Exploration of the use of the Rosarium Philosophorum as a Metaphor for the Art Psychotherapy Process
I recently wrote an essay on the 16th century alchemical text the Rosarium Philosophorum and how it may relate to the process or Art Psychotherapy. Lots of people asked me if they could read it so I have put it up here.
It may be of interest to those of you who are into the occult, alchemy, initiation, psychotherapy, the artistic and creative process, and the simply curious. However, plase be aware that it is very much meant as an exploration of the use of alchemical theory from an art psychotherapy perspective and therefore ignores any other possible perspective. It is not meant as a discussion of the history of alchemy so please consider it in the spirit it is intended. Also, I am still formulating my professional theoretical basis so do also consider it as the essay of a first year!
Enough caveats, on to the writing...
The concept of the "art psychotherapy process" is often used within art psychotherapy, yet what that "process" precisely entails has yet to be defined. Case and Dalley (1992) use examples from their own clinical practice alongside the work of both Freud and Jung in an attempt to describe the process. The work of Jung on the ancient art of alchemy, and specifically an alchemical text named the Rosarium Philosophorum, may provide a suitable metaphor for the process that is perhaps unique to the art psychotherapy interaction.
The art psychotherapy process differs from the process of psychotherapy in that it encompasses creativity within the boundaries of the therapeutic encounter. The working with, and creating something with, art materials is seen as being crucial to the work of art psychotherapy (McNiff 1992, Kramer et al 2000) and this creativity has its own process that makes up part of the process of art psychotherapy.
Malchiodi, in The Art Psychotherapy Sourcebook (1998), describes four stages to the creative process:
1.Preparation
2.Incubation
3.Illumination
4.Verification/revision
This creative process makes up a part of the process within art psychotherapy, that part that is the "art" but this does little to incorporate the therapeutic process itself.
In 1944 C. G. Jung used the Rosarium Philosophorum, an alchemical text first published in the 16th century, as a metaphor for the therapeutic encounter of therapist and client. It could be argued that the illustrations within this text may be used to bring together both Jung's theories on the therapeutic encounter and Malchiodi's on the creative process to create a coherent model of the art psychotherapy process.
The Rosarium Philosophorum is a series of twenty woodcut illustrations first printed in Frankfurt in 1550. In his 1946 work The Psychology of Transference (Collected Works Volume 16, 2nd ed. 1966) Jung paid particular attention to this series of illustrations, exploring eleven of them at some length. Jung stated that:
"everything that the doctor discovers and experiences when analysing the unconscious of his patients coincides in the most remarkable way with the content of these pictures" (1966 p.200)
The Rosarium Philosophorum depicts the separation and combination of two figures which Jung identified as being the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche (1966 p.260). Throughout the journey of the two figures towards their ultimate combination, they are often assisted by a third force which may be considered to be analogous with the art within art psychotherapy.
This series of illustrations may also be of particular interest to art psychotherapy simply because it is precisely that, a series of illustrations. Throughout alchemy's history dating back over four centuries hundreds of complex texts were written, the meaning of many of which remain occult to even the most learned scholar on the topic. One such scholar, Marie-Luise von Franz wrote that:
"...alchemy, in itself, is tremendously dark and complex, and the texts very difficult to read, so that an enormous kind of technical background of knowledge is needed if you wish to penetrate into this field." (1980 p.13)
However, where the texts are impenetrable, the illustrations can offer a way into the world of the alchemist:
"If the approach to alchemy through its texts is indeed forbidding, the despondent seeker can find in alchemical art a way, fraught with wonder, into the heart of the subject. For in their images alchemists have spoken in ingenious and often very beautiful ways of things about which they have never written." (Rola 1973 p.9)
The illustrations of the Rosarium Philosophorum begin by setting the scene and then introducing its two main players in the second illustration. A king and a queen stand atop a sun and moon respectively. They reach out to one another with their left hands and hold flowering branches in their right hands. Between them, descending from above, a dove holds a third blossomed branch.
