2. PSYCHOLOGY

a. Psychological Model: Mythical Living(top)

MYTHICAL LIVING
A Metaphorical Perception of Experience

by Philo Stone, ©1977, 2002

Jung has suggested that each individual life is based on a
particular myth, and that we ought each to discover what our
own basic myth is, so that we may live it consciously and
intelligently, cooperating with the trend of this life pattern,
instead of being dragged along unwillingly.

These patterns can be seen recurring in the lives of certain
people, who remain totally unconscious of what they are living.
But if the individual becomes conscious in relation to the
archetypal trend that underlies his life--his fate--he can begin
to adapt himself to it consciously. The outer fate is then
transmuted into the inner experience, and the true individuality
of the man or woman begins to emerge. This is an important
step in the quest for the Self.

--M. Esther Harding/The I and the Not-I

I. Philosophy

Myth may be defined as a paradigmatic model. In science, paradigms are
thought-models which direct their holders to pose only certain questions
and to utilize only certain methods in search of answers. This precisely
parallels the effect of a given archetype when it is activated; it molds our
attitudes in a characteristic manner so that we catch certain things but
ignore or omit what just doesn't fit.

The particular paradigmatic lenses we choose to form our
conceptualization of reality function to shape the very reality we hope to
capture and understand. By emphasizing particular relationships, or
elements, they largely determine the nature of the "reality" we
experience. This conceptualization of reality is known as one's
worldview. A person who embraces a particular paradigm can create a
reality from his expectations, even without conscious intent to do so.

In our technological world, most paradigms stress a routine or mechanical
side of life. In order to acquire experiential freedom from cultural
programming, one must have a model. A model is required for realization.

Myths, then, serve a key function in the psychic economy. Myths provide
the most comprehensive metaphors, or models, for the realization of
liberating alternatives. The meaning in life is inherent in the archetypal
experience of myth. The aesthetic experience and its 'meaning' are
identical.

In a religious society, myths tell the people who they are and where they
come from. To change the myth is to become lost in the most profound
ontological (1) sense. Modern man lives in a world of intellectual
fragmentation. He feels a need to dissect any and everything, especially
himself, to find out the universal order of things and to seek his place in it.

Mythological explanations arise when an individual or race evolves the
three primary questions:

1) who am I?

2) where do I come from?

3) where am I going?

The meaning of existence lies in a relevant answer to these questions.
These answers formulate one's worldview. With these questions, a
universal seed within man begins to germinate. Self-consciousness begins
to unfold its awareness of totality. The finite mind begins to bridge the
gap to infinite awareness.

In seeking to find the beginning of creation, man must first cease thinking
in terms of space and time. In Reality there is neither. It is an illusion
that man is contained in space and time. In fact, both are contained in
man. Both experiences, together, illustrates psychic experience. The
Creations, as a psychological reality, was/is/will occur in the realm of the
sacred, not the profane world. With our human limitations, sacred time is
experienced as multiple recurrence. It is thus a continuous, timeless-creation. All parts of the process are inherent in its wholeness.
Likewise, wholeness is inherent in all parts. This is the Alpha/Omega
principle.

As this universal seed starts to grow in an individual, he is plunged from
his preconscious, womb-like security into a dazzling world of intellectual
confusion. He experiences paradox. There is dichotomy, a lot of
contradiction. So, man comes to duality of subject and object. Conflicts
are produced, which, used creatively, may lead to the individuation, the
subjective and objective spheres merge into one.

II. Orientation(top)

A complete mythology provides helpful orientation in four ways:

1) In its metaphysical-mystical function, it wakens and maintains in the individual an experience of awe, humility, and respect in recognition of the ultimate mystery which transcends words and form.

2) It provides a cosmology, or an image of the universe. Science now serves this mythological function, admirably.

3) On the social level, myth supplies validation and maintenance of a
established order.

4) Finally, on the psychological level, they provide models for the
centering and harmonization of the individual.

Mythologies perform these functions through symbols. The focal point
provided by image and symbol holds the mind to truth. The ultimate is, of
course, unknowable. Therefore, the images themselves are not "the
truth."

For contemporary man, a journey into his unconscious provides the vital
meanings and relatedness to the cosmic order that myths once gave us. It
is a return to the source which goes a step further than genealogy.
Meaning is inherent in conscious experience of archetypal processes. A
model for pursuing the quest provides a foundation to which one's
experience may be related.

The modern search for meaning is a variant of the age-old quest, or
journey of the hero. This mythological motif is activated whenever
cultural values and mores do not provide an adequate model for one's
experience. The social boundaries dissolve and a person is thrown back
on his own resources. Valuable connections and new forms must be
re-established. During this period, symbols acquire great personal value.
For many, this period is seen as an experience of rebirth or renewal. This
heroic stage does not go on indefinitely. Questing fades into the
background when one becomes familiarized with the imaginal realm.
Both processes, questing for and participating in the imaginal realm,
require attention, effort, and creativity.

Evidence of man's great desire for this experience is found in the common
use of drugs in the counterculture. Rather than the gradual path of study,
experience, and assimilation, drugs may provoke experiences which are
"too much, to soon." Joseph Campbell has likened the situation to one
found in Greek mythology "in which a person says to a god, 'Show me
yourself in your full power.' And the god does and the person is blown to
bits." The personality suffers from an inability to relate, meaningfully, to
society. Drug experiences provide ample evidence of the world of the
psyche, but in order for us to obtain value from the contact, consciousness
must be able to come to understanding, digestion, and assimilation of the
experience.

Liberating experiences require a context of strong ego-consciousness.
This does not mean "willful assertion." It means that the ego has learned
to discriminate between itself and the archetypal processes operating
through and around it. It means, also, that the ego has learned to defer
to, and cooperate with them.

A frightened ego, in danger of drowning in deep waters, will quickly
regress to the natural standpoint, otherwise unaffected by its contact with
the numinous. The boon, which the successful hero may bring back (which
has both personal and collective significance), is not given to him. He
does not find the gods cooperative. The lessons of the "trip" prove most
troublesome and provide no benefit in daily life. He is lucky if his worst
problem is merely the desire to stay "high." There is a generation of
"world-weary" people, eager to transcend off into some mythical realm.
However, their methods are either haphazard, or ill-advised.

This type of unassimilable experience stimulates the complex of the puer
aeternus, or eternal adolescent. When it occurs in a woman, it is a puella
complex. This complex is epidemic in our society, today. This was not the
case a century ago, when our cultural model was more strictly defined.
The ideal lies somewhere between, in a reunion of the values of tradition
and futurity. This requires the ability to apply oneself to the task. It
requires self-motivation, diligent effort, and the grace of god.

