Now that we have distilled some of our best understanding of the concept of Correspondences as used in the Writings, it might be useful to place our study in something of a historical framework with its relation to the hermetic tradition, archetypes and mythopoeic thinking.

I   THE HERMETIC TRADITION

        The study of the Science of Correspondences can be said to be part of what is known as the Hermetic Tradition, a stream of occult studies and beliefs having their source at the beginning of recorded history in ancient Egypt. Belonging to the tradition are a myriad of cults, practices and idealist philosophies such as astrology, mythology, magic, Platonism, Gnosticism, caba-lism, Freemasonry, alchemy, and even homeopathy and transcendentalism. The term often implies secrecy or exclusiveness, but more pertinent to our interests, the inclusion of the Science of Correspondences in the Tradition, is the primary assumption of the Tradition that there is a realm of the spirit, a spiritual as well as a natural reality.

        The Tradition gets its name from the Egyptian god Thoth whom the Greeks equated with their Hermes, adding the appellation "Thrice Great", or Hermes Trismagistos. Because of Thoth's depiction in the Egyptian Judgment scenes as the Ibis headed Scribe recording the destiny of the weighing-in of the spirit's heart against the feather of truth, and because of the tradition that Thoth invented the earliest writing, the Hieroglyphics, the Rev. C. Th. Odhner concluded that Thoth represented the ancients' concept of the Ancient Word. One can easily agree with this interpretation when one examines the attributes of the Greek Hermes and his Roman equivalent, Mercury, with the birds' wings on caps and sandals and on the serpentine caduceus: the messenger between gods/God and man, certainly the Word.

        If we accept Odhner's concept of meaning and use his methodology we can unlock rapidly a long chain of symbols stretching from ancient to modern times. We can trace the concept of Thoth through Hermes/Mercury to Caesar's statement that Norse Odin "is our Mercury"; Odin with wings on his cap, birds on his shoulders, "thought and memory", who circle the world daily to gather truths; Odin who surrendered his eye to the well for wisdom, who invented the original sacred language, the Runes. Note that the bird symbol was carried into the Middle Ages to represent the Holy Spirit, God with us, the communication of God with man!

        It is not remarkable that the bird or feather symbol would be used through the ages to represent the communication between heaven and earth. But more interesting is the fact that men gave the very name of that bird-god who embodies its meaning to the Tradition itself. For Thoth, Hermes Trimagistos appears to represent the ancient embodiment of the concept of correspondences, the Ancient Word. In one sense we may say that the Science of Correspondences is not so much in the Hermetic Tradition, but that it is the Hermetic Tradition, because it is the means of communication between the spiritual and natural world.

        The Hermetic Tradition linked spiritual or "other worldly" ideas from the time of the Ancient Church and Thoth(!) to Pythagoras; through Greek and Roman philosophers, some early Christian Church Fathers, to modern times. Suppressed periodically by the pragmatic Church, it occasionally burst forth, such as in the flood of mystical Grail legends with their eastern and Celtic roots which surfaced in the 12th Century.

        It was especially in the pre-Renaissance world of Paracelsus and Aquinas when the Hermetic tradition really took hold again as a vigorous current sweeping along with it the occult studies of Astrology and Alchemy. The republication of the Corpus Hermeticum and its subsequent sixteen editions, and the work of Giordino Bruno contributed to the revival of NeoPlatonism in the Age of Enlightenment where the Newtons and the Keplers, more Astrologers than Astronomers, and of course Swedenborg, became absorbed in these ancient "sciences".

        The Romantic and Transcendental philosophers and PreRaphaelite artists perpetuated the idea of the upper or inner level of reality through the 19th Century, where the old religions had failed. They must have been powerfully, if indirectly, reinforced and reinvigorated by the New Revelation. The Jungian Psychologists, Symbolists, Mythologists, and Linguistic Structuralists appear to be serving that end today, keeping alive the rational idea of the reality of the spirit and the importance of meaning, until the truths of the New Church can spread openly.

II  ARCHETYPES

        Beyond all other concepts, C. G. Jung's description of the operation of the archetype, as he defines it, is most helpful to me in understanding something of the nature of correspondences and how they operate through the human mind. Jung's archetype is not to be confused with the ancient and medieval use of the term archetype. That was used as synonymous with "prototype" or an original model in the ideal world, after which other things are patterned; a paradigm. But since the Jungian development it has taken on a new meaning which I believe comes closer to a living idea of the operation of correspondences.

        The ancient philosophers who first coined the word archetype, were probably still thinking in terms of remnant truth from the Ancient Church, i.e., they were thinking from the conviction that there was a spiritual as well as a natural plane of reality. The archetype or prototype was probably thought of as existing in the upper or spiritual level, and as causal, rather than merely before, as it was later used.

