The Dragon Descent
For Jung the Dragon Descent was a psychophysical journey to hell, a descent into the bowels of the unconscious to confront complexes, roles, and neurosis. In genealogy, it begins in drawing the lines of descent, which becomes a metaphor for the psychophysical process.
At one time most genealogists were historians. Historians now pursue less fact research; they track now down narratives. Traditional historians believe, that primary sources should be used to research history, whereas postmodern historians claim because of a different age in a different culture, the historian of today has no way of interpreting these sources accurately. Therefore, they are not to be trusted and rely more on secondary sources and individual perception of historical events. Postmodernism has brought history dangerously close to the fairy tales.
Postmodern historian remains a discipline hard to define for its relativism. While the history of humanity itself may not have a purpose, the writing of historical accounts does. Resonating with Foucault’s approach to history is the view that the writing of history should promote an ideology. Do the Math
“Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one’s autosomal DNA: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.” (Ancestors – Wikipedia) And before you brag about the talent or courage you share with some illustrious kinsman, remember that the exponential mathematics of relatedness successively halves the number of genes shared by relatives with every link separating them. You share only 3 percent of your genes with your second cousin, and the same proportion with your great-great-greatgrandmother. http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
Moreover, with dozens of generations separating all those princes and counts, a long-hidden adulterous liaison could have severed the Y-chromosome-and-surname links. The father’s name may be missing from a birth or marriage certificate. The youngest child recorded in a family may in fact be a grandchild. Illegitimacy in itself does not create any particular records. Illegitimate birth was concealed just a generation or two ago. Another type of illegitimacy that is very difficult to prove is when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband.
There are descendants via noble but illegitimate lines. Illegitimate ancestors can be found in the personal and World Tree. One famous scion is Sir Richard de Cornwall, of indisputable but illegitimate descent of of Richard of England, 1st Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans. Numerous lines from the many illegitimate children of Charles II exist to this day.
http://www.europeanheraldry.org/united-kingdom/families/families-s-z/families-illegitimate-royal-descent-various/
Members of untitled families today may be descended from illegitimate children of royalty. Since illegitimate children of royalty were seldom permitted to marry into other royal families (because their status made them unacceptable), these children tended to marry upper-class or middle-class families from their own country.
Another reason for the greater number of descendants from chronologically distant monarchs is that likelihood of descent from a monarch increases as a function of the length of time between the monarch's death and the birth of the particular descendant. Thus, it is theoretically true that "statistically, most of the inhabitants of Western Europe are probably descended from William the Conqueror; they are equally likely to be descended from the man who groomed his charger. My soul is my supreme meaning, my image of God, neither God himself nor the supreme meaning. God becomes apparent in the supreme meaning of the human community"
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Footnote 92.
Jung Anticipates Epigenetics
"When I worked in my family tree, I understood the strange communion of the destiny that unites me to my ancestors. I had the strong feeling that I was under the influence of events and problems that were incomplete and unresolved by my parents, my grandparents, and my other ancestors. I had the impression that there is often in the family an impersonal Karma transmitted from parents to children. I always knew that I had to answer questions already asked by my ancestors or I had to conclude, or continue on the previously unresolved issues". ~Carl Jung Alchemy sets itself the task of acquiring this 'treasure hard to attain' and of producing it in visible form. —Carl Jung
The treasure which the hero fetches from the dark cavern is LIFE; it his himself, new-born from the dark maternal cave of the unconscious where he was stranded by the introversion or regression of libido.
Hence the Hindu fire-bringer is called Matarisvan, he who swells in the mother. The hero who clings to the mother is the DRAGON, and when he is reborn from the mother he becomes the conqueror of the dragon. He shares this paradoxical nature with the snake.
According to Philo the snake is the most spiritual of all creatures; it is of a fiery nature, and its swiftness is terrible. It has a long life and sloughs off old age with its skin. In actual fact the snake is a cold-blooded creature, unconscious and unrelated. It is both toxic and prophylactic, equally a symbol of the good and bad daemon (the Agathodaemon), of Christ and the Devil.
Among Gnostics it was regarded as an emblem of the brainstem and spinal cord, as is consistent with its predominantly reflex psyche. It is an excellent symbol for the unconscious, perfectly expressing the latter’s sudden and unexpected manifestations, its painful and dangerous intervention in our affairs, and its frightening effects.
Taken purely as a psychologem the hero represents the positive, favorable action of the unconscious, while the dragon is its negative and unfavorable action-not birth, but a devouring; not a beneficial and constructive deed, but greedy retention and destructive. ~Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation; Paragraph 560.