In figure 1., we see the solar king "representing the daytime principle, i.e., lucid consciousness, the other [the queen] a nocturnal light, the unconscious." (Jung 1966 p.260). Jung described this scene as the "Supreme union of hostile opposites." (1966 p.211). These opposites hold crossed branches indicating that at this stage in the process thy are at "cross purposes" (Jung 1966 p.262) with each other. Each individual contains the aspects of the king and queen within them self, but is unable to work with their own unconscious aspects at this stage; the conscious and unconscious meet only tentatively and hold each other at arms length. It is the left hands of the two figures that touch, the left side having connotations of sinister and threatening influences (Harper 2001). Here Jung makes the analogy with the left side and the unconscious (1966 p.211); the two figures are only truly aware of each other in an unconscious manner.
Figure 1
At this first tentative meeting, the figures are joined by a third element, that of the dove. In reference to this dove, Jung explained "the spirit descending from above is stated to be the mediator" (1966 p.238). This third element, the mediator, may be seen as the "art" itself within the work of art psychotherapy. In The changing shape of art psychotherapy: new developments in theory and practice, Gilroy and McNeilly describe "exploring the role of the image as mediator between inner and outer worlds" (2000). In the Rosarium Philosophorum, these inner and outer worlds are depicted as the queen and king and the mediator as the dove. The so-called "triangular relationship" (Case 1990; Edwards 2004; Schaverian, 1990; Wood, 1990) of client, therapist, and art may be seen here in this triadic grouping.
So here the conscious has recognised, albeit distantly, its "shadow self" (Jung 1966) in the form of its unconscious. This recognition is only the very beginning of this alchemical journey. While the conscious mind may have recognised its unconscious aspects, Jung stated:
"people might imagine they have reached the goal of the work once the unconscious contents have been made conscious and theoretically evaluated...It is a crucial matter for the psychotherapist, particularly for those who still believe that intellectual insight and routine understanding, or even mere recollection, are enough to effect a cure." (1966 p.278-280)
It is not enough to consider the unconscious at arms' length, it must be experienced first hand and joined with in what the alchemists referred to as coniunctio. The alchemical scholar Adam McLean suggested that:
"The task of the alchemist working through this Rosarium process, is firstly to recognize the elements of the primal material, the lunar and solar streams, and the inner Mercury of the soul forces, then begin to work with these through meditations, bringing them into a new synthesis and making these inner forces a vehicle both for the experience of the Spirit and the mastery of the Physical world." (2009)
This may be re-worded to describe the work of therapy: the task of the person in therapy, is firstly to recognise the unintegrated elements within them, then begin to work with these through therapy and the creation of art, bringing them into a new synthesis and making these inner forces a vehicle both for the experience of the Self and the mastery of their world.
In Malchiodi's (1998) description of the first stage of the creative process, that of "Preparation", she refers to it being a time of "encounter". As the art process is begun, there is inevitably a time of meeting the art materials, the therapist, the art therapy setting, for the first time. This may be a strange and alien experience for many, something that produces a desire to keep them at arm's length. But that creative potential is already present in the form of the descending dove, to assist in the coming together of the internal forces which are, for now, at cross purposes with each other.
After shedding their royal robes, the king and queen enter together into a hexagonal bath in the fourth illustration in the series. The position of their hands has changed from the earlier tentative touching, they now both grasp each end of their flowering branches, holding together the two blossoms that grow from them, linking together the two aspects of the flora. The dove is still with them, mediating between (Fig. 2)
Figure 2
It is significant that both figures are now naked, allowing them to see each other clearly, Jung described this metaphorically; "Once the naked truth has been revealed the discussion can get down to essentials" (1966 p.239-240). They have descended together into the vas hermeticum, the alchemical bath. This bath may be compared to the therapeutic space of a therapy session, the "holding environment" (Winnicott, 1960) in which the work of uniting the supreme opposites is to take place.
This illustration depicts the beginnings of the work in the therapeutic environment. The poured out emotions surrounding the unconscious is also experienced by the conscious but it is kept contained by the "therapeutic frame" (Gray 1994) of the alchemical bath. Further in Malchiodi's description of the elements of "Preparation", she emphasises "preparing to engage in self-exploration" (1998 p.66). Here, with the king and queen together in the bath, they are preparing to engage in that process together, holding together the twin blossoms on their branches, perhaps as a precursor to the integration between them that is yet to come.
