Alchemical symbolism in the history of religion（432p&a）
1 THE UNCONSCIOUS AS THE MATRIX(模型) OF SYMBOLS
After chemistry in the real sense had broken away from the proping experiments and speculations of the royal art, only the symbolism was left as a sort of phantasmal(空想的) mist. seemingly devoid of all substance. Yet it never lost a certain fascinating quality, and there was always somebody who felt its enchantment(狂喜) in greater or lesser degree. A symbolism as rich as that of alchemy in variably owes its existence to some adequate cause, never to mere whim(突发奇想) or play of fancy. At the very least it is the expression of an essential part of the psyche. This psyche, however was unknown, for it is rightly called the unconscious. Althouth there is, materialistically speaking, no prima materia at the root of everything that exists, yet nothing that exists could be discerned(分辨出) were there no discerning psyche(灵魂). Only by virtue of psychic(超自然的) existence do we have any "being" at all. Consciousness grasps only a fraction(分数) of its own nature, because it is the product of a preconscious psychic life which made the development of consciousness possible in the first place. Consciousness always succumbs(屈服) to the delusion(妄想）that it developed out of itself, but scientific knowleged is well aware that all consciousness rests on unconscious premises, in other words on a sort of unknown prima(光皮) materia(原材料); and of this the alchemists said everything that we could possibly say about the unconscious. For instance, the prima materia comes from the mountain in which there are no differences, or as Abi'l Qasim says, it is "derived from one thing, and not from separate things, nor from things distinguishing or distingguished" And in the mysterium magnum of Paracelsus, which is the same as the prima materia, "there is no kind of gender." Or the prima materia is found in the mountain where, as Abu'l Qasim also says, everything is upside down: "And the top of this rock is confused with it base, and its nearest part reaches to its farthest, and its head is in the plave of its back, and vice versa."
Such statements are intuitions about the paradoxical nature of the unconscious, and the only place where intuitions of this kind could be lodged was in the unknown aspect of things, be it of matter or of man. There was a feeling, often expressed in the literature, that the secret was to be found either in some strange creature or in man's brain. The prima materia was thought of as an ever-changing substance, or else as the essence or soul of that substance. It was designeated with the name "Mercurius," and was conceived as a paradoxical double being called monstrum, hermaphroditus, or rebits. The lapis-Christ parallel establishes an analogy(类似) between the transforming substance and Christ, in the Middle Ages doubtless under the influence of the doctrine(学说) of transubstantiation, though in earlier times the Gnostic tradition of older pagan ideas was the dominant factor. Mercurius is likened to the serpent hung on the cross, to mention only one of the numerous parallels.
I have chosen the example of the unicorn in order to show how the symbolism of Mercurius is intermingled with the traditions of pagan Gnosticism and of the Church. The unicorn is not a single, clearly defined entity but a fabulous being with a great many variations: there are, for instance, one-horned horses, asses, fish, dragons, scarabs, etc. Therefore, strictly speaking, we are more concerned with the theme of the single horn (the alicorn). In the Chymical Wedding of Rosencreutz, a snow-white unicorn are both symbols of Mercurius. A little further on in the book the unicorn gives place to a white dove, another symbol of Mercurius, who, in his volatile(不稳定的) form of spiritus, is a parallel of the Holy Ghost. At least ten out of the fifteen figures in Lambsprink's symbols are respresentations of the dual nature of Mercurius. Figure3 shows the unicorn facing a stag. The latter, as cervus fugitivus, is also a symbol of Mercurius. Mylius illustrates the opus by a series of seven symbols, of which the sixth is the unicorn couched undera tree, symbolizing the spirit of life that leads the way to resurrection. Penotus gives a table of symbols where the unicorn, together with the lion, the eagle and the dragon, is the co-ordinate of gold. The aurum non vulgi, like the lion, eagle and dragon, is a synonym(同义词)
