Translated from volumes published by Lorenz Jung based on the edition “Gesammelte Werke” dtv.de The Symbols of Transformation (1952) and Aion (1950)
Mana-personality. A personified archetypal image of a supernatural force.
The Mana-personality is a dominant of the collective unconscious, the well-known archetype of the mighty man in the form of hero, chief, magician, medicine-man, saint, ruler of men and spirits, and the friend of God.[The Mana-Personality,” CW 7, par. 377.]
Mana is a Melanesian word referring to a bewitching or numinous quality in gods and sacred objects.
Historically, the Mana-Personality evolves into the hero and the godlike being, whose earthly form is the priest. How very much the doctor is still Mana is the whole plaint of the analyst! [Ibid., par. 389.]
A Mana-Personality embodies this magical power. In individual psychology, Jung used it to describe the inflationary effect of assimilating autonomous unconscious contents, particularly those associated with anima and animus. (The text and the image are from Carl Jung’s Depth Psychology by my brilliant friend Lewis Lafontaine.)
I started with these specific sections of my friend’s website to better understand this enigmatic topic. Personally, I find Mana to be funny, attractive, amusing, intriguing, and, at the same time, very monstrous.
And now, after sharing parts one and two, I present part three, which is a short one so as not to bore you, or better to say, because of the preparations for my trip! I will be taking a two-week vacation, and the internet connection can be difficult on this trip. But after that, I promise to share a larger and more interesting part when I return!!💖
Individuation The Mana Personality (P3)
In contrast, our pitifully limited “I”, if it possesses even a spark of self-knowledge, can only withdraw and quickly abandon any illusion of power and importance. It was an illusion: the “I” has not overcome the anima and, therefore, has not acquired its Mana. The consciousness has not become master of the unconscious, but the anima has lost its domineering presumption to the extent that the “I” has been able to come to terms with the unconscious. This conflict, however, was not a victory of consciousness over the unconscious but the establishment of a balance between the two worlds.
The ‘magician’ could only take possession of the “I” because the “I” dreamed of a victory over the anima. This was an attack, and every attack by the “I” would be followed by an attack by the unconscious.
>In a transformed figure I exercise grim power. < (Goethe: Faust II, Act 5, Scene 4, in Works in ten volumes, Vol. 4, 1961)
Faust surrounded by his Illustration, to Goethe’s Faust by Harry Clarke 1925
Therefore, if the “I” abandons its claim to victory, the obsession by the magician automatically ceases. But where does the Mana go? Who or what becomes Mana if even the magician can no longer perform magic? We now know that neither the conscious nor the unconscious has Mana, for it is certain that if the “I” does not claim power, then no obsession arises, which means that the unconscious has also lost its supremacy. In this state, the Mana must have fallen into the hands of Something that is conscious and unconscious, or neither conscious nor unconscious. This Something is the sought-after “centre” of the personality, that indescribable Something between the opposites, or the unifier of the opposites, or the result of the conflict, or the “achievement” of the energetic tension, the development of the personality, a most individual step forward, the next stage.
I do not expect the reader to follow the rapid overview of the whole problem in every detail. He should consider it a kind of exposition, the more detailed intellectual elaboration of which I will give in the following…
To be continued! I wish you all a great time.💖🙏💖🌹
PS: As the World Wide Web chaos happened yesterday, I hope our flight stays intact!!😁😅🙏
Translated from volumes published by Lorenz Jung based on the edition “Gesammelte Werke” dtv.de The Symbols of Transformation (1952) and Aion (1950)
Recently, on X (Twitter), during one of Perian’s talks titled “The Way of Democratic Talk,” someone mentioned that social morals are crucial for keeping people mindful of their behaviour towards others. I responded that social morals are relative and not constant; throughout human history, they have consistently changed after wars or revolutions. I prefer to use the word “conscience.” Another friend said she would stick with “morals” because she was tired of having a guilty conscience. I replied that conscience is based on inner awareness and individuality and, therefore, has a more substantial and profound foundation, strengthening our consciousness as individuals.
Anyway, it was a prologue to noticing that words like consciousness, ego, anima, and their influential product, Mana, are important to take seriously. Mana may sound strange and unknown, but we all have it inside us!
Jung has always attempted to clarify that good and evil exist within every human and has made significant efforts to help us realize that it all depends on us to recognize these and find the balance between them.
