The Lamb
Agnus Dei
Innocence offered up.
The Lamb: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The lamb is the victim: the Passover lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In Answer to Job Jung noticed that in Revelation the Lamb is also a ram with seven horns and seven eyes, before whose wrath the kings of the earth hide in the rocks: the gentle victim with a terrible other side.
It is the innocence that is sacrificed, and the power that sacrifice releases.
The Lamb: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The ram caught in the thicket in place of Isaac; the Golden Fleece; the wax Agnus Dei of the Materia Medica; the good shepherd.
From the Sources
Isaiah describes one oppressed and afflicted who does not open his mouth, but 'is brought as a lamb to the slaughter'.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah 53:7. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Hassett describes a sixth-century mosaic in the Vatican Basilica that associated the lamb with the Cross, showing it standing on a throne at the foot of a Cross studded with gems.
“The next step in the development of this idea of associating the Cross with the lamb was depicted in a sixth-century mosaic of the Vatican Basilica which represented the lamb standing on a throne, at the foot of a Cross studded with gems.”
M. Hassett, The Lamb (in Early Christian Symbolism), 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
- Answer to Job (1952), CW 11
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
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 Lamb.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/lamb.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Labyrinth: The winding way to a centre. The Ladder: The way up by stages. The Lamp: A small light carried into the dark. Lead: The heaviest and darkest metal, where the work begins.