A crucial stage in many alchemical texts is the stage of nigredo or blackening. After a joining together of the two figures in the bath, the entwined couple lie together as if in a state of death. In the Rosarium Philosophorum, the conjoined figures lie in a sarcophagus-like tomb, the bath has become a stagnant pool around them (Fig. 3)
Figure 3
This stage may correspond with part of what Malchiodi described in the second stage of the creative process, that of "Incubation". She says:
"The incubation stage can be difficult; you may lose hope or feel stuck or disappointed. You may also lose confidence, believing that nothing will come to mind. You may lose sight of your goal or intention." (1998 p.67)
There is a wealth of literature written on how the creative process can at times become a difficult one (Bayles & Orland, 2001; Milner, 1958; McNiff, 1998). In this image, the enmeshed couple are alone, their art-dove has flown and left them decomposing alone. The concept of "writer's block" is sometimes used to describe such a nigredo state where it can seem as if all creativity has left a person.
Marie-Luise von Franz described the nigredo stage as:
"the destructive aspect of the unconscious and we experience it very often, at least at the beginning when we first meet it. All one's dreams are critical at first; the unconscious is full of drives and dissociating factors, destructive factors, and then if we penetrate deeper we see something very light and meaningful. Enlightenment can come from that dark place" (1980 p.147)
This is not the end for the king and queen, though all may seem dark and decaying. This is a necessary stage towards new growth. Old concepts must be allowed to die in order for new ones to take life. Schwartz-Salant said of the alchemical death:
"any true change was dependant not only upon a new vision but also upon the death of the old personality in conjunction with that vision." (1998 p.30)
Within therapy there may be times when it seems that a client is 'stuck', unable to move forward or to make any further progress. They may become unable to engage with the art materials despite showing initial enthusiasm. While it may be tempting to despair at such a state of affairs, viewed with the nigredo in mind, it may be a vital stage of breaking down of the old and forming of the new. Drawing on her experiences in facilitating group art therapy sessions in the community, Janis Timm-Bottos addresses the possible responses to this idea of "stuckness". In her writing The Heart of the Lion: Joining Community through Art Making, she suggests recognising it and remaining with it in order to allow the immergence of a greater freedom:
"In traditional Western medical models the frequent response to being stuck is to attack the problem and force movement. In clinical art therapy this is often done by giving a client a 'directive'. Instead, we honour the 'stuckness' by holding it as a precious part of the community of other moving parts. Often this support will surprisingly invite a welcome release followed by greater focused freedom of movement the next time the person enters the art-making space." (2001 p.222)
In the following image of the series, a small figure is released from the dying king/queen and has the freedom of movement to fly upwards (Fig.4)
Figure 4
This illustration is entitled The Extraction or Impregnation of the Soul. There is only one soul that leaves the dying royalty here, emphasising that they are not two people but are in fact aspects of each other. In order to move out of the nigredo state, Malchiodi says in the description of the creative incubation stage:
"To be able to integrate these new elements and ideas, however, your rational mind has to let go, and your intuition, improvisation, and sense of play have to take over." (1998 p.67)
The rational mind of the king/queen has here let go and the intuition depicted in the form a child is let free to engage in playful exploration. Winnicott wrote that:
"It is by playing and only in playing that the individual child is able to be creative and to use the whole personality and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self." (1971).
Here in the Rosarium Philosophorum, the conscious and unconscious have given themselves up to the "Divine Child" (Jung 1959) to play and be creative in the process towards self discovery. Jung saw this stage as another precursor to the unity that was beginning to become a reality:
"The "soul" evidently represents the idea of unity which has still to become a concrete fact and is at present only a potentiality." (1966 p.267)
In describing this incubatory stage, Malchiodi states that "when a creative insight occurs, it often breaks through in opposition to previously held ideas or feelings" (1998 p.67). In image eight of the Rosarium Philosophorum, a dew is seen to be falling from clouds which have formed above the entombed figures bringing new life to the decaying shell. The creativity with was in the form of a dove may have left the figures, but this fresh creativity breaks through the clouds of opposition to reinvigorate the process (Fig. 5).
Figure 5
Franz goes on to say:
"Enlightenment can come from that dark place; that is, if we direct the ray of consciousness upon it, if we warm it up by our conscious attention, then something white comes out and that would be the moon, the enlightenment which comes from the unconscious." (1980 p.147)
In the tenth image in the series that enlightenment has appeared. The entangled king/queen conscious/unconscious have emerged from the nigredo in a transformed state as a two headed hermaphrodite standing upon a crescent moon just as the queen did in the earlier image. This is the "enlightenment which comes from the unconscious", further emphasised by the presence of the moon covered tree to the left of the figure (Fig.6).
