Today (I wrote this yesterday!), August 25, is the day that in the year 1900, Friedrich Nietzsche’s suffering body gave freedom to his magnificent soul.
Since there are a few different assumptions about his death, I believe this by Rudolf Steiner would be a detailed portrayal of the deranged Nietzsche. After several strokes, also consistent with a diagnosis of nervous syphilis, Nietzsche was partially paralysed and unable to stand or speak. On August 25, 1900, at the age of 55, he died of pneumonia and another stroke in Weimar. He was buried at the Röcken village church in the family grave. (He only lived 55 of age! Like the other geniuses, his genius didn’t stand as long in his body.)

Nietzsche says, “It is not a lack of love but friendship that makes unhappy marriages”, and it is a remarkable thought. I clearly understand Nietzsche’s challenge to romanticise versions of love and friendship. According to him, erotic love is often driven by selfish desires of possession. At the same time, friendship is the enduring bond that truly withstands the test of time, claiming that love “may be the most ingenuous expression of egoism.” He proposes that love is close to greed and the lust for possession, and if we look more closely at love in history, most of the time, this is the case. Because love often burns too fast to the ashes, but a true friendship remains strong forever. Although, as I wrote once about my opinion on true love, I contended that genuine love and companionship are interconnected. However, I resonate with his perspective on love and find his disillusionment quite comprehensible.

As I perhaps mentioned once, he wasn’t evil, egotistical, or selfish. Instead, he was whole-hearted, gentle, and loving. He had a distaste for German arrogance and damp weather and gravitated towards the warmth of soul found in Italian and Greek cultures and landscapes. False judgments are often made about him, likely due to his books, which exude a sense of self-importance. For instance, in his work ECCE HOMO, he discusses why he writes good books or why he is destined for fate, etc.
He writes in ECCE HOMO:

The good ones – They can’t do it, they are always the beginning of the end…
They crucify the one who writes new values on new slates, they sacrifice the future, and they crucify all human futures!
The good ones – They were always the beginning of the end…
And whatever harm the world-slanderers might do, the harm of the good ones is the most damaging harm.

This explanation of his final days was published in the local newspaper:

“His way of life follows the doctor’s prescription, which regulates his diet and service. For the rest, he sits quietly, lost in himself; he only utters incomprehensible sounds when the noise of the street or children reaches his ears, but he calms down again when someone reads to him, although without understanding what it’s being read. His appearance is by no means unhealthy; only it is somewhat difficult to dress and undress him because of a certain clumsiness of the limbs which has been noticeable lately.” Jenaer Volksblatt vom 28. Juli 1897, S. 1.

Carl Jung said: The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me. That is a supra-personal task, which I accompany only by effort and with difficulty. Perhaps it is a question which preoccupied my ancestors and which they could not answer? Could that be why I am so impressed by the problem on which Nietzsche foundered: the Dionysian side of life, to which the Christian seems to have lost the way? (Jung, 1965 [1961], p. 350)

He was and remains an unconventional genius!

Here, I am sharing two short videos. The first is a silent footage of his last moments, during which his sister cared for him. The second one explains his illness in his final years and his passing. Thank you for being here. 🙏💖

The image at the top: Friedrich Nietzsche Poster by SH Visuals

The fragments might only be important once they belong to a higher family of undeniable fascination in an old, unique historical land: Egypt. The excavation is part of our ongoing search for historical artefacts that satisfy our curiosity about the past or quench our thirst.

And here is Marie Grillot‘s fascinating reportage on the exciting discovery made by the famous explorer Howard Carter, thanks to Marc Chartier.

Archeology Photograph – Akhenaten, New Kingdom Egyptian Pharaoh by Science Source /

Bas-relief portraying Amenhotep IV (Pharaoh Akhenaten, circa 1360-1342) and Nefertiti.

DEA Picture Library / Getty Images

A Fragment of Akhenaten’s Face; Discovered at Amarna by Howard Carter.

via: égyptophile

At the end of 1891, William Matthew Flinders Petrie finally obtained from the Antiquities Service, directed by Eugène Grébaut, the concession to excavate the remains of the ancient Akhetaton. “Tell el Amarna is one of the most valuable sites in the history of Egyptian civilization. Perhaps it had a shorter existence than any other city in the country. According to what remains, it seems to have been occupied for only one generation,” specifies the British Egyptologist in the introduction of his volume “Tell el Amarna 1894”.

