Customer Reviews

The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Black Sun is an extraordinary examination of the alchemical stage known as the "nigredo"..the blackening or mortification, so often experienced as depression, terror, or madness. I was especially transfixed at the way in which Dr. Marlan expresses the paradoxical nature of these experiences in that the darkness itself contains a "shine" or luminescence, that is the light of nature, not that of heaven. The text is richly referenced with the writings of Dr. Jung, several case studies, and many other literary examples. This book is an eloquent validation of a domain of experience that is unavoidable, yet so often denied.

Stanton Marlan has made a needed and deeply satisfying contribution to literature which synthesizes the obscured but major investigations into alchemy, masculine images of power and suffering, abstract and beautiful passages of negative theology. As a psychotherapist,I am profoundly grateful, excited and helped in my work with male clients. What is more basic or universal than experiences which draw on light and dark.

This book offers a refreshing view of darkness and the potentialities for change that it can embody, while simultaneously warning of the dangers of going too far. Using references from patients to famous artists, scholars, and psychologists, Stanton Marlan explores the influence and application of darkness in our society.

The only reason I gave this product one star is because there's no option for no stars at all. Alchemy cannot be explained by psychology or academia. In fact, alchemy and academia, and especially psychology, are completely opposite in their aims and goals. Psychology reinforces ego while alchemy dissolves it. That is why people like this and Jung should be completely ignored; they speak from a basis of clinical, academic opinion and not actual experience obtained by realization. If you, who are reading this, remembers anything from this review then I hope you at least remember that. Save your money and spend it somewhere else on things that are more important.