Here is an example of a case:
A 30-year-old woman has just experienced a conflict, and her inner and outer worlds have both collapsed. Although she has a wonderful family and job in the external world, she finds it difficult to experience growth in this environment. Looking at her work, which is based on rationality, she believes that she has developed the rational part of herself to a high degree, but there is still a part of her talent that has not been expressed, so she feels that her development is not comprehensive. Although she has been seeing a psychotherapist for some time, she has not achieved the expected results and feels that she still needs to seek change from within, so she starts recording her dreams.
Here are her four dreams:
In the first dream, she dreamt of a beautiful peacock being carried on a man's back, with the peacock's beak facing the man's neck.
On the second night, she dreamt that her shoes had a big hole in them.
In the third dream, she dreamt that a woman suddenly jumped in from outside the window and told her that the building was on fire. She said she didn't know because her room was calm.
In the last dream, she dreamt of sitting on a boat with a man who said they had to go to the end of the lake, where there was a place where four valleys converged and people would bring some flocks of sheep. When they arrived there, she found a pregnant lamb and an injured sheep in the flock. She brought these two sheep onto the boat and bandaged the injured lamb's wound. The man said that these two sheep would definitely die. The visitor looked at the trembling lamb in her arms, pitifully, and bandaged them again.
In this series of dreams, many interesting symbols appear. In the first dream, the most obvious symbol is the peacock. When asked about her impression of peacocks, she said that the peacock's tail is very beautiful and the pattern on the tail looks like eyes.
Although the dreams are simple, they have very rich meanings. Peacocks have very clear biological attributes: one is that their tails are very beautiful, and the other is that peacock feathers fall off in winter and grow back in spring, implying a sense of rebirth.
When discussing symbols, we not only look at the symbols themselves, but also discuss their dynamic changes. In addition, peacocks also have cultural and religious meanings. In early Christianity, peacocks also symbolized rebirth.
In the following dreams, the visitor first dreamt of shoes with holes, which symbolize adapting to unknown difficulties on the path of progress. The holes indicate that the adaptation system is no longer working well and needs to be abandoned, but she did not throw away the shoes, indicating that she did not change with it.
In the third dream, she dreamt that the house was on fire. The house symbolizes a larger adaptation system, which, although highly developed, is now on fire and needs to be abandoned, indicating that she no longer adapts to the new spiritual environment.
In the first three dreams, there is a need to create new adaptation systems and abandon old ones. Therefore, in the fourth dream, a dream that can be called a "big dream" appears. A male guide leads her to a place where four valleys converge, a place that seems to have spiritual power, and she has sheep in her arms.
Sheep often symbolize "sacrifice" in religion, and the male figure tells her that the sheep will definitely die, indicating that the rational development she once had can no longer serve her soul. She can no longer solve the current conflict with her existing attitude. She must reach the center of her life to experience rebirth.
I used a dream from a visitor as an example to explain, but in fact, everyone can use myths, legends, and other stories to interpret their own dreams. According to Jung, the theme of sacrifice is a necessary ritual for personality development to reach a new stage. In such myths or legends, the sacrifice is usually an animal, perhaps because animals represent a primitive attitude, an instinct, an unconsciousness. This sacrifice is a naive attitude towards the unknown and exploration of the external world.
I have seen many dreams shared by everyone, and many of them fit the themes provided by psychologists, but it seems that everyone is eagerly seeking an answer, hoping that psychologists like us can provide an accurate answer. We are now in an anxious era, and it is not easy to cultivate the ability of self-awareness and self-exploration, to bear the anxiety of exploring the unknown.
We cannot provide convincing answers to everyone's questions. This requires you to use your ability of self-awareness and self-exploration. Just like in the previous dream, it requires going through a process of sacrifice, sacrificing your own anxiety about the unknown, enduring it, which is the most valuable part and the true answer obtained from dreams. Only then can your personality develop better and become a more complete self.
"The sacrifice" is right in front of you.
The true answers in dreams are waiting for you to find them yourself.
What are you willing to do in exchange for a more complete self?