Page 54 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

Similarly McLean suggests that there can be different ways of
resolving the opposition indicated by serpents or dragons - the eating the
tail, and the intertwining in the Caduceus - both of which may have
different kind of meanings. He adds that “the snake image is found in
many different traditions with differing resonances” - there is no
universal meaning for snake. In other words we must take the meaning
from its context.

Trees unite the above with the below (through a mediator): roots,
trunk and branches, but are also “a tree of transformation in which the
essence of the material in the realm of the roots is drawn up into the
flowering and fruiting of the tree’s canopy”. So we can ask what is
being transformed into what - what are the roots in and what is on the
branches19.

Birds unite the above and the below but in a different way to trees20.
“There are”, McLean writes “a veritable aviary of specific birds - Crow,
Swan, Pelican, Phoenix, Peacock, among others - but these are related to
stages of the alchemical process and are used in a quite definite
manner”. However birds in general are often used to represent the
circulations, or repeated distillations, used in laboratory alchemy. “Some
texts refer to repeated circulations as ‘eagles’, and state that the
alchemist should wait until a certain number of eagles have appeared in
their flask”.

A further use of the bird image might also reflect the Christian
tradition of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a bird. “This
appears in some emblems as introducing a kind of grace or external

19. According to Jung the Philosophical Tree expresses experiences which are
capable of moving us “to long and thorough reflections, from which in time,
insights and convictions grow up” (CW 14: 233). He also writes “If a mandala
may be described as a symbol of the self seen in cross section, then the tree
would represent a profile view of it: the self depicted as a process of growth”
(CW 13: 253). In alchemy specifically he suggests that the tree “in general
represents the growth of the arcane substance and its transformation into
philosophical gold” (ibid: 274).
20. Jung writes that birds “represent spirits or souls, or in technical terms, the
aqua, the extracted transformative substance” (CW 14: 157). Later, and more
definitely, he writes “Birds as winged being have always symbolized spirit or
thought” (CW 13: 259). In the same essay he remarks that “Birds…. have a
special relationship to the tree… The tree with the bird stands for the opus and
its consummation” (ibid: 315).

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