The
Myths, Dreams and Mysteries of The Magus
Mircea Eliade’s Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries is an in
depth analysis of how archaic myths and traditions are present in the modern
world. He introduces the concept of the illo
tempore, which becomes a theme throughout the book. This work of nonfiction
as well as the fictional novel, The
Magus, by John Fowels are both key components of the Mythological
Displacement curriculum. By thoroughly investigating the ideas presented in
each chapter of Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries
and relating these ideas to The Magus,
many parallels could be made, displaying how the two works possess each other,
just as many literary works do.
Nostalgia for
Paradise in the Primitive Traditions
The paradisiac myth is a common
theme seen in cultures all over the world. These myths all include the idea of
Heaven being close to Earth and there being an easy and direct connection
between the two during the illo tempore.
On page 65, Eliade states, “Now, we know that, in illo tempore, in the mythic time of Paradise, a Mountain, a Tree or
a Pillar or a liana connected Earth with Heaven, so that primordial man could
easily go up into Heaven by climbing it. Communication with Heaven in illo tempore was simple, and meeting
with the gods took place in concreto.”
Bourani can be thought of as a
pseudo illo tempore. It is a place
where Nicholas goes to escape the rest of his life on Phraxos. The rest of his
troubles appear seemingly unimportant when he is at Bourani and he longs for
the weekends he spends there, which are usually comprised of good food and good
company. There are also many mystical aspects about Bourani that suggest it
being an illo tempore. During one of
Nicholas’s first visits, he watches a display acted out in which a nymph is
being chased by a satyr, both of which are being observed by Apollo. He also
observes a jackal-headed guard at the villa. Conchis’s manner is mystical in
itself in that so much mystery shrouds his true identity. In a way, when
Nicholas spends time at Bourani, he is closer to “heaven”, or at least another
realm.
Eliade also notes the paradisiac
symbolism of churches and monastery gardens. Conchis’s home is also described
as a very beautiful place, with an elaborate villa filled with exquisite
artwork and a private beach. This is but another parallel between Bourani and
the illo tempore. However, this
analogy between Bourani and the illo
tempore can only go so far. This is because Bourani is ALSO a pseudo
demonic underworld in which Nicholas descends into and is faced with
Conchis’s “god game”.
Sense-Experience and
Mystical Experience among Primitives
Eliade’s chapter on
sense-experience pays special attention to individuals which he calls
“specialists in ecstasy”. He describes
them as, “The shamans, the medicine-men, magicians, healers, the ecstatic and
the inspired of every description, are distinguished from the rest of the
community by the intensity of their religious experience. They live the sacred
side of life in a profounder and more personal manner than others. In most
cases they attract attention by some unusual behavior, by the possession of
occult powers, by having personal and secret relations with divine or demonic
beings, by a style of life, or dress, by insignia and ways of speaking , which
are theirs alone.” There are many similarities between the mannerisms of
shamans in primitive societies described by Eliade and those of Conchis in The Magus. As was quoted from Eliade,
Shamans are distinguished from the rest of the community. In The Magus, it seems as if everyone on
the island of Phraxos has heard of Conchis, but nobody really knows the truth about
him. He leads a life shrouded in mystery. It is also apparent that he is very
wealthy and powerful, someone to be respected by his peers. His way of living
is particularly unusual. He keeps strange company, such as the twins and the
large, seemingly-mute black man. Referring to Shamans within primitive
traditions, Eliade says, “They are the principal custodians of the rich oral
literature: the poetic vocabulary of a Yakut shaman comprises some 12,000
words, whilst his ordinary speech – all that is known to the rest of the
community – consists of only 4,000… singer, poet, musician, seer, priest and
doctor, seems to be the guardian of the popular religious traditions, the
custodian of legends several centuries old. The shamans exhibit powers of
memory and of self-control well above the average.” In Nicholas’s time at
Bourani, Conchis tells him many stories. Especially if these stories are
fabricated, he must possess excellent memory and self-control. He also appears
to be a jack of all trades, or at least that’s what he claims. He is a
musician, a psychologist, a doctor, and a mayor. His skills at hypnosis must
not also be forgotten, for that is an important mark of a shaman.
