The Thread
The line of fate, and the way back out.
The Thread: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Thread is spun, measured, and cut: the length of a life, and the continuity that runs through it. It is also the guide that leads back out of the labyrinth. Jungian writers read the weaving women of myth as the unconscious spinning the pattern of a life.
The Thread: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Ariadne’s thread, the three Fates, Clotho who spins, Lachesis who measures, and Atropos who cuts, the Norns, Penelope unweaving at night.
From the Sources
Bulfinch describes the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, whose office was to spin the thread of human destiny and to cut it off with their shears.
“The Fates were also three--Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Their office was to spin the thread of human destiny, and they were armed with shears, with which they cut it off when they pleased.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter I, "Introduction". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
Ovid tells that the difficult entrance of the labyrinth, retraced by none before, was found by the aid of the maiden, by means of the thread gathered up again.
“…and when the difficult entrance, retraced by none of those who have entered it before, has been found by the aid of the maiden, by means of the thread gathered up again”
Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV, Book VIII, Fable II. Henry T. Riley's translation (transcriber's note: based on the 1893 George Bell reprint). 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 Book of Symbols, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010)
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 Thread.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/thread.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Theatre: The inner drama, and the seat of the one who watches it. The Theft of Fire: Stolen light, and the price of it. The Throne: The seat of rule, and of what rules the soul. Tin: The metal of Jupiter, completing the seven.