The Cloud
What hides the divine, and brings the rain.
The Cloud: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The cloud veils and reveals: God speaks from it, leads Israel by it, and hides in it on the mountain. Jungian writers read it as the unknowing that surrounds what is greater than consciousness, and as the vapour that rises from the waters and returns as rain.
The Cloud: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The pillar of cloud, the cloud on Sinai, The Cloud of Unknowing of the fourteenth century, the cloud-borne gods of the Baroque ceilings.
From the Sources
The Lord tells Moses that he will come to him in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when he speaks.
“Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 19:9. Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Elijah's servant sees a little cloud rise out of the sea like a man's hand, and Elijah sends word to Ahab to go down before the rain stops him.
“Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not.”
The King James Version of the Bible, 1 Kings 18:44-45. 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
- 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 The Heavens
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Cloud.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/cloud.
Nearby in the alphabet: Circulatio: Round and round, until it is refined. The City: The ordered community, walled and centred. Coagulatio: What was fluid takes on body. The Cock: The herald of the light.