The Holy Dog: Rite and Legend of a Pagan Cult in the Middle Ages—a Psychological Approach

摘要

This article describes the ritual and the legend of a pagan cult in a remote area of France during the Middle Ages; it continued till the 19th century, despite the fact that it was strongly forbidden by the church. In the 13th century a French Dominican discovered a hidden place in the forests where people came to worship the corpse of a dog. Mainly women brought their sick children to that place, celebrating a ritual that they believed would help those children. In the first part of the article the historical material is explored, including the legend and its sources. In the second part the ritual itself, as it is described in all its details by the Dominican, is interpreted psychologically. After discussing various symbolic and mythological aspects of the dog, the psychological interpretation of the legend is explored. The dog was venerated by peasants as a martyr and as a holy being who has the capacity to decide over life and death. Given this power, the dog can be seen as the animal of the Great Mother, for the Great Mother contains and symbolizes both life and death. From another perspective, the dog is the animal that is most closely bound to humans. For 14,000 years humans and dogs have walked the path of life together. The dog represents, as Marie-Louise von Franz once put it, “the warm, lively, vital urge of life”—that is—“the essence of relationship.”