Cauda Pavonis

The next stage of the opus is marked by a play of iridescent colors; this is often called the cauda pavonis (peacock's tail). Jung's little black man in the pencil case represents the nigredo condition... the luminous giant radiolarian shining in the forest, however, announces the stage of the cauda pavonis and, according to the alchemists, represents the first sign of the 'resurrection' of the prima materia — an activation of feeling.

Von Franz defines the cauda pavonis as the iridescent stage succeeding the nigredo in the alchemical opus and applies it biographically to Jung's own psychic development, reading a childhood dream-image as its concrete manifestation.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time, 1975thesis

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These are the colours of the peacock's eye, which play a great role as the cauda pavonis in alchemy. The appearance of these colours in the opus represents an intermediate stage preceding the definitive end result.

Jung identifies the cauda pavonis as an intermediate alchemical stage registered by the appearance of rainbow colors in the mandala, correlating it with Böhme's mystical language of a 'Beauty of Colours' arising from affectivity.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959thesis

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The colours refer to the cauda pavonis, which appears just be[fore the final stage].

Jung specifies the cauda pavonis as immediately preceding the conclusive phase of the alchemical work, positioning it as the last transitional marker before completion.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967supporting

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cauda pavonis, 330, 332, 338, 375, 376

The index of The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious records multiple substantive discussions of the cauda pavonis, confirming its recurrent analytical significance throughout that volume.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959supporting

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peacock, see cauda pavonis (i. e., peacock's tail)

Jung's index cross-references the peacock directly under the cauda pavonis, confirming the interchangeability of these symbolic designations in his alchemical-psychological vocabulary.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Practice of Psychotherapy: Essays on the Psychology of the Transference and Other Subjects, 1954supporting

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'peacock's tail,' 147; see also cauda pavonis

Edinger's index entry anchors the colloquial English form 'peacock's tail' to the Latin technical term, situating the concept within his systematic mapping of alchemical operations onto psychotherapeutic processes.

Edinger, Edward F., Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985supporting

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cauda pavonis (peacock's tail), 152n, 154n, 290n

The Alchemical Studies index attests to the cauda pavonis as a recurrent indexed concept across multiple sections of that volume, including notes touching on the center and fiery processes.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967supporting

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the bonnets of the two kings, Anfortas and Gramoflanz, are alike of peacock plumes. In early Christian art the peacock, like the phoenix, was symbolic of the Resurrection. Its flesh, it was believed, would not decay.

Campbell contextualizes the peacock symbol within medieval Christian iconography and Wolfram's Grail narrative, linking its incorruptibility and annual renewal to resurrection — a symbolic substratum shared with the alchemical cauda pavonis.

Campbell, Joseph, Creative Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume IV, 1968supporting

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On it there sits a peacock, fanning out its tail, and to the left there is an egg, presumably the peacock's. In view of the important role w[hich the peacock plays in alchemy]

Jung describes a patient's mandala featuring a peacock with fanned tail — an atypical dyadic structure — and begins to note the peacock's significance in alchemy, gesturing toward the cauda pavonis symbolism in a visual clinical context.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959aside

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