Adam and Eve
The circular
arrangement of the elements in the world and in man is symbolized by the
mandala
and its quaternary structure. Adam would then by a
quaternarius, as he was
composed of red, black, white, and green dust from the four corners of the
earth, and his stature reached from one end of the world to the other. According
to one Targum, God took the dust not only from the four quarters but also from
the sacred spot, the "centre of the world." MC 388
I do not
want to pile up proofs of Adam's quaternary nature, but only to give it due
emphasis. Psychologically the four are
the four orienting functions of
consciousness,
two of them perceptive (irrational), and two discriminative
(rational). We could say that all mythological figures who are marked by a
quaternity have ultimately to do with the structure of consciousness. We can
therefore understand why
Isaac Luria attributed every psychic quality to Adam:
he is the psyche
par
excellence.47 MC 390
We do not
devalue statements that originally were intended to be
metaphysical when we
demonstrate their psychic nature; on the contrary, we confirm their factual
character. But, by treating them as psychic phenomena, we remove them from the
inaccessible realm of metaphysics, about which nothing verifiable can be said,
and this disposes of the impossible question as to whether they are "true" or
not. We take our stand simply and solely on the facts, recognizing that the
archetypal structure of the
unconscious will produce, over and over again and
irrespective of tradition, those figures which reappear in the history of all
epochs and all peoples, and will endow them with the same significance and
numinosity that have been theirs from the beginning. MC 390
We conclude
that meditative philosophy consists in the overcoming of the body by
mental
union [unio
mentalis]. This first union does not as yet make the wise man, but
only the mental disciple of wisdom. The second union of the mind with the body
shows forth the wise man, hoping for and expective that blessed third union with
the first unity [i.e., the
unus mundus,
the latent unity of the world]. May Almighty God grant that all men be made
such, and may He be one in All. MC 465
It is significant for the whole of alchemy that in Dorn's view a mental union was not the culminating point but merely the first stage of the procedure. The second stage is reached when the mental union, that is, the unity of spirit and soul, is conjoined with the body. But a consummation of the mysterium coniunctionis can be expected only when the unity of spirit, soul, and body is made one with the original unus mundus. This third stage of the coniunctio was depicted after the manner of an Assumption and Coronation of
Forbidden Fruit: There's a standard folk motif called the one forbidden thing. Remember Blue Beard - don't open that closet - and then one always does it. And in the old testament story - he knows that man is going to eat the fruit, but it is by that t