4. “Rend the books lest your hearts be rent asunder”[1] —Gerardus Dorneus’ unio
corporalis and the
matter-psyche as the shadow of the Self
4.1 The dew as
matter-psyche and the bipolarity of the energy term
As
the Rosarium continues, the dew falls from Heaven upon the grave of the
dead hermaphrodite (see image on the left, 8th
picture of Jung’s essay).
We have seen in the discussion of the 7th picture that
the psyche has abandoned the body and united with the spirit in
Heaven. Thus also the dew falling down from Heaven must have
something to do with the psyche or with the spirit.
For
a really deep interpretation of the symbol of the dew we must now
amplify with the physical process of the condensation of water vapor.
It is a process of a so-called nucleation: As water vapor, i.e., in
the gaseous state, the water molecules are mixed with the molecules
of the air. As a result of the nucleation process they may gather
around dust particles (or some surface feature). The accumulation of
these molecules grows. They build drops of water, i.e., they
transform into the liquid state. Because of the accumulation the
drops become visible to the human eye, and it can observe how they
fall down to the earth[2].
It
is very interesting to translate this process into a qualitative
alchemical/psychophysical language. Water vapor, i.e., water in the
gaseous state mixed with air molecules, is in an alchemical language
the union of air with water. Translated in a psychophysical language
it is a union of the spirit with the psyche, thus the above defined
spirit-psyche.
In
a modern physical terminology we say that the nucleation process
consists of the transformation of the gaseous state into the liquid
state. Alchemically seen – and this is the qualitative difference
– the term “dust” means however “earth”. It is one of the
four qualitatively different elements air, fire, water and earth[3].
Remembering Wolfgang Pauli’s bonmot “The even older is always
the new”[4],
I use this archaic terminology to express the circumstance that in
creating the dew the water associates with the earth. In falling
down to the earth the earth aspect of the dew is even more stressed.
When
we translate the alchemical terminology into a psychophysical, we
substitute “earth” by “matter” and “water” by “psyche”.
Thus the dew, the alchemical “earth-water”, becomes the matter-psyche,
the second aspect of the energy term and thus of the psyche I
postulate on the background of my interpretation of the Axiom of
Maria.
A
very important aspect of such an alchemical/psychophysical
translation of the physical process of the nucleation is the
circumstance that the drops do not contain air molecules anymore. An
alchemist would say that the water has left the air. From a
psychophysical point of view it means that in unifying with matter
in the dew the
psyche abandons the spirit. The result is a
bipolarity of the energy and of the psyche term, postulated by me,
i.e., the twin’s principle of the spirit-psyche and the
matter-psyche[5].
The
concept of the bipolarity of the observable
psyche, i.e., the existence of a spirit-psyche
and
a matter-psyche, is new and very unfamiliar to modern science.
Since the “transformation” of negative energy into antimatter by
Paul Dirac[6],
physics tries to explain all phenomena with the help of what it
calls “positive energy”. Thus, it deals only with one aspect of
the energy term, i.e., with the quantitatively measurable physical
energy[7].
The
bipolarity of the energy term is also unfamiliar to modern depth
psychology. Even the most modern researcher in this field, Carl
Jung, when talking of the so-called objective psychic energy, the
energy of the collective unconscious, does not use a bipolar concept.
Jung’s objective psychic energy is what I call in a generalizing
terminology the inner spirit-psyche, compared with physical energy
that I call outer spirit-psyche.
The
unipolarity of the energy term explains also the fact that all
scientists identify the psyche with the conscious spirit, i.e., with
the intellect or mind. Thus, when they talk about the psyche, they
always mean what I call the spirit-psyche. The seat of this
one-sided soul is therefore always the brain. As a result of such an
assumption, these scientists do not respect the historical fact that
in earlier times the soul was seated in the liver, i.e., in the
belly[8].
Then, it wandered up into the heart and finally into the head, where
today materialistic neuroscience identifies it with the cerebral
substance and hopes to prove the existence of the “soul” with
the help of quantitative methods, i.e., with the help of a measuring
instrument.
In
contrast to this limited concept of the energy term and of the
psyche, the bipolar energy term and thus the bipolarity of
spirit-psyche and of matter-psyche will play an extraordinary role
in the psychophysical language to be developed in the course of my
further comments. It will help us to describe observable
processes. These energetical processes comprise not only physically
measurable or depth psychological ones (Carl Jung’s objective
psychic energy), but also phenomena in which what I call the
matter-psyche or body-psyche demonstrates. We will further see that
matter-psyche is always connected to the unus
mundus, the psychophysical reality (W. Pauli) behind or beyond the split into
outer, i.e., natural scientific processes and processes observable
in the collective unconscious[9].
But
let us return to the 8th picture of the Rosarium.
One of the most important differences between the “water vapor”,
the spirit-psyche, and the “dew”, the matter-psyche, consists in
the circumstance that the spirit-psyche (water vapor) is invisible,
or in more general terms: not observable with the help of the
sensation function. The matter-psyche, the dew, however, is an
aspect of psyche that is always possible to perceive[10].
This is a remarkable result, since the term “psyche” is normally
associated with “invisibility”. Thus, we must think of the
matter-psyche as some sort of an observable “materialized soul”.
We
have further seen that in the first phase of the opus, the unio
mentalis, the psyche has been relieved of the body and unified
with the spirit in Heaven (7th picture; on the left).
During this process, in reaching the first coniunctio, the body had
died (6th picture; on the right). Thus, the psyche,
contained now in the spirit-psyche in the Heaven, cannot re-unify
with the same body it dwelt in before. On the contrary, it is the
dead body, which will later be revived (see 
picture
10 of Jung’s essay; on the left). This resurrected body, revived
with the help of the matter-psyche or body-psyche is thus something
completely different from the original body.
With
the hypothesis of the energetical bipolarity and the creation of the
matter-psyche the situation has completely changed. It is now
possible to develop a theory that is in accordance with the Axiom of
Maria Prophetissa: We accept that the third principle and thus the
energy term is bipolar. Further we see that the bipolarity of the
energy must somehow be re-united in the fourth, which is, as we have
seen, the Seal of Solomon.
******
In
the following sections I will first deal with the interpretation of
the unio corporalis by
Carl Jung and then show the differences that arise and the
extensions that are possible, if we look at the second phase of
Dorneus’ opus with the help of my bipolar energy concept. We will
see that the depth psychologist’s interpretation remains in the
Neoplatonic concept typical for the first phase, the unio mentalis, whereas my concept allows us to advance to Hermetic
alchemical ideas and processes, which in my opinion were the
original background of the unio
corporalis.
[proofread GJS,
11/03/05]
part
9
