Reading Jung's Analysis of Pauli's Dreams via the Eight-Term Mandala Model (4) - Pauli's Mandala Dreams 17-25

Re-reading the analysis of Pauli's dreams by C.G. Jung, as published in his 'Psychology and Alchemy 1', from the perspective of deep semantics.

Pauli refers to the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Suffering from mental distress, Pauli received analysis from Jung as a patient. In the process of that analysis, Jung revealed from Pauli's dreams that the movements of the deep psyche bring to the surface mandala-like patterns.

Later, Pauli co-authored a book with Jung titled 'The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche'. In this book, the two discuss synchronicity (meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by physical causality) head-on.

This time, let's take up 'Mandala Dream 17', which is published on page 187 of 'Psychology and Alchemy 1'. The analyses conducted so far are posted in the articles below, so please refer to them.

◇ Pauli's Dreams 1-16

◇ Pauli's Dreams 17-22

◇ Pauli's Mandala Dreams 1-16

In Mandala Dream 16, which was analyzed at the end of the previous article above, the dreamer watched from the edge of a procession as people marched in a square formation, attempting to resurrect the 'ape-man' (primordial human).

Following this is Mandala Dream 17.
I will quote the full text of the precisely recorded dream.

Entering the Mandala

First, at the beginning, there are many houses lined up with signs like a theater.
The dreamers enter one of these theater-like buildings.
And the interior of this theater-like building is a sanctuary combining circular and square shapes with a sacred atmosphere, like a mosque.

In other words, this space itself is a mandala.

Note that while this sanctuary gives the impression of a "mosque," the entrance indicates that it is a Christian church, and furthermore, a church with very ancient origins.

It is said that in this mandala space, "anyone can enter" as long as they wish to respect this space. The dreamers are welcomed. And the dreamer, along with a friend, tries to enter. There is another woman there as well. This woman shows "agreement" with what the dreamer says, so at least they are not in a relationship of hostile separation.

Let us focus on the characters here.
First, the dreamer, then the Protestant friend, and then the woman.
Since it is a mandala, one would want four people, but it seems there are only three. No, if we include the "Pope" whose name cannot be read, who is the author of the "proclamation on the wall," then there are four.

This "Pope" is one who repeatedly warns to be careful with "words," not to rely too much on words, and not to over-trust the power of words. "The most important things cannot be expressed with words." Furthermore, the maxim "Do not flatter those who do good deeds to you" is posted in the sanctuary. The dreamer agrees with this, while the "woman" who is with him shows a sense of rejection. Let us note the aspect where the dreamer and the woman separate in opposite directions. And this woman's figure disappears from sight.

Then the dreamer notices that he himself is participating in a place where many people are gathered, and he is in the corner. This is very similar to the procession drawing a square in Dream 16. The dreamer seems to be recognized as a companion by these many people and is welcomed.

It is a dream recorded in great detail. The point of this dream is that the dreamer is gathered together with many people inside the sanctuary, and that the dreamer is welcomed by the people as a companion, which means he occupies a position within the mandala.

And what is even more interesting is that within this mandala, it seems that "words" have become unreliable. Do not rely too much on words, do not take words at face value, do not try to manage things with words alone.

From the perspective of deep semantics, what connects the double four-term relationship that separates and unites in a mandala-like fashion are words that are unattainable, words that are in a state of vibrating between two directions whose meanings are diametrically opposed.

The next dream also suggests such a state of words.

Werden as predicativity itself

The next mandala dream, 18, is also interesting.

Let us focus on the square space at the beginning, the quadrangle, the space with four corners. This is a mandala-like shape.

In this quadrangle, 'transformation,' 'metamorphosis,' 'becoming,' and 'generation' (Werden in German verbs) occur.

This transformation occurs between:

Human / Animal

It occurs between these two poles that are empirically and sensuously opposed.

Between the four entities of human/animal and snake 1/snake 2, there is an aspect of clearly separating yet connecting, and connecting (relating) yet moving toward separation. This is where the dream begins.

This then shifts to the scene where 'foxes and dogs' are at the four corners, biting the people marching in a square formation in turn. When the humans pass the four corners of the square, they are 'bitten' (excessively connected) by the animals.

