Dreams, death, rebirth : a topological odyssey into alchemy's hidden dimensions

Foreword - Nathan Schwartz-Salant. Preface. 1 Identity and death: modern and ancient views. Introduction. The transformation of identity in ancient culture. Dream journal. 2 Shifting the gears of consciousness. The backward move. Death and resurrection in the ancient world. Medieval alchemy. The Renaissance, Post-Renaissance culture, and the return of. the uroboros. Dream journal. 3 Alchemy and topology. The Necker cube. Topology. 4 The unio mentalis: opening stage of alchemical conjunction. Solve et coagula: a preliminary overview of the stages. The unio mentalis as a self-signification of the alchemical text. 5 Second stage of alchemical conjunction: cogito and anima. Mythic dimensionality and animal emotion. Lower-dimensional topology. Self-signification of the mythic child. Postscript on nonhuman individuation. Dream journal. 6 Third stage of alchemical conjunction: cogito, anima, and vegeta. Magical consciousness. Vegetal sensuality. Self-signification of the magical infant. Dream journal. 7 Final stage of alchemical conjunction: cogito, anima, vegeta, and minera. The enigma of zero-dimensionality. Archaic consciousness. Images of the uroboros. Kundalini descending: a summary of the conjunctions. Self-signification of the archaic embryo. Dream journal

'Our greatest certainty and greatest mystery is our mortality. In this book,Steven M. Rosen explores the profound mystery of death and rebirth from psychological, philosophical, and alchemical perspectives. To model, embody, and contain the paradoxical transformations involved in the death-rebirth enigma, Rosen employs a paradoxical form of mathematics: the topology of the Moebius strip and Klein bottle. As we follow this alchemical odyssey, the author makes himself transparent through his dreams and brings himself tangibly into his text so as to enact a dialectic of ego and Self.'

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