For Jung the Dragon Descent was a psychophysical journey to hell, a descent into the bowels of the unconscious to confront complexes, roles, and neurosis. In genealogy, it begins in drawing the lines of descent, which becomes a metaphor for the psychophysical process.
At one time most genealogists were historians. Historians now pursue less fact research; they track now down narratives. Traditional historians believe, that primary sources should be used to research history, whereas postmodern historians claim because of a different age in a different culture, the historian of today has no way of interpreting these sources accurately. Therefore, they are not to be trusted and rely more on secondary sources and individual perception of historical events. Postmodernism has brought history dangerously close to the fairy tales.
Postmodern historian remains a discipline hard to define for its relativism. While the history of humanity itself may not have a purpose, the writing of historical accounts does. Resonating with Foucault’s approach to history is the view that the writing of history should promote an ideology. Do the Math
“Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one’s autosomal DNA: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.” (Ancestors – Wikipedia) And before you brag about the talent or courage you share with some illustrious kinsman, remember that the exponential mathematics of relatedness successively halves the number of genes shared by relatives with every link separating them. You share only 3 percent of your genes with your second cousin, and the same proportion with your great-great-greatgrandmother. http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
Moreover, with dozens of generations separating all those princes and counts, a long-hidden adulterous liaison could have severed the Y-chromosome-and-surname links. The father’s name may be missing from a birth or marriage certificate. The youngest child recorded in a family may in fact be a grandchild. Illegitimacy in itself does not create any particular records. Illegitimate birth was concealed just a generation or two ago. Another type of illegitimacy that is very difficult to prove is when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband.
There are descendants via noble but illegitimate lines. Illegitimate ancestors can be found in the personal and World Tree. One famous scion is Sir Richard de Cornwall, of indisputable but illegitimate descent of of Richard of England, 1st Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans. Numerous lines from the many illegitimate children of Charles II exist to this day.
http://www.europeanheraldry.org/united-kingdom/families/families-s-z/families-illegitimate-royal-descent-various/
Members of untitled families today may be descended from illegitimate children of royalty. Since illegitimate children of royalty were seldom permitted to marry into other royal families (because their status made them unacceptable), these children tended to marry upper-class or middle-class families from their own country.
Another reason for the greater number of descendants from chronologically distant monarchs is that likelihood of descent from a monarch increases as a function of the length of time between the monarch's death and the birth of the particular descendant. Thus, it is theoretically true that "statistically, most of the inhabitants of Western Europe are probably descended from William the Conqueror; they are equally likely to be descended from the man who groomed his charger. My soul is my supreme meaning, my image of God, neither God himself nor the supreme meaning. God becomes apparent in the supreme meaning of the human community"
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Footnote 92.
Jung Anticipates Epigenetics
"When I worked in my family tree, I understood the strange communion of the destiny that unites me to my ancestors. I had the strong feeling that I was under the influence of events and problems that were incomplete and unresolved by my parents, my grandparents, and my other ancestors. I had the impression that there is often in the family an impersonal Karma transmitted from parents to children. I always knew that I had to answer questions already asked by my ancestors or I had to conclude, or continue on the previously unresolved issues". ~Carl Jung Alchemy sets itself the task of acquiring this 'treasure hard to attain' and of producing it in visible form. —Carl Jung
The treasure which the hero fetches from the dark cavern is LIFE; it his himself, new-born from the dark maternal cave of the unconscious where he was stranded by the introversion or regression of libido.
Hence the Hindu fire-bringer is called Matarisvan, he who swells in the mother. The hero who clings to the mother is the DRAGON, and when he is reborn from the mother he becomes the conqueror of the dragon. He shares this paradoxical nature with the snake.
According to Philo the snake is the most spiritual of all creatures; it is of a fiery nature, and its swiftness is terrible. It has a long life and sloughs off old age with its skin. In actual fact the snake is a cold-blooded creature, unconscious and unrelated. It is both toxic and prophylactic, equally a symbol of the good and bad daemon (the Agathodaemon), of Christ and the Devil.
Among Gnostics it was regarded as an emblem of the brainstem and spinal cord, as is consistent with its predominantly reflex psyche. It is an excellent symbol for the unconscious, perfectly expressing the latter’s sudden and unexpected manifestations, its painful and dangerous intervention in our affairs, and its frightening effects.
Taken purely as a psychologem the hero represents the positive, favorable action of the unconscious, while the dragon is its negative and unfavorable action-not birth, but a devouring; not a beneficial and constructive deed, but greedy retention and destructive. ~Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation; Paragraph 560.