Featured art byIn my previous article “,” I contemplate how the unconscious part of ourselves becomes the raw material, the prima materia, out of which the alchemical gold, the philosophers’ stone, which is none other than the enlightened mind, is refined and revealed. The art of alchemy has nothing to do with turning base metals into gold, and everything to do with transmuting our lower, primitive, instinctual selves into a more purified state. The goal of the spiritual art of alchemy is to unite the opposites — to integrate the conscious and the unconscious, to unlock the light encoded and imprisoned within the darkness. The light within the darkness itself is known as the lumen naturae, the inner living light of primordial, ever-present, non-dual awareness itself, which is the light of nature that literally lights-up the whole of creation in this and every moment. To see the light that is hidden in the darkness is to become conscious, which, alchemically speaking, frees the spirit that is hidden and trapped inside the materialized world. Featured art byThe art of alchemy itself is an expression that hidden in the darkness is light.

The light within the darkness itself is known as the lumen naturae, the inner living light of primordial, ever-present, non-dual awareness itself, which is the light of nature that literally lights-up the whole of creation in this and every moment. Bible verses about Light Exposes Darkness. John 3:19-21 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

The alchemists, Jung says, “discover that in the very darkness of nature a light is hidden, a little spark without which the darkness would not be darknessthe lumen naturae is the light of the darkness itself, which illuminates its own darkness, and this light the darkness comprehends” In contrast to a light that, as the Bible says, “shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not,” the lumen naturae, the light of lights, is a light that the darkness intimately recognizes as its own nature. The lumen naturae is the luminosity within the darkness recognizing itself as it illumines its own darkness. This archetypal experience of the luminescence of the divine being found in the translucent darkness is referred to in various mystical traditions by names such as the luminous darkness and the black sun.A light that doesn’t go out, the lumen naturae pervades, infuses and animates the physical world. Everything that arises in the materialized world is inseparable from and a modification of the lumen naturae. At the same time, being the light of non-dual awareness prior to consciousness, the lumen naturae inspires, e-lucid-ates, il-lumin-ates, and en-light-ens consciousness itself. Being non-dual, the lumen naturae non-locally and synchronistically con-figures co-arising events, both in the physical world and reciprocally within the landscape of our minds, as a way of revealing itself.The lumen naturae inspires our unconscious and animates our dreams. Alchemical texts say, “He ‘learns’ the lumen naturae through dreams,” and “As the light of nature cannot speak, it buildeth shapes in sleep from the power of the word (of God).” The Logos, the creative word of God, is also equivalent to the lumen naturae.

Not limited to giving shape solely to our night dreams, the lumen naturae also interpenetrates and materializes itself into and shapes our shared waking dream, literally orchestrating the situations we find ourselves in during the course of our life. Because it is not bound to the laws of linear time and third-dimensional space, the lumen naturae is always extending and expressing itself everywhere.The lumen naturae is not the light that we see, it is the invisible light by which we see, in that it is the non-dual light of sentient awareness itself. It is a light which inspires the world and yet it has no objects separate from itself. The lumen naturae is not a light separate from the darkness. For the alchemists, darkness wasn’t merely an absence of light, but a quality that was an expression of the indwelling light of being that has no opposite. Shadows themselves are nothing other than an expression of light; light itself contains and generates shadows.

Where there are no shadows, there is no light. Establishing ourselves in the viewpoint that can join the opposites, uniting the shadow and the light is to not only possess, but to create, genuine wealth within the core of our being. As Jung says, “one who can join the shadow to the light is the possessor of the greater riches.” Among its many names, the philosophers’ stone is called “The Pearl of Great Price,” to signify its pricelessness, its preciousness, and its immeasurable value in all realms, both visible and invisible, outer and inner.“Human consciousness,” Jung explains, “is the only seeing eye of the deityGod has made man so that he might see in the darkness.” We are the instruments through which the lumen naturae illumines and realizes its own darkness, which is to simultaneously realize its light. The lumen naturae reveals itself in, as, and through the darkness. Just like light, the darkness itself is the unmediated crystallization and revelation of the non-dual light of the lumen naturae. We can unnecessarily limit ourselves by mistakenly thinking that illumination only means to “see the light.” Seeing our own darkness, our own shadow, however, is initiatory and thereby is another form of illumination. Jung makes this point by saying, “not only darkness is known through light, but that, conversely, light is known through darkness.” In becoming illuminated, the darkness illuminates us.

