Psychology and Alchemy

Jung's Collected Works #12

by C.G. Jung, Gerhard Adler (Translator), R.F.C. Hull (Translator)

A study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism. Revised translation, with new bibliography and index.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Alchemy, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Psychoanalysis, Religion

594 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Carl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields. He was a prolific writer, many of whose works were not published until after his death.

The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.

Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.

Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading Psychology and Alchemy on the bus when a young woman leaned in and ask me, "Is that Jung?"

I told her that it was.

"Man, I've tried reading Jung before, but I've never made it all the way through. How are you liking it?"

"Well, it's ..." I blanked. And not only blanked, I realized that my mind had been blank for the last god-knows-how-long. As my eyes had been scanning the page, my thoughts had wandered so that not only could I not remember what the last sentence I had read said, but I couldn't recall what the chapter was about or, for that matter, understand a great deal of the book and that as a psychological layman I had been kidding myself that I could possibly finish a work written in such impenetrable academic language as to include citations in untranslated Greek, Latin and French.

"... difficult to digest."

She stared at me in wordless anticipation as if there were someway in hell I could possibly have something to follow up such an evasive remark.

"But I'm sure whatever part of my subconscious is actually paying attention is having a blast."

[Knjigoholičarka]

Uf, kakvo monumentalno delo, kojem sam nedostojna dati bilo kakvu ocenu! Zašto? Iz prostog razloga što sam, i što se tiče psihologije, a i što se tiče alhemije, odnosno njenog simboličkog značenja, krenula u proučavanje sa pogrešnog kraja - ova knjiga ište više predznanja u pogledu psiholoških pojmova (naročito po pitanju kolektivnog nesvesnog, što je Jungova omiljena tema u kojoj je šampion), ali i u pogledu istorijskog znanja o alhemiji, njenom razvoju, kao i nasleđenim pisanim izvorima koji su nam dostupni za proučavanje (a ja ih, naravno, nisam ni omirisala).

Zašto onda kažem da je delo monumentalno? Zašto što sam, uprkos svesti o rupama u sopstvenom (pred)znanju toliko uživala u svemu, u svakom simbolu kog je Jung objasnio povlačeći paralele sa svešću, podsvesnim, istorijom i religijama (uglavnom pojašnjavajući hrišćansku simboliku), osećala sam se kao neki alhemičar-pripravnik koji je nabasao na The Knjigu koju svaki dobar alhemičar treba da zna, kako bi porinuo u dubine sopstvene duše i tamo se rasplinuo u blaženstvu spoja sa ultimativnim znanjem, kamenom mudrosti, besmrtnošću, zlatom, vaskrsenjem.

Ljubav <3

[Jason Thompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I happen to write about a book then you can be certain it is IMPORTANT to those of us "on the Path". This book contains invaluable reproductions of drawings made by REAL Alchemists, in fact the whole book as more illustrations than writing almost. Almost every page as a huge Alchemical drawing that, in my true opinion, can be meditated on and it helps those of us on the Path to GNOSIS.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not actually certain when I read this volume of the Collected Works and such similarly demanding texts as his Mysterium Coniunctionis. Hopefully I had the sense by the end of college to hold such texts until such time as I knew more about medieval and early modern religion and alchemy.

One thing I did do in college was to utilize interlibrary loan to obtain hundreds of journal articles about Jung and analytical psychology. By senior year I had my own study carrel and would basically spend the days there, arriving in the early afternoon to pick up the material received through the loan program that morning, then settle in with coffee to go through them and my regular school assignments. Then, after a good eight hours or so, I'd head for my job as a bartender at Grinnell's bar, The Pub Club, working until close at two, cleaning up, then putting in a couple of more hours of reading in bed before dawn.

It, those last two years in college, was one of the most exciting times in my life. During that period I not only read most of Jung and Nietzsche, but I also read the whole bible for the first time, much of Thomas Mann--including Doctor Faustus--and all of Goethe's Faust. On the side, preparing for my thesis on the origins of gnosticism, I read scores of books about antique Christianity. All of these topics related in one way or another to Jung and his interests, contributing to my ability to study him critically--so critically, indeed, that the lustre was wearing away by graduation...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come for the pictures, stay for the Faust + Zarathustra references.

[Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carl Jung puts forward a thesis, which I am going to oversimplify: Alchemy, rather than being a scientific process, was, at least in part, an artistic process by which alchemists were attempting to resolve unconscious material within the psyche by using narratives involving physical matter such as chemicals, precious metals, and stones. The “transformation” alchemists sought is similar to that of the symbol of the figure of Christ and many of his parallels.

Jung provides support for this theory by pulling from a myriad of the usual suspects: mythology, religious texts, Faust, and many others. But Jung also includes a description and analysis of dreams from one of his colleague’s clients, offering a very fascinating look into the symbolic relationship between the dream world, the unconscious psyche, and alchemy.

This book presents itself at a whopping 480 pages, but it should be noted that many of the pages are filled with optional explanatory citation as well as tons of wonderful illustrations. This book feels more like its 200 pages long.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a starting point for readers interested in Jung. I think “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious” or some of Erich Neumann's work are good prerequisites to “Psychology and Alchemy”.

[Mariam Mord'Sith]

In this book, Jung describes the 'opus' "as a work of imagination. He is discussing an old alchemical text that that tells how to produce the philosophers' stone. The passage says that one should be guided by a true and not a fantastic imagination. Commenting on this idea, Jung says that imagination is "an authentic accomplishment of thought or reflection that does not spin aimless and groundless fantasies into the blue; that is to say, it does not merely play with its object, rather it tries to grasp the inner facts and portray them in images true to their nature. This activity is an 'opus', a work" - #CareoftheSoul #ThomasMoore(Oh well!)

