On Rebirth

By Sadhika on

Reflections on Ch. 5 - Symbols of the Mother and of Rebirth, Part II, Symbols of Transformation by Carl Jung.

“The city is a maternal symbol, a woman who harbours the inhabitants in herself like children.”

- Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation.

Given that most famed cities were walled, they represented the safety of the mother’s womb, wherein the hero lies dormant, in preparation for the labour of the mother, following which he would begin his conquests. It is on the soil of our nourishing motherland, that we grow the grain that feeds our mouths. 

In the Homeric epic, the Iliad, the city of Troy has walls so fortified that when the might of Agamemnon batters them down, it is a historic moment of tragedy as it spells the doom of the city.

“Yes, they fail to fulfill their promise sworn that day

they sailed here from the stallion-land of Argos:

that not until you had razed the rugged walls of Troy

would they sail home again…


….Up with you, all you Argives geared for combat,

stand your ground, right here,

until we take the mighty walls of Priam!"

                                  - Homer, The Iliad

In the Book of Genesis, the garden of Eden was described as a “walled orchard”. Interestingly, the word “paradise” has Persian origins, that roughly translate to “enclosed” or “walled”.

“When the two notice their loss, they discover at the place where the source of life found (where the dead fish revived and sprang into the sea) Khidr wrapped in his mantle, sitting on the ground. In another version he was sitting on an island in the midst of the sea, “in the wettest place on earth,” which means that he had just been born from the maternal depths.”

- Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation.

It is to be kept in mind that in this chapter, the mother and mate roles are subsumed in the Woman archetype, just like the son and the impregnator roles are in the Man archetype. The cycle of life entails the birth of the son (man) from the mother (woman) and the subsequent impregnation of the mate (woman) by the hero (man). One must also bear in mind the analogies drawn by Jung in the previous chapter (The Origin of the Hero) between the sun and the hero, and the ocean and the woman. The sun is devoured each day by the ocean; Jung likens this to the seeding of the woman by man (note the soil = woman symbol). The sun completes its seaborne journey from West to East, and bursts forth anew each morning, reborn as the mythological hero yet to complete another conquest. Here, the superimposition of the mother and mate images upon the woman image is clear: it is the ocean (woman) who is impregnated by the sun (hero) at dusk, and it is the ocean (woman) who births the sun (son) at dawn. 

“In the light of these ideas we can understand the mythological statements about Ogyges: it is he who possesses the mother, the city, and is thus united with the mother; therefore under him came the great flood, for it is typical of the sun myth that the hero, once he is united with the woman “hard to attain,” is exposed in a cask and thrown out to sea, and then lands on a distant shore to begin a new life...The meaning of this cycle of myths is clear enough: it is the longing to attain rebirth through a return to the womb, and to become immortal like the sun.”

- Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation.

The immortality of the hero is indeed a truth of life; the “eternal recurrence” of his rebirth and conquests will carry out in a similar fashion across generations.

“The son, indeed, is often the betrayer of his father; the latter understands himself better since he has got his son. We have all hidden gardens and plantations in us; and by another simile, we are all growing volcanoes, which will have their hours of eruption:—how near or how distant this is, nobody of course knows, not even the good God.”

        - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom. 

 

Explore more:

1. Symbols of Transformation - Carl Jung

2. The Joyful Wisdom - Friedrich Nietzsche (trans. Thomas Common)

3. The Iliad - Homer (trans. Robert Fagles)

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