André Breton, Alchemist

Jean Snitzer Schoenfeld

The French Review, Vol. 57, No. 4. (Mar., 1984), pp. 493-502.

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THEFRENCH REWEW, Vol. LVII, No. 4, March 1984 Printed in U.S.A.

Andrk Breton, Alchemist*

by Jean Snitzer Schoenfeld

FOR A N D RBRETON,
~ POETRY 1s A MAGIC ART that liberates both the poet and the
reader from the bonds of rationalism. Esoterism participates in that liberation
by loosening the bonds of everyday causality and substituting a broader range
of causal relationships. This substitution allows the poet to draw analogies from
a larger domain. It also affords him greater freedom to move among the
analogies he draws and thus to approach a more complete understanding of
symbol formation:
L'esotirisme, toutes reserves faites sur son principe mime, offre au moins l'immense
interit de maintenir a l'ktat dynamique le syst&mede comparaison, de champ illimite
dont dispose l'homme, qui lui livre les rapports susceptibles de relier les objets en
apparence les plus iloignes et lui dkcouvre partiellement la mecanique du symbol-
isme universal.'

That understanding is more than a passive overview; it entails a conscious

awareness of the process of artistic discovery. It gives rise to a second voice in
Breton's work, one which comments continually on his efforts and therein
reveals the central role played by magic. Esoterism is thus almost circular in its
function: "Consciemment ou non, le processus de decouverte artistique demeure
etranger a l'ensemble de ses ambitions metaphysiques, n'en est pas moins
infeode a la forme et aux moyens des progressions m6mes de la haute magie,"
(Arcane 17, p. 106).
While Breton does not specify the type of magic here, his vocabulary implies
an alchemical orientation. Michel Carrouges notes that orientation in Andre
Breton et les donnees fondamentales du surrealisme: "I1 y a d'ailleurs une etroite
parente entre la matiere premiere de l'alchimie traditionnelle et celle de l'al-
chimie surrealiste. Cette derniire reprend souvent dans son materiel verbal
1'i.vocation des mineraux et des elements qui furent privilegies pour les alchi-
mistes dlautrefois."* In Andre Breton: Magus of Surrealism, Anna Balakian also
highlights various alchemical elements. The "'Aigrette,'" she says, "is notable
because in its title it brings into view a bird that appears to Breton particularly
*This essay is partly based on research funded by a grant from Utica College of Syracuse
University and on research done for a Seminar funded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
' Andre Breton, Arcane I 7 (Paris: Editions Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1965), p. 105.
* Michel Carrouges, Andre Breton et les donnees fondamentales du surrealisme (Paris: Gallimard,
1950), p. 66.
493
494 FRENCH REVIEW

emblematic, with its resemblance to the sacred ibis and to the p h ~ e n i x . "The~
phoenix, which dies and is regenerated in fire, is equally significant for the
alchemist. The frequent appearance of alchemical instruments such as the
crucible completes the picture: "C'est li, tout au fond du creuset humain, en
cette region paradoxale ou la fusion de deux itres qui se sont reellement choisis
restitue i toutes choses les couleurs perdues du temps des anciens soleils."*
Such vocabulary analysis initiates a comparison with the alchemical endeavor.
Anna Balakian promotes that comparison by putting Surrealism in an alchemical
context: "If the poem is the futile gold, then poetic activity is the Philosopher's
Stone" (p. 72). She thus pinpoints the philosophical similarity between alchemy
and Surrealism, but by merely using that similarity in a discussion of alchemical
influence, she remains external to the work. Adopting an alchemical perspec-
tive,-that is, attempting to see the work in an alchemical light rather than to
see alchemical elements in the work-allows the reader more immediate access,
clarifies aspects of Breton's theory and illuminates structure. Two works that
seem especially well suited to this approach are "Langue des pierres" and Arcane
17. Written thirteen years after Arcane 17, "Langue de pierres" presents a
condensed version of the major elements of alchemical theory and structure. It
validates these elements and legitimizes a restructuring of one's reading of the
earlier work.
The very title 'Langue des pierres" demands alchemical analysis. Noting the
magical atmosphere implied by investing stone with the power of speech merely
opens the door to such an analysis. The focus on language recalls the importance
of symbolization to the alchemists, while the emphasis on stone implicates all
facets of the Great Work, from the basic unit of experimentation to the desired
end product of alchemical research, the Philosopher's Stone. Finally, the effect
of the title depends on a basic tenet of the alchemical world view according to
which minerals or metals are not simply inert material; they are living entities
which are born, make love, and die.5 Attributing language to them, as does the
title, highlights their aliveness and facilitates the dialectic necessary to both
surrealist and alchemical discovery. It also plays havoc with the usual view of
stone and it uses that view to generate contrasts (between life and death, organic
and inorganic) which intensify that dialectic.
In the piece itself, the dialectic begins with indifference: 'C'est donc sans les
arriter le moins du monde que les pierres laissent passer l'immense majorite
des etres humains parvenus a l'iige a d ~ l t e . Even
" ~ at this stage, the stones recall
the Philosopher's Stone which John Read describes in Through Alchemy to
Chenlistry :

