The King and the Corpse: An Ancient Parablefor a Modern Predicament

SrnpHEu MenrtN

his paper represents both a pleasureand a burden. A pleasurebecause there is no greatercontribution, as far as I am concerned,that C. G. Jung has made to the understandingof personalpsychological development than his concept of individuation. But it is a burden also becausedescribing individuation is like trying to describe life itself. How are we to make really clear what it meansto "become what one most innately is," or to "become completely individual and differentiatedfrom the collective," or to "integrateall the parts of the psyche."Nevertheless, aswe are all "individuators," I am going to give it a try both literally and symbolically,in order to provide some overview of it. Goodnessknows we need all the help with our process that we can get. The structureI will follow is simple:I would first like to highlight what I consider to be four important characteristics of individuation, and then explore a teaching Indian story,an fairy tale entitled "The King and the Corpse," that capturessomething of each. Jung first introduced the term individuationin 1916, in a lecture, "Adaptation, lndividuation, Collectivity"

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(CW 18, par. I0B4-1106),that lay unpublishedin hidden archivesin Zurich for fifty years.In this paper,he outlined his basic thinking about individuation by saying that in the course of life we sacrifice who and what we really are for the sake of adaptation to the standards,morality and conventions of our home culture. This adaptation is what one might call the successful navigation of the "first half of life," a period of time when worldly concerns,such as identity formation, career,family over all others. The price paid and the like take precedence in for this adaptationis formidable and by nature eventuates imbalancesin psychologicallife. We cannot develop in one direction without sacrificing others. Most frequently,howand becomeproblematic at ever, theseimbalancescoalesce critical transition points, the most famousof which hascome to be known now in user-friendly terms, as "the midlife crisis." Even though conformity and adaptationto life and society-or in psychologicalterms, personaand basic ego deevils,sooneror later,who we are, velopment-are necessary what we must be, what our individual destiny is and what valuesof life is, becomemore our relationshipto the timeless and more important. Often, whether we like it or not, we are and launched on a more consciousprocessof self-discovery ln my mind, this is whatJung defined as self-development. individuation. note, I am electingto speakof individuation asa Please a task we undertakewith eyesopen and consciousendeavor, often in therapy,in creativework, and in focusedawareness, meaningful sufferingor on spiritual quests.This is to be disindividuation," or that tinguishedfrom normal "unconscious processof natural psychologicalevolution that occurs even

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if the individual remains for all intenr and purposesasleep. It is an open and interesting question whether consciously quickened and experiencedindividuation differs from *unconscious individuation." I have the impression that they are quite different. There are four broad characteristics that can orient us in our discussion of individuation. The first, and perhaps the most central, is that in individuation there is an actively experienced dialoguebetweenconsciousness and the unconscious,or in other words betweenour senseof identity,who we are, the "persona/ego"part of us, and the continually emergingunknown within. This dialoguerakesplace all the time and in every phaseof life, as an ongoing discussionto which we are pri-ry, which critiques and comments on what we arefeeling,how we areaffected by inner and outer events, and what our relationshipsand responsibilitiesmean to us and sayabout us. This dialogueis in fact the basisof psychological-mindedness and is familiar to us all. At critical times in life, we are often forced to look at this ongoing dialogue more closely and listen to it more attentively.We have to explore more thoroughly the character, the quality and the content of this relationshipwe have with our hidden selves.The periods when this is demanded are usually emotionally upsetting and involve suffering, a kind of rupture in the finely tuned and consisrentfantasywe have of who we are.At suchjunctures, the entire inner family of complexes, archetypalimages, errant feelingsand emotions seemsto revolt, overthrowing the fragile sovereignty of the "I" in favor of the cacophonous, albeit creative,chaos of unconsciousarousal.At important times like this, our dialogue with our unknown selves is the most realrealitywe have. Suchan unconsciousarousalpoints the way to the sec-

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ond characteristicof individuation-the fact that a differentiation of the inner world occurs when we pay active attention to it. Dialoguing with our unknown selvesdemands,as a rule, the deliberatewithdrawal of projections from those around us, and from the world at large.By constantlyasking the questions"Who am I in that? Where am I in that? Who is in that?" we quickly appreciatethat we are many selves, many different people, part and whole, which formerly had been hidden in our perceptionsof and opinions about other when people and about life. From an intrapsychic perspective, consciousindividuation is undertaken. we come to realize that our dream and fantasyworlds are alive with part perweird sonalities,human and inhuman, animal and vegetable, and pedestrian,of which we were unaware.As we take our we are makassymbolic of the progress inner lives seriously, ing toward becoming who we are destinedto be, the truth of the polymorphism within grows, and any notion of being a unified "me" diminishes. Yet even when we recognize this polymorphism, this "many-ness,"we hold onto the notion of our singularity,of our "I-ness." This leadsus to the third considerationwhen thinking about individuation: the paradoxof the unity amidst the multiplicity To the uninitiated, the notion of differentivalue ating the unconsciousby giving voice and expressive to the many parts sounds like an invitation to a dissociative statesuch as "multiple personality" or worse, to a rollicking caseof schizophrenia,or the fragmentationof the personality. This is primarily becauseof the culturally dominant monotheistic fantasy that health is equivalent to oneness. Granted,any seriousreaderofJung would point out the many placeswhere he speaksof the ideal of personaldevelopment asbecoming "oneself,"or "whole," or- god help us-

