The chief problem of lower-income famers is poverty. The bodily assumption of Mary into Heaven was defined as a dogma of the Catholic faith by Pope Pius XII in November 1950. Carl Jung, who had examined the doctrine of the Trinity, (“A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” CW 11, pars. 172-295) believed his to be “the most important religious event since the Reformation.” For the new dogma adds a fourth figure to the Trinity, converting it into a quaternity. The promulgation of the new dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary could, in itself, have been sufficient reason for examining the psychological background. It was interesting to note that, among the many articles published in the Catholic and Protestant press on the declaration of the dogma, there was not one, so far as I could see, which laid anything like the proper emphasis on what was undoubtedly the most powerful motive: namely, the popular movement and the psychological need behind it. Essentially, the writers of the articles were satisfied with learned considerations, dogmatic and historical, which have no bearing on the living religious process. However, anyone who has followed with attention the visions of Mary which have been increasing in number over the last few decades, and has taken their psychological significance into account, might have known what was brewing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

The fact, especially, that is was largely children who had the visions might have given pause for thought, for in such cases the collective unconscious is always at work. Incidentally, the Pope himself is rumoured to have had several visions of the Mother of God on the occasion of the declaration. One could have known for a long time that there was a deep longing in the masses for an intercessor and mediatrix who would at last take her place alongside the Holy Trinity and be received as the “Queen of Heaven and Bride at the Heavenly court.” For more than a thousand years it had been taken for granted that the Mother of God dwelt there, and we know from the Old Testament that Sophia was with God before the creation. From the ancient Egyptian theology of the divine Pharaohs we know that God wants to become man by means of a human mother, and it was recognized even in prehistoric times that the primordial divine being is both male and female. However, such a truth eventuates in time only when it is solemnly proclaimed or rediscovered. It is psychologically significant for our day that in the year 1950 the Heavenly bride was united with the bridegroom. In order to interpret this event, one has to consider not only the arguments adduced by the Papal Bull, but the prefigurations in the apocalyptic marriage of the Lamb and in the Old Testament anamnesis of Sophia. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

The nuptial union in the thalamus (bridal-chamber) signifies the hieros gamos, and this in turn is the first step towards incarnation, towards the birth of the saviour who, since antiquity, was thought of as the filius solis et lunae, the filius sapientiae, and the equivalent of Christ. When, therefore, a longing for the exaltation of the Mother of God passes through the people, this tendency, if thought to its logical conclusion, means the desire for the birth of a saviour, a peacemaker, a mediator pacem faciens inter inimicos (a mediator making peace between enemies). Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by humans. The motive and content of the popular movement which contributed to the Pope’s decision solemnly to declare the new dogma consist not in the birth of a new god, but in the continuing incarnation of God which began with Christ. Arguments based on historical criticism will never do justice to the new dogma; on the contrary, they are as lamentably wide of the mark as are the unqualified fears to which the English archbishops have given expression. In the first place, the declaration of the dogma has changed nothing in principle in the Catholic ideology as it has existed for more than a thousand years; and in the second place, the failure to understand that God has eternally wanted to become man, for that purpose continually incarnates through the Holy Ghost in the temporal sphere, is an alarming symptom and can only mean that the Protestant standpoint has lost ground by not understanding the signs of the times and by ignoring the continued operation of the Holy Ghost. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

It is obviously out of touch with the tremendous archetypal happenings in the psyche of the individual and the masses, and with the symbols which are intended to compensate the truly apocalyptic World situation today. It seems to have succumbed to a species of rationalistic historicism and to have lost any understanding of the Holy Ghost who works in the hidden places of the soul. It can therefore neither understand nor admit a further revelation of the divine drama. This circumstance has given me, a layman in things theological, cause to put forward my views on these dark matters. My attempt is based on the psychological experience I have harvested during the course of a long life. I do not underestimate the psyche in any respect whatsoever, nor do I imagine for a moment that psychic happenings vanish into thin air by being explained. Psychologism represents a still primitive mode of magical thinking, with the help of which one hopes to conjure the reality of the soul out of existence, after the manner of the “Proktophantasmist” in Faust: “Are you still here? Nay, it’s a thing unheard. Vanish at once! We’ve said the enlightening word.” One would be very ill advised to identify me with such a childish standpoint. However, I have been asked so often whether I believe in the existence of God or not that I am somewhat concerned lest I be taken for an adherent of “psychologism” far more commonly than I suspect. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

