AOP Pg 047 (xx) Cluster Diagram Solutio

Author's Diagram

There are seven major aspects of solutio symbolism:

Dissolution, dispersal, dismemberment

Rebirth, rejuvenation, immersion in the creative energy flow

Solution of problems

These different aspects overlap. Several or all of them may make up different facets of a single experience. Basically it is the ego's confrontation with the unconscious that brings about solutio

RETURN TO THE WOMB

For the alchemist, solutio often meant the return of differentiated matter to its original undifferentiated statethat is, to prima materia. Water was thought of as the womb and solutio as a return to the womb for rebirth

ALCHEMICAL RECIPES FOR

Alchemical recipes for the solutio operation give us a picture of a descent into the unconscious, which is the maternal womb from which the ego is born. It is the prima materia prior to the differentiation of the elements by consciousness. Some texts describe the procedure as a very pleasant process. There are others which express it much more negatively. For instance, consider this solutio-dismemberment recipe: “The body of that woman [who slays her husbands] is full of weapons and poison. Let a grave be dug for that dragon, and let that woman be buried with him, he being chained fast to that woman; and the more he winds and coils himself around her, the more will he be cut to pieces by the female weapons which are fashioned in the body of the woman. And when he sees that he is mingled with the limbs of the woman, he will be certain of death, and will be changed wholly into blood” ( CW14: par. 15 )

LONGING FOR BLISSFUL SOLUTIO

AOP Pg 049 (g) FigNo003.01

Rackham, Color Illustrations for Wagner's “Ring”

Our alchemical text is a mixture of images, as often happens in alchemy. It is a combination of solutio and coniunctio. Sol and Luna are being dissolved and united at the same time. This corresponds to a common type of alchemical picture in which the king and queen are bathing together in the mercurial fountain. An outstanding sequence of pictures of this type is found in the Rosarium Philosophorum (fig. 003.02)

The King and Queen in the Bath

As our text indicates, the solutio has a twofold effect: it causes one form to disappear and a new regenerated form to emerge. The dissolution of the old one is often described in negative imagery and is associated with the nigredo. For instance, Philalethes says: “The blackness becomes more pronounced day by day until the substance assumes a brilliant black color. This black is a sign that the dissolution is accomplished”

A MORTIFICATIO

Often solutio is performed on the king. There is, for instance, the image of the drowning king, since drowning is a synonym for solutio (fig. 003.03) . One text has the drowning king (or king's son) say, “Whosoever will free me from the waters and lead me to dry land, him will I proper with everlasting riches” ( CW12: par. 434 ). Psychologically, the meaning is that the old ruling principle, which has undergone solutio is calling out to be coagulated again in a new, regenerated form, saying that it has quantities of libido (riches) at its disposal

Solutio of the King

Another text speaks of dropsy, an inner drowning. The king asked for a drink of water saying: “`I demand the water which is closest to my heart, and which likes me above all things.' When the servant brought it, the king drank so much that `all his limbs were filled and all his veins inflated, and he himself became discoloured'`I am heavy and my head hurts me, and it seems to me as though all my limbs were falling apart.' He demanded to be placed in a heated chamber where he could sweat the water out. But when, after a while, they opened the chamber he lay there as if dead” ( CW14: par. 357 )

As Jung suggests, the king refers to the egoat least the dominant or ruling principle according to which the ego is structured. The king is dissolving in his own surfeit; that is, inflation is the cause and agent of solutio. A swollen ego is dissolved by its own excess. Its dissolution leads the way to a possible rejuvenation on a sounder basis

FOUNTAIN OF VENUS

In this case the agent of dissolution is the Eros principle, Venus or Aphrodite. Her mythology has important relations to water by virtue of the fact that she was born out of the sea (fig. 003.04) . Her dangerous powers of solutio are represented by seductive mermaids or water nymphs who lure men to death by drowning. An impressive example of this theme occurred in a dream of a young man who was thinking of leaving his wife and young children to marry a seductive woman. He dreamed:

The Birth of Aphrodite

Dream:

I am in an underpass where people pass to and fro from the beach. Here are sold the usual recreation goodies: enormous lollypops, popcorn, pretzels a foot or more in length, and crackerjacks. Two of my children are with me (the two youngest). A beautiful woman beckons me to the sea and I leave the children in a hawker's stand munching pretzels. The dream ends as I stand midway between the sea and the stand

A classical example of a fatal solutio occurs in the story of Hylas. During the expedition of the Argonauts, Hylas, the beautiful favorite of Heracles, was sent to fetch water. He was pulled into a pool by water nymphs and was never seen again. Here the solutio image accompanies a homoerotic entanglement, the attachment between Heracles and Hylas (fig. 003.05)

Hylas and the Nymphs

THE EROTIC SOLUTIO

AOP Pg 055 (n-4) FigNo003.06

Rembrandt. Paris, the Louvre

Susanna and the Elders

These images tell us that love and / or lust are agents of solutio. This corresponds to the fact that a particular psychic problem or stage of development often remains arrested or stuck until the patient falls in love. Then abruptly the problem is dissolved. Although new complications appear, life has begun to flow again. It has been liquified

BY A GREATER THING

“THE CONTAINED AND THE CONTAINER”

Jung's concept of “the contained and the container” applies here. In relating to a more complex personality, Jung says: “the simpler personality is surrounded, if not actually swamped, by it; he is swallowed up in his more complex partner and cannot see his way out. It is an almost regular occurrence for a woman to be wholly contained, spiritually, in her husband, and for a husband to be wholly contained, emotionally, in his wife. One could describe this as the problem of the `contained' and the `container' ” ( CW17: par. 331 )

In the process of psychotherapy it usually happens that the ego of the patient encounters in the therapist a more comprehensive standpoint, which has a dissolving effect. This happening often leads to a partial state of containment of the patient by the therapist and is a common cause of the transference. Whenever a one-sided attitude encounters a larger attitude that includes the opposites, the former, if it is open to influence, is dissolved by the latter and goes into a state of solutio. This explains why a more comprehensive standpoint is often experienced as a threat. It feels as though one were drowning, and hence it will be resisted. Such resistance is valid and necessary and should be respected

REBIRTH, REJUVENATION,

Bath, shower, sprinkling, swimming, immersion in water, and so forth, are all symbolic equivalents for solutio that appear commonly in dreams. All of these images relate to the symbolism of baptism, which signifies a cleansing, rejuvenation immersion in an energy and viewpoint transcending the ego, a veritable death and rebirth

Religious forces are needed to overcome the egotism that divides men. The common celebration of the great sacrificial feasts and sacred riteswas the means employed by the great rulers to unite men. The sacred music and the splendor of the ceremonies aroused a strong tide of emotion that was shared by all hearts in unison, and that awakened a consciousness of the common origin of all creatures. In this way disunity was overcome and rigidity dissolvedEgotism and cupidity isolate men. Therefore the hearts of men must be seized by a devout emotion. They must be shaken by a religious awe in face of eternity ( Wilhelm, trans., The I Ching or Book of Changes, pp. 227ff. )

ASPECT OF ALCHEMICAL OPERATIONS

The greater solutio thus involves a transposition of the opposites; the solution of the body brings about a consolidation of the spirit.This is profound and paradoxical symbolism. The most obvious meaning is that a release from concrete particulars promotes a realization of universals. However, the paradoxical play of opposites means ultimately that the procedure leads to the Selfthe transpersonal center of the psyche that unites and reconciles the opposites

GOAL OF SOLUTIO

`Aqua permanens'

`Tincture'

`Universal solvent'

The philosophical water in which everything takes place is both the beginning and the end of the opus, the prima materia, and the Philosophers' Stone. It is a liquid symbol of the Self containing the opposites and turning each one-sided thing into its contrary. Thus it is said, “This (divine) water makes the dead living and the living dead, it lights the darkness and darkens the light” ( CW14: par. 317 )

ENCOUNTER WITH