Page 53 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

from the texts. Alchemy may not be an allegory - not always a way of
writing in which symbols are translatable into fixed one to one
correspondence into either psychological or chemical concepts. This is
particularly the case with the ‘mystical’ parts of alchemy, and it is
probable that Jung’s tendency to translate alchemical symbols into his
concepts, hides the texts from us - certainly it makes them less strange
and adds to the temptation to dismiss those which cannot be easily
decoded.

The modern esoteric alchemist Adam McLean, tries to explore some
of this specificity. In his Study Course on Alchemical Symbolism
McLean argues that the Sun and Moon, which are the best known set of
opposites are only rarely brought into resolution, but that the opposition
of male and female is frequently resolved, and in a number of different
ways. He lists three types of resolution of this latter opposite:

a) hermaphrodite,
b) marriage, &
c) procreation (child)
He explains the differences as follows: “the formation of the
hermaphrodite is a kind of inner resolution, a fusion, of the different
qualities of male and female, while the birth of a child is a resolution by
creating a third facet outside of the initial two opposites. We can see the
marriage then as a meeting of the two”.

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