Archetypes in Dreams

Archetypes

Excerpted from Dream Theatres of the Soul
by Jean Benedict Raffa, EdD

The contents of the collective unconscious are called "archetypes," which means they are original (i.e.,primal), inherited patterns, or forms of thought and experience. They are the ancient, unconscious source of much that we think, do, and say as human beings. They are the "givens" in our psychological makeup, the patterns that shape our perceptions of the world, the furnishings that are present in our psychological home from the moment of birth. We inherit the same forms, but each of us fills in the content by the way we experience our lives. Thus, Father might be a positive archetype to one person, but it might be filled with negative meaning for another.

Archetypes can be loosely compared to the instincts of animals. For example, birds instinctively know how to build nests and all the birds of a species build the exact same kind of nest. The bird is unaware that it has a special instinct for a particular form of nest building. Nevertheless, it does. Or we could say that dogs, as a species, are psychologically patterned to be loyal and obedient to the archetype of Master.

Master is an archetype that is strongly developed in dogs; however, it does not appear to be an archetype that exists in the psyches of giraffes, snails, or buffaloes.

Humans are the same way. Archetypes that exist in humans include Male and Female, God and the Devil, Goddess and Witch, Father and Brother, Mother and Sister, Dragon, Lion, Priest, Lover, Hero, Tree, Snake, and so on.

We humans automatically inherit the outlines of these archetypes, fill them in with colors and details of our individual experiences, attach meaning to them, and project them into the outer world.

Archetypes are neither good nor bad. They simply are. Archetypes are not susceptible to being sugarcoated or tamed by civilization; they live an autonomous existence at the root of our psyches in their original raw and primitive states. To most humans, with our limited awareness of the naturalcycles of life and our fear of suffering, certain archetypal qualities seem good and others seem bad. We are attracted to the "positive," creating, nurturing aspects of Mother, for example, but terrified of her "negative" qualities such as her terrible fierce possessiveness, or her power of life and death over us.

Because of our fascination with, and fear of, these unknown qualities within us, when an archetype appears in a dream it can have an especially powerful impact. If a positive or likeable aspect of Lion, Dragon, Mother, Father, Goddess, or God appears in a dream, we may wake up feeling fascinated with the dream - it feels mysterious and meaningful. The meaning behind this kind of dream is often more profound than the meanings behind dreams that have to do with our daily lives. An archetypal dream may have something to do with our life’s journey: our striving for individuation,
the unification of our masculine and feminine potential, or our initiation into the sacred realm.

But when an archetype appears in a dream in its negative or most primitive guise, it can disrupt our sleep in terrifying nightmares. Then we want to run and hide. We want to forget the dream as soon as we can, for it feels dangerous and threatening to our well-being. We cannot prevent these contents of the collective unconscious from appearing in our dreams, nor can we domesticate them, but we can diminish their power to interfere with our waking lives by paying attention to what they tell us about ourselves. Accepting the fact that we contain the potential for vile and inhuman behavior can be a humbling experience that teaches us tolerance, compassion, and empathy; when we know that the archetypal evil lives within ourselves, we are far less apt to point an accusatory finger at someone else.

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