The Symbolic Treasure Behind Holy Week (Part I)
What is the meaning of Holy Week?
We’ve surpassed 400 subscribers! And in gratitude for the support my writings have received, I set myself the titanic task of interpreting the symbolism of Holy Week.
This article is dedicated to you, dear reader, who has supported my work and taken the time to read it.
Believe me—although my understanding of Jung is still limited—parts of the following interpretation will resonate with you.
Without further ado, let’s begin this wonderful journey into the rich symbolism and meaning behind Holy Week.
Palm Sunday: Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
“The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road (Matthew 21:6–8)”.
Carl Jung said regarding the symbolism of the donkey:
“In antiquity, the donkey was a very important animal. In many Eastern religions, the donkey was a sacred animal, and in the Old Testament, the donkey is also mentioned as an animal of great importance. It was an animal of kings and prophets. You may remember that Balaam rode a donkey, and she spoke. In the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, he was riding a donkey” (Zarathustra Seminar, Volume II).
Palm Sunday, from this perspective, marks the beginning of individuation, as it reveals the first expression of the Self.
It represents a descent into the soul’s center—a confrontation with both the collective and personal unconscious.
That is why Jesus appears as a king—not on a warhorse, but on a donkey.
The donkey symbolizes humility, but also the archaic wisdom embedded in our instincts, which sustain the divine.
It is instinctive energy, tamed and made docile, carrying the sacred forward.
That often-despised instinctive part is the bearer of the Self.
This moment can be felt in meditation, when we surrender control and allow things to flow—when the ego steps aside, and suddenly, our instinctual energy gently guides us toward something far greater.
This is a vivid image of how the divine Self can ride on our humblest instincts when they are integrated and no longer repressed.
Holy Monday: The Cleansing of the Temple
In this passage, Jesus enters Herod’s Temple, where oxen, sheep, and doves were being sold, and money changers sat exchanging currency:
"Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Matthew 21:12–13)
Although I don’t have a direct reference from Jung on this, many Bible editions title this passage “The Purification of the Temple.”
Here’s my personal interpretation:
The temple symbolizes the structure through which consciousness connects with the personal and collective unconscious—establishing a relationship between the ego and the numinous.
This bridge was what Carl Jung called the transcendent function.
Jesus, as the Self, storms the temple and drives out the merchants—symbols of spiritual contamination and egoic interference.
When our spiritual longing becomes entangled with ego-driven motives—greed, ambition, or attempts to manipulate the sacred for worldly ends—the temple becomes a den of robbers.
It’s a powerful metaphor for how the ego can hijack the inner space meant for soul-work, replacing deep listening with the noise of desire.
We often encounter this when our yearning for spiritual growth is fueled by the ambition to become “enlightened” or “superior.”
Or when we attempt to use spirituality to achieve status, success, or validation.
When this occurs, inflation usually follows—until the deeper instinctual need for meaning dismantles those ego-driven ideals, just as Christ overturned the traders’ tables.
This is a common experience in meditation: after periods of practice and insight, the practitioner may naively believe they’ve reached enlightenment—only to be humbled again.
But if they persist, they may begin to see the greed behind that desire, and by witnessing it attentively, realize that it’s better to let go of spiritual ideals altogether and simply allow things to unfold.
In this way, the practice becomes pure, and deep transformation takes place.
That inner development is reflected in the verses immediately following, in Matthew 21:
"The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant".
Also read the following articles in this series: