SECTION I

PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE
ALTHOUGH we know that the parable was written by a follower of the hermetic art, and apparently for the purpose of instruction, we shall proceed, with due consideration, to pass over the hermetic content of the narrative, which will later be investigated, and regard it only as a play of free fantasy. We shall endeavor to apply to the parable knowledge gained from the psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams, and we shall find that the parable, as a cre- ation of the imagination, shows at the very founda- tions the same structure as dreams. I repeat em- phatically that in this research, in being guided merely by the psychoanalytic point of view, we are for the time being proceeding in a decidedly one- sided manner.
In the interpretation of the parable we cannot apply the original method of psychoanalysis. This consists in having a series of seances with the dreamer in order to evoke the free associations. The dreamer of the parable — or rather the au- thor — has long ago departed this life. We are obliged then to give up the preparatory process and
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stick to the methods derived from them. There are three such methods.
The first is the comparison with typical dream images. It has been shown that in the dreams of all individuals certain phases and types continually recur, and in its symbolism have a far reaching gen- eral validity, because they are manifestly built on universal human emotions. Their imaginative ex- pression is created according to a psychical law which remains fairly unaffected by individual differ- ences.
The second is the parallel from folk psychology. The inner affinity of dream and myth implies that for the interpretation of individual creations of fancy, parallels can profitably be drawn from the productions of the popular imagination and vice versa.
The third is the conclusions from the peculiarities of structure of the dream (myth, fairy tale) itself. In dreams and still more significantly in the more widely cast works of the imagination creating in a dream-like manner, as e.g., in myths and fairy tales, one generally finds motives that are several times repeated in similar stories even though with vari- ations and with different degrees of distinctness. [Let this not be misunderstood. I do not wish to revive the exploded notion that myths are merely the play of a fancy that requires occupation. My position on the interpretation of myths will be ex- plained in Part I. of the synthetic part.] It is then possible by the comparison of individual in-
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stances of a motive, to conclude concerning its true character, inasmuch as one, as it were, completes in accordance with their original tendency the lines of increasing distinctness in the different examples, and thus — to continue the geometric metaphor — one obtains in their prolongations a point of intersection in which can be recognized the goal of the process toward which the dream strives, a goal, however, that is not found in the dream itself but only in the interpretation.
We shall employ the three methods of interpre- tation conjointly. After all we shall proceed ex- actly as psychoanalysis does in interpretation of folk- lore. For in this also there are no living authors that we can call and question. We have succeeded well enough, however, with the derived methods. The lack of an actual living person will be compen- sated for in a certain sense by the ever living folk spirit and the infinite series of its manifestations (folk-lore, etc.). The results of this research will help us naturally in the examination of our parable, except in so far as I must treat some of the conclu- sions of psychoanalysis with reserve as problematic.
Let us now turn to the parable. Let us follow the author, or as I shall call him, the wanderer, into his forest, where he meets his extraordinary adven- tures.
I have just used a figure, " Let us follow him into his forest." This is worthy of notice. I mean, of course, that we betake ourselves into his world of imagination and live through his dreams with him.
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We leave the paths of everyday life, in order to rove in the jungle of phantasy. If we remember rightly, the wanderer used the same metaphor at the beginning of his narrative. He comes upon a thicket in the woods, loses the usual path. . . . He, too, speaks figuratively. Have we almost unaware, in making his symbolism our own, partially drawn away the veil from his mystery? It is a fact con- firmed by many observations [Cf. my works on threshold symbolism — Schwellensymbolik, Jahrb. ps. F. Ill, p. 621 ff., IV, p. 675 ff.] that in hypna- gogic hallucinations (dreamy images before going to sleep), besides all kinds of thought material, the state of going to sleep also portrays itself in exactly the same way that in the close of a dream or hyp- notic illusions on awakening, the act of awakening is pictorially presented. The symbolism of awaken- ing brings indeed pictures of leave taking, departing, opening of a door, sinking, going free out of a dark surrounding, coming home, etc. The pictures for going to sleep are sinking, entering into a room, a garden or a dark forest.
