Red
Rubedo
The reddening: the work completed in blood and life.
Red: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The work ended in the rubedo, the reddening, when the red king, the red tincture, or the red stone appears: the union of opposites achieved and brought into life. Jung read the red as blood and passion, the life that must return to the white clarity for the whole to be real.
Red: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Blood and wine, the red king of the alchemists, the red rose, the phoenix, the ruby.
From the Sources
Silberer interprets the final red as life now drenched with love, a red that is permanent because it comes from the innermost feeling.
“Life is without conflict now drenched with love, red. This true red thus attained is permanent because it is produced [in contrast to mere instruction] from the heart of hearts”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, Part III, Section II, 'The Goal of the Work'. Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1917 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Espagnet, quoted by Redgrove, says the deep redness of the Sun perfects the work of Sulphur, and calls it the fire of the Stone and the King's Crown.
“But the deep redness of the Sun perfecteth the work of Sulphur, which is called the Sperm of the male, the fire of the Stone, the King’s Crown, and the Son of Sol”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy: Ancient and Modern, Chapter II, § 28, note 40. Second and revised edition; London: William Rider & Son, Ltd., 1922 (first published 1911) (Project Gutenberg eBook #43240). 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
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Rubedo, Coniunctio.
Also among The Colours of the Work
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Red.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/red.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Androgyne (Rebis, the hermaphrodite) · Coniunctio (The conjunction)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Raven: The black bird of the beginning. Rebirth: Becoming new, in five forms. The Redeemer: The one who frees what is bound. The Return: Coming home with what was found.