ABSTRACT
THE PRIMORDIAL IMAGE Originally, the archetype was formulated as an image. In Symbols of Transformation, Jung used the term primordial image to describe patterns of meaning that seemed to reappear consistently in myths, dreams and legends, independent of cultural transmission. Jung pointed to the repeated appearance of the image of the fire-bearer along with its consistent association with the ideals of forethought and prudence as an example of the reappearance of the archetypal. These associations occurred on a worldwide basis, independent of the mechanisms of etymology and cultural transmission. He understood this to be evidence of the existence of “autochthonous primordial images” (1956/1967, para. 209).