What most people overlook or seem unable to understand is the fac that I regard the psyche as real. They believe only in physical facts, and must consequently come to the conclusion that either the uranium itself or the laboratory equipment created the atom bomb. That is no loess absurd than the assumption that a non-physical fact, id est, a fact tat can be established psychically but not physically. Equally, these people have still not got it into their heads that the psychology of religion falls into two categories, which must be sharply distinguished from one another: firstly, the psychology of the religious person, and secondly, the psychology of religion proper, id est, of religious contents. It is chiefly my experience in the latter field which have given me the courage to enter into the discussion of the religious question and especially into the pros and the cons of the dogma of the Assumption—which, by the way, I consider to be the most important religious event since the Reformation.  It is a petra scandali for the unpsychological mind: how can such an unfounded assertion as the bodily reception of the Virgin into Heaven be put forward as worthy of belief? However, the method which the Pope uses in order to demonstrate the truth of the dogma makes sense to the psychological mind, because it bases itself firstly on the necessary prefigurations, and secondly on a tradition of religious assertions reaching back for more than a thousand years. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Clearly, the material evidence for the existence of this psychic phenomenon is more than sufficient. It does not matter at all that a physically impossible fact is asserted, because all religious assertions are physical impossibilities. If they were not so, they would, as I said earlier, necessarily be treated in the text-books of natural science. However, religious statements without exception have to do with the reality of psyche and not with the reality of physis. What outrages the Protestant standpoint in particular is the boundless approximation of the Deipara to the Godhead and, in consequence, the endangered supremacy of Christ, from which Protestantism will not budge. In sticking to this point it has obviously failed to consider that its hymnology is full of references to the “Heavenly bridegroom,” who is now suddenly supposed not to have a bride with equal rights. Or has, perchance, the “bridegroom,” in true psychologistic manner, been understood as a mere metaphor? The logical consistency of the papal declaration cannot be surpassed, and it leaves Protestantism with the odium of being nothing but a man’s religion which allows no metaphysical representation of woman. In this respect it is similar to Mithraism, and Mithraism found this prejudice very much to its detriment. Protestantism has obviously not given sufficient attention to the signs of the times which point to the equality of women. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

However, this equality requires to be metaphysically anchored in the figure of a “divine” woman, the bride of Christ. Just as the person of Christ cannot be replaced by an organization, s the bride cannot be replaced by the Church. The feminine, like the masculine, demands an equally personal representation. The dogmatizing of the Assumption does not, however, according to the dogmatic view, mean that Mary has attained the status of a goddess, although, as mistress of Heaven (as opposed to the prince of the sublunary aerial realm, Satan) and mediatrix, she is functionally on par with Christ, the kind and mediator. At any rate her position satisfies the need of the archetype. The new dogma expresses a renewed hope for the fulfillment of that yearning for peace which stirs deep down in the soul, and for a resolution of the threatening tension between the opposites. Everyone shares this tension and everyone experiences it in one’s individual form of unrest, the more so the less one sees any possibility of getting rid of it by rational means. It is no wonder, therefore, that the hope, indeed he expectation of the divine intervention arises in the collective unconscious and at the same time in the masses. The papal declaration has given comforting expression to this yearning. How could Protestantism so completely miss the point? This lack of understanding can only be explained by the fact that the dogmatic symbols and hermeneutic allegories have lost their meaning for Protestant rationalism. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

This is also true, in some measure, of the opposition to the new dogma within the Catholic Church itself, or rather to the dogmatication of the old doctrine. Naturally, a certain degree of rationalism is better suited to Protestantism than it is to the Catholic outlook. The latter gives the archetypal symbolisms the necessary freedom and space in which to develop over the centuries while at the same time insisting on their original form, unperturbed by intellectual difficulties and the objections of rationalists. In this way the Catholic Church demonstrated her maternal character, because she allows the tree growing out of her matrix to develop according to its own laws. Protestantism, in contrast, is committed to the paternal spirit. Not only did it develop, at the outset, from an encounter with the Worldly spirit of the times, but it continues this dialectic with the spiritual currents of every age; for the pneuma, in keeping with its original wind nature, is flexible, ever in living motion, comparable now to water, now to fire. It can desert its original haunts, can even go astray and get lost, if it succumbs too much to the spirit of the age. In order to fulfill its task, the Protestant spirit must be full of unrest and occasionally troublesome; it must even be revolutionary, so as to make sure that tradition has an influence on the change of contemporary vales. The shocks it sustains during this encounter modify and at the same time enliven the tradition, which in its slow progress through the centuries would, without these disturbances, finally arrive at complete petrifaction and thus lose its effect. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

