Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling's Artistry and Meaning?

This is the second of a series of posts about the literary alchemy of J. K. Rowling, a discussion jumpstarted by a post by ‘Iris’ at a Strike fan website, an article that championed a Jungian perspective on this subject. The first post in this series, Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry (substack.com/home/post/p-192594884), both explained what the ‘Iris’ post asserted and reviewed much of the critical literature that the brevity of the S&E Files article prevented her from discussing. See that post for links to this material.
The conversation between Nick Jeffery and John Granger above was recorded in the same spirit as the first post was written, namely, simultaneously a welcome to Strike fans and Rowling readers who have learned about literary alchemy only recently and an introduction to the work of the last twenty five years on this subject. Upcoming posts in the series will include a counter-point discussion in the debate Rowling is fostering about whether a psychological or spiritual perspective is better for understanding art and life and a review of the alchemical signatures that crowd Rowling-Galbraith’s Hallmarked Man.
This post is largely links to sources for points Nick and John discuss in their naturally enthusiastic and contrarian conversation, question by question. Enjoy!
1. Welcome to the Conversation! (Nick) I just sent out an article about literary alchemy (substack.com/home/post/p-192594884), John, in response to an article written by ‘Iris’ and posted on the Strike-Ellacott Files website, a piece titled ‘What is Literary Alchemy? Spotting symbols that map Strike and Robin’s growth.’ (thesefilespod.com/blog/what-is-literary-alchem…) What advice or guidance would you give to, say, Cormoran Strike readers who are brand new to the subject?
* There are three types of alchemy and it is important to understand the common ground they share and the differences between them;
* The first type is alchemy proper, which is to say ‘metallurgical alchemy,’ the sacred science of purifying metals and the adept’s soul via the creation of a Philosopher’s Stone that will transform lead to gold and exude an elixir of life, the drinking of which will bestow immortality;
* The second and third types of alchemy derive from interpretations of metallurgical alchemy’s aims and the symbolic texts detailing the work in the hermetic laboratory;
* Literary alchemy is the use of metallurgical alchemy’s language, colors, sequences, and symbols in plays, poetry, and story to foster an edifying and transformative experience in the artist’s theater or reading audience;
* Psychological alchemy is Carl Jung’s use of metallurgical alchemy’s texts during and after WWII to illustrate his ideas of the integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human mind;
* Metallurgical alchemy was practiced in China, the Levant, India, and Europe within the revealed religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity until its degeneration in the late Medieval period and eventual evolution into the strictly materialist chemistry we know today;
* Literary alchemy has been a continuous stream in literature from Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the Metaphysical poets through to Dickens, Yeats, the Inklings, Joyce, Nabokov, and J. K. Rowling;
* The academic study of “alchemy in literature” was the province of Baconian and allegorical readings of Shakespeare (cf., Beryl Pogson, Peter Dawkins, Martin Lings) until the late 20th Century and the advent of academic specialists in ‘Hermetic Studies,’ e.g., Stanton Linden, Lyndy Abraham, and Charles Nicholl (cf., Cauda Pavonis: A Journal of Hermetic Studies (alchemywebsite.com/cauda_pavonis.html), 1982-2000).
* Jung and his followers used their psychological interpretations of metallurgical alchemy as allegories of the soul to interpret mythology (cf., Erich Neumann, Marie-Louise Von Franz, Robert Johnson);
* Jungian analysis of story using Jung’s ideas of subconscious archetypes within a collective unconscious was popularized by Joseph Campbell in his guides to Joyce’s Ulysses and his more well known works on mythology (e.g., The Hero With a Thousand Faces);
* ‘Isis’ in her S&E Files article, ‘What is Literary Alchemy?,’ suggests that Rowling-Galbraith is writing an allegory of soul transformation in the Cormoran Strike series using metallurgical alchemy’s symbols and sequences as understood by Carl Jung and his disciples rather than as used by English writers since the 13th Century;
* It’s a challenging theory, the depth of which is hard to grasp without an appreciation of the types of alchemy, what they have in common, and their differences in approach and subject matter.
2. The Lake: (John) What I found most fascinating in your post, Nick, was your best guesses about where Rowling would have learned about literary alchemy. She claimed in 1998 that she’d read a lot of alchemical texts from which she set the “magical parameters” of the Hogwarts Saga; if you had only three chances to name one of those books, what would you choose?
* Charles Nicholl’s (amazon.com/Chemical-Theatre-Charles-Nicholl/dp…)The Chemical Theatre (amazon.com/Chemical-Theatre-Charles-Nicholl/dp…);
* Titus Burckhardt (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Burckhardt)’s Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul (amazon.com/Burckhardt-Titus-Alchemy-November-1…) (or Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on Traditional Acience and Sacred Art (amazon.com/Mirror-Intellect-Essays-Traditional…));
* Lyndy Abraham Summerhaze (lyndysummerhaze.com)’s Marvell and Alchemy (amazon.com/Marvell-Alchemy-Lyndy-Abraham-1990-…) or her Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery (amazon.com/Dictionary-Alchemical-Imagery-Lyndy…); (amazon.com/Dictionary-Alchemical-Imagery-Lyndy…)
* Martin Lings (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lings)’ The Secret of Shakespeare (ebay.com/itm/157263660936?_skw=Martin+Lings+Se…)
3. Carl Jung, Alchemy: (Nick) I see you’re chafing at the bit, John, with book titles I haven’t mentioned so let me name-drop the author not on my list because, as you pointed out, he wasn’t really a literary alchemist so much as a psychologist who discussed alchemy as a means of illustrating his own ideas about the ‘Great Work.’ You’ve written, though, that literary alchemy as with metallurgical alchemy is a subset of soul-allegories or Psychomachia. Don’t Jung’s ideas jibe with that?
* Yes and no!
* Jung’s ideas of the soul and archetypes (or archetypal forms) are based on late 19th Century Volkischer German ideas, which is to say, modern and materialist (some say ‘vitalist’) premises. His hostility to Christianity and Judaism was grounded in his acceptance of Darwinian evolution and derived philosophically from Nietzsche (see Richard Noll (equip.org/articles/the-jung-cult-origins-of-a-…)’s The Jung Cult (amazon.com/Jung-Cult-Origins-Charismatic-Movem…) and The Aryan Christ (amazon.com/Aryan-Christ-Secret-Life-Carl/dp/06…)).
* He conflates the spiritual with the psychological, …