Alchemy & Psychology in the Labratory of Living Life

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TENDING THE FIRE: THE ALCHEMY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

by

William A. Cesarotti

Submitted in partial fulfillment

for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

Pacifica Graduate Institute

5 March 2011


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UMI Number: 1492828

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2011 William A. Cesarotti

All rights reserved


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I certify that I have read this paper and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable

standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as aproduct for the degree of Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

___________________________

Sukey Fontelieu, M.A., M.F.T.Faculty Advisor

On behalf of the thesis committee, I accept this paper as partial fulfillment of therequirements for Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

___________________________

Allen Koehn, D.Min., M.F.T.Research Coordinator

On behalf of the Counseling Psychology program, I accept this paper as partial

fulfillment of the requirements for Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

______________________________Wendy Davee, M.A., M.F.T.

Chair, Counseling Psychology Program


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Abstract

Tending the Fire: The Alchemy of Psychotherapy

By William A. Cesarotti

Carl Jung and other depth psychologists have written much about the application

of alchemical imagery and metaphors to psychology; however, those images and

metaphors were created not through discussion but by alchemists working in laboratories.

This study documents the authors investigation of the psychological meaning of

alchemical images and metaphors through his attempt to recreate traditional alchemical

laboratory experiences.

The research approach was a combination of Clark Moustakass heuristic method

and Robert Romanyshyns alchemical hermeneutic method. Dialog was created between

the authors experiences in the laboratory, insights gained from active imagination,

readings from ancient alchemists and modern psychologists, and clinical experiences and

is analyzed from a depth psychological orientation.

Insights into the alchemical operations ofmortificatio andsolutio and the

regulation of heat as metaphors for psychotherapy are presented along with clinical

implications regarding the therapeutic alliance, initial stages of the therapeutic process,

and the qualities of an effective therapist.


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Dedication

This work is dedicated to

all my fellow alchemists, past and present,

who have toiled in the heat of the laboratory

and to my threesorores mystica:

Sukey Fontelieu, Virginia Angel, and Chris Faulconer.


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Acknowledgements

This thesis could not have been written without the incredible support, sincere

encouragement, and amazing skill of my editor Jan Freya. Words cannot properly convey

my deep gratitude to her for her assistance in this piece of soul work.

Deep, heartfelt thanks go to my family, Rachel, Jeremy, Edie, and Miriam Gollub,

for their constant love and support throughout this seemingly endless process.

My work in the laboratory may have ended in disaster if not for finding Steve

Kalec and his Alchemystica Yahoo group. Steves willingness to answer questions about

the alchemical work and to share the results of his own work is unparalleled.

I sing a song of gratitude and praise to Laughing Cloud and Singing Deer, for the

amazing Vision Quest that helped me move out ofalbedo and toward rubedo.

The presence of Allen Koehn can be found throughout these pages: in between

the words, behind the scenes, and lingering at the boundaries. That presence is sometimes

noticed, and sometimes overlooked, much like the dirt under your fingernails.

This work consumed my life for more than 2 years. Everyone with whom I have

interacted during that time has had some impact on this work. Many of them were notable

in their support and encouragement throughout this process: Amanda Norcross, Deborah

Keller, Evelyn Skon, Kris Lenz, Virginia Angel, Dan McDonald, Julie Snyder, Lindsey

Noble, Jodie Burton, Linda Terrill, Deidra Little, Kate Perry, Chris St. Clair, Mindy

Moffatt, and Tom Tucker. Thank you all, named and unnamed!


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Table of Contents

Chapter I Introduction..................................................................................................1

Researchers Interest in the Topic............................................................................2Guiding Purpose of the Thesis.................................................................................5

Method .....................................................................................................................5

Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................10

Chapter II Literature Review.......................................................................................11

What is Alchemy?..................................................................................................11

What Use Is Alchemy for Psychology? .................................................................14

The Stages of Alchemy..........................................................................................17Black: Nigredo .......................................................................................................17

The Operations of Alchemy...................................................................................21Mortificatio ................................................................................................22

Solutio........................................................................................................24

Models of the Stages of Psychotherapy.................................................................26

Meier and Boivins Seven-Phase Model....................................................27Chaplins Feminist Model..........................................................................28

Prochaska, DiClemente, and Norcrosss Stages of Change Model ...........29

Correlating Alchemy With Psychotherapy ............................................................30The Body in Psychotherapy...................................................................................34

Gendlins Focusing ....................................................................................34

Woodmans Conscious Femininity............................................................35Mindells Dreambody ................................................................................36

The Body in Alchemy............................................................................................37

Active Imagination.................................................................................................38

Chapter III In the Laboratory........................................................................................40

Introduction............................................................................................................40

Prelude: Masters of Fire.........................................................................................40Invitation: Meeting the Senior Student ..................................................................55

The First Step:Mortificatio/Grinding....................................................................59

The Second Step: Solutio/Dissolving.....................................................................70Other Operations....................................................................................................84

Summary................................................................................................................84

Chapter IV Conclusions................................................................................................86

Conclusions............................................................................................................86

Summaries and Applications of the Metaphorical Findings..................................88

The Metaphor of Masters of Fire ...........................................................88Mortificatio as Metaphor ...........................................................................89


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Solutio as Metaphor ...................................................................................90

Suggestions for Further Research ..........................................................................91

Personal Reflections on the Process ......................................................................92

References..........................................................................................................................94


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List of Figures

Figure 1 Library and laboratory, or books and body..................................................1

Alchemical illustration.Source: Maier, M. (Ed.). (1988c). Tripus aureus. In A. Klossowski De Rola (Ed.),

The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp. 167-

182). London: Thames, p. 118. (Original work published 1618) Reprinted with

permission

Figure 2 Distillation of the Spirit of Wine using a small volume water bath...........42

Photograph of authors laboratory process.

Source: Author.

Figure 3 King and Queen together in the bath .........................................................45Alchemical illustration.

Source: Anonymous. (2003).Rosarium philosophorum: The rosary of the

philosophers (P. Smith, Trans.). Edmonds, WA: Holmes, p. 26. (Original work

published 1550) Reprinted with permission.

Figure 4 King and Queen dissolving in bath............................................................46Alchemical illustration.

Source: Mylius, J. D. (1988b). Philosophia reformata. In A. Klossowski De Rola

(Ed.), The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp.167-182). London: Thames, p. 174. (Original work published 1622) Reprinted

with permission.

Figure 5 King and Queen in the flask.......................................................................47

Alchemical illustration.

Source: From Mylius, J. D. (1988a).Anatomia auri. In A. Klossowski De Rola(Ed.), The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp.

198-207). London: Thames, p. 204. (Original work published 1628) Reprinted

with permission.

Figure 6 Rosemary in a large volume oil bath .........................................................53

Photograph of authors laboratory process.Source: Author.

Figure 7 Rosemary in a medium volume sand bath. ................................................54

Photograph of authors laboratory process.Source: Author.


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Figure 8 Ascending and descending birds................................................................56

Alchemical illustration.Source: Lambsprinck. (1988). De lapide philosophico. In A. Klossowski De Rola

(Ed.), The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp.

105-116). London: Thames, p. 193. (Original work published 1625) Reprintedwith permission.

Figure 9. Ascending and descending vapor .......................................................................57Alchemical illustration.

Source: Maier, M. (1988b). Symbola aureae mensae. In A. Klossowski De Rola



Figure 10 Image ofMortificatio as the piercing of an egg.........................................61

Alchemical illustration.Source: Maier, M. (1988a). Atalanta fugiens. In A. Klossowski De Rola (Ed.),

The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp. 68-104).London: Thames, p. 75. (Original work published 1618) Reprinted with

permission.

Figure 11 Rosemary before grinding..........................................................................62Photograph of authors laboratory process.

Source: Author.

Figure 12 Rosemary after grinding ............................................................................62


Source: Author.

Figure 13 King devoured by wolf and reborn from fire.............................................68

Alchemical illustration.

Source: Maier, M. (1988a). Atalanta fugiens. In A. Klossowski De Rola (Ed.),The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp. 68-104).

