"The Sleeping Beauty, the Prince and the Dragon"

An Exploration of the Soul

Seminar 1 click here		What is the Soul? click here
Seminar 2 click here		The Origins of the Concept of Soul click here
Seminar 3 click here		The Myth of the Fall click here
Seminar 4 click here		Myths, Fairy Tales and Dreams  click here
Seminar 5 click here		The Roots of Depression click here
Seminar 6 click here		The Care of the Child click here
Seminar 7 click here		The Great Web of Life   click here
Seminar 8 click here		The Brain and the Neuro-psycho-immune System  click here
Seminar 9 click here		The Dragon: Integrating the Archaic Psyche and the Shadow click here
Seminar 10 click here		Rebalancing the Masculine and the Feminine click here
Seminar 11 this page		Base Metal into Gold: The Process of the Soul's Transformation this page
Seminar 12 click here		Individual Soul, Cosmic Soul and Spirit click here
Seminar 13 click here		The Wisdom Texts click here

Seminar 11

THE GREAT WORK OF ALCHEMY
Base Metal into Gold:
The Process of the Soul's Transformation

copyright©Anne Baring

Alchemist following in the footsteps of Nature Atalanta Fugiens, Michael Maier

 

The high destiny of man is to change himself into something that surpasses himself
                                          Robert Boucher (found in the Grotto of Bethléhem at Monréal, Ariège, France)

Alchemy lays upon man the task, and confers upon him the dignity, of rescuing the hidden feminine aspect of God from imprisonment in matter and of reuniting her with the manifest, masculine deity.                                           Marie-Louise von Franz, Aurora Consurgens

I swear to you that if you do this work properly, you will one day have a river of flowing gold" -                                            Zozimus (Alexandria 3rd century AD).

All that is without thee also is within.
                                           Saloman Trismosin, Splendor Solis 17th century

Imagination is the star in man: the celestial and super-celestial body. Ruland the Lexicographer

Alchemy speaks of the Great Work. It has been called the Royal Art. What does this mean? Each of us carries within us the royal value - the greater, finer, more complete or whole person we are capable of becoming. Alchemy is about the process of bringing that royal value - the quintessence of our nature - into consciousness.
          Having gone so deeply into the life of the body, human relationships and unconscious instinctive patterns in the last four seminars, we are now, in the last two, moving into the two great myths of reconnection: Alchemy and Christianity.
          At this time, the neglect of our inner life, our deep instinctual needs and wisdom, has led to the situation where, as in the Grail legend, the territory of the soul is in the grip of a terrible drought. No-one understands any more what the landscape and the language of the soul is like; no one can read the images; they are like hieroglyphs whose key has been lost. Jung saw that there was an immense work to be done in recovering the soul. He realised that the images of alchemy are the hieroglyphs of the language of the soul. More than anyone else, he was responsible for reviving alchemy and, through his insight into the archetypal meaning of the alchemical images, for giving many people access to a deeper understanding of the great Christian myth.
          It seems that during the last fifty years or so, we have been placed in an alchemical retort, forced to live through the fire of transformation, for the most part, unconsciously. The more individuals there are who are able to live this process consciously, the less suffering there is for the whole body of humanity (because we are one life). Two World Wars, the seering deaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fire bombs of Hamburg and Dresden, the gas ovens of Auschwitz, the burning villages of Bosnia and Kosovo, the horrific images of people leaping from the inferno of the Twin Towers and now the devastation of Baghdad and the Lebanon - all the horrendous and wanton sacrifice of human life cries out for us to engage in this process of awakening and transformation. The suffering and destitution of millions of people created by wars, by the sale of arms, by corruption, greed and fear asks that whoever is able to, contributes to the process of transformation. The whole of humanity is now caught up in the fire of the alchemical process, drawn into a transformation process of truly planetary proportions. Given the unconscious position of governments, only the individual can hope to make some contribution towards change. In relation to the lives of those whose desperate concern is survival, this inner work may seem irrelevant, even absurd yet, if change in the world situation is ever to come about, it can only come through an increase in the number of concerned and committed individuals who engage in the awakening and transformation of their own consciousness.