When man enters the myth of transformation, he sets out to change the
world. Soon, he becomes aware that he must first change himself. In this
moment of transformation, myth is seen as an intuitive, ever-becoming
processing. Man is not really contained in the myth, and in time. Both
myth and time are contained within himself. The gods and man are
involved in a symbiotic relationship. Each requires the other for
realization.

When man seeks the motives behind the act of becoming, he transcends
from concrete intellectual conception to metaphysical abstractions.
Eventually, he comes to an understanding that metaphysics is the science
of the content of myth. The so-called "occult" is mainly involved with
developing man's latent subconscious powers, so he may develop greater
access to the imaginal realm. This opens up a world which, by definition,
contains wider parameters for experience and growth. It provides a
comprehensive, cohesive method and model. With it, man may live his
individuality within the context of tradition.

There are aspects of creative mythology, and its form of metaphorical
perception, which tie it in with a holographic concept of reality. (2)

Within metaphorical and mythic conception, a part does not
merely stand in the place of or represent the union of several
elements, but rather it is identical with the whole. If the part is
the whole, then whoever controls the part controls the whole. In
normal discourse, symbols represent their referents and are
separable from what they represent; in metaphorical or mythic
conception, the symbols are their referents; they cannot be
separated. The elegance of language lies in its capacity to
separate symbol from experience so that symbols can be
manipulated in a way that experiences cannot be. While we
cannot experience precisely the same thing ever again, we can
attach similar symbols to represent two experiences as being
roughly the same. (3)

The chaotic assortment of apparent and disguised mythological images
have certain typical features. We may reduce the infinitely variegated
and complex forms to their simplest expressions as a means of recognizing
them. Jung's list of salient characteristics includes:

Chaotic multiplicity and order; duality; the opposition of light and dark,
upper and lower, right and left; the union of opposites in a third
(complexio oppositorum); the quaternity (square, cross); rotation (circle,
sphere); and finally the centering process and a radial arrangement
usually followed by some quaternity system. The centering process
is...the never-to-be-surpassed climax of the whole development, and is
characterized as such by the fact that it brings with it the greatest
possible therapeutic effect.

Experience of these archetypal processes offers the possibility of
orienting oneself. Several traditional mystical exercises stress the
importance of the centering process. Fundamental in these meditations is
orienting oneself to the four cardinal directions. The role of creative
imagination is fundamental. Virtually any experience available to man is
integrated via a form of imagery.

Myth raises the individual to a superhuman or superhistorical plane. It
enables him to approach Reality that is inaccessible at the level of
profane experience. If the mind makes use of images to grasp the
ultimate Reality of things, it is just because Reality manifests itself in
contradictory ways and therefore cannot be expressed in concepts.

James Hillman, Director of Studies in Imaginal Psychology at the
University of Texas, states that "We can describe the psyche as a
polycentric realm of nonverbal, nonspatial images. Myth offers the same
kind of world. It too, is polycentric, with innumerable personifications in
imaginal space. Just as dream images are not mere words in disguise...so the ancient personifications of myths are not concepts in disguise." He states further that these "soul events are not parts of any system. They are independent of the tandems in which they are placed, inasmuch as there is an independent primacy of the imaginal that creates its fantasies automatically, ceaselessly, and spontaneously. Myth-making is not compensatory to anything else."

The more paradigmatic models one has access to, the more freedom of
creation one experiences. "It is egoistic to recognize oneself in only one
portion of a tale, case in only one role."(4) Polytheistic consciousness
allows us to experience the gamut of archetypal perspectives. This leads
the individual to broader consciousness and greater tolerance of other
individual's perspectives.

Myth is the comprehensive metaphor, "answering our requirements for
intellectual puzzlement and explanation through enigma by providing as-if
fictions in depth, complexity, and exquisite differentiation." "Myth," says
Hermann Broch, "is the archetype of every phenomenal cognition, of
which the human mind is capable. Archetype of all human cognition,
archetype of science, archetype of art--myth is consequently that
archetype of philosophy, too." We might deduce from this that myth
functions as a sort of metapsychology.

Mythic metaphors elude literalism; they dramatically present themselves
as impossible truths. They have the ability to transform concrete
particulars into universals, and to present abstract universals as concrete
actions. They are ways not only of speaking, perceiving, and feeling, but
of existing. We may experience mythical consciousness by finding Gods
in our concrete lives. They are found by entering myths, since that is
where they are. We may participate with them by recognizing our
concrete existence as metaphors, or mythic enactments.

However, Hillman is very deliberate in stating that: "myths resist being
interpreted into practical life. They are not allegories of applied
psychology, solutions to personal problems. This is the old moralistic
fallacy, now become the therapeutic fallacy, telling us which step to take
and what to do next, where the hero went wrong and had to pay the
consequences, as if this practical guidance were what was meant by 'living one's myth'."

"Living one's myth doesn't simply mean living one myth. It means that
one lives myth; it means mythical living...to try to use a myth practically
keeps us still in the pattern of the heroic ego, learning how to do his deeds
correctly. Myths do not tell us how. They simply give the invisible
background which starts us imagining, questioning, going deeper." Myths
do not carry one to a central meaning, or the center of meaning. "To
enter myth we must personify, to personify carries us into myth."

III. Exercise(top)

Personification is a mode of viewing archetypal processes in their
traditional forms as gods and goddesses. This method allows us to love
the gods, giving them attention and worship. Their names aid us in
discriminating them one from another. They give us the ability to call
upon them.

This process of devotion takes place in the imaginal realm of the heart. In
QBL, this is Tiphareth, the heart-center. In Eastern systems, it is known
as anahata chakra. It is the realm of soul-making. Personification is a
spontaneous process, springing from the heart, where imagination reigns.
This process of active imagination allows us to "see through" the
literalisms of mundane existence and to participate in relationships with
the divine.

A primary purpose of Middle Pillar Exercise is to orient oneself with the
Universe (5). It promises equilibration and renewal. In Middle Pillar
Exercise, the gods are brought into consciousness by intoning their
names. This creates a resonance effect which stimulates glands. These
names are related, via correspondence, to various centers in the body.
Repeated practice of Middle Pillar Exercise is fundamental for any
Magickal development. It heals the culturally-preprogrammed split
between mind, soul and body.

The Banishing Ritual and Middle Pillar Exercise are particularly effective
because they are a dramatization of the Creation Myth. In his book, The
Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade states,

The creation of the world becomes the archetype of every human gesture,
whatever its plane of reference may be. Every construction or
fabrication has the cosmogony as paradigmatic model.

