The Seba library treats Above in 8 passages, across 7 authors (including Edinger, Edward F., John of Damascus, Stein, Murray).
Ascent and descent, above and below, up and down, represent an emotional realization of opposites, and this realization gradually leads, or should lead, to their equilibrium.
Jung’s account of circulatio, cited by Edinger, establishes ‘above’ as one pole of an oscillating psychic process whose repeated traversal constitutes the path toward integration of opposites.
, Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985thesis
He is above all existing things, nay even above existence itself. For if all forms of knowledge have to do with what exists, assuredly that which is above knowledge must certainly be also above essence.
John of Damascus articulates a strict theological verticality in which the divine transcends every ontological category, making ‘above’ the ultimate marker of incomprehensible sacred alterity.
, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2021thesis
Directly above it rises the Anthropos quaternity, an expression of ideal wholeness at the spiritual level. This is symbolized by the Gnostic Anthropos or Higher Adam, an ideal figure.
Stein maps ‘above’ onto the Anthropos quaternity in Jung’s psychic topology, positioning it as the structural location of spiritual wholeness superior to ordinary ego-consciousness.
, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, 1998thesis
32.6b Rousing Persevering located-in the above. 46.6b Dim Ascending located above. 48.6b Spring significant located-in the above. 50.6b Jade rings located above.
The I Ching concordance uses ‘located-in the above’ as a technical positional descriptor for the upper trigram, encoding cosmological hierarchy and directional meaning within the hexagram system.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting
‘above’ refers to Heaven… ‘blessings descend upon him from Heaven above.’
Kong Yingda and Cheng Yi, as cited in Wang Bi’s commentary, identify ‘above’ with Heaven, grounding the I Ching’s spatial axis in a cosmological theology of divine beneficence descending from the celestial realm.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
The emanations are represented also as the branches of a cosmic tree, which is upside down, rooted in ‘the inscrutable height.’ The world that we see is the reverse image of that tree.
Campbell invokes the Kabbalistic inversion of the cosmic tree to show that ‘above’ marks the hidden origin of manifestation, making the visible world the downward reflection of an invisible height.
, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 2015supporting
The resurrection is actually the first term in a threefold sequence: resurrection, ascent, descent (Pentecost).
Edinger frames the Ascension as the second movement in a symbolic triad, with ‘above’ as the destination of ascent that must subsequently reverse into descent — a structure homologous to Jung’s circulatio.
, The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, 1987supporting
he doth what you wot of better than my husband and telleth me they do it also up yonder; but, for that I seem to him fairer than any she in heaven, he hath fallen in love with me.
Auerbach’s Boccaccio passage deploys ‘up yonder’ and ‘heaven’ as satirical inversions of celestial dignity, illustrating how vernacular literature comically deflates the sacred valence of ‘above.’
, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1953aside