Suzie Chick

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Joseph Campbell

As I sat down this month to write, I wasn’t sure what my direction would be. My mind wandered and landed on films and television shows I’ve enjoyed recently (namely The Curse, Garnet’s Gold and Detectorists). I noticed a common theme in all of them. The hunt for lost gold. 

The gold was physical in these examples, but I believe it could also represent something more personal and symbolic. Our gold being our personal treasure. Maybe I was selecting these pieces of TV and film unconsciously, my psyche wanting me to search for my own gold? We are often psychologically searching for our gold, our treasure within. 

Gold in Alchemy

Alchemy (being the attempts in the period 1300-1700 AD of turning lead into gold) was regarded by Jung as a metaphor for psychological transformation. Gold, for the alchemist, was seen as the perfection of matter, including that of the mind, spirit, and soul. 

The alchemical process involves taking the primary material (prima materia) subjecting it to various processes to arrive at the golden treasure. These processes centre around the use of the elements; fire, air, water and earth, to transform the primary material into such gold.

In terms of spiritual transformation, alchemy can be used to describe the process of psychotherapy, where a client enters with their primary material and it is transformed by various processes (for example anger in fire, tears in water) to reveal the client’s inner gold. Gold is the highest value in the consciousness, the ultimate realisation of the process of individuation.

Individuation and wholeness

Jung coined the term individuation to describe the process by which we can fulfil our potential to become all that we can be. For Jung, the purpose of life was to realise one’s potential and to become a whole person in one’s own right. 

The notion of wholeness refers to the split between the ego and our unconscious in our personality. Through individuation, we mend this fragmentation, therefore becoming whole once more.  For example, in psychotherapy, our work is to make the unconscious conscious so that we may become our more authentic selves, a more whole person.  Individuation is seen as occupying the second half of a person’s life. The first half is more about expanding the ego whereas the second half is more about coming to terms with our mortality, finding a meaning in our lives and locating our place in the world. 

Our search for gold can be about our journey towards individuation. The gold lurks in our unconscious, waiting to be found. Our gold holds the answers to our existence and once found will bring us a sense of completion and wholeness. 

James Hillman, an American psychologist proposed an “acorn theory” in his book The Soul’s Code where he posits that “each person bears a uniqueness that asks to be lived and that is already present before it can be lived.” Also, Jungian psychotherapist, Robert Johnson describes gold as “the highest value in the human psyche. It isn’t created but it does have to be discovered.” Our gold or uniqueness resides within, waiting for us to find it. 

Our gold within

The rewards of finding our gold and heading towards individuation are immense but the process is not an easy one. It requires us to deviate from the normal, safe path of our lives. We must face our fears and embrace our vulnerabilities. In “The Secret to the Golden Flower”, Jung writes that “The way is not without danger. Everything good is costly, and the development of the personality is one of the most costly of all things.”  These challenges can often keep people from answering their call to adventure, their call to find their inner gold. 

In the fantastic documentary, Garnet’s Gold, Garnet Frost is a middle-aged man who has constantly struggled to find his path in life despite his talents and capabilities. We even hear a poem at the end of the film written by Garnet whose first line is “As I go over all the things I nearly done.” We learn that there have been many opportunities (of both work and love) which he has failed to seize.

In the film, he revisits a loch in Scotland where he had almost died (alone) in his youth. He lays a narrative over this visit that potentially there is gold buried near the loch which he hopes to find. During his trip it becomes clear that the gold really being searched was within Garnet not lying in the physical earth. To return to a place of trauma (a near death experience) might help him unlock himself from the prison of his own making. Finding the gold within may help him see his path in life more clearly.  As Joseph Campbell explains above “where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”

And so, as we enter a new year, can we find the still small voice within, calling us to discover our gold? As James Hillman explains “Gold is the lion and the crown and the king, the key to the kingdom, one’s own kingdom come, to come into one’s own.” 

Photo by Ashin K Suresh on Unsplash