The Great Mother

Erich Neumann's depth psychology study examines the Great Mother archetype as it appears in history, mythology, religion and culture. Its central model, the Great Round, is a diagram that sets figures such as Isis, Sophia, Mary, Kali, Lilith and the witches around crossing axes of the Mother and the Anima. Neumann warns that the schema simplifies for clarity, and treats each figure as ambivalent and able to turn into its opposite. Following the theme of The Origins and History of Consciousness, he traces feminine archetypes from the uroboros of primordial unconsciousness to later cultural forms such as the Eleusinian Mysteries. Neumann completed the German manuscript in Israel and dedicated the work to C. G. Jung.

Jordan B. Peterson included it among the suggested readings for Maps of Meaning.