By merely criticizing and opposing certain developments within the Catholic Church, Protestantism would gain only a miserable bit of vitality, unless, mindful of the fact that Christianity consists of two separate camps, or rather, is a defending its own existence it must acknowledge Catholicism’s right to exist too. A brother who for theological reasons wanted to cut the thread of his elder sister’s life would rightly be called inhuman—to say nothing of Christian charity—and the converse is also true. Nothing is achieved by merely negative criticism. It is justified only to the degree that it is creative. Therefore it would seems profitable to me if, for example, Protestantism admitted that it is shocked by the new dogma not only because it throws a distressing light on the gulf between brother and sister, but because, for fundamental reasons, a situation has developed within Christianity which removes it further than ever from the sphere of Worldly understanding. Protestantism knows, or could know, how much it owes its very existence to the Catholic Church. How much or how little does the Protestant still possess if one can no longer criticize or protest? In view of the intellectual skandalon which the new dogma represents, one should remind oneself of one’s Christian responsibility—“Am I my brother’s (or in this case, my sister’s) keeper?”—and examine in all seriousness the reasons, explicit or otherwise, that decided the declaration of the new dogma. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

In so doing, one should guard against casting cheap aspersions and would do well to assume that there is more in than papal arbitrariness. It would be desirable for the Protestant to understand that the new dogma has placed upon one a new responsibility towards the Worldly spirit of our age, for one cannot simply deny one’s problematical sister before the eyes of the World. One must, even if one finds her antipathetic, be fair to her if one does not want to lose one’s self-respect. For instance, this is a favourable opportunity for one to ask oneself, for a change, what is the meaning not only of the new dogma but of all more or less dogmatic assertions over and above their literal concretism. Considering the arbitrary and protean state of one’s own dogmas, and the precarious, schism-riven condition of one’s Church, one cannot afford to remain rigid and impervious to the spirit of the age. And since, moreover, in accordance with one’s obligations to the spirit, one is more concerned to come to terms with the World and its ideas than with God, it would seem clearly indicated that, on the occasion of the entry of the Mother of God into the Heavenly bridal-chamber, one should bend to the great task of reinterpreting all the Christian traditions. If it is a question of truths which are anchored deep in the soul—and no one with the slightest insight can doubt this fact—then the solution of this task must be possible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

For this we need the freedom of the spirit, which, as we know, is assured only in Protestantism. The dogma of the Assumption is a slap in the face for the historical and rationalistic view of the World, and would remain so for all time if one were to insist obstinately on the arguments of reason and history. This is a case, if ever there was one, where psychological understanding is needed, because the mythologem coming to light is so obvious that we must be deliberately blinding ourselves if we cannot see its symbolic nature and interpret it in symbolic terms. The dogmatization of the Assumptio Mariae points to the hieros gamos in the pleroma, and this in turn implies, as we have said, the future birth of the divine child, who, in accordance with the divine trend towards incarnation, will choose as one’s birthplace the empirical man. The metaphysical process is known to the psychology of the unconscious as the individuation process. In so far as this process, as a rule, runs its course unconsciously as it as from time immemorial, it means no more than that the acorn becomes an oak, the calf a cow, and the child an adult. However, if the individuation process is made conscious, consciousness must confront the unconscious and a balance between the opposites must be found. As this is not possible through logic, one is dependent on symbols which make the irrational union of opposites possible. They are produced spontaneously by the unconscious and are amplified by the conscious mind. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

The central symbols of this process describe the elf, which is human’s totality, consisting on the one hand of that which is conscious to one, and on the other hand of the contents of the unconscious. The self is the (a Latin term I cannot translate), the whole human, whose symbols are the divine child and its synonyms. This is only a very summary sketch of the process, but it can be observed at any time in modern humans, or one can read about it in the documents of Hermetic philosophy from the Middle Ages. The parallelism between the symbols is astonishing to anyone who knows both the psychology of the unconscious and alchemy. The difference between the “natural” individuation process, which runs its course unconsciously, and the one which is consciously realized, is tremendous. In the first case consciousness nowhere intervenes; the end remains as dark as the beginning. In the second case so much darkness comes to light than the personality is permeated with light, and consciousness necessarily gains in scope and insight. The encounter between conscious and unconscious has to ensure that the light which shines in the darkness is not only comprehended by the darkness, but comprehends it. The filius solis et lunae is the possibility as well as the symbols of the union of opposites. It is the alpha and omega of the process, the mediator and intermedius. “It has a thousand names,” says the alchemists, meaning that the source from which the individuation process rises and the goal towards which its aims is nameless, ineffable. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

