Dreaming of Psyche

A reflection of some disorderly state of mind; conflict in your psyche.

Mother

Basic meaning: Older, wiser, more experienced part of feminine self aspect; the unconscious; intuition; natural and instinctive life; your relationship with your mother.

(1) A dream about your mother may be telling you something about your relationship with your mother. Mother-attachment may be so strong that the development of your own individuality has been prevented. Inner independence of mother is the first great step towards realizing your true self.

(2) In a mansdream, mother may symbolize the feminine side of his psyche.

(3) Mother may symbolize the unconscious; intuitive self; natural instinctive life; the source of nourishment and growth for the psyche.

Father

Basic meaning: Wiser, more mature masculine aspect of self; straightforward representation of your father.

(1) For men, father may be a conscience figure. If this is the case, bear in mind that your father's prohibitions and commands will probably represent either conventional moral options which may have no relevance to your true nature or "destiny", or irrational fears and feelings of guilt that began to take shape in you in earlychildhood.

(2) For a woman, father may figure in a dream as one who generates affection.

(3) The presence of your father may be a straightforward representation of him, or of the way you see/remember him (which may owe more to your subjective distortions than to what your father actually is or was). In any case, the reason for your father appearing in the dream will be shown by the part he plays in the dream story.

(4) If your father features in the dream as a protector, it may be that you need to "grow up" and rely on your own resources. After all, life can hurt you only if you let it, only if you identify with your emotional self instead of with that deep layer of yourself that is immune to life's pains and perils.

(5) Father may be an animus figure (see Glossary of Jungian Termnology), representing a womans(unconscious) masculine qualities. In this case, the dream may be suggesting that she should cultivate this countrasexual side of her nature.

(6) Frequent appearances by eithet parent, or both, in dreams may be a sign that you have not thrown off an infantile over-dependence on them. Jung cites a young man's dreamin which the mansfather appeared as a drunken driver, smashing his car into a wall. This is the exact opposite of the real father, who was a most respectable person, rightly - but too too much - respected by the son. What the unconscious was doing through the dream was dethroning the father in order to enable the son to achieve a proper sense of himself as a person in his own right, with his own unique destiny and values.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

The spiritual aspect within the psyche. Hot air colliding with cold air may indicate opposite forces within your life.

Old parts of the psyche that inform the senses with truth instead of ego-centered desires and impulses. Your wise, mature self.

{1} A head may be a symbol of intellect: rational as distinct from intuitive thought {see Personality Types}.

{2} It may symbolize the conscious ego as distinct from the unconscious {which might be represented by the abdomen or solar plexus}.

{3} It may be a symbol of masculinity.

{4} A monstrous, horrifying head probably represents negative - because repressed - drives or processes in your unconscious. Try to follow Perseus" example. The Gorgons" eyes turned to stone anyone they looked at; but when Perseus succeeded in cutting off Medusa's head, the winged horse Pegasus sprang from her body. This may be seen as symbolizing the psychic or spiritual development that results from facing up to whatever is fearsome in one's unconscious.

{5} A two-headed creature may symbolize either duality, antagonistic opposites in your psyche or the {needed} union, or bringing together, of opposing psychic qualities/functions/forces - for example, masculine and feminine; conscious and unconscious.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Original aspects that within the psyche pertain to masculine behaviour {see anima/animus}. Temptations, and the consequences. Patriarchal thinking, masculine over feminine. Imbalance.

Part of your psyche. Connection to emotions, attitudes.

The mystical power of the psyche. The metaphysical aspect of the human animal.

The difference between suppressing a desire and repressing it is that suppression is done consciously and repression is done unconsciously. Neither suppression nor repression, however, is a satisfactory solution to a personal problem. Both result in an inflated super-ego {conscience} and a more troublesome shackled and frustrated id {instinctive drives}.

By looking at your dream carefully and, above all, honestly, you can get to know what repressed desires you are carrying around with you. And that puts you into a position to work out for yourself a strategy which will allow these desires satisfaction and fulfillment in ways that will enhance your well-being and happiness and restore peace and harmony to your psyche.

An unbridled satisfying of each and every desire is likely to play havoc with the psyche, pulling it in all directions and destroying harmony and peace, and reducing rather than enhancing your happiness, as well as seriously damaging your effectiveness. Such a complete lack of control usually goes hand in hand with a complete ignorance of what forces are at work in one's unconscious depths. Sooner or later what is repressed will insist on having an outlet, and if there is no knowledge and therefore no rational control of what has been repressed, the latter may take possession of the psyche, destroying what is good and beautiful in it and almost inevitably doing hurt to other people, too.

Understanding your dreams, therefore, is a duty you owe both to yourself and your fellow human beings.

Demons in dreams probably represent parts of your unconscious mind that have been repressed and neglected and are now threatening to disrupt or mutilate the psyche. They should be approached lovingly, given attention and integrated into your conscious life. This will bring about their "conversion": They will cease to threaten and will contribute their vital energies to the enhancement of the self.

Self-knowledge - knowing what we are carrying around with us in our unconscious - is the only sure defence against what in ancient times was called demonic possession, which in psychological terms means the conscious ego being taken over by unconscious forces {obsessive fear or anger, or whatever}.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Devil

Basic Meaning - A fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, when acknowledged the very forces that could bestow a harmonious and balanced life.

(1) The Satan of Jewish - Christian - Islamic tradition was originally a horned fertility god, a personification of the fertilizing power of Nature {the tradition of God is separate from Nature}. In psychological terms, a fertilizing agent is something within the psyche that can inaugurate a new phase in the individual's development.