' Anna Balakian, Andre Breton: Magus of Surrealism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971),
p. 137.
'Andre Breton, L'Amour fou (Paris: Gallimard, 1937), p. 12.
Mircea Eliade, The Forge and The Crurible, trans. Stephen Comn (London: Rider and Co., 1962),
p. 48
Andri. Breton, 'Langue des pierres," Le Surrealisme M i m e , 3 (Automne 1957), p. 63.
 The Gloria Mundi,an alchemical work of about a century earlier (1526), had stated
that the Stone "is familiar to all men, both young and old, is found in the country,
in the village, in the town, in all things created by God; yet it is despised by all.
Rich and poor handle it every day. It is cast into the street by servant maids.
Children play with it. Yet no one prizes it, though next to the human soul, it is the
most beautiful and the most precious thing upon earth, and has the power to pull
down kings and princes. Nevertheless, it is esteemed the vilest and meanest of
earthly things!"'

The work of the adept thus involves the process of discovery rather than mere
chemical modification, and the quest that obsesses Breton's initiate recalls that
process. The role of surrealist discovery differs from alchemical discovery in the
flexibility of its hierarchy: each stone is more beautiful than the last. Neverthe-
less, both the surrealist and the alchemist end up by validating the common
stone.
The alchemist does so by means of his world view. For him, the baser metals
are base only chronologically: each base metal represents a specific stage of
development through which all metals must pass before they can reach the
highest stage, that of gold (Eliade, p. 50). The initiate hopes to accelerate this
process by various alchemical and astrologcal techniques. Although the Breton-
ian initiate cannot define his goals as clearly, he is a voyant who sees the
potential for transmutation in everyday reality. Using language as a tool (Arcane
17, p. 119), he transmutes that reality into the crystalline image that constitutes
the surreal.
But it is not only the potential of the common stone that gives it value.
"Langue des pierres" places that stone in the context of a larger unity whose
essential features are highlighted in the myth of the "Grands Transparents."
According to that myth, man might not be the center of the universe; instead,
he might be contained within a larger, invisible being.' This change in status
invalidates the current hierarchy, allows material things to assume a greater
relative importance, and assures their place as part of the larger entity. In
"Langue des pierres," Breton posits the essential unity of the universe by
emphasizing the mythic link between earth and sky. He quotes a seventeenth-
century explanation of the healing powers of the garnahi: "I1 amve quelquefois
que les rayons tombes des &toiles (pourvu qu'ils soient d'une m&me nature)
s'unissent aux metaux, aux pierres et aux mineraux, qui sont tombes de leur
position la plus haute, les penitrent entiirement et s'amalgament a eux" (p. 63).
Thus the stars cast their own spell over the earth, and the earth, which once
belonged to the stars, reabsorbs their essence. This world view coincides
strikingly with that of the alchemists. To emphasize their belief in the "essential
unity of things" (p. 14), John Read quotes an ancient Greek inscription that was
prevalent in alchemical writings: "One is all and by it all and to it all, and if
one does not contain all, all is nought" (p. 25). The goal of alchemy, then, was
to cement unity by attempting 'to bring the microcosm of man into relation
'John Read, Through Alchemy to Chemistry (London: J . Bell and Sons, 1957), p. 30.

Andri. Breton, Manifestes du surrealisme (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), p. 175.