Techniques of orientation (aligning oneself to the directions), are
designed for the construction of sacred space. The more closely a ritual
reproduces the work of the gods in creation, the more effective it is in
producing the desired psychological results. Knowing the value of a ritual
satisfies both the rational and aesthetic mind.

The model for the creation of sacred space begins from a center and
projects horizons in the four cardinal directions. This model has been
followed throughout history when settling new territory or in the founding
of cities. We always reside at the center of "our world."

This quadrated circle sets up the conditions necessary for us to enter into
sacred time. The Banishing Ritual "cleanses" the portion of space within
the perimenter of the circle. This eliminates unwanted thoughts which
could cause distraction. One then has enhanced ability to focus and
concentrate. The circle is cleared of all 'entities,' good or evil. Then one
may call in specific gods, at will. We may contact the gods through the
medium of the sacred pole or cosmic pillar.

Sacred time appears under the paradoxical aspect of circular time,
reversible and recoverable, a sort of mythical eternal present that is
periodically reintegrated by means of rites.

When we enter this space, we experience the feeling of immortality, since
we are in a time which is equivalent to the "beginning." The principle
characteristics of sacred space are:

a) A break in the homogeneity of space;

b) This break is symbolized by an opening where passage from one
cosmic region to another is facilitated (i.e. between heaven and earth; earth and the underworld);

c) Communication with heaven is expressed by variants of the Cosmic Pillar, which stands at the Center of the World.

This Pillar is a useful symbol for what is termed in psychology the
Ego-Self Axis. The axis is built up through various psychological
exercises, involving active imagination. It forms the link between
ego-consciousness and the Self. This represents both the conscious and
subconscious mind working together in harmony. It is known in Magick as
Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

The Banishing and Middle Pillar exercises conform precisely to the
creation myth. Since a myth is a paradigmatic model, one can see it is a
very effective exercise. It establishes one's relationship to the cosmos, or
totality. Eliade has said:

What men do on their own initiative, without a mythical model,
belongs to the sphere of the profane; hence, it is a vain and
illusory activity, in the last analysis, unreal. The more religious
a man is, the more paradigmatic models he possesses to guide
his attitudes and actions.

The importance of persistent practice of Middle Pillar technique,
throughout the Magickal career, is not to be underestimated. Israel
Regardie is quite firm on this point.

To my mind, the exercise described as the Middle Pillar is the
groundwork of all actual developmental work. It is a process
which is the basis of Magic. That this has been but seldom
realized is obviously at the root of the futile attempts to do
Ceremonial and perform Ritual, of which the general public
hears every now and again. Even students of Magic of many
years standing have been guilty of negligence in this respect, and
also in failing to recommend it to their successors.( 6)

Timelessness will appear as a multiple recurrence (chronicity). The
archetypal order will make these appearances regular, both in time (wave
frequency) and magnitude (wave amplitude). The ego has the option of
actively participating in the process through the medium of active
imagination. This develops insight.

To restore our earth to a ground in creative imagination we must re-imagine the creation. (7)

b. Archetypal Encounter: Lunar (or Feminine)
Consciousness(top)

What constitutes awareness? The day-world of ego-consciousness has been called Solar conscious and considered masculine in nature. Nevertheless, even without this rational mode of solar-consciousness, we experience the primordial, diffuse awareness of Lunar (or Feminine) consciousness. This is our basic psychic reality, from which the ego-consciousness later emerges.

Psyche (Greek) or Anima (Latin) means soul. So anima-consciousness or
soul-consciousness indicated an awareness that perceives fantasy creating
reality. Anima-consciousness comes through images. It brings awareness
that fantasies are everywhere. They are not separate from reality, but
fundamental to our notions about reality. Jung says, "image is psyche."

Anima (or soul personified) combines the innocent virginity of the soul's
unsullied pristine state with the sophisticated worldliness of the fertile
Great Mother (White Goddess). She is the embodiment of the Woman's
Mysteries.

Anima, as the archetype of psychic consciousness makes us aware of our
areas of unconsciousness. Soul, in its relationship with spirit constantly
invades the day-world consciousness with images, fears, moods, and
mystery. It is elusive, paradoxical, and ambiguous. This mode of
perception is conscious of its unconsciousness and can recognize the
potential latent in the unknown aspect. It could be characterized as
"illumined lunacy."

Anima-consciousness is that mode which is appropriate to experience in
the astral plane and astral body. The realm of imagination is psychic
reality. Anima-consciousness is a multi-centered polytheistic perspective
(thus a pagan orientation is appropriate to Lunar Magic). Its concern is
being-in-soul not becoming. It is perceived as a coincidence of processes.
All phases of the eternal cycles are present at once, enfolded in any part
of the whole. It is experienced as a series of superimposed images. It is
reflective and concerned with inter-relationship rather than analysis. It is
diffused, not focused awareness. Anima mediates the unknown, or
unconsciousness. It forms a bride to the day-world consciousness.

The Anima serves as a mediatrix for consciousness. She mediates
between the personal and collective, balancing the actualities of daily life
with the realities of the beyond. She bridges the individual conscious
horizon and the primordial realm of the imagination. The feeling
developed through this soul-making process is more impersonal than
personal.

As the Great Goddess, Anima or Psyche represents the archetypal
containing vessel. In current psychological thought, consciousness itself is
seen as more appropriately based upon anima than upon ego. The ego
and its developmental fantasies never were the foundation for
consciousness. Consciousness refers to a process having more to do with
images than will. It is reflection rather than control, with a reflective
insight. Therefore, consciousness arising from soul derives from images
and can be called imaginal. It looks to myth as it manifests in dreams,
fantasies, and life patterns.

"Becoming conscious" now takes on new meaning. It means becoming
aware of one's fantasies and recognition of them everywhere. They are
not merely in a a 'fantasy world' separate from 'reality'. The aspirant
can analyze by means of fantasies and then translate reality back into
fantasy images.

Personifying is an effect of the anima archetype. Libido (psychic energy
or prana, life force) can only be apprehended in a definite form. It is
identical with the fantasy images. The Holy Guardian Angel's
individuation into a distinct personality is precisely what soul-making is
about. If you personify the Soul in the form of the Great Goddess,
Anima, or Psyche she will act as a soul-guide on the inner planes. Anima
consciousness now means seeing, listening, attending all shift from the
gross attachments of the material plane to the shining and transparent
resonance of subtle astral forms. This meeting of soul with Soul is what
the astral plane is all about.

