Dreaming of the Black Sun
Episode 24 - A peculiar dream of Alchemy and Saturn
Greetings,
Welcome back to the fireplace.
Let’s take a break from Astral travelling for a while, and discuss something else which is no less… mmm, worthwhile.
The Dream
This last week I’ve had an extremely peculiar dream. It was not lucid and no, it was no astral journey either. It was one of those ol’classic dreams where clearly the Unconscious speaks out through symbols.
But what symbols!
I’ve never had a dream like this before. I recall very little of its contents aside from, essentially, the planet Saturn (the one with the rings) appearing in the sky and me looking at it. It was obviously big and close enough to see it, not just some point of light.
Afterwards I saw a completely black, spherical void descending from above and covering it, creating some kind of a peculiar eclipse. For lack of better description, this was essentially a ‘Black Sun’. I call it a ‘sun’ because despite it consisting of a black void it was still somehow bright.
Now, the ‘Black Sun’ is a symbol I was familiar with, because Jung talked about it in his studies of alchemy, and therefore is an ancient symbol. However, I’d never dreamt of it.
The ‘sol niger’ is an ancient, occult symbol mostly associated with Alchemy. Now… wowie, where to start?
I will try to make this brief and simple to understand, despite the enormous complexity. The purpose of Alchemy is known as the ‘Magnum Opus’ (The Great Work): this is a process aimed at transforming ‘matter’ into the so-called ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. In other words, to turn lead into gold.
Across the centuries we’ve scoffed at this idea, which may have been precisely what the ancient alchemists wanted. The whole thing is drowned in extremely occult symbolism and terminology that requires translation but, if taken literally, would make no sense. This was done, it is said, to dissuade those unprepared from even attempting such a process.
The Magnum Opus unfolds in four stages:
Nigredo (the blackening or putrefaction - this is where the Black Sun is featured)
Albedo (whitening)
Citrinitas (yellowing or accessing the solar light)
Rubedo (reddening, the final stage)
The final stage creates the Philosopher’s Stone, which is usually depicted with a red colour to represent this. Now obviously popular media has often represented this through an actual, physical stone item.
Carl Jung was the only one, or certainly the most famous one, in modern times to completely turn the whole thing on its head and suggest that, in fact, the Alchemical process is not ‘physical’. It’s a representation of an inner process aimed at transforming the psyche.
This process is represented through symbols. How else could it be? Nigredo, therefore, represent the first part of this process, the ‘blackening’. Jung suggested this represents the confrontation with the ‘Shadow’ archetype. This is, essentially, the repressed parts of yourself, all your deepest aspects that culture and social conditioning has pushed and buried deeply into the subconscious.
I think this is true. But I don’t think it’s complete. I think the Shadow is both individual and collective. This refers back to my episode on ‘Hell’ - confronting the Shadow, in my experience, feels a little bit like that, to put it mildly.
And Saturn?
The planet Saturn could be a reference to astrological stuff, of which I know very little. I know the ancient occultists really had a liking for planets, but this was something I never really understood or explored much.
I once went to a Theosophical society meeting in my local town and I expected to find a group of cool alchemists wearing robes and performing rituals. What I found, instead, were a bunch of old people sitting around and doing astrology on politics, discussing the American election results. Apparently Trump winning was not what the stars had predicted.
I never went back.
It seemed to me like such a complete waste of time. I don’t doubt that Astrology may have something interesting to tell, but this is again an example of using this stuff on surface-level bs. This would probably be the equivalent of doing alchemy with actual substances, sitting around and burning matter.
Anyway,
Saturn is the Roman name for the Titan of Time, Kronos. Here is where I get excited. I’ve been writing about Kronos in reference to time and the evolution of the psyche in my latest article on the Greek Alphabet. You can find it HERE.
Why is this important? Because Kronos is the father of Zeus and the rest of the Olympian gods. Kronos began to devour his own children, driven to madness by a betrayal that he himself had committed against his own father, Ouranos (the Sky). But Zeus stopped him, saved his siblings and established his rule.
I explore this more deeply in my work above, but the gist of it is this: Kronos is linear time. And linear time devours everything. The only ones who escaped this are the gods. That’s why they are gods. And of course they are: aspects of life such as war, anger, courage, desire, imagination, madness, chaos, etc. are eternal and immortal. They have moved through our ancestors in the same way they’ll move through your grandchildren.
These are the gods.
So what could this all mean?
Saturn as a reference to Time; and the Black Sun as a symbol for Nigredo. Linear Time and the blackening/confrontation with the shadow. It could, possibly, mean that my work in the depths, which has been ongoing for a long time now (and I sure as hell am feeling it) is… eclipsing time? Transcending it? Has no time? It has come to an end?
I don’t know.
But it was something. It is my intention to keep you up to date with this journey. This is the purpose of this work.
If you also have had similar dreams, please feel free to let me know. These symbols fascinate me to no end.
Blessings,
More on Alchemy HERE
