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

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10 Chicken Little: The Inside Story An alchemical scribe by the code name of Marcus Marcianus recorded Chicken Little’s vision, albeit disguised and with a rather optimistic hue, on a medieval illuminated manuscript: Heaven above, Heaven below. Stars above, Stars below. All that is above Also is below. Grasp this and rejoice. That memorable gem came to light in a French count’s library in 1745. It subsequently passed through many hands and was auctioned off in London by Sotheby’s as recently as 1983. Jung himself quotes it in “The Psychology of the Transference,” 4 though he fails to track its source back to Chicken Little. It is also cited in Marie-Louise von Franz’s classic, Puer Aeternus, where she uses it as a stepping stone for all sorts of arcane speculations, like interpreting the stars as archetypes of the collective unconscious—nuclei, so to speak, in the dark sky of the unconscious. 5 I am a longstanding admirer of Marie-Louise von Franz, and particularly of that book, but she too fails to acknowledge Chicken Little’s seminal influence on Western culture. Needless to say, I have a thing about Chicken Little. It goes back to when I first heard about her at the age of six. At that time I still believed in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, and I thought God made all the houses. Those fantasies died, but my interest in Chicken Little survived. Apparently I’m not alone. Since the tablets were unearthed, Chicken Little’s story has been told and retold many times, often with variations but always in the vernacular. At last count, I have personally read thirty-seven versions. The details often differ but the essentials are the same. I’ve also read pretty well all the Chicken Little scholarship— Chickle Schtick, as we call it—and I’ve been privileged to examine 4 The Practice of Psychotherapy, CW 16, par. 384. 5 Puer Aeternus, p. 143.
Chicken Little: Messiah, Meshuggeneh or Metaphor? 11 authenticated replicas of the Kraznac tablets. To me, the definitive study is still Adam Brillig’s essay, “A Non-Euclidean Perspective on Ms. Little.” 6 Professor Brillig, a Zürich-trained analyst, is a well-known Chickle Schticker. To my knowledge he was the first to ponder in print whether the modifying monicker “Little” was sexist. Why not Chicken Big? he asked. Denigration of the feminine, he pointed out, has long been rife in the patriarchal West and it would be no surprise to find it in the barnyard. I shall often refer to Brillig’s views in this paper, for they have a patina of psychological truth, buttressed by personal experience, that is hard to refute. Chicken Little’s story is simple enough, at least on the surface. I shall tell it now, interspersed with my own observations. 7 Chicken Little was on her way through the woods to her grandmother’s when something fell on her head. She picked herself up and shrieked, “The sky is falling!” Then she gathered her skirts and ran off in all directions. “Help! The sky is falling!” she cried. “Help! Help! The sky is falling!” I have mentioned variations. There’s an Indian tale where the impending apocalypse is announced by a hare. In Sri Lanka a bat gets the nod, in Borneo a mongoose, in Australia a bandicoot. Stephen Kellogg’s well-known illustrated version actually begins not with Chicken Little but with a fox—Foxy Loxy—lurking behind a hedge. Foxy sees Chicken Little and immediately thinks of supper. The fragmentary line giving rise to this possibility, on the first broken tablet, is traditionally read as “. . . eat her up.” Of course, Kellogg’s telling is also based on the known fact that foxes are natural predators of chickens, but Adam Brillig gives short shrift to his interpretation. After a devastating attack on Kellogg’s academic credentials, he asks: Why “up”? “Down” would make more sense. Chicken Little was a bird, after all. 8 6 Journal of Forensic Ethnology, vol. 12, no. 2 (1968), pp. 24-46. 7 For the purpose of this paper I have focused on the bare-bones story that unfolds in the Kraznac tablets. Sorting out complex from archetype in modern versions can drive one mad. 8 “A Non-Euclidean Perspective,” op. cit., p. 29.
Page 2 and 3: Chicken Little
Page 4 and 5: CHICKEN LITTLE The Inside Story A J
Page 6: Contents Chicken Little: Messiah, M
Page 9: Chicken Little: Messiah, Meshuggene
Page 13 and 14: Chicken Little: Messiah, Meshuggene
Page 21 and 22: The Letter 21 had a joint. The feel
Page 23 and 24: The Letter 23 could use some spice.
Page 25 and 26: The Letter 25 chel about Brillig’
Page 27 and 28: The Letter 27 the difference. She h
Page 29 and 30: The Letter 29 since the morning in
Page 31 and 32: The Letter 31 her, was written at a
Page 33 and 34: The Meeting 33 Well, strictly speak
Page 35 and 36: The Meeting 35 “Rachel,” I said
Page 37 and 38: The Meeting 37 “May I?” he aske
Page 39 and 40: The Meeting 39 tain-climbing goods
Page 41 and 42: The Meeting 41 Arnold furtively sli
Page 43 and 44: The Meeting 43 things, ‘of shoes
Page 45 and 46: 3 An Unveiling I awoke at 5:30. Tha
Page 47 and 48: An Unveiling 47 had been through th
Page 49 and 50: An Unveiling 49 six hours there and
Page 51 and 52: An Unveiling 51 sensuous mate befor
Page 53 and 54: An Unveiling 53 still devout, and a
Page 55 and 56: An Unveiling 55 I felt a twinge of
Page 57 and 58: 4 Search for the Self After we’d
Page 59 and 60: Search for the Self 59 “Jung spok
Page 61 and 62:
Search for the Self 61 concerned to
Page 63 and 64:
Search for the Self 63 “I also sa
Page 65 and 66:
Search for the Self 65 I looked at
Page 67 and 68:
Search for the Self 67 Rachel looke
Page 69 and 70:
Search for the Self 69 “You could
Page 71 and 72:
Intermezzo 71 town and sent to the
Page 73 and 74:
Search for the Self 73 Alchemical l
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Philosophers’ Stone 75 next door.
Page 77 and 78:
Philosophers’ Stone 77 zine these
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Philosophers’ Stone 79
Page 81 and 82:
Philosophers’ Stone 81 only in hi
Page 83 and 84:
Philosophers’ Stone 83 circled hi
Page 85 and 86:
Philosophers’ Stone 85 fours and
Page 87 and 88:
Philosophers’ Stone 87 how does i
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A Stitch in Time 89 as I can say wh
Page 91 and 92:
A Stitch in Time 91 “Good, bad, w
Page 93 and 94:
A Stitch in Time 93 The prodigal so
Page 95 and 96:
A Stitch in Time 95 “Well,” I s
Page 97 and 98:
A Stitch in Time 97 as I dare say t
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New Dimensions 99 had a session wit
Page 101 and 102:
New Dimensions 101 I was afraid I
Page 103 and 104:
New Dimensions 103 Night after nigh
Page 105 and 106:
New Dimensions 105 culine God-image
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New Dimensions 107 Adam smiled at m
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New Dimensions 109 Adam had said ea
Page 111 and 112:
The Experiment 111 No team of mount
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The Experiment 113 “The major por
Page 115 and 116:
The Experiment 115 While Rachel and
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The Experiment 117 It took some tri
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The Experiment 119 From the Great A
Page 121 and 122:
The Experiment 121 “Hear, hear,
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The Experiment 123 While I scooped
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Bibliography Birkhäuser-Oeri, Siby
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Bibliography 127 _______. The Pregn
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