Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 13: Alchemical Studies by Jung C. G. Hull R. F.C. Adler Gerhard

Author:Jung, C. G., Hull, R. F.C., Adler, Gerhard [Jung, C. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1967-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

5. THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE

[374] In my book Psychology and Alchemy I devoted a special chapter1 to the projection of psychic contents (hallucinations, visions, etc.) and therefore need not dwell here on the spontaneous production of the tree symbol among the alchemists. Suffice to say that the adept saw branches and twigs2 in the retort, where his tree grew and blossomed.3 He was advised to contemplate its growth, that is, to reinforce it with active imagination. The vision was the thing to be sought (res quaerenda).4 The tree was “prepared” in the same way as salt.5 And just as the tree grew in the water, so also it was putrefied in it, “burnt” or “cooled” with the water.6 It was called oak,7 vine,8 myrtle.9 Djēbir ibn Hayyēn says of the myrtle: “Know that the myrtle is the leaf and the twig; it is a root yet no root. It is both a root and a branch. As a root, it is unquestionably a root if it be set over against the leaves and the fruits. It is separate from the trunk and forms part of the deep roots.” The myrtle, he says, is “what Maria10 calls the golden rungs, what Democritus calls the green bird. . . . It has been so called because of its green colour and because it is like the myrtle, in that it keeps its green colour for a long time despite the alternations of heat and cold.”11 It has seven branches.12

[375] Gerard Dorn says of the tree:

After nature has planted the root of the metallic tree in the midst of her womb, viz., the stone which shall bring forth the metals, the gem, the salt, the alum, the vitriol, the salty spring, sweet, cold, or warm, the tree of coral or the Marcasita,13 and has set its trunk in the earth, this trunk is divided into different branches, whose substance is a liquid, not after the manner of water, nor of oil, nor of clay,14 nor of slime, but is not to be thought of otherwise than as the wood born of the earth, which is not earth although growing from it. The branches spread in such a way that the one is separated from the other by a space of two or three climates and as many regions: from Germany even as far as Hungary and beyond. In this way the branches of different trees spread through the whole globe of the earth, as in the human body the veins spread through the different limbs, which are separated from one another.

The fruits of this tree drop off, and the tree itself dies and vanishes in the earth. “Afterwards, in accordance with natural conditions, another new [tree] is there.”15

[376] In this text Dorn draws an impressive picture of the growth, expansion, death, and rebirth of the philosophical tree. Its branches are veins running through the earth, and although they spread to the most distant points of the earth’s surface they all belong to the same immense tree, which apparently renews itself.

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