4.3.2
The symmetry between spirit and matter in Hermetic alchemy
and complementarity
part 5 (will
follow):
4.3.3
Carl Jung's ambivalence between the trinity and the quaternity
and the Axiom of Maria prophetissa: A preliminary analysis
4.
Neoplatonic and Hermetic alchemy: Eternal infertility versus
incarnation
(part
3)
4.3 Hermetic
alchemy
4.3.1 Robert
Fludd’s chymic wedding, the intermediate world and the infans
solaris
In Wolfgang Pauli’s dreams, the Seal of Solomon, the double-triadic
star, plays an extremely important role. His tragedy consists in the fact that
he was not yet able to see that with it the preconscious knowledge of the Self
presented him a symbol of the sought after psychophysical realm that compensated
for Carl Jung’s too spiritual quaternity. Therefore, he continued to criticize
this quaternity as incomplete, but he failed to consciously realize the breakthrough
to a new worldview that is connected with the Seal of Solomon symbol.
To
show how this novel worldview was constellated in him, we will now
deal with his Kepler essay. As I mentioned in Chapter
2, this essay has at least as much to
do with the alchemist Robert Fludd, as with the co-founder of modern science.
Therefore, the investigation of this aspect of Pauli’s
essay will help us in penetrating into the deepest roots of
Fludd’s opus. In such a manner, we will be able to understand in
a rational language, what the above mentioned third meaning of
the synchronicity says: The challenge is of tracing
back to Robert Fludd, behind Johannes Kepler - in
consideration of the results of quantum physics and the insights of
depth psychology.
As
we have seen, the basis of the Neoplatonic alchemy’s opus was
the spiritualization of matter. In extreme contrast to this, a double
movement characterized the work of the Hermetic alchemists: A
descent into matter, which was preceded or followed by an ascent to
the upper realms. This fact shows that the Hermetic judged
matter much more positive than the Neoplatonist. Hermetic alchemy
held that matter was of the same value as the spirit. Therefore, as
we will see, the goal of the opus was described as the “chymic wedding” or coniunctio, the sexual
union of the two equivalent divine
principles.
A
further very important difference lies in the fact that the Hermetic
opus is characterized by a transmutation (Wandlung) that is
itself symbolized by the filius philosophorum, the divine child, as a result of this chymic
wedding. This child is also
represented by the lapis, and because it is the product of the
sexual relationship of a god and the goddess, it is androgynous; it
is a hermaphrodite, „yin/yang“ like the Tao (see below).
One
of the most important examples of Hermetic alchemy is the sick
king’s renewal that begins with his descent into matter. Because
this process is so central in alchemy, Carl Jung has dedicated a
whole chapter in his book Mysterium Coniunctionis to this
descent and renewal (CW 14, Chapter IV:Rex and
Regina). As he describes in the first section of this chapter,
the alchemical expression “king” means “God”. Therefore,
the Hermetic alchemical opus is a symbolical
description of a transformation of the Christian image of God that
begins with a union with matter. It is this process in the deepest
depths of the collecitve unconscious, which is constellated anew today, at the beginning 21st
century.
Our
investigation will show us, that in modern terms this renewal belongs
to a parallel transformation of the Western Logos consciousness into
a new kind of ego that will include what I call Eros consciousness.
By this task we can consciously return to medieval alchemy, as
Pauli’s Fludd/flood synchronicity requires, however on a higher
level that takes into consideration the results of modern depth
psychology and quantum physics.
With
this ego development hypothesis in mind, we can assume that it would
also have been Pauli’s challenge to consciously suffer this
transformation from a Logos consciousness into one that also included
Eros consciousness which parallels a today constellated change in the
collective unconscious. We will see that it was exactly this
unconscious claim that was behind his fascination for Kepler’s antagonist,
Robert
Fludd.
Wolfgang
Pauli begins section 6 of the Kepler essay with a short
description of Robert Fludd’s opus as contrary to
Kepler’s:
„Kepler’s
views on cosmic harmony, essentially based on quantitative,
mathematically demonstrable premises, were incompatible with the
point of view of an archaic-magical description of nature as
represented by the chief work of a respected physician and Rosicrucian, Robert Fludd of Oxford: Utriusque Cosmi
Maioris scilicet et Minoris Metaphysica, Physica atque technica
Historia, first edition, Oppenheim 1621. In an appendix to
Book V of the Harmonices mundi Kepler criticized this work
of Fludd’s very violently. Fludd, as the
representative of traditional alchemy, published in his treatise
Demonstratio quaedam analytica a detailed polemic directed
against Kepler’s appendix, whereupon the latter
replied with an Anpologie that was followed by a
Replicatio from Fludd.
