1.	
AION 
call "volcanic," and corresponds to the solid state of aggregation ("terreus"). We thus get the following series: 
	VIGENERE SERIES81 	RIPLEY SERIES 
	ignis mundi intelligibilis = ignis naturalis82 	= 
	ignis caelestis 	= ignis innaturalis83 
	ignis elementaris 	= ignis contra naturam84 = 
	ignis infernalis81 	= ignis elementalis 
MAIER SERIES 
	ignis terreus 	= Sulfura et Mercurii = Sun (Apollo) = earth 
	ignisaqueus 	= aquae 	= Moon (Luna) = water 
	ignis aerius 	= dracones 	= Mercurius = air 
ignis elementalis = ignis elementalis = Ordinary fire = fire 
	re et nomine 	(Vulcan) 
STATES OF AGGREGATION = solid 
= liquid 
= gas 
= flame 
	394 	The remarkable thing about this paralleling of states of 
aggregation with different kinds of fire is that it amounts to a kind of phlogiston theory-not, of course, explicit, but clearly hinted at: fire is peculiar to all the states of aggregation and is therefore responsible for their constitution. This idea is old 85 and can be found as early as the Turba) where Dardaris says: 
"The sulphurs are four souls [animae] which were hidden in the four elements." 86 Here the active principle (anima) is not fire, but sulphur. The idea, however, is the same, namely that the elements or states of a9gregation can be reduced to a common denominator. Today we know that the factor common to antagonistic elements is molecular movement) and that the states 
81 Vigenere comments: "The intelligible fire of the world: is all light. The heavenly fire: partakes of heat and light. The elemental fire: less in light, heat, and glow. The infernal fire: opposed to the intelligible, of heat and burning without any light." ("De igne et sale," Theatr. chem., VI, p. 39.) [Cf. supra, par. 203.] 
	82 "Is present in everything." 	83 "The heat of ashes and baths." 
	84 "Tortures bodies, is the dragon." 	85 The oldest source is HeracIitus. 
86 Turba, ed. by Ruska, Sermo XLIII, p. 149. 
250 

I. The Four Elements 
From Michael Maier, Scrutinium chymicum (1687) 

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
of aggregation correspond to different degrees of this movement. Molecular movement in its turn corresponds to a certain quantum of energy, so that the common denominator of the elements is energy. One of the stepping-stones to the modern concept of energy is Stahl's phlogiston theory,87 which is based on the alchemical premises discussed above. We can see in them, therefore, the earliest beginnings of a theory of energy.88 
	395 	The phlogiston theory adumbrated by the alchemists did 
not get as far as that, but it points unmistakably in that direction. Moreover, all the mathematical and physical elements from which a theory of energy could have been constructed were known in the seventeenth century. Energy is an abstract concept which is indispensable for exact description of the behaviour of bodies in motion. In the same way bodies in motion can only be apprehended with the help of the system of spacetime co-ordinates. Wherever movement is established, it is done by means of the space-time quaternio, which can be expressed either by the ;lxiom of Maria, 3 + 1, or by the sesquitertian proportion, 3 : 4. This quaternio could therefore replace that of the four elements, where the unit that corresponds to the time-coordinate, or the fourth in the alchemical series of elements, is characterized by the fact that one element has an exceptional position, like fire or earth.89 
	396 	The exceptional position of one of the factors in a quater- 
nity can also be expressed by its duPlex nature. For instance, the fourth of the rivers of Paradise, the Euphrates, signifies the mouth through which food goes in and prayers go out, as well as the Logos. In the Moses Quaternio, the wife of Moses plays the double role of Zipporah and of the Ethiopian woman. If we construct a quaternity from the divine equivalents of Maier's 
87 G. E. Stahl (1660-1734) supposed that all combustible (Le., oxidizable) substances contain an igneous principle. It was assumed to be weightless, or even to possess a negative weight. Cf. H. E. Fierz-David, Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Chemie, pp. 148f. 
88 Psychologically, of course, the primitive idea of mana is very much older, but here we are talking of scientific concepts. The sulphur = anima equation still contains a trace of the original mana theory. Earlier, mana was characteristically misunderstood as animism. 
89 Fire as spiritual, the other elements material; earth unmoving, the others moving. 
251 

AION 
four elements-Apollo, Luna, Mercurius, Vulcan-we get a mar· riage quaternio with a brother-sister relationship: 
!l97 
Depth
If we look at this quaternio from the standpoint of the three-dimensionality of space, then time can be conceived as a fourth dimension. But if we look at it in terms of the three qualities of time-past, present, future-then static space, in which changes of state occur, must be added as a fourth term. In both cases, the fourth represents an incommensurable Other that is needed for their mu~ual determination. Thus we measure space by time and time by space. The Other, the fourth, corresponds in the Gnostic quaternities to the fiery god, "the fourth by number," to the dual wife of Moses (Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman), to the dual Euphrates (river and Logos), to the fire 90 in the alchemical quaternio of elements, to Mercurius duplex in Maier's quaternio of gods, and in the "Christian 
90 B6hme calls the "tire of Nature" the "fourth form." "Tabula principiorum," De signatura rerum (1682), p. 279. 

