Motifs of Transformation · Journeys

Flight

Rising free of the ground, or fleeing from what pursues.

Flight: what does it mean in analytical psychology?

Flight has two senses. The one who flies rises above the earth, in spirit, intuition, or ecstasy; the one who flees runs from what pursues him. Jungian writers read the first as the freedom and the danger of the spirit untethered, the second as the ego escaping what it cannot yet face, and the fairy tale’s magic flight as the hero’s escape home with the treasure.

Flight: where does it appear in myth and tradition?

Icarus and Daedalus, the shaman’s flight to the upper world, the witches’ ride, the magic flight of the tales in which the fleeing hero throws down a comb that becomes a forest.

From the Sources

Bulfinch tells that Daedalus, unable to leave the island by sea because the king had every vessel searched, resolved to try the air: Minos might control land and sea, but not the regions of the air.

“He contrived to make his escape from his prison, but could not leave the island by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all the vessels, and permitted none to sail without being carefully searched. "Minos may control the land and sea," said Daedalus, "but not the regions of the air. I will try that way."”

Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, 'Daedalus'. Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part

Bulfinch tells that Icarus, exulting, left his father's guidance and soared as if to reach heaven, until the sun softened the wax and the feathers came off.

“…the boy, exulting in his career, began to leave the guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven. The nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together, and they came off.”

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

Mircea Eliade, Shamanism (1951)
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)

Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.

Related Symbols

Also among Journeys

“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”

C. G. Jung’s counsel, as one of his students recalled it

Cite This Entry

“Flight.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/flight.

Nearby in the alphabet: The Fish: Life in the depths, drawn up. The Five: The four, and the centre that unites them. The Flood: The waters that end one world and begin another. The Flower: The centre unfolding.