DREAM GALAXY

Images · Light & dark

Dreams about moon: Jung, traditions and semiotics

This is not a dream dictionary. Each perspective below names where it comes from; traditions are shown side by side, not merged into one meaning.

Start with yourself

Was the moon far away or close? Who, if anyone, were you thinking of under it?

Jung · Sol and Luna

Jung followed European alchemy in pairing Sun and Moon as opposites to be joined. That pairing is specific to the alchemical tradition he studied, not a universal rule.

Is there a quieter, night-time side of you that this moon might stand for?

C. G. Jung, “Mysterium Coniunctionis”, Collected Works 14

Traditions, side by side

Chinese poetry Literature

In Chinese poetry the moon is a light shared across distance — Su Shi wishes that people far apart might “share the same moon across a thousand miles”.

Su Shi, “Shuidiao Getou” (1076)

Semiotics: how an image comes to mean

Following C. S. Peirce, an image can work as a sign in three ways:

C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers 2.247–249 (icon, index, symbol)
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types (1921), “Definitions: Symbol” — a sign stands for something known, a symbol for something not yet fully known
Ellis (1911), ch. II, on verbal links between dream images

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Recorded dreams with moon