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this, my view of alchemy was of greedy magicians seeking an easy way to produce gold out of other matter. This work of Jung’s reveals an alternative side of alchemy that is instead concerned with deriving spirit out of human existence. Jung’s exploration in this regard addresses the world of dreams, fantasies, symbology, mythology, and folklore, which he sees as ancient accumulations that unconsciously accompany the human psyche, and which he broadly terms the “unconscious”.

Jung envisions a dialectical interaction between the conscious mind and this realm of unconsciousness. Just as with Hegel’s idea of dialectical synthesis, Jung observes an advance or movement towards a goal or end, which culminates in something he terms “individuation”. Individuation may be thought of as a state of working balance between consciousness and unconsciousness, much in the way a computer’s memory may access vast quantities of information, finding what it needs, without being overwhelmed by the whole of it. Such an overwhelming, in the human psyche, is something Jung identifies as an acute danger that can result in psychosis. But accessing the unconscious while avoiding these risks brings to life an improved and whole person. Nevertheless, the coming of this whole person is something most people fear because it bursts the little bubble of illusion that comprises the ego’s comfort zone.

Religious Obstacles

Jung sees some forms of popular religion as obstacles to the process of individuation because they focus upon things external, as opposed to developing the inner person. Jung’s view is that veneration of external objects prevents one from reaching down into the depths of their psyche to find wholeness. Jung writes: “Christ can indeed be imitated even to the point of stigmatization without the imitator coming anywhere near the Christian ideal or meaning.” Jung agrees with Tolstoy’s proclamation that “the kingdom of God is within you”. When one’s attitude is focused solely on outward aspects of Christ (icons, pictorials, relics, rituals), one is enticed to ignore the inner self, and thus succumb to a sort of superstitious idolatry that thwarts inner transformation.

At best, icons, relics, and rituals are primitive precursors for stimulating one toward greater inner awareness. But to cast our sins upon external icons is to evade the deeper responsibility to do necessary work within ourselves, a situation Dietrich Bonhoeffer identified as “cheap grace”. With too much cheap grace, the value of the self can sink to zero and, in fact, many denominations actively preach this sort of “dying to self”, as a fundamental goal of their theology. Jung sees “dying to self” as succumbing entirely to the unconsciousness and instead suggests that an optimal balance should be sought (between the conscious and unconscious realms) thus preserving the personality. For Jung, individuation is more a process of refining the ego with a humility that makes it capable of listening and processing information beyond the strict bounds of religious fundamentalism. What we must seek to avoid is the circumstance of one who puts nothing in their souls but have all God on the outside.

Modernizing Religion

When the individual soul is excluded, religious life congeals into external formalities. The soul is more than just nothing; the soul is an entity endowed with consciousness and blessed with the ability to have a relationship with God. The fact that God chooses to work on man from within, through the soul, rather than externally, emphasizes the importance of dreams, synchronicity, intuition, prayer, meditation, and the vast accumulation of mythological ideas. Such illuminations emerge from the unconscious and may be a part of one’s relationship with God.

As do popular religions, Jung identifies God among a variety of archetypes that hail from the unconscious realm. Just as Catholicism postulates a pantheon (Jesus, Mary, God, Saints, etc.), so Jung recognizes archetypes, including the manifestation of God. Others include the Shadow, the Old Man, the Grand Mother, etc. As with the Ancient Greek and Roman believers in the pantheon, it may easily happen that a modern Christian believes in sacred figures but remains undeveloped and unchanged because he has “all God outside” and has never experienced God in his soul. We come to know God more clearly when we turn our gaze away from preachers, icons, and established theology long enough to see deeply within ourselves, embrace truth, comprehend “what we are”, and envision “what we may become”.

Jung confesses that the realm of the unconsciousness is essentially pagan, as we can see by the fact that great events in the world do not represent the spirit of Christianity, but rather the hard callousness of paganism. It is not the individual, but rather the collectivism of nations, that effectuates unchristian-like events, such as war, slavery, environmental degradation, and impoverishment. Clearly, our present situation is incommensurate with what it should be, as preached to us by Christianity or any other religion. This is because modern Christianity lives outside the individual, in images, words, churches and bibles, but not inside. Still reigning inside are the archaic gods of the unconscious.

The Word must penetrate the hearts and minds of the masses in order to manifest fully in our society. The Word must escape the confines of the church which imprisons it within narrow social circles, denominations, and ethnicities. The utopia of religions cannot manifest until more of the world’s population experiences the divine image within their innermost souls. However, most people are incapable of establishing a connection between popular external images and their own psyche. It is ineffective to praise and preach the light if no one is experiencing it for themselves. Men must come to understand religion as much more than just a precautionary measure to guard against damnation at a Last Judgement.

Our religions must reshape themselves by shifting focus from external images to what’s happening within the souls of the congregation. Religions must teach and encourage the process of individuation that allows God to speak to the soul. Round table discussions must replace one way preaching, vital ministry activities must replace esoteric rituals, and congregations must become cohesive throughout the week, not just on Sunday. The edifice of religion must relocate from the confines of temples into broader geographical areas and its structure must be the soul-connections between people, as opposed to sticks and bricks.

Fundamentalist religions are always sniffing out sin and condemning one another as inherently sinful. But if we are all sinners, how are we to ever love ourselves without also loving sin? We all face countless decisions before us every day, many of which we are uncertain about. We cannot know all the answers; and yet we tend to categorize all bad choices as sin. As so aptly expressed by Paul Tillich in his work Systematic Theology , human existence is characterized by constant choices amidst countless polarizations, because nothing is static. We are all enmeshed within an environment necessitating that we figure things out and often that involves experiencing the wrong thing or even languishing in indecisiveness. Instead of casting about accusations of sinfulness, modern religions must become psychological aids for helping people navigate their way.

