Dragon fight as katabasis

Neumann reads the katabasis developmentally. In The Origins and History of Consciousness, the hero’s combat with the dragon is the mythological name for two distinct descents, each structurally katabatic. “The act of self-generation which takes place right at the beginning of life, when ego consciousness frees itself from the devouring embrace of the dragon of the unconscious, has its counterpart in this rebirth of the ego as the self, when, in the second half of life, it breaks free from the embrace of the world dragon” (Neumann 2019).

The first descent is into the uroboric mother — the undifferentiated matrix from which ego must be extracted. The dragon-fight at this threshold masculinizes consciousness, produces the psychic cleavage that enables reflection, and establishes the heroic-ego. The second descent, at midlife, is into the transpersonal. Here the ego — already differentiated — must surrender its sovereignty to the Self. Neumann’s image for this second katabasis is Samson: blinded after his “upper castration,” led captive among the Philistines, made to tread the mill in the underworld of the enemy (Neumann 2019). The hero who rose against the dragon of the mother must, later, be brought down by the dragon of the world.

Neumann’s developmental katabasis is continuous with the Homeric nekyia and the alchemical mortificatio while adding a structural dimension: the descent occurs twice in the individuating life. This is load-bearing for the Lineage’s map of individuation. What Jung treats as the confrontation with the shadow and what Edinger treats as the inflation-alienation cycle, Neumann treats as the dragon fight recurring at a higher octave. The figure is one; the octaves differ.

Relationships

• katabasis — the master figure.
• dragon-fight — the mythological instance.
• heroic-ego, ego-consciousness — the first-descent product.
• self, midlife-transformation — the second-descent product.
• uroboros, neumann-great-mother — the dragon’s two faces.
• individuation — the total arc.

Primary sources

• neumann-origins-history-consciousness (Neumann 1949; 2019 ed.)