Friday, January 12th, 1973

CLASS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

January 12, 1973

JUNG; ALCHEMY

TOPIC: Jung

SUBJECT: Alchemy

SUBSUBJECTS: Psychology, Transference

CONTENTS:

Reading/discussing Jung, "The Psychology of the Transference," sections 4, 5, 6, 8, 9

Tremendous resistance may arise when reading this material, hits very close to home

Discussion of underground/unconscious process started on initial meeting of doctor and patient, guru and disciple, etc., that precedes the stage of nigredo and leads to the formation of the transference

Astrological example–idea has to infiltrate gradually, doesn't come in all at once

In the beginning, doctor/guru doesn't know what unconscious content is going to get projected, it could be anything: father, mother, beast, Sapientia Dei, "good", "evil", etc.

Tremendous hostility incipient in projected content, though not recognized at first

Unconscious content within you is prime matter–raw, crude

Unconscious content first appears in projected form and is made conscious gradually

Projected content is elusive, deceptive, ever-changing and is called Mercurius by the alchemists

Unconscious contents as bits of luminosity that come in and develop the personality/consciousness; we're growing, on our way to becoming an integrated whole

Satori is the beginning, not the end

Three examples of understanding this process

1) Mystical experience as prime matter that now needs to be integrated with the conscious personality

2) From point of view of anandamaya kosha, all possibilities are accomplished; from point of view of time/becoming, it is karma that we're on our way to realizing

3) Due to overwhelming transit when very young, neurotic distortion takes place that now has to be brought into consciousness and worked over

Unconscious is duplex, source of "good" and "evil", analyst must be cautious

Conscious attitude very important in dealing with unconscious content, might be the decisive factor

Beginning of nigredo indicated by dreams of amputation, etc.

Jung indicates that some alchemists were working directly with spirit and not images in the psychology

For Jung, Mercurius is the unconscious; for AD, Mercurius reveals the unconscious

Alchemy describes the same psychological phenomena which can be observed in analysis of unconscious processes

Sage is mentally free, is not affected by induction, etc.

United personality still suffers; example of Ramana dying in pain

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• C.G. Jung, CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference"

• Nilla Cram Cook, My Road to India

• C.G. Jung, CW 8, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, "On the Nature of the Psyche"

• C.G. Jung, CW 11, Psychology and Religion, "Forward to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism"

• Sri Venkataramiah (Swami Ramanananda Saraswati), Recorder, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

DIAGRAMS referred to (not with this transcript version) [Transcriber note: [diagram] means the speaker is referencing a diagram as he or she is speaking. If someone is drawing or writing, with audible sounds of chalk on a blackboard, I indicate this by [drawing] or [writing].]

NOTE: For readability's sake, the following substitutions/edits made in Verbatim Transcript: gonna = going to; gotta = got to; yeah = yes.

TRANSCRIBED Verbatim by IT prior to 2017, reformatted by jf 2017. In 2023, IT updates prefatory matter, footer, and audio file name, fixes Book List, fixes errors/typos, adds new note within transcript, reformats to accord with new conventions. In 2025, IT updates audio file markers to match new REP audio. Archival verbatim transcript – V12a.

AUDIO FILES: 1973 0112a. [Note 1: "Tape" refers to original audio cassette tapes that were later digitized into .MP3 Audio Files. Note 2: We only have one audio file for this class, we are missing the rest. Note 3: In 2024, REP Studio cuts dead air from the audio file.]

1973 01/12 at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Jung; Alchemy

[Audio File 1973 0112a Begins]

S: Grades of eros? And-- It's on page 174, near the bottom.

AD: Mine's an old edition so it can't [couple words inaudible]

VM (simultaneously): Paragraph (reference).

S: Oh. It's paragraph 361, right at the end.

AD: Ok. Yes.

S: And he asks the question, "How can wisdom transcend the most holy and the most pure?" And he says--

S: Louder.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 174, paragraph 361, S reading]: "How can wisdom transcend the most holy and the most pure?--Presumably only by virtue of the truth that the less sometimes means the more."

S: Can I ask what that means?

S (faint): Go ahead.

S: (Yes.)

AD: Well, I'm afraid he's dead.

S: You don't know what it means?

