The Two
The pair of opposites
The first division, and the tension that drives the psyche.
The Two: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Two is the number of division and of opposition. Jung held that psychic energy arises from the tension of opposites, as a current from two poles, and that one-sidedness calls up its opposite; he took from Heraclitus the name enantiodromia for the running of a thing into its contrary.
The Two: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Yin and yang, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, day and night, and Nietzsche’s Apollo and Dionysus.
From the Sources
Timaeus says that God made the body of the universe of fire and earth, but that two things cannot rightly be put together without a third, some bond of union between them.
“Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them.”
Plato, Timaeus, Timaeus's account of the body of the world. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1572). The text, read in part
Silberer writes that duality, the Dyas, stands against celestial being for divided earthly being, ruled by the antagonism of things and only transitory and imperfect, and lists the alchemists' opposites.
“Duality, the Dyas, represents in contrast to the celestial being the divided terrestrial being that is dominated by the antagonism of things and is only a transitory, imperfect existence; the opposites, fluid and solid, sulphur and mercury, dry and wet, etc.”
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
In Aristophanes' speech, after the division of the round primeval humans, the two parts of each, desiring their other half, came together and embraced, longing to grow into one.
“After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one”
Plato, Symposium, Speech of Aristophanes. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1600). 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
- “On Psychic Energy” (1928), CW 8
- Psychological Types, CW 6, “Enantiodromia”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Enantiodromia, Apollo and dionysus.
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 Two.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/two.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Antichrist (The adversary) · The Scales (The balance, Libra) · Apollo (Phoebus, the god of light) · Dionysus (Bacchus, the god of the vine) · The Vine (Wine)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Twelve: The whole circle of time. The Unicorn: Wild power, tamed only by the pure. The Uroboros: The serpent that devours its own tail.