Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality

23 Pages·2005·0.72 MB·English

Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)

Search: Lycos Tripod Share This Page Report Abuse Build a Site Browse Sites
« Previous | Top 100 | Next »

"Ars longa, vita brevis"
Netzach Gallery presents. . .
PSYCHOGENESIS I
ALCHEMICAL REALITY
THE SOURCERESS: FIRE & ICE
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (1 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
The High Priestess, mistress of our guided tour to the Abyss of the Transcendent Imagination, gazes out
serenely from her inner kingdom. The image is actually one of many incarnations of Psyche, whose name in
Greek means butterfly, and is a universal symbol of the soul. This Psyche is in rapport with Spirit, as
symbolized by the dove enclosed in the circle of flame over her crown. It reflects the mythography of
Psyche & Eros, the divine couple. There is alchemy and magick here in this world, where serpents are a
healing force. Myth tells us that the blood of Medusa, the serpent-haired one, was a potion—that from the
right side a healing balm, that of the left a fatal poison.
As the Soul of the World, the Anima Mundi represents a way of affirmation and fullness. She is the plenum,
the panoply or pandaemonium of psychic imagery—our Hostess for the inner journey we are about to
embark upon. She is a soul-guide, a mediatrix of consciousness between the personal and collective. She
balances the actualities of daily life with the demands of the Beyond. Ego consciousness emerges as the
result of her prior psychic life. The creative process emerges from the unconscious by the “way of the
Mothers”—rebirth.
The alchemist’s conviction that psyche and its fantasies are as real as matter depends on how convincing
anima makes herself to us. Internalization is necessary for psychic consciousness. It means being aware
of your fantasies and recognizing them everywhere, including your belief system. Your fantasies are not
separate from your reality, but are instrumental in forming your experience of it.
Personifying is a characteristic effect of the anima archetype. The embodiment of libido can only be
apprehended in definite form. Your rebirth is identical with your rebirth images, emotions, actions, and
feelings. This angel’s individuation into a distinct personality is precisely what soul-making is all about. Let
your imagination refresh your intellect with fantasy.
Behind Eros, the alembic, or alchemical vessel of transmutation, contains the symbols of the three stages of
the work (body, soul, and spirit; mercury, sulphur, and salt) as black, white and red birds. When united they
produce the Philosopher’s Stone, Elixer, or Panacea: the universal remedy of cosmic consciousness.
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (2 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
POSTMODERN BAPHOMET
The alchemists concretized or personfied practically all their most important ideas—the four elements, the
vessel, the stone, the prima materia, the tincture, etc. The idea of man as microcosm, representing in all his
parts the earth or the universe, is a remnant of an original psychic identity, which reflected a twilight state of
consciousness, according to Jung. This primordial man has taken many forms throughout history, such as
Adam Kadmon in Qabala and Purusha in Indian philosophy. In Tarot, this companion of the High Priestess
is the Magus, or Magician.
In 1307, the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping the heretical figure of Baphomet, considered by
the uninitiated as a symbol of Satan. In reality, this symbol comes from a level deeper than and prior to such
dichotomization as good/evil where the opposites are still fused. It is actually a symbol of fertility, the erotic
element being symbolic rather than literal.
The name itself is a puzzle, perhaps the corruption of Mahomet, brought back to Europe during the
Crusades. He figured priminently in the Cathar heresies, and provided the basis for accusations of heresy
and witchcraft. However, the name probably comes from combining two Greek words—baphe and metis—
and means “absorption into wisdom.”
19th century magician Eliphas Levi’s version of the figure nestles in the opened cranium of this Post-
Modern Baphomet, and helps provide an alternative image of the Tarot Trump, The Devil. On his arms are
the alchemical terms solve and coagula, reminding us that to create the Philosopher’s Stone we must
dissolve ourselves in chaos and then re-emerge with a reborn embodiment.
Levi called the figure ‘a pantheistic and magical form of absolute,’ a diagram of the god who is the sum total
of everything in the universe—an obviously phallic principle of organic life. It contains the symbols of the
four elements: the head stands for fire, the wings for air, the scales for water, and legs for earth. The torch
is a symbol of divine revelation, the pentagram of human intelligence, the cadeusus the union of the sexes,
etc. It is a sign of redemption.
