Encounters with C. G. Jung: The Journal of Sabi Tauber (1951–1961)
1952
In the new year (February) I went back to see Jung with the following dream:
I was lying in bed; on my bed cover a beautiful little salamander.
Relatives and friends came in to tease and torture it.
I stood up to defend it, wanted to protect it, but it shot around in a blind fury, finally hurled itself onto my back and fell onto the floor, dead.
I was bleeding in many places and was very sad.
Jung commented, “Don’t let your salamander be incited by your relatives!
It is a cold-blooded animal that can stand the fire and remains calm through it all. It is the ‘stone of wisdom.’
Like the snake, it has ‘absolute wisdom,’ unrelated to the environment.
Your relatives can be whatever they want to be, but without you!”
In another dream, I laid out a silver snake into the forest to die.
To this, Jung said, “She must not die! She owns the pure spirit!
She has a ‘spinal soul,’ that is, she just does what she does, without reference.
For example, she finds warmth, no matter whether in the sun or in a pair of slippers.
She moves cold-bloodedly toward her goal. With her silver skin, she is a female moon-snake.”
He showed me the ring on his finger that he had brought back from Egypt.
(A trip he undertook to get away from the nasty gossip around him, following the powerful motto, One has to let the idiots be the way they are. If one grows angry with them, one becomes one of them.)
Engraved into the ring was a snake, rolled up at the bottom, erect at the top, a beam of light around her head like a crown.
Jung continued, “She has both: at the bottom she is embroiled in the world through emotions in the dark; at the top she has light and wisdom.
In the future, think of this snake whenever you are involved in a conversation with people of this world who worship the ‘God of Reputation’ (he owns a vast terrain in this world!), and don’t let yourself be tangled up in it.
One has to be at home in both domains.
Likewise, the Rivergod wants to be flooded by you, not only you by him!
(The prostitute wants to be redeemed by the saint; she does not want to seduce him.)
You have to become a wave and spread out as a distinct personality with a broad basis.
In the ocean you are the mountain; on the mountain, you are water.
Both belong to the self.
The world infringing upon you is a compensation for the growth of your personality – that’s synchronicity!”
In another dream, the following mathematical formula was presented to me:
a2 + 2ab + b2 = (a2 + b2)
Jung commented: “Now look! The dream shows you the wrong solution, toward which you apparently incline: you are taking the square in, instead of leaving it outside.
The right mathematical formula is a2 + 2ab + b2 =(a+ b)2
Putting the squares into the brackets means that you want to unite (with the brackets) the opposites a and b in their already differentiated and complicated entanglements of the world (in the square).
That doesn’t work.
You want to join two ends that are too far apart.
It only works within the archetypal root (a + b)!
Only the simplest things can be combined into a union.
Exactly such a union of the opposites is expressed in the symbol of the snake that carries
the crown of enlightenment above, while below she is curled up on the earth.
You have to be mountain and river, earth and water! (a + b) in brackets has the same meaning as the stone of wisdom, or the salamander in the fire – or the Rivergod with the mountain.”
Vast “halls” lit up within me, as if for a splendid feast.
From afar I heard his calming voice telling me about the East-Indian delegation that brought him the Om yesterday, a sort of consecration.
He had to sit on a square carpet in lotus position; sandalwood incense rose in thick clouds.
The delegate from India sat opposite him, pronouncing the Om and a few other words that meant something like, “The truth is the wisdom; in the truth lies the stone of wisdom.”
He had to eat from a stick made by four young maidens from the juice of forty fruits.
A picture was given to him of three women illuminating the path of wisdom with their lights.
At home, I plunged into a project on the / Ching (a comparison between an oracle series and the process of individuation).
As soon as I had finished the paper I sent it to Jung.
Soon after, he had me come in and declared that it was by no means a scientific work!
However, it wasn’t a lost effort, for it was valuable in helping me gain terrain in my consciousness.
He proceeded by explaining to me exactly what ‘scientific work’ entailed – until I froze inside.
Lastly, he gave me a small, age-old book on geomancy to take home with me and study.
He was thinking of a project that I might be able to help him with.
Each time I sat down with this book, the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
It was magic, an enigmatic jungle, immensely irrational.
Jung was overburdened and had no time for explanations.
Every so often I saw him in my dreams, tired and sick.