The mandala, which is separating (expanding) into four poles, shows a tendency to aggregate toward the center of the mandala due to the movement toward connection called 'biting'.

From here, the terms constituting the four poles begin to transform.

Four snakes "crawl" toward the "four corners," meaning that things which were not originally in the four corners (they must have been dissolved in some unclear location) are clearly separating into four poles. Here, a square emerges. There, "a noble goat, a cow", which is likely a pair in one set, a "giant," "a reptile" which is an extreme existence within empirical sensory discrimination, and an amorphous "mass of life" that cannot be distinguished as "what it is", a shining head excessively separated from below the neck, which are ambiguous mediating terms (β-terms) that are impossible to grasp in terms of what they are within the four sensory-empirical oppositional relationships, and furthermore, these ambiguous mediating terms excessively contact, separate, and transform.

What is interesting about this dream is that the appearance of the terms weaving the oppositional relationships, and the consistency of the names that can identify "what they are," change their aspects one after another, and in the end, while dissolving, they present aspects (predicative aspects) such as "a mass of life without a definite shape" or "a shining head" while loosely fluctuating and trembling.

Regarding this dream, Jung writes as follows.

The movement of separation and combination of the eight terms, which are the oppositional relationships of the oppositional relationships of the oppositional relationships in a mandala-like form, must first go through an aspect of "thorough concentration" where the eight terms seem to condense into a single point at the center. The "savage thought" of humanity visualizes this aspect, where things that should be separated are excessively combined, as an excessive combination between things that should be empirically and sensorily separated. In this case, that is being "bitten" and "unable to run away."

In dreams, Jung points out that the activity of the unconscious mind goes beyond "this world captured by the senses", and the patterns of the mind's activity and how the mind moves can be seen.

The images experienced in the activity of the unconscious mind, such as in dreams, are not the distinguished forms of the outside world "captured by the senses." However, in dreams, things with various shapes and forms experienced when awake appear one after another. But they are borrowed as a means to "represent" the movements of the unconscious, and the various things that are sensorily distinguished are not themselves the "causa efficiens" that create the dream.

Because of this, the pulsation of separation and combination in dreams makes one imagine and sense things that are sometimes eerie and mysterious from the perspective of the "rational order of the world," such as a human who is "only a head" and shining, or a "mass of life" that one cannot tell if it is human or animal, things that are completely impossible to grasp in terms of what they are.

Furthermore, here Jung writes that, conversely, the pulsation of separation and combination of the unconscious can sometimes receive a "destructive effect" from the order of things distinguished by the "senses."

The human mind, which should originally be able to separate and combine flexibly, dividing and connecting the oppositional relationships of the oppositional relationships of the oppositional relationships to bring out a beautiful mandala, is distorted, crushed, solidified, and warped by the weight of empirically distinguished sensory existences.

According to Jung, what is important for stably bringing to the surface a harmonious human mental form—one that is separated yet united, united yet separated in a mandala-like harmony, where no single opposition is overly united or overly separated—is to ensure that "reason does not suffer damage, and at the same time the creative activity of unconscious images is not forcibly suppressed by violent intervention." Reason does not suffer damage. In other words, the stability of awakened, everyday sensory and linguistic discrimination is not shattered, and at the same time, the room for the freely pulsating, ambiguous mediating terms of the unconscious—which are impossible to grasp—to move around, separating and uniting, and drawing rhythmic amplitudes, is not destroyed.

In fact, it is precisely the pulsation of the rhythmic separation and union of the ambiguous mediators hidden in the depths beneath the surface that stably maintains the system of sensory and empirical discrimination on the surface. This pulsation of separation and union is what "gradually forms a synthesis and unification while carefully and meticulously paying attention to everything in all directions."

Jung calls this the "union of the ununitable."

And it is said that it was none other than the thought of "alchemy" that expressed and demonstrated this union of the ununitable.

The union of the ununitable

The two poles of a binary opposition relationship turn from excessive union to excessive separation, and from excessive separation back to union. From this pulsation, which draws an amplitude of widening and narrowing the distance between the opposing terms, a single circumference emerges as if it were the shadow of that pulsation, where the opposing terms are separated yet united, neither too close nor too far.

