Philip Kime - The Puer and The Symbolism of The Sword

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The Puer and the Symbolism of

the Sword
Philip L. Kime
Published online: 12 Mar 2010.
To cite this article: Philip L. Kime (2010) The Puer and the Symbolism of the Sword,
Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought, 53:1, 43-61
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00332920903543617
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Psychological Perspectives, 53: 43–61, 2010
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DOI: 10.1080/00332920903543617
The Puer and the Symbolism of the

Sword
Philip L. Kime
In this article I examine the symbolism of the sword from the perspec-
tive of the knights of the romantic period, in particular, the depictions in
Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. My contention is that such figures provide
an extremely detailed and enlightening depiction of the male puer, the
eternal male child figure who has problems relating to the world in very
specific ways. In such an investigation the sword is an essential theme
in illuminating the central features of the puer orientation, and it can
serve as the main symbol in resolving the essential neurotic tensions in-
volved. It is a general point about symbols that their study in isolation
from the relationships that are required to ground them is largely unpsy-
chological and dry. My intention is to show how the sword symbolism
is crucial in understanding the puer psychology precisely because the
sword is a symbol that requires a certain relation, and nowhere is this
better demonstrated than in Malory’s Arthurian legends.
f one were writing a psychoanalytic work dealing with the imagery of the
I sword, one might walk a reasonably clear path that would amplify and
illuminate apparent sexual and power-related aspects. However, the sword
in Western myth is quite intimately related to the image of the knight; is
there, one might ask, a sword more essential to the theme than, for example,
Excalibur? The crucial role played by the sword in most legends and myths
concerning knights represents a very important link that I wish to explore
here. The knight is, I think, a typically puer character and therefore we might
hope to derive some benefit of insight into the nature of the puer dynamic
by examining the psychological geometry that we find in the classic tales
involving knights and their swords.
Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur has an approach to such legends
that is very good for picking out clear, isolated themes independent of the
43
44 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES VOLUME 53, ISSUE 1 / 2010
Kathleen Newton, CanalStreet, 2005. Oil paint on linen, 25 × 40

PHILIP L. KIME THE PUER AND THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SWORD 45
complications that arise when discussing the Grail legend (since Malory
hardly touches upon this). The earlier books of this work deal with the ad-
vent of King Arthur and the famous themes concerned with this event. The
Grail legends involve a very different area of psychology not as closely related
to the dynamics of psychological processes, since they concern themselves
more with images of the self and the “great goal” of psychological work. In
this sense, they are less related to the solely puer characteristics that Mal-
ory brings out so clearly with the material concerning King Arthur’s early
adventures. Malory’s version of the legends, in particular, clearly brings out
the less grandiose details of the dynamics of the knight–puer psychology,
but details that are nevertheless quite revealing. The tales are often a very
good depiction of the essence of the puer approach to specific problems,
to concrete events, since the sword is a material object primarily, and one
that has a very visceral and concrete relation to other material objects: It
touches them in a basic and often drastic way. Given the general types of
problems that a puer psychology faces, the psychological sword is the main
means of communication with the material world. It remains the task of this
article to explain what this latter sentence means and to show that it is a
description that serves to usefully amplify the shape and tenor of the puer
psychology.
LE MORTE D'ARTHUR AS A STUDY IN PUER PSYCHOLOGY

Malory’s depiction of King Arthur in Le Morte d’Arthur clearly shows the
puer nature of the king and how he orients himself to the world with his
sword, Excalibur. Looking
at the succession of small
events that comprises the There are remarkable
work, it can be seen as a
catalogue of the mistakes
parallels between the puer
and problems made and psychology and the
experienced by the puer.
For example, one of the
repetitions and mistakes
first things we encounter in made by the Knights of the
the Arthurian legend is the
drawing of the sword from
Round Table in Malory; the
the stone. It depicts the early tales are, indeed, an
success of the young knight,
similar to that which we find
immensely fruitful source
with Perceval in the Grail of puer attitudes and
legends when he very quickly
comes across the Holy Grail
orientations.
for the first time. The “stone”

here is to be taken as a lower level of meaning, a more literal and dogmatic
level of understanding.1 The sword is pulled out of the stone, a miracle
of precociously pulling higher meaning out of lower, of freeing something
valuable from the more literal and less psychological views of the world
in general. This is a common puer theme—an early realization of deeper
meaning that sometimes comes too soon and causes problems later, when
there is a horror of leaving this realization behind in order to adapt to the

