Transcription
The Hindu firebringer is called Mata Rick Ran. And the activity of the fire preparation is always designated in the hieretic text by the verb mani, which means shaking, rubbing, bringing forth by rubbing.
has put this verb in connection with the Greek pantheus, which means to learn, and has explained this conceptual relationship. The tersim compare tanos might lie in the rhythm. The movement to and fro in the mind. According to the root m or moth, must be traced from the Greek "I learn," "that which is learned," "knowledge," "the act of learning," "to take thought beforehand." To Prometheus for thought, who is the Greek far robber through an unauthorized Sanskrit word? Prometheus, which comes by way of pantha and which possesses the double meaning of rubber and robber. The transition to Prometheus was effective with that. However, the prefix bra caused special difficulty, so that the whole derivation was doubted by a series of authors and was held in part as erroneous.
On the other hand, it was pointed out that as the thuric Zeus bore the especially interesting cognomen protheus, might not be an original Indo-Germanic stem word that was related to the Sanskrit prom, but might represent only a cognomomen. This interpretation is supported by a gloss of aius Prometheus, the herald of the titans. Another gloss of Zikius explains other Greek terms meaning of the flaming one, analogous to similar Greek words. The relation of Prometheus to prom could scarcely be so direct as conjectures. The question of an indirect relation is not decided with that.
Above all, Prometheus is of great significance as a surname for atheas, since the flaming one is the forthinker. Pray equals precaution is also an attribute of agny. Although permade is of another derivation. Prometheus, however, belongs to the line of fleans, which was placed by in uncontested relationship to the Indian priest family of burgu. The burgu are, like mata rivan, the one swelling in the mother, also firebringers. quotes a passage according to which burgu also arises from the flame, like agi in the flame. Burgu originated. Burgu roasted but did not burn.
This view leads to a root related to burgu, that is to say, to the Sanskrit bray, equally to light. Latin fio and Greek the yo. Sanskrit burgus equals splendor. Latin fulgar. Burgu appears, therefore, as the shining one, means a certain species of eagle on account of its burnish gold color. The connection with baleas, which signifies to burn, is clear. The fleans are also the fire eagles. Prometheus also belongs to the fleian path. From prumptha to prometheus passes not through the word, but through the idea, and therefore we should adopt this same meaning for prometheus as that which pant attains from the Hindu fire symbolism.
The pant as the tool of mantana, the fire sacrifice, is considered purely sexual in the Hindu. The panta as phallus or man. The board wood underneath as vulva or woman. The resulting fire is the child, the divine son agny. The two pieces of wood are called in the cult per ru rab vas and v bachi, and were thought of personified as men and women. The fire was born from the genitals of the woman.
An especially interesting representation of fire production as a religious ceremony mamana is given by Weber. A certain sacrificial fire was lit by the rubbing together of two sticks. One piece of wood is taken up with the words, "Thou art the birthplace of the fire," and two blades of grass are placed upon it. E are the two testicles to the adhara rani. The underlying wood thou art vaki. Then the uta raani, that which is placed on top, is anointed with butter. Thou art power. This is then placed on the adhara rani. Thou art per raas. And both are rubbed three times. "I rub thee with the metum. I rub thee with the trish metum. I rub thee with the yagetum." The sexual symbolism of this fire production is unmistakable. We see here also the rhythm, the meter, in its original place as sexual rhythm, rising above the mating call into music.
A song of the riga conveys the same interpretation and symbolism. "Here is the gear for function. Here tender made ready for the spark. Bring thou the matron. We will rub Agny in ancient fashion and forth in the two fire sticks yata vades lith even as the well-formed germ in pregnant women agy who day by day must be exalted by men who watch and worship with oblations lay this with care on that which lies extended straight hath she born the steer when made prolific with his redpillar radiant in a splendor in our skilled task is born the son of Ila." (Book 3, 29, 1-3).
Side by side with the unequivocal coat symbolism, we see that the prama is also agy. The created son, the phallus, is the sun, or the sun is the phallus. Therefore, agy in the vadic mythology has the threefold character. With this, we are once more connected with the above-mentioned kabiric father-son cult.
