Page 27 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

Priest, not to mention regular hints of incest. In the Paracelsus paper (in
CW 13), Jung attempts to show that there was a conflict between
Paracelsus’ alchemy and orthodox Christianity, which Paracelsus
himself was not aware of.

All of these points, except perhaps the last, could do with historical
illumination, as well as could the question of the relation of
transubstantiation in the Mass and transmutation in alchemy - both
require a human to produce the result7. Strangely, despite arguing at
length on the inadequacies of Christ as a symbol for wholeness, and the
Philosophers’ Stone as compensating for its deficiencies8, he devotes
much time to showing that some alchemists implied that Christ was
analogous to the Stone9. For example Khunrath writes, “the Stone of the
Wise… is the symbol of Christ Jesus Crucified” (CW 14: 265 see also
327-9), and in the Water Stone of the Wise, the anonymous author writes
“Jesus Christ is compared and united with the earthly philosophical
stone of the Sages, whose material and preparation… is an outstanding
type and lifelike image of the incarnation of Christ” (ibid: 345).
Sometimes the evidence for this parallel seems simply to amount to the
familiarity of alchemists with scripture and their ready quoting of it -
perhaps as a familiar metaphor for aspects of the work, or as attempts to
justify their hope of receiving God’s help or inspiration in their
difficulties with the work, or perhaps by demonstrating that alchemy is
not incompatible with Christianity despite its possibly heretical
implications. As well, the associations may arise because, for some
alchemists, alchemy seems to have been a science of everything. It was
used to explain all forms of generation, and could thus be extended to
explain the mysteries of Christianity and of God’s actions in the world.
There was no necessary distinction between the problems of Natural

7. My understanding, which may be wrong, of the transubstantiation of the
Eucharist is that in the Mass the Form of the Substance remains the same, but
the Substance is held to change to share that of Christ. If so, this is a further
obverse to the alchemical work.
8. The stone, Jung suggests at one time, is not a more complete symbol for the
Self than Christ, as it primarily represents those aspects of the self which cannot
be integrated via this dominant symbol. Hence it always appears unfinished
(CW 13: 241-242).
9. It is possible that after the Second World War, when the horrors of the Nazi
regime became even clearer, Jung decided that Christianity was not entirely a
bad thing, and should not be discarded easily.

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