The Goat
Lust, vitality, and the one who bears the sins.
The Goat: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The goat carries the untamed vitality of nature, and Christianity made it the devil’s animal. It is also the scapegoat, driven into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people: Jungian writers took it as the very image of shadow projection.
The Goat: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Pan and the satyrs, the scapegoat of Leviticus sent to Azazel, the goat-song from which some derive the word tragedy, Capricorn, the goat of the witches’ sabbath.
From the Sources
Leviticus directs Aaron to lay both hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and send it into the wilderness bearing them.
“And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness”
The King James Version of the Bible, Leviticus 16:21-22. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Jung lists the he-goat, with the bull, the ram, the boar and the ass, among the animals frequently used in the many theriomorphic representations of the sexual instinct.
“In addition, there existed in enormous quantities theriomorphic representations of the sexual instinct, in connection with which the bull, the he-goat, the ram, the boar and the ass were frequently used.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part I, Chapter I, "Concerning the Two Kinds of Thinking". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. 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
In the Glossary: Projection.
Also among Beasts
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Goat.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/goat.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Projectio (Projection) · The Prima Materia (The first matter)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Garden: The walled and tended place, where nature is ordered. The Giant: The first, crude powers, before the order of the gods. Gold: The incorruptible: not the common gold. The Gorgon: The face that turns to stone.