Urn

The Seba library treats Urn in 5 passages, across 3 authors (including Edinger, Edward F., Jung, Carl Gustav, von Franz, Marie-Louise).

In the library

symbols of translation to eternity, 128-139 … mortuary, 168-169

Edinger's index clusters mortuary symbolism with 'translation to eternity,' the conceptual neighbourhood in which the funerary urn's psychological significance—as container of the dead and vessel of transformation—would be situated.

Edinger, Edward F., Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985supporting

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uterus, 179f&n vas as, 237; see also womb

Jung's cross-reference of vas to uterus establishes the archetypal containment cluster to which the urn as vessel-form belongs within his alchemical symbolic system.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944supporting

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opposites, Christian tension of, 23 … non-Jungian of, 412 pairs of, 152, 232, 33f&n, 413, 476

The alchemical problem of containing opposites within a single vessel—a function the urn shares with the retort and the athanor—is indexed here through Jung's extensive treatment of the coniunctio.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944supporting

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soul: affectivity of, 175; … post-mortal state, 369; reconciler of opposites, 386

Von Franz's treatment of the soul's post-mortal state and its containment functions evokes the urn as one cultural form through which psyche's relation to death and transformation has been materially expressed.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy, 1966aside

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treasure hard to attain, 259, 316, 330f, 350, 363f, 422; guardians of, 372; life as, 374

The motif of the guarded treasure contained within a defined enclosure parallels the urn's archetypal function as vessel of precious or sacred contents requiring protection.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Symbols of Transformation, 1952aside

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