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 collective which manifests in art, religion, and society (Marlan, Stanton: "Alchemy" p. 269). 

The alchemists effort was about bringing unity of the disparate parts of the psyche, both the personal and the cosmical, creating a "chemical wedding", the mysterium conjunctionis.  The goal was to create the lapis, the philosophers stone. Jung saw this as a parallell to his psychological workings with the conflicts and dissociation of psychic life, in the process towards wholeness which Jung named individuation. James Hillman, who drew on but criticized Jungs work, suggested instead to peel away the layers of metaphysical interpretations of alchemy, and stick with the  images: "Then pagan images stand out: metals, planets, minerals, stars, plants, charms, animals, vessels, fires, and specific locales." Hillman, J. : "A note for Stanton Marlan" p. 102). Hillmans emphasis is not on alchemy as a narrative about development, but rather on its cryptic, arcane, paradoxical and conflicting texts which reveal the psyche phenomenologically.

The alchemical process has four dimensions: Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. Nigredo is the blackening, the burning away of what is not needed. Psychologically its viewed as depression or the dark night of the soul, facing the shadow and confronting the misconceptions - the dying of the old self, a requisite for rebirth. The Nigredo gives way to the Albedo, which is the whitening or purification. In this stage of the alchemical process the soul rises from the psyche and the individual redraws from the body and life in the world (unio mentalis). Spiritual awareness and connection with purpose emerges. The next stage is Citrinitas, which stands for the dawning of the solar light inherent in ones being. It implies a mystical vision of ones truth, and it has elements of revelation and divine grace. The last and final stage is the Rubedo. This stage is a reuniting of soul and spirit in the body and in the world, making it possible for the individual to realign with purpose. This is the mysterium conjunctionis, the mystical marriage.   

Writing about the mystery of alchemy feels like moving between wanting to get it and really understand what it is about, an approach which are based on the values of western Logos or Cartesian clarity, and a longing for another and deeper rationality; immersing myself in the arcane and impenetrable qualities of alchemy, opening up to the ambiguities and complexities of the images of the unconscious, the sensuality of the fire, the water, the earth and the air. Maybe the moving forward in the text needs to be images from dreams, and sticking to the image like Hillman said, may be a way to meet this longing.

Dream image: I move into a dark cave, it is going steep downwards. I feel the warm humid air of the cave on my skin. I am blindfolded, and I sense that this is a test about trusting my inner sense of direction. Moving into the cave I slowly start to dissolve and become one with the darkness. To me this image has a feeling of the Nigredo, the darkening and dying of the old self.

Dream image: I am walking on a bridge. Suddenly I enter a void, an emptiness unlike anything I have experienced before. The void feels crisp and crystalclear. I try to find out wether the void is good or bad, normal or not normal, but it is impossible because those categories have somehow fallen away. I know that my everyday historical self is gone. Slowly I am being blurring in the all encompassing emptiness. May this be seen as Albedo, when the soul redraws from the body and life in the world and connects with the timeless spirit?

Dream image: The sun connects with me. She is the divine feminine, the great mother. She expresses happiness and intense delight that all of creation is exactly the way it is, like a mother who looks at her newborn and sees pure perfection. I feel that we are here to express our irreplaceable uniqueness in the world. The sun and the element of grace in this image, reminds me of Citrinitas, which stands for the dawning of the solar light inherent in ones being, and has  elements of revelation and divine grace.

Dream image: A frog comes visiting, sitting in the windowsill, staring at me. For some reason I get really scared and the frog disappears. The next morning it is back, sitting outside my window in a lotus position. I look at it and feel like I am hit by lightning. I realize that the frog and all of nature is sacred, conscious and communicating with us, that we are nature and connected with the web of life. The way we live is a failure because this perception of reality as sacred, and the knowledge about  who we really are, has been lost and forgotten. This feels to me like an image conveying the essence of the wisdom achieved. Is it pointing to the Rubedo and the reuniting of the soul and spirit in the body and the world, and the possibility of realigning with purpose?