Before the Golden Flower: Jung’s Early Engagement with the Alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis

Abstract A common assumption about Jung is that his interest in alchemy only began in 1928, when he was sent the Chinese writing The Secret of the Golden Flower by Richard Wilhelm. However, a closer look at Jung’s earlier writings reveals that his engagement with alchemical literature started much earlier than is often acknowledged. Imagery from the dream‐visions of the alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis, first discussed in detail by Jung in his 1937 lecture “Einige Bemerkungen zu den Visionen des Zosimos” (1938), had already caught Jung’s attention decades before, in Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (1912). This imagery also seems to be present in Jung’s self‐induced fantasies which culminated in Liber Novus ( The Red Book ). By investigating Jung’s receptions of Zosimos’ writings in Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido and Liber Novus , this article intends to challenge the narrative that Jung only started building a meaningful relationship with alchemical literature in the 1920s and to understand why this view became so common. This paper also argues that, while Liber Novus has been a great source of insight into Jung’s writings that followed his “confrontation with the unconscious”, it can also illuminate parts of Jung’s work prior to this experience that have been neglected.