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The Alchemy of God-Wounds and Marks in S15

This is a re-post of an earlier version as I realise I went over the Tumblr image limit so it wasn’t showing up on the dash ugh.

You may remember from my previous alchemical and Jungian meta on S14 and S15, most recently (the S15 stuff) here:

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/188914550769/nothing-gold-can-stay-15x04-atomic-monsters

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/188615633549/jungs-answer-to-job-or-the-transformative-power

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/188433555829/15x02-raising-hell-a-map-a-script-and

as well as various discussions I’ve had with @occamshipper on some of their posts about alchemical themes in SPN (as they have been following this from a Hermetic/ Qabbalistic perspective)

that the medieval alchemists saw the desired transformation of lead into gold as an analogy for the soul’s journey to God. And that the psychoanalyst Jung (who read alchemical texts extensively) in turn, saw that transmutation as a metaphor for the journey of the psyche towards self-integration/ proper individuation.

There are four stages in alchemy betwen lead and gold - nigredo (blackening), albedo (whitening), citrinitas (yellowing) and rubedo (reddening).

Jung maps these four colour-stage processes in alchemy to four processes in the psyche (to be assisted by psychoanalysis): confession, elucidation, education and transformation.

https://appliedjung.com/the-magnum-opus/

I was pleased to see the return of the Mark of Cain (below) in Sam’s AU “red-visions” in 15x05 Proverbs 17:3, because I’ve been speculating for a while about parallels between the Amara-Dean connection via the Mark in S11 and the Chuck-Sam connection via the God-wound in S15:

Remember that Amara bears the Mark (which Chuck used to imprison her outside his created universe for aeons) just above her heart (here in 11x22 We Happy Few):

(Image credi - Superwiki - http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/Mark_of_Cain)

Sam bears the God-wound from the Equaliser/ Hammurabi also just above his heart:

And it looks, in 15x02 Raising Hell, when Amara senses that Chuck is weakened, as if Chuck bears his corresponding wound from the God-gun over his own heart too:

(Image credit Wayward Winchester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfN5IWVl5E )

We tend to understand the heart as the seat of love and emotional wisdom.

In S11, as painful as it was for both of them, Amara learned from her link to Dean. She went through a cycle of the alchemical transformation - confession, elucidation, education and transformation.

Amara travelled from confessing her rage at what Chuck had done to her (and wanting to kill him) to eventually coming to love God’s creation (the universe, earth, people) and reconciling with her brother. She learned in particular, through the Mark, about love, via her connection to Dean (being able to see into his heart, particularly through glimpsing his profound love for Cas, for his brother, and for his lost mother, Mary). And we see at the start of S15 that Amara really has transformed, casting off the black of The DarknessTM from S11:

(Amara and Dean in 11x09 Oh Brother Where Art Thou)

to become clothed in yellow, the colour of hope and the sun, and transformation (citrinitas) in Jungian alchemy:

Dean too was transformed, because Amara gifted him back his mother, Mary Winchester, leading to sigifiicant emotional growth for Dean in S12-14 (including the symbolic expulsion of a negative, controlling, psyche-construct mirror for John Winchester from his head - in the form of AU!Michael - in S14).

Of course, that progress was (temporarily) ripped away from Dean by Chuck’s machinations and Mary’s (apparent) second death at Jack’s hands at the end of S14, leading to psychic regression for Dean (the return of “conceal don’t feel”/ “Daddy’s good little soldier”, which contributed to his break-up with Cas).

I’m speculating that Chuck will go through a similar alchemical transformation to the one Amara went through as a result of his mystical God-wound connection to Sam (confession, elucidation, education and transformation).

I mean, sure, we are all speculating that Billie will reap God, or Jack will kill God and replace him, or Team Free Will will kill God at the end. However, revenge (as I’ve said elsewhere) isn’t the hero in SPN, it’s one of the villains.

John Winchester’s obsessive revenge-quest against Azaezel for Mary’s death caused so much trauma and neglect to his young sons. Amara started S11 wanting to revenge on her brother, to kill Chuck, but she ended S11 reconciling with him. Chuck tried to write Dean into following his father John’s revenge narrative once again, at the end of S14, by killing the yellow-eyed supernatural being (Jack this time, rather than Azaezel) who (apparently) killed his Mom. But, Dean found compassion, resisted the revenge narrative, and didn’t shoot Jack.

