THE ARCHETYPES 73

can be translated either as ‘“ Remember Me and I will
remember you” or as ‘““ Mention Me and I will mention
you.” Now itis by an inner “ mention” that a memory
is evoked : moreover the transposition from the past
tense to the principial order conforms to the general
symbolism of semitic languages: in Arabic the past
definite tense serves to express the timeless action of
God. This double aspect of the word dhikr plays an
important part in the language of Sufism, for it connects
the “evoking”, of essential Realities with the sonorous
symbolism of the formulas of ‘“incantation” or “invoca-
tion”” (dhikr).! Moreover dhikr is the word used to
designate every form of concentration on the Divine
Presence : the highest “remembrance’ or “mention” is
no less than identification with the Divine Word which
is itself the Archetype of archetypes.

The reader will have gathered that the ‘rememb-
rance > of Sufism, like the Platonic “ reminiscence ”, is
not psychological but intellectual. It is precisely be-
cause of this that it can take for its supports things of an
elemental order and, in particular, bodily form. No-
thing is more false than to look on methods of incanta-
tion as a more “primary’ and so less ‘‘conscious’’
form of adoration than, for example, free prayer.
There is a link of inverse analogy between the most ele-
mental cosmic order and the most lofty spiritual order
and it is on this account that the supports which help to
transform consciousness into the Spirit, which is beyond
form, are allied to the great rhythms of nature, the
movements of the stars, the waves of the sea or the
spasms of love and of dying.

1. Analogous to the mantra-yoga (japa) of the Hindus.