Projectio
Projection
Casting the stone upon the metal to change it, and the psyche upon matter.
Projectio: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The last operation was projectio: casting the stone upon base metal to turn it into gold. Jung saw a second projection in the whole art: the alchemists, knowing little of their chemicals, saw in the dark matter the contents of their own unconscious. The word he used for one of the psyche’s chief mechanisms came, in part, from them.
Projectio: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The transmutation of lead into gold, the tales of successful projections told by Helvetius and others, the projection of the shadow onto the enemy.
From the Sources
Philalethes writes that the Magistery has power to quicken the maturing of metals, and that the Stone can effect more in one hour by a bare projection than Nature in the course of ages.
“…has power to quicken the maturing process by as much as itself exceeds the standard maturity of gold. How patent, then, must the spiritual nature of our Stone be, which can effect more in one hour by a bare projection than Nature in the course of ages.”
Michael Sendivogius (author of the tract read), The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, Philalethes treatise beginning p. 246, "Concerning the Philosopher's Stone and its Grand Arcanum", pp. 246-247. 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 quotes the pseudo-Geber on the 'Medicine of the third Order', which, coming to bodies with its projection, takes away all corruption and perfects them; there is, he says, only one such.
“A Medicine of the third Order," he writes, "I call every Preparation, which, when it comes to Bodies, with its projection, takes away all Corruption, and perfects them with the Difference of all Compleatment. But this is one only.”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy: Ancient and Modern, Ch. on the alchemistic doctrines, § 23. 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
- “The Psychic Nature of the Alchemical Work,” in 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
In the Glossary: Projection.
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
“Projectio.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/projectio.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Prison: Bound in the dark, awaiting release. The Psychopomp: The one who leads the soul across. Putrefactio: Rotting: the old form must decay before the new can grow.