Tue KrNc ANDrHE Conpsr "integrated,"all of which arepresidedover by what he called the "Self," capital S. Nevertheless, we also know from him, and from those who followed, that the psyche is plural, populated by the many within, the "little people of our complexes,"the gods and goddesses. Who hasn'tfelt the senseof sublime oneness in the face of nature, or the experienceof incredible manynesswhen confrontedwith passionate ambivalences? In light of theseopposingbut equally palpablerealities,what are we to make of this paradox?Many havespeculated and advanced ingeniousexplanations, all of which I would like to boil down to a useful working hypothesis:our psychesare born out of a preconsciousoneness and differentiatethroughout our lives, alwaysshadowedby the unseenyet palpableoneness. In the work of individuation, that oneness.that felt sensethat all the parts are somehow connected,comes ever more to the forefront of experience,framing, gathering and relating the many within to eachother, thus creatingan ongoing experienceof unity amidst the multiplicity thar is characterizedby a profound senseof meaning, destiny and purpose. This leadsme ro the fourth and final characreristic. lndividuatidir is a processand nor a goal. Often I have asked myself, what does an individuared person look like? Was Jung an example,or someof his long-lived studentsand colleagues? How could they havebeen individuated given their flaws,uncertainties, their obviousand sometimes embarrassing humanity? Are individuated personsperfecr,don't they "glow in the dark"? The answerto this questionis, of course, obvious. No individual arrives at maximum differentiation or achievesa permanent integration of all his/her parts. Long ago, Heraclitus, the patron pre-Socraticsaint of Jungian thought, meanr it when he said, "you would not

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find out the boundariesof the soul, even by traveling along every path, so deep a measuredoesit have," and Paul Klee, it in his own way in the 1920s, my patron saint, expressed "becoming is more important than bethat when he wrote irg." To put it bluntly, the dialogue with the unconscious, the differentiation of our inner worlds, and the evolution of a senseof personal meaning and purpose never cease.Inor consciousstead,through whateverform of self-reflection ness-makingan individual develops,in whatevermanner or style that suits, symbols-the fruit of the dialogue and differentiation of which we speak-continue to flower in the artwork or creativethought. form of dreamsand fantasies, And by definition, individuation continues to go on. The "doing" is the reward, a doing without end, illuminating endless possibilitiesof meaningthat can continually deepen life and which can lead to the only by-product of individuation that I can see,namely,wisdom. I define this wisdom as the humble certainty that one knows nothing but welcomes all and everythingwith equalgrace.To me, wisdom presides over the gathering of selvesthat we call individuation by enabling the ego, our "I-ness," to know its place amongst parts and, rather than feeling displacedor dithe assembled minished, allows it to feel a partner in the marvelousexperience of meaning. With this fourfold orientation in mind, let me comment on an oft-told and much loved Hindu fairy tale, "The King and the Corpse,"which wasbrought to the attention of by Heinrich Zimmer, the greatIndologist Westernaudiences As it unfolds, this story has much to tell ofJung. and friend of individuation. us about thesefour characteristics

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The King and the Corpse

as toldby

HnNrucnZruurn*

w
t was remarkable,the way the f I king becameinvolved in the adventure. For ten years, every day,there had been appearing in his audience chamber,where he sat in statehearing petitions and dispensingjustice, a holy man in the robe of a beggarascetic, who, without a word, would of, fer him a fruit. And the royal personage would acceptthe trifling present, passing it along without an afterthought to his treasurer standing behind the throne. Without making any request, the mendicant would then withdraw and vanish into the crowd of petitioners,having betrayed no sign either of disappointment or of impatience. Then it happened one day, some ten years after the first appearance of the holy man, rhat a tame monkey, having escaped
* From Heinrich Zimmer.TheKing and the Corpse. Copyright O 1948 by Princeton University Press (renewed). Reprinted by kind permission of Princeton University Press.

from the women'sapartmentsin the inner palace,came bounding into the hall and leaped upon the arm of the throne. The mendicant had just presented his gift, and the king playfully handed it over to the monkey When the animal bir inro it, a valuablejewel dropped out and rolled acrossthe floor. The king's eyes grew wide. He turned with dignity to the treasurer at his shoulder. "What has become of all the others?"he asked.But the treasurer was unable to say.He had been tossing the unimpressive gifts through an upper, trellised windowinto the treasurehouse, not even bothering to unlock the door. And so he excused himself and hurried to the vault. Opening it, he made his way to the part beneath the little window. There, on the floor, lay a mass of rotten fruit in various stages of decayand, amidst this debris of many years,a heap of pricelessgems. The king was pleased,and

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he bestowed the entire heap upon the treasurer. Of a generous spirit, he was not avid for riches, yet his curiosity was aroused. Therefore when the asceticnext morning presented himself, tendering in silence his apparently modest offering, the king refused to acceptit unless he would pause awhile and speak.The holy man statedthat he wished an interview in private. The king granted the desire, and the mendicant at last presentedhis request. What he required, he told the king, was the help of a hero, a truly intrepid man, to assistin an enterprise of magic. The king was interestedin hearing more. The weapons of true heroes,the magician explained,are renowned in the annals of magic f or t heir pe c u l i a r e x o rc i s i n g Powers. The king permitted his petitioner to continue. The stranger thereupon invited him to come, on the night of the next new moon, to the great funeral ground, where the dead of the city were crem at ed and th e c ri mi n a l s hanged. T he ki n g , u n d a u n te d , gave assent;and the asceticwho bore the appropriate name of "Rich in Patience"-took his leave.