AD (simultaneously): [three/few words inaudible] (laughter, student words) I couldn't answer that, I don't know what he means either. I mean I can't understand what he means by "the less sometimes means the more".

S: Yes.

S: Just read it.

[students assents, faint]

AD: The former part, of course, the Jnana-- no Jnana would consider himself holy. [short pause, flipping of pages] We start with section four on that, alright? [short pause] Well-- This is really a-- He becomes very, very intimate here and he says quite a deal, quite a good deal. Sometimes it gets so very close to home that you may not be aware but tremendous resistance will arise within you not to go any further or to not pay attention, you know, so you'll find yourself just reading words. [10½ second pause] Well, if we talk a little bit about section four, we'll just read the first paragraph.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 182-183, paragraph 376, AD reading]: "It must be emphasized [that] in alchemy the dark initial state of [AD reads: or] nigredo is often regarded as the product of a previous operation, [and that] it therefore does not represent the absolute beginning. Similarly, the psychological parallel to the nigredo [AD rereads:"The psychological parallel to the nigredo] is the result of the [AD reads: a] foregoing preliminary talk which, at a certain moment, sometimes long delayed, "touches" the unconscious and establishes the unconscious identity of doctor and patient. This moment may be perceived and registered consciously, but generally it happens outside consciousness and the bond thus established is only recognized later and indirectly by its results. Occasionally dreams occur about this time, announcing the appearance of the transference. For instance, a dream may say that a fire has started in the cellar, or that a burglar has broken in, or that the patient's father has died… From the moment when such a dream occurs there may be initiated a queer unconscious time-reckoning, lasting for months or even longer."

AD: And in the next paragraph he gives a dream describing it but I thought maybe you could fall back, some of you could fall back on the initial contact that arose like when we met. [short pause] There was a kind of strange time-reckoning.

S (faint): What does that mean, "time-reckoning"?

S (very faint): Yes.

AD: Did you ever have the experience where you met someone for the first time [S, faint: Yes.] but you didn't think much of it. And yet this person will-- will play-- play a very important time-- a very important part in your life. And then you meet him the second time and from then on it picks on, then all of a sudden it starts getting heavy. Now generally you're unaware of the importance of that first meaning, as usual. Ok? But there's a time-reckoning, there's a-- a process has started underground, so to speak, alright, which the second time your meeting takes place there's like a clicking. You begin to feel, "Ah, yes, I want to know this person further." And from then on a process starts becoming (cumulative). You know what I mean? The dream he-- he gives the example of a dream here. A lady dreams about a child in a kitchen-- kitchen. And he tells her about this child, he says, "Well, let's go back into your diary." And they look previously ahead and under-- he says here, about nine months before she has a dream where she--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 184, paragraph 379, AD reading]: ""With some other woman I am [AD reads: I'm] looking at a piece of tapestry, a square with symbolical figures on it. Immediately afterwards I am sitting with some women in front of a marvelous tree. It is [AD adds: a] magnificently grown, at first it seems to be some kind of conifer, but then I think--in the dream--that it is a monkey-puzzle…with the branches growing straight up like candles…""

AD: Anyway, he tells her to think back on that dream.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 184, paragraph 379, AD reading]: "[As] the dreamer was writing down this dream immediately on waking, with a vivid picture of the tree before her, she suddenly had a vision of a tiny golden child lying at the foot of the tree… She had thus gone on dreaming the sense of the dream. It undoubtedly depicts the birth of the divine ("golden") child."

AD: So, what he was saying here was in that previous dream, that first dream she had nine months previous to the actual child, it was a sort of unconscious gestation taking place, an unconscious pregnancy in the dream. [student assents] In-- in other words, it was going to deliver forth this dream where a child would be born, alright. So that the whole process was going on and she was unaware of it. But I'm asking you to refer to the experiences at the conscious level where this unconscious time-reckoning takes place too. It operates on both levels. Are we in the dark? No?

S (faint): It can operate on--

AD: Hm? (bit of laughter)

S (very faint): [couple words inaudible]

AD: I'm sorry? No? Do you have some kind of feeling what I'm saying? Astrologically it might be put in the way that you have a-- an aspect for the first time and it doesn't mean anything and the third time it comes up on the surface what it was trying to tell you to begin with.