Width
THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF Quaternity"-if such an expression be permitted 9l_to Mary or the devil. These two incompatible figures are united in the Mercurius duplex of aIchemy.92 
	398 	The space-time quaternio is the archetypal sine qua non for 
any apprehension of the physical world-indeed, the very possibility of apprehending it. It is the organizing schema par excellence among the psychic quaternities. In its structure it corresponds to the psychological schema of the functions.93 The 3 : I proportion frequently occurs in dreams and in spontaneous mandala -dra wings. 
	399 	A modern parallel to the diagram of quaternities arranged 
on top of one another (cf. par. 390), coupled with the idea of ascent and descent, can be found among the illustrations to my paper on mandala pictures.94 The same idea also appears in the pictures relating to a case described there at some length, and dealing with vibrations that formed "nodes." 95 Each of these nodes signified an outstanding personality, as was true also of the picture in the first case. A similar motif may well underlie the representation of the Trinity here appended (Plate II), from the manuscript of a treatise by Joachim of Flora.96 

Luna 
Vulcan
In alchemy Mercurius is male-female and frequently appears as a virgin too. This characteristic (3 + 1, or 3 : 4) is also apparent in the space-time quaternio: 
252 
91 The doctrine of Sabellius (beginning of the 2nd cent.) concerning the preworldly Monad, the "silent and unacting God" and its three prosopa (modes of manifesta. tion), calls for further investigation, as it bequeathed to posterity the first beginnings of a quaternary view of the Deity. Thus Joachim of Flora makes the following accusation against Peter Lombard: "Quod in suis dixit Sententiis, quoniam quaedam summa res est Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus et ilIa non est generans, neque genita, neque procedens: unde asserit quod ilIe non tarn Trinitatem, quam quaternitatem astruebat in Deo, videlicet tres personas, et illam communem essentiam quasi quartam." (As he [Peter] says in his Book of Sentences, For a certain supreme Something is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and It neither begets, nor is begotten, nor proceeds. On this basis Joachim asserts that the Lombard ascribed not Trinity, but Quaternity to God, that is to say, three Persons, and that common Something as a fourth). (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Decrees, Cap. 2; Denzinger and Bannwart, Enchiridion, p. 190.) Cf. "A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity," pars. 243ff. 
92 Cf. "The Spirit Mercurius," pars. 267ff. 
93 The three relatively differentiated functions and one undifferentiated, "inferior" function. Cf. Psychological Types, and the diagrams in Jacobi, The Psychology of C. G.]ung. 
94 "A StUdy in the Process of Individuation," fig. 2, p. !log. 95 Ibid., Picture 3 and accompanying text. 
96 ZUriCh Central Library, Graphics Collection, B x 606. 
253

2.	
AION 

	400 	I would like, in conclusion, to mention the peculiar theory 
of world creation in the Clementine Homilies. In God, pneuma and soma are one. When they separate, pneuma appears as the Son and "archon of the future Aeon," but soma, actual substance (ova[a) or matter (vi\1J), divides into four, corresponding to the four elements (whkh were always solemnly invoked at initiations). From the mixing of the four parts there arose the devil, the "arch on of this Aeon," and the psyche of this world. Soma had become psychized (lJLVrVXov): "God rules this world as much through the devil as through the Son, for both are in his hands." 97 God unfolds himself in the world in the form of syzygies (paired opposites), such as heaven/earth, day/night, male/female, ete. The last term of the first series is the Adam/ Eve syzygy. At the end of this fragmentation process there follows the return to the beginning, the consummation of the universe (7'€i\€V~ 'T.wv 'Il"av'Twv) through purification and annihilation.98 
	401 	Anyone who knows alchemy can hardly avoid being struck 
by the likeness which pseudo-Clement's theory bears to the basic conceptions of the alchem~sts, if we disregard its moral aspects. Thus we have the "hostile brothers," Christ and the devil, who were regarded as brothers in the Jewish-Christian tradition; the tetrameria into four parts or elements; the paired opposites and their ultimate unity; the parallel of the laPis and Mercurius with Christ and, because of the snake or dragon symbolism, also with the devil; and finally, the figure of Mercurius duplex and of the laPis, which unites the opposites indivisibly in itself. 