The intellectual ‘counter
world’ with which Kepler here clashed is an
archaistic-magical description of nature culminating in a mystery
of transmutation (Wandlungsmysterium). It is the familiar
alchemical process that by means of various chemical procedures
releases from the prima materia the world-soul dormant in
it and in so doing both redeems matter and transforms the adept.“
What
Pauli describes here is the first step of the alchemical opus, the
spiritualization of matter, which was also represented by the
transmutation of lead into gold. He stresses the magic
and the transmutation aspect of the opus. This liberated the
so-called world soul out of matter.
As
we have seen, for the Neoplatonic alchemists this “sublimation” of
matter was the only important step. Because for them matter was evil, the opus
was looked at as a
refinement or distillation with the help of which the Good or the
bright essence was extracted. The rest, which was the obscure and
therefore bad matter and thus the garbage, was thrown away.
Pauli
continues his essay with the Hermetic aspect of the alchemical
work:
„The world is
the mirror image of the invisible Trinitarian God who
reveals Himself in it. Just as God is symbolically represented by
an equilateral triangle so there is a second, reflected
triangle below that represents the world. This can be
clearly seen in a figure taken from Fludd’s Utriusque Cosmi etc. (Plate
I).“ [emphasis
mine]
Then
a „Plate I“ with the title „The divine and mundane
triangles“follows:
Figure
4.2
After
translating the texts in this image, Pauli shows a second one with
the title „The interpenetration of the material and formal
pyramids I (With the infans solaris)“ (see figure 4.3).
„Form“ means the light principle, coming from above, and
„matter“ the dark principle, dwelling in the earth.
Fig.
4.3
Then he remarks:
„From below, the
material pyramid grows upward from the earth like a tree, the matter becoming finer toward the top; at the same
time the formal pyramid grows downwardwith its apex
on the earth, exactly mirroring the material pyramid. ... In
the middle, the sphere of the sun, where these opposing
principles just counterbalance each other, there is
engendered in the mystery of the chymic wedding the infans
solaris, which is at the same time the liberated
world-soul.“ [emphasis mine]
What
fascinates Pauli so much is the fact that Fludd - in contrast to the Neoplatonic/Christian
tendency - treats the opposites
spirit/matter
as symmetrical. As we will see below, in a letter to Carl F. von
Weizsäcker, for him this Hermetic-alchemical thinking has the
same archetypal roots as the one of quantum physics, which means, its particle/wave’s
duality, the complementary principle of Niels
Bohr.
This
symmetry between spirit and matter is the necessary condition for the
central process in Robert Fludd’s opus: the spiritualization of
matter and the materialization of
spirit.
The
former process corresponds to the redemption of the world soul, which
was originally a Neoplatonic concept. However, with the introduction
of a parallel process, the materialisation of spirit, Hermetic
alchemy contains a great difference in contrast to Neoplatonic
alchemy and to the dogma of the Assumptio Mariae, because the
world soul is not taken up into the Christian heaven. It belongs to a
sphere in the middle between matter and spirit, „where the
opposing principles just counterbalance each other“.
Both
aspects of this part of the Hermetic’ extended opus are
absolutely heretic: On the one hand, the materialisation of some
contents of the spiritual world, which means an incarnation in our
space- and time bound world, is a concept which resembles the theory
of reincarnation, on the other, this intermediate realm does not
exist in the dualistic Christian theology.
As
we have seen, Pauli criticized the Neoplatonic concept, too, because
in it nothing new was created. In his letters, he even made a lot of
fun of this „impotency“, because for him - who could
experience such an indeterministic or acausal creation in every
quantum physical observation act – this idea was more than
absurd [Pauli, 1993]. Therefore, we can imagine how glad he
was, when he realized, that besides the Neoplatonic branch of alchemy
there existed also the Hermetic one.
The
result of the opus of most alchemists is the lapis, the
philosopher’s stone. In Fludd’s work, the „sphere of
the sun“ is equivalent to the lapis. As we have seen (in
sec. 4.3.1), this „stone“ is androgynous.
Therefore Fludd’s equivalent of it, the „sphere of the
sun“ cannot be the concrete one, but is an intermediate
world, where matter is not matter anymore and spirit not spirit. It is a subtle realm, in which the Cartesian
split between an outer, material world, the res extensa, and
an inner, spiritual world (res cogitans) does not yet exist.
This
in-between world is the unus mundus of the alchemist Gerardus
Dorneus (see below) which Pauli defined in a scientific language as
the unified psychophysical reality. For our rational
mind it is very difficult to understand this intermediate realm,
because it is the tertium non datur, the logically excluded
third of Western philosophy.