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (3 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
PRIMA MATERIA EST ULTIMA MATERIA
The alchemist dreams in his own specific language, which is exceedingly obscure. In order to understand
it, Jung suggests we learn the psychological secrets of alchemy, since only he who knows the secret of the
stone understand their words. This virtually incomprehensible “nonsense” has fascinated the most erudite
minds, such as Newton, Paracelsus, Goethe,and Jung for two thousand years. The symbolism of alchemy
has to do with the structure of the unconscious, and modern dreams contain the same metaphors. Its
practical value should not be underestimated.
The alchemical operation consists essentially in separating the prima materia, the so-called chaos, into the
active principle, the soul, and the passive principle, the body. They are then reunited in personified form in
the coniunctio, the ritual combination of sol and Luna, which yields the magical child (filius sapientiae or
filius philosophorum), the reborn self, known as the ultima materia. The collective unconscious appears in
the many symbols of religion, myth, art, and dreams. The Uroborous dragon biting its own tail depicts the
original chaotic condition, which prevails before the radical transmutation. But it contains all the refined
ingredients of the ultimate state in their uncooked form—the heat has yet to be applied to the unrefined
material, raw uncooked emotion.
Therefore, we see not only the anguish and despair of the beginning, but the seeds of rejuvination, rebirth
and promised illumination of the final stages of the process. Thus, prima materia is the seed of the process,
which takes place in the natural mind; it is the seed of enlightenment. The Crown of Creation is an
overarching symbol equating with the top sphere Kether in Qabala. It triumphs over the terrible Dragon of
the primal, unrefined condition, represented by the dragon or Terrible Mother. In the bottom-center is Atlas
holding the earth to symbolize the material sphere of Malkuth. All is one magical movement from Kether
through Malkuth. Ego cannot separate itself from the powers and abilities of the subconscious. To submit
this material to the process means to apply conscious effort to the task, and find our own experiential
spirituality. Prima Materia represents the crossroads or crisis preceding a spiritual awakening (intellectual
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (4 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
doubts, metaphysical problems).
EGO DEATH: BLACK SUN/THE RAVEN’S HEAD
“The principle of the art is the raven, who flies without wings on the blackness of
the night and the brightness of the day.” . . .”The dragon shuns the light of the sun,
and our dead son shall live. The king comes forth from the fire and rejoices in the
marriage.”
Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis
Alchemists called the blackness of the initial depression, grief or stuckness, the Raven’s Head or Black Sun,
nigredo, melancholia = Saturn/Earth. Rings of Saturn. The sun is surrounded by the anima media natura
and is therefore black. It is a state of incubation or pregnancy, foretelling rebirth from the living death of
repression, aridity, or inability to work. Here is the juxtaposition of Sun and Sol-Niger, the anti-sun.
Life as ego has known it in the past is outmoded—the old self-image must die. This precedes psychological
revolution and creative reorganization. The black substance of our own shadow must be met and
reconciled. Mourning the death of the old self. Emotional participation unblocks the flow of psychic energy
and sense of meaning.
The birth of the healing power from the Nigredo belongs to the archetype of the wounded healer. It reflects
the psychological capacity as stated by Kerenyi, “to be at home in the darkness of suffering and there to
find the germs of recovery with which as though by enchantment, to bring forth Asklepios, the sunlike
healer.” This healer’s mother name Coronis means “crow maiden”. The bird of Hermes is also the Raven.
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (5 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
The caput mortuum (death or death head) or raven head is the head of the black Osiris or Ethiopian and also
of the “Moon” in the Chymical Wedding. The skull is the vessel of this alchemical transformation. Prior to
the change in self-image, one lives a living death, identified only with the vacuousness of the ego’s relative
position—a suffering of spiritual poverty.
I, The Juggler or The Magician does his balancing act between the Sun and the Moon, the personified
opposites. 0 and XXI The World, Daath octave, Babe in the Abyss, Nihilism. The Nigredo is called “black,
blacker than black,” an existential stuckness, the empty void. But by cooking this raw state, a lighter,
enlightened condition can emerge. In Northwest native lore, Raven carried his ball of light into the sky, so
we no longer live in darkness.
