Excerpt from the Preface

My first encounter with the plates of the Splendor Solis was in 1937, while I was completing medical school in England and still in analysis part-time with Jung. In those days, I was aware that Jung was making a study of alchemy, but I didn't know much about what he was writing. He had published nothing about alchemy in English except the commentary to Wilhelm's Secret of the Golden Flower¹.

At that time I began to dream of colors and color sequences. I was fascinated, but I didn't understand the dreams until I thought of Jung's comments on alchemy in seminars that I had attended in Zurich and that color sequences might refer to something alchemical. Although by this time I was strongly influenced by Jung's psychology, this upsurge of alchemical material in my psyche occurred spontaneously.

I do not remember how I happened to discover the beautiful illuminated manuscript by Salomon Trismosin called the Splendor Solis, but there it was in the library of the British Museum², near where I was studying for my final examinations for graduation from medical school. I was permitted to look at this magnificent alchemical treatise, and in it I found many of the same colors and color sequences I had seen in my dreams. There was also a strangely synchronistic correspondence between my dreams and the text. It did not seem at all surprising: I reacted as if it were the most natural thing the world. One's interest is attracted to what one needs. Does that also mean that what is called forth is attracted to one's interest? If so, that is surprising! Edward Edinger³ referred to this possibility when he wrote:

"The gods we have lost are descending on us, demanding reconnection. Like Baucis and Philemon, modern individuals are being visited by and asked to provide hospitality for transpersonal factors with which they have lost connection."

After I had passed my medical examinations, I decided to give hospitality to alchemy by drawing with colored pencils what appeared to be a medieval stained glass window in which the basic alchemical colors - black, white, yellow, green, and red - appeared in association with certain symbolic elements surrounding a central sun colored red and gold. I suspected myself of having contrived this design until I showed it to Jung, who said, "Oh yes, this is eleventh century alchemy." How easy it is for us to doubt the messages that come from the deep unconscious! Apparently my conscious awareness of the alchemical images from the Splendor Solis, which was painted in the sixteenth century, had already deepened in the unconscious, and I had unwittingly descended to a much earlier period, when alchemy was more simply symbolized. I could no longer doubt the authority of this message that I was more subjectively receptive to alchemy than I had thought.

The deeper meaning of my psyche's turn to alchemy did not become known to me for a very long time. Eventually, it took an important place in my life and in work. While the three series of plates in the Splendor Solis were originally intended to illustrate the symbolism of alchemy, I found that they could express significant stages in any deep process of self-discovery.

Joseph L. Henderson

Notes to Preface

¹ Jung's commentary to Secret of the Golden Flower first appeared in English in 1931, and it is reprinted in the Collected Works of Jung, Vol 13. More information about this title is available in the Jung Arena.

² The version of the Splendor Solis in the British Library, MS. Harley 3469, is an illuminated manuscript containing twenty-two allegorical paintings and accompanying text. It is dated1582, based upon that date appearing within two of the paintings. The text is apparently considered as unremarkable as the plates are remarkable. It was translated into English by J[ulius] K[ohn] and published as Splendor Solis, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co. Ltd, Marie-Louise Von Franz points out that it contains many passages from the Aurora Consurgens (ed. M.-L. von Franz New York, Bollingen Foundation, 1966, p. 24.

³ Edward Edinger, Anatomy of the Psyche, Peru, Illinois, Open Court Publishing, 1985, p. 4.