The Seba library treats Bark in 9 passages, across 8 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Victor Turner, Victor Witter Turner, Maté, Gabor).
the tree had undergone a great change. It was now covered with bark and leaves, and in its crown lay a little new-born babe wrapped in swaddling clothes
Jung reads the return of bark to the dead paradise tree as the alchemical sign of redemptive transformation, with bark functioning as the visible marker of renewed vitality and Christic rebirth.
, Alchemical Studies, 1967thesis
all share the ritually important property that bark string cannot be taken from them, for this would ‘tie up’ the fertility of the patient
Turner identifies bark string as a ritually charged substance whose removal from certain trees is prohibited because it would symbolically bind the patient’s generative powers.
, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966thesis
‘Cortex’ means bark and the multilayered cerebral cortex envelops the rest of the brain like the bark of a tree
Maté deploys the etymological meaning of ‘cortex’ as bark to frame the cerebral cortex as a protective, enveloping layer that governs executive psychological function.
, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, 2008thesis
the innumerable tics, polypnea, yawn, sigh, sob, hiccough, cough, sneeze, bark
Janet classifies bark as a hysterical expiratory tic, locating it within a taxonomy of involuntary respiratory disturbances produced by dissociated psychological states.
, The Major Symptoms of Hysteria, 1907thesis
phloios. The last term is derived from phleo, a verb connected with the idea of generation, and may refer to the embryonic sac, the shell of an egg, the bark of a tree
Vernant demonstrates that Anaximander’s cosmogonic use of phloios — bark — carries generative-membranous connotations, linking the concept to enclosure, growth, and the differentiation of cosmic form.
, The Origins of Greek Thought, 1982supporting
The medicine leaves and bark fragments are pounded by a female adept in a consecrated meal-mortar. Then they are soaked in water and the liquid medicine is divided into two portions.
Turner describes the ritual preparation of bark fragments as an active pharmacological and symbolic process in Ndembu curative ceremony, where bark participates in the manufacture of differentiated hot and cold medicines.
, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966supporting
to purify it, wild thyme, juniper, and pine bark are thrown into the pot; a few hairs cut from a he-goat’s ear are also added
Eliade records pine bark as a purificatory ingredient in Buryat shamanic consecration ritual, where it joins a set of botanicals used to prepare sacred water for the initiation ceremony.
, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1951supporting
made from the pulped bark of the Hdal (pronounced Dål), otherwise known as Daphne, a kind of laurel of which one species bears a purplish white blossom
Evans-Wentz notes that the manuscript of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is written on paper made from the bark of the Daphne plant, grounding the sacred text in a specific material substrate.
, The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Evans-Wentz Edition), 1927aside
the motif of the leafless or dead tree is not common in alchemy
Jung notes in passing the relative rarity of the barkless tree motif in alchemical imagery, contextualizing the Seth legend’s significance within the broader alchemical symbolic tradition.
, Collected Works Volume 3: The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, 1907aside