The Dog
The dog is the animal that lives closest to us, and it shows up in Archetype Matrix entries from many countries.
What Jung wrote
In Symbols of Transformation Jung keeps meeting dogs at the edge of the underworld. Cerberus guards the gate of Hades, dogs run with the goddess Hecate at the crossroads, and in Egypt the jackal headed Anubis leads the dead on their way. The dog in these stories stands at a threshold, between the known world and the one below it.
The alchemists had their own dog. In Mysterium Coniunctionis Jung discusses an old instruction to take a dog and a bitch and let them fight and join, which he read as a picture of opposites in the psyche meeting and slowly becoming one. Faithful companion, guard and guide: the dog is instinct that has learned to walk beside us.
- C. G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation, Collected Works, Vol. 5
- C. G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Collected Works, Vol. 14
What the world is logging
Logged with the mood
- Calm50%
- Anxious36%
- Angry7%
- Sad7%
Where it is logged most
- United States3
- Brazil2
- Netherlands1
- Argentina1
- Spain1
Most common moon phase
New Moon (6 entries)
Counted from anonymous Archetype Matrix entries. Updated October 8, 2026.
What we don’t do
We won’t tell you what your dog means. Jung himself distrusted fixed dream dictionaries and held that a symbol can only be read in the life of the person who dreams it. Archetype Matrix only counts: who logged the same image, where, and in what mood.
Other symbols
ForestSnakeOceanBoatAlienOld WomanShadowLionWolfWaterEagleMirrorFishHorseGoldOld Man
