Symbol Watcher

Late last night, we Americans elected our next president.  But in some ways, Barack Obama is our first president because he has the greatest potential to be a true president of all the people.  His bi-racial heritage makes him a living, breathing example of the melting pot demographic we have always — at least theoretically – held dear.  Obama’s upbringing and adult experiences have given him the gift of being able to move comfortably within multiple American subcultures.

As I watched Charlie Gibson announce that Obama will be our 44th president, I was struck by the number.  Four has great symbolic significance and I started wondering what it might mean.  Four is the number of stability and the physical world — the four seasons, four directions, four elements, four mental functions, etc.   When we build upon this aspect of its meaning, we also see why, from a Jungian perspective, four represents wholeness, the uniting of different sides or aspects contained within one.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that four is represented not once, but twice, in the ordinancy of Obama’s presidency.  On a fundamental level, his election certainly represents our nation’s attempt to come together and close the racial divide that has separated us for far too long.  After all, people from many different ethnic groups voted for Obama.

 In numerology, it is common to add numbers to “reduce” them to their essential significance.  (This is done most commonly with the numerals in someone’s birthdate.)  When we add the numbers of Obama’spresidency, we come up with eight.  As I wrote in a posting a few months ago, the eight represents beginning, renewal and rebirth since it follows seven, the number standing for cyclical completion.

Given the symbology of 4 and 8, I can’t help but see how fitting it is that our 44th president is someone we have entrusted to move us closer to national unity and a renewal of positive energy both here and abroad.

– Writeye

November 5th, 2008 | Tags: number 4 symbolism, number 7 symbolism, number 8 symbolism, President-Elect Obama symbolism, symbolism of 44th president | Category: Current Events, Jungian Psychology |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Earlier this week, I had the following dream:

I am outside, looking down at a woman who is kneeling on the ground.  A young man, a murderer, takes a chain saw and chops off her head.  I see the bloody stump and can’t believe he actually did it. Two women are now with me and I know the murderer is after me, to kill me. 

I am now in that same area outside, but I’m sitting down with my left leg up in the air.  The man puts an old metal box up to my left leg, just below my knee.  I understand the box is still the chainsaw. Somehow, I fight him off and start running before he has a chance to cut off my leg.

Now I and the two women are running through the neighborhood, trying to get away from the murder. It is the type of lower middle class neighborhood I grew up in, with small white houses built close together and yards separated by chain link fences.  

I see the murderer clearly now.  He is young and blond — a “grunge” type. He’s wearing a beige-colored knit beret and plaid shirt.  Two other young men are with him now.  Suddenly, a couple big black Labrador dogs in the neighborhood start barking and jumping up to block the men from getting to us. I am hopeful for a moment because I think the dogs will create a diversion long enough for us to get away.

But then the dogs see us running and they get distracted watching us.  They stop barking at the men. I tell the dogs, “No, stop looking at us and keep barking at the men so we can get away.” But it’s too late.  I know the men are after us again.  I wonder if I can get the three of us away from them.  I think I might be able to.

I see a clunky old rusty blue car that is like the cars from my childhood in the late ’60s. I would need to run back in the direction of the men to get to the car.  I know the car runs, but it isn’t very reliable. For some reason though, taking the car isn’t what I decide to do. I decide to make a run for it, on foot, away from the murderer and the other two men.  I’m not sure we’re going to get away from them.

The symbol of the car is especially intriguing to me since the dream offers it as a possible solution or way out of my predicament — but it’s one I choose not to take.

When I look at the symbolism of a car from a Jungian interpretive standpoint, I know that my dream car, like a real car, is all about getting me from one place to the next — either in my psychological life, my outter life, or both.  The car could represent the libido, or psychic energy, I need to move from one level of development to the next (away from my distructive animus, represented by the murderering young man).   The car could also represent the method I could use to move my outter life in a different direction.

I know one thing immediately: whatever it is that gets me moving away from murderous Mr. Grunge, it is going to be my choice.  It’ll be either a car that I am in control of and navigate, or it’ll be my own two feet.  The decision is completely mine.  I won’t be able to count on any outside assistance (as would be symbolized by a bus, or taxi where I might share a ride while someone else does the driving, for instance).  