The circle of the mandala, inscribed and circumscribed by a square, is not like a given framework, but emerges as a shadow of the pulsation of separation and union, from the place where two sensory and empirically opposing terms repeat the process of approaching, moving away, uniting, and separating. In other words, the diameter of a certain circle converges as a distance that frequently appears from within the movement of stretching and shrinking between two sensory and empirically opposing terms.

The movement of circumambulating and drawing a circle maintains a diameter that is neither too separated nor too united, neither too close nor too far, through the "strength to endure tension." This makes it possible to "avoid the panic of the unconscious where excessive union arises everywhere and blows away the stability of discrimination," and also to "avoid the hardening of surface consciousness where excessive separation becomes fixed," keeping the human spirit flexible.

The fact that the opposition of opposition relationships, the "four-term relationship," harmoniously face each other at equal intervals on a single circumference without being too close or too far, makes it possible to stably repeat and delineate the discrimination and opposition relationships of surface consciousness, and "prevents" the "overflow of the unconscious to the outside," a situation where excessive separation and excessive union are rapidly converted everywhere. Jung writes, "The placement of the four snakes at the four corners suggests an order of the unconscious," (p. 200). Not a chaotic unconscious, but an orderly, harmonious unconscious. And consciousness emerges within that harmonious unconscious.

Mythological Logic of the Depths of Consciousness and the Scum of the Unconscious

Continuing from the above quote, Jung writes about the opposition between masculinity and femininity in the mandala dream.

In the dreams of Pauli, who is male, women appear in sequence. They are women who are sometimes mothers, sometimes sisters, sometimes terrifying figures who chase him around, or sometimes strangers who seem to be the "companion" of another man who is with him, but it is unclear whose companion they are.

Jung points out that the binary opposition relationship of male/female is not just a story about Pauli alone, but a pattern of opposition universally seen in humanity, transcending the differences between Eastern and Western traditions.

'Anima' as the femininity appearing in the male unconscious.

In a man's dream, the anima appears as the 'fourth person', that is,symbolizing the 'fourth function' of the mind, which a man's psyche often cannot reconcile well and tends to ignore.

Jung categorizes the functions of human consciousness into four: 'sensation', 'thinking', 'feeling', and 'intuition'. When these four functions are balanced and work together without being too close or too far apart, the human psyche (mind) reaches a highly stable and harmonious state. And the four figures standing at equal distances on the same circumference in a mandala shape each symbolize these four functions of consciousness.

• 'Thinking': Distinguishing what is from what is not

• 'Sensation': Distinguishing what exists from what does not

• 'Feeling': Distinguishing what is liked from what is disliked

• 'Intuition': Distinguishing what is emerging from what is fading away

However, our minds do not always have these four functions perfectly complementing and harmonizing with each other.

Rather, the discrimination (differentiation) of only one of the four functions can sometimes become excessively advanced. For example, in all experiences, the discrimination of 'thinking'—such as 'what it is/what it is not' (what it should be and what it should not be)—might powerfully cover the surface of consciousness, while conversely, the discrimination of 'feeling' (likes/dislikes) or the discrimination of 'sensation' (what is/what is not, or how it is) might be neglected or ignored. Thus, among the four functions of consciousness, the one that is particularly ignored or driven away from the surface of consciousness in a person is what Jung calls the 'inferior function'.

For example, in the case of a man, when the discrimination of 'thinking' covers the surface of consciousness and the discrimination of 'feeling' is ignored—treated as if likes and dislikes do not exist—this 'feeling' may appear in his dreams in the form of an 'anima', a woman, who chases him, scolds him, or makes him anxious.

I would like to note here that this is by no means a story about 'women being emotional and men being rational'. Rather, it is that the male-female relationship, as an empirical and sensory relationship that is always sharply opposed yet required to complement each other, is used as a fitting metaphor to symbolically express the relationship between the function that has become overwhelmingly dominant on the surface of consciousness and the function that has been submerged to the depths of the mind and can no longer emerge, a relationship that is sharply conflicting yet must always complement each other. Regarding the separation and union of men and women, Jung wrote, 'Men and women do indeed unite', but both originally 'represent an irreconcilable opposition that, when activated, can deteriorate into a mad hostility.'