The
alchemical coniunctio (synonymous to hierosgamos) of
heaven and earth is also called the „chymic wedding“ of
matter and spirit. It is thought of as a sexual union
of a goddess and a god, and therefore a third heretic idea of the Hermetic.
Contrary
to the human case, the birth of the offspring is preceded by the
creation of a third realm, which is subtle. And only when this realm
has been observed or created, the child can be born.
At
this point I need to underline a very important additional difference
between Neoplatonic and Hermetic alchemy: The former claims with the
help of a metaphysical statement that the Empyreum, the world of
Platonic ideas beyond the Christian heaven, exist for eternity. We
will see that also Jung’s definition of the archetype follows
this argument. Contrary to this metaphysical prejudice and in
accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics,
Robert Fludd states that the intermediate world, the “sphere of
the sun”, is only “produced” by the alchemist’s observation. Therefore we can assume that this archetypal idea of the
alchemist and antagonist of Johannes Kepler already prefigured the
most modern quantum physical insight of reality’s dependence of
the observer. Here the conflict between Heisenberg’s statement
“Die Bahn des Elektrons entsteht erst durch die
Beobachtung” and Einstein’s “The moon is also there
even when we do not observe it” had begun.
The
equivalence of matter and spirit in the Hermetic opus is underlined
by the fact, that the infans solaris - despite its name
- is not born in heaven but into a middle sphere, which is an
intermediate realm. Therefore, we can equate the infans
solaris with the corpus subtile,
the subtle body of
Western esoteric tradition and the diamond body of the far-eastern
Taoist tradition. The symbol „birth“ means an incarnation into our world, limited in space and time.
Thus, this birth as the goal of the Hermetic opus talks of a task,
the adept - also the modern one of the 21st century -
should deal with during his earthly life.
We
can now understand what „tracing back to Robert Fludd“ means in a rational
language: It is on the one hand the
acceptance of an intermediate sphere which is neither spiritual nor
material, but the excluded third of a subtle consistency, and on the
other the realization of the fact that out of this unus mundus
of the Hermetic alchemists an incarnation, a birth of new living
matter (the infans solaris) is possible. For the purpose of
taking into account the modern state of consciousness, we must
further include the quantum physical insight that only the
observation creates reality.
As
we have seen, one of the main reasons for Pauli’s strong
attraction to Fludd’s opus is the Hermetic treatise of the
opposites spirit/matter as symmetrical. Such a mirror image is also
the central aspect of the Seal of Solomon. As Jung writes, it is
itself a symbol of the (Hermetic) alchemist’s goal of the
opus and represents the union of “water” and
“fire” as representative of the opposites (see figure
4.4).
figure
4.4: Symbol of the art as union of water and fire. – From
Abraham Eleazar (Abraham the Jew), Uraltes chymisches
Werk
In
November 1953, one and a half years after the publication of his
Kepler essay, Wolfgang Pauli experienced a vision/audition, in which
the Seal of Solomon plays the central role. He communicated it to
Marie-Louise von Franz together with his argument of the “lower,
chthonic trinity” (further explanations see below). This vision/audition was the main controversial subject between him and
the famous student of Carl Jung. I will call it the vision/audition
of the Seal of Solomon and the square, and it will occupy us in
the course of my explanations very intensely.
For
the moment, we can imagine this symbol as a union of the
upward-pointing equilateral triangle - the male trinity (it is also a
symbol of the Holy Spirit) - with its mirror image, a female and
material trinity, symbolized by the downward-pointing equilateral triangle. When we have a short look back to the two figures of Robert
Fludd above, we see immediately that he, too, consciously or
unconsciously preferred this symbol for the description of his
opus’ first goal, the subtle sphere in the middle. Thus, we can
already postulate that the Seal of Solomon represents Fludd’s
intermediate realm, his “sphere of the sun”, which is the
unus mundus, he and the other Hermetic alchemists tried to
establish by their introverted observation.
In
Tantrism, one of the most important symbols of the anahata,
the chakra of the heart, is the double-triadic star, the Seal of
Solomon (see figure 4.5).
figure
4.5
Therefore
the conclusion is that the quaternity is an incomplete symbol for the
representation of the second stage of the individuation process, the
unio corporalis, the union of mind and body or spirit and matter.
This urgent coniunctio trying to take place in our time is better
represented by the Seal of Solomon based on the empirical findings of
the most recent alchemical researchers – most notably Robert Fludd. The following discussion will attempt to show that this
hypothesis is correct.