MW: You actually remember that it was happening the first time.

AD: Yes because in an aspect like a major conjunction when you have it go over (you/your) three times, the idea would be repelled immediately if it was-- if you became conscious of it. So it has to infiltrate or percolate gradually into your consciousness. Well this is noticeable in a-- in a contact I think, if you have a contact with one therapist or something like this, that there's something that happens outside the situation that [AD snaps fingers] clicks. From then on, you can-- you can almost say you turned the timer on now and the process has started. And if that's-- if that doesn't arise, there's not going to be no relationship between the-- the doctor and the patient. And if it does, I think it'll be shallow until that transference takes place. So of course you-- you can see something important is going on, a transference is something important. Alright, that section-- You could read the supplementary information yourself. Move on to five.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 187, paragraph 383, AD reading]: "Once an unconscious content is constellated, it tends to break down the relationship of conscious trust between doctor and patient by creating, through projection, an atmosphere of illusion which either leads to continual misinterpretations and misunderstandings, or else produces a most disconcerting impression of harmony. The latter [AD reads: This harmony] is even more trying than the former, which at worst (though it is sometimes for the best!) can only hamper the treatment, whereas in the other case a tremendous effort is needed to discover [the] points of difference. [But] in either case the constellation of the unconscious is a troublesome factor. The situation is enveloped [AD reads: developed] in a kind of [AD read: in some sort of a] fog, and this [AD reads: it] fully accords with the nature of the unconscious content: it is a"black blacker than black" [AD reads: it is dark and black] (nigrum, nigrius nigro), as the alchemists rightly say, and in addition [AD adds: it] is charged with [AD adds: the] dangerous polar tensions, with the inimicitia elementorum [AD reads: elementary hostility]."

AD: I'm translating it, just taking a chance translating it that way. You have any feeling for what he's saying here?

VM: Sure.

AD: Yes?

S: Uh-huh.

VM: You come in and you say, "Oh yes, I'm a Quester. And (some laughter) all-- I really agree with everything Tony says, yes, that's great." And then you're really in the dark.

AD (simultaneously): Well, then of course-- Yes the-- (laughter) Then I can't, right? Then I got to start poking around to find points where maybe we might disagree. The other part, he says here-- I think the point also that we might want to bring out here is that-- fortunately we could use me, alright, that you're going to project some content onto me. And in the beginning I don't know what this content is, I got no idea if it's going to be your father, your mother, your-- (some laughter)

S: Shadow.

AD: Shadow, it could be anything. But in the beginning there's no way to me to-- for me to tell, and until it does happen there's nothing I could do. I could always run away but-- (AD laughs a bit, some laughter)

S (amidst laughter): Yes. (S laughs)

LS: That's the Freudian method.

AD: Yes. The Freudian method's running away.

S: Stand behind the blackboard.

S: Yes. (laughter)

AD (amidst laughter): Stay be-- stay behind him and he can't see you.

S (amidst laughter): Yes right.

AD: Well, that's the reference here that he's making, that this is a black chaos. And also what's important is, incipient in it is a tremendous hostility which is at first not recognizable but it's there, ok.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 187, paragraph 383, AD reading]: "One finds oneself in an impenetrable chaos, which is indeed one of the synonyms for the mysterious prima materia [AD reads: prime matter]."

AD: So in other words, this transference that you're going to project or this content which is within you and unknown to you because you haven't objectified it, you're going to project it onto-- onto someone. And, the alchemists refer to this projection as a prime matter, that is, it's a material that's kind of crude, raw, unworked, you know.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 187-188, paragraph 383, AD reading]: "The latter [AD reads: This] corresponds to the nature of the unconscious content in every respect, with one exception: this time it does not appear in the alchemical substance but in man himself. In the case of alchemy it is quite evident that the unconscious content is of human origin… Hunted for centuries and never found, the prima materia [AD reads: prime matter] or lapis philosophorum is, as a few alchemists rightly suspected, to be discovered in man himself. But it seems that this content can never be found and integrated directly, but only by the circuitous route of projection. For as a rule the unconscious first appears in projected form. Whenever it appears to obtrude itself directly, as in visions, dreams, illuminations, psychoses, etc., these are always preceded by psychic conditions which give clear proof of [AD adds: a] projection."

