Alchemy and Psychotherapy

Post-Jungian Perspectives

Dale Mathers, Dale Mathers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317801047
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Psychotherapeutische Beratung

Alchemical symbols are part of popular culture, most recently popularised in the Harry Potter books. Alchemy intrigued Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology. It inspired him as he wrote 'the Red Book' - the journal of his voyage of internal discovery. He devoted much of his life to it, using alchemical symbols as metaphors for unconscious processes. Alchemy and Psychotherapy explores the issue of alchemy in the consulting room and its application to social and political issues. This book argues against the dominant discourse in contemporary psychotherapy - scientific materialism - and for the discovery of spiritual meaning.

Alchemy and Psychotherapy has four main sections:

'Alchemy and meaning' - looks at the history of alchemy, particularly the symbol of the coniunctio - sacred marriage - a metaphor for the therapeutic relationship.

'The symbolic attitude' - explores working with dreams, fairytales, astrology and the body: each of which is a symbolic language.

'The spirit and the natural world' - discusses the concept of 'burn out' - of therapists, our ecological resources, the mystical aspects of quantum physics and the philosophical underpinning of symbol formation.

'Clinical Applications' - shows alchemy's use with victims of abuse, those struggling to secure gender identity, in anorexia and in 'social healing' - atonement and restorative justice - which apply the idea of the coniunctio.

Alchemy and Psychotherapy is illustrated throughout with clinical examples, alchemical pictures and poetry which emphasise that alchemy is both a creative art and a science. Bringing together contributors from a wide range of disciplines, Dale Mathers and contributors show that therapy is both art and science, that the consulting room is the alchemical laboratory, and that their research is their creative engagement. Alchemy and Psychotherapy will be a valuable resource for practitioners, students at all levels of psychotherapy, analytical psychology, psychoanalysis and creative, art-based therapies and for creative practitioners (in film, literature and performing arts) who draw on Jung's ideas.

Part I

ALCHEMY AND MEANING

WATER AND STONE

As in emotion, as in ever-living law,

the golden sands of spring

become pebbles in midlife.

The Chinese say

the clearly enlightened

always fall into the well;

another upgrade, another improving

ten thousand illusions to wrestle

to resist.

Adele Davide

1

THE STONE THAT THE BUILDERS REJECTED

Rabbi David L. Freeman

Introduction

Western education teaches us to think in terms of cause and effect and to proceed logically through any argument or discussion. Where alchemy is concerned this presents an immediate difficulty, if not an impossibility. There is an old French alchemical maxim that teaches what you must do if you want to find out who you are: you must go to the forest (which represents the unconscious) and before entering you must take a sharp clean knife and cut off your head, then place it beside a tree and carefully make a note of where it is because it will need to be put back on again on leaving the forest: you cannot live without a head! Now enter the forest without your head and you will be able to find out who you are. Having done that, return to where your head was left and take some honey (good for bringing body and soul together) and stick it back on again. Obviously this is not to be taken literally but it demonstrates the alchemist’s firm belief in the crucial need to suspend thinking before embarking upon any alchemical endeavour. This is an extremely difficult thing to do and some may find it impossible, but without being able to do it the world of alchemy will simply seem to be an ancient irrational pursuit with little or no relevance to the present-day practice of psychotherapy.

The centrality of alchemy in Jung’s psychology is clear. At least three volumes of his Collected Works are devoted to it. I will look at the ancient art of alchemy examining the archetype of the self, fundamental to the Jungian model for understanding the psyche. This leads on to the concept of the individuation process as mirrored in the experiments and processes of the alchemists. Jung saw these as a most profound metaphor whose symbolism he felt was closer to the unconscious than any other. The search for the philosopher’s stone, the gold, from base metal demonstrates the stages in the archetypal journey of the ego towards its acknowledgment of and final submission to the central archetype that Jung called ‘the self’.