It is only through the psyche that we can establish that God acts upon us, but we are unable to distinguish whether these actions emanate from God or from the unconscious. We cannot tell whether God and the unconscious are two different entities. Both are border-line concepts for transcendental contents. However, empirically it can be established, with a sufficient degree of probability, that there is in the unconscious an archetype of wholeness which manifests itself spontaneously in dreams, et cetera, and a tendency, independent of the conscious will, to relate other archetypes to this center. Consequently, it does not seem improbable that the archetype of wholeness occupies as such a central position which approximates it to the God-image. The similarity is further borne out by the peculiar fact that the archetype produces a symbolism which has always characterized and expressed the Deity. These facts make possible a certain qualification of our above thesis concerning the indistinguishableness of God and the unconscious. Strictly speaking, the God-image does not coincide with the unconscious as such, but with a special content of it, namely the archetype of the self. It is this archetype from which we can no longer distinguish the God-image empirically. We can arbitrarily postulate a difference between these two entities, but that does not help us at all. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

On the contrary, it only helps us to separate man from God, and prevents God from becoming man. Faith is certainly right when it impresses on man’s mind and heart how infinitely far away and inaccessible God is; but it also teaches his nearness, his immediate presence, and it is just this nearness which has to be empirically real if it is not to lose all significance. Only that which acts upon me do I recognize as real and actual. However, that which has no effect upon me might as well not exist. The religious need longs for wholeness, and therefore lays hold of the images of wholeness offered by the unconscious, which, independently of the conscious mind, rise up from the depth of our psychic nature. In different periods of history, many people believed in an ultimate unity of all existence. Using the terminology of medieval philosophy, we refer to this as the unus mundus. This unity is outside the human categories of time and space, and beyond our separation of reality into physical and mental. In Psychology and Alchemy, actualizing those contents of the unconscious which are outside nature, id est, not a datum of our empirical World, and therefore a priori of archetypal character, the place or the medium of realization is neither mind nor matter, but that intermediate realm of subtle reality which can be expressed only by symbol. If our categories of physical and mental are artificial, “objective events and states of mind may be interrelated. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Archetypes manifest themselves, at least occasionally, in physical events and in states of mind at the same time. This is phenomenon is named synchronicity. Our World has shrunk, and it is drawing on us that humanity is one, with one psyche. Scattered throughout the Winchester mansion were hundreds of mirrors because of unwary ghost hastened their departure when faced with their own gruesome reflections. The Winchester Estate has always been the biggest secret of the Santa Clara Valley, and became a host to a dozen crime fighters, including not only the sheriff and his deputies but two private investigators hired directly by owners of the mansion, two private laboratory technicians and two gentlemen from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It became public knowledge that something bizarre was going on in this secret retreat. People reported seeing dead bodies at the estate. It was still early and the sun was high and falling down on the lawn beneath the palm trees. Best, warmest time in the back garden. When we heard the sound of someone digging. We were wide awake and staring across the grass at the distant ginger lilies, at the azaleas. I walked around the mansion as best I could. Why precisely I want not sure. Maybe I wanted to feel that I was doing something, and I listened, listened very carefully in case anyone out there was calling my name. Of course I heard the countless night birds and low gurgling noises coming from the fountains, but no human voice. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

I came back to the point where I started and there stood a ghost, my perfect mirror image, watching me intently, his figure illuminated, just as if it was solid by the candlelight that came from the house. What a marvelous spectacle, it seemed to me, that could create such an illusion, and I racked my brain to remember if I have ever seen something so spectacular before. I had seen him in the shadows, in darkness and in light, of course, but never had I seen light falling on him, outlining his shoulder and his face. He made a sudden gesture with his right hand, beckoning me to come close to where he stood. I moved towards him and he reached out with his left arm to guide me in a turn. Then he pointed out to the fountain. For a moment I was only aware of a distant pool of moonlight—that is, an opening in the thick growth many yards from where we stood, where the water sparkled with clear radiance. Then I heard the sound of lapping. So I called J.P. de River who reported to me that in 1964, at the age of eighteen, a boy who lived in the mansion fell in love with a girl, but she was in poor health (pulmonary tuberculosis). And he never got over the death of his sweetheart. He was so emotionally upset at seeing her laid out in a white shroud that he had a crying spell, and he allowed himself to be removed from the side of the casket with great reluctance. At this time he felt an urge to jump into the casket with her, and he actually wanted to be buried alive with his sweetheart. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