Eliade states that one becomes a
shaman by one of three methods. 1. By spontaneous vocation such as a “call” or
“election”. 2. By hereditary transmission from the shaman profession. 3. By
personal decision or the will of the clan. If Conchis is analogous to a Shaman,
then perhaps Nicholas is a future shaman. This would give more apparent purpose
to Nicholas’s initiation and the “god game”. It seems he was chosen for
Conchis’s game “by spontaneous vocation” and also a little bit by “personal
decision”. He did not choose to participate necessarily, but he did keep coming
back to Bourani willingly.
Just like a shaman, a future shaman
is marked by unusually strange behavior. Eliade states, “The future shaman
marks himself off progressively by some strange behavior: he seeks solitude,
becomes a dreamer, loves to wander in woods or desert places, has visions,
sings in his sleep, ect. Sometimes this period of incubation is characterized
by rather grave symptoms… such as throwing oneself into water or fire or
wounding oneself with knives.” Nicholas is a fairly suitable match for this
description. He is a melancholy person, especially during his time on Phraxos.
He is depressed by the monotony of the island and frequently wanders the forest
and the less populated side of the island. He also may have tendencies to harm
himself, seeing as he was at one point seconds away from committing suicide.
A shaman’s initiation is by no
means easy. “This mystical vocation often enough involves a profound crisis,
sometimes touch the borderline of “madness”. And since one cannot become a
shaman until one has resolved it, this crisis evidently plays the part of a
mystic initiation… The ritual death, without which no initiation is possible,
is passed through by the “patient” in the form of a descent into Hell.” Conchis
sets up a situation in which Nicholas falls madly in love and it is all
wrenched away from him. Not only is his lover taken away, but so is Alison, and
his job. To put it frankly, Nicholas is put through hell and that is where the
novel ends. Perhaps he transcends out of this hell as a shaman himself.
Symbolisms of
Ascension
In this chapter, Eliade invites the
reader to think of “flight” more symbolically, as a dizzy trajectory. He
explains that flight could be encompassed by elements of anxiety, an effort to
escape imminent danger, or an attempt to free oneself. This symbolism is more
appropriate when relating the idea of “flight” to The Magus. It is obvious that Nicholas experiences a great deal of
anxiety in the novel as a result of Conchis’s “godgame”. There are also moments
when he literally attempts to free himself, like during the trial.
Since
Eliade closely relates the concepts of flight
and freedom, it’s appropriate to
point out the significance of “freedom” in The
Magus. In Conchis’s story of the German invasion of Phraxos, he is haunted
by the words of one of the guerrilla prisoners before his death. Conchis refers
to the guerilla by saying, “He spoke out of a world the very opposite of mine.
In mine life had no price. It was so valuable that it was literally priceless.
In his, only one thing had that quality of pricelessness. It was eleutheria: freedom. He was the
immalleable, the essence, the beyond reason, beyond logic, beyond civilization,
beyond history… He was the final right to deny. To be free to choose. He, or
what manifested itself through him, even included the insane Wimmel, the
despicable German and Austrian troops. He was every freedom, from the very
worst to the very best. The freedom to desert on the battlefield of Neuve
Chapelle. The freedom to confront a primitive God at Seidevarre. The freedom to
disembowel peasant girls and castrate with wire-cutters. He was something that
passed beyond morality but sprang out of the very essence of things - that
comprehended all, the freedom to do all, and stood against only one thing – the
prohibition not to do all.” Just as Conchis is given the freedom to choose
whether or not to beat the guerrilla to death, Nicholas is later given the
freedom to choose to use the cat on Lily in revenge for her deception. At this
moment, Nicholas recalls the following: The
better you understand freedom, the less you possess it. Nicholas finds
freedom, or flight, in choosing not to strike Lily with the cat. This is
perhaps his form of moral “escape” from Conchis’s grasp.
Eliade
proposes yet another idea, that “flight” symbolizes intelligence and
understanding. He quotes the Pancavimca
Brahmana, which
states, “he who understands has wings”. Throughout The Magus, Nicholas is constantly searching
for answers and insight. Up to the final chapters of the novel, Nicholas
attempts to research Conchis and his colleagues, in search of some
understanding of their motives. Despite his efforts, he is left in the dark, flightless
and confused.
