If we pay attention to our dreams, instead of living in a cold, impersonal world of meaningless chance, we may begin to emerge into a world of our own, full of important and secretly ordered events. —Marie-Louise von Franz

This inner world is just as real, perhaps even more than the tangible world, because our presence, our choices, our being in that outer arena is governed by the psyche’s agenda, not the ego’s. Our dreams are not here to comfort us or make life easy. That is why so many of us pay so little attention to them. Rather, they ask of us attentiveness, res

complex is an autonomous center of energy formed by memories, sensory experiences, images, and ideas that coalesce around an archetypal core. Jung discovered complexes through his word association test early in his career: subjects’ responses to stimulus words were delayed or inappropriate if a word was emotionally loaded and caused unconscious int

Then you will find what supports you when nothing supports you. Then you will be comforted by, rather than threatened by, the idea that something within you knows you better than you know yourself. Then your ego consciousness will be reframed, enlarged, and deepened.

Jung distinguished a symbol from a sign. Signs represent something specific: stylized images of a man and a woman indicate public restrooms; a red light signals stop.

Finally, dreams are usually about the inner world. The dream maker is mostly interested in us. In waking life, the external world demands our attention; we turn our faces outward to interact with others, accomplish tasks, and achieve goals. However, the dream maker remarks primarily on things happening in the interior. We are often tempted to see d

Your dreams are an expression of your inner life, and they can show you through what false attitude you have landed yourself in this blind alley. —C. G. Jung

Dreams address the unfinished business of daily life and anticipate future events. The unconscious takes in information that consciousness misses and tells us through dreams what we have missed and misjudged. Because the unconscious is ahead of consciousness, dreams can alert us to possibilities and probabilities that may lie ahead. Dreams foster p

In the last analysis, most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old forgotten wisdom stored up in us. And where we make contact with this old man in us? In our dreams. —C. G. Jung