The alchemical processes were initiated and carried out in relation also to the “propitious” celestial moment, but bringing the discourse back to the symbolic vision of Alchemy proposed by Jung and Hillman, in the same way we can say that the process of astrological interpretation of the transits (the astrological pre-visions) are a symbolic way to enter into relation with a person and build a story that unites sky and earth.
Hillman, about the therapeutic nature of Alchemy. which we should not forget, also used, very much, the astrological terms and the propitious moments of which I wrote, recalls: “[…] next to the general theory of alchemical transformation and next to the parallels between the alchemical imaginary and the process of individuation, it is the language of alchemy that can prove to be the most valuable aid for Jungian therapy, the alchemical language is a mode of therapy; it is therapeutic in itself”.
If alchemy is therapeutic in itself and uses a symbolic and astrological language, then that language has a therapeutic basis, the language of the stars if used as Hillman specifies in the case of alchemy can be useful to assist people on their journey.
Therapy in the Greek etymology also means assisting, not just curing. Astrology can be a tool of assistance. When I help someone, I listen to them, I confront myself, I tell a story, I imagine and tell them about the possibilities of how a love can transform itself, after a person has told me about his problems; I have done therapy in the sense of assistance, I have not cured him.
How can astrology become assistance?
Hillman points out for psychotherapy that the words hypostatized: unconscious, complex, I am abstractions that move away from the body, from matter because they block and stare, do not offer the possibility of experiencing anything else, “let’s forget that they are only concepts very little useful to grasp the psychic events that so inadequately describe. Jung stated that psychological concepts are “irrelevant in theory” and at the same time that the name does not explain the psychological fact in itself.
The same thing many astrologers do, statically color an aspect, a sign a planet and affirm, for example, when they notice a person’s nervous behavior: maybe you have Mars in Aries, or you have a dominant Mars. They make a concept, the aggressiveness of Mars, a rule, but it’s not so.
To teach it is normal that we use formulas, rules, static but it must be clear to the astrologer that it is not TRUTH, it is not certain, they are concepts that must remain elastic and open, otherwise we run into the error described by Jung and Hillman with psychotherapy.
The therapeutic effect of Alchemy for Hillman, therefore the welfare effect for Astrology, according to me is described in this sentence that refers to the alchemy that we can approach to astrology: “This is its therapeutic effect: it imposes the metaphor on us. In the very act of pronouncing our words we are transported by language into a ‘as if’, into the materialization of the psyche and simultaneously into the psychization of matter”.
The metaphor, the stories, the myths are the language that the psyche feels closest to it, less judgmental but which leads to openness, which assists in writing new individual stories and rereading those of the past.
The quotations are taken from the Alchemical Psychology of James, Hillman, Adelphi.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