In the modern German language, we have preserved echoes of the primitive symbols. A boy is designated as bangal, short thick piece of wood; in hash as stiff or bolen, arrow, wooden peg or stump. The artameisia abroanum, which is called in German stab warts stick root, is called in English boy's love. The vulgar designation of the penis as boy was remarked even by Grim and others.
The ceremonial production of fire was retained in Europe as late as the 19th century as a superstitious custom. Cune mentions such a case even in the year 1828, which occurred in Germany. The solemn magic ceremony was called the nod fire, the fire of need, and the charm was chiefly used against cattle epidemics. Cune sites from the chronicle of lanner cost of the year 1268 and especially noteworthy case of a nodfire. The ceremonies of which plain reveal the fundamental phallic meaning. In Latin, instead of preserving the divine faith in its purity, the reader will call to mind the fact that in this year, when the plague, usually called lung sickness, attacked the herds of cattle in Leodonia, certain bastial men, monks, and dressed but not in spirit taught the ignorant people of their country to make fire by rubbing wood together, and to set up a statue of Priapus, and by that method to sucker the cattle. After a sisters, lay brother had done this near a thin tone in front of the entrance of the court, he sprinkled the animals with holy water and with the preserved testicles of a dog, etc.
These examples, which allow us to recognize a clear sexual symbolism in the generation of fire, prove, therefore, since they originate from different times in different peoples, the existence of a universal tendency to credit to fire production, not only a magical but also of sexual significance. This ceremonial or magic repetition of this very ancient long outlived observance shows how insistently the human mind clings to the old forms and how deeply rooted is this very ancient reminiscence of fire boring.
One might almost be inclined to see in the sexual symbolism of fire production a relatively late addition to the priestly lore. This may indeed be true for the ceremonial elaboration of the fire mysteries. But whether originally the generation of fire was in general a sexual action, that is to say, a co is plague, is still a question. That similar things occur among very primitive people we learn from the Australian tribe of the W shandes, who in the spring perform the following magic ceremonies of fertilization. They dig a hole in the ground, so formed and surrounded with bushes as to count to fit a woman's genitals. They dance the night long around this hole. In connection with this, they hold spears in front of themselves in a manner to recall the penis interaction. They dance around the hole and thrust their spears into the ditch while they cry to it: "Puly neri puly neri wataka. Known fasa known fasa said kunis." Such obscene dances appear among other primitive races as well. In this spring incantation are contained the elements of the coist play. This play is nothing but a coetus game. That is to say, originally this play was simply a cois in the form of sacramental mating, which for a long time was a mysterious element among certain cults and reappeared in sex.
In the ceremonies of Zin Xandorf's followers, echoes of the kodus sacrament may be recognized also in other sects. One can easily think that just as the above-mentioned Australian bushmen performed the kodas play in this manner, the same performance could be enacted in another manner, and indeed in the form of fire production. Instead of through two selective human beings, the cowus was represented by two substitutes, by buru rais and vachi, by phallus and volva, by borer and opening. Just as the primitive thought behind other customs is really the sacramental coalition, so here the primal tendency is really the act itself. For the act of fertilization is the climax, the true festival of life, and well worthy to become the nucleus of a religious mystery.
If we are justified in concluding that the symbolism of the whole in the earth used by the watts shandis for the fertilization of the earth takes the place of the kodus, then the generation of fire could be considered in the same way as a substitute for kodus. And indeed, it might be further concluded, as a consequence of this reasoning, that the invention of firemaking is also due to the need of supplying a symbol for the sexual act.
Let us return for a moment to the infantile symptom of boring. Let us imagine a strong adult man carrying on the boring with two pieces of wood with the same perseverance and the energy corresponding to that of this child. He may very easily create fire by this play, but of greatest significance in this work is the rhythm. This hypothesis seems to me psychologically possible, although it should not be said with this that only in this way could the discovery of fire occur. It can result just as well by the striking together flints. It is scarcely possible that fire was created in only one way. All I want to establish here is merely the psychologic process, the symbolic indications of which point to the possibility that in such a way was fire invented or prepared.
