seminar 46:2 (May 2010)

Allegorical Slumber: Somnambulism and Salvation in Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem

ERIC KLAUS Hobart and William Smith College

Immer mehr verlsst sich der Mensch auf die Denkdrse, und da sie ihm nichts verrt, was mit Magie und den andern verborgenen Krften der Seele zusammenhngt, whnt er, dergleichen existiere berhaupt nicht oder sei gering zu schtzen. (Meyrink, Die Verwandlung des Blutes 205)

This quote articulates a concern of Gustav Meyrink (18681932) that permeates his thought and writing the hidden forces of the soul have lost their significance and influence in modern times. The existence of the intangible realm, as well as its accessibility, occupied his thoughts, his writings, and his own esoteric pursuits throughout his adult life. In both his theoretical and fictional writings, he returns to images and tropes that illustrate the condition of possibility for perceiving, in-terpreting, and integrating the forces of the spiritual self into ones material life. A prominent trope in this project is the somnambulist: a wanderer in the region between waking and deep sleep who can unite disparate parts of the self and thus secure salvation by overcoming the fears and limitations of the material world. This article will analyze somnambulism in Meyrinks novel Der Golem (1915) through the lens of allegory. Meyrinks frustration with the lionization of reason at the expense of the hidden forces of the soul is not unique for his time. His are views shared by a great many writers during the latter half of the nineteenth through the first third of the twentieth centuries. During this period much of Europe experienced a profound series of crises: The debates and disagreements surrounding epistemo-logical issues in particular offers intriguing insight into this time of crisis. These discussions were a response to questions as to how to deal with the duality of mind and body, of material and spirit. For example, positivism and materialism, as articulated by August Comte (17981857) and Karl Marx (18181883), spawned methods of inquiry that promised unimpeachable answers to lifes fundamental questions, a promise that was grounded in the repudiation of meta-physical, spiritual factors. In describing these movements, Corinna Treitel points to Ludwig Bchner, who dismissed any attempt to pursue legitimate knowledge via supernatural means as idle fantasy. Treitel writes that for Bchner, Clair-voyants, somnambulists, and others who claimed to know a supernatural or transcendent reality by nonsensual means contradicted this iron law of nature (34).

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The vehemence of those who banned metaphysical concerns from epistem-ology was met with equal force by the defiance of those who legitimized the spiritual realm. For example, Walter Benjamin (18921940) wrote: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art (221). For Benjamin, each aesthetic product bears a spiritual component that becomes detached when that product is mass-produced in the modern age. Others felt that the answers to their questions were to be found by melding the material and the spiritual. This approach was crystallized in occultist and esoteric movements, most prominently in theosophy, whose practitioners included Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, Annie Besant, and Rudolph Steiner. Founded in New York City in 1875, theosophy was open to all people irrespective of race, colour, or creed, and it fostered the study of comparative religions and philosophy to unearth common ground among spiritual and intellectual traditions across the world in order to unite the material and the mystical (Cranston 14647). Central to each of these approaches to ascertaining truth is the inherent dualism of humanity, and this dualism is also reflected in Meyrinks epistemology. Throughout his adult life, Meyrink believed that fundamental truths of existence are found in the shadows of the spiritual realm, and his pursuit of these truths resulted in decades of occultist practices. His nonfiction, for example in texts such as An der Grenze des Jenseits (1923) and Hochstapler der Mystik (1927), is rich in accounts of his own experimentations with esoteric traditions, including theosophy. He not only corresponded and met with Besant and Steiner respectively, but also founded a theosophical lodge in Prague in 1891. Eventually, he moved beyond the empty promises of the Theo-sophical Society and developed his own epistemology. Through his attempts to acquire esoteric knowledge, he believed he had discovered the underlying structure of the human psyche that there is a schism between the daily or waking consciousness and the realms of spiritual experience, but that this bifurcation can be healed through esoteric training, which aids in achieving spiritual salvation. Salvation for Meyrink does not correspond to a Christian notion of the souls ascendance into an other-worldly paradise, but resides in freedom from fear and from the exigencies of material existence. This theme dominated his fiction and as a result expresses seminal characteristics of modernism a movement from around 1880 to the 1930s that constitutes the aesthetic articulation of modernity. Modernity resists an all-encompassing definition and continues to generate attempts to circumscribe its complex structure. Broadly viewed as a series of social and intellectual upheavals beginning in the Renaissance, several critics and cultural theorists argue that modernity describes experiences and relationships permeated by ambivalence: the clash of concomitant yet mutually exclusive paradigms (Bauman 5; Berman 16; Habermas 3; Kniesche and Brockmann 712; Treitel 1719). In the works of many modernists, this intellectual and social turbulence is often registered in the image of the somnambulist, for the

