The Foot
Standing on the earth; the point of contact and of wounding.
The Foot: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The foot joins the body to the earth: standing, walking, and the ground of reality. It is also where the hero is most exposed: the heel of Achilles, the pierced feet of the infant Oedipus, whose name means “swollen foot.”
The Foot: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The washing of the feet, the footprints of the Buddha, the sandal Jason lost, the heel that crushes the serpent in Genesis.
From the Sources
Bulfinch relates that Paris's poisoned arrow, guided by Apollo, struck Achilles in the heel, his only vulnerable part, because Thetis had held him by the heel when she dipped him in the Styx.
“…wounded Achilles in the heel, the only vulnerable part about him. For Thetis his mother had dipped him when an infant in the river Styx, which made every part of him invulnerable except the heel by which she held him.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XXVIII, "The Fall of Troy". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
In Genesis God tells the serpent that he will put enmity between it and the woman, and between their seed: the woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent shall bruise his heel.
“3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 3:15. 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
- 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 Body
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Foot.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/foot.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Flower: The centre unfolding. The Fool: The innocent who knows nothing and finds the way. The Forest: Where the known way ends. The Fountain: The source that springs from the centre.