Coniunctio
The conjunction
The union of opposites in the vessel.
Coniunctio: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The conjunction is the heart of the work and of Jung’s last great book, Mysterium Coniunctionis (1955–1956): the joining of sun and moon, king and queen, sulphur and salt, which he read as the union of conscious and unconscious.
In “The Psychology of the Transference” (1946) he followed it through the woodcuts of the Rosarium philosophorum, where the royal pair meet, bathe, unite, die, and rise as one being, and read the sequence as what passes between two people in analysis.
Coniunctio: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The fourth of Ripley’s Twelve Gates; the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616); the sacred marriage of king and land.
From the Sources
Philalethes writes of the two becoming 'no longer two, but only one by inseparable conjunction', a new birth which is then coagulated, sublimed, nourished and exalted to the highest perfection.
“…no longer two, but only one by inseparable conjunction. This new birth is then coagulated, sublimed, nourished, and exalted to the highest degree of perfection, and may afterwards be indefinitely multiplied by fermentation”
Michael Sendivogius (author of the tract read), The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, Philalethes treatise beginning p. 246, pp. 255-256. 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
Redgrove notes that the alchemists commonly held the Stone to consist of philosophical sulphur and mercury combined into a perfect unity, and frequently likened this union to the conjunction of the sexes in marriage.
“This opinion, that the Philosopher's Stone consists of "philosophical sulphur and mercury" combined so as to constitute a perfect unity, was commonly held by the alchemists, and they frequently likened this union to the conjunction of the sexes in marriage.”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy: Ancient and Modern, § 24, "The Nature of the Philosopher's Stone". Second and revised edition; London, William Rider & Son, Ltd., 1922. 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
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
- “The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Coniunctio.
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
“Coniunctio.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/coniunctio.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: Coagulatio: What was fluid takes on body. The Cock: The herald of the light. Copper: The metal of Venus: love, beauty, and verdigris. The Crab: Moving backward: the pull of the past, with a way forward hidden in it.