The Triangle
The three, rising toward a point.
The Triangle: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The triangle is the form of the three: with its point upward it rises, and the alchemists made it the sign of fire; pointing down, the sign of water. Jung read the triad as the number of movement and development, needing a fourth to come to rest.
The Triangle: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The eye of God in the triangle, the Pythagorean tetraktys of ten points, the pyramid, the alchemical signs of fire and water.
From the Sources
Timaeus, having reasoned that the body with the fewest bases is the most moveable and penetrating, agrees that the pyramid is the original element and seed of fire, and assigns the next to air and the third to water.
“Let it be agreed, then, both according to strict reason and according to probability, that the pyramid is the solid which is the original element and seed of fire; and let us assign the element which was next in the order of generation to air, and the third to water.”
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 the trinity, often shown as a triangle, expresses how divided, sensuous nature is led by the higher power of the number three to a harmony of powers and a new unity.
“In the symbol of the trinity, which frequently occurs in the form of a triangle (three points united by three straight lines), is shown how the divided and sensuous nature is led by the higher power of the number 3 to a harmony of powers and to a new unity.”
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". 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
- “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” CW 11
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 Triangle.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/triangle.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Treasure Hard to Attain: What is guarded because it is worth the danger. The Tree: Growth, rootedness, and the axis of the world. The Trickster: The shape-shifter who breaks every rule.