I will turn my hand against you. I will smelt away your dross in the furnace. I will remove all the base metal from you. Isaiah I: 26 In alchemy, the fire purifies… C.G. Jung, in Psychology and Alchemy

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(20) Alchemical Fire   This was another image that asked to be drawn. After I finished it, I saw the flames as  representing trauma and anger, and the smoke as representing depression. I assumed that there were two different parts of me that needed to be healed: my injured physical body and my devastated emotional state. Only when I reviewed all of the drawn images a year later did I understand that there was also an intense psychological process going on, a transformational process. Carl Jung, following a dream he had in 1926, came to the brilliant realization that alchemy was a metaphor for psychological and spiritual development. Alchemy, at the time Jung wrote about it, was generally regarded as an obscure quest to turn base metal into gold. But Jung understood alchemy to be a significant parable -- for turning the “base metal” of human existence into something of great and eternal value. Dealing with the aftermath of the heart attack has transformed me. I have been less caught up in the “base” life of my everyday existence, and my interests and attention have instead focused on deeper issues of meaning and purpose and values. My ego had been burnt to a crisp, and something changed in the process.   March 5, 2007