The fairy story also used the same forest symbol. Whether on sinking into sleep I have the sensation of going into a dark forest or whether the hero of the story goes into a forest (which to be sure has still other interpretations) , or whether the wanderer in the parable gets into a tangle of underbrush, all amounts to the same thing; it is always the introduc- tion into a life of phantasy, the entrance into the theater of the dream. The wanderer, if he had not
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chosen for his fairy tale the first person, could have begun as follows: There was once a king whose greatest joy was in the chase. Once as he was drawn with his companions into a great forest, and was pursuing a fleet stag, he was separated from his fol- lowers, and went still further from the familiar paths, so that finally he had to admit that he had lost his way. Then he went farther and farther into the woods until he saw far off a house. . . .
The wanderer comes through the woods to the Pratum felicitatis, the Meadow of Felicity, and there his adventures begin. Here, too, our sym- bolism is maintained; by sleeping or the transition to revery we get into the dream and fairy tale realm, a land to which the fulfillment of our keenest wishes beckons us. The realm of fairy tales is indeed — and the psychoanalyst can confirm this statement — a Pratum felicitatis, in spite of all dangers and acci- dents which we have there to undergo.
[The dream play begins and the interpretation, easy till now, becomes more difficult. We shall hardly be able to proceed in strictly chronological order. The understanding of the several phases of the narrative does not follow the sequence of their events. Let us take it as it comes.
The wanderer becomes acquainted with the in- habitants of the Pratum felicitatis, who are discuss- ing learned topics, he becomes involved in the scien- tific dispute, and is subjected to a severe test in order to be admitted to the company. The admis- sion thus does not occur without trouble but rather
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a great obstacle is placed in the way of it. The wanderer tells us that his examiners hauled him over the coals, an allegorical metaphor, taken possi- bly from the ordeal by fire. In these difficulties the attaining of the end meets us in the first instance in a series of analogous events, where the wanderer sees himself hindered in his activities in a more or less painful, and often even a dangerous manner. After a phase marked by anxiety the adventure turns out uniformly well and some progress is made after the obstruction at the beginning. As a first inti- mation of the coming experiences we may take up the obstacles in the path in the first section of the parable, which are successfully removed, inasmuch as the wanderer soon after reaches the lovely region (Sec. 3).
The psychology of dreams has shown that ob- stacles in the dream correspond to conflicts of will on the part of the dreamer, which is exactly as in the morbid restraint of neurotics. Anxiety develops when a suppressed impulse wishes to gratify itself, to which impulse another will, something determined by our culture, is opposed prohibitively. Obstructed satisfaction creates anxiety instead of pleasure. Anxiety may then be called also a libido with a nega- tive sign. Only when the impulse in question knows how to break through without the painful conflict, can it attain pleasure — which is the psychic (not indeed the biologic) tendency of every impulse emanating from the depths of the soul. The de- grees of the pleasure that thus exists in the soul may
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be very different, even vanishingly small, a state of affairs occurring if the wish fulfilling experience has through overgrowth of symbolism lost almost all of its original form. If we follow the appearances of the obstruction motive in the parable, and find the regular happy ending already mentioned, then we can maintain it as a characteristic of the phantasy product in question, that not only in its parts but also in the movement of the entire action, it shows a tendency from anxiety towards untroubled fulfill- ment of wishes.
As for the examination episode, to which we have now advanced in our progressive study of the nar- rative, we can now take up a frequently occurring dream type; the Examination Dream. Almost every one who has to pass severe examinations, ex- periences even at subsequent times when the high school or university examinations are far in the past, distressing dreams filled with the anxiety that pre- cedes an examination. Freud (Trdtg., p. 196 ff.) clearly says that this kind of dream is especially the indelible memories of the punishments which we have suffered in childhood for misdeeds and which make themselves felt again in our innermost souls at the critical periods of our studies, at the Dies irae, dies ilia of the severe examinations. After we have ceased to be pupils it is no longer as at first the parents and governesses or later the teach- ers that take care of our punishment. The inexor- able causal nexus of life has taken over our further education, and now we dream of the preliminaries
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or finals; whenever we expect that the result will chastise us, because we have not done our duty, or done something incorrectly, or whenever we feel the pressure of responsibility. Stekel's experience is also to be noticed, confirmed by the practice of other psychoanalysts, that graduation dreams fre- quently occur if a test of sexual power is at hand. The double sense of the word matura (= ripe) (that may also mean sexual maturity) may also come to mind as the verbal connecting link for the association. In general the examination dreams may be the expression of an anxiety about not doing well or not being able to do well; in particular they are an expression of a fear of impotence. It should be noted here that not only in the former but in the latter case the fear has predominantly the force of a psychic obstruction.
