Much of the last week has been underscored with a heavy listlessness. Each morning, I open my eyes and contemplate — Will I feel things begin to shift today? Will the energy return? Will colors brighten and enliven me once again? I sit at my desk, searching for a spark of inspiration. Yet all I sense is the plumes of smoke where once the fire raged with intensity.
How did I allow the flame to go out? It seemed to happen so quickly, without my knowing. Do the stresses and pressures of life stifle the creative flow all at once? Has something been building up, slowly dampening the fuel that kept things going? My inner landscape feels dark, disorienting, frustrating. How can I move forward when the guiding light seems to have disappeared?
It is always tricky to understand the subtlety and nuance of our psychic states, whether weighed down with a depressive mood, overflowing with optimism, or untethered in a turbulent emotional storm. We are presented with a challenging task: to maintain consciousness of the numerous factors at play, to feel the depths of what is impacting us, and to trace its roots so that we can understand how to develop or change what is happening.
During times such as these, I find it helpful to locate an image or symbol that can capture the complexity, that further fleshes out the psychological condition with non-literal interpretations. This week, it took the form of alchemical contemplation, for I couldn’t help but notice that my musings above carried the metaphoric language of a powerful prima materia in my life — the stella signata1.
Alchemy gives us a way to talk about our life experiences that is rich with the language of symbolism. As we identify the initiating point of our inner work (the prima materia), we can then apply different techniques (the operations) to bring about transformation.
Below I will outline a general guide for identifying and developing the prima materia within our psychological conditions.
Developing the Prima Materia
“…starting points differ since the materia prima differs from case to case. For instance, if the primary material (or presenting complaint as psychology now names the originating condition) that starts the alchemical opus is listless abulia, neurasthenic lassitude and somnolence, then one can hardly begin by pounding. Pounding is effective as a first step only if the material is hard-shelled and thick-skinned. Pounding the dissolved watery flux of a childlike psyche will not produce anything…”
- James Hillman, Alchemical Psychology
I. — Identify the Prima Materia
Consider your current struggle, situation, mood, or condition. How would you would describe it symbolically? Use metaphorical descriptions as you write, notice if spontaneous images arise in the process. This may take the shape of a lush environment with many details, as a shinning emerald, as an ominous figure with words to share, or perhaps as a rainbow of colors or a dance of sounds. What impression does this prompt leave you with as you enter the imaginal space of the prima materia?
As noted by Jung2, the primary material was an intuitive concept, a reformulation of our psychic situation in imaginal form. Allow what comes up to flow naturally without restriction.
Alyssa’s notes: From my reflection above (an example of the first step in practice), I realized that my usual burning signal star, a prima materia that provides inspiration and energy, was extinguished. All that was left was fumes, the echoes of a once raging fire.
II. — Analyze the Prima Materia
Analyze and consider the qualities inherent in the symbolic representation of your situation. Try to identify a few key elements that seem to most signify the prima materia. Focus on colors, emotional undertones, the weight or feel of the image and other descriptive qualities that flesh out the prima materia.
Does it feel heavy, like a leadened chain that you are carrying around?
Is it bright, open and expansive like the soaring blue sky?
Do you recoil from the image of a decomposing figure?
Alyssa’s notes: Most notably I was struck by:
How dark and cold the image felt.
The confusion and disorientation.
The remnants of the fiery star.
III. — Work Upon the Prima Materia
As Hillman states above, where we begin, how we approach working upon the prima materia, depends on the substance itself. Its potentials for transformation are laced into the subtle qualities of the matter; the symbols are full of the information we need. If our presenting prima materia is the heavy leadened chain, it might require fire to melt its static shape. If it is the bright, open blue skies, we might need the grounding power of earthly form to take us out of the clouds. If we recoil at the decomposing body, perhaps we need to stay the course and allow the blackening of the nigredo to finish.
What process does your prima materia need? How will you work upon it? Sometimes the change comes from its complement; other times, like cures like. Deciphering the right steps comes from intimately meeting the primary material as image and contemplating its subtle qualities. Once you do, choose an alchemical operation3 and apply it in psychological form. For example:
Leadened chain - requires calcinatio4: Bring fiery energy, intensity, and force to the dull, heavy emotional state. Perhaps picking up a physical regiment of exercise or confronting the depressive mood in serious therapy will turn up the heat.
Open, blue skies - requires coagulatio5: Limitless potential and expansive horizons need structure, boundaries and form. Break down your big ideas into achievable goals with specific timelines.
Decomposing form - requires putrefactio6: Whatever is falling apart has been in a process of decay for a long time, however subtle it may have been. Sitting with the discomfort and acknowledging the reality allows you to process, release and integrate.
Alyssa’s notes: The death of a star provides the fertile ground for new life to form. There is no rekindling the old version of my primary material. It’s demise clearly showed that the form it took, one that required constant (and unattended) internal fires, was yet to evolve into its refined state. The remaining coals, however, beckoned for air; for me to have clearer, wider vision that saw past the heat of excitement or the fickle flames of inspiration (applying sublimatio7). To sustain the work I am doing requires more structure than I have been giving it, more active participation in planning than I naturally feel drawn to.
I sensed also that I had to sift through the darkness and confusion with a tool of discernment (separatio8). By creating some initial space, I could rise above the entanglement of emotions and see it with new eyes. I noticed fears that needed tending and that I was sorely overdue for some creative overhaul. Although these dynamics felt related, they were clearly separate challenges that required their own process. I took each into analysis and have been working on them since.
Join the conversation
What are your thoughts on utilizing alchemy for inner work?
Have you identified a core prima materia?
Do you have any questions on the different operations mentioned?
Workshop on Alchemical Inner Work
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In Latin: Signal Star - Explored further in this post on the alchemical prima materia.
“The names given to the prima materia show that it was not a definite substance at all, but rather an intuitive concept for an initial psychic situation, symbolized by such terms as water of life, cloud, heaven, shadow, sea, mother, moon, dragon, Venus, chaos, massa confusa, microcosmos, etc.” - C.G. Jung, Aion (CW 9.2)
The examples below are far from exhaustive, the array of alchemical operations varied extensively. Some were elementally focused (like applying fire and water to the material), while others were more technical (like attempts to combine and fuse different chemicals together).
Calcination (fire) - applying intense heat to drive off impurities.
Coagulation (earth) - transformation of material to a solid, fixed state.
Putrefaction - the decomposition or decay of the material.
Sublimation (air) - raising material to a higher level (ascending to the top of the vessel).
Separation - making components separate and distinct from one another.
This is a LOT so I have to revisit and chew on it for a bit but this is such a good framework! Really needed it today (thanks Synchronicities☺️)
Over the past year or so I've started to engage with active imagination and some alchemical thinking (although my knowledge on that front is still very limited), and I've felt the benefits of even the small amount of inner work I've done hugely. I'm so glad I found this Substack - it's exactly the kind of resource I need as I delve deeper!