exploring the unconscious world of Dreams through Myth, Symbols & Metaphor
Dream Psychology & Theories
Psyche -
Greek word for 'soul'. The 'totality' of the conscious and unconscious life. The mind considered as an organic system reaching
all parts of the body and serving to adjust the total organism to the needs or demands of the environment.
The Self Wholeness - The Totally Integrated Psyche
Ego -
Latin for ' I
'. The center of the individual's field of consciousness which provides unity and continuity for the personality.
The individual as aware of him/herself.
Collective Unconscious - The inheritance of the collective experience of humankind, storing humanity's experiences in the form of archetypes that unconsciously predispose us to organize our personal experiences in certain ways. Archetypes shape the content of our dreams, emerging in various forms as archetypial images.
Individuation - - self-realization, or full and balanced personal development. It can be achieved by exploring your unconscious [past and present events, often repressed or forgotten] and paying
attention to it when it 'speaks' to you in your dreams.
Demeter / Persephone: An archetype of healing. Like our own wounded inner child, Persephone, had been abducted
into the dark Hades of her unconscious patterns and process. She was lovingly searched for
and assisted by Demeter, her mentoring mother. Their annual reunion, depicted here, was
celebrated by the Greeks as the Rite of Spring. Illumined by the torch of insight, Persephone
has returned to the upper world; Demeter blesses her with a sheaf of grain symbolizing nurture
and renewal.This image offers a powerful metaphor for the psychotherapeutic process.
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're
really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life's experiences on the purely physical
plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.... Joseph Campbell