Child of the Mind
Beth continued to work until her death September 2000 at the age of 86. She left these words with her art work:
In medieval times, the alchemists worked together in couples mixing science and magic in fruitless effort to turn base metal into gold. Their work was supported by gnostic and wealthy principalities which believed this transformation possible.
Dr Jung saw in their endeavour the seeds of psychological change he had observed in some of the people who had come to him for help.
In his extensive research into alchemy, he found in the museum in Basle, a series of medieval wood-engravings illustrating the transforming relationship of the alchemical couple. Although the images in the Rosarium Coniunctio are different, they follow the same direction as the pictures in the Psyche's Journey . Themes from various myths and legends echo throughout : the story of Psyche and Eros, Orpheus and Eurydice, Faust, tales of death and rebirth, and those of tragic love that draw tears for our humanity not least those of a child separated from father and mother.
The romantic passion which possesses lovers in their longing to be 'One' with each other is nothing new, and seems like magic or madness, for they invest qualities and beauty in one another that nobody else can see. Curiously, this romantic mystery often disappears when their union is sexually fulfilled, or it may move into another kind of relationship that leads to the birth of children and family life. Sometimes it just burns itself out and repeats itself over and over again in search of an unknown ideal. But in the Rosarium Coniunctio, sexual fulfilment is ruled out by the taboo of incest, for the royal couple are brother and sister, and their marriage is not of this world.
The relationship of the diarist and her analyst, held within the boundaries of the analytic session carries the same kind of symbolic meaning. Their work together like that of the alchemists has a life of its own, the outcome of which is a 'the child of the mind', conceived by the inspiration of their unfulfilled passion. They are no longer as one, but two separate individuals, able to express their authentic originality, together or apart. Pure gold, or nearly?
