ABSTRACT
Jung saw Gnostic and alchemical systems of belief and practice as the precursors of analytic psychology. Peggy Jones explores these systems as expressions of the religious function, and as demonstrating the central tenets of Jungian psychology. The unconscious is first encountered in projection and not only is the realm in which these projections are realised ‘the intermediate realm of subtle reality … expressed by the symbol’, but also the work of psychotherapy and the alchemical opus depend on the ‘Third’ for their outcome. This principle is enshrined in the alchemical formula Deo concedente.
