April 8, 1913

In another post I mentioned R(obert) C(harles) Zaehner: The dates for R. C. Zaehner are April 8 1913 to November 24, 1974. From 1952 to 1974 he was Spalding Professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. His earlier career in espionage was linked to his theological studies through his exceptional command of Asiatic and middle eastern languages.

Another cat reference from the writings of this prodigious and talented scholar occurs in a book known in the US as Zen, Drugs, and Mysticism, (1972) (also known as Drugs, Mysticism and Make-believe in some editions) Here he writes of

... a fascinating case involving what Jung called 'individuation' in which psychedelic visions, - not mystical experiences - take the place of dreams in what seems to be a classical Jungian analysis. In this particular case God does appear --as a lion! -
while the subject himself is transformed into a tiger. Now, with all respect to the authors, in the literature of religious mysticism God simply does not appear as a lion of however 'awesome [a] stature and beauty', nor is the mystic himself turned ....[a tiger].

I am not aware of Zaehner mentioning anywhere about the jungle that is academic politics, but I did think of C. S. Lewis's Narnia when I read the above.  Not that a fairy tale makes the same claims of a mystic vision. My association is frivolous.