Water
The sea, the lake, the spring
The commonest symbol of the unconscious.
Water: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
“Water is the commonest symbol for the unconscious,” Jung wrote. The lake in the valley is the unconscious lying beneath consciousness; the spring is life rising from below; the flood is what overwhelms.
Water is also the medium of rebirth, in baptism and immersion, and the substance of the alchemists’ aqua permanens, the divine water that dissolves and renews.
Water: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The waters of chaos over which the spirit moved, Tiamat, the Flood, the Jordan, Styx and Lethe, the water of life of the fairy tale, and the holy water and holy wells of the Symbolarium.
From the Sources
Jung writes that the maternal significance of water belongs to the clearest symbolism in mythology.
“The maternal significance of water belongs to the clearest symbolism in the realm of mythology, so that the ancients could say”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter V, 'Symbolism of the Mother and of Rebirth'. 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
In the second verse of Genesis darkness is upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters.
“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 1:2. Project Gutenberg eBook #10. 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
- “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious” (1934/1954), CW 9i
- Symbols of Transformation, CW 5
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Unconscious.
Also among The Elements
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Water.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/water.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Philemon (The winged old man) · The Descent (Nekyia, katabasis) · Night (Nyx) · The Abyss (Ungrund)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Volcano: Fire breaking up from below. The Wasteland: The barren land of a wounded king. The Well: The deep source, and the way down. The Whale: The monster of the deep that swallows.