'Psychology' is composed of psyche and logos. It is an interaction
between anima and psychological intellect. The logos, or spirit principle,
gives speech to psyche. Psychology is the speech of the soul, which
combines both lunar and solar components. It would seem that the airy
quality of Yesod and the building of an "astral body" are not irrelevant in
psychology.

The secret and key of psychological work requires the airy imagination of
soul, that is, the capacity of imagining events "outside" of the natural
bodily perspective of empirical and material literalism but in regard to a
subtle or fantasy body of psychic reality. Being-in-soul requires being in a
body too, but this body is built of soul stuff; it is a "breath body." Fantasy
images are this stuff, this "subtle body." The key to the entire
psychological opus...is body-building via imagination. (8)

This body building is a creative act of fantasy. Within it, the many do not
become one but become psychic material. An example of this process is
memory (also an attribute of Yesod). Anima and matter unite when
psychic experiences (9) are encoded in the brain cells of the physical
body.

Lunar consciousness runs the cyclic gamut from the bright diffuse light of
full moon through the half-darkness, to the blackened nature of the dark
of the moon. Its nocturnal quality and lower luminosity don't make it any
less powerful than the solar influence.

INSERT PICTURE QUEENS OF HEAVEN

 

(1) The Great MOTHER or Virgin Goddess(top)

Whether she is known as the White Goddess, Great Mother, or Virgin
Isis the Great Goddess is the symbol of the archetypal Feminine. Her
image is inexorably linked to the Moon and the death-rebirth cycle. The
worship of the Great Goddess was common in the matriarchal agricultural
groups of the Mediterranean and Near East. All the later goddesses of
the Greek pantheon are contained in this universal symbol of the Earth
Mother.

The Goddess is associated with the vegetarian cycle and the processes of
agricultural life. She rules the domestic area of life as well as nature.
Her primary characteristic is fertility. This fertility extends to the
fecundity of imagination. This feminine goddess is single in essence, but
displays many forms.

To the Egyptians, this Great Goddess was known as Isis and her worship
continued into the period of rulership by Imperial Rome. At this point the
religion became a mystery cult. This cult is described in detail in The
Golden Ass of Apuleius, which includes the tale Eros and Psyche which
describes the psychological development of feminine consciousness. The
initiation procedures of this mystery cult involved a voluntary ritual death
and revival. The Isis Mysteries were the same as the Eleusian Mysteries
in honor of Demeter/Persephone. They celebrate the immortality of the
mother/daughter relationship.

Isis embodies all contrasts. Like the moon, she is light and dark, life and
death, beginning and end. This Great Mother is the matrix of all
manifestation perceivable by man. The whole life of man is governed by
the goddess, Mother of all-that-exists. Isis worship even persists in the
modern Christian world through the cult of the Virgin Mary.

Even though matriarchal consciousness characterizes the spiritual nature
of woman, it also exists in men who allow their anima consciousness to
manifest. As she is the source of creative inspiration, the hunches of
instinct and intuition, and the raw life energy itself, it is an advantage for
men to establish a harmony with the moon power. She counsels
meditation, contemplation, waiting and watching, dreaming, and
remembering.

Matriarchal consciousness focuses around growth and transformation. In
this mode understanding has the meaning of a "conception" and the
metaphors of pregnancy and birth are common. The knowledge revealed
by the goddess is not one of imparted truths but the personal experience
of transformation. She encourages participation. When rational
over-achieving ego-consciousness has run its course, quite, reflective
lunar consciousness emerges to cool the fires of the spirit. The feminine
image holds the keys to experience of the inner planes for both men and
women. This is shown in Qabalah by the fact that the two highest paths
of the Middle Pillar correspond with the Moon. She rules the
transformative mysteries of initiation.

As initiatrix, the Goddess progressively educates the emotions of the
aspirant. Magickal training of the image-making faculty is the beginning
of a new way of using the mind. One may become self-initiated into the
Moon mysteries through careful attention to the stirring of subconscious
memories. There is much to learn through psychology concerning the
lunar aspects of the soul. However, the magickal working of Yesod brings
a personal relationship to the Goddess which manifests far more than one
could ever understand through psychology. The imaginal construction of
the personified form of the soul enables a linking between your
consciousness and the subtle matter of the Great Mother's Soul.

The dual nature of the Goddess is shown bu her two characters. Her
elementary nature has both a positive (good) and negative (bad)! She is
pictured either as all-embracing protectress, or alternately as the
devouring Terrible Mother. Her transformative nature also carries good
and bad imagery. She not only governs cyclic rebirth and inspiration, but
also the mysteries of intoxification, madness, and death. The negative
characteristics are symbolized by the Dark Moon, and the positive are
symbolized by the bright Full Moon.

The Great Goddess appears in tandem with her Son-Lover. His death
and rebirth are symbolic of the cycle of the seed in the ground and the
masculine counterpart of divinity. She is soul. He is Spirit.

The stages of the Feminine Mysteries remain valid psychological
milestones in personal experience even in modern life. The worship of the
Great Goddess involved a period of contemplation in her temple, religious
prostitution with a man who represented "masculine divinity" in an
impersonal ceremony designed so the woman experienced a surrender to
her instincts. This sexual union was considered a sacred marriage, but it
was a wedding which resulted in the "death" of her former condition.
But, miraculously, she is transformed into the pregnant Moon Mother,
filled with the divine Spirit. This magickal child grows slowly in an
organic process which had its initiation at the conception of the child. It is
a process which takes place in the dark subconscious, far from the eyes of
men.

With the birth of the virgin-born child, the symbolism switches from that
of sexuality to that of maternal solicitude. This birth is the woman's
spiritual rebirth of her hidden potentialities. Because of her dual nature,
she does not remain exclusively compassionate, but turns fierce and
intolerant when it comes time to sacrifice this child. What is sacrificed is
her incestuous identification with him. Any man must touch upon the
depths of his own emotional intensity, not continue to require this from his
mortal mother. Each facing this emotional intensity is the second stage of
initiation to the Goddess, the impersonal aspect of the Feminine.

The period of the Virgin's Pregnancy corresponds with Yesod. In this
period she is One-In-Herself. As Virgin, she is represented by the
crescent moon. She is a divine power in her own right. With the
incorporation into her body of the masculine solar-seed, she embarks on
Path 25, Art, which represents the harmonization of lunar and solar
components of the psyche. This results in the birth of the magickal child,
his divinity revealed, his demise immanent. Child, King, and Sacrificed
God are all symbols of Tiphereth, Sphere of the Resplendent Sun.