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The appointed night arrived: the night of the next new moon. The king, alone, girded on his sword, wrapped himself i n a d a rk mantl e, and w i th muffled countenance set forth on the questionable adventure. As he approachedthe dreadful burial ground, he became increasingly aware of the tumult of the spectersand demons hovering about the uncanny place, feastingupon the dead,and celebrating their horrible carousals. Fearlessly he continued. When he crossedinto the burning-area,by the light of the still smoldering funeral pyres his alert eyes half discerned, half guessed,the charred scattering of the blackened skeletons and skulls. His ears throbbed to the hideous uproar of the ghouls. He proceeded to the rendezvous, and there was his scrcerer, intently drawing a magic circle on the ground. "HereI am," the king said. "What can I do for you?" The other hardly lifted his eyes."Go to the other end of the burning ground," he said, "and you will find the corpse of a hanged man dangling from a tree. Cut it down and bring it here." T h e ki ng turned, and crossing again the extensive area, came to a giant tree. The moonless night was illuminated

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only by the dim flickering of the exhausted pyres; the goblins made an inhuman din. Yet he was unafraid, and perceiving the hangedman dangling there, he ascendedthe tree and cut the rope with his sword. When the corpse fell, it gave a moan, as though it had been hurt. The king, thinking there must still be life in it, began to grope over the rigid form. A shrill laugh broke from its throat, and the king realized that the body was inhabited by a ghost. "What are you laughing at?" he demanded. The instant he spoke, the corpse flew back to the limb of the tree. The king ascended and 'again cut the body down. He lifted it without a word this time, placed it on his shoulder, and began to walk. But he had not taken many steps when the voice in the corpse began to speak. "O King, let me shorten the way for you with a tale," it said. The king did not reply, and so the spirit told its story.

their companions,they strolled aimlessly through the forest, until they arrived at a pleasant lake where they pausedto rest. T h e p ri n c e s a w a beauti ful maiden bathing on'the farther bank, who, unobservedby her companions, was alreadymaking signals to him across the water. He was unable to understand the signs, but the chancellor'sson was catching their meaning very well. She had communicated her name, that of her family, and that of the kingdom in which she lived, and was announcing her love. When she turned and vanished into the foliage, the two youths at last got up and ambled home. Another day, under the pretext of another hunting party, the two friendssetoff againinto thejungle, detachedthemselves, and went to the town in which the girl lived. They found lodgi n g i n th e h o u se of an ol d woman, whom they bribed to serve as messenger. The girl was so cunning that she was able to formulate a reply which the old woman did not recognizeas the _ o<z) arrangement of a rendezvous. The signals were deciphered by Therewas,onJunon a trme,a the cleverson of the chancellor. certain prince who went on a Then, for lunar reasons,the renhunting party with a young dezvous had to be postponed, friend; the friend was the son of and the girl described, again by the chancellor of the prince's signals, how the prince might father. And losing touch with climb into her father's garden

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and ascend to her lofry chamber. He entered, as arranged, through her window, and the two young lovers found delight in each other'sarms. The girl wasboth passionate and cunning. When she learned that her signals had been dec iph e re d n o t b y th e prince but by his friend, she was immediately afraid that her affair would be betrayed, and so she determined to poison the interpreter. He, however, was her match, and had even foreseen that this would come to pass.He had deviseda plan that would teach her, once and for all, that he knew how to take care both of himself and of his pnnce. The young man disguised himself as a beggarascetic,persuaded the prince to play the pupil, and role of the ascetic's then, by a clever stratagem, brought the girl into suspicion as a witch. He convinced the king of the country that she had been the causeof the recent sudden death of his infant son, and he producedsuch proof that she was condemned to a disgraceful death.Exposednakedouside of the town, she was left prey to the beass of the surrounding jungle. But the moment she was abandoned, t he tw o y o u n g m e n , having procured swift horses for themselves, snatchedher up

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and fled with her to the prince's realm, where she became his bride and future queen. Grief over the disgrace and loss overcame the aged parents of the maid; their hearts broke and they died. "Now who was guilry of the death of those two?" suddenly demanded the specterin the corpse. "If you know the answer and do not reply, your head will burst into a hundred pieces." The king believed that he knew the answer,but suspected that if he uttered a word the corpse would go flying back to the tree. Nevertheless,he did not wish his head to explode. "Neither the maid nor the prince was guilty," he said, "becausethey were inflamed by the arrows of love. Nor was the son of the chancellor guilty, for he was not acting upon his own responsibilitybut in the service of his master. The only one guilty was the king of that country, who let such things come to pass within his realm. He did not seethrough the subtle trick played on the natural grief that he felt for his infant son. He failed to note that the mien of the beggarasceticwas no more than a disguise. He had never of the activitaken cognizance ties of the two strangersin his capital; he was not even aware

