C. G. Jung and Hermann Hesse A Record of Two Friendships
The Last Meeting
Hesse’s book The Journey to the East is the story of a celebration which the author offers to his own being, as well as to the characters he has created in his books and to the myths which have affected him.
This celebration, or festival, takes place halfway through his life, in the course of a search, or journey tothe· East, in which he finds himself a member of a League of Nations.
it is possible that these represent the Alps, but it is more likely that they form the interior landscape of theauthor’s soul.
The East is always the country of the soul and the source oflight.
The pilgrims were all looking for impossible things: one was trying to find the Serpent Kundalini; Hesse was searching for the Princess Fatima.
Amongst the pilgrims, there was one who was called Leo, the Server, who always helped the others.
The great symbolic celebration takes place in Bremgarten in magnificent surroundings.
Everyone is there-Don Quixote, Holderlin, who was greatly admired by Hesse, Hoffman and Henry of Ofterdingen.
In addition, all of Hesse’s characters are also present: Steppenwolf, Demian, Paul the musician, Klingsor the painter, Narcissus, Goldmund, Siddhartha and Govinda, in all of whom Hesse had been reincarnated during his lifetime.
But then something tragic happens. Leo, the Server, is lost, or has abandoned them, and so the journey to the East is interrupted. All the friends disperse, and the League is broken.
One wonders who this Leo is, who, by simply disappearing, can produce such a catastrophe.
It was not until much later in his life that Hesse was able to find him.
He would seem to reappear in his work as Joseph Knecht, the great teacher in
Magister Ludi, a book which he dedicated to the pilgrims to the East. Knecht means ‘server’ in German.
The Journey to the East ends with a strange symbol, the author’s encounter with a figurine in the archives of the League.
This little statuette is finally revealed as being hermaphroditic or androgynous, but before that :revelation takes place, Hesse has had to pass many tests, amongst them one concerning the Alsatian dog, Necker, and another meeting with Leo, the Server.
Of all Hesse’s works, The Journey to the East is the most hermetic. I have never tried to interpret it, but have simply flowed myself to sink into its subtle beauty.
It was Saturday, May 6, 1961. I had not let much time pass before visiting Hesse again, and I had brought with me a little silver box from Kashmir, which was embossed with turquoises.
I had brought another one like itt for Professor Jung.
‘I have just come from Florence,’ I said; ‘I went there just to see Leonardo’s painting of “The Annunciation” in the Uffizi Gallery. I stayed there almost an hour looking at it.’
‘Why were you so especially interested in that painting?’ he asked. ‘It’s difficult, but I will try to explain.
In Leonardo there is a something, a message that can only be perceived, not interpreted, just as in The Journey to the East.
The painting of “The Annunciation” seems literally to vibrate.
The angel’s wings flutter in the air, and the fingers of his right hand as he makes the sign really seem to be alive.
Something seems to be transmitted from those fingers to the young Virgin, but the really sc·aring message comes from the eyes.
It’s as though this terrible angel were actually delivering Christ to the Virgin with his look, ,,, though he were actually impregnating her with him.
She is ll1ghtened and childish, and receives the message with her lcft hand while her right rests on the books of the Prophets.
“l’hatt is why she says, “It was written,” but I dare say Leonardo put that in only to please the Curia.
The truth is that the  V1rgin is so surprised that she accepts everything; in fact slwlin ~• been hypnotized, possessed by the angel, and she will nc vt’r be herself again.
In the background of the painting tlu·n · is that dreamlike landscape so typical of Leonardo, ” hk h seems to represent the Unconscious, from which ewrything comes-mystery, destiny, Christ and the very angd that appears in the painting.’ Hessc had listened attentively while I spoke, and after a p.1111W, he said, ‘Leonardo was a universal genius because his p 11uting was magical.
Most people only understand what they I• ‘ I with their senses; they know nothing of what lies behind 1111 111 .
Only magic can express that which is unreachable in 111y other way.
There is also another kind of art, which is 1 u ntially evocative.’
‘nrmian and The Journey to the East exist in that magical 11 .d 111 , I suppose …. But who, by the way, is Leo?’
1’111 a moment, Hesse glanced away and watched a cat cntct lln”u!•.h the open window.
He ran his hand over the back of llu • Il l , and then said: ‘Leo is someone who is able to converse \ 111t .•tumals, with the dog, Necker, for example …. A friend 111 111i1w once had a dog which he had to give away.
He took du dog fifty kilometres away and left him there.
But the dog • 1 l(ll’d and returned; he found the road …. That too is 11111\11 Ill. .. .’
‘Who do you think most resembles Leonardo in music?’
I then asked. ‘Who is the magic musician?’ ‘Bach,’ said Hesse without hesitation.
‘Especially in his Mass and in the Passions according to St. Matthew and St. John.
These are the magical works, and I always used to go into Zurich when these works were being perfJrmed there.’
Hesse then rose and walked slowly over to the bookcase.
‘Have you written anything since the Magister Ludi ?’ I asked.
‘Evocations,’ he replied, as though he had not been listening.
‘The poet has to evoke the past and to relive it, to seize the ephemeral.
That is an important part of his work.’
Hesse then showed me an Italian translation of one of his works.
‘The Italians have at last begun to translate me,’ he said.
‘And to think that I live in the Italian part of Switzerland! It’s quite different in Spain.
You know that the publisher Aguilar has already begun to publish my complete works.
You must look at them and tell me whether you think they are accurate.
You know, of course, that in Germany there is now a great interest in Spanish and South American authors.
‘ He then showed me a German edition of a book by the Venezuelan writer, Romulo Gallegos.
Before I left him that afternoon, we talked about a number of writers, and I asked him whether he had known Rilke.
‘I didn’t know him,’ he replied. ‘But speaking of translations, I think that Rilke is better understood in translation than he is in the original.’
‘And Keyserling, did you know him?’
‘Yes, he was an extraordinary man; an immense and powerful being capable of roaring like a bull.’
And Hesse then tried to imitate Keyserling’s bellow.
‘And Gustav Meyrink, what was he like?’
‘I knew Meyrink well. He was seriously interested in magic and he practiced it.
When he was in great danger, he would concentrate on his heart and maintain an inalterable calm.
At the same time, he had a sharp sense of humour. Once, right in the middle of a seance, just when the visitor from the beyond was supposed to appear,
Meyrink lit a match so that he could see him, and that of course was the end of the seance.
He was also fascinated by black magic.’ ~Miguel Serrano, C. G. Jung and Hermann Hesse A Record of Two Friendships, Page 25-28
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