This post explores what symbols really are, why they appear so powerfully in art, story, dreams, and imagination, and how Jung understood them as expressions of the collective unconscious — the deep psychic layer shared by all humans. It’s a gentle introduction to the ideas behind my new AI music video, Symbols of the Psyche. The music in the video is NOT AI generated; it’s made by my husband Kris Newland. It’s called Subterranean Sojourn. You can get it and more of his stunning music on Bandcamp.
Why Symbols Matter More Than We Think
When I create an AI music video like Symbols of the Psyche, I’m not just arranging pretty images. I’m letting the psyche speak in its native language. Symbols are how the unconscious communicates — not through tidy sentences, but through images that shimmer with more meaning than we can ever pin down.
A symbol is never just a symbol. A rose is never just a rose. A doorway is never just a doorway. They carry layers: personal memory, cultural meaning, and something older and deeper that seems to rise from a place beyond the individual. Jung called that deeper layer the collective unconscious — a shared psychic inheritance that holds the ‘primordial images’ or archetypes that appear across cultures and eras.
This is why symbols feel familiar even when we’ve never seen them before. They belong to all of us.
Symbols in Art, Story, and the Everyday
Artists have always known that images can say what words cannot. A painting, a poem, a myth — they all rely on symbols to carry emotional and spiritual weight. Literature is full of them: the journey, the forest, the river, the shadow, the sun. These motifs appear again and again because they speak to something universal.
Even in everyday life, symbols slip through the cracks. A dream about a house with many rooms. A recurring animal that seems to follow you through your imagination. A sudden image that arrives while washing dishes. These are not random. They are the psyche’s way of pointing toward something that wants to be known.
In that sense, symbols are invitations.
Jung’s View: Symbols as Bridges to the Deep Mind
For Jung, symbols were not decorations or metaphors — they were living expressions of the unconscious. He believed that the psyche is layered:
- the conscious mind, where we think and plan;
- the personal unconscious, which holds our memories, wounds, and forgotten experiences;
- and the collective unconscious, a deeper layer containing universal patterns and archetypes shared by all humans.
Symbols arise from this deeper layer. They are the psyche’s attempt to communicate something that cannot yet be fully understood. Jung wrote that symbols often appear in dreams, fantasies, and ‘exceptional states of mind’ as mythic motifs that emerge spontaneously, without being learned or taught.
This is why a person in Australia might dream of a wise old man, and someone in Iceland might dream of the same figure. The psyche draws from a shared well.
Archetypes: The Deep Structures Behind Symbols
Behind every symbol is an archetype — a kind of psychic blueprint. The mother, the hero, the trickster, the child, the shadow. These are not characters but patterns of experience. They show up in myths, religions, fairy tales, and modern films because they are part of the human operating system.
When an archetype stirs, it often arrives symbolically:
- A lion might represent courage.
- A labyrinth might represent confusion or transformation.
- A river might represent the flow of life or emotion.
- A mask might represent persona — the social self we show the world.
Archetypes are not literal. They are energies that take symbolic form.
Symbols in Active Imagination
Active imagination — the practice Jung developed to dialogue with the unconscious — is full of symbols. When we enter that inner landscape, we don’t meet abstract concepts. We meet images, figures, places, and objects that feel alive. They speak in metaphor, gesture, and atmosphere.
In my own active imagination sessions, symbols appear constantly:
- Doors that open into new realms.
- Guides who shift shape.
- Landscapes that shimmer with meaning.
- Objects that seem to hold a message.
These symbols are not chosen by the conscious mind. They arise spontaneously, and their power lies in that spontaneity. They come from the deeper layers of psyche — the same layers that feed myth, art, and spiritual experience.
Why Symbols Feel Alive
One of Jung’s most radical ideas was that the collective unconscious is not passive. It is active, creative, and responsive. He sometimes called it the ‘objective psyche’ — a dimension of mind that exists beyond the personal self and expresses itself through symbols.
This is why symbols feel alive. They are not static images; they are movements of psyche. They carry emotion, intention, and a kind of intelligence. When a symbol appears in active imagination, it often behaves like a character: it speaks, moves, reacts, and sometimes challenges us.
