Archetypal Symbolism

Dreams speak in a language made of pictures instead of words. Think of a Wise Old Man, a Scary Monster, or a Magic Sword; these are Archetypes that everyone understands. Your brain uses these symbols to tell you important secrets about your life without using letters. It is like a secret code that your heart already knows how to read. When you see these symbols, you are connecting to stories that have been told for thousands of years. They help you find your way when you feel lost by showing you which character you are playing today.

A secret code that your heart already knows how to read. You were never taught what a dragon means. But you know. You were never taught what a wise old man in a cave means. But you know. You were never taught what crossing a dark river means. But you know. These symbols are older than any alphabet. They predate writing by tens of thousands of years. They appear on cave walls in France and in Aboriginal dreamtime stories in Australia and in the myths of people who never had contact with each other. The same symbols. The same meanings. Over and over and over. Jung called them archetypes. Campbell called them the monomyth. But the shamans did not need a name. They just knew that the dream speaks in pictures because pictures are older than words and truer than arguments. When you dream of a flood, your psyche is not being random. It is using the oldest language it has to tell you something is being reset. When you dream of flight, it is telling you something has been released. The symbols are not decorations. The symbols are the message. And your heart — your pre-verbal, pre-rational heart — has been reading them fluently since before you could speak.

Archetypes: primordial structural elements of the psyche. The same symbols appear across cultures with no contact — cave walls in France, Aboriginal dreamtime, Mesoamerican myths. The symbols are not decorations. The symbols are the message.

SOUND: A deep ancient drum beat: the rhythm that was old before language was young.

SMELL: Old paper and dusty library books: the scent of stories that outlived the people who first told them.

TASTE: Bread and salt: the taste of hospitality that means the same thing in every civilization on earth.

TOUCH: A smooth round stone from a river: the shape water carved over centuries — the archetype of patience.

SIGHT: A flickering campfire in the dark: the image that taught every human who ever lived that light exists inside darkness.

BODY: Standing tall like a king or cowering like a mouse: the body performing archetypes it was never taught.

Music: Symbols by Of Monsters and Men

Music: History by One Direction

Part of Dreams & The Unseen — MYSTICISM — Education Revelation