The Ever-Present Origin

654 Pages·1985·36.281 MB·English

by  Jean Gebser

THE EVER-
PRESENT ORIGIN
JEAN GEBSER
THE
EVER-
PRESENT
ORIGIN
Authorized Translation by
Noel Barstad with Algis Mickunas
PART ONE:
Foundations of the
Aperspectival World
A Contribution to the History of
the Awakening of Consciousness
PART TWO:
Manifestations of
the Aperspectival World
An Attempt at the
Concretion of the Spiritual
Ohio University Press Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gebser, Jean.
The ever-present origin.
Translation of: Ursprung and Gegenwart.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents: Foundations of the aperspectival world :
a contribution to the history of the awakening of consciousness—Manifestations of
the aperspectival world : an attempt at the concretion of the spiritual.
1. Civilization—History. 2. Civilization—Philosophy. 3. Intellectual
life—History. 4. Civilization, Occidental. I. Title.
CB83.G413 1984(cid:9) 901(cid:9) 83-2475
ISBN 0-8214-0219-6
ISBN 0-8214-0769-4 pbk.
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper 00
12 11 10(cid:9) 12 11 10
Ursprung and Gegenwart© 1949 and 1953
by Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH, Stuttgart
English translation © 1985 by Noel Barstad
All rights reserved.
Contents
Translator's Preface(cid:9) xv
In memoriam Jean Gebser by Jean Keckeis(cid:9) xviii
List of Illustrations(cid:9) xxiii
Preface(cid:9) xxvii
From the Preface to the Second Edition(cid:9) xxix
From the Preface to the Paperbound Edition(cid:9) xxx
PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS OF THE APERSPECTIVAL WORLD
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE AWAKENING OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Editorial Note regarding the Annotations xxxii
Chapter One: Fundamental Considerations 1
Origin and the Present 1—Mutations of Consciousness 2 — Aperspec-
tivity and the Whole 3 — Individualism and Collectivism 3 — The Possi-
bility of a New Awareness 4 — The Example of the Aztecs and the
Spaniards 5 — The Transparency of the World 6 — Methodology and
Diaphaneity 7
Chapter Two: The Three European Worlds 9
1. The Unperspectival World 9
Perspective and Space 9 — Spacelessness Synonymous with Egoless-
ness; Cavern and Dolmen; Egypt and Greece 10
2. The Perspectival World 11
The Development of Perspective since Giotto 11 — Petrarch's Discovery
of Landscape 12 — Petrarch's Letter about his Ascent of Mont
Ventoux 13 — The History of Perspective as an Expression of the Awak-
ening Awareness of Space 16 — Eight and Night 17 — Psychic Chain
Reactions 17 — Positive and Negative Effects of Perspectivation 18 —
v
CONTENTS
The Realization of Perspective in Thought by Leonardo da Vinci 19 —
Space: the Theme of the Renaissance 21 — The Age of Segmentation
after 1500 A.D.; Isolation and Collectivism 22 — Time Anxiety and the
Flight from Time Resulting from the Conquest of Space 22
3. The Aperspectival World 23
Aperspectivity and Integrality 24 — The Moment and the Present; the
Concretion of Time in the Work of Picasso and Braque as a Temporic
Endeavor 24 — The Inflation of Time in Surrealism 26 — The Integral
Character of the Temporic Portrait 27
Chapter Three: The Four Mutations of Consciousness 36
1. On Evolution, Development, and Mutation 36
The "New" invariably "above" the previous Reality 36 — The Idea of
Evolution since Duns Scotus and Vico 37 — Mutation instead of Pro-
gress; Plus and Minus Mutations 38 — The Theme of Mutations in Con-
temporary Research 39 — Mutation and Development 40 — Psychic
Inflation as a Threat to Presentiation 43
2. Origin or the Archaic Structure 43
Origin and Beginning 43 — Identity and Androgyny; Syncretisms and
Encyclopedias; Wisdom and Knowledge; Man without Dreams 44 —
The Archaic Identity of Man and Universe 45
3. The Magic Structure 45
The One-dimensionality of the Magic World 45 — Magic pars pro
toto 46 — The Cavern: Magic "Space"; The Five Characteristics of
Magic Man 48 — Magic Merging 49 — The Aura; Mouthlessness 55 —
Magic: Doing without Consciousness 60 — The Ear: the Magic
Organ 60
4. The Mythical Structure 61
Extrication from Vegetative Nature and the Awakening Awareness of
the Soul 61 — Myth as Silence and Speech 64 — Mythologemes of
Awakening Consciousness 69 — The Role of Wrath in the Bhagavadgita
and the Iliad; "Am Odysseus" 71 — The Great "Nekyia" Accounts 72 —
Life as a Dream (Chuang Tzu, Sophocles, Calderon, Shakespeare,
