Joe the Alchemist

By Dyane N. Sherwood
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Joe was my main control a11alyst, a11d during tl1e last five
years we have collaborated on a book together, something
neither of us planned bllt that just seemed to happen. My
patients were bringing in material tl1at seemed to l1ave an
uncanny connection to the images il1 a series of illuminated
alchemical paintings (the Splendor Solis) that Joe had viewed
il1 the British Library and l1ad used in his teacl1il1g i11 our
Institute. Duri11g consultation, I fou11d Joe's comments so
pertinent and articulate that I wisl1ed I cOllld have a better
record of his exact words. At the same time, he was so adept
at drawing me out that it was difficult to get hilTI to speak more
cOITIpletely about his llnderstanding of alchemy and the
psyche. Then I had an inspiration: I knew he wouldn't put his
nan1e to sometl1il1g unless it truly reflected l1is ideas, not mine,
so I suggested that the transcription of a lecture he had given
in 1987 could be expa11ded into a small book. He liked the
idea very much, and I went to work to get the lectllre il1tO
my computer to facilitate the editing. As it turned out, I was
not successful i11 getting Joe's ideas in pure form into the book.
Over time, the project took on a life of its own, as the images
worked on us both, and I began to offer more of my ideas and
research 011 the images. Joe would carefully look over every-
tl1ing and would be quite definite on the few occasions when
he thought I was off-track. His directness allowed Ine the
freedom to express my OW11 ideas, take more risks, and develop
an increasing self-co11fidence in the worth of n1Y contributions.
Ollr relationship 11ad its own alchemy, growing in tl1e give-
a11d-take of the joint project. Joe even respol1ded with i11terest
and openl1ess when I noticed tl1at a publisl1ed drean1 of his

The San Francisco lung Institute Library Journal, Vol. 22~ No.2, 2003 19
 was relevallt to Olle of the Splendor Solis inlages. Throughout
our work 011 the book, I felt renlarkably ullenculnbered by any
expectatiolls fronl Joe. At one point, I had to set aside the
project for a year due to physical illness, and he never pressured
lne ill allY way 110r did he express COllcern about what would
11appell to tIle book.
Joe Hellderson is a q1lietly elegallt Inan, well-nlannered,
who usually wears a jacket and a tie (unus1lal ill the casual
California c1llture). His elegallce and economy of expression
call be seen in his writing. Yet his way of saying thillgS call
create a sense of recogllition fronl witllill tIle reader, alld the
words thenlselves beCOl1le vessels for inlagillation and associa-
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tions, illviting deeper reflection.

Joe lives simply in an ullassuming but 11niq1le house on
a hilltop in Ross, California. Fronl the spacious interior garden,
there are views of Mt. Tamalpais, as well as wooded hilltops
and sky ill all directions. III his living roonl, things seem to have
their place rather than beillg on display. These things include
an alabaster Jain Tirtllallkara, seated in the lotus posture, which
was a gift fronl Rabindranath Tagore to his father-in-law, the
Canlbridge scIl0lar F. M. Cornford; an old tangka of Manjusri
(the Tibetan bodhisattva of discrimillating wisdom); two small
Jacksoll Pollack pastels; alld nlany small stolles that seem to
be quietly sacred. A side table always contains his current
reading: jourllals and books 011 art, intellectual history, world
affairs, and l10vels.
Joe still practices as an allalyst, altIl0ugh he gave up his
offIce ill SaIl Francisco a few years ago. He now sees patients
ill 11is small octagonal offIce situated at the back of his gardell,
accessible by a stone path, vvhich r1lns alollg behind Ilis house
alld tilell across a lawll. In his office, ill addition to shelves with
mallY books, are two striking paintings of Native Anlerican
dancers, colorflll in their cerenlollial cost1lmes agaillst white
backgroullds, alld a synlbolic drawillg 11e lnade hinlself during
his allalysis with Jung ill the 193 Os.
Recently, Joe told nle how he came to make tIle sylnbolic
drawillg. He had beell in London attendillg University College
to take science classes in order to qualify for lnedical school.
He had a diffIcult tinle because he was not very interested in
the subject nlatter offered in those most rigorous courses.
Having failed 11is exalnillation in pllysics, he left LOlldoll in a