        We are embedded in the world of spirit. Our physical bodies carry cosmic elements that have come from the stars. We are the living expression of spirit but we don't know this. Alchemy is about a very slow and arduous process of attunement to this realisation - arduous because so many beliefs and habits stand in the way and it is hard to dismantle in a few years structures of belief that have been built up over millennia.
          In the course of this process of attunement the centre of gravity within the psyche gradually shifts from the needs and desires of the ego-personality to a deeper focus created by a growing relationship with and awareness of spirit in all its aspects. The personality grows and expands as it gives birth to relationship with the spirit - the royal value. This is the work of a whole lifetime, if not many lifetimes. The alchemists stressed that the work was to be done gently, patiently. To try to achieve it by force and ambition was to risk inflation, madness and death.
          Alchemy was the secret tradition which taught that the priceless treasure spoken of in so many myths lies within our own human nature - unrecognised, despised, neglected. It transposed the images of ancient mythology and in particular, the myth of the sacred marriage and the quest for the treasure, to the human soul. The alchemist descended into the depths of his soul to undergo a death and rebirth, to be transformed from base metal into gold, to recover the treasure buried in the matter of his instinctual life and to be reunited with the divine ground personified by the image of Divine Wisdom. He/she acted (with the help of divine grace) as the redeemer of his/her soul, bringing forth from it the treasure, variously named as the quintessential stone, the philosopher's gold, the divine water and the flower of immortality. Men and women sometimes worked together as partners to bring into being the alchemical gold. (e.g. Nicolas Flamel and his wife in 14th century Paris)
          Spirit depends on us in this dimension to rescue it from its imprisoned or buried state, buried in nature, matter and ourselves. This work involves a descent into the underworld of the soul (the unconscious) in order to free the lost feminine aspect of spirit that is buried there, bringing to conscious awareness the realisation that the life of nature and the body is also part of spirit ("hidden nature is secret God"). This invites us to change our attitude to nature and matter and the way we treat and exploit all aspects of planetary life. It is really about recovering the lost sense of participatory awareness and applying it consciously to one's life. At the same time it is about growing into one's unique individuality, differentiating oneself from the collective life of society and the deficient values that presently control the political and religious life of humanity - without in any way seeing oneself as superior to other people and forcing one's views upon them.
           Alchemy laid the foundations for modern medicine, chemistry, biology, physics on the one hand and psychology on the other. Alchemy is the hidden introverted counterpart to the extraverted emphasis of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Both approaches may be needed fully to convey the deeper message that these traditions conceal. But at the moment one is missing and this is why they (the orthodox traditions) are unable to respond to the challenge of our times.
           Alchemy is a rainbow bridge between the visible and invisible dimensions of life - between matter and spirit. It heals the deep wound in the human soul that has come into being because of a sense of alienation, loneliness and separation from the divine. The image that comes to mind when alchemy is mentioned is gold, or the mysterious philosopher's stone. This gold or stone was said to be not only a cure for all disease and sickness but was thought to be signify the creation of a subtle or spiritual body that would survive death. The gold or stone symbolises the gift of wisdom, insight and the power to heal human suffering as well as this subtle, spiritual body:

There are two categories in this art, namely, seeing with the eye [imagination] and understanding with the heart, and this is the hidden stone, which is fitly called a gift of God - and this divine stone is the heart and tincture of gold which the philosophers seek.