London: Thames, p. 83. (Original work published 1618) Reprinted with

permission.

Figure 14 King dismembered and reborn from coffin ...............................................69

Alchemical illustration.Source: Maier, M. (1988a). Atalanta fugiens. In A. Klossowski De Rola (Ed.),

The golden game: Alchemical engravings of the seventeenth century (pp. 68-104).

London: Thames, p. 93. (Original work published 1618) Reprinted withpermission.


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Figure 15 Two fishes, Soul and Spirit, swimming in the sea of the Body .................71

Alchemical illustration.Source: Lambsprinck. (1988). De lapide philosophico. In A. Klossowski De Rola



Figure 16 Solutio: mortified (ground) rosemary soaked in water for three days .......75Photograph of authors laboratory process.

Source: Author.

Figure 17 Mortified (ground) rosemary (left) and unmortified rosemary (right)in water.......................................................................................................78


Source: Author.


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List of Tables

Table 1 Synthesis of Models of Psychotherapy and Stages and

Operations of Alchemy..............................................................................31


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Chapter IIntroduction

Figure 1. Library and laboratory, or books and body. From Tripus aureus, by Michael

Maier, 1618. Reprinted in The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth

Century, byA. Klossowski De Rola (Ed.), 1988c, p. 118. Copyright 1988 by Thames.Reprinted with permission.

The imagery and metaphors of alchemy have inspired many volumes of writing

by psychologists (e.g., Edinger, 1994; Jung, 1944/1968b, 1946/1966, 1955/1970;

Hillman, 1981a, 1981b, 1991, 1993, 1997a; Greene, 1988; Raff, 2000; Schwartz-Salant,

1998; Marlan, 2005; von Franz, 1980). According to Jung (1944/1968b), these inspiring

images and metaphors were created by the alchemists when they projected unconscious

contents onto the work they were doing in their laboratories. Much of the psychological


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exploration of alchemy has been like the left side of Figure 1: a discussion of the imagery

found in the alchemical books. This thesis focuses instead on the right side of Figure 1

and explores this imagery by attempting work and projections similar to those conducted

by the ancient alchemists in their laboratories. Jungian analysts Marion Woodman (1985)

and Arnold Mindell (1982), and professor and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin (1978)

found psychological gold by including the body in their practice of therapy. The intent

here is to demonstrate that additional gold can be found by similarly including the body,

the work in the laboratory, in the practice of psychological alchemy.

Researchers Interest in the Topic

The seed of this thesis was discovered when I uncovered a copy of Manfred

Juniuss (1982/1985) work,Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy, in a secondhand

bookstore. Until that moment, I had assumed that the physical work of the alchemists had

been lost to posterity; leaving generations of interested people to wonder at the

mysterious images and texts they had left behind. In Juniuss writing, I found a clear,

detailed description, by someone living in this century, of how to conduct physical

alchemical processes derived from the old alchemical texts. The use of plants instead of

minerals as the basis for the work was enticing because it did not require hazardous

substances such as the strong acids or liquid mercury used by the ancient alchemists

when working with metals and minerals. The techniques Junius used with plants were

also within the scope of the chemistry lab work I had done during my undergraduate

education. Despite the excitement the fantasy of conducting these experiments brought

me, they required an investment in equipment and time I did not feel prepared to make. I

therefore buried the seed of this project in the earth for safekeeping, and as the squirrel

often does, forgot about it.


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Years later, while attending Pacifica Graduate Institute, this forgotten seed

received the moisture it needed to germinate. Studying the depth psychology founded by

Carl G. Jung, I encountered his extensive work on the subject of alchemy as well as

research and discussion on the subject by Marie von Franz (1980), Edward Edinger

(1994), James Hillman (1980, 1981a, 1981b, 1991, 1993, 1997a), Jeffrey Raff (2000),

and Stanton Marlan (2005). Wading through the sea of words on the psychological

interpretations of alchemy, I sensed that something was missing. As Jung (1937/1968)

asked, If the alchemist is admittedly using the chemical process only symbolically, then

why does he work in a laboratory with crucibles and alembics? (p. 243). Why even use

laboratory objects and processes symbolically, unless there was something about them

that was important? If alchemists who worked in laboratories created these images and

texts, what then might be learned now about the meaning of their images and words from

also working in a laboratory? The seed had sprouted.

That sprout might have withered in the dark of self-doubt, if not for a timely

conversation with one of my instructors, Sukey Fontelieu. She provided the insightful

light of the sun that the sprout needed to grow. With her encouragement, the sprout broke

ground and began to take root. As it did, I felt more and more strongly called to do this

work. Despite my efforts to explore a different thesis topic that I had originally planned

to pursue, this work would not let me go. I felt that alchemy was calling me to go back to

its roots in the laboratory.

Robert Romanyshyn (2007) stated that in research with soul in mind the

researcher is claimed by the work through his or her complexes (p. 62). As I explored

doing physical alchemy, a parallel process developed in my personal therapy. My

sessions began to focus on my own disconnect from my body. Throughout the process of


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this thesis persistent themes arose regarding accepting my body, reconnecting with it, and

learning to listen to it. The alchemist and physician Paracelsus (1658/1976) claimed that

everything is divided into three, namely, into Salt, Sulphur, Mercury (Vol. 2, p. 317),

and that Mercury is the spirit, Sulphur is the soul, and Salt is the body (Vol. 1, p. 125).

As I was working to join the body with the soulful and spiritual discussions of

psychological alchemy, this alchemy was working to rejoin my body, soul and spirit.

Another aspect of research with soul in mind described by Romanyshyn (2007) is

finding that ones work is already situated within a larger pattern (p. 83). When I had

first looked into performing practical alchemy, I could find only two modern books on

the subject: Juniuss (1982/1985)Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy and Frater

Albertuss (1974) The Alchemists Handbook, the most recent having been published

over 20 years ago. While I was considering this as my thesis topic, four new books were

published that contained instructions for doing practical alchemy: Brian Cotnoirs (2006)

The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy, Mark Stavishs (2006) The Path of Alchemy:

Energetic Healing and the World of Natural Magic, Rubellus Petrinuss (1997/2007) The

Great Alchemical Work of Eirenaeus Philalethes, Nicholas Flamel and Basil Valentine,

and Robert Bartletts (2007)Real Alchemy: A Primer of Practical Alchemy (2nd

ed.). A

new annual alchemy conference, the International Alchemy Conference (Alchemy Guild

& Modern Mystery School, 2011), was established in 2007, with many programs focused

on practical alchemy. In the midst of all this activity regarding practical alchemy, I felt

like I was part of a wave, part of alchemys own efforts to bring the laboratory back to its

study, to have its body remembered. I very much felt like I was in service to the

unfinished business in the soul of the work (Romanyshyn, 2007, p. 83).


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Guiding Purpose of the Thesis

The guiding purpose of this thesis is to learn something about the process of

psychotherapy by studying my experiences while doing physical alchemical operations.

The words and images of alchemy have been used as signposts of the experience of

psychotherapy (Edinger, 1994; Jung, 1946/1966; Raff, 2000); perhaps performing

alchemy as an alchemist will reveal something about practicing psychotherapy as a

psychotherapist. I believe this research will benefit the field of psychology in at least

three ways: first, it may open up a new approach within depth psychology for studying

psychological alchemy; second, as I am a beginning therapist, what I discover may make

psychological alchemy more approachable to other beginning therapists; and third,

applying alchemical ideas to the practical work of therapy may show therapists of all

traditions that alchemical imagery can enrich their therapeutic understanding and

experience.

Method.

Inspired by Jungian analyst Edward Edingers (1994)Anatomy of the Psyche, I

desired to explore specific operations of alchemy in some detail. My intuition warned me

that the operations should not be studied in isolation and that they should be experienced

as part of an overall process that has a beginning and an end. With the source materials I

had available, I decided to attempt the creation of a Plant Stone, a process analogous to

the ancient alchemists goal of creating the Philosophers Stone (Anonymous, 1991;

Junius, 1982/1985) but using plant material.

