4.3.2
The symmetry between spirit and matter in Hermetic alchemy and
complementarity
part 5 (will
follow):
4.3.3
Carl Jung's ambivalence between the trinity and the quaternity and
the Axiom of Maria prophetissa: A preliminary analysis
4.
Neoplatonic and Hermetic alchemy: Eternal infertility versus
incarnation
(part
4)
4.3.2 The symmetry between
spirit and matter in Hermetic alchemy and complementarity
Pauli’s
discovery of the concept of the equivalence of matter and spirit, and especially
of the descent of God into matter in Hermetic alchemy, seemed to have produced
an enormous aha-experience in him. Therefore, in several letters, he writes very
enthusiastically about this Hermetic/alchemical aspect of the opus.
In
the above-mentioned letter of October 16th, 1951 to Marie-Louise von
Franz (see section 4.2.1) we read:
„Als das Bedeutende an der Alchemie erscheint mir ihr in
einer hinsichtlich des Gegensatzes physisch-psychisch neutralen Sprache
ausgedrücktes Einheitserlebnis, das auch die emotionale Sphäre miteinschliesst
und daher zugleich ein numinos-religiöses Erlebnis ist. In religiöser Sprache
ausgedrückt kann man sagen, dass der Alchemisten
Weg zum ‘Einen’ (oder
Gott) mit einem Abstieg in die
Körperwelt beginnt, daher auch diese Körperwelt letzten Endes zum religiösen
‘Ziel’ führt.“[emphasis mine]
English
translation:
„The importance of alchemy seems to me to be its experience of unity
expressed in a neutral language, which is related to the pair of
opposites physical/psychic, and which includes also the emotional sphere and
therefore at the same time is a numinous/religious experience. Expressed in a
religious language one can say, that the alchemists’path
to the ‘One’
(or to God) begins with a descent into the physical world (Körperwelt), hence
this physical world leads finally to the religious ‘goal’.“ [translation
and emphasis mine]
Or
in a letter to C.A. Meier of 1950:
„Die Aufspaltung der Welt in ein helles
und ein dunkles
Prinzip fällt ... bei Fludd keineswegs zusammen mit der Aufspaltung in Materie
und Psyche. Die Materie hat bei ihm auch Teil am lichten Prinzip und die Seele des Menschen
auch am dunklen Prinzip.
Die polare Realität Fludds ist stets in
einem Zwischenreich
(zwischen ‘physisch’ und ‘psychisch’ in unserem Sinne), das durch nicht direkt
von den Sinnen wahrnehmbare materielle Bewegungen,die
zugleich auch
Veränderungen ‘objektiv-psychischer’ Art sind, beschrieben wird.“ [emphasis mine]
English
translation:
„In Fludd, the disintegration of the world in a bright and a dark
principle ... does by no means coincide with the split in matter and psyche. For
him, matter participates also in the bright principle and the soul of
man also in the dark principle.
Fludd’s polar reality is always in an intermediate
world(between ‘physical’ and ‘psychic’ in our meaning),
that is described by
material movements not directly perceptible by the senses, which [movements]
are at the same time transformations (Veränderungen) of an ‘objective psychic’
manner.“ [translation and emphasis mine]
After the publication of
the Kepler essay in the year 1952, Pauli also sent a copy to
Carl F. von Weizsäcker. In his answer of April 22nd,
1953 the latter writes back that he does not know any answer to the
questions asked in it. Therefore Pauli strives to clarify his ideas
in a small treatise with the title Die Alchemie als nicht
geglückter Versuch eines psychophysischen Monismus (Alchemy as an unsuccessful attempt of a psycho-physical
monism).
In this treatise
Pauli shows his conception very clearly:
„Die
neuplatonisch-christliche Tendenz, die Materie als unerwünscht abzudrängen,
war von vornherein von Gegenströmungen begleitet, welche eine symmetrische
Behandlungsweise des Gegensatzpaares Geist-Materie angestrebt haben. In der
älteren Antike war dies Aristoteles ... und die Peripatetiker sowie auch die
Stoa. In der späteren Antike die Gnostiker und die [hermetische; RFR] Alchemie.
Letztere setzte sich bis in 17. Jahrhundert als materiefreundliche
Unterströmung innerhalb des Christentums fort, und gegenüber Kepler begegnen
wir deren späteren Nachzügler Fludd.
Durch
Bohr an das antinomische Denken gewöhnt, bin ich entschieden für die
symmetrische Auffassung des Gegensatzpaares Geist-Materie und war von Fludds
Bildern gefesselt, die in der Mitte das ‚Sonnenkind’ entstehen lassen. Inzwischen war C.G. Jung als
Kompensation der zu starken Vergeistigung seiner Psychologie ebenfalls auf die
Alchemie gestossen, das hiess aber sowohl auf die Materie als auch auf die
Naturwissenschaften. Ob nun später aus dieser Kollision von Psychologie und
Physik durch eine wahre ‚Coniunctio’ ein Sonnenkind entstehen wird, das wird
erst die Zukunft zeigen.
Die
Alchemisten knüpfen einerseits an den Timaeus, andrerseits an
Aristoteles an ... Sie verwerfen aber den Neuplatonismus; die Materie
ist nicht böse, sondern indifferent und in ihr ist ein Geist
verborgen (Hermes Trismegistos).
...
Als das Bedeutungsvolle an ihr [der Alchemie] erscheint mir
der Versuch, eine doppelsinnige psycho-physische
Einheitssprache zu schaffen, die auf der Überzeugung der
Identität innerer und äusserer Vorgänge beruht.
