sticks to his own imme- diate neighborhood. He clearly bears within him- self an Imago that holds him fast. [This is an image, withdrawn from consciousness and conse- quently indestructible, of the object of one's earliest passion, which continues to operate as a strongly af- fective complex, and takes hold upon life with a for- mative effect. The most powerful Images are those of the parents. Here naturally the mother imago
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comes to view, which later takes a position in the cen- ter of the love life (namely the choice of object).] Whither does he turn for his journey of conquest? Into the earth. The earth is the mother as a famil- iar symbol language teaches us. Trap door, box, subterranean holes, suggest a womb phantasy. The toad frequently appears with the significance of the uterus, harmonizing with the situation that the tale presents. (On the contrary frog is usually penis.) The toad's big box (= mother) is also the womb. From it indeed the female symbols, in this connec- tion, sisters, are produced for the simpleton. The box is, however, also the domestic cupboard, — food closet, parcel, bandbox, chamber, bowl, etc., — from which the good mother hands out tasty gifts, toys, etc. Just as the father in childish phantasy can do anything, so the mother has a box out of which she takes all kinds of good gifts for the children. Down among the toads an ideal family episode is enacted. The mother's inexhaustible box (with the double meaning) even delivers the desired woman for the simpleton.
The woman — for whom? Doubtless for the simpleton, psychologically. The tale says for the king, because the female symbols, carpet, ring, the king desires for himself, in so many words, and the inference is that the woman also belongs to him. The conclusion of the tale, however, turns out true to the psychological situation, as it does away with the king and lets the simpleton live on, apparently with the same woman. It is clear as day that the
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simpleton identifies himself with his father, places himself in his place. The image, which possesses him from the first is the father's woman, the mother. And the father's death — that is considerately ig- nored— which brings queen and crown, is a wish of the simpleton. So again we find ourselves at the center of the CEdipus complex. As mother-substi- tute figures the sister, one of the little toads.
We have regarded the story first from the point of view of the inefficiency of the hero, and have thereupon stumbled upon erotic relations, finally upon the CEdipus complex. The psychological con- nection results from the fact that those images on which the CEdipus complex is constructed appear cal- culated to produce an inefficiency in the erotic life.
The anagogic interpretation of Hitchcock (1. c., pp. 175 ff.) is as follows, though somewhat abridged :
The king plainly means man. He has three sons ; he is an image of the Trinity, which in the sense of our presentation we shall think of as body, soul and spirit. Two of the sons were wise in the worldly sense, but the third, who represents spirit and in the primitive form, is called conscience, is simple in order to typify the straight and narrow path of truth. The spirit leads in sacred silence those who meekly follow it and dies in a mystical sense if it is denied, or else appears in other forms in order to pursue the soul with the ghosts of murdered virtues. Man is, as it were, in doubt concerning the principle to which the highest leadership in life is due. " Go
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forth and whoever brings me the finest carpet shall be king after my death." The carpet is something on which one walks or stands, here representing the best way of life according to Isaiah XXX, 21. " This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left."
The three feathers are, of course, the three prin- ciples. Two of them move at once in opposite di- rections [towards the east and towards the west, as many writers on alchemy represent the two princi- ples or breaths, anima and corpus or O and D ] and so come even at the outset away from the right path. The third, symbol of the spirit, flies straight forward and has not far to its end, for simple is the way to the inner life. And so the spirit will speak to us if we follow its voice, at first quite a faint voice : " But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it." (Deuteronomy xxx, 14.) Yet the soul is not free from sadness, as the man stands still on the lower steps of the ladder that leads up into eternal life. Simpleton is troubled in his heart and in the humility of this affliction he discovers " all at once " a secret door, which shows him the entrance into, the mystical life. The door is on the surface of the earth, in abasement, as the third feather determined it in advance. As Simpleton discreetly obeyed it, he strolled along the path that the door opened for him. Three steps, three fundamental forces. So Christ had to descend before he could rise. The hero of the story knocks as Christ knocks in the gospel (i.e.,
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on the inner door, contrasted with the law of Moses, the outer door) . The big toad with her little ones in a circle about her signifies the great mother na- ture and her creatures, which surround her in a cir- cle; in a circle, for nature always returns upon her- self in a cycle. Simpleton gets the most beautiful carpet.
The other two beings that we call understanding and feelings (sun and moon of the hermetic writ- ings) look without, instead of seeking the way within; so it comes to pass that they take the first best coarse cloths.
To bring the most beautiful ring is to bring truth, which like a ring has neither beginning nor end. Understanding and feeling go in different directions, the simpleton waits meekly by the door that leads to the interior of the great mother. [The appear- ance of this conception in the anagogic interpretation is also important.]
In the third test, the search for " the fairest woman," the crown of life, conceived exoterically as well as esoterically, the carrot represents the vege- tative life (body, the natural man), and the six mice that draw it are our old friends the six swans or virtues, and the highest of these compassion — or love — goes as the enthroned queen in the carriage. The uninitiated man is almost in doubt and asks, " What shall I do with a carrot? " Yet the great mother replies, as it were, " Take one of my funda- mental forces." And what do we see then? The toad becomes a beautiful maiden, etc. The man
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now all at once realizes how fearfully and wonder- fully he is made. Filled with reverence of himself he is ready to cry, " Not my will but thine be done."
Still another test remains. We must all go through a sort of mystical ring, which hangs in the hall (of learning). Only one in the whole universe is in a condition to accomplish it, to endure it with- out injury. The beautiful delicate maid with the miraculous gift is the spirit [spiritus or 9 of al- chemy].
We shall add that the two interpretations exter- nally contradict each other, although each exhibits a faultless finality. I should note that I have limited myself to the briefest exposition; in a further work- ing out of the analysis the two expositions can be much more closely identified with the motives of the story.
First, then, the question arises, how one and the same series of images can harmonize several mu- tually exclusive interpretations (problem of multiple interpretation) ; yet we have discovered in the para- ble three practically equivalent schemes of interpre- tation, the psychoanalytic, the chemical (scientific), and the anagogic. Secondly, the question presents itself more particularly how can two so antithetic meanings as the psychoanalytic and the anagogic exist side by side.
Ill
SYNTHETIC PART