The Seba library treats Ball in 8 passages, across 6 authors (including von Franz, Marie-Louise, Campbell, Joseph, Bly, Robert).
In a ball, what fascina— […] a ball is a symbol of the Self. But there is one point I want to stress […] which specific aspect is stressed?
Von Franz establishes that while the ball is unambiguously a symbol of the Self, the interpreter must specify which aspect of the Self its particular round, rolling, playful character emphasizes, rather than resting in the generic designation.
, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales, 1997thesis
the ball is the circle of her soul […] she misses it and it goes down into the pond […] she’s lost her soul. I mean, this is depression, this is loss of energy and joy in life
Campbell interprets the princess’s golden ball as the soul-image of the Self, and its fall into the underworld-spring as the onset of depression and psychic de-energization.
, Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation, 2004thesis
The first stage in retrieving the ball, I think, is to accept—firmly, definitely—that the ball has been lost […] a man can’t expect to find the golden ball in the feminine realm, because that’s not where the ball is.
Bly deploys the golden ball as the symbol of authentic masculine selfhood, arguing that its recovery constitutes the central task of male initiation and cannot be accomplished through the feminine or the interior anima.
, Iron John: A Book About Men, 1990thesis
for Jung the ball—particularly a golden ball—is a symbol of the Self. So Perseus is playing with himself […] until the ball rolls out of reach, and he loses himself.
Berry reads Perseus’s golden ball as the Jungian Self in its narcissistic, self-enclosed phase, and its rolling away as the moment that forces individuation beyond the self-contained paradise of infancy.
, Echo’s Subtle Body: Contributions to an Archetypal Psychology, 1982thesis
the golden ball of the princess did not fall into the little hand lifted into the air, but passed it, bounced on the ground, and rolled directly into the water […] she heard someone call to her
Campbell presents the Grimm source text in which the golden ball’s loss to the spring initiates the encounter with the threshold guardian, establishing the mythological pattern of the self’s descent into the unconscious.
, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 2015supporting
this ball which will bring you luck. If you lift the stick before you, you will become invisible. And when you hit the ball with the stick, the ball will roll before you and show you where you should go.
In the Danish tale, the ball functions as a magical guide-object received from a wise elder, directing the hero’s path and thus embodying the Self’s orienting and luck-bringing capacity.
, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales, 1997supporting
When the ball, called pelota, had been accepted from the newly-elected canon by the dean—his head being covered with an amice or hood—the rest of the canons began to intone antiphonally: ‘Praise to the Paschal Victim.’
Jung documents the medieval ritual pelota game in cathedral contexts, linking the ball’s ceremonial transmission to the Paschal mystery and thus to the sacred, communal dimension of the Self-symbol.
, Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984supporting
σφαῖρα [f.] ‘sphere, ball, balls in a boxing-glove, globe’ (Od.) […] σφαιρ-ίζω ‘to play ball’ (Att.); σφαιρίδδειν, σφαιρίζειν ‘id.’ (H.), hence -ισις (Arist.), -ισμος (Artem.) ‘ball-game’
Beekes provides the etymological genealogy of the Greek term for ball/sphere, tracing its cognates from Homer through Aristotle and situating the word within the semantic field of spherical shape and ball-play.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010aside