Because this is so, the binary opposition relationship of masculine and feminine can "symbolize every opposition that can be conceived of, every opposition that can possibly arise." In other words, things like "the opposition of warm/cold, the opposition of light/dark, the opposition of south/north, the opposition of dry/wet, and the opposition of good/evil can also be given meaning by superimposing them onto the separation and union of male/female, and the "opposition" between the surface functions of consciousness and the functions submerged in the unconscious can also be symbolized by the tension of the separation and union of male and female.

As Mr. Lévi-Strauss writes at the beginning of "The Raw and the Cooked," the human mind "uses sensory and empirical binary oppositions as 'tools of thought'." Let us read what Jung writes on this point as well.

Of the four functions of consciousness, (1) the most differentiated function—the function whose capacity for articulation and discernment constantly territorializes the surface of consciousness—and (2) the function that plays an auxiliary role to it are often symbolized in a "masculine" form, for example, by the relationship of "father and son," which is inseparable, two-as-one and one-as-two. For example, in some people, "thinking and sensation" are symbolized by "father and son."

And in this case, the remaining "feeling and intuition" are superimposed onto the mother for the father and the daughter for the son, and are symbolized by "daughter and mother."

Here, Jung writes something interesting.

The relationship between the two auxiliary functions is "not as great as the opposition between the differentiated function and the inferior function." In other words, if, for example, the differentiated function is "thinking" and the inferior function is "feeling," the opposition between the remaining "sensation" and "intuition" is not as sharp as the opposition between this thinking and feeling. When this happens, "intuition," which had been playing the role of auxiliary to the inferior function, also does not sink into the unconscious but reveals its working state on the surface of consciousness, and it is said that it can take the form of a "male" (for example, it may take the form of a butler, a 'man with a pointed beard,' a male friend of the dreamer, or a male doctor). And this auxiliary function of the inferior function that has surfaced to the layer of consciousness may "drag out" a part of the inferior function that remains hidden in the unconscious, and in this respect, this conscious form of the auxiliary function of the inferior function can "play a kind of mediating role between the unconscious and consciousness."

The function that exerts the most powerful discernment on the surface of consciousness, and the second function that assists it. In addition to that, when the discernment by the third function of the mind becomes self-aware on the surface of consciousness, there is a high possibility that the fourth function, often symbolized by the "anima," will also finally begin to show its form on the surface of consciousness.

It is a very interesting story.

Jung writes the following regarding the emergence of the fourth function.

The 'fourth function,' which reveals itself on the surface of consciousness, is met with conflict by the 'rational' human mind—a mind hardened by the discernment of thought and the discernment of sensation.

Now, for the next dream.

A 'war' between two opposing poles.
War is an ambivalent situation where the two opposing poles aim for separation (one disappearing from the presence of the other) while simultaneously engaging in excessive contact and union. This can also be said to be one form of the 'union of things that cannot be united.'

The two 'boys' originally present would, in the case of this dreamer, be the 'differentiating function and its auxiliary function.' And the 'third boy' would symbolize the 'unconscious auxiliary function [the auxiliary function of the inferior function].' These three are gathered in the same 'hole.' This hole is distinguished from the outside of the hole through something like a 'pipe.' In other words, this hole is also a region that is partitioned and separated from the outside, perhaps unfolding a mandala-like arrangement.

And the next dream.

Inside a transparent sphere, there are several small spheres.
The intensity of the 'union of things that cannot be united,' like the war in the previous dream, seems to have disappeared. It gives the impression of quiet harmony.
And from that sphere, 'a plant' grows 'one.'
From a place that is fluctuating in an indefinite form (transparent spheres, bubbles?), something 'one' that can be distinguished as something other than anything else is beginning to take shape. From the depths of the unconscious and consciousness, something that is firmly rooted there and is distinguished as 'something' on the surface of consciousness is emerging. It feels like the beginning of a consciousness in harmony with the unconscious.

Now, the next dream is quite something.

Three floors or four floors, seven floors or eight floors

In the next dream, 22, let's pay attention to the number '8'.

Four to eight. And from eight to a circle. To a rotating circle. And to a dynamic vibration with separation and union on the circumference as the two poles.

