· The dream ego (you in the dream) is the least trustworthy. Your unconscious is creating a scene to show you how you’re approaching things in life, and to try and evoke a different response or association in waking life. The goal is to have a conscious relationship to your unconscious, to encourage and maintain a conversation between the two.
· Every person/thing in a dream is an aspect of yourself. Although you can look at things subjectively (your partner is reflective of your waking-life partner), it’s just as important, if not more important, to look at things objectively (your partner is a projected aspect of yourself).
· A dream will ALWAYS be telling you something you don’t already know. If you find yourself immediately saying “I know what this dream means”, it probably isn’t the case. The dream is meant to give you a message from the unconscious, something you haven’t considered yet, otherwise there would be no point in having the dream.
· Look at the aspects of the dream objectively. If there are stairs – stairs are something that can transport you from one space to another – this is the symbol the unconscious is trying to use to illustrate movement in the psyche. A refrigerator stores and preserves the ‘food’ of your individual life – where could this be reflected in waking life?
· Always consider personal associations before you look at archetypal amplifications. Maybe there’s an apple in your dream – apples can be linked to so many mythological references, but you grew up on an apple orchard – your unconscious cares about YOU first. If you have no personal associations with apples, then it may be helpful to see where it’s coming from in the collective.
· The story arch of the dream is important. Where you begin in the dream will be indicative of what psychic territory your unconscious is focusing on – a childhood home (a mindset from the past), your job (actual work or inner work), an art studio (creativity), a grocery store (nurturance, energy, decisions), etc. Then, try to find where the ‘conflict’ or shift happens, something unexpected or something that sparks an emotion. This is where the unconscious is trying to get you to pay attention to your emotional responses, especially because the emotion is true but our ego isn’t giving them the proper attention. The resolution is then the scene in which the Dream Maker shows how you are currently handling the situation. Maybe you stormed away, you almost died, you felt confused, etc. Once analyzing the dream in waking life, you can start to find where you ‘went wrong’ in the dream, and get closer to the emotional impact this part of your psyche is trying to get you to experience. If there isn’t a complete arch to a dream, that doesn’t mean something is wrong, it means your psyche hasn’t made up its own mind yet about where it wants to take you. There can be ways in the outer world to encourage your unconscious to tell you more.
· There are other Jungian associations – such as shadow, Anima/Animus, complexes, the Self, etc. – I can get into those individually and make separate posts about them, but for now I think just engaging in the dream with these concepts in mind are enough for those just starting out, and/or those that need to kick up their dream-making.