Chthonic

Chthonic (from Greek χθών, chthōn — earth as depth rather than as surface) names the dimension of the divine and psychic that belongs to the under-earth: the realm of Hades, of Persephone, of the Erinyes, of the dead, of the generative dark ground from which plants rise and into which bodies return. Against the Olympian sky-gods, the chthonic powers are older, slower, darker, and — in the archetypal reading — more primary.

For depth psychology the chthonic names the dimension of psyche that belongs to the descent, to the underworld rather than the underground, to the dreams that come from below rather than the inspirations that come from above. Jung‘s insistence in Memories, Dreams, Reflections that he had to retrieve the chthonic dimension of his own nature against his Swiss-Protestant formation stands as one version of the psychological task the term names. The chthonic mother is the specific figural form in which the dimension is personified. See also gaia-as-foundation.

Relationships

• katabasis
• underworld-vs-underground
• chthonic-mother