Archetypes Dream Meanings

1- Archetypes are basic pictures that each of us hold deep within our subconscious. They are in a sense ‘psychic’ blueprints. These blueprints while potentially perfect can become distorted by- childhood experiences, socialisation and even parental experience.

C G Jung began studying archetypes and dividing function into thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. Following various work by his pupils, it became possible to build up a type of ‘map’ of the interaction between all of these functions and to discover where one’s own distortions occur. Each function has a ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ quality which is perhaps better described as ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’. Each of the masculine and feminine sides of the personality has these four functions, thus there are 64 (8 x 8) interactions possible. Where a distortion has occurred, we tend to project onto those around us the archetype with which we have most difficulty (often the Shadow). Consequently there will be a tendency to repeat situations over and over (e.g. the woman who continually finds herself in close relationships with a father-figure type, or the man who continuallv finds himself at odds with women executives) until we learn how to cope with and understand our distortion.

The obverse of this is that, with awareness, one is able to accept other’s projections onto oneself without being affected bv them. Perfect balance would be achieved by using all aspects of the personality as shown below. Kindly Father and Mother are self explanatory. Ogre represents masculine anger used negatively and Destructive Mother may be wilfully destructive, or simply the smothering type that is the mother who prevents the adequate growth of her children. Youth and Princess are the more gentle, fun-loving aspects of the personality while Tramp is the eternal wanderer and Siren is the seductress or sexually active part of femininity. Hero is the self- sufficient Messianic part of the personality, while Amazon is the ‘self-sufficient’ female the efficient business woman type. Villain is the masculine part of the self who uses power for his own ends, while Competitor is die typical ‘women’s libber’ who feels that she has 110 need for men. Priest and Priestess are the powers of intuition used for the ‘greater good’, while Sorcerer uses inner power totally dispassionately and Witch uses that same power rather more emotionally and perhaps negatively.

2- More specifically the feminine archetypes arc:

Kindly Mother

This is the conventional picture of the caring mother figure, forgiving transgression and always understanding. Because much has been made of this side of femininity, until recently it was very easy to overdevelop this aspect at the expense of other sides of the personality. Destructive Mother This woman may be the ‘smothermother’ type or the frankly destructive, prohibitive mother. Often it is this aspect who either actively prevents or because of her effect on the dreamer causes difficulty in other relationships. Princess The fun-loving, innocent childlike aspect of femininity. She is totally spontaneous, but at the same time has a subjective approach to other people. Siren This type is the seductress, the sexually and sensually aware woman who still has a sense of her own importance. In dreams she often appears in historic, flowing garments as though to highlight the erotic image.

Amazon

The self-sufficient woman who feels she docs not need the male: often becomes the career woman. She enjoys the cut and thrust of intellectual sparring. Competitor - She is the woman who competes with all and sundry both men and women - in an effort to prove that she is able to control her own life. Priestess - This is the highly intuitive woman who has learnt to control the flow of information and use it for the common good. She is totally at home within the inner world.

Witch

The intuitive woman using her energy to attain her own perceived ends. She is subjective in her judgement and therefore loses her discernment.

The masculine archetypes are: Kindly Father This side of the masculine is the conventional kindly father figure who is capablc of looking after the child in us. but equally of being firm and fair. Ogre This represents the angry; overbearing, aggressive and frightening masculine figure. Often this image has arisen because of the original relationship the dreamer had with their father or father figure.

Youth

The fun-loving, curious aspect of the masculine is both sensitive and creative. This is the ‘Peter Pan’ figure who has never grown up.

Tramp

This is the real freedom lover, the wanderer, the gypsy. He owes no allegiance to anyone and is interested only in what lies around the next corner. Hero The hero is the man who has clcctcd to undertake his own journey of exploration. He is able to consider options and decide his next move. Often he appears as the Messianic figure in dreams. He will rescue the damsel in distress, but only as part of his growth proccss.

Villain

The villain is completely selfishly involved, not caring who he tramples on in his own search. He is often the aspect of masculinity women first meet in everyday relationships, so can remain in dream images as a threatening figure if she has not come to terms with his selfishness.

Priest

The intuitive man is the one who recognises and understands the power of his own intuition, but who usually uses it in the services of his god or gods. He may appear in dreams as the Shaman or Pagan priest.

Sorcerer

This is the man who uses discernment in a totallv dis- passionate way for neither good nor evil, but simply because he enjoys the use of power. In his more negative aspect he is the Trickster or Master of unexpected change.

3- Spiritually, when we have access to all the archetypes, we are ready to become integrated and whole.

Collective unconscious’ is the term Carl Jung used to describe the part of the unconscious that everyone has access to, a sort of psychic storehouse for all humankind.

The contents of this storehouse are called ‘archetypes’: patterns and symbols that can be found within the unconscious of everyone. These archetypes represent the broad human memory within each of us. They appear as mythical images that occur in every culture throughout recorded history—the images appearing in the dreams of our ancestors are those that speak to us today.

