The Rightness of Wrongness
Psychology & Alchemy: fateful detours and wrong turnings
‘…the right way to wholeness is made up, unfortunately, of fateful detours and wrong turnings.’
Carl Jung
This week I had a glimpse of gold in my attic nook. I was recording and mixing some music. And as I looked around the rest of the room, which my wife has turned into a studio space for painting, I remembered day-dreaming about this moment, about twenty years ago, when we first met. She had a studio in Stockbridge, in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, at a time when Wolves, Bears and Artists roamed free. Anyway, one night, after some fairly standard Wolf Spotting, a few of us camped in her studio. Rachael and I slept next to each other. The chemistry was electric (in my mind and body, at least). And I consciously dreamed about sharing a little studio with her one day, in which I did some writing, recording, and tinkering in one corner, while she painted her beautifully rich, multi-layered, paradoxical, and profoundly moving, works of magic (you can follow her here if you want).
And so, this daydream has become a reality; after many years of ‘fateful detours and wrong turnings,’ as Jung puts it in his masterpiece Psychology & Alchemy. It’s an amazing book, in which Jung maps out how the alchemist’s material vocation and methodology to turn lead into gold mirrors our own spiritual quest and journey for wholeness. Through this psychological and spiritual lens, the alchemist’s magnum opus (great work), The Philosopher’s Stone, is a symbol of individuation, when we integrate our shadows, opposites, and paradoxes, into a beautiful inner golden light. The Philosopher’s Stone, for Jung, exists within, rather than the external object. He observes that pre-scientific humans did not make a sharp distinction between subject and object, which ultimately leads them to unconsciously project their own inner state into the external object. Therefore, exploring alchemical symbols becomes revelatory about the unconscious psychological life. This partly explains why the alchemists cannot say what The Philosopher’s Stone is. But it’s something to do with reconciliation, redemption, and wholeness. No wonder Christ is often associated with The Philosopher’s Stone: the great redeemer. And as Christ says, ‘The Kingdom of God is Within’.
Alchemy, therefore, gives a symbolic account of the fundamental processes the human psyche must undergo to turn our chaos into cosmos; our sin into salvation; or lead into gold. But this spiritual journey is certainly not linear. And I’m not sure we need to worry whether The Philosopher’s Stone is actually achievable, possible, and realisable in this life. But I have found it to be a precious piece of treasure, rich in insights and imagery. Especially Jung’s assertion that:
‘…the right way to wholeness is made up, unfortunately, of fateful detours and wrong turnings.’
As I look back from this mid-life point (according to the data, that is – who knows the reality - it could be the final few weeks, or the last year! Exciting stuff, this mortality business!) I can see that my Life’s Experiment is founded upon trial-and-error, guesswork, faith, detours, failures, hints, going-round-in-circles, doubt, disappointments, and so many wrong turnings.
It is a slowly meandering journey, like all meaningful odysseys are (and should be). It is fraught and fought with doubts, riddles, detours, labyrinths, and many fools’ errands. Red herrings galore. Sirens everywhere. Indeed, it seems that creativity, relationships, and spiritual quests demand ‘fateful detours and wrong turnings.’ I guess it wouldn’t be much of a story without such twists and turns.
And therefore, perhaps, we cannot make a mistake in this magically gracious alchemy pot of life. Everything belongs. It might just take a few more errors, stirrings, elements, distillings, mixings, discardings, spillages, tastings, bringing-to-the-boilings...to get to a little nugget of gold.