The Fountain
The mercurial fountain
The source that springs from the centre.
The Fountain: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The first woodcut of the Rosarium philosophorum shows a fountain in a square basin, pouring from three pipes the “virgin’s milk,” “the vinegar of the fount,” and “the water of life.” Jung read it in “The Psychology of the Transference” as the source in the unconscious from which the work begins.
The fountain in the midst of the garden is the self as a spring of life.
The Fountain: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The fountain of youth; the Castalian spring of the Muses; the spring of Paradise and its four rivers; the fountain of the unicorn tapestries.
From the Sources
The Night-Song opens: at night all gushing fountains speak louder, and Zarathustra's soul also is a gushing fountain.
“‘Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Second Part, XXXI, 'The Night-Song'. Translated by Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). The text, read in part
In Revelation the one who is Alpha and Omega promises to give the thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely.
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Revelation 21:6. 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 Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16
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
“The Fountain.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/fountain.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Foot: Standing on the earth; the point of contact and of wounding. The Forest: Where the known way ends. The Fox: Cunning that survives by wit.