The Dance
Round dance, ring
Movement in the round: the rhythm that orders and releases.
The Dance: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In his commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower Jung wrote that some of his patients did not draw their mandalas but danced them: the circling movement itself a form of the centre.
In “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass” he discussed the round dance of the apocryphal Acts of John, in which Christ, before the Passion, stands in the middle of the disciples’ circle and sings.
The Dance: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Shiva Nataraja, dancing the world into being and out of it; the whirling of the dervishes; David dancing before the ark; the dance of death.
In the Press’s Books
“I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance,” says Zarathustra in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Reading and Writing.”
From the Sources
In 'The Grave-Song' Zarathustra laments a dance prevented, saying that only in the dance can he speak the parable of the highest things.
“Only in the dance do I know how to speak the parable of the highest things:—and now hath my grandest parable remained unspoken in my limbs!”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Second Part, XXXIII, "The Grave-Song". Translator: Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). The text, read in part
Frazer describes the first-fruits festival in which, at its close, men and women danced in three circles round the sacred fire, then bathed, believing that no evil could now befall them for past wrongs.
“…then the men and women together, in three circles, danced round the sacred fire. Lastly, all the people smeared themselves with white clay and bathed in running water. They came out of the water believing that no evil could now befall them for what they had done amiss in the past.”
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
In 'Reading and Writing' Zarathustra says he would only believe in a God who knew how to dance, and calls for the spirit of gravity, through which all things fall, to be slain not by wrath but by laughter.
“I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, First Part, VII, "Reading and Writing". Translator: Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). 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
- “Commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower,” CW 13
- “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 Dance.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/dance.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Crown: Sovereignty, and the work completed. The Crystal: The form that is there before the substance fills it. The Dawn: The first light, before the sun. The Dead: The unanswered questions of those who came before.