496 FRENCH REVIEW

with the macrocosm of the universe" (p. 14), and the "astrologue renversb"
("Langue des pierres," p. 63), the poet who perceives this unity, has an equal
responsibility.
In order to accomplish this goal, the poet, as one who sees, enters into a
dialogue with the common stone. The "indices" and "signes" (p. 63) perceived
therein recall the symbolism of alchemical writing: they perform the same
function, simultaneously hiding secrets from the uninitiated and revealing
procedures to the adept. They serve as a key to the surrealist experience that
Breton describes in the second manifesto as "la recuperation totale de notre
force psychique par un moyen qui n'est autre que la descente vertigineuse en
nous, l'illumination systbmatique des lieux caches et l'obscurissement progressif
des autres lieux, la promenade perpbtuelle en pleine zone interdite" (p. 92).
They facilitate the psychic exploration which is the essence of Surrealism.
In "Langue des pierres," the alchemical perspective enhances the stones'
prestige, for it establishes that prestige outside the literary work. Furthermore,
it incorporates apparently disparate elements of the piece into a larger external
system which then reflects its unity back onto the piece itself. By opening
another field to the reader, it allows him or her a broader domain for the
associative play that constitutes the surrealist reading experience, and it frees
him or her more completely for the necessary analogical work.9 Finally, by
multiplying the roles the stones can play, the alchemical perspective prepares
the reader for the single but multivalent Rock of Percb of Arcane 17.
The Rock of Percb dominates the entire first part of Arcane 17. It generates
Breton's associative imagery and when framed by the window (p. 28), recalls
the mandala in both form and function. In Psychology and Alchemy, C . G . Jung
defines the mandala as "an aid to contemplation" and as "an inner image, which
is gradually built up through (active) imagination, at such times when psychic
equilibrium is disturbed."I0 Breton's motivation for such a construct in a time
of deprivation, exile, and war is obvious. Jung describes the traditional structure
of the mandala as "based on a quaternary system" (p. 96). Thus the window
frame does not only circumscribe the object for contemplation, but it also
suggests the quaternary structure that delineates the mandala. The major
concerns of the first half of Arcane 17 partake of that structure: the external
world confronted by its own bellicosity ajoins the internal, grief-torn world of
the poet, and the four-way conflict becomes an object for contemplation through
the spatialization of time. As Michel Beaujour remarks, "Le temps ici n'est
qu'une mbtaphore de l'espace. Tout, dans Arcane 17, devrait se deployer dans
l'espace et n'accepter de la temporalite que ce qui est necessaire pour parcourir
de l'eil un tableau complexe.""
See Jean S. Schoenfeld, 'Andre Breton and the Poet/Reader" to appear in DadalSurrealism
(Oct. 1983), for a more complete discussion.
l o C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, trans. R.F.C. Hull (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

1968), p. 96.
I ' Michel Beaujour, 'AndrP Breton mythographe: Arcane 17," in Andre Breton, ed. Marc Eigeldinger
(Neuchitel: Editions de la Baconniere, 1970), p. 228.
ANDRE BRETON. ALCHEMIST 497
The center of the mandala usually contains a high religious figure, "or simply
the dorje, symbol of all the divine forces together, whether creative or destruc-
tive" (pp. 97-98). More important for the image of the Rock of Perce, however,
is the presence of "certain 'alchemical' properties of this center after the manner
of the lapis and the elixir vitae" (p. 98). Indeed, the Rock of Perck can be
described in alchemical terms, and Anna Balakian sees it as a manifestation of
an essential alchemical concept-the supreme point:
The Rock of Perce becomes an emblem by means of which Breton can build
analogies between cosmic and human modification. The rock is composed of
geological strata, as civilization has its historical epochs superimposed one on
the other. Breton's analogical eye, with its habit of seeing one thing in another,
equates or merges the hues of the rock, rose to deep hues, with the soldering
of human cultures in human blood; he sees in the tempests and rain that batter
the rock and in it their everlasting marks and the foreboding of eventual
dissolution, the bloodbaths of European wars and Europe's much more rapid
effacement. But the analogy of disintegration and division that the rock spells
out on the one hand is compensated by the image of unity and cohesion that
the strata's solid appearance embodies. . . . Thus the Rock of Perce becomes for
him the final manifestation of the supreme point: 'that luminous point concen-
trating all that can be common to life." (Pp. 206-07)

