Carl Jung: Many thanks for your kind suggestion that I write a commentary on my Bollingen symbols.

To Ignaz Tauber

Dear Dr. Tauber, 13 December 1960

Many thanks for your kind suggestion that I write a commentary on my Bollingen symbols. Nobody is more uncertain about their meaning than the author himself.

They are their own representation of the way they came into being.

The first thing I saw in the rough stone was the figure of the worshipping woman, and behind her the silhouette of the old king sitting on his throne.

As I was carving her out, the old king vanished from view.

Instead I suddenly saw that the unworked surface in front of her clearly revealed the hindquarters of a horse, and a mare at that, for whose milk the primitive woman was stretching out her hands.

The woman is obviously my anima in the guise of a millennia-old ancestress.

Milk, as lac virginis, virgin’s milk, is a synonym for the aqua doctrinae one of the aspects of Mercurius, who

had already bedeviled the Bollingen stones in the form of the trickster. The mare descending from above reminded me of Pegasus.

Pegasus is the constellation above the second fish in Pisces; it precedes Aquarius in the precession of the equinoxes.

I have represented it in its feminine aspect, the milk taking the place of the spout of water in the sign for Aquarius.

This feminine attribute indicates the unconscious nature of the milk.

Evidently the milk has first to come into the hands of the anima, thus charging her with special energy.

This afflux of anima energy immediately released in me the idea of a she-bear, approaching the back of the anima from the left.

The bear stands for the savage energy and power of Artemis.

In front of the bear’s forward-striding paws I saw, adumbrated in the stone, a ball, for a ball is often given to bears to play with in the bear-pit.

Obviously this ball is being brought to the worshipper as a symbol of individuation.

It points to the meaning or content of the milk.

The whole thing, it seems to me, expresses coming events that are still hidden in the archetypal realm.

The anima, clearly, has her mind on spiritual contents.

But the bear, the emblem of Russia, sets the ball rolling. Hence the inscription: Ursa movet molem.

There’s not much more I can tell you, but as a sign of the times I would like to cite the opinion of one of my critics.

He accuses me of being so uneducated that I don’t even know that the sun moves into Pisces from Aquarius and not the other way round!

Such is the level of my public.

With best greetings to you and your wife,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 615-616

He [Carl Jung] saw the “other Bollingen” bathed in a glow of light,

Jung stood the journey very well, and was glad to be home again, especially since he was still too ill to have any obligation to meet demands.

Not long after his return, he told the same dream to both Marie-Louise and myself (separately).

We both had the feeling that he still thought he would probably die and wanted the dream to be recorded.

He dreamed:

He saw the “other Bollingen” bathed in a glow of light, and a voice told him that it was now completed and ready for habitation.

Then far below he saw a mother wolverine teaching her child to dive and swim in a stretch of water.

This was obviously a death dream, for he had often dreamed of this “other Bollingen” before, in various stages of construction, and he had always spoken of it as being in the unconscious, in the Beyond.

The end of the dream has the same meaning: the dreamer must soon pass into another element (usually called another world) and learn as different a way of adaptation as the young wolverine, who was already at home on dry ground, had to learn in the water.

Evidently Mother Nature was ready for the change and prepared to give him her full support.

This dream made both Marie-Louise and me very sad, for it was clear that Jung would soon be leaving us to go to “the other Bollingen.”

In fact, it may have been this dream that loosened his strong tie to his earthly Bollingen.

Once again, as had happened so often before, Jung’s complete acceptance of death gave him a new lease of life, to his own great surprise.

He recovered quickly and was pretty well all winter, but I do not think quite as well as before his eighty-fifth birthday.

At all events, contrary to his earlier practice, he made no attempt to go to Bollingen and also abstained from his usual winter visit to the Tessin.

Although he was undoubtedly declining physically, his mind and psychic understanding steadily increased, right up to the end.


If he forgot the slightest thing (actually he did so less than when he was younger!), he immediately said:

“There, I told you I was getting senile!” If he believed this himself, it was the only illusion I ever knew him
to harbor. ~Barbara Hannah, Jung: His Life and Work; Pages 1149-1150

Barbara Hannah’s first visit to Bollingen

Toni paid back hospitality by asking Jung to invite me to Bollingen.

I was frankly terrified when I first arrived at the Tower.

It was very cold weather and Jung was cooking in his original round kitchen in a long Oriental robe which he o􀁛en wore in cold weather.

