The term ‘Head’ occupies a richly stratified position within the depth-psychology corpus, drawing together archaic anthropology, alchemical symbolism, Platonic cosmology, and comparative mythology into a single anatomical locus of extraordinary psychic weight. R. B. Onians establishes the foundational anthropological substrate: across Greek, Roman, Germanic, and Celtic traditions, the head is not merely a bodily organ but the seat of the life-soul (psyche), the genius, and procreative vitality — to ‘stake one’s head’ is to stake one’s life. Plato’s Timaeus codifies a philosophical reading in which the spherical head houses the revolutions of the immortal soul, with the body appended as mere vehicle of locomotion. Jung and Edinger, working through alchemical texts, disclose the head’s transmutational significance: the cranium as vessel of the prima materia, the golden head as a synonym for the Philosophers’ Stone, and the ‘oracular head’ as image of the Self and of Adam Kadmon. Neumann extends this into solar mythology, identifying the head of Osiris with spiritual consciousness and the ‘Head Soul’ of Ra. Onians further documents the head’s role as fertility source — in Celtic Grail traditions, Templar worship, Kabbalistic theosophy — situating the corpus’s engagement with this term at the intersection of somatic, sacred, and archetypal registers.
The head is supremely honoured or holy. ‘Patroklos, whom I honoured above all my comrades equally with my head’, says Achilles. It is the head that suffers when a man is dishonoured.
Onians argues that in Homeric thought the head is not merely anatomical but the supreme locus of honour, life, and soul, making it interchangeable with the person’s very existence.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988thesis
there is the complete parallelism of the lines ‘sent many mighty ψυχαί to Hades’ and ‘send many mighty heads to Hades’… and the parallelism of the descriptions of people who follow dangerous courses ‘staking their ψυχαί’ or ‘staking their heads’
Onians demonstrates through Homeric parallelism that ‘head’ and ‘psyche’ are functionally synonymous, the head being the bodily container of the life-soul.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988thesis
In the Kabbalah the supreme deity is conceived just thus, as a ‘head’, a head containing the liquid of life. His name is Arik Anpin, the Vast Countenance.
Onians traces cross-cultural evidence that the head symbolises the divine source of life and fertility, from Templar idol-worship to Kabbalistic theosophy.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988thesis
Her head turns to gold and she turns into the Philosophers’ Stone… Jung talks about the golden head, the oracular head and the crystalline head. Probably the basic point in head symbolism is that it is the round element of the human organism and it’s a reference to the psyche.
Edinger, following Jung, identifies the head as the primary alchemical image of psychic totality, equating it with the Self, the Philosophers’ Stone, and Adam Kadmon.
, The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995thesis
Osiris, Osiris’ head, and Osiris the sun all go together, for sun and head reflect his spirituality… the Abydos emblem is also held to symbolize the ‘Head Soul’ of Ra.
Neumann identifies the head with solar consciousness and spiritual principle in Egyptian mythology, where the head of Osiris unifies solar, mortuary, and divine symbolism.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019thesis
animals as well as men have ψυχαί for Homer and are referred to as ‘heads’… Such taboo would be natural in connection with what was identified peculiarly with the life or soul.
Onians documents that the taboo against eating the brain (ἐγκέφαλος) reflects the archaic identification of the head’s contents with the living soul.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
The life-fluid was, as we saw, concentrated particularly in the head, the seat of the genius… one who looked after his genius, eating a great deal, was not only termed genialis but in Plautus’ time was nicknamed ‘Capito’, ‘Head’
Onians shows that Roman genius theology located the life-fluid specifically in the head, such that ‘head’ became a popular synonym for the vital, generative self.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
The cranium is mentioned as the place of origin of the prima materia… ‘His head lives forever and therefore his head is called the life of glory and the angels serve it.’
Jung documents alchemical and patristic texts in which the cranium serves as vessel for the prima materia and the head is identified with immortal glory and the Anthropos figure.
, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955supporting
the artifex must be the transformer of this firmament and of the brain-pan… from the brain-pan, that is, from the head of the element Man, and that the whole should be macerated with urine
Jung translates an alchemical text identifying the brain-pan as the generative vessel of the Great Work, linking the head of the primordial Man to the transformative process.
, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958supporting
in old Germanic belief likewise the mind, the conscious self, was believed to be in the chest and the surviving soul to be in the head… men who defended themselves were said to ‘guard their heads’.
Onians extends the head-soul identification into Germanic tradition, where the life-soul resides in the head and its protection (via the boar-crested helmet) is equivalent to guarding one’s life.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
Innumerable passages imply that for a Roman the ‘head’ (caput) meant the ‘life’… a sneeze with no prophetic relevance was treated as a disturbance—perhaps a sign of departure—of the life-spirit in the head.
Onians demonstrates that the Latin caput functioned as a direct metonym for biological life, with sneeze customs reflecting belief in a volatile life-spirit housed in the head.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
the Grail vessel, which has long been recognised as a fertility symbol… is replaced by a head on a dish… with the significance traced his severed head was perhaps a reason why John was chosen by the Church to replace the fertility god worshipped at Midsummer.
Onians connects the Celtic and Christian motif of the severed head on a dish to the archaic belief in the head as a fertility vessel, linking Grail mythology to head-cult theology.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
The flower or fruit of a plant, i.e. what contained the seed, was called its ‘head’. Thus Homer describes a warrior wounded: ‘Even as in a garden a poppy droops aside its head being heavy with fruit’
Onians identifies a cross-domain semantic fusion in which the ‘head’ of a plant (seed-bearing part) and the human head both denote the locus of generative, life-bearing substance.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
The head, the ‘spherical body’ in which the revolutions of the immortal soul were confined. The trunk and limbs were then added as a ‘vehicle’ to carry the head about.
Plato’s Timaeus establishes the philosophical doctrine that the spherical head is the primary seat of the immortal soul, with the body serving merely as locomotive apparatus.
, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997supporting
Wine appeared to be the liquid of the seed of the vine and was assimilated to the seed of man… We may compare the similar Babylonian treaty-curse with the head of an animal: ‘This head is not the head of the ram. The head of Mati’-ilu it is’
Onians traces ritual substitution of the human head in treaty curses — Babylonian, Greek, and Roman — as evidence of the head’s metonymic equivalence with the person’s life and procreative power.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
the sinews… were set by the god all round the neck so far as to the base of the head and welded by means of uniformity, and he fastened to them the extremities of the jawbones just under the face
Plato’s anatomical account in the Timaeus situates the mechanical sinews at the head’s base, providing physiological grounding for the head’s privileged cosmological position.
, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997aside
the visitation, if it comes in sleep, is comparatively mild, but an attack in waking hours is harder to throw off. As an affliction of the sacred part, it deserves its name ‘sacred disease’.
Plato treats epilepsy as an affliction of the sacred region of the head, reinforcing the head’s status as a hallowed anatomical locus within his cosmological medicine.
, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997aside