4.6 The overcoming of Carl Jung’s Neoplatonic interpretation of the unio corporalis: The Hermetic matter-psyche as the shadow of the Logos Self  

We are now able to compare the unio corporalis, the second phase of Gerardus Dorneus' opus, with the procedure I propose. We have seen[1] that Carl Jung begins with the interpretation of the first phase and translates the unio mentalis into a modern language as his Active Imagination serving the integration of the shadow. I have then worked out the fact that the depth psychologist is not consistent in his interpretation of the second phase of Dorneus’ opus, since he vacillates between four different and partly contradicting translations of the meaning of the alchemical unio corporalis into a language of today. First we are amazed that also the second phase serves the shadow’s integration (CW 14), this time however with the goal of the creation of some sort of a (Neoplatonic) subtle body, the “subtlety” of the quaternarian consciousness (CW 16). Besides, a further goal is the sacrificium intellectus (CW 16). As Carl Jung’s essay deals with the problem of the transference and counter-transference, it is obvious that he is also thinking of the unio corporalis as the symbolic solution to that problem. Thus we are a bit lost having four different interpretations.  

The riddle Carl Jung has bequeathed to us is solved, when we postulate that the unio corporalis shown in the 8^th picture of the Rosarium and the coniunctio archetype in general deal with the shadow of the Self, some sort of a “dark psyche”. As I mentioned above, I call this shadow the Eros Self. It is deeper than the Logos Self the latter being collective spirit-psyche, since the Eros Self belongs to the psychophysical background of the inner spirit-psyche as well as of the outer. Of course such a postulate is as vague and problematic as Jung’s four different interpretations, as long as I cannot describe the Eros Self empirically. It will therefore be one of the most important tasks of the following chapters to show that this shadow of the Logos Self – alchemically spoken, the dew – , is in the macrocosmic case what I call the matter-psyche, in the microcosmic the body-psyche or the body-soul, the subtle body. The former is equal to the world soul, the anima mundi, the latter to an “inner aspect” of bodily matter, experienciable as introverted bodily sensations. Both are however only observable by what I call the Eros consciousness, which is itself some sort of a “shadow ego”.  

If the reader accepts – for the time being as a hypothetical statement derived from my modern interpretation of the age-old Axiom of Maria Prophetissa – this matter-psyche or subtle body postulate, they can immediately see in the following comments that the four interpretations of the unio corporalis by the depth psychologist - the inclusion of the subtle body, the integration of the shadow, the task of the sacrificium intellectus and the solution of the problem of the transference and counter-transference – unify:  

The first aspect of my hypothesis is that it is indeed the unio mentalis, i.e., Active Imagination, that serves the differentiation of the consciousness and the integration of the personal shadow, however the unio corporalis consists in the integration (or creation) of the subtle body in the Hermetic meaning[2]. Like this the term “subtle body” is extended to its original alchemical double meaning of the “twofold sublimation” and thus does not only mean Carl Jung’s Neoplatonic spiritual subtlety, but also a real, empirically observable “inner aspect” of the body and of matter, symbolically equivalent with the term quintessence. The Hermetic alchemical myth speaks thus in a symbolic language of the introverted observation of the creation of the matter-psyche in oneself.  

The matter-psyche is not contained in the Logos Self, i.e., in the collective spirit-psyche. We can therefore define matter-psyche as the shadow of the Logos Self. Thus, the looked-for procedure, Body-Centered Imagination, is a modern version of the unio corporalis that deals with the integration – better: with the observation of the creation – of the shadow of Carl Jung’s Logos Self, the Eros Self.  

Since the matter-psyche is a shadow aspect of the Logos Self it is however not observable by the Logos ego, i.e., by the conscious spirit-psyche. So to speak: The “bright light” of the Logos Self obscures the whole and produces like this the “shadow Self”[3] or Eros Self. Thus, since the Eros Self is in the shadow of the Logos Self, the former is necessarily repressed by the Logos ego, and the looked for relationship with the Eros Self essentially needs a sacrificium intellectus, i.e., a conscious repression of thinking during the Body-Centered Imagination. This is why I define the Eros ego, i.e., a complementary consciousness to the Logos ego, consisting in introverted feeling, sensation and intuition and repressing thinking during the procedure.  

