The Psychology of Alchemy

The real nature of matter was unknown to the alchemist. In seeking to explore it, he projected the unconscious into the darkness of matter in order to illuminate it. This procedure was not of course intentional,. It was an involuntary occurrence. Strictly speaking, projection is never made. It happens. I am therefore inclined to assume that the real root of alchemy is to be sought less in philosophical doctrines than in the projections of individual investigators. Since it was a question of projection, he was naturally unconscious of the fact that the experience had nothing to do with the matter itself. Without recognizing it as such, I find, without recognizing it assuch, an interior or psychic life that is my

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