Mysterium Coniunctionis (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.14)

Anyone who says this is Jung's Magnum Opus hasn't read it. This was Jung's last book and what he was trying to do was delineate the main lines of western alchemy, a discipline he believed anticipated depth psychology, but whose metaphors were a hodgepodge of astrology, kabalah,goddess worship,greco-roman mythology,superstition,primitive chemistry,neo-platonism, medieval christianity, and mystical religious experience. Kind of makes you sympathetic to early catholicism's violent insistence that everyone use the same symbols; otherwise THIS. About 1/3 of this book's 555+ pages is footnotes. Ever get a wild idea about signing up for a post-doctoral seminar on alchemy? This book is for you. And it does have some aha! moments , when Jung stops being scholarly and starts speaking as a psychologist: those wonderful moments every Jungiphile knows when it feels like the earth has dropped out from beneath your feet and you're standing in eternity------but not too many I'm afraid. Still, if you love Jung its a must have.

This in-depth analysis of Christian Mysticism, the Unconscious and Alchemy is put forth by Jung in scholastic fashion, as he reviews the ideas of philosophers, alchemists and religious thinkers throughout thousands of years, comparing their thoughts and demonstrating many of the overlapping ideas shared by many of them. This work is too important and too dense to merely sum up in a review, however, if you like Jung’s works, and are interested in the Christ from an Alchemical and Psychological viewpoint, this is a must read.Thelemites will find much of their heritage presented in this text, illustrating that Thelema was not born in a vacuum.

To say the truth, I was a bit disappointed with this one. Unlike other works of Jung, this one is pretty dense and repetitive, and the worst part of it is that it comes to no good conclusion of the subject which is the great mystery of the complexio oppositorum or the reconciliation of opposites. Every time one gets the feeling that Jung is coming to a certain answer, he changes the subject and wanders into the complex symbolism of alchemy without providing any certain conclusion either. Nevertheless, the work is valuable insomuch a sit provides great insight into the theme of Alchemy and how the alchemists of the middle-ages and even later on worked on this problem of reconciling opposites within in order to produce the Magnus Opum. I give it 3 stars as it is definitely not the best work of Jung, even though it is one of his longest and his very last. I kind of wonder whether he actually came to a full self-realization considering his conclusions. My personal guess is that he probably didn't.

Straight out of the box the book had greasy stains along the length of the pages. I am still in the process of wiping down the pages (and whatever the grit is that came with the greased pages). My brand new book looks like it came from a garage sale.

Interesting in its goal that Jung took the ideas and imagery of alchemy to heart and tried to put them in a wider context and make them useful to people of his own era. Whether he was successful is debatable but like alchemy itself this book was an interesting experiment.

An epoch defining book. A post-post-modern future classic it seals humankind's fate across time, space, cosmos, the stars and into eternity. carl Jung spent a lifetime working every nano second to bring this masterpiece together. Who am I to comment on such a work. I am in awe. Thank you amazon for providing the route for this piece of spectacular genius to reach my frontdoor.

Great.

This is an excellent, classic text. It is a dissertation on the alchemical union of dualistic opposites. It is definitely not an easy read, but many sections are more straightforward than the initial chapters. This is a very scholarly text that requires one to be familiar with the cited works in order to have full appreciation.

The final synthesis of Jung's thought on alchemy and a reliable companion to the student.This book has a bad reputation as Jung's most "formidable" contribution and, indeed, if he did not work the prime materia of the art of psychotherapy to it's conclusion, he most certainly perfected the art of the footnote.However, if one has a strong interest in Jungian thought and knows what to expect I.E exhaustive bibliographical notes with a profusion of Greek and Latin inclusions and asides, the casual reader need not be concerned if his experience will be enjoyable.Having said that, Jung doesn't slow down to accommodate latecomers with lengthy recapping of concepts he's already discussed in other books, so it may not be advisable to read this volume as an introduction.

Very poor quality of paper is used for this book..Looks like a cheap photo copy from an original book.Atlantic publisher seems to be cheating people...Beware from this fraud seller..Buy from another seller...Jung is great as usual...

Monster of a book. Great quality and arrived as scheduled

matched expectations

impeccable