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Step 1 – Write the dream down as it comes

Jung told me about a painting in his Red Book where, at the end of the tail of a large flying dragon, you could see a human doing an ouroboros with his own fire. Basically, the man was eating a fire that belonged to him, like the ouroboros eats itself.
I am not sure if I heard this in the dream or when I woke up, but three things immediately came to mind: Wotan, the post-human condition, and the quote “we must turn his own weapons against him“.

Step 2 – Identify the key symbols and provide spontaneous associations

Jung, Red Book ~ wise old man, spirit of meaning; something true, operative for the psyche.

Ouroboros ~ act of recreating one’s potential, consuming and regenerating oneself at the same time.

Fire ~ libido.

Wotan, The post-human condition ~ the spirit that is guiding a “new” human development, leading to the post-human condition. Post-human is a mode of being, like Christ after his resurrection.

“we must turn his own weapons against him” ~ a quote from The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales, CW 9i, par 453

Step 3 – Describe the personal context

Very tense moving-out situation. Our tenancy was terminated, leaving one month to find a new place. Among packing boxes around my two kids, we visited a lot of places and found something only one week before the moving-out date.
Feeling exhausted, as if on the receiving end of an unjust(?), unfair(?) situation. Everything was taking place as fast as possible and yet could only be done one way, at the last minute.

Step 4 – Feel into the inner dynamics of a dream

Moment 1 – setting: wise old man (meaning), Red Book​. Feeling: true, operative.

Moment 2 – dragon, fire, human, ouroboros. Feeling: awe; large movement, transmutation.

Moment 3 – Wotan, post-human, quote​. Feeling: insight, keys to unlock the dream.

Step 5 – Aim for an interpretation that promotes self-knowledge

Something true about how to work with the psyche.
The position of the man at the end of the tail is like being at the end of the process of this dragon flying. What’s left is for the man is to eat his own fire, to recreate himself like an ouroboros. This is the new human condition.
Affirming life/the psyche requires changing oneself, not the world.

Step 6 – Make the dream concrete with a symbolic act

I started revisiting this moving-out process: Did everything go well? Did I worry too much? Was there something that I could have done better?
Change of attitude moving forward: from forcing my will to adapting to what’s happening, from reacting to allowing.
Trusting the process, but not in a lazy manner.

The guidelines

A Template For Dream Interpretation

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