{"id":115423,"date":"2025-12-12T12:55:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jungian.directory\/fcxfougk\/?post_type=mec-events&p=115423"},"modified":"2025-12-12T12:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:55:21","slug":"an-evening-with-tim-lyons-the-black-vas-return-to-the-mother-in-the-alchemical-womb","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/jungian.directory\/fcxfougk\/jungian-events\/an-evening-with-tim-lyons-the-black-vas-return-to-the-mother-in-the-alchemical-womb\/","title":{"rendered":"An Evening With Tim Lyons: The Black Vas Return to the Mother in the Alchemical Womb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“To be that which you are is the bath of rebirth.”<\/p>\n

–C.G. Jung,\u00a0The Red Book<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0Pretiosissimum Donum Dei, \u201cthe most precious gift of God,\u201d a vital 17th century alchemical work, contains an illustration called the \u201cConiunctio in the Black Vas.\u201d The illustration depicts an entirely black, hermetically sealed vessel resembling a chemistry lab beaker. Lying down within the vas, \u201cmarried\u201d together, sinking into the bath of \u201cblack, blacker than black\u00a0aqua,\u201d\u00a0is the naked sacred royal couple. This alchemical womb that embodies the transformational energy of rebirth may present a much-needed opportunity for healing in the darkness of our modern world.<\/p>\n

Our present cycle of oppressive collective circumstances is driven by rigid masculine power drives. Bondage through fear, anti-humanitarian policies, witch hunts, scapegoating, and war are prevailing globally.\u00a0The way of nurturing, the mother, and the womb are being forgotten.\u00a0If the uninitiated ego tries to return to the mother\u2019s womb to try to heal from this wounded state, it can become an incestuous act of regression with disastrous consequences for consciousness. If, however, we can approach this return with sufficient awareness, then, as an ancient alchemical text declares: \u201cI find myself, I mate with myself, I generate myself, I gestate myself, I give birth to myself, I am myself,\u201d we may find salvation.<\/p>\n

The black “vas” is a symbolic depiction of the\u00a0nigredo, the blackening stage of the alchemical process. This stage is crucial for creating the\u00a0Prima Materia and represents a phase of putrefaction, dissolution, and spiritual death before regeneration and the goal of alchemy, the sacred marriage, can occur. The water in the\u00a0vas\u00a0may be seen as a metaphor for the flow of consciousness and biochemical life force in the body. The rigid thinking mind is like ice, \u201cfrozen in the failure position,\u201d as object relations theorist Donald Winnicott puts it.\u00a0\u00a0If we can generate enough loving warmth from the heart, it can melt the ice and evaporate our attachment to our own character and identity to create space for conception in the\u00a0vas. The distillation of the bath can be used to extract synchronicities, dreams, telepathy, premonitions, and visions to help guide us to a newly developed sense of meaning and connectedness.<\/p>\n

In this presentation, through the lens of depth psychology and neurophysiology, we will examine how this \u201cmost precious gift\u201d can manifest as a contemporary vessel of rebirth for both our spiritual and biological body. Alchemical and biochemical marriage with the Self can initiate evolution through love and enable us to start living fearlessly through acts of consciousness. This reborn life force can ultimately lead us to total evaporation and the experience of a state of unity beyond life and death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0“To be that which you are is the bath of rebirth.” –C.G. Jung,\u00a0The Red Book The\u00a0Pretiosissimum Donum Dei, \u201cthe most precious gift of God,\u201d a vital 17th century alchemical work, contains an illustration called the \u201cConiunctio in the Black Vas.\u201d The illustration depicts an entirely black, hermetically sealed vessel resembling a chemistry lab beaker. Lying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":115424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[184],"mec_speaker":[327],"class_list":["post-115423","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mec_category-lecture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Evening With Tim Lyons: The Black Vas Return to the Mother in the Alchemical Womb - JungianDirectory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Evening With Tim Lyons: The Black Vas Return to the Mother in the Alchemical Womb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0“To be that which you are is the bath of rebirth.” –C.G. 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