Status Updates From Aurora Consurgens: A Docume...

i did not expect von Franz to be so much in support of Saint Thomas Aquinas as the author of Aurora even though she dropped enough hints in her introduction. The translations and commentary refer to an author who was too much the wiseguy to be writing under the guise of a more devout scholar. Yet her biography of a woman-hating saint makes sense that he had a grand vision of Wisdom so unlike his other works.

As best as she can interpret this curious text, von Franz only seems to be able to point out several hundred biblical passages while connecting them somehow to the collective unconscious and more intriguing psychological concepts most likely far from the mind of the author as he composed Aurora. It nevertheless demonstrates how far an intellectual will go into a mystery with just a glimmer of wisdom to find.

It comes as a relief that von Franz finds much of Aurora a challenge to figure out, but she applies her psychological interpretation to a text that is being pulled in two distinct corners even if it can be attributed to one voice. On the one hand is the alchemist-author who has no issue showing off how much he knows and on the other hand is the figure of Wisdom, the anima who warns him and us to know better.

The text continues as in the first six chapters: devout biblical quotations nesting the alchemical recipe for a philosopher’s stone, ultimately an allusion for becoming a better person as Jung and von Franz argue through self-knowledge. All fine until the last chapter starts comparing a woman’s breasts to grapes: “pulchriora ubera tua vino, soror sponsa” raises a red flag about for whom is this book written?

When starting out of this textual journey I mentioned something along the lines of finding my individualized reality, hoping it to be a version of my self. Almost as if anticipation, the original author (most likely not Thomas) speaks to the ignorant fool, and it feels like that might be me. Neither the Latin nor the English translations make much sense other than introducing the level of devotion needed to press on.

As challenging as it was to read Mysterium Coniunctionis from cover to cover, it aroused my curiosity about what it would be like to decipher one of the many alchemical books Jung includes. Seems like von Franz went to the trouble of translating and commenting on such a text. It will be like a virtual transcription of my own journey into this labyrinthine literature, perhaps revealing individualized reality?