The Centre
Axis mundi
The still point around which everything turns.
The Centre: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
After his dream of the pool and the magnolia at the centre of the city, Jung wrote that the centre is the goal, and that everything is directed toward it. The historian of religions Mircea Eliade, his colleague at Eranos, traced the symbolism of the centre across cultures: the sacred mountain, the navel of the world, the pillar joining heaven and earth.
The Centre: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The omphalos at Delphi, Jerusalem at the centre of the old maps, Mount Meru, the tent-pole of the shaman, the hub of the wheel.
From the Sources
In 'The Convalescent' Zarathustra's animals sing that existence begins in every moment, that around every 'Here' rolls the ball 'There', and that 'the middle is everywhere'.
“Every moment beginneth existence, around every 'Here' rolleth the ball 'There.' The middle is everywhere. Crooked is the path of eternity.”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Third Part, LVII, "The Convalescent", §2. Translator: Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). The text, read in part
Timaeus says the Creator gave the world a body with its surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, and put the soul in the centre, diffusing it through the whole body.
“…having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body”
Plato, Timaeus, Timaeus's account of the making of the world's body and soul. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1572). 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
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)
- Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols (1952)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Self.
Also among Shapes
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Centre.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/centre.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Orphan (The abandoned one) · The Anthropos (The cosmic man) · The Sphere (The round, the rotundum) · Squaring the Circle (Quadratura circuli) · The Quintessence (The fifth essence)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Cat: Independent, nocturnal, and never quite tame. The Cave: The hidden place of transformation, inside the earth. The Chariot: The vehicle drawn by forces the driver must master. Cibatio: Nourishing the matter in the vessel, a little at a time.