20 Dyane Shenvood on
 state of great interl1al preSSllre and llncertaiIlty to spend his
holiday in Zlirich il1 hopes of 11aving SOl11e sessiOl1S witl1 JU11g.
Just as he arrived, Jung al1d t11e other al1alysts left 011 their
holidays. He had to be all his 0\VI1, so l1e spel1t n10st of the
11ext three weeks in his roon1 making a drawil1g that emerged
from two powerful drealTIs. In the first dream, a beautiful white
horse was rlinning on a dark sea. An artery at the back of its
11eck was flilly exposed, and an eagle CalTIe dOWl1 fron1 tl1e sky
and pierced the horse in the l1eck, killing it. 111 a subsequent
drealTI, there was a black fish on the bottom of the sea. A sl1ake
with a red head came from below and bit the fIsh-this bite
was not life-taking but rather life-giviI1g. In Joe's drawing the
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horse and eagle appear at the top al1d the black fish and S11ake
are at the bOttOITI. In between is a11 intricate quaternary forn1,
with openings in the four directions occupied by Mayan dei-
ties, represented as in Mayan codices. While the care witl1
which the drawing was made al1d tl1e fourfold design evoke
a feeling of serenity, the details of the design are flI11 of
movement and dynamic tension, pllisatil1g with life.
Tom Kirsch (personal communication) has noted that,
unlike many of JlIng's non-Swiss analysands, who had their
work with Jllng interrupted by the Second World War, Joe's
analysis with Jung 11ad come to its natural conclusion. Joe told
me something about this in November, 2000, duri11g a con-
versation about shamanic aspects of Greek myth and ritual. He
recalled a dream of his own with a shamanic theme, which
signaled the end of his analytic work with J1111g:
Dr. Baynes (Wh0I11 I'd first seen for analysis and from hinl
learned about Jung) said, "Joe, this terrible thing has
happened. You're going to be so upset. Jung has died."
Then I heard tin cans and anything that could be beaten
by Chinese peasants to allow Tung to go up to heaven.
It was a joyous thing.
Joe continued,
I il11111ediately knew it was the death of Iny dependence
on hinl [Jung].
Dr. Baynes's concern was personal feeling: he was speak-
ing from his transference to Jung. The Chinese peasants
were the shamans.

It caIne froln a natural instinct for what should be done,

Joe the Alchelnist 21

 the creation of energy needed to get soul out of body and
onto higher things.

I asked if he had told this dream to Jung, and he respollded,

I didn't need to, because it didn't say anything that I
didn't understand. I also had other drean1s of separating
from Jung. One was more alchemical: I was sitting talking
to hin1. There was a large object between us, like a rough
stone. I said, "Tell me what something nleans." He
pointed and said in1patiently, "Look at the stone." I
realized that the stone was a diamond, and I had to bring
it out of its roughness into a solid fornl. That was, for Ine,
the philosopher's stone.
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Later in our conversatioll, Joe cOlnmented that, "Totem and

Taboo was the 11earest Freud ever got to ullderstanding the
deep unconscious."
In his outward demeanor, I think of Joe as more English
than American, bllt he has his roots in the American West in
the state of Nevada, which in his boyhood was an ullpopulated
expanse of desert and prairie witll vast, opell skies. He and
Helella lnade the cll0ice to leave Englalld to live in the United
States, moving fIrst to New York alld tllen to SaIl Francisco,
where Joe had lived as a young college graduate, writing book
reviews alld dralna criticism for two snlall cultural magazilles,
Olle of which was nanled The Argonaut. Joe's mallY articles on
Native Americalls, as well as some of his OWll published dreams,
convey 1lis deep connection to the land of this hemisphere and
its origillal illhabitallts.
SOlnetimes people fInd in Joe's reserve a feeling of beillg
unrelated; 110wever, I find hinl to be very related but not ill
the usual Anlericall outgoing way. Joe is related ill a subtle,
refIlled, alld quiet way t1lat feels as if it C0111es frolll an older,
lnore developed clliture. Joe was a Frellc11 literatllre major at
Prillcetoll, alld he told nle that shortly after his marriage to
his Ellglisll wife, Helena, he bOllght her a Frellch cookbook
"far Ellg1ish 11011ses." Sa this may pravide some 11int as ta his
relationship to his inller life and his more feminine side.
While Joe loves the life of the mind alld sylnbols, he also
takes pleasllre in a Hower blooming in his garden, a delicious
meal, a glass of wine. We have laug1led a lot. fuld he 1las not
stopped livillg in anticipation of his own deat11. Last year he
bought a new willter coat and begall with a new patient. Last