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somnambulist embodies a condition of transition, of experience between the known and the unknown. Hermann Brochs trilogy, Die Schlafwandler (19311932), for example, presents a historisch/erkenntnistheoretische Darstellung jenes vierhundert-jhrigen Prozesses, der unter der Leitung des Rationalen das christlich-platonische Weltbild des mittelalterlichen Europas auflste (734). As such, his sleepwalkers are caught in the massive flux of historical and epistemological shifts as they manifested themselves at the turn of the twentieth century. Another example of a sleepwalker is Cesare, the ghoulish instrument of Caligaris mad-ness in Robert Wienes 1919 film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. This incarnation of the somnambulist inhabits a dark corner of modernity the danger that lurks among the intangible and hidden powers of the mind. Meyrink, as another voice in this choir, recognizes neither uneasiness nor perniciousness in somnambulism. Instead, he views the somnambulistic condition as integral to mending the inherent rift within each human being. A colourful and controversial figure, Meyrink was often in the centre of conflict because of his brazen and iconoclastic character (Frank; Karle; Lube; Marzin; Mitchell; Smit). Even his position in literary history has been the sub-ject of debate (Cersowsky; Frank; Marzin; Qasim; Schdel; Wolkan). One of the reasons why he was so controversial was his caustic derision of those who favoured empirical science at the expense of the occult. In numerous novellas and short stories he satirized what he viewed to be blind faith in the promise of science to answer all of lifes questions. In addition to his satires, he also chronicled his own attempts to harness occultist forces, and his novels arguably could be read as fictionalized accounts of individuals on journeys of salvation, journeys that overcome dualism and lead to freedom and felicity. Salvation is realized only at the end of a process of awakening to higher knowledge, and this awakening is contingent upon escaping daily consciousness and entering a state of awareness akin to a somnambulistic state. Meyrink often writes about varying degrees of awareness that hinge on the underlying dualistic structure of human experience. His nonfiction writing concerns two levels of consciousness within each human being, or what he calls Tagesbewutsein, or das krperliche Normalbewutsein (Frank 433), and Unterbewute, or berbewute (Frank 240). He then argues that the division of these levels of consciousness is the cause of much suffering and that one can ameliorate this pain by breaking free of the Tagesbewutsein and thus bridging these two levels of consciousness. For example, in An der Grenze des Jenseits, he writes of a state of hyperawareness (berwachsein) achieved through yoga and tantamount to the Nirvana of the Buddha (Frank 434). Elsewhere, he claims that spiritual awakening and the healing of the intrapersonal divide is contingent upon achieving a quasi-dead (Scheintod) condition (Frank 234). Each of these states transcends the Tagesbewutsein and makes the individual aware of the previously unknown berbewute, making unification possible. This moment of transcending everyday awareness and coming into contact with higher states

