ABSTRACT
C. G. Jung (1875–1961) was deeply interested in and influenced by the western esoteric tradition throughout his long professional life. At various times he wrote substantially about mystery religions (Jung 1911–12/1952; Noll 1992), astrology (Hyde 1992; Main 2004: 75–6), Gnosticism (Segal 1992), Kabbalah (see Drob 2000), and, most extensively of all, alchemy (Jung 1929–54, 1944, 1946, 1955–6; Marlan 2006). His work in each of these areas demonstrates an impressive breadth of reading, usually including primary sources and often in the original languages (especially where these are Latin or ancient Greek). His personal library of books on alchemy was probably among the best in the world, and towards the end of his life his familiarity with at least some periods of European alchemy (especially the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) could have vied with that of professional historians of the topic. Indeed, Jung has sometimes received credit from historians of science for helping to rescue the subject of alchemy from obscurity (Holt 1987–8).