Moving past Tiphareth on Path 13, The High Priestess, we are again the
realm of the Virgin Goddess, but this time she confers the gifts of
potential revealed as the Full Moon, knowledge of the unconscious as past
and future. Entry into this timeless realm is the experience of
immortality, the supreme inspiration of the medial Feminine. Here the
priestess of the Moon appears as sibyl, or wise old woman. Moving
further through the cycle of woman's ages, the waning crescent moon
represents the old crone, full of arcane lore, elusive and sinister.

Thus woman's cycle moves through organic biological changes from
untouched virgin, to initiated sexually-active Virgin, to Mother, to wise
old woman. This trinity was known in ancient Greece Goddess (Virgin,
Mother, Hag). This divine being is the symbol of the Feminine Self, core
of all being.

(2). The Syzygy: Anima and Animus(top)

In the creation myths of many cultures, Primordial Wholeness divides into
polarized aspects. The Syzygy indicates this archetypal coupling where
one aspect is never separated from the other. In the "impersonal" aspect
of lunar experience, the Great Goddess is never separated from her
masculine Son-Lover. One implies the other for wholeness. They
exemplify the soul-spirit relationship.

On the "personal" level of lunar experience we find the tandem of
anima/animus. They are the contrasexual component each human carries
within. These soul figures embody our latent capacities for expression
and realization of the traits normally reserved for the opposite sex. Thus,
the animus leads a woman to the outer world and promotes her ability in
focused, rational thinking; the anima guides a man through the inner
worlds of relationship. This is the level of psychological "complex" where
there is a blending of archetypal realities and individual experience.

Thus, the imagery of anima/us is based in archetypal symbolism and in
childhood memories of "significant others" of the opposite sex. This
includes parental attitudes and behavior, grandparent's influence, sibling,
first-love, and cultural expectations and norms. Anima/us determines our
conceptualization of the ideal mate, and is responsible for such
phenomena as "love at first sight," and "star-crossed lovers." It takes
the elements of fate and destiny and combines them in a personal formula.

Anima/us represents the balancing of masculine and feminine traits in the
individual. This balancing is a form of coniunctio, or sacred marriage, a
union which produces the magickal child which is the higher Self.

The animus is the masculine personification of the soul. He carries both a
transcendent spiritual aspect and a personal aspect. He is shown in the
magickal symbolism of Yesod: a beautiful, naked, muscular man. On the
archetypal level anima/us is equivalent to the Taoist Yin-Yang concept, a
system which embraces a non-combative play of opposites, a circulation of
soul.

Anima/us are potential guides to the depths of the unconscious, forming a
bridge to daily life. They are factors which transcend consciousness, so in
a relationship which seems to have everything going for it, there can be
friction (or "animosity") produced by unconscious for ces operating below
the surface. Most of these troubles stem from projecting the anima/us
image onto our loved ones and maneuvering them into fulfilling our
expectations. Internal conflicts come from the split nature of anima/us we
experience in modern life. This revolves mainly around the gulf between
the Spiritual and Sensual aspects of the inner figure. A man experiences
the split between holy Mother Mary and the erotic goddess of his dreams.

For example, the spiritual animus might be projected onto the figure of a
wise old man, a ghostly lover to whom a woman goes in fantasy, or an
idealized brother/sister relationship devoid of sexual options. The sensual
animus might be imaged by darker gods of impersonal sexuality, phallic or
obscene. In any event, the animus represents the woman's need for
creative expression. The more fully she can manifest this trait, the better
her inner relationship to the animus becomes. He provides her with inner
light, not inspiration which is a function of her anima nature, core of her
Self.

Anima/us excite those feelings of longing, awe, fear of the unknown, and
incomprehensibility. The transpersonal power of love can appear as a
possession by another, against which rational thought has no protection.
Yesod is the experience of this emotional-sexual level and its projections,
coupled with the exercise of discrimination between archetypal and
personal.

(3). ARTEMIS - Goddess of the Moon; Ephesus(top)

Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair
State in wonted manner keep:
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade
Dare itself to interpose;
Cynthia's shining orb was made
Heaven to clear when day did close:
Bless us then with wished sight,
Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart,
And thy crystal-shining quiver;
Give unto the flying hart
Space to breathe, how short soever:
Thou that mak'st a day of night,
Goddess excellently bright.

-- Jonson's "Hymn to Cynthia" (Diana) from Cynthia's Revels

Artemis is a form of the Great Mother, and has archaic characteristics.
She was worshipped throughout the Mediterranean. Her name is
Oriental in origin (Artimis).

In Crete she was worshipped as Britomartis. Her other important cult
sites included Arcadia and Ephesus. The Greek cult in Arcadia
considered her a Kore, like Persephone, and she was even called a
daughter of Demeter. Her major cult site was in Asia Minor at Ephesus
where she was worshipped as the fecund, many-breasted goddess. In this
area, she was associated with the date palm. This symbolism is retained
today in certain Tarot decks, where the High Priestess card, which
corresponds with Artemis contains this tree. Even the advent of
Christianity could not snuff out the old pagan cult. The cult of the Virgin
Mary began in Ephesus and adapted much of the symbolism of the antique
Artemis. Later, in Rome, she was known as Diana or Cynthia.

Paradoxically, Artemis ruled over wild animals, childbirth and the young.
She protected the young, including humans because she had originally
been their mother. However, the chief attribute of Artemis is that she is
Virgin and Mother, simultaneously.

This attribute was especially prominent in Asia where the Olympian
religion impressed on Greece through the Homeric Hymns was less
effective in suppressing the ancient form of worship. Wherever she was
worshipped, under any name, she is the All-Mother. In the earliest Greek
religion, Artemis was an earth-goddess.

She may even have been parthenos, the Greek word which is
usually translated "virgin". This could happen in more than
one way. In the first place, there is some evidence that the word
did not always nor of necessity have that meaning. It might
mean no more than unmarried, not tied by any bonds to a male
who must be acknowledged as master. There were priestesses as
well as deities in pre-Greek and Oriental cults who lived like
that, but without preserving their virginity. Indeed, to sacrifice
her virginity might be part of a priestess's service, but she did
not sacrifice her freedom to a male nor become his property, as
marriage in early times would imply . . . It was quite commonly
believed that virginity could be renewed periodically by a process
of lustration . . . Later, as the more Hellenic notion of strict
virginity prevailed, the attendant remained, but like Hippolytus,
was vowed to chastity as was the goddess herself . . .At Ephesus
her cult was carried on right through classical times in the old
way.(10)

The Greeks adapted her paradoxical nature of dignity and abandon,
uniting her character with their virgin huntress, who was also a goddess of
nature and wild beasts. They could not ignore nor abolish the worship of
the Great Mother with its matrilineal customs. Her cult was by far too
powerful and deeply rooted in the Mediteranean psyche. If her
agricultural rites, sexual emblems, and fertility aspects shocked them,
they nevertheless felt it necessary to amalgamate this goddess into their
pantheon. Whether chaste, or a goddess of fertility, Artemis is always
Virgin, or one-in-herself.