He began the mission on November 17, 1891, with some workers he had employed at Illahoun. Then, he relates: “At the beginning of January, I had the pleasure of being joined by Mr Howard Carter, who undertook to search certain parts of the city on behalf of Lord Amherst of Hackney”. Howard Carter was then only 17 years old. On Lady Amherst’s recommendation, Percy Newberry hired him as a draftsman copyist for the Egypt Exploration Foundation. Arrived in Egypt in October 1891, he first worked in the tombs of Beni Hassan, then in the temple of Montouhotep in Deir el-Bahari, and this is his third “construction site”.

He will be assigned the sector of the great temple and will make some great discoveries there… Among them, this limestone fragment represents a small part of a face: the nose and the lips. According to the Metropolitan, it was unearthed either “in the dumps south of the sanctuary of the Great Temple of Aten or in the sanctuary itself”.

The analysis of W.M.F. Petrie and the wording under illustration No. 15 of the work quoted above was initially attributed to the great royal wife: “Queen Nefertythi also had a very marked personality. Her portraits are as recognizable as those of ‘Akhenaton. Of the many fine stone statues in the temple, a fragment of a nose and lips preserves a brilliant portrait for us (I, 15). The liveliness and force of the work are unequalled at any other period in Egypt; it lacks the naive naturalness of early productions, but its conventions are all put to best use; the slight exaggeration of the edges of the lips gives a clarity and sharpness of shadow, which is most pleasing”.

However, many years later, a better knowledge of the Amarna sculpture combined with the study of statues of Akhenaten discovered later allowed us to attribute this portrait to him without any doubt. Even though this fragment is only 8.1 cm high and 6.3 cm wide, even in the absence of this disproportionate and prognathic chin, even if eyes had to be stretched and surmounted by a drooping eyelid it only remains the birth of the right eye, its characteristics, its morphology does not deceive. This long and straight nose, which is joined by two wrinkles starting from the nostrils to the lips at the same time, fleshy, thick, protruding and drooping, the particular design of this mouth signs the identity of the son of Amenhotep III and Tiyi. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York affirms it thus: “This fragment is attributed to Akhenaten. The inner corner of the eye is visible next to the nose. Although there is little to distinguish many representations of the king and queen, especially relatively early in the Amarna years, the particularly long line along the nose and lips and the curvy upper lip support this identification”.

The mission of W.M.F. Petrie will end at the end of March, and two months will be necessary to “pack” all the discoveries. These are 162 boxes that he will take to the Giza museum.

During the division of the finds, this fragment was attributed to the person who had financed the area of excavations where it had been found. The same will be valid for many other artefacts; thus, one will be able to read later that: “Lord Amherst of Hackney had the third private collection of Egyptian antiquities, constituted largely in payment for the excavations that this rich English patron subsidized, in particular at Tell el-Amarna”.

Thirty years later, during the “Amherst Sale”, which will take place from June 13 to 17, 1921, at Sotheby’s London, it will be offered at auction under the number 842. Acquired by Lord Carnarvon, he will lend it for the first art exhibition Egyptian organized in London the following year. In the “Catalogue of an Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club”, Percy Newberry will describe it under n° 40a “NOSE AND MOUTH, white calcareous limestone. From the Plate VI. head of a statue of Queen Nofretete “.

Six years after Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, his widow, Lady Almina, put her extensive collection of antiquities up for sale. Thanks to the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired it in 1926 for the sum of $145,000…

This is how this magnificent fragment, admirably representative of Amarna art, arrived at the New York Museum, registered under 26.7.1395.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

The nose and lips of Akhenaten https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544710?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=amarna&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=16

Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Sir 1894. Tell el Amarna (London, 1894). 1894. London, pl. 1 no. 15. https://archive.org/details/tellelamarna00petr

Newberry, Percy E. and H. R. Hall 1922. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, p. 63 B, pl. 11. https://archive.org/details/catalogueofexhib00burlrich

