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"An Alchemy of Heaven on Nature's Base": Intimations of the Universal Opus in the Integral Yoga and the Divine Life in Man in the Work of C

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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 37 | Issue 1 Article 11 9-1-2018 "An Alchemy of Heaven on Nature's Base": Intimations of the Universal Opus in the Integral Yoga and the Divine Life in Man in the Work of C. G. Jung Stephen L. Julich California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, USA Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies Part of the Philosophy Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Julich, S. L. (2018). "An alchemy of heaven on nature's base": Intimations of the universal opus in the integral yoga and the divine life in man in the work of C. G. Jung. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 37 (1). http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24972/ ijts.2018.37.1.132 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Special Topic Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "An Alchemy of Heaven on Nature's Base": Intimations of the Universal Opus in the Integral Yoga and the Divine Life in Man in the Work of C. G. Jung Stephen L. Julich California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA This comparative study addresses two main questions. First, considering the status of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as spiritual teachers and Jung as a psychologist: might their respective views on transformation be too divergent to warrant comparison? Second, considering that one of the goals of the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s yoga was the transformation of physical substance, could their relationship be viewed through an alchemical lens? The discussion begins with a comparison and differentiation of integral and analytic psychologies and a discussion of the nature of awakening in the two traditions, which leads to an extended amplification: “a method of association based on the comparative study of mythology, religion and fairy tales, used in the interpretation of images in dreams and drawings” (Sharp, 1991a, see entry under “amplification”), of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s relationship and yogic goals through analysis of the coniunctio motif in various alchemical traditions. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are described as living symbols (in Jungian terms) of the union of divine masculine and feminine principles. A comparison of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s views on the supramental speciation and Jung’s on alchemical transformation follows. A final, personal reflection concludes the paper. Keywords: alchemy, analytic psychology, integral yoga, Jung, Mirra Alfassa, the Mother, myth, The Red Book, Savitri, Sri Aurobindo Truth is one, the sages call it by many names. his passage, from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, is a (Rig Veda 1. 164:46) poetic description of the ultimate promise of _______ This and the Mother’s yoga. The Divine Mother, Know that the foul earth quickly receives white consort of the Supreme Absolute and carrier of the sparks. (Attributed to Morienus, as cited in light of the conscious-force of the Creator, takes birth Jung, 1954/1969d, p. 190 [para. 388]) as a human woman in order to unite with the Creator’s soul in the form of a human man, and through their But when the hour of the Divine draws near union effect an evolutionary transformation that will The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time propel life beyond the level of mind, unite spirit and And God be born into the human clay matter, and transmute Creation. When this takes place, In forms made ready by your human lives. Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men: The spirit's tops and nature's base shall draw There is a being beyond the being of mind, Near to the secret of their separate truth An Immeasurable cast into many forms, And know each other as one deity. A miracle of the multitudinous One, The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze There is a consciousness mind cannot touch, And Matter shall reveal the spirit's face. Its speech cannot utter nor its thought reveal. Then man and superman shall be at one (Ghose, 1993, p. 705) And all the earth become a single life. (p. 709) 132 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 37(1), 2018, pp. 132–198 Julich https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2018.37.1.132 In the following pages, I will be analyzing Although I believe there is ample evidence to Savitri, and the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s support my claims, there are important differences. relationship as a whole, through the lens of the Despite the above assertions, Jung (1957/1967a) alchemical syzygy, or sacred union of masculine as a psychologist restricted himself, at least in his and feminine principles in alchemy. Comparisons professional papers, to interpreting alchemical texts between integral yoga and European alchemy could psychologically,1 while the Mother and Sri Aurobindo be seen as inexact, if one accepts the argument (see were clear that the transformation promised by Principe & Light, 2013) that the main focus of alchemy their yoga was physical (Alfassa, 1998, p. 208 [31 in the West was on the chemical transformation of May 1969]). In Savitri (Ghose, 1993), the universal external substance while integral yoga’s is on the light is associated with the feminine principle and spiritual transformation of the substance of the body. the universal soul with the masculine, while in In this way, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s yoga hermetic philosophy, the light is generally pictured might better be compared to the internal alchemies as masculine (e.g., “Phos”—Fowden, 1986, p. 151) of China and India (Principe, 2013, pp. 17–18). and the soul as feminine. Sri Aurobindo’s yoga However, it has also been argued that in the West posits three stages to the transformative process (the alchemy sought “simultaneously to liberate the spirit triple transformation), while in alchemy there are mixed into the flesh and the soul which is ensnared many variations. There are enough real differences in the elements” (Fraser, 2007, p. 40). This was the to question whether a comparison between these line taken by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung two systems is even advisable. and it is through his alchemical writings that I have Yet, reduced to their most basic idea, the found the richest vein of correspondences to the goal of integral yoga (Ghose, 2006, pp. 547–550), work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. alchemy (Holmyard (1957/1990, p. 16), and Jung’s In Jung’s (1963/1970) ideas on the higher psychology (von Franz, 1975/1998, pp. 270–271) union of the alchemical king and queen in the is transformation. Within the alchemical traditions, completion of the alchemical opus, I see a parallel this transformation requires the re-union of what to the union of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and was divided at the beginning of the world, when its significance for the completion of their yoga. substance was separated from the primal Unity. The In Jung’s (1911–1912/1967b) ideas concerning the division between Creator and creation is symbolized transformation of libido, the energy of the psyche— by the division between light and dark, heaven “the totality of all psychic processes” (p. 463 and earth, good and evil; however, even more [para. 797])—which he saw in its aboriginal form mysteriously, the Absolute is seen as being beyond as nothing less than the longing of nature for God all opposites while the opposites themselves are and of God for nature (p. 205 [para. 299]), I see seen as being within the gross and subtle realms of a parallel with Sri Aurobindo’s (Ghose, 2003) idea manifest existence alone—an understanding which of the cit-shakti, the “pure energy of consciousness” even splits God into two: manifest and unmanifest. (p. 29) or conscious-force of the Divine, and the The oppositions, understood to present both reciprocal love of the Creator for humanity and of an inner and outer reality, heavenly and earthly humanity for the Creator (Ghose, 1971a, p. 764). In (Jung, 1963/1970, p. 11 [para.8]) are often depicted Jung’s (1937/1968f) vision of the teleological striving as masculine and feminine pairs. Creation is seen as a of the unconscious towards the “homo totus . cascade of division and separation into oppositions. who is at once the greater and the future man” (p. The goal then is to re-unite what has been separated 6 [para. 6]), symbolized by the Aquarian individual, in the creation of a third thing, which is at once representative of the higher Self (p. 340), I see the two terms of the opposition, and a higher unity intimations of the evolution towards “the divine transcending the two. Often, what is born out of the gnostic consciousness” (Ghose, 1997a, p. 367) and process of union—pictured as the sacred marriage the supramental being in Sri Aurobindo and the of contra-sexual opposites—is symbolically Mother’s teaching. depicted as a child. Jung likened this child to the An Alchemy of Heaven on Nature's Base International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 133 filius macrocosmi (son of the macrocosm), the goal knowledge of India’s rich and varied metaphysical of the alchemical opus. In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo systems is basic, my knowledge of alchemical (Ghose, 1993) used similar language to describe the literature only a bit more comprehensive. So, rather transformed soul, Satyavan, when at the end of the than an adjudication of previous knowledge, this tale she returns with him to the surface world and study was undertaken in the spirit of exploration.
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