Sulphur
The burning principle: desire and will.
Sulphur: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Sulphur, the second principle of Paracelsus, was the combustible, active, fiery part of a substance, and in alchemy the substance of the sun. Jung read it as the motive force of the psyche, desire and compulsion, that drives toward the goal and can burn what it touches.
Sulphur: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Brimstone and hellfire, the fire of Sodom, the sulphur of volcanoes, and sulphur in the old pharmacies.
From the Sources
In outlining Oswald Wirth's ideas, Silberer says sulphur is to be regarded as a symbol of expansive power, of individual initiative, of will.
“Sulphur is to be regarded as a symbol of the expansive power, as individual initiative, as will.”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, Part III, Section III, 'The Royal Art' (outlining Oswald Wirth). 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
Redgrove explains that the alchemists ascribed combustibility to an elementary principle of combustion, their 'sulphur'.
“…thus, combustibility was thought to be due to some elementary principle of combustion--the “sulphur” of the alchemists and the “phlogiston” of a later period.”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy: Ancient and Modern, Chapter II, § 15. Second and revised edition; London: William Rider & Son, Ltd., 1922 (first published 1911) (Project Gutenberg eBook #43240). The text, read in part
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In the Materia Medica
Sulfur: the substance itself, as the old medicine used it and as it is known today.
Where to Read
- “Sulphur,” in Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Metals, Principles, and Substances
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Sulphur.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sulphur.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Stone: What endures: the philosophers’ stone. Sublimatio: What was heavy rises, and becomes spirit. The Swan: The white bird of the hidden god and the dying song.