Catalogue of the Amherst collection of Egyptian and Oriental antiquities, which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (Sir Montague Barlow, K.B.E., L.L.D., M.P. G. D. Hobson, M.A., and Major F. W. Warre, O.B.E., M.C.), auctioneers of literary property & works illustrative of the fine arts, at their extensive galleries, 34 & 35 New Bond Street, W. (1), on Monday, the 13th, of June 1921, and four following days at one o’clock precisely Sotheby’s https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/50379/?offset=#page=2&viewer=picture&o=bookmarks&n=0&q=

Lythgoe, Albert M. 1927. “The Carnarvon Egyptian Collection.” In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 2 (February)

“The Reign of the Sun Akhnaton and Nefertiti”, Catalog of the exhibition organized by the Ministers of Culture at the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, January 17 – March 16, 1975, Dik van Bommel

Who Was Who in Egyptology, Bierbrier M., London, Egypt Exploration Society

Or Gone with the Wind!

It was a few weeks ago that we took this trip. However, I thought writing about this adventure could be a pleasant and lightened task. I wrote adventure because, for me, it was a real one. And it is all about the wind, which blows incessantly from the northwest towards the east with a bend to the south. Honestly, I can’t stand the wind! Of course, if the weather has a high degree, it will be nice to have a gentle breeze, but never when the temperature hangs at eighteen degrees and a stormy cold wind blows your ears; as a famous Persian poet says: And this is the wind that blows and the whole world is devastated by it!

Anyway, I agreed to accompany my wife and did my best to endure this very week. The first two days were not so bad as the sun was mostly shining, and she warmth our bodies, but until the last day, it got colder, the clouds were present primarily, and the wind took its speed to the highest, and it became worse as the wind was accompanied by heavy rain. However, enough complaining, we had quite a few delightful moments, as captured in these pictures.

There was also a WWII Marines Museum, which we visited:

Ultimately, during the whole week, I found solace with two things: First, I had the book by my brilliant writer and friend Mike Steeden, The Outrageous Miss April Fool, which accompanied me during the rainy days on the couch in the apartment, and this coffee cup with the writing: Grandpa’s coffee pot from which I drank my coffee every morning.

All in all, I can’t resist repeating the last words of Rhett Butler in Margaret Mitchell‘s Gone With The Wind; he said to Scarlett: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”!! Wishing all a lovely and glorious weekend.💖💖

I must honestly say that I was deeply concerned about whether I should share this post because I wasn’t sure if you feel bored with it, though I am convinced that it is worth enough, as I read it several times (in German!) to get the point. However, I am sure you will like it because here, Dr. Jung’s analysis of a dream using a unique blend of Geometry and Mathematics, among the wisdom of Alchemy and the Mandala symbol, is genuinely fascinating. We can never deny that Alchemy is one of the most intriguing methods in our history to unravel the puzzles of the unknown.

Although the ancient practice of alchemy focused on transforming metals into gold, it was also for finding a universal cure for the disease and discovering a means of prolonging life. It was popular in the ancient world, from China and India to Greece, and eventually made its way to Egypt. In the 12th century, it was revived in Europe by translating Arabic texts into Latin. Actually, the word “Alchemy” comes from chēmeia, which probably came from the phrase chyma (“fluid”), derived from the verb chein, meaning “to pour.” It then passed to Arabic, which added its definite article al- (“the”) to the Greek root. The word then passed from Latin to French before coming to English. Some other words derived from Arabic also retain the al- in English, such as algebra, algorithm, and alcohol; in fact, the transformative liquid constantly sought through experimentation by alchemists is another word with the Arabic al- prefix: elixir.
Medieval European alchemists made valuable discoveries in mineral acids and alcohol, which led to the development of pharmacology and modern chemistry. Although the gold-making processes of alchemists were ultimately discredited, it wasn’t until the 19th century.

The image above: William Blake’s “Newton.”
(It is a demonstration of his opposition to the ‘single-vision’ of scientific materialism; here, Isaac Newton is shown as a ‘divine geometer’) (1795)

Here, we will read an excellent description by Carl Jung, which also includes Latin text, in which I had to admit my ignorance and learn more of an old but extensive language!

The Mandala Symbolism (Dream 16) P. 1

The short version of the dream:

There are a lot of people there. Everyone walks counterclockwise around the square. The dreamer is not in the middle but on one side. It is said that one wants to reconstruct the gibbon.