"The tendency toward the reconstruction of wholeness hinted at in the preceding dream again runs up against the wall of consciousness, which wants to take another direction," writes Jung.

The ascent of the elevator symbolizes that which is subconscious "rising" to the surface of consciousness. This elevator aims for "four," but whether it has reached "four" or is still at "three" becomes unclear. This ambiguity is important for the dream. "However, since the four functions are a taboo, so to speak, it is not clearly to the fourth floor, but almost to that point, that is, it goes up from the third to the fourth floor" (p. 208).

The reason why it cannot successfully arrive at the fourth floor here is that the woman who should be coming up together is still left below. Among the four functions of consciousness, the "inferior function," whose work is ignored by the most sensible function on the surface, is the fourth one in this case, the "woman" as the anima to the dreamer. Unless this woman comes up to the surface of consciousness together, the harmony of "four" will not be realized. The dreamer is taught this by "one of the friends (a specific person)," that is, perhaps the auxiliary function of the second function, the function that is most sensible on the surface. Not going along is no good, running away is no good, just meekly letting oneself go with the flow is no good; prayer with concentrated nerves, devotion is necessary, he is told.

Once the dreamer realizes this, that he must ascend together with the inferior function, he learns that he should aim for the "8th floor" in the elevator.

However, it seems he did not arrive at the 8th floor, but perhaps the 7th.
He has not yet reached 8, and is slightly off.
And there, a friendly greetingis offered to the dreamer by a strange red-haired man who is present. This is likely the 'auxiliary function of the inferior function,' the third function.

Here, the scene suddenly changes.
A civil war between militarists and the left wing. A dream of 'war' appeared earlier as well, and it is the same intense vibration of separation and union.

And what is interesting is that the 'red-haired man' who was there when he got off the elevator earlier seems to be a companion of the people who appear to be militarists wearing something like military uniforms. The auxiliary functions of the inferior function, while holding violence, attempt to draw a mandala-like harmony by lining up in a circle. They aim their guns, but without firing, they break the circle and march on.

Firing a bullet and hitting a target is a union while separating, but in this dream, the guns are ultimately not fired.

*

Right now in this dream, the fourth inferior function remains left behind in the depths of consciousness. This must be brought to the surface of consciousness. The key to this lies with the 'strange red-haired men,' the auxiliary functions of the inferior function, who are trying hard to generate a mandala-like pattern by forming a circle, but it feels like a very terrifying, violent event to the dreamer, the surface ego.

The eighth god that no one has ever thought of yet

Regarding this dream, Jung also pays attention to the number '8'.

The fourth function is no longer one-fourth, but one-eighth.
The proportion that the fourth function occupies in the totality of the psyche has 'halved' from 'one-fourth' to 'one-eighth'.

Originally, the surface ego of consciousness was running away from the fourth function, feeling it was something alien, or trying to separate from it.

Now, however, consciousness recognizes the fourth function as its own companion, as a 'partner,' and when it has separated to another floor, it acknowledges it as a companion that should be waited for until it arrives. And at this moment, the fourth function becomes 'one-eighth' instead of 'one-fourth'.

Here, Jung points out that the passage regarding the 'Cabeiri gods' in 'Faust' describes the same thing as this dream of Pauli's.

The gods are 'four,' but only 'three' of them have appeared before the eyes = have become conscious. But what is important is the remaining one, the fourth god. It is said that the fourth god is the 'true god' and has the authority to judge in place of the other three gods. The relationship between this fourth god and the other three gods is exactly the same as the relationship between what Jung calls the 'fourth function' and the other three psychic functions.

And then, eight. It is said that there are not only these four gods, three plus one, but three more gods.

There are three gods who have appeared before us, a fourth god who has not yet come but certainly exists, and three more whose whereabouts are still unknown, making a total of seven gods. It says, 'Gods are essentially seven.'

However, it immediately follows with, 'there might even be an eighth god whom no one has ever thought of yet.'

3: Visible before one's eyes
1: Not here but exists.

