A Symbolic Allegory of Inner Authority and Spiritual Awakening
By Roberto Assagioli
Original title: Fantasia in Re interiore
Originally published in Leonardo, Series III, Year V, No. 1, Florence, 1907
Translated by Jan Kuniholm
Editorial note
This text is a symbolic and literary allegory written by Roberto Assagioli in 1907 and published in the journal Leonardo. It belongs to Assagioli’s early philosophical–spiritual writings, prior to the formal development of psychosynthesis, and uses mythic and imaginal language to convey psychological and spiritual insight. The abstract, subheading, and minimal cross-sections in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth Sørensen, solely to support readability and archival navigation. The original wording, narrative structure, and symbolism of the text have not been altered.
Fantasia of the Inner King
Abstract
In this early symbolic allegory, Roberto Assagioli depicts the inner life of the human being through the image of a circular city surrounding a mountain whose summit is hidden in clouds. When the vision of a radiant castle and an imprisoned King is rediscovered, the inhabitants are shaken from their habitual lives and confronted with longing, doubt, denial, and aspiration. Through the figures of the visionary youth, the skeptical crowd, the persecuted sage, and the solitary seeker of unwavering will, Assagioli explores themes of inner authority, spiritual vocation, resistance to transcendence, sacrifice, and awakening. The story anticipates key motifs of later psychosynthesis, including the ascent towards the Self, the centrality of will, the dangers of repression and ridicule, and the revelation of inner light through courageous fidelity to truth.
The City, the Mountain, and the Hidden King
In a country far far away, and yet very close to us, there is a strange city. Its layout is not like any we know. It is arranged in the form of a wide circular ring, all around the base of a very high mountain, so that the widest band, formed by the lowest neighbourhoods, is seen in the plain, while the houses forming the upper contour of the ring are perched on the already steep lower sides of the mountain.
For a long time this original outward structure was the only strange thing about the city. In all other respects, it was no different from any other city; its inhabitants lived as the men of this world live, going about their business, loving and hating each other, fighting with each other and with the inhabitants of neighboring cities, without much concern for the terrible enigmas of life. If anyone looked up and gazed thoughtfully at the towering peak of the mountain, which was always lost in the clouds, the others mocked him and called him a dreamer and visionary.
The Vision of the Castle and the Awakening of Longing
One day, however, a momentous event happened. A young man, who was gifted with extraordinary vision and who had long gazed thoughtfully at the lofty peak of the mountain, claimed to have glimpsed a marvelous castle on the summit shining with light through a break in the clouds.
The people at first laughed at the young man and said that he had been dreaming, but when, after a short time, the young man again claimed to have seen a magnificent castle on the highest peak, through a break in the clouds, an old commoner, among the oldest people in the city, said in a low voice to the astonished people that this reminded him that as a boy he had heard his grandfather tell a strange legend. He had related that on the mountaintop there was an invisible castle, in which a great king was imprisoned by a magical enchantment and had been waiting for liberation from time immemorial.
This deeply troubled the citizens. No longer did anyone dare to laugh at the young man with his keen sight and upward gaze.
Denial, Ridicule, and the Fear of Ascent
The most courageous people proposed to set out and attempt to climb the mountain, but what hope was there of getting to the top, when a few meters from the highest houses the sides of the mountain became so steep that it was very dangerous to climb them? Helpless, the citizens went back to their business. But this no longer satisfied them; they often interrupted their small occupations and stared thoughtfully, with a restless discontent, at the towering peak of the mountain hidden in the clouds. Their souls were filled with turmoil and mystery.
The Sage and the Inner Way
After some time a remarkable stranger arrived in the city. His long, flowing beard was white, but his bearing was youthfully upright and his eyes had an extraordinary, indescribable brilliance. When he heard what had taken place in the city, he was not at all surprised, but his eyes sparkled with an even greater brilliance. He immediately called for the people to gather in the largest square of the city; when this was done he ascended a small mound and began to speak in a powerful and melodious voice.
“O people who do not yet know your true king, listen to the words of the one who will show you the way to find him. The city in which I was born is similar to yours; it, too, lies in a wide ring around the sides of a very high mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds. Three hundred years ago, when I was still a child, the same events took place that now trouble you. There, too, the shining castle was rediscovered with great excitement; the most impatient people wanted to climb the mountain at any cost; but the longing and regret that poisoned all their joys filled with dispute and dissension.
The Solitary Ascent and the Trial of the Will
Only one young man whose faith was ardent, whose heart was pure, whose will indomitable, did not concern himself with what his fellow citizens said, but frequently walked along the sides of the mountain, stubbornly attempting to climb it. One day, observing for the seventh time the ravines in the walls of a vast and gloomy cave he had first reached on the steep sides of the mountain, he finally discovered a narrow passage hidden behind a giant boulder. Filled with joy and ardor he managed to creep through it, not caring that he cut himself and left shards of flesh along the edges of the stone; and he found that the passage immediately changed into a very steep staircase whose gigantic steps were crudely cut into the rock.
The High Law, which I obey and which has sent me among you, forbids me to tell you all the adventures of the young man with a pure heart and unwavering will on his inner journey towards the King of Ineffable Light. I can only tell you that first he found a fantastic city of little gnomes, who offered him all the treasures that are in the depths of the earth and mysterious powers whose secrets they knew if he would become their lord. But the young man did not stop even for a moment, drawn by the powerful aspiration towards the heights of light.
The young man of burning faith never returned among us, but by mysterious means he sent us wonderful messages bursting with joy, in which he said that he could not give us even a hint of the ineffable glories of the mystic Castle. He also revealed to us where the beginning of the inner way was and encouraged the pure, the ardent, the strong to . . .”