Figure 6
This hermaphrodite has achieved McLean's (2009) "new synthesis", it is no longer either the king or the queen, nor is it "a third thing midway between conscious and unconscious, it is both together" (Jung 1966 p.265). Mastery over the internal unconscious forces has been achieved and the conscious and unconscious are now able to work together in a new form. This is now the stage in the creative process of "Illumination", Malchiodi (1998) describes this stage as a time of joy and discovery, a breakthrough, an encounter with new information, giving a feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Jung believed this to be the last of the images in the series and wrongly made the assumption at this point that the alchemists had failed to achieve the coniunctio that they sought, believing that they were stuck in sexual symbolism that did not reach their goals (1966 p.317). However, this image is only halfway through the series and shows only the first joining of the solar and lunar forces of the conscious and unconscious into the lunar hermaphrodite. This is not the completion of the work as Jung believed, but only a stage in the process.
At this stage, "although the hermaphrodite appears to be united and is on the point of coming alive, the conflict between them is by no means finally resolved" (Jung 1966 p.283). To draw on Malchiodi's final thought on the stage of Illumination: "During this stage, your art making may not be complete, but you have a sense of confidence and achievement." (1998 p.68). A further stage of revision is required.
While a new synthesis has been reached here in this tenth illustration, the Rosarium Philosophorum goes on to depict a further group of images revealing a similar process as we have already seen, further refining the work. This revision within alchemy has been described as similar to a leavening of yeast:
"...its potency was sometimes then increased in a further stage by multiplication or fermentation...[It] was further refined by reiterated sublimations or added to precious metals or mercury, which it leavened like yeast until the whole material was capable of transmutation and was augmented in its strength." (Roberts 1994 p.60)
Further work may be required after this initial breakthrough for the therapeutic work to have a lasting effect. This state of unification may be only a temporary step which then regresses back to a less unified state requiring another exploration of the separation and joining together. The creation of art may be brought into play as the "precious metals" to strengthen the forming integration.
Contrary to the information that Jung had available to him, the final image in the Rosarium Philosophorum is image twenty. The original accompanying text describes this image with the words "After my passion and manifold torments I am again risen, Being purified and cleansed from all spots." Here we see the work of the alchemists, the coniunctio, achieved. McLean describes this image as:
"the alchemist is seen having achieved a kind of resurrection which is paralleled with that of Christ...This is the true transmutation. Those who have gone through this experience are fundamentally changed." (2009)
In figure 7, there is just one figure rising from the tomb in which the king/queen lay dying previously; the coniunctio has been achieved.
The figure is crowned with a halo which Jung describes as an image of the sun (1912, collected in 1966 p.88). The sun has moved from being beneath the feet to become a radiant crown. The individual has worked their way through the repeated ordeals and achieved the ultimate unification. In discussing the "Great Work" of the alchemical process Eliphas Lévi wrote:
"The Great Work is, above all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will..." (1896 p.58)
Jung considered the entire work of alchemy to be syncretic with the inner journey of man (1966 p.321). The unintegrated elements were recognised and personified, and then worked together with the creative process to gain a union. This emancipated figure is now master of its own inner world.
This is the ultimate goal of therapy but may take many re-workings and addings of "precious metals" to achieve. Malchiodi concluded her thoughts on the creative process by saying, "Although there are stages in the creative process, personal variations exist." (1998 p.68). No journey towards coniunctio is ever the same. It may be possible that, as Jung believed had happened within the Rosarium Philosophorum, failure may occur by ending the process too soon or getting stuck within the nigredo.
The illustrations of the Rosarium Philosophorum exist as a convincing analogy for the therapeutic process and also within them may contain scope for revealing the role of art making within art psychotherapy. Whether or not this was the original intention of the alchemists may have been lost to antiquity, however the work they have left to us is extremely rich with metaphor that we many now use in informing this continuing Great Work.