As we have seen, Carl Jung’s interpretations of the unio corporalis as the development of the “spiritual subtlety” of the fourfold consciousness on the one hand and on the other as the sacrificium intellectus contradict each other. This is especially true for a feeling type, who should of course develop the thinking function with the help of Active Imagination, and not sacrifice it. If we relate however the development of the four functions to the first, Neoplatonic phase and the sacrificium intellectus to the second, the Hermetic, this contradiction is eliminated: During the second phase Active Imagination should be replaced by Body-Centered Imagination, in which the sacrificium intellectus is indeed absolutely necessary. Like this, the two phases of Dorneus’ opus obtain different meanings: The modern form of the unio mentalis, Active Imagination, is reserved for the differentiation of the consciousness and the integration of the personal shadow, Body-Centered Imagination, however, becomes the method for the modern unio corporalis, the relationship of the Eros ego with the Eros Self and the observation of the creation of the subtle body.  

Further, since the creation of the subtle body happens during the unio corporalis, which is itself the vegetative psychophysical process behind the human sexuality and thus behind the transference/counter-transference problem, a modern interpretation of the unio corporalis, i.e., of the introverted observation of the birth of the Holy Wedding’s child out of the intermediary realm of the unus mundus, the birth of the infans solaris, of the red tincture or of the quintessence, can also lead into the solution of this deepest problem of the battle of the sexes.  

Besides the above mentioned empirical description of the matter-psyche and the body-psyche, my task will therefore further be to describe such an introverted observational procedure theoretically as well as empirically, the former on the background of quantum physical principles, the latter with the help of my experience as a psychophysical therapist and healer. We can however already conclude that this method, the Body-Centered Imagination, is, like the Hermetic alchemical myth beginning with picture # 8 of the Rosarium, a deeply introverted vegetative procedure, in which the ego is, in contrast to Active Imagination, very passive. It is on the one hand based on the vegetative nervous system, on the other on a transformation of the instinctive energy in the human sexual drive on the background of the Gnostic idea that “man’s procreative power is a special instance of the ‘procreative nature of the Whole’.”[4] It is obvious that the above interpretation of the Hermetic aspect of the unio corporalis or the Holy Wedding is of a great value, since it shows us that the task does not consist in an analytical procedure, but in the observation of synthetic processes expressing a coniunctio, symbolically represented in the Hermetic alchemical myth as the reunion of the divine figures, of the god and the goddess.  

Carl Jung describes[5] the background of the transference/counter-transference problem as an unconscious projection of the Anima/Animus. We realize now however that the deepest aspect of the transference of the feminine patient onto the masculine therapist belongs to a projection of the collective spirit-psyche, i.e., of the Logos Self onto him – Carl Jung’s secret weapon, so to speak. Further we obtain the remarkable result that the masculine therapist’s counter-transference onto the feminine patient is not “only” an Anima problem, a projection of the feminine spirit-psyche, but also and especially an expression of the projection of the matter-psyche, of the Eros Self, the World Soul.  

Thus, also the transference/counter-transference problem receives a new dimension. For a masculine analyst, besides the projection of the Anima there exists also a projection of the Eros Self onto a feminine patient. It is further very likely that the man who projects the Eros Self onto a woman is a feeling type, since his deepest problem is not the connection with the feminine and the “trinitarian” collective spirit-psyche, with Carl Jung’s quaternarian Self, but the introverted relationship with the Eros Self, i.e., with the matter-psyche deeply repressed because of the one-sided Christian development for more than 2,000 years.  

Of course this problem – the battle of the sexes – is not only constellated in the psychoanalytical setting, but in the relationship between man and woman in general. Thus, a modern Hermetic opus consists to a great extent in the task of the relocation of the process into one’s own body and soul and the withdrawal of such projections onto concrete women. The latter happens however mostly not in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, but fatefully in life[6].