          I will repeat here what I said about myth in seminar 4 (Myths, Fairy Tales and Dreams) because it is important for an understanding of the myth of Alchemy. Like the Rosetta Stone, the greatest myths contain a meaning which can be decoded from the symbolic imagery that conceals it and used as a key to a deeper understanding of life. Certain myths have the power to heal and transform if their images are understood in relation to the soul itself. In symbolic images and allegorical stories they tell of the hidden workings of the spirit within the matrix of the soul. They chronicle the evolution of human consciousness and the tremendous struggle for greater consciousness through search, suffering and heroic endeavour that the human story represents. Such myths can be applied as much to the life of an individual as to the life of a culture or to the whole evolutionary journey of humanity on this planet. They describe what has to be accomplished over and over again, if humanity is to reach the goal that spirit intends. They tell the story of the quest for a deeper, more complete relationship with life that is described as the treasure - the supreme value. The treasure is not power, nor any kind of supremacy over any thing or any one. The treasure is enlightenment or, in the more familiar language of the West, the wisdom and insight that are the reward of a conscious relationship with the ground of being.
          The revelations arising from the soul of awakened individuals in all cultures become embodied in religious institutions which gradually lose or exclude elements that are vital to people's balance and well being. A tendency to crystallisation and literalisation in religious dogma may cause it to remain fixated in the past, unable to understand its own myth and to adapt to new needs. In the case of the three patriachal religions, there has been an excessive emphasis on the masculine principle, on theological dogma and an insistence on belief rather than on the development of insight, understanding and transformation. But certain myths flow on beneath the surface of our lives like a mighty river, connecting our superficial awareness with its roots, ready always when we are ready, to well up like a perennial spring whenever we call upon our soul for help. It falls to myth, epic, legend and fairy-tale to provide in symbolic form the knowledge and the values that have been excluded or rejected by the orthodox tradition. In European civilisation there has been a wealth of ideas that had to go underground, since they could only escape persecution by being hidden in allegory (gnostic, kabbalistic and alchemical). Only now are they emerging, having been preserved for the day of their "resurrection" by a strong mythological tradition expressed in alchemy on the one hand and in countless legends and stories such as the fairy tale of the Sleeping Beauty and the legend of the Holy Grail on the other.
          The major themes of alchemy are derived from the great solar and lunar myths of death and regeneration of the ancient world, those of Egypt, Sumer, Greece as well as the Christian myth (see seminar 4). These are:

1. The theme of death and rebirth
2. The theme of the descent into the underworld and the return
3. The theme of the struggle with a superhuman adversary: dragon/serpent/monster
4. The theme of a journey and the quest for a priceless treasure
5. The theme of transformation
6. The theme of the sacred marriage
7. The theme of the birth of the divine child

Alchemy is focused on the sacred marriage of the masculine and feminine principles. The Great Work of alchemy involves:

1. The rescue of the lost and despised feminine aspect of spirit
2. The process of transformation involved in this rescue
3. The death of the old king and queen (the old consciousness)
4. The birth of the young king and queen (new consciousness)
5. The formation of the hermaphrodite (union of the two natures)
6. The creation of the 'philosopher's stone'
7. The conscious integration or union of body, soul and spirit
8. The union with cosmic soul/spirit - with what Jung called the unus mundus

          Alchemy has kept the images of a profound process of transmutation alive through thousands of years. In his glass retort the alchemist attempted to transmute metals but it was the images that came to him as he did this work which reflected what was taking place in his own soul and deepened his understanding of a psychic transformation that was taking place within him. The retort or alchemical vessel was like a mirror.

Dramatis Personae of Alchemy
Divine Wisdom variously named as Shekinah, Cosmic Soul, Sophia, Anima Mundi, Lady Alchemeia
Mercurius the "divine fire"or the "lumen naturae" The agent of transformation and the matter to be transformed
The Prima Materia - the "matter" of our psychic life
The Vessel of Transformation vessel, vase or athenor
The Alchemical Water or Sea = the invisible dimension of cosmic soul - the archetypal world
The King: sun, gold, sulphur, red
The Queen: moon, silver, salt, white
The Dragon: an image of the prima materia or black earth
The Treasure: Gold, Elixir, Stone, Divine Water, Flower of Immortality

