Page 44 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

the person’s conscious psyche (CW 14: 497-9). The representations of
the Self which arise at this stage are propaedeutic, or preparatory,
actions. They are anticipations of wholeness, which will generally fall
apart: the work will be interrupted, the vessels will break, the stars will
not be right, and the alchemist will have to start again, probably after
having written down their anticipations which will lead them to the
Stone if they can just get it right next time (ibid: 533).

Jung analyses a recipe given by Dorn which involves the mixing of
new heaven, honey, chelidonia, rosemary flowers, mercuralis, red lily,
and human blood, with heaven of red wine or of Tartarus (CW 14: 479-
80), to try and show that these substances have primarily symbolic
connotations, rather than real properties (ibid: 493). For example, the
Cheledonia, or celandine, was reputed to cure blindness, and also
suggested gold and the highest value (ibid: 483, 490). Through the
laboratory work on symbolic materials Dorn was, Jung argues, able to
draw the forces of the cosmos into his quintessence and thus unite the
unio mentalis with the body (ibid: 532). However not enough of Dorn’s
text is given for us to decide what the recipe was supposed to do, nor is
it proven that Jung does have what Dorn calls “full knowledge of the
terms of the art”, even if this knowledge is provided by meditation on
ourselves (ibid: 480) - these terms could simply be coded. Furthermore,
one example cannot be evidence of a general practice.

Jung comments that there is a degree of ambiguity in Dorn’s text, it
is not really clear, for example, whether the corpus the union of spirit
and soul is to be united with is the adept’s body or that of a substance in
the retort. The unio mentalis is also a substance hidden in the body and a
quintessence sublimed from phlegm (CW 14: 487-8).

Jung briefly compares Dorn’s three stages to the three stages of
illumination, as proposed by St. Bonadventure, which involve giving up
the bodily and temporal, entering into the mind as the image of God, and
finally passing into the eternal (CW 14: 504-5). This again raises the
question whether Dorn is summarising a strictly alchemical insights or
importing ones from his Christian background. In general again,
although Jung’s analysis of Dorn’s text provides insights, we cannot be
sure, without further analysis, whether it is to the point of Dorn’s text, or
to the work of alchemy generally.

The third stage, which Dorn may not discuss, is an anticipation of
the union of the adept with the One, the potential world of the first day,
a joining of the personal with the supra-personal. Jung hints that this
might not be impossible, and argues that because psychology and

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