The Lumen Naturae And The Sacred Feminine: A Depth Psychological Inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative, hermeneutic dissertation and depth psychological inquiry is to explore the relationship between the idea of the lumen naturae, the light of nature, and the sacred feminine within selected literature by the 16th century Swiss alchemist and doctor, Paracelsus, and the 19th and 20th century Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. The study amplifies not only historical ideas about the lumen naturae but also its relationship to the sacred feminine through the works of Paracelsus, some of his predecessors, Jung’s works on Paracelsus, Jung’s personal myth, post-Jungian and archetypal psychology and alchemy, as well as in selected myths of the Gnostic- Alchemical Sophia-Sapientia and the Greek-Chaldean Goddess Hekate. In exploring and circumambulating the relationship between the lumen naturae and the sacred feminine, the study aims to inform and deepen the mystery of the imaginal and psychological meaning of inner, medial, phenomenological, and alchemical experiences of transformation for primarily the feminine psyche and soul.