Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/20

 176 G. ROHEIM

the father who makes his children.^ The Cora call the Sun "Our Father", and identify him with the Eagle who represents the firma- ment* The Wotjobaluk speak of Bunjil as Mamingorak, that is, "Our Father", and say that he lives somewhere beyond the ^ky. Munganngaua, "Our Father", is the supreme being of the Kumai and he is thought of as a Headman of the Sky country, the analogue of the Headman of the tribe on earth.* If the superhuman power attributed to a being in heaven is ex- plicable from the attitude of the child to a being whose power must appear to be altogether miraculous in his eyes, who is literally above him, and who, moreover created him in the phy- sical sense of the word, this still does not explain the projection of ethical dualism, the idea of good and bad into the Above and -the Below. After answering the question why we project our ideal of power into the space above us, there still remains the problem to solve why we have a Heaven and a Hell? Language refers to the ethical and intellectual functions of our psyche as the "higher" faculties of man, psychologists figuratively localise the less developed, archaic attitudes of our psyche in the sub- conscious, we say that we debase ourselves by certain actions that do not accord with our ethical standard. An orator who turns from intellect to the passions will be generally understood if he uses the phrase "Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo". It has recently been shown in an ingenious essay that the dire and eternal penalties to which the sinner subjects himself in the phantastic pictures of a mediaeval Hell are in reality repressed wish-fulfilments of a sexual nature, and that Hell itself is but one of the lower cavities of the body (vaginal or anal) which are closely connected with the animal functions.* According to the

» F. G. Speck: Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians, Univ. Penns. Anthr. Publ. I, 1909, p. 102.

' K. Th. Preuss: Die Nayarit Expedition, 1912, S. XXIII.

» A. W. Howitt: The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 1904, pp. 490, 491. For the discussion on these primitive supreme beings who are always more or less associated with the firmament and with the concept of fatherhood see A. Lang: The Making of Religion, 1909; P. W. Schmidt: Der Urspning der Gottesidee, 1912; N. Soederblom: Das Werden des Gottes- glaubens, 1916; K. Beth: Religion and Magie der NaturvOlker, 1915; L. von Schoeder: Arische Religion, I, n, 1915/1916; K. Th. Preuss: Das geistige Leben der NaturvOlker, 1916.

♦ Groddeck: Wunscherfailungen der irdischen und gOttlichen Strafen, Int. Ztttschr. f. Psychoanalyse, VI, S. 216.