The existence of that primitive code is play or right seems to me sufficiently proven. The only thing that is obscure is the energy and emphasis of the ritual play. It is well known that those primitive rights were often a very bloody seriousness and were performed with an extraordinary display of energy, which appears as a great contrast to the well-known indolence of primitive humanity. Therefore, the ritual activity entirely loses the character of plague and wins that of purposeful effort. If certain negro races can dance the whole night long to three tones in the most monotonous manner, then according to our idea, there is in this an absolute lack of the character of play pastime; it approaches nearer to exercise. There seems to exist a sort of compulsion to transfer the libido into such ritual activity. If the basis of the ritual activity is the sexual act, we may assume that it is really the underlying thought and object of the exercise.
Under these circumstances, the question arises why the primitive man endeavors to represent the sexual act symbolically and with effort. Or, if this wording appears to be too hypothetical, why does he exert energy to such a degree only to accomplish practically useless things which apparently do not especially amuse him? It may be assumed that the sexual act is more desirable to primitive men than such absurd and moreover fatiguing exercises. It is hardly possible but that assert compulsion conducts the energy away from the original object and real purpose, inducing the production of surrogates.
The existence of a phallic or orastic cult does not indicate apso a particularly lascivious life anymore than the aesthetic symbolism of Christianity means an especially moral life. One honors that which one does not possess or that which one is not. This compulsion to speak in the nomenclature formulated above removes a certain amount of libido from the real sexual activity and creates a symbolic and practically valid substitute for what is lost. This psychology is confirmed by the above-mentioned watts jandi ceremony. During the entire ceremony, none of the men may look at a woman. This detail again informs us from whence the libido is to be diverted.
But this gives rise to the pressing question: Whence comes this compulsion? We've already suggested above that the primitive sexuality encounters a resistance which leads to a sidetracking of the libido onto substitution actions, analogy, symbolism, etc. It is unthinkable that it is a question of any outer opposition whatsoever or of a real obstacle, since it occurs to no savage to catch his elusive quarry with ritual charms. But it is a question of an internal resistance. Will opposes will. Libido opposes libido. Since a psychologic resistance as an energetic phenomenon corresponds to a certain amount of libido, the psychologic compulsion for the transformation of the libido is based on an original division of the will.
I will return to this primal splitting of the libido in another place. Here let us concern ourselves only with the problem of the transition of the libido. The transition takes place, as has been repeatedly suggested, by means of shifting to an analogy. The libido is taken away from its proper place and transferred to another substratum. The resistance against sexuality aims, therefore, at preventing the sexual act. It also seeks to crowd the libido away from the sexual function. We see, for example, in hysteria, how the specific repression blocks the real path of transference. Therefore, the libido is obliged to take another path, and that an earlier one, namely the incestrous road, which ultimately leads to the parents.
Let us speak, however, of the incest prohibition, which hindered the very first sexual transference. Then the situation changes and so far that no earlier way of transference is left except that of the pre-exual stage of development, where the libido was still partly in the function of nutrition. By a regression to the pre-exual material, the libido becomes qua desexualized. But as the incest prohibition signifies only a temporary and conditional restriction of the sexuality, thus only that part of the libido which is best designated as the incestuous component is now pushed back to the pre-exual stage. The repression therefore concerns only that part of the sexual libido which wishes to fix itself permanently upon the parents.
The sexual libido is only withdrawn from the incestuous component repressed upon the preexual stage and there, if the operation is successful, desexualized, by which this amount of libido is prepared for an asexual application. However, it is to be assumed that this operation is accomplished only with difficulty, because the ancestrous libido, so to speak, must be artificially separated from the sexual libido with which for ages through the whole animal kingdom it was indistinguishably united. The regression of the ancestrous component must therefore take place not only with great difficulty, but also carry with it into the preexual stage a considerable sexual character. The consequence of this is that the resulting phenomena, although stamped with the character of the sexual act, are nevertheless not really sexual acts de facto; they are derived from the pre-exual stage and are maintained by the repressed sexual liido, therefore possess a double significance.