Here, the square appears for the first time. He should emerge from the circle utilizing the four persons. (This will be confirmed later.) The problem of squaring the circle occupied the minds of the Middle Ages, as did Lapis, the ‘tinctura rubea’ (‘red dye’) and the ‘Aurum Philosophicum’ (Philosophical gold.). The squaring of the circle is a symbol of >opus alchymicum< (Fig. 44) in that it dissolves the initial, chaotic unity into the four elements and then reassembles them into a higher unity. Unity is represented by the compass and the four elements by the square. The production of one out of the four took place through a process of distillation or sublimation, which proceeded in a “circular” form; that is, the distillate was subjected to various distillations (cf.: Paracelsus as a spiritual phenomenon, CW13, §§185 ff). So that the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ was drawn out in its purest form. As a rule, the result is referred to as the quintessence, which is by no means the only name of whom that was always hoped for and never succeeded in being ‘one’. As the alchemists say, it has >a thousand names<, like the ‘materia prima’. Heinrich Khunrath says about the circular distillation in his >Confession<: Through circumrotation or circular philosophical circulation of the quaternarii… in turn, are brought to the highest and of all purest simplicity or naivety… Monadis Catholicae plusquamperfectae (More than perfect Catholic monads)… From the impure coarse one becomes a purest subtle one… ( Khunrath: From hylealic, that is… chaos, 1597, p. 204 f). Souls and spirit must be separated from the body, equivalent to death: >Therefore, Paulus Tarsensis also says: Cupio dissolvi, et esse cum Christo (I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ). Therefore, my dear philosopher, you must have here the spirit and soul Magnesiae (“Magnesia” of the alchemists has nothing to do with Magnesia (MgO). In Khunrath (ibid., p. 161) it is materia –caelestis atque divina-, i.e the –materia lapidis philosophorum-, the arcane or transformative substance.)

The spirit (respectively spirit and soul) is the ternarius (trinity), which is first separated from its body and, after its purification, infused into it again. (Khunrath: ibid, p. 203 f.) The body is obviously the fourth. Therefore, Khunrath refers to the pseudo-Aristotle quote (ibid. p. 207.), where the circle arises from the triangle in the square.

(A figurative depiction of this motif by Majer: Scrutinium chymicum, Emblema 21. Majer, however, understands Ternarius differently (cf. Fig. 45). He says (p. 63): >Similiter volunt Philosophi quadrangulum in triangulum ducendum esse, hoc est, corpus, spiritum & animam, que tria intrinis coloribus ante rubedinem praeviis apparent, utpote corpus seu terra in Saturni nigredine, spiritus in lunari albedine, tanquam aqua, anima sive aer insolari citrinitate. Tum triangulus perfectus erit, sed hic vicissim in circulum mutari debet, hoc est, rubedinem invariabilem.<: {>Even so, do the philosophers assert that the square must become the triangle, that is, body, mind, and soul, which appear in three colours prior to redness, viz., the body or earth in Saturnian blackness, the mind in moonlike white, as Water, skin or air yellow like the sun. Then, the triangle will be completed, but it must, in turn, be turned into a circle, that is, into unchanging redness. <} The fourth here is fire, an everlasting one.)

Along with the Ouroboros, the dragon eating itself from the tail, this circular structure represents the basic alchemical mandala.

Let us pause to regain our composure! I will resume soon.😉🤗💖🙏

Quote: You don’t have to fear to be afraid! Quote end.

It’s my first time sitting in front of my PC monitor, and I have no idea what to write or share. However, I stumbled upon this poem by Nietzsche and was amazed at how much I could relate to it. You know, when someone like me is constantly bombarded with everything happening in the world, whether it’s social or political, and sees nothing but betrayal and lies from all sides (and I really mean all sides: left or right!), there’s only one option: to retreat within oneself and hide from the world. And I do it certainly; immerse myself inside and let me drift in the world of dreams.

Here is the poem I meant; Nietzsche’s poem can’t be something else…

“I hate to follow; I also hate to lead.

Should I obey?

No!

And to rule?

Not even this!

He who does not fear himself does not cause fear.

And only what causes fear can lead others.

I hate even guiding myself!

I like it, like the animals of the forest and the sea,

to get lost for a while

I’m sitting cross-legged in a wasteland

and to reflect

to bring me back again from afar,

luring myself back to me again.”

