The Desert
The wilderness
The empty place of trial and revelation.
The Desert: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The desert is bare of comfort, a place of hunger, temptation, and visions, where what one carries within cannot be avoided. Jungian writers read it as the barrenness of a time when the old sources of life have dried up, and the solitude in which new ones may be found.
The Desert: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Israel’s forty years, Christ’s forty days and his temptation, the Desert Fathers, Anthony and his demons.
From the Sources
Matthew records that Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
“Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 4:1-2. Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Zarathustra tells the one who would be judge and avenger of his own law that this is to be like a star projected into desert space and the icy breath of aloneness.
“Terrible is aloneness with the judge and avenger of one’s own law. Thus is a star projected into desert space, and into the icy breath of aloneness.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, First Part, XVII, 'The Way of the Creating One'. Translated by 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
- The Book of Symbols, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
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 Desert.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/desert.
Nearby in the alphabet: Death: The ending that belongs to a change. The Descent: Going down to the dead, to come back with knowledge. The Dew: Grace falling in silence from above.