In the alchemical stage known as Putrefactio, we keep up a continual fire and regulate its action so that the
Materia Universalis is purified, regenerated and perfected within one vessel and furnace. Nature herself
does the work by means of her own inward Fire; but the later is stimulated by the Philosophical Fire. No
other work is required from the Alchemist, to perform, but to keep up the Fire by aspiration and prayer.
IGNIS PHILOSOPHORUM: CONCEPTUAL CALCINATIO
Give birth to your children while you are in the Fire; Feed, water, and nourish them in the Fire;
They will then live and die in the Fire; They will be Fire and remain the Fire. …The
Philosopher’s Stone weeps Water; But the world does not know or esteem that Water; The Fire
of the wise burns in Water; And lives in the Water; Turn the Fire into Water.
From, the 1st – 18th century AD, alchemy was chiefly concerned with the miraculous water, aqua divina or
permanens, which was extracted from the lapis, or prima materia through the torment of the fire. The water
stands for the anima mundi imprisoned in matter. This anima is set free not only by means of the
“cooking,” but also by the sword dividing the “egg,” or by the separatio, or by dissolution into the four
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (6 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
elements or “roots.” Divine water equates with the power of transmutation. It transforms the nigredo into
the albedo through miraculous “washing,” animates inert matter and makes the dead rise again.
The Rubedo, or operation of reddening, represents the salamander coming from the refining fire. Fire
equals life force responsible for growth and germination in nature. This is the operation of Fire, and means
the transmutation of the instrument for testing purity. Fire symbolizes libido or psychic energy. It may
come from sexuality, though ethereal fire equates with Divine Logos. This stage is the expansion of
consciousness after a crisis in development.
In the uppermost portion, the rock of the Philosopher’s Stone opens to reveal the Holy Ghost—the ultima
materia. Lead turns to Gold, which flows forth from the winged Holy Spirit’s mouth as “Truth”. The
magickal child cooks in the heat of the rubedo, furthering its incubation, which rests on the four quarters of
the earth. The angel protects, and oversees the process of transmutation. Elusive anima peeks out from
behind the “crack in the cosmic egg.”
Our development is fostered by the frustration of our sensual and power drives, but only if we have a viable
channel of communication with our higher Self. This frustration is the initiatory ordeal of this phase leading
to judgement. Fire helps purge the desires to use psychic energy for personal pleasure or power.
Experience is penetrating divine inspiration. Fire is the bath of immortality. It means making a connection
between ego and transpersonal psyche, learning to see the archetypal aspect of existence. Fire takes on
the transforming aspects of Holy Spirit, rather than merely bringing a consuming fire reflecting the pain of a
frustrated ego.
THE ALCHEMICAL HOMUNCULUS
The symbolism of the starry heaven coincides with the motif of polyopthalmia (many eyes). The dragon or
serpent represents the initial state of unconsciousness, which is to be sacrificed. The inner man, the
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (7 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
homunculus passes through the stages and undergoes transformation. In Zosimos, the homunculus stands
for the uroborous and is synonymous with Ion, the self-sacrificing priest of the mysteries. Uroboros is also
identified with the ego, and the division into four. As an arcanum, the egg is a synonym for water, the
dragon, and World Egg.
This image represents the charging or energizing of the Homunculus—the emergent Rotundum.
Psychologically, it is analogous to self-reparenting, and materializing archetypal forms. Understanding
appears as if it were a “conception.” The Homunculus is the product of the Royal Marriage of Sun and
Moon, and is equivalent to the lapis or anthropos. In the ancient art of alchemy, the soul is depicted as a
homunculus or “small man.” It is symbolically equivalent to the Elixer or Universal Medicine. It personifies
the unconscious as an inner man, a hermaphroditic being, a spirit in a bottle, a “brain child.”
Zosimos and Paracelsus spoke of the homunculus as devouring himself, and giving birth to himself—the
death/rebirth necessary for casting off the old and inviting in the new self image. The paradoxical image
typically appears before dissolution of the center into its unconscious element—the undifferentiated
consciousness of the ground state. In alchemy, the homunculus is sort of a primal “test-tube baby,”
created through a dynamic process in the Hermetically-sealed retort vessel. Dr. Frankenstein never had it
so good. It feeds daily on the hidden mysteries of nature.
