The Dragon
Draco
The guardian who must be faced.
The Dragon: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The dragon joins serpent, bird, and beast of prey, and is the classic guardian of the treasure and of the captive maiden. Jung read the hero’s fight with the dragon as the struggle of consciousness to free itself from the devouring pull of the unconscious.
The alchemists’ dragon is the prima materia itself, which must be slain, dissolved, and transformed.
The alchemists’ dragon is Mercurius at the beginning, the prima materia that must be killed, and the uroboros that eats its own tail; Draco is also the constellation at the pole of the old sky. Jung read the hero’s fight as a necessary matricide, the breaking of the hold of the unconscious, and he warned that the dragon slain in youth returns in middle life as the task of coming to terms with what was cut away.
In China the dragon is the other way about: the bringer of rain and the emperor’s beast, auspicious, the power of the waters that is not fought but honoured.
The Dragon: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Tiamat slain by Marduk, Apep the enemy of Ra, St. George and St. Michael, Siegfried and Fafnir, Beowulf’s last fight, the auspicious dragon of China. The resin called dragon’s blood is in the Materia Medica. The Lambton Worm; the dragon of Wawel; Saint Margaret bursting from the dragon; Smaug; the red and white dragons under Vortigern’s tower; Ouroboros and Leviathan.
From the Sources
In Bulfinch's summary of the Ring story, the dragon Fafner guards the ring, which neither Wotan nor Alberich can take, until Siegfried comes with the mighty sword and slays him.
“Wotan and Alberich come to where the dragon Fafner is guarding the ring. They both long for it, but neither can take it. Soon Mime comes bringing Siegfried with the mighty sword. Fafner comes out, but Siegfried slays him.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XL, section "Wagner's Nibelungen Ring". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
Silberer quotes Berthelot citing an old manuscript in which the dragon is the guardian of the temple, to be sacrificed and flayed so that what is sought may be found.
“Berthelot cites (Orig. de l’Alch., p. 60) from an old manuscript: “The dragon is the guardian of the temple. Sacrifice it, flay it, separate the flesh from the bones, and you will find what you seek.””
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts (originally published as Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism), Part II, Section II, "Alchemy". Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1971, an unabridged republication of the work published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, in 1917 (Project Gutenberg eBook #27755). 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
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949)
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, “The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Prima materia.
Also among Serpents and Dragons
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Dragon.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/dragon.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Lead (Saturn) · The Prima Materia (The first matter) · The Stone (Lapis philosophorum) · The Toad
Nearby in the alphabet: The Double: Oneself met as another. The Dove: Peace, spirit, and the white light after the dark. The Dragon Fight: Consciousness wresting itself free from the devouring depths. The Dwarf: Small, hidden, and creative: the little powers of the deep.