Novalis, Virginia Woolf); the Mythologeme of the Birth of Athena 72
5. The Mental Structure 73
Ratio and Menis 74 — Disruption of the Mythic Circle by Directed
Thought 75 — The Etymological Roots of the Mental Structure 76 —
The Archaic Smile; the Direction of Writing as an Expression of Awak-
ening Consciousness 78 — Law, Right, and Direction 79 — On the "Law
of the Earth"; The Simultaneity of the Awakening of Consciousness in
China, India, and Greece 79 — The Dionysia and Drama; Person and
Mask; The Individual and the Chorus 81 — The Orphic Tablets 82 —
The Mythical Connotative Abundance of Words and Initial Ontological
Statements 83 — Mythologeme and Philosopheme 84 — The Rianno-
damento; the Consequential Identification of Right and Correct; Polar-
ity and Duality 85 — Trias and Trinity; Ancestor Worship and Child
Worship 86 — Origin of the Symbol 87 — Symbol, Allegory, and For-
mula 88 — Quantification, Sectorization, and Atomization; the Integra-
tion of the Soul 89 — Buddhism and Christianity; The Northwest Shift
of Centers of Culture 90 — The Theory of Projection in Plutarch;
vi
(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)
CONTENTS
relegio and religio 91 — St. Augustine 92 — The Riannodamento Com-
pleted 93 — The Immoderation of the ratio 94 — Preconditions for the
Continuance of the Earth; the Three Axioms of Being 96
97
6.(cid:9) The Integral Structure (cid:9)
Traditionalists and Evolutionists 98 — The Concretion of Time 99 —
Temporic Inceptions since Pontormo and Desargues 100
Chapter Four: Mutations as an Integral Phenomenon: an Intermediate
116
Summary(cid:9)
1.(cid:9) Cross-Sections through the Structures (cid:9) 116
The Interdependency of Dimensioning and Consciousness 117 — The
Diaphainon; The Signs and Essence of the Structures 118 — The Pres-
ence of Origin; the Symmetry of the Mutations 120
2.(cid:9) A Digression on the Unity of Primal Words (cid:9) 123
An Integral Examination of Language 123 — The Bivalence of the
Roots; the Root Kinship of Cavern and Brightness 126 — Mirror
Roots 127 — The Root Kinship of Deed and Death 128 — The Word
"All" 129
3.(cid:9) A Provisional Statement of Account: Measure and Mass (cid:9) 129
The Four Symmetries of the Mutations 129 — Transcendence as Mere
Spatial Extension 131 — Technology as a Material-physical Projec-
tion 132 — The Anxiety and Cul-de-Sac of our Day 133 — The Itself 134
— Mystery and Destiny; The "Way" of Mankind 136 — Our Ego-
consciousness 137 — The Realization of Death 138 f. — A Glance at a
New "Landscape" 140 — The Possibilities of a New Bearing and Atti-
tude 140
4.(cid:9) The Unique Character of the Structures (Additional Cross Sections) 143
Method and Diaphany 143 — Magic "Receptivity by the Ear" 145 —The
Mythical Language of the Heart 145 — Irrationality, Rationality, Ara-
tionality 147 — Idols, Gods, God; Ritual, Mysteries, Methods 147 — The
Decline and Fall of Matriarchy 149 — Patriarchy 150
5.(cid:9) Concluding Summary: Man as the Integrality of His Mutations (cid:9) 152
Deliberation and Clarification 152 — The Deficient Effects of the Struc-
tures in our Time 153
Chapter Five: The Space-Time Constitution of the Structures(cid:9) 162
1. The Space-Timelessness of the Magic Structure (cid:9) 162
The Magic Role of Prayer and the Miraculous Healings of Lourdes 163
2. The Temporicity of the Mythical Structure (cid:9) 165
The Polarity Principle 166 — The Movement of Temporicity 166 — The
Circularity of Mythical Imagery 167 — The Mythologeme of Kronos 168
— Kronos as an Image of the Nocturnal World 168 — The Emergence
of Temporicity from Timelessness 170 — The Significance of the Root
Sounds K, L, and R 171 f. — On the Mirror Roots 172
3.(cid:9) The Spatial Emphasis of the Mental Structure (cid:9) 173
The Root of the Words meaning "Time"; Time as a Divider 173 — The
Kronos Sacrifice of Dais: the Emergence of Time from Temporicity 174
— The Perversion of Time (The Divider is itself divided) and the Declas-
sification of Time in Western Philosophy 178 — Thought as a Spatial
Process, and the Spatial Emphasis of the Mental Structure 180 — The
Beginning of Change in Space 181
vii
CONTENTS
Chapter Six: On the History of the Phenomena of Soul and Spirit(cid:9) 188
1. Methodological Considerations (cid:9) 188
Soul and Time, Thinking and Space 189 — The Apsychic and Amaterial
Possibility of World 189 — On the "Representationality" of the Un-
fathomable Psyche 189 f.
