Carl Jung on the Dog
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Children’s Dreams: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936-1940
[Carl Jung on the “Dog.”]
The dog is the gravedigger who disposes of the bodies, as happened in ancient times in Persia.
There it was also customary to lead a dog to the bed of a dying person who then had to grant the dog a bite, presumably to appease him so that he spared his body.
Cerberus, too, is calmed by the honey cake of Heracles.
In the Mithras reliefs, a dog jumps up on the killed bull.
Cerberus is the guardian between life and death.
Anubis with the jackal head helps Isis to gather the dismembered and scattered body of Osiris, so that he can be incorporated by Osiris and reborn.
The dog helps with dying, and consequently also helps with rebirth.
In the present case, a man comes with a dog, and their appearance causes a transformation.
Unity, agreement, and evenness can work wonders.
Man and dog stand for a harmonious unit between man and animal, that is, between consciousness and less consciousness, to put it cautiously.
Strangely enough, by the way, one often speaks about human characteristics while meaning animal ones.
In this man-dog pair the unconscious (the consciously domesticated dog) is, so to speak, bound, and so the miracle can happen. ~Carl Jung, Children’s Dreams Seminar, Page 45.
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
Then comes the man with the dog.
“Through the mind of the dog the world exists,” it says in the Vendidad, the oldest part of the Zendavesta.
Since primeval times, man has been unthinkable without the dog, and this all over the world.
Brehm says: “Man and dog complement each other a hundred and thousand times over, man and dog are the most faithful of comrades.
No single other animal in the whole world is more worthy of man’s friendship and love than the dog. He is part of man himself, and indispensable for his thriving and well-being.”
“The dog,” says Friedrich Cuvier, “is the most remarkable, perfect, and useful conquest that man has ever made.”
Descending from the jackals or wolves, the dog has truly become “brother animal” to us; he just lacks language to become a fully adequate replacement for many a human comrade.
I have spent much time with animals. Often the clever, questioning eyes of a dog have made me retract a stupidity or an idea, or to get off my self-made little throne.
My dog is always part of my own personality.
He knows his master’s language, he observes the master’s finest movements, he knows when his master is sad or glad or when he is in a bad mood.
He rejoices and mourns with his master.
I have observed that old dogs assume the posture and the facial features of their masters, and vice versa.
As a lover of dogs, I may say that the dog is a part of man, a kind of shadow.
Many famous persons are entities only with their dogs, for instance, Frederick the Great with his Bichée, Prince Bülow with his poodle, Bismarck with his mastiff.
There are less famous examples: the retired neighbor with his pinscher, or the drunkard whose equally shabby mutt accompanies his master from one pub to So, in the present dream man and dog belong to each other.
In mythology, the dog has outstanding responsibilities.
I refer to the work of Professor Jung, Transformations and Symbols of the Libido.
The dog is the gravedigger who disposes of the bodies, as happened in ancient times in Persia.
There it was also customary to lead a dog to the bed of a dying person who then had to grant the dog a bite, presumably to appease him so that he spared his body. Cerberus, too, is calmed by the honey cake of Heracles.
In the Mithras reliefs, a dog jumps up on the killed bull.
Cerberus is the guardian between life and death.
Anubis with the jackal head helps Isis to gather the dismembered and scattered body of Osiris, so that he can be incorporated by Osiris and reborn.
The dog helps with dying, and consequently also helps with rebirth. In the present case, a man comes with a dog, and their appearance causes a transformation.
Unity, agreement, and evenness can work wonders. Man and dog stand for a harmonious unit between man and animal, that is, between consciousness and less consciousness, to put it cautiously.
Strangely enough, by the way, one often speaks about human characteristics while meaning animal ones. In this man-dog pair the unconscious (the consciously domesticated dog) is, so to speak, bound, and so the miracle can happen. ~Dr. Pitsch, Children’s Dream Seminar, Page 45.