Carl Jung on Leopold the Guardian Angel of Helene’s
Modern Psychology: C. G. Jung’s Lectures at the ETH Zürich, 1933-1941
Lecture XIII 2nd February, 1934
From the reactions that I have received from some of the youthful members of my audience.
I am aware that they object to so much factual material and would like me to give you more of my own point of view.
I consider that I have done this pretty freely already, but you must bear in mind that I set out to give a course of lectures on modern psychology and that subject comprises a great many people besides myself.
On the other hand, factual material is an indispensable component of such lectures, we have to deal with the whole psyche and we must keep close to the warmth of the human herd, or we should get lost in cold theories.
I should like to repeat that the cases we have been discussing are not unique or abnormal, as some of my audience still seem to think, they lie more or less hidden in the unconscious of ordinary people.
It is true that few have these actual experiences and therefore it is an exceedingly difficult task to make them comprehensible, But it is a necessary preparation for the study of modern psychology.
To proceed with our case, Leopold is the figure who acted for years as Helene’s guardian angel, interfering with her from time to time especially in critical situations.
He is a shadowy figure from the dark unconscious background, with initiative of his own.
We cannot treat this phenomenon merely as a disturbing element, it possesses intention and intelligence and is not just an automaton.
During a sitting with Group N. Helene had the vision of a conjuror waving a magic wand over a carafe of water.
This figure was interpreted as Joseph Balsamo because Alexandre Dumas in his novel: “Memoires d’un Medecin, Joseph Balsamo”, describes a similar scene.
The guide himself then said that Leopold was only his pseudonym and that he was in reality Joseph Balsamo, or rather Cagliostro,
under which name the famous magician and arch imposter of the XVIIIth century fooled the world.
This led to a whole romance, for Helene imagined that she had been Balsamo’s medium in a former existence and that she was the reincarnation of his Lorenza Feliciani.
She only gave up the idea when she realised that Lorenza was a creation of Dumas’ and had never existed in reality.
Leopold then told Helene that she was Marie-Antoinette who played a role in the famous “scene· de la carafe”.
In Dumas’ novel Marie-Antoinette meets Joseph Balsamo in the Chateau de Tavernay where she is resting on her way to Paris.
He is gazing into a carafe of water and sees her fate.
When he refuses to reveal it to her, Marie-Antoinette kneels down and looks into the carafe herself and faints away.
As a result of this story, Helene got into her head that she was a Alexandre Dumas.
reincarnation of Marie-Antoinette and had a love affair with Balsamo.
As Cagliostro was very much en vogue at the court of Louis XVI, it is probable that the Queen also consulted him, but the love episode is certainly a creation of Dumas’ fertile imagination.
The name Leopold intrigued Flournoy, and rightly, for such names often hold a deeper meaning than is at first apparent.
A friend of Flournoy’s suggested that its choice hung on the three consonants L.P.D.
These letters stood for the device of the “Illuminati”.
In the introduction to his novel Dumas describes a meeting of the “Illuminati” and Free Masons of all countries on the Donnersberg near Mainz in 1770.
He tells how a stranger (who is 110 other than Joseph Balsamo) begs to be admitted to the society and gives himself out as “The one who is”.
The president confirms him as the “enlightened one”, for on his breast he bears the three letters L.P.D.; the delegates from all the countries, Swedenborg and Lavater among them, recognise him as their leader and ask for his commands.
His aim is to abolish the monarchic system within twenty years, with the help of his followers, and to introduce a new and universal order.
For this purpose all representatives, in their respective countries, must work for the destruction of the royal fleur de lys under the device “lilia pedibus destrue” (L.P.D.).
This is not quite historical, for the order of the “Illuminati” was founded by Adam Weishaupt only in 1776; the latter went to France to prepare the revolution.
The order was destroyed there and had practically disappeared in that country by the year 1800, but it was revived in Germany in 1880.
This society had a way of adding all famous men to the list of its members, in its early days Goethe and Herder, for instance.
These historical facts are important in this connection because they are symbolic; they characterise the interesting point that Helene’s spiritual leader, Leopold, is a member of a secret society.
This is significant because Leopold is not a unity, but a plurality, he is at once the monk, Victor Hugo, BalsamoCagliostro and Leopold himself; we must bear this in mind.
When asked about his name, he said that he had taken that of a friend belonging to the House of Austria.
He now succeeded in writing with the medium’s hand.
There would often be a long struggle with the pencil, for Helene was used to holding it between the first and second fingers and he insisted on the ordinary way, which gave her cramp.
The writing was old fashioned and the spelling that of the XVIIIth century; but it bore no resemblance to Cagliostro’s authentic handwriting.
The control neither spoke nor understood Italian, although he spoke through the medium with an Italian accent.
One of Leopold’s peculiarities was to give very evasive answers to direct questions.
His style was very wordy, he wrote verse in the manner of a “Victor Hugo inferieur” and he flowed over with moral and philosophical talk.
His memory was far better than that of the medium.
Helene often had the feeling that she was identical with her guide, to the point of her actually being Leopold, although Flournoy says that she never lost her own identity.
The identification with Leopold happened especially at night and in the early morning.
The two states of consciousness were not completely separate and they shared certain peculiarities such as temperament and animosity.
Leopold set himself up as an authority on all subjects, the less he knew of them the more authoritative he became.
He appeared sometimes as a sorcerer and alchemist in possession of elixirs and secret remedies and played the role of doctor with success.
Many people consulted him through Helene although he affected a great disdain for modern medicine and his prescriptions were as antiquated as his spelling.
It is interesting to learn that Helene’s mother was well versed in the curative properties of plants and herbs and was skilled in the preparation of old fashioned prescriptions and so-called old wives’ remedies.
This is probably the source of Leopold’s knowledge.
His tender love for the medium, as Marie-Antoinette, played a great role; he also wrote in endearing terms to “le grand ami Flournoy”, but Helene was not aware of her own attachment to the doctor who was observing her.
On the other hand, Leopold was violently jealous and made tempestuous scenes if a male member of the group paid the medium attention.
Occasionally when Helene was writing Leopold would suddenly break through with his XVIIIth century style; he also appeared in her dreams.
Flournoy says of him: “ce mentor austere et rigide, . . . . presente, en somme, une donnee psychologique tres generale; il n’y a aucune arne feminine bien nee qui ne le porte loge dans un de ses recoins”.
Flournoy is quite right, this figure is by no means unique, on the contrary it is very common, only we do not often see it in such a definite form.
It is a typical and universal figure which I have called the “animus”; no woman exists who does not possess it.
In the whole of my experience I have only come across two exceptions to this rule: the first was an Englishwoman, a friend of Mrs. Pankhurst, a militant suffragette; she lacked this figure because she was identical with it.
The second was a hermaphrodite who came to me because she was in doubt as to whether she should live her life as
a man or a woman.
Very few women realise that they have such a masculine figure and it is very difficult to point out in so-called normal women, for it leads its existence in the dark and only shows itself indirectly.
In order to explore such figures we must turn again to the shadow consciousness of the human being. ~Carl Jung, Lecture XII, 2Feb1934, Pages 55-57.