I choose to make this Stone from the plant rosemary, for a number of reasons.

First, Junius (1982/1985) recommended that one begin alchemical work with plants using

either rosemary or peppermint, as they are both rich in essential oils. Researching these


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plants, I found that in Shakespeares (1992)Hamlet, Ophelia said, Theres rosemary,

thats for remembrance (4:5, line 199). Writing in 1653, botanist Nicholas Culpeper

(1992) stated that rosemary quickens a weak memory (p. 47). Herbalist Scott

Cunningham (1985) claimed, To receive knowledge or the answer to a question, burn

rosemary on charcoal and smell its smoke (pp. 189-190). Organic gardener Jackie

French (1993) claimed Greek students wore garlands of rosemary in their hair (p. 11).

Using rosemary, the herb of remembrance (p. 6) for my research seemed an appropriate

choice, because Romanyshyn (2007) described the process of research that keeps soul in

mind as a work of an-amnesis, of un-forgetting and re-membering what has been lost

(p. 121).

Having selected the process and the plant, I chose to explore this material using

the qualitative method of heuristic research. Psychology researcher Clark Moustakas

(1990) stated, The focus in a heuristic quest is on recreation of the lived experience

(p. 39). Although Junius (1982/1985) described the technical details for how to enact the

operations I was to do, how was I to connect with the lived experience of the alchemists

of 400 years ago? Both Junius and Cotnoir (2006) quote from the alchemical textMutus

Liber, written in 1677: Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et inviences (McLean,

1991, p. 42), which Cotnoir (2006) translated as Pray, read, read, read, reread, work, and

you shall discover (p. 13). The first step of my efforts to recreate the lived experience of

the alchemists was therefore to read their words, starting with a list of famous alchemists

provided by Cotnoir: Paracelsus, Nicolas Flamel, Basil Valentine, and Michael Maier

(p. 17).

While reading Michael Maiers (1617/2002)Atalanta Fugiens, I was struck by the

remarkable emblems he included in the text. Moustakas (1990) stated that heuristic


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research is illuminated through careful descriptions, illustrations, metaphors, poetry, and

other creative renderings (p. 42); therefore these emblems and the metaphors they

depicted with such intricate and astonishing imagery would aid in my endeavors to

recreate the lived experience of the ancient alchemists. This idea was corroborated by

Jungian analyst Jeffrey Raff (2000), who claimed, Meditation on the symbols of the

alchemists will not only bring us more deeply into the alchemical tradition, we will also

stand a good chance of duplicating the experiences of the alchemists portrayed in our

own psyche (p. 83). For a meditation method, Raff recommended the use of active

imagination, which aligned with Jungs (1937/1968 [CW12]) belief that active

imagination was the thing that sets the process really going (p. 255 [para. 357]);

therefore, the second step of my effort to recreate the lived experience of the alchemists

was to conduct active imagination on alchemical emblems that I selected to represent

each of the operations that I would enact.

When I began conducting the physical operations, I noticed a wide variety of

experiences in myself and in the material I was using. Jung (1937/1968 [CW12])

described that the alchemists had certain psychic experiences which appeared to him as

the particular behavior of the chemical process (p. 245 [para. 346]), which Jung believed

were the projections of the alchemists unconscious onto the chemical process. He further

believed that the real root of alchemy is to be sought . . . in the projections of individual

investigators (p. 245 [para. 346]). To explore this to the fullest, during the operations, I

imagined how the material itself might be experiencing the process; therefore, the third

and fourth steps of my efforts to recreate the lived experiences of the alchemists were to

conduct the physical operations and to be open to any and all experiences that I witnessed

in the material or myself during the process.


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As I proceeded with my quest to create the Plant Stone, I noticed experiences in

my life outside the laboratory that were similar to the processes going on in the

laboratory. Jung warned that as a result of the projection there is an unconscious identity

between the psyche of the alchemist and the arcane substance (1937/1968, p. 267 [CW

12, para. 376]). The fifth step in my effort to recreate the lived experience of the

alchemists was therefore to take notes on my experiences and general psychic state

outside of the laboratory.

After having my own experiences of the physical operations of alchemy, I

immersed myself in the psychological literature on the operations of alchemy. I then

incubated my lived experience of the physical operations with my lived experiences of

psychotherapy and with various writings on the psychological interpretation of alchemy. I

alternated periods of immersion and incubation in a rhythm not entirely under my control.

During this process, I found that my experiences in the laboratory reminded me of the

experiences of two psychotherapy clients with whom I had previously worked. Some

information from their case histories, disguised to prevent identification, is included

where it benefits the analysis of the alchemical operations. Eventually, this process led to

my own synthesis of the meanings of these operations for psychotherapy.

I subsequently found that the methodology I used for my research has several

similarities to Romanyshyns (2007) alchemical hermeneutic method, which he described

as being creative, open-ended, and supple and subject to change as the research

progresses (p. 264). I found that I needed to be flexible and open-ended in order to

develop my own methodology in service to the work. Alchemical hermeneutics is

described as being imaginative, giving primacy to imaginal landscapes of soul (p. 264).

I found the use of imagination to be a critical part of my methodology. Alchemical


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hermeneutics uses a symbolic mode of understanding (p. 266), frequently through the

use of active imagination, which was a central part of my methodology.

As a method of an-amnesis, a method of un-forgetting (Romanyshyn, 2007, p.

270), alchemical hermeneutics involves looking backwards toward what is forgotten and

asking to be remembered (p. 270). A major focus of my method was the attempt to un-

forget and remember the experiences of the ancient alchemists in their laboratories.

Alchemical hermeneutics is also a method of re-creation or reiteration of unfinished

events (p. 271) and Romanyshyn notes that in this process the researcher might find

himself or herself accompanied by a guide (p. 271). In my practice of active

imagination, I found a guide who accompanied me through this work. With all these

similarities, the methodology I used could be considered a variation of Romanyshyns

alchemical hermeneutic method.

The methodology I used also parallels the three levels of certainty in Islamic

gnosticism, as described by professor of Islamic Studies Henry Corbin (1998). According

to Corbin, the first level is theoretical certainty, an example of this is hearing from

someone else of fire, and what is it like (p. 164). The parallel in my method was reading

the words of the alchemists about their operations. The second level is the certainty of

eyewitness testimony, to see the fire oneself, and understand its nature personally (p.

164). The parallel in my method was performing the physical operations of alchemy

myself. The third level is the certainty which is personally and gnostically lived and

realized (p. 164), whereby one becomes the fire, or is consumed by the fire (p. 164).

The parallel in my method was the way the work transformed me and the experiences I

had during active imagination. For Corbin, the inclusion of all three levels is necessary to

achieve the esoteric meanings in stories of visionary experiences. I therefore included all


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three levels as a methodology for unveiling the visionary experiences of the alchemists as

they worked in their laboratories.

Overview of Chapters

Chapter II presents a brief review of the literature that currently exists on the

psychological interpretations of alchemy, the process of alchemy, the process of

psychotherapy, and how the two relate. This review also includes discussion of active

imagination and the use of the body in psychotherapy, as they were important aspects of

my methodology.

Chapter III presents a dialog that relates my experiences performing physical

alchemical operations, my experiences from active imagination, my experience with

clients in therapy, and existing psychological literature on alchemy. The understanding

gained through bodily experience is compared and contrasted with the theoretical

discussions, and where possible, a new synthesis is made. The actual process of trying to

create a Plant Stone was very time-intensive and generated a large amount of data.

Whereas my own experiences as a beginning therapist are primarily with the early stages

of psychotherapy, I found my experiences of the early stages of the alchemical process to

be the most profoundly revealing and have limited this discussion to those stages.

Chapter IV briefly summarizes my discoveries, addresses their implications for

the field of psychology, and proposes suggestions for further exploration and

development.


