Marie-Louise von Franz: The Realm of the Dead and the Spirit World
267 Another manifestation of the “land of the soul:’ which naturally follows from the aforementioned, is the land of the dead and the world of ghosts, which is how the unconscious is described in many legends, fairytales, and myths. Especially in the conceptions of native peoples one sees a complete identity of ancestral spirits, ghosts, and demons.
Possibly due to this identity, many editors thought it appropriate to include stories of spooks and reports of ghosts and spirit apparitions in their collections of fairytales and the myths of native peoples. These are, precisely speaking, not always considered to be fairytales. 1
Many of the fairytales in this work, however, contain motifs of phantoms and spirits of the dead as single elements within the tale. One thinks, for example, of the helpful actions that the soul of Cinderellas dead mother performs. 2
The identity of the magical realm with the land of the dead is impressively shown in the Chinese fairytale “Sky O’Dawn;’ which relates the adventures of a strange boy-hero called “Morning SkY:’ This figure is actually the incarnate form of Jupiter, the star of the great year. 3
268 ime and again, Morning Sky undertook trips to the magical kingdom. He arrived first at the Purple Sea, slept in the City of the Dead, and then he came to a swamp where the great primordial fog lived, an ageless man who every thousand years turned his bones inside out and washed the marrow clean.
One time he fell into a deep well, at the bottom of which he came upon a shoe that floated on water that was otherwise so weak, that even a feather sank to the bottom. Here he found the herb of immortality. On one of his travels he visited
the Fire-Mirror Mountain where the Gleaming-Stalk-Grass grows.
With the light emitted by this grass one can see the insides of people and the spirit world. He then rode on his horse to the Land of Good Fortune- Clouds. The emperor asked Morning Sky what the Land of Good-Fortune-Clouds really was, Morning Sky answered that it was a huge swamp.
There, people foretell good and bad fortune from air and clouds. If a certain house will enjoy good fortune in the future, then five-colored clouds form in the room, which then condense on grass and trees and become colored dew. This dew tastes like sweet juice. The emperor asked if he could acquire some of this dew.
Morning Sky rode his horse to the Land of Good-Fortune-Clouds and brought back some of this elixir. Any elderly person who drank this dew became immediately young, and anyone who suffered illness was instantly cured.
269 The City of the Dead is here one of the many features and forms that appear in Morning Sky’s travels, which share many aspects with the previously described characteristics of the magical realm.
Lake Dungting in “Help in Need” harbors among other spirits, a dead soldier. In the belief of many folk cultures the land of the dead is generally found at the bottom of the sea or in a pool, or is only reachable after crossing stygian waters.4
By the same token, the moon is the place where the departed souls dwell, 5 the same with the mountain6 and the forest.7 Also the regions of Mother Holle are originally nothing other than the realm of Hel, the Germanic goddess of death. All the main symbols discussed above for the unconscious overlap with the symbols for the land of the dead.
270 According to Bachtold-Staubli originally the “other side” and “this side” formed a unity. For natural folk cultures, there is only one reality, the real environment, which was populated with creative primordial beings, ancestors and gods. They withdraw as souls of the dead to particular places that become cultural centers.
271 [In Germany] there is the idea of the cult-cave, the waterhole, or of legends about the Horsel-Mountain-Cave (Horselbergloch),8 and Below Mountain (Untersberg). Mother Holle [Hel] inhabits wells, into which Gold-Marie and Pitch-Marie in the fairytale “Mother Holle” must step, and “consequently out of which children come … And not only wells, but also the Mountains of the Dead are concomitantly the Venus mountains, in which Frau Bertha,
Perchta,9 cares for the souls of children who died prematurely (actually unborn children). This connection is necessary, since death and rebirth correlate at this level.”10
272 In Australia the cult cave contains wooden object that represent the life power of the individual and the tribe. The caves are used for rituals to renew power; however, they house the danger of bringing decay to the uncalled, who might become stuck (in the chaos of the unconscious).
The treasure cave is on this side and its dangers are also of this side, but at the same time it signifies the beyond. In time, the concept emerges of a yonder place. The answer to the question: “Where is the land of the dead?” is:
273 Far away, on the other side of the water – spirits (ghosts) cannot cross over water – on the other side of the forests, on the other side of the sea, but not here. With emphasis on the “nof and “here:’ In general the location is indefinite so that that no one can give information to the one. [Often] in fairytales the one looking for the land of the dead is sent from one place to another.11
274 Often the dead are transported ( enraptured), 12 as it were, to far-away realms and unspecified locations.
275 According to the ancient Germanic beliefs, the Island of the Souls is near Britannia, the land of mist. .. In the South lies Muspelheim, the land of the fire giants.
This Muspelheim later led the way to the connection with the concept of a residence of the dead in a fiery hell and, in conjunction with this idea, at the base of a volcano.
This developed into a belief in a fiery underworld populated by innumerable droves of dead and devils. A third place of the dead of this kind is the realm of the dead at the bottom of the ocean, where the Ran 13 or one of her nine daughters lured men to death by drowning … If the land of the dead is far away, then the journey is long and arduous.
One must give, therefore, the dead things that will ease his or her difficulties on the way:’ 14
“276 These may be travel appurtenances, like horses and wagons; or when it concerns a sovereign, then his corpse is laid in a boat. A living or a non-human ferryman sets the dead on the other side of the river or they might have to go on foot over thorny heaths or wander along a country road overgrown with thorn bushes.
277 The most important equipment for this journey is a pair of solid shoes for the dead … The Armenians light candles or burn lamps so that the souls can light their way into the other world … There are public inns along the way where the dead can find refreshment. .. 15
278 The identity of the magical realm in general with the kingdom of the dead in particular, indicates that in ancient times the rites of the mystery cults are anticipations of the death experience.
