Clues That the Spiral Is an Archetypal Symbol
The spiral is referenced and illustrated in Man and His Symbols (1964). The spiral, though not explicitly included, may be understood as derived from the evolving circle, prompting the question of whether it deserves greater symbolic recognition today. Evidence suggests that spirals were carved into Neolithic megaliths across distant islands and continents—possibly indicating a universal link to the unconscious. The spiral is described as a motif emerging during altered states of consciousness that often lead to visionary experiences (Lewis-Williams & Pearce, 2005) and employed in hypnosis as a tool for accessing the subconscious. My connection to the spiral led to the connection of a meaningful life. Furthermore, reports from past-life regression hypnosis suggest that individuals not only engage with archetypal hero myths but also frequently perceive spirals or vortexes during their experiences.
My connection to the spirals
I started, three years ago, to have dreams that, after a while, I realized that some of them had a common denominator. For instance, I have dreamed of dervishes with their rotating dance.
I have dreamed that I plunged with a car in a deep dark river, like in the "Maelström" Canadian movie that I previously watched.
I have dreamed of a mammoth flock running in a circle, in the snow, around me.
I have dreamed that I was a lost space traveler in a spiral galaxy. At this point, things started to be clear and I started to study about spirals. Now, I even have a tattoo with a spiral on my shoulder.
Soon, I met my conscious spiritual needs.
My connection to the spiral came through a belief in something beyond the collective unconscious—a vision of all individual consciousnesses as small spirals, united within a vast, universal “great spiral.” This provided me with a sense that existence did not simply end in nothingness. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, I imagine that after countless millennia of believing in and striving for an afterlife, the human mind may have somehow been brought into being an “afterlife soul,” formed from a spiral-like kind of energy. Just as every human organ—eye, nose, mouth—arose from a need for meaning, perhaps the need for an afterlife created the conditions for the emergence of this transcendental state of consciousness. Or, at the very least, I found comfort in believing this and it led me to further explore the meaning of the symbol.
Helping the ‘psychic hygiene'
Dr. Sigmund Freud is credited with the claim 'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'. Dr. Carl Gustav Jung goes further. Thus, in his study "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7) Ronald K. Siegel summarizes the following: “Jung took the position that the concept of immortality, universally present in the individual's unconscious, plays an important role in ”. But for those who do not believe in any religious form of afterlife the only possibility to achieve this ‘psychic hygiene’ remains the belief in a kind of surviving of the consciousness with the respect for the Evolution laws of Charles Darwin
Support from Jung and M.-L von Franz for the “darwinian afterlife”
Such an idea of “darwinian afterlife" seems very daring, so I appeal, in support of it, to two paragraphs from the chapter "Conclusion. Science and the Unconscious" written by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the book "Man and His Symbols" by Carl G. Jung and his collaborators. Thus, we find: „The physicist Wolfgang Pauli has pointed out that, due to new discoveries, our idea of the evolution of life requires a revision that might take into account an area of interrelation between the unconscious psyche and biological processes. Until recently it was assumed that the mutation of species happened at random and that a selection took place by means of which the “meaningful,” well-adapted varieties survived, and the other disappeared. But modern evolutionists have pointed out that the selection of such mutations by pure chance would have taken much longer than the known age of our planet allows. Jung's concept of 'synchronicity' could be of help here, because it sheds light on some rarer, 'borderline' phenomena, some exceptional events, in this way, it is therefore possible to explain how the adaptations and 'significant' mutations happened, in a shorter time than would have been necessary in the case of random mutations” (page 305). And on the same page, the idea continues as follows: “It seems, then, that such accidental anomalous phenomena arise when there is a need or a vital need, this fact could, further, explain why a certain species of animals, under great pressure or in an urgent need, could produce significant (but acausal) changes in its external material structure”. These would be the premises of a possible "world beyond" that was a vital need of the human soul or brain. If you love another perspective, maybe even better.
