I contemplate how the unconscious part of ourselves becomes the raw material, the prima materia, out of which the alchemical gold, the philosophers’ stone, which is none other than the enlightened mind, is refined and revealed. The art of alchemy has nothing to do with turning base metals into gold, and everything to do with transmuting our lower, primitive, instinctual selves into a more purified state. The goal of the spiritual art of alchemy is to unite the opposites — to integrate the conscious and the unconscious, to unlock the light encoded and imprisoned within the darkness. The light within the darkness itself is known as the lumen naturae, the inner living light of primordial, ever-present, non-dual awareness itself, which is the light of nature that literally lights-up the whole of creation in this and every moment. To see the light that is hidden in the darkness is to become conscious, which, alchemically speaking, frees the spirit that is hidden and trapped inside the materialized world. The art of alchemy itself is an expression that hidden in the darkness is light. The alchemists, Jung says, “discover that in the very darkness of nature a light is hidden, a little spark without which the darkness would not be darkness…the lumen naturae is the light of the darkness itself, which illuminates its own darkness, and this light the darkness comprehends” In contrast to a light that, as the Bible says, “shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not,” the lumen naturae, the light of lights, is a light that the darkness intimately recognizes as its own nature. The lumen naturae is the luminosity within the darkness recognizing itself as it illumines its own darkness. This archetypal experience of the luminescence of the divine being found in the translucent darkness is referred to in various mystical traditions by names such as the luminous darkness and the black sun. A light that doesn’t go out, the lumen naturae pervades, infuses and animates the physical world. Everything that arises in the materialized world is inseparable from and a modification of the lumen naturae. At the same time, being the light of non-dual awareness prior to consciousness, the lumen naturae inspires, e-lucid-ates, il-lumin-ates, and en-light-ens consciousness itself. Being non-dual, the lumen naturae non-locally and synchronistically con-figures co-arising events, both in the physical world and reciprocally within the landscape of our minds, as a way of revealing itself. The lumen naturae inspires our unconscious and animates our dreams. Alchemical texts say, “He ‘learns’ the lumen naturae through dreams,” and “As the light of nature cannot speak, it buildeth shapes in sleep from the power of the word (of God).” The Logos, the creative word of God, is also equivalent to the lumen naturae. Not limited to giving shape solely to our night dreams, the lumen naturae also interpenetrates and materializes itself into and shapes our shared waking dream, literally orchestrating the situations we find ourselves in during the course of our life. Because it is not bound to the laws of linear time and third-dimensional space, the lumen naturae is always extending and expressing itself everywhere. The lumen naturae is not the light that we see, it is the invisible light by which we see, in that it is the non-dual light of sentient awareness itself. It is a light which inspires the world and yet it has no objects separate from itself. The lumen naturae is not a light separate from the darkness. For the alchemists, darkness wasn’t merely an absence of light, but a quality that was an expression of the indwelling light of being that has no opposite. Shadows themselves are nothing other than an expression of light; light itself contains and generates shadows. Where there are no shadows, there is no light. Establishing ourselves in the viewpoint that can join the opposites, uniting the shadow and the light is to not only possess, but to create, genuine wealth within the core of our being. As Jung says, “one who can join the shadow to the light is the possessor of the greater riches.” Among its many names, the philosophers’ stone is called “The Pearl of Great Price,” to signify its pricelessness, its preciousness, and its immeasurable value in all realms, both visible and invisible, outer and inner. “Human consciousness,” Jung explains, “…is the only seeing eye of the deity…God has made man so that he might see in the darkness.” We are the instruments through which the lumen naturae illumines and realizes its own darkness, which is to simultaneously realize its light. The lumen naturae reveals itself in, as, and through the darkness. Just like light, the darkness itself is the unmediated crystallization and revelation of the non-dual light of the lumen naturae. We can unnecessarily limit ourselves by mistakenly thinking that illumination only means to “see the light.” Seeing our own darkness, our own shadow, however, is initiatory and thereby is another form of illumination. Jung makes this point by saying, “not only darkness is known through light, but that, conversely, light is known through darkness.” In becoming illuminated, the darkness illuminates us. In being seen, the darkness helps us to increase consciousness. In being made conscious, the darkness introduces us to the light of non-dual awareness, for without the darkness we wouldn’t have realized the light. This is similar to how reflections in a mirror seemingly obscure the silvered face of the mirror while simultaneously revealing it. At the quantum level, it becomes impossible to distinguish where light ends and darkness begins, as they reveal themselves to be indissolubly united, a true conjunction of opposites.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:46:38 +0000