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眼鏡：洞見自然的象徵

Eyeglasses as a symbol of insight to follow nature’s path

Glass in Fairytales

Glass is a typical motif in fairytales, such as in Snow White and The Little Glass Slipper (or Cinderella).    In her book, Individuation in Fairytales, Marie-Louise von Franz interprets glass in a Spanish fairytale “The White Parrot”.

A rich Count married a beautiful but poor girl.  One day he had to go away, so he put his pregnant wife under the care of  his butler.  Later the butler fell in love with the Countess and tried to seduce her; she refused him.  The butler resented the Countess and slandered her with a letter to her husband.  The Butler wrote to the Count that his wife had an affair with a negro and had given birth to two half-negro children.  The Count was furious and wrote back saying that the children should be killed.  The butler did not dare to kill the children but put them in a glass box which he then threw into a river.  The children were rescued by a fisherman and later went through a heroic journey to catch a white parrot- a bird of truth.  The white parrot told the truth to the Count, and then brought the happy reunion to the family.

Glass is insulating but intellectually transparent

One of the greatest advantage of glass is that it can insulate.  Glass can separate a room from another, but you could see through it.  Physically you are totally separate by the glass, but mentally you are not being cut off.  The most interesting idea that von Franz states:” glass is a material which does not cut off intellectually from other things, but it cuts off the animal contact.” (von Franz, 1987, p 12)

With this sense, a glass wall could cut off the animal warm feelings in a way, but a glass wall will never prevent an intellectual contact if one wants to see through it.  In Brothers Grimm’s‘Little Snow White’, when Snow White was dead after biting a poisoned apple, 7 dwarfs didn’t want to bury her in the black earth, they made a transparent glass coffin for her, so she could be seen from all sides. Then they put the coffin outside on a mountain, and one of them always stayed with it and watched over her. The animals too came and mourned for Snow-white, first an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove.  Later the prince came to see the glass coffin, asked for the glass coffin from the seven dwarfs, and said “I cannot live without being able to see Snow-White. I will honor her and respect her as my most cherished one." (Brothers Grimm: 2006)  Snow White’s dead body is insulated in a glass coffin, but those intellectual ones who can recognize the beauty of the dead body do not cut off by the glass coffin.

In the White Parrot, why the butler put the children in a glass case rather than a wooden box?  From von Franz’s point of view, the butler has a strange neurotic double way: he intended to destroy the children, but at the same time he did something to save them.  Doubleness means touching the threshold of consciousness, being still a little ambiquous, consciousness not yet knowing how to say what is what, partly still mixed up with the continuum of other unconsciousness contents (von Franz, 1987, p 27).  The way he saved the children was to put them in a glass case so that anybody can see from a distance that there are children in it, and then he threw it into a river flowing with fate instead of burying them. So to speak, the butler has a relatively intellectual double mind which was not extremely evil and had somewhat an intellectual psyche to let go of the divine children. 

Glass as a symbol of spiritual matter

Furthermore, why can Snow White become alive again from the glass coffin?  von Franz says: ”in some alchemical writings, glass was compared to a miraculous substance.  It was immaterial because you could see through it as if it were not matter…it was a symbol of spiritual matter (von Franz 1987, p 12) .”    For sure glass is an alchemical matter, it is born of earth and fire.  In one of the most influential dictionaries in the history, A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson wrote about glass:

Who, when he saw the first sand or ashes, by a casual intenseness of heat, melted into a metalline form, rugged with excrescences, and clouded with impurities, would have imagined, that in this shapeless lump lay concealed so many conveniences of life (Johnson, 1750)

The following paragraphs are going to explore the miraculous, spiritual and mysterious qualities of glass.

