• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.27 no.1_2
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• pp.1-27
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• 2012

It aims to deal with a topic of coniunctio oppositorum, hieros gamos in a Korean fairytale <Gurungdungdung Sin Seonbi>, in which a human heroine was marrying an animal husband. This Korean fairytale may be compared with Greek mythology <Eros and Psyche> introduced by Apuleius and <Dassingende springende Löweneckerchen> collected by Grimm Brothers. All these fairytales commonly tell that animal husband figures have divine nature. Because animals live their lives totally obeying instincts, the collective unconscious principles of species are completely accomplished. The animal nature excludes ecocentric attitude so that it has transpersonal divinity. The hero is transformed into an animal in the fairytales, which will provide an opportunity to change a one-sided exaggerated attitude of the ego consciousness and acquire universal humanity. During being an animal, the hero would have experienceds to recognize true meaning and value of other living creatures in nature and have attained wisdom of nature. The animal is a symbolic being who will realize value of collective and universal life so as to act therapeutically and contribute to the total personality, individuation processes. Animals in the fairytales correspond to the compensatory contents of the unconscious. Animal figure itself is opposite to the ego consciousness itself because the ego understands the unconscious contents like animal figures have instinctual impulse that the ego will not accept at all. Coniunctio oppositorum in the fairytales is going to show the ego's rendezvous processes to meet the unconscious. The fact that the hero turns into an animal or marries animal partner is a psychic event which greatly lowers under the level of ego consciousness. To overcome the state, it is essential for the hero to regain humanity or to transform animal partner into a human being. By the recovery of humanity or reaching the human level, compensation of the unconscious can be realized in the conscious life. In a Korean fairytale <Gurungdungdung Sin Seonbi>, male partner is a serpent but the heroine marries the serpent and make it cast off skin. Over sufferings and complishment of several tasks, heroine truly meets her husband. In this processes, the heroine obtains divinity. As result, her marriage to animal husband means hieros gamos. In this fairytale, we will be able to look through the ways how female ego-consciousness to make relations to the unconscious and to fulfill individuation.