According to Jung, dreams are attempts to guide the waking self. He thought that the purpose of life—and for him, dreams play an important role in it is to understand and integrate all parts of ourselves; dreams are simply one aspect of the self trying to communicate with the conscious part. Dreams don’t disguise the unconscious, they reveal it, through archetypes.

Sigmund Freud disagreed with Jung, as he believed that dreams were disguised attempts to hide, not reveal, true feelings from the waking mind. Freud did, however, recognize a concept of ‘archaic remnants’, inherited—rather than learned—beliefs, through which basic emotions and responses are represented.

For example, the mother figure is a universal symbol of nurturing and protection.

Today, most dream researchers believe that we are more likely to see archetypal figures in our dreams at transition points in our lives than at other, more stable times. Change generally brings about anxiety and self-reflection. Going from education to the workforce, singlehood to marriage, or childless to parent are some typical archetypal transitions. Many of these archetypes are very familiar to us already, because they can be found in myths, legends, fairy tales, books and movies: the wicked stepmother, the authoritative father and the vulnerable maiden. We are as familiar with the superhero in films like Spiderman or Batman, as we are with the character of the dastardly joker or villain. All these characters are archetypes, and enduring representations of basic human qualities, instincts and experiences.

The first step in analysing an archetype, as with any symbol, is through personal reference. For example, a dream about monsters may refer to our inner fears, but it may also be a carry-over from the horror film you watched the same night. The next step is to take into consideration the other images in the dream, as well as the feelings and general atmosphere.

When archetypes appear in your dreams you will rarely feel indifferent to them and your instinctive response is crucial to the interpretation. Do they make you feel angry, inspired, sad, protective, frustrated or liberated? Never forget that such images spring from the deepest levels of the unconscious, and it is up to you to discover why they have been conjured up.

Jung contributed to our understanding of dream archetypes with constructs of his own, which some dream researchers find helpful in interpreting dreams. Although Jung believed that there is no fixed number of archetypes which we can simply list and memorize, he did believe that most archetypes are aspects of the following constructs: the persona, the anima and the animus, the ego, and the shadow. As you interpret your dreams you might want to consider these constructs along with the other archetypal images suggested in the pages of this book.

Although the word archetype has a long history, Carl Jung used it to express something he observed in human dreams. He said the archetypes are a tendency or instinctive trend in the human unconscious to represent certain motifs or themes. As our instinctive urge to reproduce may show itself in consciousness as sexual fantasies, so archetypes show themselves as cenain dream, fantasy, or story themes. Just as each individual animal does not create its own instincts, we do not create our own collective thought pattern.

The influ­ence these archetypes have upon our conscious self is varied. Panly they are supportive, as instincts are to an animal.

Some ancient cultures erected a pantheon of gods and god­desses. Many of these gods were expressions of archetypal themes, such as death, rebirth and womanhood.

A sheepdog has in itself, unconsciously, a propensity to herd animals un­der direction. Through the worship of gods, perhaps ancient people touched similar reservoirs of strength and healing. Without such, the individual might find it mcre difficult to face the fact that death waits at the end of their life, or to allow sexuality to emerge into their life at pube ty.

The dream of a girl suffering from anorexia shows her cutting off her own breasts with scissors. Here her developing sexual traits and urges are unacceptable to her. Perhaps she ‘cuts them off’ by not eating, thus preventing her body and psyche from matur­ing. In the past it would have been recommended that she give offerings to a goddess, thus aligning her with an uncon­scious power to adapt and mature.

Some of these archetypal patterns of behaviour, such as territorialism and group identity, are only too obviously be­hind much that occurs in war, and their influence needs to be brought more fully into awareness. But we must be careful in accepting Jung s descnption of the archetypes. In more recent years, through the tremendously amplified access to the un­conscious made possible in psychiatry through such drugs as LSD, a lot more information about unconscious imagery has been made available.

It is possible thai certain synthesising aspects of the mind produce images to represent huge areas of collected experience, i.e. the Mystic Mother or Madonna rep­resenting our collected experience of our mother.

Whatever may be the explanation of these archetypal themes, they are imponant because they illustrate how we as individuals, and as human beings collectively, have been able to develop^ur sense of conscious identity amidst enormous forces of unconsciousness, collectivity and external stresses. Below are some common archetypal symbols and their associ­ated images.

A number of archetypes come up in dreams again and again.

Mother image: including grandmothers, stepmothers, mother-in-laws, midwives, wise women, goddesses, the Church, universities, towns, countries, heaven, earth, oceans, fields, gardens, springs, baptismal vessels, the womb, ovens, cooking pots, cows, rabbits. All these symbols stand for childhood memories, emotional connection to our mothers, difficulties in growing up, our own character traits, and more.

Serpent biting its aum tail: conscience and ego are in need of reconciliation (this is a reference to the fundamental struggle all human beings face—the polarities of good and evil, men and women, etc.).

Mandala: this symbol of circles and quadrants represent self-realization.

The archetypes listed here are just a few of the many ancient patterns that exist in human consciousness and manifest as symbolic figures, played by yourself or someone else, in your dreams.

See also SYMBOLS.