Salome
The blind daughter
The anima as Jung first met her: blind, and loving.
Salome: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In a fantasy of December 1913, recorded in The Red Book, Jung descended and met an old man, the prophet Elijah, and a young girl who was blind, Salome, with a black serpent beside them.
In his seminar of 1925 he read Salome as an anima figure, blind because she joins conscious and unconscious without seeing what the unconscious is doing, and set the pair beside other couples of old man and girl: Simon Magus and Helen, Klingsor and Kundry.
Salome: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Salome of the Gospels and the head of John the Baptist; the Salome of Wilde and of Strauss; Simon Magus and Helen; the blind seer.
Where to Read
- Introduction to Jungian Psychology: Notes of the Seminar on Analytical Psychology Given in 1925
- The Red Book: Liber Novus (2009)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Anima and animus.
Also among Figures of The Red Book
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Salome.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/salome.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Sacrificial Meal: Eating the god: the sacrifice shared and taken in. The Salamander: The creature that lives in the fire. Salt: Wisdom, and the bitterness it costs. The Scales: Weighing the heart: judgment, justice, and equilibrium.