Michel Carrouges sees the supreme point in more philosophical terms. He

situates it both within the subjective human consciousness and the external
world and he characterizes it as real, even surreal (pp. 20-21). While he describes
it more specifically as the locus of the reconciliation of opposites, he uses that
description only to compare the goals of Surrealism and alchemy; he thus fails
to relate the supreme point directly to the image-making process. For Breton,
that process consists of the spontaneous rapprochement of two distant realities
(Manifeste, p. 50). Though not necessarily opposites, these realities are so distant
and their conjunction so unexpected that the image created recalls the supreme
point in both form and function. The Rock of Perci is a multifaceted product
of the image-making process. As such, it literally teems with distant realities
that have been conjoined. The primary conjunction is that of organic with
inorganic: the rock comes alive with avion wings as birds settle on it: "on
dkcouvre que le repos des oiseaux kpouse les anfractuositks de cette muraille a
pic, en sorte que le rythme organique se superpose ici de justesse au rythme
inorganique comme s'il avait besoin de se consolider sur lui pour s'entretenir"
(p. 6 ) . Other more isolated images also come alive: ice becomes a witch and the
"trainies serpentines du quartz" change to elephant trunks and heraldic banners
(p. 53). The reconciliation of life with non-life dissolves easily into the recon-
ciliation of two opposites basic to alchemy: life and death. Further, the rock
becomes a coricrete manifestation of the supreme point precisely because of the
reconciliations it effects.
The Rock of Perci's resemblance to the Philosopher's Stone also emerges in
the completeness of its imagery. Like the Stone, it is "composed 'de re animali,
vegetabili et minerali'" (Jung, p. 178). Its life-giving qualities, which recall the
498 FRENCH REVIEW

