Alchemy through Art and Mask Work

“Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance”.

T.S ELIOTT

Jung’s alchemical process is a metaphor for the transformative process that can happen with embodied creative expression in art therapy when working with masks, clay, paint or other creative tools. When I use the term ‘transformative’ within my work, its meaning is comparable to Jung’s metaphor of the alchemical process. Jung studied alchemical texts and through his research he came to the understanding that images, dreams and symbols surfacing from the unconscious in the analytic process were often similar to those found in alchemy. Jung states that; “As is shown by the texts and their symbolism, the alchemist projected what I have called the process of individuation into the phenomena of chemical change” (Jung, 2010, p.482).

Jung believed that the alchemists were unable to separate subject from object and unknowingly projected the collective unconscious into matter, seeking to extract gold from base metals symbolised their desire for individuation, that is, psychological transformation.

Jung saw alchemy as the symbolic visual language of the psyche. The alchemists sought to “translate what was in his own soul into material form” (Samuels et al., 1986, p.12).

The personal ego, is supported by the great “I Am” (Archetypal Self). Mask and image in art can therefore manifest as a living symbol imbued with the imagination of the psyche, never fixed, always open to possibilities, alive in the receiving of soul projections. This way mask and embodied image will eternally be resource, the archetypal life force breaths itself through the imagination of the psyche into matter, making soul, or as Hillman says, ‘soul-making”. Through the dance of psyche and soma, we come to the still-point. This still point is embodied soul.