Archetypal Amplification

The final step of amplification is called archetypal amplification, in which the dreamer looks at the stories and symbols from myth and history that relate to a dream symbol. In Jung’s early research he found that very similar images and stories can be found in myths, fairytales, and folklore from all over the world This led him to develop the concept of the archetypes as deep psychological patterns that underly the way in which people structure stories and find meaning. When you read myths and fairytales you might notice that folklore sometimes includes the same kind of surreal images and unexpected events that occur in dreams. Jung thought that dreams spring from the same psychological archetypes that give mythology it's basic shape. If

In part 3 of this book I will discuss common interpretations, including archetypal associations, for some of the images and symbols that come up regularly in women’s dreams. There are a lot of good symbol dictionaries, both online and hardcopy, in which you can look up a dream image and these references will point you to relevant myths and stories. A good online resource for archetypal associations is http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/ For another example of the archetypal amplification of a dream symbol, let’s use the following dream:

I have been cast in a play with an old, perhaps mythic theme. I am in the wings of the stage waiting to go on and I seem to be in charge of a sword, which is wrapped in beautiful hand made flax paper. However I can not keep track of it I tell the director of the play, a brusque and competent woman about ten years my senior, that if she has cast me as the Lady in the Lake then obviously I have been miscast, because I have lost the sword. She says I had better find it and I run around looking, in the theater and parking lot. I am thinking, while I'm running around, that this sword may be the real one (Excalibur) even though I thought before that it was fake and I can't figure out how the real one could end up in an amateur