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of consciousness is translated in many ways in Meyrinks fiction. The actor Zrcaldo in Walpurgisnacht (1918) wanders in a trance when communing with the other side; the protagonist of Der weie Dominikaner (1921), Christopher Taubenschlag, traverses the boundary of waking consciousness and spiritual enlightenment in a dream; alchemy is one of the instruments Baron Mller em-ploys in Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster (1929) to liberate his spirit from waking consciousness. In Der Golem (1915), somnambulism is the trope most closely associated with the condition in which the unnamed narrator, Pernath, crosses the planes of consciousness. It is not a far leap to link his condition to somnambulism, for in Die Verwandlung des Blutes Meyrink compares the state of heightened awareness he achieved directly to that of the somnambulist (Frank 216). Der Golem is a framed narrative and begins with an unnamed protagonist drifting off to sleep after having read a biography of the Buddha. He begins to dream, and this dream is the bridge between the framed and embedded nar-ratives. The dreamer is struck by the feeling of having his ego, his I, slip out of his body and into the body of a stranger Athanasius Pernath, the protagonist of the embedded narrative. The reader then follows Pernath as he encounters the tempestuous personalities and negotiates the perilous day-to-day workings of the Prague ghetto. From this point the narrative pursues a parallel plot: a detective story and Pernaths spiritual awakening. Pernath stands entangled in both threads, as an unscrupulous member of the ghetto has him falsely charged with the murder of a local watchmaker. As a result, he is arrested and subsequently, after months of incarceration, released. These Kafkaesque events occur alongside his spiritual journey, but these threads also intersect, for while in prison he encounters Amadeus Laponder, a rapist/murderer who teaches Pernath how to decipher the mystical language of the soul. This kind of interaction is not unique. During this process of self-discovery, Pernath comes into contact with gurus, ghoulish apparitions, and mystical texts. All of this culminates in his release from prison and return to the ghetto only to find it abandoned. On Christmas Eve, fire breaks out in his building, and he escapes by climbing out of his window and falls to the pavement below, but not before witnessing visions on the way down that bear great import to his destiny. This signals the end of the embedded narrative and brings the reader back to the slumbering unnamed protagonist of the frame. In contrast to the smooth transition from the frame to the beginning of Pernaths story, the return to the frame is abrupt, with the protagonist awaking from his dream with a start to learn that he had lived many years of Pernaths life in less than one hour. Upon waking, the protagonist realizes that he had taken the wrong hat at High Mass earlier in the day the hat belonging to Athanasius Pernath. Wishing to return the hat to its owner, he seeks out and eventually finds Pernath in the Alchimistengasse on the Hradschin, a place of great spiritual energy that the narrator encountered in his dream. Some seventy years after the events of the

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embedded narrative took place, Pernath lives on in an idyllic setting, under the symbol of the hermaphrodite with his beloved Miriam, who was an important figure in his path to liberation from the material world. Two further aspects of the ending of the novel are worth noting. Although he lived decades prior to this discovery, he has not aged a day, he exists in a place beyond time. Also, he and the unnamed narrator are physically identical. Many critics have commented on the fantastic and occultist elements of the novel (Cersowsky; Jansen; Jennings; Marzin; Mitchell; Oehm; Pastuszka; Qasim; Wnsch). Although rich in insight and rigour, these analyses nevertheless tend to overlook a seminal trope in Pernaths journey: that of the somnambulist. A reading that foregrounds somnambulism redresses this deficiency in the secondary literature and reveals the novel to be the fictional representation of a spiritual pilgrimage towards the healing of the internal duality discussed in Meyrinks autobiographical texts. This interpretation, which combines fiction and autobiography, comes into focus through the lens of allegory. Many approaches to the genre of allegory (Broszeit-Rieger 28; Cowan 114; Ngele 85; Tesky 397408) point to a common facet of allegorical texts. Allegory is an exegetical matrix, a text that creates a space in which different interpretations can arise. The key to multiple interpretations resides in the narrative structure. The allegory requires the interplay of two texts: the primary text and the proof text. The interpretation of an allegory requires an external text or narrative such as the Bible, myth, social mores, political realities (Mad-sen; Quilligan). A coupling of the primary and proof texts extrapolates a reading distinct from yet coeval to the original narrative. An approach suitable to an allegorical reading of Meyrinks text emerges from Deborah Madsens monograph. She identifies two species of allegory that have developed over time: allegory as metaphor (fabulistic) and allegory as metonymy (figurative). Allegory as metaphor portrays an arbitrary relation of similitude between text and its referent (50). An example of this is Aesops fables. They represent a direct signifying relationship between textual signs and an extrinsic system of ideas (34). This species of allegory links signs in a text for example a fox and a crow to a general moral code, for example, that flattery from certain quarters should be accepted with a grain of salt. The other type, on which this study focusses, is metonymic, in that there exists an intrinsic similitude between the primary text and the proof-text. Madsen quotes A. C. Charitys definition of typology to help clarify metonymic allegory: One thing does not mean another in typology: it involves it, or has inferences for it, or suggests it, and it does all these things for no other reason than that there is a real, existential, parallel, as well as a certain historical dependency and continuity between the events which typology relates (44). An example of this kind of allegory is the Christian exegesis of the Bible. When reading the Bible, one identifies an interpretive relation between the Old Testament figure and its spiritual, New Testament referent (45). Essential to this latter species of allegory, as Madsen frames it, are shared figures or themes that link both texts. An allegorical reading

