“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28: 10 -12)
One of the earliest symbols of transformation of human consciousness, Jacob’s Ladder portrays an opening of communication between the hidden and the manifest, the above and the below, the cosmic and the earthbound, the divine and the human.
Jacob exists in the story in two states of consciousness. One , a denser realm where he is supposedly awake; a realm for hauling his body from there to here, a body that has to stop and rest, a body that won’t go on in the dark. The other state of consciousness is a lighter, more energetic realm where he is supposedly asleep.
Yeats wrote of being “fastened to a dying animal.” One of our states of consciousness is dying animal consciousness. We know that we are terminal. We love the animal we are. We look to treat it well. We feed it , house it, clothe it, enjoy its sexuality and sensuality, show it off, take it for walks and runs, bathe it and pamper it, push it to its limits and beyond, drug it, dance it, train it, and laugh and weep at its peculiarities.
Who is the “we” in that last paragraph? What is that aspect of Yeats that is aware of being fastened to a dying animal? Whatever name we put on it (ego, mind, psyche, soul), it is a gateway to the ladder realm. It is that in the story that is aware (dreaming) of a realm not seen by physical eyes, not seen by the dying animal consciousness, but seen by what Henry Corbin called “eyes of fire.”
One of the earliest symbols of transformation of human consciousness, Jacob’s Ladder portrays an opening of communication between the hidden and the manifest, the above and the below, the cosmic and the earthbound, the divine and the human.
Jacob exists in the story in two states of consciousness. One , a denser realm where he is supposedly awake; a realm for hauling his body from there to here, a body that has to stop and rest, a body that won’t go on in the dark. The other state of consciousness is a lighter, more energetic realm where he is supposedly asleep.
Yeats wrote of being “fastened to a dying animal.” One of our states of consciousness is dying animal consciousness. We know that we are terminal. We love the animal we are. We look to treat it well. We feed it , house it, clothe it, enjoy its sexuality and sensuality, show it off, take it for walks and runs, bathe it and pamper it, push it to its limits and beyond, drug it, dance it, train it, and laugh and weep at its peculiarities.
Who is the “we” in that last paragraph? What is that aspect of Yeats that is aware of being fastened to a dying animal? Whatever name we put on it (ego, mind, psyche, soul), it is a gateway to the ladder realm. It is that in the story that is aware (dreaming) of a realm not seen by physical eyes, not seen by the dying animal consciousness, but seen by what Henry Corbin called “eyes of fire.”
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