Gaia Alchemy: The Reuniting of Science, Psyche, and Soul

In this remarkable book Harding builds on his earlier work “Animate Earth” to challenge the ways of contemporary science with its emphasis on “objective” observation by proposing a new way which embraces imagination, intuition and insights into our own deep psychology. This type of challenge to science is gaining credence with a new breed of contemporary scientists who have come to realise the limitations of the ways of classical science. What is different and ground-breaking is that Harding is proposing that modern science has much to learn for the insights of the alchemists of the middle ages. This is a brave stance as alchemists are generally thought of as being either foolish or else charlatans. Yet by linking alchemy to personal transformation, by delving into C.J. Jung’s work in depth psychology with an emphasis on four ways of knowing (Sensing, Valuing, Intuiting and thinking) Harding is able to push the boundaries on what it really means to know and to live as part of Gaia. Having studied under the late James Lovelock, Harding shows his deep understanding of Gaia and this is one of the strongest points of the book. There are other novel approaches here also such as his staged interview with the sceptical professor. This brings this rather complex material to life and shows the authors empathy for the general reader. Personally I found that for some of his ideas he was stretching the elastic that bit too far. However, all credit to the author to give us a text which is illuminative, interesting and above all well researched and thought through ideas which challenge many of our basic assumptions. Excellent.

good concept, poor delivery. Basically ecopsychology meets Gaia theory but way too long. Also lots of imaginary dialogue between characters. Maybe an attempt at active imagination but not compelling. I like Harding’s animate earth, but this wasn’t great. Plus the spiritualized/psychologized version of alchemy is problematic in itself. Ended up flipping through the last half of the book looking for anything worthwhile.