The Sword
The blade that cuts, divides, and judges.
The Sword: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The sword cuts and divides, and so is the instrument of discrimination, decision, and judgment, the separatio of the alchemists, who cut the dragon or the egg with it. Jung set it among the attributes of the father and of the spirit.
The sword is drawn from the stone or the tree by the one it was meant for: Arthur’s from the anvil, Sigmund’s from the oak of the Volsungs. Jung read the sword won from the stone as consciousness won from the unconscious, and the flaming sword at the gate of Eden as the barrier that keeps the way back closed.
In alchemy the sword is Mercurius’s, which divides the elements and kills the king so that he may rise, and Jung followed the image in “The Visions of Zosimos,” where the priest is cut in pieces with a sword and transformed.
The Sword: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Excalibur and the sword in the stone, the flaming sword at the gate of Eden, “I came not to send peace, but a sword,” the two-edged sword from the mouth of the Son of Man. The sword of Damocles; Solomon’s sword over the child; the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; the katana and the samurai’s soul; Durendal and Joyeuse.
From the Sources
The Epistle to the Hebrews calls the word of God sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit and discerning the thoughts of the heart.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Hebrews 4:12. King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
King Solomon calls for a sword and orders the living child to be divided in two, half to the one and half to the other.
“And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. 3:25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.”
The King James Version of the Bible, 1 Kings 3:24-25. 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.
Where to Read
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- “The Visions of Zosimos,” CW 13
- Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, The Grail Legend (1960)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Things Held and Worn
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Sword.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sword.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Sun: Consciousness, and its daily and yearly course. The Swan: The white bird of the hidden god and the dying song. The Temple: The sacred precinct, set apart. The Temptation: The offer that tests who one is.