Dream Interpretation : Eight archetypes of the dream mandala- Part Two

 

There are many ways to interpret our dreams. 

In the last post about dream interpretation, I explained how to use a three-part analysis using the worlds of Gaia-inanimate (environment), non-human and the human world. From these three perspectives, you can then comprehend the overall message of the dream expressed as a positive statement after reflecting on the challenge woven into the dream.

By recognizing and balancing these inner archetypes, you can become more effective and grounded in your everyday life. Many are not aware of how their inner archetypes dominate their identity, actions and relationships. By becoming aware of those archeytpes, you can choose to express yourself in ways that are more joyful, emotionally empathic and facilite creating what you want in your life

I often incorporate these archetypes in a beginning ritual for my therapy sessions by facing the four cardinal points and speaking out loud to the dream archeyptes.

This is Part Two of Dream Interpretation taken from the channeling of the spiritual fellowship called The River. Following are further instructions about how to interpret and understand our dreams using an eight-part mandala structure. There are four main archetypes, each with a positive and negative expression, giving a total of eight facets. The River expands on this interpretation method in this session.

Julia: Can you comment on my dream about a young boy committing suicide?

River: As we said, dreams are knowledge within and without. And they should be looked upon as great messages, as ways of understanding the Self and where the Self is.

Committing suicide is a denial of some inner part. You have made a decision where part of the Self is destroyed for the greater harmony or as an external capitulation to the wants and desires of others.

There is within four main archetypes-boy, girl, man, woman. Each archetype has an immature or small expression and mature or large expression. There is immature boy, girl, man and woman; and a mature boy, girl, man and woman. By small or large we do not mean so much as the size of the parts, but how they have been developed, through choices or external environmental pressures.

By small, we mean undeveloped. Suicide is one method of not developing. Therefore, your dream is about your decision not to allow the development of the small boy within. The childlike, the male childlike part of Self. It is not a negative dream, as much for self knowledge. This is what you have done.

Julia: Who is the small boy?

River: The little boy, like the little girl, are aspects of yourself. He is an archetype that represents parts of yourself.

Julia: Can you say more about the eight dream people?

River: In each individual, there are eight poles. In each pole are the opposites, big and little. By big and little, we do not mean size, but adult, mature, healthy, versus insular, self-centered, childlike.

However, within each of the poles are negatives and positives. For example, within the boy there are positive and negative. A boy can have the positive qualities of being childlike, accepting, innocent, spontaneous. Boy in positive expression is spontaneity, honesty of being who he is at the moment, joyfully. However, there is also a negative part if that part of the individual is not developed at that time. The opposite of large boy would be small boy, the qualities of manipulation, he would be self-centered as in self-involved without any outward perspective.

Similarly, within each individual is the adult man and adult woman. The larger Self is expressed through the larger male and the larger female. This is true of men and women, for all these figures reside within at all times. Within all beings! The adult male is the aspect embodying responsibility. At the same time, it is one of protection and care of others. This is the positive side. And equally it has a negative side- domination, aggression and total selfishness, a sense of righteousness without the mediating factor of patience, love and respect.

It is easy therefore to see the wide circle of opposites that play within each individual. It is probably not necessary to go over all of them. They will be different for each individual: small boy, big boy, small girl, big girl, small woman, big woman, small man, big man... and around the circle.

Each has its opposites across the circle mandala- small girl has grown up woman opposite her. The boy has the adult man opposite him.

The integration of all these is of course instrumental in personal transformation and a great rising of the Great Net.

This is a practical human aspect of being. In this, within the dream you are sensing a human perspective of Self. It affects the spiritual, but it is more a working out during your lifetime and what you have brought forward from other lifetimes. In other words, this is a temporary structure of self in this lifetime. Fun to play with, interesting to understand, and very self-instructive about what is going on, and in others of course.

So, within the practicalities of everyday life, it is therefore instructive and interesting to know what is happening, in the deeper parts of Self. This is where dreams become important.

If you are dreaming about a small boy committing suicide, we would suggest that you view it as your own inner small boy.  View it as the negative of what the small boy has the potential of being. A small boy committing suicide probably is that you're asking the negative part of small boy to destroy itself for the greater good. Leaving room for its opposite to assume more importance for the integration of All. Is this understood?

Julia: Yes.

River: Perhaps in the writing it would be easy for you then to construct the circle and within the circle, plot out the positives and the negatives, and the lessons that are being learned at each stage. However, we caution that it is only at this lifetime. It is a fun project.

 

To clarify how a dream can be interpreted using this structure, let’s analyze a dream I had recently. 

In this dream, I was applying for a job. A young woman was helping me, using A.I. to create a profile online for me. We were changing the profile and the picture. Then I prepared for the job interview. I asked the young woman is I could borrow a dance costume to take to the interview. She encouraged me to take a costume, and I found a tutu and pointe shoes which I stuffed into my pack.

When I got to the interview, I met an adolescent boy who told me that the costume was his. I asked him if I could borrow it. He reluctantly consented but I felt he already knew I was borrowing the costume and just wanted to be prissy about it.

Interpretation:

I am the adult woman who is looking for a new job, with a new profile and expression. This is the adult woman archetype in positive expression.

I am aided by a young woman who is the mature girl, passionate, connected, whole. She encourages me to take a dance costume, which is a colourful, artful expression of who I am. When I dance, I feel the most whole.

There is no adult man in this dream, but I feel that the interview was with an adult man. A position yet to be realized.

The adolescent boy represents the boy in his immature expression, possessive, dependent, self-centered. He knows I have a costume which probably belongs to his positive expression of adventure and fearlessness. But he holds back and questions my having the costume.

The message of this dream is for me to be courageous and outrageously myself -after all who brings a tutu and pointe shoes to a job interview? I often shrink from sharing my thoughts because I think very differently from most people. My apprenticeship with the River has put me in an awkward position of knowing unique ways to understand ourselves, but the way I learned these techniques can be considered bizarre and unreliable by many. I must calm the immature boy within who is insecure, lacking confidence and afraid of being seen.

Of course, what is expressed inwardly can also be found outwardly. I’m sure if you look at the outer world, you can identify these aspects in others. Especially now, the small boy archetype is dominating the entire human mandala outerwardly. For balance, the positive aspects of adult man must be brought into expression. 

What is opposite in the mandala is the antidote for any inner and outer imbalance.

If you use this method for interpreting your dreams, let me know how it went for you in the comments. 

Be well and dance on in your own uniqueness!