The Axiom of Maria is a precept of alchemy - 'One becomes two, two becomes three and out of the third comes the fourth. (Jung, CW 12, par. 26) As these things tend to do, it then cycles back to 1.
This is the 3 + 1 that keeps resurfacing and which I have blogged about a couple of times already.
In the development of the psyche (individuation), or the evolution of consciousness, one is the original state of unconscious wholeness (e.g. childhood); two signifies the conflict between opposites (e.g. persona and shadow); three points to a potential resolution and is therefore also the transcendent function. The one as the fourth is code for the Philosopher’s Stone – psychologically equivalent to a transformed state of conscious wholeness and peace.
This axiom is attributed to a 3rd century alchemist called Maria Prophetissa, the Jewess, sister of Moses. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) used it as a metaphor for the process of individuation. The Axiom of Maria is an alchemical analogy for this process, from the one to the many to the one, from undifferentiated unconsciousness, through differentiation to a unified consciousness.
REF: Sharp, Jung Uncorked: Book Two, 2008, p. 51
2 comments:
Joan said:
Many thanks for that: succinctly put. I am sure I would have read it decades ago in Jung's first great book "Psychological Types"; but it is so long since I read it and no doubt time I did. Your use of this material is vital because it is the basis of Jung's whole teaching from much more ancient knowledge. It was the basis of my whole approach to my art practice in a non-intellectual way.
Yes, I put this stuff on the blog so that it is there for me, because I constantly forget things. having spoken about this particular framework several times now, I think I will remember it. And I do it for others too because something might strike a chord somewhere along the line.
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