         Alchemy is at least 5000 years old and is rooted in Egyptian, Babylonian and Greek civilisation, as well as in Chinese, Indian and Persian. The city of Alexandria was the centre of alchemy in Hellenistic times. Newly discovered manuscripts (Zozimus of Panoplis) show that from earliest times alchemy was understood as the art of soul transmutation, not the literal transmutation of metals into gold. The symbol of the alchemical gold was the circle. In images and symbols which have their origin in Egypt, the alchemical quest describes the process which transmutes what we are into what we are capable of becoming; transmutes us from base metal into gold, bringing us from a state of fragmentation and ignorance into one of enlightenment and wholeness. It gradually opens our eyes and our heart to an incandescent vision of reality. Alchemy sets this supreme quest in the context of a sacred marriage between the solar and lunar aspects of our soul, the fiery gold of the masculine element and the volatile silver of the feminine one: a union between our head and our heart, between the king and the queen, our rational consciousness focussed through thinking, and our instinctive consciousness focussed through emotion and feeling. (gold and silver, red and white, sun and moon). The marriage also brought together the invisible dimension of spirit and the visible material world of our experience. The Sacred Marriage is the age-old image of this mysterious double union.
         4000 years ago in the courtyards of the great temples on the banks of the Nile the Sacred Marriage of goddess and god was celebrated. The theme of the Sacred Marriage has come down to us in myth, in fairy tales like Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty, and in the Biblical Song of Songs. Some scholars think that the the word alchemy comes from an Arabic word meaning "the preparation of silver and gold." Others that it means "black earth". The great obelisks which stood gleaming in the courtyards of these temples were once covered with electrum which was an alloy of silver and gold. But certain Egyptians knew how to apply this science to the soul; they discovered how to make an alloy of its two basic elements - the gold of the masculine element and the silver of the feminine one.
         The earliest alchemical texts were Egyptian and the sacred art of alchemy was transmitted to later cultures principally from the area around Karnak or Thebes in the south and Alexandria in the north. A second theme lies at the heart of alchemy and also has its roots in Egypt. This is the theme of death and regeneration - focused on the daily journey of the sun god into the darkness of the underworld and his return with the dawn. It underlies the alchemical concept of the death of the old king and his rebirth as the young king. On the same theme, another Egyptian myth tells how Osiris was murdered by his brother, Seth and how Isis, his wife and sister, went in search of the dismembered pieces of his body and restored him to life by fanning (as a kite) his dead body with her wings. This myth tells the story of the union or reunion of the two aspects of the royal value, the union of brother and sister, king and queen and the eternal regeneration of Osiris. There is another aspect to this myth. Egyptian culture was focused on the soul of the deceased that they called the Ba soul - the eternal, divine element that enabled the man or woman to live on after the death of the body. The rites of regeneration centred on the rebirth of the god Osiris also celebrated the birth of the Ba soul into the divine realm known to Egyptians as the Duat - the starry ground of the cosmos.

The theme of the divine individual
Pharoah was believed to receive his power as ruler of Egypt from the goddess Isis/Hathor as well as from the god Ra. Many images show him seated on her lap, suckling from her breasts. Her power is symbolised by the Uraeus or cobra on his brow (as well as on hers). The whole culture drew sustenance from the goddess through Pharoah's sonship with her. This ancient image of divine sonship was later carried forward to the alchemist as the "son" of Divine Wisdom.

The theme of the birth of the divine or royal child
personifies a new regenerated consciousness born from the union of the solar and lunar elements of the soul in their new form - "this art is like the development of an embryo and then the birth of a child." The origins of this myth lie in Egypt with the birth of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and also in Greece with the rites of Demeter and Persephone - who brought with her a son from her union with Hades when she returned from the Underworld. The Christian myth gives it its most recent and (for Christians) most numinous expression.

The journey of the hero into the underworld and his struggle with a great serpent/dragon/monster. This myth was transmitted from Egyptian and Sumerian culture to Greek and Roman culture (Apollo, Hercules, Aeneas). Later it passed into the legend of St George and the Dragon.Through making the journey into the underworld and encountering the great dragon or serpent who personifies it, the hero assimilates and transforms the mighty powers of the instinct and gains thereby the strength and the wisdom of instinct and the ability to heal.

