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"Igitur or Elbehnon's Folly": The Depersonalization Process and the Creative Encounter

Author(s): Bettina KnappReviewed work(s):Source: Yale French Studies, No. 54, Mallarme (1977), pp. 188-213Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929996.Accessed: 05/09/2012 14:40

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2/27

Bettina

Knapp

'Igitur or

Elbehnon's

Folly":

The DepersonalizationProcess

and the Creative

Encounter

All

that

is visible must

growbeyond

it-

self,extend into

the realm

of the

invisible.

Thereby

t receives ts true

concentration

nd

clarity

and takes firmroot in the

cosmic

order.

(The

I

Ching.)

Stephane

Mallarme's Igitur

is

a

dream

meditation carried

on

in

silence and withquietdetermination.t is an initiation ntothemost

solitary regions

of the human

soul,

a

depersonalized

area which

mystics

have

referred

o as

the

primordial

oint-where

Nothing-

ness becomes

Something,

he

Void

is

transformed

nto the Crea-

tion.

Igitur

s

a tale that

unfolds n

a

circumscribed rea: a

room,

a

stairwell, nd

a

tomb.

There is

no

escape:

no

window,

no

sky.

The

atmosphere

s

closeted,

imited,

tifling,

onstrained.

Only

one

path is open: downward ntothe corridors f time to contact the

primordial

ace of poets

from

who the

modern

creative

piritgains

sustenance.

Mallarme

described his

inner

meanderings

while

writing

gitur

as a

kind

of

death. "I

have

just

spent a

terrifyingear:

my

Thought

thought, nd

I have

reached

pure

Conception.

What my

being...

has

suffered

uring

his

ong agony

s

unrelatable;

but,

fortunately,

I am perfectly ead, and the most impureregionwheremyMind

can

venture is

the Eternity

of

my Spirit.

This

solitary

entity

accustomed

to its own

Purity

s not even

obscured by

the

reflection

of

Time."

I

In

view

of

Mallarme's statement

nd

Igitur'sstory

ine,

1

Stephane

Mallarme',

orrespondance

862-1871.

Henri

Mondor,

ditor)

(Paris:

Gallimard,

959),

p.

240.

Cited

in

the

text

as

C.

188


3/27

Bettina

Knapp

which

delineates the

steps leading to the tomb,

certain

criticshave

interpreted his workas Thanatos-oriented. ut forMallarmedeath

does not

mean an end in the

sense of a finale,

ather, he termina-

tion of a

specificway and the

beginning f a

new orientation.His

description of his

willed introversion

ccompanied by

depression

indicates,

from a

psychological

viewpoint, withdrawal

of libido

(psychic energy) from

external

objects or

events. Psychic energy

is

then

driven into the

unconscious. Such

inner focus acts as a

compensatorydevice for the individualunable to cope with an

intensely

reativedrive. By turning

nward,he

represseshis psychic

energy,thus

violating

the ego and activating

atent or

dormant

factors

withinthe

unconscious.A reshuffling

f these

contentsvia

an

introduction f

renewedenergy, hrusts

freshforms,

ensations

and

images

nto

consciousness, hus making

new

conceptualizations

available.

Igitur,

herefore,

s

not to be considered

Mallarme's

sui-

cidal journey, s some criticshave intuited,but ratheran icono-

graphic

nd verbal

expressionofthe artist's

heroic struggle

o give

birth to

the unknown.

Probably

written

between

1867 and

1870, gitur

reveals Mallar-

me's obsessive fear of spiritualand literary terility. Igitur,"he

wrote

"is

a

tale

in which

want

to

confound hat old monster

mpo-

tence ..

If

it

is

[the

tale] completed,

shall

be

cured;

simila

similibus"

C., p. 313).

Mallarme's

probings-his psychosis-drove

him

deeply

into his

own

"abyss,"

and blocked

him for

a

while as

an

artist.Unable

to

communicate

with

otherson a

meaningful

evel,

he

went through

months of

insomnia,

extreme

fatigue,

nd

the

tensionaccompanyinguch an unnatural tate.

Throughout

the

harrowing period

of

his descent

into

self,

Mallarme

was

terrorized

by

his

own condition and

described

himself

s

living

n

a

collective

world;

as

perhaps going

nsane.

In

a letter

to his friend

Eugene Lefebure

he wrote

"(I

have

spent

moments

approaching

madness

interspersed

with

equilibrating

189


4/27


5/27

Bettina

Knapp

designed

in

part to arouse

infinite

ympathetic

ibrations

n the

protagonist s well as in the reader,thus expandingconsciousness.

Igitur is

the

name of

Mallarme's

hubris-ridden

ero.

He, like

Prometheus,

rpheus,

Dionysus-Iacchus,

nd Christ,

xperiences

is

Dantesque

quest into

the

inner obes of

the brain

where he

divests

himself of identity and reaches that area where nowhere is

everywhere.

t is from

these

pyramidaldepths

that

he recounts

with extreme ucidity

his spiritual

rebirth

n the work

of art.

In a

preliminary

ote to

Igitur,

Mallarme

stated:

"The Tale is addressed

to the reader's

Intelligencewhich

itself

functions s

its director."