elixir vitae, insure the dynamism of that imagery. Each image dissolves into the
next just as in the preparation of the lapis. A more precise description of that
preparation was offered by a seventeenth-century alchemist called Glauber:
"Dissolve the Fixt, and make the fixed fly / The flying Fix and then live happily"
(Read, p. 33). For him, the preparation of the Stone involved the decomposition
of basic materials, the liberation and therefore alteration of their alchemical
state and finally the fixation of the element's altered form. The statistics
provided in the rock's tourist brochure reaffirm the alchemical nature of the
process by invoking the numerical value of the name of gold (see Read, p. 69):
"je ne serais pas si surpris que se manifestit le nombre d'or, tant dans ses
proportions la Rocher Perce peut passer pour un modele de justesse naturelle"
( P 34).
Such parallelism is not sufficient to justify Breton's claim of indebtedness to
the processes of High Magic. John Read describes the Great Work as "the
prolonged and controlled heating of proximate materials, under the right
conditions, in the sealed vessel of Hermes" (p. 32). As the witch, or the ice
frozen in crevasses of the rock, stirs her brew, the little girl learns to create light
(p. 51) and by juxtaposing two distant realities (see Manifeste, p. 31)-the piece
of straw with a sieve, a keyhole, a shoe eyelet and a button hole, she sets
everything ablaze with light: "Et tout cela se met, non seulement a regarder,
mais a faire de la lumiere, et toutes les lumieres s'appretent a communiquer"
(p. 52). The "right conditions" depend on the position of the sun and the moon
as Breton notes the influence of their light on the images he visualizes, and the
"sealed vessel of Hermes" manifests itself in different guises. First, the "coffre
rouge et noir a serrures bleues" emerges from the sea (p. 11). Its locks stand out
against the colors of blood and ink. It remains sealed, hermetic (p. 98) in the
face of the ocean's destructive force, and it is finally incorporated unopened
into the tree of the seventeenth Arcana (p. 99). Both its sacredness and its
impenetrability recall the sealed flask of the alchemist.
A more specific symbol of that flask is the bird, and birds are everywhere.
They hide the rock beneath a "fantasmorgorique broderie" (p. l l ) , and they
impart to it their characteristic plumage as the rock emerges ruffled ("herisse")
from the sea (p. 98). Finally, they penetrate the rock in the figure of the bird
who reveals the secret of life to the little girl and of the aigret who takes its
place beneath the arch (p. 53). The bird is simultaneously a symbol and a
magically constitutive part of the framework. In alchemical research, the bird
is an active symbol; since death is necessary for life and mortification precedes
revivication, the pelican tears at her own flesh to feed her young (Read, p. 34).
Breton's bird, too, must be born from the remnants of its own destruction: "ce
que dechire l'oiseau c'est lui-mkme. . . . C'est la . . . qu'en s'acharant du bec
a
contre son propre coeur, son emoi supr6me il ne parvient qu'i l'aggran-
dir. . . . Et dans ce caeur d'ombre s'ouvre a ce moment un jeune caeur de lumiere,
encore tout dependant du premier et qui reclame de lui sa subsistance" (pp. 97-
98). The Rock of Perce, which is the Philosopher's Stone, is also the vessel from
ANDRE BRETON, ALCHEMIST 499
which the Stone is born. As Jung remarks in Psychology and Alchemy, "the opus
proceeds from the one and leads back to the one . . . it is a sort of circle like a
dragon biting its own tail" (p. 293). The unity which Breton alludes to in
"Langue des pierres" is thus made manifest.
As the alchemical work proceeds, the adept measures his progress by the
color changes he observes. Since they are evidence of more substantive, internal
change, he considers the tinging procedure an essential part of his research
(Read, p. 38). Indeed, Jung remarks that the lapis contains all colors in itself (p.
169). So too does the Rock of Perch. Simultaneously black, red, and blue, it is
covered by the multicolored "broderie" of birds (p. 11). And just as "the
appearance of the rainbow colors of the peacock's tail [in the Hermetic Vase]
assured the adept that he was on the right path" (Read, p. 38), Breton's aigret
spreads her multicolored tail over the entire rock and thus previews the climatic
transmutation (p. 53). The rock, transparent now and thus containing all colors,
gives way to the "wonderful variety of figures" that Jung says "appear in the
course of the [alchemical] work" (p. 248). Quartz becomes elephants and
elephants, heralds bearing golden-fringed banners. The transmutation is com-
plete and with it sounds the proclamation "la grande malkdiction est levke, c'est
dans l'amour humain que rkside toute la puissance de rkgknkration du monde"
(p. 54). Love is the key to the elixir vitae. In the second half of Arcane 17, the
reader will see precisely how the key works in Bretonian alchemy.
Now that the Work is complete and the Philosopher's Stone is confirmed in
its essence, the reader, who has stepped into the picture as Breton would into
a painting,'2 can reemerge to contemplate the mandala framed by the window-
but not for long. Breton draws back even further to insert the Rock of Perci.
into another, larger construct. The window, which once circumscribed the rock
now frames a special darkness: "C'est toute la nuit magique dans le cadre, toute
la nuit des enchantements" (p. 72). This darkness yields to the Arcana itself (p.
73). The description of the Arcana, brutally interrupted by the oneiric attack of
the acacia tree, gives way to the rock in the height of alchemical change (see
above). Through it all, the Arcana remains present in the eye of the sparrow
("C'est maintenant tout l'ktang versk dans l'oeil de l'oiseau" (p. 97), and it
quickly reasserts itself with the tree's incorporation of the coffre (p. 99). The
Rock of Perck, which formed the center of the mandala encompassing Arcane
17's first part, has lost its dominance. Absorbed by the tree, it has shrunk into
a miniscule portion of the image organizing the work, that is the Arcana itself.
This image also dominates the alchemical work that characterizes Breton's
philosophical endeavor. Like the twelve keys of Basil Valentine (Read, p. 56),
it serves as the emblem of that endeavor: it represents and effects the desired
transmutation while remaining sufficiently obscure to mystify outsiders. The
center of that emblem is the woman herself, the embodiment of all women-
including Mklusine, Isis, and Eve-she also embodies the soror mystica. The
soror mystica is often depicted in illustrations of the alchemical process and
12
Andri. Breton, Le Surrealisme et la peinture (Paris: Gallimard, 1965), p. 3
500 FRENCH REVIEW