world.
The sword here is a prefiguration of the self, of individuation. It is a
symbol of the goal and of the treasure hidden in the world. The almost casual
nature of Arthur ’s ability to draw the sword from the stone is emphasized—
he draws it out and replaces it many times in order to convince the jealous
and unbelieving knights who would be king. The puer often possesses a pre-
cocious ability in some direction that gives him a taste of deeper meanings
that are not initially valued for what they are and so are treated as a casual
ability to be paraded like a parlor trick. It is partly this trick aspect that leads
to the subsequent troubles with adaptation that are inevitably problematic
challenges for the puer. The other knights who try to pull out the sword be-
come so jealous that they put off the test and set up a tent to cover and
guard the sword. This scenario is a very good depiction of the dry intellec-
tual attitude and what it does when it cannot manage the actual task—to
release the sword from the stone. It covers the sword and stone with a tent
and guards it, procrastinating and surrounding the simple facts with words
and theories borne of frustration, jealousy, and fear. It is not uncommon for
a puer to encounter this attitude and for it to become a barrier to adaptation
later when the bitterness at having to compete with people who do not un-
derstand the task remains unresolved. The barons in Malory are jealous and
fearful of Arthur and his ability to do that which they cannot, so they seek
to surround the whole thing with external complications (an official location
with a tent to cover it, an official competition to establish the winner, etc.).
The puer, confronted with this phenomenon, commonly reacts with disdain
and anger, which can last a long time—well into what should be adulthood.
This small example demonstrates that there are remarkable parallels
between the puer psychology and the repetitions and mistakes made by the
Knights of the Round Table in Malory; the tales are, indeed, an immensely
fruitful source of puer attitudes and orientations.
THE SWORD AS BOTH BLESSING AND CURSE

So, the puer gets his sword quite early in life. This weapon is both a blessing
and a curse. It is clearly a blessing as an effective defense against the world—
something that the puer needs, since he typically does not have a very good
relation with the world. It is a very old symbol of courage and proof against
enemy incursions. Jung cites a very simple and clear example of this symbol-
ism when discussing a weak-willed and lazy man who dreams of an old sword,
which means, for him, the power to resist the world (in this case, the power
of a close friend to brave the trial of tuberculosis). Of course, the sword and
the cross bear a strong, common symbolic heritage, and it is no accident that
the sword should thus play the role of proof against the world in the same
way that faith is also meant to do. In the puer psychology, the aspect of the
psyche represented by the sword symbol is quite often related to spiritual
problems or experiences, or at least a rather inchoate sense of such things.
The Crusades were explicitly a defense of the faith by the sword—one cross
used to defend another. This relation is directly analogous to the puer’s rela-
tion to the sword that the knight (who was very often a Crusader) represents
so well: It is used to defend the precious treasure that will not be given up
lightly. It is important to note that when faith defends itself by the sword,
the cross defends the cross, and there is a state of affairs wherein that which
defends is that which is being defended. This paradoxical component is cru-
cial for an understanding of the dynamics of the puer situation with regard to
taking concrete action in the world. It is the identity of the treasure with its
guardian that makes it possible for the treasure to be let go of in a way that
relaxes the childish grip that typifies the puer attitude.
The two-edged nature of the sword is emphasized many times by Jung,
who took pains to stress that the sword must also slay the wielder (e.g.,
Jung, 1954/1958, para. 361). This is not surprising; the puer often achieves
a certain knowledge before being equal to the task of embodying that
knowledge, and so the sword the puer wields inevitably must cut and divide
his own psychological body too. The sword is the weapon of differentiation
(Jung, 1954/1967, para. 110). In alchemy it is the dividing apparatus with
which Sol and Luna are slain and sorted. This is a painful point to grasp;
the puer often denies that his knowledge of the transparent ugliness of the
world applies also to himself. A common resulting defense is an inflated,
brittle arrogance. Arthur displays this tendency throughout Malory and is
often dismayed when his presumptions are not met with success. Arthur’s
tendency toward disappointment in this way points to a typical puer prob-
lem: that of the predominance of fantasy in the psychological life and the
overly high expectations that this sets up, ready to be knocked down by
reality. This is an especially negative aspect of the sword for the puer—it
provides the foundation for an internal life of often neurotic fantasy, but it
also threatens to slice through this fantasy, exposing the puer to the world.
A sharp sword can cut the wielder. Malory depicts this often: The sword is
unreliable and, in some cases, breaks at the worst possible moment. This
characteristic provides a hint to the solution of the relationship: that to come

