Fire
Energy that warms, purifies, and consumes.
Fire: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In Symbols of Transformation Jung followed the ancient likening of fire-making, the boring of wood into wood, to generation, and read fire as libido: psychic energy that warms, transforms, and destroys. In alchemy fire is the agent of the work, whose degrees of heat must be kept exactly; Jung read it as the heat of passion and of the suffering that transforms.
The fire that burns without consuming is a sign of spirit.
Fire: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Prometheus, Agni of the Vedas, Heraclitus’s ever-living fire, the burning bush, the tongues of Pentecost, the phoenix, and St. John’s fires at midsummer.
From the Sources
Frazer contrasts two views of the ceremonial fire: on one, a genial creative power like sunshine, fostering growth and health; on the other, a fierce destructive power.
“On the one view, the fire, like sunshine in our latitude, is a genial creative power which fosters the growth of plants and the development of all that makes for health and happiness; on the other view, the fire is a fierce destructive power”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion, Chapter LXIII, 'The Interpretation of the Fire-Festivals'. Project Gutenberg eBook #3623 (the one-volume abridged edition). The text, read in part
Jung notes that both the beneficent and the destroying power were worshipped in fire, for the forces of nature always have two sides.
“The beneficent power as well as the destroying power was worshipped in fire. The forces of nature always have two sides”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part I, Chapter IV, 'The Song of the Moth'. Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916 (Project Gutenberg eBook #65903). 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, “The Transformation of Libido”
- 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 The Elements
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Fire.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/fire.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Father: Law, order, and spirit, and their hardening. Fermentatio: The leaven that brings the dead matter to life. The Fish: Life in the depths, drawn up. The Five: The four, and the centre that unites them.