Exploration of the use of the Rosarium Philosophorum as a Metaphor for the Art Psychotherapy Process by Cathryn Orchard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Exploration of the use of the Rosarium Philosophorum as a Metaphor for the Art Psychotherapy Process by Cathryn Orchard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
As in. please don't steal this or re-use it for anything without at least asking first. I would not like it to be used without being told about it first. Thank you :)
It may be of interest to those of you who are into the occult, alchemy, initiation, psychotherapy, the artistic and creative process, and the simply curious. However, plase be aware that it is very much meant as an exploration of the use of alchemical theory from an art psychotherapy perspective and therefore ignores any other possible perspective. It is not meant as a discussion of the history of alchemy so please consider it in the spirit it is intended. Also, I am still formulating my professional theoretical basis so do also consider it as the essay of a first year!
Enough caveats, on to the writing...
The concept of the "art psychotherapy process" is often used within art psychotherapy, yet what that "process" precisely entails has yet to be defined. Case and Dalley (1992) use examples from their own clinical practice alongside the work of both Freud and Jung in an attempt to describe the process. The work of Jung on the ancient art of alchemy, and specifically an alchemical text named the Rosarium Philosophorum, may provide a suitable metaphor for the process that is perhaps unique to the art psychotherapy interaction.
The art psychotherapy process differs from the process of psychotherapy in that it encompasses creativity within the boundaries of the therapeutic encounter. The working with, and creating something with, art materials is seen as being crucial to the work of art psychotherapy (McNiff 1992, Kramer et al 2000) and this creativity has its own process that makes up part of the process of art psychotherapy.
Malchiodi, in The Art Psychotherapy Sourcebook (1998), describes four stages to the creative process:
1.Preparation
2.Incubation
3.Illumination
4.Verification/revision
This creative process makes up a part of the process within art psychotherapy, that part that is the "art" but this does little to incorporate the therapeutic process itself.
In 1944 C. G. Jung used the Rosarium Philosophorum, an alchemical text first published in the 16th century, as a metaphor for the therapeutic encounter of therapist and client. It could be argued that the illustrations within this text may be used to bring together both Jung's theories on the therapeutic encounter and Malchiodi's on the creative process to create a coherent model of the art psychotherapy process.
The Rosarium Philosophorum is a series of twenty woodcut illustrations first printed in Frankfurt in 1550. In his 1946 work The Psychology of Transference (Collected Works Volume 16, 2nd ed. 1966) Jung paid particular attention to this series of illustrations, exploring eleven of them at some length. Jung stated that:
"everything that the doctor discovers and experiences when analysing the unconscious of his patients coincides in the most remarkable way with the content of these pictures" (1966 p.200)
The Rosarium Philosophorum depicts the separation and combination of two figures which Jung identified as being the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche (1966 p.260). Throughout the journey of the two figures towards their ultimate combination, they are often assisted by a third force which may be considered to be analogous with the art within art psychotherapy.
This series of illustrations may also be of particular interest to art psychotherapy simply because it is precisely that, a series of illustrations. Throughout alchemy's history dating back over four centuries hundreds of complex texts were written, the meaning of many of which remain occult to even the most learned scholar on the topic. One such scholar, Marie-Luise von Franz wrote that:
"...alchemy, in itself, is tremendously dark and complex, and the texts very difficult to read, so that an enormous kind of technical background of knowledge is needed if you wish to penetrate into this field." (1980 p.13)
However, where the texts are impenetrable, the illustrations can offer a way into the world of the alchemist:
"If the approach to alchemy through its texts is indeed forbidding, the despondent seeker can find in alchemical art a way, fraught with wonder, into the heart of the subject. For in their images alchemists have spoken in ingenious and often very beautiful ways of things about which they have never written." (Rola 1973 p.9)
The illustrations of the Rosarium Philosophorum begin by setting the scene and then introducing its two main players in the second illustration. A king and a queen stand atop a sun and moon respectively. They reach out to one another with their left hands and hold flowering branches in their right hands. Between them, descending from above, a dove holds a third blossomed branch.
In figure 1., we see the solar king "representing the daytime principle, i.e., lucid consciousness, the other [the queen] a nocturnal light, the unconscious." (Jung 1966 p.260). Jung described this scene as the "Supreme union of hostile opposites." (1966 p.211). These opposites hold crossed branches indicating that at this stage in the process thy are at "cross purposes" (Jung 1966 p.262) with each other. Each individual contains the aspects of the king and queen within them self, but is unable to work with their own unconscious aspects at this stage; the conscious and unconscious meet only tentatively and hold each other at arms length. It is the left hands of the two figures that touch, the left side having connotations of sinister and threatening influences (Harper 2001). Here Jung makes the analogy with the left side and the unconscious (1966 p.211); the two figures are only truly aware of each other in an unconscious manner.
