4.7 The Structure and dynamics of a modern unio corporalis

 4.7.1 The definition of the terms anima mundi, psychophysical reality, unus mundus and of their inherent dynamics  

4.7.1.1 The ambiguous language as a condensation

It is now time to at least intuitively define the structure of and the relationship between the key terms of my concept, the anima mundi (world soul), the psychophysical reality and the unus mundus. Further we can now realize the outline of the relationship of these terms with depth psychology as well as with modern physics.  

Before I begin I must however confess that such a characterization is a very difficult task, since I have to describe terms we cannot almost imagine with the help of the Logos. For example a spaceless space or a timeless time is almost not conceivable with the help of a scientific mind. The former is infinite and the latter eternal and we do not have any measure for such terms, which were – by the way – exactly for this reason in Medieval times attributes of the godhead. It is in fact this non-measurability with the help of scientific means that characterizes the terms of the Eros world.  

On the other hand, it is however important to define these terms as precisely as possible, since only when we can talk about them in a language of Logos, we can exchange our ideas. However, the reader should always keep in mind the core truth of the Taoist proverb: “The Tao one speaks about is no longer the Tao.” As long as we try to describe contents of the Eros realm, it is nearly impossible to avoid using an obscure language. Further, the language of Eros is not analytical, but synthetic. This means that things which are differentiated and thus split apart in the world of the Logos come together anew in the Eros realm. Like this we are always confronted with overlappings and ambiguities.  

We can of course also interpret the Hermetic alchemical unio corporalis, the “wedding” of qualitatively different principles, as the ambiguous language we have to develop, since such overlappings, when concretized, are some sort of a conjunction. It is the phenomenon depth psychology knows as the principle of condensation. Further, it is the “as if” of the symbolical language so important in Carl Jung’s depth psychology.  

A modern natural scientist is however used to working with clear-cut terms. Thus for him such an ambiguous terminology is of course a nuisance. Also here we see however the influence of the one-sided development in science after the 17^th century, when mathematics and extraverted empiricism entered it. Since then the scientific language is based on the psychological functions thinking and sensation. Intuition is only partly accepted, and feeling is completely excluded. Thus, my task will also be to include these two neglected psychological functions consciously in my scientific concept. For example I define Logos consciousness as the triad of thinking, sensation and intuition whereas Eros consciousness is defined as the triad of (introverted) feeling, sensation and intuition.[1].  

 

4.7.1.2 The Hermetic alchemical unio corporalis as the background of a modern energetic terminology

We have seen that for Medieval man the world soul was an indistinguishable unity of spirit, psyche and as well as of matter. Further, it was inside and outside and at the same time – the part as well as the whole. The trouble with such a wholeness is its empirical non-observability, since something that does not have any difference or differentiation, i.e. no energetic aspect, is of course not observable.  

In a physical language we could say that such an “object” is in the state of maximal entropy. It is the non-observable oneness described by Carl Jung[2]. As I have shown[3], Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung dealt also with the problem of these terms. In their dispute in the year 1953, as a result of an incredibly interesting discussion they concluded that these terms are just metaphysical ones without any epistemological meaning. Further, in letters to his colleague Franz Kröner Pauli clarified the fact that only an energetical change is observable. Thus, if we can observe a change in such a realm that is only metaphysically defined, we have found an indirect empirical proof for its existence[4].  

In order to become observable such a realm should at least contain an energetic property, i.e., an energetic potential out of which a change can happen. In Hermetic alchemical terms such an energetic potential is symbolically defined in the special form of the coniunctio or unio corporalis described above: In the uterus of the queen the king dissolves into atoms, and the latter become the seeds for a new vegetative life. In modern terms we can define such a state as a potential energetic phenomenon.  

I am sure that the reader can now realize first what a great revolution the inclusion of the Hermetic alchemical unio corporalis or second coniunctio by Gerardus Dorneus and Robert Fludd has been, and second how this revolution was even extended by the idea of the old king drowning in the uterus of the queen for his rebirth – although this idea of such a reincarnation was only formulated in symbolic images. These ideas compensated unconsciously the one-sidedness of natural science developing soon after with the inclusion of the mathematical standpoint. Expressed in the symbolism of alchemy we can say that the Logos king was and still remains incapable of sacrificing its dominant attitude of beeing in the Heavens and enter the womb of the Eros queen for its regeneration and rejuvenation. Such a transformation is therefore left for us to consciously realize as we begin the 21^st century, and my fear is that the Logos king will not resign voluntarily, but will only descend because of apocalyptic events, as for example a world wide intense wave of UFO encounters and especially of abduction phenomena.

 

4.7.1.3 The world soul (anima mundi), the psychophysical reality (W. Pauli) and the unus mundus (Dorneus/Jung) in my definition

In the following chapters I will call this potential energetic phenomenon the world soul in its wider sense. If we have in mind that # 3 and thus the triangle symbolizes the energy term, we realize immediately that the Seal of Solomon is the perfect symbol for such a latent energetic potentiality.

I have visualized all this in the figure on the left which was previously used in the explanation of Body-Centered Imagination in section 4.5.6: The white triangle represents the spirit-psyche, the dark the matter-psyche. The two red arrows symbolize the potentiality of the energetic transformation.