The funeral was held on the estate, and when he was finally alone with the body, he drank some of her blood. This gave him great excitement, and he felt that if he could only devour her—eat her up—even chew part of her body, it would give him great satisfaction. No one knows what happened to him after that night. Rumor has it that he drowned in the fountain, others say he went missing inside of the mansion, never to be seen again. I saw the moonlight as if it were shining on me now. I saw the dim figure who had stood at my bedroom fireplace. Glint of light on hand, of forehead, on cheek. Terror. I felt mystery, yes, but a cold panic. When I opened my eyes, he was still grotesquely close to me, his eyes gleaming, his lips smiling. Am I this handsome? I thought. No Something else shines from my eyes. And for the first time I noticed how really handsome he was. I felt awakened to his red hair and green eyes and his good build. I would say he is about six feet tall. And his manner of speaking was so utterly convincing that he had to be a man from the Victorian period. This made me believe in eternal life, and I felt my panic was a sin against God, a sin of atheism. Optimism was a virtue; and the despair, the terror I often felt—it was a sin. As for the ghosts I saw, maybe that was somehow a gift from God. Maybe there would be a use for it. And I suppose I do believe, in the final analysis, that a peace of mind can be obtained in the face of the worst horrors and the worst losses. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

It can be obtained by faith in change and in will and in accident; and by faith in ourselves, that we will do the right things, or often than not, in the face of adversity. We must take what we have and do it without regret.  Many strange things have happened at the Winchester Mansion. Perhaps William Wirt Winchester had returned to his estate. Many other people who have slept overnight in the mansion have had dreams in which they saw parts of dismembered bodies floating or lying around, sometimes in blood, often in dirty water. One man describes a similar scene of his not being able to tear himself away from the sight of a decayed corpse of a soldier. These dreams, if that is what they are, hardly require any interpretation. The house is a “vault,” a tomb for spirits killed by the Winchester rifle, and simultaneously symbolizes the womb. The Winchester mansion is also a symbol of life. Instead of walking toward life, to visit a friend, the dreamer walks towards a place of the dead. The man reports that he kneeled, and began to intone a plaintive melody in the style of a Gregorian chant, in which is repeated again and again a long-drawn-out “Jesus Maria.” He then says, numerous mirrors lined the walls of this long, high-ceilinged, wood paneled hall, as his plaintive tones become more and more monotonous, and the row of doors in the halls seems to be endless. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Perhaps these are vision people have had while staying in the mansion that they would rather call dreams. Being in the place alone at night or must be quite an experience. Mrs. Winchester had a favourite French maid who, on her nights off, attended the current performances, usually a production or a “play” by a local stock company. The maid upon her return, delighted in regaling her mistress with the evening’s highlights. If these had appeal, Mrs. Winchester would ask the players to stage excerpts or skit, often after midnight, in her spacious ball room. In view of her well-known generosity, the cast was happy to comply. Mrs. Winchester was neither cold or distant in her early years of valley residence. She was a highly sensitive lady and the cruel rumors even then in circulation disturbed and hurt her. Eventually all this idle gossip reached her ears and as it persisted, she withdrew closer into her seven-story shell. Here is a prayer Mrs. Winchster used in her Blue Séance Room, “I sit before my place of work and spread my tools before me. God, please grant your blessings on my tools that they might serve me as well as the parts of my body do. Master Craftsman, please grant your blessings upon this house, that its work might bring beauty to all the World and all (spirits) who live in it. Orderer of Chaos, please grant that all we may do might be in accord with the will of Nature, so that, by doing our work, we might do the will of God.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Mrs. Winchester must be given due credit for inventiveness. She found the planning kept her griefing mind occupied and she became thoroughly enthused. Some of the built-in innovations were decades ahead of the times. Annunciators installed in all rooms could signal her whereabouts to the servants. Illuminating gas was manufactured by a new process directly on the grounds. She improvised a window catch patterned after the Winchester rifle trigger and trip-hammer. The mansion was one of the first to utilize wool insulation. Today’s visitors are surprised by her years-ahead brass corner-plates on many stairways to prevent dust pockets. She invented an inside crank to open and close outside shutters. Her 47 fireplaces had the first hinged iron drops for ashes and concealed wood boxed. The tier of tubs in her immense laundry had moulded-in wash-boards. Every morning she made the rounds with her ever patient foremen inspecting that latest progress of her mansion. Some days she sketched plans on the spot using a saw-horse drawing table and any handy material, often brown wrapping paper (and used both sides). From the foreman came no argument; he had only the problem of interpretation. However, glaring mistakes failed to discourage her and time was fleeting. Mrs. Winchester simply ordered the error torn out, sealed up, built over, or around, or more likely, totally ignored. Hence came support for the conjecture that for her, this was a gigantic game of building-blocks! #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Winchester Mystery House

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