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Chapter IILiterature Review

The literature on alchemy is vast. By necessity, this work is focused on a

restricted subset of the material available. A brief introduction to the history of alchemy

and the meaning of some of its terms is provided to give context for the work that

follows. In that context, the previous psychological interpretations of alchemy and

alchemys relationship with psychotherapy are reviewed, with focus on the processes

encountered in Chapter III. Lastly, the background on two important aspects of the

methodology is reviewed regarding the inclusion of the body in psychotherapy and

alchemy and the use of active imagination.

What is Alchemy?

The central concept in alchemy is transmutation: the fundamental change of one

thing into another, from a grosser, impure state to a more refined, balanced, and

pure state. This is to be understood on multiple levelsphysically, spiritually, andsymbolically.

Cotnoir, 2006, p. 11

Alchemy is a tradition of exploration into the processes of transformation and

transmutation. Historian Jack Lindsay (1970) traced the etymology of the word alchemy

to Arabic prefix al-, meaning the, and the Greek word chymia, meaning the art of

casting or alloying metals (p. 68). His research found that alchemical thinking grew out

of a nexus of ideas from metallurgy, brewing, dyeing, [and] perfume-making (p. 67)

that began to emerge as a coherent body of thought in the work of Bolos-Democritus in

about 200 BCE (p. 67). Alchemical thinking continued from Greek culture through


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Islamic culture to Latin European culture, reaching a peak in the 16th

and 17th

centuries in

Europe (Holmyard, 1990; Read, 1966) and persisting today (e.g, Bartlett, 2007; Cotnoir,

2006)

The goal of alchemy was often characterized as the creation of the Philosophers

Stone, with which alchemists believed they could transform impure metals, like lead, to

the most pure of metals, gold (Holmyard, 1990, p. 15; Read, 1966, p. 118). Alchemist

Albertus Magnus (1898/2003), for example, in the 13th

century, wrote that through this

art, corrupted metals in minerals are restored and the imperfect made perfect (p. 101),

and in the 14

th

century, alchemist Petrus Bonus (1546/1974) wrote that

Alchemy is the Art by which the principles, causes, activities, properties, andaffections of metals are thoroughly apprehended; and by means of this knowledge

those metals which are imperfect, incomplete, mixed, and corrupt, and therefore

base, are transmuted into gold and silver. (pp. 100-101)

The Stone is also described as a medicine, elixir, or tincture that can cure disease and

provide immortality (Holmyard, 1990, p. 15; Read, 1966, p. 121). The alchemical

physician Paracelsus (1678/1976 [Vol. 1]) described the goal thusly: the Tincture of the

Philosophers is a Universal Medicine (p. 29) which consumes all diseases (p. 29) and

by means of which the life of many, too, has been extended and prolonged to several

centuries (p. 29). The process of creating the Philosophers Stone, Elixir, or Tincture

was called the Great Work(Read, 1966, p. 130).

Besides the outward or exoteric work of preparing the philosophers stone,

historian Eric John Holmyard (1990) found that the alchemists also described an esoteric

or mystical work. For those alchemists, the mundane transmutation of metals became

merely symbolic of the transformation of sinful man into a perfect being (p. 16). Bonus

(1546/1974) believed that the alchemists before him did not pursue the Art [of


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Alchemy] for the sake of the acquisition of gold and silver, but on account of its beauty

and the insight which it affords into the things of the spiritual world (p. 147). Holmyard

(1990) found that these two kinds of alchemy were often inextricably mixed (p. 16),

which Bonus explained, saying, If we call it spiritual we are right; if we describe it as

corporal, we are not mistaken; if we style it heavenly, we do not lie; if we call it earthly

we say the truth (p. 149).

The historical alchemical writings used a rich array of metaphors, allegories, and

symbolic images to express their theories, materials, and operations (Holmyard, 1990, p.

16). In the alchemical literature, one finds people, animals, and mythological beings such

as lions, dragons, wolves, peacocks, crows, swans, phoenixes, toads, unicorns, serpents,

kings, queens, lepers, Apollo, Diana, and Vulcan (Abraham, 2001; Klossowski de Rola,

1988). The actions depicted vary from cooking and washing to a lion devouring the sun

and a dragon eating its own tail (Abraham, 2001; Klossowski de Rola, 1988). Conflict is

frequently depicted in a wide range of forms such as two lions fighting, two eagles

struggling, a knight versus a dragon, and a wolf devouring a king (Abraham, 2001;

Klossowski de Rola, 1988).These images and metaphors have had an influence beyond

the alchemists. Literary scholar Lyndy Abraham (2001), found that alchemical thought

deeply influenced Elizabethan and Jacobean culture (p. xv) and that alchemical imagery

is found in the work of writers and visual artists such as Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne,

Marvell, Cleveland, Milton and Dryden (p. xv) as well as Pope, Goethe, Joseph Wright

of Derby, . . . [and] the nineteenth-century Symbolists, Victor Hugo, Marcus Clarke, W.

B. Yeats, August Strindberg, Antonin Artaud, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Laurence Durrell,

Ted Hughes, Vladimir Nabokov, Marguerite Yourcenar and Jackson Pollock (p. xvi).

Professor of English literature Stanton Linden (2003) also found alchemical influences in


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writers and artists from Chaucer, Erasmus, Bosch and Brueghel to Marcel Duchamp,

Leonora Carrington, Umberto Eco, and J. K. Rowling (p. 19).

What Use Is Alchemy for Psychology?

In what way is the study of alchemy relevant for psychology? The founder of

analytical psychology, Carl G. Jung (1961/1965) thought that analytical psychology was

subject far more than any other science to the personal bias of the observer. The

psychologist must depend therefore in the highest degree upon historical and literary

parallels if he wishes to exclude at least the crudest errors in judgment (p. 200). Jung

found the historical parallel he was looking for in alchemy. He believed that alchemical

symbolism provided a point of view that was sufficiently outside humanitys current

timeframe to provide objectivity to the conclusions.

Jung found several more uses for alchemy. First, he discovered that some of the

imagery in his clients dreams was identical to alchemical symbols (1944/1968b;

1955/1970, p. 77 [CW14, para. 82]). Studying alchemy then provided more material for

the amplification of the imagery in clients dreams (along with mythological and

religious imagery). Second, Jung (1961/1965) claimed that it was by studying alchemy

that he discovered the unconscious operating as a process that he would later call

individuation (p. 209). Furthermore, because it is rare that a client will move through

every stage of the individuation process with a therapist, by studying alchemical

symbolism, a therapist has a map of the entire process, and can understand where a

clients current work in therapy fits within the whole (1946/1966).

Marie-Louise von Franz (1980), a colleague of Jungs, further elaborated on the

use of alchemical symbolism for the amplification of unconscious material. The other

bodies of symbolic material available, notably in mythology, fairy tales, and the history


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of religions, have been passed down from within a tradition. Von Franz said that as these

experiences, stories, and images were passed on, they were to a certain extent

rationalized and purged of the scurrilities of the unconscious, the funny little details

which the unconscious tags on (p. 16). They are therefore missing many of the details

that come directly from the unconscious that are similar to the direct unconscious

material of clients in psychoanalysis. She believed that the alchemists, in contrast, were

exploring the unknown and interpreting their results without a set plan. They therefore

recorded the unconscious contents that emerged in a more direct and unedited fashion,

and consequently, they demonstrate the kind of contradictions and oddities that are seen

in modern unconscious material. Because of its relative lack of editing by ego-

consciousness, alchemical symbolism is closer to the unconscious material of modern

dream material, and therefore is a more accurate source for amplification.

The founder of archetypal psychology, James Hillman (1980), found a further

benefit of alchemy for psychotherapy. He believed that the language of psychology was

dangerously one-sided and full of abstract, imprecise terms that have been taken to exist

literally. He found that these terms actually remove therapists from the direct experience

of their clients, because they do not directly relate to or describe the clients experience.