2. The Numinosum, Mana, and the Plurality of Souls (cid:9) 191
Previous Historical Theories 191 — History and the Numinosum 193 —
Mana 194 — The Origin of the Concept of Soul 194 — Souls and the
Soul; Spirits and the Spirit 197 — Life and Death as an Integral
Present 199 — The Numinosum as a Magic Experience 201 f. — The
Relocation of Numinous Provocation 202 — The Ability of Human
Resonance 203 — Consciousness 203 — Erroneous Conclusions of Pos-
tulating the "Unconscious" 204 — Intensification, not Expansion of
Consciousness; Psychic Potencies and the Centering of the Ego 205
3. The Soul's Death-Pole (cid:9) 205
The Symbolism of the Death-Soul 206 — The Egyptian Soul-Bird and
the Angels 207 — Sirens and Muses; Death-Soul and Death Instinct 208
— The Mythologization of Psychology and Physics 209 — The Egyptian
Sail as a Symbol for the Soul; The Lunar Character of the Soul in the
Vedic, Egyptian, and Greek Traditions 210 — The Ambivalence of Each
Pole of the Soul 214
4. The Soul's Life-Pole (cid:9) 215
The Symbolism of the Life-Pole 216 — The Water Symbolism for the
Life Pole 217 — Water as a Trauma of Mankind 219
5. The Symbol of Soul (cid:9) 219
The Chinese T'ai-Ki; the Pre-Tellurian Origin of Primal Symbols;
Estimative and Living Knowledge 220 — Life and Death are not Anti-
thetical 224 — The Winged Dolphin as a Greek Symbol for Soul 225 —
The Journeys to Hades 226 — The Living Knowledge of the Soul 226
6. On the Symbolism of the Spirit (cid:9) 229
Souls and Spirits 229 — Early Concepts of Spirit; the Symbolism of the
Spirit 230 — Spirit and Intellect 231 — Spirits, Spirit, and the
Spiritual 232
Chapter Seven: The Previous Forms of Realization and Thought(cid:9) 248-
1. Dimensioning and Realization (cid:9) 248
The Dependency of Realization on the Dimensioning of the Particular
Structure 249 — The Constitutional Differences of the Individual Forms
of Realization 250
2. Vital Experiencing and Undergone or Psychic Experience (cid:9) 250
Vital Experiencing as a Magic Form of Realization 250 — Undergone
Experience as a Mythical Form of Realization 251
3. Oceanic Thinking (cid:9) 252
Circular Thinking; Oceanos and the World as an Island 252 — Oceanic
Thinking 252
4. Perspectival Thinking (cid:9) 255
The Birth of Mental Thought 255 — The Concept of Perspectivity 255 f.
— The Visual Pyramid and the Conceptual Pyramid 256 — The Spatiality
of Thinking 258
viii
CONTENTS
259
5. Paradoxical Thinking
Paradox 259 — The Intersecting Parallels 260 — Left-Right Inversion 261
— The Awakening of the Left 262 — Women's Rights 262 — Left Values
in Contemporary Painting; Diaphany and Verition of the World 263
Chapter Eight: The Foundations of the Aperspectival World 267
1. The Ever-Present Origin (Complementing Cross Sections) 267
The Non-conceptual Nature of the Aperspectival World 267 — The
Perception and Impartation of Truth as Aperspectival Forms of Realiza-
tion 268 — Forms of Bond and Proligio; Praeligio; Origin as Present 271
2. Summation and Prospect 271
The Possibilities for a New Mutation 272 — Superseding psychic and
material Atomization; Mankind's Itself-Consciousness 273 — The Liber-
ation from "Time:" Origin and Present 273
PART TWO: MANIFESTATIONS OF THE APERSPECTIVAL WORLD
AN ATTEMPT AT THE CONCRETION OF THE SPIRITUAL
277
Author's Comment(cid:9)
279
Interim Word(cid:9)
Chapter One: The Irruption of Time(cid:9) 283
1. The Awakening Consciousness of Freedom from Time (cid:9) 283
The Various Time-Forms 284 — The Complexity of "Time" 285 — Time
as an Acategorical Magnitude; System and Systasis 286 — The Revalua-
tion of the Time Concept at the Outset of our Century 286 — Time
Anxiety as a Symptom of our Epoch 288 — Time-Freedom 289
2. The Awakening Consciousness of Integrity or the Whole (cid:9) 289
Purely Spatial Reality 290 — Europe's Decisive Role 290 — Three Exam-
ples 291 — Preconditions for the Awakening Consciousness of the
Whole 292
Chapter Two: The New Mutation(cid:9) 294
1. The Climate of the New Mutation(cid:9) 294
Mutational Periods as Times of Disruption 295 — The Future in us and
in the World 296 — The Mistaken Anthropocentric Belief 299 — Pres-
ence and Efficacy 300
2. The Theme of the New Mutation(cid:9) 301
How did the Steam Engine come to be discovered? 301 — The Consoli-
dation of Spatial Consciousness made possible the New Mutation 302
— Time as an Intensity 304 — Agricultural and Craft Cultures 305 — The
Loss of Nature and Culture 306 — "Time," the Theme of the New
Mutation 306
3. The New Form of Statement (cid:9) 306
Hufeland's "New Strength of Spirit" 307 — The Manifestational Forms
of Time; Temporal Things cannot be Spatially fixed 308 — Philoso-
pheme and Eteologeme; Systasis and Synairesis 309 f.
