This poem is inspired by James Hillman’s writings collected in Alchemical Psychology. A brilliant student of Jung’s, he discusses alchemy as a metaphor for the psychotherapeutic process. The metaphors of alchemy preserve the mystery of change, keeping the secrets of the therapeutic process yet also suggesting how it occurs.
Using many complicated and beautiful vessels, the alchemists worked in their laboratories, to attempt to turn lead into gold, not just physically but metaphorically. They felt they were speeding up nature and bringing the world to a more “golden” age. This poem focuses on the notion of vessels. Vessels contain and shape experience. We must separate out and contain something before we can work on it.
Both the therapist and the patient are vessels. This poem asks both members of the therapeutic dyad: what kind of vessel are you? What story do you tell? And can you “hurry slowly”? This is the notion that we must be careful with the heat. Direct fire scorches and burns. How do we find that balance -- not act out yet not repress -- but instead land in that space of imagination and reverie.
THE WORK-IN-PROGRESS IS SECRET
By Leanne Domash
Are You in Great Shape?
Are you oval and curved
Or sharp edged and straight?
What story do you tell?
Are you a single raindrop
or an ocean swell?
How’s your instrument of keeping?
Are you leaky or solid
Empty or weeping?
Remember:
Do not act out, do not keep in.
Is your mouth secure?
Can you contain the vapors,
Keep them pure.
You need to separate
Create the shape
Hurry slow and coagulate.
Remember:
Do not act out, do not keep in.
Warm the mind
Hatch the sin.
Using many complicated and beautiful vessels, the alchemists worked in their laboratories, to attempt to turn lead into gold, not just physically but metaphorically. They felt they were speeding up nature and bringing the world to a more “golden” age. This poem focuses on the notion of vessels. Vessels contain and shape experience. We must separate out and contain something before we can work on it.
Both the therapist and the patient are vessels. This poem asks both members of the therapeutic dyad: what kind of vessel are you? What story do you tell? And can you “hurry slowly”? This is the notion that we must be careful with the heat. Direct fire scorches and burns. How do we find that balance -- not act out yet not repress -- but instead land in that space of imagination and reverie.
THE WORK-IN-PROGRESS IS SECRET
By Leanne Domash
Are You in Great Shape?
Are you oval and curved
Or sharp edged and straight?
What story do you tell?
Are you a single raindrop
or an ocean swell?
How’s your instrument of keeping?
Are you leaky or solid
Empty or weeping?
Remember:
Do not act out, do not keep in.
Is your mouth secure?
Can you contain the vapors,
Keep them pure.
You need to separate
Create the shape
Hurry slow and coagulate.
Remember:
Do not act out, do not keep in.
Warm the mind
Hatch the sin.
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