Thus, the fire boring is a coatus, and to be sure an incestuous one, but as desexualized one, which has lost its immediate sexual worth and is therefore indirectly useful to the propagation of the species. The pre-exual stage is characterized by countless possibilities of application because libido has not yet formed definite localizations. It therefore appears intelligible that an amount of libido which reaches this stage through regression is confronted with manifold possibilities of application. Above all, it is met with the possibility of a purely onistic activity. But as the matter in question and the regressive component of libido is sexual libido, the ultimate object of which is propagation, therefore, it goes to the external object, parents. It will also introvert with this destination as its essential character. The result, therefore, is that the purely onistic activity turns out to be insufficient, and another object must be sought for which takes the place of the incest object. The nurturing mother earth represents the ideal example of such an object. The psychology of the preexual stage contributes the nutrition component, the sexual libido, the coatus idea. From this the ancient symbols of agriculture arise. In the work of agriculture, hunger and incest intermingle. The ancient cults of mother earth and all the superstitions founded thereon saw in the cultivation of earth the falization of the mother. The aim of the action is desexualized, however, for it is the fruit of the field and the nourishment contained therein. The regression resulting from the incest prohibition leads in this case to the new valuation of the mother, this time, however, not as a sexual object, but as a nourisher.
The discovery of fire seems to be due to a very similar regression to the pre-exual stage, more particularly to the nearest stage of the displaced rhythmic manifestation. The libido introverted from the incest prohibition with the more detailed designation of the motor components of codus, when it reaches the pre-exual stage, meets the related infantile boring, to which it now gives, in accordance with its realistic destination and actual material. Therefore, the material is fittingly called material, as the object is the mother, as above. As I sought to show above, the action of the infantile boring requires only the strength and perseverance of an adult man and suitable material in order to generate fire. If this is so, it may be expected that, analogous to our foregoing case of oninistic boring, the generation of fire originally occurred as such an act of quai onistic activity objectively expressed.
The demonstration of this can never be actually furnished, but it is thinkable that somewhere traces of this original oninistic preliminary exercise of fire production have been preserved. I have succeeded in finding a passage in a very old monument of Hindu literature which contains this transition of the sexual libido through the onenistic phase in the preparation of fire. This passage is found in briha dar nayaka abana shad. "In truth he atman was as large as a woman and a man when they embrace each other. This his own self he divided into two parts, out of which husband and wife were formed. With her he copulated. From this humanity sprang. She however pondered. How may he unite with me after he has created me from himself? Now I shall hide. Then she became a cow. He however became a bull and mated with her. From that sprang the horned cattle. Then she became a mare. He however became a stallion. She became a she as he ass and mated with her. From these sprang the whole hoofed animals. She became a goat. He became a but she became a you. He became a ram and mated with her. Thus were created goats and sheep. Thus it happened that all that mates even down to the ants he created. Then he proceeded truly I myself am creation, for I have created the whole world. Thereupon he rubbed his hands so before the mouth so that he brought forth far from his mouth as from the mother womb and from his hands."
We meet here a peculiar myth of creation which requires a psychologic interpretation. In the beginning, the liida was undifferentiated and bisexual. This was followed by differentiation into a male and a female component. From then on, man knows what he is. Now follows a gap in the coherence of the thought where belongs that very resistance which we have postulated above for the explanation of the urge for sublimation. Next follows the onenastic act of rubbing or boring here finger sucking transferred from the sexual zone, from which proceeds the production of fire. The libido here leaves its characteristic manifestation as sexual function and regresses to the pre-exual stage, wherein, conformity with the above explanation, it occupies one of the preliminary stages of sexuality, thereby producing, in the view expressed in the uppanad, the first human art and from there, as suggested by coon's idea of the root month, perhaps the higher intellectual activity in general.
This course of development is not strange to the psychiatrist, for it is a well-known psychopathological fact that oninism and excessive activity of fantasy are very closely related. The sexualizing autonomizing of the mind through autoeritism is so familiar a fact that examples of that are superfluous. The course of libido, as we may conclude from these studies, originally proceeded in a similar manner as in the child, only in a reversed sequence. The sexual act was pushed out of its proper zone and was transferred into the analogous mouth zone. The mouth receiving the significance of the female genitals. The hand and the fingers respectively receiving the phallic meaning. In this manner, the regressively reoccupied activity of the preexual stage is invested with the sexual significance which indeed it already possessed in part before, but in a wholly different sense.