No matter which symbolism of flight
you consider, they all have one commonality. Eliade states, “they all express a
break with the universe of everyday experience; and a dual purposiveness is
evident in this rupture: both transcendence
and, at the same time, freedom are to
be obtained through the “flight”.” This symbol of flight can first be found in The Magus through Nicholas’s initial
boredom with England and his affair with Alison. On page 48, as Nicholas leaves
for the island of Phraxos, he reflects by saying, “The thing I felt most
clearly, when the first corner was turned, was that I had escaped; and hardly
less clearly, but much more odiously, that (Alison) loved me more than I loved
her, and that consequently I had in some indefinable way won. So on top of the
excitement of the voyage into the unknown, the taking wing again, I had an
agreeable feeling of emotional triumph.” After spending some time on Phraxos,
Nicholas seeks flight from the monotony of his life on the island. He grows to
loathe his job and the people at the school. He seeks transcendence from his
unhappiness first by writing poetry and contemplating suicide and second, by
exploring the island. On page 62, Nicholas reflects on that time in his life
and states, “To write poetry and to commit suicide, apparently so
contradictory, had really been the same, attempts at escape.” When Nicholas
comes across Bourani, he has, in a sense, found a break with the universe of
everyday experience and experienced a “flight” from monotony. Nicholas’s
longing for something new and different further proves him to be representative
of the “everyday man”. Eliade states, “Such a desire to free himself from his
limitations, which he feels to be a kind of degradation, and to regain
spontaneity and freedom- the desire expressed, in the example here discussed,
by symbols of the “flight” –must be ranked among the specific marks of man.”
Therefore, Nicholas’s longing for something new and different are an inevitable
part of the human condition.
Power and Holiness in
the History of Religions
The relation between power and holiness and The Magus can first be seen in looking
at the title of the novel. There is an unmistakable likeness between gods and
magicians. In his book, Eliade likens the Vedic god Varuna to a Magician,
stating, “Varuna is indeed a powerful god, a Great Magician, and men tremble
before him.” Though the title The Magus
is very telling of the nature of the novel, it was originally titled The Godgame. In Conchis’s “godgame”,
Nicholas becomes a slave to a fate seemingly predetermined by Conchis. Conchis
essentially becomes the ruler over Nicholas’s life. Conchis also possesses or
seems to possess many attributes similar to those of a primitive god. Eliade
describes the gods of primitive traditions by saying, “All the celestial gods
of the “primitives” possess attributes and powers that denote intelligence,
knowledge and “wisdom”. The celestial god sees
everything and therefore knows everything, and this knowledge, being of a
supernatural order, is in itself a force.” Conchis is certainly intelligent and
well-spoken, but he also becomes an ever-watching eye over Nicholas’s life. He
“sees” everything, as is apparent when it is revealed that Conchis is aware of
Nicholas’s activities even away from Bourani, such as when he meets Alison in
Athens.
A theory of the reason as to why
Conchis only reads nonfiction comes from the bible verse Exodus 20:5. It says, “You must
not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the fathers' sin, to the third and fourth generations
of those who hate Me.” Perhaps in order for Conchis to become a “god”, Nicholas
could not be influenced by any other myths or theologies, which is why Conchis
only kept books of nonfiction at Bourani.
Mother
Earth and the Cosmic Hierogamies
In this chapter, Eliade introduces one
particularly interesting Zuni myth that recounts that in illo tempore, the “Twins of War” came down through a lake into the
underground world. After their time underground, they returned to the surface,
bringing back some subterranean men, and from them our present humanity had
descended. However, the Twins did not operate alone. It was the Sun who, with
the help of the Twins led mankind to the surface of the earth. This myth cannot
just be used as a story for the beginning of times. For example, the Navajo
recite such myths during ceremonies for the purpose of curing an illness or the
initiation of a shaman-apprentice. This shows that they are applicable for
periods of rebirth or as a rite of passage. Twins seem to have a mystical
appeal. Perhaps because it is that they are a phenomenon, sharing the same
genetic code. It is as if the same person can transcend one body and be in two
places and two mindsets at once. This also may be why the twins Julie and June
are presented in The Magus. Not only
are they twins, but they stand out from society in many other aspects as well.
They are identical, beautiful, very intelligent, and presumably excellent
actresses as well. Conchis plays the role of the Sun in this myth. He guides
the actions of The Twins so they become “middle-men” in this journey. If we are
to assume that Nicholas’s experience is an initiation or rite of passage of
sorts, than likening his experience to this myth of the beginning of time is
not so outlandish.