AD: Alright so, let's see if we could kind of summarize what he's saying. You meet your analyst, your doctor, your guru, whatever, ok, and you're going to project a certain content onto (them/him). And you know, like if you read My Road Back to India, [Note: My Road to India.] Nilla Cram Cook, she meets Gandhi and she projects a father complex into him. Alright, let's use that as an example, that's-- And this father complex is this raw material that he's talking about. It's black, it's projected, and poor Gandhi himself didn't know what was going to happen between them, the two of them. So he had to work with her and she had to accept his way of life and do things his way. This projection onto Gandhi on the part of Ms. Cook, we see that Jung refers to this as prime matter. In other words, it's this content within you that you're projecting out which is completely raw, unused, you're unaware, you've never related to it before, ok, so that even it's appearance, even if it were to come to you directly formed and articulate, you still wouldn't recognize it. And then he goes on to point out that now, once this happens, you can't get it-- you can't get it directly, you can't directly say, "I've projected a father complex," that's nonsense. So you have to work a-- work a route. In other words, you have to go around this thing a few times and make it conscious gradually. He says usually this is [student assents] indicated by some sort of upheaval and sometimes it could be a depression, sometimes anger, it could be a variety of things. Ok? So very often even in astrology you see there's a big square, it's projecting certain unconscious contents. [short pause] Now this content that's projected he says is very--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 188, 189, paragraph 384, AD reading]: "…elusive, deceptive, ever-changing…possesses the patient like a demon now flits about from patient to doctor and, as the third party in the alliance, continues its game, sometimes impish and teasing, sometimes really diabolical. [AD adds: And] The alchemists aptly personified [AD reads: personify] it as the wily god of revelation, Hermes or Mercurius; and though they lament over the way he hoodwinks them, they still give him the highest names, which bring him very near to [AD adds: the] deity. … [short pause] [AD: Further on he says] The contents of the unconscious [AD adds: of course] are of the greatest importance, for the unconscious is after all the matrix of the human mind and its inventions."

AD: Now, if you remember previously in one of the books we studied, "The Nature of the Psyche," in that big essay, I think in one section, 6, where he speaks about the luminosities, the multiple luminosities, the germs of multiple lumino-- Alright, these little germs, imagine them as little germs of consciousness, you know, and they're luminous. And we pointed out, or he pointed out in that essay that the human entity is not a whole, is not an integrated whole, he's on his way to becoming a whole, an entity, an integrated person. And these ideas or these bits of luminosity that are coming in to develop his personal-- personality and his growth and his consciousness. They're brought in, and we see this, rec-- we recognize this in astrology very often. They're brought into his consciousness, they're integrated into his consciousness. Now he's talking about the same thing here but he's-- on the one hand, he's talking about it from the way the alchemists approach it and on the other hand he's speaking about the modern psychologist, the way he would handle the same thing. But basically what we have to keep in mind here is we-- disregarding the mores or the milieu that these problems are worked out in, what he's pointing out here is this very unusual idea that-- that we're growing and that these little bits of consciousness have to be brought into us, integrated, and greater awareness produced. You remember, he also pointed that out in the "[Foreword to Suzuki's] Introduction to Zen Buddhism". Remember that, last week we read that and he said, he point-- he makes the remark in that, something to the effect that satori is basically to expand the consciousness, that is, to-- to break through consciousness and proceed in the development and the unfolding of what's within the personality, alright. And it doesn't sound like, you know, that's what satori (will/would) be, after all, everybody who breaks through-- has a breakthrough like satori would assume that he's finished with all the problem. And here Jung is saying, "No, you're just starting, no, you're just starting. You're on your way now." So, paragraph 385 he continues and says--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 189-190, paragraph 385, AD reading]: "The refining of the prima materia [AD reads: this prime matter], the unconscious content, demands endless patience, perseverance, equanimity, knowledge, [AD: Boy.] [and] ability on the part of the doctor; and, on the part of the patient, the putting forth of his [AD reads: the] best powers and a capacity for suffering which does not leave the doctor altogether unaffected."