The kind of car in my dream helps explain to me why I chose against it.  It is old and unreliable, past it’s prime.  And, because I associate it with the time of my childhood, it represents a way of getting around in the world that I learned in my childhood, from my parents and my working class upbringing.  I know that lesson from my childhood well: I should just take a job for the steady paycheck and the benefits and be thankful for it.  Having a regular job is enough in life and all anyone should really be concerned with.

But it is an unsatisfying, lazy way to live, and I know it.  

The symbolism comments so beautifully on the struggle I’ve been having for the past several years — how can I stop working dead end, boring clerical jobs and make a fulfilling life and living writing about things I believe are important, like symbolism as it relates to our psychological development. 

How do I get there? 

Interestingly, in the dream, I would have to turn around and run back to get to the car. I think this means the choice of the car would be a regression to outdated values from my childhood. Also, I would be running toward Mr. Grunge.  And while he represents my attempt to move away from my collective working class values, he also represents my lack of firm commitment, my aimlessness and laziness when it comes to REALLY doing what I know needs to be done to move my life in a different direction. (My apologies to any current or former Grungers reading this, but my associations are what they are.)  

In the dream, I don’t know exactly why I make the choice to go on foot.  Afterall, going on foot means I don’t even have the aid of a motorized vehicle.  A car, even an unreliable one, would at least give me some assistance other than my own two feet and may even put some distance between me and my murderer before it breaks down. But my dream wisdom tells me I need to make the harder, riskier choice of going on foot.  I am going to have to use my own willpower.  What if I’m not fast enough?  What if Mr. Grunge catches up with me and saws off my head or my legs? Still, there only seems to be one right way for me.  I don’t want to run in the direction of own destructive animus and I know I can’t go back to the car, to my old working class way of getting around.

– Writeye

November 1st, 2008 | Tags: car symbolism in dreams | Category: Dreams, Jungian Psychology |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

In her right hand is the sword, illustrating masculine discrimination and courage. In her left, the cupped scales, symbolizing feminine receptivity and duality.

All the election rhetoric about the far left and the far right has reminded me that left and right have a rich and interesting symbolic history that has little to do with political descriptors.

The right is associated with action and the male, solar aspects of existence.  The left is traditionally associated with weakness, passivity and the lunar, female principle.  It’s important to note that these associations are from a Western viewpoint. 

In the East, the symbolic values of left and right are much different.  In Japan, the left is the side of the male, solar energy and also stands for nobility and wisdom.  In contrast, it’s the right side that holds the female, lunar qualities.  China’s yin-yang concept shows a philosophy of balance and interrelatedness between male-female/left-right/light-dark.  The Cabala presents a neutral interpretation.  The right hand of god is the hand of blessing and symbolizes mercy.  The left hand stands for justice and is known as the the hand of the king. 

From a psychological perspective, left and right take on added meaning.  Jungian Marie-Louise Von Franz, wrote in Man and His Symbols,  “. . . ‘right’ side — the side where things become conscious.  Among other things ‘right’ often means, psychologically,  the side of consciousness, of adaptation, of being ‘right,’ while ‘left’ signifies the sphere of the unadapted, unconscious reactions or sometimes even of something ‘sinister.’ “  Additionally, Jung pointed out that the left side is also the side of the heart, and from it flows not only love, “but all the evil thoughts connected with it. ”

When I’m analyzing my dreams, I always try and recall details about left and right.  Who is standing on my left or my right?  What am I holding in my left or right hand?  Which hand am I using to carry out what action?  Does one side of my face or body look different from the other, etc. 

– Writeye

October 7th, 2008 | Tags: left and right symbolism | Category: Jungian Psychology, Symbol Brief |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (15)

Two very different world views stood together last night on a University of Mississippi stage: one saw the world through a lens of fear and familiar solutions, while the other talked of repairing relationships and pioneering new programs.

As I listened to Obama and McCain speak, I realized their differing perspectives cannot be explained by any age gap.  There are plenty of older people who’ve remained open to the ever changing world around them.  There are also lots of young people who live their lives in such a narrow, sedentary way that it betrays their chronology.

