Page 11 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

Jung writes that “alchemy, as the earliest Greek and Chinese texts
show, originally formed part of the Gnostic philosophical speculations,
which also included a detailed knowledge of the techniques of the
goldsmith and ironsmith, the faker of precious stones, the druggist and
apothecary. In East and West alike alchemy contains as its core the
Gnostic doctrine of the Anthropos, and by its very nature has the
character of a peculiar doctrine of redemptions” (CW 13: 204-5).

There is the further possibility that Western alchemy was influenced
by Chinese alchemy, but that is also not clear. Certainly the trade routes
existed, but Chinese alchemy seems more preoccupied with life
extension than Western alchemy of this time (Needham).

Before progressing it is necessary to briefly consider the problems
of the identification of substances, and their boundaries. How would you
define gold, or copper or tin or iron? None of these substances are just
‘found’, they all must undergo some kind of extraction process from
their natural state as ores to become the substances we know. The way
people generally proceeded to make identification was by lists of
adjectives. For example gold was something with a yellow tinge which
was malleable and heavy (Crossland 1978: 55-). Colour was frequently
considered to be a vital property of a substance, so processes which
changed the colour were held to change the substance. Many substances
also had symbolic or religious resonances - although it is probable that
the symbolic properties of substances could never entirely be divorced
from the properties of substances. Therefore, what we today might
consider entirely different substances, or mixtures of substances, could
be considered the same substance, and on occasions what we would call
the same substance could be given different names. Finding better and
repeatable tests for substances required lengthy experimentation,
agreement on what were good examples of relatively pure forms of
those substances, and agreement on what were relevant properties or
associations. It is also not immediately obvious that substances do not
frequently change into other different kinds of substance - the modern
distinction between elements, compounds and mixtures was not clear for
many years. Nature seems full of transformations - therefore the idea
that the cosmos is full of patterns of transmutation is not particularly
strange. Furthermore these transformations could be explained by Greek
philosophy.

The theories of Aristotle were to have most influence until the late
medieval period. These distinguished between Matter and Form. Matter
was the underlying substratum of a thing, which was given its properties

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