Spellcraft as an Alchemical Practice: A Depth Psychological Exploration

Abstract

This hermeneutic study brings spellcraft and depth psychology’s work with alchemy into conversation. The research explores the role of imagination, the four elements, animism, synchronicity, and ritual in both depth psychology’s work with alchemy and the practice of spellcraft. The field of Jungian psychology’s work with alchemy has been limited by its lack of physical practice as this dissertation argues. This study examines spellcraft as a physical practice that follows the steps and process of alchemy and is depth psychological in nature, thereby adding to Jungian psychology’s work with alchemy. Using a phenomenological research approach the author stays close to the lived experience of the practices being explored in the texts of the research. Issues such as faith, the numinous, the unus mundus, and the psychoid are discussed along with differences between the practices and theories of alchemy and spellcraft. A connection with nature where synchronicities and non-dual reality is an everyday experience is revealed as the telos that alchemy and spellcraft share in common.