The Seba library treats Flaying in 8 passages, across 5 authors (including Edinger, Edward F., Jung, Carl Gustav, Neumann, Erich).
Flaying symbolizes a transformation process which on the one hand lays bare the inner man, and on the other hand signifies the extraction of the soul (skin=soul).
Edinger crystallizes the depth-psychological core of flaying as a dual symbol: it simultaneously reveals the inner person and enacts the archaic equation of skin with soul, making the act an image of psychic transformation.
, The Creation of Consciousness Jung's Myth for Modern Man, 1984thesis
The flaying of the god, which we have already touched on in connection with the flaying-ceremonies of the Aztecs, is intimately bound up with the snake-like nature of the hero.
Jung links the flaying motif across Aztec ceremony, the martyrdom of Mani, and the serpentine hero archetype, embedding it within the broader sacrificial pattern of suspension and renewal common to Christ, Odin, and Attis.
, Symbols of Transformation, 1952thesis
in the cult of Xipe, the flayed god, prisoners were shot with arrows, symbolizing sexual union with the earth. In other words, mating and killing are identical, and death represents fecundation.
Neumann situates the Aztec flayed-god Xipe within a matrix where killing and sexual union with the chthonic feminine are equivalent, demonstrating how flaying participates in the archetype of death-as-fertilization.
, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, 1955supporting
he drew off the scalp of my head with the sword, which he wielded with strength, and he put the bones and the pieces of flesh together and with his own hand burned them in the fire, until I perceived
The Zosimos vision quoted by Jung presents flaying (scalping) as one operation in a sequence of sacrificial dismemberment and reconstitution that models the alchemical process of psychic transformation.
, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958supporting
The tortured and symptomatic aspect of mortification – flaying oneself, pulverizing old structures, decapit
Hillman names self-flaying explicitly as one face of the alchemical mortificatio, the painful dissolution of entrenched psychic forms that must precede any whitening or renewal.
, Alchemical Psychology, 2010supporting
flaying, 70, 71, 87n flesh, 60f, 63f, 84, 92, 94, 96, 101
The index entry in Alchemical Studies records Jung's treatment of flaying at specific loci within his alchemical commentary, confirming its presence as a discrete, indexed concept in the corpus.
, Alchemical Studies, 1967aside
flaying, 70, 71, 87n flesh, 6of, 63f, 84, 92, 94, 96, 101
A parallel index entry confirms that flaying is cross-referenced in the Collected Works at the same passages, indicating its stable taxonomic place across multiple volumes.
, Collected Works Volume 3: The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, 1907aside
flaying, motif of, 383, 384
The index of Symbols of Transformation categorizes flaying explicitly as a recurring motif, directing the reader to the passages where Jung develops the hero's serpentine transformation through skin-removal.
, Symbols of Transformation, 1952aside