The mercurial fountain is the heart of alchemy. The illustration above is the depiction of the entire alchemical process. Let us begin by highlighting the most important components of this illustration. First, we notice four stars in the four corners of the image. Jung says that they represent the four elements: air, earth, fire and water. A basin is at the center of the scene. It is the vas hermeticum (hermetic vase), the place where the transformation is supposed to occur.
The water pouring in the basin is known as the mare nostrum (our sea), the aqua permanens (permanent water) and the mare tenebrosum (dark sea) according to Jung. That water in the basin is identified as mercurius on the container which is the transformative substance of alchemy. Jung has often established a parallel between mercurius and the unconscious.
The fountain has three faucets from which mercurius is identified as lac virginis, acetum fontis and aqua vitae which are all synonyms of the transformative substance mercurius. Above the fountain, we see the sun and the moon, representing the most hostile opposites, and a fifth star that represents the quintessence, the unity of the four elements. Finally, a dragon with two heads, the serpens bifidus, (mercurial serpent) represents the double nature of mercurius.
In The Psychology of Transference, Jung explains the alchemical process as follows:
« This structure reveals the tetrameria (fourfold nature) of the transforming process, already known to the Greeks. It begins with the four separate elements, the state of chaos, and ascends by degrees to the three manifestations of Mercurius in the inorganic, organic, and spiritual worlds; and, after attaining the form of Sol and Luna (i.e., the precious metals gold and silver, but also the radiance of the gods who can overcome the strife of the elements by love), it culminates in the one and indivisible (incorruptible, ethereal, eternal) nature of the anima, the quinta essentia, aqua permanens, tincture, or lapis philosophorum (philosopher’s stone). » (par. 404)
So, according to Jung, alchemy starts from the psychological chaos and its fourfold nature. It is «the pluralistic state of the man who has not yet attained inner unity, hence the state of bondage and disunion, of disintegration, and of being torn in different directions » (par. 405).
From the chaos comes the state of the triad, the three manifestations of mercurius which are, in his opinion, the equivalent of desire, will and determination. The triad then transform itself in a dyad, sun (sol) and moon (luna) which « corresponds to the reaction of the psychic system as a whole to the impulse or decision of the conscious mind » (par. 406). The dyad is the representation of the complementary quality of the unconscious in relation to the conscious mind. Finally, the quintessence represents wholeness, the complete integration of the unconscious into consciousness.
When Jung speaks of the chaos being channeled into the three forms of mercurius, he is talking about the process of active imagination where the chaos is brought to order. Then, mercurius, the unconscious is canalized into a dyad, represented as sun and moon, the conscious and the unconscious. Following the completed integration of the shadow (personal unconscious) and the anima (collective unconscious), the quintessence appears as wholeness.
With all due respect to Jungians who believe that Jung’s interpretations are the ultimate and indefectible reality, this explanation does not make sense and contains numerous errors. The most important are, first, the fact that mercurius, as the unconscious and its fourfold nature, cannot be explained by rational observations. Jung never explains why chaos is represented by the number four usually linked to totality and order. Second, Jung avoids to explain satisfactorily the threefold step of the alchemical process. What are the three faucets of the unconscious? Jung says that they are the inorganic, organic and spiritual worlds. Unconscious contents coming from the spiritual world represent their logic state, from the organic world probably means all the instincts but we are confronted with a problem: what is the inorganic world in humans and what is the unconscious that is canalized from the inorganic world? The response to that question does not exist. These two important mistakes indicates that Jung was wrong from the start in his interpretation of alchemy.
Below, we will present an interpretation that, we believe, make sense.
Let us begin by stating that the alchemists were not concerned about the unconscious but about consciousness. Mercurius, that is equivalent to the unconscious, in Jung’s interpretation is, in fact, a symbol of consciousness for the alchemists. The four elements appearing in the alchemical recipes are not symbols of chaos but of the four cognitive functions. As a matter of fact, Jung did not invent the four cognitive functions, he used the four temperaments of the Greeks, the four elements in astrology and the four cherubs of the Bible and renamed them. Those three systems are complexio oppositorum or combination of two pairs of opposites that Jung needed because his psychology is always based on pairs of opposites. The proof that alchemy was about consciousness appears in the illustration below, stating the four temperaments in place if the stars.
We know from Jung and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, that humans develop only two cognitive functions: the dominant and the auxiliary functions. The latter being usually less developed than the dominant function. That was the goal of alchemy to find the two missing cognitive functions.
As we have said above, the symbols appearing in the first illustration state the process and the goal of alchemy. This goal was not about the integration of the unconscious but to identify and develop the missing functions of consciousness. The first step of the process is to learn that consciousness has four directions (four elements or stars). The second step is to identify the function that is completely differentiated from the unconscious that we now call the dominant function but was identified mainly by mercurius by the alchemists. The third step is to determine the three functions that remain which are the three faucets of the mercurial fountain. Note that one of the faucets goes from right to left and represents the auxiliary function. The other two faucets flow from left to right and represent the two cognitive functions that need to be differentiated from the unconscious. The left side is usually related to the unconscious. The basin, as the vas hermeticum (hermetic vase), is the mind and the consciousness of the philosopher or the artifex.
We shall consider that mercurius, as the transformative substance, is always consciousness. The ultimate goal of alchemy was to make consciousness flow from the three faucets and attain a state of complete consciousness. The sun and the moon as well as the dragon with two heads represent the two states of cognitive functions: part is developed and conscious (the dominant function = sun), part is undifferentiated or incompletely developed (the three other functions = moon). The double nature of mercurius shown by the serpent with two heads also shows those two states.
Therefore, the illustration of the mercurial fountain shows the alchemical process which is to retrieve wisdom (as consciousness) that is lost in matter (also the goal of the Gnostics). That wisdom or sofia is composed of the undifferentiated functions of consciousness. When the four cognitive functions are completely developed, the philosopher (alchemist) reaches the quintessence, the optimal consciousness with four operational functions of orientation of consciousness.
For more, see
https://jungianpsychologyexplained.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-origin-of-jungs-interest-in.html