The Nightly Language of the Psyche

Dreams in
Jungian Analysis

The royal road to the unconscious

Dreams are not noise. They are the psyche's most direct communication with itself — nightly dispatches from the unconscious in its own symbolic language. Jung considered dreams the primary source of psychological material, and their interpretation the central art of analysis.

Water Tree Sun Moon Nakedness Nightmares Fish Flying Maze Fire

Dreams & the Unconscious

The dress rehearsal
for life itself

Dreams have been described as the "dress rehearsal" for life. As this implies, they cover much varied ground, trying out many possibilities that the future could hold in store, before the flesh-and-blood live performance is acted out once and for all.

Their scope in the realm of the potential is enormous: they are far too free and extravagant to be fitted into any kind of mould, but they do all arise from the most primitive part of the mind and are determined more by the strength of the emotions within than by any other consideration. It is this primitive and emotional content that is their essential value.

Through dreams the individual can make contact with the roots of his being and his own true needs. In a crisis, when his life is particularly threatened, a person usually has his most vivid and meaningful dreams — all the more effective if he pays attention to them and respects them.

"Dreams are also disconcertingly honest, so that unless the individual is prepared to be completely sincere, it is a waste of time to unearth their hidden meaning, only to reject it out of hand."

— T. Chetwynd

"Each dream is practice in entering the underworld, a preparation of the psyche for death — and for whatever transformation awaits in the depths. The dream is not a message to be decoded but an experience to be undergone."

— James Hillman

"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness."

— C.G. Jung

Water

Unconscious · Rebirth · The Feminine

Spiritual rebirth, cleansing, and the mysterious realm of the unconscious

In dreams as in baptism, water is an image of spiritual rebirth as well as of cleansing. It is also a symbol of the mysterious realm of the feminine — the unconscious and womanhood. Water holds what is most ancient in the psyche: the formless potential before form, the deep before the word.

Bathing

Moral purification — the washing away of what no longer belongs.

Flood

Destructive aspect of the life force; chaos that inundates and engulfs beyond the dreamer's control.

Fountain

Rebirth; the inner fount of life welling up from below.

River

Life, and the twists and turns of fortune.

Sea / Ocean

The original chaos; the cold, inhuman cosmic unconscious.

Well

Resources and gifts of great value — what has been preserved in the depths.

"Water is the commonest symbol for the unconscious. The lake in the valley is the unconscious, which lies, as it were, underneath consciousness."

— T. Chetwynd

Tree

The world axis — connecting Heaven, Earth, and Underworld

Axis Mundi · Growth · The Self

The tree of life, with its widely ramifying branches, represents the process of growth and development, linked with the idea of the family tree that unites the human race. It represents the Axis Mundi — the world axis connecting three realms: Heaven, Earth, and Underworld. The tree is a means of ascent to higher consciousness and an image of the True Self, man's essential nature.

Forest / Woods

The unconscious. Place of reflection and encounters with supernatural forces and beings — where the ego loses its bearings.

Roots

The hidden foundations of the personality; ancestral inheritance; what nourishes from below.

Climbing

Ascent toward consciousness; spiritual aspiration; the will to rise above the ordinary.

"The tree of life is the living structure of the Self — at once rooted in the earth and reaching toward the light, holding the tension between above and below."

— T. Chetwynd

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Sun

Ego · Consciousness · Divine Power

The lord of the daylit world — the symbol of conscious ego and its limits

The Sun became the symbol of the personal conscious ego as it rose to prominence some three thousand years ago. The solar cult gave birth to a brood of opposites: the Sun divides light from dark, masculine from feminine, life from death. Symbolically identified with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, it represents the Ego that is mortal — that must die each evening and hope to rise.

With the rise of the solar cult, buildings are oriented toward the Sun and the sacred year arranged around solstices and equinoxes. The Sun gives birth to the realm of opposites. Its journey measures time, destiny, and the life of the Ego — dying and hoping to rise.

"The solar cult spotlights the day and then dies. His journey measures time, destiny, the journey of your life, and the Ego dying — and hoping to rise."

— T. Chetwynd

Moon

The oldest measurer of time — the changeless essence beneath changing forms

Transformation · Time · The Many-Faced

The Moon is the oldest measurer of Time, and was one display of the Divine Power of Time and Number. Staying the same through many transformations, the Moon is a symbol of the One-in-the-many — the changeless essence underlying the many changing forms.

Passing swiftly through the different quarters of the sky and five main phases, the single moon takes on many characteristics. It is itself the transforming Trickster and Magician — but it also receives different names and titles in its different aspects, which then became separate figures and in due course were revered as distinct Divine Powers.

New Moon

Beginnings; the seed of new potential; possibility not yet manifest.

Full Moon

Completion; heightened emotion; the unconscious at its most active and visible.

Eclipse

Temporary loss of consciousness; a threshold moment; transformation through darkness.

"Jungian psychology is particularly concerned with relating back to the Moon period of man's evolution, still lying in his collective unconscious, with its many faces and figures that merge into each other in a magical, imaginal way."

— T. Chetwynd

Nakedness

Persona · Truth · Vulnerability

The desire to drop the persona — and the fear of what remains

Being naked in a dream represents the individual's desire to remove his façade, or persona — to drop all pretenses and be himself for a change. But this will also make him defenceless. This desire to be less secretive, less on the defensive, more open and frank may be directed at one particular person, someone with whom the dreamer wishes to get beyond mere social formalities.

