prima materia, n.All

The Prima materia (n.) that ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the alchemists hunted for centuries and never found is to be discovered in man himself.

The Prima materia (n.) was ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠no definite substance at all, but an intuitive name for an initial psychic situation — water, cloud, shadow, mother, dragon, chaos.

The Prima materia (n.) was, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠as the shrewder alchemists saw, man himself, and the self-devouring uroboros pictured the integration of his own opposite, the shadow.

The Prima materia (n.) had ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠names, radical moisture, world-seed, hermaphroditic monster, root of itself, that all point to the world-soul and Primordial Man, round, fourfold, bisexual and damp: a picture of the self.

The Prima materia (n.) was ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not left undefined; it was defined all too often — quicksilver, salt, blood, shadow, sea, mother, dragon, chaos — because it carried a projection that differed in each alchemist.

The Prima materia (n.) as ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the increatum or uncreated of Paracelsus is a principle equal to the Deity — a mother-goddess he somehow reconciled with his Christianity.

The Prima materia (n.) comes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠from the mountain where everything is upside down — its top confused with its base, its head in the place of its back — an intuition of the paradoxical unconscious.

The Prima materia (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠round — world-soul and world-substance in one, the "stone that has a spirit"; in modern parlance, the atom, an intellectual model.