The Serpent
The chthonic, the healing, and the wise.
The Serpent: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The serpent is among the commonest animals of the unconscious: cold-blooded, of the earth, poisonous and healing, renewed by shedding its skin. Jung read it as the instinctive, pre-human layer of the psyche, and in its two aspects as danger and as wisdom, the tempter of Eden and the staff of Asclepius.
In 1932 he gave a seminar on Kundalini yoga, whose coiled serpent rises through the body, and he found the serpent Mercurius at the beginning of the alchemists’ work.
The Serpent: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The serpent of Eden, the brazen serpent of Moses, the caduceus of Hermes, the Midgard serpent, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, and the viper of the old pharmacies.
In the Press’s Books
Zarathustra’s companions are an eagle and a serpent, “the proudest animal under the sun, and the wisest animal under the sun,” the pair the press’s own emblem carries. In “The Vision and the Riddle” a young shepherd bites off the head of the black serpent that has crawled into his throat, and rises laughing, transformed.
From the Sources
Jung writes that the meaning of the serpent depends on the time of life: for youth it symbolises repressed sexuality, which ends childhood, while for age it signifies the repressed thought of death.
“Concerning the symbolism of the serpent in general, its significance is very dependent upon the time of life and circumstances. The repressed sexuality of youth is symbolized by the serpent, because the arrival of sexuality puts an end to childhood. To age, on the contrary, the serpent signifies the repressed thought of death.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter 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
The Lord tells Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, so that whoever is bitten may look upon it and live.
“21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Numbers 21:8-9. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
Sending out the twelve, Jesus tells them to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
“10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 10:16. King James Version, 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.
In the Materia Medica
Viper: the substance itself, as the old medicine used it and as it is known today.
Where to Read
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
- The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga (seminar of 1932, published 1996)
- “The Spirit Mercurius” (1943/1948), CW 13
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Serpents and Dragons
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Serpent.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/serpent.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Senex: Order, limit, and time, and their hardening into rigidity. Separatio: Dividing the one into two, so it can be known. The Seven: The number of the planets, the days, and the stages. The Shadow: The side of the personality one does not wish to be.