We discuss symmetries of the spherical shell model that make contact with the geometric collective model of Bohr and Mottelson. The most celebrated symmetry of this kind is SU(3), which is the basis of Elliott's model of rotation. It corresponds to a deformed mean field induced by a quadrupole interaction in a single major oscillator shell N and can be generalized to include several major shells. As such, Elliott's SU(3) model establishes the link between the spherical shell model and the (quadrupole component of the) geometric collective model. We introduce the analogue symmetry induced by an octupole interaction in two major oscillator shells N-1 and N, leading to an octupole-deformed solution of the spherical shell model. We show that in the limit of large oscillator shells (large N) the algebraic octupole interaction tends to that of the geometric collective model.