ABSTRACT
Alchemy reveals what is shrouded in mystery. It mirrors deep life processes, providing a symbolic language of perception for some and a vehicle through which to engage with mystery for others. Alchemy, as it mirrors conscious encounter with the archetypal layers of psyche, needs laboratory conditions. Carl Gustav Jung used the technique of Active Imagination, a dialectic confrontation between his strong ego and the unconscious, to achieve this. Jung opens his magnum opus, Mysterium Coniunctionis with the words, the factors which come together in the coniunctio are conceived as opposites, either confronting one another in enmity or attracting one another in love. The truth of this statement becomes manifestly visible in the events of the News of the Worlds demise and the Royal Wedding referred to earlier. Jung's psychological approach makes a significant and unique contribution to this task: The dominant must contain them both, the standpoint of ego-consciousness and the standpoint of the archetypes in the unconscious.