For the interpretation of the examination scene also, we note the fairy tale motif so frequently ap- pearing of a hard-won prize, i.e., any story in which a king or a potentate proposes a riddle or a task for the hero. If the hero solves or accomplishes it, he generally wins, besides other precious possessions, a woman or a princess, whom he marries. In the case of a heroine the prize is a beautiful prince. The motif of the hard-won prize matches the later appearance of obstacles in the Parable. The na- ture of the prize is, for the present at any rate, a matter of indifference.
A second edition of the examination scene meets us in the 6th section as the battle with the lion.
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The advance from the anxiety phase to the fulfill- ment phase appears clearly and the emotions of the wanderer are more strongly worked out. The diffi- culty at the beginning is indicated in the preceding conversation where no one will advise him how he is to begin with the beast, but all hold out guidance for a later time when he shall have once bound the lion. The beginning of the fight causes the wan- derer much trouble. He " is amazed at his own temerity," would gladly turn back from his project, and he can hardly restrain his tears for fear." He fortifies himself, however, develops brilliant abili- ties and comes off victor in the fray. A gratifica- tion derived from his own ability is unmistakable. The scene, as well as a variation of the preceding examination, adds to it some essentially new details. The displacement of the early opponents (i.e., the examining elders) by another (the lion) is not really new. It is a mere compensation, although, as we shall see later, a very instructive one. Entirely new is the result of the battle. After killing the lion the victor brings to light white bones and red blood from his body. Note the antithesis, white and red. It will occur again. If we think of saga and fairy lore parallels, the dragon fight naturally comes to mind. The victorious hero has to free a maiden who languishes in the possession of an ogre. The anatomizing of the dead lion finds numerous analo- gies in those myths and fairy tales in which dismem- berment of the body appears. It will be dealt with fully later on.
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As the next obstacle in the parable we meet the difficult advance on the wall. (Para. 7 and 8.) We have here again an obstruction to progress in the narrower sense as in Sec. I, but with several ad- ditions. The wall, itself a type of embarrassment, reaches up to the clouds. Whoever goes up so high may fall far. The way on top is " not a foot in width " and an iron hand rail occupies some of that space. The walking is therefore uncomfortable and dangerous. The railing running in the middle of it divides the path and so produces two paths, a right and a left. The right path is the more difficult. Who would not in this situation think of Hercules at the cross roads? The conception of right and left as right and wrong, good and bad, is familiar in mythical and religious symbolism. That the right path is the narrower [Matth. VII, 13, 14] or more full of thorns is naturally comprehensible. In dreams the right-left symbolism is typical. It has here a meaning similar to its use in religion, probably however, with the difference that it is used principally with reference to sexual excitements of such a character that the right signifies a permitted (i.e., experienced by the dreamer as permissible), the left, an illicit sexual pleasure. Accordingly it is, e.g., characteristic in the dream about strawberry picking in the preceding part of the book, that the valley, sought by the dreamer and the boy, " in order to pick strawberries there " turns off to the left from the road, not to the right. The sexual act with a boy appears even in dreams as something illicit, in-
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decent, forbidden. In the parable the wanderer goes from right to left, gets into difficulties by doing so, but knows, as always, how to withdraw success- fully.
From the wall the wanderer comes to a rose tree, from which he breaks off white and red roses. No- tice the white and red. The victory over the lion has yielded him white bones and red blood, the pass- ing through the dangers on the wall now yields him white and red roses. The similarity in the latter case is particularly marked by his putting them in his hat.
