Can you discuss how symbols in the sustainability movement are charged with global meaning through digital alchemy?
[“In Paracelsian alchemy, metaphors and symbols refer to concrete practices, and concrete practices refer to psychological realities.”] One of the reasons that alchemy is often spurned by academics, theorists, or researchers is due to the fact that it claims access to a universal language. The idea that there is such a thing is a big “no no” in vogue in the academy. These symbols include the Sun which represents the male principle and gold, while the moon represents silver and the female principles. There are many more symbols and some are quite complex. Alchemical language offers us a font of useful symbols with which to think through environmental issues. We shouldn’t make stuff that we can’t recycle. We probably shouldn’t be ceaselessly raping the earth either as learned in the recent oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The alchemists adopted a much more ancient and pagan understanding of the sacred and the profane. It is a mistake to think that it was necessarily a Christian wo