The Realm of the Unconscious

While the conscious mind is something that can be trained and domesticated, the unconscious mind is an autonomous psychic entity. Most people assume the unconscious to be inessential and unreal while, in fact, it is a real appendage of the conscious mind, bringing a sphere of experience all its own. What Jung sees as the unconscious is another realm of existence from which the conscious departed or evolved and is generally reluctant to return into. It is much like the state of instinctual existence experienced by Adam and Eve, prior to their evolving from being God’s garden pet, into entities conscious of themselves.

Most often, the approach of the unconscious induces fear and Jung recognizes there is danger for those who would foray too deeply into the unconscious, suggesting that they may indeed “find themselves in the wilderness where, like Christ, they come up against the son of darkness”. Just as the pantheon includes saints and holy personalities, so also one may find demons and devils in the unconscious. Most people simply ignore the unconscious, which may be the best course for the spiritually inept, because it can bring on the danger of psychosis or other psychological maladies. The conscious mind is constantly defending itself against instinctual urges that emerge from the unconscious realm, which seeks psychical control.

But Jung suggests there are situations in which benefits may be attained by allowing the conscious mind to descend back into the numinous land of the unconscious, so long as the consciousness does not become overwhelmed. For Jung, consciousness is like standing on the peak of an iceberg, with the much greater mass of instinctual information below the water. At the top of the iceberg, the consciousness can peer out over the waters of the world, with an embryonic awareness of itself, as a particle, in the mass, but nevertheless lost in chaos, wonder, indecision, and amazement; like an ant totally unaware of larger beasts peering down upon it. Jung suggests that learning to willfully access particular contents of information below the water can be of great benefit. Such information helps one answer questions about their origins: why they are here, and essentially what they are. For Jung, we must descend into the valley of the unconsciousness (our psychic prehistory) in order to begin an ascent to another, higher peak, from which our vantage point is enhanced.



Mining Light

The gateway into the collective unconscious is crossed when one learns to bring suppressed information into consciousness and deal with it effectively. It is a process of looking deeply within without abandoning the intellectual differentiation of consciousness. The ability to do this makes us more rounded and complete. It involves staring hard at our own urges, lusts, greed, hoarding, jealousy, and other primal emotions without being overwhelmed by them. With this comes the horrific realization of how infantile and nascent our conscious awareness really is. Like immature children, we have so far pushed ourselves toward destruction of the earth, destruction of other species, and therefore self-destruction. To date, our only method of dealing with this realization has been to postulate explanatory myths. Instead, we must ask ourselves, are we doing anything to generate and expand conscious awareness or not? Are we bringing anything more into the light? Or, are we just sitting passively on top of the iceberg, staring into the void, and speculating blindly, like an idiot?

The alchemical idea is of the human being itself as an engine in the transformative process; just as we observe the physical transformation of the natural environment into things construed by men, such as buildings, ponds, mines, farms, roads, bridges, ships, vehicles, planes, etc. Truly, human manipulation even extends to the microscopic level, as we engineer plant species, inoculate ourselves, or ingest contrived substances to improve our health. We are constantly creating our own environment and we do so with little or no contemplation about what the whole will look like. As we systematically destroy ecosystems and forests, we pollute the very organic substructure that sustains us. The similarity with maggots or bacteria, quickly consuming a single resource is unmistakable, for we are insatiable in our activities, without concern for the ultimate demise of our species, even though we gaze deeply into the heavens and see only cold, inhospitable landscapes.

However, as minuscule as it may presently be, we can still use our conscious awareness to generate more spiritual light. In consciousness, we can beget more light via the attainment of wisdom and awareness. We generate light by synthesizing the primordial darkness of the unconscious. Just as we create material things, so we may also create the invisible substance of goodness that arises out of spiritual awareness and bears profound impact in our world. Jung shows us that ultimately alchemy is not about converting things into gold but rather about converting darkness into light. As a converter, the two sides of human personality (unconsciousness and consciousness) are essential, one being the raw material, the other the product. Man is the converter, the laborer in the soil of darkness, rising out of animality, generating the light of consciousness.

Like the chain of DNA, the progressive chain of wise and enlightened humans are the building blocks of the penultimate society of “the kingdom”. Hence, we must traverse the dangers of the unconsciousness to accomplish our role in this life; but we must be careful that the ground doesn’t slip out from under our feet, such that we become lost within the void, seduced by soaring flights of speculation that violate reason. We must stay grounded. We must kindle consciousness forward. We must not shrink into ambivalence, failing to generate light. As sons of God, as did Christ, we must stand in the gap, synthesizing the light for our due time. As is so clearly expressed in the parable of the talents, we are to multiply the spark of light into a much greater flame.

The Precarious State of Consciousness

When we access the unconscious, we evaluate intuition, synchronicity, dreams, instincts, imagination, urges, visions, etc. to decipher meaning from them. We see that our consciousness is barely above the surface, clinging desperately to the tip of the iceberg, like the ephemeral experience of a flying fish, momentarily existing above the water. We know of the vastness beneath us because we emerged from it and are lifted by it into this momentary experience.

We know that invariably we will sink again into the depths of unconsciousness but will nevertheless augment it with information gained from above. We are scouts sent out ahead, so let us not waste what time we have by remaining juvenile. Our present disposition is a function of all ancestral life that has preceded us, and this sort of historical collective is what gives us impetus. Even though we have emerged beyond instinct into consciousness, the unconscious continues to reach out to us through dreams, instincts, intuitions, etc.

Even though we can now regulate the instincts to exorcise the danger of being overwhelmed by unconscious urges, the struggle nonetheless continues. Even though we have evolved the ability to arrest instinctual routine in a state of conscious awareness and thus mange it, the feud nonetheless persists. The struggle between consciousness and unconsciousness is the struggle between the rational and irrational, sleep and awakenedness, learning and ignorance, lucidity and drunkenness, life and death, or whether to suffer for future good. Consciousness has broken forth but can sustain itself for only short durations as it struggles constantly against the unconsciousness, which is forever trying to swallow it up again. Irrational tendencies continue to emerge such as jealousy, anger, murder, war, slavery, rape, substance abuse, hoarding, etc. as forays by the unconsciousness to subdue the consciousness.