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of Der Golem is a viable interpretive approach by dint of the intrinsic, existential similitude between Meyrinks novel and his autobiographical texts, specifically, Die Verwandlung des Blutes: the supernatural images and symbols in his novel have counterparts in his autobiographical text. In this text, Meyrink interweaves personal experiences, philosophical reflections, and polemical exclamations to illustrate the schism of the psyche as well as to help the reader to overcome this intrinsic ailment. At the nexus of this textual confluence stands, or wanders, the sleepwalker. The sleepwalker is the lynchpin for an allegorical reading. Although Die Verwandlung des Blutes was most likely written in the 1920s, a full decade after Der Golem was published, the events depicted in the autobiographical text predate the novel. Accordingly, Die Verwandlung des Blutes describes ex-periences and fundamental themes that find expression Meyrinks oeuvre. The contiguity between the two texts resides not in a precise mirroring of biography and fiction, but in shared signposts along paths to salvation. First, one must become receptive to the turbulence of the supernatural realm. This is achieved by entering a trance represented by somnambulism. Contact with the apparitions of the spiritual realm is the next phase. Specifically, one encounters ones own intuition, which appears as a mysterious figure often disguised or masked and which imparts knowledge cloaked in symbols and hieroglyphs. Finally, one deciphers the language of the intuition with the help of guides and gurus. Possessing this knowledge, one is able to unify the physical and the spiritual realms and become master of ones fate the seminal moment in securing ones salvation. A comparison of Meyrinks biography to the path to salvation detailed above reveals that the two narratives do not completely coincide. As described in Der Lotse, his search for salvation began not with a trance, but with the intervention by the masked figure he calls the pilot before he practiced yoga and fell into the trance necessary to break free from the material self. The current argument, however, does not claim an absolute equivalence between Meyrinks personal experiences and his fiction. His fiction is a translation of his personal experiences and should not be viewed as possessing a direct correlation to his esoteric philosophy (Wnsch 531). For example, his novels explore a variety of esoteric traditions, and therefore one cannot ascribe a one-to-one connection between his own views and the views and deeds portrayed in his novels. Instead, the current study argues that throughout his fiction and nonfiction there are common processes that allow for the identification of patterns in his texts that invite comparisons. By identifying the common traits in both Die Verwandlung des Blutes and Der Golem, this studys allegorical approach will highlight the real, existential and certain historical dependency and continuity (Madsen 44) between the texts that marks metonymic allegory. The first common trait of these processes that heal the duality in each human being is entering the realm of the supernatural through a somnambulistic trance. In Die Verwandlung des Blutes, Meyrink writes: Jeder Mensch ist

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im Bewutsein gespalten (239). This doubled self is a seminal component of Meyrinks works. Andrew J. Webber writes that the Doppelgnger in his novels combine the totemic powers of a mystic cult figure with the symptomatic features of the Freudian unconscious (352). The main concern of this text is to teach the reader how to heal this inner spiritual divide in order to take control of his or her fate, to become Herr ber sein Schicksal (Die Verwandlung des Blutes 208). The method for healing the spiritual divide is the practice of proper yoga. Yoga umschliet alle Praxis auf seelischem und geistigem Gebiet; ist also jene gewisse Werkttigkeit, die dem Menschen der Jetztzeit so gut wie ganz fehlt. Ich mchte sagen: Yoga ist der Sauerteig, theoretische Erkenntnisse nur Mehl und Wasser (238). Yoga, which Meyrink notes is largely absent in modern society, is an instrument for mediating between the spiritual and material realities because it marries spiritual energy to worldly activity. By properly practicing yoga, Meyrink pursues a cure for the spiritual division by achieving a Verbindung, described here as die un-lsbare Einswerdung des Menschen mit sich selbst (239). The unification of the individual with him or herself occurs through die Vereinigung des Unterbewuten oder berbewuten, wenn man dieses Wort gelten lassen will, mit dem Tagesbewutsein des Menschen (240). This is the crux of his text and indeed much of his ourevre. The individual is divided, is its own Doppelgnger. Gerald Br notes that Das Doppelgnger motiv bleibt in verschiedene Aus-formungen stets Bestandteil einer okkultischen Dynamik (399), and this occultist dyamic permeates Meyrinks texts. The healing of the inner schism from which each individual suffers stems from the unification of ones latent, spiritual consciousness and ones waking, empirical consciousness. He outlines how this unification is conducted, and uses a seminal metaphor in illustrating this process: the somnambulist. Meyrinks first successful endeavours in yoga are marked by falling into a stupor akin to somnambulism. He explains:

Ich beobachtete mich selbst dabei so scharf ich nur konnte. Dabei wurde mir bald klar: all das geschieht nur zu dem Zweck, damit du die Augachsen parallel stellst. Zugleich erinnerte ich mich, in Bchern gelesen zu haben, da der Blick der Somnambulen im Zustand der Ekstase immer wie in die Ferne schauend gewesen sei. (216)

It is quite apt that Meyrink equates somnambulism with entering the state of proper yoga and accessing the supernatural. Sleepwalkers exist in a state of intermediate consciousness or as a character in Der Golem describes it: the sleepwalker wanders in a region between waking and deep sleep. Investigations into the nature of somnambulism and its relation to the nightlife of the soul were common during this period, for it was argued that communication with the spiritual realm is possible in this region of existence (Treitel 3040). While in his trance, Meyrink discovers and develops the ability of inneres Schauen

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the capacity of perceiving physical manifestations emanating from the spiritual realm. Meyrink tells of meditating outside and wondering to himself how late it had become. It was then that he saw a vision:

Da, gerade in diesem Augenblick jenes Herausgerissenseins aus meiner Versenkung sah ich mit einer Schrfe und Deutlichkeit, wie ich vorher niemals in meinem Leben irgendeinen wirklichen Gegenstand wahrgenommen zu haben mich erinnere, eine riesige Uhr grell leuchtend am Himmel stehen. Die Zeiger wiesen: zwlf Minuten vor zwei. (214)

In fact it was twelve to two. Meyrinks inner eye, which yoga had opened, had perceived the correct time. The ability of inner sight becomes possible after entering a heightened state of spiritual awareness (217). He discovers the supernatural by assuming the eyes of a somnambulist a state of inter-consciousness that bridges the gap between the Unterbewusste and the Tages-bewusstsein. It is between waking and deep sleep that one enters this realm. The protagonist in Der Golem, Athanasius Pernath, finds himself in similar situations. At one point in the embedded narrative, Pernath falls into a deep trance and is unresponsive to any external stimulus. While in this condition, he is taken to Schemajah Hillel, the synagogues registrar, who is well acquainted with spiritual concerns. Hillel speaks to Pernath of spiritual things: Es gibt nur ein wahres Wachsein, und das ist das, dem du dich jetzt nherst (80). Hillel then moves his hand before Pernaths face and soon thereafter Pernath finds his mind alive and active, witnessing visions and apparitions. This stupor embodies the first phase in the process of spiritual awakening. During this episode Pernath witnesses a series of opaque and eerie visions. Significant among these is the book Ibbur, which, according to Hillel, makes the soul fertile with the spirit of life (81). As Pernath explains:

Das Buch Ibbur erschien vor mir, und zwei Buchstaben flammten darin auf: der eine, der das erste Weib bedeutete, mit dem Pulsschlag, mchtig, gleich einem Erdbeben , der andere in unendlicher Ferne: Der Hermaphrodit auf dem Thron von Perlmutter, auf dem Haupte die Krone aus rotem Holz. (85; emphasis in the original)

This statement is replete with significant symbols for the process of spiritual awakening and the unification of the divided self. The symbol of the hermaphrodite plays an important role in the novel and in Meyrinks oeuvre. The apparitions encountered here and elsewhere remain with Pernath as he attempts to decode their meaning. The first step to spiritual salvation, the ability to perceive spiritual turbulence through a somnambulistic state, leads to the second phase of this process communication with ones intuition. In both texts the spiritual pilgrims encounter mysterious figures that embody their intuitions and point the pilgrims