Hillman pointed out this problem regarding the terms the ego and the unconscious and

stated, I have personally never met either of them, except in a psychology book

(p. 121). In contrast, Hillman found that alchemy provides a concrete language that refers

to actual things, but that do not have to be taken literally. Alchemy used as analogy

provides a different way for therapists to imagine what is happening with their clients; it

forces metaphor upon us (p. 124). One example is the imagery of the alchemical

operations such as calcinatio, burn[ing] passions down to dry essences (p. 122), or


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coagulatio, congealing cloudy conditions so as to get hard clear drops from them

(p. 122), which describe psychic experiences in physical terms one can relate to while

also retaining the poetic imagery that dreams use. Hillman believed that speaking in this

kind of metaphorical language better served psychology than thinking or speaking in

phrases like regressing in the service of the ego (p. 122), syntonic identifying (p.

122), and analyzing the transference (p. 122). Through metaphor, alchemical language

joins the material and the psyche, it causes both the materialization of the psyche and the

psychization of matter (p. 124).

Jungian analyst Nathan Schwartz-Salant (1998), in his book, The Mystery of

Human Relationship, described another way alchemy could benefit psychotherapy. He

believed that when the methodology of alchemy is applied to the psychological process,

a new model of analysis emerges (p. 7). He noted several benefits that he believed this

new model provided to psychotherapy. First, it is a model based not on behavior

modification or changes in object relations but on the recovery of soul (p. 7). Second,

this model is remarkably embracing of those states of mind that are often called mad or

psychotic (p. 17), and it respects chaotic mental states rather than pathologizing them.

Third, this model is not primarily concerned with what people do to one another, such as

through projections onto one another, but instead with their experience of a field both

people occupy (p. 7). This model focuses upon the the nature of the third realm

between people (p. 17), and on the relationship of the people involved to each other and

to the field itself. Schwartz-Salant believed that this field has its own objective dynamics

and that alchemy informs us of these dynamics in a way that far exceeds any other

resource available to us (p. 25).


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The Stages of Alchemy

The stages of the alchemical process have been described many ways, but perhaps

the most common was color. Beginning with the Greek alchemists, color was a sign of

the properties of a substance, and later alchemists continued to use colors to recognize

and signify when they had achieved the various stages of the opus (Lindsay, 1970).

Although many colors are referenced in the alchemical literature, the four primary stages

were distinguished as black (nigredo), white (albedo), yellow (citrinitas), and red

(rubedo) (Jung, 1946/1966, p. 229 [CW12, para. 333]). These stages, and their

representative colors, were believed to occur in a specific sequence: It becomes, with

wonderful appearances, blacker than the crow; afterwards, in succession of time, whiter

than the swan; and at last, passing through a yellow colour, it turns out more red than any

blood (Paracelsus, 1658/1976 [Vol. 1], pp. 27-28). The black stage was associated with

a death of the old material and the separation of it into its component parts. The white

stage was associated with a purification of the separated parts. The red stage was

associated with a reuniting of the purified parts and a revivification of the whole

(Abraham, 2001, pp. 4, 135, 174; Jung, 1937/1968, pp. 230-232 [CW12, para. 334]). My

experience as a beginning therapist is primarily with the beginning stages of therapy, and

therefore this current work focuses on the first stage in alchemy: the black, ornigredo.

Black: Nigredo

The first stage of the work was signified by the color black, called melanosis by

the Greek alchemists and nigredo by the Latin alchemists (Jung, 1937/1968, [CW12];

Abraham, 2001). Abraham, in her book,A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery,

summarized the nigredo stage as


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the initial, black stage of the opus alchymicum in which the body of the impure

metal, the matter for the Stone, or the old outmoded state of being is killed,

putrefied and dissolved into the original substance of creation, the prima materia,in order that it may be renovated and reborn in a new form. (p. 135)

This death (in alchemical terms, mortificatio) might be brought about in many ways,

including heating or burning (decoction orcalcinatio), rotting (putrefactio), and

dissolving into a liquid (solutio) (Flamel, 1612/1994; Paracelsus, 1658/1976; Philalethes,

1678/1999), and frequently involved a combination of these processes. Many alchemists

described the purpose of this first stage as the separation (separatio) of the material into

either the four elements (fire, air, earth, and water), or the three philosophical essences

(sulphur, mercury, and salt) (Albertus 1974; Anonymous, 1991; Bartlett, 2007; Calid,

1541/1992; Cotnoir, 2006; Junius, 1982/1985). Skeletons, skulls, black birds, and images

of dead or dying beings were common symbols of this stage (Abraham, 2001).

The alchemists did not see the nigredo as a default initial condition, but as a stage

that needed to be achieved to begin the opus. Michael Maier (1917/2002) stated, Rejoice

when you see your matter getting black, for that is the beginning of the work, and it is the

key without which there is nothing (p. 120). Artephius (1612/1994) claimed, He that

doth not make blacke, cannot make white, because blackenesse is the beginning (p. 73).

The alchemists warned that achieving the nigredo was neither an easy processthe first

is black, which is more difficult to bring about than the rest (Lacinus, 1546/1974,

p. 23)nor a short process: It is of all colours the most tardy in making its appearance

(Philalethes, 1678/1999, p. 258). Some authors, such as Eirenaeus Philalethes, claimed

that it would take as much as 40 days or six weeks to achieve (p. 259).

Jung (1944/1968 [CW12]) believed that, in psychological terms, the nigredo

stage of alchemy represented the ego encountering the shadow (p. 36 [para. 41). The term


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shadow, as used here, is defined as the hidden or unconscious aspects of oneself, both

good and bad, which the ego has either repressed or never recognized (Sharp, 1991, p.

123). Jung 1937/1966 [CW12]) believed that when the conscious mind attempted to

come to terms with the unconscious, it would be swallowed up by it (pp. 416-417

[para. 496]), and he further described the experiences ofnigredo as confusion, lostness,

melancholy,fear, wickedness, and wretchedness (1955/1970, p. 229 [CW14, para. 306]),

grief(1937/1968, p. 273 [CW12, para. 389]) brought about deformation and psychic

suffering (1955/1970, p. 354 [CW14, para. 494]). Jung observed confrontation with the

shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and

makes convictions ineffective or even impossible (p. 497 [para. 708]). He described the

death that occurs during this stage as the complete stagnation of psychic life

(1946/1966, p. 260 [CW16, para. 469]).

Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz (1980) assisted Jung in his alchemical

explorations and developed them further. She also described the experience of the

nigredo stage as confusion, depression, unhappiness, and being covered in a dark cloud

of unconsciousness (p. 208). She further found that during the nigredo, a clients dreams

were frequently critical, involving depressing motifs, destructive factors, shadowy

impulses, and imagery the client found disgusting, indecent, or obscene (p. 147). Von

Franz also described the nigredo as a state wherein ones instinctual drives are fallen

into matter (p. 221) by being projected outwards onto other people.

Hillman has explored the color imagery of alchemy in several articles (1981a,

1981b, 1991, 1997a). In his exploration of black as related to the nigredo stage of

alchemy, he also found this stage characterized by experiences of feeling exhausted,

dried out, stuck (1997a, p. 46), depressed, confused, constricted, anguished, and subject


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to pessimistic, even paranoid, thoughts of sickness, failure, and death (p. 46). For

Hillman, these experiences are not symptoms to progress away from, but are signs that

ones soul has achieved the first stage of the opus. He saw this achievement as the

dissolution of ones fixed paradigm, of ones attachments to whatever has been taken as

truth and reality, solid fact, or dogmatic virtue (p. 49), even of ones sense of meaning

and the hope for meaning (p. 47). It is exactly this place of doubt, confusion, and

unknowing that Hillman believed was necessary for any paradigm shift to occur.

Hillman (1993) also saw the blackness as corresponding to the reductive work of

psychological examination (p. 244). In this work, the mind seeks explanations,

especially those that search out origins and causal explanations which are concrete,

material, historical, and fateful (p. 244). These explanations may lead to remorse, self-

punishment, and depression, and Hillman warns that this kind of literal and reductive

approach can generate the kind of concrete fixations that are meant to be dissolved in the

nigredo.