The Spiral in Jungian Thought
According to the Jungian Center for Spiritual Sciences, Carl Jung (1984) addressed the spiral symbol in his Seminar on Dream Analysis. According to Jung, one psychologically develops in a spiral; circumbulating the same point where one has been before, but never exactly in the same place.. A patient will say, “I am just at the place where I was three years ago,” but I say, “At least you have traveled three years.”
The spiral is also mentioned in Man and His Symbols, (Jung, 1964) particularly as a representation of the Holy Spirit. Jaffé in her chapter recounts a dream in which a woman received divine instruction to paint God. The resulting image featured a spiral in a deep blue sky, contrasted by the flowing cloak of a divine figure. Thus it served as a symbolic form of the Holy Ghost, representing an emergent expression from the unconscious (see Figure 1). Jaffe states, “They may prophesy the descent of a divine darkness upon the Christian hemisphere... Since the axis of the spiral does not move upward but into the background of the picture... the further evolution will lead... into the unconscious.” Jung, 1964, p. 226)
Figures 1 and 2 (page 227 in “Man and his symbols”)
A quote often attributed to Jung from *The Visions Seminars* further develops the symbolism of the spiral: “There is a good thing on top of that mountain. I will make a straight line for it. But the archetypal way is not like that; it is a serpentine way that wriggles and spirals its way to the top... It makes most people terribly impatient... but this is just as it should be.” [C.G. Jung, The Visions Seminars , Book Two , p. 295]
According to Gary Bobroff, Jung associated the spiral with the “eternal return” in the pattern of human thought and saw it as representing a cosmic force. Spirals in Neolithic and Ancient Symbolism
I found that spirals appear across numerous ancient cultures, including Celtic art, Native American petroglyphs, Nazca lines, Islamic architecture, Japanese rock gardens, Hindu scriptures, Aboriginal painting, and African art. Even earlier, in the Neolithic era, spirals appeared on megalithic structures in Tarxien (Malta), Newgrange (Ireland), Piódão and Chãs d’Égua (Portugal), Achnabreck and Pierowall (Scotland), Northumberland (England), Göbekli Tepe (Turkey) and Castellucio (Sicily). Spirals were also common motifs on the pottery of Neolithic cultures like Yangshao, Cucuteni–Trypillia, and Majiayao, and in petroglyphs across the Americas, such as Sonora (Mexico), Mesa Verde (USA), and Cundinamarca (Colombia).
And it's absurd to think that people moved and carved huge blocks of stone just for some random ornamentation, so the spirals must have had a close connection to their consciousness.
Lewis-Williams & Pearce (2005) explain that spirals emerged in the second and third stages of entoptic (internally generated) visual phenomena during altered states of consciousness, often induced through dancing, chanting, sensory deprivation, or ingestion of psychotropic substances. They propose that the spiral may have functioned as an axis mundi in Neolithic cosmology: “The spiral experience may have led both down into the tomb and up into the heavens... it represented the axis mundi that linked all the cosmological levels and also passage through that axis.” [page 291] The following figure illustrates the altered progressive state, but not every person experiences it in this way.
Figure 3, from page 55, Lewis-Williams & Pearce (2005)
The spiral’s connection to altered states extends beyond Neolithic art. Visionary artists such as William Blake (*The Lovers of the Whirlwind*), Vincent van Gogh (*The Starry Night*), and Hilma af Klint (*The Ten Largest No. 3*) employed spiral imagery. Hilma af Klint, in particular, claimed to paint “guided by astral planes and high spirits,” working in a trance-like state.
The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) has published an article exploring parallels between her art and Jung’s psychology. So, in the article "Illuminating Parallels in the Life and Art of Hilma af Klint and C.G. Jung", Bettina Kaufmann and Kathrin Schaeppi we find references to the spiral.
