animal sacrifice. The religious effect of these symbols must be considered as an orientation of the unconscious by means of imitation. In Miss Miller's phantasy there is internal compulsion, in that she passes from the horse sacrifice to the self-sacrifice of the hero. Whereas the first symbolizes renunciation of the sexual wishes, the second has the deeper and ethically more valuable meaning of the sacrifice of the infantile personality. The object of psychoanalysis has frequently been wrongly understood to mean the renunciation or the gratification of the ordinary sexual wish, while, in reality, the problem is the sublimation of the infantile personality, or, expressed mythologically, a sacrifice and rebirth of the infantile hero.55 In the Christian mysteries, however, the resurrected one becomes a supermundane spirit, and the invisible kingdom of God, with its mysterious gifts, are obtained by his believers through the sacrifice of himself on the mother. In psychoanalysis the infantile personality is deprived of its libido fixations in a rational manner; the libido which is thus set free serves for the building up of a personality matured and adapted to reality, who does willingly and without complaint everything required by necessity. (It is, so to speak, the chief endeavor of the infantile personality to struggle against all necessities and to create coercions for itself where none exist in reality.) The serpent as an instrument of sacrifice has already been abundantly illustrated. (Legend of St. Silvester, trial of the virgins, wounding of Rê and Philoctetes, symbolism of the lance and arrow.) It is the destroying 56 knife; but, according to the principle of the "Occide moriturus" also the phallus, the sacrificial act represents a coitus act as well. The religious significance of the serpent as a cave-dwelling, chthonic animal points to a further thought; namely, to the creeping into the mother's womb in the form of a serpent." As the horse is the brother, so the serpent is the sister of Chiwantopel. This close relation refers to a fellowship of these animals and their characters with the hero. We know of the horse that, as a rule, he is not an animal of fear, although, mythologically, he has at times this meaning. He signifies much more the living, positive part of the libido, the striving towards continual renewal, whereas the serpent, as a rule, represents the fear, the fear of death,58 and is thought of as the antithesis to the phallus. This antithesis between horse and serpent, mythologically between bull and serpent, represents an opposition of the libido within itself, a striving forwards and a striving backwards at one and the same time. It is not only as if the libido might be an irresistible striving forward, an endless life and will for construction, such as Schopenhauer has formulated in his world will, death and every end being some malignancy or fatality coming from without, but the libido, corresponding to the sun, also wills the destruction of its creation. In the first half of life its will is for growth, in the second half of life it hints, softly at first, and then audibly, at its will for death. And just as in youth the impulse to unlimited growth often lies under the enveloping covering of a resistance against life, so also does the will of the old to die frequently lie under the covering of a stubborn resistance against the end. This apparent contrast in the nature of the libido is strikingly illustrated by a Priapic statuette in the antique collection at Verona. Priapus smilingly points with his finger to a snake biting off his "membrum." He carries 60 a basket on his arm, filled with oblong objects, probably phalli, evidently prepared as substitutes. 66 61 A similar motive is found in the "Deluge " of Rubens (in the Munich Art Gallery), where a serpent emasculates a man. This motive explains the meaning of the Deluge"; the maternal sea is also the devouring mother. The phantasy of the world conflagration, of the cataclysmic end of the world in general, is nothing but a mythological projection of a personal individual will for death; therefore, Rubens could represent the essence of the "Deluge " phantasy in the emasculation by the serpent; for the serpent is our own repressed will for the end, for which we find an explanation only with the greatest difficulty. Concerning the symbolism of the serpent in general, its significance is very dependent upon the time of life and circumstances. The repressed sexuality of youth is symbolized by the serpent, because the arrival of sexuality puts an end to childhood. To age, on the contrary, the serpent signifies the repressed thought of death. With our author it is the insufficiently expressed sexuality which as serpent assumes the rôle of sacrificer and delivers the hero over to death and rebirth. 62 As in the beginning of our investigation the hero's name forced us to speak of the symbolism of Popocatepetl as belonging to the creating part of the human body, so at the end does the Miller drama again give us an opportunity of seeing how the volcano assists in the death of the hero and causes him to disappear by means of an earthquake into the depths of the earth. As the volcano gave birth and name to the hero, so at the end of the day it devours him again. We learn from the last words of the hero that his longed-for beloved, she who alone understands him, is called Ja-ni-wa-ma. We find in this name those lisped syllables familiar to us from the early childhood of the hero, Hiawatha, Wawa, wama, mama. The only one who really understands us is the mother. For verstehen, "to understand" (Old High German firstân), is probably derived from a primitive Germanic prefix fri, identical with ɛpt, meaning " roundabout." The Old High German antfristôn, "to interpret," is considered as identical with firstân. From that 99 63 results a fundamental significance of the verb verstehen, "to understand," as "standing round about something." Comprehendere and κατασυλλαμβάνειν express a similar idea as the German erfassen, "to grasp, to comprehend." The thing common to these expressions is the surrounding, the enfolding. And there is no doubt that there is nothing in the world which so completely enfolds us as the mother. When the neurotic complains that the world has no understanding, he says indirectly that he misses the mother. Paul Verlaine has expressed this thought most beautifully in his poem, "Mon Rêve Familier": My Familiar Dream. Often I have that strange and poignant dream Of some unknown who meets my flame with flame- Yet never wholly different does she seem. She understands me! Every fitful gleam Troubling my heart, she reads aright somehow: Even the sweat upon my pallid brow She soothes with tears, a cool and freshening stream. "If she is dark or fair? I do not know Her name? Only that it is sweet and low, Like those of loved ones who have long since died. Her look is like a statue's, kind and clear; And her calm voice, distant and dignified, Like those hushed voices that I loved to hear." |