He looked like a picture I had once seen of an old alchemist at work among his retorts.

He looked more whole than ever. . . . Toni, who was also staying there, just gave me some tea and told me to take a chair by the fire and watch Jung cook, then busied herself with fetching the things he asked for and her own jobs.

Jung was en􀢢rely engrossed in some absorbing cooking and in watching the fire. (He was a most unusually good cook and used in those days to cook the most complicated dishes.

I remember one sauce with no fewer than sixteen ingredients!)

I did not yet know him well enough to feel it as a companionable silence (which I learned later to enjoy more than anything), so a􀁛er two or three hours I took an opportunity, when he did not seem quite so engrossed to murmur: "I am scared stiff."

Although only a faint amused smile indicated that he had even heard my remark, the ice was broken and I began to feel at home.

After a bit he gave me an aperirif. . . then I even got a small job or two to do, and finally we were ready to sit down at the round table.

The marvelous food and wine rapidly banished my fear, though I was fortunate enough still to say nothing, except for a few appreciative grunt-like murmurs while we were eating.

That was indeed fortunate because as I learned later Jung hated to talk while he was eating a really good meal.

(He used to quote his mother, who said that chatteering was disrespectful to good food.)

The only remark I remember him making during that first meal was: "Oh, well, you already know how to enjoy your food, that is one thing (emphasis on the one!)

I shall not have to teach you!" Barbara Hannah, “Jung”, Page 199.

Carl Jung on "Bollingen" - Anthology

Carl Jung on "Bollingen." - Anthology

In Bollingen, silence surrounds me almost audibly, and I live "in modest harmony with nature." Thoughts rise to the surface which reach back into the centuries, and accordingly anticipate a remote future. Here the torment of creation is lessened; creativity and play are close together. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 226.

I have appeared in the world, if that is good for me. My name enjoys an existence quasi-independent of myself. My real self is actually chopping wood in Bollingen and cooking the meals, trying to forget the trial of an eightieth birthday. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 270

After my wife's death. . . I felt an inner obligation to become what I myself am. To put it in the language of the Bollingen house, I suddenly realized that the small central section which crouched so low, so hidden was myself! ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 225.

I observe myself in the stillness of Bollingen, with the experience of almost eight decades now, and I have to admit that I have found no plain answer to myself. ~Carl Jung, Jung Briefe, Page 386.

It (Bollingen Foundation) is a shining beacon in the darkness of the atomic age. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 150-151.

He felt the need to represent his innermost thoughts in stone and to build a completely primitive dwelling: “Bollingen was a great matter for me, because words and paper were not real enough. I had to put down a confession in stone.” ~Sonu Shamdasani, Introduction 1925 Seminar, Page xiii

Milk, as lac virginis, virgin's milk, is a synonym for the aqua doctrinae one of the aspects of Mercurius, who had already bedeviled the Bollingen stones in the form of the trickster. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 615-616

Carl Jung on "Bollingen." [Anthology]

Carl Jung on "Bollingen." [Anthology]

In Bollingen, silence surrounds me almost audibly, and I live "in modest harmony with nature." Thoughts rise to the surface which reach back into the centuries, and accordingly anticipate a remote future. Here the torment of creation is lessened; creativity and play are close together. Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 226.

I have appeared in the world, if that is good for me.

My name enjoys an existence quasi-independent of my- self. My real self is actually chopping wood in Bollingen and cooking the meals, trying to forget the trial of an eightieth birthday. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 270

After my wife’s death. . . I felt an inner obligation to become what I myself am. To put it in the language of the Bollingen house, I suddenly realized that the small central section which crouched so low, so hidden was myself! Carl Jung, MDR, Page 225.

I observe myself in the stillness of Bollingen, with the experience of almost eight decades now, and I have to admit that I have found no plain answer to myself. Carl Jung, Jung Briefe, Page 386.

It (Bollingen Foundation) is a shining beacon in the darkness of the atomic age. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 150-151.

He felt the need to represent his innermost thoughts in stone and to build a completely primitive dwelling: “Bollingen was a great matter for me, because words and paper were not real enough. I had to put down a confession in stone.” Sonu Shamdasani, Introduction 1925 Seminar, Page xiii

Milk, as lac virginis, virgin’s milk, is a synonym for the aqua doctrinae one of the aspects of Mercurius, who had already bedeviled the Bollingen stones in the form of the trickster. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 615-616