AD: Well, you could read the rest about Christian virtues. (bit of laughter, student assents) But he goes on and points out, Deo concedente. He says in their recipes the alchemists always said, "God willing, God willing." We know somebody else who said that too. He goes on and says--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 190-191, paragraph 386, AD reading]: "…[AD adds: this] is not just a rhetorical flourish; [AD: You start (one/two words inaudible)] [S, faint: Oh no.] it expresses the firm attitude of the man who does not imagine that he knows better on every occasion and who is fully aware that the unconscious material before him is something alive, a paradoxical Mercurius of whom an [AD reads: the] old master says: …(And he is that on whom nature hath worked but a little, and whom she hath wrought into metallic form yet left unfinished)--a natural being, therefore, that longs for integration within the wholeness of [a] man. It is like a fragment of primeval psyche into which no consciousness has [as] yet penetrated to create division and order, a"united dual nature," as Goethe says--an abyss of ambiguities."

AD: Now, that's-- that's really quite remarkably put, because as we were saying, Jung makes the remark, he says that we're not-- [couple very faint inaudible student words] Oh, well the next paragraph, just let me read a sentence.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 191, paragraph 387, AD reading]: "Since we cannot imagine--unless we have lost our critical faculties altogether--that mankind today has attained the highest possible degree of consciousness, there must be some potential unconscious psyche left over whose development would result in a further extension and a higher differentiation of consciousness. No one can say how great or small this"remnant" might be, for we have no means of measuring the possible range [AD reads: extent] of conscious development, let alone the extent of the unconscious. But there is not the slightest doubt that a massa confusa of archaic and undifferentiated contents exists, which not only manifests itself in neuroses and psychoses but also forms the "skeleton in the cupboard"…"

AD: Ok. Now we go back here, and, if we look over this part here, from maybe two or three different angles we could examine what he's saying here.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 191, paragraph 386, AD reading]: "(And he is that on whom nature hath worked but a little, and whom she hath wrought into metallic form yet left unfinished)…"

AD: So here let's say he's talking about those bits of luminosity, alright, which haven't been worked over by Nature. In other words, the idea is in its raw form, you're going to bring it into your consciousness, assimilate it, and integrate it. But that means that you have a kind of raw material, ok? So, let's say you have some sort of mystical experience. This is raw, you know. It's not a completed product, alright. You don't buy the merchandise fully finished, you know. As a matter of fact, you're going to be disappointed, you're going to find out you got a lot of work to do now, see, because all this has to be brought into relationship with the conscious personality, adapted, related to it, integrated, used, alright. You could look at it that way. Another way of looking at it, if you want to take the Hindu po-- position for instance or the way we've been studying it, if we take a metaphysical look, from the point of view of metaphysics, in the anandamaya, you remember, we spoke about it contains all the possibilities, alright. Everything is eternally accomplished there. But from the point of view of time and becoming, which would be in opposition to that, we're on our way towards that fulfillment. So that means that these contents or these new developments that have to come into us will be this raw material that we have to work into ourself. In other words, it's a karma that we are-- we are on the way to realize. Ok, that would be another way of looking at it. Of course, I'm not looking at the third way which would be to say that some neurotic distortion took place. Oh, let's say you were a young man and you had a triple conjunction, Uranus, Mars, Pluto, Saturn (some laughter) at about five years old, you know, so you're crippled now mentally, alright, and you have to go back and bring them into consciousness and work it over. Alright, so there's these three ways of trying to understand this one paragraph that the alchemists spoke of. What's-- Another remark, for instance, "that mankind today has attained the highest possible degrees," I think you remember PB made a remark something like that, we certainly cannot consider human consciousness as we understand it as the highest level of development, far from it. [short pause] And paragraph 389--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 192, paragraph 389, AD reading]: "If, as many are fain to believe, the unconscious were only nefarious, only evil, then the situation would be simple and the path clear: to do good and to avoid evil. But what is"good" and what is "evil"? The unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest good: not only dark but also light, not only bestial, semi-human, and demonic but superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, "divine." The Mercurius who personifies the unconscious is essentially "duplex," paradoxically dualistic by nature, fiend, monster, beast, and at the same time panacea, "the philosophers' son," [AD reads: "the philosopher's stone"], sapientia Dei [AD: etc, etc]…"