Alchemy as a process metaphor

The Hebrew verse, ‘even ma’asu habonim hay’ta le-rosh pina’ translates as, ‘The stone that the builders rejected is become the chief cornerstone’ (Tenach Psalm 118, verse 22). This is one of the famous celebratory Psalms of the Hebrew Bible and is generally understood to refer to the foundation stone of the first Temple built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in approximately the tenth century BCE. Some commentators have found the verse mystifying and various meanings have been suggested. However, a symbolic interpretation might be, ‘the stone that the builders rejected was the stone chosen as the best of all the stones for the highest possible honour of being the chief cornerstone of the Temple’. This may be compared to the story of Cinderella, the rejected sister but the one chosen at the end of the tale to marry the prince. Many myths and fairytales contain these same elements. Another is referred to by Marie Louise von Franz:

In a beautiful and well-known Russian fairy tale the story of a king and his three sons is told. The two elder sons ride out from their father’s stable on the most wonderful magnificent horses, but the youngest takes a little shaggy pony and sits on it the wrong way round, with his head towards the horses tail and goes off derided by everybody. He is of course the one who became the Great Russian hero and the one who inherited the kingdom.

(von Franz and Hillman, 1975, p. 6)

In some versions of this story the youngest is a fool, a coward or a poor peasant boy but always the rejected one. Many hero stories carry the same pattern of the humble birth of the hero contrasting with the highest and most elevated position reached at the end. This is a clear mythologem, namely that which has the lowest value is ultimately that which comes to have the highest. Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) was known for his work on comparative mythology. He described this mythological adventure of the hero as following a specific pattern that is reflected in initiation rites:

A hero ventures forth from a world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

(Campbell, 1973, p. 30)

Examples of this mythologem are found in the traditions and stories of all peoples and cultures throughout human history.

The Hebrew midrash consists of many collections of parables, stories and commentaries, which elucidate and complement Biblical texts, as old as and sometimes even older than the text itself. The collective noun is midrash and this word also denotes each story or parable, which is referred to as ‘a midrash’. In one such midrash we find the story of the patriarch Abraham who, when a newly born baby, was hidden in a cave to protect him from the Babylonian King Nimrod who sought to kill him (Anon, Bet Hamidrash, 1820, II, 118–196). The Hebrew Bible tells the story of the greatest Jewish prophet Moses who, as a baby, was hidden in the bulrushes from the Pharaoh who sought to kill all babies (Tannic Exodus, Chapter 2, verse 3) and the New Testament tells how baby Jesus was born and hidden in a stable from the King Herod who wanted to destroy him (Luke, Chapter 2). All these myths and tales universally depict an inner human pattern; that which was once the lowest and most despised in the end is that which has the highest value. That paradox where the lowest is potentially the highest and vice versa is the essence of alchemy and is an archetypal process and pattern.

Archetypes are the part of the psyche inherited and therefore common to all peoples. They cannot be seen but exist as potential patterns of behaviour in the collective unconscious of humanity, similar to instincts, and can only be observed as they manifest in behaviour patterns and in imagery. They are potential as outlines for future behaviours, innate structures in the psyche waiting to be lived out, seen in the myths and stories of all mankind. Archetypes carry a powerful affect which, when experienced, is numinous – a feeling of something other, much greater than oneself. During a lifetime there is a process of natural psychological development and maturity, a becoming whole. Archetypes are fundamental to that process which we call individuation. More will be said about this through the book, particularly in Chapter 15. Alchemy is about paradox; gold is found in base metal and individuation is a process where the archetypal and personal gold is found in the unfolding life journey of an individual. It is extremely difficult to describe this process because of its paradoxical nature and because it is something experienced rather than explained. For example, Jungians often refer to ‘The gold in the dung heap’ but it is far from easy to comprehend the full significance of these words.

I saw this strikingly illustrated some years ago at an annual conference of the Guild of Pastoral Psychology, an organisation in the U.K. formed to explore the interface between religion and the psychology of C. G. Jung. The poet, David Caccia, was invited to read to us. His audience contained many religious people well versed in Jungian theory. David himself was a deeply spiritual man, sadly dying from an inoperable brain tumour. Through his poetry he struggled hard to find the meaning of his terrible pain. This brought him to a personal confrontation with the blackest of depressions and was reflected in his poetry. When he read the words,

When G-d and shit are easily confused,

Then both are much less easily abused,

(Caccia, 1975, p. 7)

together with other poems of similar nature, people got up and walked out; others were extremely angry. (In accordance with the fourth of the Ten Commandments [Tannic Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 7] Jewish law forbids writing the Divine Name in full. Therefore I shall use ‘G-d’ in all cases.)

