The Seba library treats Urn in 5 passages, across 3 authors (including Edinger, Edward F., Jung, Carl Gustav, von Franz, Marie-Louise).
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.
, Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985supporting
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.
, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944supporting
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.
, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944supporting
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.
, Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy, 1966aside
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.
, Symbols of Transformation, 1952aside