The Wise Old Woman
The old mother
The knowing elder of the feminine: counsel, fate, and the old ways.
The Wise Old Woman: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Beside the wise old man Jung set a feminine figure of the same kind: the great, all-knowing mother who, for a woman as the wise old man for a man, can take possession of the personality as a mana-figure. In the tales she is the old woman at the edge of the forest who knows what the heroine must do, and sets her tasks.
Marie-Louise von Franz read her as the deep, impersonal wisdom of the feminine, older than any single mother, and distinct from the witch, who is her shadow.
The Wise Old Woman: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Mother Holle, who rewards the diligent girl and punishes the idle; the grandmother of the tales; Spider Grandmother; the Sibyl; Hecate at the crossroads.
From the Sources
In the Grimms' tale the girl comes to a little house where an old woman with large teeth frightens her, then calls her back kindly and promises to make her very happy if she does the work of the house properly.
“The next thing she came to was a little house, and there she saw an old woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was terrified, and turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, ‘What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house properly for me, I will make you very happy.”
Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, 'Mother Holle'. Text based on translations from the Grimms' Kinder und Hausmärchen by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. The text, read in part
Bulfinch tells that the root reaching into Asgard is tended by the three Norns, goddesses regarded as the dispensers of fate: Urdur, the past, Verdandi, the present, and Skuld, the future.
“The root that extends into Asgard is carefully tended by the three Norns, goddesses, who are regarded as the dispensers of fate. They are Urdur (the past), Verdandi (the present), Skuld (the future).”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Northern Mythology (the creation; Ygdrasill). 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
- “The Mana-Personality,” in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW 7
- Marie-Louise von Franz, The Feminine in Fairy Tales (1972)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
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 Woman.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/wise-old-woman.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Wind: Spirit that blows where it will. The Wolf: Devouring hunger, and a fierce kind of nurture.