The

text,

then,

s a mind-oriented

ork:

an inquiry

nto the

domain

ofunacquiredknowledge s opposedto that whichhas been learned

cognitively.

gitur

s Mallarme's

return

o the original

"essence

of

the

mind" or

psychic

structure

behind

what

might

be

called

the

"acquired

structure

f consciousness."

According

to

Rolland de

Ren6ville,

he

adverb

igitur

was

taken

from

Genesis:

"Thus

the heavens

and

the earth

were

finished,

nd

all

the

host of them."

(Igitur

perfecti

unt

coeli et terra et

omnis

ornatus oerum" (2:1). Certain mysticsbelieve that this sentence

refers o

the

creation

of

angelsby

God,

that

is,

the

manifestation

of the creative

powers

emerging

rom

deity Elohim).

In The

Living

Webster

adverbs

are

defined

as "an indeclinable

part

of

speech"

that modify

verbs, adjectives

and other

adverbs;

they

"usually

express

time,place,

manner,

ondition,

ause, result,

degree,

means,

etc."

Igitur,

he

adverb,

s a multifaceted

ntity

hat influences

he

entiresentence. Symbolically,Mallarme'sprotagonists likewisea

radiating

force.

Like

a

spider (an

image

to which Mallarme

has

recoursethroughout

he

work)

whose

energy

s transmitted

o

every

2

Stephane

Mallarmd,

cEuvres

completes.

Paris:

Bibliotheque

de

la

Pl6iade,

1945),

p. 433.

Cited

in the

text

as

O.C.

191


6/27

Yale

French

Studies

area of the

web,

so

Igitur

too

modifies he

impact

and

import of

thewords used bythevery ubstanceofhis ownbeing.

As an

angel,

gitur

s a

transmitter,

messenger,

link

between

the infinite

r divine realm

and

the finite nd terrestrial

phere:

outer and inner

world,

he

poet

and

his work. n

a letter

o

Villiers

de l'Isle

-Adam, Mallarme'wrote

that he had

finally

understood

the

intimate

orrelation

etween

Poetry

and

the

Universe,

and

so

that it

would

be

pure conceived

of

the

idea to

extract t

from

he

Dream and fromChance and to juxtapose it to the

conception

of

the

Universe"

(C., p.

259).

Igitur

then

is a

descendant of

a

race

of

angels

who

were

and

are

poets.

He

is

also that

"nameless

one"

referred

o in

Mallarme's text as "the

personage,"

n

arcane force.

Igitur

s

divided

into

five

cyclical

schemes:

1.

Midnight

2. He leaves the room and loses himselfn the stairwell

3.

Igitur's ife

4.

The

Dice-Throw

5.

He

lies

down

in

the

tomb

1

Midnight

"Midnight"

recounts he

protagonist's tat d'ame

as

he

prepares

to

descend

the stairs

leading into his

tomb. He

experiences the

objects around him (mirror,draperies,furniture,lock) as living

entities.

Time is

arrested

n

these

presences

which,

as

mysterious

beings,

reveal

the

interrelatedness

f

time,

spirit,

nd

space.

An

open book

lies

on

the

table.

Its

"pallor"

stands

out

as

does

the

enigma

surrounding

ts

existence.

t is

associated

withnight

and

with

the

"silence

of

an

ancient

word."

A

dream

chime're)

eflects

light

s

does

the now

closed

book.

The

light

ofan

ancient

dea,

not

yet born,seeks to come intobeing.The hour ofMidnightsounds

like an

echo.

"Good-by,

night

hat

was,

your

own

sepulcher,

whose

surviving

hadow

was

metamorphosed

nto

Eternity."

Midnight

ndicates

the

existence

of an

isomorphic

relationship

between

number,

ime,

and

psychic

tate.

According o

Pythagoras,

numbers

are

the

basis

of

reality:

that is,

an

awarenessof

reality

192


7/27

Bettina

Knapp

maybe

expressed ynumbers.Each

number,

herefore,s notonly

significantnitself, utcorrespondslsoto a whole eries fentities

in the

universe. There s,then,

relationship

etween he visible

world

man's

spatial-timecheme) nd

abstract

vents nderstood

mathematically

hen

ncorporatedntosubstance.

he nonpercep-

tible

continuumhat

transcendsman's

three-dimensionalniverse

may husbe

concretizedn

numbers.

Psychologically,

umbers re archetypalontents:

hey rouse

energy,hythms,atterns,nd foment dynamicrocess. hey re

"idea forces," hat

s, the

concretizationr

developmentf virtual-

ities or

possibilitiesn space; they re

also

experiencesr shapes

that ie latent

n theunconscious ntil

consciousness

xperiences

them

n

the formof

"images,

houghts,

nd

typical

motional

modesof

behavior."

In

the conscious omain

umbersre "quan-

titative; in

the

unconscioushey reboth"quantitative

nd qual-

itative," herebyrousingll kindsof sensationsndfeelings. s

ordering

evices sed

by

man incethe

beginning

f

time,

umbers

are

manifestationsfhis desire o

conquer

he

world f

contingency

as well as the

one that ies

beyond

is dominion.

n thatnumbers

lend order o whatmight e

considered

haotic, heygive

a sense

of

security

o

those

n

need of

t,

and

in this

regard

re considered

"archetypal

oundationsf the

psyche."