Figure 1
At this first tentative meeting, the figures are joined by a third element, that of the dove. In reference to this dove, Jung explained "the spirit descending from above is stated to be the mediator" (1966 p.238). This third element, the mediator, may be seen as the "art" itself within the work of art psychotherapy. In The changing shape of art psychotherapy: new developments in theory and practice, Gilroy and McNeilly describe "exploring the role of the image as mediator between inner and outer worlds" (2000). In the Rosarium Philosophorum, these inner and outer worlds are depicted as the queen and king and the mediator as the dove. The so-called "triangular relationship" (Case 1990; Edwards 2004; Schaverian, 1990; Wood, 1990) of client, therapist, and art may be seen here in this triadic grouping.
So here the conscious has recognised, albeit distantly, its "shadow self" (Jung 1966) in the form of its unconscious. This recognition is only the very beginning of this alchemical journey. While the conscious mind may have recognised its unconscious aspects, Jung stated:
"people might imagine they have reached the goal of the work once the unconscious contents have been made conscious and theoretically evaluated...It is a crucial matter for the psychotherapist, particularly for those who still believe that intellectual insight and routine understanding, or even mere recollection, are enough to effect a cure." (1966 p.278-280)
It is not enough to consider the unconscious at arms' length, it must be experienced first hand and joined with in what the alchemists referred to as coniunctio. The alchemical scholar Adam McLean suggested that:
"The task of the alchemist working through this Rosarium process, is firstly to recognize the elements of the primal material, the lunar and solar streams, and the inner Mercury of the soul forces, then begin to work with these through meditations, bringing them into a new synthesis and making these inner forces a vehicle both for the experience of the Spirit and the mastery of the Physical world." (2009)
This may be re-worded to describe the work of therapy: the task of the person in therapy, is firstly to recognise the unintegrated elements within them, then begin to work with these through therapy and the creation of art, bringing them into a new synthesis and making these inner forces a vehicle both for the experience of the Self and the mastery of their world.
In Malchiodi's (1998) description of the first stage of the creative process, that of "Preparation", she refers to it being a time of "encounter". As the art process is begun, there is inevitably a time of meeting the art materials, the therapist, the art therapy setting, for the first time. This may be a strange and alien experience for many, something that produces a desire to keep them at arm's length. But that creative potential is already present in the form of the descending dove, to assist in the coming together of the internal forces which are, for now, at cross purposes with each other.
After shedding their royal robes, the king and queen enter together into a hexagonal bath in the fourth illustration in the series. The position of their hands has changed from the earlier tentative touching, they now both grasp each end of their flowering branches, holding together the two blossoms that grow from them, linking together the two aspects of the flora. The dove is still with them, mediating between (Fig. 2)
Figure 2
It is significant that both figures are now naked, allowing them to see each other clearly, Jung described this metaphorically; "Once the naked truth has been revealed the discussion can get down to essentials" (1966 p.239-240). They have descended together into the vas hermeticum, the alchemical bath. This bath may be compared to the therapeutic space of a therapy session, the "holding environment" (Winnicott, 1960) in which the work of uniting the supreme opposites is to take place.
This illustration depicts the beginnings of the work in the therapeutic environment. The poured out emotions surrounding the unconscious is also experienced by the conscious but it is kept contained by the "therapeutic frame" (Gray 1994) of the alchemical bath. Further in Malchiodi's description of the elements of "Preparation", she emphasises "preparing to engage in self-exploration" (1998 p.66). Here, with the king and queen together in the bath, they are preparing to engage in that process together, holding together the twin blossoms on their branches, perhaps as a precursor to the integration between them that is yet to come.
