The Incubating Heat of the Horse, from Les Vaisseau D’Hermes

The central image for tonight’s lecture depicts a flask containing the Uroboros, on the upturned belly of a horse with flaming hooves. The alchemists, interested in the transformation of the matter in the flask, employed various methods to act upon it. When they wanted a low, steady warmth rather than the intensity of flame, they used heat generated by decomposition, referred to as “the fires of putrefaction.” While recording their experiments and observations, the alchemists drew and described the images which they unconsciously projected onto the matter in the flask, as transformation took place within them.

So it is with us: Hoping for some change, we reflect upon ideas and experiences, upon matters psychological, physical, and spiritual. Observing dreams, relationships, and synchronicities, the archetypes and symbols add the perspective of the unconscious to our understanding of ourselves. Tonight, we will look into this image of the horse with flaming hooves to see what may offer itself to our imagination and the process of transformation.

Bette Joram, Ph.D, LMHC, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and past president of the Jung Society Seattle, with a private psychotherapy practice in Seattle. She is a past President of the Jung Society Seattle. She has been an adjunct faculty member of Antioch University Seattle and Bastyr University where she taught Introduction to Jungian Psychology. Over the years, Bette has presented a number of lectures and workshops at the Jung Society Seattle on subjects ranging from dream interpretation to alchemical symbols. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2005. Her doctoral dissertation, Experientia Testi Est: This is the Experience of the Witness, based on the illumined alchemical manuscript, Les Vaisseaux D’Hermes, provides the source material for this lecture.

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