Modern Philosophy

Alchemy and Jung: The Psychology of Transmutation

Jung, Alchemy, psychology, alchemy book

If today we refer to the books of Alchemy, fascinated by their wisdom, we owe it to a large extent to the work of the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who devoted a significant part of his writing work and research to the field of Alchemy. In fact, if today we know it rosarium Philosophorum (released in full translation by Daedaleos publications with the title "The Rose of the Philosophers") as the most representative book of Alchemy, is because Jung himself examined it and commented on it extensively, incorporating in his Analytical Psychology the conclusions of his study of this unique book.

 

Jung, Alchemy, psychology, alchemy book

 

Who was Carl Jung?

A favorite student of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung (Carl Gustav Jung, 1875-1961) after his ideological separation from the father of Psychoanalysis, he studied Alchemy and sought the psychological background of the Great Work, wanting to prove that Freud's Sexual Theory had significant limitations. Somehow, and thoroughly studying the esoteric traditions, the myths of the peoples, the religious phenomena and also the psychology of his patients, he formulated the theory of the Collective Unconscious and the Archetypes. It is essentially about the collective memory of humanity which manifests itself in each person with internal behavioral impulses, common to a certain extent for all, which, as they are involved with the individual unconscious of each one, manifest themselves in diverse ways.

However, the careful study of the patterns that one can distinguish in myths, traditions and in general the fantasy of people, makes evident the principles themselves of the internal drives, with the main archetype of Integration, or otherwise the Self.

The Symbols of Alchemy

The manifestation of the Self, that is, the shift from the Ego to a new, more complete and balanced psychic center (which is the Self) occurs through the process of Individuation. It is a series of experiential ferments on all levels - mental and emotional - whose quality is similar to what the Alchemists wrote.

What Jung noticed was that the Alchemy books did not only describe chemical experiments, but that in these very experiments the alchemists unconsciously projected their own spiritual changes. This was also the reason why the language in the various Alchemy books is symbolic. Not necessarily to hide a tangible process but because the symbol can better express the psychological transmutation.

 

Jung, Alchemy, psychology, alchemy book

 

The Psychological Value of Alchemy Today

As Petros Papapostolou writes, in his latest book "The Rose of the Philosophers: The Secret of Spiritual Alchemy" published by Daedaleos publications, "a dominant part of Alchemy is the Sacred Marriage, that secret union which corresponds to the Transference during psychotherapy , but also in the transmission of ideas and feelings in everyday human relationships. An ally of this theory and a catalytic enzyme of the above, the images from Rosarium Philosophorum. Jung uses these visual allegories as the "Myth of Ariadne", which have a specific meaning. The ultimate goal is at every moment the Individuation, while the symbols contribute to the return of the Soul to the past, to the original and primitive order of human society, and on the other hand to the future, to an inner order of the Soul. The latter seeks its Unity and Wholeness, but as it wanders in a chaotic society, its personal entropy usually projects itself as chaotic. Against this destiny of modern man, Alchemy projects in a visual, practical, philosophical and technical way those unconscious contents that press to emerge at the fringes of Consciousness, in order to compensate for its difficulties and bring it back to its beginnings, to the Sources of its Wholeness".

Learn all about the mysteries of Alchemy in the new book by Petros Papapostolos «The Philosophers' Rose: The Secret of Spiritual Alchemy» published by Daidaleos Publications.

 

Petros Papapostolou/ The Rose of the Philosophers/ Daedaleos Publications, 2022

 

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