This blog is devoted to helping others in learning the symbolism behind tarot cards, and I intend to continue this shortly. In the meantime I would like to go on a tangent in explaining Carl Jung, archetypes, and our unconscious mind. Carl Jung was the Swiss psychiatrist who developed the branch of analytical psychology. He had a theory of the meaning of dreams which states that dreams are a reflection of not only our outer worlds, but our inner states. He also created the theory of the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious represents the part of our unconscious mind that is shared with others. It represents the common symbols from religion and history that have become so prominent in our culture that we have all adopted them in our minds in an unconscious way. Dreams show us a window into unresolved issues and feelings in our psyche through symbolism. When I read this I immediately thought of horror films. The horror genre often portrays our common nightmares, but it isn't just about scaring people. In my opinion horror is about reflecting our own unconscious fears unto the screen. Basically the monster on the screen isn't just a physical monster but a representation of mistrust, feeling unsafe in a cruel world, or possibly just the feeling that we cannot protect ourselves. The monster could represent a multitude of things to different people but the point is it comes from a very real and tangible place inside ourselves that we may not want to face. Nightmares are not only about the scary places outside of ourselves but possibly the even scarier places within ourselves. People often avoid the unconscious mind out of fear of facing these nightmares. I have decided that I will try to decipher my own dreams using the common archetypes and Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, while also looking at the striking similarity between archetypes and tarot cards.
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