(2) The evil connotations of the devil figure may reflect the dreamer's fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, in fact, the very forces that - if mobilized and utilized - could bestow a new and fuller life. What we repress is invariably something that had great value for us but on some occasion in the past gave rise to guilt-feelings or a fear of punishment. It is our fears that invest the unconscious with the fearsome characteristics of a dark underworld inhabited by evil monsters. In reality, the unconscious contains all the energy and wisdom we need for healing and wholeness.

It might be said that our fundamental human task is the conversion of the devil within ourselves, that is, converting negatively charged {dissident, destructive} psychic forces into positively charged {life-enhancing and unifying} powers. But you won't convert the devil with brute force, only with love. The negatively charged psychic forces are the ones you neglect and despise or fear. They become positively charged when you acknowledge them and integrate them into your conscious life.

If we do not recognize the "devil" within ourselves, we shall project him onto others and thereby give more scope for hatred and destruction {the real devil!} in the world.

{3} In certain contexts - if, for example, he has horns or is sexually involved with naked women - the devil may be a sexual symbol. If sexuality is repressed in such a guise in a woman's dream, it is possibly because she has a fear of sexual relations. In a man's dreamthe indication might be that he has a guilt-ridden attitude towards his own sexuality {which Freud might trace back to anxiety arising out of the normal male infant's erotic feelings for his mother}.

Demons

Demons in dreams probably represent parts of your unconscious mind that have been repressed and neglected and are now threatening to disrupt or mutilate the psyche. They should be approached lovingly, given attention and integrated into your conscious life. This will bring about their "conversion": They will cease to threaten and will contribute their vital energies to the enhancement of the self.

Self-knowledge - knowing what we are carrying around with us in our unconscious - is the only sure defence against what in ancient times was called demonic possession, which in psychological terms means the conscious ego being taken over by unconscious forces {obsessive fear or anger, or whatever}.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

(1) This may be a sexual symbol, representing male genitals. As such it would appear in a woman's dreams and might express a fear of sex, or an ambivalent fear - fascination feeling towards it.

(2) The frog may symbolize the unconscious, or some part or function of the psyche that still lies buried in your unconscious, perhaps something that you find horrifying or disgusting because of some traumatic experiences that gave rise to anxiety and/or guilt feelings.

{3} Perhaps the frog in your dream comes from the story of the Frog-Prince. In the story a young woman is visited in her bed by a frog. At first, the girl is horrified and pushes the frog away. On the third night, however, she relents, and in the ensuing embrace the frog is transformed into a handsome prince.

Ernest Jones, a follower and biographer of Freud, says this is a story of a virgin overcoming her sexual fear.

For Joseph Campbell, an authority on mythology and a Jungian, the frog in the story symbolizes the unconscious, which at first sight is frightening but, when assimilated by the conscious ego, reveals itself for what it is - the total psyche, beautiful and true.

One might add that in both these interpretations what brings about the psyches transformation is a sexual embrace, but in the second interpretation it is an inner embrace, an intermingling and mutual penetration of the masculine and feminine sides of the psyche.

Note

Jung tells us that there are at least two interpretations to every dream. Both the interpretations, Jones and Campbell, could very well be applicable to the dream. One is a need to overcome an outward personal fear, and at the same time a need to delve into the unconscious and overcome the frightening aspects that unconsciously controls one's life.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Grace and strength which may symbolize fertility - the power of growth within your psyche. If repressed, it could mean destructive/threatening forces in the unconscious.

The beach is the meeting place of two worlds, land and sea, which may symbolize the conscious and unconscious realms of the human psyche. Perhaps there is something within your unconscious that the conscious mind needs to acknowledge. Dreaming that you are looking toward the beach, suggests that you are returning to what is familiar to you. Alternatively, you may be adapting or accepting to the changes and circumstances in your life.

If the child in your dream is you as a child, the significance of the dream may have to do with a childhood experience.

The child may be a symbol of your true self, That which is essentially you and which you are capable of unfolding. The fact that your real self is represented by a child suggests that your true self is a a beautiful unspoilt product of Nature; that is worthy of unreserved love; and that it needs the nourishment of your love if it is to grow.

The child may represent the transcendent nature of the self; it is much more than just your conscious ego or your present image of yourself; it holds together the opposites that are within you, "head" and "heart", extroversion and introversion, masculine and feminine.

The child may represent a new beginning, a new development in your psyche - a new attitude to life, a new set of values, a new reconciliation of previously conflicting forces.

There is in all of us a child - our emotional self - that often needs reassurance, to be told that all is well and there is no cause for fear, or anger, or guilt, and that love makes all things good and dissolves all pain. At the same time the child sometimes needs to be chided and corrected if it is eventually to - as it should - grow up.

In a woman's dream it may represent the animus. The bull may refer to your masculinity (whether you are male or female).The taming of a bull may signify the harmonious integration of your animality, especially your sexuality, or the whole of the hidden, unconscious part of your psyche. The bull may symbolize fertility, as in mythology. Your unconscious has the power to bring about new life if you allow it to penetrate your conscious mind. May represent your true nature - as seen when one practices self exploration of the psyche. May symbolize stubbornness, strong will, strength, and power. Bulls are also symbolic of repressed sexual energies, fertility and virility. Dreaming of an untamed, raging bull represents that your passions may be out of control.

A symbol of the feminine characteristics of your psyche. A basket full of fruit may represent well-being. An empty basket may represent personal feelings of emptiness. It may also represent things you are holding onto.