Garden of Earthly Delights

This is a dream (from “S”) and its amplification by Stephen Anthony Farah from our first The Way of the Dream Workshop held in November 2024: Individuation through Dreamwork, presented by Byron Gaist.

Dream

I am standing in my house by a large window.  I am holding on tightly to my little dog who creates a lot of domestic issues for me.  My housekeeper (also a domestic image) is standing next to me leaning out the window giving water to some giant wild almost mythical creatures – a Greek looking horse [dreamer adds the term “Minoan” during the workshop], a deer with enormous antlers, a giant jaguar and others.  I am a little afraid of them but less so than usual.  All I keep thinking is – I need to keep the dog away from them so they don’t run and she doesn’t get hurt- and I hope the housekeeper has enough water for them because they are very thirsty.  Then I had this knowing in the dream that the watering jug would be ever filled – like the loaves of bread, the fish and the wine..

S has a long history of dreaming about wild animals and their perceived threat from early childhood dreams. A recurring motif from childhood was a threat posed  by a lioness. This dream also follows a sequence of such dreams presented by S whilst doing Magnum Opus a few years ago.

During our The Way of the Dream’ workshop S added the following comments during our discussion.

S feels split between her domesticated self – “being lived in the service of others” particularly her three (adult) children.

S speculates that the early appearance of the threatening lion/ess in her dreams was her soul trying to get her attention.

S added the further note during the discussion that behind the three “mythical” animals in the front and centre of the frame these animals extended back as far as the eye could see, and she speculated infinitely.

On imaginatively re-entering the dream S was brought to tears and spoke about how she always felt herself to be in the role of the protector (not entirely unlike a lioness and her pride.)

S (during the meditation on the dream) expressed the desire to water the animals directly rather than have this (important task) mediated through her long-time housekeeper Sarah.

Stephen’s annotations:

Sarah, the dreamer’s maid, may in this context be considered her “shadow”, psychologically speaking. [1]

Sarah is the wife of Abraham, the matriarch of the Jewish nation who bears children when she is way past natural childbearing age. The meaning or etymology of the name “Sarah” is princess or noblewoman. Sarah personifies the qualities of submission, patience, and faith. [2]   

The dream seems to clearly suggest a split in S’s psyche.

The most obvious one being this split between the interior domestic scene and the wild scene outside, where the mythical animals are seen. These splits might include the obvious conscious-unconscious, domestic-wild, inside-outside dualities  but also worldly– mythical, complex-archetype, finite-infinite. The opening passage from Jung’s Liber Novus comes to mind here referencing the spirit of the times as against the spirit of the depths.

The pouring of the water read personally may suggest S experiencing herself being poured out and fearing her own depletion. This resonates with the emotional tone and notes from the dreamer.

The water bearer is a well-known mythological motif.

In terms of the zodiac, Aquarius is the water bearer, whose element is air and whose opposite sign is Leo. (The dreamers own sun sign is Gemini.)

The water carrier represented by the constellation Aquarius is Ganymede, a beautiful Phrygian youth. Ganymede was the son of Tros, king of Troy. While tending to his father’s flocks on Mount Ida, Ganymede was spotted by Zeus. The king of gods flew down to the mountain in the form of a large bird, whisking Ganymede away to the heavens. Ever since, the boy has served as cupbearer to the gods.

“Aquarius represents the creation of the world as well as its destruction and is therefore linked to the idea of cyclic death and renewal. …

In the Problem of the Puer Aeternus, Marie-Louise Von Franz talks a lot about the symbolism of the sheep – innocence, naive idealism, crowd mentality – and how it relates to the divine child, which is just what Ganymede is: when taken to Olympus, he’s granted eternal youth and immortality. There’s also a certain idea of innocence with the floods since they mean a washing away of sin and purification of humanity. And with the lotus flower coming out of the muddy waters too, which is linked with a superhuman or divine birth….

In Campbell’s hero’s journey, Aquarius is the stage called master of the two worlds. This masterly passage between the two worlds, as Campbell calls it, is when the hero can relate to both the inner and outer world. When these two realities are finally reconciled, one becomes an individual, that is both an ordinary and unique human being.” [3]

It is worth noting here that this idea of the water being endless, whilst it matches the infinitude of the mythical animals and may be said to be a quality of the archetype, it is a divine – not a human- quality. I suggest that’s S’s concern about being poured out, cannot be resolved in this world as it is in the dream space. In her waking life in contradistinction to the dream realm a human rather than a mythological resolution is required. In her waking life her capacities, time and  libido are not infinite.