considered to be a true partner. Nicolas Flamel's wife Perrenelle, for example,

was as involved in the work as he (Read, p. 51). But her role is symbolic as
well, for the close coordination of her efforts with those of the adept mimics
the essential operation coniuncto, in which Sol or gold marries Luna or silver
and in which the product of that marriage is the hermaphrodtic Philosopher's
Stone.I3 In Breton's terms, it is woman who will preside over the coniuncto by
combining the golden, fiery ratiocination, which would have otherwise expired
in the stagnant pool, with the silvery fresh water of fertility. Moreover, it is
coniuncto, the joining of the masculine and feminine principles and of man with
his lover, which will form the hermaphroditic "bloc de lumike" (p. 27) that can
change the world.
The Arcana also mirrors another essential aspect of the alchemical process.
In it, the tree which has incorporated the Rock of Perck, the coffre, the
hermetically sealed vessel or the Philosopher's Stone itself, now holds "les
debris de la sagesse morte" (p. 119). It can thus initiate the process of revivifi-
cation "par le moyen des kchanges entretenus entre le papillon et la fleur et en
vertu du principe de l'expansion des fluides, a laquelle est like la certitude de
renouvellement kternel" (p. 119). Despite their importance, these three pro-
cesses-coniunto, mortification, and revivication-do not suffice for the accom-
plishment of the Magnum Opus. The essential tool, the tool that initiates both
these three processes and the necessary exchange among them, is the Word (p.
119). The alchemists, too, depended on the process of symbolization, for it was
the basis of their focus on emblems. It was the reason for the proliferation of
illustrative material in their written work, and it was the implicit motivation for
the sheer volume of that written work. Their valorization of hieroglyphic
representation also coincides with Breton's insistence on the pictorial corre-
spondence between the Hebrew letter representing speech and its referent:
"Cette rksolution est d'ailleurs bien une rksolution commune car elle ne nkcessite
d'autre instrument que celui que les Hkbreux ont figurk hiiroglyphiquement
par la lettre 3 (prononcer: phe) qui ressemble a la langue dans la bouche et qui
signifie au sens le plus haut la parole m6me" (p. 119).
The Word, or more appropriately for Breton, Poetry, is the essence of the
second part of Arcane 17, for it is poetry which combines the masculine and
feminine principles in the Arcana, and it is poetry which joins the stars, liberty,
and love. An actively constitutive element, poetry is also responsible for the
structure of the work. It effects the transmutation that dominates the first part
of Arcane 17 and allows that transmutation to be subsumed into the depiction
of the alchemical process that structures the second part. Finally, by focusing
on the Arcana with its alchemical implications, it transforms the Arcana into
the emblem of the poetic process. Breton joins Rimbaud to celebrate once again
the alchemy of the word.
The second part of Arcane 17 is thus an abstraction of the first part. It is a
metalanguage that simultaneously describes a specific instance of poetic trans-
l 3 See F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists: Founders of Modern Chemistry (New York: Henry
Schuman, 1949), p. 148.
502 FRENCH REVIEW

On peut parler d'une 'geste alchimique" qui emprunte ses ricits i l'expidition de
Jason, aux exploits dJHercule ou a ceux de Thesee. L'alchimiste, comme le heros,
doit traverser une sene d'epreuves avant de conquerir, ce qui correspond a l'objet
merveilleux des lkgendes. Comme le heros, il accomplit une descente aux enfers
pour epuiser les etats infi'rieurs de son itre. Personnage romanesque, il doit passer
par le tombeau avant de connaitre la ri.geni.ration. Son langage est celui de l'action,
de l'amour et de la victoire sur la mort. (P. 251)

Not only does Van Lennep's observation incorporate alchemy into the heroic
legend and thus mythify the Magnum Opus, but it also recalls the structures of
Arcane 17. Breton and his lover must pass through the tomb in search of love,
while the world must resuscitate itself in the ashes of war and Lucifer must die
in order to be free. Reducing Arcane 17 to the pattern Van Lennep describes
and reasserting the alchemical significance of that pattern fixes the orientation
of Breton's work in alchemy.
In Arcane 17, literary creation follows the course of alchemical experimenta-
tion-the conditions under which they are both conducted, the processes by
which they take place and the resulting transmutations are comparable. This
parallelism gives substance to the Arcana's voice as it describes the work in
alchemical terms. As for the myths of Arcane 17, placing them in an alchemical
context reveals their function more completely; indeed, it highlights the dialectic
that binds them to the rest of the work. The alchemical perspective implied by
'Langue des pierres" thus enriches the reading of Arcane 17.