ABSTRACT
Alchemy is a living symbolism reflecting archetypal dynamics. Jung felt his psychology was for people seeking to give meaning to the second half of life. By looking at the symbolism of the sun and moon, 'Sol' and 'Luna', in earlier developmental stages and the spiritual changes following midlife, an underlying process of unfolding consciousness appears: the separation and combining of opposites. Drawing on Wilhelm Giegerich, he suggests that alchemy is a psychological language, not a rhetorical ornament. The 'philosopher's stone', the transformational key as well as goal of the alchemical quest, is a paradox: "the stone that is no stone"; we do not have to turn a metaphor into a thing. In psychotherapy, reductive techniques are used to tease out the unique individual personality from internalised environmental influences of earlier life in the hope of releasing blockages to the natural, instinctive flow towards ego development.