On page 22, there is painting “Group 6, No. 3, Evolution, WUS/Sjustärnan.1908” (Hilma af Klint) compared with “Systema Mundi Totius (Structure of the Whole World), 1916. “(Carl Gustav Jung). And below is the explanation of it: “Af Klint painted in series. This is one image from her Evolution series, 1908. Common to both images is the mandala with its symmetry, unity and differentiation. In af Klint’s image we find a symbolic, codified language. The letter “W” stands for matter. When we find “U” it refers to spirit. The snail and spiral, here at the center, reoccur in her works and symbolize evolution.”
Spirals in Hypnosis and Visionary Art
Although Jung discontinued his use of hypnosis, the spiral remains a powerful visual for inducing trance states, appearing in shamanic traditions and therapeutic practices. Reports from past-life regression sessions frequently include encounters with spiral imagery and archetypal experiences, such as identifying with historical or mythological figures—phenomena Jung might interpret through the “hero myth.”
Paul F. Cunningham recounts a hypnotized subject describing a stone engraved with a spiral and other details: “A spiral on the right, and a shape like the map of Scotland on the left... three indents on the top left-hand corner.” Hypnotherapists like Brian Weiss, Marisa Peer, and Jason Stephenson have also described spirals and vortices in therapeutic contexts. A client of Peer’s described an emotional and symbolic act of support in her drawing. There are online videos with the title: “Get ready to heal while you sleep with Marisa Peer's hypnotic vortex.”
Although some of these experiences may reflect placebo effects, the consistency and frequency of spiral imagery across practices and cultures indicate its potential depth as an archetypal symbol of transformation and integration between conscious and unconscious layers of the psyche. I certainly experienced the profound influence of the spiral.
Bibliography
Bobroff, Gary. *Knowledge in a Nutshell: Carl Jung*. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2020.
Cunningham, Paul F. *An Experimental Investigation of Past-Life Experiences*. 2011. https://www2.rivier.edu/faculty/pcunningham/Research/Web%20Page%20Past-Life%20Experiences%204-29-11.pdf.
Jung, Carl G. *Man and His Symbols*. Edited by Carl G. Jung. New York: Dell, 1964.
———. *Seminar on Dream Analysis*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
———. *The Visions Seminars*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Lewis-Williams, David, and David Pearce. *Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods*. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005.
Marisa Peer. “Testimonials.” Accessed August 4, 2025. https://marisapeer.com/testimonials.
Bettina Kaufmann and Kathrin Schaeppi, "Illuminating Parallels in the Life and Art of Hilma af Klint and C.G. Jung", 2019, https://aras.org/special-collections/art-and-psyche
Ronald K. Siegel, "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7)
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-25195-001
My connection to the spirals
I started, three years ago, to have dreams that, after a while, I realized that some of them had a common denominator. For instance, I have dreamed of dervishes with their rotating dance.
I have dreamed that I plunged with a car in a deep dark river, like in the "Maelström" Canadian movie that I previously watched.
I have dreamed of a mammoth flock running in a circle, in the snow, around me.
I have dreamed that I was a lost space traveler in a spiral galaxy. At this point, things started to be clear and I started to study about spirals. Now, I even have a tattoo with a spiral on my shoulder.
Soon, I met my conscious spiritual needs.
My connection to the spiral came through a belief in something beyond the collective unconscious—a vision of all individual consciousnesses as small spirals, united within a vast, universal “great spiral.” This provided me with a sense that existence did not simply end in nothingness. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, I imagine that after countless millennia of believing in and striving for an afterlife, the human mind may have somehow been brought into being an “afterlife soul,” formed from a spiral-like kind of energy. Just as every human organ—eye, nose, mouth—arose from a need for meaning, perhaps the need for an afterlife created the conditions for the emergence of this transcendental state of consciousness. Or, at the very least, I found comfort in believing this and it led me to further explore the meaning of the symbol.