Again in the course of the next sections (9-11) there are obstacles. There a wall is set up against the wanderer. On account of that he has, in order to gain entrance for the maidens into the 'company in the garden, to go a long way round. Arriving at the door, he finds it locked and is afraid that the people standing about will prevent his entrance or laugh at him. But the first difficulty is barely re- moved, by the magic opening of the first gate, when the now familiar change from the anxiety phase to the fulfillment phase occurs. The wanderer trav- erses the corridor without trouble but his eyes glance ahead of him and he sees through the still closed door, as if it were glass, into the garden. What result has this success over the difficulties yielded him? Where is the usual white and red re- ward? We do not have to look long. In Sec. n it is recorded, " When I had passed beyond the little garden [in the center of the larger garden] and was
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going to the place where I was to help the maidens, behold, I was aware that instead of the wall, a low hurdle stood there, and there went by the rose gar- den, the most beautiful maiden arrayed in white satin with the most stately youth who was in scarlet, each giving arm to the other, and carrying in their hands many fragrant roses. ' This, my dearest bride- groom,' said she, * has helped me over and we are now going out of this lovely garden into our cham- ber to enjoy the pleasures of love.' ' Here the parallel with the fairy tale is complete, and reveals the characteristic of the prize that rewards him. The red and the white reveal themselves as man and woman, and the last aim is, as the just quoted pas- sage clearly shows, and the further course of the narrative fully indicates, the sexual union of both. Even the rest of the fairy tale prizes are not lacking — kingdoms, riches, happiness. And if they are not dead they are still living. . . . The narrative has yielded a complete fulfillment of wishes; the longing for love and power has attained its end. That the wanderer does not experience the acquired happiness immediately in his own person, but that the repre- sentation of happy love is in the most illustrative manner developed in the union of two other persons, is naturally a peculiarity of the narration. It is found often enough in dreams. The ego of the dreamer is in such a case replaced by a " split-off " person, through whom the dream evokes its dra- matic pageantry. It is as if the parable tried to say the hero has won his happy love through strug-
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gle; two are, however, needful for love, a man and a woman, so let us quickly create a pair. Apart from the fact that the reward must evidently fall to the hero who has won it, the identity of the wan- derer with the king in the parable is abundantly demonstrated, even if somewhat paraphrased. The secret of the dramatizing craft of the narrative is most clearly exposed in the conclusion of Sec. n, where the elders, with the letter of the faculty in their hands, reveal to the wanderer that he must marry the woman he has taken, which he further- more cheerfully promises them to do.
So far all would be regular and we might think, on superficial examination, that the psychoanalytic solution of the parable was ended. How far from being the case! We have interpreted only the upper stratum and will see a problem show itself that invites us to press on into the deeper layers of the phantasy fabric before us.
We have noticed that in the parable much, even the most important, is communicated only by sym- bols and by means of allusions. Its previously ascer- tained latent content [corresponding to the latent dream thoughts] will in the manifest form be tran- scribed in different and gradually diminishing dis- guises. Also a displacement (dream displacement) has taken place. Now the dream or the imagina- tion working in dreams does nothing without pur- pose and even though according to its nature (out of " regard for presentability ") it has to favor the visual in all cases, the tendency toward the pictorial
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does not explain such a systematic series of disguises and such a determinate tendency as that just ob- served by us. The representation of the union of man and woman is strikingly paraphrased. First as blood and bones — a type of intimate vital con- nection; they belong to one body, just as two levers are one and as later the bridal pair also melt into one body. Then as two kinds of roses that bloom on one bush. The wanderer breaks the rose as the boy does the wild rose maiden. And hardly is the veil of the previous disguise lifted, hardly have we learned that the wanderer has taken a woman '(Sec. n), when the affair is again hushed just as it is about to be dramatized (cf. Sec. 12), so that apparently another enjoys the pleasures of love. This consequent concealment must have a reason. Let us not forget the striking obstacles which the wanderer experiences again and again and which we have not yet thoroughly examined. The sym- bolism of the dream tells us that such obstacles cor- respond to conflicts of the will. What kind of inner resistance may it be that checks the wanderer at every step on his way to happy love? We suspect that the examinations have an ethical flavor. This appears to some extent in the right-left symbolism; then in the experience at the mill, which we have not yet studied, where the wanderer has to pass over a very narrow plank, the ethical symbolism of which will be discussed later; and in the striking feeling of responsibility which the wanderer has for the actions of the bridal pair in the crystal prison, which
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gives us the impression that he had a bad conscience. Altogether we cannot doubt that the dream — the parable •• — has endeavored, because of the censor, to disguise the sexual experiences of the wanderer. We can be quite certain that it will be said that the sexual as such will be forbidden by the censor. That is, however, not the case. The account is outspoken enough, and not the least prudish; the bridal pair embrace each other naked, penetrate each other and dissolve in love, melt in rapture and pain. Who could ask more? Therefore the sexual act itself could not have been offensive to the censor. The whole machinery of scrupulousness, concealment and deterrent objects, which stand like dreadful watchmen before the doors of forbidden rooms, can- not on the other hand be causeless. So the question arises : What is it that the dream censor in the most varied forms [lion, dangerous paths, etc.] has so sternly vetoed?