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mated, the first decided to give vent to his grief by wandering through the world as a beggar ascetic,the secondgatheredthe beloved bones from among the ashesand proceededwith them to a celebrated sanctuarybeside the life-giving waters of the holy Ganges, while the third, remaining on the spot, constructed a hermit's hut over the place of the fire, and slept on the ashesof the body of his love. "Now the one who had decided to roam through the world was one day the witness of an extraordinary event. He saw a man read from a book a magic charm that restored a child to life whose body had already been consumed to ashes. Stealing the book, the young lover hurried back to the cremation scene,and arrived just when the one who had gone to the Ganges also returned, the latter having dipped the bones into the life-giving stream. The skeletonwas reassembled among the ashes, the charm was read from the book, and the miracle came to pass. The thrice-beloved arose again, more beautiful than ever. So at once the rivalry was resumed,but more hotly now; for eachclaimed to have earned the right to her: one having guarded her ashes, one having dipped her bones in the Ganges, and the third

that they were there. Therefore, he is to be judged guilty of failure in his kingly duty, which was to be the all-seeing eye of his kingdom, the all-knowing protector and governor of his folk. " When the last word of the judgment had left the speaker's tongue,the burden,groaningin mock agony, vanished from his back, and he knew that it was hanging again from the arm of the tree. He returned, cut the corpse down, shouldered the load, and tried again. "My dear sir," said the voice, addressing him anew, "you have encumbered yourself with a difficult and curious charge.Permit me to while the time away for you with a pleasant tale.
C-a)

"Now, once time there "; " were three young Brahmins who had lived a number of years in th e h om e of t heir s p i ri tu a l teacher. All three had fallen in love with their teacher's daughter, and he did not dare to bestow her on any one of them for fear of breaking the others' hearts. But then the maid was stricken with a serious illness and died, and the three young men, equally desperate,committed her body to a funerary pyre. When it had been cre-

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having pronounced the spell. "And so to whom doesshe belong?" said the voice in the corpse. "Ifyou know the answer but do not reply, your head will explode." The king believedhe knerq and so was forced to reply. "The one who recalled her to life with the magic spell and had little trouble in doing so is her father," he said, "and the one who rendered the pious service to her bonesfulfilled the dury of a son. But the one who slept on the ashes,did not depart from her, and devoted his life to her, may be termed her spouse." Awise enoughjudgmentyet the moment it was given, the corpsewas gone. Doggedly, the king returned, cut it down, and started again the unrewarding walk. The voice resumed. The king was given another riddle to solve,and again compelled to retrace his path. And so it went, time after time, the unrelenting specter in the corpse spinning tale upon tale of twisted destinies and tangled lives, while the king was driven to and fro. All of life with its joys and horrors was described. And the threads of the fantasies always twisted into knots of right and wrong, tangles of conflicting claims. There was a story for example, of the posthumous son of a thief, who was faced by a

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delicateproblem when he went to make an offering to his dead fa th e r at a sacred w el l . H i s grandmother had been left a widow while still very young; and since her relatives had defrauded her of the inheritance, she had been compelled to go out into the world with only her little daughter.The night of her departure from the village, she cameupon a thief who had been impaled and was on the verge o f d e a th. In terri bl e agony, hardly able to breathe, he expressed a desire to marry the little daughter,then and therewith the thought that the marriage would give him spiritual rights over her future son, even though the latter should be engendered by another, and this son then would be eligible to make the offerings due to the soul of a deceasedfather. In compensation, he would tell where he had concealeda certain stolen treasure. ' The marriage was concluded in an informal though binding manner, the thief died, and the mother and daughter had a considerablefortune. The girl fell in love, in due time, with a handsome young Brahmin, and he consentedto becomeher lover but insisted on a payment, because there was a certain courtesan whose fee he wished to be able to pay. The young

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nor the king who rearedhim has any valid claim. The Brahmin sold himself. The king received his compensation in the gold pieces. The man who made it possible for the prince to be born was the thief; his treasure paid for both the begetting and the fosterage. Furthermore, the thief had title to the child by m a rri a g e ." Immedi atel y, the corpse was off, and still another walk brought the king back to the tree.
6- -

woman conceived a son, and following the instructions of a dream, deposited the babe, together with a thousand gold pieces, at the threshold of the palace of a certain king. Now this king, who was without offspring and desirous of an heir to the throne, had happened that very night to dream that a child was about to be deposited at his door. He accepted the sign, and brought up the foundling as his son and heir. Many years later, when the benevolent king had died, the young prince, incumbent to the throne, went to make an offering to his departedfather.He proceededto a holy well, where the dead were accustomedto stretch forth their hands to re, ceive the profferedgifts. But instead of a single hand, three hands appearedto take his oblation: that of the impaled thief, that of the Brahmin, and that of the king. The prince did not kn o w what t o do. Ev e n th e priests attending the offering were at a loss. "Well," challengedthe specterin the corpse, "into which hand should the prince consign his oblation?" Again threatenedwith the explosion of his skull, the king p ro n ounc ed judgm e n t: " T h e oblation should be placedin the hand of the thief, for neither the Brahmin who begot the child