It is

understandablehat

an entire ook in theOld Testament houldbe calledNumbers

becausewithin ts

pages

are

enclosed

generations

f souls

eading

back

to

the

beginning

f

time,

hus

giving

istorical

ontinuity

o

the

Jewish eople.

The

tracing

f Christ's

ineage

back

to

David

is

likewise

n

attempt

n

man's

part

to

experience

is

ancestral

soul

n

ts

original

orm. hus n

gitur's

uest

to seek

his ancestors

3

Marie Louise von Franz, Number nd

Time. Evanston: Northwestern

University ress, 1974), p. 11.

4

Edouard Schur6,

The

Great nitiates.

New York: St. GeorgesBooks,

1961), pp. 305,

311. The

number

1

is

the number

of God "the Source of

universal

Harmony";

number

2 is an

active force

and

is

manifestedwhen

God

became

double, divisible,

when He

created the

world. Plato

considers

numbers as linking

forces. In his

description f the

monad which rises

through

he

process

of dairesis

division)

o

infinity

his

theory

s

evidenced.

5

Ibid., p.

191.

6

Franz, pp. 204, 62,

18.

7

Ibid.

193


8/27

Yale French tudies

-"the race

of

poets"-he

is

trying

o stabilize nd lend

continuity

to a worlddominated ychance nddisparity.

Midnight

ndicates he center f

the

twenty-four-hourycle,

he

halfwaymark,

he end before he zero hour.

Representing

he

twelve igns

of the

zodiac,

it stands for a

totality:

he twelve

months fthe

year,

he

welve

isciples,

hefour

easons f

the

year

multipliedythree.

n that welve n

its

semi-circularnd

circular

effect

tandsfor

completeness,

t ushers n moods of

repose

nd

dynamism,ctivityndpassivity,heoneand the twoorGod and

his

Creation, eing

nd

nothingness,

he

image

nd its

reflection.

As unmanifested

ontents

f

the

unconscious,

welve

s

a

duality

exists n the

form

f "basic ntuitions"r an

unexpressedaggregate

of

all

sense

mpressionspon ndividuals."'

gitur's ery ife-his

intellect-depends

pon

certain

hases

n

whichnumbers re con-

cretized:

"Certainly presence

f

Midnight ubsists,"

r "Reve-

latory fMidnight,"r "And fromMidnightemains hepresence

of

the vision

of

a

chamber f

time,"

r

"It is

the

pure Dream of

Midnight."

Midnight ecomes, hen, hepivotalpointon Igitur's

descent,

is

expandingonsciousness.

For

Igitur

ime s

concretized.t exists n

the

objects nhabiting

his

room:

the

furniture,lock,mirror,

raperies. ime n this ense

means

he

eschatologicalime f thefinite orld. ecausethiskind

oftime uts,divides, ruises,ndis instrumentalnthe death-and-

rebirth

ycle,

t

is

linkedwith emotional

haracteristics.n that

time s

an abstract otion "It is thepure

DreamofMidnight")nd

viewed

cyclically,t is, as Aristotle roclaimed,ircular nd not

divided ntoarbitrarychemes uch as

past, present, nd future,

numbers fhours, tc. Cyclical r

mythicalime s fluid nd expe-

8

As functions f

the mind and

psyche,

numbers

re

active forces

ym-

bolizing

contents hat have

not

yet

reached

consciousness.

They may

take

the form

nd force of

energy

hat

may

then be

transformed

nto

sensations

of

pleasure

or

pain and

will,

therefore

e

important actors n

shaping ne's

destiny.

See,

Charles

Ponc6,

The

Nature

of

the

I

Ching.

(New

York:

Award

Books,

1970),

p.

26.

Numbers

have been

used

in

mantic

procedures

in

the I

Ching,by

throwing

oins

or

yarrow

tacks;

in

geomancy

where

grains,

ebbles,

nd other

bjects

are

counted; n

gambling

ames.See

Franz,

p. 45.

9

Franz, p.

19.

194


9/27

Bettina Knapp

rienced as psychic energy n its qualitative and quantitativeform.

For Igitur,therefore, The hour has not disappeared in the mir-

ror. ." it has

imposed tself n the form f a visual image, psychic

experience,

constantreminder f man's mortality nd his ephem-

eral nature.

Igiturhas not

yet "disappeared nto the mirror," hat s, his goal

of dispersion or

superconsciousnesshas not yet been achieved.

Duality still exists. The mirror mage, used so frequently y Mal-

larme n Igiturand otherworks, s of greatsignificance ere. When

likened to the

Narcissus myth t becomes a vehicle for self-con-

templation.

Mallarme

spoke of it in a letter May 17, 1867) as a

"dream pool

where we never fish for anything lse but our own

image, without

thinking bout the silvery cales of the fish " (C.,

p. 245). The

mirrormay also be considered a device that reflects

unconscious memories:

a

typeof moon image

as

opposed to the

sun disk. As a dynamic orce t not onlyreproduces ut also absorbs

the image,

distorts it, and underlines its feminine or passive

characteristics.

"Time,"

for

Igitur, "has

not

been buried

in

the

draperies."

Draperies,

urtains,

r

wall

coverings

n

generalmay

be

regarded

s

partitions etween two worlds God

and

man),

two

states

of

being

(death and life), two existential ttitudes illusion and reality),

wo

timeschemes eschatological nd cyclical)two worlds multiple nd

the one), two

character

raits

passive

and

active)

and

two

approach-

es

toward the

work of

art

(creative

and

sterile).