to terms with owning such a thing requires not a developed skill in wielding,
but a developed skill in knowing when to wield it and when not to.
The overly developed fantasy life of the puer is well depicted in Mal-
ory by the repeated theme of beheading with the sword—a theme we find in
dreams quite often. Jung notes a very clear example (1955/1961, para. 488)
wherein a little girl threatens to cut off the policeman’s head with his own
sword. This theme relates, I believe, to the need to continually remove fan-
tasy, to the constant helpless application of the sword to oneself, by which
the puer knows the futility of the fantasy life and which his unasked-for sword
slices away by repeatedly cutting off his head—the place where fantasy lives.
It is not so much a cutting away of Logos and overly intellectual orientations,
given that the puer is not always so oriented (although the intellectually pre-
cocious puer is a common-enough type); rather it represents the act that he
most fears and of which his sword is most capable. In Malory, the finalé to
many a battle between knights is the tearing off of the helm and the behead-
ing of the fallen knight; that is how you really destroy a puer—take away
his fantasy. The puer often takes great delight in disabusing others of their
fantasies by deluging them in
uncomfortable facts. This be-
It is not uncommon for the havior is usually the result
puer’s sword to take the form of their fearing precisely the
same fate themselves—the
of words that would wound best defense against this is to
the world: The puer rails at attack in the same manner.
To behead a sword wielder
the world with language as with a sword is a very sym-
he might with a sword. bolic act—it is a payment
in kind, it is horribly appro-
priate, and in a sense, it is
the greatest insult. Here we
clearly have the two-edged nature of the sword at work: the blessing and
curse in one object.
An important aspect of sword symbolism is very much related to the
role of words and therefore to Logos. The equation of swords with words
is well known in many traditions that have the sword as a central symbol
of the cutting power of the word of God. Consider, for example, “For the
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword”
(Hebrews 4:12). However, there is yet another aspect that relates to the
puer. It is not uncommon for the puer’s sword to take the form of words
that would wound the world: The puer rails at the world with language as he
might with a sword. The narrator of the Little Prince explicitly does this, as
von Franz points out in her seminal study of puer psychology. The word here
cuts the world, which does not live up to expectations—or more exactly—
the fantasies, which form a layer of illusion between the puer and reality.
These swords that come from the puer’s mouth are two-edged, since they
are usually very much generalizations that apply to him as much as anyone
else. They set up a type of false god, a standard by which the world is mea-
sured. This false god is a collection of the puer’s fantasy standards, to which
nothing real can ever measure up, and these standards can truly be termed
a god since they are an all-encompassing shape around which everything in
him revolves and is thereby determined.
In the true tradition of primitive gods, the puer is told what to do and
what to think, but this god is not real, since it is the product of fantasy
and misapplication of a precocious gift—the sword. Jung mentions a legend
that demonstrates this point well: Young girls are sacrificed to a mechani-
cal dragon, which has a sword for a tongue, until a righteous monk destroys
it; this monster is a man-made god and therefore has no right to exist, says
the victorious monk (Jung, 1952/1956, para. 574). It is mechanical, that is,
unreal, and it kills by speaking piercing words that destroy the feminine.
The puer is very much like this dragon, unrelatedly applying the unreal fan-
tasy standards that ownership of the sword has conferred. Quite rightly the
dragon is depicted as destroying the feminine, since the puer often has prob-
lems with relationship; very little can survive constant bathing in the caustic
waters that the sword stirs up. It is an abuse of the ownership of the sword,
in essence; it has a higher symbolism that is not being respected by this de-
structive use. However, we must understand that it is a hard task—to own a
sword, to learn how to use it, and most importantly, to learn when to use it.
King Arthur is not very intelligent in this regard. He wages war reck-
lessly and kills wantonly. Merlin often advises him that the gods are not
pleased with him because he has been cruel, vengeful, or does not know
when, and when not to, use his sword. The puer is typically like this—not
knowing when it is appropriate to use the sword to destroy illusion and when
it is best to leave illusion intact because the consequences of removing the
illusion would be worse. In Arthur ’s first battle, Merlin advises him to re-
serve the sword from the stone for a moment of real need. This is good, hard
advice—but premature—since it is the main thing that the puer cannot do.
Although, in another sense, this scenario depicts part of the common puer
dynamism: The puer is often inactive until the situation reaches its most crit-
ical point, and then he explodes with action. In this sense, the puer is a rather
neurotic hero type who can perform great deeds but only when the situation
is dramatic—and the past inaction has pushed events to their very limits.
King Arthur often behaves in this manner, missing signs and cues until he is
forced into a desperate and heroic situation. The puer lives like this, waiting
and waiting because everything seems dull and uninteresting, until enough
energy has built up to motivate him—and then he acts. In fact, even though
this is how it looks on the outside, the internal dynamics are often quite dif-
ferent. The inaction of the puer caused by the attitude that life is dull and
uninteresting is often a bluff to cover a rather subtle engineering of crises in
order to inject excitement into life. This maneuvering is often done in a pas-
sive way, by neglecting to do things so that situations build up until urgent
deeds are necessary.

Seen in another way, swords, by their very nature, are not pleased to
be relegated to purely ceremonial use. They crave battle and will organize
things so that battles arise to be fought. The history of war is partly a his-
tory of the actualization of the weapon’s desire to be used. This is a reason
why tales of knights and battles are so ideal for an elucidation of the puer
psychology—because they provide enough drama, enough extremity of life,
to draw the puer fantasies into action and thus depict their shapes and move-
ments. The knight is called on to perform “deeds of arms” repeatedly, as part
of the never-ending push of consciousness that typifies the Arthurian leg-
ends. The heroes are pushed endlessly to match themselves in adventures,
often in a blind and failed way. However, the drive is always there, forcing
these stories into a very strange form where often the only theme that one
can feel in the end is a sort of animal movement of will toward a very poorly
seen goal. The knights simply ride around and fight each other, often at first
sight. It is a sort of blind urge caused by their profession. The sword as their
symbol is a driving force in
this—it has no use other than
The lives of these knights are as something that pushes to-
never boring or dull, but they ward combat and victory. Be-
cause the Arthurian legends
are often short, which is a are replete with the misery
characteristic of the puer and sadness caused by this
force, we can learn a great
life . . . deal about the uncontrolled
forces that drive the puer on-
ward through this material.
Indeed, it is not uncommon for the puer to be driven in this way,
from adventure to adventure—as in Don Juanism—keeping things together
through the thrill of many changes but slowly losing himself in despair.
This is the sword held unconsciously—slicing through life and revealing new
things to conquer but without any real direction or meaning. This is the
sword in its least healthy aspect as a blind force that serves only to satisfy
primitive urges. Many of the tales in Malory about minor knights are like
this—they have a few moments of glory and are then killed. These are the
pueri who are not able to bring to consciousness the responsibility of the
weapon that they wield, and so they die in strange, narrative dead ends all
throughout the work. The lives of these knights are never boring or dull,
but they are often short, which is a characteristic of the puer life—the fear
of boredom, of dullness, and the opposite extreme of the life cut short—
sometimes psychologically and sometimes in quite tragic and real physical
ways.
THE SWORD AND THE FEMININE