Obeisance to Artemis continues within the Catholic church under the
auspices of the Virgin Mary. The feast of the Assumption of the Virgin
Mary on the fifteenth of August is derived from the great festival to
Hecate the moon goddess of Greece, and that of Diana, her descendant in
Rome. Even the prayers for the preservation of the harvest from
destruction by early rains are continued.

Another major characteristic of Artemis is the cyclic lunar rhythm.
Rhythms such as chanting, dancing, or drum beats facilitates passage from
one plane to the next. It creates an altered state of consciousness.
Dances in honor of Artemis were orgiastic in character. Eliade cites the
proverb: "Where has not Artemis danced?" as meaning that her cult was
so wide spread there were honorary dances for her everywhere.

Her connections with survivability are shown in her function as midwife.
It is even legendary that Artemis was delivered from Leto first, and then
helped her mother in the delivery of her twin, Apollo. Artemis is "the
force that sustains our attraction to the primitive and the unknown. She
can teach us how to make contact with the unconscious and survive.
Artemis is energy: death-bringing energy, psychic energy, abundant
energy, excess energy."(11) Artemis is adventurous and represents the
tendency for striking out on one's own. Sometimes this occurs in mid-life,
when one seeks retreat from the city, home, and family in solitude.
Artemis represents the continual renewal of "daughter-mother-grandmother."

As Artemis-Hekate, she oversees magic. Artemis-Hekate and Apollo
share a capacity for coming powerfully from afar. When invoked, they
appear in their characteristic manner for their epiphany.

An example of lunar magickal procedure is given in Aleister Crowley's
excellent occult novel, Moonchild. The magician Cyril has found a willing
assistant in his efforts from a woman named Lisa. Her horoscope
contains a powerful lunar influence, as his is mostly solar. A sister of the
magickal order aids them both. She is a priestess of Artemis for some
twenty years, and for ten of those has spoken to no man.

Lisa takes her oath of dedication, and is admonished to be strong in her
will and abolish unsuitable thoughts which would disturb the gestation of
the moonchild. Her virginity is then renewed through a rite of lustration
and the rituals begin.

He had set up a small triangular altar of silver; and it was upon this that
Sister C. and her disciples came thrice nightly to make their incantations.
The ritual of the moon might never be celebrated during daylight . . .Upon
the evening of Monday, after the adoration of the setting sun, Lisa was
led to the garden.

There the hand-maidens unclothed her, and washed her from head to foot
the waters of the sacred spring. Then she put upon her a solemn oath that
she would follow out the rules of the ritual, not speaking to any man
except her chosen, not leaving the protection of the circle, not
communicating with the outer and uninitiated world; but, on the other
hand, devoting herself wholly to the invocation of the Moon.

Then she clothed her in a specially prepared and consecrated garment; it
was a loose vestment of pale blue covered with silver tissue; and the
secret sigils of the moon were woven cunningly upon its hem. It was frail
but of great volume; and the effect was that the wearer seemed to be
wrapped in a mist of moonlight.

What was the incantation like? We may well imagine it was one of fervor
and madness of things chaste, remote, and inscrutable. "With the speed
of a huntress the shape neared her, hid the moon from her, and she
perceived the buskined Artemis, silver-sandaled, with her bright bow and
quiver of light. Leaping behind her..."

Artemis was worshipped as Luna in Heaven, and invoked in Tartarus as
Hecate. She avoided the society of men, and retired to the woods
accompanied by her nymphs. She was armed with her bow of light and
carried a torch kindled by the lightening of Zeus, so she could pursue the
swift stag. The high mountains were said to tremble at the twang of her
bow, and the forests resounded with the panting of the wounded deer.
After the chase, Artemis would hasten to Delphi, residence of her brother
Apollo, where she would hang her bow and quiver upon his altar, and
begin to dance.

What does Artemis mean to a modern woman, and what are her
psychological values which persist throughout time?

The chief characteristic of the goddess in her crescent phase is that she is
virgin. Her instinct is not used to capture or possess the man whom she
attracts. She does not reserve herself for the chosen man who must
repay her by his devotion, nor is her instinct used to gain for herself the
security of husband, home, and family. . .She is essentially one-in-herself.

In the image of the Mother Goddess--ancient and powerful--women of
olden times found the reflection of their own deepest feminine
nature...Today, the goddess is no longer worshipped...But the law or
power of which she was but the personification is unabated in its strength
and life-giving potency. It is we who have changed. We have given our
allegiance too exclusively to masculine forces. Today, however, through a
religious cult, not even with a conscious knowledge of what they are
doing, but through a change in psychological attitude. For that principle,
which in ancient and more naive days was projected into the form of a
goddess, is no longer seen in the guise of a religious tenet but is now
sensed as a psychological force arising from the unconscious, having, as
had the Magna Dea of old, power to mold the destinies of mankind. (12)

(4). THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES (Demeter/Persephone,
Isis, and Psyche)(top)

The establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries is related in the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter. After the abduction of her daughter Persephone, the
mourning Demeter traveled to Eleusis (near Athens), and took refuge by
the Well of the Maidens.

She demanded that the local inhabitants build her a sanctuary there.
After she was reunited with her daughter, she revealed her rites, and
began teaching her Mysteries, including the cultivation of wheat.

The early history of the cult reports two types of initiations. One was
concerned with the reunion of the goddesses; the other concerned the
possibility of man's immortalization.

The Great Goddess has always been considered able to grant immortality
to humans, but early initiates to the Eleusinian Mysteries were not
granted immortality, but experienced revelations which assured the soul a
blissful existence after death.

Eliade recounts how the symbolic death of Persephone had great
consequences for mankind: "As the result of it, an Olympian and
benevolent goddess temporarily inhabited the kingdom of the dead. She
had annulled the unbridgeable distance between Hades and Olympus.
Mediatrix between the two divine worlds, she could thereafter intervene
in the destiny of mortals." (13)

Archaeologists established the colonization of Eleusis occurred in the
fifteenth century. The Mysteries were celebrated for nearly 2,000 years.
Because of social and cultural changes during this period, the Mysteries
altered over time.

The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the spring, and formed a
preliminary probation period for the Greater Mysteries conducted in the
Autumn (Sept.-Oct.). Initiation was open to both men and women,
providing they spoke Greek, had killed no fellow man, and had passed
through the Lesser Mysteries.