A crucial stage in many alchemical texts is the stage of nigredo or blackening. After a joining together of the two figures in the bath, the entwined couple lie together as if in a state of death. In the Rosarium Philosophorum, the conjoined figures lie in a sarcophagus-like tomb, the bath has become a stagnant pool around them (Fig. 3)
Figure 3
This stage may correspond with part of what Malchiodi described in the second stage of the creative process, that of "Incubation". She says:
"The incubation stage can be difficult; you may lose hope or feel stuck or disappointed. You may also lose confidence, believing that nothing will come to mind. You may lose sight of your goal or intention." (1998 p.67)
There is a wealth of literature written on how the creative process can at times become a difficult one (Bayles & Orland, 2001; Milner, 1958; McNiff, 1998). In this image, the enmeshed couple are alone, their art-dove has flown and left them decomposing alone. The concept of "writer's block" is sometimes used to describe such a nigredo state where it can seem as if all creativity has left a person.
Marie-Luise von Franz described the nigredo stage as:
"the destructive aspect of the unconscious and we experience it very often, at least at the beginning when we first meet it. All one's dreams are critical at first; the unconscious is full of drives and dissociating factors, destructive factors, and then if we penetrate deeper we see something very light and meaningful. Enlightenment can come from that dark place" (1980 p.147)
This is not the end for the king and queen, though all may seem dark and decaying. This is a necessary stage towards new growth. Old concepts must be allowed to die in order for new ones to take life. Schwartz-Salant said of the alchemical death:
"any true change was dependant not only upon a new vision but also upon the death of the old personality in conjunction with that vision." (1998 p.30)
Within therapy there may be times when it seems that a client is 'stuck', unable to move forward or to make any further progress. They may become unable to engage with the art materials despite showing initial enthusiasm. While it may be tempting to despair at such a state of affairs, viewed with the nigredo in mind, it may be a vital stage of breaking down of the old and forming of the new. Drawing on her experiences in facilitating group art therapy sessions in the community, Janis Timm-Bottos addresses the possible responses to this idea of "stuckness". In her writing The Heart of the Lion: Joining Community through Art Making, she suggests recognising it and remaining with it in order to allow the immergence of a greater freedom:
"In traditional Western medical models the frequent response to being stuck is to attack the problem and force movement. In clinical art therapy this is often done by giving a client a 'directive'. Instead, we honour the 'stuckness' by holding it as a precious part of the community of other moving parts. Often this support will surprisingly invite a welcome release followed by greater focused freedom of movement the next time the person enters the art-making space." (2001 p.222)
In the following image of the series, a small figure is released from the dying king/queen and has the freedom of movement to fly upwards (Fig.4)
Figure 4
This illustration is entitled The Extraction or Impregnation of the Soul. There is only one soul that leaves the dying royalty here, emphasising that they are not two people but are in fact aspects of each other. In order to move out of the nigredo state, Malchiodi says in the description of the creative incubation stage:
"To be able to integrate these new elements and ideas, however, your rational mind has to let go, and your intuition, improvisation, and sense of play have to take over." (1998 p.67)
The rational mind of the king/queen has here let go and the intuition depicted in the form a child is let free to engage in playful exploration. Winnicott wrote that:
"It is by playing and only in playing that the individual child is able to be creative and to use the whole personality and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self." (1971).
Here in the Rosarium Philosophorum, the conscious and unconscious have given themselves up to the "Divine Child" (Jung 1959) to play and be creative in the process towards self discovery. Jung saw this stage as another precursor to the unity that was beginning to become a reality:
"The "soul" evidently represents the idea of unity which has still to become a concrete fact and is at present only a potentiality." (1966 p.267)
In describing this incubatory stage, Malchiodi states that "when a creative insight occurs, it often breaks through in opposition to previously held ideas or feelings" (1998 p.67). In image eight of the Rosarium Philosophorum, a dew is seen to be falling from clouds which have formed above the entombed figures bringing new life to the decaying shell. The creativity with was in the form of a dove may have left the figures, but this fresh creativity breaks through the clouds of opposition to reinvigorate the process (Fig. 5).
Figure 5
Franz goes on to say:
"Enlightenment can come from that dark place; that is, if we direct the ray of consciousness upon it, if we warm it up by our conscious attention, then something white comes out and that would be the moon, the enlightenment which comes from the unconscious." (1980 p.147)
In the tenth image in the series that enlightenment has appeared. The entangled king/queen conscious/unconscious have emerged from the nigredo in a transformed state as a two headed hermaphrodite standing upon a crescent moon just as the queen did in the earlier image. This is the "enlightenment which comes from the unconscious", further emphasised by the presence of the moon covered tree to the left of the figure (Fig.6).