AD: Alright so, you see now, this is the peculiar situation, right? The analyst works with the person, and there's this kind of very cautiousness that he has to operate with because he doesn't know what's co-- going to come out. It could be a beast, a demon, a complex, or sapientia Dei, the fellow gets involved with chasing wisdom. There's no guarantee. No guarantee. [short pause] And of course, the other-- the other point I think he's making here is that whether this product will be good or-- or evil will very often depend upon the attitude, that is, the conscious attitude that the patient is working with. Very often, I'm almost inclined to think that that could be the decisive factor. Alright, let's go on to the next-- [short pause] In section eight he reiterates what he has said before again and again in many other books and writings.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 196-197, paragraph 397, AD reading]: "The ancient and long obsolete idea of man as a microcosm contains a supreme psychological truth that has yet to be discovered. In former times this truth was projected upon the body, just as alchemy projected the unconscious psyche upon chemical substances. But it is altogether different when the microcosm is understood as that interior world whose inward nature is fleetingly glimpsed in the unconscious. An inkling of this is to be found in the words [AD reads: word] of Origen: …(Understand that thou art a second little world [AD reads: second world in miniature] and that the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars). [AD: Un-- unquote.] And just as the cosmos is not a dissolving mass of particles, but rests in the unity of God's embrace, so man must not dissolve into a whirl of warring possibilities and tendencies imposed on him by [AD reads: modeled on] the unconscious, but must become the unity that embraces them all. …(Thou seest [AD: A quote. (Thou seest] that he who seemeth to be one is yet not one, but as many persons appear in him as he hath velleities). [AD: I guess, yes, whims.] Possession by the unconscious means being torn apart into many people and things, [a disiunctio]. That is why, according to Origen, the aim of the Christian is to become an inwardly united human being."

AD: Alright.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 197, paragraph 398, AD reading]: "The painful conflict that begins with the nigredo…"

AD: And let me say that many of you are there now.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 197-198, paragraph 398, AD reading]: "…is described by the alchemists as the separatio or divisio elementorum [AD reads: separation, the elementary separation] [AD: They have a lot of other names for it.]…or as dismemberment of the body, excruciating animal sacrifices, amputation of the mother's hands [or] the lion's paws, atomization of the bridegroom in the body of the bride, and so on. [AD adds: And] While this extreme form of disiunctio [AD reads: disjunction] is going on, there is a transformation of that arcanum--be it substance or spirit--which invariably turns out to be the mysterious Mercurius. In other words, out of the monstrous animal forms there gradually emerges a res simplex… [AD adds: that is] (Goethe's"united dual [nature]"). [AD adds: And] The alchemist tries to get round this paradox [or antinomy] with his various procedures and formulae [AD reads: formulas], and to make one out of [AD adds: the] two."

AD: Ok here? You remember these parts here, this-- Remember we spoke about before (when), in one of the dreams, the manifestation of the cold-blooded animals takes place first and then the warm-blooded animals and then animals that fly? Alright, if you refer to-- if you try to keep this in mind, this is an indication, so to speak, when you see this process going on, the alchemist(s) felt that when this disjunction started there were dreams, ok. [student assents] There were dreams indicating amputation. And very often many of you people had dreams-- Someone who is not here is an example, and I'll use him because he's far away. (bit of laughter) He had a dream where he was decapitated and his head was in one part and his body in another part. You know who I'm referring to? And in the dream he was asking me, "But how could I live forever? Look at me, all in these-- all these little pieces." You don't remember this? Well, at any rate, that's an example of a dream where dismemberment is taking place and nigredo is starting. [10½ second pause] What's amazing about Jung is that he compiled such a massive amount of information as far as alchemy is concerned that even if the Traditionalists were correct and claim that Jung looked at the lower end of the spectrum, he is still correct inso-- I mean, if they say he was incorrect, he is correct because they're both-- If you notice, if you notice(d) previously-- [12½ second pause] Here, in paragraph 398, I snuck by this word very quickly but if you took precaution, he says over here--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 197, paragraph 398, AD reading]: "[AD adds: And] While this extreme form of disiunctio [AD reads: disjunction] is going on, there is a transformation of that arcanum--be it substance or spirit…"

AD: Right there, he's giving away his hand.

S: Could you read that again?