The puer values the sword above all else, something that Malory makes clear
in his treatment of the Lady of the Lake who gives Arthur the precious sword
Excalibur. She asks him to agree to do something for her at some time in
the future if he would have the sword. He agrees. His agreement seems very
reckless, given that the promise is completely open-ended; he has agreed to
do anything she asks. However, the puer desire for the sword—the weapon
against the world—is so strong, he is prepared to agree to any demands of the
anima to obtain it. The result is that the puer, as is so well documented by von
Franz, is very much possessed by inconstant moods and all of the trappings of
an unconscious and powerful anima influence. Of course, this special sword
comes from underwater, from the unconscious, which is precisely the source
of its power and hold over the puer.
The legend has it that only the arm of the lady is visible when dis-
pensing the sword—the anima influence is still very much unconscious and
remains mainly below the surface, rising only a little, just enough, to give the
sword to Arthur. However, this is a very important point to be considered.
There is at least the arm of a woman, and the sword is not retrieved from a
pool or found in the sea—it is given by a female force. That is, there is just
enough differentiation to understand that the relation to the sword occurs
through the feminine. This point is crucial because the hardest and often
most redeeming task for the puer is to understand real relation apart from
his fantasies. The character of whomever or whatever gives you your great-
est treasure is decisive because it is the source of your mana, your life. It
is a very hard problem to
solve: What does a knight do
when a gentle, otherworldly The scabbard is the feminine
woman gives him a sword, an
instrument of murder? This
aspect of the sword symbol: It
is, in essence, the question prevents harm to oneself,
the puer must answer if he is
to understand his place and
rather than causing harm to
his task. others.
One finds, I believe, this crucial link between sword symbolism and the
feminine in the important role played by the scabbard in the Arthurian leg-
ends. There is an obvious male–female association with the sword–scabbard
pair, but the relationship is a very deep one and is reflected in some of Mer-
lin’s subtler advice to Arthur:
Whether liketh you better, said Merlin, the sword or the scab-
bard? Me liketh better the sword, said Arthur. Ye are more un-
wise, said Merlin, for the scabbard is worth ten of the swords,
for whiles ye have the scabbard upon you, ye shall never lose
no blood, be ye never so sore wounded; therefore keep well the
scabbard always with you. (Malory, 1998, Book I, Chapter XXV)
The scabbard is the feminine aspect of the sword symbol: It prevents