Jungian analyst Robert Bosnak (1986/1988) explored alchemical imagery in his

work with dreams. He offered an evocative description of the experience ofnigredo:

One feels as though the whole world is falling apartand especially that thisnigredo state will never pass away. The future is dark and confused. It seems as

though the feeling of emptiness and isolation will last forever. The tempo of life

in the midst of this rotting is sluggish. All energy drains out of consciousness. Inthis bottomless pit one finds death, death as the only reality. (p. 63)

Bosnak saw the nigredo as a stage wherein the old way of being has broken down and no

longer works. The processes that lead to this stage have freed stuck psychic material by

shattering it into its component parts. They free one from the fixations in which one had

been bogged down. Bosnak believed that despite the melancholy and depression common


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to this state of disintegration and decomposition, it is from this black place that the

creative power once again has free play (p. 63).

The Operations of Alchemy

Unlike thestages of alchemy, about which most alchemists agree on the number

and terminology, when it comes to the operations of alchemy, alchemists disagree on

both the number of critical operations, and which operations those were. Johann Daniel

Mylius (1622/1984) named as many as 12 operations (p. 21), Philalethes (1678/1999)

named 10 (p. 261); Bonus (1546/1974) named eight (p. 88); Paracelsus (1658/1976 [Vol.

I]) named seven (p. 151); and Calid (1541/1992) as few as four operations (p. 31). Even

Jungian analysts choose different number of operations: for instance, Edinger (1994)

chose seven, and Jungian analyst Liz Greene (1988) chose four. Perhaps because of this

disagreement, the alchemists wrote more about the operations of alchemy than any other

topic, including the goal of the Philosophers Stone (Linden, 2003, p. 17).

Defining what the alchemists meant when they discussed the operations is

complicated by the fact that they used the terms for these operations to refer to different

things. On one hand, they use terms to refer to actual physical operations in the

laboratory; however, the terms usually refer to the result of the operation, not necessarily

the mechanism. Solutio, for instance, refers to changing something into a liquid form, but

that could be a process of dissolving the substance in water or melting it with heat. In

addition, the terms are also used to refer to a process or result that is not necessarily

physical: for instance, distillingorsublimation also refers to purifying a substance:

separating its pure elements from its impure elements. Edinger (1994) captured this

multiplicity of meanings artfully in his diagrams that map all the symbols that are

connected to the terms he studied (pp. 16, 46, 82, 116, 146, 182, 210). In the sections that


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follow, the meaning of these terms is discussed from both the alchemical viewpoint and

the psychological one. This discussion is limited to the first two operations I conducted

during the nigredo stage, mortificatio andsolutio.

Mortificatio. In alchemy, mortificatio is the death of the matter being worked

upon (Abraham, 2001, p. 130). According to Paracelsus (1658/1976 [Vol. 1]), the death

or mortification of the metals is the removal of their bodily structure, and of the

sulphurous fatness (p. 139). This death could be brought about in many ways. For

Flamel (1612/1994), this death occurred by dissolving in water: This dissolution is by

the enviousPhilosophers calledDeath, Destruction, andPerdition, because that the

natures change theirforme, and from hence proceeded so manyAllegories ofdead men,

tombes andsepulchers (p. 29). Paracelsus (1658/1976 [Vol. 1]) described the

mortificatio occurring through such processes as intense fire, dissolving substances,

application of sulphur or salt, and distilling or sublimating. The goal and importance of

this death was described metaphorically by Mylius (1622/1984): Unless a grain of corn

falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone by itself; if, however, it dies, it produces

much fruit (p. 49). His words are a paraphrasing of Christs statement that was often

quoted by the alchemists.

Flamel (1612/1994) explicitly associated the mortifcatio with the black stage of

the work and described it as the blacke saile with which the Ship ofTheseus came back

victorious from Crete, which was the cause of the death of hisFather(p. 28);he further

described the goal, saying so must this father die, to the intent, that from the ashes of

thisPhoenix another may spring, and that thesonne may beeKing (p. 28). Dying kings

frequently appear in alchemical imagery (Abraham, 2001; Klossowski de Rola, 1988;


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Maier, 1617/2002). The mortifcatio is the destruction of the existing structure, form,

and/or nature of the matter, such that something new may come into being.

Among modern authors, Edinger (1994), in his book,Anatomy of the Psyche, has

done the most work to describe the operations of alchemy in psychological terms. For

Edinger, the alchemical images of a king, lion, or sun dying, represented the

psychological experience of the death of the ruling principle of the conscious ego

(p. 151). Edinger described how this is experienced as defeat and failure, usually

imposed by life, either from within or from without (p. 172). The way ego

consciousness has been ruling ones life has led to failure and defeat. Mortification, he

said, involves admitting that the way one has been doing things may not be working. The

importance of this process as related to analysis is described by Edinger:

The fixed, static aspects of the personality allow for no change. They areestablished and sure of their rightness. For transformation to proceed, these fixed

aspects must first be dissolved or reduced to prima materia. This is done by the

analytic process, which examines the products of the unconscious and puts theestablished ego attitudes into question. (pp. 47-48)

In discussing the mortificatio, Jung (1946/1966 [CW16]) stated, At all events the

integration of contents that were always unconscious and projected involves a serious

lesion of the ego. Alchemy expresses this through symbols of death (p. 264 [para. 472]).

Jung further described this death as the total extinction of consciousness and the

complete stagnation of psychic life (p. 260 [para. 469]) and said that it signifies the

overcoming of the old and obsolete (1955/1970, p. 142 [CW14, para. 169]).

Hillman (1981a) described the mortificatio as a time of symptoms (p. 35). It is a

time of feeling driven, trapped, pulled along by inertia, and locked compulsively in

behavior (p. 35). It is a time of going back and down into the dark pathologized deeps

of the soul (1993, p. 244). Hillman believed that this material must be wholly killed,


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ground down, all the inner cohesion broken, until the usual emotional responses are no

longer effective (p. 244).

Solutio. On the surface, the alchemical operation ofsolutio refers to the relatively

simple process of converting a hard matter and dry earth to a liquid substance (Mylius,

1622/1984, p. 31). This process could be done with heat, as melting or liquation, or by

cold and moisture, as dissolution (Rulandus, 1612/n.d.). Calid (1541/1992) described

solutio in this way: Subtiliate the bodie till all become water (p. 36). Mylius

(1622/1984) provided a more detailed description of thissubtiliatingprocess as breaking

substances up (p. 12), a loosening of bonds (p. 33), and thinning of thickness

(p. 31). Martin Rulandus (1612/n.d.) defined dissolution differently thansolutio:

By this term the Chemical Philosophers do not understand the reduction of a solid

body into a liquid state, but the reduction of a body into its first matterthat is to

say, into those elementary principles which are its ultimate constituents. (p. 357)

Many alchemists, however, saw dissolution andsolutio as the same thing, believing that

the watery result of breaking up and dissolving the substance was its first matter (also

calledprima materia) (Abraham, 2001). Hortulanus (1556/1992) focused on the

separation of the partes (p. 22) in his definition of dissolution.

The alchemists also describedsolutio in terms of subtler processes. Magnus

(1541/2003) said thatsolutio was devised so that the intrinsic qualities of substances

might become extrinisic and vice versa (p. 108). Similarly, Calid (1541/1992) said that

solutio extracteth the inward parts of things unto their Superficies (p. 44). Mylius

(1622/1984) foundsolutio to be the revelation of the hidden (p. 31) and a stirring up

of innate abilities (p. 33). To summarize, the alchemists saw solutio as a melting or

dissolving process that broke up a substance into a watery state, sometimes called the


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prima materia; this watery state was seen as a matrix of the elementary parts of the

substance that revealed previously hidden, interior qualities of the substance.