In addition, thick, stormy clouds gathered in our own home, so much so that on an afternoon in the fall I found myself standing in front of that beloved little door at Bollingen, unannounced, desperate.
Jung took me in with a wonderful benevolence and understanding, and a week later I was invited for a regular session.
Still, he apologized for being so worn out by his heavy correspondence that, unfortunately, he was too tired to give any kind of explanation about geomancy
It was my turn, then, to cheer him up by telling him about the various experiences
of synchronicity I had had recently.
The old man visibly revitalized and new life seemed to pulsate through him.
Without quite knowing how it happened, I had my own two geomantic scuta laid out on
the floor before us, and Jung guided me through them as if following “Ariadne’s thread” (fig. 4 and 5):
“The many populus here show a rather large unconsciousness within you. In the first house, the unconscious is being presented to you as a task.
The acquisitio in the third house says that you can master that with which you come into contact.
Fortuna major in the fourth house means realization of the self; self-realization in daily reality as basis and foundation.
In the fifth house, Mercury plays his ambivalent games and is meddling with your eros and your life-experiments.
He drives you to heights and lets you fall too.
He is incomprehensible.
You are only half-conscious here.
Albus in the sixth is the deus absconditus, the yet to be experienced, unconscious wisdom – that is your illness (childishness!) and your work.
You have a commitment to work, that is, you are called by God, and if you resist, you inevitably fall victim to your illness.
And because you are not yet conscious of it, you fall into great sadness, tristitia, in the seventh.
All the difficulties hit you in your marriage and weigh you down heavily.
And here, at the end of the seventh house, the end of the first half of life, it always shows whether a neurosis will result, or if one is able to unite the opposites within oneself and to integrate ‘life.’
The self is illuminating the path in the eighth house (fortuna major, Virgo,
Mercury); you can earn it through your work.
And this self inevitably will bring you back to your unconscious, populus in the ninth, but this time you are armed and prepared through the experience of the self and all of your spiritual, integrative work.
In the tenth house we find coniunctio, harmony of the opposites, which also has an effect on the outer world.
Lastly, God becomes real in the eleventh house, Albus, a deus manifestus (not absconditus as in the sixth), that means, you become conscious, which is also indicated in the twelfth.”
My second mandala was explicated by Jung three months later:
Fig. 5: Geoscope Sabi Tauber, August 1, 1952.
I Ching: 50 Ting, “The Cauldron” – changing to 14 Ta Yu, “Possession in Great Measure.”
“In the first house is career, meaning that you are constellated by the images of your parents at the moment.
But you have the potential to unite those images within yourself (second house coniunctio).
However, a sting from the unconscious is active, in contact with your closest environment (cauda draconis in the third house).
There you make a projection (summer 1952).
In the fourth you fall into a hole that has to do with your innermost disposition (parental images).
You therefore miss out on quite a few life experiments (amissio, fifth house), but
through work you will be able to unite the opposites (coniunctio in the sixth)!
In work and through work you will achieve the same thing for your marriage (coniunctio in the seventh).
But caution!
Whoever has both within, is actually a human god, is dangerous and should be locked up! (career in the eighth house).
A magical circle is necessary and a balancing act: movement!
Otherwise the danger of sinking into yourself is too great.
You have to imprison the prison (like Paulus); vorwarts ist alles!
This is indicated in the ninth house, through via, namely the absolute necessity of movement in the spirit.
The same is true for outer life (via in the tenth), meaning it also shows in how you present yourself (the project on synchronicity).
If all is being followed truthfully, fortuna major (in the fifteenth) will manifest, that is the realization of the self.
So, you have to engage the unconscious as a collaborator (populus in the thirteenth) and acknowledge the self as the goal (fortuna major in the fifteenth).”
Essentially, a) I have to unite the oppositions within me, and b) I have to ‘imprison the prison’ – movement prevents paralysis!
Oh, that I may find Ariadne’s thread again and again!
I wouldn’t have been able to come up with this interpretation on my own.
Once more that autumn, so heavy with emotions, was I granted his help.
This time I laid both the geoscope and the tarot spread of my husband before Jung’s eyes [fig. 6 and 7]:
Fig. 6: Geoscope Ignaz Tauber, September 25, 1952.
I Ching: 55 Feng, “Abundance (Fullness)” – changing to 50 Ting, “The Cauldron”.