The quest for a priceless treasure
is like a golden thread shining through the mythology of many ancient cultures. In Egypt it was Isis's quest for Osiris; in Sumer Gilgamesh's quest for the Herb of Immortality; in Greece the quest is for the Golden Fleece; in the New Testament the quest is for the Pearl of Great Price; in 12th century France the treasure becomes the Holy Grail; Alchemy gives it many names: the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, the Heavenly Balsalm, the Divine Water, and the Quintessential Gold. Of the Water, the alchemists said: "This divine water makes the dead living and the living dead; it lightens the darkness and darkens the light."

The figure of Divine Wisdom
is the presiding image of Alchemy. For thousands of years the great matrix of relationships that is the life of the cosmos was personified by the image of the Great Mother and later by specific goddesses like Hathor and Isis in Egypt. Later the image of the goddess developed into the image of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom (Hokhmah) in the Old Testament and the Shekinah of Kabbalah - still later into the Anima Mundi of Plato and Plotinus and the Holy Grail of medieval legend. The feminine archetype has always been associated with the image of nature and the image of soul - not soul as a dimension of our own consciousness but soul as the great cosmic sea of being - an invisible matrix of relationships to which we belong, in which we participate. Alchemy kept alive this ancient concept of soul. Alchemists had visions of a cosmic woman and knew her to be a living force and active presence, pouring out the waters of love and illumination onto humanity.

Mercurius is one of the most enigmatic figures in Alchemy and is sometimes shown in male and sometimes in female form. Jung writes in fascinating detail about him. S/he is identified with the prima materia or matter to be transformed, with the actual process of transformation as well as with the goal. The alchemists called him/her the lumen naturae, the divine fire hidden at the heart of all life. S/he is the living gold, the hidden spirit in matter and the body. He/she changes form with every stage and can be both adversary and guide. The alchemists knew they had to work against nature (against the deep primordial habits of our nature) but also that they were helped and guided by nature. The evolution of life on this planet is a very slow gradient of ascent from apparently unconscious matter to conscious spirit. The whole of humanity suffers because the increase of consciousness is so slow and laborious (see St. Paul - "The whole of creation groaneth and travaileth"). Alchemy accelerates the process by consciously working with nature as servant rather than master.
           The alchemists had first to bring this primordial life energy into consciousness within them, then to discover how work with it to transform it and to allow it to transform them. Alchemy gives us the image of a King who has to die in order that his son may rule in his stead. This image is behind the Grail story of the King who lies wounded in the groin, waiting for the redeemer who will free the waters of the soul so that the Wasteland he rules over may be restored to fertility. There is a beautiful text that accompanies an alchemical picture of the sixteenth century (Trismosin, Splendor Solis) which says:

The King's son lies in the depths of the sea as though dead. But he lives and calls from the deep: Whosoever will free me from the waters and lead me to dry land, him will I prosper with everlasting riches.

           We can identify the old King - the King who needs to die - with the deficient values and belief system that currently rule our culture. We can also identify it with a specific image of spirit that needs to be relinquished in order for a new image to emerge from the depths of the soul. Just as from time to time, we have to buy new clothes to replace worn out ones, so an outworn image of spirit has to be discarded in order for it to be reborn in a new image. The young king with orb and sceptre (symbol of the feminine and masculine royal qualities) represents the new values generated by a deeper communion with spirit. 2000 years ago, Jesus was "the young king" who brought potential renewal to his culture and the possibility of a transformation of values. 500 years before him, the Buddha did the same for his culture in India. St Francis was to do the same for 13th century Italy.

