Jean Gebser
THE EVER-PRESENT
ORIGIN
Power Point Presentation
for the Seminar on Psychology of Social Development
organized by the University of Human Unity, Auroville
Magic and Mythical
Structures of Consciousness
Two fundamental principles of Gebser’s approach
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1) Latency - what is concealed - is the demonstrable presence of the future. It includes
everything that is not yet manifest, as well as everything which has again returned to
latency. Since we are dealing here primarily with phenomena of consciousness and
integration, we will also have to investigate questions of history, the soul and the psyche,
time, space, and the forms of thought.
Since the second part of this work is devoted to manifestations of the new consciousness,
the first part must clarify questions relating to the manifestations of previous and present
consciousness structures. We shall attempt to demonstrate the incipient concretion of time
and the spiritual dimension which are preconditions of the aperspectival world. We shall
also attempt to furnish evidence of the increasing efficacy of that spiritual reality (which is
neither a mere psychic state nor an intellectual-rational form of representation). This will
bring out the validity of our second guiding principle:
2) Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) of the spiritual.
Our concern is to render transparent everything latent "behind" and "before" the world - to
render transparent our own origin, our entire human past, as well as the present,
which already contains the future. We are shaped and determined not only by today and
yesterday, but by tomorrow as well. The author is not interested in outlining discrete
segments, steps or levels of man, but in disclosing the transparency of man as a whole and
the interplay of the various consciousness structures which constitute him. This
transparency or diaphaneity of our existence is particularly evident during transitional
periods, and it is from the experiences of man in transition, experiences which man
has had with the concealed and latent aspects of his dawning future as he became
aware of them, that will clarify our own experiencing of the present.
Gebser’s Fundamental Discoveries
• The beginning of the perspectival perception of the mental (=spatial)
structure of consciousness (Ancient Greeks and medieval Europe)
out of latent unperspectival and pre-perspectival structures.
(Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo de Vinci, etc.)
• The emergence of aperspectival consciousness in the 20th century
out of perspectival structure (Picasso etc.) operating within and by
all the latent structures in a transparent way for the manifestation of
the Spirit.
• “Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany)
of the spiritual.”- says Gebser. He cannot fully accept the rational,
perspectival conception of progress and evolution, which is not
taking into account the latent structures of our being.
• He also declines the Orientalist view, which is, according to him,
turned only towards the past (mythical structure) in search of the
origin to escape from the manifestation (mainly Buddhism and
Advaita).
Sri Aurobindo on Evolution
• We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of
Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the
phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no
reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind
out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that
Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because
in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of
veiled Consciousness.
The Life Divine, (Page 3)
Structures of consciousness
• Archaic ( Primal man, Protanthropos, Purusha of the Rig Veda,
Adam Kadmon, of the Cabbala, Osiris of the Egyptian-Gnostics)
• Magic (‘here the primal man becomes the maker’, vital impulse and
instinct thus unfold and develop a consciousness in dealing with
Nature; witchcraft and sorcery, totem and taboo are the natural
means of freeing himself from Nature) (appr. before 10 000 BC)
• Mythical (brings the awareness of the inner life of the soul, its
history and its origin, the primal Myth) (appr. before 2500 BC)
• Mental (‘It individualizes man from his previously valid world,
emphasizing his singularity and making his ego possible.’(p.76) It
introduces a perspectival perception of the world (1250-1500 AD) by
spatializing time perception; it represents life by conceptualizing it,
distancing man from his own nature.)
• Integral (freedom from all the structures by their transparent
rearrangement into one integral oneness of being)
The structures of consciousness in
the Mandukya Upanishad
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Jāgrata , a wakeful state, the outer consciousness.
Svapna, a dream like state, with dreams being
dreamed.
Prajñā, a dream without dreaming, pure perception,
not marred by the dreams coming from the interaction
with the outer or inner world.
Turiya, the state beyond all the three, in the pure
transcendental consciousness, which somehow
embodies all the three and transcends them all.
The Magic structure of Consciousness
has two major characteristics:
• interwovenness or interconnectedness of the soul with nature (which
implies egolessness in relation, timelessness and spacelessness in
perception);
• ‘an enormous attempt of the spirit to free oneself’ or to distinguish/
separate oneself in being and power, when there is a complete
identification in consciousness with the surrounding, which
constitutes to a great extent the very consciousness of pre-individual
man. This attempt is translated in such actions as spells, curses,
magic manipulations, interaction with all subliminal forces of Nature
to influence weather, health (healing), events etc., hunting
ceremonies, sacrifices and rituals, initiations and witchcraft etc. etc.
In our age it is translated in terms of technology, which represents
the attempt to liberation of man in a mechanical way from the
mechanical enslavement of Nature (in the body, vital and partially in
the mind). The Tower of Babel is the mythical image of this magic
attempt.
Properties of Magic structure of
Consciousness
• Man is always attending, hearing, hearkening, feeling and
responding to a bigger body of environment as his own
through:
• spells, curses, magic formulas, and subliminal universal
forces trying to influence weather, health (healing), events
etc., making hunting ceremonies, sacrifices and rituals,
initiations and witchcraft etc. etc., having powers of
clairvoyance and clairaudience, a power of telepathy, etc.