Consciousness is seeking permanent escape from unconsciousness. Do we really want to be asleep, dead, or within a phantom dream world? Do we really want to simply be governed by predetermined instinct? What we really want is power; power to govern ourselves. But we lack that power sufficiently to prevent the periodic incursions from the unconscious world of instinct, which we experience in periods of lapse, dreams, and domineering primal motivations like anger, lust, or violence. Our true goal is to achieve the power to ascend beyond the limitations of animal mortality and our frustrations arise out of our inability to do so. We long for the ability to wrestle ourselves free of the unconscious, sprout wings, and fly off the tip of the iceberg, bearing a composition of only consciousness. Only one historic man has demonstrated such ability to conquer unconsciousness, such that He may come and go as he pleases.

The son of man is that which arises within humans and becomes manifest in spiritual relationship. Like the relationship between an infant and a parent, it emerges out of unconsciousness to nurture us across the chasm to awareness. It empowers our conscious awareness with enhanced abilities for organization, creativity, and the effectuation of goodness. To embrace the son of man, we must get beyond the hesitation, timid shrinking, and meticulous excuses that we make for refusing the process of crystallization within ourselves toward that which is most exalted.

A species capable of transforming matter dwells within the human mind and manifests an inner dialogue with us, like someone unseen. We gain from establishing a living relationship with the voice of this “other” in ourselves. For it is through this inner dialogue that things pass from an unconscious state to a state that is manifest in materiality. CONTINUED IN COMMENT SECTION BELOW

[Ivva Tadiashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

იუნგს ვიცნობდი მხოლოდ რამოდენიმე სტატიიდან, შესავალი ძენ ბუდიზმის წინასიტყვაობიდან და კიდევ აქა იქ პატარა ინფორმაციებიდან. საოცარია როგორ შეეძლო ასეთ რაციონალურ გონებას ელაპარაკა ასეთ ტრანსცენდენტურ რამეებზე. ისეთი წიგნი იყო სულ ფურცვლა გიწევს და ბოლომდე გითრევს. რამოდენიმე თვე სახლში მედო ეს წიგნი მაგრამ არ მივდიოდი ახლოს. საერთოდ რამოდენიმე წიგნს ერთად ვკითხულობ ხოლმე მაგრამ, ამის კითხვა როცა დავიწყე სხვა ვეღარაფერს ვკითხულობდი. ალქიმიის შესახებ მეგონა რაღაცეები ვიცოდი full metal alchemist დან და ხოდოროვსკის რამოდენიმე ფილმიდან, მაგრამ აღმოჩნდა რომ არაფერი მცოდნია ალქიმიის შესახებ. ძალიან მიმზიდველი რამე აღმოჩნდა ალქიმია. მე აქამდე ძენ ბუდიზმით ვიყავი ძალიან მოხიბლული და ყველაფერში ძენ ბუდისტურ რამეებს ვამჩნევდი, ეხლა კი თითქოს ალქიმიურმა საიდუმლომ მომიცვა და ყველფერში ალქიმიურ სიმბოლოებს ვხედავ.
საოცარი გაცნობიერებები მქონდა, რის სალაპარაკოდაც ვფიქრობ გუდრიდსი შეუფერებელი პლატფორმაა.
საბოლოო ჯამში ალქიმიაშიც არის მისტერია და მე მაინც ძენ ბუდიზმის ერთგული ვრჩები, მაგრამ ალქიმიაზე საუბარი უფრო მომხიბვლელია, ლათინური ფრაზები და ტერმინები. თან იუნგი ხანდახან როცა გეჩურჩულება რომ ეს ცოდნა ყველასთვის არ არის, ეს ძალიან კარგი შეგრძნება იყო. ილუსტრაციები ქონდა წიგნს ძალიან ლამაზი,სულ აქეთ იქით ფურცვლა გიწევს, ხან რამე ილუსტრაციის სანახავად, ხან რამე ტერმინის მნიშვნელობის. და მთლიანობაში დიდი ხანია წიგნის კითხვა ესეთი ინტელექტუალური პროცესი არ ყოფილა.
ყოველი წიგნის აღება და კითხვის პროცესი იყო meditatio, ქიმიური ნივთიერებების ჰერმეტულ ჭურჭელში მოთავსება, ხოლო ყოველი კითხვის შემდეგ ღამით უბრალოდ წოლა და ფიქრები იყო imaginatio ანუ იმ პროცესების წარმოდგენა რაც ჭურჭელში ხდება. მთლიანობაში ვფიქრობ lapis philosophorum დიდი ხანია სახლში მიდევს და ქუსლებს ვიხეხავ ხოლმე ძენ ბუდისტურად.
ბოლოსკენ მარტორქების სიმბოლოზე ძალიან მოულოდნელი იყო. საერთოდ არ ველოდებოდი თუ მარტორქებზე წავიკითხავდი რამეს.
ძალიან საოცარი წიგნია, ზუსტად ახლა მიწევს ფსიქოლოგიაში გარკვევა და ძალიან ზუსტ დროს წავიკითხე.

