Alchemical hermeneutics: Re-visioning the Yoga Sutras, Dark Night, and heart center in the Upanis&dotbelow;ads and Eastern Christian prayer through a Jungian lens

The alchemical hermeneutic methodology utilizes a depth psychological understanding of alchemical operations as an interpretive lens. These processes, viewed from a depth psychological perspective, become the hermeneutical foci through which to interpret select spiritual texts. Following Jung and Romanyshyn, this dissertation further develops an alchemical hermeneutic, and utilizes this textual approach in the interpretation of four texts/traditions in order to create new horizons of meaning, expand the reader's relationship to text and self at personal and transpersonal levels, as well as broaden, deepen, and define a more psychologically sophisticated approach to certain spiritual texts. This multipaper theoretical dissertation discusses this hermeneutic process and uses the alchemical approach in the interpretation of the following texts and traditions: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Dark Night by John of the Cross, and select passages on the heart from the Upanis&dotbelow;ads and Eastern Christian spirituality.