Certain functions of the pre-exual stage are found to be permanently suitable and therefore are retained later on as sexual functions. Thus, for example, the mouth zone is retained as of erotic importance, meaning that its valuation is permanently fixed. Concerning the mouth, we know that it also has a sexual meaning among animals, in as much as, for example, stallions bite mares in the sexual act, also cats, etc. A second significance of the mouth is as an instrument of speech. It serves essentially in the production of the mating call, which mostly represents the developed tones of the animal kingdom. As to the hand, we know that it has the important significance of the contractation organ. For example, among frogs, the frequent erotic use of the hand among monkeys is well known.
If there exists a resistance against the real sexuality, then the accumulated libido is most likely to cause a hyperfunction of those collaterals which are most adapted to compensate for the resistance. That is to say, the nearest functions will serve for the introduction of the act. On one side, the function of the hand; on the other, that of the mouth. The sexual act, however, against which the opposition is directed, is replaced by a similar act of the pre-exual stage. The classic case being either finger sucking or boring. Just as among apes, the foot can on occasions take the place of the hand, so the child is often uncertain and the choice of the object to suck and puts the big toe in the mouth instead of the finger. This last movement belongs to a Hindu right. Only the big toe was not put in the mouth but held against the eye.
Through the sexual significance of the hand and mouth, these organs which in the pre-exual stage serve to obtain pleasure are invested with procreating power, which is identical with the above-mentioned destination which aims at the external object because it concerns the sexual or creating libido. When through the actual preparation of fire the sexual character of liida employed in that is fulfilled, then the mouth zone remains without adequate expression. Only the hand has now reached its real purely human goal in its first art. The mouth has, as we saw, a further important function which has just as much sexual relation to the object as the hand. That is to say, the production of the mating call in opening up the auto erotic ring handmouth, where the phallic hand became the fire producing tool. The libido which was directed to the mouth zone was obliged to seek another path of functioning, which naturally was found in the already existing love call. The excess of libido entering here must have had the usual results, namely the stimulation of the newly possessed function. Hence an elaboration of the mating call.
We know that from the primitive sounds human speech has developed, corresponding to the psychological situation. It might be assumed that language owes its real origin to this moment when the impulse repressed into the preexual stage turns to the external in order to find an equivalent object there. The real thought, as a conscious activity, is, as we saw in the first part of this book, a thinking with positive determination towards the external world, that is to say, a speech thinking. This sort of thinking seems to have originated at that moment. It is very remarkable that this view, which was won by the path of reasoning, is again supported by old tradition and other mythological fragments.
End of section 13.
Section 14 of Psychology of the Unconscious by Carl Jung. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Section 14, Chapter 3.2 in a to pana shad. The following quotation is to be found in the doctrine of the development of man. "Being brooded ore, his mouth hatched out like as an egg. From out his mouth came speech, from speech the fire." In part two, where it is depicted how the newly created objects entered man, it reads: "Fire, speech becoming, entered in the mouth." These quotations allow us to plainly recognize the intimate connection between fire and speech.
In briead is to be found this passage: "Yay na valkia thus he spake when after the death of this man his speech enterth the fire, his breath into the wind, his eye into the sun, etc." A further quotation from the preha ranaka upon a shad reads: "But when the sun is set, oh yay navalia, and the moon has set, and the fire is extinguished, what then serves man as light? Then speech serves him as light. Then by the light of speech he sits and moves. He carries on his work and he returns home. But when the sun is set, oh yay navalia, and the moon is set, and the fire extinguished and the voice is dumb, what then serves man as light? Then he serves himself, Adman as light. Then by the light of himself, he sits and moves, carries on his work and returns home."
