Spell

The term ‘spell’ occupies a remarkably multivalent position across the depth-psychology corpus, functioning simultaneously as a linguistic-magical operation, a psychological condition, and a structural metaphor for unconscious captivation. Jung employs the term in at least two distinct registers: as an index of numinous compulsion — the psyche caught under the sway of an autonomous complex or archetype — and as a vestigial marker of ancient magical efficacy, as when names or symbols are understood to retain ‘spellbinding’ power. Zimmer illuminates the etymological and cross-cultural substrate, tracing the spell to the love-charm and the incantatory carmen, arguing that Kāma is inseparable from magic and that the erotic spell ‘binds all creatures to the cycle of existences.’ Kalsched identifies bewitchment as a clinical phenomenon: the traumatized patient falls under the spell of a transpersonal inner figure, an enchantment at once defensive and spiritually significant. Abram, writing from ecophilosophy and phenomenology, treats the written letter itself as spell — an animistic gateway that binds perception to the world. McGilchrist invokes the spell sociologically, noting the structural parallel between the witch doctor’s spell and modern pharmacological compliance. Across all these voices, the spell marks the threshold where language, magic, and unconscious compulsion converge — a site of both danger and potential transformation.

In the library 12 passages

Kāma is of the essence of magic, magic of the essence of love; for among nature’s own spells and charms that of love and sex is pre-eminent. This is the witchcraft that compels life to progress from one generation to the next, the spell that binds all creatures to the cycle of existences.

Zimmer establishes the spell as a cosmological force rooted in Kāma, arguing that erotic magic constitutes the primordial binding power that drives the cycle of death and rebirth.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, 1951thesis

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most people feel afraid of the menacing power that lies fettered in each of us, only waiting for the magic word to release it from the spell. This magic word, which always ends in ‘ism,’ works most successfully with those who have the least access to their interior selves.

Jung presents the spell as the psyche’s latent captivation by instinctual and archetypal forces, released by collective ideological formulae in those most alienated from their inner life.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960thesis

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the dream tells him that something has already happened in his analysis. The dream makes the statement that he is already under the spell. Why should his unconscious hint at this?

Jung reads being ‘under the spell’ as a positive analytic sign — the unconscious registering that a suggestive therapeutic effect has already taken hold in the patient.

Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984thesis

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the power of this negative enchantment is the most powerful resistance that therapists confront with Rapunzel patients and with the part of the therapist that identifies with their injuries.

Kalsched characterizes the spell as ‘negative enchantment,’ the most formidable therapeutic resistance, arising because the inner sanctuary of trauma also opens onto genuine transpersonal energies.

Kalsched, Donald, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit, 1996supporting

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Κῦδος acts like a charm: it ensures t

Benveniste traces the magical nature of kudos as a charm-like force of divine victory, establishing the Indo-European semantic context in which the spell operates as a quasi-material talismanic power.

Benveniste, Émile, Indo European Language and Society, 1973supporting

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Age-old magical effects lie hidden in this symbol, for it is derived from the ‘protective circle’ or ‘charmed circle,’ whose magic has been preserved in countless folk customs.

Jung traces the mandala’s efficacy to its origin as a charmed circle — a spell-work of protective circumscription — thereby grounding archetypal symbolism in the living tradition of the spell.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967supporting

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there is more in common than one might at first think between the average Westerner’s acceptance of the efficacy of aspirin and the African villager’s acceptance of a spell from the witch doctor: neither understands, or even asks for, a causal explanation, but accepts treatment on the basis of authority and past experience.

McGilchrist argues that the spell represents a mode of non-causal efficacy that is structurally continuous with modern medical compliance, complicating the Western dismissal of magical practice.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting

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He who knows the dying round the holy power, round him the rivals that vie with and hate him die.

Zimmer presents the Vedic formula as a metaphysical spell whose operative knowledge confers protective and destructive power, illustrating the ancient conjunction of cosmic knowledge and magical efficacy.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, 1951supporting

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the average Westerner’s acceptance of the efficacy of aspirin and the African villager’s acceptance of a spell from the witch doctor: neither understands, or even asks for, a causal explanation

A near-duplicate passage reinforcing McGilchrist’s parallel between magical and scientific compliance, underscoring the argument’s significance by repetition across editions.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021aside

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spell(s), 119, 162 magic, 10 spellbinding names, 328

An index entry from Jung’s Alchemical Studies confirming that spells and spellbinding names are treated as distinct operative topics within the alchemical corpus, cross-referenced with magic.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967aside

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