Helping the ‘psychic hygiene'
Dr. Sigmund Freud is credited with the claim 'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'. Dr. Carl Gustav Jung goes further. Thus, in his study "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7) Ronald K. Siegel summarizes the following: “Jung took the position that the concept of immortality, universally present in the individual's unconscious, plays an important role in ”. But for those who do not believe in any religious form of afterlife the only possibility to achieve this ‘psychic hygiene’ remains the belief in a kind of surviving of the consciousness with the respect for the Evolution laws of Charles Darwin
Support from Jung and M.-L von Franz for the “darwinian afterlife”
Such an idea of “darwinian afterlife" seems very daring, so I appeal, in support of it, to two paragraphs from the chapter "Conclusion. Science and the Unconscious" written by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the book "Man and His Symbols" by Carl G. Jung and his collaborators. Thus, we find: „The physicist Wolfgang Pauli has pointed out that, due to new discoveries, our idea of the evolution of life requires a revision that might take into account an area of interrelation between the unconscious psyche and biological processes. Until recently it was assumed that the mutation of species happened at random and that a selection took place by means of which the “meaningful,” well-adapted varieties survived, and the other disappeared. But modern evolutionists have pointed out that the selection of such mutations by pure chance would have taken much longer than the known age of our planet allows. Jung's concept of 'synchronicity' could be of help here, because it sheds light on some rarer, 'borderline' phenomena, some exceptional events, in this way, it is therefore possible to explain how the adaptations and 'significant' mutations happened, in a shorter time than would have been necessary in the case of random mutations” (page 305). And on the same page, the idea continues as follows: “It seems, then, that such accidental anomalous phenomena arise when there is a need or a vital need, this fact could, further, explain why a certain species of animals, under great pressure or in an urgent need, could produce significant (but acausal) changes in its external material structure”. These would be the premises of a possible "world beyond" that was a vital need of the human soul or brain. If you love another perspective, maybe even better.
The Spiral in Jungian Thought
According to the Jungian Center for Spiritual Sciences, Carl Jung (1984) addressed the spiral symbol in his Seminar on Dream Analysis. According to Jung, one psychologically develops in a spiral; circumbulating the same point where one has been before, but never exactly in the same place.. A patient will say, “I am just at the place where I was three years ago,” but I say, “At least you have traveled three years.”
The spiral is also mentioned in Man and His Symbols, (Jung, 1964) particularly as a representation of the Holy Spirit. Jaffé in her chapter recounts a dream in which a woman received divine instruction to paint God. The resulting image featured a spiral in a deep blue sky, contrasted by the flowing cloak of a divine figure. Thus it served as a symbolic form of the Holy Ghost, representing an emergent expression from the unconscious (see Figure 1). Jaffe states, “They may prophesy the descent of a divine darkness upon the Christian hemisphere... Since the axis of the spiral does not move upward but into the background of the picture... the further evolution will lead... into the unconscious.” Jung, 1964, p. 226)
A quote often attributed to Jung from *The Visions Seminars* further develops the symbolism of the spiral: “There is a good thing on top of that mountain. I will make a straight line for it. But the archetypal way is not like that; it is a serpentine way that wriggles and spirals its way to the top... It makes most people terribly impatient... but this is just as it should be.” [C.G. Jung, The Visions Seminars , Book Two , p. 295]
According to Gary Bobroff, Jung associated the spiral with the “eternal return” in the pattern of human thought and saw it as representing a cosmic force. Spirals in Neolithic and Ancient Symbolism
I found that spirals appear across numerous ancient cultures, including Celtic art, Native American petroglyphs, Nazca lines, Islamic architecture, Japanese rock gardens, Hindu scriptures, Aboriginal painting, and African art. Even earlier, in the Neolithic era, spirals appeared on megalithic structures in Tarxien (Malta), Newgrange (Ireland), Piódão and Chãs d’Égua (Portugal), Achnabreck and Pierowall (Scotland), Northumberland (England), Göbekli Tepe (Turkey) and Castellucio (Sicily). Spirals were also common motifs on the pottery of Neolithic cultures like Yangshao, Cucuteni–Trypillia, and Majiayao, and in petroglyphs across the Americas, such as Sonora (Mexico), Mesa Verde (USA), and Cundinamarca (Colombia).
And it's absurd to think that people moved and carved huge blocks of stone just for some random ornamentation, so the spirals must have had a close connection to their consciousness.