'*' 

	402 	If we look back over the course our argument has taken, we 
see at the beginning of it two Gnostic quaternities, one of which is supraordinate, and the other subordinate, to man, namely the "Positive Moses" or Anthropos Quaternio, and the Paradise Quaternio.99 It is probably no accident that Hippolytus men- 

97 Harnack, Dogmengeschichte, I, p. 334. 
98 Condensed from the reconstruction by Uhlhorn, in Realencyklopiidie fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, ed. by Hauck, IV, pp. 173lf. 
99 To avoid misunderstandings I would like to emphasize that "Paradise" is used here not in the metaphorical sense, as "future heaven" or the Abode of the Blessed, but in the sense of the earthly Garden of Eden. 
254 

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
tions precisely these two quaternities, or that the Naassenes knew only these, for the position of man is, in their system, closely connected with the higher Adam but is separated from the chthonic world of plants and animals, namely Paradise. Only through his shadow has he a relationship to the serpent with its dual meaning. This situation is altogether characteristic of the age of Gnosticism and early Christianity. Man in those days was close to the "kingless [i.e., independent] race," that is, to the upper quaternity, the kingdom of heaven, and looked upward. But what begins above does not rise higher, but ends below. Thus we felt impelled to symmetrize the lower Adam of the Naassenes by a Shadow Quaternio, for just as he cannot ascend direct to the higher Adam-since the Moses Quaternio lies in between-so we have to assume a lower, shadowy quaternity corresponding to the upper one, lying between him and the lower principle, the serpent. This operation was obviously unknown in the Gnostic age, because the unsymmetrical upward trend seemed to disturb nobody, but rather to be the very thing desired and "on the programme." If, therefore, we insert between Man and Serpent a quaternity not mentioned in the texts, we do so because we can no longer conceive of a psyche that is oriented exclusively upwards and that is not balanced by an equally strong consciousness of the lower man. This is a specifically modern state of affairs and, in the context of Gnostic thinking, an obnoxious anachronism that puts man in the centre of the field of consciousness where he had never consciously stood before. Only through Christ could he actually see this consciousness mediating between God and the world, and by making the person of Christ the object of his devotions he gradually came to acquire Christ's position as mediator. Through the Christ crucified between the two thieves man gradually attained knowledge of his shadow and its duality. This duality had already been anticipated by the double meaning of the serpent. Just as the serpent stands for the power that heals as well as corrupts, so one of the thieves is destined upwards, the other downwards, and so likewise the shadow is on one side regrettable and reprehensible weakness, on the other side healthy instinctivity and the prerequisite for higher consciousness. 
	4°3 	Thus the Shadow Quaternio that counterbalances man's 
255

4°5 
4°7 
406 
AION 
position as mediator only falls into place when that position has become sufficiently real for him to feel his consciousness of himself or his own existence more strongly than his dependence on and governance by God. Therefore, if we complement the upward-tending pneumatic attitude that characterizes the early Christian and Gnostic mentality by adding its opposite counterpart, this is in line with the historical development. Man's original dependence on a pneumatic sphere, to which he clung like a child to its mother, was threatened by the kingdom of Satan. From him the pneumatic man was delivered by the Redeemer, who broke the gates of hell and deceived the archons; but he was bound to the kingdom of heaven in exactly the same degree. He was separated from evil by an abyss. This attitude was powerfully reinforced by the immediate expectation of the Second Coming. But when Christ did not reappear, a regression was only to be expected. When such a great hope is dashed and such great expectations are not fulfilled, then the libido perforce flows back into man and heightens his consciousness of himself by accentuating his personal psychic processes; in other words, he gradually moves into the centre of his field of consciousness. This leads to separation from the pneumatic sphere and an approach to the realm of the shadow. Accordingly, man's moral consciousness is sharpened, and, as a parallel to this, his feeling of redemption becomes relativized. The Church has to exalt the significance and power of her ritual in order to put limits to the inrush of reality. In this way she inevitably becomes a "kingdom of this world." The transition from the Anthropos to the Shadow Quaternio illustrates an historical development which led, in the eleventh century, to a widespread recognition of the evil principle as the world creator. 
	404 	The serpent and its chthonic wisdom form the turning-point 
of the great drama. The Paradise Quaternio with the lapis, that comes next, brings us to the beginnings of natural science (Roger Bacon, 1214-94; Albertus Magnus, 1193-1280; and the alchemists), whose main trend differs from the pneumatic not by 1800 but only by 900-that is to say, it cuts across the spiritual attitude of the Church and is more an embarrassment for faith than a contradiction of it. 
From the laPis, i.e., from alchemy, the line leads direct to 256 