So, I expect Chuck to undergo a transformation of his own as S15 progresses, through his connection to Sam via the God-wound. And I don’t expect a simple bloody revenge on Chuck to be the end-point for SPN.

Death, of course, is a profound transformation, so Chuck’s literal death (the Death of the Author) may arrive in some form at SPN’s end. But, I’m expecting it to happen as a transformation (in which Chuck does come to see the error of his ways) rather than as the simple accomplishment of revenge by TFW and their allies.

So now, I just want to point out that the alchemical colour palette does seem to be being drawn on very deliberately in S15.

We’ve got three references to gold - Veronica’s quotation of Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” in 15x04 Atomic Monsters, the fact that 15x05 Proverbs 17:3 references a Biblical verse which refers to gold:

“The fining pot is for silver and the furnace is for gold, but the Lord tryeth the hearts”

(and again see above re the placement of the Mark of Cain and the God-wound over the heart)

And now we have the title of 15x06 - Golden Time.

Gold is the final stage in alchemy - the union of the soul with God. In Jungian alchemy that means the completion of the “sacred marriage” between the conscious and the unconscious, between internal psychic elements of “masculine and “feminine”, and the achievement of self-integration and individuation.

In Sam’s God-wound visions in 15x05, Dean is incinerated by AU Lucifer!Sam in a blaze of yellow (citrinitas):

And Sam is murdered with the First Blade by AU Mark-of-Cain!Dean in his trade-mark red shirt (rubedo):

We now know, these visions are versions of Chuck’s ending for Supernatural - one brother kills the other - a murder-suicide, if we follow Chuck’s werewolf brother fore-shadowing in 15x05.

Sam’s S15 God-wound AU dreams/ visions are often coloured in red.

And look at all the red and yellow colouring surrounding Ashley!Lilith in 15x05:

Finally, and thanks to @forgotaboutdrea for pointing this out, in this post here:

https://forgotaboutdrea.tumblr.com/post/189098202872/from-gold-to-gold ) Dean is wearing a gold shirt at the end of 15x05.

He also wears it at the start of the episode:

Chuck’s version, however, is an aborted version of alchemical transformation, which gets stuck before the completion of the process, where the brothers kill each other/ suicide because they cannot individuate/ relate healthily

To defeat him, the heart is key (see above) and that means emotional connection and communication in order to achieve the true free will of psychic integration and, healthy, individuation, one from the other.

We will see Team Free Will (including Cas) in relation to one another, travel through: confession (nigredo), elucidation (albedo), education (citrinitas) and transformation (rubedo) before they reach their golden ending.

Also, at the start AND the end of the episode, not only does Dean wears gold BUT Sam wears black/ dark blue.

Dean is dressed in a colour rather like Amara’s yellow above (just as he has been linked to her, the feminine God-principle) and Sam is dressed in the dark colour, which fits with the fact that Amara and Chuck have flipped. She’s the light one and he’s the dark one now. Sam is linked to the masculine God-principle, literally at present, hence the colour mirroring to Chuck’s black and wrathful present mood.

Chuck has had a cosmically conflicted relationship with his sibling Amara and so he wants that to play out on an earthly plane in his characters, the Winchester siblings. Their love for one another (and others is their resistance IF they are openly and healthily communicating.

#Supernatural #15x05 #Proverbs 17:3 #SPN meta #Meta #Jung in S15 #Alchemy in SPN #Chuck Shurley #Amara #As Above So Below #Winchester Family Dynamics #Set dressing narrative #Mark of Cain #The Equaliser #The Hammurabi

Clinic - The Equaliser

from the movie ‘thirteen"

#clinic #the equaliser #thirteen

Song Of The Day for January 18th:

The Equaliser (Not Alone) - The Midnight

God, for the short time that I have listened to them, I just cannot stop listening to them as their tracks are just such an entrancement for me that has since become addicted to the sound of classic phasers and synthesizers. And this track by far being more on the dreamwave subgenre which is gorgeous to listen to.

Have a suggestion for Song Of The Day? Feel free to post!

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Song Of The Day Playlist!: http://bit.ly/1sWv0UF

#song of the day #the equaliser #(not alone)#the midnight #synthwave #retro #dreamwave #january 18

#clinic #the equaliser #tunes

clinic - the equalizer

#clinic #the equaliser #music