S: Uh-hm.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 197, paragraph 398, AD reading]: "While this extreme form of disiunctio [AD reads: disjunction] is going on, there is a transformation of that arcanum [AD: That's the hidden substance, the primary.]--be it substance or spirit…"

AD: And right there he gives away his hand insofar that he's aware that there are some of the alchemists who were working, so to speak, in a direct fashion with the spirit, not with the symbolical representations in psychology, but directly with the spirit. People like Ruysbroeck, for instance.

VM (faint): I don't understand what you're saying, Tony. Maybe we have to read more.

AD: Few more words?

LS (simultaneously): Yes but this thing called Mercurius, could we call it, say, the first intuition into the doctrine with the gross personality that we had then?

AD: Yes-- Mercurius of course generally is the word he used for-- he uses for the unconscious. I-- I personally prefer to think of Mercurius not as the unconscious but that which reveals the unconscious.

VM: I thought we talked about Mercury exalted and in rulership in the 6^th house as the psychopomp which reveals the contents of--

AD (simultaneously): Yes, he-- his claim is that Mercurius, as far as the alchemists were concerned, was the unconscious in three different forms. And he'll go into this when we get into the Rosarium, we'll-- I hope to get into it right away. But my version has always been something like this. [drawing] Ok? This reveals the unconscious [diagram].

VM (faint): No, that (Mercurius/Mercury) [couple words inaudible]

AD (simultaneously): That's the way we look at it. [VM assents] But he says, "No, the alchemist, [drawing] this was the unconscious." Alright?

VM (simultaneously): Well that's sort of like saying that the archetype is causal and cognitive in some sense and we tend to look at the-- the cognitive aspect of it.

AD: Yes. But we have to keep the distinctions that he's working, see, because-- I mean he's legitimate, what he's doing, he's legitimate. But at any rate, in regard to this remark here, if you remember last week when Richard and I were talking, [Note: See WG Class 1973 0105.] the remark was made that in-- at the level of the cosmos, [drawing] and you're inside of it, you have to work through your psychology and everything that happens to you is in terms of the imagination, alright? [student assents] Then we pointed out that the Greeks, in their philosophy, were concerned with the rational development. In other words, their attack on this problem was a direct rational attack. Like in the Vedanta they say the first prerequisite to study the Vedanta is detachment. (AD bangs on board)

S (faint): I'm in trouble.

[students assent] (bit of laughter)

AD: Ok? "What psychology, what are you talking about? There's nothing there to talk about," see. And that's-- to me, that gives it away, that he's aware that there's these two approaches. But as far as he's concerned, our age has had the numinous experience of psychology, that is, the descent completely into matter on the part of the 20^th century Kali Yuga. (laughter, student words) We go to section nine.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 198, paragraph 399, AD reading]: "Alchemy describes, not only in general outline but often in [AD reads: with] the most astonishing detail, the same psychological phenomenology which can be observed in the analysis of [AD adds: the] unconscious processes."

AD: And remember, many of these alchemists, you know, they're very strange because-- If you read any orthodox history of alchemy, you know, they say these people must have been crazy, they thought they could go out and make gold. Now if you take a pe-- person like Aquinas, alright, or Albert-- Albert Magnus, these men left home, became monks or priests, and when I say they left home they left a fortune behind. That is, Thomas Aquinas, for instance, his father forcibly brought him home again and that was the Count de Aquino who owned much land all around Italy, you know. So it sounds kind of foolish that he would run away from gold that's already in the pocket to go mix-- make gold in a monastery. (laughter) But the absurdity of some of these histories of alchemy is really unbelievable. Alright, so he goes on, he says--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 198, paragraph 399, AD reading]: "The individual's specious unity that emphatically says"I want, [AD adds: and] I think" [AD: etc] breaks down under the impact of the unconscious. So long as the patient can think that somebody else [AD: that is] (his father or mother) is responsible for his difficulties, he can save some semblance of unity… (laughter) [S, faint: I could do that. (more laughter)] But once he realizes that he himself has a shadow, that his enemy is in his own heart, then the conflict begins and one becomes two."

AD: How about that? One becomes [student assents, faint] two.

S (faint): Yes go ahead.

S: One degree opposition.

