The Sphere
The round, the rotundum
Wholeness in three dimensions, with no beginning and no end.
The Sphere: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The alchemists sought a rotundum, a round thing, as the goal of the work, and Jung read it, like the circle of the mandala, as an image of the self. He traced it back to Plato, whose world-soul in the Timaeus is a sphere, and whose original human being, in Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium, was round before the gods cut it in two.
The round is the whole: what lacks nothing and turns on its own centre.
The Sphere: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The sphere of Parmenides and the Sphairos of Empedocles; the orb of the king; the crystal ball; the round loaf and the round egg.
From the Sources
Timaeus says the Creator made the world in the form of a globe, with its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, as the most perfect and most self-like of all figures.
“Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures; for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike.”
Plato, Timaeus, Timaeus's account of the making of the world's body. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1572). The text, read in part
In Aristophanes' speech the primeval human being was round, its back and sides forming a circle, with four hands, four feet and one head with two faces looking opposite ways.
“In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike”
Plato, Symposium, Speech of Aristophanes. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1600). 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
- Plato, Timaeus and Symposium
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Self.
Also among Shapes
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Sphere.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sphere.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Orphan (The abandoned one) · The Anthropos (The cosmic man) · The Centre (Axis mundi) · Squaring the Circle (Quadratura circuli) · The Quintessence (The fifth essence)
Nearby in the alphabet: Sophia: Wisdom as a feminine figure beside God. The Spear: The wound that pierces, and the wound that heals. The Sphinx: The riddle that must be answered. The Spider: The weaver at the centre of the web.