• It is manifested in herds, flocks, tribes, etc. And later in the
mythical and mental structures as religious sects and
philosophical schools, organisations and collective bodies,
group soul, ethnos, nation, country etc. with its own particular
group identity and symbols.
Consciousness of the Magic structure
• “In a sense one may say that in this structure consciousness was
not yet in man himself, but still resting in the world. The gradual
transfer of this consciousness which streams towards him and
which he must assimilate from his standpoint, and the
awakening world, which he gradually learns to confront (and in the
confrontation there is something hostile), is something that man
must master.
• Man replies to the forces streaming towards him with his own
corresponding forces: he stands up to Nature. He tries to exorcise
her, to guide her; he strives to be independent of her; then he
begins to be conscious of his own will. Witchcraft and sorcery,
totem and taboo, are the natural means by which he seeks to free
himself from the transcendent power of nature, by which his soul
strives to materialize within him and to become increasingly
conscious of itself.” (p.46)
Transition from the Magic to
the Mythical Structure
• “We can, however, locate approximately the time of the mutation
from the magic to the mythical structure, since a consciousness of
time, however rudimentary, would have had to manifest itself before
the mutation was possible. In accord with the magic structure, this
would have been more a sense of time than a knowledge of it – a
time-sense closely attuned to nature. When we speak of ‘time’ we
are also speaking of ‘soul’. They both share energeia, and, to the
extent that they are separable, they are both preforms of matter.
We will return in a moment to this affinity or possible identity; here
we would note that whereas the distinguishing characteristic of
the magic structure was the emergent awareness of nature, the
essential characteristic of the mythical structure is the
emergent of awareness of soul. Magic man’s sleep-like
consciousness of natural time is the precondition for mythical man’s
coming to awareness of soul.”
The primal urge to freedom of Soul involved
• Gebser writes:
“This remarkable and deeply inveterate impulse to be free
from miracles, taboos, forbidden names, which, if we think
back on the archaic period, represents in the magic a falling
away from the once-prevailing totality; this urge to freedom
and the constant need to be against something resulting from
it (because only this “being against” creates separation, and
with it, possibilities of consciousness) may be the answering
reaction of man, set adrift on earth, to the power of the earth.
It may be curse, blessing, or mission. In any case, it may
mean: whoever wishes to prevail over the earth must liberate
himself from its power.” (p.51)
The Mythical structure as a transition
towards the Mental structure
• From the hearing of Magic structure to a concrete and
objective seeing in the Mental consciousness man
must undergo one more mutation of the Mythical
structure, where he perceives himself as a soul
located in the Heart, bringing out the imaginary of the
Origin in the Primal Myth, and gaining the ability of
self-expression in the Word, which is already an
individualised expression though still of the Universal
nature. So the self-expression in the Heart by the
Word builds up gradually a mentality in him. It
individualizes him more and more, until he becomes
ready to perceive himself as a separate being: to see
himself objectively.
Two major characteristics of
the Mythical structure:
the Word and the Imagination of the Soul
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“The corresponding verb for mythos is mytheomai, meaning ‘to discourse,
talk, speak’; its root, mu-, means ‘to sound’. But another verb of the same
root, myein – ambivalent because of the substitution of a short ‘u’ – means
‘to close’, specifically to close the eyes, the mouth, and wounds.” (p. 65)
“Thus the word is always a mirror of inner silence and myth a reflector
of soul.” (p.67)
The other distinct feature of the Mythical structure is ‘that it bears the
stamp of imagination… Although still distant from space, the mythical
structure is already on the verge of time. The imaginatory consciousness
still alternates between magical timelessness and the natural cosmic
periodicity. The farther myth stands removed from consciousness, the
greater its degree of timelessness; its unreflective ground resembles the
reverse side of a mirror. By contrast, the closer its proximity to
consciousness, the greater emphasis on time; … This ambivalent relation
between time and timelessness, which defies our rational understanding,
once again finds its expression in the polarity of the mythical structure, for
both forms simultaneously exist and complement each other.” (p.67)
Two contentual aspects of the myths
• The ‘astral-mythological’, related to the finding
of the soul and its journey.
• The natural is ‘being interpreted mostly in
sexual-erotic terms’, (p.68), for it reflects the
relation with the magic structure.
Five major mythologemes
• The Myths of the sea voyage (difficult and adventurous
journey to the beyond to find oneself and one’s partner
Soul-mate);
• The Myth of Narcissus (finding one’s Soul);
• The Myth of the Sun (finding the Origin, power of ‘the
divine wrath’ as the dynamic truth, Ritam);
• The Myth of the descent into Hades, Hell (cf. ‘The
Descent into Night’, ‘The Entry into the inner countries’);
• The Myth of the birth of Athena (sprung out of the head
of Zeus as the birth of all-seeing Thought, with the eye of
an owl, seeing in the dark) (pp. 69-73)
The transition from the Magic to
the Mythical and Mental structures with respect to
the faculties of consciousness
• Feeling/Hearing
• Speaking/Imagining
• Thinking/Seeing
or we can paraphrase it as:
• perceiving inwardly the nature as part of oneself through
feelings and emotions;
• expressing oneself as the inner soul by speech and
imagination, already different from nature (from within to
without) ;
• perceiving outwardly oneself as a distinct part of nature by
seeing objectively oneself and others and thinking about it.