[Beka Sukhitashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

ამ ნაშრომსაც, იუნგი ქრისტიანობის კრიტიკით იწყებს: "ფორმალურად მოაზროვნე მორწმუნემ ქრისტეს იდეალი საკულტო ობიექტად აქცია და სწორედ ქრისტეს, როგორც ობიექტის, თაყვანისცემამ შეუშალა მას ხელი, სწვდომოდა ფსიქეს სიღრმეებს და მისთვის მთლიანობა მიენიჭებინა". იუნგისთვის ყოველთვის მნიშვნელოვანია ინდივიდუალურ ცხოვრებაში, "საკუთარი გზებით", იდეალის რეალიზაცია. ამით ის ძალიან გავს შუა საუკუნეების ჭეშმარიტ ალქიმიკოსს, რომელსაც მარტოდმარტოს უხდებოდა კვლევა-ძიება-აღმოჩენა და გამთლიანება. ეჭვი და კითხვის დასმა, კვლავ მთავარი პროცესორებია ("როდესაც აღმოსავლურ პოზიციას ვეცნობით, დასავლური პოზიციის მიმართ ბევრი ეჭვნარევი კითხვა გვიჩნდება"). ფსიქიკის გარეშე, რელიგია არ არსებობს. მის გარეშე ინდივიდის ცოდვები გარეთაა და შეუძლებელი ხდება მთლიანობის განცდა. მხოლოდ რელიგიური პროექცია სულს ღირებულებას ართმევს. "ქრისტიანი, რომელსაც წმინდა ხატების სწამს, შესაძლოა, სულის სიღრმეში განუვითარებელი და სტატიკური იყოს, რადგან ღმერთს მთლიანად "გარეთ" განიცდის და არა სულის სიღრმეში". ამ წარმართულ სულისკევეთებას არქაული ფსიქიკური სტრუქტურა წარმოშობს. რელიგიური დოგმების შეცნობა, ფსიქიკაში ხდება. ხოლო მთლიანობა თავის თავში მოიცავს როგორც ცნობიერ, ასევე არაცნობიერ ადამიანს.

ვრცლად: http://bit.ly/2qI5u7u

[Hassan Zayour · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highlight the importance of reading Jung's book basically due to their richness when it comes to cultures and religions. I usually behave like a fanboy when it comes to Carl Jung due to his astonishing genius, but I encourage everyone to try and view things from his point of view.
Alchemy and psychology seem to be the least related topics, and it requires great creativity to actually link them together, which is exactly what Jung brilliantly does here. However, my main problem here would be the following: The basis of most of his arguments are somehow missing. They're not really scientific, they're more of a mystical projection on the psychological realm. It's like he could see it this way yet poorly project it on a scientific field, and that's my only concern. This does not mean that I don't enjoy his works. Quite the contrary, I greatly do, and I learn a lot from them, but I'm not sure most of it could be categorized as scientific.
Once again, I would follow Jung's school of thought when it comes to Analytical psychology. Biggest fan.

[Laura L. Van Dam]

ABANDONADO AL 25%/DNF 25%

Me interesa el tema pero estoy muy cansada, y no puedo absorber casi nada de la lectura. No me puedo concentrar, no es el momento para leerlo. Así que lo dejo acá y sin calificar, con la intención de retomarlo más adelante.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

No tengo palabras.

[Абрахам Хосебр · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Психологія і Алхімія"
Карл Ґустав Юнґ

Багато років Юнґ вивчав алхімічні трактати та алхімічну символіку. Причиною цього стало те, що в багатьох своїх пацієнтів він виявляв ці символи в снах і їх правильна інтерпретація грала важливу роль в індивідуації людини. Результатом його багаторічних досліджень стала ця книга. Юнґ любить використовувати у своїх працях різні ілюстрації, але в цій книзі їх особливо багато. В основному це гравюри та ілюстрації з різноманітних алхімічних трактатів.

Ось як Юнґ окреслює мотивації стародавніх алхіміків:

"З погляду сучасної хімії алхімія дає мало або нічого, так що з сотень і сотень забутих рецептів і процедур середніх віків і античності, можна знайти лише кілька таких, що мають сенс для хіміка. Він, швидше за все, знайде більшість із них позбавленими будь-якого сенсу, тим більше, що протягом багатьох століть щирих зусиль не було зроблено жодної тинктури чи штучного золота. Ми маємо право запитати, що ж спонукало древніх алхіміків заглиблюватися в роботу або, як вони говорили, "роблення" - так рішуче, і писати всі ці трактати про "божественне" мистецтво, якщо все зводилося до повної нікчемності? Щоб віддати їм належне, слід додати, що сучасні знання про природу хімії та її сфери застосування були приховані від них, так що вони мали право на надію, як і ті, які мріяли про польоти, і ця мрія збулася врешті-решт. Важко переоцінити почуття задоволення, що народжується під час роботи, збудження від пригоди, від quaerere (пошуку) та invenire (відкриття). Так тривало доти, доки метод здавався розумним. У ті часи не існувало нічого, що могло переконати алхіміка в безглуздості його хімічних операцій, більше того, він завжди міг звернутися до традиції, яка давала не одне свідчення досягнення чудових результатів. Все-таки зусилля не були абсолютно марними, бо побічним продуктом у лабораторії поставало безліч корисних відкриттів. Як попередниця хімії, алхімія мала свій raison d'etre. Таким чином, навіть якщо алхімія складалася з нескінченних серій безглуздих та безплідних хімічних експериментів, вона дивує не більше, ніж ризикована практика середньовічної медицини та фармакології."

Юнґ починає свою роботу з аналізу кількох десятків снів у яких яскраво проявляється алхімічна символіка. Далі мова йде алхімічний спосіб думання у "Фаусті" Ґете, про алхімію в Китаї та християнські паралелі в деяких трактатах.
Великої ваги Юнґ надає символіці мандал і мандалоподібних снів.
Великий розділ присвячений аналізу символіки Меркурія.
Завершується книга цікавим огляд символу єдинорога в різних культурах і традиціях.
Підсумок дослідження знаходимо в цьому пасажі:

"Ми ніколи не дізнаємося достеменно, що мали на увазі під lapis древні філософи. На це питання можна буде відповісти лише тоді, коли ми добудемо несвідомий вміст який вони вкладали сюди. Тільки психологія несвідомого може розплутати цю загадку. Врожай символічного матеріалу надзвичайно рясний, і він безпосередньо відноситься до процесу індивідуації.
Маючи справу з алхімією, ми повинні завжди усвідомлювати, що найважливіший етап розвитку цієї філософії припав на середні віки, що велика література втрачена, і що вона справила на духовне життя свого часу величезний вплив. Коли ми займаємося психологією алхімічної думки, ми повинні взяти до уваги зв'язки, дуже віддалені від історичного матеріалу. Але якщо ми намагаємося зрозуміти цей феномен зсередини, як психологічний, потрібно починати з головної позиції, де сходяться багато ліній, як далеко вони б не розходилися в зовнішньому світі. Тоді ми зустрінемося з глибинною людською психе, яка, на відміну від свідомості, навряд чи змінилася за багато століть. Тут постає істина, якій дві тисячі років, і сьогодні, як і раніше, вона залишається вірною - іншими словами, вона надалі живе і діє. Тут ми знайдемо також фундаментальні психічні факти, які залишаються незмінними тисячі років і залишатимуться незмінними ще тисячоліття. З цієї точки зору недавнє минуле і сьогодення видаються епізодами в драмі, яка почалася в сивій давнині і продовжується крізь століття у віддалене майбутнє. Ця драма - "Aurora consurgens" - світанок свідомості людства.
Алхімія класичної епохи (від античності до середини сімнадцятого століття) була, по суті, дослідницькою роботою в галузі хімії, куди були впроваджені шляхом проекції домішки несвідомого психічного матеріалу. Тому психічні передумови, необхідні для роботи, часто підкреслювалися у текстах. Цей вміст був таким, що висловлював себе в проекції на невідому хімічну субстанцію. Завдяки безособовій, чисто об'єктивній природі речовини, ці проекції були універсальними, колективними архетипами, які в основному відображали колективне духовне життя епохи, образ духу, укладеного в темряву матеріального світу. Іншими словами, стан відносної несвідомості, в якому людина того часу перебувала, відчувався як хворобливий і такий що потребує порятунку; він проектувався на речовину і, внаслідок цього, пов'язувався з нею."

Актуальність алхімічної роботи найкраще Юнґ окреслив в цьому фраґменті:

"Як показують тексти та їх символізм, алхімік проектував те, що я назвав процесом індивідуації, у феномени хімічних перетворень.
Це процеси в несвідомому, що формують особистість. Ми маємо справу з життєвим процесом, який, в силу свого божественного характеру, виходить з незапам'ятних часів, забезпечуючи формування символів. Ці процеси занурені в таємницю: вони висувають загадки, які людський розум давно намагається вирішити. Аналіз показує, що розум людини - інструмент малопридатний для такої мети. Недарма алхімія вважала себе "мистецтвом", відчуваючи, і це цілком справедливо, що вона має справу з творчими процесами, які можна осягнути лише досвідом, хоча ім'я їм може дати інтелект. Самі алхіміки попереджали нас: "Rumpite libros, ne corda vestra rumpantur" (Рвіть книги, щоб не були розірвані ваші серця), і це незважаючи на їх старанність у науках. Досвід, а не книги – ось те, що веде до пізнання."

В підсумку, маємо дійсно складну, багатогранну і цінну книгу для перечитування. З'являється бажання читати не тільки аналізи, а й самі алхімічні трактати, адже це справжні енциклопедії архетипових сюжетів та процесів, що допоможуть кожному посвяченому витворити власний алхімічний камінь Самості та Цілісності.

[فرآمرز · Rating 5 out of 5]

"در گذشته به کودکان آموختند که خداوند در آسمان هاست، اما چه کسی به آن ها یاد خواهد داد که آسمان بر روی زمین و در همه جاست، و در اشیاء ساده به درخشش درمی آید؟"

این کتاب از سه بخش تشکیل شده.
بخش اول به مجموعه ای از رویاها و اوهام شخصی، یک بیمار، می پردازد.این رویاها به ترتیب ظهور قرار گرفته شده اند ، و در خلال بازگویی رویاها تفسیری بر اونها نوشته شده. هدف ازین کار دستیابی به الگویی ناشناخته برای انسان کنونی از خواب ها و به تبع آن افعال ناخودآگاه است.انسانی که تا همین چندی پیش ارتباطی انکارناپذیر با جهان درون و بیرون داشت، اکنون طبق عادتی نوین نیاز به اثباتی علمی دارد حتی اگر توانایی آن را نداشته باشد. نویسنده کتاب نتایج قابل قبولی از مرور این مجموعه رویاها به دست می آورد: ناخودآگاه جنبه ای تکمیلی در زندگی ایفا می کند؛ بدین معنی که برای رستگاری نیاز به هر دو جنبه وجودی هست. هم آب نیاز هست و هم آتش، ضدیت این دو ظاهری و از سر کوته بینی ست. در حقیقت یک اند.با نگریستن به درون می توان خود را در مسیر رشد و بالندگی فردی قرار داد.
بخش دوم مروری بر تاریخ کیمیاگری و مرتبط ساختن مراحل انجام کار با مراحل رشد فردی و روانی ست. این که تمامی اعمال انجام شده توسط کیمیاگر بازتابی ست از واکنش های روانی او.
بخش سوم به شباهت های نمادین ادیان و فرقه های مذهبی-عرفانی می پردازد.

[Mohsen Abootalebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

اگر میخواهید بدون دردسر گشتن زیاد(که نیست،جز مربوط به جن و کتابهای مزخرف افراد بدبخت از لحاظ فکری) چیزهای بسیاری در مورد عمق درون کیمیاگری و ربطش به ناخودآگاه و روانشناسی بفهمید این کتاب،آغاز خوبی هست!

[Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you can't be botehreed to wade through the very dense case studies, the first chapter is worth reading on its own, just for the insights it gives into Jung's marvelous connections he makes.

