The Necromancer

The necromancer is the shadow side of the ascetic and represents the death instinct or thanatos principle of Freud. It is also the mother complex that we must confront and moving into the realm of the dead, the graveyard we come very close to the mother complex and constellate very strong feelings that try to overwhem us. The symbol of deference that is staged by the necromancer when he kneels down and bows his head is very interesting. A Christian version of this story might require a sacrificial act so this image would not make it into a more western story. We are reminded that the east does not believe in self-sacrifice so the ritual of kneeling and bowing is to be avoided. Yet the celebration comes from cutting off the head of the destroyer, defeating the mother complex and transforming the mother complex into the creative and ever-expanding mother archetype. It is the difference between drinking alcohol until unconscious and drinking herbal tea referring back to the fishing trip. It is using the fermentation of yeast in making bread vs making and drinking alcohol. It is transmuting mother nature into nurture rather than being destroyed by mother nature's byproducts. In fact a Christian version of the story is the story of Faust and requires a pact with the Devil. There is no good and evil in our Indian story just the visible and invisible worlds.

The necromancer is also the archetypal trickster setting us up for failure by telling us a lie. The king's response is to become the trickster himself and turn the tables on him. There is an internalization of the components of the story into the king. The king takes in the fruit that hides the gems for years. He takes in the corpse and his stories and teaching and finally he takes in the trickster and the trickster becomes part of him. He is now a complete person.

The Monkey

The King represents that ego we know, the one that makes up our conscious attitude towards the world. This ego is in on autopilot mode that eventually becomes bored or unsettled. It takes the king ten years in the story to come to the realization that all the gifts he has been given by life he has thrown away not understanding their true value. Sometimes this can take a lot longer, maybe even 50 years. It is important to take note that it was the monkey that revealed to him the value in the fruit and the monkey resides in the female quarters. This is the unconscious parts of us, the lunar side, the realm of the feminine, the feeling function which most men repress most of their lives. Now the king's realization there is value here he had previously ignored seems an easy transition, perhaps because this is an Indian tale and Indians are much more in touch with their feeling function. In the west this would manifest as a complaint, depression, anxiety because the ego would resist such new knowledge. Or the person would act out in an affair or something that would force his stance with the world to change (once caught). The king feels indebted to the peasant who brought the fruit once he realized their value. This indebtedness we all experience when we come to the same realization often late in life that we have taken advantage of life all our lives and that it's real meaning was right in front of us. The peasant turns out to be something more than a peasant just as the fruit turned out to be something more than fruit. The peasant is actually a holy man, an ascetic, and the king offers the holy man a favor. The holy man requests the king as hero assist him in an enterpise of magic. The holy man's name is "Rich in Patience" which is quite befitting him. This is that part of us that intiates us into the realm of the imagination, the magical realm and he can wait many years before he is listened to.

The Corpse

The King represents that ego we know, the one that makes up our conscious attitude towards the world. This ego is in on autopilot mode that eventually becomes bored or unsettled. It takes the king ten years in the story to come to the realization that all the gifts he has been given by life he has thrown away not understanding their true value. Sometimes this can take a lot longer, maybe even 50 years. It is important to take note that it was the monkey that revealed to him the value in the fruit and the monkey resides in the female quarters. This is the unconscious parts of us, the lunar side, the realm of the feminine, the feeling function which most men repress most of their lives. Now the king's realization there is value here he had previously ignored seems an easy transition, perhaps because this is an Indian tale and Indians are much more in touch with their feeling function. In the west this would manifest as a complaint, depression, anxiety because the ego would resist such new knowledge. Or the person would act out in an affair or something that would force his stance with the world to change (once caught). The king feels indebted to the peasant who brought the fruit once he realized their value. This indebtedness we all experience when we come to the same realization often late in life that we have taken advantage of life all our lives and that it's real meaning was right in front of us. The peasant turns out to be something more than a peasant just as the fruit turned out to be something more than fruit. The peasant is actually a holy man, an ascetic, and the king offers the holy man a favor. The holy man requests the king as hero assist him in an enterpise of magic. The holy man's name is "Rich in Patience" which is quite befitting him. This is that part of us that intiates us into the realm of the imagination, the magical realm and he can wait many years before he is listened to.

The King and The Corpse

This very old story from India has not had the shake and bake handling of a jungian analyst as I can find and except for Heinrich Zimmer, an Indologist not an analyst, I can find no other attempt to interpret. It is a rather long story so I will leave out much in a synopsis. A king was quite content in his office and would meet daily with the people of the kingdom to give them access to him for a short time each day. A peasant shows up and begins offering him fruit everyday which the king politely accepts and then gives to his treasurer who tosses them through a window into a treasure room. This went on for ten years until one day the peasant gives the fruit to a monkey that escaped from the women's quarters in the castle. The monkey takes a bite and throws it down revealing a large gem in the center of the fruit. Now the king is interested and has the treasurer check on all the other fruit in the room only to find many gems with fruit in some state of decomposition, The king is intrigued with the peasant and the next day asks the peasant what he, the king, could do for him. The peasant tells him he could be a hero and directs him to a sorcerer. The necromancer tells the king he must go to the graveyard and cut a corpse down from the large tree on which the criminal was hanged. The king finds the corpse and cuts him down and carries him on his back to the sorcerer but on the way a voice from the corpse begins to tell the king a riddle and if the king knew the answer he must tell it or his head would explode in many pieces. The king asnwers the first riddle and the corpse flies back to the tree. The king trudges back to cut him down again and begins the trek back to the sorcerer but along the way the corpse tells him another riddle that the king, if he knows, must answer or else his head will explode in many pieces. The king answers the next riddle and the corpse flies back to the tree. This goes on all night with the king answering 24 riddles. Then the 25th riddle the king could not find an answer and with that the corpse is impressed and reveals to the king a secret. That when he brings the corpse back to the necromancer he will try to kill the king by instructing him to kneel down and lower his head so that the king can be given power over the world of souls and spirits but the necromancer will cut off the king's head instead and he will become the ruler over all the world visible and invisible so the corpse spirit told the king when the necromancer tells him to do this to ask the sorcerer to show the king how it is done and when the sorcerer bows his head the king would cut it off with the same sword and that is what is done. The corpse spirit in gratitude offers the king power over all the visible world and when he dies over the spirit world as well. The corpse spirit, in gratitude for the king completing the journey offers the king whatever his heart desires and the king simlpy asks that the 24 tales and his own story be handed down through the ages for all mankind and this is done.

Work this story around for a while and we will discuss next posting.