![]() ![]() She is separated from Lester both physically and mentally. In the early phase of the movie, we learn that Carolyn is a domineering woman, who wants everything in her house to be 'just right'. Lester's first task in the nigredo will be to find his shadow, in order to bring about a quaternity. There is an imbalance, in that a complementary male figure, the shadow, is missing from this picture. The Burnham family forms a trinity of one man and two women. Lester introduces us to his wife, Carolyn who is tending her rose bushes and to his daughter, Jane. This process requires the application of heat, or calcination. We need to take apart the pieces of ourselves, so that we may better understand of what we are composed. The nigredo requires a dissolution of ourselves. Lester must face these shadows before he can move on to the next stage of transformation. Even the name of this character tells us his state: Lester, i.e. Separated from those we love, unable to relate. We are in the nigredo stage, that dark place of loneliness where the transformation process must begin. The mid-life point where a man finds himself after working so many years. He tells us of the low state of his life. Masturbation is physical love without the opposite. In less than a year, I'll be dead." An early scene in the movie shows Lester in the shower, mastubating. Lester's voice informs us that "This is my life. The film begins with a disembodied voice, the voice of Lester Burnham the main character in the movie. "Right at the beginning you meet the "dragon," the chthonic spirit, the "devil" or, as the alchemists called it, the "blackness," the nigredo, and this encounter produces suffering " Each step in the alchemical process has a parallel in the movie, American Beauty. There are three basic stages in the production of the Stone, the nigredo, the albedo and the rubedo. It can lead to a change in consciousness, which begins at a physical level and reaches the spiritual. Beauty can have the same effect on an individual. Symbolically the Stone transformed an individual's consciousness. This Stone had many properties, but it was mainly identified as a transforming agent, that which transformed base metals into gold. The ultimate goal of the alchemical process was to create the Philosopher's Stone, or lapis. The present essay will explore the parallels between the film American Beauty and the stages of the alchemical process. Jung realized the path of individuation was presaged by the alchemical process. The path of redemption follows many of the steps of Jungian analysis. What are the patterns that this movie aroused within us? Why were so many people talking about this movie? The theme of American Beauty centers on the redemption of one man's soul. The popularity of particular films, especially those that become surprise box office hits, indicates a power to awaken archetypal patterns from within. ![]() "The opus magnum had two aims: the rescue of the human soul and the salvation of the cosmos " įilms have the remarkable ability to move people's souls. American Beauty: The Alchemy of Transformation ![]()
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