Lady Lazarus as an Archetype of

Ego Initiation

Giotto's Raising of Lazarus (c.1304). Detail from the Scrovegni Chapel.

Lady Lazarus¹

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it-----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?-------

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The Peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand in foot ------
The big strip tease.
Gentleman , ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart---
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair on my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

Plath's use of the Lazarus imagery from the New Testament stresses the open, public aspect of returning from the dead. Christ's raising of Lazarus was a public enactment of initiation rituals that had been secret for thousands of years in the cultures of Greece, Egypt, and India.

Rudolf Steiner, in his St. John Gospel lecture cycle, explained that an initiator, or hierophant, could lead a candidate through a near death experience where the physical processes slow down as far as possible for three and one-half days without permanently killing the candidate. The candidate could then have personal knowledge derived from experience in the realms of pure thought or spirit and later bear witness to this knowledge. This is the sleep that is "...not unto death but for the glory of God..."(John 11:4).

In normal sleep the part of us that remains in bed resembles a plant . (see Sylvia's I Am Vertical). There's a body and complicated life processes, but no sentient consciousness, no emotions, and no intellectual workings. Somehow, all those complex forces remain dormant or are active in a non-material realm; either way, they retain no memories of their dormant or non-material experiences. Steiner argues that this is because the feelings, intellect, and sense consciousness lack any organs of perception for the realm which they inhabit during sleep.

The initiand or neophyte developed non-material, supersensory organs of perception in the emotional, intellectual, and sensory body . This was achieved by gaining control over the non-material realm of which we are directly conscious-the world of thought and ideas. This mastery was achieved by concentration and meditation; however, for an evolved perception into higher thought worlds, the change in thought and feeling patterns must work directly into the life processes of the physical body. This can only happen if the idea-archetypes of the physical processes are separated from the mineral substances and this could only be safely achieved by the skilled hierophant in an orderly initiation process.

Once the body's processes were separated from the material, the perceptions of pure feeling and thought could then subtlety alter the idea archetypes of the processes of the physical body and these processes could once again unite with the physical matter and enliven the body. Now the initiate could recall memories of the non-material realms that the "dormant" feelings and intellect inhabited while the "death-sleep" was in progress.

The New Initiation

The death sleep initiation became obsolete with the the increase in power of the human ego. Initiation became more dangerous as changes in the physical body precluded any separation of the life force archetype. The water immersions of John the Baptist, a near drowning death experience, were the last remnants of this extreme procedure.

However, with the increased activity of the human ego, the power of the "I am" could merge with the cosmic word or logos. The logos-Christ could merge with developing human individuality enabling the perceptive forces of feeling and intellect to work their supersensory perceptions into the human life processes while those processes were still joined to the human body.

Christ, the archetype of the perfected ego, the incarnation of the Sun logos in the physical world, was the hierophant who initiated Lazarus as a transition to modern Christian esotericism .

"The Peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand in foot ------
The big strip tease.
Gentleman , ladies
These are my hands
My knees. "-------Plath's meditation highlights the importance of the public nature of the raising of Lazarus. The Pharisees, who were the representatives of the Old Mysteries, considered the raising of Lazarus as a betrayal and violation of the ancient mystery traditions. What had always been secret was made public.

Why? Humans could now witness the penetration of the material Earth sphere by the highest thought archetype, the creative principle of the Universe, the Sun-logos, the Christ.

This witnessing brought profound change in human evolution and worked on a planetary scale. Knowledge of the Sun-logos was no longer the secret of a few initiates but a world encompassing event.

The Lazarus archetype operates when individuals die in certain lower levels of their being and then rise again with greater balance and integration. The hierophant for this process is our higher self, the pure portion of our egos which witnesses and guides. This pure ego is the gold that must be shaped in the fire of existence:

"I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. "

We "..turn and burn" in this fire when we realize that no old form of social structure can nourish our evolution. Our ego must forge its own being; however, it can draw upon the creativity of the world logos. Then our higher self may unveil and incarnate in our will and actions.

"Ash, ash---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling. " These words are the ultimate materialism where the absence of thought, feeling, sensation, and life force doom the evolution of the Earth.

The atavistic group soul forces of Herr Lucifer and Herr God have mummified all life, but like the dormant life in the cocoon the human may rise to the next stage:

"Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air. "

The "I", the ego, may rise out of the grossest materiality. The red of our circulating blood is now the spiritual essence of the forces radiating from the union of mind and heart. But we cannot cling to any of the old forms which will be consumed like food in the fire of pure ego. The pure gold ego will consume all forces that seek to possess it.

The Christ entered the Earth sphere and is only beginning to fully permeate and transform it. Now that the respiritualization of the Earth is commencing humanity is no longer in need of a preponderance of male forces. These were necessary to bring the world into materialization through fission and division that created multiplicity out of the unity. Pure egohood is the result of masculine division but once achieved will lead to recombination at a higher level and reactivate the Sophia archetype.

Perhaps that is why Giotto's portrait of Lazarus is so sexually ambiguous:

John 11

[1] Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
[2] (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
[3] Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
[4] When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
[5] Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
[6] When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
[7] Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
[8] His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?
[9] Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
[10] But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
[11] These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
[12] Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
[13] Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
[14] Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
[15] And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
[16] Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
[17] Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
[18] Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:
[19] And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
[20] Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.
[21] Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
[22] But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
[23] Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
[24] Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
[25] Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
[26] And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
[27] She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
[28] And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.
[29] As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
[30] Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
[31] The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.
[32] Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
[33] When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
[34] And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
[35] Jesus wept.
[36] Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
[37] And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
[38] Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
[39] Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
[40] Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
[41] Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
[42] And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
[43] And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
[44] And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
[45] Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.