Jerry,

Thanks yet again for your informative response Jerry. It is always a pleasure to see a person fill their life with fulfillment and love. I am delighted to hear about your spiritual journey leading into helping others (myself included!) as well as into creative endeavours. It is rather beautiful.
I like your non academic jungian approach. It seems one of the more common pitfalls of the jungian approach is that it is seductive to look for the big dreams for the noumenal archetypal touch in every dream but this can end up being a false hype. Letting the dream speak for itself is no doubt the best approach and I definitely agree about the anima it is a concept which really revealed a lot when I came across it and bore a lot of fruit in my dreamwork. As for the shadow this was also a big revelation but it has not borne as much fruit. In fact I've been tempted since speaking to you here to delve back into my dreams and explore with an eye to shadow elements for no doubt they are the parts I would naturally not want to focus on whereas the anima is a lot more flowery and seductive and invites exploration.
"I do my best to simplify as much of my analysis as possible, articulating what I see within a dream in words that can be understood with only a degree in life and not psychology."
∆ I really enjoy this sentiment.

As for what you say about the childhood years I have many thoughts and feelings on this. I find it so fascinating and it is something that is really new and exciting for me in my dream work. I'm still not sure how to use it and so I am seeking to learn from you for I really enjoyed your interpretation of my dream and I've been looking at some of your other work and its fascinating to me its a tool you definitely bear a lot of fruit with. I agree with this multiple level idea and it seems to have been something jung and then hillman tried to accept. Jung at first saying stick to the image which I take to be keeping Freud in line since yes you can trace back to the childhood years but that is not what the dream is speaking about but what it betrays in the sense that it is part of the dreaming psyche if that makes sense. Hillman seems to go further in saying the same and applying it to Jung as well saying yes we can go off into the archetypes and off into the childhood but stick to the image. Im not such a fan of Hillman. But again I think there are just avenues which open up but the childhood avenue is never one I've known how to integrate into my own practice and so to discover you has been a very pleasant encounter! As for the Freud vs Jung argument while the childhood certainly has a massive and primary role it is not final our fate is not written so early I feel that the individuation process is not greatly important and effective. It is like a second interaction with the developments of the childhood years a chance to play more of a role in this conditioning.
What you say about joe Campbell certainly resonates I read his hero with a thousand faces in my travels and the symmetry of the physical as well as the psychological nature of the journey certainly struck a chord with me. I also know what you mean with lucid dreaming. It can just be a play pen. My intention had been to engage my subconscious in my lucid dreaming and interact with it. As it turns out this intention has come to fruition through my dreamwork.
I am going to post another of my dreams on the board after this response jerry but before I finish I want to ask you about a couple of things. I read your guide to dream interpretation and one thing I came across was your three things to pick out in the dream: the images the phrases and the patterns. While I fully get the images and I think I understand the patterns of behaviours I was having trouble understanding what you were aiming at with the phrases describing actions. Could you help make this clearer for me perhaps using either this dream or my next one? And maybe some examples of the patterns of behaviour as well if you could?
Also one more question about jungian dreamwork what do you think of active imagination. I mean obviously it's not a technique you can take advantage of on here but do you find it useful in your own dreamwork?

Thanks a million,
Jimmy

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23 now in canada (previously travelling Australia) but from Ireland

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Jimmy,
Thanks for the detailed response. I'll give a brief response of my own and then take a look at your latest dream.

It is not often I get to have a conversation with someone who has god knowledge of Jungian psyche. I stopped trying to converse with academic types because they are so intent on the strict application of Jungian concepts. Plus few have real life experiences or intuitive mind to compliment the depth knowledge Jung provides. I feel my life experiences are largely responsible for my ability to intuitively understand dreams since many of those experiences involved emotional energies most people experience in life. I also believe my learned/developed people skills provides great insights that are helpful {I worked as a health codes inspector/enforcement for 12 years before starting a fence construction business for which I retired after 34 years}. The one thing I have learned from working with dreams that fits with life in general is good common sense goes a long way in understanding what is and what isn't.

As to the question about the phrases describing actions. When you read my analysis/interpretations you will notice how I mention my interpretation of images and actions. An image alone doesn't always provide a right direction or true description or intent of what the dream is attempting to communicate. Although I interpret an image itself I take into context the actions involved when the image appears as well as how it applies to what has been stated already in the dream. I look at a dream as a production, a script of the dreamer's emotional life. Just as a with a play or movie production there has to be a plot that comes together. Just like a good play/movie production dreams have complex twists and turns. Being a big fan of the old Sherlock Holmes movies I see myself as a sleuth of dreams, taking the available evidence as well what is not available {common sense plays well with this} and finding patterns that fit together. Dreams are like a picture puzzle with a proper place for each piece. When the pieces {images/actions} begin to fit together to form a picture then I intuitive sense a direction as well as an emotional pattern take form. An image a lone says a lot but the actions that go with the image says a lot more. As with all patterns {I'm thinking of neurons as an example} there are related actions to the central energy {the image} that allows us to understand not only the direction it is headed but from what direction it came. In dreams/psychology the foundations begin in childhood with those experiences/influences being imprinted on the psyche. Going back to the source of anything will reveal its underlying foundations, even if it does change into a butterfly from a caterpillar later in life. The image of a butterfly doesn't properly describe the intricate journey it took to reach its maturity.

As for active imagination. That is one aspect of the individuation process I have not actively investigated as a tool to wholeness. Of course just by working with dreams we are bridging conscious and the unconscious. By translating the images in dreams we are participating in active imaging but not as a meditation used in the various methods offered by different techniques. Plus I used my imagination in my web design, my creative outlet of self expression. While I was self analyzing my own life and discovering who I really am I used my websites {Myths-Dreams-Symbols in particular} as a way to express what was within. This was my path to self imaging as well as a way to be creative. Unfortunately I have had too little time in the past several months to work with my creative self and because of the demands of my dream work, caring for my cat population and maintaining a home I have lost touch with that creative self. It is there, incubating but utilizing it at this time is on the back burner.

I'll take a look at your latest dream. It will take a little time to analyze because of its length so it will be tomorrow at the earliest before I will be able to interpret the images/actions and the dream {I have begun to provide a breakdown of how I interpret the images/actions for most dreams}.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 65 Cocoa, Fl

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