In this passage, we notice that fire again stands in the closest relation to speech. Speech itself is called the light, which in its turn is reduced to the light of the atman, the creating psychic force, the libido. Thus, the Hindu meta psychology conceives speech and fire as emanations of the inner light, from which we know that it is libido. Speech and fire are its forms of manifestation, the first human arts, which have resulted from its transformation.
This common psychologic origin seems also to be indicated by certain results of philology. The Indo-Germanic root ba designates the idea of to lighten, to shine. The root is found in Greek to shine, to show forth, reveal, light. In old Icelandic bon equals white; in new high German bonan equals to make shining. The same root ba also designates to speak. It is found in Sanskrit. Bon equals to speak. Armenian ban equals word. In new high German ban equals to banish. Greek I said, they said, a saying, an oracle. Latin vari.
The root bell, so with the meanings to ring, to bark, is found in Sanskrit. Boss equals to bark, and boss equals to talk, to speak. Lithuanian balsus equals voice, tone. Really balso equals to be bright or luminous. Compare Greek equals bright. Lithuanian balty equals to become white. Middle high German blotss equals pale. The root law, with the meaning of to make sound, to bark, is found in Sanskrit loss. Lassati equals to resound, and las equals to radiate, to shine. The related root less, so with the meaning desire, is also found in Sanskrit. Lasati equals to play. Lash lashi equals to desire. Greek equals lustful, Gothic lustus, new high German lust, Latin lascivis. A further related root lasso equals to shine, to radiate, is found in lasati equals to radiate, to shine. This group unites, as is evident, the meanings of to desire, to play, to radiate, and to sound.
A similar archaic confluence of meanings in the primal libido symbolism, as we are perhaps justified in calling it, is found in that class of Egyptian words which are derived from the closely related roots Ben and Bell, and the reduplication Ben and Bellbell. The original significance of these roots is to burst forth, to emerge, to extrude, to well out, with the associated idea of bubbling, boiling, and roundness. Bell, accompanied by the sign of the obelisk of originally phallic nature, means source of light. The obelisk itself had, besides the names of Tekkenu and men, also the name Benb, Ben, more rarely Berber, and Bellbell. Lebido symbolism makes clear this connection.
It seems to me the Indo-Germanic root with the meaning to wave, to undulate, fire, is found in Sanskrit ulanka equals burning. Greek attic equals warmth of the sun. Gothic mulan equals to undulate. Old high German and middle high German. Thalm equals heat, glow. The related Indo-Germanic root belco, with the meaning of to lighten, to glow, is found in Sanskrit. Ula equals brand. Greek equals Vulcan. This same root vell means also to sound in Sanskrit vani equals tone, song, music. To check volati equals to call. The root vena equals to sound, to ring, is found in Sanskrit van santi equals to rustle, to sound. Zen canant, Latin sonar, old Iranian senum, cambrian sain, Latin soundness, Anglo-Saxon spin equals to resound. The related root svenus equals noise, sound, is found in vicus equals noise. Latin sonor, sonerus. A further related root is equals tone, noise. In old Iranian sun equals word. The root spay native speny dative suni means sun in zend kang equals sun. Compare above speno zen kant gothic sana sono here gerta has preceded us.
"The sun orb sings in emulation mid brother's spheres his ancient round his path predestined through creation. He ends with step of thunder sound." (Foust, part one).
"Hearken hark the hours careering sounding loud to spirit hearing. See the newborn day appearing. Rocky portals jarring shatter. Feebis wheels en rolling clatter. With a crash the light draws near. Peeling rays and trumpet blazes. Eye is blinded. Ear amazes the unheard. Can no one hear? Slip within each blossom bell deeper deeper there to dwell in the rocks beneath the leaf. If it strikes you, you are deaf." (Foust, part two).
We also must not forget the beautiful verse of her. "Where art thou drunken? My soul dreams of all thy rapture. Yet even now I hearken as full of golden tones the radiant sun youth upon his heavenly liar plays his even song to the echoing woods and hills."
