This is no easy sledding, but for those familiar with Jung's model of the psyche, this is the congealed presentation of the phenomenon of the union of opposites within the Archetypal Self. I avoided this one due to its mystical and forbidding title, but it is the consummate work of Jung, taking ten of the last years of his life to write. Once groping through the dense forest of obscure alchemical references, the reader will be delighted to discover a clearing in the woods when Jung explains the application of alchemical references to the phenomenon of individuation.

Jung seems to write from the dream state; associations interleaved with digressions punctuated by potent and startling images. This is his most satisfying book for me because it has the simplest premise but is also the largest and richest. He stretches out enormously within a limited range, gathering a life-time of inquiry into a writhing basket of conflicting thought. This method illustrates perfectly how deep experience can become when meditated upon and scrutinized and when tangents are whole-heartedly encouraged and darksides allowed to bloom. No need to hop-scotch around the world, just look into the pile of dead ants beneath your radiator and let your mind wander. The conjunction of opposites: perhaps Jung's emblem for the source of life, the alembic, where all intellectual and emotional births occur. Read and reread this book to step through the microcosmic door into unlimited life right where you are.

This is the 3rd & culminating text of Jung's CW trilogy on alchemy (see CW11 Psychology & Alchemy & CW12 Alchemical Studies before reading this one). Jung obviously devoted considerable time & effort into the study of alchemy--because he perceived an amazing parallel with his theories/model of the psyche & the process of individuation. I think it amazed him that the alchemists intuitively evoked such general principles of transcendental alchemy prior to the development of western science--indeed, they were simultaneously immersed in this development such that modern chemistry evolved from it. Oddly, some are now advocating the use of chemicals (drugs) in lieu of psychology--e.g. for schizophrenia. Maybe the tail is wagging the horse? Of course, this is a difficult text. The alchemical series may be the most difficult of Jung's already difficult texts. But, as Jung demonstrated himself, sometimes the way to learn is to just jump in feet first--absorb as you can. Eventually, the material will start to sink in--subconsciously if not consciously. Give it a whirl. This text also has some VERY interesting quotes:

p. 82 "There is something serious in every joke.

p. 125 If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

p. 200 It seems as if Christianity had been from the outset the religion of chronic squabbles, and even now it does everything in its power never to let the squabbles rest. Remarkably enough, it never stops preaching the gospel of neighborly love.

p. 376 The creative mystic was ever a cross for the Church, but it is to him that we own what is best in humanity...'where there is no vision, the people perish...The mystics are channels through which a little knowledge of reality filters down into our human universe of ignorance and illusion: A totally unmystical world would be a world totally blind and insane...the few theocentric saints who exist at any given moment are able in some slight measure to qualify and mitigate the poisons which society generates within itself by its political and economic activities. In the gospel phrase, theocentric saints are the salt which preserves the world from decay.' (quoting Aldous Huxley in Grey Eminence 1943, pp. 98, *296.

p. 487 Fantasies always mean something when they are spontaneous.

p. 519 Never do human beings speculate more, or have more opinions, than about things which they do not understand.

p. 536 Nothing changes anything else without itself being changed." How profound can you get?

I did not find this book to be as useful as most of the other volumes of Carl Jung's collected works. Keep in mind that I love and respect Carl Jung as much as anyone; I have devoted nearly a year of my life solidly to reading Jung's collected works, and they have been the source of much joy, fulfillment, and enlightenment for me. However, _Mysterium Conjunctionis_ has contributed very little to these positive changes I have experienced, for the following reasons:

1. The footnotes. Never in my life have I seen a book so festooned with footnotes as this one. They take up over half the book - on any given page, there is about one inch of text along the top of the page, and the rest is covered by footnotes. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that these footnotes contain little of any interest to me.

2. This book comes across as nothing more than a massive attempt on the part of Jung to justify and support the ideas he has had over the years. Often the book reads like some kind of list of ancient alchemists and mythmakers who have foreshadowed and echoed Jung's sentiments. Many paragraphs are devoted to listing names which will be unfamilier to almost everyone, capped off by footnotes explaining who these people were. Rather than concoct new ideas, Jung seems to have opted to dig up ancient figures who can "back up" some of his major ideas. It seems like Jung is trying to fend off critics who have accused him of putting forth unsubstantiated ideas rather than cater to his loyal fans who already trust him.

3. The overall feel of the book is simply a field guide to witches and warlocks. Granted, Jung discusses these phantoms and myths from the standpoint of depth psychology and general "psychic phenomena", and does not seem to be advocating a literal-historical belief in all these myths. However, we are bombarded with myth after esoteric myth throughout the book, while Jung leaves it to us to interpret the symbolic value and modern psychological parallels of these myths. Very rarely does Jung give us a useful interpretation of what these myths should mean to us.

4. This book is very self-indulgent on Jung's part. It consists almost entirely of Jung's most esoteric "pet" concepts, like archetypes, alchemy, ancient myths, and sorcery. It is precisely these strange "pet" concepts which have given fodder to many of Jung's critics, who accuse him of being obsessed with ancient rituals which have little relevance to the modern day world.

Overall, I recommend this book only to those readers of Jung who want to go all the way and read every one of the collected works; this book should be near the bottom of the list. Do not read this book unless you have already read volumes 6,7,8,9,10,11, and 12 of the CW.

"The light that gradually dawns on him consists in his understanding that his fantasy is a real psychic process which is happening to him personally." (Jung p. 528-529) This sentence from the book sums-up its content.

In this work Jung demonstrates that Alchemy was a precursor to modern Western psychological insight. Jung draws a "process map" of the Alchemy in this volume, in which he laboriously (but not tediously) shows that the steps the alchemists took to bring about the transformation of matter. Jung suggests that this process is a metaphoric representation of a process some humans travel to reach a level of consciousness that includes and unites the unseen (transcendent) reality with the visible experience.

It can be read as an interesting intellectual insight into earlier Western thought, or it can be used by an individual as a guide through the process of psychological transformation. This work is essential to anyone on the path of transformation and who looks to Jung as a guide on that path. It is not for a casual reader of Jung.

Jung seems to write from the dream state; associations interleaved with digressions punctuated by potent and startling images. This is his most satisfying book for me because it has the simplest premise but is also the largest and richest. He stretches out enormously within a limited range, gathering a life-time of inquiry into a writhing basket of conflicting thought. This method illustrates perfectly how deep experience can become when meditated upon and scrutinized and when tangents are whole-heartedly encouraged and darksides allowed to bloom. No need to hop-scotch around the world, just look into the pile of dead ants beneath your radiator and let your mind wander. The conjunction of opposites: perhaps Jung's emblem for the source of life, the alembic, where all intellectual and emotional births occur. Read and reread this book to step through the microcosmic door into unlimited life right where you are.

Jung rises to unscaled heights in this scholarly and alchemically informed book that in its ultimate reach points to the One World of Gerhard Dorn and an ultimate synthesis of soul, soma, and spirit with the pleromatic Ground of everything. Along with AION and ANSWER TO JOB this may be Jung's deepest book. Highly technical. (See also Edinger's THE MYSTERIUM LECTURES.)