Then there is that curious tale of the transposedheads,the tale of two lifelong friends and a girl. The maid married one of the two, but the marriage was not particularly h^ppy. Shortly following the wedding, the couple, together with their bachelor friend, set forth on a visit to the parentsof the bride. On the way they came to a sanctuaryof the bloodthirsry goddessKali, and the husband excused himself, for a moment, to go into the temple alone. There, in a sudden excessof emotion, he decided to offer himself to the image as a sacrifice, and, with a keen-edged sacrificial sword that was there, lopped his head from his shoulders and collapsed in a pool of blood. The friend, having waited with the

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bride, went into the temple to see what had happened, and when he beheld the sight was inspired to follow suit. At last the bride came in, only to take flight again, intent on hanging herself from the limb of a tree. The voice of the goddesscommanded her to halt, however, and sent her back to restore the lives of the two young men bY replacing the heads.But because of her distraction, the young wom an m ad e th e i n te re s ti n g mistake of putting the friend's head on the husband'sbody, and the husband's on the friend's. "To which now does she bein the specter long?"demanded the corpse, "the one with the husband'sbody, or the one with the husband'shead?" The king thinks he knows, and, to keep his own head from bursting, gives his answer: "The one with the husband'shead; for the head ranks supreme among the members, just as woman among life's delighs." Again the corpsehas vanished and again the king is trudging back to the fateful tree.

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of a father and son. They were members of a hill tribe of huntsmen, the father a chief. And the two had gone out on a hunting parry when they happened on the footprints of two women. Now the father was a widower and the son as yet unmarried, but the father in his sorrow for wife had rejected his deceased that he should suggestion every rewed. Still, the footmarks were particularly charming: the Practiced eyesof the huntersjudged that they had been left by a noble mother and daughter,fug i ti v e s o[ some ari stocrati c house-perhaps even a queen and a princess.The largerprints s u g g e s tedthe beauty of the queen and the smaller ones the fascinationof the princess.The son was very much excited.But the father had to be persuaded. What the son proposed was that the father should marry the woman of the larger footprints and himself the smaller, as befitted their rank and age.He had to arguethe point for some time, but at last the chieftain acquiesced,and the two took a solemn oath that that was the way it should be. -T h en they made haste the trail. And they came, along In all, twenty-four riddles are upon the two unat length, propounded; and the king can a queen and h"ppy creatures, announce a solution to all but as the indeed-just princess the last. had suspected-in tribesmen This last concernsthe case

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anxious flight from a situation present predicament, he walked that had developed at home in silence,butwith an admirable when the king had unexpect- nimbleness of step that seemed edly died. But there was this dis- heedlessof the night's long orillusioning complication: the deal. And apparently the specdaughter was the one who had ter was impressed,for when the the larger feet. According to voice spokeagain,it was altered their oath. therefore. the son to a tone of respect. would be forced to marry the "Sir," it said, "you seem queen. cheerful in spite of all this weird Father and son conducted tramping back and forth across their quarry into their mountain the funeral ground; you are unvillage, and there made wives of afraid.I am pleased by the specthem; the daughter becamethe tacleof your determination. You wife of the chief, and the mother may have this corpse, therefore. of the son. Then the two women Take it with you. I am about to conceived. quit it." "Now just how were the But this was not the end. two male children that were born related to each other?" e-1) askedthe voice of the specterin the corpse."Preciselywhat was Before ,ut lrrg la"parture, the each to the other, and precisely voice warned that the projects what were they not?" of the magician asceticwere of The king, carrying his bur- terrible danger to them both; den, was unable to find any un- beneath the holy garment of reequivocal term for this compli- nunciation throbbed a boundcated relationship.The enigma less lust for power and blood. had at last been found that could The necromancer was about to strike him dumb. And so he use the king in a great enterprise walked along with a remarkably of black magic, first as accombuoyant stride, bemusing the plice and then as a living human problem in silence.The children sacrifice. would be living paradoxesof in"Listen, O King," thespecterrelationship, both this and ter warned, "listen to what I have that: uncle and nephew,nephew to tell you, and, if you value your and uncle, at once on the father's own good, do exactly as I say side and on the mother's. . . . "That beggar monk is a Driven back into the prob- very dangerous imposter. With lem of his own character and his powerful spells he is going

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to force me to re-enter this corpse,which he will then use as an idol. What he plans to do is to place it in the center of his magic circle, worship me there as a divinity, and, in the course of the worship, offer you up as the victim. You will be ordered to fall down and do me reverence, first on your knees, then prostrate, in the most slavish attitude of devotion, with your head, hand s , a n d s h o u l d e rs touching the ground. He will attempt then to decapitateyou with a single stroke of your own sword. "There is only one way to escape.When you are ordered t o go down , y o u m u s t s a y : 'Please demonstratethis slavish form of prostration, so that I, a king unused to such attitudes, such may seehow one assumes a postureof worship.'And when he is lying flat on the ground, strike off his head with a quick cut of the sword. In that instant, all the supernaturalpower that this sorcereris trying to conjure from the sphereof the celestials will fall to you. And you will be a potent king indeed!" The specter, with that, depar t ed a n d th e k i n g p ro ceeded freely on his way. The m agic ian b e tra y e d n o i mp a tience at having been forced to wait, but on the contrary seemed filled with admiration that the

