Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology
Lecture 1
Introduction
I have given much thought as to how I should give this course introducing you to the symbolism of alchemy, and have decided on a short interpretation of a good many texts, instead of one text as at other times.
As we have nine lectures, I thought I would give three lectures on Old Greek, three on Arabic, and three on later European alchemy, so that you may obtain at least a glimpse of every phase of the development of this science.
As you know, Dr. Jung has devoted many years of study to this subject, which he practically dug up from the dunghill of the past, for it was a forgotten and despised field of investigation which he has suddenly revived.
The fact that now the smallest pamphlet sells for about 100 Swiss francs, while about ten years ago an excellent book on alchemy could be bought for two or three francs, is actually due to Dr. Jung, because except for the interest displayed by some Freemason circles, and later developments by Rosicrucians, nobody really knew anything about the subject when he began his work on it.
As soon as we get into the texts you will understand, to some extent, how alchemy came to be forgotten, and why still, even in Jungian circles, many people say that they can go along with Dr. Jung as far as myth interpretation is concerned, and with all else he has written, but that when it comes to alchemy they give up, and either do not read, or grumble while reading his books on the subject.
This is because alchemy, in itself, is tremendously dark and complex, and the texts very difficult to read, so that an enormous kind of technical background of knowledge is needed if you wish to penetrate into this field.
I am giving this introductory course to students in the hope that it may enable them to get into the material better, so that when they read Dr. Jung’s books they will have a background of knowledge and be able to understand them.
In Psychology and Alchemy, Dr. Jung has, as it were, introduced alchemy into psychology, first by publishing a series of the dreams of a natural scientist which contain a great amount of alchemical symbolism, and then by quoting from old texts, whereby he hoped to show how important and modern this material is, and how much it has to say to modern man.
He himself discovered alchemy absolutely empirically.
He once told me that he frequently came across certain motifs in his patients’ dreams which he could not understand, and then one day he started to look at old books on alchemy and noticed a connection.
For example, a woman patient dreamt that an eagle was at first flying up to the sky, and then suddenly, turning round its head, began to eat its own wings and dropped back onto the earth.
Dr. Jung was naturally able to understand this symbolism without historical parallels the high soaring spirit, or thought bird, so to speak.
The dream indicates a sort of enantiodromia, the reversal of a psychic situation.
All the same, he was very much struck by the motif which one at once recognizes as archetypal and which one feels convinced must have parallels; it strikes one as a general motif, yet it was nowhere to be found.
Then one day he discovered the Ripley Scroll, which gives a series of pictures of the alchemical process partly published in Psychology and Alchemy where there is an eagle with a king’s head, which turns back and eats its own wings. ~Marie-Louise von Franz, Alchemy : An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology, Page 13-14
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