Dream symbols of the individuation process; A contribution to the knowledge of the processes of the unconscious manifested in dreams. (1944) GW 7 – GW 13

facilis descensus Averni;
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis-:
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est. (It’s easy and effortless to climb down in hell’s depths,
Because the dark gate of the grave stands open day and night;
But the return upwards, to heaven’s bright air
Leads on a path of suffering.)
Virgil: Aeneid, Book VI, 126-129

I begin with the last words from the previous chapter.

Only below is the fiery source of life to be found. (Fig. 10) This “below” is man’s natural history; its causal connection cannot become a lapis or a self.

I had to note that Dr Jung does not intend to narrate all the dreams (His material consists of over a thousand dreams) but takes examples and the corresponding symbols to explain his thesis on mandalas symbols. As he wrote: The symbols I am dealing with here do not concern the manifold stages and changes of the individuation process but rather those images which refer exclusively and directly to the realization of the new centre. These images belong in a specific category that I call mandala symbolism.

Now let’s read about this dream and its symbol. “Seventh”.

The father calls out, worried: That’s the seventh!

In the migration of many ladders, an event referred to as “the seventh” appears to have occurred (Fig. 13). The seven corresponds to the highest level and would therefore be what is longed for and desired in terms of initiation (Fig. 14). In the sense of the traditional spirit test, however, the “solificatio” is an adventurous, mystical idea that borders on madness, because such nonsense was only thought of earlier, in the dark ages of hazy superstition, whilst the clear, purified world of spirits of our enlightened times is such nebulous things has long since overcome, to the extent that only the mental hospital houses Illuminati of this kind. No wonder the father is anxious, like the hen that hatched duck eggs and is now more distressed by the aquatic tendencies of his offspring. If this interpretation that “the seventh” means the highest level of enlightenment is correct, then the process of integrating the personal unconscious should actually be connected with it in principle. After that, the opening of the collective unconscious would begin, which would sufficiently explain the father’s concern as the representative of the traditional spirit.

After all, the return to the dawn of the unconscious does not mean that one has to completely abandon the precious achievement of the fathers, namely the intellectual differentiation of consciousness. The point is that the human being takes the place of the intellect, not the one that the dreamer imagines, but a more rounded or complete one. This means, however, that all sorts of things have to be included in the scope of the personality, which he still finds embarrassing or even impossible. The father shouting so anxiously, “This is the seventh!” is a psychic component of the dreamer, and its concern is his own. As a result, the interpretation must consider that the “seventh” can mean not only a summit but also something unfavourable. We encounter this motif, for example, in the fairy tale of Tom Thumb and the Cannibal. The “seven” have been the seven planetary gods since ancient times (Fig. 13); they form what the pyramid texts refer to as “paut neteru”, a company of gods (Figs. 15, 16), [Budge “der Gott von Egypt, 1904, Vol. 1 p. 87] referred to as {company of the gods]. Although a company is called the “newcomers”, it often turns out that there are not nine but ten and occasionally more. Therefore, Maspero {Etudes de Mythologie, 1893-1913, vol. 2, p. 245} says that the first and the last of the series, in particular, can be developed or doubled without doing the nine number entry.

(“Neteru means Gods/Goddesses, but to the ancient scientist of Kemet, the teachings of the Netru represented more than the modern concept of Divinities or Spirits. They also represented Cosmic Principles or Laws of the Universe.“)

Something similar also happened to the classic “paut” of the Greco-Roman or Babylonian gods in the post-classical period, when the gods had withdrawn partly to the distant stars and partly to the metals of the earth’s interior, degraded to demons. It turned out that Hermes Mercurius, as a chthonic god of revelation and as a spirit of Mercury, possessed a dual nature, for which he was regarded as hermaphrodite (Fig. 17). As Mercury is closest to the sun and therefore most closely related to gold. Mercury, however, dissolves the gold and thus extinguishes its sun-like brilliance.

Throughout the Middle Ages, he was, therefore, the enigmatic object of natural-philosophical speculation: soon, he was a servile, generous spirit, a “paredros” (literally: assessor, comrade) or “familiaris”; soon, he was the “Servus” or “Cervus Fugitivus” (the fugitive slave or stag) a sprite driving the alchemist to despair, evasive, deceptive and teasing (cf. the amusing dialogue between the alchemist and Mercury in the Dialogus [Theatrum chemicum, 1613, vol. 4, p. 509 ff.]) whose manifold attributes the devil has in common with him: for example dragon, lion, eagle, raven – to name only the most important ones. In the alchemical series of gods, he is the lowest as “prima materia” and the highest as “lapis philosophorum”. The “Spiritus Mercurialis” (Fig. 16) is the guide (Hermes Psycho pompous) and the seducer of the alchemist; he is his fortune and his undoing. His dual nature enables him to be not only the seventh but also the eighth, namely that eighth in Olympus, “of which no one thought” (Faust; 2nd part).

It may seem odd to the reader that we are bringing in such a remote area as medieval alchemy. However, “black art” is not as far away as we think; as an educated man, the dreamer must have read Faust. But this one is an alchemical drama from start to finish, even if today’s educated person only dimly suspects it. Even though our conscious mind is far from understanding everything, the unconscious remembers the “ancient” oddities to recall when the opportunity arises. Our dreamer felt the same about Faust as this did to young Goethe in Leipzig when he studied Theophrastus Paracelsus with Fraulein von Klettenberg. (Goethe: Poetry and Truth)

There the mysterious quid pro quo of seven and eight was impressed on him without his conscious being able to decipher it – as we may reasonably assume. The following dream will show that the memory of Faust is not far-fetched.

I appreciate your interest. I will try to post more dreams with Dr Jung’s analysis. 🙏💖