Valedictory address for Marie-Louise von Franz at the burial service held in the Reform Church, Küsnacht, Switzerland, on February 26, 1998.

Valedictory address for Marie-Louise von Franz at the burial service held in the Reform Church, Küsnacht, Switzerland, on February 26, 1998.

Delivered by Dr. Anne Maguire, F.R.C.P., Diplomate Jungian Analyst, Zürich

I am deeply honoured to receive the singular invitation to deliver this valedictory address for our dear departed friend, Marie-Louise von Franz, a truly great lady whose passing is marked by those of us gathered here on this sad day. A day when the reality of our loss is realized as we bid her earthly self: adieu.

I doubt not, that each one of us present this day has had his or her life transformed in some way, either by personal contact with her, or through knowledge of her literary creative work, which in turn has introduced her to a vast world audience.

Marie-Louise von Franz was born at a momentous time, in the first terrible winter of the Great War, in the German city of Munich, itself a city under the aegis of the little hooded kabir, the Münchener kind -the child. A cloaked figure akin to the phallic kabir of the Ancient world - Telesphoros, a companion and guide of Asklepios, the god of medical healing. At the same time he was a youthful double of Asklepios, and was known as "the one who brings to completeness", the god of inner transformations.

Three years after her birth towards the end of the war, she was brought by her Austrian parents to Switzerland; eventually she became a citizen of her adoptive country and lived her life here. At the age of 18 years, one afternoon in 1933, the year that Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany, she was invited by a friend to meet Carl Gustav Jung. The meeting was portentous for on that day she was introduced to the reality of another realm of reality - the hidden inner world. As the unconscious presented itself to her through the medium of Dr. Jung she was utterly astounded. During that afternoon Jung had described a young woman he had treated, who "lived on the moon". When Marie-Louise heard this, she decided to approach the professor and ask him if he meant that it was "as if" the girl lived on the moon. Dr. Jung answered her and told her that it was not "as if" but the girl did live on the moon. She told me that at that moment she thought either 'he is crazy or I am'. That meeting circumscribed the fateful moment of transformation in her life. The following year, in 1934, she began to work with C.G. Jung and did so until his death in 1961.

The statement made by Jung and which had so perplexed her, led to a lifelong search for the inner truth as concealed in the unconscious world of objective psyche. It was then that she learned of the importance of the dream as a message from that interior world. She had a splendid rational intellect with an incisive mind, which enabled her to become a deep, and later an inspired and inspiring thinker. Her ability to grasp and to discern had a rapier-like character, yet she was always able to explain a point or enlarge an aspect of a problem with an exquisite but immensely patient clarity. This aspect of her personality belonged to the archetype of the teacher for she was, in my view, unassailable in that particular field. She retained this lucid clarity of mind until she died.

As a multilinguist and medieval Latin scholar she collaborated with Jung in the study of alchemy, contributing related studies to two of his major works, Aion and Mysterium Coniunctionis. In her early years as a psychotherapist she dreamed that she was walking upon ground where "no one had trodden before". Some time later she was to begin her monumental creative work upon the fairy tales, and later with the archetypal world of numbers. These previously unexplored fields were to occupy her energies for many years.

Perhaps for a moment may I speak of the fairy tale studies. Today they are so much a part of Jungian training and psychotherapy that one forgets the immense primary work undertaken by Marie-Louise in those early years.

As a young woman she enjoyed the natural world, particularly the mountains where she liked to walk in summer, and ski in winter. She liked nothing better than to be immersed in Nature with the greenness of its trees, the flowers under foot, and the splendid mountains themselves. She had an exceptional knowledge of animal lore, and a profound sympathy with that world. She held the present view, that the natural world is in fact doomed by man's gross unconsciousness and ignorance of the spirit of wild nature. A spirit which if left alone could, and indeed would, bring about a reparation of the damage to which the earth, and its seas, has already been subjected, but only if left alone by man.

With such vital interests as the importance of the dream in an individual life, and the domination of the spirit in the natural world, it is clear that the domain of the fairy tales, those age-old traditional tales, should call to her. She answered the call and was seized by the material. She read thousands of fairy stories from all over the world. This empowered her to perceive those hidden secrets held in them, which engendered their fascination. Thus she came to understand, perhaps better than anyone else in the world, the archetypal structure of the natural world in these tales and in the unconscious psyche. She saw, as it were, the skeletal structure of psyche, in as much perhaps as one sees the singular distinctive skeletal shape and pristine beauty of a deciduous tree, in winter time, when unhindered by its leaves. This immense work and the knowledge thus gained from her creative genius, I am sure led her to become a master analyst and an incomparable interpreter of the dream.