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task should have been accomplished at all. He had used the time to complete the ritual arrangement of his magic circle. It was all marked out with a hideous material gatheredfrom the i mme d i a te nei ghborhood: a kind of paste composed of the whitish meal of ground bones mixed with the blood of dead bodies. And the area was unpleasantly alight with the flickering of wicks burning with corpsefat. The sorcerer lifted the burden from the king's shoulder, washedit, and decoratedit with garlands, as though it were a sacredimage, then set it in the center of the magic circle. He summoned the specterby means of potent incantations of a series and compelled it to enter into the prepared body. Then he undertook to pay it worship after the manner o[ a priest paying worship to a divinity which has b e e n i n v i ted to take up resi dence within a sacredimage as an augustguest.The time came, presently for him to make the king go down, first on his knees, then on his face: but when he pronounced the command, his noble acolyte required to be shown how to take the posture. So the terrible monk got down on his knees.The king watched and waited. The monk fell forward, pressinghis hands, shoul-

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twenty-four riddle tales told him by the specter, together with the story of the night itself, should be made known over .the whole earth and remain eternally famous among men. The specter promised. "And furthermore," the voice s ta te d , " n o t o n l y shal l the twenty-four talesbe universally celebrated,but even Shiva, the Great God, Overlord of all the Specters and Demons, the Master-Ascetic of the Gods, will himself do themhonor. Neither ghosts nor demons shall have any power, whenever and wherever these tales are told. And whoever recit-es with sincere devotion even a single one of them shall be free from sin."
O<-) -

ders and face to the ground, and with a quick slash the king struck off his head. The blood gushed. The king rolled the body over and with another expert blow split the chest. He ripped the heart out and offered it up, togetherw.ith the head,as an oblation to the specterin the corpse. Then a mighty sound of j u b i l a t ion ar ous e o u t o f th e night from every side, from the h o st of s ur r oundin g s p i ri ts , souls, and ghouls, lifting a tumult of acclaimto the victor. By his deed he had redeemedthe supernaturalfrom the threat of the necromancer,who had been on the very point of reducing them all to slavery and enchantment. The specterin the corpse lifted its uncannyvoice,butnow in joy and praise. "What the necromancer soughtwasabsolute power over souls and ghouls," it said, "and over all the spiritual presencesof the supernatural domain. That power now shall be yours, O King, when your life on earth is ended. I have tormented you; I shall therefore now make atonement.What do you wish? Announce your desire and it shall be granted." The king asked,in compensation for his toils during this strangest of all the nights he had ever known, that the

with this o.olrr" the specter abruptly departed; and immediately Shiva, the Lord of the Universe,appearedin glory, attended by a multitude of gods. He gave greeting to the king and serenelythanked him, with high praise, for his deliverance of the powersof the spirit world from the impure hands of the aspiring ascetic.The divinity declared that the cosmic powers now were placed in the service of the king in return for his having preventedtheir misuse

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by the black magician who had been working for universal dominion, that the king would come into full possessionof them at the close of his earthly career,and that during his lifetime he would govem the earth. Shiva bestowed upon him, with his own hand, the divine sword "Invincible," which should give him the sovereignty of the world; and then he lifted the veil of rgnorance that had been concealing from his consciousnessthe im-

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of his human life. mortal essence Blessed with this illumination, the king was free to take his leave of the gruesome provi n g g ro u nd. The daw n w as breaking as he returned into the spacious halls of his lordly palace, like someone awakening from a night of troubled sleep. . . . During the following years the miraculous fulfillment of the splendor promised cameto pass, and his earthly life was enlarged in virtue and glory.

Our story opens with a mighty king dispensingjustice imfor the partially and, as we might note, quite unconsciously, years, an tale tells us that although every day, for some ten unassuming beggar ascetic made him a "trifling present," this gesturewent uninvestigated.Without an afteilhought, the king passeson his modest gift to the impersonal machinery of state.As fairy talesare,accordingto Marie-Louise von Franz, the best way to study the comparativeanatomy of the psyche, it is not hard to realize that this king repreself-involvedand inflatedly unconsents the self-centered, that reigns over sciouspart of our psyches,the persona-ego life as if all were clear,all were in order, and all were sensible and explicable.At the cusp of the first and second half of life, this is who we usually think of ourselvesas being, fully securein the illusion of stableidentity. Such a persona-ego is unaware of the mystery hidden within the fruits of daily life and is enthralled instead by the routine performance of