The rites involved processions, sacrifices, dances, and songs. There were
also secret rites in the Greater Mysteries, which remain shrouded in
darkness to this day. The revelations must have been profound, for no
initiate ever revealed them. A third stage of initiation was open to those
who had been initiates for a year. It culminated in a supreme vision, the
nature of which we may only guess. Attempts at reconstructing the rites
have been made, but only fragments are available. Included were ritual
fasting and imbibing of the sacred drink, or kykeon. What is known is
that, after a sacramental meal (which could represent a sacred marriage
like communion), the final vision took place in a dazzling light, and
included an invocation of Kore.

The Eleusinian Mysteries opened a new religious dimension for the
Mediterranean world. Through them, the initiate perceived a continuity
between life and death. It opened speculations concerning the underworld
which were suppressed by the predominant Olympian religion.

Demeter/Persephone became the most popular of Greek goddesses
during this period, and initiation into her cult, guaranteed a sort of
"adoption" by her. A major characteristic of the cult which became
paradigmatic for most other Mystery cults was the strict emphasis on
silence and secrecy. Thereafter, it became stylish for Masters to reveal
their secrets only to their initiates.

The Egyptian Mysteries of Isis and Osiris:

In the 3rd Century B.C. Ptolemy Soter sought to consolidate his rule
through the acceptance of a supreme divinity by both Egyptians and
Greeks. He exalted Sarapis (a derivative of Osiris) and Isis. Herodotus
assimilated these gods into the Greek Mysteries, where Isis was
identified with the Great Mother, Demeter, and Osiris was the initiated
individual who attained "salvation." For the Greeks, Osiris was also
identified with Dionysus, who was also killed, dismembered, then
resurrected.

Qabalistically, a Great Goddess like Isis has many attributes which have
various correspondences, depending on the level of involvement. Aleister
Crowley has determined several of these:

...a goddess like Isis might be given to Zero as conterminus with
Nature, to 3 as Mother, to 4 as Venus, to 6 as Harmony, to 7 as
Love, to 9 as the Moon, to 10 as Virgin, to 13 again as the Moon,
to 14 as Venus, to 15 as connected with the letter He, to 16 as
the Sacred Cow, to 18 as the Goddess of Water, to 24 as Draco,
to 28 as Giver of Rain, to 29 as the Moon, and to 32 as Lady of
the Mysteries (Saturn, Binah). (14)

In the Hellenistic period, the Mysteries of Isis provided a ritual rebirth as its central purpose. The object was for the initiate to become Osiris, raised from the dead by the magical power of the goddess Isis. Accounts of these mysteries are found in both Plutarch's Isis and Osiris, and The Golden Ass of Apuleius.

After fasting and meditation, the mystes took part in a mystery drama
where he personified Set, or Typhon in the form of a red ass. He was
tormented, and his lust and desirousness transformed through fully
experiencing his instinctual nature. The deep religious intensity of the
aspirant produces transformation and the identification with the dead
Osiris. He journeys to Hades and sees the midnight Sun shining brightly,
as well as the pantheon of Gods celestial and infernal. After this ritual
death, he is raised by the power of Isis. Plutarch also identified Isis with
Athena, in that the ever-changing veil of nature includes both growth and
decay.

The Isis of Hellenistic times, as Nature and the Moon, was creator,
mother, nurse, and destroyer, just like Demeter. She also embodied
Wisdom, or Sophia; Osiris was Knowledge, Reason, and Logos. Through
acceptance by Isis, the initiate caught in the instinctual evil of passion and
lust, is raised to a spiritual life.

The initiate believed the goddess Isis could prolong life beyond the term
fixed by Destiny, or fate. But this process involved a metamorphosis by
undergoing a voluntary, ritual death in order to obtain one's spiritual
birthday.

Like the Eleusinian Mysteries, the first great public festival of Isis took
place in Spring, when the Mediterranean navigation season opened. The
second, the lamentation for and reanimation of Osiris took place October
29 to November 1.

The seeker Apuleius recounts his initiation, after abstaining from meat
and wine for ten days:

Thou wouldst peradventure demand, thou studious reader, what
was said and done there: verily I would tell thee if it were lawful
for me to tell: thou wouldst know if it were convenient for thee
to hear . . . Howbeit I will not long torment thy mind, which
peradventure is somewhat religious and given to some devotion;
listen therefore and believe it to be true. Thou shalt understand
that I approached near unto Hell, even to the gates of
Proserpine, and after that I was ravished throughout all the
elements, I returned to my proper place: about midnight I saw
the sun brightly shine, I saw likewise the gods celestial and
infernal, before whom I presented myself and worshipped
them.(15)

In the Egyptian Mysteries of antiquity, the Pharaoh was identified with
Osiris after his death. But, through these Hellenistic initiations, the living
individual became "Divinized," through the powers of the Goddess. Isis
and Osiris are exalted to the rank of universal divinities of the highest
plane, covering psychic space from the underworld to ascent to celestial
heights. This Hellenistic interpretation of the old Egyptian cults reflects a
"monotheistic" universalism typical of other suffering gods, including
Dionysus and Orpheus. This Hellenistic mystery theology expresses the
deepest Egyptian religious genius.

In recounting the tale of his experiences as an initiate, Apuleius inserts
the tale of Psyche and Eros into his personal story. An evaluation of the
meaning of this tale in the development of his relationship to his anima
brings out the psychological value of these initiatory sequences. In the
tale, Eros represents the reproductive passion, which is transformed
through its relationship with Psyche. Psyche is an incarnated form of
Eros' mother, Venus. Since she is mortal, she represents that part of
Eros' anima which is closer to consciousness. Venus was jealous of
Psyche because mortals began worshipping her beauty, preferring her to
an abstract Olympian goddess.

In Amor und Psyche, the author Merkelbach points up an identification
between Psyche and Isis, and Venus and Isis. One might think that the
goddess, then, fights against herself. In a sense, she does. She protests
because of the narrowing of her potential in a mortal form. Therefore, if
Psyche is Venus in diminutive form, Eros actually takes part in a sacred
marriage with his mother-daughter-sister. This repeats the old Egyptian
formula. Psyche is a form of Kore, the mother goddess in rejuvenated,
human form. Therefore, the Eros and Psyche tale is a variation of the
Demeter-Kore myth.

For the female initiate, this myth represents the deepest experience of
the female mysteries of the Self. For the male initiate, it means a
progressive integration of the anima which then leads to an experience of
the Self. While he is still mother-complexed, all the forms of the goddess
are compounded in the figure of the Great Mother, and he is her eternal
lover.