Alchemy defines three stages in the Great Work of transforming the soul and bringing about the sacred marriage of the young king and queen. This process is circulatory and continuous and moves through the different stages over and over again. As I said before, it extends over a lifetime, even over many lifetimes. Very broadly summarised, these three stages are:

1. The process of unifying the conscious and the unconscious, creating a relationship with the unconscious
2. Making this union permanent and including the body in it
3. Connecting this united entity with a cosmic dimension that transcends yet includes the human psyche

Stage 1: The Lesser Work - The creation of the White Stone: the spiritualisation of the body: becoming aware that there is more to us than our bodily needs, limited sense of self and our sensory perception of reality. Opening to awareness of the existence of the unconscious and an invisible dimension of reality. This expansion of consciousness creates great conflict and uncertainty. The danger of this first stage is the polarisation of spirit against nature - the attempt to "overcome" the body by repressing the instincts. Christianity fell into the trap of mortifying the flesh. Fear of sexuality. The "devil" was the projected image of the feared and vilified instinctuality of the body. One could say that Christianity has achieved this spiritualisation but in a way that did violence to the body. What has been rejected has to be recovered before the Work of integration can proceed. This seems to be happening in the collective psyche at the present time but, sadly at an unconscious level. Sexuality has become an obsession for millions of people. With the return of what was vilified and rejected comes the recovery of a great amount of creative energy that was previously locked up in the complex created by the repression.

The Nigredo = the first stage of the Lesser Work
The word Nigredo means 'blackness' - both the blackness of unconsciousness and the blackness of depression. The raven was the symbol of this stage where the alchemist undergoing the process of transformation often found himself immersed in a "blackness blacker than black" ('blackness also refers to the physical blackening of the material held in the alchemical retort) The Nigredo refers to the state of blind suffering and ignorance before the dawning of awareness. The alchemists also called this state the massa confusa, the prima materia, the black earth, the dragon, all terms which describe the half-human, half-animal semi-conscious state, the chaos of natural impulses, the unconscious entanglement with the instincts that is the inevitable result of the slow creation of consciousness from the matrix of nature. It is this state we live in from day to day, responding to events as they happen; believing that we have control of our lives but falling victim to unconscious complexes and habits. It is the state where the king is in a kind of incestuous union with the queen; where our surface consciousness may be controlled by unconscious atavistic drives and powerful emotions (e.g. rage, fear, guilt, anxiety, envy, sexuality). Because of all these entanglements, the creative spirit in us is not awake, not free. The nigredo was also associated with the helpless despair of depression which can recurr throughout the process of transformation. The nigredo extends over the whole process of the Work and is not finally dissipated until it is complete. To change this state, we go through a a very arduous process of transformation which involves separating ourselves from a state of unconscious identification with our complexes, beliefs and instinctive drives. Instinct, behavioural habits, and the collective beliefs of the culture (including religious and scientific beliefs as well as social custom) stand against this transformation; therefore there is conflict and struggle.
           The alchemists compared the process to being cooked, kneaded, washed, hardened, softened, raised, lowered, divided, united. "Study, meditate, sweat, work, wash, cook", they said. It is an impossible process to describe! One cannot delete something from the psyche as one deletes a sentence or paragraph on the computer. One can only gradually deepen one's insight into the process and the causes of one's patterns of behaviour. I think it is really about changing the wiring of the nervous system, disconnecting the negative, self-destructive wiring that is rooted in fear and creating new wiring based on trust, love and relationship.
           The beginning of the process may be initiated by an experience of loss; the former foundation seems to disintegrate. The loss of a parent, partner or child. Abandonment by parent/s. The break-up of a marriage, loss of a home, illness, loss of one's money, disintegration of the foundation of one's life. Loss of hope. Total despair. Disillusionment. Dust and ashes. Many people succumb to depression. If one can understand this event as a preparation for a new orientation to one's life, it can help; otherwise it may be experienced as blind, apparently pointless suffering. Suicide is a danger because of this.

