The Labyrinth
The winding way to a centre.
The Labyrinth: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The labyrinth leads by one winding path, or by many false ones, to a centre and back. Jungian writers read it as the roundabout way of individuation and as the unconscious with its monster at the heart.
Jung himself wrote that there is no straight line of development, only a circumambulation of the Self: the walking round and round a centre that is approached by turns and returns.
The Labyrinth: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The labyrinth of Knossos, with Theseus, Ariadne’s thread, and the Minotaur, the pavement labyrinth of Chartres walked by pilgrims, the turf mazes of England called Troy-towns.
From the Sources
Ovid says that Daedalus filled innumerable paths with windings, so intricate that he himself could scarcely return to the entrance.
“Just so, Dædalus fills innumerable paths with windings; and scarcely can he himself return to the entrance, so great are the intricacies of the place.”
Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV, Book VIII, Fable II. Henry T. Riley's translation (transcriber's note: based on the 1893 George Bell reprint). The text, read in part
Poole describes the finest remaining pavement labyrinth, in the nave of Chartres, where one following its windings and turns would walk nearly 800 feet before arriving at the centre.
“The finest remaining example is in the centre of the nave of Notre Dame, Chartres, and a person following the various windings and turns of the figure would walk nearly 800 feet before he arrived at the centre”
T. Poole, Labyrinth, whole article. The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910 (New Advent transcription). The text, read in full
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), “Confrontation with the Unconscious”
- Karl Kerényi, Labyrinth-Studien (1941)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Individuation.
Also among Ways and Thresholds
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Labyrinth.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/labyrinth.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Self (Das Selbst) · The Spiral · The Tree (Arbor philosophica)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Key: What opens, and what locks. The King and Queen: The royal pair whose marriage makes the whole. The Ladder: The way up by stages. The Lamb: Innocence offered up.