Symbols are not things. They are relationships.
Symbols as Guides, Warnings, and Invitations
Symbols often appear when something in the psyche is shifting. They can:
- Guide us toward growth
- Warn us of imbalance
- Reveal hidden strengths
- Mirror our inner state
- Invite us into deeper self‑knowledge
A symbol doesn’t tell us what to do. It shows us something we need to see.
For example, a crumbling tower might appear when an old belief is falling apart. A child might appear when a forgotten part of the self wants attention. A bridge might appear when we’re ready to cross into a new phase of life.
Symbols don’t solve problems. They illuminate them.
The Collective Unconscious: Where Symbols Are Born
The collective unconscious is the psychic layer that holds humanity’s shared symbolic heritage. Jung described it as a ‘matrix of all conscious psychic occurrences’ — a deep reservoir of inherited patterns and images that influence us even when we’re unaware of them.
This is why symbols feel ancient. They are ancient.
When a symbol arises in active imagination, it is not just personal. It is connected to a vast network of meaning that stretches across cultures and centuries. This is why working with symbols can feel spiritual, even if one is not religious. It connects us to something larger than the individual self.
Why Symbols Matter in Creative Work
For artists, writers, and creators, symbols are the raw material of imagination. They give depth to stories, resonance to images, and emotional truth to art. When I create AI music videos, I’m not trying to illustrate a concept. I’m letting symbols speak for themselves.
The psyche knows how to communicate if we let it.
Symbols bypass the rational mind and go straight to the intuitive, emotional, and mythic layers of experience. They allow us to feel meaning rather than analyse it. I have always worked in symbols; from a background in the visual and performing arts, I created and performed in visual theatre shows for twenty years. For me AI art music videos are the same form of creativity only on a computer, not as live performances.
Why I Made Symbols of the Psyche
This video is a visual meditation on the symbolic language of the unconscious. It doesn’t explain anything. It doesn’t need to. It invites you to feel your way into the images, to notice what stirs, what resonates, what unsettles, what calls.
The symbols in the video are not mine alone. They belong to all of us. They rise from the same deep well that feeds dreams, myths, and active imagination. They are the psyche’s way of speaking in colour, shape, and movement.
My hope is that the video gives you a moment of recognition — a sense that something inside you is being mirrored, even if you can’t quite name it.
The Oldest Language
Symbols are the psyche’s oldest language. They connect the personal with the universal, the conscious with the unconscious, the individual with the collective. Whether they appear in dreams, art, meditation, or active imagination, they invite us into deeper relationship with ourselves.
If you watch Symbols of the Psyche, let the images wash over you. Don’t try to interpret them. Just notice what they awaken. That’s where the real meaning lives.
Let me know in the comments if any of this resonates with you. If you’re an author, how do you use symbols in your writing?
And for more art and story from the collective unconscious, check out my Psychemagination series of books.
Key Jungian References on Symbols & the Collective Unconscious
Primary Works by C.G. Jung
- Man and His Symbols
Jung’s most accessible introduction to how symbols arise from the unconscious and why they matter. - The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part 1)
The foundational text on archetypes, symbolic imagery, and the structure of the psyche. - Symbols of Transformation (Collected Works, Vol. 5)
Jung’s deep dive into how symbols evolve and express psychic energy. - Psychological Types (Collected Works, Vol. 6)
Includes Jung’s early thinking on symbolic attitudes and the role of imagination. - The Red Book
Jung’s own active imagination journal — a living example of symbolic encounters with the unconscious.
Secondary Sources
- Marie‑Louise von Franz – Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales
Excellent for understanding how symbols function in story and imagination. - James Hillman – The Dream and the Underworld
A poetic, psychologically rich exploration of symbolic imagery. - Edward Edinger – Ego and Archetype
A clear explanation of how symbols mediate between ego and Self. - Aniela Jaffé – The Myth of Meaning
A concise overview of how symbols create meaning in the psyche.
Main Reference Article for This Post
- “A Way Into Mystery, A Way Out of Catastrophe” – Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences
A scholarly overview of Jung’s understanding of symbols, mythic imagination, and the collective unconscious.
