The Sun
Sol
Consciousness, and its daily and yearly course.
The Sun: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The sun is the image of consciousness and of psychic energy that rises, stands at noon, and sets. Jung compared a human life to the sun’s course: an ascent in the morning, a noon, and an afternoon descent in which meaning must be sought inward rather than in expansion. In alchemy Sol is gold and the king, paired with Luna.
An early patient at the Burghölzli described a sun with a tube hanging from it that made the wind. Jung later found the same image in a Mithraic liturgy published in 1910, and it set him thinking of a collective layer of the psyche.
The Sun: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Ra crossing the sky by day and the underworld by night, Apollo and Helios, Sol Invictus, the sun-hero Samson, the fiery chariot of Elijah.
In the Press’s Books
Thus Spake Zarathustra opens with Zarathustra speaking to the sun: “Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!”
From the Sources
Jung says he has uncovered an old buried idol, the halo-crowned sun-hero who wanders the earth causing night to follow day and winter summer, and returns in rejuvenated splendour to give light to new generations.
“…we have uncovered an old buried idol, the youthful, beautiful, fire-encircled and halo-crowned sun-hero, who, forever unattainable to the mortal, wanders upon the earth, causing night to follow day; winter, summer; death, life; and who returns again in rejuvenated splendor and gives light to new generations.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part I, Chapter IV, 'The Song of the Moth'. Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916 (Project Gutenberg eBook #65903). The text, read in part
At the opening of the book Zarathustra addresses the sun as 'Thou great star', asking what its happiness would be without those for whom it shines.
“Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Zarathustra's Prologue, section 1. Translated by Thomas Common (Project Gutenberg eBook #1998). 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
- “The Stages of Life” (1930–31), CW 8
- “The Concept of the Collective Unconscious” (1936), CW 9i
- “Sol,” in Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among The Heavens
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Sun.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sun.
Nearby in the alphabet: Sublimatio: What was heavy rises, and becomes spirit. Sulphur: The burning principle: desire and will. The Swan: The white bird of the hidden god and the dying song. The Sword: The blade that cuts, divides, and judges.