408 
4<>9 

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
the quaternio of alchemical states of aggregation, which, as we have seen, is ultimately based on the space-time quaternio. The latter comes into the category of archetypal quaternities and proves, like these, to be an indispensable principle for organizing the sense-impressions which the psyche receives from bodies in motion. Space and time form a psychological a priori) an aspect of the archetypal quaternity which is altogether indispensable for acquiring knowledge of physical processes. 
The development from the Shadow to the Lapis Quaternio illustrates the change in man's picture of the world during the course of the second millennium. The series ends with the concept of the rotundum) or of rotation as contrasted with the static quality of the quaternity, which, as we have said, proves to be of prime importance for apprehending reality. The rise of scientific materialism connected with this development appears on the one hand as a logical consequence, on the other hand as a deification of matter. This latter aspect is based, psychologically, on the fact that the rotundum coincides with the archetype of the Anthropos. 
With this insight the ring of the uroboros closes, that symbol of the opus circulare of Nature as well as of the "Art." 
7 
Our guaternio series could also be expressed in the form of an equati6n, where A stands for the initial state (in this case the Anthropos) and for the end state, and BeD for intermediate states. The formations that split off from them are denoted in each case by the small letters a bed. With regard to the construction of the formula, we must bear in mind that we are concerned with the continual process of transformation of one and the same substance. This substance, and its respective state of transformation, will always bring forth its like; thus A will produce a and Bb; equally, b produces Band c C. It is also assumed that a is followed by b and that the formula runs from left to right. These assumptions are legitimate in a psychological formula. 
Naturally the formula cannot be arranged in linear fashion 2~'7 

AION 
but only in a circle, which for that reason moves to the right. A produces its like, a. From a the process advances by contingence to b J which in turn produces B. The transformation turns rightwards with the sun; that is, it is a process of becoming conscious, as is already indicated by the splitting (discrimination) of A BeD each time into four qualitatively discrete units.lOo Our scientific understanding today is not based on a quaternity but on a trinity of principles (space, time, causality).101 Here, however, we are moving not in the sphere of modern scientific thinking, but in that of the classical and medieval view of the world, which up to the time of Leibniz recognized the principle of correspondence and applied it naIvely and unreflectingly. In order to give our judgment on A-expressed by abc-the character of wholeness, we must supplement our time-conditioned thinking by the principle of correspondence or, as I have called it, synchronicity.102 The reason for this is that our description of Nature is in certain respects incomplete and accordingly excludes observable facts from our understanding or else formulates them in an unjustifiably negative way, as for instance in the paradox of "an effect without a cause." 103 Our Gnostic quaternity is a naIve product of the unconscious and therefore represents a psychic fact which can be brought into relationship with the four orienting functions of consciousness; for the rightward movement of the process is, as I have said, the expression of conscious discrimination 104 and hence an application of the four functions that constitute the essence of a conscious process. 
	410 	The whole cycle necessarily returns to its beginning, and 
does so at the moment when DJ in point of contingence the state furthest removed from AJ changes into a3 by a kind of enantiodromia. We thus have: 
lOO Corresponding to the phylokrinesis. [Cf. supra, pars. 118, 133.] 
101 I am not counting the space-time continuum of modern physics. 102 Cf. "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle." 
103 [Jeans, Physics and PhilosoPhy, pp. 127. 151.-EDlTORS.] 
104 The immediate cause is the rightward movement of our writing. The right, so to speak, is ruled by conscious reason: the right is "right" in all senses (upright, downright, forthright, etc.). The left is the side of the heart, the emotions, where one is affected by the unconscious. 
~58 