As such

they

are

composites of

opposites;

divinities

vested with

immortality.

he

mirror

nd

the

drapes

were

fetishes or

gitur, nclosing

within

heir

folds

or

recesses

certain

mysterious owers

thathe

had to

transcend

in his

initiatory rocess.

That time and the objects associated withit (mirror, raperies)

are

experienced

n

terms

of

vacancy

and

sonority

ndicate a

dif-

ference

n

Igitur's

evels of consciousness.

gitur

s in the

process

of

absorbing

he various

images

he

sees around

him, ntegrating

hese

into his

being

(soul), thereby ncreasing

his

understanding

f

their

impact upon him.

The

word

ameublement

furnishings)

s of

para-

195


10/27


11/27

Bettina Knapp

the mind

and

psyche of the poet

priorto

the

creative ct. It is the

realm nwhichbeautyand purity xist n the raw, thedreambefore

it has taken

form-the

domain of

mystery.f

meditatedupon, the

jewel becomes a

void,

instrumentaln the

Orphic

descent. f gazed

into, t enables

the

individual o

withdraw o the

point of

creation

within

himself,

xperiencing issassociation

with

the

outside world.

Reverie

when

associated with the

jewel

arouses the

notion of

reflection

nd recollection,

hose

irrational

pheres-in

Igitur'scase

the worldoffolly. t is in thisdomain that the spirit n man seeks

release;

wants to

abandon itself

to its souvenirs,

delusions, and

illusions, thus

enabling it

to roam freely

nd

contentedly bout

space.

In

a

letter o Henri

Cazalis,

Mallarme

wrote

of this

particular

aspect of dream

and

matter: "I want to

experiencethe spectacle

of

matter,conscious of

being

and yet plunging

forcibly nto the

Dream,

which...

isn't" (C., p.

207).

Mallarmenowbrings ntofocustwo othernotions: "marine nd

stellar"

worlds

so complex

in

their

bejeweled

nature that

within

their

being

"could be

read the infinite

onjunctions

of

chance."

Marineand stellar

n this

context

signify

hieros

gamos,

he

marriage

f

two

elements:

sky (air) and water

liquid).

The

latter,

rich in terms

of fish

and

potential

treasures,

has

been

associated

with

the

unconscious,those

primal

waters

which

existed

prior

to

the Creation,that formless nd mysteriousnothing, he zero of

eternity,

he

Orphicegg.

2

Stellar

regions symbolize

diffusion,

he

intellectual

ight

force

struggling

gainst

the

world

of

darkness;

consciousness

making

ts

way

through

unconscious

regions.

Stellar

and marine reflect

mages

arousing

a

variety

of emotional evels:

air or

stellar,

ssociated

with

the mental

being,

with

spirit

or wind

(nous),

an area from

whichdivine

beings

descend

angels)

or

humans

ascend (Jacob's dream). In Hermes Trismegistus'Emerald Table

it is

stated that

"It

ascendeth

from the earth

to

heaven,

and

descendeth

again

to the

earth,

and

receiveth

the

power

of

the

12

Ralph Metzner,

Maps of Consciousness. New

York:

Collier

Books,

1971),

p.

90.

197


12/27


13/27

Bettina Knapp

numbers infinity, onjunctions,null), in the cosmos (marine and

stellar), nd in the multiple nd the simple. The word revelatory s

particularly ignificant or he Gnosticand forhermetic hilosophers

whose works

Mallarme

had studied. Knowledge of divinity s re-

vealed

for membersof these sects by secret means or formulas.

6

In

Luke we read: "For there s nothing oveted, that shall not be

revealed; neitherhid, that shall not be known." (12:2) The one

who

struggles, igs,

and

sacrifices hall gain gnosis, and only he

will have understanding. he same may be said for gitur's scesis:

only by repeated efforts nd a tortuous strugglewill treasuresbe

revealed.

Darkness invades Igitur's room. Blackness is propitious to

growthaccording to

ancient

mystery eligions Eleusis, Pyramids,

Dionysus-Iacchos,Ortheus,Mithra,Christ)-light

vanishes

n

caves

or

in

hidden

rock

formations

n order

to

give

birth to a more

brilliant nd rarefied llumination.t is in the realm of darkness

that the seed

takes

root

and

germinates.

t

is also in the

mysterious

ameublement

soul

and

mobile)

of the

brain that the

idea

comes

into being.

In his room

(his

"Interior

Palace")

with

its

arcana

(furnishings,mirror,draperies) gitur experiences

the

mystery

f

unity

and

exteriorizes t for the reader

(or

makes it conscious

to

himself)

n the

finite

world.

7

Matter fuses

(whether

n

concrete

form r as an idea, sensation, r impulse) n the room; an intimacy

between

the

elements

takes

place-as

in

the

vaulted areas

of

the

mind,

the

inner

temple

of the

soul.

In

this circumscribed

omain,

Igitur'spure

I

emerges,

hat

nonpersonal

nd

mythological

ssence

floats

into

existence

and

takes on its

funnel-like

r

messenger-

oriented

unction.

gitur

now

becomes

the transmitterf the infinite

into

the

finite,

he

eternal into

the

mortal

sphere,

the unwritten

poem into

the

fixed verse.