harm to oneself, rather than causing harm to others. In battle, these two
things can provide the same results—that one wins—but they go about it
in completely different ways. Arthur, as puer knight, is blind to this view
and values the sword above the scabbard. Merlin’s role is to compensate for
Arthur’s blind spots in regard to the principles of action and the different
methods and attitudes that are required of a puer nature, should he wish to
be freed from the peculiarities of the condition. Arthur continues to ignore
Merlin’s advice about the scabbard and foolishly gives it to his sister, Mor-
gan Le Fay—a negative feminine character—who in turn gives it to a lover,
returning a worthless copy to Arthur. This devaluation of the feminine as-
pect always turns the anima a darker hue; that which is represented by the
scabbard is not valued—the scabbard has a very real purpose, and it is not
understood. Straight away, Arthur falls ill. He has lost contact with half of his
mana and does not even realize it—he has given it away because he does
not value it.
This scenario relates to
what was said earlier—why
The female elements are does a woman give a sword
always present in these tales to a man, if not for killing
with? Well, a sword comes
when swords are given or with a scabbard—in the Grail
found. This feminine legends, great detail is always
given to the decoration of the
component gives us some scabbards of special swords,
idea of the relationship that and with good reason: The
scabbard is an integral part
the swords bear to the knights of a sword. This meaning is
who would wield them. sometimes also carried by the
belt from which the scabbard and sword hang, which is very significant in
the part of the Grail legends involving Galahad. The miraculous sword that
he finds is called “The Sword of the Strange Belt” because it has a poor belt,
the correct one being given at the right time by a virgin maiden. That is,
the means of fastening the belt, of carrying it, is afforded only by an ideal
feminine principle; otherwise, it is useless. The scabbard of this sword has its
own name—a clear sign of its importance. It is called “Memory of Blood”—
a biblical reference to Abel, we are told, but we can also take this name as
a clear reference to the feminine elements of birth and life. It is indeed a
wonderful name for a scabbard that must sheath a sword that sheds blood in
battle.
Thus the female elements are always present in these tales when
swords are given or found. This feminine component gives us some idea of
the relationship that the swords bear to the knights who would wield them.
In a sense, this female presence is a check on their use—they are not given
to do with as one will. The anima, as it were, puts a requirement on those
that would wield such swords, and it is this requirement that is so impor-
tant. What is the condition under which these swords are given and must be
used? I would like to address this question by considering an example that
demonstrates how not to use a sword, classically depicted in the legends
surrounding the youth of Alexander the Great.
There is a famous tale involving Alexander and the Gordian knot. This
was a knot so complex that it defied all attempts to unravel it. Most versions
of the legend have it that the knot was used to fasten oxen or horses to the
yokes of a chariot. Alexander heard about this knot and resolved to tackle
the problem, which he did by slicing through the knot with his sword and
crying “What does it matter how I loose it?” This kind of action is often taken
as a sign of great leadership that cuts through problems in a decisive man-
ner. Such behavior is the positive aspect of this sort of classical puer. The
negative aspect is alluded to in the cry “What does it matter how I loose it?”
because it matters a great deal to the feminine principle that distributes and
blesses swords. Alexander’s behavior here is very much in the puer mold—
he cuts through a complex problem with a great release of energy and much
drama, causing a sensation by acting controversially and, in a rather superfi-
cial sense, wisely. Indeed, the legend often has Alexander depicted as a wise
man for “seeing through the problem”—but the event is just as easily taken
as a sign of a rather limited intelligence and fear of complex problems. One
finds exactly this tendency in people who fear intellectual pursuits—a ten-
dency to, as they put it, “cut through the words” when it is precisely words
that are needed.
In another version of the story, Alexander does not use a sword but
simply pulls out the yoke pin, thereby decoupling the chariot from the beast
without having to address the knot at all. This resolution more clearly in-
volves “cheating” and is best seen as an avoidance of the problem. One does
not address a problem by sensationally solving a completely different one,
although it can seem that this is possible when the excitement of the event
draws attention away from the fact that nothing has really been done. It is
significant that Alexander severs the connection between the beast and the
cart. The knot symbolized a complex, intricate relation between the libido
and the moving container of the self. It has taken a long time to create this
knot, this link between them, and the libido is serving the self by pulling it
along, which is quite a healthy state of affairs. Alexander destroys this link
at a stroke, setting the libido free once more and providing a fitting prelude
to his reign of victory and often wanton dynamism. This is raw puer terror;
the horror of having the primal energy of the unconscious tamed and used in
service of life. To the puer, it feels like a death, and the sword will be used
every time to sever this link because of the fear. However, the Gordian knot
must be respected by the puer—in its complexity in relation to the feminine,
it cannot be simply bypassed or severed. To do so is a misuse of the sword.
The version of the legend in which Alexander merely removes the yoke
pin is a good example of what we may call “sword thinking” in the puer. It
is the tendency to cleverly bypass the problem by a large display of bravado,
but in the wrong direction. With a single movement, a strike of the sword, the
problem appears to have been solved. But it has not been solved. It has been
avoided with a flash of lightning that blinds the onlookers—and the puer
himself—to the real problems. These problems are now in an even worse
state—they have not been addressed, and there is now an operative fantasy
that depicts them as having been solved—heroically.
THE POTENTIAL FOR ACTION

When the problem of understanding the sword and how to respect it in a real
way becomes paramount to the puer knight, there is a crisis of action; he
wants to act in a masculine way to deal with the crisis, but the whole crisis is
about the nature of action and what it means. This can be a terrible problem
for the puer. The best of Arthur’s knights eventually learn that passivity is
the only way in certain situations, and they allow themselves to fall under
God’s mercy because they have become desperate as a result of the bad con-
sequences of their pathologically active natures. That is, they give up trying
to solve things by the sword. This is the right course, for the sword does not
represent what is termed “the self” in Jungian circles. It is not fit for the high-
est tasks and famously breaks in the moments of direst need (Malory, 1998,
Book I, Chapter XXIV). The real source of power is in the scabbard, the con-
tainer, which is a constant image of the self in Jung’s work. It is a riddle for
the puer as to how the container for the active principle can be the greatest
treasure; Arthur displays again and again his failure to understand this.
As may be guessed
from the compensatory at-
tempt of the feminine to aug- The sword as a gift of the
ment the importance of the
scabbard, the puer overval-
anima . . . is a key to
ues the sword in a certain relatedness, which always

