Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Szilvia Nagy: I Can Operate in the Dark—Bodies are Phosphorescent... Occult Modernism and Myth-Making in Djuna Barnes 's Nightwood

understands the need to reconcile them, and ultimately finds that they are in reality non-existent (Holmquist). The concept of androgyny holds that "all human beings are, in essence, comprised of both masculine and feminine characteristics, although one is generally more developed and expressed in the world." Ancient traditions emphasize the need to bring the two kinds of energies together within the individual; shamans may try to achieve the integration by ritual transvestitism and long periods of living as the other sex does (Holmquist). The boundary between humans and animals is also conceptualized as the distinction between intellect and instinct. Holmquist remarks that "[t]he Western world, through its focus on the preeminence and development of the rational mind, ... has lost an important connection with animals, our own animal body, and our basic animal-like and animistic instincts." It is notable that Gurdjieff blamed Western society in a similar manner for disintegrating the individual to the point where they lost touch with their authentic selves. Shamans admit to that shattering of the whole as well when they say that in ancient times animals and humans could understand each other's language and existed in close relation and harmony. Concerning the opposition of good and evil, Metzner notes that in alchemical literature "the dark, destructive aspects of the psyche are symbolized by the nigredo (blackness), that has to be transmuted and uplifted through the alchemical fires of purification." Indeed, both Gurdjieff and the 'traditions of transformation' emphasize a reconciliation and equal redistribution of the shattered parts of human nature, with the grand design of experiencing, if only for a moment, a kind of primordial wholeness, in Mircea Eliade's words, "the undifferentiated Unity that preceded Creation" (qtd in Gilbert 217). At the same time, both of them imply that the externalized part of the self assumes the place of the whole, in Gurdjieff terminology, it "masquerades as the authentic self' (Needleman). Modern society was permeated by an all-encompassing masquerade that involved a 'part stands for the whole' scenario; meanwhile, the individual was locked into societally called for and defined positions that helped keep up binary order. 71