The painting at the top: Lohmuller Gyuri – Lamentation

Source: The Clown

We can all agree that the Egyptian Stele is a fascinating piece of art, with its enigmatic riddles and tales. Here, we read a precise description of this beautiful art, with thanks to Marie Grilott and Marc Chartier. 💖🙏

The image at the top; via School_Egyptian_-(MeisterDrucke-1029804)

A lovely little stele presented by Mariette at the Universal Exhibition of 1867 in Paris

via égyptophile & Égypte-actualités

Inaugurated on April 1, 1867, the Universal Exhibition in Paris closed its doors on October 31 after welcoming more than 11 million visitors!

It was sometimes up to three hours of waiting before being able to enter the Egyptian pavilion created by Auguste Mariette. A temple had been reconstructed, and he had brought from the Boulaq museum: “samples of Egyptian art at its main periods”.

This is how emblematic pieces made the trip to the French capital, such as the statues of Sheikh el-Beled, Ranefer, Queen “Ameneritis”.… or the jewels of Queen Ah-hotep, not to mention mummies to unwrap.

More “confidential” pieces were present in number, testimonies of the diversity of pharaonic art and this magnificent little wooden stele which charms at first sight.

27.6 cm high, wide. 23 cm and 2.7 cm thick, dated to the XXII Dynasty (approx. 900 BC), it is dedicated to Lady Djedamonioufankh.

If the circumstances of its discovery remain determined, the origin generally indicated is Deir el-Bahari, but also, more rarely, “Thebes” or “Gournah”. Two references are attributed to it, RT 25.12.24.20 and 3365.

It is curved in shape because, as Auguste Mariette points out: “Until the XIth dynasty, the stelae are quadrangular… But from the XIth dynasty, the stele takes the form that is only abandoned on rare occasions. It is rounded from above as if intended to recall the curvature of the sky or the sarcophagi lids.”

The great Egyptologist presents it as follows in the “Catalogue of the 1867 Exhibition”: “Pretty painted stele. A light stucco applied to the wood has been painted in swathes of colours, which gives the painting the dazzling appearance of gouache. “

If it is true that the chromatic palette, particularly rich and harmonious, seduces us, the registers that are declined there, totally different, attract us. They prove that the artist knew – or wanted – to bring the world of the beyond and the terrestrial world closer together.

Mariette sheds this “general” light on the symbolic design of the steles: “The top of the stele is supposed to be lost in the sky. As we descend downwards, we approach the earth. In other words, the stele is divided into three zones.

The upper part of the hanger is thus deciphered by Jean-Pierre Corteggiani (“Egypt of the Pharaohs in the Cairo Museum”): “A curved sky supported by two wa-sceptres resting on the earth; a winged solar disk surmounts the five short columns of a funerary formula intended to provide offerings and provisions to the lady.”

And, as if to create symmetry, two jackals, as if lying on the hieroglyphic inscription, surround an orange vase placed in the very centre, just under the sun.

The central part, which occupies most of the stele, is “devoted” to two characters, standing on either side of a table of offerings, all standing out against a subtle blue background.

In the “Official Catalog of the Cairo Museum”, Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian describe this: “As for the main painting, it represents a scene of traditional adoration. The dedicatee of the stele, dressed in a fully transparent pleated dress adorned with a necklace and a long tripartite wig surmounted by a cone of perfume, raises her delicate hands in front of Re-Harakhty. The falcon-headed god is crowned with the solar disc surrounded by a uraeus; he holds the sceptre -ouas and the symbol of life.”

Dame Djedamonioufankh, with her light dress and arms raised in adoration, faces a Re-Harakhty with black flesh who, adorned with his attributes, displays his strength, power and divine power…

Between them is set up a table of offerings laden with food, bread, grapes, meat, poultry, and vegetables. A caring hand has placed delicate lotus flowers there. On each side of the foot of the table, there is an elongated container, orange in colour, placed on a black tripod support, as well as lettuces nicely connected by a vegetable garland.

In the “Guide to the Boulaq Museum”, Gaston Maspero interprets the scene: “Lady Zodamen-Efônkh comes to claim from Harmakhis her share of the sacrifices made to her by her parents.”

As for the lower part of the stele, its design touches us for two main reasons. First of all, because it is an extremely rare scene in the iconography of the stelae, and also because, if it is not the presence of the mourner, the landscape which is reproduced “speaks to us” and that we can almost place it today, in the necropolises of Thebes.