In this regard the dream presents S with a real  dilemma – her concern that her libido is in danger of being depleted by the (seemingly) endless demands of the world, but the solution or at least the perception of the dream ego is fantastical, and I suggest, a kind of Freudian wish-fulfilment. S’s waking ego, unlike her dream ego is  to the degree it lives in the empirical waking world, necessarily bound to the reality principle.

Mythologically and  archetypally the four animals in the dream are significant.

There are four animals clearly and explicitly present, extended  by the infinitude of animals behind them. These are:

The Minoan horse, the deer with enormous antlers, the jaguar (all outside) and the domestic dog inside, at some point in the dreamer’s arms and by all accounts keen to get outside and join its wild and mythological companions.

Four is according to C. G. Jung the number of wholeness or completeness. It occupies a central role and concept in his psychic, alchemical,  and archetypal schema.[4] Psychically it may reference, among other things, the four functions: thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting. Here the question arises what function has S “domesticated” and cultivated, symbolised in the dream by the dog? If this is accurate it may suggest that a single function has psychically been overemphasised at the expense of others, and a more complete expression of the personality could benefit from the integration of the other three functions symbolised in the dream by the three mythological creatures.

The central mythological motif that comes to mind with respect to the four animals, especially given the dreamer’s allusion to Christ, are the four living creatures  associated in the biblical scripture and frequently depicted in iconic art as the four apostles and the four gospels.  These are: man, ox, lion and eagle.  These are linked to the four gospels of Mathew, Luke, Mark and John. These animals are seen in visions by Ezekial and John and are, at least according to Irenaeus, symbolic of the four true Gospels. [5]

I think this symbolic analogy with the Gospels is useful here. One may speculate that these four animals are the four gospels of S. This  poses a potentially interesting question and challenge  for S and her individuation, which is: what are these three gospels – in the wild outside the temenos of her home- waiting to be lived/told?

The four holy animals are also present in Southeast Asian and Taoist folklore and are there symbolised as: Qulin[6], phoenix, dragon and turtle. These four creatures each represent among other things the four cardinal directions:  Dragon: The east, Phoenix: The south, Qulin: The west, and Black Tortoise: The north[7].

Let’s consider each of the four animals in S’s dream:

The horse

I am struck by S’s characterisation of the horse as “Minoan”.  (Mino-an  or “my own,” ).

One can’t help but think here about the rich Minoan mythology of  King Midas’ Labyrinth and the minotaur (half man half bull), and the centaur (half man half horse).Suggestive in S’s dream perhaps both of its mythological character and in myth its mediation of man with his animal body and instinctive nature. This liminal space between the conscious and unconscious and between the superego and id, or psyche and soma. Reading the symbol in this fashion mirrors the image of the water bearer as occupying two worlds, which seems to be a central motif in the dream.

The labyrinth, the central symbol in Minoan mythology is a place of complexity, hidden knowledge, initiation, the labyrinth of the psyche and of this world which the dreamer must navigate.  It symbolises a puzzle, a conundrum to be solved. And its navigation is no small matter of intellectual inquiry but a matter of life and death for one in the maze with the minotaur. To the degree this resonates for the dreamer, a question she may inquire into is where Ariadne’s red thread is to be found that might lead her out of the labyrinth.

More broadly the horse is a symbol of primal vitality, strength, motion and freedom. 

The deer with the enormous antlers.

Once again here one gets a strong sense of its mythological character. The deer as an animal seems otherworldly, as though it is only partially incarnated in this realm, but its proper place is the land of fey. Once again symbolising a bridge of sorts between worlds. In many mythological traditions, antlers symbolize a bridge between the earthly and the celestial realms. Their upward-reaching form evokes the image of a tree or a crown, linking the earth to the heavens. Going back to the earlier linking of the animals to the four  psychic functions the deer mythologically is probably linked closest to the function of intuition – it is able to travel between worlds.

Some of the more prominent mythological references that come to mind here are  the Ceryneian Hind, a golden-horned deer that was swift and elusive. Capturing the Hind was one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, symbolizing the pursuit of something divine and unattainable. The deer was sacred and linked to the goddess Artemis.

The stag is of course also a prominent symbol of libido and primal sexuality. In Celtic folklore Cernunnos, the Horned God, is depicted with stag antlers. He is a deity of the forest, fertility, and the cycle of life and death.

The giant jaguar.

Its natural ferocity, predatorial nature, nocturnal hunting, navigation of the dense rainforests suggests a strong link to the shadow and again to the dreamer’s primal nature.