Illustration at the top: NIKOLAY ZAITSEV
Here, in the continuation of the first part, I share some more words from this magical Mana.
Individuation The Mana Personality (P2)
‘Parsifal’ illustrations for Richard Wagner’s opera by Franz Stassen.
Who has now come to terms with the anima? Apparently, the conscious “I”, and therefore the “I”, has taken over the Mana. In this way, the conscious “I” becomes the Mana personality. The Mana personality, however, is a Dominant of the collective unconscious, the well-known archetype of the mighty man in the form of the hero, the chief, the magician, the medicine man and saint, the lord of men and spirits, the friend of God.
This is now a male collective figure that emerges from the dark background and takes possession of the conscious personality. This psychological danger is of a subtle nature; by inflating consciousness, it can destroy everything that has been gained through the confrontation with the anima. It is, therefore, of no minor practical importance to know that in the hierarchy of the unconscious, the anima is only the lowest level and one of the possible figures and that its overcoming creates another collective figure that now takes over its Mana. In reality, it is the figure of the magician – as I will call her in short – that draws the Mana, that is, the autonomous value of the anima to itself. Only insofar as I am unconsciously identical with this figure can I imagine that I myself possess the Mana of the anima. But under these circumstances, I will do so infallibly.
SD World _ Youri Ivanov _ Jouris Kunst
The figure of the magician has a no less dangerous equivalent for women: it is a maternal, superior figure, the great mother, the all-merciful one who understands everything and forgives everything and always wanted the best, who always lived for others and never sought her own, the discoverer of great love, just as it is the herald of the ultimate truth. And just as great love is never appreciated, great wisdom is never understood either. And they can’t stand each other at all.
There must be a serious misunderstanding here because it is undoubtedly a case of inflation. The “I” has appropriated something that does not belong to it. But how did it appropriate this Mana? If it really was the ego that overcame the anima, then the Mana also belongs to it, and then the conclusion is correct: one has become significant. But why does this significance, the Mana, not affect others? That would be an essential criterion! It does not work because one has not become significant but has simply merged with an archetype, another unconscious figure. So, we must conclude that “I” has not overcome the anima and, therefore, has not acquired the Mana. It is just that a new merger has occurred, with a figure of the same sex that corresponds to the father’s imago and has perhaps even greater power.
From the power that binds all beings, The person who overcomes himself frees himself< (Goethe: The Mysteries. A Fragment, in. Works in ten volumes, Vol. 7, 1962)
Thus, he becomes a superman, superior to all powers, a demigod, perhaps even more. ‘I and the Father are one’, this powerful confession in all its terrible ambiguity stemming from precisely this psychological moment.
Since Horus was considered the sky, he was also considered to contain the Sun and Moon. Egyptians believed that the Sun was his right eye and the Moon his left and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it.
As the title image shows, Horus is usually depicted as a falcon. But now, the brilliant Marie Grillot shows us a unique image of this deity.
The infant Horus is often pictured on stelae in the act of trampling two crocodiles and holding dangerous animals in his hands. The water poured on these objects, by flowing across their surface covered with magic spells, gained the power of healing whoever drank it from the stings of scorpions and the bites of snakes.
Stele of Horus: the magic that heals
Magic stele or “Cippus of Horus” – chlorite schist – Ptolemaic period – around 332-280 BC AD Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – entry number 20.2.23 – museum photo
These “magical” steles, representing Horus on crocodiles, found in many museums, are generally dated from the Late Period to the end of the Roman era. “Called ‘Cippus of Horus’, they are usually carved from a hard, black stone, their upper edge is rounded, and they can be briefly described as follows: on the front of the stele, Horus as a child (Harpocrates) is presented in relief. It is standing on two crocodiles, and he holds snakes, scorpions, a lion and a horned animal (ibex?), all these representations being associated with Seth, the god of evil. On the head of Horus is a god,’ The ancient,’ who resembles the god Bes and, with Horus, thus represent the ancient god who perpetually regains his youth and strength,” specifies Wallis Budge in “Amulets & Magic”.
Their size seems to have yet to meet any specific criteria, whether made of soapstone, schist, greywacke, basalt, or sometimes limestone, copper alloy, wood, or even anhydrite.