Psychologically, this process is the creation of renewal of spirit, which takes place in the psyche when
psychic contents are prevented from “leaking out” and being lost. “Heating” is symbolic of amplifying or
intensifying the transformative process. In terms from chaos theory, magnetizing the entity, an ancient
prescription, might insinuate the formation of a strange attractor as the complex core of the system. An
attractor describes a temporary stability far from equilibrium.
The homunculus is the archetype of the magical child. It is thus an embryonic symbol of rebirth, or re-
creation of self by Self. In alchemy, the homunculus is generated by a succession of transformations
through the four elements to reach its essential nature. The elements of fire, earth, air and water are
analogous to spiritual, physical, mental and emotional life.
ALCHEMICAL PEACOCK'S TAIL
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (8 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
Mercurius, or common mercury was literally quicksilver in alchemy. Mercurius philosophicus, the arcane
substance, was likened because of its fluidity and volatility with divine water. It is the water which does not
make the hands wet, the prima materia or primeval chaos, and the ultima materia, the philosophical man, the
lapis. It is the healing process.
Mercurius consists of all conceivable opposites, both material and spiritual. On one hand, he represents the
self and on the other the individuation process as redeeming psychopomp or evasive trickster; God’s
reflection in physical nature.
Immediately before the albedo or rubedo all colors appear like a peacock spreading its shimmering fan. It
announces the end of the work is at hand. The irridescence of Philosophical Mercury emerges as the ever-
mobile, shape-shifting energies of the Soul. Psychologically it means that during the assimilation of the
unconscious, the personality passes through many transformations, which show in different lights and are
followed by ever-changing moods. These changes presage the coming birth.
Only from this inner substance can the soul tinctures be prepared. This stage of integration takes place in a
sealed flask, cut off from the outer environment. It requires no external heating as it now contains in itself, a
sufficient degree of heat for the process to continue. Peacock’s Tail brings about and betokens the
transformation of the poisonous dragon into the healing medicine. The peacock is inner beauty and the
perfection of the soul.
The resolution and integration of the Three Principles of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury means integration of
contradictory feeling-values. Mercurius is the play of colors in the Cauda Pavonis, whose appearance
heralds the attainment of the goal – restoration of the integrity of the spirit – transfiguration.
MAGICKAL CHILD MANDALA
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (9 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM
Psychogenesis I: Alchemical Reality (Synergetic Qabala: Netzach)
"May this water, prepared for the rebirth of men, be rendered fruitful by the secret
inpouring of this divine power; may a heavenly offering, conceived in holiness and
reborn into a new creation, come forth from the stainless womb of this divine font;
and may all however distinguished by age in time, or sex in body, be brought forth
into one infancy by the motherhood of grace."
The Missal
This mandala represents the Lapis Philosophorum Quadratus and the operation of circulatio, cyclic
circulation among the four elements, resulting in the quintessence. The eclipse is a symbol of the marriage
of the sun and the moon, the union of opposites. The immature ego is eclipsed and threatened with
destruction when it naively embraces the maternal unconscious. However, other images indicate that such
an eclipse can be inseminating and rejuvinating.
The ego, by incarnating takes on substantial reality, but also becomes subject to corruption and death. The
ego is eventually eclipsed, but from its death the "child of the philosophers," the Philosopher's Stone is
born. Both sun and moon die and transfer their power to their offspring. Even if it is caused by the wisdom
of God, the blackening or eclipse of the sun is a fearful experience, since sun and moon have a destructive
side. It is like two loving people who open their hearts to one another and find that vulnerability, doubts and
distrust increase also. The ruling principle of the conscious ego must die and transform. This archetypal
expression of the Divine Child is a healing panacea.
When the savior child is born, all the forces of darkness attack worse than ever before. Saying goodbye to a
neurotic attitude is sad and we resent being separated from our infantility. The divine child naturally always
escapes this last outbreak of darkness, because even though newly born it cannot be suppressed anymore.
The light is born in darkness. The stone is therefore produced with a process compared with childbirth.
The symbolic process begins in chaos and ends with the birth of the new personality.
http://zero-point.tripod.com/psycho/psycho1.html (10 of 23)5/25/2005 1:41:51 AM