[Ruta Juzulenaite]

One of the most outstanding works of Jung

[Austin Chiappetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. This was the second book I've read by Jung. I found it to be much more accessible than Aion. My favorite section of the book was when Jung does an in-depth analysis of the dreams of one of his clients (over 200 dreams), explaining both the dream symbolism and how it relates to alchemical symbolism, and showing how the dream symbolism develops over time as the process of Individuation unfolds. Overall, I found this book to be quite accessible, as Jung does a wonderful job explaining both the psychological and alchemical concepts. Jung makes a very cogent and convincing argument that alchemy was far more than merely a proto-scientific pursuit of transforming base metals into gold. Alchemy, both in theory and in practice, was a deeply spiritual/psychological endeavor which sought internal transformations of the soul which mirrored the chemical transformations of the matter being studied.

[Shakyba · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب از صفحه ۳۰۰ برای من جالب‌تر شد.
البته نمیگم که جالب نبود، جالب بود منتها من خیلی نمیفهمیدم.
خیل عظیمی از نام‌ها و استعارات بود که در عین توضیح دادن باز برای من ناآشنا بود و آخر هم با سرچ‌های گوگلی برام روشن شد تا حدودی.
بخش اول کتاب تحلیل ۲۲ رویا هست از دید نمادهای کیمیاگری.
بخش دوم راجع به خود کیمیاگری و نمادهاش.
بخش سوم راجع به تکشاخ.
فصل آخر هم کیمیاگری در امروزه روز و فاوست.
من خیلی چیزای باحال خوندم تو این کتاب و خیلی تصویرهای خفن دیدم ولی کاملا متوجهش نشدم که بتونم برای کسی توضیح بدم.
یه‌جاهاییش سردرد گرفتم، داشت یونگ به چیزی رو توضیح میداد و من اصلا نمیفهمیدم چیو توضیح میده؛ خیلی اشاره به مسحیت داشت یعنی جز پایه‌های کتاب بود و من خب واقف نیستم به داستان‌های مسحیت، گویی که به واسطه‌ی مسیح، کیمیا رو برای ما شرح داد.
اولی واقعا کتاب جالبیه و اگه بیشتر بخوام در کیمیا مطالعه داشته باشم چ، باید باری دیگر این کتاب رو بخونم چون یکبار اصلا کافی نیست.

[Alias Pending · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Stars because there is no way I understood this enough to give it 5. So. Many. Words.
But, it was all, the alchemical quest mirrors our own journey toward self-discovery or something. Sounded important. Jung was an interesting dude, but he never did get around to telling me how to turn gold into immortality...
EDIT - in a turn of events Jung would have loved, I turned on Esoterica today to synchronistically find How Theosophy Created Spiritual Alchemy - The Alchemy of Jakob Böhme, wherein Dr Justin Sledge cites this work, saying, "Jung most famously would understand The Alchemist as unconsciously describing the process as psychological individualization... basically uniformed by alchemical practice in theory... (though) Jung's work fired the imagination of a generation... students realized how detached his series was from historical reality... and just how much he cherry picked his sources to fit his paradigm."
-That adds a little sublimatio to Jung's text that does not transform the topic from its impurities and base elements, alas.

[Abdulaziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most certainly I wasn't ready for how much alchemical knowledge Jung had in this book.

[Karla Denisse Cardona Canales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una joya, tienes que tener ciertos conocimientos de otras áreas para lograr entenderlo completamente, me encanta la forma en que viene en latín, inglés, francés y alemán.

[obsess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invaluable.

[Sean Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely agreat resource for Jungian Therapy after careful contemplation of the content. 10/10 would read again.

[Paithan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since learning about alchemy in middle school, I took it as just one more example of how people in the Middle Ages were so much dumber than Modern people.

But this book changed that.

Jung provides two things with this book; the first is a solid look at what alchemy actually was. The second is how alchemical ideas manifested themselves in individual alchemists.
It turns out that alchemy was never about transforming base metals in gold. That was either a ploy to trick the less intelligent, or metaphorical language. Probably a bit of both.
Alchemy was, from the very beginning, a series of projections experienced and recorded by pre-Modern people. As they went through life, growing and maturing, they sought a way to record these transformations. The way they did this was through alchemy.

There are said to be four stages; black, white, yellow and red.

Black is the total defeat of a person. It is the miniature death that paves the way for a transformation. Next comes white, which has been personified by the Holy Spirit or the Madonna. This washes away the impurities of the person. In non-metaphorical language, black represents a traumatic event to the psyche. White represents the integration of a new idea, the transformation from unexplored territory to explored territory.

Yellow is named for the rising sun, which is metaphorical language for the dawning of a new iteration of the psyche. Red represents the fully risen sun, signifying that the process has been completed. Again in non-metaphorical language this correlates to the learning of a lesson and the different method of living one’s life that comes from the integration of that lesson.

An example; a person has their heart broken. They are cast down into a black pit of despair. But one day they realize that it is not the end of the world. They can grow and love again. Eventually, they fall in love again, but this new relationship is different, because the person is different. They will never be the same. They have learned a life lesson.

That is the truth of alchemy.

It is also the core of the Hero Myth; King either grows old and/or become tyrannical. It is up to the Prince to descend into the depths, or into Hades, in order to save the King and lift him back up. But in the process, the Prince is 'killed.' He is Apollo, the Logos, who succumbs to Nature. The King is 'reborn' in the form of the Prince, who becomes the King. It is the defeat of Death; constant rejuvenation of Humanity through youth.

But that is an ancient story, more fitting for Greeks or Egyptians. How did that manifest in pre-Modern people? Who had no understanding of science? Usually in manifested itself in religious language.

That is second half of this book, as Jung breaks down the various metaphors used by alchemists. One of those is the Philosopher’s Stone, which was the thing that gave you ever-lasting life. Jung draws a comparison (in psychological terms) between the Stone and Individuation, when one comes to terms with the various pieces of their psychology. Many Christian Alchemists also drew a comparison between the Stone and Jesus, which adds an interesting level of providing an example for people to follow. Jesus is considered a culture hero because he sacrificed himself for the good of the community. Therefore people should be like Jesus, and think of their communities before their own selfish needs.

