THE ANIMAL INSIDE US…
“Fear of wild animals-that has been bred into the human being for the longest time, including the animal that he harbors within and fears.” (Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus spoke Zarathustra)
Someone said that a symbol can never be fully interpreted, it can only be experienced. This holds especially true for the images from the animal kingdom as they approach us in dreams, myths, fairy tales and active imagination. If the image of the animal pulls, draws, attracts, repels, fills us with disgust, awe or wonder, it is always a symbol with a deeply ingrained message.
Symbols with such deeply ingrained messages shape the collective and personal world of myth. Let me use a quote from the essay on Myth in Medicine to explain what I mean with myth: “The word myth, just like a myth itself, has many interpretations. Let us accept that a myth is a tale that has to explain the essential truths of people’s experience of nature and the world they live in. In many dictionaries one sees the words ‘sacred’ and ‘fundamental’ connected to the definition of myth. Myths also include the history of natural events and how they change and control the evolution of human understanding. Also, typical of 
the underlying archetypal trickster quality of myths, it makes sense that the word myth is sometimes used for untested or false beliefs.”
Baucis and Philemon…
In Greek mythology we meet an elderly couple, Baucis and her husband Philemon. They had a pet goose that was also their guardian. One day two gods knocked on their door disguised as beggars. One was Zeus. The other was Hermes, the messenger of the gods and the god of good fortune, but also the guide to the underworld and a trickster. To feed the beggars the old couple decided that all they could do in their poverty was to kill their precious goose. Like a true animal, the goose escaped by jumping into the lap of Zeus himself. Zeus and Hermes then revealed who they were and the generous couple was rewarded by being saved during the great flood that followed. They were also granted their wish to die together and were changed into a single tree, together forever as part of nature. .
This myth contains a range of archetypal realities. Archetypes are all about our life’s journey: they give form to our uncertainties, shape our voyage towards being an independent individual, unify our masculine and feminine potential, and initiate us into the hidden realm of the unknown. They are a primordial part of our essential being, irrespective of our environment. This universality could be interpreted as a sign that they are also inherent to our bodily organisation. Archetypes, as defined in depth or analytical psychology, draw their energy from the potent forces that influence everyday life. They therefore carry the symbolic qualities we need to understand and survive the unknown such as the qualities of the Dragon, Serpent, Lion, Wolf, Dog, Tree, Ocean, Flood and Mountain.
We as humans automatically inherit the outlines of these archetypes, fill them in with the colour and detail of our individual experiences, attach meaning to them, and project them into the outer world. Because of our fascination with, and fear of, these unknown qualities within us, when an archetype appears in our conscious life as a dream or synchronistic experience, it can have a particularly powerful impact.
So, before we turn to the main character in this myth, the pet goose, let’s give some attention to the archetypal background in the story of Baucis and Philemon. Firstly, we are reminded that when our inner lives are impoverished by ‘aged’ views and ideas, new possibilities often appear disguised as beggars. We have to be alert for those possibilities which bring insight through the clear judgement and sharp discrimination symbolised by Zeus. We also have to trust intuitive messages brought by Hermes, but at the same time also be watchful for the danger that lies in indiscriminate wishes and fixations. However, if all goes well and we choose to sacrifice the familiar side of the animal inside us to gain the fresh insight from the archetypal ‘gods’ in our collective unconscious, we are usually rewarded with a new life. We will now survive the archetypal flood that may overcome us as undefined unconscious forces – the most extreme of which we often encounter in the form of obsessions, mania or depression. Eventually, we will be rewarded with a unified self (male and female qualities) able to ‘grow and bear fruit’ 
in a natural environment – our own world as a dynamic, but accepted reality. .
in the arms of Zeus…
Now, let us turn our attention to the clever goose. When life presents us with definite opportunities that go beyond our ability, we often have to fall back on more fundamental archetypal potential that is inherent in our natural self. Instead of being sacrificed, this animal self usually finds it much easier to jump right into the arms of the greater unknown.
Most animal archetypes have strong associations with survival and vitality. It is difficult to know whether archetypes of animals acquire their inherent energy from a mere image association over millennia, or whether we also unconsciously draw on biologically shared qualities in our own physical matrix. In other words, are we fascinated by snakes because our ancestors feared their poison, or are we receptive to biological remnants deposited inside our system’s organisation?
Whatever the case, the root of the word ‘animal’ connotes living, breath, soul and ‘to energize’ in many languages. Most animal archetypes therefore link us to our ability to sustain life itself. A poor relationship with these archetypes can indicate ambivalence towards instinctual life and lead to a depletion of energy. We often see cruelty to animals in suicidal people, or notice how a strong bond with an animal can support and lengthen the life of a cancer patient. In other words, whenever we focus on the symbolism of the animal with its natural qualities and universal associations, a healing connection will always become obvious.
