Constructing the Vessel
Constructing the Vessel
On Images, Alchemy and Inner Work
Some of the greatest challenges we face while doing inner work is establishing a container that can withstand the intense emotional material that inevitably arises as we venture into ourselves. If we have sufficient awareness, we might notice something in our life that is off, something within us that requires change. When this happens, we can consciously choose to engage it and prepare for the work ahead (the beginning stages of constructing the vessel). Other times, symptoms come upon us out of the blue as a byproduct of dynamics that have long gone unacknowledged.
Disorientation, nervous system dysregulation and entrenched coping mechanisms are likely to be present if the inner material is particularly repressed and unintegrated. It may feel as if we stand at the bottom of a black mountain that we know we must climb. Dark storm clouds evokes a sense of foreboding. Thunder reverberates through our body as you get close. How can anyone take on such a task?
I think this is often the root of many people’s reluctance to turn inward. To view your shadow or engage with the unconscious is to invite in the demons that you have been keeping locked away. Further, we may attempt to begin this work through an intellectual approach. Our western heroic attitude has idealized the mind and its powerful function of thinking. So we pick up the sword, attempt to rationalize our understanding of a complex matter, and yet find ourself, time and time again, stuck in patterns we cannot seem to break. We are led to believe that if we are courageous enough, we can slay the dragon. But it is not that simple.
Sometimes glancing in the eyes of the beast has a Medusian effect — you are petrified, unable to move, struck lifeless. No sword nor magic spell can help you. Rather, we must entertain a different approach that allows us to bind and contain the threatening forces we are tasked to address.
Constructing the Vessel
“One naturally thinks of this vessel as a sort of retort or flask; but one soon learns that this is an inadequate conception since the vessel is more a mystical idea, a true symbol like all the main ideas of alchemy.” - C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy
A well-sealed vessel is a requisite for transformation. The alchemists knew that you needed a vessel strong enough and large enough to contain the contents of the work. Without the necessary structure and containment, all the byproducts begin to spill out and escape. Or, you’re never able to build the necessary pressure and heat to bring about change.
Taken psychologically, I understand the vessel to be the psychosomatic preconditions for doing inner work. If we rush in too quickly, with a container that is weak and unformed, it is likely to shatter under the pressure. If we naively begin the process without any container and attempt to force change (much like the hero entering into the dragon’s cave), we may find ourselves badly wounded or woefully unprepared.
The vessel can come in many forms:
In a therapeutic relationship with a skilled practitioner (referred to as the analytic container by Jungians). Here the therapist acts as a stabilizing force and a mediator to assist the healing process.
By working with dreams which allows unconscious forces and aspects of shadow to be uncovered overtime. Since the threshold of consciousness is lowered during dreams, this container can feel much more gentle, like a water bath where the unconscious contents are cooking slowly.
By cultivating an inner attitude of openness and flexibility that can meet parts of yourself that feel troubling or contradictory to your conscious viewpoint.
By building somatic resilience and nervous system attunement so you can self-regulate and stay with the work rather than being flooded with emotions, memories, etc.
The Power of Image
“The moment you get an image, you’ve got a container.” - James Hillman
While all of these forms provide structure and a sense of solid ground, I have personally found working with image to be one of the most powerful vessels. Tending to our dreams is a first step in this process. But you can also tap into rich psychic reality by opening the imaginal channel in waking life. In this space, we do not need words to understand what is happening within. We do not have to name our emotions or come to conclusions. We don’t even have to dredge up the ghosts of the past.
We need only to be open to the spontaneous images that arise. To trust them, welcome them, be curious about them. Image works upon us; it unfolds and leads us to insights that expand our rational attitude.
I first stumbled into this during an EMDR session (explained further in The Child in the Tower). I was being led on an inner journey, a childhood memory that suddenly transformed into a storybook setting. A young girl locked behind a heavy stone tower. Here was the image of a complicated history of innocence lost. So much information was being communicated; connections I hadn’t put together myself. All I had to do was be present with the image to receive it.
The well-sealed vessel allows nothing to escape, but that is only one aspect of the great work. When the time is right, you release the contents, or you construct secondary containers. You place the material into an oven to be cooked, in a bath to be washed. If it stays locked away, you’ll never reap the fruits of your labor, you’ll never have the opportunity to engage it in new ways.
I think about what this image means as a container for my inner work. For a long time the vessel I created was like a fortress. It was hastily constructed to house a wild energy that threatened the entire psychic system. Something knew what chaos would be unleashed if it was allowed to overflow.
Paradoxically, I have experienced this particular vessel to be rock solid and impenetrable, and in the next moment completely dissolved. This is indicative of its poor craftsmanship. When I attempt to engage the contents within, it would break. Or it might slam shut, leaving me completely dissociated from myself. Due to its delicate nature, I’ve had to work around the vessel, approach it through a circumambulatory process.
As I engage the image, I have some distance from the emotional and embodied intensity that usually accompanies trying to talk out or deal with these issues head on. I’m better able to track somatic indicators of imbalance, notice a rising thought or feeling. Allowing the image to have sufficient internal space to move and change how it wants, to engage it with dialogue, has led to profound realizations and shifts.
Recently I’ve been getting the sense that this once splintered vessel has begun to mend. That I am finding a new relationship to these inner parts. In turn, the image as container is also morphing. I have noticed new ways of relating to the symbols of my psyche in dreams, active imaginations and while reading Tarot. I believe embodying an alchemical attitude, to dance between literal and imaginal reality, to be key in mediating the complexity of human experience.
If you find yourself in a similar place, I invite you to discover the image that wants to be known. What is the shape, quality and color of your vessel? What imagery comes to mind that symbolizes your situation? Allow it to hold the parts of yourself you do not yet know how to meet. Trust that it will take you deeper and mediate the process of your own inner work.
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