eans of the blacks, death and putrefaction.

In the "Clavis philosophiae et alchymiae Fluddanae," of the year 1633, we
read: "Know then that it is the duty of spiritual alchemy to mortify and
to refine all obscuring prejudice as corruptible and vain, and so break
down the tents of darkness and ignorance, so that that imperishable but
still beclouded spirit may be free and grow and multiply in us through the
help of the fiery spirit, full of grace, which God so kindly moistened, so
as to increase it from a grain to a mountain. That is the true alchemy of
which I am speaking, that which can multiply in me that rectangular stone,
which is the cornerstone of my life and my soul, so that the dead in me
shall be awakened anew, and arise from the old nature that had become
corrupted in Adam, as a new man who is new and living in Christ, and
therefore in that rectangular stone...."

To the "sacrifice" of the person introverting, Jung devotes an entire
chapter in his Psychology of the Unconscious, Chapt. IV. A brief resume of
it would show that by the sacrifice is meant the giving up of the mother,
i.e., the disclaiming of all bonds and limitations that the soul has
carried over from childhood into adulthood. The victory over the dragon is
equivalent to the sacrificing of the regressive (incestuous) tendency.
After we have sought the mother through introversion we must escape from
her, enriched by the treasure which we have gotten.

The sacrifice of a part of ourself (killing of the dragon, the father,
etc.) is, as Jung points out, represented also in mythology by the
shooting with sharp arrows at the symbol of the libido. The symbol of the
libido is generally a sun symbol. Now it is particularly noteworthy that
the VIII key of the alchemist Basilius Valentinus (see figure 3, p. 199)
shows arrows being shot, which are aimed at the [Symbol: sun] (this libido
symbol par excellence) that is aptly used as a "target." Death is clearly
enough accentuated and correlated with the sinking of the corns of wheat
into the earth. [John XII, 24, 25, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it
die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal.] As this rises, so also will the dying mystic rise. The grave
crosses have the form [Symbol: Fire] ([Symbol: Sulphur]); they show that
th