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
	b3 	d 
	/ "'- 	/ "'- 
	Cs 	a3 =A = a 	C 
	"'- / 	"'- / 
	d3 	b 
	ij 	ij 
	D 	B 
	ij 	ij 
	d2 	b1 
	/ "'- 	/ "'- 
	a2 	C2 = C = Cl 	a1 
	"'- / 	"'- / 
	b2 	d1 
The formula reproduces exactly the essential features of the symbolic process of transformation. It shows the rotation of the mandala,105 the antithetical play of complementary (or compensatory) processes, then the apocatastasis, i.e., the restoration of an original state of wholeness, which the alchemists expressed through the symbol of the uroboros, and finally the formula repeats the ancient alchemical tetrameria,106 which is implicit 
d /"'- 
	in the fourfold structure of unity: A = a 	c. What the for- 
"'-/ 
b 
mula can only hint at, however, is the higher plane that is reached through the process of transformation and integration. The "sublimation" or progress or qualitative change consists in an unfolding of totality into four parts four times, which means nothing less than its becoming conscious. When psychic contents are split up into four aspects, it means that they have been subjected to discrimination by the four orienting functions of consciousness. Only the production of these four aspects makes a total description possible. The process depicted by our formula changes the originally unconscious totality into a conscious one. The Anthropos A descends from above through his Shadow l! into Physis C ( = serpent), and, through a kind of crystallizatIon process D ( = laPis) that reduces chaos to order, rises again 
105 Cf. "On Mandala Symbolism," figs. Ig. 21. 37, 60. 
106 Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, pars. 18g and lwgf., in relation to the four regirnina and dispositiones. 
9~n 

412 
AION 
to the original state, which in the meantime has been transformed from an unconscious into a conscious one. Consciousness and understanding arise from discrimination, that is, through analysis (dissolution) followed by synthesis, as stated in symbolical terms by the alchemical dictum: "Solve et coagula" (dissolve and coagulate). The correspondence is represented by the identity of the letters a} al} a2} as} and so on. That is to say, we are dealing all the time with the same factor, which in the formula merely changes its place, whereas psychologically its name and quality change too. At the same time it becomes clear that the change of place is always an enantiodromian change of situation, corresponding to the complementary or compensatory changes in the psyche as a whole. It was in this way that the changing of the hexagrams in the I Ching was understood by the classical Chinese commentators. Every archetypal arrangement has its own numinosity, as is apparent from the very names given to it. Thus a to d is the "kingless race," al to dl is the Shadow Quaternio, which is annoying, because it stands for the all-too-human human being (Nietzsche's "Ugliest Man"),107 a2 to d2 is "Paradise," which speaks for itself, and finally aB to ds is the world of matter, whose numinosity in the shape of materialism threatens to suffocate our world. What changes these correspond to in the history of the human mind over the last two thousand years I need hardly specify in detail. 
	411 	The formula presents a symbol of the self, for the self is not 
just a static quantity or constant form, but is also a dynamic process. In the same way, the ancients saw the imago Dei in man not as a mere imprint, as a sort of lifeless, stereotyped impression, but as an active force. The four transformations represent a process of restoration or rejuvenation taking place, as it were, inside the self, and comparable to the carbon-nitrogen cycle in the sun, when a carbon nucleus captures four protons (twO of which immediately become neutrons) and releases them at the end of the cycle in the form of an alpha particle. The carbon nucleus itself comes out of the reaction unchanged, "like the Phoenix fro:n the ashes." 108 The secret of existence, i.e., the existence of the atom and its components, may well consist in a continually repeated process of rejuvenation, and one comes to 107 [CL Thus SPake Zarathustra, trans. by Common, pp. 30!l1I.-EDITORS.] 
108 Gamow, Atomic Energy, p. 72. 
260 

413 
414 

THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
similar conclusions in trying to account for the numinosity of the archetypes. 
I am fully aware of the extremely hypothetical nature of this 
comparison, but I deem it appropriate to entertain such reflections even at the risk of being deceived by appearances. Sooner or later nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious will draw closer together as both of them, independently of one another and from opposite directions, push forward into transcendental territory, the one with the concept of the atom, the other with that of the archetype. 
The analogy with physics is not a digression since the symbolical schema itself represents the descent into matter and requires the identity of the outside with the inside. Psyche cannot be totally different from matter, for how otherwise could it move matter? And matter cannot be alien to psyche, for how else could matter produce psyche? Psyche and matter exist in one and the same world, and each partakes of the other, otherwise any reciprocal action would be impossible. If research could only advance far enough, therefore, we should arrive at an ultimate agreement between physical and psychological concepts. Our present attempts may be bold, but I believe they are on the right lines. Mathematics, for instance, has more than once proved that its purely logical constructions which transcend all experience subsequently coincided with the behaviour of things. This, like the events I call synchronistic, points to a profound harmony between all forms of existence. 
Since analogy formation is a law which to a large extent governs the life of the psyche, we may fairly conjecture that ourto all appearances-purely speculative construction is not a new invention, but is prefigured on earlier levels of thought. Generally speaking, these prefigurations can be found in the multifarious stages of the mystic transformation process, as well as in the different degrees of initiation into the mysteries. We also find them in the classical as well as Christian trichotomy consisting of the pneumatic, the psychic, and the hylic. One of the most comprehensive attempts of this kind is the sixteenfold schema in the Book of Platonic Tetralogies.109 I have dealt with 
109 An anonymous Harranite treatise entitled "Platonis liber quartorum," printed in Theatr. chem., V (1622), pp. 1141I.; conjectured to have been translated from the Arabic in the 12th cent. 
261 

