The Abyss
Ungrund
The depth without a bottom.
The Abyss: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The abyss is depth without end: the dark from which the world came and into which it may fall back. Jakob Böhme called the source of all things the Ungrund, the groundless; Jung read the abyss as the unconscious in its most unfathomable form.
The Abyss: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The tehom of Genesis, the pit of the Apocalypse, Böhme’s Ungrund, Ginnungagap of the Norse.
In the Press’s Books
“And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee”: Beyond Good and Evil, section 146.
From the Sources
Jung writes that the precinct of Ge, the abyss and the well are readily understood as the gates of life and death, at which one sacrifices a coin or honey cakes in place of one's body.
“The Temenos of Ge, the abyss and the well, are easily understood as the gates of life and death, “past which every one gladly creeps” (Faust), and sacrifices there his obolus or his πελανοί, instead of his body”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter VII, "The Dual Mother Rôle". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
In Revelation an angel who falls from heaven is given the key of the bottomless pit, and when he opens it smoke rises out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace.
“I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace”
The King James Version of the Bible, Revelation 9:1-2. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Unconscious.
Also among The Land
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Abyss.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/abyss.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Philemon (The winged old man) · Water (The sea, the lake, the spring)
Nearby in the alphabet: Yellow: The yellowing, as the dawn becomes day. The Abduction: Seized by the depths: the innocent carried below. The Altar: The place of offering, where the human meets the divine. The Androgyne: Male and female in one body: the opposites united.