Note 496 — Chapter V · SYMBOLISM OF THE MOTHER AND OF REBIRTH

The motive of the “striking rocks” belongs also to the motive of devouring (Frobenius: Ibid., p. 405). The hero in his ship must pass between two rocks which strike together. (Similar to the biting door, to the tree trunk which snaps together.) In the passage, generally the tail of the bird is pinched off (or the “poop” of the ship, etc.); the castration motive is once more clearly revealed here, for the castration takes the place of mother incest. The castration is a substitution for coitus. Scheffel employs this idea in his well-known poem: “A herring loved an oyster, etc.” The poem ends with the oyster biting off the herring’s head for a kiss. The doves which bring Zeus ambrosia have also to pass through the rocks which strike together. The “doves” bring the food of immortality to Zeus by means of incest (entrance into the mother) very similar to Freya’s apples (breasts). Frobenius also mentions the rocks or caves which open only at a magic word and are very closely connected with the rocks which strike together. Most illuminating in this respect is a South African myth (Frobenius, p. 407): “One must call the rock by name and cry loudly: Rock Utunjambili, open, so that I may enter.” But the rock answers when it will not open to the call. “The rock will not open to children, it will open to the swallows which fly in the air!” The remarkable thing is, that no human power can open the rock, only a formula has that power—or a bird. This wording merely says that the opening of the rock is an undertaking which cannot really be accomplished, but which one wishes to accomplish.

(In Middle High German, to wish is really “to have the power to create something extraordinary.”) When a man dies, then only the wish that he might live remains, an unfulfilled wish, a fluttering wish, wherefore souls are birds. The soul is wholly only libido, as is illustrated in many parts of this work; it is “to wish.” Thus the helpful bird, who assists the hero in the whale to come again into the light, who opens the rocks, is the wish for rebirth. (For the bird as a wish, see the beautiful painting by Thoma, where the youth longingly stretches out his arms to the birds who pass over his head.)