Carl Jung on the zodiacal signs through which the point of the vernal equinox went in historical times.
Children’s Dreams: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936-1940
Here we have a portrayal of the zodiacal signs through which the point of the vernal equinox went in historical times.
As you can see, from the fourth to the second millennium b.c. the point of the vernal equinox went through the sign of Taurus, and then entered the age of Aries.
About from 600 to 350 b.c. there were the light stars of the head of Aries.
It is the age of the great philosophers all over the world: Heraclitus, Empedocles, Thales, Buddha, Lao Tse, and Confucius.
Around 125 b.c., the age of Pisces began, coinciding with the beginnings of Christianity.
As early as the first century, the concept of the Antichrist also came into being, referring to the second fish.
Our age falls in the era of the second fish, it is the anti-Christian age.
The time of the French Enlightenment coincides with the beginning of the second fish. Voltaire’s écrasez l’infâm is characteristic of that time. Between these, there is the so-called commissure.
The Renaissance falls into that transitory period, the expansion of the conception of the earth, the discovery of the earth.
America is discovered, a Reformation is made, the power of the Church is shaken by the great schism.
This is the first blow to the specifically Catholic attitude, although that era is still under the imprint of Christianity until the Enlightenment.
From the Enlightenment onward, the erosion of Christianity as such starts, and the goddess of reason is enthroned.
Now the Antichrist threatens to invade the cultural world.
These zodiacal signs are symbols that have been projected onto the sky from times immemorial, and probably reflect the structure of the unconscious.
The saga of Gilgamesh still stems from the end of the Taurus age, and was only later cast into a literary form.
It was found in the library of Sardanapal, or Ashurbanipal (668–627 or 626 b.c.),125 written on brick slabs.
It is the myth of the natural hero who takes the path of the sun to unearth the secret of immortality.
He goes through the columns of Heraclitus, and in the land of the West finds the old ferryman Utnapishtim, who had traveled the waters of death, and, therefore, came to live among the immortals.
He tells Gilgamesh the secret.
He says:
“Gilgamesh, you have struggled hard and suffered many a hardship. What can I give you so that you can return to your land? I will tell you a secret, of a hidden magic herb I will talk to you. The herb looks like boxthorn and grows deep down in the sea, its thorn is like the spine of a porcupine, it blossoms in the freshwater sea far away. If you can lay your hands on this herb and eat of it, you will find eternal youth and life.”
This is a wonderful description from ancient times.
So here you have the magic herb.
It is an herb with healing powers, a power that will heal forever. It is the so-called panacea, a cure-all, the elixir vitae, the quinta essentia.
At the same time it is also the herb that helps the adept to produce the lapis philosophorum.
The herb is called lunaria or lunatica; it grows on the mountain Mambracus or Mambraces, like the stone for which one should also always look on high mountains.
~Carl Jung, Children’s Dreams Seminar, Pages 219-220