The jaguar has a natural sensuality to it.

In South American shamanic traditions jaguars are deeply revered in Amazonian and Andean shamanic traditions. They are often considered spirit guides that facilitate journeys into altered states of consciousness. Shamans believe that the jaguar can guide you through the spiritual wilderness, helping you face death, rebirth, and the mysteries of existence.

Although not in fact the same genus, there is also a natural allusion to the idea of the “cougar” a term commonly in certain popular culture to refer a a mature female sexual predator. Typically one is search of younger prey (younger man).

The presence of the stallion (Minoan horse), stag, and jaguar may suggest something linked to the dreamer’s sexuality. Without intending to reduce the dream images into a narrowly  Freudian reading, they do seem to suggest an inquiry into the dreamer’s unexplored and possibly frustrated sexuality would be apropos.

The domestic dog.

The domesticated dog is obviously singled out of the animal quaternity of animals – and here at this point let’s  also read functions, impulses, and instincts, the one that has been integrated, domesticated and is by extension closest to the ego and consciousness of the dreamer.

Symbolically and mythologically dogs are “man’s best friend” symbolising a sacred trust between man and animal, fidelity, companionship,  and protection. All functions the dreamer herself may be said to be occupying with fidelity in her life.  I do think it is significant that in the dream the dog wants to join its wild brethren outside, suggestive perhaps of instinct that has been overly domesticated and wants to reconnect with the wild source of its being.

Some final thoughts and synthesises of the collective amplifications above.

These are the motifs that emerge:

A psychic split in the dreamer.

The dream representing two distinct worlds. The one the dreamer is living in the world of her personality number one – the daytime world, the world of her responsibilities and domestic life and this other aspirational, imaginal, wild and mythological world. In Jungian terms the world of her second personality, a world of instincts, archetypes and timelessness. Spiritually, the world of the depths. 

We also see other opposites (contrasting dualities) of inner and outer, domestic and wild, lady of the manor and her maid.

The fundamental archetypal structure here being two, the number of consciousness. Consciousness, at least in the Jungian sense, is marked by the presence of opposites. Its presence in the dream is suggestive of an emerging consciousness. Something is either becoming or at least trying to become conscious. 

The presence of the four animals constitutes an archetypal quaternity, a symbol of wholeness and completeness, mythologically mirroring the four apostles and gospels of Christ (the symbol of the Self archetype). The appearance of the four in the dream is auspicious and points the way to the possibility of a greater unity in the dreamer’s psyche.

These two archetypal structures four and two are embedded in the dream and together along with the dream scene suggest, at least to me, a type of mandala motif, the archetypal symbol of the self.

The dreamer stands on the threshold of the two worlds she occupies.

Libido is flowing into this wild, archetypal, and mythological world. There is concern on the dreamer’s behalf of this libido being depleted. This is resolved in the dream by being of infinite supply.  I suggest this is an inhuman divine solution and constitutes a dangerous identification with the archetypal.

The dream has a sexual dimension, or at least arguably may have, and to the degree this is accurate may point toward a desire on the dreamer’s behalf for a fuller and more mature expression of her sexuality.  This wild scene outside evokes a kind of Garden of Earthly Delights. [8]

In conclusion I see this dream as a classical “big dream”, and one inviting the dreamer to undertake her individuation journey in earnest. There are apostles who should be allowed to offer their gospels and a vast libidinally charged unconscious realm to be tapped into, explored and made conscious.

[1] The shadow for those unfamiliar with the concept is an unconscious counterpart to the subject’s conscious ego. An unconscious antagonist to the conscious protagonist, symbolising the hidden and unlived life of the subject. It is this shadow self that needs to be redeemed and made conscious for the subject’s individuation process to continue. For more on this see https://appliedjung.com/the-encounter-with-the-shadow/

[2] Hebrews 11:11 “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise”

Peter 3:3-6: “For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord”

[3] https://sophiequi.com/blog/myth-and-meaning-of-aquarius

[4] For more on the centrality of the archetype of four see https://appliedjung.com/four-steps-to-transformation/

[5] https://septuagintstudies.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/brief-history-of-the-analogy-of-the-four-evangelists-to-the-four-living-creatures/

[6] The Qulin -a legendary creature in Asian folklore bears some resemblance to the deer with the giant antlers in S’s dream.

[7] For more on this see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Symbols

[8] Hieronymus Bosch.

Stephen Anthony Farah, Head of Learning, Centre for Applied Jungian Studies

‘Individuation through Dreamwork’, presented by Byron Gaist PhD.