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in the direction of their liberation from material exigencies: Meyrink meets the Vermummter, the disguised one, and Pernath encounters the golem. In Die Verwandlung des Blutes, Meyrink writes: Sechsunddreiig Jahre sind es her, dass ich jene vermummte, geheimnisvolle Gestalt hinter den Kulissen des Lebens zum ersten Male ahnte (209). He continues: Sie [die Gestalt] gab mir stumme Zeichen, die ich lang, lang nicht verstand; ich war noch zu jung, um zu erfassen, was mir die Gestalt sagen wollte (209). The language of the disguised one is opaque, and one needs to decipher the stumme Zeichen to benefit from its knowledge. Eventually, Meyrink did begin to listen and to follow the leadership of this figure and came to recognize it as central to his well-being. He writes: Der wahre, einzige Schlssel zum Glck, Wohlergehen, Gesundheit und der gleichen ist: die Vereinigung mit dem Vermummten. Er ist das, was wir im Leben Vorsehung nennen. Er is der, der hilft, wenn die Not am grten ist! To become one with the disguised one is to experience happiness, success, and good health. Yet this union is, because of the incongruity between the physical and the spiritual selves, not easily achieved:

der innere verborgene, von uns abgetrennte, im Tagesbewutsein uns fremde, urfremde Mensch, der Vermummte, steht gewissermaen senkrecht in uns [...]. Der uere Mensch ist von ihm getrennt, weil er schief steht irgendwie in einem Sinne schief zu ihm! (271)

Meyrink goes on to argue that one becomes aligned with the disguised one through yoga the key to bringing the spiritual and material portions of the self into harmony. Pernath also encounters a mysterious character that leads him down the path of happiness and to salvation. The role of the disguised one in the novel is taken on by the golem and further illustrates metonymic allegory. After the unnamed narrator drifts off to sleep and launches the embedded narrative, Athanasius Pernath enters the story finding himself in curious circum-stances. He is suddenly overcome with tremendous feelings of anxiety. He falls into a curious stupor and is confronted with the visage of a strange figure. This person appears in Pernaths apartment and gives him the book Ibbur. This text is a catalyst for Pernaths interaction with the spiritual realm, for it activates and animates latent spiritual powers and abilities. In a later scene, Hillel tells Pernath who this stranger is: Nimm an, der Mann, der zu dir kam und den du den Golem nennst, bedeute die Erweckung des Toten durch das innerste Geistesleben (80). The golem encountered in Meyrinks text does not coincide with the traditional figure of the golem in Jewish myth (Scholem 159). Instead, the golem is a symbol for Pernaths intuition. He learns, and the reader along with him, that the intuition is the collective wisdom of ones ancestors embodied in mysterious figures who appear during moments of somnambulistic lucidity. The golem, as Hillel makes clear, represents the awakening of the dead. It transmits cryptic images and symbols that Pernath must learn to decipher, just as the disguised one did for Meyrink. In both cases, he argues that one must not limit oneself to reflection on

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events encountered in the spiritual realm. Instead, one must act on knowledge procured in that realm. However, in order to act on that knowledge, one must be in a position to comprehend the message of ones intuition. Therefore, help from external sources and more experienced guides is required in order to progress in ones journey. Meyrinks process of spiritual awakening is due in no small part to the assistance and guidance of many gurus. Indeed, Meyrink writes in Die Ver-wandlung des Blutes that one needs an interpreter to decipher the language of intuition. The first interpreter Meyrink points to is das Leben:

Die greren Winke und Zeichen begriff ich nur langsam, denn das Leben stellte mir andere Bilder vors Auge; es trat als Dolmetsch zwischen mich und den Verhllten, als ich mich unfhig erwies, durch eigenes In-mir-selbst-Schrfen seine Gebrden zu verstehen. (21011)

Life itself intervened when Meyrink did not know how he should proceed along his path of spiritual awakening. As Meyrink details the events surrounding this progression, life allowed him to overcome setbacks caused by charlatans posing as sages and to glean true wisdom from his encounters, albeit not without struggle and hardship. He offers the reader of Die Verwandlung des Blutes an example from his own experience. He recalls seeing a perplexing vision: da scho [...] ein grnlicher mannsdicker Lichtstrahl einige Meter vor mir vom Himmel herab, und worauf die Erde traf, zerspaltete er sich in drei Teile, sodass er die Form eines dreizackigen Ankers bekam (221). He asked himself how he should interpret this vision and:

Sogleich kam mir als Antwort der Gedanke einen Gedanken nenne ichs, weil ich keinen andern Ausdruck finde , eigentlich war es fast schon das Hren einer Stimme; sie belehrte mich: der Anker heit soviel wie: Festhalten oder Hoffen; die drei Zacken bedeuten: drei Tage. (222)

