The River
The flow of life and time, and the border to be crossed.
The River: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The river flows from its source to the sea, as life does and as time does; and it divides one land from another, so that to cross it is to pass into a new state. Heraclitus said one cannot step into the same river twice.
Jung wrote that the psyche, like a river, has its source in the unconscious and flows toward a sea it does not know, and that life is lived in the stream rather than on the bank; the dead cross a river in nearly every tradition, Styx, Lethe, the Sanzu of Japan, the Gjöll of the North, so that the crossing is death and also the great change that is like a death.
Jacob wrestled at the ford of the Jabbok all night, was lamed, and was renamed Israel: the river-crossing as the encounter with the daemon at the threshold.
The River: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Jordan crossed and the baptism in it, the Styx and Lethe, the Ganges, the rivers of paradise, the ford where Jacob wrestled. The four rivers of Eden; the Ganges and the Nile as goddesses; Charon’s ferry; Siddhartha’s river in Hesse; Heraclitus, and Borges on Heraclitus.
From the Sources
Jung writes that everything living rises, like the sun, out of the water and sinks into it again, and that man, born from springs, rivers and seas, comes at death to the waters of the Styx to begin the "night journey on the sea".
“All that is living rises as does the sun, from the water, and at evening plunges into the water. Born from the springs, the rivers, the seas, at death man arrives at the waters of the Styx in order to enter upon the “night journey on the sea.””
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter V, "Symbolism of the Mother and of Rebirth". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
In Bulfinch's retelling of the descent of Aeneas, the souls stand pressing for a passage, longing to touch the opposite shore, while the ferryman takes in only those he chooses and drives the rest back.
“They stood pressing for a passage and longing to touch the opposite shore. But the stern ferryman took in only such as he chose, driving the rest back.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XXXII, "The Infernal Regions". 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
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
- Genesis 32:22–32
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among The Land
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The River.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/river.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Return: Coming home with what was found. The Ring: Bond, circle, and power. The Rose: The flower of love, and of the centre. The Royal Incest: The union of like with like, read as a symbol.