“
He: "I mean, are you happy and are you fully alive?"
I laughed: ''As you can see, you wove witty jokes into the lecture to please your listeners. You heaped up learned expressions to impress them. You were restless and hasty, as if still compelled to snatch up all knowledge. You are not in yourself"
Although these words at first seemed laughable to me, they still made an impression on me, and reluctantly I had to / credit the old man, since he was right.
Then he said: "Dear Ammonius, I have delightful tidings for you: God has become flesh in his son and has brought us all salvation." ""What are you saying," I called, "you probably mean Osiris, who shall appear in the mortal body?"
"No," he replied, "this man lived in Judea and was born from a virgin."
I laughed and answered: "I already know about this; a Jewish trader has brought tidings of our virgin queen to Judea, whose image appears on the walls of one of our temples, and reported it as a fairy tale."
"No," the old man insisted, "he was the Son of God."
"Then you mean Horus the son of Osiris, don't you?" I answered.
"No,hewasnotHorus,butarealman,andhewashung from a cross."
"Oh, but this must be Seth, surely; whose punishments our old ones have often described."
But the old man stood by his conviction and said: "He died and rose up on the third day."
"Well, then he must be Osiris," I replied impatiently. "No," he cried, "he is called Jesus the anointed one." ''Ah, you really mean this Jewish God, whom the poor
honor at the harbor, and whose unclean mysteries they celebrate in cellars."
"He was a man and yet the Son of God," said the old man staring at me intently.
"That's nonsense, dear old man," I said, and showed him to the door. But like an echo from distant rock faces the words returned to me: a man and yet the Son of God. It seemed significant to me, and this phrase was what brought me to Christianity.
I: "But don't you think that Christianity could ultimately be a
transformation ofyour Egyptian teachings?"
A: "If you say that our old teachings were less adequate
expressions of Christianity, then I'm more likely to agree with you." I: "Yes, but do you then assume that the history of religions is
aimed at a final goal?"
A: "My father once bought a black slave at the market from the
region of the source of the Nile. He came from a country that had heard ofneither Osiris nor the other Gods; he told me many things in a more simple language that said the same as we believed about Osiris and the other Gods. I learned to understand that those uneducated Negroes unknowingly already possessed most of what the religions of the cultured peoples had developed into complete doctrines. Those able to read that language correctly could thus recognize in it not only the pagan doctrines but also the doctrine of Jesus. And it's with this that I now occupy myself I read the gospels and seek their meaning which is yet to come.We know their meaning as it lies before us, but not their hidden meaning which points to the future. It's erroneous to believe that religions differ in their innermost essence. Strictly speaking, it's always one and the same religion. Every subsequent form of religion is the meaning of the antecedent."
I: "Have you found out the meaning which is yet to come?" A: "No, not yet; it's very difficult, but I hope I'll succeed. Sometimes it seems to me that I need the stimulation of others,
but I realize that those are temptations of Satan."
I: "Don't you believe that you'd succeed ifyou were nearer men?"
A: "maybeyoureright."
He looks at me suddenly as if doubtful and suspicious. "But, I love the desert, do you understand? This yellow, sun-glowing desert. Here you can see the countenance of the sun every day; you are alone, you can see glorious Helios-no, that is
- pagan-what's wrong with me? I'm confused-you are Satan- I recognize you-give way; adversary!" He jumps up incensed and wants to lunge at me. But I am far away in the twentieth century.
”
”
C.G. Jung