way. The swords in Malory
are special, are given in fan-
involves sensitivity to specific
tastic ways, and are depicted situations and an assessment
as jewel-encrusted marvels.
So, naturally, the knight at-
of what is necessary at a
taches great importance to given moment.
the sword attained. But the
problem is that this percep-
tion results in a situation wherein the sword becomes a holy object that is
carried about on the belt in everyday life. It is as if one carried a sacred relic
about all day long throughout one’s daily business. In order to maintain the
ideal of its holiness, every occurrence of its use must be a great event, oth-
erwise the sacred nature would be dulled by miserable, banal habit. So, the
sword takes on a strange role; this talent of the puer for swinging this psy-
chological sword is a strange spectacle, suddenly providing an incongruous
injection of drama into normal life that does not feel quite right. As if, in or-
der to make tea, he brings out the Holy Grail—it is a strange dissonance of
meanings to do such a thing. At the same time, it turns an ordinary situation
into an extraordinary one and also insults the holy object. For good reason
does Merlin advise Arthur to use Excalibur only when he truly needs it; it is
not a thing to be used lightly. So, for the puer, the task is to understand this:
When is it right to draw the sword?
The sword as a gift of the anima is a clue to the answer to this
question. It is a key to relatedness, which always involves sensitivity to
specific situations and an assessment of what is necessary at a given mo-
ment; no formula will do. Merlin’s advice to use the sword when needed is
slightly misleading because it seems to suggest that there are only a few
times when it will be necessary to do so. I think that this interpretation is
wrong, however. To be warned to know when it is right to do something is
not necessarily to restrict the use of something; such advice usually takes
this form only when the problem—as it usually is—is indiscriminate usage.
The warning really addresses the attitude toward something; here, it is ad-
vised that to draw a sword requires a certain attitude on the part of the
knight.
The attitude of veneration of the sword as a holy object is not appropri-

ate in some ways, as we have noted. The veneration leads to an expectation
and creation of significant events from every unsheathing the sword. An at-
titude of indiscriminate combat is also not appropriate because the sword is,
after all, a precious gift. The balance of these positions can be found in a very
subtle attitude that can come to the knight only through the feminine—to
the puer through the anima. This balance involves the psychological feeling
of potentiality: that is, to wear the sword and to derive strength from the
knowledge that it is available—not to necessarily use it, but to know that it
could be used. It is amazing how many situations can be dealt with merely on
the basis that one knows when one has the capacity to deal with them, even
if one never really has to engage these capacities to do so.
This is an experience that leaves behind a residue of energy that would
otherwise have been used up in battle. The strength of the scabbard is that
it holds the sword in readiness for such times—it is a container for an active
principle whose strength lies in the possibility of its use and not really in its
actual moments of employment. It is related to the ability to be silent when
complexes about the perceived value of the world are touched—something
that the puer finds intolerably difficult. The lesson of the scabbard is this:
One does not really possess something until there is a real choice about
whether it is used or not. If there is no real choice, then it is you who are
used.
This point is related to the theme of the double-edged sword. It is of-
ten said that the two edges of the sword simply represent the capacity to
harm others and the capacity to harm oneself: When the blade cuts toward
an enemy, the other edge of the blade still faces the wielder. This is a stark
opposition to have to deal with: harm to others or harm to oneself, and the
two are intimately related. It is these bare and irreconcilable opposites that
are expressed by the old saying “He who lives by the sword shall die by the
sword”—the sword as a living embodiment of self-reflective action, of oppo-
sites that prescribe a rather narrow life within which only a limited form of
freedom is possible.
It is this swinging between the opposites that characterizes the puer
psychology—complete annoyance with the world when the sword swings to-
ward the enemy, and periods of infantile immersion when the sword swings
back at the wielder. Finding a third position within this perpetual oscilla-
tion of the sword represents a certain positive faculty of discrimination and,
as such, is the task of the puer. In the Arthurian romances, it is the end-
less quest for honor or the Grail, on a larger scale, that typifies this search.
This move from the two-sided to a third possibility is very clearly shown in
certain alchemical texts. Jung mentions, for example, that in Dorn’s Specu-
lative Philosophiae it is written that the God principle replaced the angelic
sword of wrath with a three-pronged golden trident, thus changing the wrath
of God into love (1954/1958, para. 357). A common theme of many esoteric
texts based on a more psychological understanding of Christianity is that the
two-sided way of life that is often referred to using the symbolism of the
sword must be replaced by a three-fold unity that harmonizes or neutralizes
the opposites. This is the golden trident; it does not solve the problem of
the sword, it simply replaces it by rendering it no longer relevant. It is not
so much a solution to the puer problem of constantly striking the world and
oneself; rather, the weapon is replaced by something completely different
that cannot be used in the old way.
This completely different “something” is the essential meaning of the
mistranslated Greek biblical term metanoia, which is usually rendered as
“repentance”—something that figures heavily in Arthurian romances and
which never really solves anything, since it represents a complete denial of
the previous behavior, thus swinging to the opposite pole, from which the
swing back to precisely the original behavior begins afresh. A better trans-
lation of metanoia—“change of attitude” or “change of mind”—denotes a
completely new direction of thought, of attitude (Jung, 1950/1959, p. 299).2
In this sense, it is a third choice, existing nowhere on the continuum occu-
pied by the swinging pendulum of the sword. I think that this is the attitude
required by the anima when presenting the sword to the puer: It is an attitude
that is neither a refusal to draw the sword and engage with life nor an exag-
gerated heroic attitude that constantly cuts away complex problems instead
of entering into them. It is the attitude of potentiality, a container in which
the potential for action is held and in which this potential itself becomes a
new active principle, but in a completely different way.
The difficulty with puer
psychology is that there is
often a great fund of en- We can see the childish
ergy from which to draw—
an energy derived from close
nature of the puer
contact with certain aspects psychology in the fact that
of the unconscious that are
gradually left behind during
often the only solution to a
the onset of a typical adult- problem . . . is a tendency to
hood. This energy is felt as
a treasure that must never
sudden and dynamic action.
be lost at any price; it is, in
essence, the sword to which
the puer clings. Or rather, it is a way of using the sword to which the puer
clings, as we have seen above. This energy is the basis of the puer’s some-
times startling insight, but it is also a poison that destroys because it is meant
to be used for life, and this is precisely what the puer cannot do with it. Kept
inside, it turns stale and leads to depression, anger, and negativity in many
forms. It is like the breast milk of the mother, which is meant for another and
cannot remain in the body without ill effects. There is an English expression
that applies to the puer very well—“pent up,” meaning that there is a con-
centration of energy that cannot be released and that leads to characteristic
tempers and attitudes.
We can see the childish nature of the puer psychology in the fact that
often the only solution to a problem (which usually turns out to be no so-
lution) is a tendency to sudden and dynamic action—which would seem, at
first glance, to be precisely what the pent-up state would require for its allevi-
ation. We see this behavior in children who have not learned the subtler ways
of approaching problems by bearing them, by laborious hard work, by accep-
tance. Children have a tendency to approach things head on at first, which
is natural, since this is the most obvious way to clear an obstacle. The puer
retains this attitude and tends to approach problems this way—by swinging
the sword and cutting a path. It is hard for children to learn that an active
approach need not appear to be active. For the puer, it is even harder. He
knows what he needs to learn, but it is felt to be too difficult, which is very
frustrating. He finds it hard to open doors with a hand that holds a sword.
This new active prin-
ciple expressed as poten-
The feeling of the sword by tiality in the undrawn but
the side must permeate the ready sword—the sword in
the scabbard—is the positive
psychology of the puer until aspect of what von Franz ad-
it is no longer necessary to dresses when she speaks of
the “revolver in the pocket”
draw it, because, in a sense, of the puer (von Franz, 1970,
the sword is part of life. Lecture 4). The puer, afraid
of committing to life, of-
ten has suicidal thoughts and
keeps a sort of “backup plan”
of suicide, should the world prove intractable. This is a negative aspect of
the third way of being, which is meant to reconcile the two opposites that
war in a knight who lives by the sword. It is negative in that it is not visibly
worn on the belt like a sword—there is no container for the weapon, it is
simply hidden. This weapon is not a form of support derived from the poten-
tial for action; it is a strength derived from the potential for annihilation. It
is truly the shadow side of the positive solution, a much easier path to fol-
low and therefore more typical of the puer psychology. The task is to know
that the sword is there and from this knowledge to derive a strength that
was previously derived from its indiscriminate use. To derive strength from
knowledge that one could fall upon one’s sword if necessary pollutes life with
a type of provisional ambience that von Franz describes as typical of the puer
psychology. The image of a child with a weapon is apt—power coupled with
lack of respect for danger. In this sense the puer is often a danger to others
through the fascination that he engenders and also a danger to himself due
to the destructive aspect of the directionless energy that he carries.
The positive aspect of all of this is a peculiar change in feeling regarding

