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Any discussion of the mystery at the root of alchemical philosophy begins with recognising that we live in a Western culture founded on ‘scientific materialism’ and all share this fundamental orientation to a greater or lesser extent. At its core, ‘scientific materialism’ is a value system which does not recognise mystery as a dimension of life. By its very nature, mystery defies reason. Carl Johan Calleman, a Swedish biologist working internationally, sees biology and Darwinism as central to ‘scientific materialism’:

To question Darwinism is absolutely taboo. Many radical thoughts in many areas of science may be proposed, but not this, that human beings have been created by God . . . if Darwinism does not hold, the most important pillar upon which today’s materialist philosophy of science is built would collapse . . . proposals have been advanced to create a more spiritually oriented world view, often based on . . . new physics, but the effects on academic science have only been minor. This is because the critical pillar of today’s science is not physics, but biology . . .

(Calleman, 2001, p. 97) Materialistic philosophy extends well beyond the bounds of science to many aspects of life. As a social collective, we are enthralled by the miraculous feats of technology. From birth, our skills, perceptions, expectations and self-reflections are developed within a collective mindset which gives preference to the intellec- tual and conceptual over the imaginal and symbolical. There is a basic assumption that the ego and its life in the world, our capacity to orient ourselves in relation to time, place, person and the ‘here-and-now’, are synonymous with the greater objective psyche. With this misconception, we cut ourselves off from our own mysterious depths.

Two dimensions of psyche are present in all of us: personality and the true inner nature. In psychotherapy, reductive techniques are used to tease out the unique individual personality from internalised environmental influences of earlier life in the hope of releasing blockages to the natural, instinctive flow towards ego development. Reductive psychotherapeutic techniques have evolved out of a scientific rationalism which supports ego development. Initially, the unconscious was viewed as a kind of philosophical concept. Through Freud’s discoveries it became grounded as a practical medical concept. Psychotherapeutic methods developed from the medical paradigm support patients in forging an ego strong enough to be able to participate effectively in our everyday world. From this perspective, the ego may be seen through the lens of ‘scientific materialism’ as an objective thing, having supreme value in the psyche. The true self, in contrast, holds knowledge gained and passed on over the generations from earliest human beginnings. The development of our true deeper nature is much like creating a sculpture from a living tree. The sculpted form gradually emerges as wood is

chipped away to reveal the true individual essence. We can see this impulse towards manifesting a true inner essence in young people’s instinctive urge to live life for its own sake and in so doing, become rooted in reality, their limits and their abilities.

Our collective world is out of balance. Continuing advances in technology and encroaching materialistic influences disrupt authentic patterns of human life. Some people perceive the era of scientific rationalism as wakening humanity from an age-old dream state, as if the power to distinguish ‘real’ from ‘unreal’ is itself subject to biological evolution (Burckhardt, 1974, pp. 7–8). Far from taking us into an increased capacity to differentiate ‘real’ from ‘unreal’, scientific rationalism leads us into a parallel world.

Television, video cassettes, video tape-recorders/players, video games and personal computers all form an encompassing electronic system whose various forms ‘interface’ to constitute an alternative and absolute world that uniquely incorporates spectator/user in a spatially de-centred, weakly temporised and quasi-disembodied state.

(Sobchak, 1996 cited in Briggs, Asa and Burke, 2002, p. 321) Against this bleak backdrop, a cry is rising from the human soul, the cri de Merlin – a cry for water in the desert of dehumanisation.

Jung pioneered the way beyond the biological and medical when he separated from Freud. What followed was a profound encounter with the unconscious recorded and published as the Red Book. This pivotal work is the foundation of his unique psychological orientation and all his later writings. He began by asking himself, ‘Why is myself a desert?’ and answering, ‘I have avoided the place of my soul’ (Jung, 2009, p. 237). He endured the death of the heroic ego and emerged into a new reality – a psychic reality mirrored by the ancient art of alchemy. Jung’s methodology can be criticised for being nearly non-existent when perceived only through the lens of rationality with its blindness to the ways of mystery. However, Jung and his methods belong to a new post ‘scientific materialism’, ‘Weltanschauung’, and can best be accessed and understood within this new world view, as the subtle mysteries of new physics cannot be perceived from within a Newtonian paradigm.

To cultivate an empathic grasp of how medieval alchemy resonates with the psyche, it is necessary to set aside post-Enlightenment rationality and pre- conceived notions about the nature of things. Imagine being a medieval alchemist. You see all things in the universe as inter-related following the Hermetic law of correspondences described in the Emerald Tablet (Hauck, 1999, p. 51):

That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing.

Chemistry and alchemy, astronomy and astrology live together infused by the presence of God. Symbols, images and rituals mediate between the macrocosm and the microcosm, between the inner, spiritual world and the outer, physical world. Some alchemists, such as Michael Maier (1568–1622) and Gerhard Dorn (1530–1584), worked with physical substances in their laboratories, whilst being aware that the alchemical process went well beyond the material. They aimed at an experience of ‘transmutation’, or metamorphosis, of base substance into the illumination of self-knowing through direct experience. These alchemical trans- mutations were perceived as occurring within the psyche on levels of reality not ordinarily accessible in everyday life.

Everyone experiences a mysterious moment at least once in life – an uncanny, out-of-the-ordinary moment which has a disorienting effect. It is not easily forgotten no matter how many years pass. Values, priorities and one’s whole perception of life and meaning may be changed. Ego maturity and circumstance influence whether this moment is perceived to be creative or destructive, welcome or threatening. We have different reactions to mystery ranging from outright denial through rationalisation to simple acceptance. If you reflect back over your life, you may recall an uncanny experience of your own and how you reacted to it. Alchemists like Maier and Dorn were profoundly aware of mystery and much of their work can only be understood from this perspective.

The subtle medium partaking of both mind and substance is the soul realm referred to by the alchemists as ‘Mercurius’ – the subtle soul-form of the chemical element mercury, sharing many of its properties. The work of alchemy takes place in this liminality where visible time-bound, and invisible timeless worlds meet and something is born in us. To access the insight and knowledge of the mysterious philosophy of the alchemists we have to be willing and able to hover between manifest life and its subtle essence through metaphor and symbol. Indian Vedic philosophy describes it as the eternal dance between Shiva (essence) and Shakti (form). Chinese Taoist philosophy pictures it as the Yang/Yin symbol which provides the fundamental structure of the ‘I Ching (Book of Changes)’ (Wilhelm, 1951). Alchemists describe it as the Mysterium Coniunctionis, the sacred marriage of Sol and Luna, the solar and lunar principles. Jung’s analytic psychology describes it as the masculine/feminine Dance of Opposites resolved through the

Transcendent Function (CW 8, paras 131–193).

To contemplate Lady Alchemia and her place in contemporary psychothera- peutic practice requires us to step apart from the busyness of daily life to a place of quiet, of inward openness and alert, receptive stillness. This is a place of poetry, a place of soul, a place of mystery. Alchemical references, images and experiences incorporate this poetic, soulful dimension. The intellect alone cannot gain entry to this world: medieval alchemists who tried to practise their Art with only a rational, worldly focus were called ‘puffers’. Their efforts were like the air from bellows that fanned flames in the alchemical fire but never transformed anything.