The alchemical photography of Rose Farrell and George Parkin
Alchemy has three aspects: chemical work on matter; spiritual work by the alchemists on themselves; semantic work in creating a new form of symbol, often visual, expressing the identity of all things with each other. The aim is the transmutation of base matter, whether material or spiritual, into gold through the creation of the philosophers' stone.
Herbert Silberer in the late nineteenth century made the first study of alchemical imagery from a psychological point of view.I He took note of the early work of both Freud and lung in his analysis of the role of alchemical symbols in human maturation. Silberer, unlike Freud, did not dismiss the testimony of mystics who sometimes used alchemical images as metaphors for their experiences. They described their sense of union and identity with God, world and other humans. In short, they transcended the duality between subject and object, spirit and matter, male and female. Freud (and, on occasion, lung) dismissed such testi monies as a longing for the womb, evidence of psychological regression into less mature levels of the psyche.
Silberer accepted that alchemical symbols could well describe the regression of certain people into the pre-conscious, pre-speech, pre-individual levels of the neonate. However, for many others, these same symbols described a genuine evolution towards higher, more developed psychic levels. Indeed, alchemical symbols could function both in an 'upward' as well as in a 'downward ' direction. This was a problem in respect to spiritual illumination which the Catholic Church had always recognized. Since 'mystic' signs are ambiguous, the Church examined other factors in order to distinguish between the illuminated, the imbecillic and the demonic.
Jung argued further that alchemical images were archetypes, unvarying symbols... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline