The Volcano
Fire breaking up from below.
The Volcano: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
The volcano is the fire of the depths breaking through the crust: the eruption of the unconscious. In his dissertation of 1902 Jung noticed that a passage of Thus Spake Zarathustra, in which sailors see a man fly down into a volcano, nearly repeated a story in Justinus Kerner’s Blätter aus Prevorst, which Nietzsche had read as a boy and forgotten: his example of cryptomnesia, memory returning as invention.
The Volcano: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Hephaestus and Vulcan at their forges, Etna and Empedocles, who leapt into its crater, Vesuvius and Pompeii.
In the Press’s Books
The passage is “Great Events,” in the second part of Thus Spake Zarathustra.
From the Sources
Jung observes that at the close of the Miller drama the volcano brings about the hero's death, swallowing him into the earth in an earthquake, so that the volcano which gave the hero birth and name devours him again at the end.
“…the Miller drama again give us an opportunity of seeing how the volcano assists in the death of the hero and causes him to disappear by means of an earthquake into the depths of the earth. As the volcano gave birth and name to the hero, so at the end of the day it devours him again.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter VIII, "The Sacrifice". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Bulfinch relates that the giants Typhon, Briareus and Enceladus, defeated by the gods, were buried alive under Mount Aetna, where their struggles shake the island and their breath rising through the mountain is what men call an eruption.
“They were finally subdued and buried alive under Mount Aetna, where they still sometimes struggle to get loose, and shake the whole island with earthquakes. Their breath comes up through the mountain, and is what men call the eruption of the volcano.”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter VII, "Proserpine". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. 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 the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena” (1902), CW 1
- “Cryptomnesia” (1905), CW 1
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among The Land
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Volcano.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/volcano.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Virgin: One-in-herself: whole, and belonging to no one. Vitriol: Go down into the earth, and you will find the hidden stone. The Wasteland: The barren land of a wounded king. Water: The commonest symbol of the unconscious.