the role of the childish active principle. The feeling of the sword by the side
must permeate the psychology of the puer until it is no longer necessary to
draw it, because, in a sense, the sword is part of life. It is psychologically
present via the feeling of being potentially physically present, and then there
is a great shift whereby the notion of what it is “to act” changes. This is
a rather difficult way of putting things, as the change is very much on the
feeling side and therefore cannot be expressed in words very well. It was
mentioned earlier that the peculiar link between the symbolism of the sword
and the cross (which is very much apparent in the phenomenon of fighting
for faith) is important for an understanding of the puer problem. We can now
see why this is so: The task at first appears to be one of how to reconcile
the treasure with the world—the sword is used to protect the treasure. Then
perhaps an understanding comes that the sword and its use are, in some
sense, the treasure and so the task is to find a proper relation to the sword,
since they are one and the same thing. The sword must no longer be seen
as a separate thing that is felt as a protector of the secret to being seen as
both protector and protected in one, which then naturally makes the symbol
shift and the scabbard take on much more significance. It is a fact of the
Grail legend that the finest sword that only Galahad is fit to wield is more
symbolic than real—that is, the sword is becoming a psychic fact to be carried
internally rather than a physical, external fact.
There is another way of expressing this aspect of the symbolism of the
sword: It represents the abuse of the most differentiated function, something
that distinguishes the puer who clings to the most differentiated aspect of
conscious awareness in a rather desperate way, using it as a weapon against
the onset of the maturing process. This misuse is quite understandable and
inevitable—one always uses what one understands the most. Jung makes this
point very clearly in the dream seminar record of 1930: “The differentiated
function is nearly always misused for one’s own selfish power. It is an invalu-
able means to have as a weapon in the beginning, but usually one uses it
for too selfish ends and then comes the compensation of the unconscious“
(1984, p. 595).
The unique problem of the puer psychology is encapsulated in the
phrase “in the beginning”; the puer tries to stay “in the beginning” as long
as possible, as there he is safe under the protection of the differentiated

