This very succinct recipe for the Philosophers' Stonewhich is what the Emerald Tablet is all aboutis probably the most sacred alchemical scripture that exists. It is really a summary of the individuation process and at the same time has its alchemical referents and I'd suggest you paste it in your copy of Mysterium because it belongs with it:
Jung brings this up as an amplification because the central image in it is an ascent and descent, just as in Maier's Peregrinatio text. Let's take this opportunity to read the whole thingthere are thirteen stepsand consider briefly what it means:
ML p.158Step 1:
ML p.158Truly, without deception, certain and most true
This means, in very succinct psychological translation, that the psyche is real
Step 2:
ML p.158What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of the one thing
This is the idea of correspondences, the idea that the little world and the big world mirror each other. In other words the personal psyche, the ego, mirrors the archetypal psyche, the Self
Step 3:
ML p.158And as all things proceeded from one, through meditation of the one, so all things come from this one thing through adaptation
Everything comes out of the original one, the original Self
Step 4:
ML p.158Its father is the sun; its mother the moon; the wind has carried it in its belly (fig. 012.2); its nurse is the earth
ML Pg 158 (e) FigNo012.2
“The wind has carried it in its belly”
From Maier, Scrutinium chymicum, (1687)
The consciously realized Self is born out of the four elements. It is the product of the four processes that the four elements refer to: calcinatio, solutio, sublimatio and coagulatio. The consciously realized Self is the son or daughter of the fourfold process
Step 5:
ML p.158This is the father of all, the completion of the whole world
This refers to the Philosophers' Stone. And so it says the Philosophers' Stone is both the source and the goal of this recipe. The father as source, and the completion as the goal
Step 6:
ML p.159Its strength is complete if it be turned into (or toward) the earth
It must undergo coagulatio in order to be fully realized
Step 7:
ML p.159Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, gently, and with great ingenuity
A separatio process is required. The essential meaning must be extracted from the concrete particulars. And here, especially, is where the reference to the Maier text comes in:
Step 8:
ML p.159It ascends from the earth to the heaven, and descends again to the earth, and receives the power of the above and the below. Thus you will have the glory of the whole world. Therefore all darkness will flee from you
This ascent followed by descent is the hallmark of the alchemical saviour, as opposed to the Christian or Gnostic saviour who starts in heaven, comes down and then goes back up again. The alchemical saviour starts on earth, goes up and comes back to earth. The difference indicates the crucial importance that the ego has for realization of the alchemical process
Step 9:
ML p.159Here is the strong power of the whole strength; for it overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid
This refers to the aqua permanens that penetrates everything. In other words it describes the nature of the anima mundi which has a penetrating power that can be found everywhere
Step 10:
ML p.160Text:
Thus the world has been created
The creation of a unique, conscious, whole individual is equivalent to the creation of the world. A number of texts make that equation
Step 11:
ML p.160From here will come the marvelous adaptations, whose manner this is
“Marvelous adaptations,” adaptationes mirabiles; that means miracles. The personal experience takes on a miraculous quality because it's penetrated by the transcendent dimension. And when one is open to the unconscious, synchronistic events happen that corresponds to these miracles, these “marvelous adaptations”
Step 12:
ML p.160So I am called, HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world
This recipe is signed by Hermes Trismegistus, the personification of unconscious wisdom. It is an illustration of the fact that the unconscious comes to meet the ego through this tendency to personify. Here that absolute knowledge, that unconscious wisdom, is personified as Hermes who signs his recipe
Step 13:
ML p.160What I have said about the operation of the sun is finished
Sun refers to gold, and so the gold has now been made