The Lion Will Become Man: Alchemy and the Dark Spirit in Nature-A Personal Encounter

In this compelling psychological memoir, Keiron Le Grice, the 2023 Zurich Lecture Series' speaker, details his experience of a profound transformative crisis between 2001 and 2004. He explains how, by a sustained investigation of the root causes of his condition, he was eventually able to overcome the crisis, guided by instructive dreams and startling coincidences, illuminated by a series of symbolic paintings, and aided by his serendipitous discovery of the Gnostic text The Gospel of Thomas.

Exploring the nature of the unconscious mind and the mysterious spiritual power behind his experience, Le Grice turns to the mystical symbolism of alchemy and the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung to set out a deep understanding of psychological rebirth and its relationship to the ongoing evolution of the Western psyche. The Lion Will Become Man gives a striking example of alchemy at work and reveals its great value as a guide to the complex developmental process that Jung called individuation.



Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I: Sublimatio and Devil Possession

Chapter II: The Descent of the Western Ego

Chapter III: Dread, the Nigredo, and the Opposites

Chapter IV: Mortificatio and Ego-Death

Chapter V: Solutio and the Prima Materia

Chapter VI: Calcinatio and Dionysian Dismemberment

Chapter VII: The Lion, the Child, and the Transformations of Mercurius

Chapter VIII: The Cauda Pavonis

Chapter IX: God, Sophia, and the Dark Spirit in Nature

Chapter X: Coniunctio in California

Chapter XI: The Unio Mystica and the Transformation of the World

Afterword

Appendix: An Extract from Mircea Eliade's Interview with C.G. Jung for Combat

Bibliography