The scene is declined in a rectangular format delimited, at the top and bottom, by two black and thick lines. On the left, the Theban mountain, treated in ochre-red dotted with streaks and white dots (reflecting the sand, rocks and gullies), descends gently towards the wooded plain. Disregarding the perspective and the scale of the figured motifs, the whole is undeniably charming!

Many Egyptologists have looked into this scene, commenting on it in a very beautiful way.

“There is, in fact, a very rare representation of the necropolis; on the left, the tomb, preceded by a pylon surmounted by two pyramidions, is built on the edge of cultivated land on the first sandy undulations of the desert; on the middle, a kneeling woman laments in the usual attitude of mourners, one hand raised above her head; on the right, a table of offerings is set up next to a basin, in the shade of a sycamore and two date palms; it is the funerary garden of which several texts speak, and in which the deceased wishes his soul to return in the form of a bird, to walk along the edge of the basin, to rest on the branches of the trees, or cool off under the sycamore”: such is the reading of Jean-Pierre Corteggiani.

In the “Official Catalog of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo”, one can read: “We see there for the first time a scene of the necropolis where there is no question either of processions or of theories of bearers of offerings. In solitude from the desert, the slope of the cliff where the tomb is dug has been painted pink with white highlights. The highest of which, with cupolas adorned with a coved cornice, rise in the necropolis in front of the tomb. A crouching woman mourns her dead while tearing her hair. Behind her, a sycamore, two palm trees and date palms evoke the garden from which the ‘ba’ of the deceased hopes for shade, freshness and water. The offering table laden with bread and a water basin is indeed at the foot of these trees.”

As for Gaston Maspero, in the “Guide to the Boulaq Museum”, he formulates this interpretation: “The mountain, painted yellow striped with red, covers the field on the left: two small doors surmounted by pyramidions mark the tomb of the lady Zodamen -Efônkh A kneeling woman laments and tears her hair as a sign of mourning: trees, drawn behind her, represent the funerary garden, where the soul will come to frolic and nourish itself at the laden table waiting for it. offerings.”

And finally, here is Auguste Mariette’s analysis, an analysis which certainly motivated his choice to present it in Paris: “The bottom of the monument is occupied by a small composition worth noting. On the right, between the acacias and the date palms that line the edge of the cultivated land, an offering table laden with funerary gifts has been placed. To the left, the tomb of Lady T’at-Amen-aouf-ankh rises on the edge of the desert. A pylon surmounted preceded by two pyramidions; a little further on is the aedicule, which covers the actual tomb. In the centre, a relative of the deceased is kneeling, bareheaded, in the posture of mourners.”

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Auguste Mariette, Universal Exhibition of 1867, Description of the Egyptian Park, 1867
https://scholarship.rice.edu/jsp/xml/1911/9292/229/MarParc.te#index-div6-N1363A
Auguste Mariette, Album of the Boulaq Museum, Mourès, Cairo, 1872
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8626090c/f1.image.r=auguste+mariette.langFR
Gaston Maspero, Visitor’s Guide to the Boulaq Museum, 1883
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k141741b.r=gaston+maspero.langFR
Egypt of the Pharaohs in the Cairo Museum, Hachette Paris, 1986
Mohamed Saleh, Hourig Sourouzian, Official Catalog of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Verlag Philippe, von Zabern, 1997
Francesco Tiradritti, Treasures of Egypt – The Wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Gründ, 1999
National Geographic, The Treasures of Ancient Egypt at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, 2002

Some time ago, I wrote about this topic in three parts (1– 2- 3), and now I dare to continue this as I hit back into Jung’s essential explanations about this issue and its effects on our lives, from the family to the society.
In this part, he compares the Orientals and the Occidentals and the latter’s difficulties in differentiating between their own persona and their own Anima. Or, better to say, to understand and accept the existence of a personal form of the Anima in us all and our private lives.

First of all, let me say that the fact is that to understand Jung, one has to take a tour outside the solar system and, after returning, reread his works! But I promise, and as you know, his explorations in psychological self-knowledge are worth reading. However, in this explanation, he considers the subject in our everyday life. We see how useful it can be for us in everyday family life.

