James Hillman was a past master of alchemical psychology. This field uses metaphors derived from ancient alchemy to elucidate deep structures in the creative imagination. We tend to forget that creative processes are not random. Imagination embodies along lines that become apparent when we ponder the frequently incomprehensible images of alchemy.
The book, Alchemical Psychology, covers a lifetime of studies and is quite difficult to read by someone who is not deeply steeped in alchemy, the work of C.G. Jung or James Hillman. Robert Bosnak and Patricia Berry have studied these thinkers for well over 40 years.
James Hillman was the primary training analyst of Robert Bosnak, who developed the field of embodied imagination: the way in which images can be felt in the body and shape our embodied condition. Patricia Berry was among the early founders of Archetypal Psychology beginning in the mid-1960s in Zurich, Switzerland. She was companion and spouse of James Hillman for 20 years.
The course goes through Alchemical Psychology page by page – and frequently line by line – sometimes dropping even between the lines into the great mystery itself. For those who have tasted these mysteries, there is no way back. One is haunted by them for life. It was so with Jung, Hillman, and with Bosnak and Berry as well. It will happen to you if you’re open to it.
Embodying James Hillman’s Alchemical Psychology
This course begins with a heated introduction to the language of alchemy—a poetic, imaginal way of speaking that blends matter and psyche. Alchemical terms like vessel, fire, and substance are not literal, but point to deep psychic processes. Each image carries layers of meaning and feeling. Alchemy slows us down, inviting reflection instead of explanation. Its language is strange, yet familiar, because it speaks to the soul’s way of knowing. We let the course work on us, like fire slowly transforming what is raw.
We reflect on the fires in our lives, the strength and fragility of our psychic containers, and the art of tending inner life. Themes include digestion, circulation, emptiness, psychic salt, and the call to embodiment. This is not about learning information. It is about being touched. Changed. Cooked by the work itself. If you allow it, something essential in you may stir. Something that wants to come alive. This is the path of soul.
Further courses on the subsequent chapters of Alchemical Psychology are also available on Jung Platform:
- Alchemy course: The imagination of Air and the Azure Vault
- Alchemy course: Yellowing and the Stone
- Alchemy course : Silver and the White Earth
- Alchemy course: Salt, Black and Blue
