Distillatio
Distilling
Rising and falling again, until only the essence is left.
Distillatio: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In distillation the matter is heated, its vapour rises into the head of the still, condenses, and runs down, leaving the coarser part behind; repeated, it yields a spirit. Jung read the alchemists’ endless distillations as the patient refining of a psychic content by returning to it again and again.
Distillatio: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The alembic and the still, spirit of wine, the dew of the Rosarium, essences and quintessences.
From the Sources
Paracelsus describes cohobation, a kind of distillation, as the repeated soaking of the residue (the 'dead head') in its own water, which is then drawn off again by distillation.
“Now Cohobation is, that the dead head be oftentimes imbibed with its own water, and that again bee drawn off by Distillation.”
Micheel Sandivogius; Paracelsus (Nine Books Of the Nature of Things), A New Light of Alchymie ... Also Nine Books Of the Nature of Things, Written by Paracelsus ... Also a Chymicall Dictionary, Paracelsus, Of the Nature of Things, Book VII. Faithfully translated out of the Latin into the English tongue, by J. F. M.D.; London, Printed by Richard Cotes, for Thomas Williams, at the Bible in Little-Britain, 1650. The text, read in part
In the Sophic Hydrolith, when the fire is increased and well tempered, the soul, which had risen from the body, gradually descends again in drops and saturates and moistens its body.
“But if the fire is increased, and well tempered, the Soul gradually descends again in drops, and saturates and moistens its Body, and so prevents it from being completely”
The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged: Most Faithfully Instructing All Disciples of the Sopho-Spagyric Art How That Greatest and Truest Medicine of the Philosopher's Stone May Be Found and Held, "The Sophic Hydrolith", pp. 82-83. Now first done into English from the Latin original published at Frankfort in the year 1678; containing twenty-two most celebrated chemical tracts; in two volumes, Volume I; London: James Elliott and Co., Temple Chambers, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, E.C., 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
- 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
“Distillatio.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/distillatio.
Nearby in the alphabet: Dionysus: Ecstasy, intoxication, and the dissolving of every boundary. Dismemberment: Torn apart, to be put together anew. The Divine Child: The future, not yet born into the world. The Dog: Guardian of the threshold, and faithful guide.