As I go deeper into Carl Jung’s works, I notice that his writings need high concentration. You know, I read them in German, and he writes very voluntarily, maybe because he is swiss! Sometimes I have to compare his style with James Joyce’s; a long paragraph without any points! Nevertheless, I think it is worth it to read them because I can learn a lot about the human soul and here, through its dreams. I have picked up one of the dreams he wrote in his book: dream and dream interpretation (Traum und Traumdeutung) and his analysis related to the concept of Mandalas.

I tried translating it as clearly as possible and put the footnotes in the main text where needed. I hope you enjoy reading. (there is also an excellent opportunity to refresh our Latine! 😉)

Dream 13 (Part 1)

There is a treasure in the sea. You have to dive through a narrow opening. It is dangerous, but one will find a companion below. The dreamer dares to plunge into the darkness and discovers a beautiful, regular garden with a fountain in the middle.

Hidden in the sea of the unconscious is the “hard-to-reach treasure,” which only the brave attain. I conjecture that the jewel is also the “companion”, someone who walks through life alongside and with us – probably the closest analogy to the lonely “I”, for which a “you” is placed in the self; because “self” is initially alien non-ego. This is the motif of the magical companion. I give three famous examples: the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Bhagavadgita (Bhagavad-gītā) {Krishna and Arjuna} and Sura 18 of the Qur’an (Moses and Chidher.) [Cf. my writing: About rebirth, GW 9/I, §§135 ff.]

I further conjecture that the treasure in the sea, the companion, and the garden with the fountain are one and the same thing: the self. The garden is, in turn, the temenos (sanctuary), and the fountain is the source of “living water” that we know from John 7,38, and which Moses of the Koran also sought and found, and with and by this Chidher, an “Our servant whom We had endowed with Our grace and wisdom” (Sura 18). And as the legend goes, the desert floor around Chidher was also blooming with spring flowers. Based on early Christian architecture, the image of the temenos with the spring developed into a mosque courtyard and a ritual wash house in the middle of Islam (e.g. Achmed Ibn Tulun in Cairo). We see something similar in the occidental cloister with the fountain in the garden. This is also the “rose garden of the philosophers”, which we know from the potions of alchemy and was later often depicted in beautiful engravings. “The Dweller in the House” is the “companion”. The centre and the circle, shown here as a fountain and a garden, are analogies of Lapis, which is also, among other things, an animated being (Figs. 20,21).

Hermes lets him speak (in the “Rosarium” ): “Protege me, protegam te. Largire mihi ius meum, ut te adiuvem” (Artis auriferae, 1593, vol. 2, p. 239: “Protect me, and I will protect you. Give me what is due me so that I can help you.” This quote from the “Tractatus” aureus reads according to the edition of 1566 (Ars chemica); Largiri vis mihi meum ut adiuvem te. [You want to give me what is mine so that I can help you.]

The lapis is here so much like a good friend and helper who helps you when you help it, which indicates a compensatory relationship. (I recall what was said in the commentary on Dream 10, especially the parallel Monogenes-Lapis-Self.)

The fall to earth leads to the depths of the sea, to the depths of the unconscious, and in this way, the dreamer achieves the protection of the temenos against the split personality in the regression to the infantile. Therefore, the situation is somewhat similar to dreams 4 and 5, where the barrier had to protect against the attraction of the multiplicity of the unconscious. (In much the same way, the dangers of temptation approach Poliphile at the beginning of his Nekyia {Necromancy}.)

Like Chidher, the spring of life is a good companion, but not without doubts, of which, according to the Koran, the old Moses had to taste some embarrassing samples – after all, this spring is the symbol of the constantly renewing life force (Fig. 42; also 20-22, 71), the clock that never runs out. A non-canonical saying of the Lord says: “He who is near me is near the fire.” {A quote from Aristotle in the “Rosarium” (ibid., p. 317) says: “Elige Tibi pro lapide, per quem reges venerantur in Diadematibus suis… quia ille est propinquus igni “[Choose for your stone that by which kings are worshipped in their crowns… for this (stone) is near to the fire.]}

Just as this esoteric Christ is a source of fire (Fig. 43), probably not without reference to the “eternally living fire” (pyr aei zoon) of Heraclitus, so is the “aqua nostra” “ignis” (fire ).86 {See the Komarios text, in which Cleopatra explains the importance of water.} The source is not only the flow of life but also its warmth, yes, its heat, the secret of passion, which always has fire synonyms. < Rosarium (Artis auriferae, 1593, Vol. 2, S. 378): “Lapis nostre hic est ignis ex igne creates et in ignem vertitur, et anima eius in igne morayur.“> {This stone of ours is the fire created from fire and becomes fire, and its soul dwells in the fire.} The template should be; Item lapis Noster, hoc est ignis ampulla, ex inge creatus est, et in eum vertitur {Likewise, our stone, the fire bottle, is made of and returns to fire.} (Allegoria Sapientum, in Bibliotheca chemica, 1702, vol. 1, p. 468a.)

< The “aqua nostra”, which dissolves everything, is an indispensable ingredient in the production of lapis. But the source comes from below, so the path leads down through. Only below is the fiery source of life to be found. This “below” is man’s natural history; its causal connection cannot become a lapis or a self.

I stop here to take a breath (for all of us!) and will continue in the next chapter (including the missing figures). Thanks and have a great weekend.

Carl Jung

Mandalasymbole; (Traumsymble des Individualationsprozess) Cf. my writing: About rebirth, GW 9/I, §§135 ff.