Jung (1946/1966 [CW16]) described the psychological experience of thesolutio

as the descent of the ego into the unconscious. Edinger (1994) elaborated on that

definition to describe the descent of the ego into something larger than itself, whether

internally, through a descent into the unconscious, or externally, through descent into an

expanded consciousness. He described the effects of this descent as a dissolving of the

rigid, static parts of the ego personality. Sometimes this dissolution is experienced as a

dissolving into something else larger, and then there is a sense of being contained and

held by the other. Whether or not this descent is pleasant for the ego depends on its state

of development, as Edinger described:

An immature ego may find it pleasant to surrender to containment in a blissfulregression; however, at a later stage of development the prospect of solutio will

generate great anxiety because the hard-won state of ego autonomy is being

threatened with dissolution. (p. 49)

Edinger provided several examples of agents that can bring about a solutio experience:

love, lust, a more comprehensive viewpoint, a group collective, or a swollen egos own

excesses. He explained how this experience occurs in therapy:

In the process of psychotherapy it usually happens that the ego of the patient

encounters in the therapist a more comprehensive standpoint, which has a

dissolving effect. This happening often leads to a partial state of containment ofthe patient by the therapist and is a common cause of the transference. (p. 57)

He noted that this is not just a dissolving experience for the client but that the therapist

also must submit to thesolutio.

Greene (1988) defined thesolutio as an experience of the boundaries of the ego

breaking down (p. 288) and described what this is like for the experiencer: Ones sense

of boundaries begins to dissolve, and there is sometimes a feeling of a missing layer of


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psychic skin. One is suddenly very vulnerable and permeable, and feelings come up

which threaten to swamp the rational ego (p. 289). Greene called this an experience of

surrender, in which one must submit to that which is greater . . . [which] requires a

relinquishing of control (pp. 299-300). For some this surrender results in beautiful,

blissful feelings of union. For others it can bring frightening, shameful feelings of

helplessness, impotency, and dependency, because the dissolving of the boundaries of the

ego is brought about when the ocean of the collective unconscious (p. 290) floods

them.

Hillman (1993) described the psychological experience ofsolutio as flood[ing]

the solid, fixed aspects of the matter or issue with emotions until it is . . . permeated . . .

so thoroughly that it loses all definition and distinction. Everything becomes an equalized

homogeneity (p. 252). For Hillman this flood of emotion brings consistency, sameness

and a homogenous emotional world that is self-same all through, no compartments, no

divisions, no internal oppositions (p. 252). In the emotional world of the solutio there

are no distinctions, degrees of valuations (p. 252), or differentiations. For Hillman, the

facility of discrimination itself dissolves in thesolutio.

Models of the Stages of Psychotherapy

To compare the stages and operations of alchemy to those of psychotherapy, it is

necessary to use a model of the stages and operations of psychotherapy. Psychotherapist

John Rowan (2001), in his discussion of alchemy in psychotherapy, has used two

different models of psychotherapeutic stages for comparison: one developed by feminist

counselor Jocelyn Chaplin (1988) and one developed by clinical psychologist and

professor Emeritus of Human Sciences Augustine Meier and clinical psychologist

Micheline Boivin (2000). While conducting my own comparison, I found the Stages of


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Change model developed by professors of psychology James Prochaska, Carlo

DiClemente, and John Norcross (1992) to be useful, as it included stages not included in

the other two models.

Meier and Boivins Seven-Phase model. Augustine Meier and Micheline Boivin

(2000) derived a model of the stages of psychotherapy from a qualitative analysis of the

case notes from over 20 clients who were seen in either short-term or long-term

psychotherapy and presented with issues such as depression, anxiety disorders, and some

forms of personality disorders. They began work on their model in 1983, and various

investigations since have provided substantial data that indicate their model is a reliable

and valid research instrument. Their analysis derived seven phases or stages in the

psychotherapy process:

1. Problem definition: The client presents and discloses personal and/or

interpersonal difficulties, concerns, feelings, etc. . . . [and] psychotherapy

goals are established (p. 60).

2. Exploration: The client, with the help of the therapist, uncovers the dynamics

of the problem in terms of its etiology and maintenance with reference to

affective, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral constituents (p. 60).

3. Awareness/insight: The client has a better understanding of how unexpressed

feelings, inappropriate cognitions, unfulfilled needs and wants, and lost

meanings are related to the present problem (p. 60).

4. Commitment/decision: The client implicitly or explicitly expresses a

determination to change behaviors, manner of relating, perspectives, and

assumes responsibility for the direction of his/her life (p. 60).


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5. Experimentation/action: The client responds, relates, feels, behaves, and

thinks in new and different ways in accordance with the new perspective

(p. 60).

6. Integration/consolidation: The client makes his/her own and solidifies those

new actions, feelings, perceptions, etc. which are consistent with her/his new

sense of self (p. 60).

7. Termination: The client, having achieved the counseling goals, prepares to

live without the support of therapy sessions (p. 60).

Meier and Boivin saw these seven phases as representing a progressive forward

movement toward achieving greater selfhood.

Chaplins feminist model. Based on her many years of counseling experience,

feminist counselor Jocelyn Chaplin (1988) developed a seven-phase model of the

counseling cycle:

1. Getting started and building trust: providing unconditional acceptance of the

client, letting the client be, and providing a safe environment that holds and

contains the client.

2. Identifying themes, separating out the Opposites: identifying patterns in the

clients behavior and thinking (p. 44), and once the themes are identified,

exploring them to identify the major opposites within the themes and patterns

of opposing behaviors related to the themes.

3. Exploring the past, understanding the opposites and inner hierarchies:

looking for the causes of [the clients] present-day splits and problems in the

distant or recent past (p. 56).


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4. Dissolving the inner hierarchies and facing ambivalence, accepting the

opposites: dissolving the hierarchical relationship of superior and inferior

while keeping a clear awareness and appreciation of the differences between

the opposite sides (p. 71) by accepting those rejected opposites as part of

ourselves (p. 71) and owning the parts projected on to others.

5. Making changes, living with the opposites: the client expressing the newly

accepted parts (p. 87) of himself or herself and learning to incorporate them

into . . . everyday life (p. 87).

6. Assertiveness training, expressing the opposites: the therapist working with

the client on a way of communicating his or her needs clearly to others and

asking for some concrete change that may then be negotiated (p. 98).

7. Endings and new beginnings: Dealing with the parting of the counselor and

client, facing the losses involved in the termination of the therapeutic

relationship, and accepting the gains made up to that point.

Although Chaplin presented these phases in a linear order, she found that clients rarely

move in straight progression through each phase and that different elements of each

phase may recur in later phases (p. 1).

Prochaska, DiClemente, and Norcrosss Stages of Change model. In 1982,

professors of psychology James Prochaska, Carlo DiClemente, and John Norcross (1992)

conducted research with smokers attempting to quit smoking on their own and in

professional treatment. In the smokers process of quitting, they identified phases that

have since been refined and expanded into the Stages of Change model, which includes

five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. The


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first stage, precontemplation, is characterized by no intention to change behavior in the

foreseeable future (p. 1103). The second stage, contemplation, occurs when people are

aware that a problem exists and are seriously thinking about overcoming it but have not

yet made a commitment to take action (p. 1103). To qualify for the contemplation stage,

one is considering taking action within the next 6 months. In the third stage, preparation,

individuals are intending to take action in the next month and have unsuccessfully take

action in the past year (p. 1104). The fourth stage, action, occurs when individuals

modify their behavior, experiences, or environment in order to overcome their

problems (p. 1104). In the fifth and final stage, maintenance, individuals work to

prevent relapse and consolidate the gains attained during action (p. 1104). The transition

from action to maintenance occurs after more than 6 months of the continued use of the

new behaviors begun in the Action stage. Prochaska et al. further discovered that during

each of these stages different processes and styles of therapy tend to be more effective.

Prochaska et al. (1992) originally conceived of the process of change as a linear

progression through each of the stages in order. In practice, however, they discovered that

linear progression is rare and that a spiral pattern is more typical. In the spiral pattern, an

individual in the maintenance stage relapses; returns to either the precontemplation,

contemplation, or preparation stages of the process; and begins working anew from that

stage. They found that with each cycle through the stages of change, the individual

potentially learns from the process, trying new approaches and behaviors and enabling a

progressive spiral motion instead of endlessly repeating the same circles.