Both men want America to be prosperous and they want the world to be safe and peaceful, but what steps we need to take to attain that peace and prosperity is where McCain and Obama part.  This parting cannot be explained away by a generational or even political divide, but by something deeper – a difference in how each man views the world and how each man chooses to move about among his fellow human beings.

During the debate, McCain consistently demonstrated a hesitancy to communicate his beliefs on domestic matters and maintained a position of defensiveness on foreign matters.  He gave only one detail concerning his vision of the Wall Street bailout – an allotment to provide loans for failing businesses.  Obama was more open, giving four specific measures he wanted included in the bill – among them aid to homeowners in foreclosure. 

When discussing our nation’s energy policy, McCain said we need to focus on the two same sources of energy we’ve been focusing on for the last 50 years – natural gas and nuclear energy, stating that we could create 45 nuclear power plants by the year 2030.  In contrast, Obama emphasized a mix of new, cleaner and safer alternatives, including wind, solar and bio-diesel.  

Obama mentioned other specific areas he wants to focus on to move the country forward: make college education affordable, invest in science and technology education for children, provide broadband access to rural parts of the country and create a new energy grid that will accommodate the alternative energy sources he wants to develop. 

If McCain has a plan to address the changing energy and economic needs of our country, he did not mention it.  He only mentioned the same programs he has already been involved in — reducing government waste and pork barrel politics.  Both are laudable, but they are not enough to position America to be prosperous in a global economy threatened by global warming. 

No where was McCain’s fear-based world view more apparent than when he talked about international relations.  His proposed responses to terrorism and other threats of violent domination center around a defensive, us-vs-them mentality.  McCain believes that Obama’s plan to sit down and talk with leaders of Iran and South Korea will only serve to “legitimize their behavior,” as if America could not make it clear that the purpose of meeting with these leaders would be to iron out the differences between us, not condone past behavior and policies.

McCain said he would form a “League of Democracy . . . to impose painful sanctions against Iran.”  Taking a broader world view, Obama responded that it would serve America better if we made sure the non-democratic powers Russia and China also issued sanctions since they trade extensively with Iran.  He went on to explain, ”. . . the notion that by not talking to people we are punishing them has not worked.  Our efforts at isolation have actually accelerated their efforts get nuclear weapons.”

Many of us, consciously or not, live our lives from a standpoint of one of the two world views demonstrated by McCain and Obama.  Some of us live our lives in a defensive fear.  We build walls around us to ensure some other man/woman/country doesn’t cause us to loose whatever security we believe we have.  Some of us live our lives trying to tear down those walls in an effort to build common ground.  I think that’s why this election is so close.  

– Writeye

September 27th, 2008 | Tags: McCain world view, Obama world view | Category: Current Events |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The symbolic significance of feet is underrated.  I know I’ve had a lot of dreams about feet over the years.  My feet, and the feet of other characters in my dreams, have been covered with spiders, wrapped in aluminum foil, thawed out, iced up, well heeled, and walking on the most beautiful and sturdy wooden floors you can imagine. 

Some of the oldest symbolism regarding the foot dates back to Buddhism.  The Buddha is represented by the soles of his feet, which show the seven symbols of divine wisdom — conch, crown, diamond, sceptre, fish, vase, swastika and Wheel of Law.  (Please note that the swastika had very positive symbolic origins, including standing for creative energy, before it was contorted by the Nazi party.) 

Going barefoot can also be a sign of humility, such as when Christ washed the feet of his disciples.  Feet were once believed to transmit personal energy from the person to the ground being trod (thus the often used phrase about following in another person’s footsteps).

Feet in dreams often represent our psychological standpoint concerning a particular issue in waking life.  Are your feet on solid ground?  Are your feet clean and healthy and able to get you where you need to go?  Are they injured or dirty?  It follows that shoes in our dreams can symbolize our efforts to try and protect or alter our standpoint.  Are the shoes worn and in need of repair?  Are they new?  How do they feel — comfortable or uncomfortable? 

– Writeye

September 17th, 2008 | Tags: feet symbolism, psychological standpoint | Category: Jungian Psychology, Symbol Brief |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment