The Angel
Angelos, messenger
The messenger between the worlds.
The Angel: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The Greek angelos means messenger. Angels carry what is above to what is below, and Jungian writers read them as contents of the unconscious that come as announcements: a message, a calling, a terror that commands. Jung’s colleague at Eranos, the scholar of Islam Henry Corbin, wrote at length of the angel as the soul’s own counterpart in the visionary world.
The Angel: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Gabriel at the Annunciation, Michael with his sword, the angels on Jacob’s ladder, Jacob wrestling until daybreak, the guardian angel, and Rilke’s “Every angel is terrible.”
From the Sources
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the angels of the Bible usually appear as God's messengers, by whom he communicates his will, and that in Jacob's vision they ascend and descend the ladder from earth to heaven.
“The angels of the Bible generally appear in the role of God's messengers to mankind. They are His instruments by whom He communicates His will to men, and in Jacob's vision they are depicted as ascending and descending the ladder which stretches from earth to heaven”
H. Pope, Angels, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 'God's messengers to mankind'. The Catholic Encyclopedia; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907 (New Advent web text). The text, read in part
In Jacob's dream at Bethel a ladder reaches from earth to heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 28:12. 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
- Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital (1954)
- The Book of Symbols, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Spirits and Mediators
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Angel.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/angel.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Altar: The place of offering, where the human meets the divine. The Androgyne: Male and female in one body: the opposites united. The Anima: The feminine image in the psyche of a man. The Animus: The masculine image in the psyche of a woman.