ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the alchemy of trying to redefine a sense of the masculine for men, presenting fresh formulations for it arising through a wrestling between being male on the one hand and the masculine on the other. This involves an exploration of meanings derived from alchemical readings of the masculine as distinctions emerge between the imbibed social, and embedded archetypal, masculine and the singularity of the individual lived experience of being a man. The alchemy of gender throws up archetypal, interpersonal and cultural dimensions. Interplay between male-masculine and anima-animus enables the historical confusion a rigid yet confused coniunctio between male and masculine to loosen, especially its aggressive and erotic anima elements. The alchemical metaphor of the vas, counterpointed by author's suggestion of claustrum as shadow vas, helps highlight both the psychological and political dimensions of the relationship between heterosexual man/father and home.