Igitur's thought

shudders

and

trembles.

ts

motility

will

soon

diminish

in

amplitude

when used

in

conjunction

with

deaden

(French mortir,

rom

atin

mors,mortis).

he

emergence

f

thought

16

Jonas,

p.

45.

17

Rene' Gue'non,

e

Symbolisme

e la croix.

Paris: 10/18,

957),

p.

88.

199


14/27


15/27

Bettina Knapp

"radiation"and "dissipation"of

"spiritual

onsciousness".Eyes

may

also be viewed as in Redon's painting: depersonalized, ranscen-

dental, collective,

and mythicalforces devoid

of all

individuality

except for their

presence n time.

n this respect

theyare terrifying

because they are beyond human

comprehension

nd control, re-

sembling tellar powers that

determineman's fate

from he

outside.

Like mirrors,

yes are also reflectors nd

transmitters,

essenger

angels bridging

he gap between nner nd outer

worlds-divine

and

mortalrealms.

An "open

book" lies on the table. This

book, a coniunctio

of

cosmic

forces,

encompasseseverything.n his

Autobiography

Mal-

larme

writes: "a

book which is a book,

architectural nd

premed-

itated, and not a

collection of inspirations

ictated by chance

even

if these inclusions

were to be

marvelous" 0. C., p. 663).

The book on Igitur's table is

part of the

decor;

it is exterior

to him as are thecurtains, lock, thefurniture.et, within tspages

are containedthe

secrets of

existence: thoughopen it

is

closed

and

embedded n

night, houghverbal

it

remains

ilent, houghpalpable

it is

amorphous.The book in

question is surely

a hermetic

work

since

it

professes

"ancient

words." Mallarme

may

be

referring

o

the

works of

Thoth

(the Tarot)

or the

book of

magic by

Albertus

Magnus,

the

thirteenth-century

ominican

philosopher

who

was

considered the world's greatestmagician; or the innumerable ol-

umes

of

magical

and

mystical

racts

by

Nicolas

Flamel,

Nicolas

de

Cusa, Paracelsus,

Orpheus,

nd

more.

0

The

"ancient words" contained

n the

book

althoughdescribed

as "pale" may

have been an allusion to the

Book

of

the

Dead or

other

religious

works

n which

the

words

contained

had the

power

to assist

the dead in their

night

sea

journey

to

the

land of

the

blessed. Each individual,the Egyptiansbelieved, possessed two

names,

an

external and

a hidden one. If the arcane

name were

known,

the individual could

order

it about and it would

do

its

bidding,

f

not,

he remained

helpless.

Each word

n the

book likewise

20

Jerome-Antoine

ony,

La

Magie. (Paris:

Presses

Universitaires

e

France,

1968), p. 45.

201


16/27


17/27

Bettina

Knapp

maternal

nd

germinal orces, hose

preexistingn

primal haos

(obscurumerobscurius),he path eading ack to themysteryf

origin

efore hefiat

ux.Thelight mages

diamond,

cintillas,ire,

glimmer)may be

equated with

olar ightor fire

ymbolism,he

transformatorygent or he

lchemist; he

basis of ife orHeracli-

tus and

the ibidofor he

psychiatrist;art f

the

purificationitual

for

the

hierophant.he battle

between ight

nd dark

that gitur

now wages

transformsim nto a

kind ofPromethean

igure ho

steals firefromZeus in an act of defiance. r will Igitur ake

after

Empedocles

who attempted o

transcend he basic

dualism

of

the

human

ondition y

plungingnto the

vital heatand thus

putting n

end to his telluric

xistence?

The

doors to the

tomb open,

thusunlockinggitur's

assage

to

theprimal ealm.There

he

willexperiencematter n

its

undif-

ferentiated

orm,

hat

s,

the four

lements:

arth,water, ire, nd

air-as one. Igiturdescends nd in so doing ssertshimself;he

acts

overtlys had

the Creator

whenformingarth romhe

void

and

light

rom

arkness.

ike

"the

Spirit

f God"

Igitur's

hadow,

now

divested

f

ts personal

ccoutrementshis psychologicalden-

tity

nd

physical

ody), asses

nto

nother

imension. ot

Igitur's

voice remains

udible,

ut ts echo

its

duration r

prolongation);

its

trajectory

n the

finite

world,

ts

impersonal

nd eternal

pirit

as in thereflectedight.Mallarme'smetaphysicsaybe expressed

as

follows:

the

shadow

s to

night

whatthe

word

s

to the

echo,

what

the

poet

s

to the

poem,

what

the

created

world

s

to God's

domain.

2 He leaves the room and loses himself n the stairwell

Igitur

does not

slide

down

the circular

anister,

ut

slowly

makes

his

way

into

each of the

spirals.

he

mysteryrows

more

intense ith

very

tate

n

gitur's

volution.

e

is like hose

ncient

mystae

n

Orphicmysteries

ho,

unlike he

hierophants

t

Eleusis

203


18/27

Yale French Studies

and

Cabiri,

could

enact

their

rituals

at

home,

not

necessarily

n

sanctuariesor in temples.

1

The

circular

stairs are like

rungs

in

a

ladder

leading

inward,

cutting

hrough

he

geological

folds or levels of consciousness.

n

this mazelike

area

Igitur

first oses

himself,

hen becomes

acutely

aware

of his

duality,

nd

finally

pts

for

complete

oss of

identity.

