Bow and Arrow

To hit something from a distance is associated with intuition. In order to hit with a bow and arrow, the archer must be focused and mentally balanced. Archery in this way has a spiritual quality, as clearly demonstrated by traditional Japanese archery with its Zen Buddhist origins. Archery also carries sexual symbolism, regarding tension, release, and relaxation.  

The bow is associated with the crescent moon and the intuitive, giving it a feminine quality, while the arrow’s penetrating and goal-oriented characteristics are clearly masculine. Thus, the archer tends to attract mystical projections.

Psychic Energy

The bow and arrow are related to direction; the direction of psychic energy. The archer pulls the bow, aims the arrow at something, and releases the string to let the projectile penetrate its target. This becomes a symbol for libido, psychic energy – what one aims for, wants to achieve. The expression "to shoot at the moon" and the Swedish "aiming too high" illustrate how shooting can symbolize a desire to achieve something through libido. A broken string means that libido disappears.  

An opposite image is that of the arrow's random landing spot. A common motif is shooting an arrow without intending to hit a predetermined target, allowing chance (or fate, libido, etc.) to determine the target. The motif is also expressed in fairy tales with feathers or balls – one leaves the decision to chance or a higher will.

In a once-popular version of the Robin Hood legend, this phenomenal archer, weak and dying as a result of betrayal, shoots an arrow through the tower window and asks his companions to bury him wherever the arrow happens to land.

Once the arrow has been shot, its speed and direction can no longer be influenced – something is simply set in motion, something one surrenders to. One leaves the result to irrational forces, giving the symbol qualities of playfulness, spontaneity, and the unexpected.

Divine Arrows and Penetration

It is a well-known mythological image that one who falls in love is struck by Cupid or Eros; but the "arrows of passion" are also attributes of Mercurius – the "archer" – associated as he was with both passions and erotica, and like Hermes (who shares much of this) often depicted with a phallus.  

Projection  

To send one’s libido toward someone, so to speak, is a projection. On the other hand, to be struck by Cupid's arrows is a classic image of falling in love – one is unexpectedly struck by something within oneself (but the inner process is projected onto an outer person or even a deity). According to von Franz, projectiles are one of the oldest ways to express projection, "especially the magical arrow or shot that harms others" (Projection and Re-Collection, p. 20).  

The Target – Center

The archer and the target are connected to each other; the archer strives to hit the center, his own center, the Self, with intuition and perfection. The bow is also an expression of fate. The association with one’s true self and fate is surely the reason why Anubis was depicted with a bow and arrow.  

Feminine Weapon  

The bow and arrow have been seen in many places as a feminine weapon, as illustrated by the Amazons. The Spartan warriors considered the bow to be a "female" weapon, as it was used from a distance without risking one’s own life. (Sparta, p. 32.)

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