        Jung says one must, for the sake of accuracy, distinguish between the "archetype" and "archetypal ideas." The archetype as such is a hypothetical and irrepresentable model, something like the "pattern of behavior" in biology. The archetype resides, Jung says, as "an irrepresentable psychoid factor" in what he calls "the Collective Unconscious" (which he incidentally equates with Swedenborg's "Spiritual World" and Agrippa's "World Soul"). It is unknowable, "numinous," like an affection, and can only be sensed by its affects. It is not a "thing," but rather a moving spiritual force which may ultimate itself in many ideas and forms. Jung says it does not refer to anything that is or has been conscious, but is an unconscious core of meaning. He says "an archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet to the perpetual vexation of the intellect -- remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula." p. 76. Essays on a Science of Mythology.

        ]ung on Synchronicity and Correspondences. In discussing his theory of synchronicity, Jung dismisses what he refers to as the old theory of correspondences, probably because it assumes causality in its presumed parallel relationship of the natural and spiritual and cannot be demonstrated. "No reciprocal causal connection can be shown to obtain between parallel events, which is just what gives them their chance character. The only recognizable and demonstrable link between them is a common meaning or equivalence. The old theory of correspondences was based on the experience of such connections - a theory that reached its culminating point and also its provisional end in Leibnitz' idea of pre-established harmony, and was then replaced by causality. Synchronicity is a modern differentiation of the obsolete concept of correspondence, sympathy, and harmony. It is based not on philosophical assumptions but on empirical experience and experimentation." p. 115, Jung's Synchronicity.

III   MYTHOPOEIC THOUGHT AND MEANING:

        The common link in the age old "tradition" of Correspondences, then, is spirit or meaning. What is the meaning of "meaning?" The Mythologists, Structuralists and Semanticists have a lot to say about meaning. Casssirer speaks of transposing the Kantian principle that all knowledge involves, at the instant of its reception, a synthesizing activity of the mind -- into the key of myth. Wheelwright says "Myth here becomes a synonym of the mythopoeic mode of consciousness."

        Suzanne Langer agrees with this view of myth as a primary type of human expression, parallel to, but distinct from language or "prelanguage." As Levi Strauss puts it, "Myth cannot be treated as language, it is language." p. 154ff, The Semantic Approach to Myth. In this same article, Wheelwright refers to the second of two uses of language, the first he calls "steno" language, "the language of plain sense and exact denotation, language which designates clearly as a means of efficient and assured communication." And the second which he calls "expressive" language, "such as found in varying degrees in poetry, religion, myth and the more heightened moments of prose and daily conversation, and in the most sacred areas, in those realms of story making that have enough transcendental reference to be properly classified as myth, to express with maximum fullness." (This is very interesting in connection with the translating of the Word.)

        Levi Strauss, in his Structural Study of Myth, says: "Myth is the part of language where the formula reaches its lowest truth-value (read 'deepest, most fundamental.') From that point of view it should be put in the whole gamut of linguistic expressions at the end opposite to that of poetry, in spite of all the claims which have been made to prove the contrary. Poetry is a kind of speech which cannot be translated except at the cost of serious distortions; whereas the mythical value of the myth remains preserved, even through the worst translations. Whatever our ignorance of the language and culture of the people where it originated, a myth is still felt as a myth by any reader throughout the world. Its substance does not lie in its style, its original music or its syntax, but in the story which it tells. It is language functioning on an especially high level where meaning succeeds practically at 'taking off from the linguistic ground on which it keeps rolling." C. S. Lewis says the same thing: "There is, then, a particular kind of story which has a value in itself -- a value independent of its embodiment in any literary work" -- and again, "if some perfected art of mime or silent film or serial pictures could make it clear with no words at all, it would still affect us in the same way." p. 41, C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism. Levi Strauss also says "What gives the myth an operative value is that the specific pattern described is everlasting, it explains the present and the past as well as the future."

        The Law of Correspondences. The universal applicability and representation of myth and meaning is expressed so simply and yet profoundly in the haunting legendary engraving on Arthur's tomb "hic iacet arturus, rex quondam rexque futurus." Arthur, a prime example of the "typical" Hero, was and is and is to be. The typical hero is historical as well as mythological and universal. (See Lord Raglan's book, The Hero and Cirlot's Dictionary of Symbols, p. xiv) In connection with this question of the relationship between the historical and the symbolic, Rene Guenon has observed: "There is indeed over-eager acceptance of the belief that to allow a symbolic meaning- must imply the rejection of the literal or historical meaning; such a view shows an ignorance of the law of correspondences. This law is the foundation of all symbolism and by virtue of it everything proceeding essentially from a metaphysical principle, which is the source of its realism, translates and expresses this principle in its own way and according to its own level of existence, so that all things are related and joined together in total, universal harmony which is, in its many guises, a reflection, as it were, of its own fundamental unity. One result of this is the range of meaning contained in every symbol: any one thing may, indeed, be regarded as an illustration not only of metaphysical principles but also of higher levels of reality."