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duty and by meeting external expectations.In a word, this king has no conscious relationship to the unconscious, to the unknown parts of himself. Unfailingly, it is at such unexpected moments, when one is leastexpectingit, that mischief occurs.The tablesare turned and an uncontrolled, uncivilized "animal" part of ourselves,one of those inner inhabitants to whom we pay little attention, escapes its handlers (or our defenses)and forces us to look at what we have disregarded.Kings and royalty have monkeys around (or dwarfs) to parody human virtues and qualities as they scamper lustily and playfully around the courts of our souls. Monkeys are our libertarian, impulsive sides,our emotional selvesthat recognizeonly the natural law of curiosity and hunger for experience.When we remain kingly, the mere fruit of life is beneathus, saving ourselvesas we do for more sophisticatedtreats.But to the monkey within, the imp who opens our purses and sometimes our buttons or zippers, thesemundane things are indescribably delicious. The dialogue with the unknown is made possible and the jewel within revealed only by the monkey. Confrontedwith his oversight,the king comesto know "Rich in Patience", the ascetic and engages in whatJung called the dialogue with the shadow.The king, the most powerful in the world of consciousness-persona-ego personified,if you will-meets his counterpart in the world of the occuh, or of unconsciousknowledge.ln terms of individuation, the king must come to know the ascetic,because until he does so, he will remain unaware of and excluded from his own deepernature. Beforethe appearance ofthe ascetic,it is as if nothing exists but what we, in our egocentricity, can seeor touch. Often in therapy one encounterssimiliar experiences

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when the client is forcedinto a numinous confrontationwith an unexpected other, perhaps in the form of an illness, or symptom, or an amorous passion, an other that has been knocking at the door for years. Suddenly all is nor what it seemsto be, and what once seemedto be under control is no longer. The asceticbecomesthe king's guide to his own unknown inner domain, the doorway to his more conscious involvement in his own development.The appearance of the asceticconforms to the first point of orientation of individuation. The task ser for the king is odd, indeed; ir is to enrer the realm of the dead,a hellish place of forgotten souls, rotting bodies and sepulchral lights, during the dark night of the new moon. It is asif the king must enter a placeof inversion, where he is the servantinsteadof king, where darkness rules insteadof the light of consciousness, where decomposition or regression rather than progressionis the norm, and where pandemonium replaces good government.For the king to be in this world is for him to meer the stranger within himself, to meet his own dark potential. What is fascinatingabour this tale and marks it as different from other tales that do not, I think, touch the heart of individuation quite as well, has to do with where the heroes and heroines must go. More frequently,the hero or heroine must enter magicallands or jeweled palaces, fascinating, marvelousand indescribablybeautiful inner places,in order to propel the narrative onward. This tale is rather more mature, mirroring as it does how our playful lusts or desires can reveal the power and darknessthat stands behind appearances. This tale is an underworld journey, a nehyia or descentinto hell (like that of Inanna). When one consciouslyengages the process of individu-

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ation, the harmlessalwaysrevealsour ignoranceof the true meaning of life and how critical it is that it be pursued, no matter how frightening or dangerous. Thus it makesperfect sensethat the king must enter the funerary grounds which representthe graveyardof lost life, of sins and failings,of the unholy din of life unfulfilled or misunderstood.In a way,the king, who standsfor our most coherent senseof ourselves, must enter a period of frightening confrontation with what has died within us, amidst the screamsof the personalities and the half-light of smoldering desireswithin our unconsciousworld. Is this not the reasonwhy most dreamsin depth therapy are unnerving and strange?Is it not because we are forced to go deep in order to redeemour unfulfilled selves? This confrontation with dead things that is forced upon us by our shadowy guide-that other self who lives another sort of life while we reach for the safetyof identity and the security of our placein the world-is most dramaticallyportrayed in the image of the hanging corpse.What is denied congealsin the body of the corpse,until it finally becomes the housing for the spirit of all that we are not, which eventuallybursts upon the scenemockingly, demandingconscious recognition. This spirit symbolizesthe possessive power of the unrecognizedunconscious,which can emotionally overwhelm consciouslife with doubt, anxieties,odd thoughts, and fantasies,unmaking normal everyday life. What ensuesis a marvelous depiction of the dialogue and an animated inner betweenpersona-ego consciousness world. The tale quickly dispelsthe notion that encountering the unconsciousis a passivetask, a burden to be borne and endured. On the contrary this is not so. The moment the king cuts down the corpse,his strangeinteractiveeducation begins.Insteadof riding quietly and obedientlyon the king's

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shoulder, the corpse and its spirit familiar become illuminating tutors.During this long, bizarrenight, the spiritwithin relates to the king twenty-four mind-breaking riddles, life's quintessenceif you will, that test his reasonand his judgment, those very factors that define his kingship.

What doesthis tell us about individuation?If the corpsesymbolizes our suspendedfailings, our forgotten and repressed life that we are forced to bypassduring our long road to adaptation, the spirit's insoluble storiesare dramatic examples of the limitation of our persona-ego vision. For although all through life we may feel that we have made the right decisions, in this underworld where all is inverted and on its head, nothing is so simple. In effect, we are damned if we do, damned if we don't. When confronted with the underside of life, there is no certainty.When forced to seein the half-light of inferenceand of lost opportunity, reasoncomes to a full and humiliating stop. ln these tales of confusion, deceit, treachery,possession, desire,devotion, attachmentand status-components of normal everydayshadowy reality-the king is forced to confront his own processof reasonable judgment. One has the feeling that no matter what he might answerit would be wrong, for it is only part of the picture. ls not the spirit'strue purpose to paradebeforethe king life in all its contrary idiosyncratic, and ineffable fullness, in order to challenge his smug notion that he has everything under control? ln this kingdom, reasonand logic, tools of kingship, do not reign. These stodes are nothing less than the images of his own inner kingdom, the different parts of himself that cannor be

