Putrefactio
Putrefaction
Rotting: the old form must decay before the new can grow.
Putrefactio: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The fifth of the Twelve Gates of George Ripley, and the blackness of the alchemists: the matter left to rot in the sealed vessel. “The corruption of one is the generation of another,” the saying ran. Jung read it as part of the nigredo, the decay of the old attitude that has to be suffered, not hurried.
Its emblem is the seed, which must fall into the ground and die if it is to bear fruit.
Putrefactio: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The grain of wheat of the Gospel of John; the dead body in the coffin of the Rosarium woodcuts; the dung heap in which the treasure lies.
From the Sources
Paracelsus writes that putrefaction abolishes the old nature and brings in a new one: in it all living things are killed and all dead things recover life.
“Now putrefaction is of such efficacy, that it abolisheth the old Nature, and brings in a new one. All living things are killed in it, all dead things putrefied in it, and all dead things recover life in it.”
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
Philalethes writes that the black and fetid ashes are not to be despised, for the substance will never be white unless it has first been black, and attains the glorified body of its resurrection through putrefaction and decay.
“…your substance will never be white, if it has not first been black. It is by means of putrefaction and decay that it attains the glorified body of its resurrection.”
Michael Sendivogius (author of the tract read), The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged, Philalethes treatise beginning p. 246, p. 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
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
- George Ripley, The Compound of Alchymy (1471)
- 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: Nigredo.
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
“Putrefactio.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/putrefactio.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Mortificatio (Mortification, killing) · Lead (Saturn) · The Eclipse (The black sun) · The Bird · The Raven (Caput corvi)
Nearby in the alphabet: Projectio: Casting the stone upon the metal to change it, and the psyche upon matter. The Psychopomp: The one who leads the soul across. The Quaternity: Fourness, the pattern of completeness. The Quest: The long search for what was lost.