In order to seize hold of the fantasies, I frequently imagined a steep descent. I even made several attempts to get to the very bottom.
The first time I reached, as it were, a depth of about a thousand feet; the next time I found myself at the edge of a cosmic abyss.
It was like a voyage to the moon, or a descent into empty space.
First came the image of a crater, and I had the feeling that I was in the land of the dead.
The atmosphere was that of the other world. Near the steep slope of a rock I caught sight of two figures, an old man with a white beard and a beautiful young girl.
I summoned up my courage and approached them as though they were real people, and listened attentively to what they told me.
The old man explained that he was Elijah, and that gave me a shock.
But the girl staggered me even more, for she called herself Salome!
She was blind. What a strange couple: Salome and Elijah.
But Elijah assured me that he and Salome had belonged together from all eternity, which completely astounded me. . . . They had a black serpent living with them which displayed an unmistakable fondness for me.
I stuck close to Elijah because he seemed to be the most reasonable of the three, and to have a clear intelligence. Of Salome I was distinctly suspicious.
Elijah and I had a long conversation which, however, I did not understand. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 181.