A Library Guide to Jung's Collected Works

Dark Mother: "The primordial Dark Mother and her values of transformation have existed in the human psyche since ancient times. Her image is specifically apparent in the Black Madonna, Mary Magdalene, Hecate, Demeter, and numerous other female divinities of the earth. The Dark Mother, as a figure of mythology, is created at the collective archetypal layer of the psyche. Her image appears in all cultures: African, Hindu, Christian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and countless other cultural and religious sources. In 15,000 BCE, Africans sketched fifteen figures of the dark mother in red ochre on the walls of the Grotto dei Genovesi in the Egadi islands south of Palermo, Italy." (p. 202) [Read more]

Great Mother: "From a psychoanalytical perspective, the Great Mother is the archetypal manifestation of the collective cultural experience of childhood development. More specifically, the influences exerted on children are not so much the product of the mother herself, as an individual, but rather the product of the archetypal mother image rooted in the collective unconscious. As such the image of the Great Mother reflects both the feelings of maternal support, comfort and love for a child and the negative capricious experience of vulnerability, helplessness and dependence experienced by the child in development. In this sense the archetypal image of the mother is nurturing and loving but also capricious, mysterious and linked to feelings of vulnerability and seduction (Jung, 1968)." [Read more]

Mother: "The mother is the biological and/or social female parent. From a psychological perspective, the mother is the female caregiver who may or may not be biologically related to the infant but who assumes the parental role. The mother-infant dyad represents the primary form of human attachment based on physical dependence as well as affection, both of which are vital for survival. The word “mother” is also used in reference to the source or origin of things. In ancient religions, the earth was referred to in feminine terms as “Mother Earth” and represented the divine figure that was the source of all life. In addition, ancient myths included various female divinities that possessed maternal qualities or fulfilled mother roles for other gods or for humans. With the rise of monotheistic religions, however, the divine maternal images were eradicated, but in Western Christianity, the icon of Mary, the Mother of Jesus gradually rose to cult status." (p. 583) [Read more]

Maiden, Mother, and Crone: "Maiden, Mother, and Crone are the names of the three aspects of the divine force known as the Goddess in earth-based religions such as Neo-Paganism and Wicca. Together, they comprise the sacred triangle or Trinity of the Goddess, which corresponds to one of her many names, Trivia. The number three is considered sacred to the Goddess as it represents the flow of the life cycle, its beginning, middle, and end. The following chart represents each aspect of the Triple Goddess and its corresponding connection to the phases of the moon, magical colors, age, the life cycle, and corresponding ideas in patriarchal Catholicism. In this “thealogy,” it is believed that the female, by virtue of being able to create life from her body, naturally embodies the principles and divinity of the Goddess." (p. 381) [Read more]