Sacrifice
Giving something up, so that something new may live.
Sacrifice: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung’s early book closes with a chapter on sacrifice, in which the libido gives up its backward longing and turns to life; his later essay on the Mass reads sacrifice as a transformation in which the one who sacrifices is also the offering.
What is sacrificed is often what one clings to most: a hope, an attachment, a former self. The symbol marks the point at which energy bound to the old is freed for the new.
Sacrifice: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Abraham and Isaac, Mithras slaying the bull, Odin hanging nine nights on the tree, “given to Odin, myself to myself,” and the Mass.
From the Sources
Jung writes that in such sacrifices life is given up symbolically so as to be regained, and that by the sacrifice a man ransoms himself from the fear of death and reconciles the destroying mother.
“With these sacrifices, the object of which in ideal cases is to symbolize the libido drawing away from the mother, life is symbolically renounced in order to regain it. By the sacrifice man ransoms himself from the fear of death and reconciles the destroying mother.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, ch. VIII, "The Sacrifice". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Frazer records the belief that the man-god had to be killed as soon as his powers began to fail, so that his soul could pass, still strong, to a vigorous successor.
“The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it has been seriously impaired by the threatened decay.”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Ch. XXIV, "The Killing of the Divine King", §2, "Kings killed when their Strength fails". Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. 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, “The Sacrifice”
- “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass” (1942/1954), CW 11
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Death and Birth
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Sacrifice.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sacrifice.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Royal Incest: The union of like with like, read as a symbol. The Sacred Marriage: The union of opposites, pictured as a wedding. The Sacrificial Meal: Eating the god: the sacrifice shared and taken in. The Salamander: The creature that lives in the fire.