Reddit reviews Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology (Studies in Jungian Psychology)
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You might take a slower start.
One of his first followers Marie Loise von Franz wrote a smaller book on his psychology and alchemy.
Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology (Studies in Jungian Psychology) https://www.amazon.com/dp/091912304X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_o311AbA92C7QG
Then tackle Psychology and Alchemy
And then you can realize that you aren't yet prepared for his opus the Mysterium Conjiuctonis.
Have fun!
Wow. Thank you for sharing this. I was directed to this post by "Someone". Very thankful.
My awakening is similar to yours, and comes from a similar place but is different in many ways. I was molested on a trip to mexico by an older male when I was 15/16 and some kind of mind control drug was involved, very likely rohypnol or scopolamine. This made me question my sexuality for like the next decade in college, so I started getting into drugs and overcompensating by having lots of sex in college. Take a high number and multiply it by 5. This became a problem I had to talk about in therapy. During this time, I was into weird things like psychedelia and kung fu. So I joined a kung fu group run by a Chinese grad student in math, only his english was extraordinarily terrible, and what we were actually doing was Chi Kung, which is 'medical kung fu'.
After about a week of standing in place, "building our endurable", and becoming the embodiment of physical torment (try sitting in an invisible chair for an hour), Sifu finally showed us what it was about. Insisting our eyes be closed, he went around us and pushed our arms apart and dragged us around the room without touching us. Dumbfounded, we peeked of course and were yelled at. But that was what was supposed to happen. We were learning that Chi is very real, and that everything we think we know about reality is wrong. And that our science lies to us, and then by extension, our government, our medical industry: they all lie to us all the time. Is it just that they don't know? Surely not. After all, there's 3 of us here, and we now 'have the secret'. We have much to learn from other cultures.
I missed 2 kung fu classes because I had a terrible throat infection. I had been taking antibiotics for a while, and it wasn't getting better. On the way to class, I ran into the Sifu and explained to him that I could barely drag my ass to class. In the middle of a busy rush of students, he took my left arm and had me get into my stance right in place---I could only imagine the looks we were getting--and he started pushing his open palm towards a place on my arm, then he took his thumb and pressed on an acupressure point and held it. Then he said, 'today you get better' and 'tomorrow you get better and better'. He was right. I felt instantly better, and dumbfounded the next day my throat felt nearly 75% better and 2 days later was normal.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have just followed him around for the next decade, but instead I wasted my time in school and learned some useful things. I guess if I hadn't stayed in school I'd not have taken chemistry and then I wouldn't have known right away that 911 was an illusion, so there's that. It all works out.
Which was my biggest awakneing I think..9/11. When I saw it, I immediately believed it was a demolition and that this was an inside job. Nothing could convince me otherwise, but I did make an effort to try to believe the official story, only it was never believable in any way. Everyone was talking about al queda and I thought they were idiots...between listening to chomksy for yrs and knowing a bit of history, I knew this was a state sponsored terror event..I knew it was the Bush's because unlike others I actually had studied iran contra.
Anyway, this Qi / Chi- awakening also had the effect of spontaneously awakening kundalini on a trip to atlanta in a car....I realized I could at any moment 'suck' pleasurable energy upwards from the base of the spine... which may be the same thing--a kind of ineffable bioenergy that is as phenomenologically-actual and personal, as it is empirically-undetectable by science. I can see why germans called it orgone because if you push it upwards it actually feels very pleasurable, and if you keep doing it, the whole body resonates with pleasure.
If someone who knows more about this would let me know what they know about this, I would appreciate it. No one to date that I've ever met, has a clue what I'm talking about so my best chances are here with you folks in CST
2 decades later, I find myself doing vipassana and resisting the urge to use this force, because we're told not to. So I don't. vipassana awakens, and the 'force' moves like a sliding veil over the body from the crown down and back again. When doing it personally, I 'add in energy' from kundalini and it amplifies...is this a bad thing? not sure. Either way vipassana's perceptual strata of awareness moves, but it seems kundalini allows deeper penetration of this strata, especially when we did the inward/outward.
At one point, I'm 'analyzing' my heart, and I have the awareness of the entire shape and functioning of the heart and this blows my mind entirely. How is this possible? It's like mental xray on my chest, as if my mind is holding my own heart and feeling around the ventricles and atria. Reality is again 100% destroyed. Because I'm told that this is level 2 of about 12 more levels....some people dedicate their lives to transcending these ontological breakdowns...that's why they have temples with personal meditation alcoves where people will spend months and years in meditation. Maybe one lifetime that will be appropriate but in this world it seems like a luxury
3 yrs ago, 5 yrs after vipassan or so, I have a kind of alchemical awakening that happens during what could be called a 'psychotic break' that came from many factors including heavy metal poisoning, withdrawal from medication, a strong electrical shock from lighting, anemia from a b12 deficiency and having a 'dark night of the soul' where my life had become nearly completely meaningless until it flipped itself around and made complete sense to me.
These are my recommendeds, some of the first things I read about alchemy and jungian psychology:
Yes, to others ITT, and what you said OP, Psychology and Alchemy, in terms of clearest terms, but also arguably, Alchemical Studies. Jung is dense (!), but conversely also clear in moments.
If not finding the clarity in understanding sought in Jung himself some 'Post-Jungians (not strictly post in this case) work can be helpful, such as Edward F. Edingers work Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, and Maire-Louise Von Franz's Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology and Alchemical Active Imagination.
One other place to start, as did i was, was Von Franz's alchemy. She gives the layman a good foothold, from egypt to st thomas aquines's big vision, the rising dawn, aurora consurgen. She also did another book devoted solely to the rising dawn, a book i am eagerly waiting for, shit should be in within a week.
What i learned from that? shit, one thing, the book is available, although partially, in pdf form on the internet. anyway, she breaks down some alchemical illustrations. i do not have the memory to break 'em down, but they are apparently the basics. There is the alchemist at the mountain http://www.cgjungstl.org/images/PsychAndAlch.jpg you have the blind seeker and the shitty journey ahead. all leading to the phoenix, the rebirth, idk, like i said, i'm an artist not an intellectual. The shit i learned, idk, got absorbed but it's hard to articulate (one could argue that i didnt learn shit) but it is a great starting point.
Her second book on the subject is said to be... it's lessons nullify the need to read mysterium. like i said, i am still waiting for that fucker...
i also need to start taking notes. But goddamn http://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Introduction-Symbolism-Psychology-Studies/dp/091912304X, are some the passages beautiful. I have a lot of notes...
Idk, like i said, i'm an artist and not a scholar, but it is a great book, great passages.