The Mother - this is not a comforting mother, but it symbolizes nature, like "Mother Earth". Not only is it the energy of mother divine, celestial, but also agricultural. Always changeable, the Mother is an archetype of feminine mystery and power that appears in many forms. At her best she is the queen of heaven, at her worst she can appear has Medusa or a evil witch. She symbolizes all that cherishes and fosters growth and fertility on one hand and all that is dominate and devours in the other.
The Wise Old Man (or Woman) - disguised in dreams as a kindly witch, magician, professor, priest, teacher or some other authority figure. (Think Dumbledor or Yoda) The Wise Old Man or Woman are a guide to the realization of your goals, a symbol of primal source of growth and vitality, which can heal or destroy. They convey the sense that higher status of consciousness is within the dreamer grasp. However, they can also lead us away from the higher levels as well as toward them.
The Trickster - instinctual, uninhabited and immature, the Trickster's function is to defy the rules and get satisfaction at the expense of others. He's an anti-hero, a shape-shifter, full of sly jokes and mean pranks. He appears sometimes as a clown or baffoon, who will make fun of him self at the same time, mocks the maintenance of the ego (your "self"). He is also the sinister figure who disrupts our games, exposes our schemes, and spoils our dream pleasure. He is the symbol of transformation, and like the Shadow, is indestructible, changing his shape and disappearing and reappearing at will. He usually turns up and the ego is in a dangerous situation of its own making through vanity, over ambition or misjudgment. (Think the Riddler in Batman.)
The Divine Child - is the symbol of our "true self", of the totality of our being, the opposite of the Persona. (This is the real "us".) In dreams, the Divine Child appears as a child or infant. It is both innocent, and vulnerable, but at the same time perfect and has great transforming powers. Contact with the child can strip us of the sense of personal glorification upon which the ego so greedily feeds, and revels to us how far we have strayed from what was once what we were and what we had aspired to be.
And finally, the Anima and Animus - the Anima is the feminine aspect of the male dreamer, the embodiment of his intuition and care taking abilities. The Animus is the masculine aspect of the female dreamer, her vigor and perseverance. Both serve as "soul guides" to the larger areas of our unachowledged inner potential. Mythology represents the Anima as maiden goddess or women of great beauty such as Venus or Helen of Troy. While, the noble gods or heroes, such as Apollo or Hercules symbolize Animus. If either appear in our dreams in these forms, or as any other powerful representation of man or woman, it usually means that we need to integrate the masculine/feminine parts within us. If we ignore their message, men can become too over sensitive or emotional and women can become mean or ruthless. So, say you face a tough task in your waking life, as a female, you may dream of Thor coming to you and showing you a path. Both Anima and Animus take to dreamer deeper into the realm of inner possibilities. (Inner strengths.)
These archetypes appear in our "grand dreams", you know the cosmic like Type C dreams.
The Spirit - is a ghost or infinite space, it represents our struggle with material and non-material things. is the bad guy (monster, shadow, creature) who is actually all the bad traits of ourselves we don't show to others. He is scary, but is trying to tell us something for our own good.
The Mother - represents growth and fertility but also may show dominance.
The wise old man or woman- represents a guide to the realization of your goals, they try and show you the way.
The Trickster - wants to spoil your fun, is mean, and points out the faults we fear others will see.
The Persona - is the person others know us by, not our real selves who we know.
The Divine Child - is our real self, the person we don't show to others.
Anima & Animus - who appear to us as gods or goddesses, are soul guides showing us the way to inner knowledge and possibilities.