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categorized,adjudicatedand assignedto their particular compartments. Each time that the king attempts an answer-granted, in fear that his head might explode (which we realizeis nothing lessthan the desiredend)-the corpse,the weight of our forcing him to begin is resuspended, own unconsciousness, this seemingly endlessdrudgall over again.This chronicity, ery is not unlike the feeling in therapy when one is forced to the sameimpossibledilemmas,the same confront repeatedly dream, the samepassions.The king's haulageis the sameas our recognition that we do not get rid of our problems in individuation, that we do not finally "solve" or "resolve"our complexes,but rather must bear them with a different atti tude so that they might reveal to us a deepermeaning. For that force us theseare stodes that challengeconsciousness, to realize that all is not what it seemsto be and that individuation is a learning processrather than an investment strategyto accruemore and more maturity points. And that we must pursue this processin the solitude of our own hearts, of power, specialness with braverybut not with the fantasies or pride, even if we feel we might burst in the process.

The stories themselvestell us much about unlived life as well. The first seemsalmost to parody the major elementsin the king's own situation, complete with a disguisedbeggar ascetic.In the second,we seehow even high birth doesnot from the chaosof desire. protect one from blind possession, lineage are issue o[ worldly and otherworldly The thorny the subject of the third, as is the odd kinship between thief and prince, high and low And in the fourth, the spirit al-

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most taunts the king by presenting him with a riddle of rransposed heads,as if to force him to recognizethat, contrary to what he may think, "the head ranks supreme among the members." These stories represent"all of life with its joys and horrors," the life of which the king in his infinite wisdom, was entirely unaware.Furthermore, the fact that there are twenty-four stories reiteratesthat we are dealing with a "lifetime," a full cycle of experience, a secondchance,if you will, for the king to learn that he cannot know everything and that he must realize, in silence-as Zimmer says in his commentary on the story-that "everything is in some deep way its opposite." Thus, it is with the final riddle, about the unspeakablycomplex consequences of judging by misleading appearances, that the king finally wins the corpse and the admiration of the spirit. This reflectivesilenceis the beginning of real wisdom. The king's forfeiture of needing to determine right or wrong, black or white, underscoresthat individuation is the apprehensionof identity within diversity, of the hidden unity in the multiplicity At this juncture of the tale,the spirit reveals the ascetic's malevolent intent and enlightens the king as to how to defeat him. By now it is plain that king and magician are mirror imagesof one another,both ambitious in their own ways, both driven by power; one seemingly for good, the other certainlyfor ill. Yetwhen one is unconscious,no matter what the intent, the drive for power destroysrather than creates, inhibits freedom rather than makes way for it. Only when this drive, this desireto control life, is relinquished and when one allows oneselfto be guided by the inner world can there be true freedom from perverting life through illusory rationality and self-aggrandizement.Selfishnessand selfcenteredness must giveway to inner centeredness or wisdom.

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When we are open to the unconscious,in dialoguewith it, and listen to its many voicesrather than command them, reflect and discern them rather than judge them, then is the domination of the head overthrown and a way made to glimpse the unity of all life. The crowning expressionof this is the king's audiencewith Lord Shivaonce he hasvanquished the magician and come to know his mind and heart. Lord Shiva, the creator and destroyer,the transcendentalbackdrop of all life, revealsto the king that he is indeed one with all, that his victory is a universal one, for upon his individuation rides the well-being of the entire cosmos. How are we to understand this development in psychological terms?When, in the courseof the dialoguewith the unconscious, and amidst the eternal differentiation of the inner world and the recognition that inner and outer are mirror reflectionsof one another,each filled with meaning, when we realize that the oppositesof life are secretly one, then can we appreciatethe immensity of our apperception, then are we able to feel connected to the larger than life within. Then do all the parts sing in harmony and with one voice. Forearmedwith such experience,we may wield the sword "Invincible," the supreme tool of discernment that, like somemarveloustalisman,embodiesthe connectionthat we have in real time with the timelessworld within.

But where is the last aspectof individuation, its nature as processrather than goal? I see this in the king's wish, his desire that thesetwenty-four stories,togetherwith the fantastic story of this eternalnight, be made known all over the earth.Whosoeverrecitesany or all of it with sinceredevotion

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shall be freefrom sin. In so desiring, the king links his experience to all humanity and makes it, instead of an end in itself, an opportunity for universalredemption. Others need not literally undergo his trials to accomplish what he has accomplished,but simply know about them, become conscious of them with sincerity and with humility. Then they, too, will, as Zimmer says, move from "pompous egotism through the realm of death and finally to the summit of enlightenment." By giving the story of his journey to all people, the king in effectrecognizesthat there is no end point, no ownership over consciousness making or individuation and that it goes on co-eternallyin all people whenever the deepestlayersof life are engaged in a conscious,meaningful way By making his tale everyone's, the king enablesall selves to gather,to sharein the process. From a personalperspectivethis meansthat when we as seekersexplore our lives most fully, our inner cosmosrejoices in the knowledge that ego-consciousness has joined the psyche as a whole and that a community of selveshas been created.And from an outer perspective, only when we undertake this task and becomefree of unconsciouspossession and projections,can we finally seeand appreciate,that is to say,gather to us, the uniquenessof others, those selves without, in reciprocal,authentic relationship.