AD: One becomes two as soon as the shadow comes, and you know when the shadow comes because it's somebody else in you. He refers to him as "the totally other". [students assent, faint] You want to do the right thing, you always end up doing the wrong thing. [students assent, faint] He goes on and says--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 198, paragraph 399, AD reading]: "Since the"other" will eventually prove to be yet another duality, a compound of opposites, the ego soon becomes a shuttlecock tossed between a multitude of "velleities" [AD reads: idiosyncrasies], with the result that there is an "obfuscation (AD laughs a bit) of [the] light"…"

AD: You don't mind I change the words, no?

LS: Obfuscation, is that--

AD: "Obfuscation of the light." In other words, there's a dimming of consciousness once the conflict starts.

S: Uh-hm.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 198-199, paragraph 399, AD reading]: "…consciousness is depotentiated and the patient is at a loss to know where his personality begins or ends. It is like passing through the valley of the shadow, and sometimes the patient has to cling to the doctor as the last remaining shred of reality. The situation is difficult and distressing for both [parties; often] the doctor is in much the same position as the alchemist who no longer knew whether he was melting the mysterious amalgam in the crucible or whether he was the salamander glowing in the fire. (some laughter) Psychological induction inevitably causes the two parties to get involved in the transformation of the third and to be themselves transformed in the process, [and] all the time the doctor's knowledge, like a flickering lamp, is the one dim light in the darkness."

AD: Now we have to remember that a doctor, alright, and Jung is speaking about an analyst, a doctor, he's not speaking of a Sage. The Sage is mentally free, this doesn't happen to a Sage. He doesn't get affected or transformed, there's no induction or any of that. But the doctor, being human like all the rest of us, would get affected in this dialectical process where two psychic systems or two psychic entities come in and collide. And, he says, this is of course when they find it needful to pray--

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," p. 199, paragraph 399, AD reading]: "…to God for the much needed illumination--[AD: The quotation]"purge the horrible darknesses of our mind"…"

AD: By the way, you better take this seriously, because sooner or later you're going to get hit with it…that is, if you persist in your folly. (laughter, student words) Paragraph 400 he starts off by saying the alchemist motto was that the art required the total man.

C.G. Jung [CW 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, "The Psychology of the Transference," pp. 199-200, paragraph 400, AD reading]: "This is [in] the highest degree true of [AD adds: the] psychotherapeutic work. A genuine participation, going right beyond professional routine, is absolutely imperative… The doctor must go to the limits of his subjective possibilities, otherwise the patient will be unable to follow suit. Arbitrary limits are no use, only real ones. It must be a genuine process of purification [where]"all superfluities are consumed in the fire" and the basic facts emerge. Is there anything more fundamental than the realization, "This is what I am?" It reveals a unity which nevertheless is--or was--a diversity. [student assents, faint] No longer the earlier ego with its make-believes and artificial contrivances, but another, "objective" ego, which for this reason is better called the "self." No longer a mere selection of suitable fictions, but a string of hard facts, which together make up the cross we all have to carry or the fate we ourselves are. These first indications of a future synthesis of personality…appear in dreams or in [AD adds: the] "active imagination," where they take the form of the mandala symbols which were also not unknown in alchemy. [But] the first signs of this symbolism are far from indicating that unity has been attained. Just as alchemy has a great many very different procedures, ranging from the sevenfold to the thousandfold distillation, or from the "work of one day" to "the errant quest" lasting for decades, so the tensions between the psychic pairs of opposites ease off only gradually; and, like the alchemical end-product, which always betrays its essential duality, the united personality will never quite lose the painful sense of innate discord. Complete redemption from the sufferings of this world is and must remain an illusion. … The goal is only important [Audio File 1973 0112a ends here. The following is from the original audio cassette tape.] as an idea…"

S: I'm sorry, can you say what-- that complete-- what he means by that last sentence, "Complete redemption…"?

AD: That kind of shocked you, didn't it?

S: Yes, it did.

AD: You remember when Rama-- Ramana was dying and they performed surgery on his arm? He was in pain. He was even moaning. You remember that? [inaudible] Don't you have The Talks of Ramana?

S: Yes.

AD: Read the last day--

[End of Audio. We are missing all other audio files for this class.]