Unio Naturalis

The original, half-animal state of unconsciousness was known to the adept as the nigredo, the chaos, the massa confusa, an inextricable interweaving of the soul with the body, which together formed a dark unity (the unio naturalis).

Jung provides the definitive locus classicus, identifying unio naturalis with the nigredo and massa confusa—the pre-conscious, undifferentiated fusion of soul and body from which the alchemical separatio must liberate the spirit.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955thesis

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

Alchemy knows about the opus contra naturam, about the dissolution of the unio naturalis. Where it follows alchem

Giegerich invokes the unio naturalis as precisely that which the genuine alchemical and psychological opus must dissolve, arguing that failure to perform this dissolution leaves psychology trapped in ego-preserving self-identity.

Giegerich, Wolfgang, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020thesis

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

unio mentalis, 278-283, 285-296, 300-305, 307, 313

Edinger's index entry for the unio mentalis situates that concept as the stage consciously counterposed to the unio naturalis within his systematic commentary on Jung's three-stage coniunctio schema.

Edinger, Edward F., The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995supporting

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

the unio mentalis to be a Jungian of reasoned judgment and aesthetic fantasy (logos and psyche) (CW 14:755), freeing soul from body (CW 14:739), prior to further Jungian with body (physis, physics, world, unus mundus)

Hillman, following Dorn via Jung, articulates the unio mentalis as the movement that explicitly frees soul from body—the necessary corrective to the unio naturalis—before a higher re-integration with the physical world can be attempted.

Hillman, James, Alchemical Psychology, 2010supporting

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

The original condition, stage 1, would be represented by that single little pebble at the top, which would signify the state of original wholeness before any consciousness enters the picture.

Edinger's developmental schema implicitly maps stage one—original, undivided wholeness prior to ego differentiation—as the psychological equivalent of the unio naturalis before separatio begins.

Edinger, Edward F., The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995supporting

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

The sea has closed over the king and queen, and they have gone back to the chaotic beginnings, the massa confusa. Physis has wrapped the 'man of light' in a passionate embrace.

Jung describes the regressive dissolution into the massa confusa as Physis reclaiming the spirit—a vivid dramatization of the pull back toward the unio naturalis during the coniunctio process.

Jung, C.G., Collected Works Volume 16: The Practice of Psychotherapy, 1954aside

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →

the coniunctio is depicted as the embrace of two winged beings, as in the Rosarium

Jung contextualizes the iconic embrace imagery of the Rosarium as a symbolic representation of the forces of reunification—the inverse movement from separatio back toward a higher coniunctio that echoes yet transcends the original unio naturalis.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967aside

Expand passageDig deeper with Sebastian →