The Square
Stability, the earth, and the four made firm.
The Square: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The square is the quaternity fixed and grounded: four sides, four corners, the earth rather than the heavens. The alchemists set themselves to square the circle, and Michael Maier made it an emblem; Jung read it as the union of heavenly wholeness with earthly order, the circle realized in matter.
The Square: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The heavenly Jerusalem that “lieth foursquare,” the square of the temple precinct, the Chinese image of the square earth under the round heaven, the magic square.
From the Sources
Timaeus assigns the cubical form to earth, as the most immoveable and most plastic of the four elements, since what has the most stable bases must be of such a nature.
“To earth, then, let us assign the cubical form; for earth is the most immoveable of the four and the most plastic of all bodies, and that which has the most stable bases must of necessity be of such a nature.”
Plato, Timaeus, Timaeus's distribution of the elementary forms. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1572). The text, read in part
Silberer writes that four lines in the shape of a rectangle mark out the limited space of the earthly world, with the further meaning of a holy precinct, house or temple.
“Four lines, somewhat in the form of a rectangle, define the limited space of the terrestrial world with the accessory meaning of the holy precinct, house, temple.”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts (originally published as Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism), Part II, Section IV ('Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry'), following Keller. Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1971, an unabridged republication of the work published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, in 1917 (Project Gutenberg eBook #27755). 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
- Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens (1617), Emblem XXI
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
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 Square.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/square.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Spine: The axis of the body, climbed by the serpent power. The Spiral: Returning to the same place, a little higher. Squaring the Circle: The impossible figure of the whole. The Stag: The fleeing spirit of the wild, crowned with antlers.