“Puer in the first house shows him [Ignaz] as ‘one who is becoming,’ who is in a process of transformation, and who stores powerful forces in his unconscious not yet at his conscious disposition (populus in the second).
He is growing in the unconscious.
The third shows how it spills outwardly (Laetitia) in daily relationships with his immediate environment, whereby the unconscious, however, pushes with vehemence through the open door.
In the fourth house, caput draconis, lives the heritage of his parents; it wants out and to be redeemed.
His backward ties want to be redeemed in forward motion!
Amissio, in the fifth house, has him suffer a loss because of his extraversion in the third and fourth; too much extravert movement in laetitia and caput draconis (his mother’s temperament!).
Here in the fifth, with his erotic speculations, he suffers a loss in his ability to regenerate, and thus experiences sadness in his work (career, sixth house).
There he falls into a hole, and the entire unconscious falls on top of him and oppresses him with its weight; his body, too, weighs him down.
At the moment he feels that marriage is a prison (career in the seventh), but has to endure it to learn about keeping boundaries.
He is even trapped by the unconscious itself (career in the eighth), but here the prison is already spiritualized!
Saturn squeezes out the juice through concentration, that is, he reveals the meaning. In the ninth, the youth appears again, but now on a spiritual level as puer aeternus. (similar to Faust).
This results in an outwardly movement (via in the tenth), the personality is unfolding.
And similar to the boys’ chorus in [Goethe’s] Faust there now are ‘many boys’ in the eleventh – with his friends, illusions, and wishes.
In the unconscious, the seed for new, expansive growth lies dormant (populus in the twelfth)!
Fig. 7: Tarot Ignaz Tauber, September 25, 1952.
In the layout of the tarot, we first notice his rather feminine disposition as a natural human on earth (coupes 5 on first place).
The second place points to his masculinity that embraces all possibilities (batons 8).
(The number 8 comprises all the planetary energies, 7+1; Mercury counts twice; in ancient Greece one of the gods always counted double.)
In the third place, we notice his gallant demeanor towards his environment (roi batons); as king he does what he wants (parallel to laetitia, the overflowing joy in the geoscope).
The fourth place, too, (coupes 6) corresponds to the fourth house of the geoscope: the outward overflowing (6 is the most potent number, fertile).
In the fifth place we find a defeat again; as valet he is a servant here.
In the sixth place (epees 6) insight brings sadness, which becomes fruitful (number 6) and lets him appear as a king of values (roi deniers).
Independently, out of free will, he acknowledges the value of the prison and accepts it.
Batons 2, in the eighth place, points to a relatively weak masculinity towards his unconscious; he is too modest.
(Also, his unconscious is split between masculine and feminine.)
The prison in the geoscope has a different effect here: the exuberance disappears.
Ace deniers in the ninth place indicates the highest value – ace is oneness, the self.
It’s Sophia who manifests outwardly in the tenth place.
In the eleventh place, the cavalier equals the boy of the geoscope: he belongs to a ‘court’ (many).
And in the twelfth place there is the number 8 again, as wholeness, similar to the second, but a transformation has occurred, from masculine to feminine (second has batons 8; twelfth has coupes 8).
On place V, the diable would compare to the rubeus in the thirteenth of the geoscope: puer is being confronted by the devil, and if he doesn’t take it very seriously, he’ll be hung! (pendu, place VI) (compare to Faust!)
Place II, papesse is almost the self, the anima as the inner man (with light and darkness).
Place Ill, pape, refers to the self, anthropos, Jesus’ memorial stone.
Etoile, on place IV, is also a symbol of the self; the self is calling and has an effect everywhere; it shows itself as light and signpost.
On place VII, chariot stands for the way of individuation, transformation.”
Every word imprinted itself deeply.
He wasn’t tired at all; to the contrary, he seemed enlivened.
So, I quietly slid a later geoscope of myself [fig. 8] on top of the others, … and Jung simply continued:
“It starts with transformation in the new moon (via, luna in the first house), that is, illegitimately like a secret love affair (in closer vicinity to the sun one’s own light would be lost!).
The work with geomancy, the tarot, the records on synchronicity – all that seems to be a secret love affair for you, a novilunium.
There, sun and moon conjoin, but it is dangerous, because it’s dark!
