Man and His Symbols
by Carl G. Jung
Contents
The Self: symbols of totality
Overview
After sufficient engagement with anima/animus, the unconscious constellates the Self, symbolized as guiding figures, youths, animals, stones, or the Cosmic Man. Through dreams, myths, and active imagination, the text shows how the Self orients life toward wholeness, integrates opposites (often via “royal couple” imagery), and relates psyche to matter. Jung’s synchronicity frames meaningful coincidences as markers of activated archetypes in individuation.
Summary
The chapter opens by explaining that once a person has sufficiently differentiated from anima or animus, the unconscious shifts and presents the Self—the psyche’s nucleus—often as a superior guide. Folk tales exemplify this: an old divine musician (wise old man) helps a soldier redeem a destructive anima; a tiny membrane-clad woman (wise old woman) warns an abducted girl against a murderous Moon Spirit animus.
The Self can also appear paradoxically young, renewing life and orientation: a man’s dream shows a youth on a powerful horse respecting a newly planted bed; a woman’s dream shows a supernaturally strong girl helping her cross a stagnant river, signaling a necessary shift beyond institutional religion toward an inner path.
Broader forms include the Cosmic Man, symbolizing omnipresent totality (Adam, P’an Ku, Purusha, Gayomart), often marked by fourfold structure (4, 8, 16). Psychologically, this image points to wholeness and the ego’s merging into the Self, calming discursive desire and reorienting life’s meaning beyond mere instinctual aims.
The Self also reconciles opposites as a distinguished couple. In a man’s dream, a she-bear and a lioness polish stones (the Self), urging contact with life’s “frictions” to shape the inner being; fleeing intimacy keeps the anima split. When lion and lioness transform into a crowned royal couple, feeling unifies, and individuation becomes conscious.
Further personifications include a deer in active imagination declaring itself both “child and mother,” the connecting animal that redeems life from meaninglessness—linking instinct, nature, and fate. The Self frequently appears as stones or crystals, whose permanence and ordered form symbolize the indestructible core (echoed in sacred stones, graves, the Ka’aba, and the alchemists’ lapis found within).
Jung’s concept of synchronicity—meaningful coincidences unlinked by causality—suggests a psyche–matter nexus: when an archetype is activated, inner dreams and outer events cluster symbolically. Such coincidences, often unnoticed, tend to accompany decisive individuation phases, guiding adaptation to both inner demands and outer life.
Who Appears
- The SelfPsyche’s nucleus; emerges after anima/animus work as guide, youth, animal, stone, or Cosmic Man.
- Wise Old Man / Old MusicianGuiding Self figure who instructs the soldier to withstand the destructive anima-princess.
- Tiny Woman in Membrane ClothingFeminine Self figure warning the abducted girl against the Moon Spirit animus.
- SoldierDespairs before a murderous anima-princess; saved by the wise old musician’s guidance.
- Black PrincessBewitched, deadly anima figure redeemed when the soldier follows Self-guidance.
- Spirit of the MoonAnimus figure who abducts and endangers the girl; a Bluebeard-like killer.
- Youth on the HorseDream personification of Self bringing renewal, energy, and sensitive consideration.
- Supernaturally Strong GirlSelf figure aiding a woman to cross a stagnant river toward a new spiritual stance.
- She-bear / Bear-womanMother-goddess aspect polishing a stone; urges contact with life’s shaping frictions.
- Lioness and CubRoyal totality symbols polishing round stones; transform into a king and queen.
- King and QueenHumanized coniunctio; conscious realization of individuation and unified feeling.
- Deer (Connecting Animal)Active imagination Self speaking as ‘child and mother,’ linking beings and restoring meaning.
- Carl G. JungReferenced for the wise old man image, active imagination, and the theory of synchronicity.