The Wisdom of the Serpent

by Henderson, Joseph L.; Oakes, Maud

• ISBN13: 9780691020648
• ISBN10: 0691020647
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-08-15
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

The tribal initiation of the shaman, the archetype of the serpent, exemplifies the death of the self and a rebirth into transcendent life. This book traces the images of spiritual initiation in religious rituals and myths of resurrection, poems and epics, cycles of nature, and art and dreaming. It dramatizes the metamorphosis from a common experience of death's inevitability into a transcendent freedom beyond individual limitations. "This is a classic work in analytical psychology that offers crucial insights on the meaning of death symbolism (and its inevitably accompanying rebirth and resurrection symbolism) as part of the great theme of initiation, of which [Henderson] is the world's foremost psychological interpreter. This material is really the next step after the hero myth that Joseph Campbell has made so popular, and provides an understanding of how not to use the hero myth in an inflated way as a psychology of mastery, but as an attainment progressively to be died beyond. [Henderson] is helped by the presence of Maud Oakes, who is a trained anthropologist with exquisite taste in her choice of mythic materials and respect for their original contexts."--John Beebe

Author Biography

Joseph L. Henderson is an analytical psychologist and member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Maud Oakes was an anthropologist and artist, author of The Two Crosses of Todos Santos, and illustrator of Where the Two Came to Their Father and Beautyway (all in Bollingen Series).

Table of Contents

List of Plates	p. xi
List of Line Drawings	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction
The Fear of Death	p. 3
Death and Rebirth as Cosmic Pattern: The Dance of Shiva	p. 8
Death and Rebirth as Cycles of Nature: The Descent of Inanna	p. 15
Personal Encounter: The Wisdom of the Serpent	p. 32
Initiation as a Spiritual Education	p. 41
Initiation as Psychic Liberation: The Magic Flight	p. 60
Resurrection and Rebirth in the Process of Individuation	p. 66
Myths of Death, Rebirth, and Resurrection
Death and Rebirth as Cosmic Pattern	p. 77
Introduction
The Dance of Shiva (Hindu 1500 B.C.-1000 B.C.)	p. 78
Death and Rebirth of the Universe (Hindu)	p. 83
The Parade of Ants (Hindu)	p. 84
The Five Suns (Aztec)	p. 88
The Ragnarok (Icelandic, 13th Century)	p. 90
The Voluntary Death (Hindu)	p. 94
Death of the Skeleton Mower (Egyptian)	p. 97
Death and Rebirth as Cycles of Nature	p. 99
Introduction
Inanna's Descent to the Nether World (Sumerian)	p. 100
The Death and Rebirth of Horus (Egyptian)	p. 107
The New Year's Festival (Babylonian)	p. 111
The Tomb of Eye (Egyptian)	p. 114
Attis (Greek)	p. 116
Adonis (Greek)	p. 118
Persephone (Greek)	p. 119
Lemminkainen, His Destruction and His Restoration to Life (Finnish)	p. 121
The Retirement and Emergence of the Sun Goddess (Japanese)	p. 127
Tezcatlipoca's Feast (Aztec)	p. 129
The Girl Who Was Sacrificed by Her Kin (African)	p. 133
The Three Snake-Leaves (European)	p. 135
Initiation as a Spiritual Education	p. 139
Introduction
The Malekulan Journey of the Dead (Melanesian)	p. 140
The Quest of Gilgamesh (Akkadian)	p. 143
The Hymn of the Robe of Glory (Syrian)	p. 153
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.