1.        Glass as a god-sent substitute

Natural glass has existed since the beginnings of time, occurred by volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes or the impact of meteorites.  Stone-age man used these as cutting tools.  But where and when did the first piece of man-made glass come from?  It’s uncertain.  The oldest known pieces of glass have been found in Mesopotamia area—a small cylinder of clear blue-green glass which was believed have been re-melted and manufactured around 4500 years ago (2500 BC).  Archaeological evidence suggests three possible areas for the origins of glassmaking: Egypt, Mesopotamia and Phoenician coast.  The latter one has been mentioned in many legends and histories, including in the most cited and also the first ever written “Natural History” by the ancient-Roman historian Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79).  Pliny drew most of his information from Greek sources and believed the craft of glassmaking actually originated at the mouth of River Belus.  Today it is called Na’aman River in the north of modern Israel.  Analysis of the sand at River Belus has revealed that it indeed is high in silica sand and containing sufficient quantities of calcium components.

The story is that a ship, laden with natron, was moored upon a shore of River Belus.  The merchants, while preparing their repast upon the sea-shore, found no stones at hand to support their cauldrons, employed for the purpose some lumps of natron which they had taken from the vessel. Upon subjected to the action of the fire, in combination with the sand on the sea-shore, there beheld transparent streams flowing forth of a liquid hitherto unknown: this, it is said, was the origin of glass. (Pliny, 1855)

Some scholars queried about the legend of human’s first invent of glass.  They questions about the fire temperature set by those ancient merchants, it was hot enough to cook, but not necessary for making glass, even a campfire with maximum 700°C still cannot produce glass.

Anita Engle, a 30-year long term glass historian researcher, may had the most profound interpretation on Pliny’s text.  She assumed that the fire was not a casual one for cooking, but rather an ritual fire of  intense heat.  Engle worked with many other archeological materials and came forth a series of books called Readings in Glass History.  Engle asserts that ”glassmaking was a by-product of religious ritual of great antiquity” rather than an incidence random happened by some traveling merchants (Engle, 1991).  She finds the water of River Belus was used for ritual purpose and deemed as sacred water.  There is also an echo of the healing-vegetation character of the Belus in Greek mythology.  Heracle’s wounds which he had received from the battle with Lernaean Hydra was cured by a lily type of plant from the bank of the River Belus (Engle, 1991, p 13).  Ancient agricultural cults had been celebrated regularly in the vicinity of the River Belus and in the areas from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Engle states that traders who stopped off at the mouth of the River Belus might have come to make their obeisance to the gods of river, and composed an altar or hearth with the natron that they had brought with them.  When the natron mingled with the sacrificial feast and the local sands,  a miraculous opaque liquid flowed forth in streams, and that, according to Engle’s interpretation on Roman history, was glass,  a beautiful, precious response or byproduct of god and goddess.  And this happening was not a one time experience,

2.        Glass has a god-like soul

According to Pliny, when the ancient merchants went to Belus River bank, what they used to setup the hearth was natron.  Natron was used at time to embalm the dead.  The word “natron” is derived from the Egyptian n-t-r, which means “god,” “divine”.  So the immersion of the dead body in a natron solution literally meant a deification, the transformation of the deceased into god (von Franz, 1986, p 86)  So to speak, natron is the indispensable element of glass-making, could it be possible that a god-like temperament is also contained in glass? 

To a large extent, the history of glass is fitted into the blocks of time defined by the ruling power and religion.  Egyptian used glass to inlay mummy cases and death masks.  Muslims also made precious glass as thin as wafer, the 35th verse of the 24th sura of the Koran says “God is the light of heavens and the Earth. His light is a niche in which is a lamp, the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star.”  In Christian world, if indeed there was a Last Supper, did Jesus Christ drink from a Holy Grail made of glass?  There is a vessel of glass to be found in Genoa, in the museum of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, and believers there surely will tell you it is the piece, the Holy Grail (Ellis, 1998, p 11).  If the Holy Grail, the most mysterious vessel in the world was made of glass, was it because glass is as sacred as God?  Or because of glass is as neutral as it is immaterial?  By the 10^th century, the first stained glass began to appear.  The general concept of stained glass of church is one of a material in service to God.  Glass is a channel of transporting light of God. (Ellis 1998, p 254)  