3: Whereabouts unknown.
1: An eighth god no one has thought of yet

What a magnificent eight-term relationship this is.
Moreover, this eight-term relationship is 'not yet fully formed.' The gods are also said to be 'always in the process of growing.' In other words, they do not exist in a completed, static phase, but are fundamentally in a phase of generation, dynamically existing, or rather, being.

And that process of generation and growth is said to be a path of longing and starving for something hard to obtain. In Buddhist terms, it feels like the great compassionate heart that seeks to enlighten all sentient beings. From the pulsating vibration pattern, a relationship with eight poles is drawn out. One of these eight poles is consciousness, the 'I', the ego, and the primary psychic function that has foregrounded into conscious awareness. This one pole completely forgets that it is like a shadow of the pulsation that both divides and connects these eight terms, and completely forgets that there are 'seven' others besides itself, feeling isolated and alone, trembling, fearing, and crying out. Teaching it that 'there are seven more, eight in total,' and teaching it to maintain a state of resonance where these eight neither fall apart nor collapse into a single point, is, in Buddhist terms, the 'great compassionate heart of the Tathagata,' and in the schema of the eight-term relationship, it is the pulsation that separates and connects the four beta terms—it is myth, and it is dream.

*

To mediate the relationship between the 'fourth function,' which had become excessively separated and alienated, and the ego of surface consciousness, and to establish the wholeness of the psyche, the four elements—the ego, the fourth function, and their respective auxiliary functions—must be present and positioned to divide the circumference into four 90-degree segments (a square inscribed in (or circumscribing) a circle).

This mediation work seems to be realized by calling, gathering, and aligning the ready-made, or given, four functions that are scattered about.

However, the three others besides the ego are not so kind as to come just because you call them.

Or perhaps, in the first place, it is not even certain if they truly exist. As in the Faust quote earlier, 'they do not come when called,' 'it is unknown where they are,' and 'it is unknown if they even exist.'

If that is the case, it might even be necessary to go through a process of 'making them exist' from a state where they do not yet exist.

To keep the four vertices of the square inscribed on this circumference connected so that they do not fall apart while being separated into a square, four mediating terms are required.

Δ - mediating term β - Δ
| |
mediating term β mediating term β
| |
Δ - mediating term β - Δ

Let us assume for now that the ego of surface consciousness is the Δ at the top left of this diagram.
In contrast, the 'fourth function' will come to the position of the Δ at the bottom right of the diagram.

By the way, these four Δs move around as they please as if they were the only ones existing in this world, so to align them to draw a square, a term is needed to 'mediate' (to separate while connecting, acting to maintain a distance of neither too close nor too far) the relationship between Δ and Δ.

For this reason, when there are three gods (the ego Δ and its auxiliary function Δ, plus the auxiliary function Δ of the fourth function), but the remaining one (the fourth function Δ) does not come—that is, when there are only three poles and a square cannot be drawn—in order to turn from this and draw a square, four additional gods (β) who act as mediators are also required.

However, these four gods who act as mediators, the mediating terms β, cannot be symbolized by visions of empirical and sensory beings such as those used in dreams and myths ('a strange woman,' 'a bearded man,' 'a father,' or 'a monkey'), or rather, while it is not impossible, it is extremely difficult.

Particularly in dreams, this mediating term does not appear so much as a person, animal, or object that can maintain a fixed form and occupy the position of a "subject," but rather as a"predicate,"that is, expressed in aspects such as the "way of moving" or "desire" (to unite what has been separated) or "hatred" (to separate what has been too closely united) of the person, animal, or object.

The "unknown woman" is "chasing" the "ego," and the "ego" is "running away".

This "unknown woman" and "ego" are, in the diagram above, Δ, which can stand in the position of the subject when verbalized, but the "movement" β that divides yet connects the relationship between these Δ terms—that is, mediates or reconciles them so that they are neither excessively united nor excessively separated—is expressed by things like "chasing" or "running away."

The fifth, sixth, and seventh gods who are "nowhere to be found"
The eighth god who "has never even been thought of yet"

These gods "exist" only in the aspect of the predicate, as things like "chasing" or "running away," and do not take on subjective aspects like "father" or "unknown woman." Therefore, in terms of sensory experience, one cannot point to them and say, "this is the person" or "that is the person," nor can one name them; they are "nowhere to be found,"incomprehensible and unattainable matters.

