Chicken

Chickens are foolish birds that perhaps are hard to feel much respect for. They act blindly, cackle wildly, panic easily, can be difficult to catch, and tend to appear where they shouldn’t. Jung points out, albeit in a specific context, that they are an "excellent metaphor for fragmented tendencies that have been repressed" (1995a, p. 109). A chicken, on the other hand, can also represent "primitive, promiscuous, feminine eros" (von Franz 2002, p. 97).  

In more mystical contexts, the chicken is primarily associated with the egg, thus becoming a bearer of that symbolism. This is likely the reason it has been regarded as the bird of Hermes-Mercurius.  

Creatures with wings are generally expressions of spirit, but some, such as chickens, remain earthbound and are thus, from this perspective, "in need of improvement" (CW 11, par. 361).

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