Prima materia

1. Etymology

Prima materia (alchemy: “original matter”) denotes psychologically both the instinctual foundation of life and the raw material of analysis—dreams, emotions, conflicts, etc. Related: massa confusa; chaos.

2. Plain summary

Sharp: original matter as instinctual base and analytic raw stuff. Samuels (alchemy glossary): prima materia / massa confusa as original elements in chaos—starting state of the opus toward lapis / individuation.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common prima-materia motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
original matter; instinctual foundation; dreams / emotions / conflicts as raw material; massa confusa / chaos; opus start; dual-stamp nigredo / philosophers-stone.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology prima materia is alchemical figure for analytic raw material—Sharp short; Samuels alchemy ~p. 14. Prefer alchemy / CW 12–14 neighborhood as elects.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Prima materia. An alchemical term meaning "original matter," used psychologically to denote both the instinctual foundation of life and the raw material one works with in analysis—dreams, emotions, conflicts, etc.

(Sharp, 1991) — no CW pointer

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — alchemy glossary Prima materia (massa confusa) p. 14

Prima materia (massa confusa): The original elements in state of chaos.

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986/2013, p. 14)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

No new prima-materia-only §5 leaf this pass. Dual-stamp only:

• NIG-1 CW 14 The Conjunction ¶741 p.530 1955–1956/1970 — see nigredo (FOLDED; do not rewrite).
• STONE-1 CW 11 Psychology and Religion ¶92 pp.53–54 1938/1969 — see philosophers-stone (FOLDED; do not rewrite).

Samuels Prima materia (massa confusa) p. 14 Sharp provisional / unverified (no CW on vessel Sharp extract).

See also: nigredo; philosophers-stone; individuation; complex; unconscious.

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychology and religion. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 11, pp. 53–54, ¶92). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1938)

Jung, C. G. (1970). Mysterium coniunctionis. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 14, p. 530, ¶741). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1955–1956)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.