22 Dyane Sherwood on
 week he mentioned to me that he was thinking of getting a
new car-although he had to stop driving himself five or six
years ago, which he did not like at all! With his characteristic
openness to whatever the next experiel1ce brings, Joe found
a driver, Kenny Miles, whose beautiful, deep voice is easy for
Joe to hear and who seems to know better than anyone just
how to be helpful to Joe without doil1g too n1uch. They have
a very special relationship, and Joe even accepted IZenny's
invitation to hear him sing and play in a jazz club.
When I first consulted with Joe, he was always accompa-
l1ied by 11is al1ciel1t pug, Charlie, who was blil1d and quite
dependent llpon Joe. I recall tl1at 011ce, when Ollr candidates'
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group was meeting with Joe at his 110me, he left tl1e living
room to go to the kitchel1. Charlie began to wl1imper and cry,
but immediately caln1ed as soon as Joe retllrned. Somehow,
for me, it was easier to feel Joe's completeness when Charlie
was alive: Charlie was an external representative of Joe's con-
nection to the animal world and nature, son1ething 110t easily
discerned in sucl1 a self-contained person as Joe.
One al1ecdote can perl1aps capture Cl1arlie's cOl1tributiol1.
Duril1g a period whe11 there was quite a bit of discord between
the candidates and the trail1ing committees, a candidates'
group was meetil1g with Joe at his house and began to tell him
about their anxieties al1d the statemel1ts by a committee
member that it was the committee's job to "initiate" them.
Charlie got up from his customary place next to Joe, walked
to the center of the room, and urinated 011 the floor. So,
sometimes Charlie made interpretations that Joe n1ight not
express in so direct a way! Joe later told me about this episode,
both of us dOllbling over with laughter, and I have also heard
it from the candidates, who felt tremel1dc)llS relief that tl1e
inflation of the committee member 11ad beel1 Pllt in proper
perspective. I miss Charlie, whose musky odor permeated Joe's
San Francisco office, remaining even after Charlie's death.
Two summers ago, when Joe and I were having llinch at
a restaurant l1ear his home, I discovered that we were both
reading Phillip Pullman's book, The Golden Compass, in which
people have an anilnal companion that is part of them, their
daimon. I asked him what he thought his daimon would be,
and he i1l1mediately said, "A pug of course!" He said he and
Helena had always had a pug. (In his livi11g room, there is a

Joe the Alchelnist 23

 lovely photograpll of Helena holdillg up a pug puppy.) But
Charlie was the best and the last: this is tIle one Inatter where
Joe seems to have taken his advanced years into account.
I am deeply grateful that Joe 11as 11ad SllCh a long life, that
11e COlltinues to be so fully alive alld presellt, so mllch himself.
He is a mall who kno1vs how to be himself, who is, who knows
who he is and wIlat l1e values, alld who accepts life with such
equallimity that I sometimes fil1d it ullsettling. He is not a
charismatic nlan who COllverts and influences, but in his quiet,
deeply introverted way he gives people the gift of themselves.
This is why the many people Wll0 have allalyzed or COllslllted
with him do 110t becolne his disciples: they beconle more
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dynanlically Wll0 they are. How does Joe do tllis? Wllile this
question is llnallswerable, I call say tllat, durillg consultation
witll him, I felt a spaciousness in 11is presence. At tIle saIne time
I felt tIlat I could risk disorientation becallse I was with SOlne-
one who wOllld help me find lny way while not illterferillg with
my own efforts. Perhaps one could say that Olle feels the
presellce of tIle Self in him, but his utter lack of inflation or
pretense does not pull for one's own Self to be projected.
At tIle risk of digression, I would like to offer an image
for this rare quality that seenlS to live 11aturally and effortlessly
ill Joe. An eigllteenth century alchemical drawing (Fig. 1)
shows a king with red skin seated 011 a throne. (The color red
represents the final stage in the alchemical process, which has
proceeded from the prima materia tllrougll a purifIcation into
tIle fullness of life.) The killg'S posture and extended arnlS
suggest all opell attitude, and on his chest a large red heart
elnanates rays of red light. A mandorla around the king sug-
gests 11is identificatioll with tIle sun. IZneeling and stalldillg ill
a semi -circle are six naked hUlnall fIgures represellting the six
heavenly bodies or "plallets" visi ble to the naked eye (the fIve
planets nearest the sun plus the moon). Each figure holds 11is
or her crOWll in upraised 11ands, and the rays emallating from
the king's heart shille tllrough each crOWll onto the human
fIgures, as if they are attractillg the rays toward tllemselves by
holdillg up their crOWI1S. To my milld the killg ill this drawing
is not Joe, bllt the strong presence of tIle Self as the guiding
force in hiln, wllich is felt deeply by very different people
(symbolized in astrology by the distillCt character traits asso-
ciated with each planet). At tIle top of the ilnage is the word

24 Dyane Sherwood on
 projectio. This is a different kind of projection from the way
we use the word in modern depth psychology, and I believe
it represents a person whose own relationship to the Self
activates and nourishes the Self in others rather than pulling
for the projection of the Self to go in the other direction. To
me this is the deepest psychological meaning of the
multiplicatio of the stone in alchemy.

'~Oi£CT'lO~
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\/\/l 1

..,.-.._\
VZ -7

Figure 1. The Projection of the Tincture fi'om the Heart

of the King. (Ferguson MS 208, folio 73r, by permission
of the Special Collections, Glasgow University Library)

Joe the Alchemist 25

 During my early years of consulting with Joe, I felt C011-
stantly aware of 11is advanced age. Each time I walked down
the steps outside his San Francisco office, I wondered if I
would ever see him again. At one point, I asked about his
attitude toward deatll. Joe told me that he had beel1 able to
really live his life, so that death did not frighten him. If there
were somethil1g beyond this life, it wOltld be the next adven-
ture. Now al1d then he would wonder, "Is it time now?" It
was like walking into the waves at the seashore aIld asking if
he were gOillg to go into the deep. But something WOllld say,
"No, 110t yet."
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26 Dyane Shenvood on Joe the Alchemist