The Garden
Paradise, hortus conclusus
The walled and tended place, where nature is ordered.
The Garden: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The word paradise comes from the Persian for a walled enclosure. The garden is nature ordered within a boundary, a temenos or sacred precinct, and Jung read the enclosed garden as a form of the mandala, tended and protected, where growth is safe. The great alchemical book he used most was the Rosarium, the rose garden.
The Garden: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Eden, the enclosed garden of the Song of Songs, Gethsemane, the gardens of the Alhambra, the Chinese scholar’s garden.
From the Sources
Jung notes that the holy tree usually stands in a sacred forest enclosure or in the garden of Paradise, and that the erotic symbolism of the garden is generally known.
“The holy tree is found generally in a sacred forest enclosure or in the garden of Paradise. The sacred grove often takes the place of the taboo tree and assumes all the attributes of the latter. The erotic symbolism of the garden is generally known.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter VI, "The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
In the Song of Solomon the bride is addressed as an enclosed garden, a spring shut up and a sealed fountain, whose plants are an orchard of pomegranates.
“4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits”
The King James Version of the Bible, The Song of Solomon 4:12-13. 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
- “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” CW 9i
- “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 Land
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Garden.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/garden.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Fountain: The source that springs from the centre. The Fox: Cunning that survives by wit. The Giant: The first, crude powers, before the order of the gods. The Goat: Lust, vitality, and the one who bears the sins.