The Eagle
Height, sight, and the spirit that rises.
The Eagle: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The eagle flies highest and sees farthest, and is the bird of the sky god and of spirit. In alchemy it is the volatile part that rises in the vessel, sublimatio; Jung set it against the earthbound toad and serpent as the spirit against matter, needing each other.
The Eagle: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The eagle of Zeus, Ganymede carried up, the eagle of St. John the evangelist, the imperial eagles, Prometheus’ eagle.
In the Press’s Books
Zarathustra’s eagle, “the proudest animal under the sun,” flies with the serpent coiled about its neck; the pair are on the press’s emblem.
From the Sources
Pliny records that the haliaetus forces its unfledged young to gaze at the sun's rays, casting out any that blink and rearing the one whose gaze stays steady.
“…forces them from time to time to look steadily upon the rays of the sun; and if it sees either of them wink, or even its eye water, it throws it headlong out of the nest, as being spurious and degenerate, while, on the other hand, it rears the one whose gaze remains fixed and steady.”
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, Vol. II, Book X, Chapter 3, "The Different Kinds of Eagles". Translated, with copious notes and illustrations, by the late John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H. T. Riley, Esq., B.A.; London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, MDCCCLV (Project Gutenberg eBook #60230). The text, read in part
Isaiah promises that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as eagles.
“40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah 40:31. King James Version, 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
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Birds
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Eagle.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/eagle.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Dragon Fight: Consciousness wresting itself free from the devouring depths. The Dwarf: Small, hidden, and creative: the little powers of the deep. The Earth: Matter, body, and the mother of all. The Eclipse: The light swallowed by the dark.