Stanton Marlan, Ph.D., ABPP is a Jungian psychoanalyst and adjunct professor of psychology at Duquesne University, a training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and President of the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts. He holds diplomates in both clinical psychology and psychoanalysis from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He has published numerous articles on alchemy and Jungian psychology, has edited four books, and is the author of The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Texas A&M Press, 2005). He completed the Flamel College program in practical alchemy and is a member of the International Alchemy Guild.

BREAKOUT SESSION: THE PHILOSOPHERS' STONE

“From a Dead Stone to a Living Philosophical One”  Dr. Marlan will explore the alchemist Gerhard Dorn's challenge to find the fullness of life's possibilities, which entails a movement from sol niger (the black sun) to the philosophers' stone.   In addition, he will explore the paradoxical idea that the prima materia is also the ultima materia and how Mercurius embodies both and is at the same time the process from one to the other. The journey from one shore to another and back again will be illustrated by powerful images, what James Hillman has called aesthetic signatures of the soul, and De Rola has noted "contain hieroglyphic figures and Hermetic emblems which express double meanings, natural analogies, and secrete Hermetic references that constitute an independent language" and that he calls "the Golden Game." Following these images marks the trail of the soul's self-generating activity. The presentation will explore a wide range of such signatures—from modern patients to the ancient alchemists and from the depths of the unconscious to the ultimate goal of the great work.

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