Correlating Alchemy With Psychotherapy

Independent consultant John Rowan (2001) synthesized two models of the stages

of psychotherapy with the stages and operations of alchemy (see Table 1). He combined


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Meier and Boivins (2000) Seven-Phase Model, Chaplins (1988) Feminist Model, and

descriptions of the alchemical stages and operations from Edinger (1985), Greene (1988),

and Andrew Samuels (1989) to create an 11-phase model of therapy as an alchemical

process.

Table 1

Synthesis of Models of Psychotherapy and Stages and Operations of Alchemy.

Rowans 11

Phases ofPsychotherapy

Stages from Meier and

Boivins seven-phase

model ofpsychotherapy

Stages of

Chaplins feminist

model ofpsychotherapy

Alchemical stagesand operations

Phase 1 Problem Definition Getting started

and building trust

Materia prima

and nigredo

Phase 2 Exploration Identifyingthemes

Fermentatio

Phase 3 Exploration Exploring the past Separatio

Phase 4 Awareness/Insight Dissolving the

inner hierarchies

Calcinatio

Phase 5 Commitment/Decision Making changes Albedo

Phase 6 Experimentation/actionand integration/

consolidation

Expressing theopposites

Conjunctio

Phase 7 Termination Endings and newbeginnings

Mortificatio and asecond nigredo

Phase 8 Problem definition Identifying

themes

Solutio

Phase 9 Exploration Coagulatio

Phase 10 Sublimatio

Phase 11 Rubedo

Note. Table created by author based on Therapy as an alchemical process, by J. Rowan,

2001, International Journal of Psychology, 6(3), 273-288.


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Regarding phase one, Rowan (2001) found that the materia prima represents the

set of symptoms that drives the client to therapy, such as being beset by affects,

compulsions, irrational eruptions of any kind (p. 275). He also found that descriptions of

the nigredo stagesuch asfrustration, bewilderment, disintegration, chaos, uncertainty,

and things getting worse before they get betterfit this first phase of the therapy process.

He said that in the second phase, the mingling of personalities that takes place in the

transference and countertransference (p. 277) and the meeting of the clients conscious

and unconscious is equivalent to the brewing and mingling offermentatio that produces a

new substance.

Rowan (2001) described the third phase of psychotherapy as involving

exploration of internal conflicts, discoveries about the nonunified nature of the psyche,

and efforts to separate the unconscious from the conscious. He compared this phase to the

alchemical operation ofseparatio. He connected the fourth phase of psychotherapy with

the alchemical operation ofcalcinatio, because he found that the discomfort the client

feels dealing with the conflicting feelings about themselves and the therapist that occur

during this phase fit the uncomfortably hot, burning nature ofcalcinatio. He further

found that a notable reduction in the original presenting symptoms occurs as some of the

Prima Materia has been consumed in the flames (p. 281).

Rowan (2001) identified the fifth phase of the process of therapy with the

alchemical stage ofalbedo. In this phase of realization, real change has taken place

(p. 281) and the therapy begins to have effects in the outside world. He likened the sixth

phase of psychotherapy to the alchemical operation ofconjunctio because he found that

the alchemical union of opposites that occurs in conjunctio was a good description of the

phase in therapy that is about relating to real people in the real world in a more adequate


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way (p. 283) and connecting with other people in a more whole-hearted fashion

(p. 282).

Rowan (2001) stated that the seventh phase of therapy connects with the

alchemical operation ofmortificatio and a second nigredo stage. He related the loss

experienced at the end of therapeutic relationship to the alchemical operation related to

death, the mortificatio; however, he also found that if one continues therapy at this point

rather that terminating it, a second dark, painful, frustrating, and rageful negredo-like

phase occurs whereby the mortificatio represents a further digesting and processing of the

material that previously emerged in therapy.

Rowan (2001) connected the eighth phase of therapy with the alchemical

operation ofsolutio. He found that watery, dissolving nature ofsolutio fit this phases

deeper explorations into more long-standing problems, which evokes powerful feelings

that threaten to overwhelm the rational ego. Rowan said that in the ninth phase of

therapy, which he characterized asstruggles, the breakdown of existing material caused

by the previous phase leads to new insights and connections that create new patterns of

behavior and found this creation of new patterns similar to the concrete manifesting

nature ofcoagulatio.

Rowan (2001) related the 10th phase, which involves breakthrough, solely to the

alchemical operation ofsublimatio. In this phase, he claimed, one faces ones very worst

fears and most intolerable pain in the process of transformation from a negative image of

ones insides to a positive image, which can be a new self-center. Through this process of

purification, he said, one dies and is reborn.

The 11th

phase of therapy Rowan (2001) identified as integration and connected it

with the alchemical stage ofrubedo. This phase, he said, involves movement from


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frustrated desire for an external object to the transformation of that desire into an

internalized image which contains meaning, purpose, and regenerative capacities

(p. 286). In this phase, one achieves something genuinely new and finds spiritual

fulfillment.

Rowans (2010 model of therapy as an alchemical process includes everything

that may happen during a course of therapy, and he stipulated that the stages he

delineated can be skipped, ignored, or reversed. In addition to finding analogies between

the processes of alchemy and the processes of psychotherapy, one can also find analogies

between the inclusion of the body in psychotherapy and the inclusion of the body in

alchemy.

The Body in Psychotherapy

Transformation, to be genuine and thorough, always affects the body.

Hillman, 1997b, p. 71

One of the founding patients of psychoanalysis, Anna O., referred to

psychotherapy as the talking cure (as cited in Freud, 1895/1995, p. 69). A recent survey

of 11 case approaches to psychotherapy by psychologist Gerald Corey (2005)

demonstrated that talking is still a primary methodology of therapy; however, some

psychologists and analysts have explored the role the body can have in the practice of

psychotherapy.

Gendlins focusing. Professor and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin (1978)

conducted research at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s exploring why

psychotherapy was helpful for some people but not for others. Studying tapes of therapy

sessions, he found no significant difference in therapist behavior between successful and

unsuccessful therapy; however, he did notice a difference in client behavior: early in the


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recorded sessions of clients whose therapy was successful, the clients displayed an

internal skill through the way they talked during the session. Gendlin discovered that this

skill was a special kind of internal bodily awareness which he called a felt sense

(p. 11). He further discovered that this felt sense could be taught, and he called the

process of making contact with this felt sensefocusing.

Gendlin (1978) stressed that focusing is not an emotional, intellectual, or

analytical process. He believed that only your body knows what your problems feel like

and where their cruxes lie (p. 12) and that through the process of focusing, the body

provides its own answers to many of your problems (p. 11). Besides improving the

success rate of psychotherapy, Gendlin found that the focusing process brings change in

peoples liveschange that could not easily have happened in any other way (p. 11).

Woodmans conscious femininity. In Jungian analyst Marion Woodmans

(1985) practice, body awareness became an important focus because of her experience of

analysands who, despite an appropriate ego attitude and an earnest commitment to their

dreams and to their own growth (p. 55), were unable to make progress. While the ego

was willing to adopt a new attitude, something else was holding them back. Woodman

found that, at some point in these clients pasts, their bodies had been traumatized,

creating a split between body and psyche. The psychotherapeutic techniques that reached

their egos, such as confrontation and challenge, did not reach their bodies; instead, she

found that the more quickly the ego moves ahead, the more terrorized the body

becomes (p. 55) and that if the body does not let go of the conflict created through

years of habitual tension, half the problem is not solved and the former distorted pattern

is quick to reestablish itself (p. 63).


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Woodman (1985) focused on body work to help her clients integrate their bodies

and psyches. She used a wide variety of techniques including deep relaxation, bringing

conscious awareness to the body, breathing exercises, movement, and use of the voice.

This work triggered powerful dreams, freed up blocked psychic energy, relaxed rigid

personalities, and enabled shifts in habitual patterns. Her clients also discovered that the

body has a wisdom of its own (p. 60) and that it could provide a foundation of

confidence and support for the ego.

Mindells Dreambody. By following an interest in the interaction of psyche and

matter, Jungian analyst Arnold Mindell (1982) developed a new theory a

Alchemy & Psychology in the Labratory of Living Life

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