Venus is a synthetic term for feminine Deity, and includes aspects of
Hestia, Demeter, Cybele, Isis, etc. The symbols overlap. This is because
the life of woman is divisible into three primary forms: 1) Virginity, 2)
Wife and Mother, and 3) Old Woman, or Hag. The Goddess Hecate
combined all these forms in a tripartate representation. She is shown as
an amalgamation of three goddesses: Kore, Demeter, and Hecate the
Witch. Hecate corresponds explicitly with the Moon and its cyclic phases.

Phase 1 includes Artemis, Atlanta, Persephone, Hebe, Pallas Athena, and
the virgin Sybils. Phase 2 includes Venus, Demeter, and Cybele as well as
Artemis of the Ephesians. Phase 3 expresses the dark, malignant nature
of the moon.

Marie Von Franz describes the meaning of Psyche in the process of
individuation. "If we look at it from man's unconscious and what it
means to him, the figure of Psyche seems understandable. She is the
anima which we call the derivative of the mother image. The anima
image of a man is generally close to his mother's image and his anima
always has some characteristics of his mother complex, and is closer to
consciousness than the mother archetype, in which he can integrate his
experience of the female within and outside himself. It is his pattern of
behavior to the feminine."(16)

With a positive mother complex, a man is a puer eternus (eternal son) and
a Don Juan-type lover of women. He lives in a strange fantasy of
eternity, feeling someday he will be a great man, but never quite making
it. With a negative mother-complex, the Don Juan can never deal with
women as they really are since he is naive. He has not matured into the
realization that there is a divine and banal side to love relationships. This
paradox must be accepted. Venus is the mother-anima; Psyche is the
anima uncontaminated by one's maternal image.

Venus, in her jealousy, sets several tasks for Psyche. The one which links
her most closely to the Demeter/Persephone myth is her descent to Hades
to get the box of beauty ointment for Venus. (Chapter 7, Tiphareth
recounts the tale in more detail). Psyche is sent to Kore-Persephone who
is a variation of Venus-Isis in her underworld aspect. She opens the box,
and tries to secure the special "Beauty" for herself. This means the
man's anima equates beauty with goodness, or he can't believe a beautiful
woman is capable of wickedness. This is the old naiveté again, desiring a
real woman to enact his anima projections. Psyche falls into a death-like
sleep of unconsciousness...she is not "her-self." And Eros must come
save her.

But it is a transformed Eros who appears for her. The Greeks
corresponded Eros with Osiris, who taught men and women genuine
mutual love. Eros is now a psychological symbol of the Self. But just at
this point, Eros spirits Psyche off to Olympus, which means the initiate in
THE GOLDEN ASS OF APULEIUS is not ready for the deep religious
experience of the higher Self.

Further transformations of the man's relationship with his anima are
required before he can experience the final Isis initiations. In these,
Osiris is the secret ruler of the underworld, or a personification of the
collective unconscious. He is much more than a simple vegetation-god.

When he is reborn as the Horus-child, he represents restored wholeness
or totality. In QBL, Osiris is corresponded with Tiphareth, and he is the
secret spiritual goal of the Isis Mysteries. Transformation from Yesod to
Tiphareth occurs through the three initiations of the process. This
passage from one psychic state to another produces a unification of the
personality. It is produced through the image of one all-embracing
Goddess. Isis is the symbol of the Self in feminine form.

A religious experience must be accepted in its totality, and therefore is
lived as a lifestyle, publicly. But this does not imply telling one's inner
secrets to everyone, producing inflation. The Self counsels one on the
hiding or exposing of secrets.

The secret Self, Osiris, underwent various transformations becoming
most important in the Hellenistic era. His conscious religious attributes
increased and he became identified with the reborn human soul. The soul
tends to fragment into several autonomous parts. Isis is the only divinity
which keeps her unity. She is an emotional and feeling experience of
totality which leads the way to conscious individuation. But one must
become more than an intellectually interested philosopher, flirting with
every system and mystical cult which comes one's way. This will not
transform the divine inner nucleus.

Isis is the guide to the experience of oneness. The psyche is the only
reality known through immediate experience. Isis gives meaning to
suffering, and initiates the healing process. Man's fate is similar to that
of Osiris. The religious pattern revealed in the mysteries was that first
comes the realization of the anima (Isis, Yesod) and then of the higher
Self (Osiris, Tiphareth). A positive relationship to the goddess produced
psychological transformation in earthly life, which produced immortality
analogous to that of the philosopher's stone or "diamond body."

The initiate Lucius-Apuleius returns to Rome, but has a dream which
leads him to seek initiation into the mystery cult of Osiris. He is confused
as he thinks he has already had this experience in the Isis Mysteries, but
further transformations await him. In the Isis cult, he came to a
realization of the anima or feminine principle. But the archetype of the
Self has its own specific rites and principles, which he must experience
and serve. The aloofness of the Olympian gods is transcended through
personal experience.

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FOOTNOTES

1. ontology: the branch of metaphysics dealing with the philosophical
theory of reality, including consideration of the universal and necessary
characteristics of all existence; also a particular theory of reality.

2. Miller, Webb, Dickson; The Holographic Concept of Reality, Gordon
and Breach Pub., (1973).

3. Edward Sampson, Ego at the Threshold.

4. James Hillman, Re-Visioning Psychology.

5. Philo Stone, Re-Visioning Middle Pillar: the Torus/Twistor Model.

6. Israel Regardie, The Middle Pillar, Llewellyn

7. James Hillman, "Image-Sense," Spring, 1979.

8. James Hillman, "Anima II," Spring 1974, (Spring Publications, Dallas,
1974).

9. Psychic experiences encompass all the manifestations of the imaginal
life: behavior fantasies, dreams, emotions, thoughts, convictions, etc.

10. , The Greeks and Their Gods,

11. Nor Hall, The Moon and the Virgin, Harper and Row, N.Y., 1980, p.
112.

12. M. Esther Harding, Woman's Mysteries, Ancient and Modern,
Harper and Row, N.Y., 1971.

13. Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, University of Chacago
Press, Chicago, Vol. I, 1978; "The Eleusinian Mysteries", p. 290-301.

14. Aleister Crowley, The Qabalah of Aleister Crowley, Samuel Weiser,
N.Y. 1973, p.80

15. Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Chicago Univ. Press, Chicago,
Vol. II, 1982, p292.

16. M.L. von Franz, A Psychological Interpretation of the Golden Ass of
Apuleius, Spring Pub., Dallas, 1980, p. 76.

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