Sign in Subscribe

Wise old man

Wise old man — Descent Press Index (entry forthcoming).

Jae Botávn

• 2 min read
Share
Wise old man
  1. Etymology

Wise old man names an archetypal image of meaning and wisdom—in Jung’s terms a personification of the masculine spirit—not identical with the senex as limit/order. Feminine equivalent often Great Mother / wise old woman; related: mana-personality; guru; spirit.

  1. Plain summary

The wise old man is the psyche’s figure of meaning: magician, doctor, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather—anyone who carries authority as spirit. He can appear so vividly in dreams or active imagination that he takes the role of an inner guru.

In a man he stands near the anima as father to daughter; in a woman he is often an aspect of the animus. He is not the same as the senex (Apollo’s disciplined old man); Samuels routes “wise old man/woman” to mana personalities. Related to numinous encounter and the risk of inflation when ego claims the figure’s power.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common WOM-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):

archetypal image of meaning/wisdom; personification of masculine spirit; anima related as daughter to father (man’s psychology); aspect of animus (woman); Great Mother as feminine equivalent; plastic appearance in dreams / active imagination; guru role; magician / doctor / priest / teacher / professor / grandfather / authority; graybeard–boy polarity (related Fairytales leaf); distinction from senex; See mana-personality; numinous charge; inflation if ego steals mana; child / spirit pairings; individuation guidance figure.

  1. Academic elucidation

  1. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Wise old man. An archetypal image of meaning and wisdom. In Jung’s terminology, the wise old man is a personification of the masculine spirit. In a man’s psychology, the anima is related to the wise old man as daughter to father. In a woman, the wise old man is an aspect of the animus. The feminine equivalent in both men and women is the Great Mother. … The wise old man appears in dreams in the guise of a magician, doctor, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather, or any person possessing authority.

(Sharp, 1991, p. [provisional — unverified])

wise old man/wise old woman See MANA PERSONALITIES.

  1. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

The two magicians are, indeed, two aspects of the wise old man, the superior master and teacher, the archetype of the spirit, who symbolizes the pre-existent meaning hidden in the chaos of life.

But I have been content to call it the archetype of the wise old man, or of meaning. Like all archetypes it has a positive and a negative aspect…

Mostly, therefore, it is the figure of a “wise old man” who symbolizes the spiritual factor… In both sexes the spirit can also take the form of a boy or a youth… Graybeard and boy belong together.

See also: senex; mana-personality; anima; animus; dreams; active imagination; numinous; inflation; child; archetype; spirit. (Queued spirit if undrafted.)

References

Jung, C. G. (1968). Archetypes of the collective unconscious. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 9, pt. 1, pp. 35, 37, ¶¶74, 79). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1934)

Jung, C. G. (1968). The phenomenology of the spirit in fairytales. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 9, pt. 1, pp. 214–215, ¶396). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1948)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.

} } } } } }