3.        Mysterious Quaternity of Glass

Four elements are required to make glass, including three kinds of earth (sand, natron, organic ash with lime) and fire.  In today’s chemical terminology they are silica (sand), sodium carbonate (soda) and calcium oxide (lime), with a high temperature fire burned process.   Regarding to the number symbolism, three is a number that has a developing quality.  With the forth element- fire together, glass could be formed.  In alchemy, as von Franz cited, “fire is used to burn away all superfluities, so that only the indestructible nucleus remains (von Franz, 1996, p104).” As a matter of fact, glass is for sure a product of alchemy and glass is being made today just as it was 2000 years ago.  This material could be fragile as fine as hair and also could be awesomely strong as hard as rock to resist bullets.   That’s why many scholars describe it as a miraculous substance with a soul of its own.  But if you think glass is highly understandable by all kinds of fields, you are totally wrong.  An article, “The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear” of New York Times in 2008 shows scientists knew a little about glass.

For scientists, glass is not just the glass of windows and jars, made of three kinds of earth plus fire.  Rather, a glass is any solid in which the molecules are jumbled randomly.  However, some physicists see glass as a kind of liquid, but a complicated kind.  Scientists don’t know exactly how the molecules of glass works in its interior structure and describe it “the ultimate connectivity of the structure is absent.”  Some says “it surprises most people that we still don’t understand this,”  also “we don’t understand why glass should be a solid and how it forms.”  Another scientist Dr. Chandler just jumped to a conclusion: “If I can never get there, these are metaphysical temperatures.”  With this statement, we could boldly assume surely in every piece of glass there lives a soul that so far human has yet to discover its mystery.

Optical glasses may be the most divine kind of all glass tools.  Optical glasses deal with light beams which is a symbol of illumination, and the cosmic source of the sun of consciousness.  They are the thresholds uniting the invisible and visible world by changing the direction of lights through gathering, bending, focusing, bouncing, reflecting, or refracting.  Optical glasses could brighten up the very dim night sky and make the dark, distant, and mysterious space to be more visible.  So to speak the optical glasses is the extension of human eyesight—a perception of vision, a desire to see, to look, to watch, to observe objects clearly.  Eyeglasses are aids to physical eyes, and our conscious mind. 

Eyeglasses as a threshold between clear and blurring sights

There is a saying showing how eyeglasses had changed the way of seeing in human history.  For centuries, art paintings look flat, pale, not so representational of what thinks actually look like, but right after 14^th century, we started seeing art paintings in vivid, fuller colors with many details, and body muscles and facial expression in more clarity.  Why did this happen?  An interesting explanation is that it is because of the invention of eyeglasses.  Of course, art historians does not take this reason seriously, and thought of it as a joke, but eyeglass did indeed become popular right after 14^th century in Europe.

When and where the first eyeglasses were invented remained uncertain.  Historians believed that eyeglasses were the first application of the glass polishing techniques of Venetians’ glass invention.  Available sources point towards eyeglasses appeared in Italy shortly after 1286.  Credits for the eyeglasses invention has been attributed to various people over time, including  Dominican friar Giordano's Sermon da Pisa and an English alchemist Roger Bacon who proposed in his Opus Majus the use of a segment of a glass sphere to help the elderly afflicted with weak eyesight.  But modern historians rediscovered that the original inventor had endeavored to keep the process a secret (Goes, 2013, p 127-130).

The earliest visual record of eyeglasses is a painted work of art in a series of frescoes dated 1352 by Tommaso da Modena in Venice.  Cardinal Hugo is shown at his writing desk wearing a pair of rivet glasses.  The artist had even tried to depict the physical effort of straining to read and write through the lens.  In fact, the Cardinal actually died in the 1260s and could never have worn eyeglasses!  It was an artistic fashion that eyeglasses were portrayed as devices for the use of literary men as well as aesthetes.  And eyeglasses were often associated with wisdom and learning such as the Cardinal.  And it stays the same today.  A person wearing eyeglasses implies she or he could read things better, deeper and clearer.  