Some of these rites clearly represent a descent into the unconscious. Also the initiations in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which were meant to serve as guides for the dying, if viewed psychologically describe an initiation for the living to enter the unconscious and follow the way to freedom out of a state of inner darkness and unconsciousness.16
The mythical world of the dead with its inhabitants is thus another image of the unconscious soul with all its contents. The unconscious is, after all, the repository of everything past and of the beliefs of many generations, the world of the ancestors in us. 17
This explains the strange attraction that the dead have on the living – a motif that constitutes the main content of many ghost stories. The fairytale, “A Moment in Heaven:’ mentioned above, in which the dead friend entices the bridegroom away from the wedding, is a further example of this psychological fact.
279 A striking description of the magical realm that is at the same time the land of the dead, or a land between the realm of the living and that of the dead, is found in the Roma18 fairytale, “Journey to the Kingdom of the Dead:,,
280 Once upon a time there lived a poor Gypsy boy, whose father, mother, and the girl that he loved dearly all died within the same week. With deeply troubled heart he buried them. He could not hold a funeral banquet because he was so poor that he could barely survive from one day to the next.
One week after he had performed the funeral rites, he awoke in the night as if someone was shaking his tent. He asked:
” there?” He heard his father say: “You buried me but gave me no milk!,, The following night the same shaking happened. Again he asked: “Who is there?,, This time he heard his mother say: “You buried me but gave me no milk!,,
Then again, one night later came the voice of his girlfriend: “You buried me but gave me no milk!,, Now all was very heavy in his heart. He went out in front of his tent. The night was dark, it was so black he could see nothing. But he heard his dead girlfriend speaking,
“If you want to help us find peace, go up into the mountains. There you will find a cave with three eggs. Take these and open them if you can. But you will only succeed with great difficulty!,,And then the dead maiden disappeared.
281 At the break of day, the young man began his journey. When he arrived high up in the mountains he came upon an old woman, who was laboring with a heavy sack on her back.
The young man had pity on her and said: “Give me your sack, I will carry it for you!,, The old hag gave him the sack and the young man heaved it up on his shoulder. He then asked the old one what she was carrying in it; for him it was very light.
“The souls of stillborn children;’ answered the old woman. “It is my custom to carry them to the Kingdom of the Dead:’ No sooner had they taken a few steps than the old woman stopped before the entrance to a cave and said: “Here we are!”
“Why;’ asked the young man, “so soon?,, “For you it seems like an instant;’ said the old mother, “even though you have now been carrying the sack for nine years on your shoulders:’
This shocked the young man, but the old woman continued: “Time passes quickly in the land of the dead and, my little friend, that is where we are! Even if we are not yet actually in the land of the dead, we have already crossed its borders.
I also know why you have embarked upon this journey! Here, I give a piece of meat, a jug full of milk, a key and some rope. With these things you can continue on your way and you will soon arrive at the cave you are seeking:’ The old woman gave him a bag with these things and disappeared.
282 The young man set out on his way and soon reached the mouth of a dark cave. He entered and hardly had he taken a step forwards when it became light all around and he found himself standing in front of a large house. He opened the gate and entered the courtyard. Forthwith an angry white dog fell upon him.
He pulled the piece of meat out of his sack and threw it to the dog. Then he went on and saw a well from which a woman was drawing water. She had a bucket tied to her braids that she would raise and lower again into the well. He tossed her the rope that the old woman had given him, so that she could tie it to the bucket.
“For whom are you drawing the water?” he asked. “For the dead;’ answered the woman, “who were buried unwashed by their relatives:’
Thereupon he continued on and came to the entrance to the house. With the key from his sack he opened the door and entered into a room where he found three eggs. He opened one. Suddenly the room was filled with mist out of which stepped his father and said: “Oh, I am so hungry and thirsty!”
“Come into the courtyard;’ said his son, “You will find a jug full of milk.” “I thank you;’ answered the father, “but it is now too late; at least I have some peace and can go further into the land of the dead:’ With these words he disappeared. Thereupon the young man opened the second egg and now his mother stepped out of the mist and said: “Oh, I am so hungry and thirsty!”
“Come into the courtyard;’ said the young man, “In front of the door you will find a jug full of milk:’ “I thank you;’ answered his mother, “but it is already too late. At least I have now some peace and can go further into the land of the dead.” With these words she disappeared.
283 Then the young man took the third egg in his hands and went out into the courtyard. This egg he broke next to the jug of milk. Now his beloved appeared and spoke to him: “Oh, I am so hungry and thirsty!”
This time the young man quickly took the jug of milk and handed it to his loved one: “Here, drink some milk, my beloved!” The girl drank The Realm of the Dead and the Spirit World  and became as beautiful as the most beautiful of all the sun king’s daughters. When she had drank all the milk, she also spoke and said: “My most beloved, you have redeemed me from death, now I will return back into life and be yours:’
284 And so it happened. She turned homewards from the dreadful mountains and they lived together in happiness and contentment until she had to cross over into the kingdom of the dead for eternity.19
285 In this rich description, we meet once again the relativity of space and time in the other world, depicted as a cave, a house, and then as a mountain. This boundary region, or “intermediate kingdom;’ which clearly signifies the unconscious, is not yet the actual land of the dead. It describes rather a psychic state that corresponds to the state of unconsciousness in a serious illness. 20
The parents of the young man can no longer return from this state, but for the girlfriend this is possible. She can return literally through the love of the bridegroom. We will here pass over the meaning of the three eggs since this is a motif we will touch upon later towards the end of the second volume of this work.
In this connection, it is enough to highlight the secret identity of the magical realm with the land of the dead as disclosed in fairytales. Â ~Marie-Louise von Franz, Archetypal Symbols in Fairytales, Page 105-111
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