As soon as a projection is really withdrawn a sort of peace establishes itself one becomes quiet and can look at the thing from an objective angle. One can look at the specific problem or factor in an objective and quiet way and perhaps do some active imagination about it without constantly becoming emotional, or falling back into the emotional tangle. That corresponds to the albedo. It is, in a way, the first stage of becoming quieter and more detached and objective, more philosophically detached. One has a standpoint au dessus de la melée; one can stand on top of the mountain and observe the thunderstorm below, which naturally is still going on, but which one can look at without fear, or feeling threatened by it.
— Marie-Louise von Franz
Von Franz is describing a genuine achievement — the withdrawal of projection does bring something quieter, and that quiet is real. But notice where the image lands: above the storm, on the mountain, looking down at what continues below. The albedo is not the end of the alchemical work; it is a stage, a whitening, a temporary relief from the nigredo's grip. Yet the soul's ear hears it differently. The standpoint above the mêlée is also the oldest promise in the Western interior — that if you become sufficiently detached, sufficiently philosophical, sufficiently elevated, the suffering will be yours to observe rather than yours to undergo.
Detachment works. That is not in question. The projection withdrawn no longer hooks you the same way, and the emotional tangle loosens. What bears watching is whether the albedo becomes a destination rather than a passage — whether "I can now look at this without fear" quietly becomes "I have moved beyond this." The alchemists knew the whitening was not gold. The rubedo requires re-descent, re-contact, a willingness to be in the storm again rather than above it. Von Franz herself was clear that the work does not end at the mountaintop. The mountain is a resting place with a view — which is different from the valley, and not a permanent residence.
Marie-Louise von Franz·Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology·1980