Alchemy
Alchemy is an ancient and diverse tradition, its origins dating back to ancient Egypt and the practicing of mumification. It is mystical, complex and ambiguous. Its method of explanation is "the obscure by the more obscure, the unknown by the more unknown". (Jung, C. : Psychology and alchemy p. 227 ). Jung has been central in the rediscovery of alchemy by showing how the alchemists spoke in symbols about the human soul, and were working as much with the imagination as with the literal materials of their art. To Jung the alchemical images and symbols became an objective basis from which to interpret dreams and other unconscious material. Jungs study of alchemy made him realize how the unconscious is a process, and that the psyche can be transformed in a positive way by the contact between the ego and the contents of the unconscious. This development process becomes visible in the dreams and images of the individual, and in the changing symbolic structures of the collecti