An Introduction to Carl Jung’s Psychology via The Four Stages of Alchemy

Ultimately, to truly comprehend what Carl Jung was trying to say, one must inevitably understand the role that the non-rational plays to allow further and continual development of the personality: such as acknowledging the role of archetypal symbolism of myths or other texts and rituals like alchemy.

Part 1:
Intro - 0:00
Carl Gustav Jung - 0:08
Alchemy - 0:31
Egyptian and Mesopotamian Myths - 0:38
Judaism and Christianity - 0:49
Taoism and Balance - 0:58
Other Archetypes like Yggdrasil, Flood, etc. - 1:03
Dreams, Intuitions, and Theory of Archetypes - 1:11

Part 2:
Archetypal Patterns of Personality - 2:05
The Shadow - 2:55
The Anima/Animus - 3:13
The Wise Old Man/Woman - 3:50
The Self - 4:18
Relating to Alchemy - 4:42
Magnum Opus/Philosopher's Stone; Holy Grail/Elixir of Life - 4:51

Part 3:
Four Archetypal Patterns of Personality corresponding to Four Stages of Alchemy - 5:39
The Blackening; Death - 5:41
Nigredo - 6:15
Albedo - 6:47
Citrinitas -7:01
Rubedo - 7:22
Lead into Gold; Integration of Shadow into a Unified Self - 7:46
Nigredo/Shadow; Albedo/Anima/Animus; Citrinitas/Wise Old Person; Rubedo/Self - 8:33
Magnum Opus as a Unified Self - 9:34

Part 4:
Alchemy as Psycho-Spiritual process - 9:45
Blackening/Nigredo as Key Stages; Death as Catalyst - 10:00
The Path is Difficult - 10:57
Goal of Integration: Hermaphroditism - 11:11
Golden Sun and Dragon - 11:29
Archetypal Integration to be made Conscious; Fallibility of the Ego - 11:59
Listen to One's Self - 12:57
End Quote - 13:20

Indeed, by purely logical and rational means alone, we cannot hope to reach the fulfillment and integration of the personality which Jung speaks about. In fact, it is impossible. One must take a leap of faith; to truly immerse one’s self in Jung’s ideas is to ultimately be religious in the music, grace, light, and darkness which comes from our Self—beyond the conscious and rational ego—with all its intuitions, dreams, symbols, and premonitions.

It is dangerous to blindly trust one’s intuitions though. These things can be corrupted, and have a tendency to be justified according to one’s beliefs that aim to hinder one’s own growth, for it requires great courage and effort to become who we are meant to be. As such, it is easy to fool ourselves to become who we think are supposed to be, but not meant to be: it can be done via our own biases, unfound superstitions, projections, stubbornness, fear, a lack of discipline, and inherent prejudices.

Still, in the end, as Jung notes, we cannot seek to understand the soulful tune of the world without making this experimental leap to become who we are—to love and to trust (in both continual death and rebirth). Of course, to actualize all this into the world, we need both the ego and the soul to birth the Self.

The right (continual) balance then, would be to strive to create the gold that is both material and spiritual, of which the alchemists sought. By also allowing things to fall into place, and constantly accepting the reality of blessings and difficulties (of both the archetypes of the creator and the destroyer), we realize that the concept of serendipity or synchronicity, of meaningful coincidences, then, would be most important to note in relation to the statement that: nothing is an accident.

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#Jung #Alchemy #Mythology #Archetypes #Unconscious