He explains himself much better here:

I believe there is a need for certain modern humans to recognize not only their differences from the persona but also from the Anima. Since our consciousness mainly flashes outwards – corresponding to the Western style – the inner things lie in the dark. But this difficulty can easily be overcome by trying to look with the same concentration and criticism at the psychic material that does not appear outside but only in private life. Being accustomed to modestly concealing this other side (perhaps even trembling before his own wife, she might expose him) and, when discovered, ruefully confessing his “weakness”, the only method of education is usually to recognize the weaknesses suppressed or repressed as much as possible, or at least hidden from the public. But nothing has been achieved with this.

What we actually have to do is probably best explained using the example of the persona. Everything is visible and apparent there, while with the Anima, everything is dark for us Westerners. When the Anima thwarts the good intentions of consciousness to a greater extent, inducing a private life that contrasts ill with the glamorous persona, it is the same as when a naïve person who is ignorant of the persona is in the most embarrassing world encounters difficulties. There are those people who have no developed persona – “Canadians who don’t know Europe’s whitewashed politeness” – who grope from one social “gaffe” to another, perfectly harmless and innocent, soulful bores or affected children or – if they’re women – Cassandra ghosts feared for their tactlessness, eternally misunderstood, who do not know what they are doing and therefore always assume forgiveness; who do not see the world but only dream it. These are the cases where we can see how a neglected persona works and what one would have to do to remedy the evil. Such people can only avoid disappointments and sufferings of all kinds, scenes and violence by learning how to determine the world. They must learn to understand what the partnership expects of them; they must see that there are factors and persons in the world far superior to them; they need to know that what they are doing means to others and so on. This, of course, is the syllabus of a toddler school for one who has properly formed his persona. But if we turn the stalk, and that of the man possessing a brilliant persona, confronts the Anima and brings in for comparison the man without the persona, we shall see that this one is as well informed as to the Anima and its affairs as that one is about the world. The use that both make out of their knowledge can, of course, be an abuse., and most likely, it will be.

Of course, the man with the persona does not understand the point of view of the existence of inner realities in the least, any more than the other does the reality of the world, which for him has only the value of an amusing or fantastic playground. But the fact of inner realities and their unconditional recognition is, of course, the Conditio sine qua non for taking the anima problem seriously. If the outside world is just a phantasm to me, how can I make any serious effort to set up a complicated system of relationships and adjustments to it? Likewise, the “nothing but fantasy” standpoint will never cause me to take my anima manifestations for anything other than silly weaknesses. But if I take the position that the world is outside and inside, that reality belongs to the outside as well as to the inside. Logically, I must also regard the disturbances and inconveniences that occur to me from within as a symptom of a defective adjustment to the conditions of the inner world to comprehend. Just as the thrashing that the harmless get in the world cannot be healed by moral repression, neither does it help to book one’s weaknesses as such resignedly. Here are reasons, intentions and consequences in which a will and an understanding can intervene. Take, for example, that “spotless” gentleman and public benefactor whose wives and children fear his short temper and explosive moodiness. What does Anima do in this case?

We can see it immediately if we let things take their natural course: wife and children will move away from him; a vacuum will form around him. At first, he will lament the callousness of his family and possibly behave even worse than before. That will make the distance absolute. If all good spirits do not desert him, he will notice his isolation after a while, and in his loneliness, he will begin to understand what caused the separation. He may ask himself in astonishment: <what kind of demon has fallen into me? <- Of course, without noticing the meaning of this metaphor. This is followed by regret, reconciliation, oblivion and soon a new explosion. Apparently, the Anima is trying to force a separation. Of course, this tendency is in nobody’s interest. The Anima pushes in between like a jealous lover who wants to alienate the man from his family. An office or other advantageous social position can do the same, but we understand the power of attraction there. But where does the Anima derive this power to exert such an attraction? According to the analogy with the persona, there should be values or other important and influential things like seductive promises behind them. In such moments, one must beware of rationalizations. It would seem natural to think that the man of honour is looking for another woman. This can be, or can even be arranged by the Anima as the most effective means to purpose. Such an arrangement should not be misunderstood as a purpose because the spotless man of honour who has married correctly according to the law can also divorce according to the law, which does not change his basic attitude one iota. The old picture just got a new frame……. to be continued. 🙏💖🖖