Lewis-Williams & Pearce (2005) explain that spirals emerged in the second and third stages of entoptic (internally generated) visual phenomena during altered states of consciousness, often induced through dancing, chanting, sensory deprivation, or ingestion of psychotropic substances. They propose that the spiral may have functioned as an axis mundi in Neolithic cosmology: “The spiral experience may have led both down into the tomb and up into the heavens... it represented the axis mundi that linked all the cosmological levels and also passage through that axis.” [page 291] The following figure illustrates the altered progressive state, but not every person experiences it in this way.
The spiral’s connection to altered states extends beyond Neolithic art. Visionary artists such as William Blake (*The Lovers of the Whirlwind*), Vincent van Gogh (*The Starry Night*), and Hilma af Klint (*The Ten Largest No. 3*) employed spiral imagery. Hilma af Klint, in particular, claimed to paint “guided by astral planes and high spirits,” working in a trance-like state.
The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) has published an article exploring parallels between her art and Jung’s psychology. So, in the article "Illuminating Parallels in the Life and Art of Hilma af Klint and C.G. Jung", Bettina Kaufmann and Kathrin Schaeppi we find references to the spiral.
On page 22, there is painting “Group 6, No. 3, Evolution, WUS/Sjustärnan.1908” (Hilma af Klint) compared with “Systema Mundi Totius (Structure of the Whole World), 1916. “(Carl Gustav Jung). And below is the explanation of it: “Af Klint painted in series. This is one image from her Evolution series, 1908. Common to both images is the mandala with its symmetry, unity and differentiation. In af Klint’s image we find a symbolic, codified language. The letter “W” stands for matter. When we find “U” it refers to spirit. The snail and spiral, here at the center, reoccur in her works and symbolize evolution.”
Spirals in Hypnosis and Visionary Art
Although Jung discontinued his use of hypnosis, the spiral remains a powerful visual for inducing trance states, appearing in shamanic traditions and therapeutic practices. Reports from past-life regression sessions frequently include encounters with spiral imagery and archetypal experiences, such as identifying with historical or mythological figures—phenomena Jung might interpret through the “hero myth.”
Paul F. Cunningham recounts a hypnotized subject describing a stone engraved with a spiral and other details: “A spiral on the right, and a shape like the map of Scotland on the left... three indents on the top left-hand corner.” Hypnotherapists like Brian Weiss, Marisa Peer, and Jason Stephenson have also described spirals and vortices in therapeutic contexts. A client of Peer’s described an emotional and symbolic act of support in her drawing. There are online videos with the title: “Get ready to heal while you sleep with Marisa Peer's hypnotic vortex.”
Although some of these experiences may reflect placebo effects, the consistency and frequency of spiral imagery across practices and cultures indicate its potential depth as an archetypal symbol of transformation and integration between conscious and unconscious layers of the psyche. I certainly experienced the profound influence of the spiral.
Bibliography
Bobroff, Gary. *Knowledge in a Nutshell: Carl Jung*. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2020.
Cunningham, Paul F. *An Experimental Investigation of Past-Life Experiences*. 2011. https://www2.rivier.edu/faculty/pcunningham/Research/Web%20Page%20Past-Life%20Experiences%204-29-11.pdf.
Jung, Carl G. *Man and His Symbols*. Edited by Carl G. Jung. New York: Dell, 1964.
———. *Seminar on Dream Analysis*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
———. *The Visions Seminars*. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Lewis-Williams, David, and David Pearce. *Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods*. London: Thames & Hudson, 2005.
Marisa Peer. “Testimonials.” Accessed August 4, 2025. https://marisapeer.com/testimonials.
Bettina Kaufmann and Kathrin Schaeppi, "Illuminating Parallels in the Life and Art of Hilma af Klint and C.G. Jung", 2019, https://aras.org/special-collections/art-and-psyche
Ronald K. Siegel, "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7)
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-25195-001
Comments
Post a Comment