The Wise Old Man
Senex sapiens
Spirit in the form of a knowing elder.
The Wise Old Man: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In dreams and tales, Jung wrote, spirit often takes the shape of an old man: magician, doctor, priest, teacher, grandfather, any figure of authority who appears when the hero is at a loss and knows what is needed. He gives counsel, a test, or a magical gift.
Jung met such a figure in his own imagination after 1913, an old man with the horns of a bull and the wings of a kingfisher, whom he called Philemon and credited with teaching him that the psyche has a reality of its own. The figure has its danger: to identify with it is to become an oracle to oneself, the inflation Jung called the mana-personality.
The Wise Old Man: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Merlin, Tiresias, Nestor, the Hermit of the Tarot, and Khidr, the Green One of Islamic tradition, whom Jung discussed in his reading of the eighteenth sura of the Qur’an.
In the Press’s Books
Jung gave a seminar on Thus Spake Zarathustra from 1934 to 1939, reading Zarathustra as a figure of the unconscious speaking through Nietzsche.
From the Sources
Jung describes Chidher, 'the verdant one', born as a son of the deep waters where the fish vanished, as a proclaimer of divine wisdom, and likens him to Oannes-Ea, who came from the sea daily to teach the people wisdom.
“Where the fish vanished Chidher, “the verdant one,” was born as a “son of the deep waters,” his head veiled, a Cabir, a proclaimer of divine wisdom; the old Babylonian Oannes-Ea, who was represented in the form of a fish, and daily came from the sea as a fish to teach the people wisdom.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, Chapter IV, 'The Unconscious Origin of the Hero' (on Chidher). Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
In the Grimms' tale, a little old man meets the sick king's grieving sons and tells them that the Water of Life would make their father well, though it is very hard to get.
“…a little old man met them and asked what was the matter. They told him that their father was very ill, and that they were afraid nothing could save him. ‘I know what would,’ said the little old man; ‘it is the Water of Life. If he could have a draught of it he would be well again; but it is very hard to get.’”
Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, 'The Water of Life'. Text based on translations from the Grimms' Kinder und Hausmärchen by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. 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
- “The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales” (1945/1948), CW 9i
- “The Mana-Personality,” in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW 7
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “Confrontation with the Unconscious”
- Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934–1939, ed. James L. Jarrett (1988)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Spirit.
Also among Parents and Elders
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Wise Old Man.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/wise-old-man.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Animus (Latin: spirit, mind) · Violet (The ultraviolet) · The Wind · Breath (Pneuma, spiritus, ruach) · The Prison (The captive spirit)
Nearby in the alphabet: White: The whitening: the first light after the dark. The Wise Old Woman: The knowing elder of the feminine: counsel, fate, and the old ways. The Witch: The mother’s dark face, who binds and devours.