The three days correspond to the amount of time that elapses before Meyrink meets a learned man, referred to as O. K., or Professor K, who himself claims to have had a vision that called him to Prague to meet Meyrink in person (224). Upon meeting O. K., Meyrink is convinced that this man is a genuine guru and follows his prescribed lifestyle changes, specifically by engaging in an intense regimen of ascetic exercises. These exercises did not, however, produce the desired result, instead Meyrink learned from people he trusted that O. K. did not possess any hidden knowledge: the charlatan O.K. was unmasked. This is not the only experience Meyrink had with so-called gurus. Through his contact with O. K. and others, Meyrink learned of a Rosicrucian in Hessen referred to in Die Verwandlung des Blutes as J, who was known as Brother Johannes or Alois Mailnder (Mitchell, Vivo 67; Harmsen 76). Meyrink sought out the mystic and followed his teachings for thirteen years, a phase he describes as a Dornenweg (Frank 225). Despite ultimately being disappointed in his

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interactions with Mailnder, he believes that he learned an important lesson from the Rosicrucian, namely that one must search for truth within oneself and that the body must be included in ones overall transformation (Frank 22931). He needed to identify the needle of truth in the haystack of falsehoods in his journey, but Pernath has better luck with his spiritual mentors. Several figures assist Pernath in his journey. One of them is his cellmate in prison, Amadeus Laponder. Pernath is appalled when he first meets Laponder, who is condemned to death on charges of rape and murder. Yet Laponder is not completely what he seems. He is indeed a heinous criminal, but he is also a sagacious guide for Pernaths own path to salvation. An important lesson Laponder teaches Pernath is the composition of the soul: Die Seele ist nichts Einzelnes sie soll es erst werden, und das nennt man dann: Unsterblichkeit; Ihre Seele ist noch zusammengesetzt aus vielen Ichen so wie ein Ameisenstaat aus vielen Ameisen (246). Here again the unity of the soul is necessary for the ultimate goal of immortality to be achieved. Laponder expands upon the notion of immortality: Das Ringen nach der Unsterblichkeit ist ein Kampf um das Zepter gegen die uns innewohnenden Klnge und Gespenster; und das Warten auf das Knigwerden des eigenen Ichs ist das Warten auf den Messias (25051). He states that one must gain ascendancy over those unruly inner ghosts, much as Meyrink teaches secrets to becoming Herr ber sein Schicksal. The journeys depicted in Die Verwandlung des Blutes and Der Golem demand the same process the unification of the self out of its disparate parts. Laponder then speaks more directly to the seminal figure in this enterprise.

Der schemenhafte Habal Garmin, den Sie gesehen haben, der Hauch der Knochen der Kabbala, das war der Knig. Wenn er gekrnt wird, dann reit der Strick entzwei, mit dem Sie durch die ueren Sinne und den Schornstein des Verstandes an die Welt gebunden sind. (251)

Earlier in the conversation, Laponder had alluded to the crowning of the true I, and here he names the manifestation of the true I as the Habal Garmin. This figure, then, is symbolically significant in that the crowning of the cabalistic character inaugurates the new phase in Pernaths life the phase of liberation and independence from the material world. The crowning of the ghostly Habal Garmin will signal Pernaths ascendancy to immortality, the unification of his self making it one and indivisible. This in fact is precisely what happens after Pernath gains his freedom from prison. After his release, Pernath returns to the ghetto only to find it in shambles. The quarter has been torn down, and all that he had known is no more. While sitting in his little attic room, he has a vision: Da stand mein Ebenbild auf der Schwelle. Mein Doppelgnger. In einem weien Mantel. Eine Krone auf dem Kopf (267; emphasis in the original). At that moment, fire breaks out and Pernath is forced out of the building and falls to the street below. The naming of the figure as a Doppelgnger is significant. At the core of this novel and