2. The Second Stage of the Lesser Work - the Albedo -
The Albedo signifies the return to the watery instinctual matrix of our emotional life. Engaging in the work of washing and cleansing the soul of its complexes and programming so that the light of a new consciousness can dawn. Preparation for receiving the influx of spirit. Regeneration and strengthening of feeling values. The alchemists compared this phase to the gradual whitening of the sky after the obscurity of night. It is the stage of transforming the prima materia of the initial psychic state by repeated washings, cleansings, purifyings, burnings, repeated immersions in water that are part of the process which aims to free the gold of the life spirit from the rust or verdigris which adhere to it. The alchemists called themselves washerwomen and cooks. The Albedo is the stage when the soul is beginning to become conscious of the hidden spirit whose secret presence oversees the Great Work of the transformational process and yearns to be recognised. It is the beginning of engaging in relationship and dialogue with spirit, learning to recognise its guidance, withdrawing projections onto other people, transforming the power of the negative, destructive and self-destructive habits that imprison its creative life, responding to it with love and devotion. The two primary symbols of the Albedo are the dove of the Holy Spirit and the white stone. This stage is about awakening to the feminine principle and cultivating the missing feeling values. (remember that all the known alchemists were men although many of them had a companion - often their wife - whom they called their soror mystica) .

the stages of the Nigredo and Albedo are sometimes described as follows:
putrefactio - the decay or decomposition of psychic "matter" that is being transformed - complexes, projections, beliefs etc.
calcinatio - the burning away of the dross that clouds the spirit.
mortificatio - the 'death' (of the old focus, the old priorities) prior to rebirth and regeneration

3. The Greater Work - The Rubedo - re-unification of body, soul and spirit.
The final stage - the creation of the red stone
The alchemists likened this stage to resurrection and to the reddening of the sky as the sun begins to rise, irradiating and warming the earth. Red-gold is the colour of the Rubedo. The red rose and the red stone are the symbols of the completion of the Greater Work (seeing these images in dreams does not mean one has completed the work! They may be hinting at a future possibility or potential to be realised). Another symbol of the Rubedo is the phoenix; life is regenerated from the ashes of the old, unconscious life.

This final stage is about the incarnation or earthing of spirit. The union of the feminine and masculine elements of the soul. The impregnation of matter with spirit. The formation of the hermaphrodite. Activation of feeling in a more conscious and refined form. Recovery of the body as an aspect of spirit and the union of body, soul and spirit. This stage is reflected in the image of the Assumption of the Virgin, signifying the reunion (in the psyche) of the masculine and feminine principles. Jung commented that for more than 1000 years Alchemy prepared the ground for the dogma of the Assumption in 1950.

Stages of this final phase of transformation:
Sublimatio - meditation, contemplation, receiving the "dew" of heaven. Active imagination.
Coagulatio - embodiment. Learning how to live what is received in one's daily life.
Fixatio - fixation of the volatile; steadiness of focus.
Distillatio - distillation of the quintessence. Coniunctio/multiplicatio - union. Access to far greater energy and power to create and heal from a different focus and depth.
Coniunctio (union) and the Completion of the Great Work is the rebirth into the divine worlds (usually, though not necessarily at death) and conscious reunion with spirit or the Ground of Being.

The images of the treasure are the Golden Phoenix, the Philosopher's Gold, the Stone of the Wise, the Elixir of Life, the Divine Water.

         So, to summarise, the alchemists wanted to free the quintessential gold of the spirit hidden within nature from corruption, to free the divine life impulse from the habits of blind, unconscious instinctuality. Their aim was to make conscious this spirit in themselves so they could come to full experience of its presence and guidance. The gradual revelation of the treasure was an experience of great suffering on the one hand and illumination, wonder, and inexpressible joy on the other as the light of a new consciousness dawned. "No-one," they said, "may accomplish this work except through affection, humility and love, for it is the gift of God to his humble servants." (Gerhard Dorn) As they watched the matter of their own psychic life transform itself in the mirror of the alchemical retort, certain alchemists experienced the immense mystery of what they were witnessing. They realised that they were assisting spirit in the process of its own transformation, bringing itself to consciousness over aeons of earth time, leading creation back to its source. They had revealed to them in a gradual process of illumination, the divinity of nature and all life processes; they saw that one divine spirit was at work in all forms of life and in human consciousness as well. They sought to bring to birth in themselves the hidden spirit that needed to be rescued from its unconscious state. In accomplishing this they became the sons of Wisdom, inheritors of the true philosophical gold. And, as their understanding grew, they became the ministers, not the masters of the stone.
         The completion of the Great Work brings the experience of the full revelation of divine spirit as the quintessence of the soul. The beginning of the Rubedo announces the awakening of the heart, the flow of compassion towards all living things and the creation of the body of light - what the alchemists called "the resurrection body." The body is the cosmos in miniature - as above, so below - carrying divinity in every cell. Body, soul and spirit are unified and transfigured in this experience. As a triune whole, they in turn are united with the divine ground of being - what the alchemists called the unus mundus. The late Bede Griffiths, one of the great sages of our times, said this about the Great Work:

