The Hashish Eater · Chapter
XI: The Book of Symbols explained
The narrator explores the profound experience of symbolization in hashish states, where every object gains transcendent significance and the senses interchange.
What happens
The narrator explores the profound experience of symbolization in hashish states, where every object gains transcendent significance and the senses interchange. He reflects on the difficulty of communicating these visions to others, the inadequacy of earthly symbols for spiritual truths, and the philosophical implications of a universe where all matter exists to convey spiritual lessons. He critiques the narrow materialist view of nature and argues for a broader, symbolic understanding of creation.
Themes in this chapter
Visionary Experience and Imagination
Central to the chapter: the hashish state enables symbolic vision and the perception of spiritual truths beyond ordinary reality.
Hashish and Altered States of Consciousness
The entire chapter is a meditation on the unique cognitive and perceptual changes induced by hashish, especially symbolization and sensory interchange.
The Search for Transcendence
The narrator seeks to transcend material limitations and communicate ineffable spiritual realities through symbols.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
The primary voice, reflecting on his own hashish-induced symbolization and the challenge of conveying ineffable experiences.
- Hashish
The agent that enables the altered state of consciousness where symbols and sensory interchange occur.
- Deity
Referenced as the source of divine truth and the ultimate unveiling of symbols.
- St. Paul
Mentioned in relation to his trance and the concept of 'unspeakable words' as an analogy for hashish ecstasy.
Key passages
“Thus the hashish-eater knows what it is to be burned by salt fire, to smell colors, to see sounds, and, much more frequently, to see feelings.”
The hashish user experiences synesthesia, such as feeling burned by salt fire, smelling colors, seeing sounds, and most often, seeing emotions.
Illustrates the sensory interchange characteristic of the hashish state.
“It should be, 'which it is impossible to utter to man;' for this alone harmonizes with that state of intuition in which the words are 'speechless words,' and the truths beheld have no symbol on earth which will embody them.”
The correct translation of St. Paul's phrase is 'impossible to utter to man,' because the truths seen in ecstasy have no earthly symbols to express them.
Highlights the ineffability of visionary experiences.
“What a world of symbols, then, lie sleeping in expectancy of the approaching times which shall bring some translator to their now unnoticed sermons, and bid them speak of unconceived beauties and truths!”
Countless symbols in nature await a future interpreter who will reveal their hidden spiritual meanings.
Expresses the narrator's belief in the latent symbolic significance of all creation.