Now, here we encounter the four elements which represent physical reality in that sensory world
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group
Psychology of Yoga and Meditation
The text continues.
The physical elements follow on from the senses:
The Earth element is Tung-bar-byed-ma [She who causes fall]; the water element is Sod-par-jed-ma [She who kills]; the fire element Gug-par-jed-ma [She who summons]; the air element Padma gargyiwang-chug [The lady of the dances] and the ether element is Padmai-dra-wa-Chan [net of Lotuses]. [SCST, pp. 7-8]
Now, here we encounter the four elements which represent physical reality in that sensory world. In the Middle Ages even here, these were still the four elements of physical reality, and the whole of existence, with everything that lived and moved, consisted of these four elements.
Therefore, they describe the physical reality of a thing.
Here we see that this is a fourfold feminine thing, with the quinta essentia that always stands as the ultimate, encapsulating everything.
The ether was still a metaphysical quinta essentia in the newer physics.
When I was a student, everything was explained by ether. One believed that it was a scientific term.
But that was not the case, for it was rather metaphysical, having precisely all the qualities that matter does not have.
In mediaeval alchemy too, the quinta essentia is described as blue ether.
Indeed, the philosopher’s stone is described as lapis aetherius. In our text here, this is a feminine being, she who has the Lotus net.
This term is not easy to flesh out.
However, one can assume that it is a net in which something is trapped.
For Buddhist psychology absolutely sees the world of the senses as a trap into which man falls and in which he is trapped.
A very good example of this is the psychology of Bardo Thodol where, after the forty-nine days of intermediary life, the yogi is suddenly snapped back into a uterus via sensual sexual fantasies, and then he’s right in it again. ~Carl Jung, Psychology of Yoga and Meditation, Page 94