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of Meyrinks epistemology is identity and the rescuing of ones self from the obstacles preventing liberation by unifying the berbewute with the Tages-bewutsein. Of importance here is the culmination of the journey toward sal-vation. Pernath becomes receptive to the supernatural through somnambulistic fugues. He learns and interprets the symbols of the language of intuition with the help of gurus and guides. With the knowledge gained through this process he becomes Herr ber sein Schicksal. On one level, Meyrink writes, being master of ones fate means that one develops the ability of the mind to overcome physical adversity through the power of the will. In Die Verwandlung des Blutes Meyrink details how he was able to conquer space and time through yoga exercises in order to com-municate telepathically with his friend on one occasion and with his second wife on another. More significant, however, is the fact that when one masters ones fate, one attains hidden knowledge about the immortality of the soul. This knowledge liberates an individual from a fundamental fear the fear of death. Meyrink writes about this knowledge in Unsterblichkeit, a text that mirrors Die Verwandlung des Blutes in meaningful ways. The brief text seeks to disabuse readers of the notion that death is terminal, in other words that death extinguishes the Ichbewutsein (Die Unsterblichkeit 293). The current reality is merely one among many, and Meyrink claims that one can recall the memories of past lives through yoga. Once again, yoga, an exercise that induces a somnambulistic condition, is the key to accessing the beyond. In the same text, Meyrink attempts to shed more light on the nature of yoga by employing a metaphor of the divided self. He writes that the human being is a

Doppelwesen, das [...] in einem Wagen sitzt: der eine, der Lenker, mit dem Blick nach vorwrts in die Zukunft , der andere, der Erdenmensch, mit dem Gesicht nach rckwrts in die Vergangenheit und aus diesem Grunde nicht imstande, die Zukunft zu wissen. (295)

The bifurcated self can be mended through yoga, in this way allowing the indi-vidual to gain access to the future and the past: Der Zweck des wahren Yoga jedenfalls ist es, dass aus Lenker und Passagier ein Einziger werde [...]. Gelingt das, dann erkennt der Mensch, dass der Tod niemals existiert hat (296). Once again, metonymic allegory allows for one to read Der Golem as a version of Meyrinks own process of spiritual awakening. The unification of the self results in the knowledge of immortality, knowledge that Pernath also gains. After the fire scene in the embedded narrative, Pernath plummets to the street below, and the narrator of the framed narrative awakens with a start. He learns that he had slept for less than an hour and is still confused when he realizes that he had taken the wrong hat after High Mass. The name written on the inside of the hat is Athanasius Pernath, and it becomes clear that this switch has caused him to live Pernaths life. Carl Gustav Jung has commented that Meyrink utilized

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 143

the motif of the exchanged hat to symbolize exchanged identities (Jung 80). The narrator then sets out to find the place where Pernath lived. Making his way to the Hradschin, he comes upon an idyllic vision in the Alchimistengasse, with which he became acquainted during his wanderings as Pernath. It is there that he finds Pernaths home: a white edifice surrounded by a splendid gate and garden. On the gate is the god Osiris in the form of a hermaphrodite the symbol of unification. The servant of the house approaches, and the narrator hands him the hat. Once the gate is opened, the narrator spies the miraculously unaged Pernath. Moreover, Pernath and the narrator share a striking resemblance: Mir ist, als she ich mich im Spiegel, so hnlich ist sein Gesicht dem meinigen! (280). Pernath has achieved the unification of his soul and resides with Miriam in the shadow of the hermaphrodite. These symbols and motifs are common to Meyrinks texts, for, as Br points out, the mystical union between man and woman is constitutive of the Ganzwerdung at the heart of Meyrinks writing (398). Intrinsic similitude the defining mark of metonymic allegory appears again and again through the analysis. The common markers of each texts process of salvation demonstrate that Der Golem is an allegory of Meyrinkian salvation. Questions surrounding the duality of material and spirit were plentiful during the fin de sicle. Figures from different philosophical and cultural traditions such as August Comte, Helena Blavatsky, and Walter Benjamin framed epistemological questions in terms of a duality between the material and the mystical. Some rejected one realm in favour of the other, some sought to meld the two together, and others lamented the separation of the two in art. Meyrink sought his own resolution in the occult; his solution to the epistemological crisis is outlined in both his autobiographical and his fictional texts. His best-selling novel, Der Golem, is an example of how his texts express his own epistemology. The ultimate goal, to become the master of ones fate, which in practical terms means to overcome fear and the temporal and material exigencies of this life, can be realized first and foremost by knowledge the knowledge that each person is a bifurcated being. This knowledge is attainable through occultist means and resides within the individual. At the core of this endeavour is the somnambulist, for in order to experience true awakening, one must wander the realm between waking and deep sleep.

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