In being seen, the darkness helps us to increase consciousness. In being made conscious, the darkness introduces us to the light of non-dual awareness, for without the darkness we wouldn’t have realized the light. This is similar to how reflections in a mirror seemingly obscure the silvered face of the mirror while simultaneously revealing it.

At the quantum level, it becomes impossible to distinguish where light ends and darkness begins, as they reveal themselves to be indissolubly united, a true conjunction of opposites.The opposites, though seemingly polarized and adversarial towards each other, are intimately co-related, as they contain each other and help to bring the other into awareness and into manifestation. Using the image of the soil of the earth to symbolize matter, Jung makes this very point when he writes that the “soil is just matter, the absolute opposite of the spirit, yet it contains the spirit. Without encountering the soil one would never realize the spirit; it needs that resistance of matter in order to reveal itself.” The opposites antagonistically co-operate with each other as a way to reveal their inseparable oneness.All possible opposites are encoded in the lumen naturae in a state of open-ended potentiality. The natural spirit of the lumen naturae is a quantum form of light in that it manifests either in its wave or particle-like aspect depending upon how it is seen.

Because of its divine origin and nature, the lumen naturae deserves our highest veneration and respect. Jung warns, however, “For those who are unmindful of this light, the lumen naturae turns into a ignis fatuus something that misleads or deludes, an illusion, and the psychopomp guide of the soul into a diabolical seducer. Lucifer, who could have brought light, becomes the father of lies whose voice in our time, supported by press and radio, revels in orgies of propaganda and leads untold millions to ruin.” When we don’t honor a part of ourselves that belongs to our wholeness, this denied aspect constellates negatively, both within ourselves and nonlocally throughout the field. In our current age, this process of contracting against our own power and light is being collectively dreamed up and played out “in orgies of propaganda” on the world stage, with very real potential to lead “untold millions to ruin.”. THE HERMETIC VESSELOne of the key conditions needed for the success of the alchemical art is a closed and air-tight hermetic vessel, or “container,” which is able to withstand the pressure needed for the transformation and “cooking” of the prima materia.

Speaking of the profundity of the alchemical vase, the legendary writer of antiquity Maria Prophetissa says that “the whole secret lies in knowing about the Hermetic vessel.” A vessel of and for the spirit, the alchemical container is no mere physical apparatus, but rather is a mystical idea, a primal image, a genuine symbol expressing something of real value within the very psyche that produced it. The concept and experience of the hermetic vessel develops and emerges out of the unconscious itself as a result of contemplating and thus shedding light on the unconscious.In a mysterious way, the alchemical vase is identical with its contents. The psyche itself IS the mystical hermetic vessel, in that the psyche catalyzes the transformation of the prima materia, is itself the prima materia which is being transformed, and it also is the container in which the transmutation occurs, as well as being the philosophers’ stone that is born out of the work. Feminine in nature, the spacious hermetic vessel is a receptive uterus and matrix of spiritual renewal and rebirth. OVER-UNITY HUMANSAlchemy is a means and path to cultivate a higher degree of inner alignment and coherence. The philosophers’ stone is actualized when the opposites, be they good and evil, male and female, or light and dark, become united in what is the final stage of the opus: the “coniunctio.” This is the sacred marriage, the hierosgamos, in which the fully differentiated and polarized opposites are re-united and wed as one. The stone is a hermaphrodite, a living state of androgynous being in which our masculine and feminine energies continually love and nourish each other and join together as one in a positive, “over-unity” feedback loop that literally creates a constant out-pouring of abundant, radiant “energy.”The term “over-unity” refers to the fact that more energy comes out of than goes into the system.

