Page 44 - Studio International - May 1974

distinctly traceable in familiar myths'." only when the dragon's soul remained inside it, referred to what had come out of the depths.
These include the legend of the Babylonian the 'hate of the monster as it feels itself dying'. The fish symbol is thus the bridge between the
god Marduk who catches in his net the monster, The stone of the fish signifies to the alchemists historical Christ and the psychic nature of man,
Tiamat, represented in the Heavens by a whale. the union of opposites which produces the where the archetype of the Redeemer
He spears her with his weapon, called by Greek lapis, or whole and integrated stone of alchemy. dwells'.18
fishermen, the ketophonos triaina, like a fish In alchemical texts of the Cathars, two fish lie I have tried to trace briefly the principal
into two halves. Yahwe, also, fights with a upon the water like a pair of oxen and like the kinds of significance assigned to the
hunting net against the monster fish Augustine interpretation of the two fish feeding fish; especially its recurring sacred
Leviathan. This projection of Christ as several the multitude of five thousand, refer to them as associations. No symbol is isolated in time, and
aspects of one symbol, the fisher, the net or ruling powers : as its older connotations disappear, new ones
hook, and the sacred being who is caught and in 'Oxen stand for the motive power of the plough. are formed. The natural world is a framework
the Eucharist absorbed 'into the body' has its In the same way, the fishes represent the driving upon which cultures build; and the magical
parables in a more ancient mythology. With forces of the coming world of consciousness. fish is a measure of its evolution. q
the development of orthodox Christianity, Since olden times, the plough has stood for
the fish continued to reappear in the miraculous man's mastery over the earth; wherever man
Footnotes
parables of the saints. These stories lack the ploughs, he has wrested a patch of soil from the 'Jung, C. G., Aion, pp. 72-72 'ION is an acrostic
complicated subtleties of alchemical allegories primal state and put it to his own use. That is found in the early Christian mystery language; the
first letters in the five words of the acrostic make the
and are closer to pagan legends. to say the fishes will rule this world and subdue Greek word for Fish, Icthus, which means Fish. The
They may relate to the mythical 'fisher-ring' it by working astrologically through man and five-word sequence, 'l[noous] X[piotos] O[eou]
of the Pope which is engraved with a moulding his consciousness'.17 Y[ios] E[wtnp], translates as Jesus, Son of God and
Saviour. It is itself an acrostic for a poem from the
representation of the Miraculous Draught and Jung concludes his discussion of the fish song of the Erythraean Sibyl.
can be traced to the Papal reign of Clement IV symbol by allying it with the unconscious : 2 Ibid, pp. 121-122.
during the twelfth century. The 'fisher-ring' 'The non-canonical fish symbol led us into this 3 Eisler, Robert, Orpheus - The Fisher, p. 44.
4 Ibid., pp. 20-21.
was worn originally by bishops but is now psychic matrix and thus into a realm of 5 Ibid., p. 21.
worn only by the Pope as a supreme seal of Ros, Anna, Greek Geometric Art: Its Symbolism and
investiture. Origins, p. 63.
Cammann, Schuyler, Substance and Symbol in
Chinese Toggles, p. 120.
The alchemical fish Williams, C. A. S., Encyclopaedia of Chinese
Alchemical Christianity, like left-handed Symbolism and Art Motives, p. 183.
9 Eisler, P. 47.
Tantric Hinduism discloses an obscure and " Ibid., p. 72.
esoteric aspect of cult doctrine. The fishes eye " Jung, C. S., Aion, pp. 89-9o.
seems to have been of particular importance 12 Jung, C. S., Aion, p. 92.
13Eisler, p. 27.
to them, as the golden colour of the fish had "Jung, C. S., Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 528.
special significance for the Chinese. "Ibid., p. 51.
Alchemical tracts of the middle ages refer to 16Aion, p. 138.
"Ibid., pp. 148-149.
the 'Scintilla' or spark of gold and silver "Jung, C. S., Aion, pp. 182-183.
Fish lying on a dish
essence that came to be known as 'oculi
(Egyptian) 3,50o BC
Bibliography
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Shepard, Katherine, The Fish-tailed Monster in Greek
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Symbolism and Art Motives, Julian Press Inc., New
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shining like a mirror'." It was found inside equivalent of the historical Christ figure, and if Toynbee, Arnold, Animals in Roman Life and Art,
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