Magical sword, harp, oak tree, grail as archetypal symbols - Essay Example

It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences” (Boeree, 2006). Like Freud, Jung felt that dream messages were couched in symbolism, but differed regarding what these symbols represented. He felt that dreams would continue to present carefully selected symbols as a purposeful means of communicating specific meaning to the dreamer from the unconscious rather than attempting to hide these concepts.

At the same time, he felt unconscious symbols were often used as well to help us understand and accept those aspects of ourselves that we have ignored or attempted to disown or to present archetypal figures that help us connect with the collective. “Jung thought that dreams could help us grow and heal through use of archetypal symbols. … Various archetypes are represented within myths, fairy tales, and religions, as well as dreams” (Bixler-Thomas, 1998). An archetype is described as an “unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way” (Boeree, 2006) and Jung identified several, such as the mother, mana (or spiritual power), the shadow (or the unknown) and the persona (or public mask).

His wife, Emma Jung, took these concepts and applied them to her own interests, specifically as they applied to Celtic myth and the Grail legends. Emma Jung’s theories regarding the archetypes of the magic sword, the oak tree, the grail and the harp will be closely examined to demonstrate how these archetypes and Jungian theory have become widely applicable within the Western world. Carl Jung believed the most effective method for dream interpretation was the use of series correlation (Hutchinson, 2000).

  He gave hope to all dreamers who were looking for the meaning in their dreams without having to hire a ‘professional.’ Series correlation is a process involving the analysis of dreams over time.  Jung suggested keeping a dream