pixel

GAMES: metaphor for life

Nov 24, 2022

Photo Credit: Mireille Raad via Unsplash

Humans have played games since prehistoric times. Games bring us together and pit us against each other. We agree to rules, take turns, develop tolerance for frustration, and learn to win and lose. We develop skills and submit to chance. Games range from luck to skill, from a throw of the dice to acing it at tennis. Games regulate aggression: only one can win, whether on a gameboard or the court. Shadow is sanctioned within the rules, creating monikers like The Black Death of chess and Boss of the Moss of golf—and in the heat of a game, shadier traits may also be revealed. But “playing games” in relationships is universally condemned as cheating. Games introduce us to conditions of life, for we must play the hand we’ve been dealt. Confronted with the limitations of ego and understanding, we may discover that games are metaphors for the movement of a mysterious cosmos.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I dream of this place that is dark and largely empty. The doors to the place are open. Inside there is a void, and in the void, particles. They are ominous. Dark. They exert impact on things inside this place. There is nothing inside this place except cut-outs of what look like humans. They float eerily and move through the air quickly, like ghosts. As one approaches the window through which I am looking in, the cut-out impresses as very human-like, even though it is not. It is eerily human-like. I am startled. All of a sudden, there are humans inside this place. I become aware of a lady with a shaven head. Her head reminds me of the Borg [Star Trek reference]. These particles have been affecting her and have caused her to be gone. She is alive but no longer a human–cannot be reached. Her condition cannot be undone. I am now in a room with a male human. He is not gone to the particles yet. He presents me 4 books quickly. He says they will soon be stolen. That everything in this place is stolen quickly. He says to remember the headings of books as this is the only way to keep the information, namely in one’s memory. The particles in the dream are rather ominous. The place is ominous. There is such hunger in this place, a kind that cannot be sated, hence the stealing of things.”

GIVE US A HAND!

Please become our patron: https://www.patreon.com/ThisJungianLife

RESOURCES:

Learn to Analyze your own Dreams: https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

Enroll in our Philadelphia Jungian Seminar and start your journey to becoming an analyst: https://www.cgjungphiladelphia.org/seminar.shtml

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisJungianLife/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisjungianlifepodcast/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisjungianlife/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThisJungianLife

1 Comment

  1. Max Reif

    Thank you for a fascinating (as usual) discussion!
    I thought that this quotation from an Indian spiritual figure…which is sometimes seen on a card with the title THE GAME at the top, would be a nice cap to the program:
    TGE GAME
    To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity and beauty — this is the sole game which has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance.“ – Meher Baba

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *