robes
The Seba library treats Robe in 9 passages, across 6 authors (including Abraham, Lyndy, von Franz, Marie-Louise, Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro).
One of the most frequently occurring images symbolizing the attainment of the purple tincture is that of the king putting on the purple robe.
Abraham establishes the purple robe of the king as the paradigmatic alchemical image of the rubedo, signifying complete self-mastery and the transmutation of base matter into the philosopher’s stone.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998thesis
the neophyte was given a new ‘heavenly garment’ as a symbol of his inner transformation and rebirth. The garment represented his final solificatio, for which reason it was sometimes described as ‘light,’ ‘seal of light,’ etc.
Von Franz traces the mystery-cult tradition in which the robe or heavenly garment bestowed upon the initiate symbolizes completed inner transformation and rebirth, identifying it with the alchemical solificatio.
, Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy, 1966thesis
‘This robe symbolizes our patriarchal faith and is not to be carried away by force. Take this along with thee, however, if thou so desirest.’ Ming tried to lift it, but it was as heavy as a mountain.
Suzuki presents the patriarchal robe in Zen transmission as a symbol of dharmic authority that cannot be seized by force, its supernatural weight distinguishing faith from its external emblem.
, Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series), 1949thesis
the patriarch, in a great show of wrath, took his slipper and erased it. But the next night he summoned the kitchen boy to his room, bestowed on him the begging bowl and robe, and in secret sent him off
Campbell narrates the secret bestowal of the robe on Hui-neng as the definitive act of patriarchal transmission, marking the moment institutional succession gives way to direct insight.
, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume II, 1962supporting
By washing the Yaga’s clothes, the initiate herself will see how the seams of persona are sewn, what patterns the gowns take. Soon she herself will have some measure of these personae to place in her closet
Estés interprets the washing of Baba Yaga’s garments as an initiatory task in which the woman learns the construction of persona — the clothing of authority — and thereby gains access to her own.
, Women Who Run With the Wolves Myths and Stories of the Wild, 2017supporting
the robe of rescuer is thrust upon the physician by the patient’s wish to believe; in part, however, the physician dons the robe gladly because playing God is the physician’s method of augmenting his belief in his personal specialness.
Yalom employs the robe as a clinical metaphor for the assumed role of the omnipotent healer, analysing the psychological dynamics by which both patient projection and physician inflation conspire to invest the doctor with numinous authority.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980supporting
Theophrastus compared the reddening of the slain, white Mercurius in its own blood to the dyeing of a white garment in Tyrian purple
Abraham documents the alchemical motif in which the white garment dyed Tyrian purple figures the rubedo stage, linking the robe’s colour-transformation to the sacrifice and resurrection of Mercurius.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998supporting
Covering it with her robe again, she resumed her song, and when she next took the robe away her father was breathing; then he stood up.
Campbell presents the Blackfoot woman’s use of her robe as a ritual instrument of resurrection, the garment serving as a sacred covering that enables the restoration of life within the buffalo ceremony.
, Primitive Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume I), 1959supporting
the people began to rise up from behind the rock piles which the heard had passed, and to shout and wave their robes. This frightened the hindermost buffalo
Campbell records the practical-ritual use of robes by the Blackfoot in buffalo hunting, where the garment functions as an instrument of communal action within a sacred hunt.
, Primitive Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume I), 1959aside