We need to understand Light’s value as a psychological trigger, not just as a mechanistic function of eyesight. C.G.Jung’s references to Light can all be found within his Alchemical texts where he studied how Renaissance philosophers had unconsciously projected the inner workings of their minds and belief systems into their studies of observable phenomena, and nowhere is this more true than their studies in Alchemy and Light.
Newton, the father of Optics, spent 20 years studying alchemy. Newton’s study of light was not just an empirical study of Light, it was also a study of the consciousness that is inherent in each of us. Contemporaries to Newton wrote about light in a very specific manner at a time when there was no empirical separation between matter and soul, the adversarial relationship between Church and Galileo erupted in 1633 yet there were many successful published ‘scientists’ within Rome’s Church observing empirical matters but still with an imbued spiritual meaning, in particular Athanasius Kircher.
Comparing his text on Opticks with Paracelsus, Hermes Trismegistus, Newton, Kepler, John Dee, the Splendor Solis and the stunning maps of Andreas Cellarius, we see a picture emerge of Light as the conscious emanating principle of ‘Man’ himself.
