Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

New Dimensions 103
Night after night our dreams practise philosophy on their own account.
What is more, when we attempt to give these numina the slip
and angrily reject the alchemical gold which the unconscious offers,
things do in fact go badly with us, we may even develop symptoms
in defiance of all reason, but the moment we face up to the stumbling-block
and make it—if only hypothetically—the cornerstone,
the symptoms vanish and we feel “unaccountably” well. 107
“Outside of the alchemical lapis, the stone has quite a respectable
pedigree as a Self-image. Incorruptibility, permanence
and divinity are among its fabled attributes. I’ve done some research
myself, but it pales beside the analogies Jung unearthed.
Listen to this”—
The stone as the birthplace of the gods (e.g., the birth of Mithras
from a stone) is attested by primitive legends of stone-births which
go back to ideas that are even more ancient—for instance, the view
of the Australian aborigines that children’s souls live in a special
stone called the “child-stone.” They can be made to migrate into a
uterus by rubbing the “child-stone” with a churinga. Churingas may
be boulders, or oblong stones artificially shaped and decorated, or
oblong, flattened pieces of wood ornamented in the same way. . . .
The churingas used for ceremonial purposes are daubed with red
ochre, anointed with fat, bedded or wrapped in leaves, and copiously
spat on (spittle = mana). 108
I looked around to see who was following this. Rachel smiled at
me; D. was scribbling. Arnold was either feigning sleep or dead.
Adam continued reading:
These ideas of magic stones are found not only in Australia and
Melanesia but also in India and Burma, and in Europe itself. For example,
the madness of Orestes was cured by a stone in Laconia. Zeus
found respite from the sorrows of love by sitting on a stone in Leucadia.
In India, a young man will tread upon a stone in order to obtain
firmness of character, and a bride will do the same to ensure her
own faithfulness. According to Saxo Grammaticus, the electors of
107 “The Symbolism of the Mandala,” Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par. 247.
108 “The Visions of Zosimos,” Alchemical Studies, CW 13, par. 128. (Mana is a
Melanesian word referring to a bewitching or numinous quality in gods and sacred
objects.)