The soul discovers its source of being in the Spirit, the mind is opened to this inner light, the will is energized by this inner power. The very substance of the soul is changed; it is made a 'partaker of the divine nature'. And this transformation affects not only the soul but also the body. The matter of the body - its actual particles - is transformed by the divine power and transfigured by the divine light - like the body of Christ at the resurrection.

          The great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, observed that spirituality is the bouquet, the perfume, the flowering and fulfillment of a human life, not a supernatural virtue artificially imposed on it.
         These three phases often blend imperceptably into each other and they are repeated over and over again in a process known as the circulatio as the three-fold union of body, soul and spirit proceeds. There is not one awakening, but many, not one illumination but many. "Little by little and from day to day he will perceive with his mental eyes and with the greatest joy some sparks of divine illumination." (Gerhard Dorn) The image of the squared circle (alchemical diagram) suggests the incarnation of spirit in matter, the unification of masculine and feminine principles - the coniunctio or indissoluble "marriage" of the Above with the Below.
         Alchemy is the process which slowly transforms our understanding so that we become aware of the divine ground of spirit, discover how to communicate with it, and to respond to its longing to be known. It transforms our understanding from base metal into gold. It takes the prima materia of our soul which, despite our phenomenal intellect and achievements is still so unawakened to the meaning of compassion and relationship and creates a marriage between ourselves and this mighty energy of the life force. We are immeasurably enriched and transformed by this union, gaining a deep understanding of and relationship with life. Instinct can no longer act in a blind and unconscious way. Intellect serves life rather than trying to manipulate and control it. Feeling, while losing none of its power and intensity, is transmuted into a deep devotion to life that is inspired and guided by Divine Wisdom, the Holy Spirit eternally pouring forth the water of life. In one of the texts, there is a picture of an alchemist following exactly in the footprints of Nature/Wisdom. I am always moved when I look at it.
         Alchemy draws us to an encounter with the Ground of our Being. This invisible yet immanent Holy Spirit is the flow of life in our veins, the flux and flow of our thoughts, our instincts and our bodily processes. It is an invisible matrix of relationships of which our lives, our souls, our bodies, are a part. How can we learn to communicate with it, to respond to its longing to be known? What I have learned in the last fifty years about the alchemical process is that it is:

1. a return journey to the unseen dimension of spirit with the help of spirit.
2. this journey will take each one of us as far as our longing can reach.
3. it slowly attunes our awareness to a hidden order of reality.
4. it reveals that we are at all times and in all places within the Being of God. There is nothing beyond or outside God. There is only one life which is the life of the cosmos and the life of each and all. Each one of us is an atom in the body of God.
5. it reveals that there is no death for consciousness nor does the matter of the body really die. Our purpose on this planet is to discover this truth, and to live this truth with every breath of life and to love and serve life as best we can by doing harm to no-one and activating the flow of light and love in our lives.

An Alchemical Dream: A woman dreams that she meets a crippled girl. They walk along together. The dreamer takes off all her clothes. They walk past a field of stubble with piles of manure in it. They go into the field and see two mummified bodies, wrapped in bandages. A man and a woman, lying face down in a furrow. The dreamer turns over the male body. The head turns into a leather pouch with gold fur on it. As she holds it in her hand it distintegrates. Many pearls run between her fingers leaving one very large one in the palm of her hand. She looks up and sees that the whole field is now green grass. On every blade of grass there is a pearl. The crippled girl has gone.

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