Monday 20 March 2017

You have seen the Hosts of Wotan




"Jung spoke of a dream he had years ago at Bollingen at a time when only the first tower was built. He was alone there for some days, perfectly quiet and at home with Nature. He dreamt that he heard music of various instruments, accordions, violins, and so on, and saw a long procession of people walking by the side of the lake, coming from the direction of Schmerikon. When they reached the Tower they divided, one column passed on one side and one on the other. It was so vivid that he woke wondering what they could be doing. He did not realise he had been dreaming and got up and pulled the shutter aside to see these people. There was no one there, nothing but the light of the moon on a clear night. He went back to bed and fell asleep. The same dream returned, but in it he dreamt that he thought it to be a dream although in fact it was real. Then he woke, and again looked out having pulled the shutter aside. At the time he could make nothing of this dream. It occurred about thirty years ago, and only last year he came across an account written by an old historian in Lucerne, R. Cysat (1545-1614), who made a collection of the folklore of the area [around Bollingen] at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Amongst the tales was one of a shepherd on Pilatus. Another man went up and spent a night with him, and in the morning he asked the shepherd about the procession of people playing musical instruments which had passed on either side of the place where they were camped. The shepherd said, ‘Oh, you have seen the hosts of Wotan.’
C.G. mentioned this dream as an instance of how the collective unconscious is constellated at certain times, and the great value of this. It is important to be alone and unhurried sometimes, for then we are close to Nature (as he was on the night of this dream); then we can hear the voice of Nature speaking to us."
Meetings with Jung, E.A. Bennett

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