Massa Confusa as Unio Naturalis

A line in Mysterium Coniunctionis names a distinction the opus depends on. Jung describes the initial state 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). From this enchainment he had to free himself” (Jung 1955, Mysterium Coniunctionis).

The thread is the difference between the two unions the opus names. The unio naturalis is the unity of the massa-confusa — the soul tangled with the body, the elements present but in conflict, an undifferentiated togetherness that is not integration but enmeshment. From this state the opus must extricate the alchemist, by separatio. The work then leads, through the nigredo, albedo, and rubedo, toward a different union: the coniunctio, the unio mystica of opposites that have first been distinguished.

The Lineage is firm on the asymmetry. The massa confusa and the coniunctio are not the same union seen from opposite ends. The first is unconsciousness; the second is consciousness that has passed through differentiation and consented to be reunited.

Sources

• carl-jung: the unio naturalis is the massa confusa — soul and body in dark unity, an enmeshment from which the alchemist must free himself (Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1955)
• edward-edinger: the alchemical separatio is precisely the operation that breaks the unio naturalis so that a true coniunctio may later become possible (Anatomy of the Psyche, 1985)