It is integrated conscious observation – Philemon and Baucis, who opened their door to the gods in disguise – that presents us with the possibility to transform an illness, neurosis or destructive behaviour into healthy self-exploration. Myths and fairy tales are full of examples where the hero or heroine relies on animals, unaware that they represent the will of the gods and spirits in nature itself. These metaphors are not outdated superstition or fancy, but inherent knowledge about the transference of life’s energy.
In therapy, a patient’s dream images or personal descriptions of animals can be used as valuable instruments to explore ‘instinctual’ knowledge about the energy processes inside the body. This is not a simple ‘as-if’’ game, and the archetypal qualities of the animals should not be analysed as mere mental constructs, but as experienced realities inside our whole system. By fleshing out a personal dream image or feeling about an animal and its qualities as they appear in a patient’s life history, in his or her cultural associations, in a particular religion, or as in worldwide myths, we restore the connection between mind and body and bring coherence between his or her inherent abilities and the demands of the environment.
So, let us, for illustration, take a tiny peek into the world of three other well known animal archetypes.
know life and death…
The serpent archetype is one of the oldest and best defined archetypes associated with life and death, and eventually also with healing. Apart from infinite variations in myths about the influence of the serpent through the ages, there are also hundreds of books and articles in analytical psychology, philosophy and even modern medicine relating to this association, especially if we consider the mythological image of the dragon as part of the wider definition of this archetype.
Maybe we could set aside our terror of a snake for a moment and focus on the image of a ‘snake’ almost as if it were an invisible partner inside us. We know that a symbol is a filter which reduces the amount of information affecting our identity and actions at a specific moment to a manageable amount. The curling snake as indicator of repeating life cycles shapes our understanding of all the knowledge we have about how life generates itself. Without this image we are often unable to express knowledge about the complex process of ongoing life, and we also struggle to use this knowledge to influence and improve our life on this planet.
Few cultures are without a snake symbol carrying different levels of archetypal power. In most cultures and time periods there is a close association between the snake and the dynamic principle of nature which is able to create through its own matter. Just think about the modern image of the DNA structure that we see every day in our reading material. The similarity between a snake which can shed his skin and live forever, which also lives inside the earth, can swim in water and move with a wave-like energy, eventually extended the original respect for this poisonous creature all 
the way into our modern perceptions of waves as energy within matter and the spiral patterns we see in modern mathematics and cosmology. By representing transformation and the renewal of life, the serpent archetype was involved in the simple fertility associated with the mother goddess as well as in the upholding of eternity in the image of the ouroborous or serpent holding its tail in its mouth.
The serpent image became our foremost conscious image during the age of the mother goddess, and by the time of the Bronze Age snake rituals dominated Sumerian, Egyptian and Minoan cultures where, as divinity itself or as the goddess’ consort, the serpent carried the quality of universal wisdom and appeared as guardian of the underworld. Later in some Middle Eastern and Indian mythologies the snake became more directly associated with sexual activity, while in Buddhist tradition it retains its role as universal guardian. At the same time, the serpent or dragon biting its tail appeared worldwide in mythology as the being which encircles the world and represents the beginning and end of all time. By combining the attributes of creation, transformation and wisdom, the serpent also became linked to the ‘Tree of Life’ and eventually the wooden ‘staff’ of healing and salvation.
However, is there any reason why the serpent is important to us in our everyday modern world? Even if we have no belief in the mythology of established religions, it still seems that, on an individual and collective level, the serpent and ourobouros cannot be severed from our unconscious drive for life and fear of death. Just observe how often the archetypal shape appears in modern digital and fantasy imaging. Although we do not have to believe in the ‘mother goddess’ or carry real snakes around our necks to prevent conscious inertia, we all still intuitively have the serpent archetype in our collective memory. 
This mythological pattern of the interaction between the solid and the dynamic principles within matter is available whenever we consciously search for it.
and find the way…
Getting to know an animal means that we study what it is all about, how it lives, what it likes and what it fears, how it mates, what it eats and who its enemies might be. This keen observation is also needed with respect to the animal archetypes and their healing connections that fill our myths and fairy tales. No animal is closer to the everyday activity of humans and also to people’s emotional consciousness than the dog. One can assume that over the past 20-60 millennia we would have created fixed image patterns about dogs living with us, patterns which eventually became inherent to our unconscious existence because of the natural ability we have to order our existence around such central metaphoric deduction.
So, although not as fundamental to our relationship with the unknown as the serpent, the dog has been an intimate archetypal symbol since humans began telling stories about their survival against nature’s uncertainties. Let us again take a peep into part of this collective heritage. In Egypt the god Anubis was mytholgically related to the dogs which were buried in catacombs to guide souls and negotiate life in the underworld. In ancient Greece Cerberus was the three-faced guard dog of the Underworld. Here the dog was also sacred to the goddess Artemis, who was the protector of young women and managed their diseases. She was thus also the primary goddess of childbirth and midwifery. But, Artemis was also the goddess of forests and hills, and this association between women, nature and dogs reminds us of the 
expanding role the archetype may play within our recent collective conscious understanding of humanity’s responsibility to nature. In India the dog or Shvan is also the vahana or mount of the Hindu god Bhairava, and caring for or adopting dogs can pave the way to a serene afterlife. In the Zoroastrian belief system, too, dogs were seen as beneficent, as having protective influence over demons and as connecting humans with the afterlife. However, in cultures based upon Abrahamism, dogs were not potent archetypal symbols, but usually portrayed as negative and unclean animals.
