Jung interpretation of dreams

Carl Gustav Jung

Chapter 10, Discussion of Jackson Steward Lincoln, The Dream in Primitive Cultures, page 84

There was an old chief who had made friends with me. He had many head of cattle that were looked after by his slaves. Among the cattle was a white-and-black spotted cow. He dreamed this, the cow  was going to calve. He had not known, however, that this cow had been pregnant. Of course this was his wish! But what does this mean for the dream? One could argue that the man could have observed, after all, that the cow was pregnant. There are indeed such cases. But this supposition is completely unnecessary for understanding the dream. 

Such a dream can be sufficiently explained as participation. Buy this we get much closer to the life of primitives than by all kinds of theoretical constructs. 

Primitives, as it is, live in partial identity with the animal. There are a few differences between animal and a man. For the primitive, it’s only by coincidence that the animal has taken the form of an animal. Primitives joinery speak as if they were talking about humans when they talk about animals. They might say, “Then an elephant found something and put it into its pocket.” Already imagine the spider asking her children, “Where is the snuff box?” Animals are humans. They speak human language, and therefore a magician can also understand animal language. Primitives often regard animals as their ancestors. They also address them as such; A dog can be the mother, a bull the father. An animal can be my ancestor, and insofar as I am also my ancestor, I am his brother. Primitives may even think that objects are their ancestors. These are the so-called totem objects. Take the example of the arrow-bow: this is an object that the primitive makes himself. But he is of the opinion that he wouldn’t be able to make an arrow-bow if he didn’t have arrow-bow ancestors. The arrow-bow is an arrow-bow man, perhaps it’s the great grandfather who happened to have the form of an arrow-bow. The latter has a head on top and feet at the bottom. And where the strings are wound around the bow there is the neck, and the two buttons above are the eyes. The strings of the ball are a bit frayed, that’s the hair. In the string that hangs on is the woman, who clings to his neck. It’s the ancestral couple.