Although forest symbolism is complex, J.E. Cirlot notes that it is connected "at all levels with the symbolism of the female principle or of the Great Mother." He says:

"The forest is the place where vegetable life thrives and luxuriates, free from any control or cultivation. And since its foilage obscures the light of the sun, it is therefore regarded as opposed to the sun's power and as a symbol of the earth... Since the female principle is identified with the unconsciousness in Man, it follows that the forest is also a symbol of the unconsciousness. It is for this reason that Jung maintains that the sylvan terrors that figure so prominently in children's tales symbolize the perilous aspects of the unconsciousness, that is, its tendency to devour or obscure reason."

Significantly, forests were among the first places in nature to be dedicated to the cult of the gods and places where offerings were suspended from trees.

The forest is the realm of the psyche and a place of testing and initiation, of unknown perils and darkness. J.C. Cooper in An Illustrated Encyclopaedia Of Traditional Symbols notes that: "Entering the Dark Forest or the Enchanted Forest is a threshold symbol; the soul entering the perils of the unknown; the realm of death; the secrets of nature, or the spiritual world which man must penetrate to find the meaning."

Cooper observes that "Retreat into the forest is symbolic death before initiatory rebirth."

In the book The Uses Of Enchantment: The Meaning And Importance of Fairy Tales, Bruno Bettelheim emphasizes the importance of the forest in fairy tales. He notes the Brothers Grimm's tale "The Two Brothers" where two brothers went into the forest, took counsel with each other and came to an agreement. The forest where they go, notes Bettelheim, "symbolizes the place in which inner darkness is confronted and worked through; where uncertainty is resolved about who one is; and where one begins to understand who one wants to be." Bettelheim elaborates on this noting:

"Since ancient times the near impenetrable forest in which we get lost has symbolized the dark, hidden, near-impenetrable world of our unconscious. If we have lost the framework which gave structure to our past life and must now find our way to become ourselves, and have entered this wilderness with an as yet undeveloped personality, when we succeed in finding our way out we shall emerge with a much more highly developed humanity."

It is this ancient image, Bettelheim notes, that Dante evokes at the beginning of The Divine Comedy when he says "In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost." It is in this dark wood that he also finds a "magic" helper, Virgil, who offers guidance on the trip which leads first through hell, then purgatory and then into heaven.