At the Root of Jung’s Alchemy Part II, From The Red Book to Ravenna

ABSTRACT It is a well-known fact that Jung decided to devote himself to a systematic study of the European alchemical tradition at the beginning of the 1930s. What readied him to do so remains, to this day, uncertain. Shedding light on Jung’s long-standing interest in rituals and processes of death and rebirth, which culminated in his 1932 Ravenna vision, the second part of this article retraces Jung’s earliest references to alchemy in his published writings, from the early 1920s to 1932. Transpiring from this rereading are his early interest in Silberer’s work, his forays into late antique demonology, and his contacts with G. R. S. Mead, which all preceded (and likely inspired) his 1919–1920 alchemical paintings in The Red Book. All this also sheds new light on Jung’s encounter with Richard Wilhelm and Chinese alchemy.