The Orphan
The abandoned one
Alone and without origin: the lonely beginning of the self.
The Orphan: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
On the stone he carved at Bollingen in 1950 Jung cut words gathered from the alchemists: “I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself.” The orphan was the stone itself, the lapis, rejected and despised, and so a figure of the self.
In his essay on the child archetype he read the abandonment of the child, its exposure and its danger, as the precarious beginning of something new that the old order does not recognise.
The Orphan: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Moses in the basket of rushes, Romulus and Remus with the wolf, Oedipus exposed on the mountain, Kaspar Hauser, the stone that the builders rejected.
From the Sources
Jung, citing Rank, writes that the hero is often obliged to undergo exposure and upbringing by foster parents, and so acquires two mothers.
“As Rank has shown us through many examples, the hero is often obliged to experience exposure, and upbringing by foster parents, and in this manner he acquires the two mothers.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter VII, 'The Dual Mother Rôle'. Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Bulfinch tells that the infant Oedipus was given to a herdsman with orders to destroy him, but the pitying herdsman left him hanging from a tree, where a peasant found him and carried him to his master and mistress, who adopted him.
“He therefore committed the child to the care of a herdsman with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman, moved with pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up the child by the feet and left him hanging to the branch of a tree. In this condition the infant was found by a peasant, who carried him to his master and mistress, by whom he was adopted”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, 'The Sphinx' (Oedipus). Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. 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), “The Tower”
- “The Psychology of the Child Archetype,” CW 9i
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Self.
Also among Children and the Young
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Orphan.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/orphan.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Anthropos (The cosmic man) · The Mandala (Sanskrit: circle) · The Centre (Axis mundi) · The Sphere (The round, the rotundum) · Squaring the Circle (Quadratura circuli) · The Quintessence (The fifth essence)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Night Sea Journey: Swallowed in the dark, carried to the east. The One: Unity, before and after the many. The Owl: Wisdom that sees in the dark. The Peacock’s Tail: All the colours at once, before the white.