Just as in archaic speech fire and the speech sounds, the mating call, music, appear as forms of emanation of the libido, thus light and sound entering the psyche become one. Libido. Manilius expresses it in his beautiful verses. "Why is it wonderful to understand the universe? If men are able, that is men in whose very being the universe exists and each one of whom is a representative of God in miniature? Or is it right to believe that man have sprung in any way except from heaven? He alone stands in the midst of the citadel, a conqueror, his head erect and his shining eyes fixed on the stars."
The idea of the Sanskrit chass suggests the fundamental significance of the libido for the conception of the world in general. I'm indebted to Dr. Abeg in Zurich, a thorough Sanskrit scholar, for the compilation of the eight meanings of this word. Tedas signifies: one, sharpness, cutting edge. Two, fire, splendor, light, glow, heat. Three, healthy appearance, beauty. Four, the fiery and color producing power of the human organism, thought to be in the bile. Five, power, energy, vital force. Six, passionate nature. Seven, mental, also magic, strength, influence, position, dignity. Eight, sperma. This gives us a dim idea of how for permitive thought the so-called objective world was and had to be a subjective image. To this thought must be applied the words of the chorus mysticus. "All that is perishable is only an allegory."
The Sanskrit word for fire is Agnes. The Latin Ignis. The fire personified is the god Agny, the divine mediator, whose symbol has certain points of contact with that of Christ. In Avesta and in the vadas, the fire is the messenger of the gods. In the Christian mythology, certain parts are closely related with the myth of Agny. Daniel speaks of the three men in the fiery furnace. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counselors, 'Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said, 'True, O king.' He answered and said, 'Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.'"
In regard to that, the biblia paparum observes according to an old German inqabulum of 1471. "One reads in that third chapter of the prophet Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, caused three men to be placed in a glowing furnace and that the king often went there, looked in, and that he saw with the three, a fourth who was like the son of God." According to this mystic interpretation, the legend of the three men in the fiery furnace appears as a magic fire ceremony by means of which the son of God reveals himself. The trinity is brought together with the unity, or in other words, through coatus, a child is produced. The glowing furnace, like the glowing tripod in fast, is a mother symbol where the children are produced. The fourth in the fiery furnace appears as Christ, the son of God, who has become a visible god in the fire. The mystic trinity and unity are sexual symbols. Compare with that the many references in in man ancient pagan and modern Christian symbolism.
It is said of the savior of Israel, the Messiah, and of his enemies. Isaiah 10:17. "And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame." In a hymn of the Syrian Ephraim, it is said of Christ, "Thou who art all fire, have mercy upon me." Agny is the sacrificial flame, the sacrificer and the sacrificed, as Christ himself. Just as Christ left behind his redeeming blood in the Greek, a potion of immortality in the stimulating wine, so agy is the soma, the holy drink of inspiration, the me of immortality.
S and fire are entirely identical in Hindu literature. So that in s we easily rediscover the libido symbol, through which a series of apparently paradoxical qualities of the s are immediately explained. As the old Hindus recognized in fire an emanation of the inner libido fire, so too they recognized in the intoxicating drink fire water soma agony as rain and fire an emanation of libido. The vadic definition of soma as seinal fluid confirms this interpretation. The soma significance of fire, similar to the significance of the body of Christ in the Last Supper. Compare the Passover lamb of the Jews baked in the form of a cross, is explained by the psychology of the pre-exual stage, where the libida was still in part the function of nutrition. The soma is the nourishing drink, the mythological characterization of which runs parallel to fire in its origin. Therefore, both are united in agy. The drink of immortality was stirred by the Hindu gods like fire.
Through the retreat of the libido into the pre-exual stage, it becomes clear why so many gods were either defined sexually or were devoured. As was shown by our discussion of fire preparation, the fire tool did not receive its sexual significance as a later addition, but the sexual libido was the motor power which led to its discovery. So that the later teachings of the priests were nothing but confirmations of its actual origin. Other primitive discoveries probably have acquired their sexual symbolism in the same manner, being also derived from the sexual libido.
In the previous statements, which were based on the pantha of the agy sacrifice, we have concerned ourselves only with one significance of the word manami or mthnami, that is to say, with that which expresses the movement of rubbing. As shows, however, this word also possesses the meaning of tearing off, taking away vi violence, robbing. As points out, this significance is already extant in the Vadic text. The legend of its discovery always expresses the production of fire as a robbery. In this far, it belongs to the motive widely spread over the earth of the treasure difficult to attain.
