A biblical image of the alchemical operation of calcinatio where the King represents the power motive, the arbitrary authority of the inflated ego that must undergo calcination:
Nebuchadnezzar commanded everyone to fall down and worship his golden image. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused. Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage had them thrown into the fiery furnace. But they were unharmed, and in the midst of the fire four men were seen; the appearance of the fourth was “like a son of the gods” ( Daniel 3 : 25 JB )
AOP ¶ 0The account emphasizes Nebuchadnezzar's furious rage. His rage can be equated with the fiery furnace. He personifies the power motive, the arbitrary authority of the inflated ego that undergoes calcinatio when its overwhelming pretensions are frustrated by the presence of the transpersonal authority (the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). Nebuchadnezzar corresponds to the king in our alchemical quotation who is fed to the wolf and then calcined
AOP ¶ 0Another interesting feature is that in the furnace the three men become four. This is a clear allusion to the totality of the Self that emerges in the midst of the frustration of the ego power demands. Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace expresses an archetypal situation. It is what one encounters whenever one challenges an arbitrary authority, either internal or external. Whether one gets through such a calcinatio depends on whether one is acting on ego motives or Self motives (fig. 002.05)
AOP ¶ 0AOP Pg 024 (c) FigNo002.05
The Fiery Furnace of Daniel
Bible of St. Stephen Harding, 12th Century. Dijon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS. 14