"THE HOUSE"

By Dr. Toni

We have all seen the book(s) claiming to be a "DICTIONARY OF DREAMS", but do these book have any value?

For the most part, I believe these books to be useless, taking the stand that the only common images in dreams, are archetypal in nature. Everything else is personal and is is meaningful only when one understands the value the individual places on the image.

That being said. Let's talk about common images.

In the world of Jungian Psychology, there are "Archetypes" and they seem to appear in the dreams of many individuals. These range from dreams of people to objects. Would you recognize "the wise old man", or the "trickster"? How about old "Satan" himself? Then there are those mysterious "SHADOW" figures that forever chase us down endless streets.

I've listened to many dreams and the dream that I find really interesting is the HOUSE dream.

Every client, without fail, ends up telling me a "House" dream. It always starts with these words, "I was in this house.... and although I knew it was MY house, it didn't look like my place at all..."

And so begins the journey through the "many rooms".

These rooms , typically, reveal elements of the individuals psyche that have not yet surfaced but are ready to transcend into consciousness for a little digestion.

Some have the dream after many months of analysis, and find that they are climbing up the stairs of the house in order to find the door OUT. After so many months of searching, this individual is almost at exhaustion and needs a vacation from the psyche. I usually suggest a real vacation at this point and the client will always says "I was just thinking the same thing!"

Some dream of finding hidden staircases, with mysterious locks on doors that lead forever downward to floors that haven't been explored in years.

I've found the deeper the client can go into the "house", the more archetypal and primitive the information becomes. By the time we are into the basement and digging around in the dirt, we are at the basic primitive psyche. I know a client has a strong desire to individuate when we can explore dreams that travel this deeply into the structure of the house. Often the dream may not take us there, but we can explore further through "Inner Work" which is done through verbal active imagination.

Ritual is very important. The unconscious needs to hear that we are listening. It can only hear symbolic gestures. We need to do something dramatic. Something either destructive or creative to get it's attention. When we respond in this manor, the unconscious will offer us more information and push us even further along the road to self awareness. If we don;t respond, it will keep giving us the same "Lessons" over and over. I often suggest, to the artistically inclined, that one re-construct the house in a drawing. Maybe draw a map to each room. This, like drawings of mandallas, can give a visual representation of the psyche's balance.

Have you had a HOUSE dream lately?

Until next time, I'll be doing a little "House Cleaning!"

Dr. Toni

(Dr. Toni is a practicing Jungian Dream Interpreter living in New York.)

You can write Dr. Toni at staff.contact@RecoveryWorld.com. Make sure you type "e-mail for Dr. Toni" in the subject area of your email or it will be automatically deleted by our servers.

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