There was however another facet to this multifaceted personality, an aspect not usually immediately apparent because of her innate modesty and her primary introverted attitude. She had a dislike for the vulgarly ostentatious, and unseemly power-driveness, and thus her Eros to which I refer held a certain quality of reticence. In her lectures one was always aware that behind her powerful intellect her Eros was, albeit shyly, constantly and palpably present. I always thought her Eros to be totally genuine, all-pervading and enveloping - the true charitas. She was a kind woman, and real love has much to do with kindness.

In her attitude to others it seemed to me that Marie-Louise desired that all should benefit from her knowledge and her experience, which she gave freely and generously, just as she gave her hospitality. She endeavoured to aid them to reach the hidden inner truth as she perceived it to be. This was the spirit by which she lived. Always seeking to bring a soul to the light of illumination. I believe it is because of this true kindness that we have come gladly to remember her today with our love, albeit we are deeply saddened by our loss.

In the last years she bore stoically, nobly, and with immense courage a devastating physical illness. She was indomitable until the end of her earthly life. Yet in spite of her suffering she retained her richly perceptive insights, her capacity to emit the trenchant asides, her kindness to others, and last but by no means least, her sense of humour. She astonished me, how in pain, disabled in body and sometimes with the speech difficulties which accompany this illness, she was able to joke, and to laugh with abandon, and express herself in her own inimitable way.

During one dark evening not very long ago, whilst recumbent on her bed, after we had discussed the unus mundus, she told me that she had dreamed a wonderful dream the night previously. In it her illness was cured, and had left her completely healed in body. She told me she was immensely happy in the dream, and added that she would be leaving soon. The dream brought her great joy.

Marie-Louise strove throughout the years of her tribulation to participate consciously in her individual pathway to wholeness, as it unfolded in her dreams and outer life. I see her as a woman who sought ever the inner spirit of creative truth, and fought for justice in the acceptance of that truth.

This is the spirit which gathers us together today, - we her many friends who loved her, companions who accompanied her throughout her years of prime life, and those of her years of travail, caring and looking over her. In particular I would like to mention those nursing companions, faithful devoted and tireless in their love to ease her passage from this life and who served her so well. And also to those who contributed to her comfort in diverse ways. With respect I mention Dr. Barbara Davies, friend, assistant and collaborator, who became her writing hand, Julia Brunner, Alison Kappes, Nomiki Kennedy, Vicki Reiff, Mary Scheiner, Regina Schweitzer-Vullers, Zita Tauber and Anna Marie-Wobel.

It was her wish to stay in her own homes. I felt she would have liked to die in Bollingen which she loved. But that was not God's will and so she died in her Küsnacht town house with all the good spirits of her past and where her students, analysands, and friends came to her. Not forgetting her late dear friends Barbara Hannah and Franz Riklin, and their regular gatherings together in that house. The afore-named devoted companions supported her and permitted her to have her wish in this respect.

I am very sorry that my dear friend of over 30 years has died. She leaves the world a poorer place, and although in the years to come undoubtedly some will endeavour to emulate her work and perhaps even forget the originator, they will surely fail because none will possess the unique combined attributes contained in the creative genius of this great lady.

Because of her love and reverence for the soul, may I with respect quote a few lines from the beautiful poem 'Ode to the Soul' by the great Islamic physician-philosopher, Ibn Sina, who died a thousand years ago.

Ode to the Soul (translation by A.J. Arberry):

Out of her lofty home she hath come down, upon thee
this white dove in all the pride of her reluctant beauty:
veiled is she, from every eye, eager to know her, though
in loveliness unshrouded radiant, unwillingly she came,
and yet perchance still more unwilling to be gone from thee
- so she is torn by griefs.
...........
Why then was she cast down from her high peak? to
this degrading depth?
God brought her low. But for a purpose-wise,
that is concealed even from the keenest mind
and liveliest wit.
And if the tangled mesh impeded her
the narrow cage denied her wings to soar freely
in heaven's high ranges, after all she was a
lightning flash that brightly glowed -
momently o'er the tents and then was hid as
though its gleam was never glimpsed below.

The Valediction was sent to us graciously by Daryl Sharp. Marie-Louise von Franz has been the Honorary Patron of Inner City Books founded by Daryl Sharp.

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