This is something that only can occur in states of exceptional coherence and resonance within the system. This is to say that the system, in this case the alchemical adept, has to enter a state of deep integrity and self-congruity enabling them to overcome the entropy and inertia that characterizes the typically neurotic, split, and fragmented state of humanity. They are thus able to play with, express, transduce and manifest the formless creative spirit in the third-dimensional world of time and space. True magicians, accomplished alchemists are able to “culture” creativity within and among themselves in a way that influences, enhances and in-forms the whole field. The accomplished alchemists, just like the archetypal figure of the creative artist (see my article, “The Artist as the Healer of the World”), are thus actively participating in and being instruments for the archetypal creative process itself. This figure, whether it is called artist, alchemist, shaman, healer, bodhisattva, or dreamer re-presents and is symbolic of the archetypal figure within us who is actively participating in our own transformation, while at the same time helping to consciously and co-operatively create a more grace-filled and loving universe.Being living philosophical stones, we are all potentially “over-unity humans.” The philosophers’ stone, though immaterial, would solve the world’s “energy crisis” in no time at all if properly engaged. The philosophers’ stone both symbolizes and is a real portal to the plenum of infinite potential, which contains within itself manifestable abundance.

Incarnating our true nature as living philosophical stones, we can create genuine wealth, both inwardly and outwardly in the world. For this reason the philosophers’ stone is also called “The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel.”. SOUL COMPANIONJung suggests that, “The “treasure hard to attain” another of the stone’s names lies hidden in the ocean of the unconscious, and only the brave can reach it. I conjecture that the treasure is also the ‘companion,’ the one who goes through life at our side – in all probability a close analogy to the lonely ego who finds a mate in the self.” The treasure is the mythical “magical, travelling companion” that we go through the journey of life with, the unseen partner who is both ourselves and “other” than ourselves at the same time. To quote Jung’s closest colleague, Marie Louise von Franz, “the Self becomes an inner partner toward whom one’s attention is continually turned.” We have a celestial twin, a wholly imaginal reflection of ourselves. We are a tandem, intimately coupled together as a bi-unity with the Self. In different traditions this celestial twin is known by a host of names, such as the double, the guardian angel, the guiding spirit, the beloved and the perfect nature.

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In a reciprocal and mutually transformative relationship, our longing is for this very archetypal figure who is itself instigating our longing.Jung describes this very state of relatedness by saying, “It is the state of someone who, in his wanderings among the mazes of his psychic transformation, comes upon a secret happiness which reconciles him to his apparent loneliness. In communing with himself, he finds not deadly boredom and melancholy but an inner partner; more than that, a relationship that seems like the happiness of a secret love, or like a hidden springtimeIt is the alchemical benedicta viriditas, the blessed greenness interestingly, in ecclesiastical symbolism the color green is an attribute of the Holy Spirit.” The “germ” of the prima materia has blossomed into relationship, in that we have found to whom we are (transpersonally) related. We recognize that we exist relative to the Self. This is the birth of Eros, which is the principle and capacity in the human soul for relatedness, both within ourselves and out in the world with others.

The spirit of Eros sees things together instead of apart, gathers and connects things instead of dividing, and establishes relationships between things instead of creating separation. The spirit of Eros has to do with feeling, expressing and embodying the spirit of love, compassion and forgiveness, both toward others and the other within ourselves, who is none other than ourselves. ACTIVE IMAGINATIONThe prima materia at times can manifest as and introduce us to the wholly adversarial other within ourselves. The prima materia is initiation by ordeal, in that it demands that we develop relationship with the other within ourselves, who, paradoxically, is ultimately none other than ourselves (see my article “Meeting the Other Within”).

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