“Always at bottom there is a divine revelation, a divine act, and man has only had the bright idea of copying it.”

—  Marie-Louise von Franz

Creation Myths (1972), Deus Faber
Context: Always at bottom there is a divine revelation, a divine act, and man has only had the bright idea of copying it. That is how the crafts all came into existence and is why they all have a mystical background. In primitive civilizations one is still aware of it, and this accounts for the fact that generally they are better craftsmen than we who have lost this awareness. If we think that every craft, whether carpenter's or smith's or weaver's, was a divine revelation, then we understand better the mystical process which certain creation myths characterize as God creating the world like a craftsman. By creating the world through such a craft he manifests a secret of his own mysterious skill.

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Marie-Louise von Franz 30
Swiss psychologist and scholar 1915–1998

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