Jung's last major work, completed in his 81st year, on the synthesis of the opposites in alchemy and psychology. "Truly original and far-ranging in its implications . . . Mysterium Coniunctionis is a splendid capstone to the life work of a master spirit." ― Journal of Analytical Psychology 'What Jung has to convey is so truly original and so far-ranging in its implications that I suspect that this book will be a real challenge even to those most psychologically sophisticated. What he here presents in rich and documented detail can perhaps best be described as an anatomy of the objective psyche... Broadly speaking it is a treasury of images pertaining to the individual's discovery of the self... Mysterium Coniunctionis is a splendid capstone to the life work of a master spirit.' - Edward F. Edinger, Journal of Analytical Psychology. MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS AN INQUIRY INTO THE SEPARATION AND SYNTHESIS OF PSYCHIC OPPOSITES IN ALCHEMY By C. G. JUNG, GERHARD ADLER, R. F. C. HULL PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 1970 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-691-09766-4 Contents EDITORIAL NOTE, v, TRANSLATOR'S NOTE, viii, LIST OF PLATES, xii, FOREWORD xiii, I. The Components of the Coniunctio, II. The Paradoxa, III. The Personification of the Opposites, IV. Rex and Regina, V. Adam and Eve, VI. The Conjunction, Epilogue, 554, APPENDIX: LATIN AND GREEK TEXTS, 557, BIBLIOGRAPHY, 601, INDEX, 649, TABLE OF PARAGRAPH CORRELATIONS, 697, CHAPTER 1 THE COMPONENTS OF THE CONIUNCTIO 1. THE OPPOSITES The factors which come together in the coniunctio are conceived as opposites, either confronting one another in enmity or attracting one another in love. To begin with they form a dualism; for instance the opposites are humidum (moist) / siccum (dry), frigidum (cold) / calidum (warm), superiora (upper, higher) / inferiora (lower), spiritus-anima (spirit-soul) / corpus (body), coelum (heaven) / terra (earth), ignis (fire) / aqua (water), bright / dark, agens (active) / patiens (passive), volatile (volatile, gaseous) / fixum (solid), pretiosum (precious, costly; also carum , dear) / vile (cheap, common), bonum (good) / malum (evil), manifestum (open) / occultum (occult; also celatum , hidden), oriens (East) / occidens (West), vivum (living) / mortuum (dead, inert), masculus (masculine) / foemina (feminine), Sol / Luna. Often the polarity is arranged as a quaternio (quaternity), with the two opposites crossing one another, as for instance the four elements or the four qualities (moist, dry, cold, warm), or the four directions and seasons, thus producing the cross as an emblem of the four elements and symbol of the sublunary physical world. This fourfold Physis, the cross, also appears in the signs for earth [??], Venus [??], Mercury [??], Saturn [??], and Jupiter [??]. 2 The opposites and their symbols are so common in the texts that it is superfluous to cite evidence from the sources. On the other hand, in view of the ambiguity of the alchemists' language, which is "tam ethice quam physice" (as much ethical as physical), it is worth while to go rather more closely into the manner in which the texts treat of the opposites. Very often the masculine-feminine opposition is personified as King and Queen (in the Rosarium philosophorum also as Emperor and Empress), or as servus (slave) or vir rubeus (red man) and mulier Candida (white woman); in the "Visio Arislei" they appear as Gabricus (or Thabritius) and Beya, the King's son and daughter. Theriomorphic symbols are equally common and are often found in the illustrations. I would mention the eagle and toad ("the eagle flying through the air and the toad crawling on the ground"), which are the "emblem" of Avicenna in Michael Maier, the eagle representing Luna "or Juno, Venus, Beya, who is fugitive and winged like the eagle, which flies up to the clouds and receives the rays of the sun in his eyes." The toad "is the opposite of air, it is a contrary element, namely earth, whereon alone it moves by slow steps, and does not trust itself to another element. Its head is very heavy and gazes at the earth. For this reason it denotes the philosophic earth, which cannot fly [i.e., cannot be sublimated], as it is firm and solid. Upon it as a foundation the golden house is to be built. Were it not for the earth in our work the air would fly away, neither would the fire have its nourishment, nor the water its vessel." 3 Another favourite theriomorphic image is that of the two birds or two dragons, one of them winged, the other wingless. This allegory comes from an ancient text, De Chemia Senioris antiquissimi philosophi libellus . The wingless bird or dragon prevents the other from flying. They stand for Sol and Luna, brother and sister, who are united by means of the art. In Lambspringk's "Symbols" they appear as the astrological Fishes which, swimming in opp