The Scarab
Khepri
The beetle that rolls the sun into rebirth.
The Scarab: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung’s best-known example of synchronicity concerns a scarab. A patient was telling him her dream of being given a golden scarab when something tapped at the window; he opened it and caught a rose-chafer, the nearest thing to a scarab in Switzerland, and handed it to her. The Egyptians saw the scarab rolling its ball as Khepri rolling the sun into the new day.
The Scarab: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Khepri, the morning sun, the scarab amulets of the dead, the heart scarab placed over the heart of the mummy.
From the Sources
Jung writes that the snake, casting its skin, is a symbol of renewal, as is the scarab, a symbol of the sun said to reproduce itself.
“The snake, on account of casting its skin, is the symbol of renewal, as is the scarabæus, a symbol of the sun, of whom it is said that he, being of masculine sex only, reproduces himself.”
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
Griffith writes that the Egyptians compared the beetle's pellet to the globe of the sun, and that the sign spelt the verb khopi(r), meaning 'become' and perhaps 'create'.
“Whatever the Egyptians may have understood by its actions, they compared its pellet to the globe of the sun. The beetle is common on both shores of the Mediterranean; the Egyptian name was kheperer, khepēri, and the sign spelt the verb khōpi(r) meaning "become" and perhaps "create,"”
Francis Llewellyn Griffith, Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Scarab, whole article. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
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
- “Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle” (1952), CW 8
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Small Creatures
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Scarab.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/scarab.
Nearby in the alphabet: Salt: Wisdom, and the bitterness it costs. The Scales: Weighing the heart: judgment, justice, and equilibrium. The Sea: The collective unconscious, unfathomed. The Seed: The whole, hidden in the small.