In the strawberry dream related in the preceding section, we have seen that a paraphrase of the latent dream content appears at the moment when a form of sexual intercourse, forbidden to the dreamer by the dream censor, was to be consummated. (Homosexual intercourse.) Most probably in the parable also there is some form of sexuality rejected by the censor. What may it be? Nothing indi- cates a homosexual desire. We shall have to look for another erotic tendency that departs from the normal. From several indications we might settle upon exhibitionism. This is, as are almost all abnor-
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mal erotic tendencies, also an element of our normal psychosexual constitution, but it is, if occurring too prominently, a perversity against which the censor directs his attacks. The incidents of the parable that indicate exhibitionism are those where the wan- derer sees, through locked doors (Sec. 10) or walls (Sec. n), objects that can be interpreted as sexual symbols. The miraculous sight corresponds to a transferred wish fulfillment. The supposition that exhibitionism is the forbidden erotic impulse ele- ment that we were looking for is, however, ground- less, if we recollect that these very elements appear most openly in the parable. In Sec. 14 the wan- derer has the freest opportunity to do as he likes. Still the question arises, what is the prohibited tend- ency? No very great constructive ability is required to deduce the answer. The wording of the parable itself furnishes the information. In Sec. 14 we read, " Now I do not know what sin these two have committed except that although they were brother and sister they were so united in love that they could not again be separated and so, as it were, required to be punished for incest." And in another passage (Sec. 13), "After our bridegroom . . . with his dearest bride . . . came to the age of marriage, they both copulated at once and I wondered not a little that this maiden, that yet was supposed to be the bridegroom's mother, was still so young."
The sexual propensity forbidden by the censor is incest. That it can be mentioned in the parable in spite of the censor is accounted for by the exceed-
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ingly clever and unsuspected bringing about of the suggestion. Dreams are very adroit in this respect, and the same cleverness (apparently unconscious on the part of the author) is found in the parable, which is in every way analogous to the dream. In- cest can be explicitly mentioned, because it is attrib- uted to persons that have apparently nothing to do with the wanderer. That the king in the crystal prison is none other than the wanderer himself, we indeed know, thanks to our critical analysis. The dreamer of the dream does not know it. For him the king is a different person, who is alone responsi- ble for his actions; although in spite of the clear dis- guise, some feeling of responsibility still overshad- ows the wanderer, a peculiar feeling that has struck us before, and now is explained.
Later we shall see that from the beginning of the parable, incest symbols are in evidence. Darkly hinted at first they are later somewhat more trans- parent, and in the very moment when they remove the last veil and attain a significance intolerable for the censor, exactly at that psychologic moment the forbidden action is transferred to the other, appar- ently strange, person.
A similar process, of course, is the change of situ- ation in the strawberry dream at the exact moment when the affair begins to seem unpleasant to the dreamer. This becoming unpleasant can be beauti- fully followed out in the parable. The critical transition is found exactly in one of those places where the representation appears most confused.
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It is in this way that the weakest points of the dream surface are usually constituted. Those are the places where the outer covering is threadbare and exposes a nakedness to the view of the analyzer.
