The Sacrificial Meal
Communion, the Mass
Eating the god: the sacrifice shared and taken in.
The Sacrificial Meal: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass” (1942–1954) Jung read the rite as a process of individuation: the offering of bread and wine, their consecration, and their eating, which gives back to the one who offers what has been transformed.
He set beside it the visions of the alchemist Zosimos and the Aztec teoqualo, “god-eating,” in which a figure of Huitzilopochtli made of dough was pierced and shared among the people.
The Sacrificial Meal: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Last Supper; the totem meal; the Dionysian feast of raw flesh; the shared bread and salt of hospitality.
From the Sources
Frazer writes that the corn-spirit, represented sometimes in human and sometimes in animal form, is in both cases killed in the person of his representative and eaten sacramentally.
“WE have now seen that the corn-spirit is represented sometimes in human, sometimes in animal form, and that in both cases he is killed in the person of his representative and eaten sacramentally.”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Ch. L, "Eating the God", §1, "The Sacrament of First-Fruits". Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. The text, read in part
At the Last Supper in Matthew, Jesus breaks bread and gives it to the disciples, saying 'Take, eat; this is my body', and gives them the cup as his blood, shed for many.
“26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 26:26-28. 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
- “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass,” CW 11
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Rites and Ordeals
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Sacrificial Meal.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/communion.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Sacred Marriage: The union of opposites, pictured as a wedding. The Salamander: The creature that lives in the fire. Salome: The anima as Jung first met her: blind, and loving.