The Soul's Retort: Psychotherapy Based In Alchemy
The Soul's Retort: Psychotherapy Based in Alchemy
Alchemy survived, and thrived, into the late 18th century as the underbelly to Christianity. These two seemingly contradictory belief systems stood as the heretic and the orthodox in the western psyche; they breathe in relationship to each other. Together they represent an example of the dualistic way in which we, as human beings, perceive archetypal forces. We have a tendency to oversimplify and judge one energetic flow from an archetypal source as good, and the other complementary and balancing force as bad. This tendency exists in much psychological thinking, again reminding us of the humble abilities of the human mind to take in the magnificent grace of the intelligence of the forces that surround us. We can do better.
We would not have the hidden wisdom of alchemy if it were not for the Protestant and Roman Catholic religions. Alchemy existed before the birth of Jesus, but this is not contradictory, because the story of the dying eternal god, with which the Christian doctrine is occupied, is but the baton in the relay race through time for this archetype. Unlike in, for instance, the myths of the dying yet eternal god Dionysus or Osiris, in Christianity the practitioner is divorced from a direct relationship with the god/archetype. The worshipper is instructed to go through the mediating hierophant of a minister or a preacher. And alchemy was needed for compensation, its emphasis on interior "knowing" flourished during Christianity's watch. The soul will find a way.
C.G. Jung understood this, and realized that to understand the modern western psyche as it grows up and out of the Christian paradigm, it became necessary to fathom the arcane, confusing, often annoying writings and drawings of the alchemists. He spent thirty years studying, researching, and writing about alchemy. No less than three complete volumes of his collected works, and considerable other essays, such as "The...
Please login to view the full essay...