function, safe under the protection of the sword. The unconscious striving
to rid himself of this protection and force the development of undifferenti-
ated parts is all the stronger the longer this resistance lasts, and it accounts
for the torturing emotionality of the puer and the frequently extreme nature
of the anima relationship. It is not uncommon for the puer to reach a point
where the differentiated function fails altogether to cope with a situation—
the sword that breaks at the moment of direst need. Here, particularly, we
see the two-edged nature of the sword: It cuts the enemy but also cuts the
wielder when it shatters in the pursuit of a task for which it is unsuited.
The anima requires that the sword she gives be swallowed and internal-
ized. This relates to the symbolism of the sword as coming out of the mouth
or as being the very tongue—it shows that the principle represented by the
sword is internal. Any gift of the anima is never as it appears because it is,
of necessity, an embodiment of a type of development that the man will find
the most difficult. A man might give a boy a sword as a gift, and he would
be pleased if the boy swung it around in a display of martial prowess; but
not the anima—her demands are much harder to satisfy, not least because
it is not clear what the demands are. It is a great sacrifice for the puer to be
given such a marvelous gift and then to be asked, in a sense, not to use it.
This is the price that is paid for such gifts—it is the age-old problem of not
being able to “have your cake and eat it too,” of being able to see God but not
then to be able to speak of the experience. However, in such situations, the
tension is very high and therefore the potential for development is also very
high. It is only potential, though, as the lesson is very hard to learn, and often,
for the puer, too hard. The problem of the puer is one facet of the problem
of how to mediate between the absolute and the relative, of how to reconcile
the human and the transpersonal. The task is never simply to sacrifice some-
thing and leave it behind: The task is to sacrifice something and yet to have
it hanging from the belt forever as a reminder of the sacrifice.
Philip L. Kime, Ph.D., is completing the training program at the C.G. Jung
Institute in Küsnacht, Switzerland. Originally from a small town in England, he
recently spent three very rewarding years working with patients at the Southern
California Counseling Center. Since he is from the North of England, he likes to
complain a lot, which his wife, thankfully, finds merely amusing.
NOTES
1. This theme is developed well in Maurice Nicoll’s (1950, 1954) psycholog-
ical commentaries on the New Testament. Nicoll was a personal student
of Jung, and he was very interested in the psychological interpretation of

the Bible.
2. Also, Nicoll (1954) has a well-developed chapter on the notion of
metanoia. Nicoll very much appreciated the deep and reconciling force
that was meant by this word and provides an interpretation that shows
how impoverished the usual biblical translation of the word really is.
FURTHER READING
Jung, C. G. The collected works of C. G. Jung. Trans R. F. C. Hull. Bollingen Series XX.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Vol. 3. The psychogenesis of mental disease. (1960). (Original work published 1915)
Vol. 4. Freud and psychoanalysis: The theory of psychoanalysis. (1961). (Original
work published 1955)
Vol. 5. Symbols of transformation. (1956). (Original work published 1952)
Vol. 9ii. Aion. (1959). (Original work published 1950)
Vol. 11. Psychology and religion: West and East. (1958). (Original work published
1954)
Vol. 12 Psychology and alchemy. (1954). (Original work published 1953)
Vol. 13. Alchemical studies. (1967). (Original work published 1954)
Jung, C. G. (1984). Jung seminars: Dream analysis—notes on the seminar given in

1928–1930 (W. McGuire, Ed.). Bollingen Series XCIX. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Malory, T. (1998). Le morte d’Arthur: The Winchester manuscript. Oxford, UK: Oxford
World Classics.
Nicoll, M. (1950). The new man. London: Stuart & Richards.
Nicoll, M. (1954). The mark. London: Vincent Stuart.
von Franz, M.-L. (1970). Puer aeternus: A psychological study of the adult struggle with
the paradise of childhood. Santa Monica, CA: Sigo Press.

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The Puer and the Symbolism of

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00332920903543617

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ISSN: 0033-2925 print / 1556-3030 online

The Puer and the Symbolism of the

Kathleen Newton, CanalStreet, 2005. Oil paint on linen, 25 × 40

LE MORTE D'ARTHUR AS A STUDY IN PUER PSYCHOLOGY

for the first time. The “stone”

there is a horror of leaving this realization behind in order to adapt to the

THE SWORD AS BOTH BLESSING AND CURSE

characteristic provides a hint to the solution of the relationship: that to come

deeds are necessary.

THE SWORD AND THE FEMININE

The scabbard is the feminine aspect of the sword symbol: It prevents

THE POTENTIAL FOR ACTION

ues the sword in a certain relatedness, which always

The attitude of veneration of the sword as a holy object is not appropri-

The positive aspect of all of this is a peculiar change in feeling regarding

as possible, as there he is safe under the protection of the differentiated

of Jung, and he was very interested in the psychological interpretation of

Jung, C. G. (1984). Jung seminars: Dream analysis—notes on the seminar given in

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