The fact that in many places and not alone in India, the preparation of fire is represented as having its origin in robbery seems to point to a widely spread thought according to which the preparation of fire was something forbidden, something usurped or criminal, which could be obtained only through strategim or deeds of violence, mostly through strategim. When oninism confronts the physician as a symptom, it does so frequently under the symbol of secret pilfering or crafty imposition, which always signifies the concealed fulfillment of a forbidden wish. Historically, this drain of thought probably implies that the ritual preparation of fire was employed with a magic purpose and therefore was pursued by official religions. Then it became a ritual mystery guarded by the priests and surrounded with secrecy. The ritual laws of the Hindus threatened with severe punishment him who prepares fire in an incorrect manner. The fact alone that something is mysterious means the same as something done in concealment. That which must remain secret, which one may not see nor do, also something which is surrounded by severe punishment of body and soul. Therefore, presumably something forbidden which has received a license as a religious right.
After all has been said about the genesis of the preparation of fire, it is no longer difficult to guess what is the forbidden thing. It is oninism. When I stated before that it might be lack of satisfaction which breaks up the auto erotic ring of the displaced sexual activity transferred to the body itself and thus opens wider fields of culture, I did not mention that this loosely closed ring of the displaced oninistic activity could be much more firmly closed when man makes the other great discovery, that of true oninism. With that, the activity is started in the proper place. And this, under certain circumstances, may mean a satisfaction sufficient for a long time, but at the expense of cheating sexuality of its real purpose. It is a fraud upon the natural development of things because all the dynamic forces which can and should serve the development of culture are withdrawn from it through oninism. Since instead of the displacement, a regression to the local sexual takes place, which is precisely the opposite of that which is desirable.
Psychologically, however, oninism is a discovery of a significance not to be undervalued. One is protected from fate, since no sexual need then has the power to give one up to life. For with oninism, one has the greatest magic in one's hands. One needs only to fantasy and with that to masturbate. Then one possesses all the pleasure of the world and is no longer compelled to conquer the world of one's desires through hard labor and wrestling with reality. Aladdin rubs his lamp and the obedient geni stand at his bidding. Thus, the fairy tale expresses the great psychologic advantage of the easy regression to the local sexual satisfaction. Aladdin's symbol subtly confirms the ambiguity of the magic fire preparation.
The close relation of the generation of fire to the oninistic act is illustrated by a case, the knowledge of which I owe to Dr. Schmidt in Kerry, that of an imbecile peasant youth who set many incendiary fires. At one of these conflrations, he drew suspicion to himself by his behavior. He stood with his hands in his trouser pockets in the door of an opposite house and gazed with apparent delight at the fire. Under examination in the insane asylum, he described the fire in great detail and made suspicious movements in his trouser pockets with his hands. The physical examination undertaken at once showed that he had masturbated. Later, he confessed that he had masturbated at the time when he had enjoyed the fire which he had enkindled himself.
The preparation of fire in itself is a perfectly ordinary useful custom employed everywhere for many centuries, which in itself involved nothing more mysterious than eating and drinking. However, there was always a tendency from time to time to prepare fire in a ceremonious and mysterious manner, exactly as with ritual eating and drinking, which was to be carried out in an exactly prescribed way, and from which no one dared differ. This mysterious tendency associated with the technique is the second path in the oninistic regression always present by the sight of culture. The strict rules applied to it, the zeal of the ceremonial preparations, and the religious awe of the mysteries next originate from this source. The ceremonial, although apparently irrational, is an extremely ingenious institution from the psychologic standpoint, for it represents a substitute for the possibility of oninistic regression accurately circumscribed by law. The law cannot apply to the content of the ceremony, for it is really quite indifferent for the ritual act whether it is carried out in this way or in that way. On the contrary, it is very essential whether the restrained libido is discharged through a sterile oninism or transposed into the path of sublimation. These severe measures of protection apply primarily to thrown in.