The Boat
The ship, the ark
The vessel that carries across the waters.
The Boat: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The boat carries across the waters of the unconscious, and in many traditions carries the dead. It is the containing vessel on the night sea journey, and the ark in which life outlasts the flood.
The Boat: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Charon’s ferry, the solar barque of Ra, Noah’s ark, the nave of the church, from the Latin navis, ship, and Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools (1494).
From the Sources
Jung calls it a typical fragment of the sun myth that the hero is exposed in a cask and thrown into the sea, and then lands for a new life on a distant shore.
“…it is a typical fragment of the sun myth that the hero, when united with the woman attained with difficulty, is exposed in a cask and thrown into the sea, and then lands for a new life on a distant shore.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter V, "Symbolism of the Mother and of Rebirth". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Bulfinch describes the black river Cocytus, where the ferryman Charon was receiving passengers of all kinds into his boat.
“They then came to the black river Cocytus, where they found the ferryman, Charon, old and squalid, but strong and vigorous, who was receiving passengers of all kinds into his boat”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XXXII, "The Infernal Regions--The Sibyl". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. 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
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Ways and Thresholds
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Boat.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/boat.
Nearby in the alphabet: Blood: Life itself, given and shed. Blue: The colour of sky and depth, of distance and spirit. The Bones: What remains, and what rises again. The Book: Knowledge written down, sealed, or to be opened.