Within the depth-psychology corpus, Shiva occupies a position of singular metaphysical density: he is neither simply a destroyer nor a benefactor, but the supreme paradox made divine — ascetic and erotic, terrible and profoundly benign, cosmic annihilator and generative ground of being. Zimmer’s foundational treatment in Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization establishes Shiva as the ‘force supreme of the universe,’ the axis around which the Hindu trimurti organizes itself, with Brahma and Vishnu as constituent aspects of a more primal Shaiva absolute. Jung, reading Tantric iconography, identifies Shiva-bindu as the point of cosmogonic emergence, the One Existent whose union with Shakti initiates creation — framing Shiva in terms consonant with his own psychology of opposites. Campbell deploys Shiva’s abhaya mudra as the mythological archetype of divine reassurance, and his dance as the embodiment of grace within the cosmos. Bly, drawing on Danielou and Coomaraswamy, reconstructs Shiva as the fully articulated Wild Man, tracing his lineage through Dravidian Shivaism to Neolithic antecedents. Across these voices, a persistent tension obtains: is Shiva best understood as an ontological absolute transcending polarity, or as a dynamic psychological symbol of the self-consuming and self-renewing psyche? That unresolved question gives the term its lasting generativity in depth-psychological discourse.
Shiva’s stern asceticism casts a blight over the fields of rebirth. His presence negates and transcends the kaleidoscope of sufferings and joys. Nevertheless, he bestows wisdom and peace, and is not only terrible but profoundly benign.
Zimmer articulates the foundational paradox of Shiva as simultaneously destroyer and creator, whose transcendence of samsara is inseparable from his bestowal of wisdom and grace.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis
in the niche-like aperture the lord of the lingam stood revealed, Shiva, the force supreme of the universe… he announced himself as a Super-Shiva: the triad of Brahmā, Vishnu, and Shiva, Creator, Maintainer, and Destroyer, he at once contained and bodied forth.
Zimmer presents the Puranic myth of the fiery lingam to establish Shiva as the encompassing absolute that subsumes the entire trimurti within itself.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis
Shiva, according to Tantric doctrine, is the One Existent, the Timeless in its perfect state. Creation begins when this unextended point — known as Shiva-bindu — appears in the eternal embrace of its feminine side, the Shakti.
Jung identifies Shiva-bindu as the Tantric cosmogonic point from which differentiated existence emerges through the polarity of masculine absolute and feminine Shakti.
, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959thesis
Shiva is a blossoming or development of the Wild Man, immensely articulated. Shiva keeps the wild aspect — his followers go naked and do not cut their hair — but also has an ascetic aspect, a husbandly side, and the enraged or Bhairava side.
Bly reads Shiva as the fully differentiated mythological elaboration of the Wild Man archetype, integrating wildness, asceticism, domesticity, and divine rage within a single figure.
, Iron John: A Book About Men, 1990thesis
Both represent Shiva as the Absolute. The upper figure is called Sakala Shiva… the moon possessed of all its digits, ‘whole, entire, complete, all’ — the Full Moon.
Zimmer expounds the Tantric iconography in which two forms of Shiva — Sakala and Nishkala — represent the complete and the partless aspects of the Absolute underlying the Goddess’s creative activity.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis
Shiva, according to the Vedic tradition, was in olden time a huntsman… he was still excluded from the respectable and lofty community of the Olympians — Shiva was regarded as the lord of the forest, the master of the ani
Zimmer traces Shiva’s archaic origins as an outsider deity — lord of the forest and master of animals — whose eventual supremacy over the Vedic pantheon reflects the resurgence of pre-Aryan religious forms.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
Kīrttimukha first was a special emblem of Shiva himself and a characteristic element on the lintels of Shiva temples.
Zimmer traces the iconographic motif of Kirttimukha — the Face of Glory — to Shiva as its originary symbol, marking the threshold of his temples as the devouring and self-consuming aspect of divine power.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
‘Fear not!’ says the hand gesture of the god Shiva, as he dances before his devotee
Campbell cites Shiva’s abhaya mudra as the cross-cultural mythological symbol of divine mercy and reassurance, parallel to the grace offered by the Christian God.
, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 2015supporting
the gradual resurgence of the earlier Indian forms, and their definitive reassumption of power with the triumph of Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess over Indra, Brahmā, and their entourage
Zimmer situates Shiva’s ascendancy within the broader historical pattern of pre-Aryan archetypal forms reasserting themselves over the imposed Vedic pantheon.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
A splendid example of the God and Goddess in erotic play appears in a Bengalese relief representing Shiva with his consort… The two countenances, rigid and mask-like, regard each other with intense emotion.
Zimmer reads the erotic iconography of Shiva and his consort as an allegorical rendering of cosmic polarity in productive self-reflection, paradigmatic for Hindu and Tantric symbolism.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
of flames and light issues from and encompasses the god. This is said to signify the vital processes of the universe and its creatures, nature’s dance as moved by the dancing god within.
Zimmer interprets the halo of flames surrounding the dancing Shiva as the dynamic totality of cosmic process — simultaneously the energy of wisdom and the sacred syllable AUM.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
The fiery lingam is a form of the Axis Mundi… none of the faces are really representations of Vishnu or Brahmā as such, but of aspects of Shiva himself.
Coomaraswamy’s annotation, cited by Zimmer, clarifies that the Maheshmurti trinity represents not separate gods but distinct aspects of Shiva as the sole absolute.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
Sakala-Shiva as supra-individual, 210, 215 Shiva as supra-individual, 204
The index entry identifies Shiva explicitly with supra-individual consciousness, confirming his function in Zimmer’s system as the transcendent ground beyond personal selfhood.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946aside
as Shakti of Shiva, 137, 197… dancing on Shiva, 215 depicted with Shiva, 197
The index documents Devi’s relational identity as Shakti of Shiva and her iconographic posture of dancing upon his inert body, marking the dynamic-static polarity central to Shaiva Tantra.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946aside
Shiva, 48-51, 74, 76, 102-103, 106-107, 120, 134, 139, 141 Shivo ‘ham (‘I am Shiva’), 107
Campbell’s index records extensive treatment of Shiva across The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, including the Tantric mahavakya ‘I am Shiva’ as a key site of nondual identification.
, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion, 1986aside