The Seba library treats Basilisk in 5 passages, across 5 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Hillman, James, Edinger, Edward F.).
Through his imagination the timid man has made his eyes basilisk-like, and he infects the mirror, the moon, and the stars, through himself at the start
Jung, citing Paracelsus, establishes the basilisk-eye as the emblematic image of imagination poisoned by fear, in which the psychically infected gaze corrupts the lunar mirror and propagates self-generated harm.
, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955thesis
the very instrument of reflection is damaged by a basilisk eye. These conditions of despairing introspection and foreboding speculation show the dark side of the moon
Hillman links the basilisk eye directly to the pathological underside of the reflective instinct, arguing that the lunar anima in its negative mode literalizes reflection into timid, self-defeating introspection.
, Anima: An Anatomy of a Personified Notion, 1985thesis
when the man looks at that infected mirror — the moon — then it functions like the eye of a basilisk (which I’ll talk about in a moment) and it poisons him
Edinger explicates Jung’s passage by situating the basilisk-eye within the marriage quaternio structure, showing how a man’s projected fear infects the lunar mirror so that it becomes an instrument of self-poisoning.
, The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995supporting
basilisk, infernal, 143
A brief index notation in Jung’s early psychiatric writings assigns the basilisk the explicit qualifier ‘infernal,’ confirming its consistent association with chthonic and demonic forces across the Collected Works.
, Collected Works Volume 3: The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, 1907aside
Basilisk, 199-201
The basilisk appears as a discrete subject in John Cassian’s index, indicating its presence as a figure of spiritual danger in the ascetic tradition that forms part of the cultural substrate from which depth psychology draws.
, Conferences, 426aside