...
Die
Sache erscheint uns heute oft recht läppisch, und die Identifizierung der
inneren (psychischen) mit den äusseren (chemischen) Vorgängen erfolgte sehr
zum Schaden der Chemie. In der Tat waren ja die wirklichen chemischen Kenntnisse
der Alchemisten äusserst geringe. Herr Jung behauptet aber, dass die
Alchemisten eingehende Kenntnisse über unbewusste psychische Vorgänge hatten,
und er hat sich eingehend mit der psychologischen Bedeutung der chymischen
Hochzeit = Coniunctio von sol und luna beschäftigt, die bei Fludd eben
jener Entstehung des Sonnenkindes in der Mitte entspricht.“
English
translation:
„The
Neoplatonic/Christian tendency to repress matter as undesired, was from the very
beginning on accompanied by counter-currents which had strived for a symmetrical
treatment of the opposite’s pair spirit/matter. During the older antiquity
this was Aristotle ... and the Peripatetic as well as the Stoa. In the late
antiquity the Gnostics and [Hermetic; RFR] alchemy. Until the 17th
century the latter asserted itself as a matter-friendly undercurrent within
Christianity, and against Kepler we meet its [alchemy’s] latecomer Fludd.
Habituated
to the antinomic thinking of [Niels] Bohr, I am decidedly for the symmetrical
interpretation of the opposite’s pair spirit/matter, and I was fascinated by
Fludd’s pictures which let develop the ‘sun’s child’ in the middle.
Meanwhile C.G. Jung had - as compensation to the too strong
spiritualization of his psychology - come across alchemy, i.e., across matter
as well as natural sciences. Only the future will show us, if later - by a true
‘coniunctio’
- a sun’s child will develop out of this collision between psychology and
physics.
On
the one hand, the alchemists are linked to the Timaeus, on the other
to Aristotle ... But they reject Neoplatonism; matter is not evil,
but indifferent and
a spirit is hidden in it (Hermes Trismegistos).
...
It seems to me that the importance of it [alchemy] is the
attempt to create an ambiguous psychophysical unity language
that is based on the conviction of the identity of inner and outer
events ...
To
us, today, the whole thing appears quite stupid (läppisch), and the
identification of inner (psychic) and outer (chemical) processes was very
prejudicial to chemistry ... But Herr Jung claims that the alchemists
had a thorough knowledge about unconscious psychic processes, and he has
occupied himself thoroughly with the psychological meaning of the chymic wedding
= coniunctio of sol and luna which corresponds to the rise of the sun’s child
inFludd.“ [translation mine]
In his letter to a quantum physicist (!)
Pauli now rejects Neoplatonism entirely and accepts only Hermetic
philosophy as the basis of alchemy, i.e., its symmetrical concept of
the pair spirit/matter. This conclusion he draws on the background of
the symmetrical concept of the Copenhagen interpretation (Niels Bohr)
of quantum physics, i.e., on the background of the so-called
complementarity.
As we have seen (3.3.6), this term means that it is
impossible for our consciousness to perceive matter per se. It
depends on the instrument of observation if we experience its particle’s or
its wave’s aspect. Thus, symmetry between these two concepts of
perception is established.
Pauli now applies the quantum physical idea of the
complementarity between particle and wave to the relationship of matter and
spirit in Robert Fludd’s Hermetic opus.
For him, the realization of the equivalence of matter
and spirit is the necessary condition for the so-called chymic wedding, the
union of spirit and matter, in which the intermediate realm is created, and
therefore also for the result of this reunion of the opposites, the infans solaris; the sun’s child can only be born when such a symmetry is
assumed.
This equivalence of the male and the female principle
is also underlined by the fact, that the infans
solaris - despite its name - is not born in heaven but
into an intermediate sphere which is a subtle realm.
As we have seen above, for Pauli this layer is “not directly perceptible by
the senses” because it is transcendent reality. In a letter to Jung he calls
it also “an invisible, potential form of reality that is only indirectly
inferable through its effects”.
This sphere is the logically excluded third, and we
will see later that it is exactly what Pauli - in scientific terms -
called the unified psychophysical reality and Carl Jung the
unus mundus. It is “potential being” and therefore transcendent like
the wave function of quantum physics. In Chapter 5 we will define this
intermediate layer as “psyche”. However, the reader should already notice
here that this term is more comprehensive than Jung’s “objective psyche” (collective
unconscious), because it contains also what I will call “matter-psyche”.
As we have seen (in 4.1.2), this idea of a product of
the opus does not exist in Neoplatonic alchemy. If Pauli criticizes the dogma
of the Assumption and with it Carl Jung’s quaternity as a Neoplatonic idea,
he
implies exactly this lack: The „disinfected matter“ of the Holy Mary in the
heaven is not able to give birth to a child, as in the opus of the Hermetic
alchemists.
Symbolically seen, we can say that the Neoplatonic
process looks like a circle, in which everything goes round and round for all
eternity without producing something new. In the Hermetic process, however, with
its birth of the infans
solaris as the result of some sort of a „quantum leap“,
suddenly
a new circle on a higher level is achieved.
Many of Pauli’s letters show, that he had a hunch of
the fact, that exactly this product of the
coniunctio - the infans solaris born out of the subtle
intermediate realm - could be the symbolically expressed solution of
observable processes in the psychophysical reality. One of the
most important challenges of our investigations will therefore be to answer the
question, how the infans solaris could be connected with the unus mundus,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung looked for.