ix
CONTENTS
(cid:9)
Chapter Three: The Nature of Creativity 313
(cid:9)
1. Creativity as an Originary Phenomenon 313
The Inadequacy of the Psychological Explanation 313 — Statements
from the "Book of Changes" 314 — "The Primal Depths of the Uni-
verse" 315
(cid:9)
2. The Nature and Transformation of Poetry 316
The Significance of the "Muse" 317 — The Muse, Musing, and
"Must" 317 — The Muse as a Divinity of the Well-springs, a Power of
Life, and a Creative Force 318 — The Siren (an Anti-Muse) and Rilke
320 — The Individualization of Literature in Lyric Poetry 320 — Htilder-
lin's Decisive Step 323 — The "Supersession of Time" by Hofmannsthal,
and the "Taming of the Muses" by Baudelaire 324 — Mallarme's "New
Obligation" 325 — Valery's "Extreme Self-Consciousness" 326 — T. S.
Eliot's Rejection of the Muses and His Freedom from Ego 326 f. — Hux-
ley and "Time Must have a Stop" 328 — Eluard and Hagen 328 —
Today's Altered Creative Relationship as a Demonstration of the New
Structure of Consciousness 330
(cid:9)
Chapter Four: The New Concepts 334
(cid:9)
1. Inceptions of the New Consciousness 334
The Spiritual Inception; The Physical Inception 335 — Man is Predi-
cated; The New Dogma of Mary 339
(cid:9)
2. The Fourth Dimension 340
The Fourth Dimension is Time-Freedom 340 — N. Hartmann's "Dimen-
sional Categories"; The Non-Euclidian Geometry of Gauss 341 — The
History of the Fourth Dimension; Einstein; The Supersensory as a
Fourth Dimension 342 — The Four-Fold Discovery of Non-Euclidian
Geometry; Gauss and Petrarch 343 — Lambert's "Imaginary
Sphere" 345 — The Magic Adaptation of the Fourth Dimension 348 —
The Mythical Adaptation 349 — The Mental Adaptation 351 — The
"Queen of the Sciences" 354 — On the Essence of Time-Freedom 355
(cid:9)
3. Temporics 356
Temporics: The Concern With Time 356 — The Non-conceptual Nature
of Time 358 — Today's Time Anxiety 359 — The Overwhelming Effect of
Time Repressed 359 — Key Words of Aperspectivity 361
Chapter Five: Manifestations of the Aperspectival World (I):
(cid:9)
The Natural Sciences 367
(cid:9)
1. Mathematics and Physics 367
Descartes and Desargues, Galileo and Newton; Speiser's Set Theory
and Hilbert's System of Axioms 368 — The End of the Mechanistic
World-View of Classical Physics 370 — The Theme of Time in Physics;
The Quantum of Action 371 — Heisenberg's Law; the Age of the Uni-
verse 373 — Heisenberg's "Paradoxes of the Time Concept;" The
Supersession of Dualism by the New Physics 374 f. — The (Arational)
Non-Visualizable Nature of the Present-Day World-View in Physics 376
(cid:9)
2. Biology 379
Time as a Quality 381 — Vitalism and Totalitarianism 382 — Portmann's
Recognition of the Spatio-Temporal Structure of all Forms of Life 382 —
The Supersession of Dualism in Biology 384 — Its Emphasis on Inter-
connections instead of Divisions; The Arational Perception of Life 385