CG Jung and the Alchemical Imagination

C.G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination Stanton Marlan brings together writings which span the course of his career, examining Jungian psychology and the alchemical imagination as an open- ing to the mysteries of psyche and soul. Several chapters describe a telos that aims at the mysterious goal of the Philosophers’ Stone, a move replete with classical and postmodern ideas catalysed by prompts from the unconscious: dreams, images, fantasies, and paradoxical conundrums. Psyche and matter are seen with regard to soul, light, and darkness in terms of illumination, and order and chaos as linked in the image of chaosmos. Marlan explores the richness of the alchemical ideas of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and others and their value for a revi- sioning of psychology. In doing so, this volume challenges any tendency to literalism and essentialism, and contributes to an integration between Jung’s classical vision of a psychology of alchemy and Hillman’s Alchemical Psychology. C.G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination will be a valuable resource for academics, scholars, and students of Jungian and post-Jungian stud- ies, Jungian analysis, and psychotherapy. It will also be of great interest to Jungian psychologists and Jungian analysts in practice and in training. Stanton Marlan, PhD, ABPP, FABP is a Jungian analyst, President of the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts, and an Adjunct Professor in Clini- cal Psychology at Duquesne University, with long-time interests in alchemy and the psychology of dreams, and the author of The Black Sun: Alchemy and the Art of Darkness. “Stanton Marlan’s essays movingly mirror the steadily burning passion of the alchemists for their opus. With these critical ventures into alchemical psychology Marlan has forged an opus of his own that is more than an amal- gam of other thinkers’ insights. It is a singular work of creative scholarship and imagination and is thus another link in the golden chain of engagement with the mysteries of the human psyche.” Murray Stein, Ph.D., author of Jung’s Map of the Soul “To use an alchemical metaphor, in this collection of his writings, we find Stan Marlan having “taken another round in the container.” That is, he works his material again and again, with it each time becoming more re- fined, sophisticated, and qualitatively transformed. The result is a series of deep insights and psychological wisdom, richly evolved and well worth the reader’s time. I highly recommend this intellectually clarifying and emo- tionally satisfying book!” Pat Berry, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst “Over the years my own understanding of Jung has been deepened by Stan Marlan’s own original and insightful essays on the pivotal place of alchemy in Jung’s psychology. What a joy now to have the fifteen essays gathered in this volume. For the reader the book itself becomes an alchemical ves- sel whose fire attests to the radical depths and reveals the expansive reach of Jung’s Alchemical Psychology beyond the narrow confines of what his psychology has become. Marlan’s scholarship and elegant writing display Jung’s alchemical imagination as a necessary and much needed recovery of the erotic coupling between psyche and nature, that dark desire of spirit to matter and for matter to be inspired. Read Marlan’s book and learn to trust and to love the brilliance of the soul’s dark light that illuminated the alchemists of old and beckons us to be with them today.” Robert D. Romanyshyn, Ph.D., author of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies C.G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination Passages into the Mysteries of Psyche and Soul Stanton Marlan The author’s personal library. (Photo courtesy of the Marlan archives, with thanks to Dawn, Tori, and Brandon.) First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Stanton Marlan The right of Stanton Marlan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-40527-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-40528-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-35651-3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra Contents List of figures vii Foreword viii Preface x Acknowledgments xiv Introduction 1 1 Jung’s discovery of alchemy and its development in the Jungian tradition 8 2 Jung and alchemy: a daimonic reading 40 3 Fire in the stone: an inquiry into the alchemy of soul-making 58 4 Salt and the alchemical soul: Freudian, Jungian, and archetypal perspectives 81 5 The metaphor of light and renewal in Taoist alchemy and Jungian analysis 103 6 The metaphor of light and its deconstruction in Jung’s alchemical vision 121 7 Facing the shadow: turning toward the darkness of the nigredo 137 vi Contents 8 The black sun 146 Part A. Archetypal image of the non-self 146 Part B. Epilogue to The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness 156 9 From the black sun to the Philosophers’ Stone 160 10 A critique of Wolfgang Giegerich’s move from imagination to the logical life of the soul 183 Part A. The psychologist who is not a psychologist: a deconstructive reading of Wolfgang Giegerich’s idea of psychology proper 183 Part B. The absolute that is not absolute: an alchemical reflection on theCaput Mortuum, the dark other of logical light 197 11 What’s the matter—with alchemical recipes? Philosophy and filth in the forging of Jung’s alchemical psychology 213 12 The Philosophers’ Stone as chaosmos: the Self and the dilemma of diversity 233 13 The Azure Vault: alchemy and the cosmological imagination 246 14 Divine Darkness and Divine Light: alchemical illumination and the mystical play between knowing and unknowing 253 Index 271 Figures Frontispiece. The author’s personal library iii Acknowledgements. The author in Jung’s home library in Kusnacht xv 2.1 The unification of air and earth, from Eleazar’sUraltes Chymisches Werck, 1735 53 3.1 The return of the soul. Revivification, from theRosarium philosophorum 73 8.1 The black sun, sol niger, nigredo, putrefactio. From Mylius, Philosophia reformata, 1622 151 11.1 Pele, Goddess of Fire 224 11.2 The philosophical egg. From Codex Palatinus Latinus, 15th c 225 11.3 Illuminated tree 227 13.1 “Gates to the Garden.” Acrylic on canvas 250 14.1 Alchemical homunculus by Franz Xaver Simm, 1899 255 14.2 Rati-asana (detail). Stone, Khajuraho, Vishvanatha temple, 1059–1087 256 14.3 Illuminatio. From Artis Auriferae, 1572 259 14.4 Nicolas de Locques: Les Rudiments de la Philosophie Naturelle. Paris, 1665, frontispiece (N. Bonnart) 263 14.5 Black jaguar 266 Foreword In Psychology and Alchemy, Jung makes reference to a treasure that “is said to take nine years, nine months, and nine nights to come to the surface and, if not found in the last night, sinks down to start all again from the begin- ning.”1 Reading this always made me think of those invaluable things that remain buried, hidden, and forgotten until they are found. The idea of this anthology came when I read one of Stanton Marlan’s papers and was impressed by his clinical insights and the sophistication of his theoretical elaboration. I translated the paper into Portuguese, giving access to the Brazilian public. But still there were other papers that would be so interesting to the Jungian community; conversations began and the idea of this book emerged. And now these precious writings that could have been buried in the past, harder and harder to find, are brought to life again. Anyone who knows Stan, has visited his library or read about it,2 under- stands how alchemy is ingrained in his life and fundamental to his way of thinking and seeing the world. Some say that you know a man from his library and it comprises more than books. Stan’s library is replete with mysterious objects that inspire inquiry, snakes and skulls and stones that open to a symbolic and numinous presence. They reveal one of the characteristics of the alchemists, a passionate curiosity into the unknown (see Frontispiece). There’s no alchemical work without such passion and love for the sensuous embodiment of life and the surprising transformations that unfold before our eyes. Such is Stan’s gaze, his curiosity leads the way into the depths, and he shares with us the mysteries revealed by them. Stanton Marlan is an analyst whose eyes are at ease in the dark. Not un- like a true alchemist, he can navigate the depths of the unknown and bring us back treasures. This book should be celebrated. As many alchemical say- ings advised: rejoyce! Leticia Capriotti Jungian Analyst AJB/IAAP Foreword ix Notes 1 Jung, C.G. Psychology and Alchemy. CW 12, par 111.

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