Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz – Quotations
The text of the ßall ar-Rumuz with my commentary is only an hors d’oeuvre for the meal to come. We decided to call the whole text-collection Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum (CALA). ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 12
It is the unique merit of C. G. Jung to have shown that alchemy in its origins was not only the beginning of chemistry but was also a kind of religious yoga and that we also find in it the prehistory of modern depth psychology. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 15
I recommend reading S. Mahdihassan’s book Indian Alchemy or Rasayana. The author still ‘believes’ in alchemy and with it that certain substances have a soul. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 16
A great amount of alchemical symbols cannot be seen any longer in material processes but they can be found within us. The non-chemical, symbolic content of alchemy is thus of eminent importance for the history of depth psychology. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 16
Jung has independently rediscovered a similar method, which he called active imagination. This is a disciplined creative use of imagination, which has nothing to do with fantasizing. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 16
This immortalization was simultaneously a complete regeneration of the dead personality: a rebirth not out of the womb of a woman, but out of Nun, the primordial waters of the universe. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 17
He [Zosimos] explicitly mentions that the process must be accompanied by a specific form of meditation, which has a decisive influence on the chemical process. Zosimos belonged to the Gnostic-Hermetic sect which worshipped the God-man figure Poimandres. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 17
We see the same process in the East, for the word maya, building material, is also related to mater. We think of maya as illusion, deception, but it is also building material, illusion which becomes real. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 22
So Tantric philosophy even calls matter the distinctness of divine thought. The East starts inside and works outwards into outer reality; we begin, on the contrary, with outward reality and never ask ourselves about the inner processes from which material tangible objects spring. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 22
If we regard alchemy rationally, it seems complete nonsense, but it is exceedingly meaningful psychologically, the whole riddle or secret of the human psyche is to be found in it. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 22
Jung’s most outstanding observation that especially Tantra yoga resembles alchemy has since been corroborated by new facts: a Zosimos text has been discovered by Fuat Sezgin which contains pictures of the coniunctio of king and queen, sun and moon. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 22
Whatever their style of love was, these Islamic mystics developed an awareness of the anima as being an independent inner figure in man. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 23
Miguel Asin Palacios has collected a whole series of stories, which illustrate the encounter of the mystic with his anima. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 24
What we scornfully call magic is, however, nothing else but a more archaic form of religion which is characterized by treating matter as containing a divine and psychic element. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 30
Magic relates to matter instead of only manipulating it. It tries to influence matter, not by technological means, but by psychological means. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 30
But towards the end of his [Jung] life, mainly by studying synchronistic phenomena, it became more and more probable for Jung that the objective psyche relates somehow to inorganic matter, as if it were so to speak its inner psychic aspect. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 30
Therefore Jung postulated an unus mundus, a unitary world, which when observed from outside appears as matter and when observed from inside appears as the collective unconscious. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 30
Dr Abt is now in the possession of a valuable collection of Arabic alchemical manuscripts, which we intend to publish. A look at their content shows that they constitute the missing link within the mystical branch of alchemy, between the Gnostic-Hermetic Greek alchemy and that of the mystical Latin alchemy in Europe. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 11
When I lectured on alchemy in the late 1960s at the Jung Institute in Zurich, I expressed my anger that I could not get an answer from the Hyderabad Library (India) where Stapleton indicates that they have many manuscripts of Ibn Umail. Even C. G. Jung could not get an answer. A student, Dr Abt, picked up the thread and offered to go to Hyderabad. ~Marie-Louise Von Franz, Symbols Kitab Hall ar-Rumuz, Page 11
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