There is one more thing I want to mention. Towards the end of the book, Jung writes about Mass Psychosis. He uses Nazi Germany as an example of this phenomenon. The German people, he claims, succumbed to a sort of National Madness, in which they elevated Adolf Hitler to the level of a God. The problem with that is that if God gives you a command, and you believe it, you carry it out. But if your God is a man? Very dangerous.

It makes a good argument for keeping God in a transcendental space, where he cannot give direct commands to his followers, and where anyone who claims to be the mouth-piece of God can be decried as a fraud.

[Qing Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Jung believes the big threat to humanity is the refusal to acknowledge the existence of the unconscious, which in the end is the base of life and the world.

Jung had terrible dreams/visions before the outbreak of WWII. The tendency started with the Enlightenment movement to deny the spiritual endeavor and to rationalize everything had gone too far.

I was reading the following in the epilogue of this book:

An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with.

That's Jung's comments about the European mindset at that time. What would Jung say about today's war?

Some lament that the achievements of Peter the Great have been destroyed; some watch with amazement that political change imposed by trade does not last. If we say WWI and WWII are European affairs, can we say the current one is West versus East?

Perhaps it's still the same problem. People once believed that rationality must triumph over feelings and emotions, then they believe rules and regulations would overcome the limitations of individual rationality. A natural conclusion is that the West could engage and then change the East through collaboration in commercial activities.

Once again, it failed.

Perhaps its failure is only to be expected. While political change is the ultimate goal, the business world is trying everything it can to appear apolitical. And political leaders are helping them, even using financial risks as an excuse for sending war money to kill fellow humans.

Leaders in the East know the existence of double standards and resent it. We can even say they have learned how to take advantage of it. Greedy ones are everywhere as greed is part of human nature.

Jung believes in individuation. He talks about only individuals can bring the changes necessary for humanity to survive. And individuals must not be turned into the organized mob, the blind majority.

The idea that business (materiality) and politics (ideology) are separate or can be separated is headed in the same direction dictated by the Enlightenment movement and it's a dead end. As long as the West cannot be honest with itself (and its purpose), there is not much hope.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is encyclopedic in scope, filled with page after page of electrifying insight and ecstatically illustrated throughout with 17th and 18th century alchemical engravings. There are worlds upon worlds to be discovered here, many of which I'm afraid I will have to wait until subsequent readings to fully grasp. Jung writes for the serious scholar, with footnotes that often cover more than half the page, and assumes substantial knowledge in the fields of analytic psychology, alchemy, and Christian theology from the reader. (I recommend working up to it with more introductory texts such as Titus Burckhardt's Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul and Jung's Man and His Symbols.) That said, this book is well worth the effort. Whether or not one agrees with all the connections Jung makes, it is certain that his work paved the way for much subsequent scholarly interest in alchemy and other symbolic spiritual vocabularies and is at the very least crucial on an historical level. The overlap with Jung's lectures on Psychology and Religion are of specific importance, and some of the most interesting insights from the text relate the process of alchemy to the symbolic transformation of Christ (the Christ-Lapis parallel, discussed indepth here.) This may be Jung at his most passionate, and his passion for the material is contagious. I am inspired to follow this up with Mysterium Coniunctionis.

[Ricardo Acuña · Rating 5 out of 5]

Psicología y Alquimia es a mi gusto una de las grandes obras de Carl Jung, que nos adentra en el profundo mundo de la alquimia en relación con la psicología, el proceso de individuación, y la aparición de imágenes míticas cargadas de un fuerte simbolismo. La obra del alquimista (el Opus) lo explica Jung como un proceso, que el mismo alquimista no comprende en su totalidad, - hacia el desarrollo de su propio ser-, pero que lo lleva a cabo guiado por un deseo inconsciente.

La obra del alquimista la explica Jung como proyecciones del inconsciente, de contenidos psíquicos, en la búsqueda de su propio ser, del desarrollo de su conciencia (Selbst). Las Fases del proceso alquímico (melanosis, leucosis, xantosis, iosis), es en realidad un proceso de transformación que conduce al alquimista hacia la unidad con la totalidad, y que relaciona de manera simbólica con el proceso de individuación.

La primera parte trata del análisis e interpretación de los sueños, por medio del método que Jung describe en casi la mitad del libro. Se asocia el contenido onírico con el simbolismo y arquetipos que aparecen en la alquimia y en los mándalas orientales, para interpretar el desarrollo psíquico del paciente.

Es sin duda una de entre las grandes obras de Jung, que en lo personal admiro. Jung fué mas allá hacia los temas religiosos, espirituales y trascendentales, llevando el campo de conocimiento del ser hacia una perspectiva mas amplia, mas allá de lo puramente clínico y psicológico, hacia una psicología transpersonal o psicología del ser.

Muy recomendable esta obra, que hay que leer con un espíritu muy abierto, para descubrir la propuesta de significación de la obra alquímica, desde el punto de vista histórico, con la búsqueda actual del desarrollo positivo del ser.

[Elizabeth LaPrelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Jung, along with T.S. Eliot and some others, has the ability to make me feel woefully undereducated because, you know, I can't read Greek. OR Latin, even. Many parts of this book were almost impenetrably dense (for me), made up of references to ideas and people I had never heard of, and lengthy quotations and their translations, and discussions of their translations. That was rough. I was hoping to come out of it knowing a little something about alchemy, and I'm not sure that really happened. It more made me wish for some kind of Medieval Alchemy Guide.
However, if you already know a little something about alchemy, or you can put up with footnotes that take up half the page and lots of references to people like Zosimos and Zathura, then the ideas about symbols and dreams and the mind are, as always, totally fascinating. Or actually, the ideas are totally cool and kind of soothing. I think the nicest experience I had with this book was reading it to a room of three other tired, sun-burned people; and one by one they each fell gently asleep. Jung really is a personable writer who likes people. And there's always pictures! The pictures are the bomb.