He

fumbles

nd

mumbles;

he

agonizes

because he is forever

hear-

ing

gasps,pants,

fluttering

f

wings,

or

seeing

shadows, reflections,

and terrifyingpparitions-chimeras.The more he loses sight of

his

own

personality,

he

more

he

floats nto

oneness and

weight-

lessness.

The

circular

ffect

f

the

stairsmay

be looked

upon

as

crystal-

lized energy

nd thus

as

a

catalyzing

gent,prodding,

ushing,

n-

couraging gitur

n

his descent. It

mayalso be reminiscent f the

Gnostic

symbol

of

the

ouroborus

the

snake

eating

its

own

tail),

representingternity nd associated numericallywith the number

eight,

or

Elbehnon. For

Igitur

we

mayview

the

stairs as

a

positive

factor in

his life

despite

the fact that he

experiences a

type of

vertigo

or

narcosis

throughout is

descent. He becomes

the

instru-

ment of

his

aggressive

nergy

nd

intends,

ike

Faust,

to

experience

fulfillment

y

leaving the

realm of the

personal unconscious

and

entering into the

transpersonal

domain of

the

collective un-

conscious.

Shadow,

obscurity, nd night

descend

upon Igitur

as he

enters

the

inner

folds.Time

seems to

have been

condensed

into a type

of

chemical

substance:

the hours fall

as they

pass,

they sound,

theyfeel,

they

multiply.

Mallarme's

concept of

time may

now be

considered

atomistic n the

mannerof

Leucippus and

Democritus.

For

these

philosophers ealitywas

made

up of

"indivisible"

atoms

called eidolons in theirmaterializedform.Dreams and hallucina-

tions

also

consisted

of

individual toms

grouped

together n

certain

forms,

ttracted to

each

otherby

atmospheric

onditions.

These

21

Walter

Wili, "The

Orphic

Mysteries nd

the

Greek

Spirit," Eranos

Yearbooks II.

(New

York:

Pantheon

Books,

1955),

p.

70.

22

Richard

Wilhelm, The

Secret

of the

Golden

Flower.

(New

York:

Harcourt,

Brace

and

World,

1969),

p.

30.

204


19/27


20/27

Yale

French

Studies

as

a

point

of meditation

or the individual

observing

t. The

word

in the poem may also be consideredas a mandala, and certainly

was

insofar s

Mallarme was concerned.

Each

word was

a

cross-

web of

metaphors,

point

of contact

linking

t with

the

entire

verse-and with

the universeat

large.

Igitur

becomes that

spider

with

tentacles that reach out

into

the cosmos.

Yet he

is,

paradoxically,

man

as

he is his creation

as

yet

unmanifested

n the

work

of

art

because

within

his

being

live

all poems, all creativeprinciples.The

whispering

he hears as he

climbs

down

the stairs

into his tomb are like

many

sensations:

grazing,

anting,

cansions.The

sounds,

rhythms,

nd

palls

of

energy

Igitur feels

throughout his

stage of his

initiation

are

not

only

audible but

also become visceral

forces,

mpeding

nd

helping

his

journey nward.

The

variety

of

noises evoke

the clock mentioned

in the

previous

ection,

bird,

a

human

voice,

a

heartbeat.

A

land-

scape that transcendsthe human sphere comes into being. Like

recitations,

prayers,

mutterings,

dirges, and

incantations, these

auditoryvibrations re

experienced y Igitur s is a

new

language:

at first

ncomprehensible,

hen

slowly

revealing ts

complex

mys-

teries. It

is

written

n The

Book

of

Formation

that

"the

whole

creation and all

language proceeded

from

one

combination

of

let-

ters."

4

It

is

this

arrangement

gitur-poet-spider

eeks to

findin

his own death and resurrection.

The

word

scansionused

in

Igitur s of

great

mport. t

indicates

a

metrical

analysis

of

the

structure f

verse; it is

also a

way of

marking

universal

beat. An

analogy

may be

made

with the

human

heart as it

pumps

the

blood

throughout

he

body.

Scientifically

one

may

associate

its

rhythm

with the

implosionand

explosionof

the

sun and

the

creation of the

universe.

5

Metaphysically t

is

comparable to the giant inhaling nd exhalingof the universeas-

sociated

withthe

Buddha breath

or the

creative

process. n

Orphic

tradition

he

division of

one

into

many

and back

again

followsa

24

Rabbi

Akiba Ben

Joseph,

The

Book

of

Formation.

New

York:

Ktav

Pub.,

1970),

p.

20.

25

Guenon, p.

89.

206


21/27


22/27

Yale French

Studies

seems too

clear,

too

light.

gitur

eeks to

escape

into his

"uncreated

anterior"world, he shadowhe was. Yet,he is intentuponshedding

the disguise he had been

obliged

to wear

(his

body)

so as to

ex-

perience

"the heart

of the race he feels

beating

within

him."

Images

of

glass,

mirrors,

nd

vials intrude

upon

the scene

as

Igitur

prepares

or

his death.Barriers anish.

