Note to self: Make a catalogue entry for 🍄‍🟫 Mycelium These books are having an interesting conversation re: creative imagination. They are research for my fiction novel, but there's always interesting overlaps into other areas of my creative practice. I'm exploring imagery of spirals and meanders relating to writing, but I suspect it will bleed into my visual art soon enough. ![[Cover-Meandering-Jung-Alchemical-Imagination.jpeg]] [[Meandering]] by Sofia Lemon & [[Jung and Alchemical Imagination]] by Jeffrey Raff. Add formatting & tags (created 8/2024) > The term alchemy itself comes from two roots: al, which is Arabic for "the" and chemeia. It is unclear what chemeia actually means. There were two forms of the term in Greek: chemeia and chymia. The former refers to the process of extracting juice, while the later has to do with deriving metals from ore. For both forms, the transmutative processes comprise the common element, the transformation of a given substance into a higher one! We might, therefore, think of alchemy as the art of transmutation. p. xxi > but when they looked they found only a single formula: > "A nature is delighted by another nature, a nature conquers another nature, a nature dominates another nature."* Bolos realized that all the secrets of alchemy were contained in this single formula. > > Thus the famous triadic formula, one used by alchemists until the 17th century, was a revelation acquired through dialogue with a ghost. p. xiv p. 48 >  Paracelsus, imagination belonged to the spirit, while fantasy belonged to the body. Imagination discovered the latent forces in nature, and compelled herbs to yield their power. It is no surprise that imagination was paired with the spirit, for the spirit has been defined as the capacity to create images. Imagination was able to uncover the powers of na-ture, because Paracelsus believed, as Boehme did, that imagination could be equated with wisdom. The wisdom of the imagination teaches the mysteries of both the soul and the outer world. By using the imaginative capacity, the alchemist could see behind the outer, physical form of the herb or metal, and detect its symbolic meaning. By so doing he came to understand its true uses and essential nature. This was an idea that was widely held in the Renaissance; each object had a hidden meaning beyond its physical appearance. If one could understand the secret essence, he or she would be able to use the substance in magical, alchemical, or healing ways. p. 47 > Imagination teaches about the nature and needs of the self, of the world, and of the unconscious. In the imaginative experience, the ego encounters > "the Other," and must find its correct position in relation to the Other. > Such experiences are often disconcerting to the ego, which likes to think of itself as master of the whole psychic world. The ego finds itself in a position of being only a partner, and not even the managing partner at that. Imagination is a challenge that requires the ego to transcend its previous ideas and step into the unknown. p. 71 as related to unmasking > The idea being expressed by the alchemists is that through certain experiences and processes one can free oneself from fate, and from earlier, determinative experiences. >Rather than being a product of one's environment or the times in which one was born, one is able to discard these influences in order to find the truth of one's own being. The self is self-determining, and the alchemical motif of the ascent points to the power of the self to discard unwanted influences and discover its own essential nature. Living free of external controls and the universal compulsions of the archetypes, one comes to live from one's own center and to express in the world what is true to that center. p. 78 > Imagination is the mode of perception by which the inner world comes alive, and the method of interaction through which it may be transformed. By the same token, imagination is the means by which the body and physical illness may be perceived on a spiritual level, and likewise subjected to processes of transformation. Through imagination it is also possible to perceive the spiritual realms that transcend the psyche. p. 81 > Horapollo believed that hieroglyphs were used as symbols to convey profound Egyptian ideas and mysteries. For ex-ample, the Egyptians used images of the sun and the moon to indicate eternity, or the serpent devouring its own tail to portray the universe' > According to Plotinus, in the intelligible worlds, the gods see reality in beautiful images that express truth far better than any written text could. He believed that the Egyptian sages expressed their insights in pictures as well, and "each picture was a kind of understanding and wisdom and substance and given all at once . .."? The gods perceived reality through the imagination, just as wise Egyptian teachers presented their knowledge in symbols. Higher reality could only be understood imaginally. > > The alchemists certainly felt themselves to be working in this tradition. 1. George Boas, trans., The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). p. 106 >  way similar to the way in which the collective unconscious surrounds the personal unconscious, the collective consciousness surrounds the personal consciousness of an individual. Just as the collective unconscious exercises a great impact on the ego, so does the collective consciousness. Those archetypes from the collective unconscious that a particular culture has differentiated, elaborated, and made conscious form its collective consciousness. Jung called the contents of this consciousness "generally accepted truths." He also pointed out that they are in conflict with the archetypes of the collective unconscious, and between the two exists an "almost unbridgeable gulf." # Look up: The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales by Jung p. 147 > the stars were discussed in the chapter on imagination. In alchemy, the stars represent celestial forces whose energies can be channeled into the stone, imbuing it with magical power. Ascending to the stars to acquire their power is one of the activities of the filius. > Dorn described the process being depicted in this emblem as follows: > In the end it will come to pass that this eartby, spagyric foe-tus clothes itself with heavenly nature by its ascent, and then by its descent visibly puts on the nature of the centre of the earth, but nonetheless the nature of the heavenly centre which it acquired by the ascent is secretly preserved.41 > In other words, the being that ascends on high returns to Earth invested with the powers of the center of both worlds. p. 149 > The stars represent psychoidal energies that are normally not available to the mundane world. > Thus, alchemy at this level becomes an imaginative engagement with figures that transcend the psyche. Through interaction with them, an individual discovers ways to embody them within the psyche, creating a further transformation within the self and uniting it to the transpsychic realm.