Further I will equate the world soul in its wider sense with the energetic aspect of the unus mundus, the potential world before Genesis, prophetically anticipated by the Hermetic alchemist Gerardus Dorneus. Like this the queen containing in her womb the “atoms” of the old king becoming the seeds for the vegetative rebirth becomes the symbolic content of the unus mundus.

One of the most important ideas of the term unus mundus consists in the circumstance that it describes a potential world before the Genesis – in modern terms: before the big bang. We will further assume that the Genesis happened after the nexus of the so-called creatio ex nihilo[5], the singular creation out of nothing by the Jewish God.

However, out of the unus mundus, i.e., out of the energetic potentiality before the Genesis, new creation is possible. Thus, the idea is that there was not only the one “big bang” of Yahweh, but many further ones succeeding the Genesis and being based on a potential world before “God’s big bang”.

Such creation and incarnation phenomena happen after the nexus of the so-called creatio continua. Such a possibility of continuous creation is the incarnation principle of the feminine creator, the anima mundi. In a modern language we would say that such creation acts are singular acausal phenomena, not observable by physical means since they are indeterministic in time and space, i.e., they happen when and where the feminine creator wishes it. Since such a process is comparable with the radioactive decay of a single atom, I will, in a symbolic language, call such a nexus of creation a (observable) “singular radioactive decay” or a “singular quantum leap” out of the psychophysical reality.

The psychophysical reality in my definition is the same as the anima mundi, i.e., the same as the energetic aspect of the unus mundus. It is in Wolfgang Pauli’s words “an invisible, potential form of reality that is only indirectly inferable through its effects.” Though Pauli calls this realm a reality and as a physicist means with this diction that it is at least indirectly observable, it is of course as well a metaphysical term as are the terms spirit, psyche and matter. We will see below that with the hypothetical energetic aspect of the unus mundus we have however made some progress.

I will also use the term anima mundi or world soul in a narrower sense. Like this the world soul is equal to the term matter-psyche, symbolized by the equilateral triangle pointed downwards. In a Hermetic alchemical language we can describe such a situation as the queen residing in the intermediate world and not yet pregnant with the king.

The reason for the definition of the anima mundi in the narrower sense is the fact that our whole world, the scientific as well as the depth psychological, is defined on the background of the spirit-psyche – the outer as physical energy, the inner as Carl Jung’s objective psychic energy. Like this the reality of the matter-psyche, i.e., the feminine aspect of the bipolar energy term is completely repressed. As we have seen, science has defined it as nonexistent since Descartes invented the concepts of the res cogitans and the res extensa. I call the former the conscious spirit-psyche, the latter the spirit-matter aspect of the reality. We see immediately that the complementary worlds of the res amans and the res intensa postulated by me, belong neither to the scientific nor to the depth psychological world. We can interpret them as the Eros consciousness and the realm observable by it, the Eros Self. The latter, the res intensa, a world without any physical measurability, without a metric space, a measurable time and mass, I will call the anima mundi in its narrower sense.

 

 

4.7.1.4 The exchange of attributes, the double transformation process, the multiplicatio and the radiation

The potential energetic transformation, the exchange of attributes in its potential state, we can describe in a general way as the following twin process:

 

{spirit-psyche transforms into matter-psyche / matter-psyche transforms into renewed spirit-psyche}

 

Like this I translate the entry of the old king into the womb of the queen as the first of the twin process, while the birth of the new, rejuvenated king is the second.  

With the help of the epistemological tools of quantum physics we can state that this twin process when becoming actual, is acausal or indeterministic. For the reader familiar with quantum physical epistemology I postulate that the potential state is comparable with the state described by the wave function. The acausal transformation of the potential into the actual state[6] reminds one of the quantum leap. This is the deeper reason why I use the symbolic term “singular psychophysical quantum leap” or “singular psychophysical radioactive decay” for such an event.  

As we have seen above, the second goal of the unio corporalis is the multiplicatio, a necessary attribute of the exchange of attributes. It is some sort of a radiation, which is also compared with the goal of the philosophical gold that gilds the whole universe. Since the exchange of the attributes is an acausal or indeterministic process – the world soul creates where and when she wishes – we are involuntarily reminded of another radiation, namely the radiation of the radioactive decay. The difference is however, that physics does not believe in the bipolarity of the energy term and thus does not accept that the radioactive decay could be parallelized with the first of the above twin process, and thus would be accompanied by a second process, in which the matter-psyche transforms into “renewed spirit-psyche” (whatever this could be). We will however later see that there are good reasons for stating that radioactivity has in fact to do with the exchange of attributes, with the above energetic twin process, in which, in Hermetic alchemical terms, the rejuvenated king reincarnates into our world.  

With the inclusion of the exchange of attributes and the multiplicatio based on the principle of the bipolarity of the energy term I take into account one of the most important meanings of Wolfgang Pauli’s Fludd/flood synchronicity at the foundation ceremony of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich in the year 1948[7]. In my opinion, only such an enhancement of the scientific explanation principles and like this the inclusion of this specific aspect of Hermetic alchemy (Robert Fludd; Gerardus Dorneus) can lead into the formulation of a significant psychophysical theory for the 21^st century.

[Proofread GJS, 12/27/2005]