Splendor Solis
Splendor Solis - Salomon Trismosin: This beautiful gift was given to me upon its release and it is an exquisite printing with full color gloss plates and detailed explication, finally! Here is Jungian analyst Jeffrey Raff from C G Jung and The Alchemical Imagination.
Excerpt from C G Jung and the Alchemical Imagination by Jeffrey Raff
“Inner Wisdom, the imaginative power of the Self, leaves behind its footprints, or the symbols that it creates, which the inner alchemist follows on his or her path. Wearing the spectacles of insight, guided by the lamp of consciousness, supported by the staff of inner authority, the alchemist endeavors to follow Sophia's lead, producing blooming plants and fruits symbolizing the endless creativity of Sophia.”
“The Sufi mystical tradition is of great importance for it possesses an elaborate theory of the imagination, and offers a unique perspective on the meaning of alchemy. The Sufi view of alchemy unites a theory of imagination with the goal of creating subtle bodies and of seeing into the heart of the universe. For the Sufis, alchemy is primarily a spiritual operation based on visionary states and experiences. Discussing how spiritual and material bodies interact in the alchemical work, for example, one writer notes that alchemical operations would be inconceivable if they were performed on material bodies, but once we recognize that they must be “applied to ‘spiritual’ bodies, the work becomes fully intelligible.” The Sufi alchemists understood that the matter on which they operated was not purely physical in nature, but belonged more to the world of ‘Paradise.’ Although the union of the physical and the spiritual is a theme found in alchemy of all periods, the Sufis were the most explicit in expressing the otherworldly nature of the work. When body becomes spirit and spirit becomes body, we enter a new realm of experience that I call the psychoid. I discuss the nature of psychoidal experience in the appropriate context, but the Sufis developed this notion centuries ago.”
“Though this inner knowing can be attributed to the collective unconscious, it finds its purest expression in the unified Self. In fact, Marie-Louise Von Franz finally concluded that Wisdom is the feminine form of God.In the ecstatic final visions of Aurora Consurgens there is a union between Wisdom and her lover that results in a profound manifestation of God. This epiphany symbolizes the emergence of the manifest Self that occurs through the guidance of Sophia. Wisdom is the imaginative power of the self, which guides the ego toward the creation of the self. True imagination transcends the ego, and creates the experiences by which it can encounter the inner world. Moreover, the imaginative process serves as a pathfinder to the person struggling to find his or her way toward transformation and the encounter with the self. From a more mystical perspective, imagination is the means by which the soul experiences God (Self) and shares in the creative expression of the Divine.”
Books mentioned:
Splendor Solis by Stephen Skinner, Dr. Rafal Prinke, Georgiana Hedesan, Joscelyn Godwin
