The Secret Of Psychological Alchemy

Alchemy is not about turning lead or other metals into gold – at least that’s how Carl G. Jung’s followers understand it. Perhaps instead there are some people who have accomplished the true secret of alchemy: the material, earthly and unconscious is symbolically transformed into spirit, meaning and consciousness. These three things represent the “real gold”.

This important work is carried out under the Hermetic assumption that it is important to make the mind “physical” and to “spiritualize” the body. Basically, this represents a journey under the aegis of the god Hermes / Mercury, who is considered to be the mediator of opposites. According to Jung, the entire subject of the transmutation of stones and metals has to do with the transformation of the psyche that is projected onto matter.

The alchemical work is encoded in symbols – an example of this would be the Holy Grail. Matter transforms into form, the unconscious into the conscious. This is a kind of transubstantiation, a “change of essence”, or transformation of matter into pneuma or spirit.

The secret of alchemy and its relationship to psychological development

If we start from what we said above, when we talk about alchemy we are actually talking about sublimation, distillation, and condensation or coagulation. The central process is regressive (dissolution) and progressive (condensation). These would also be the basic steps of the alchemical process:

First stage: Nigredo

Nigredo means blackening. This is the process of dissolution (melancholy) characterized by regression or descent into hell or the unconscious.

Second stage: albedo

Albedo refers to the color white and stands for purification and catharsis. At this stage it is crucial to face his shadow and get support from his anima (in the case of a man) or his animus (in the case of a woman).

The individual has to recognize, internalize and master all “black” contents of the unconscious. In this phase the foundation for enlightenment is laid.

Third stage: Rubedo

The rubedo, or glowing red-gold, refers to the iridescence or mystical coloring that occurs in the final stage of the alchemical process. During this moment of change, meaning will incarnate as symbolic gold or as the sun reborn from the womb of Mother Earth and her darkness.

The great secret of psychological alchemy

In the next step we describe steps for a path of initiation that has been followed by hundreds of people. We have presented it in the form of ideas and concepts so that our readers can create their own symbolic image on their journey.

• The first step is as follows: In order to free himself, the absolute individual constructs a magical octagon. It is from this place in time and space that it accomplishes its great work.
• With the help of alchemy , it separates the elements that are united in the world of forms and unites other elements that are separated by an emotional mirage.

• Through magic and spirit it integrates into itself everything that has been decomposed by the spiritual fog of illusion.
• Through the process of individuation it builds a bridge into existence by relying on shadows, the imagination and the symbolic. These three represent the ancient sphinxes of the universe.

However, only one who is a true individual can cross the four circles:

The four circles

• The first circle is the place where the personal unconscious lives. In this circle the dead are drawn towards earth.
• The collective unconscious then lives in the second circle . There the archetypal forces are drawn towards the planetary psychosphere.

• In the third circle there is the cosmic unconscious. There the demons are drawn towards the stars.
• The universal consciousness inhabits the fourth circle. In this the gods are drawn towards their own ideas. This is followed by recruitment.
• Finally the absolute individual frees himself from the four circles. It lives at every level and distills its own essence.

So we see that long before modern psychology there were ways to achieve perfection of being or to become an absolute individual.

This means that alchemy was not only the forerunner of chemistry, but also that of analytical psychology. Hermes Trismegistus is the first proponent of these ideas.