The critical phase of the parable begins in the nth section. The elders consult over a letter from the faculty. The wanderer notices that the contents concern him and asks, " Gentlemen, does it have to do with me?" They answer, "Yes, you must marry your woman that you have recently taken." Wanderer: "That is no trouble; for I was, so to speak, born [how subtle!] with her and brought up from childhood with her." Now the secret of the incest is almost divulged. But it is at once ef- fectually retracted. In Sec. 12 we read, "So my previous trouble and toil fell upon me and I be- thought myself that from strange causes [these strange causes are the dream censor who, ruling in the unconscious, effects the displacements that fol- low], it cannot concern me but another that is well known to me [in truth a well-known other]. Then I see our bridegroom with his bride in the previous attire going to that place ready and prepared for copulation and I was highly delighted with it. For I was in great anxiety lest the affair should concern me." The anxiety is quite comprehensible. It is just on account of its appearance that the displace- ment from the wanderer to the other person takes place. Further in Sec. 13 : " Now after . . . our bridegroom . . . with his dearest bride . . . came to the age of marriage [The aim with which the
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censor performs his duties and effects the dream displacement is, says Freud (Trdtg., p. 193), "to prevent the development of anxiety or other form of painful affect.] they both copulated . . . and I won- dered not a little that this maiden, that was supposed to be actually the mother of the bridegroom, was still so young. . . ." Now when the transfer has taken place, the thought of its being the mother is hazarded; whereas formerly a mere suggestion of a sister had been offered. Section 14 explicitly men- tions incest and even arranges the punishment of the guilt. In this form the matter can, of course, be contemplated without troubling the conscience or being further represented pictorially.
The sister, alternating in the narrative with the mother, is only a preliminary to the latter. As we find that the CEdipus complex [Rather an attenu- ation, which occurs frequently, not merely in dream psychology, but also in modern mythology.] is re- vived in the parable, let us bring the latter into still closer relation with the fairy tales and myths to which we have compared it. The woman sought and battled for by the hero appears, in its deeper psychological meaning, always to be the mother. The significance of the incest motive has been discov- ered on the one hand by the psychoanalysts (in par- ticular Rank, who has worked over extensive mate- rial), on the other by the investigators of myths. That many modern mythologists lay most stress in this discovery upon the astral or meteorological con- tent and do not draw the psychological conclusions
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is another matter that will be discussed later. But in passing it may be noted that the correspondence in the discovered material (motives) is the more remarkable as it resulted from working in the direc- tion of quite different purposes.
It is now time to examine the details of the para- ble in conformity with the main theme just stated and come to a definite interpretation. Hencefor- ward we may keep to a chronological order.
The threshold symbolism in the beginning of the parable has already been given, also the obstacles that are indicative of a psychic conflict. We might rest satisfied with that, yet a more complete inter- pretation is quite possible, in which particular images are shown to be overdetermined. The way is narrow, overgrown with bushes, and leads to the Pratum felicitatis. That, according to a typical dream symbolism, is also a part of the female body. The obstacles in the way we recognize as a recoil from or impediment to incest; so it is evident that a definite female body, namely that of the mother, is meant. The penetration leads to the Pratum felicitatis, to blissful enjoyment. In fairy lore the sojourn in the forest generally signifies death or the life in the underworld. Wilhelm Muller, for ex- ample, writes, " As symbols of similar significance we have the transformation into swans or other birds, into flowers, the exposure in the forest, the life in the glass mountain, in a castle, in the woods. . . . All imply death and life in the underworld." The underworld is, when regarded mythologically,
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not only the land where the dead go, but also whence the living have come ; thence for the individual, and in particular for our wanderer, the uterus of the mother. It is significant that the wanderer, as he strolls along, ponders over the fall of our first par- ents and laments it. The fall of the parents was a sexual sin. That it was incest besides, will be con- sidered later. The son who sees in his father his rival for his mother is sorry that the parents belong to each other. A sexual offense (incest) caused the loss of paradise. The wanderer enters the para- dise, the Pratum felicitatis. [Garden of Joy, Gar- den of Peace, Mountain of Joy, etc., are names of paradise. Now it is particularly noteworthy that the same words can signify the beloved. (Grimm,