AION 
this in detail in Psychology and Alchemy and can therefore limit myself here to the basic points. Tl2e schematization and analogyformation start from four first principles: 1. the work of nature, 2. water, 3. composite natures, 4. the senses. Each of these four starting-points has three stages of transformation, which together with the first stage make sixteen parts in all. But besides this fourfold horizontal division of each of the principles, each stage has its correspondence in the vertical series: 
I 
3.	Opus naturalium 
4.	Divisio naturae 
5.	Anima 
6.	Intellectus 
IV 
11 Aqua Terra Aer Ignis 
III Naturae compositae Naturae discretae SimPlicia 
Aetheris simPlicioris 
Sensus 
Discretio intellectualis Ratio 
Arcanum 
415 
This table of correspondences shows the various aspects of the opus alchemicum> which was also bound up with astrology and the so-called necromantic arts. This is evident from the use of significant numbers and the invocation or conjuring up of the familiar spirit. Similarly, the age-old art of geomancy 110 is based on a sixteen-part schema: four central figures (consisting of Subor Superiudex, Iudex, and two Testes), four nepotes (grandsons), four sons, four mothers. (The series is written from right to left.) These figures are arranged in a schema of astrological houses, but the centre that is empty in the horoscope is replaced by a square containing the four central figures. 
Athanasius Kircher 111 produced a quaternity system that is worth mentioning in this connection: 
416 
I. Unum == Monas monadike == Deus == Radix omnium == Mens simplicissima == Divina essentia == ExemPlar divinum. 
(The One == First Monad == God == Root of all things == Simplest understanding == Divine Essence == Divine Exemplar.) 
11. IO (I + 2 + 3 + 4 == IO) == Secunda Monas == dekadike == Dyas == Mundus intellectualis == Angelica intelligentia == Compositio ab uno et altero == i.e., ex oppositis. 
110 Fludd, "De animae intellectualis scientia seu Geomantia," Fasciculus geomanticus (1687), pp. 35f. 
111 Arithmologia, sive De abditis numerorum mysteriis (1665), pp. 260ff. I have to thank Dr. M.-L. van Franz for calling my attention to this. 
262 
418 
THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
( ... Second Monad == tenth == duality == spiritual world == intelligence of the angels == composition of the One and the Other == i.e., from opposites.) 
Ill. IO! == IOO == Tertia Monas == hekatontadike == Anima == Intelligentia. 
( ... Third Monad == hundredth == soul == intelligence.) 
IV. IO$ == IOOO == Quarta Monas == chiliadike == Omnia sensibilia == Corpus == ultima et sensibilis Unionum exPlicatio. 
( ... Fourth Monad == thousandth == all concrete things == body == final and concrete unfolding of unities.) 
Kircher comments that whereas the senses affect only the 
body, the first three unities are objects of understanding. So if one wants to understand what is perceived by the senses (sensibilia), this can only be done through the mind. "Everything perceived by the senses must therefore be elevated to reason or to the intelligence or to absolute unity. When in this way we shall have brought the absolute unity back to the infinitely simple from all perceptible, rational or intellectual multiplicity, then nothing more remains to be said, and then the Stone too is not so much a Stone as no Stone, but everything is the simplest unity. And even as the absolute unity of that concrete and rational Stone has God for an exemplar, so likewise its intellectual unity is the intelligence. You can see from these unities how the perceiving senses go back to reason, and reason to intelligence, and intelligence to God, where in a perfect cycle is found the beginning and the consummation." 112 That Kircher should choose the laPis as an example of concrete things and of God's unity is obvious enough in terms of alchemy, because the laPis is the arcanum that contains God or that part of God which is hidden in matter. 
Kircher's system shows certain affinities with our series of quaternios. Thus the Second Monad is a duality consisting of opposites, corresponding to the angelic world that was split by Lucifer's fall. Another significant analogy is that Kircher conceives his schema as a cycle set in motion by God as the prime cause, and unfolding out of itself, but brought back to God again through the activity of human understanding, so that the end returns once more to the beginning. This, too, is an analogy 112 Ibid., p. 266. [The next sentence is revised and transposed from par. 418. (2nd edn.)] 
417 
ftt:._ 