A new

language

makes

its

presence

known:

a

composite

of all

utterance,

ll

thoughts-

the

word

or the

core of

mystery.

t is not the word

per

se

that

takes on meaning,but its power as a vehicle in the meditative

ritual,

thus

helping gitur

descend into his

preformal

tate.

Each

word

(whether

created or

uncreated)

has its

own

mystical

ogic,

each contains

within ts form

the

deepest

secrets of

the

universe.

For

Igitur-poet,

correspondence

xists

between

the

word

of

man

and

the

workof

divinity,

he

poet

as

architect f

his

building-God

as the

transcendental

orce

making

such

construction

ossible.

3

Igitur's

ife

Before

blowing

out the candle

that

now

becomes

visible to

the

reader

Igitur

tells

his ancestors about

his

ennui-his

quest

for

the absolute.He has lived according o clock time. But because his

ancestors

enabled

him

to become

aware

of

another

time-the

eternalor

cyclical

cosmic

experience-he now

considersclock time

a

heavy,

"stifling"

orce, n obstacle

preventing

im

from ttaining

his goal. The

mirror

ecomes a

way of

measuringhis

progress nto

transcendental ime.

He gazes

at his image

reflected

n the glass,

he

watches

it

diffuse

nd die before

him. He

reworks this

same

image in the objects about himby "opening" or seeing into them

so

that

they n turn

will "pour

out their

mystery,"

heirmemories,

their

silences.

He stares

at the clock

and its

vanishinghours.

He

no

longer feels

bound

by the fear of

disappearing

nto eternity.

He

had

placed his

hands before

his eyes at first

o as

to block out

the

vision of his

progressively

isintegratingeing.Now

he

removes

208


23/27

Bettina Knapp

his

hands from

his eyes

and observes

himself

unto his

depths

in

the mirror: his own "phantom"expands in size and power as it

absorbs

"what remained

of sentiment

nd pain in

the mirror."

he

shadow, now

immense,

feeds

on all

the concrete

objects

in the

room;

as for gitur's

decomposing

orm,

t reaches

out into the

ob-

jects

in

the

room and

imposes

its diffused

self

into them.

A

monstrous

being

emerges

fromthese

forms,

which will

be eter-

nalized in his mind

in

an "isolated

and severe

attitude."

Igitur had become an acosmic, transmundane igure iving in

an unearthly ody

and

world.His situation

was untenable.

He had

reached an

impasse.

t is at this

uncture

hat he enters

he

memory

of

his

ancestors,

hus reactivating

omething

hat

had been

dormant

within

him

and releasing

him

by

the same

token from

his telluric

existence.

It is Igitur's

desire to

recall his

poet-ancestors,

ither

n terms

of Platonic"idea-essences"or archetypes inherited orms fknowl-

edge

transmitted

y

images), thus

linking

the time-space

factor

concretely.

The proof that

energy idea

is

energy)

cannot

be

de-

stroyed

s

thereby iven.When

therefore

gitur

views

the

draperies

and

furniture

n

his

room

as monstrous

chimeras,

they

are

not

only aspects

of himself

he sees in

projection,

but

organisms

iving

in a transformed

tate

in

concreteobjects

as

well,

therefore, arti-

cles of his own being.

The psychological

erm

ppropriate

orthe dissolution f gitur's

ego

(identity)

nto

exterior

objects

is

schizophrenia.

Verbal and

visual

descriptions

f

schizophrenic

atients

n their rapport

with

the

world

outside

of

themselves

resembles

gitur's

terrifying

tate

ofdepersonalization.

t

is

no wonder

that Mallarme

feared

nsanity.

4 The

Dice-Throw

Igitur

is

still

dissatisfied.

Although

he has blended

into

the

objects

around

him,

he

has

not

yet

merged

with the absolute.

Only

by

the

act, by

throwing

he

dice,

can

he

accomplish

his

goal-to

209


24/27

Yale French Studies

fix chance in the number

r the idea it

represents.

ut he

wonders

whether ven in actinghe is reallythe authorof his act, or is it

chance (the collectivewill)

exteriorizing

tselfwithin

him and

obey-

ing the laws

of cosmic

causality. Igitur

nevertheless hakes

the

box, "Le Cornet est

la

Corne

de

licorne-d'unicorne"

("The

Dice-

box

is the Horn of the

Unicorn").

In French the words Cornet

and Cornemay signify orn;

licorne nd

unicorne

mean

"unicorn";

thus Mallarme's play

on

words

and

their ramifications.

Igitur's act (throwing he dice) may be definedas an attempt

to discriminate etween what

is of

import

to

him

and what is

imposed upon him at this

particularmoment,

r

as a

synthesis

f

antagonistic orces: thesis,

antithesis,

nd

synthesis. gitur

makes

the

supreme gesture

and

throws

the dice.

He

thereby

esolves

his

quandary

and

destroys

he

possibility

f

creating

the

absolute: of

experiencing eauty

or the ideal.

But

by

the same

token

his act

is

an

affirmationf his personal will, his identity, nd his future.

The

word

hasard

in French comes from the Arabic az-zahr

("dice-game"),

which

symbolizes

man's

rejection

of the

law

of

probabilities.

ince time immemorialman has been

attempting

o

break

its

power or discover ts

secrets throughnumbers, eligious

devices,

and

so on. Igitur s such a thaumaturge.He too seeks to

be a master

of

ceremonies,

thus

controlling

destinies and the

creativeprocess. His gestureenables him to transcend he human

condition ust as the poet each time he sets down a word on a

page

fixes

chance,

thus controls it.

