Page 35 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

tincture, “the beginning, middle and end of the work” (ibid: 235).
In other words he suggests that Mercury does not represent a

defined concept across the works of the alchemists and must thus
primarily represent something psychological. However this randomness
could also be generated if Mercury was not an archetypal symbol, but
simply reinvented individually, because of the lack of clarity of the
texts. Likewise the apparent impossibility of Mercury representing a
single substance does not necessarily means that it is an unconscious
projection. It could be a metaphor which is explored and stretched
beyond its usefulness, it could be inconsistent because of its role in an
explanatory structure of filling gaps (similar to the way that Levi-Strauss
argues that the idea of mana works in Polynesian languages {1987: 55,
63-4}), or it could simply be that across several hundred years the term
was used to represent different things in different people’s work.

In Mysterium Coniunctionis Jung also considers of some of the chief
terms in alchemy such as Sol, Sulphur, Luna and so on. He attempts to
show that these terms are not just incoherent across the whole realm of
alchemical texts - something that may not be surprising - but that this
incoherence has certain types of pattern and association which can only
be psychologically driven. Thus Sol is both the Sun and Gold - a kind of
energy- it is associated with redness, with a sea, with an inner warmth,
with a seed, and with shadows (CW 14: 92-99). Sol can derive from
Sulphur, and Sulphur can be red or white, it can be a synonym for the
prima materia and for the lapis. Sulphur is fiery and this heat is both
hidden and revealed in combustibility. Often the same things are said of
Sulphur as are said of Mercury, or they are explicitly linked, identified
or derived from each other. Sulphur can be associated with the soul, or a
seed, as it has generative powers (perhaps because, as Bachelard points
out, of the common European association of hidden fire with life), it
colours, it coagulates and it corrupts (putrefies or ferments). It is both a
poison and a medicine. It can become a parallel to both Christ and the
Devil (CW 14: 111-28). Luna is the partner of Sol, it is associated with a
dew which can extract souls from bodies or give bodies souls, it is
derived from the cold moist part of Mercury, is never slain alone
(although the other terms often die), and it has a dark side - its external
light is feminine, but its internal light is masculine. In the section on
Luna Jung tends to use quite a large number of non-alchemical
references to expand the range of associations, which perhaps
diminishes the alchemical import of these associations (CW 14: 129-42,
174 8). Salt, as well as being dry, also is associated with water

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