AION 
of our formula. The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process. Just as the central idea of the laPis PhilosoPhorum plainly signifies the self, so the opus with its countless symbols illustrates the process of individuation, the step-by-step development of the self from an unconscious state to a conscious one. That is why the lapis} as prima materia} stands at the beginning of the process as well as at the end.m According to Michael Maier, the gold, another synonym for the self, comes from the opius circulatorium of the sun. This circle is "the line that runs back upon itself (like the serpent that with its head bites its own tail), wherein that eternal painter and potter, God, may be discerned." 114 In this circle, Nature "has related the four qualities to one another and drawn, as it were, an equilateral square, since contraries are bound together by contraries, and enemies by enemies, with the same everlasting bonds." Maier compares this squaring of the circle to the "homo quadratus," the four-square man, who "remains himself" come weal come woe.m He calls it the "golden house, the twicebisected circle, the four-cornered phalanx, the rampart, the city wall, the four-sided line of battle." 116 This circle is a magic circle consisting of the union of opposites, "immune to all injury." 
	419 	Independently of Western tradition, the same idea of the 
circular opus can be found in Chinese alchemy: "When the light is made to move in a circle, all the energies of heaven and earth, of the light and the dark, are crystallized," says the text of the Golden Flower.m 
	420 	The oP'Yalloll KVKALKOll, the circular apparatus that assists the cir- 
cular process, is mentioned as early as Olympiodorus.ll8 Dorn is of the opinion that the "circular movement of the Physiochemists" comes from the earth, the lowest element. For the fire originates in the earth and transforms the finer minerals and water into air, which, rising up to the heavens, condenses there 113 Documentation in Psychology and Alchemy, esp. pars. 427, n. 4, and 431. 
	114 De circulo physico quadrato, p. 16. 	115 Ibid., p. 17. 
116 Ibid., p. 19. 
117 Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower (1962 edn.), p. !loo 118 Berthelot, Alch. grecs, 11, iv, 44. 
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THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE SELF 
and falls down again. But during their ascent the volatilized elements take "from the higher stars male seeds, which they bring down into the four matrices, the elements, in order to fertilize them spagyrically." This is the "circular distillation" 119 which Rupescissa says must be repeated a thousand times.12o 
	421 	The basic idea of ascent and descent can be found in the 
Tabula smaragdina} and the stages of transformation have been depicted over and over again, above all in the Ripley "Scrowle" and its variants. These should be understood as indirect attempts to apprehend the unconscious processes of individuation in the form of pictures. 
119 "Physica genesis," Theatr. chem., I, p. 391• 
120 La Vertu et la propriete de la quinte essence, p. 26. 
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CONCLUSION 
I have tried, in this book, to elucidate and amplify the various aspects of the archetype which it is most important for modem man to understand-namely, the archetype of the self. By way of introduction, I described those concepts and archetypes which manifest themselves in the course of any psychological treatment that penetrates at all deeply. The first of these is the SHADOW, that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious. Through analysis of the shadow and of the processes contained in it we uncover the ANIMAl ANIMUS syzygy. Looked at superficially, the shadow is cast by the conscious mind and is as much a privation of light as the physical shadow that follows the body. For this superficial view, therefore, the psychological shadow with its moral inferiority might also be regarded as a privlltion of good. On closer inspection, however, it proves to be a darkness that hides influential and autonomous factors which can be distinguished in their own right, namely anima and animus. When we observe them in full operation-as the devastating, blindly obstinate demon of opinionatedness in a woman, and the glamorous, possessive, moody, and sentimental seductress in a man-we begin to doubt whether the unconscious can be merely the insubstantial comet's tail of consciousness and nothing but a privation of light and good. 
If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of all evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is, his shadow, does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, ete. On this level of understanding, evil appears more as a distortion, a deformation, a misinterpretation and misapplication of facts 
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that in themselves are natural. These falsifications and caricatures now appear as the specific effects of anima and animus, and the latter as the real authors of evil. But we cannot stop even at this realization, for it turns out that all archetypes spontaneously develop favourable and unfavourable, light and dark, good and bad effects. In the end we have to acknowledge that the self is a comPlexio oppositorum precisely because there can be no reality without polarity. We must not overlook the fact that opposites acquire their moral accentuation only within the sphere of human endeavour and action, and that we are unable to give a definition of good and evil that could be considered universally valid. In other words, we do not know what good and evil are in themselves. It must therefore be supposed that they spring from a need of human consciousness and that for this reason they lose their validity outside the human sphere. That is to say a hypostasis of good and evil as metaphysical entities is inadmissible because it would deprive these terms of meaning. If we call everything that God does or allows "good," then evil is good too, and "good" becomes meaningless. But suffering, whether it be Christ's passion or the suffering of the world, remains the same as before. Stupidity, sin, sickness, old age, and death continue to form the dark foil that sets off the 
