The Senex
The old man, Saturn
Order, limit, and time, and their hardening into rigidity.
The Senex: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung set the old man beside the eternal youth as the other pole of one archetype: the puer all beginning, the senex all ending, law, and weight. In alchemy the old man is Saturn, the leaden planet, and the old king who must die and be renewed before the work can go on.
James Hillman, in his Eranos lecture “Senex and Puer” (1967), drew the two out as a single polarity: wisdom and melancholy, order and coldness on one side; spirit and flight on the other, each sick without its partner.
The Senex: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Kronos and Saturn, who devour their children; Father Time with the scythe and the hourglass; the old king of the alchemists; the ossified ruler of the tales whose kingdom has grown barren.
From the Sources
Hesiod tells that Cronos swallowed each of his children as they were born, so that no other of the sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office among the gods.
“These great Cronos swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods.”
Hesiod, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Theogony, ll. 453-491. Translator: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Project Gutenberg eBook #348). The text, read in part
Bulfinch explains an inconsistency in the accounts of Saturn as arising from identifying the Roman Saturn with the Greek Cronos, Time, which brings an end to all that has had a beginning and so may be said to devour its own offspring.
“This inconsistency arises from considering the Saturn of the Romans the same with the Grecian deity Cronos (Time), which, as it brings an end to all things which have had a beginning, may be said to devour its own offspring”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter I (on Saturn), footnote. 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
- “Rex and Regina,” in Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
- James Hillman, “Senex and Puer” (1967)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Parents and Elders
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Senex.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/senex.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Seed: The whole, hidden in the small. The Self: The whole of the psyche, and its centre. Separatio: Dividing the one into two, so it can be known. The Serpent: The chthonic, the healing, and the wise.