Horus controlling harmful animals – magic stele – stone – Ptolemaic period, 332 – 30 BC Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum – E 20008 – museum photo
Their iconography, as described by Wallis Budge, may vary somewhat, but their highly balanced composition remains. As a child, Horus is represented in the centre, frontally, in high relief; his chubby body is naked. He still wears the side braid from childhood, and often, a uraeus adorns his forehead. In the middle of the arch, just above his head, is the face of a leonine god, grimacing and bearded, comparable to Bes. However, the threatening species that Horus masters with his hands and feet may differ. They are generally “strong and dangerous desert animals (scorpions, snakes, lion, oryx) held by the tail or by their horns. This motif shows the domination of Horus over these powerful animals and the dangers they can represent,” indicates the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (presentation notice of the MMA stele 20.2.23).
Their lateral edges are occupied by sacred emblems, such as the lotus of the god Nefertum on the right and a papyrus stem surmounted by a falcon on the left. These elements are sometimes based on the Oak sign, symbolizing eternity.
Cippus of Horus on the Crocodiles – Ptolemaic period – 3rd century BC AD Brooklyn Museum – entry number 60.73 – museum photo
These steles are inscribed with magical formulas which, to release their healing power, had to be “either immersed in water that the patient drank, thus imbuing themselves with the virtues of the magical texts and the image, or rubbed on the site of the injury.”
Thus, in “Amulets of Ancient Egypt”, Carol Andrews recalls: “We know that they were installed in the precincts of the temples so that water could be poured over them to absorb the magic of their scenes and formulas; “once drunk, the water offered prophylactic protection against the creatures in question or perhaps healed those already bitten or stung.” Thus, “Drinking the water that had been left to flow on the stele was to the benefit of the protection that Isis exercised over her son and brought healing”.
In “Animals and Pharaohs”, Florence Maruejol contextualizes their use thus: “Often worn out, the so-called steles of Horus on the crocodiles were manipulated by magicians who tried to cure their patients”…
Stele of Horus on crocodiles – cippi of Horus – schist – Ptolemaic period Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 9401 – on display at NMEC in Fustat In “The Egyptian Museum in Cairo”, Abeer El-Shahawy recalls that: “magic, prayer and medicine complemented each other in ancient Egypt and people in need, in danger, suffering from illness or disease and illness prayed in front of such stelae. Stele of Horus on the crocodiles – cippi of Horus – schist – Ptolemaic period Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 9401
For protection—and perhaps of a “preventive” nature—they were also present in chapels at the start of desert tracks (filled with dangers) and had a special place in homes. We have even found them in collective baths, where the humid environment was certainly conducive to the frequentation of snakes.
They all refer to an episode in the legend of Horus: “Son of Isis and Osiris, the child was raised by his mother in a remote place, the marshes of the Delta, to escape the vengeance of the god Seth who had put his father to death. But, one fine day, young Horus was bitten by a venomous animal: he owed his survival only to the magical practices of his mother, Isis and the god Thoth, who knew the most secret formulas. This miraculous healing was, in a way, a model for all Egyptians and left them a little hope for desperate cases,” explains Christiane Ziegler in “Ancient Egypt at the Louvre” (E 10777).
Ancient Egyptian medicine combined scientific knowledge with healing magic. In “The Egyptian Museum in Cairo”, Abeer El-Shahawy recalls that: “magic, prayer and medicine complemented each other in ancient Egypt and people in need, in danger, suffering from illness or disease and illness prayed in front of such stelae.
There are also “miniature steles” that one could carry with oneself. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has several examples, indicates that these small models were considered “an amulet for magical protection rather than transmitting magic to the water poured over them for drinking”.
Miniature cippus of Horus – magic stele – copper metal Ptolemaic period – around 332 – 30 BC-AD – MMA New York – entry number: 23.6.19
In his reference study on “The ‘healing’ statues in ancient Egypt”, Pierre Lacau indicates that: “The typical stele of Horus on the crocodiles must therefore be considered as a true repertoire of ‘amulets’ and ‘formulas’ which the Egyptians could have at their disposal against bites; it is an arsenal or a codex containing the most varied weapons or remedies. We can, therefore, understand the extraordinary popularity that it was able to enjoy. All the provinces of Egypt have it used… They could be dedicated in temples, kept at home, or carried on one’s person like an amulet…
These steles testify to the force that magic exerted on the ancient Egyptians. They also reflect the fervour of the power granted to the “Medou-Neter,” the hieroglyphs, which in this specific case turn out to be, according to their etymology, sacred or divine writings.
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