Note: Mark O'Neill is a pen name of the author of this article

 [ Image from Splendor Solis ]   

Introduction

'Just as the Philosopher's Stone, with its miraculous powers, was never produced, so psychic wholeness will never be attained empirically, as consciousness is too narrow and too one-sided to comprehend the full inventory of the psyche.'

[Carl Jung, 1970:306]

'It is not probable that the alchemists always knew what they were writing, otherwise they would have dropped dead at their own enormities, and of this there is no sign in the literature.'

[Carl Jung, 1959:pars 221]

[ Thomas Mann ]

In their March 2007 World Mysteries-article on the Forbidden Letters de Renzi, Fenelon and de la Censerie clearly demonstrated that Carl Jung 'missed the deeper level of alchemy' and thereby 'the deeper level of resurrection.' [Stutesman]

Jung thought that the alchemical work was an exclusively psychological operation and that that operation 'illustrated the process of individuation' [1959:pars 418], meaning a 'step-by-step development of the self from an unconscious state to a conscious one.' [ibid.] A development 'running its course from time immemorial.' [1970:316] He termed the prima materia an 'intuitive concept for an initial psychic situation.' [1959:pars 240] According to the Swiss psychiatrist God 'can be established (only) psychically, not physically.' [1970:340]

He knew that 'an eternal child lurked in every adult,' and that that child 'represents exactly that part of the human personality which wants to become whole.' [1970:311] That it is 'all that is abandoned and exposed and at the same time divinely powerful. [ibid/italics mine] 'An indescribable experience, an incongruity, a handicap, and a divine prerogative; an imponderable that determines the ultimate worth or worthlessness of a personality.' [ibid]

Yet he failed to identify that child as the child that is peeled out in a certain phase of the alchemical work called 'the play of the children' (ludus puerorum):

'End of august till September 4 1986 : our gay man becomes a child. That is, psychologically during certain minutes. During those minutes, and to his own surprise, he even produces a child's voice. This reminds us of the words of Jesus: you must become like a little child again if you want to enter the Kingdom of God.' [The Paris 4] 

'Save for the remark that the '(alchemical) work is as easy as child's play, I have found no explanation for the ludus puerorum (the play of the children). Seeing that the work is, in the unanimous testimony of all the adepts exceedingly difficult, the ludus puerorum must be a euphemistic, and probaly also a symbolical definition.' [Jung, Psychology and Alchemy]

Nonetheless, Jung's books on alchemy are a feast and full of frightfully interesting alchemical data if you have read the Forbidden Letters.

Take for instance the Christ-fish-stone-parallel. Jung knew that the alchemical fish 'was a symbol for (...) the stone.' [1959:pars 193] And that there is nothing to suggest 'that that fish is of a Christian origin.' [1959:pars 194] Because 'it derives from Pliny.' [1959:pars 224] 

That fish lives 'in our sea' [1959:pars 142], meaning: 'the unconscious in general.'[ibid.] According to Philippus Picinellus this fish glows forever in the midst of the waters (the unconscious) 'and whatsoever it touches grows hot and bursts into flames.' [italics mine] And that of course is precisely what Wolfram von Eschenbach says about his Grail-stone: 'By the power of that Stone the Phoenix (the alchemist in Kundalini-fire) burns to ashes, but the ashes quickly restore him to life again.'

'The Philosophers call this fire the fire of the Holy Ghost (philosophi hunc ignem Spiritus Sancti ignem appellant).' [Gloria Mundi] 'With this fire the Godhead itself is mixed (divinitas ipsa cum hoc igne commixta siet).' [Gloria Mundi]

But that is not all. That Stone of Transmutation can only be obtained by 'cutting off the head of a sleeping dragon' [1959:pars 214/italics mine], meaning a winged serpent.

Time to go back to the Forbidden Letters here and their details on the resurrection:

'A thread, very thin, is closing around his neck. The head is decapited  by that 'thread'. The stone is produced about where the liver is. The stone ignites the kundalini-fire. Fire getting stronger. The snake is driven out.' [The Paris 4/italics mine]

That stone is also called the Draconite and identified with Saturn. And Saturn, in astrology, is 'the star of the Sun'. It is 'alchemically interpreted as black and called the black sun (sol niger).' [1959:pars 215] A sun often confused with the Sun at Midnight from the Golden Ass. 
 

 [ sol niger, Philosophia Reformata (1622) ]

But there is another thing known about this (Grail) stone, called the Draconite. It is 'endowed with extraordinary powers (potentissimus valde).' [1959:pars 216] It 'prevails over the conscious mind and will of the victim.' [1959:pars 216/italics mine]

And this, in my opinion, brings us directly to the 2006 November 14 letter by the Paris 4 to Gary Osborn and the part about Thomas Mann in that letter:

'Thomas Mann will come to you as a surprise, we are sure, but it makes sense, as we discovered. Discovered what? That most of his short stories (and none of his novels!) are about alchemy. From the decapitation in 'Die vertauschten Köpfe'(1946) to the aggression impulses and the darkness of the Night of the Soul in 'Der Kleiderschrank' (1899). And another thing. When was 'Die Erzählungen' (collected short stories) for the first time published? In August 1986 by Simon Fischer Verlag. A few weeks before our gay man's resurrection. A few weeks before he 'needed' them. Coincidence?'[The Paris 4]

Now, in one of his short stories, Mario and the Magician 'the magician is an artist who can control forces "stronger than reason or virtue", and hypnotize any listener to follow his will.' [Edward Rothstein/italics mine]

In other words, he 'prevails over the conscious mind and will of the victim.'

Coincidence?

References  

• C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, edited by Jolande Jacobs and R.F.C. Hull, Princeton University Press, 1970

• C.G. Jung, Aion, Researches into the phenomenology of the self, Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD, 1959.

• On the Forbidden Letters by Carlotta de Renzi, Jean Fenelon and Antoine de la Censerie, World Mysteries, 3/2007 [ http://www.world-mysteries.com/PhilipGardiner/forbidden_letters_17.htm  ], pars 3.

• Gerardus Dorn, Theatrum Chemicum, Strasbourg 1602.

• Gloria Mundi, anonymous, Germany 1620.

Copyright 2007
Note: Presented with permission