You must be humble and careful, not too ambitious, by all means.
The tarot, with chariot in place I also points to that. In the second house, you are an ‘overflowing virgin’ (Laetitia in Virgo), actually unmarried, ‘the mother drops out’
This is avenged in the third house (amissio), because in reality you are no longer a young maiden.
In the fourth, with fortuna minor and Scorpio, the whole impact of your relationship to your parents kind of ‘implodes’ on you; the whole hereditary mass is arrested (here in contrast to Ignaz); in other words, it all remains inside, only the sting (of Scorpio) turns outward.
This has to be compensated in the fifth house with this secret love affair, generating a transformation.
Tarot with coupes 6 on fifth place indicates ‘fruitfulness,’ which gives hope.
In the sixth house, we see that your body (your most faithful servant) is experienced as a prison!
It is under a lot of stress and withdraws, which, of course, shows up as amissio in the seventh, the house of marriage (relationship with Ignaz).
The overflowing of the unconscious in the eighth (Laetitia) is meant spiritually, not erotically.
We find the same kind of ‘ahead’ in the ninth house (caput draconis).
A coniunctio, union of masculine and feminine, the hieros gamos of Sol and Luna takes place in the tenth house, in the novilunium of May (Taurus, ruled by Venus).
In the eleventh, you come into contact with likeminded people (the Psychology Club25), there is an exchange (Gemini, ruled by Mercury).
Finally, corresponding to the independent virgin in the second house stands a/bus in the twelfth, signifying an anima candida, the ‘one in her own right,’ the spiritual virgin.”
Together we had undertaken a wonderful journey through the innermost world, where fairytales are true and where the truth is as just as in fairytales.
Noon was long past.
I quickly took leave, filled to the brim with life. Jung’s eyes radiated happiness: This is the real world, isn’t it; this is where eternity can breathe!
Immediately thereafter we went on a road trip with friends to the South of France.
But this entire summer vacation seemed unimportant.
Thank God, Jung had given me a task to take along: to give a concentrated description and an interpretation of all the geomantic figures, so as to completely absorb their essence.
I was looking forward to those quiet hours in the tent at Les Beaux.
Thereabout we also searched for authentic old tarot cards, unfortunately without success.
As it turned out there had been a recent search by the police who confiscated and burnt whatever they could find.
An old gypsy woman in Mossam laid the tarot cards for me and Ignaz, and she, too, lamented over the loss of her precious old cards.
She told me that my ‘minister,’ ‘father confessor,’ was very ill – but that he would get better again.
There was also something about a little child standing somewhere in the middle and around whom everything revolved.
Further, she saw a project or some undertaking of mine that was in trouble and would become the source of many difficulties.
It would cost a lot of time, but it would end happily.
Back home I ought to be vigilant, for there was a woman ill disposed toward me!
At the time of the reading, many things she said didn’t make sense, and I couldn’t explain them, but later I could.
Upon return, we heard about Jung’s illness.
My sweet little girl demanded all my energy and attention, day and night.
My psychological work was fraught with seemingly insurmountable obstacles – and my encounter with Mrs. X. was imminent.
During that time, I had the following dream: A bird appeared from within a stone and slowly became alive. I had to help it.
Together with my youngest (Butzli) I brought Jung a bunch of pink carnations for Christmas.
We both had our arms full.
On the long stony path leading from the garden gate to the entrance I told the little girl about the old wise man and his truthful life.
After delivering the flowers we hopped from stone to stone all the way back to the gate, making a wish for him on every stone, and when nothing came to mind, we were not permitted to hop on.
The mood was so happy and serene, as if Mozart in heaven was accompanying us with his music!
Kusnacht-Zurich
Seestrasse 228 7.Xl.52
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Doctor!
Receive our most heartfelt thanks for the marvelous carnations, which in their fullness conjure up a complete spring into the living room and delight us anew every day.
I have not yet had a chance to write to you, as my husband has unfortunately caught
the flu, which has also affected his heart, although it has already recovered quite a bit.
Now the flu is over and we hope that the recovery will continue.
It is of course a big test of patience, but fortunately my husband is an exemplary patient.
Your charming French bell maid is doing a very good service!
With best regards from both of us,
Yours Emma Jung. ~Saba Tauber, Saba Tauber: Encounters with Jung, Pages 36-50
