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

104 Chicken Little: The Inside Story
the king stood on stones in order to give their vote permanence. The
green stone of Arran was used both for healing and for taking oaths
on. A cache of “soul stones,” similar to churingas, was found in a
cave on the river Birs near Basel, and during recent excavations of
the pole-dwellings on the little lake at Burgaeschi, in Canton Solothurn,
a group of boulders was discovered wrapped in the bark of
birch trees. This very ancient conception of the magical power of
stones led on a higher level of culture to the similar importance attached
to gems, to which all kinds of magical and medicinal properties
were attributed. The gems that are the most famous in history are
even supposed to have been responsible for the tragedies that befell
their owners. 109
“And on and on it goes,” said Adam, closing the book with a
snap. “From ancient times and in all cultures, the stone has represented
something precious—an amalgam of body, soul and spirit.
Only recently, of course, has psychological research shown that the
myriad historical or ethnological symbols are identical with those
spontaneously produced by the unconscious. Jung himself was the
first to call attention to the fact that the lapis represents the idea of
a transcendent totality which coincides with the Self.”
He stopped speaking and I wondered if he’d gone too fast. It was
rather a lot to swallow.
“I don’t quite understand . . . ,” Rachel said hesitantly. “How can
a stone represent both the feminine and the Self?”
Adam was ready for that.
“Among the intriguing characteristics of symbols,” he said, “is
that they are paradoxical. Not exactly all things to all men, but certainly
different things to different men—and women too, of course.
You might care to rephrase your question to reflect this. For instance,
‘When is a stone not a stone?’—to which the answer may
well be, ‘When it’s something else.’ ”
“And Chicken Little,” asked Rachel, “didn’t you say the other
night that she personifies the repressed side of God?”
“Yes,” replied Adam, “but I believe the Zeitgeist is taking care
of that. Thanks in no small part to our mentor Jung, the feminine is
coming to the fore as an essential balance to the traditionally mas-
109 Ibid, par. 129.