Today, this archetype often takes an important role in the dreams and therapeutic associations of patients. Also, in the intimate relationship between dogs and humans in our present global culture, where people live as nucleus families in city environments, the uncomplicated companionship of a dog has become part of a new archetypal relationship with our temporary existence on earth. Thus, on a personal level the dog as 
symbol adapts to a modern lifestyle and becomes a sophisticated bridge between a lively and dynamic self and the modern inert ‘death’ of emotional dislocation from nature.
to true wisdom…
Ten years ago my daughter had a serious stroke while riding her enormous white horse, named Morning Star. With the wisdom we so often find in animals, he immediately stood absolutely still the moment he realised that she was losing consciousness until people in the vicinity realised what was happening and helped her down from the horse’s back. The large white horse literally saved her life with his intuitive reaction.
Although there must be thousands of legends about horses, let us again just get a feeling for the mythic associations with a horse. Minerva, for example, was the Etruscan goddess of medicine and physicians, but also of wisdom, meditation, art and learning. It is therefore interesting that she was the one who tamed the horse and created the fountain from which the muses were born. It was a kick from the hoof of the winged horse Pegasus which opened the fountain named the “Horse’s Fountain” or Hippocrene from where the inspiration for poetry, art and science came forth. Pegasus also assisted when Bellerophon, a hero of Greek mythology, had to slay the monster Chimera that was composed of various animals – a lion, goat and serpent, for example – symbolising that which contains contrasting concepts, causing improbable or startling views or experiences. The archetypal horse therefore assists us to reach for true intuitive wisdom, the kind of inspiration that is free from emotional one-sidedness or confused thinking.
In our modern day practical world, few people still have the privilege of a deeply personal relationship with a horse. I however find it interesting that patients – mostly female patients – who are able to have a close relationship with a horse seem to gain the healing and creative energy that is stimulated by such a direct reminder of the seeds inherent to the horse archetype.
For those of us who will never know or own a horse, apart from when it appears now and then in dreams, there is still hope to touch a similar intuitive wisdom that hides in our collective unconscious. The archetype of the cat also carried the wisdom associated with the qualities of intuitive healing and the avoidance of misfortune. The ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet was represented by a black cat. The goddess was the guardian and protector of women’s health and their secrets about fertility and child birth. She was wise enough to challenge evil spirits and could also be a frightening avenger. If a black cat was killed it would inflict plague and disaster on humanity. The ancient Greeks linked their goddess Artemis with Bastet and thus also with cats, and the killing of a cat was also forbidden. In Rome the goddess Diana took this role. Freyja, the goddess of beauty and fertility in Norse mythology rides in a chariot drawn by cats. Later during the early European Middle Ages, Artemis became embedded in the image of the Virgin Mary, and cats now appeared in icons of the Holy Family.
Unfortunately, in later European culture, superstition and distrust about these qualities upturned the positive aspect of the cat archetype and created the association between cats, especially black cats, and witches. Witches were mostly elderly women, who practised healing through herbal remedies and who were often knowledgeable and free thinking. The Church in Christian societies therefore found it easy to condemn them as pagan and dangerous, turning the cat archetype on its head. From here it was a short step to total condemnation of the witch and her cat, and the burning of cats and witches alive. However, the inherent nature of the cat archetype and its intuitive fore-knowledge remained in the background, because the ash of cats burned during these cruel rituals was often taken home to bring good luck. Some writers still like to associate the widespread killing of cats and the increase of the rat population with the spread of the plague which killed 25 million people in Europe alone during the 14th century. We now know that the main spread of the plague eventually was human to human in its pneumonic form, but we could just imagine the archetypal uncertainty in the minds of people when the cats they deplored could have saved them from the rats which brought the plague into their midst. It is no wonder that the plague brought huge changes in the conscious understanding of every sphere of life: religion, social, political, science and medicine.
We can only wonder how these animal archetypes are playing around inside our collective unconscious during our present challenge with the Covid pandemic. It is obvious that nothing is really new to the animals inside us. We just have to become conscious of the valid influence that they have in a new global world.
Images: writer’s own and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)#/media/File:Ningizzida.jpg https://www.wikiart.org/en/nicholas-roerich/head-of-zeus-1893 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(symbolism)#/media/File:Ningizzida.jpg https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/the-great-red-dragon-and-the-woman- clothed-with-the-sun-1810 https://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/woman-walking-her-dog-1886 https://www.wikiart.org/en/eugene-delacroix/horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiar#/media/File:The_Love_Potion.jpg
Read more about the mythological world of archetypes in:
Archetypes and Symbols