Page 34 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

Rosarium philosophorum15 to discuss how the removal of transference
projections (in which the relationship with the therapist replicates earlier
family relationships), as a dynamic in itself, leads to an intimation of
wholeness. The soul, according to Jung, needs another for it to exist
(CW 16: 244), and the transfer situation is part of this coming to
existence. This work can, as well, involve the danger of submerging
oneself in the collective images and loosing individuality, or becoming
inflated through identifying with these images (ibid: 261-3, 268-72).
This can result in torment.

There may be a minor inconsistency in Jung’s approach here, as he
earlier argued that alchemy worked as a process of individuation
because alchemists were able to project their inner contents and observe
them impersonally, which allows their psyche to work things out
through their own dynamics. Withdrawal of projection might be
expected to interfere with this process, and if it is a final process, then
we have the problem of why the Philosophers’ Stone can be the final
symbol for the Self.

The Terms of Alchemy as Primarily Psychological

With Jung’s argument about projection, it is implied that the
substances and terms of alchemy are primarily of interest because of
their psychological representations. I have already argued that this
distinction cannot be made with ease, and that knowledge of the
laboratory work would be important for knowledge of the kinds of
projections made, but let us continue. In the article ‘The Spirit
Mercurius’ (in CW 13) Jung makes a rambling study of a fairly central
alchemical symbol, which emphasises how this symbol expresses
incompatible opposites, as well as all kinds of different substances
which are probably not opposites. Philosophic Mercury can also be
identified with the god Mercury or Hermes, and the planet Mercury in
astrology, and these lead to further elaborations in alchemy, which
presumable have little to do with the chemical Hg (CW 13: 221-2, 225,
230-1). Mercury is also often described as the arcanum, the father of
metals, the primeval chaos, the goal of its own transformation, the

15. It must be said that though these plates may have been the inspiration for
Jung’s discussion, I, personally, do not find that they add anything to the clarity
of exposition.

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