Alchemical Active Imagination by Marie-Louise von Franz

Author:Marie-Louise von Franz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2017-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

4

MIND AND BODY IN THE CASTLE OF PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE

FOR THE MOMENT the anima is still a bit torn and does not quite know which side to take, whether that of the animus or that of the body. The protagonists are always three in number: spiritus, anima, and body; but when the spiritus or animus (not the Jungian animus) and the anima (that which revivifies the body) unite, they will become what Dorn calls the mens. The real tension is between animus and body.

The discussion continues:

SPIRITUS: Did you see how we drank from the source of love, from the spring of love at the bottom of the mountain of the attraction of the Lord?

BODY: Did you drink?

SPIRITUS: Well, there you show how blind you are!

BODY: Well, why did you not tell me to drink some too?

SPIRITUS: Because you cannot do that until you are together with us.

BODY: When will that be?

SPIRITUS: When you have become one with us. But first we have to become one, and then you will become one with us too.

BODY: And when will that be?

SPIRITUS: When we have arrived at the diamond castle.

BODY: Well, then, hurry up, because I also want to see what you see. Here, we have arrived at the first castle, and I will knock. But why are there no doors? [He does not see the door.]

SPIRITUS: Well, we, a few strangers, have come and want to ask your permission to enter. Please open.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE answering from within: Seldom does anybody come here. Who are you?

SPIRITUS: Three pupils of philosophy. [Philosophy is simply alchemy in this connection of thought.]

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: What are you seeking?

SPIRITUS: We want to learn philosophy.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Why do you want to learn once more what you have already learned?

SPIRITUS: Oh, we have only had very bad food and now we want better food. [For a while they talk about the spiritual food that they want.]

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Well, I hear you have been trained to a certain extent, and in any case we never send away anybody who comes to us, so please come in, but first take off your horns before you enter the door.

SPIRITUS: All right, we will do that.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Now we always examine our new pupils.

SPIRITUS: All right, I agree.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: What is philosophy?

SPIRITUS: The love of wisdom.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: What is wisdom?

SPIRITUS: The highest wisdom of all, truth.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: What is love?

SPIRITUS: That is the constant desire to attain the truth once one has grasped it.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Where did you learn that?

SPIRITUS: From the attraction of the Lord.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Who mediated it to you?

SPIRITUS: Those whom He taught first and who then taught the others.

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: But why did you not hear of that at the universities?

SPIRITUS: Oh, there we only hear of the philosophy of Aristotle and such nonsense. [There then follows a long polemic against Aristotelian scholastic philosophy.]

PHILOSOPHICAL LOVE: Well, before you come in, you must sign our guest book. What is your name?

SPIRITUS: I am called Spiritus, or Animus, and this is Anima, and this one is Corpus.

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