The Crystal
The axial system
The form that is there before the substance fills it.
The Crystal: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung’s best-known image for the archetype: it is like the axial system of a crystal, which shapes the crystal in the solution although it has no material existence of its own. The pattern is given; the particular crystal, large or small, is not.
The crystal is also spirit made visible in matter: clear, ordered, and cold.
The Crystal: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The crystal ball of the scryer; the crystalline spheres of the old heavens; the glass mountain of the tales; the diamond.
From the Sources
Spencer writes that when matter crystallises free from outside influences, its internal structure is expressed in its external form, a solid bounded by plane faces whose directions are closely related to that structure.
“When the crystallization of matter takes place under conditions free from outside influences the peculiarities of internal structure are expressed in the external form of the mass, and there results a solid body bounded by plane surfaces intersecting in straight edges, the directions of which bear an intimate relation to the internal structure.”
Leonard James Spencer, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Crystallography, 'Crystallography', introduction. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in part
Spencer reports Steno's finding that although the faces of different quartz crystals vary greatly in shape and size, the angles between similar pairs of faces are always the same.
“He found that although the faces of different crystals vary considerably in shape and relative size, yet the angles between similar pairs of faces are always the same.”
Leonard James Spencer, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Crystallography, 'Crystallography', History. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. 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
- “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” CW 9i
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Collective unconscious.
Also among The Land
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Crystal.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/crystal.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Great Mother (Magna Mater) · The Dead (The ancestors, the departed) · The Sea · The House
Nearby in the alphabet: The Crossroads: Where the ways divide and a choice is forced. The Crown: Sovereignty, and the work completed. The Dance: Movement in the round: the rhythm that orders and releases. The Dawn: The first light, before the sun.