The Dog

As usual, whenever I'm working on an issue I end up synchronistically running across a bunch of related topics at around the same time. Since working on the The Cat series I found some interesting dog quotes. I will also be posting a meditation I had a while back about "cats" and "dogs." This is all particularly applicable to what we've been going through recently here in the U.S., I think.

Also, a random observation: I think it's really interesting how people who like dogs tend to very dog-like, i.e. more conservative, fall more in line with the old Emperor; while "cat people" seem to generally be more progressive, feminist, and to value independent thinking more. Symbolism in action!

The dog has lost his independence and become dependent on human beings. Both Saint Barnard and Saint Dominic were also servants of a master: Christ. This is the motif of the katoche. They are the prisoners of a special fate; every impulse to live their own life is controlled; they are really the dogs of Christ, serving him in this world and as dogs leading to hope of the other world. They are also responsible for keeping the flock together, since heretics are the wolves or "the little foxes, that spoil the vines."

These particular "dogs," however, have a negative aspect as well, for they served only one point of view; they did not deal with the problem of their time. Bernard was incapable of engaging in discussion with Abelard, he only "barked" at him! And Dominic "barked" at the Albigenses. We must not overlook the fact that this was the beginning of the Inquisition, which attempted to eliminate, through sheer power, every heretical movement. As a result, however, the religious confrontation became increasingly fanatic. Such a solution of the conflict is no solution; but at that time man was not yet capable of dealing with the problem in an individual, human manner.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 101