Circulatio
Circulation
Round and round, until it is refined.
Circulatio: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In circular distillation a substance rises, condenses, and falls back again and again, refined with each turn. Jung found the same image in The Secret of the Golden Flower, whose practice is the circulation of the light, and in his own observation that the psyche develops not in a line but by circling around the centre.
Circulatio: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The alchemists’ pelican vessel, the rotation of the heavens, the wheel, the circling of pilgrims round a shrine.
From the Sources
Norton describes the circulations of the elements by which the Red Tincture is perfected, the matter passing in turn through fire, water, earth and back to fire.
“Another circulation begins with air and ends with earth. From earth to fire, thence to pure water, thence again to fire, and after this to a mean, passing to earth, finally once more recurring to fire”
Michael Sendivogius (author of the tract read), The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, Thomas Norton, "The Ordinal of Alchemy", p. 55. Now first done into English from the Latin original published at Frankfort in the year 1678; in two volumes, Volume II; London: James Elliott and Co., 1893 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
The Emerald Table says of the substance that it rises from earth to heaven and descends again to the earth, receiving the strength of things above and of things below.
“It rises from earth to heaven, and again descends to the earth, and receives the strength of things above and of things below.”
Michael Sendivogius (author of the tract read), The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, "The All-Wise Doorkeeper": "The Emerald Table of Hermes", pp. 320-321 (the rising and descending). Now first done into English from the Latin original published at Frankfort in the year 1678; in two volumes, Volume II; London: James Elliott and Co., 1893 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower (1929), CW 13
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Operations of the Work
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Circulatio.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/circulatio.
Nearby in the alphabet: Cibatio: Nourishing the matter in the vessel, a little at a time. The City: The ordered community, walled and centred. The Cloud: What hides the divine, and brings the rain.