        Begrunden. There is an interesting concept discussed in Kerenyi's Prolegomena in Essays on a Science of Mythology. He uses a German word because he feels there is no English equivalent. "Begrunden" means, literally, "grounding", "establishing," "founding" and at the same time abstract "reason." Is this equivalent to the Writings' "ultimating?" -- as we do when we act out and reinforce our beliefs and feelings in ceremonies, in art, in our institutions and in our "body English;" when we act symbolically without becoming conscious of it and yet are confirming in deed what we feel but do not necessarily understand. Consider Begrunden in our body English, how we get a clue about our values by what we do in our art, in our customs of dress and in the very form of our organizations.

        The vertical, hierarchical organization chart makes a statement opposite to the "round table" of Arthur, Jefferson and the round table solution of the dispute about the seating at the peace conference at the end of the Korean War. The round table was a statement, in each case, about their beliefs in the consultative, the collegial, mutual respect, and the non-hierarchical.

        Eating Together. Consider the Rites and rituals of praying, and the Holy Supper; the traditions of Friday Supper, eating together, sharing the good of our food. Animals share their food with their young, but only humans share their food with other adults. Studies show that the only thing national Merit Scholars have in common is that they ate dinner with their parents and families!

        Think of all that is involved in the Lord's urging us to gather together and partake of the Holy Supper in the same way that He said, "Come, Let us reason together." It is important to keep grounding those symbols. How many important ideals have we discarded based on the ash heap of efficiency or expediency. What reinforcing experiences have we deprived our children of when we abandon our sense of correspondences? Perhaps the careful social planning of Friday Supper is as important as a carefully prepared Doctrinal Class, the one would ultimate good and the other ultimates truth. Both should be guided by Doctrine. We need the conscious reinforcing or "grounding" of our good and best affections and traditions from within, as well as the passing on of truths from without.

        Clustering. Philip Wheelwright suggests that with the mythopoeic mode of consciousness there is a strong tendency of the different experiential elements to blend and fuse in a non-logical way. He also uses the term coined by Max Muller, "diaphoric," "the expression of a complex idea not by analysis, not by direct statement, but by the sudden perception of an objective relation." He assumes that the most forceful archetypes are likely to arise out of a diaphoric situation where at least two of the diaphorically related elements represent human functions or interests of a deep-going and pertinently associated sort. (The Semantic Approach to Myth). Other Mythologists refer to this as "clustering." (There are many examples of various combinations of sword and stone, serpent and foot. See the Stith-Thompson Motif Index. Consider the "Vulnerable Spot" and the "Forbidden Fruit" motifs in myths and legends. I dare say most of these can be seen in the first eleven chapters of Genesis and could be traced back to that original Treasure House of Correspondences, the Ancient Word.

        Perception of Meaning. At this end of the long stream of the Hermetic Tradition, Psychologists and Linguists have thrown light on the mental processes by means of which we recognize and affirm truth. Jung has described the activity of the Archetype in the Collective Unconscious as organizing external data into meaningful patterns. Gestalt provides a theory involving closure where there is a clustering of related factors and meaning is perceived. Rank, Raglan and Campbell develop the organizing theme of the Hero myth. Countless mythologists and psychologists show how significant symbols seem to "ground" universally recognized truths into meaningful life experiences.

        In the revealed doctrine of the Science of Correspondences we have at our disposal the long searched for key which can unlock, open up and throw full sunlight into the mental treasure house which lies at this end of the torch-lit river barge procession.

        Fresh air from the Second Coming has caused some torches to flair up and inspire secular scholars and our own young people to take renewed interest in occult studies, perhaps because it revives the heretofore dormant human hope of the reality of the spirit. We must meet the candle-lit processions and relay their torches with rationally developed presentations of that Science as we understand it.

        We need to share with them, speak their language and learn from them what they understand about the processes of thinking and mythologizing. We need to enlarge our own awareness of the importance of correspondences in the internal process leading to the perception of truth. We need to understand better how the Lord operates on the soul and mind which are immediate correspondential representations of His Image, as the Organizer of data and the Spirit of Meaning, the One who is Meaning Itself. "He causes truth to shine" (TCR 349).