The transformation of Mercurius, as prima materia, in the heated,
sealed vessel is comparable to cooking the basic instinctive drives in
their own affect until their essential fantasy content becomes
conscious. “Instead of arguing with the drives which carry us away, we
prefer to cook them and . ask then what they want. . . . That can be
discovered by active imagination, or through experimenting in reality,
but always with the introverted attitude of observing objectively what
the drive really wants.” (von Franz, Alchemy, p. 129)
Ms.
von Franz then goes on at great lengths to explicate the life giving
power of the divine female, drawing a connection between instinct and
archetype. From her discussion, it is hard not to see the basic alchemy
of the psychological process, the internal darkness of the "black," as
somehow a psychosexual one. In that sense, we can recognize the
internal component of Alchemy, the key to the lost science of the last
epoch, as essentially sexual. Perhaps this accounts for the ambiguity
of the metaphor, its insistence on the transubstantiation of the
ordinary into the sacred. Even Ms. von Franz lapses on occasion into a
kind of guarded incomprehensibility, as if she dared not say it too
openly.
With
all of this in mind, we can see that "Alchemy" points to the ancient
science, as revived by the Egyptians, and to the darkness of the
unconsciousness where powerful psycho-sexual forces can be encountered
and used in the process of transformation. Egyptian science, with its
concern for stellar movements as the background of mythical dramas,
points us another step down the road toward solving the mystery.
As
we noted above, the "Isis the Prophetess" fragment is in many ways
the origin point of alchemy in its modern sense. It is the first text
in which mysticism becomes confused with laboratory procedures. In the
text, though, it is clear that Isis first imparts a philosophical
understanding, and then conducts a physical operation, supposedly along
with Horus, in order to demonstrate the principle and illustrate her
mastery of the process of transmutation.
read more from V .Bridges,
Alchemists
were, of course, individualists who worked alone, rather than being
members of sodalities or secret orders, yet despite their writings
being a result of their own experiences, the animal metaphors rapidly
developed into a universal language. In the centuries before the
invention of printing, key alchemical manuscripts, often with beautiful
illuminated illustrations, circulated quite widely. Works like the
Aurora Consurgens (attributed to Thomas Aquinas), the Buch der Heiligen
Dreigaltigheit, the works of Ramon Lull, Roger Bacon, Arnold of Villa
Nova, exist in many manuscript collections from this period, and with
this exchange of ideas a quite coherent set of metaphors emerged in the
European Alchemical tradition. It was the coherence and universality of
this set of alchemical symbols that lead Carl Jung to the concept of
the collective unconscious. The alchemists though pursuing their inner
work independently as individuals, nevertheless found in their interior
descent a coherent language of symbols.
At the core of this was a vision of an alchemical process occurring through a cycle of colour changes, from an initial blackness to the perfection of the quintessence.
The alchemist envisaged each stage of the process being heralded by a colour change and a meeting with certain animals.
Blackening - Black Crow, Raven, Toad, Massa Confusa.
Whitening - White Swan, White Eagle, skeleton.
Greening - Green Lion.
Rapid cycling through iridescent colours - Peacock's Tail.
White Stone - Unicorn.
Reddening - Pelican feeding young with its own blood, cockerel.
Final transmutation - Phoenix reborn from the fire.
At the core of this was a vision of an alchemical process occurring through a cycle of colour changes, from an initial blackness to the perfection of the quintessence.
The alchemist envisaged each stage of the process being heralded by a colour change and a meeting with certain animals.
Blackening - Black Crow, Raven, Toad, Massa Confusa.
Whitening - White Swan, White Eagle, skeleton.
Greening - Green Lion.
Rapid cycling through iridescent colours - Peacock's Tail.
White Stone - Unicorn.
Reddening - Pelican feeding young with its own blood, cockerel.
Final transmutation - Phoenix reborn from the fire.
Turning 'base' metals into gold?
I think not, but assimilating 'ego' into 'self?', maybe, maybe, you have to remember,
it's not the symbol, it's what it re-presents!
The
alchemists paralleled these experiences in their souls as a withdrawal
into the darkness of their interior space, a darkness pregnant with
possibility. We have to a great extent lost the sense that still lived
in the medieval and renaissance alchemists, that this darkness
contained all potentialities. Like children we fear the dark, and for
twentieth century humanity darkness often holds only an existential
dread - philosophers of science have in the last decade brought us this
terrible image of the 'Black Hole' which swallows up and annihilates
everything that comes into its orbit. Perhaps we do not gaze enough at
the blackness of the heavens. For if we look deep into the blackness of
space on a clear night, we will sense more stars hidden between the
known visible stars, especially in the vast star fields of the Milky
Way. Cosmic space is pregnant with the possibility of other worlds as
yet unseen. It is this image of blackness we must try to recover if we
are to become alchemists. An echo of this perhaps remains in the often
used phrase "a profound darkness". In alchemy, to meet with the black
crow is a good omen. Thus in the Chymical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreutz, as our hero sets out on his journey of transformation, he
meets with a Crow which by a turn of fate decides which among the
various paths open to him is the one that will lead him to the Castle
of the King.
Modern Cinema abounds with these 'themata', losing 'the dark lady?',
or the 'magician', kidnapping and entombing the 'dark haired woman',
think about it!
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