These people simply could not bear to hear those words or listen to the deepest of human truths, which this man knew first hand from immediate personal experience. He was the living embodiment of these truths yet sadly and inevitably some could only hear it as bad language and heresy. Here is a clinical example: Jane, a businesswoman in her late forties came seeking analysis as her life had been reduced to ruin. She was suicidal having lost her job, husband, friends and self-respect. She had been an alcoholic for four years but now her physical condition had become critical. Early in the analysis she brought the following dream:

I work for London Transport. My work is in the deepest tunnels under the streets of London. It is my job to go down into the sewer every day. The stench is nauseating and each time I go I fear I shall die from asphyxiation, but it is my job to shovel away the daily shit from the whole of London. This is my task and it is truly foul and momentous.

Jane awoke in terror, unable to explain why, yet she could see her dream was telling how her life was at rock bottom. She felt without any value. What she could not see was how the dream indicated that, on a much deeper level, a process had commenced, an initiation, the start of a rite de passage back into life. From the depth and blackness of the sewer, from the dung and excrement of ten million people, new life was offered. Now there was a compost heap, rotting could commence and who knows what beautiful flowers it might later grow. Her unconscious offered her the hope and promise of new life from the shit.

This is what alchemists called putrefactio: exactly as in this dream, vile and disgusting, repulsive and putrefying with so utterly foul a stench no one can bear to be anywhere near it. It is the most sickening of places yet also the place where there is found the gold, the universal panacea, the elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone.

The alchemical process

The alchemists carried out a series of procedures by which they believed they could extract gold from base metal. However, one very important fact needs to be remembered: it was much more than a series of tasks to be performed in their laboratories. Alchemists lived their work in body and soul, totally committed and dedicated to their task and identified in body and mind with what took place in the flask. Some became seriously ill, some died. Like all mystical processes and the unconscious itself, alchemical work can be very dangerous if approached without proper knowledge and preparation.

The process consisted of three works. Paradox must be kept in mind through their entirety. For the first, ignis innaturalis (‘the secret fire’ or ‘the dry water’) had to be prepared. Following this, a mysterious substance called the prima materia had to be found. This is described as something right under your nose, yet you might have to spend your whole lifetime searching to find it. It is that which you reject and despise and it may require a long perilous quest to find it. Once the alchemist had the prima materia he placed it in a mortar, pulverised it with a pestle, mixed it with the ignis innaturalis and then left it out all night to be moistened by the morning dew. There would then be an extremely long period of waiting for the right moment to proceed. Whilst waiting for however long it took, the alchemist would recite prayers and take astrological readings. It was crucial that he waited until it was the right time; forcing it or becoming impatient destroyed the whole procedure. Alchemists were certain in their belief, as with any venture, however good the procedure it will not work if it is performed at the wrong time.

Once the alchemist found the right time he would enclose the resulting substance in ‘the philosopher’s egg’, a hermetically sealed vessel strong enough to contain the chemical reactions and exactly right for the purpose. More waiting could then be necessary in order to obtain the exact vessel and this also must not be rushed. He then placed the egg inside the athanor – a furnace capable of maintaining an even temperature. Alchemists understood there were two opposing principles at work inside the philosopher’s egg. These he described as the sulphur and the mercury, also called the solar and the lunar, the hot and the cold, the male and the female. Today we might call them the masculine and the feminine, the animus and the anima. He applied the heat most carefully and gradually these two principles separated. Following this, there is a long process of decay and putrefaction without which no transformation is possible. When this eventually ended it was the conclusion of ‘the first work’.

After this followed ‘the second work’, known as ‘the death’. The couple dissolve into black, called the nigredo. It is said they produce a perfect child and this proc...