The

world of infinitepos-

sibilities has

just emerged into the world of phenomena and is

no longer xperienced s pure

possibility ut realized n the number

showing on

the

dice-or the

word in the poem.

Igitur closes the book, blows out the candle, and gets into the

tomb wherehe lies down on theashes of his ancestors.For the mys-

tic, breathing efers o God's spirit as well as to the "withdrawal

of

sensorial

functionswhichbecome reabsorbed nto thinkingmat-

ter."`7

For

the

alchemistthe

image of the man lying n the tomb

27

Louis

Gardet,

La

Mystique.

Paris:

Presses

Universitaires

e

France,

1970),

p.

24.

210


25/27

Bettina

Knapp

of his

ancestors'

shes

indicates he

experiencing

fthe

quintessence

of being. Ashes are regardedas matterrid of impurities, s the

stage

following

mortification,

eath,

and the

decomposition

of

metals and

chemicals-as

"the

seed of

gold"

that

will

germinate

and

give

birthto the

new

being-or

the soul

restored.Ashes

also

represent

he

principle

of

continuity nd

permitman to

contact

anterior

existences

through his

entity.

The

Orphics

consideredthe

tomb

to be the

body

that

acts as

the prisonforthe soul. Onlyafterdeath (the disintegration f the

flesh) can

the

soul be

liberated. n

this

sense

Igiturhas

been

freed

frommatter

nd

can

experience

he

purity f

eternity.n so

doing

he

knows the

absolute

but at the

same

time

forgets

uman

speech.

After

consulting

he

grimoire

the

magic

book)

as well

as

human

thought

look at

the

light

reflected

n the

chimera),he

understands

that

the

castingof the

dice was

foretold

nd

resulted

n the

nega-

tion of chance. The factthatIgiturforgetspeechduringhis trans-

formatory rocess

is

another

indication of his

vanishing

dentity

(his individual

mode of

expression)

nd that

he

recalls

the

original

or

primordial

anguage

embedded in matter

through

he

grimoire

indicates

his

passage

fromone

phase of existence

to

another.

For

the

Pythagorean

nd

Kabbalist,

the

original

or

primordial

anguage

is

God's word

before

His

spirit

was

embedded in

matter.

Such

words have

divine

qualities

to

them,

unsuspected

power

that re-

mains

incomprehensible

or

beings

iving

n

the

temporal

realm.

5 He lies down in the

Tomb

Igitur

takes

the

last

step

in his

mystical

quest.

There

he

lies

"on the astral ashes, those of his indivisiblefamily."He drinks

what

he

calls

"the

drop

of

nothingness

which

the sea lacks."

The

vial

is

empty

nd,

Mallarme

adds,

onlyfolly

remains: "the

purity

of

the castle."

Even

Nothingness

has

vanished.

An

affinity

ow

exists

between

ashes and

astral,

as both

are

alchemical

terms.

Paracelsus

spoke

of

the

astral

or stellar

regions

211


26/27

Yale French Studies

as

intermediary oints

between

physical

and

spiritualbeings.

Each

person has an astral body thatmay be looked upon as a kind of

double

and

which,

under certain

circumstances,

an manifest tself

in

the

phenomenological

orld. This astral

body,

which

spiritualists

call

perisprit,

ives on after death on an astral

plain

in a kind of

invisible world

that is

also situated between one

sphere

and the

next. The

disincarnated

pirits

reside

in the

kingdom

of the

dead

awaiting

reincarnation.

ecause, according

to

occultists,

verything

that s visible n the phenomenological orld s a reflectionf what

exists

in the

astral plane,

life on earth is

a

mirror

mage

of

what

it is above. It

is

in the astral plane, then,

that time

is

obliterated,

that

premonitions

nd hallucinations ccur.

It is

in this area that

Igitur experiences

his death-that

is,

he

is dead

to

the

living

but

alive

to the

spirit

or

divine intellectwithin

him.

"Folly"

is "all that remains

of

the castle." The alliteration

e-

tweenfiole vial) and folie folly) tressesthe factthat when liquid

is

imbibednew

realms

may

be reached.

Drunkenness, s

does

bap-

tism or

any initiatory

ritual

requiring

the

taking

in of

liquid,

releases man from

he

circumscribed omain, and from

his

fear of

stepping

nto the

unknown.

n

his madness Igitur is divested of

everything

hat remains in the

castle,

that

is, his body

and his

head. The castle

(as

well as

the

vial and the

dice-box)

are

enclosed

and containing objects. They are then both protectiveand im-

prisoning evices,depending pon the attitude ffixed owardthem.

Medieval

knights ourneyed

fromcastle

to castle to perform

heir

songs,

their feats

of

battle, and to rescue damsels in distress.The

alchemist as

well as

the Kabbalist viewed the castle as an inner

temple, a holy place-"the Mansion of the Beyond, the

Other

World."

1

"Nothingnesshad departed," herefore he deepest evel of con-

sciousness

known to the mystic-the one devoid of images and

sensations-had come into being. The state of Nirvana or "self-

annihilation" as been born. Such a conditiondoes not imply

death

28

Gudnon,p. 84.

212


27/27

sobre igitur

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