＊

Jung attempts to visualize thisaspect of the predicateusing the philosophy of alchemy, with terms such as "ascent,descent,rotation,transformation."

In the previous dream, the dreamer had left the woman they were supposed to ride the elevator with downstairs, but in this dream, the dreamer is standing still, facing the woman, and confronting her. Moreover, by painting a portrait, the dreamer is looking steadily at this woman, staring at her. It is aunion of separation through gaze, vision, and the eye.

From this act of staring and painting a portrait, a distorted cross, a four-as-three, a four that feels like "four?"—where it is unattainable whether it is four or three—emerges. Its shape is both three and four. However, the colors are clearly divided into four.

At this point, it can be said that the dreamer is beginning to see a clearly stable and harmonious mandala.

In the next dream, this"crystal" of the mandala-like structure shows a clearly stable form.

In the next dream, it becomes clearly visible that this crystal-like structure is a "bilaterally symmetrical structure."

A bilaterally symmetrical image with a clear central point spreads out.

In the next dream, this symmetrical structure with a center begins to show a movement of rotation 'circulation' = a predicative aspect. Such movement, the movement of the depths of the heart and spirit, is almost the same as what Mr. Lévi-Strauss tried to grasp as the logic of myth in The Savage Mind.

At the end of the narrative, myth aims to draw a stable mandala-like pattern that separates Δ1-4 in Figure 1 without separating them too excessively. These Δ1-Δ4 are things that are felt to exist simply and empirically/sensually, such as heaven/earth, life/death, human/animal, male/female, up/down, light/dark, cold/warm.

Myth attempts to tell the 'origin' of these various empirical beings. In other words, it attempts to tell with language the process by which these various Δs 'do not' exist, and then 'do' come to 'be'. Here, myth brings up a highly sophisticated philosophical question: questioning the beginning of the distinction between being/non-being, existence/non-existence.

To that end, it first tells of a movement that draws an amplitude, such as the β-binary shown in Figure 1 extending long toward the first and third quadrants, or the β-binary extending long toward the second and fourth quadrants, or gathering at a single point in the center.

Here, in myth, β takes the form of, for example, a human who does not know how to use fire and pecks at the soil like a chicken, a jaguar that walks on two legs wearing clothes and carrying a bow and arrow, a moon that transforms into a porcupine to seduce a human woman, or a human who separates their lower body from their upper body and dives into a river with only their upper body, luring and catching fish with the smell of blood. Such things certainly 'do not exist' empirically or sensually, but myth aims to capture the movement of the '/' just before one can distinguish whether something exists/does not exist, and stabilize it. Therefore, it dares to speak of a state where two poles that should be sharply opposed empirically, such as human/animal or prey/hunter, overlap into one and it is unclear which is which. Things that show such movement drawing an amplitude that violently goes back and forth between such empirically opposing poles, or things that exist in a way that is both and neither of the two empirically opposing poles, are called ambivalent mediating terms (β for Δ in Figure 1).

Like kneading rice cakes, pottery clay, or pie dough, two of the four ambivalent mediating terms, the β-terms, seem to be excessively combined on the first axis, while simultaneously being excessively separated on the second axis orthogonal to that axis. These 'axis causing separation' and 'axis causing combination' swap at high speed.

Turning from there, pulling the βs out in four directions, and where the four β-terms are separated at an equal distance (drawing a square), this balances the pulling movement and the force trying to return to the center.

Here, the speed of expansion and contraction decelerates infinitely. Then, in the 'between' of these β-terms, room opens up for four regions or objects, 'that which is not that, distinguished from that which is not that' (Δ), to flicker and maintain their contours sustainably.

Here, a world meaningful to us is generated, a 'world' where we can say 'Δ1 is Δ2', where the various Δ-terms have already been separated and arranged orderly as individual objects, and can be linguistically and stably distinguished. Any empirical world, and the myth that tells of the origin of the elements of that world, has this kind of logic.

Just beneath the surface of our empirical world, a movement is constantly at work, adjusting the frequency of β and deviating from the fleeting 'four' square of the here and now, to continue regenerating the world as a different four-term relationship.

To be continued

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