“Transmutemini de lapidibus mortuis in vivos lapides philosophicos!” a
“Transform yourselves from dead stones into living philosophical stones!”
the 16th-century Paracelsian alchemist Gerard Dorn (c. 1530–1584).
- Born c. 1530–1535, probably in Mechelen (Flanders)
- Studied medicine in France, became a devoted follower of Paracelsus
- One of the most important 16th-century editors, translators, and commentators of Paracelsus
- Wrote in Latin; his collected alchemical/philosophical works fill almost 900 pages in the 1602 Theatrum Chemicum (vol. I) and later editions
- Died 1584 in Frankfurt
- For Jung he is the single most important bridge between medieval alchemy and modern depth psychology, because Dorn explicitly psychologises alchemical processes (he speaks of the “anima rationalis,” the “truth perceived by the mind alone,” and the transformation of the alchemist himself).
"As a result of the projection there is an unconscious identity between the psyche of the alchemist and the arcane substance, i.e., the spirit imprisoned in matter. The “Liber Platonis quartorum” accordingly recommends the use of the occiput as the vessel of transformation,- because it is the container of thought and intellect. For we need the brain as the seat of the “divine part.” The text continues: Through time and exact definition things are converted into intellect, inasmuch as the parts are assimilated [to one another] in composition and in form. But on account of its proximity to the anima rationalis the brain had to be assimilated to the amalgam, and the anima rationalis is simple, as we have said. The assumption underlying this train of thought is the causative effect of analogy. In other words, just as in the psyche the multiplicity of sense perceptions produces the unity and simplicity of an idea, so the primal water finally produces fire, i.e., the ethereal substance—not (and this is the decisive point) as a mere analogy but as the result of the mind’s working on matter. Consequently Dorn says: “Within the human body is concealed a certain metaphysical substance, known to very few, which needs no medicament, being itself an incorrupt medicament.” This medicine is “of threefold nature: metaphysical, physical, and moral” (“moral” is what we would call “psychological”). “From this,” Dorn goes on, “the attentive reader will conclude that one must pass from the metaphysical to the physical by a philosophic procedure.”- This medicine is clearly the arcane substance which he defines elsewhere as veritas: There is in natural things a certain truth which cannot be seen with the outward eye, but is perceived by the mind alone [sola mente ], and of this the Philosophers have had experience, and have ascertained that its virtue is such as to work miracles. In this [truth] lies the whole art of freeing the spirit [ spiritus ] from its fetters, in the same way that, as we have said, the mind [mens] can be freed [i.e., morally] from the body. As faith works miracles in man, so this power, the veritas efficaciae, brings them about in matter. This truth is the highest power and an impregnable fortress wherein the stone of the philosophers lies hid. By studying the philosophers man acquires the skill to attain this stone. But again, the stone is man. Thus Dorn exclaims: «Transform yourselves from dead stones into living philosophical stones!" Here he is expressing in the clearest possible way the identity of something in man with something concealed in matter." — C. G. Jung Collected Works Volume 12 Psychology And Alchemy (376, 377, 378 item)