Worm, Larva

Worms lack a brain; they only have a sympathetic nervous system that extends throughout their body, representing the most primitive form of life with a nervous system. Dreams about worms, therefore, may be related to the nervous system or the deepest psychological layers, something entirely unconscious that lacks a center.

Larvae may have similar symbolism, but these will undergo a metamorphosis and suggest a development.

The worm and the serpent often share a similar symbolic value; in some contexts, the words are symbolically or literally synonymous. The English word "worm" comes from the Old Norse word ormr, which in turn means both worm and serpent. As negative images, the serpent is associated with the devil, and the mask with death.

According to some versions of the Egyptian Phoenix myth, the bird first resurrects as a worm. Since the mask is the lowest, it also belongs to the highest. Thus, the reborn king in alchemy and the first form of the Phoenix is a mask, just as the Messiah initially says (Psalm 22:6, which is considered a messianic psalm), "I am a worm, not a man." (But in relation to the Phoenix and Christ, "mask" can also be interpreted as "serpent.")

We tend to imagine the king coming to life as a celestial revelation, but this is not necessarily how the transformation of the collective unconscious is depicted. An archetypal image is always ambiguous; it is in the encounter with the differentiating consciousness that it becomes one-sided and more or less rational. (Compare Two.) The alchemist's crowned serpent expresses this union of opposites.

In another context, worms and larvae can be associated with decay, what the alchemists called putrefactio; this association reappears in the 18th hexagram of the I Ching: "The Chinese character ku represents a vessel in which worms multiply. This means decay." (Cf. Anatomy of the Psyche, p. 157-158.)

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