joyful splendour of life. 
The recognition of anima and animus is a specific experience 
that seems to be reserved mostly, or at any rate primarily, for psychotherapists. Nevertheless, anyone who has a little knowledge of belles-lettres will have no difficulty in forming a picture of the anima; she is a favourite subject for novelists, particularly west of the Rhine.1 Nor is a careful study of dreams always necessary. It is not quite so easy to recognize the woman's animus, for his name is legion. But anyone who can stand the animosity of his fellows without being infected by it, and is capable at the same time of examining it critically, cannot help discovering that they are possessed. It is, however, more advantageous and more to the point to subject to the most rigorous scrutiny one's own moods and their changing influence on one's personality. To know where the other person makes a mistake is of little value. It only becomes interesting when you know where you 1 The outstanding example in Swiss literature is Spitteler's Imago. [In English literature, perhaps Rider Haggard's She.-EDITORS.] 
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AION 
make the mistake, for then you can do something about it. What we can improve in others is of doubtful utility as a rule, if, indeed, it has any effect at all. 
Although, to begin with, we meet the anima and animus mostly in their negative and unwelcome form, they are very far from being only a species of bad spirit. They have, as we have said, an equally positive aspect. Because of their numinous, suggestive power they have formed since olden times the archetypal basis of all masculine and feminine divinities and therefore merit special attention, above all from the psychologist, but also from thoughtful laymen. As numina, anima and animus work now for good, now for evil. Their opposition is that of the sexes. They therefore represent a supreme pair of opposites, not hopelessly divided by logical contradiction but, because of the mutual attraction between them, giving promise of union and actually making it possible. The coniunctio oppositorum engaged the speculations of the alchemists in the form of the "Chymical Wedding," and those of the cabalists in the form of Tifereth and Malchuth or God and the Shekhinah,2 not to speak of the marriage of the Lamb. 
The dual being born of the alchemical union of opposites, the Rebis or Lapis Philosophorum, is so distinctively marked in the literature that we have no difficulty in recognizing it as a symbol of the self. Psychologically the self is a union of conscious (masculine) and unconscious (feminine). It stands for the psychic totality. So formulated, it is a psychological concept. Empirically, however, the self appears spontaneously in the shape of specific symbols, and its totality is discernible above all in the mandala and its countless variants. Historically, these symbols are authenticated as God-images. 
The animajanimus stage is correlated with polytheism, the self with monotheism.3 The natural archetypal symbolism, describing a totality that includes light and dark, contradicts in some sort the Christian but not the Jewish or Yahwistic viewpoint, or only to a relative degree. The latter seems to be closer to Nature and therefore to be a better reflection of immediate experience. Nevertheless, the Christian heresiarchs tried to sail 
2 Hurwitz, "Archetypische Motive in der chassidischen Mystik," ch. VI. 
3 This thema is the subject of an Oxford dissertation by Amy I. Allenby: A Psychological Study of the Origins of Monotheism. 
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round the rocks of Manichaean dualism, which was such a danger to the early Church, in a way that took cognizance of the natural symbol, and among the symbols for Christ there are some very important ones which he has in common with the devil, though this had no influence on dogma. 
	428 	By far the most fruitful attempts, however, to find suitable 
symbolic expressions for the self were made by the Gnostics. Most of them-Valentinus and Basilides, for instance-were in reality theologians who, unlike the more orthodox ones, allowed themselves to be influenced in large measure by natural inner experience. They are therefore, like the alchemists, a veritable mine of information concerning all those natural symbols arising out of the repercussions of the Christian message. At the same time, their ideas compensate the asymmetry of God postulated by the doctrine of the privatio boni) exactly like those well-known modern tendencies of the unconscious to produce symbols of totality for bridging the gap between the conscious 
and the unconscious, which has widened dangerously to the point of universal disorientation. 
I am well aware that this work, far from being complete, is 
a mere sketch showing how certain Christian ideas look when observed from the standpoint of psychological experience. Since my main concern was to point out the parallelism or the difference between the empirical findings and our traditional views, a consideration of the disparities due to time and language proved unavoidable. This was particularly so in the case of the fish symbol. Inevitably, we move here on uncertain ground and must now and then have recourse to a speculative hypothesis or tentatively- reconstruct a context. Naturally every investigator must document his findings as fully as possible, but he should also venture an occasional hypothesis even at the risk of making a mistake. Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is) it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not. 
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