The Pelican
The mother who feeds her young with her own blood.
The Pelican: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The medieval bestiaries said the pelican pierces her breast to revive her young with her blood, and made her a figure of Christ. The alchemists gave her name to a circulating vessel whose arms curve back into its own body, and her image to the self-giving at the end of the work.
The Pelican: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The pelican of the bestiaries and of Christian art, “in her piety,” and the alchemical vessel called the pelican.
From the Sources
Alfred Newton writes that there is no foundation for the venerable legend of the pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast, a legend that gave the bird an important place in ecclesiastical heraldry.
“…there is no foundation for the venerable legend of the pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast, which has given it an important place in ecclesiastical heraldry”
Alfred Newton, with a note by Hugh Chisholm, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Pelican, Article "Pelican", read in full, including its footnotes. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Chisholm's note says the pelican "in his piety", reviving its offspring, was a common subject of fifteenth-century emblem books and became a symbol of self-sacrifice, of Christian redemption and of the Eucharist.
“The pelican “in his piety”—i.e. in this pious act of reviving his offspring—was a common subject for 15th century emblem books; it became a symbol of self-sacrifice, a type of Christian redemption and of the Eucharistic doctrine.”
Alfred Newton, with a note by Hugh Chisholm, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Pelican, Article "Pelican", footnote by Hugh Chisholm. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Basil Valentine writes that in its essence it must have an abundance of blood, like the pelican, which wounds its own breast and, without any loss of strength, nourishes and rears many young with its blood.
“…in its essence it must have an abundance of blood, like the Pelican, which wounds its own breast, and, without any diminution of its strength, nourishes and rears up many young ones with its blood.”
The Hermetic Museum, Restored and Enlarged: Most Faithfully Instructing All Disciples of the Sopho-Spagyric Art How That Greatest and Truest Medicine of the Philosopher's Stone May Be Found and Held, 'The Golden Tripod': Basilius Valentinus, Twelve Keys, the key following the Second Key (pp. 330-331). Now first done into English from the Latin original published at Frankfort in the year 1678; containing twenty-two most celebrated chemical tracts; in two volumes, Volume I; London: James Elliott and Co., Temple Chambers, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, E.C., 1893 (Internet Archive OCR text). 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
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Birds
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Pelican.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/pelican.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Peacock’s Tail: All the colours at once, before the white. The Pearl: Beauty grown around a wound, in the depths. The Persona: The face turned to the world. The Phallus: Generative power, which is more than sexual.