The Island
A world apart, surrounded by the sea.
The Island: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
An island stands alone in the waters: a place of refuge, isolation, or a world of its own. In Jung’s dream of Liverpool, the magnolia that stood for the centre grew on an island in the pool at the heart of the city.
The Island: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Isles of the Blessed, Avalon, Circe’s Aeaea, Prospero’s island, Robinson Crusoe, and the Blessed Isles where Zarathustra teaches in the second part.
From the Sources
Hesiod says that heroes live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed beside deep-swirling Ocean, where the earth bears honey-sweet fruit three times a year.
“And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year”
Hesiod, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Works and Days, ll. 156-169b (the race of heroes). Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Project Gutenberg eBook #348). The text, read in part
Zarathustra says he will cross wide seas until he finds the Happy Isles where his friends sojourn.
“Like a cry and an huzza will I traverse wide seas, till I find the Happy Isles where my friends sojourn”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Second Part, XXIII, 'The Child with the Mirror'. Translated by Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). 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
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)
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 Island.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/island.
Nearby in the alphabet: Initiation: The passage through a threshold into a new state. Iron: The metal of Mars: strength, war, and will. The Key: What opens, and what locks. The King and Queen: The royal pair whose marriage makes the whole.