Being stripped down

Exposing natural instincts; revealing one's own inadequacy or shortcomings; a feeling of inferiority or guilt.

Others disapprove

The dreamer fears that if he lets others see him as he really is, they will disapprove.

Nobody notices

An attempt by the unconscious to rectify the individual's exaggerated self-consciousness.

Nightmares

Urgent messages from the Guiding Self — what can no longer be ignored

Urgency · Shadow · Transformation

Nightmares usually constitute urgent messages from the Guiding Self about hitherto unheard, denied, or inadequately considered material. They may point to new problems and adaptations far from the dreamer's ego attitude — frightening intruders into the habitually comfortable psychological space. They expose outgrown limitations and constitute invitations to development that the dreamer fears to risk.

Nightmares serve to support the death of the currently held ego attitude — as such they may include dreams of dying or dismemberment. Other nightmares repeat traumatic situations as if to force their confrontation by the dreamer and to assist in the process of reaching some conscious relationship to stressful and threatening energies.

"The nightmare is not an enemy. It is the psyche doing its most urgent work — confronting what consciousness has refused to carry."

— E. Whitmont & S. Brinton Perera

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Fish

The Depths · Renewal · The Unconscious

Contents of the deeper layers of the unconscious — treasure from the depths

Fish represents the contents of the deeper layers of the unconscious mind. As one of the primitive ancestors in the scale of evolution, the fish refers to the remote past and comes from a profoundly alien underworld. The saving power of renewal and rebirth may be symbolized by fish, which are often the equivalent of the treasure in the depths of a cave or well.

Fishing

Keeping conscious mind anchored to reality while trying to catch the treasures of the unconscious.

Eating fish

Renewal, rebirth — fish as miraculous food; assimilating what comes from the deep.

Being eaten by a fish

Being swallowed by the unconscious; the story of Jonah — dark period of replenishment before rebirth.

Whale

The realm of the feminine — the unconscious or the mother in her vast, containing aspect.

Flying

The wish to escape the pull of the earth — and the danger of leaving it too far behind

Transcendence · Inflation · Freedom

Flying represents the wish to escape the pull of the earth. Flight from humdrum everyday earthly existence, with all its tedious responsibilities — and therefore often flight into the realms of daydream and fantasy. The desire for freedom may have a more spiritual foundation: soaring toward the celestial, the heavenly; the longing for immortality.

On the practical level, the dreamer may wish to transcend and overcome difficulties, to lift himself above the complicated ruts and patterns of life, or to elevate himself above other people. The ecstasy of flight may also carry a physical dimension — feeling light as air; the compensatory pleasure for a life too heavy with obligation.

Flying very high

Inflation — the ego claiming more than it can hold; the Icarus dynamic; spiritual hubris.

Unable to land

The wish to escape may lead to total lack of realism — feet permanently off the ground.

Flying effortlessly

Genuine freedom; integration of spirit and matter; the psyche at ease with its own movement.

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Maze

Initiation · The Centre · True Self

The devious ways that lead to finding your centre — and then getting out

The labyrinth represents the devious ways that lead to finding your centre, your essential point, or True Self — and then getting out to apply this to everyday life. The maze is in the route of spiritual initiation. It is Death that waits at the centre, whether in the shape of the Minotaur or the Cross. Death is the entry to the underworld where the perspective of Soul can be gained.

The masculine Ego tries to go direct to the centre and misses completely. Only the feminine muddle — a bundle of complexes — matches the complexity of life. Only the feminine Soul can get in and out. Mazes were placed near the entrance at the West doors of Gothic cathedrals, representing the Way of the Pilgrim — fraught with obstacles; an alternative to the Way of the Cross.

"The labyrinth is the journey itself. Every wrong turn is part of the initiation — the ego learns that it cannot navigate by will alone."

— T. Chetwynd

Fire

The alchemical force that burns away what is no longer essential

Purification · Calcinatio · Renewal

Fire in dreams corresponds to the alchemical operation of calcinatio — the reduction of a substance to ash by burning. Psychologically it represents the fire of affect, passion, and frustration that reduces inflated positions to nothing, making space for new growth. Fire is both destroyer and purifier; it annihilates form to release what the form was containing.

Fire also carries the quality of inspiration and divine gift — Prometheus stole fire from the gods, and paid for it eternally. In dreams, fire that cannot be controlled speaks to overwhelming emotion or the eruption of the shadow. Fire tended carefully suggests the capacity to bear intensity without being consumed by it.

Uncontrolled Fire

Overwhelming affect; rage or passion exceeding the ego's capacity to hold it; psychic emergency.

Hearth / Candle

Warmth; the tended inner life; consciousness as a small, precious flame in the darkness.

Being burned

Calcinatio — necessary suffering that purifies; the burning away of ego attachments and rigidity.

Rising from Ash

Renewal after destruction; the phoenix dynamic; new identity emerging from the old one's collapse.

Dreams in
Jungian Analysis

The dress rehearsal
for life itself

Water

Tree

Sun

Moon

Nakedness

Nightmares

Fish

Flying

Maze

Fire

Dreams are the beginning of inner work.

Navigation

Contact

Dreams in Jungian Analysis

The dress rehearsalfor life itself

Water

Tree

Sun

Moon

Nakedness

Nightmares

Fish

Flying

Maze

Fire

Dreams are the beginning of inner work.

Navigation

Contact

Dreams in
Jungian Analysis

The dress rehearsal
for life itself