In Mysterium Conjunctionis, Jung wrote
For thirty years I have studied these psychic processes under all possible conditions and have assured myself that the alchemists as well as the great philosophies of the East are referring to just such experiences, and that it is chiefly our ignorance of the psyche if these experiences appear “mystic.” (CW 14, § 762)
Carl Jung found in alchemy more than a prefiguration of his psychology. He found in it the means to write about mystical experiences almost freely. His numerous references to alchemy were his psychological explanations of the mystical experience phenomenon. Mystical experiences are extremely numinous symbols of conjunction of opposites that enter consciousness.
Jung writes:
“The real subject of Hermetic philosophy is the coniunctio oppositorum. Alchemy characterizes its ‘child’ on the one hand as the stone (e.g., the carbuncle), and on the other hand as the homunculus, or the filius sapientiae or even the homo altus. This is precisely the figure we meet in the Apocalypse as the son of the sun-woman, whose birth story seems like a paraphrase of the birth of Christ—a paraphrase which was repeated in various forms by the alchemists. In fact, they posit their stone as a parallel to Christ.” (CW 11-I, par. 738)
As we know, the Opus alchemicum normally consisted of four steps: nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo. Albedo corresponded to the first mystical experience also called the small stone and rubedo, to the second. The reason Jung was fond of Gerard Dorn is that the latter added a third conjunction in this process after the stone. Jung knew that the Stone was not the true final state of wholeness.
The goal of the rubedo phase is the Philosophical Stone. That mystical experience has a thousand names and Jung often used them. Whenever Jung used them, he was always talking about the conjunction of spirit and matter. Here are a few examples: lapis, rebis, filius philosophorum (son of the philosophers), filius solis et luna (son of the sun and the moon), the hermaphrodite, aurum non vulgi (non-vulgar gold), the green lion, aqua permanens, elixir, panacea, tincture, quintessence, living fount, the pearl, homo altus, pater mirabilis, salvator, filius macrocosmi, etc.
Jung’s last major work Mysterium conjunctionis, the mystery of the conjunction, is devoted precisely to the study of mystical experiences in alchemy. Part VI is dedicated to Gerard Dorn’s model of the three conjunctions of opposites. The first conjunction is the unio mentalis, the union of the spirit and the soul. The second conjunction is known as the Philosopher’s Stone (lapis philosophorum) and consists of the conjunction of spirit and matter. From this second experience comes the integral man. The third conjunction is the rotundum and is a conjunction of the integral man with the unus mundus.
Jung considered that alchemists were projecting contents of the unconscious on their chemical experiences. The problem with that assertion is that every book on alchemy used different terms and different processes to achieve the supreme goal. Jung knew that fact. Therefore, the work of the alchemists could not have been real chemical experiences. It would be more appropriate to state that because those authors were the finest intellectuals of their time, they used the alchemical symbols to explain their mystical experiences and their personal processes in the achievement of the Philosopher’s stone. The alchemical lore was only a hermetic way to speak about mystical experiences in the shadow of the Church and the Inquisition. The gold, the precious stone and the treasure in the field are images of those experiences.
We cannot be so far away from the truth when we read about the foreignness and obsoleteness of alchemy. Even though we are prone to think that the ancients were less intelligent than us, it was evidently not always the case. Unfortunately, Wolfgang Giegerich is one of those Jungian interpreters who have not shown any understanding of Jung 's use of alchemy in his psychology. Writing that being unsatisfied with clinical observation “Jung obviously needed to go away from immediate psychological experience, turn his back on psychology … in order to find something really other” (Giegerich, 2013, 372) is a flagrant misunderstanding of his psychology and alchemy. Carl Jung never stopped studying the human soul and psychological experiences were always at the center of his attention. Alchemy was the language he used as a physician to follow the rule « Primum non nocere », first do no harm to protect those who were not ready to understand him.
According to Jung, the lapis philosophorum or philosopher's stone is a signpost of the individuation process. As such, it is the Self becoming conscious. In AION, Jung precised:
“The “thousand names” of the lapis philosophorum correspond to the innumerable Gnostic designations for the Anthropos, which make it quite obvious what is meant: the greater, more comprehensive Man, that indescribable whole consisting of the sum of conscious and unconscious processes. This objective whole, the antithesis of the subjective ego-psyche, is what I have called the self, and this corresponds exactly to the idea of the Anthropos.” (CW 9ii, par. 296)
To Jung, the lapis philosophorum as the precious stone of the philosopher is a mystical experience that changes one view of the world:
“The alchemists sought for that effect which would heal not only the disharmonies of the physical world but the inner psychic conflict as well, the “affliction of the soul”; and they called this effect the lapis Philosophorum.” (CW 14, par. 674)
For more see
