Coldness

Cold in dreams is a common symbolic expression of emotional coldness. It can also indicate that a situation has "frozen," become stagnant, perhaps due to the absence of warm feelings; something has stopped, gone numb. One might have a cold relationship or be "left out in the cold" socially. Loneliness and coldness are connected.

However, the cold environment is not necessarily an expression of the absence of emotions, as coldness has its own quality. Even an ice-cold hatred is a feeling, but one beyond the heart’s domain; desires that have rejected reconciliation and abandoned hope.

Cold makes everything halt but also preserves it; it protects from change, the frozen is "paused." The completely white and crystalline snow suggests preserved perfection. With fairy-tale imagery, an ice queen should hardly be thawed – she is as she should be in her eternal perfection.

The connection of cold to death is well known; warmth disappears when death occurs; we imagine the grasp of the dead as ice-cold. In pagan and Christian tombs, there were phrases about God's coldness, peace in the cold, the soul's coldness, and so on. (Hillman 1979, p. 170.) In haunted houses, inexplicable coldness appears; we experience an unexpected cold wind as eerie, etc. There are also etymological connections between soul/spirit and cold in Greek and Latin; reflections of the archetypal link between the soul and coldness.

To warm something promotes awareness, while cooling indicates unconsciousness. At the same time, emotions are characterized by heat, something that likely requires cooling (the dream image of "bathing" can allude to this), perhaps through understanding its causes. To be reasonable is to be cool; an interplay of temperatures is necessary. (See also Fire and Winter.) 

Popular posts from this blog

Forget About the Archetype - It's the Complex

A good post on Reddit expresses criticism towards people seeking answers to their personal problems in Jung’s archetype theory, arguing that they misunderstand Jung’s fundamental theoretical framework, particularly the process of individuation. The post became popular, receiving many upvotes and quickly garnering several fairly lengthy, often well thought-out responses. But what struck me was that the writer didn’t mention complexes a single time in the nearly 600-word post, and no one else did either in their comments. This prompted me to write a short post highlighting the point that when people share their thoughts on Jung in relation to their own or others’ psychology, it is actually, in most cases, about complexes—not archetypes. A couple of days later, the thread had 54 comments and 246 upvotes, which are rather high numbers in this forum for a serious post that sticks to the topic of Jungian psychology. However, my post hadn't received any comments or upvotes. Still no-one e...
Read more

Shadow Work – A Critical Commentary

When browsing public channels on various platforms that deal with Jungian psychology, one is struck by how frequently “shadow work” appears.  It seems to be mostly young men, who don’t appear to have studied Jung to any significant extent, who are fascinated by and encourage this "work." As someone who has studied Jung and Jungian literature for a long time, I don’t recognize this focus on so-called shadow work in the sources at all. It actually seems to be a modern internet phenomenon rather than something genuinely Jungian. Yes, it is of course true that the “shadow” is a central concept in Jungian psychology, and it is true that Jung stated that it is "a therapeutic necessity for the ego to confront its shadow" (CW 14, par. 514) – but this shadow work they speak of, where does it come from? Because it certainly doesn’t come from Jung or any influential Jungians. What is the shadow according to Jung? It is simply hidden or unconscious aspects of ourselves that we...
Read more

3. The Muster of Rohan; 4. The Siege of Gondor

Since neither Frodo, Gandalf or Aragorn participates in the events of this chapter, there is very little symbolic significance. We may note that Théoden’s army meets Éowyn at Dunharrow, an ancient fortress to which the people have fled under her leadership. During supper, Merry asks about Aragorn and the Paths of the Dead, but no one—neither Théoden, Éomer or Éowyn—understands why he chose to take this hopeless road. No one knows of the Stone of Erech or the “peril in the south.” “Woe that so valiant a man should trifle with death in this dire hour!” Éomer exclaims. The reason for Aragorn’s reticence is probably that his initiation is an intensely private matter, a secret pure and simple. Théoden intends to leave both Éowyn and Merry behind here—neither of them is suited to battle, he believes. But when the host later rides toward Gondor, Éowyn and Merry ride with it in secret. Both refuse to be left in a place where their respective callings would remain unfulfilled. 4. The Siege of G...
Read more