Eyeglasses as a symbol of insight to follow nature’s path

The illustration above is from an illustrated alchemical literature, Atalanta Fugiens, 1617, by Michael Maier.  In the picture, a woman walks at night, carries flowers and fruits on her hand and leaves her footprints behind on the sand.  Following her footprints, there is an old man wearing a pair of eyeglasses, holding a torch and a staff.  Jeffrey Raff in his book, Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, interpreting this picture says:

Inner wisdom, the imaginative power of self, leaves behind its footprints or the symbol that it creates, which the inner alchemist follows on his or her path.  Wearing the spectacles of insight, guided by the lamp of consciousness, supported by the staff of inner authority, the alchemist endeavors to follow Sophia’s lead.  Noticed the plants and fruits symbolizing the endless creativity of Sophia (Raff, 2000, p 46).

In this passage, eyeglasses, as a symbol of insight, are needed in order to follow the path of nature.  As von Franz asserts, an alchemical effort can be used as magic; however, without insight, it cannot be used as a mean of becoming conscious (von Franz 1987, p 81).   A famous alchemical text, twelve keys, by an alchemist Basil Valentine 15 century depicts a similar idea in the first key.  AE Waite reinterpreted in his book, The Hermetic Museum:

If you understand my meaning, this Key will open the first lock, and push back the first bolt; but if you do not, no spectacles or natural eyesight will enable you to understand what follows.

This again means that if you have not seen the light in words, no eyeglasses could assist you, no natural eyes could guild you.  Also von Franz notes, true insight as well as true imagination mediates between the realm of pure spirit and that of coarse matter (von Franz 1986, p 140).  Therefore, eyeglasses as a symbol of insight, a profound kind of observation, are needed for alchemy and personal individuation. 

Eyeglasses as a masculine device

von Franz cited Anatole France’s novel, Penguin Island, as an example of feminine nature.  She reinterpreted this story in her book, Individuation in Fairytales:

There was a very short-sighted saint who went to an island where he wished to convert the people, and to his great delight, they all streamed down to the shore in their best clothes—cutaways and white shirts—and he thought they were really eager to be baptized…He probably had forgotten to wear his spectacles, and baptized all of them, but unfortunately, it turned out those he had baptized were all penguins.  This caused a terrible row in Heaven, because everyone who has received baptism has an immortal soul and must therefore be admitted into Heaven, so now they had, based on their own male rules, admission of  penguins to Heaven!  But that was of course against another rule, for animals were not allowed and be on an equal level in Heaven with humans, so what could be done?  They called all specialists on canonical law and all the saint and God…, and discussed about this conflict for hours with all its pros and cons, but still could not come up with a solution.  Finally, God had an idea and said that they could ask St. Catherine of Siena for resolution.  When she was told the whole story, she just shook her head and said “that’s very simple, give them a soul, but just a small one!” (von Franz, 1987, p 20-21)

von Franz states that committing a sin, doing things wrong, contacting the dark side, and bringing salvation are all feminine qualities.  In the beginning, the old saint had a bad eye-sight problem, and might have forgotten to wear his eyeglasses which was a tool helping him dealing with regular consciousness job like baptism.  Without his eyeglasses, a male-like aids, the saint made a terrible mistake, broke the rules and then caused troubles to Heaven.  In the second part, God asked the female saint to solve this impossible problem.

In linguistics, grammatical gender of eyeglasses is rather an interesting situation: in German language, die brille is a feminine noun; in Italian language, l’occhiale is a masculine noun.  For the glass, das glas in German is neutral; il vetro in Italian is a masculine nown.  You can find both grammatical genders of eyeglasses in different language.  But don’t forget mostly believed that the first eyeglasses were made in Italy. I don’t mean that eyeglasses were originated from Italy, so eyeglasses should be treated as masculine, but it could represent that the grammatical gender of eyeglasses was shifting from a masculine one to feminine in course of time.  We can find feminine qualities in a pair of eyeglasses: it’s a healing device to adjust eyesight; it is a fashion accessory which makes people more diverse, or it per se is a creative device. 

