Alchemical Psychology - Old Recipes for Living in a New World

Alchemical Psychology
Old Recipes for Living in a New World

Alchemical Poems
by Thom F. Cavalli, Ph.D.

Plato was asked at the end of his life to condense the basic meaning of his philosophy. He answered by saying that all philosophy is a preparation for death.

Life TimeŠ

Keep time by breathing
What I exhale is past
The next breath is all I know
Of the future.

(cited in Alchemical Psychology)

Mercurius, the Greek trickster god, plays a central role in alchemy.

No One ListensŠ

God told Adam a secret,
Adam told Eve a secret,
Eve told Jesus a secret,
Peter told the pope a secret,
The pope told his bishop a secret,
The bishop told the king a secret,
The king told his fool a secret,
The fool told everyone.

Alchemy involves body, soul and spirit. Specifically the alchemist's hands are used to manipulate substances in the laboratory and also in the many ways he interacts with people.

HandsŠ

I have shaken hands with 10,000 people.
fat hands
sweaty hands
black hands
callused hands
angry hands
happy hands
crippled hands
dirty hands
hands that have been places
wet hands
bloody hands
hands with red nails
guilty hands
phony hands
hands missing fingers
hands that talk
hands that kill
hands that love
I have been shaken by all this.

Physical alchemy involved body, soul and spirit in transmuting base metals, like lead, into gold. The hands of the alchemist had to be as proficient in manipulating substances as they were communicating with all sorts of people who were drawn to his curious occupation.

MetalsŠ

Lazy lead
Needs a bucket of water
To get out of bed.

Shining bright
By the waters of the moon
Silver rains down new light.

Old gold
Never sleeps, never stops
Glowing in my soul.

Medieval alchemy served to counter the powerful influences of the Church and its exaggerated emphasis on high moral values. Similarly we must always bear in the mind the field of opposites out of which a third, transcendent body can be born. An old saying puts in another way: "while my head fits through the window, my tail gets caught."

I don't want to go to HeavenŠ

I don't want to go to Heaven
If it means giving up my horns.
I like the thorns I was given.
I don't want to go to Heaven
If it means cutting off my tail.
I like the trail on which I'm headin'

I don't want to go to Heaven
If it means no more sin
I like the gin I can't stop guzzlin'

In describing the interaction between mind and matter, Jung discussed the nature of the psychoid realm. Spiritually, this is the place where we can contact spirit.

BetweenŠ

Between the memories and the plans
Is there room for this moment to simply be?
Between the thoughts and impulses
Is there any pause for me?
Between the rules and declarations
Is there space for spontaneity?
Between the echo and the heartbeats
Is there silence enough for serenity?

The goal of alchemy was to create the philosopher's stone. This magical stone was supposed to be endowed with miraculous powers. Possessing such a stone is the equivalent to having "heaven on earth." Achieving the stone is an arduous, frustrating enterprise that simultaneously gives meaning and purpose to life.

Just short of a miracleŠ

And were I to tend my body as if it were
A fragile piece of heaven
Sole to soul
And see in my most desperate hour
The sun shining through the night
Then...

And were I to silence insistent voices
Whose ears are deaf to all others
Other than their own
Only to hear amongst the squabble
A silent syllable I'd never heard before.
Then...

And if I should love someone I've never met
Shower them with prayers and blessings
So that a smile came upon them unexpectedly
Then...

And were I to mind each moment
As if it were my first, my last
And meet an lovely old lady
Who shares her secret recipe with me
Then...

I'd multiply these examples by a thousand
Times infinity
And then still come up
Just short of a miracle

But then, even then
It doesn't matter.
To come this close to utter delight
I can no longer decipher day from night.

Doubt is the alchemical substance out of which revelation is born.

When in DoubtŠ

I feed each of my doubts
A prayer
And by morning
I awake to new blessings.

GoldŠ from Metallic verses

L is for Love
The Rest is God.

Why I Don't MeditateŠ from Things I Hate

I'm too busy receiving the love
Of stars and planets
Of demons and daimons
Of dogs and zebras
Of lilacs and daffodils
Of rocks and stones
Of amebas and viruses
Of cells and molecules
Of atoms and quarks
Superstrings and black holes.

Without me
Their meditations would dissolve
And the universe would collapse.

LeadŠ from Metallic verses

Gravity is more than some faceless stranger
Tugging at my feet.
It is a depth into which I sometime fall
Surprising myself with words that well up
From the ground.

Gravity is the lead
Of my heaviest thoughts.
A pot hole in the road
Into which I sometimes fall apart
Laying at the bottom of a well
Looking up to the day
That is no bigger than a small hole
At the top of my head.

The Royal MarriageŠ from Metallic Verses

Into this chalice
Two waters flow
Without doubt or malice
Love grows

Two souls breathe
A single breath of air
Two spirits feed
Making us more aware

Outwardly the same
Inwardly one
Wedded in name
Never undone

We laugh at secret things
Cry when the other despairs
Embrace this new being
To which none can compare

Your king rules my heart
Your queen governs my reality
Neither can ever depart
This eternal, sacred unity

L (love) is the secret ingredient Š from Meditations on the letter L

Alchemy
Royal Art	Royal Marriage
Laboratory	Distillation
Mercurial	Sublimation
Scintilla	Multiplicatio
Lapis	Elementals
Philosopher's Stone	Sylphs
Homunculus	Salamanders
Elixir	Metals
Soul	Lead
Paracelsus	Silver
Salt	Gold
Sulfur	Congelation
Sol	Calcination
Planets	Valentine
Pluto	Cleopatra
Minerals	Albertus Magnus
Luna	Fludd
Emerald Tablet	Flamel
Vessel	Boyle
Alembic	Rudolf
Lion	Fulcanelli
Albedo	Lull
Dissolve	Carl Jung
Coagulate	Hillman
Solutio	& last but not least
Vitriol	Cavalli