On Psycho & the Coniunctio
Monarch Meds #1
Monarch meds (meditations) is a series where I instinctively select two books and then, in a stroke of serendipity, open each to a random page. Similar to Tarot, I would consider this a kind of “designed chance” experience. The experience of pulling out the deck with the intension of doing a reading is designed, and then the subsequent chance event occurs. The passages chosen by chance are taken delightfully out of context, with the purpose of bridging them (conceptually or otherwise) to hopefully generate something new.
Passage #1
"Hermes writes: The dragon only dies when he is killed by his brother and sister at once. Not by one alone, but by both at once, namely by sun and moon (...) That means that one must fix and unite it with Luna or Sol. The dragon is the living quicksilver drawn from or out of the bodies that have a body, soul and spirit. Hence, it is also said that the dragon does not die without his brother and his sister (...)." (Rosarium philosophorum, Ed. J. Telle, Weinheim, 1992)
"The dragon always represents Mercury, whether it is fixed or volatile," writes Maier. Within it is Saturn, who eats his own tail and, because of his poison and his sharp teeth, is a watchful and faithful servant of the philosophers, who is not easily vanquished.” (M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, Oppenheim, 1618)
Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob
Passage #2
“Earlier I mentioned that things that have transfigured into symbols do not by that token lose their normal function as signs. The knife in Psycho (1960) transmutes on the screen into a numinous object associating murder and sex and thereby calling us to the primordial dualities of sexuality and violence, life and death, Eros and Thanatos. Nevertheless it necessarily remains an ordinary kitchen knife in the context of the narrative.
As Wilde says, "All art is at once surface and symbol." We can read a work of art as a semiotic construct (a narrtative or representation) or as a symbolic object (a way into a deeper reality). The first reading pays close attention to the content's form and sequence, the second reading to the play of symbols that compose…”
Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice by J.F. Martel
I had never seen the 1960s Psycho before, and even though the shower scene is so ubiquitous in pop culture, I naturally had to take the opportunity to watch the entire film. The obvious connection of these two passages, or even works of art in general, is death: the killing of the dragon and the killing of Marion.
The first passage from Alchemy & Mysticism is a reference to the Alchemical concept of the Coniunctio (or conjunction). The death of the Mercurial dragon can only be acheived through the coniunctio, or the unification of opposites: “killed by his brother and sister at once”. That is, in order to kill the Mercurial dragon one must remove their sulphur and lunar moisture at the same time. The passage of J.F already mentions the most interesting aspect of this: that the coniunctio could also be understood more primitively as sex and thus, life. The shower scene where Marion ultimately dies by the kitchen knife was shocking to viewers of the 1960s. The whole shower scene is 45 seconds long where we see the creeping of the shadow of Norman holding the knife, the curtain rip open, and the subsequent scenes that flash before our eyes which outline a clear rhythm of sex and death; naval and knife.
As J.F mentions, the knife, while a mundane object in the narrative, transforms into a symbol of deeper realities, encompassing themes of sex, violence, life, and death. It transmutes itself into a symbolic object which one could argue is itself a representation of the coniunctio in that moment. Though, if one were to claim the knife is entirely representative of the singular concept of the conjunction step in alchemy, it is through the integration, or unification, of sex and death that happens in the minds of the viewer. As Hitchcock points out himself, there are no scenes where you actually see the knife hitting flesh. The gory scene (as some would call it) occurs solely in the viewers imagination brought on by the scene’s ambiguity.
The Rosarium pictures of the conjunction are similarly ambiguous, and could themselves be interpreted as a kind of flash of sex and death. The ambiguity is almost required in order for someone to get at the meaning and message, as it lies beyond the world of language. If the Rosarium pictures were too laid out on a platter, it wouldn’t be yours to imagine and thus work through in your own psyche. And indeed, working through this kind of ambiguity in both works of art is a key way these concepts enter into our own psyche.
In the image associated with the first passage, we see a Dragon in battle with two other beings. Dragons in alchemy are almost always associated with Mercury; a kind of mutable and transformable substance. The symbolism of mercury in alchemy is many layered, and this short passage will surely not be able to go into it’s true depths, however through this ambiguous substance we can uncover something deeper about the nature of the alchemical (or mercurial) dragon. When dragons are depicted in combat in alchemical imagery, it symbolizes a process called Putrefaction. Thus, one could interpret the battle between brother and sister and the mercurial dragon as a symbol of the Putrefaction step in the alchemical process. This is considered a cleansing stage where all impurities are removed. If the image shows two dragons fighting, it represents the internal struggle related to the ego, essentially a battle over whether the ego will survive or perish. In the context of the image described in the passage, the fighting dragons - a brother and a sister - can be interpreted as a metaphor for a person who is confronting their inner darkness or shadow self.
It’s perhaps apt to relate the true horror of the film Psycho to not be the gore we experience in the bathroom, but the act of seeing our own shadow in the reflection of Marion and Norman: a inner reflecting on our own separation of self. It’s a calling to examine our own neurosis - a wake up call to examine the effects of not integrating our own shadow. The double nature of the characters is quite interesting in this sense. Both characters are attempting to escape some level of control. They’re moving in the same direction from opposite poles. One is too dark, one too light. Perhaps the entire narrative could be seen as a warning sign for what can happen when the shadow is not fully integrated.
I’ll finish with a snippet of a poem from the poem of the philosopher Theophrastos upon the sacred art:
This dragon seize and slay with skillful art
Within the sea, and wield with speed thy knife
With double edges hot and moist, and then,
His carcass having cleft in twain, lift out
The gall and bear away its blackened form,
All heavy with the weight of earthy bile;
Great clouds of steaming mist ascend therefrom
And these become on rising dense enough
To bear away the dragon from the sea
And lift him upward to a station warm,
The moisture of the air his lightened shape
And form sustaining; be most careful then
All burning of his substance to avoid
And change its nature to a stream divine
With quenching draughts; then pour the mercury
Into a gaping urn and when its stream
Of sacred fluid stops to flow, then wash
Away with care the blackened dross of earth.
Thus having brightened what the darkness hid
Within the dragon's entrails thou wilt bring
A mystery unspeakable to light;
For it will shine exceeding bright and clear,
And, being tinged a perfect white throughout,
Will be revealed with wondrous brilliancy,
Its blackness having all been changed to white;
For when the cloud-sent water flows thereon
It cleanses every dark and earthy stain.
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