The Stag
Cervus fugitivus
The fleeing spirit of the wild, crowned with antlers.
The Stag: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The stag, which renews its antlers each year and flees before the hunter, was one of the alchemists’ names for Mercurius: the cervus fugitivus, the fugitive stag, the elusive spirit that must be caught. Its branching antlers are a crown and a tree.
The Stag: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Actaeon turned into a stag and torn by his hounds, the stag with the crucifix between its antlers in the legends of St. Hubert and St. Eustace, Cernunnos, the white hart of romance.
From the Sources
Bulfinch tells how Diana, surprised at her bath by Actaeon, turned him into a stag: branching horns grew from his head, fear took the place of his boldness, and he fled.
“Immediately a pair of branching stag's horns grew out of his head, his neck gained in length, his ears grew sharp-pointed, his hands became feet, his arms long legs, his body was covered with a hairy spotted hide. Fear took the place of his former boldness, and the hero fled.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter IV, "Diana and Actaeon". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
Pliny writes that after giving birth the hinds exercise their young in running and teach them to take flight, leading them to precipices and showing them how to leap.
“They then exercise the young ones in running, and teach them how to take to flight, leading them to precipices, and showing them how to leap.”
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, Vol. II, Book VIII, Chapter 50, "Stags". Translated, with copious notes and illustrations, by the late John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H. T. Riley, Esq., B.A.; London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, MDCCCLV (Project Gutenberg eBook #60230). 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
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Beasts
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Stag.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/stag.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Square: Stability, the earth, and the four made firm. Squaring the Circle: The impossible figure of the whole. The Star: A light in the dark: guidance and destiny. The Stone: What endures: the philosophers’ stone.