The Trinity
The three
Threeness, process, and the missing fourth.
The Trinity: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Three was for Jung the number of process and of development in time: beginning, middle, and end; thesis, antithesis, synthesis. His essay on the Trinity reads the Christian dogma as a stage in the growth of consciousness, and asks what the triad leaves out: matter, the feminine, and evil.
He welcomed the definition of the Assumption of Mary in 1950 as a step toward a fourth, and held that wholeness comes only when the three become four.
The Trinity: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the triple goddess and the three Fates, the three principles of Paracelsus, salt, sulphur, and mercury, and the fairy tale’s three brothers, three tasks, and three tries.
From the Sources
Jung quotes the Biblia pauperum on Daniel's account of the three men in Nebuchadnezzar's glowing furnace, with whom the king saw a fourth like the Son of God: the three signify the Holy Trinity and the fourth the unity of the being.
“One reads in the third chapter of the prophet Daniel that Nebuchadnezar, the King, caused three men to be placed in a glowing furnace and that the king often went there, looked in, and that he saw with the three, a fourth, who was like the Son of God. The three signify for us, the Holy Trinity and the fourth, the unity of the being.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter III, 'The Transformation of the Libido'. 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
Joyce defines the Trinity as the term for the central doctrine of the Christian religion: that in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Christian religion — the truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”
George Joyce, The Blessed Trinity, 'The dogma of the Trinity', opening paragraph. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 15; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912 (New Advent online text). 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” (1942/1948), CW 11
- Answer to Job (1952), CW 11
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Numbers
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Trinity.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/trinity.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Triangle: The three, rising toward a point. The Trickster: The shape-shifter who breaks every rule. The Twelve: The whole circle of time. The Twins: The pair who are one, one mortal and one divine.