Eyeglasses as a symbol of ∞

Every pair of glasses looks like a number 8 when hang it off on the front of your collar or breast pocket.  When you put it on, it looks like the symbol of infinity ∞ that is supported and extended with 2 sidepieces back above and around the ears (it is interesting that we call the 2 sidepieces “temples” which is the word may be first in regard to the religious institutions for worship of deities.)  As a matter of fact, some eyewear fashion designers in Tom Ford designed the eyeglasses in exactly the infinity shape ∞, and gave them a name- infinity.  Jung talks about the idea of infinity in “Seven Sermons to the dead”.  He says:

In infinity full is no better than empty.  Nothingness is both full and empty.  As well might ye say anything else of nothingness, as for instance white is it, or black, or again, it is not, or it is.  A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no qualities, since it hath all qualities (Jung 1961, p 379).

In number symbolism, 8 represents timeless and eternity; also 8 as a multiple of 4 indicates quaternity structures which could be a symbol of the Self ; in alchemy, 8 is the number of completion (von Franz 1986, p 148).

Therefore, anyone who wears a pair of eyeglasses carries a big symbol of ∞ in front their eyes.  How could a person use his or her physical eyesight see things in a space and timelessness manner?  I recall the Persian fairytale, The Bath Badgerd (The Secret of the Bath called the Castle of Nothingness), which von Franz used it as an example of alchemical individuation.  The hero in the tale, Hatim, needed to hit a parrot to complete his journey, but he failed until he only had a last chance to so:   

He still had one arrow left, so commending himself to the protection of God, he aimed at the parrot and crying “God is great”, shut his eyes and shot.  Against all his expectations, the arrow hit the parrot…he opened his eyes again…[all] disappeared and instead lay before him an enormous beautiful diamond (von Franz, 1987, p 66).

Here, Hatim became complete, and finally experience nothingness without a pair of eyeglasses, or even without his eyes open, and he had truly found his diamond.  von Franz interprets that Hatim hitting the parrot was an achievement of intuition.  It is not by looking at the outer target and by concentrating his good eye and steady hand, but by getting into contact with the Self (von Franz, 1987, p 111).

In my dreams, maybe I need to change another pair of eyeglasses in order to get true insights; to deconstruct my old way of seeing; to construct a new vision by dismembering a glass lens; to let the old eyeglasses dropping into its fate - the water of unconsciousness; or maybe I need to free my eyeglasses to meet some qualities of my Self, although I felt somewhat insecure and worried while dreaming my eyeglasses was either breaking or dropping into water.  Still, I am not so sure what is the real meaning of my glasses dr eams, but for sure, they directed me to a symbolic journey from glasses to glass.

Reference

1. 1.     Brothers Grimm.  ‘Little Snow White’ in Complete Fairy Tales.  London: Routledge, 2006 pp.220-1.
2. 2.     Chang, Kennth, “The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear”, New York Times Published: July 29, 2008
3. 3.     Ellis, William S.  Glass: From the First Mirror to Fiber Optics, the Story of the Substance that changed the World.  New York: Avon Books Inc., 1998.
4. 4.     Engle, Anita.  Readings in Glass History No. 23: From myth to reality an intelligent woman's guide to glass history.  Jerusalem: Phoenix Publications Jerusalem, 1991.
5. 5.     Goes, Frank Joseph.  Eye in history.  New Delhi : Jaypee,  2013
6. 6.     Pliny, the Elder.  The natural history. Bostock J, Riley HT (trans). Taylor and Francis, 
London: Book XXXVI, Chapter 65, 1855.
7. 7.     Raff,Jeffrey.  Jung and the Alchemical Imagination.  York Beach, Me. : Nicolas-Hays, 2000.
8. 8.     von Franz, Marie-Louise. Individuation in fairy tales.  Dallas, Tex. : Spring Publications, 1987.
9. 9.     von Franz, Marie-Louise, On Dreams and Death: A Jungian interpretation. translated by Emmanuel Xipolitas Kennedy and Vernon Brooks.  Boston: Shambhala, 1986.
10. 10.  von Franz, Marie-Louise.  The Interpretation of Fairy Tales.  Boston: Shambhala, 1996.