Text: Pages 126 and 127

The vital and creative libidinal forces usually came to consciousness through a god-like symbol in dreams. In Psychology of the Unconscious, Jung discussed the Greek god Phanes as an illustration of his own libidinal symbol. Phanes in Orphic cosmology was the life-driving force behind the creation of the world. He was born from a cosmic egg, which symbolized birth and the beginning of something new, the unity of two complementary processes: egg white and the yellow yolk.

Phanes, meaning “bring to light” or “make appear,” was a powerful libidinal symbol often symbolized in an egg as a beautiful, golden-wing hermaphrodite deity wrapped in the coils of a serpent who encircled the cosmos in the creative spirit.