Serpent: What is past is always an obstacle for what is to come
29 IV. 17.
Jung: I looked at nothing.
Soul. You didn’t see anything, but you looked, you contemplated, you led your self to the inner.
I. Can it work out now? Go and ask!
S. I’ll try- I myself am full of doubt. But stay with me- help me- other wise it will not succeed.
I. I’ll do what I can.
S. So open the gate once more, serpent-it comes- fulfill our request once more and interpret the skeleton for us.
Serpent. He saw nothing-naturally, why did he believe that looking and seeing would be the same? One looks without seeing. He had looked and seen nothing; I spoke only of looking, not of seeing. So listen now about the skeleton. It is an old remnant that time is not able to wear down. The serpent and the black bird are its brother. The white serpent is the lower truth, understanding and wisdom, from which all science and philosophy have developed or, been made. The black bird is the upper error-superstition concerning the things of reality, within and without.
The skeleton of the elephant is in the middle as the remains of something which once was powerful, which existed even when man began to be man, when Atmaviktu’s error and healing began. The bones have survived this whole time as a remnant of what formerly as, since at that time Atmaviktu was still not a man, since men still did not build castles, but lived wild. So, you see that the elephant is a mammoth that has come down as a sign and symbol for the primordial, when Atmaviktu still hadn’t yet imagined being a man.
S. Why is this an obstacle?
Serp. What is past is always an obstacle for what is to come. It must first be completely cleared away. What time could not destroy must be artificially destroyed. For this you need the means that mankind has always needed to arrive at the future from the past: namely severing, separating from the old, destruction of the bones.
It is truly an injury of the old, but the new live only through completely wearing out the old. Only with unnatural means can man get out of what was natural of old and hence arrive at a new naturalness. Exercises, that one calls aCTKflOl<; [askesis] belong to this. Otherwise man is completely defenseless against the old, since the old is natural, while the new is unnatural and weak, that is it seems so to you, but the new yet prevails, and then you must suffer it instead of happily creating it yourself.
Yesterday, this fellow over there simply wanted enlightenment without practicing it first. He has to practice, otherwise he won’t get anywhere. He’ll always stumble over those elephant bones. More than 20 years ago, he had a dream about these bones. This enabled him to get hold of a definite career and a course of study that refused him inner advancement. Otherwise he would have been lost. To remain with the ancient, which existed when Atmaviktu was had not yet become a man is advisable and even necessary, or else it will never be exhausted. The bones are the last remains that time can no longer liminate, but only unnatural exercises can. Have you now heard enough?
S. We’ll contemplate it. ~The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 293-295
