The Dawn
Aurora
The first light, before the sun.
The Dawn: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Dawn is the coming of light before the sun appears: the first stirring of consciousness out of the night. Aurora consurgens, “the rising dawn,” is the title of an alchemical treatise once ascribed to Thomas Aquinas, which Marie-Louise von Franz edited as the third volume of Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis.
The Dawn: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Eos and Aurora, the rosy-fingered dawn of Homer, the morning star, the Vedic Ushas.
From the Sources
At the beginning of the book Zarathustra rises with the rosy dawn and goes before the sun to address it.
“…rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spake thus unto it”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Zarathustra's Prologue, section 1. Translated by Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). The text, read in part
The Lord asks Job whether he has commanded the morning and caused the dayspring to know its place, to take hold of the ends of the earth.
“Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth”
The King James Version of the Bible, Job 38:12-13. 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, ed., Aurora Consurgens (1957; English 1966)
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 Dawn.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/dawn.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Crystal: The form that is there before the substance fills it. The Dance: Movement in the round: the rhythm that orders and releases. The Dead: The unanswered questions of those who came before. Death: The ending that belongs to a change.