Rain
Dew
What falls from heaven to make the earth fertile.
Rain: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Rain joins heaven and earth: the sky fertilizes the waiting ground. In the Rosarium the dead royal pair are washed by a dew falling from above before the soul returns, and Jung read it as the cleansing that follows the blackening, grace from above.
Rain: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Zeus coming to Danaë as a shower of gold, the dew of Gideon’s fleece, the rain-makers, the rainbow after the rain.
From the Sources
Frazer writes that water is essential to life, that in most countries its supply depends on showers, and that without rain vegetation withers and animals and men languish and die.
“Water is an essential of life, and in most countries the supply of it depends upon showers. Without rain vegetation withers, animals and men languish and die.”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion, Chapter V, section 2, 'The Magical Control of Rain'. Project Gutenberg eBook #3623 (the one-volume abridged edition). The text, read in part
Isaiah speaks of the rain and snow that come down from heaven and do not return, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud”
The King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah 55:10-11. Project Gutenberg eBook #10. 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
- “The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Albedo.
Also among The Heavens
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Rain.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/rain.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Silver (Argentum) · The Dew (Ros, the heavenly moisture) · The Bird · The Dove · The Swan (Cygnus)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Quest: The long search for what was lost. The Quintessence: The fifth, beyond the four: what the elements hold in common. The Rainbow: A bridge of light between heaven and earth. The Raven: The black bird of the beginning.