The Descent
Nekyia, katabasis
Going down to the dead, to come back with knowledge.
The Descent: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Nekyia, from the eleventh book of the Odyssey, where Odysseus calls up the dead, names the journey below for knowledge that cannot be had above. Jung described his own years after 1913 as such a descent: he let himself drop into the fantasies he then wrote down and painted, the material of The Red Book.
He read the motif as the turning of attention inward, to what has been forgotten or never known, and held that it must be made with a firm hold on ordinary life; his own, he said, were his family and his profession.
The Descent: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Inanna’s descent through the seven gates, Orpheus, Aeneas led by the Sibyl, Christ’s harrowing of hell, Dante’s Inferno, and Faust’s descent to “the Mothers” in Goethe’s second part.
From the Sources
In the Odyssey, Circe tells Ulysses to keep the ghosts from the blood until Teiresias has answered him, for the seer will tell him the stages of his voyage and how to reach home.
“Then draw your sword and sit there, so as to prevent any other poor ghost from coming near the spilt blood before Teiresias shall have answered your questions. The seer will presently come to you, and will tell you about your voyage—what stages you are to make, and how you are to sail the sea so as to reach your home.”
Homer, The Odyssey, rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, Book X (Circe's instructions). Translated by Samuel Butler (Project Gutenberg eBook #1727). The text, read in part
Jung writes that if the libido tears itself loose from the depths and pushes up into the world above, the journey to the underworld proves a fountain of youth, and new fertility springs from the apparent death.
“But if the libido succeeds in tearing itself loose and pushing up into the world above, then a miracle appears. This journey to the underworld has been a fountain of youth, and new fertility springs from his apparent death.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter VI, 'The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother'. Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. 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
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “Confrontation with the Unconscious”
- The Red Book (2009)
- “Psychology and Literature” (1930/1950), CW 15
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Unconscious.
Also among Journeys
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Descent.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/descent.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Philemon (The winged old man) · Night (Nyx) · Water (The sea, the lake, the spring) · The Abyss (Ungrund)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Dead: The unanswered questions of those who came before. The Desert: The empty place of trial and revelation. The Devil: The adversary, and the dark fourth.