Figure 6
This hermaphrodite has achieved McLean's (2009) "new synthesis", it is no longer either the king or the queen, nor is it "a third thing midway between conscious and unconscious, it is both together" (Jung 1966 p.265). Mastery over the internal unconscious forces has been achieved and the conscious and unconscious are now able to work together in a new form. This is now the stage in the creative process of "Illumination", Malchiodi (1998) describes this stage as a time of joy and discovery, a breakthrough, an encounter with new information, giving a feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Jung believed this to be the last of the images in the series and wrongly made the assumption at this point that the alchemists had failed to achieve the coniunctio that they sought, believing that they were stuck in sexual symbolism that did not reach their goals (1966 p.317). However, this image is only halfway through the series and shows only the first joining of the solar and lunar forces of the conscious and unconscious into the lunar hermaphrodite. This is not the completion of the work as Jung believed, but only a stage in the process.
At this stage, "although the hermaphrodite appears to be united and is on the point of coming alive, the conflict between them is by no means finally resolved" (Jung 1966 p.283). To draw on Malchiodi's final thought on the stage of Illumination: "During this stage, your art making may not be complete, but you have a sense of confidence and achievement." (1998 p.68). A further stage of revision is required.
While a new synthesis has been reached here in this tenth illustration, the Rosarium Philosophorum goes on to depict a further group of images revealing a similar process as we have already seen, further refining the work. This revision within alchemy has been described as similar to a leavening of yeast:
"...its potency was sometimes then increased in a further stage by multiplication or fermentation...[It] was further refined by reiterated sublimations or added to precious metals or mercury, which it leavened like yeast until the whole material was capable of transmutation and was augmented in its strength." (Roberts 1994 p.60)
Further work may be required after this initial breakthrough for the therapeutic work to have a lasting effect. This state of unification may be only a temporary step which then regresses back to a less unified state requiring another exploration of the separation and joining together. The creation of art may be brought into play as the "precious metals" to strengthen the forming integration.
Contrary to the information that Jung had available to him, the final image in the Rosarium Philosophorum is image twenty. The original accompanying text describes this image with the words "After my passion and manifold torments I am again risen, Being purified and cleansed from all spots." Here we see the work of the alchemists, the coniunctio, achieved. McLean describes this image as:
"the alchemist is seen having achieved a kind of resurrection which is paralleled with that of Christ...This is the true transmutation. Those who have gone through this experience are fundamentally changed." (2009)
In figure 7, there is just one figure rising from the tomb in which the king/queen lay dying previously; the coniunctio has been achieved.
The figure is crowned with a halo which Jung describes as an image of the sun (1912, collected in 1966 p.88). The sun has moved from being beneath the feet to become a radiant crown. The individual has worked their way through the repeated ordeals and achieved the ultimate unification. In discussing the "Great Work" of the alchemical process Eliphas Lévi wrote:
"The Great Work is, above all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will..." (1896 p.58)
Jung considered the entire work of alchemy to be syncretic with the inner journey of man (1966 p.321). The unintegrated elements were recognised and personified, and then worked together with the creative process to gain a union. This emancipated figure is now master of its own inner world.
This is the ultimate goal of therapy but may take many re-workings and addings of "precious metals" to achieve. Malchiodi concluded her thoughts on the creative process by saying, "Although there are stages in the creative process, personal variations exist." (1998 p.68). No journey towards coniunctio is ever the same. It may be possible that, as Jung believed had happened within the Rosarium Philosophorum, failure may occur by ending the process too soon or getting stuck within the nigredo.
The illustrations of the Rosarium Philosophorum exist as a convincing analogy for the therapeutic process and also within them may contain scope for revealing the role of art making within art psychotherapy. Whether or not this was the original intention of the alchemists may have been lost to antiquity, however the work they have left to us is extremely rich with metaphor that we many now use in informing this continuing Great Work.
Exploration of the use of the Rosarium Philosophorum as a Metaphor for the Art Psychotherapy Process by Cathryn Orchard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Exploration of the use of the Rosarium Philosophorum as a Metaphor for the Art Psychotherapy Process by Cathryn Orchard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
As in. please don't steal this or re-use it for anything without at least asking first. I would not like it to be used without being told about it first. Thank you :)