The Creation
Cosmogony
The world, and consciousness, coming into being.
The Creation: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Marie-Louise von Franz read the myths of the world’s creation as pictures of the birth of consciousness: out of darkness and the waters, by division, a word, a sacrifice, or an egg, an ordered world appears. Jung held that each new realization is, for the psyche, a small creation of the world.
The Creation: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Genesis, the Enuma Elish, Hesiod’s Theogony, Brahma’s golden egg, the earth-diver who brings mud up from the bottom of the sea.
From the Sources
Jung reads the Vedic account as a psychological rather than a physical cosmogony: the world arises when man discovers it, and he discovers it when he has freed himself from his unconscious, 'lying in the mother'.
“It is evident that by this is meant not a physical, but a psychological cosmogony. The world arises when man discovers it. He discovers it when he sacrifices the mother; that is to say, when he has freed himself from the midst of his unconscious lying in the mother.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, ch. VIII, "The Sacrifice" (on Rigveda 10, 90, the sacrifice of Purusha). Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Genesis opens with the earth without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moving upon the waters, until God says 'Let there be light: and there was light.'
“1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 1:1-4. 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
- Marie-Louise von Franz, Creation Myths (1972; rev. 1995)
- Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Death and Birth
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Creation.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/creation.
Nearby in the alphabet: Copper: The metal of Venus: love, beauty, and verdigris. The Crab: Moving backward: the pull of the past, with a way forward hidden in it. The Crocodile: The devouring jaws of the depths. The Cross: Two ways crossing at a centre.