The Sea
The collective unconscious, unfathomed.
The Sea: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung took the sea for the collective unconscious: vast, deep, and hidden beneath a reflecting surface, the source of all life and of the monsters that rise from it. Visions, he noted, are often born from the sea, and the hero’s night journey passes through it.
The Sea: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Tiamat and the primordial waters, Poseidon, Aphrodite born from the foam, the sea-monster, the voyage out.
From the Sources
Jung writes of the sea that devours the sun but brings it forth again out of the maternal womb.
“…just as the sea devours the sun, but brings it forth again out of the maternal womb”
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 (Project Gutenberg eBook #65903). The text, read in part
The Lord asks Job who shut up the sea with doors when it broke forth as if it had issued out of the womb.
“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?”
The King James Version of the Bible, Job 38:8. 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
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- 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
In the Glossary: Collective unconscious.
Also among The Elements
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Sea.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sea.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Great Mother (Magna Mater) · The Dead (The ancestors, the departed) · The Crystal (The axial system) · The House
Nearby in the alphabet: The Scales: Weighing the heart: judgment, justice, and equilibrium. The Scarab: The beetle that rolls the sun into rebirth. The Seed: The whole, hidden in the small. The Self: The whole of the psyche, and its centre.