Cluster Diagram: Calcinatio

Most lists of alchemical operations begin with calcinatio. A few authors say solutio comes first. However, the sequence of operations (with one or two exceptions) does not seem to be psychologically significant. Any operation may be the initiating one, and the others may follow in any order

FOUR ELEMENTS AND THEIR

Each of the four elements has its own particular operation. Calcinatio is the fire operation (the others: solutio, water; coagulatio, earth; sublimatio, air). Hence any image that contains open fire burning or affecting substances will be related to the calcinatio. This opens up the whole rich and complicated subject of fire symbolism. Jung has demonstrated that fire symbolizes libido. This puts it very generally. In order to specify the implications of fire and its effects, we must examine the phenomenology of the image in its various ramifications

AOP Pg 018 (c-1) FigNo002.01

The Wolf as Antimony, Devouring the Dead King. Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, (1618)

SEVERAL THEMES

The calcining fire may derive from sexuality. For instance, a man who was dealing with compulsive sexuality had this dream:

Hot Slate

DREAM COMMENTARY

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Mutus Liber, (1702)

In another text the calcinatio is described as follows: “Then take out all the feces which remain in the retort, and are blackish like unto soot, which feces are called our Dragon, of which feces calcinein a fervent hot fireuntil it becomes a white calx, as white as snow” (fig. 002.04) . Here the matter to be calcined is called “dragon” or “black feces”that is, shadow stuff. In another text it is called the Ethiopian: “Then will appear in the bottom of the vessel the mighty Ethiopian, burned, calcined, bleached, altogether dead and lifeless. He asks to be buried, to be sprinkled with his own moisture and slowly calcined till he shall arise in glowing form from the fierce fireBehold a wondrous restoration or renewal of the Ethiopian!”

The Fire of the Dragon Being Both Fanned and Extinguished

The text above demonstrates the nature of the substance to be calcined. It is called variously a `ravening wolf,' `black feces,' a `dragon,' and a `mighty Ethiopian.' These terms tell us that the calcinatio is performed on the primitive shadow side, which harbors hungry, instinctual desirousness and is contaminated with the unconscious. The fire for the process comes from the frustration of these instinctual desires themselves. Such an ordeal of frustrated desire is a characteristic feature of the developmental process

Dream:

The dreamer found himself in a cavernous place, perhaps underground. Through a door come huge, white-hot masses of limestone that slide or roll past him. Smoke and fire are all about. He seeks for a way out but whenever he opens a door he is met by billowing smoke which drives him back

On awakening, his first associations were that this must be hell or the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. In this dream the inert limestone is in the process of being transformed into living quicklime by the calcinatio

In the miracle of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2 : 3, the Holy Spirit comes as tongues of fire (fig. 002.10) . The following case is an example of the image of fire as the Holy Spirit. A young research scientist made a brilliant formulation in a scientific paper based on an important discovery. The professor who held authority over him had belittled his conclusions without reading the paper. At this point the young scientist, who was usually very mild mannered, replied with great intensity: “Professor,if you are going to criticize my paper you must first read it and give it careful thought.” He was alarmed by the intensity of his reaction, but after an initial flare of anger the professor acknowledged his mistake, read the paper, and recognized its value

Pentecost

The night before this crucial encounter, which had important consequences for the young scientist's career, he had this dream:

Tongues of Fire

DREAM COMMENTARY

WHITE ASH AS THE

The end product of calcinatio is a white ash. This corresponds to the so-called “white foliated earth” of many alchemical texts. It signifies the albedo or whitening phase and has paradoxical associations. On the one hand ashes signify despair, mourning, or repentance. On the other hand they contain the supreme value, the goal of the work. One text says, “Despise not the ashes for they are the diadem of thy heart, and the ash of things that endure.” Another says, “The white foliated earth is the crown of victory which is ash extracted from ash, and their second body.” The ash is the incorruptible “glorified body,” which has survived the purifying ordeal. It is equated with the biblical image of the crown of glory

An example of calcinatio followed by glory is found in the legend of St. John the Evangelist. The apostle survived the cauldron of boiling oil, was exiled, and ultimately returned covered with glory

What turns the ashes of failure into the crown of victory is indicated by the fact that ash is alchemically equivalent to salt. The symbolism of salt has been discussed comprehensively by Jung. Basically salt symbolizes Eros and appears in one of two aspects, either as bitterness or as wisdom. Jung writes: “Tears, sorrow, and disappointment are bitter, but wisdom is the comforter in all psychic suffering. Indeed, bitterness and wisdom form a pair of alternatives: where there is bitterness wisdom is lacking, and where wisdom is there can be no bitterness. Salt, as the carrier of this fateful alternative, is coordinated with the nature of woman” ( CW14: par. 330 )

DRYING-OUT PROCESS

FRUSTRATION OF DESIROUSNESS

The necessary frustration of desirousness or concupiscence is the chief feature of the calcinatio stage. First the substance must be located; that is, the unconscious, unacknowledged desire, demand, expectation must be recognized and affirmed. The instinctual urge that says “I want” and “I am entitled to this” must be fully accepted by the ego. There can be no proper calcinatio, as distinguished from masochistic self-flagellation, until the proper material is at hand. I think this fact is what underlies the following warning of an alchemist: “A great many students make a mistake at the very outset, by performing this calcinatio on a wrong substance;or they choose a false method, and corrode instead of calcining the metallic bodies on which they operate. Calcination can take place only by means of the inward heat of the body, assisted by friendly outward warmth; but calcination by means of a heterogenous agent can only destroy the metallic nature, in so far as it has any effect at all” ( Waite, trans., The Hermetic Museum 2 : 256 )

BY THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST

FRUSTRATED

As a rule, life reality, if faced, provides plenty of occasions for the calcinatio of frustrated desirousness. The primitive, undifferentiated desire that says “I want” operates on the implicit assumption that it is entitled to have what it wants. When denied, it becomes enraged. This is the psychological homologue of the “Divine Wrath” that roasted Christ. Reality often generates fire by challenging or denying the demanding expectations of such desires. Denied justification, the frustrated desire becomes the fire of calcinatio. Ripley says: “Calcination is the purgation of our stone, Restoring also of his natural heat; Of radical moisture it leaveth none” ( The Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers, p. 218 )

Calcinatio has a purging or purifying effect. The substance is purged of radical moisture. This would correspond to the drippings of unconsciousness that accompany emerging energies. Or, in other words, the energies of the archetypal psyche first appear in identification with the ego and express themselves as desires for ego-pleasure and ego-power. The fire of calcinatio purges these identifications and drives off the root, or primordial moisture, leaving the content in its eternal or transpersonal state, restored of its natural heatthat is, of its own proper energy and functioning (fig. 002.13) and (fig. 002.14)

Expulsion of the Demons

AOP Pg 044 (s) FigNo002.14

Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, (1618)