ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the second stage, albedo, as the parallel or equivalent to the integration of opposites; in alchemical terms the conjunction, the hieros gamos, the chymical marriage or the mysterium coniunctionis, in short the marriage between male and female. Alchemy, being an unconscious projection of the same task, is inevitably about opposites. Indeed, what be comes apparent in studying alchemy and tracing its historical roots is that it has from the earliest beginnings been preoccupied with opposites or, as it was referred to in Chinese alchemy, the principle or doctrine of two contraries, which dates back to approximately the third century BC. In addition to the archetypal nature of the anima and animus there also exists a personal unconscious level of these archetypes, which is basically determined and affected by a man's or woman's personal experience of the opposite sex, the respective experience that comes through contact with the opposite sex.
