ARAS Connections: Image and Archetype - 2006 Issue 1

The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) is a collection of 14,000 photographs of works of art and other human artifacts collected for the archetypal references within the symbolic content of the images. The photograph is accompanied by a text describing the visual detail of the item, its origin and historical context and possible interpretations of the symbol where that is possible and appropriate. In most instances, the Archive also has a slide of the item, many in colour. Each item is also cross-indexed by the various visual components which constitute the image, hence an alchemical couple will appear in the subject index as King and Queen, Sol and Luna, Sun, Moon, gold, silver, union.
 
While the informing point of view of ARAS is that of analytical psychology, the objective data presented in the descriptions open the archive to users other than therapists and their patients. These two groups find abundant material for the interpretation of symbols in dreams, active imagination, and other facets of analytical work. The Archive has also been used by a theatre director looking for ideas for sets and costumes, by an artist developing a survey of masks throughout world history, by a theologian looking for an androgynous figure of Christ, and by an analyst using slides for a lecture on feminine images. These examples illustrate the variety of interests which lead people to use ARAS.
 
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Online access to the ARAS archive has made the unique collection of symbolic images available to a much wider audience than ever before. As someone with a curiosity about symbolic images I set out to learn
more about online ARAS. In New York City ARAS is located at E. 39th Street in the beautiful brownstone building that houses the New York C.G. Jung Center.  Here, I met with Ami Ronnberg, who has been the curator at ARAS New York since 1985 and currently heads a staff of five specialists in art, art history, depth psychology and archetypal symbolism.  Ami is one of the most experienced users and teachers of the archive.
 
Torben:  Ami, who uses ARAS?
 
Ami:  The users come from several groups. There are candidates training to become Jungian analysts. They may be doing research for papers, theses, or presentations, or they may be exploring the iconographic
background to images in their clients' dreams or their own dreams. A second category is artists: painters, sculptors, theater set designers, filmmakers, book cover designers, and book and magazine illustrators. The Academy Award-winning film maker Faith Hubley was inspired by ARAS in the creation of several of her famous animated films.  We once even had a tattoo artist who always researched the symbol the client requested before doing the tattoo! A third category is students from art schools, design schools, or from university departments of psychology, philosophy, or literature. We also meet writers and lecturers, and people interested in symbolism and mythology in general.  And finally we have, of course, practicing therapists, analysts, art therapists – and anyone who dreams.

Torben:  What do you tell an ARAS user?

Ami:  We usually begin by asking what brought the person to ARAS.  This often tells us something about the person – he or she may be an analytical training candidate, or an artist, a writer, etc. It also tells us if
this person has a specific question or a specific subject of research in mind. We ask the person to describe the project or question rather specifically, the dream motif or the part of the dream he or she wants to explore.  For a graphic designer we ask what the logo should express. We ask a writer to tell us about the contents or title of the book. All this is done to better understand what the user is looking for.
 
Then we introduce the archive: The 17,000 images and how they are organized in the files, beginning with Paleolithic art and progressing to the modern period. One way of using the archive is to browse. If someone has a dream with an Egyptian image, then we refer them to the Egyptian section (this can be done online by using the Timeline).  Someone interested in alchemy can select that part of the archive.   However, we always emphasize the cross-cultural aspect: A particular image can appear in many different cultures and historical eras. This is where ARAS differs from a traditional art collection. And this is where the cataloged subject headings, which we then introduce, are very helpful.  (When you use ARAS Online, the subject headings appear as a list when you begin to type a search term.)  They are done from a truly visual perspective: what you can see – objects, things. The subject headings are iconographic and don't include categories like feelings, Jungian concepts such as animus, anima, and shadow, or philosophical ideas. However,
when you are searching online you will also find some of the interpreted material, since all the written information is searchable.
 
Torben:  Can you use ARAS to have your symbols or dreams analyzed?
 
Ami:  ARAS's founder Jesse Fraser's idea was strongly not to interpret the symbol in any way but to offer information about the mythical and cultural background and the art history and then let the user make his or her own interpretation.  Even so, you can find many suggestions for a psychological understanding – it's as if it is impossible not to think of what the image might mean in our own lives.  This caused us to change the format and divide the text into three main parts, so one would know what was more factual and what was more "interpretative."  We called them: 1. Description, which is a guide to what you see in the image, 2) Cultural Context, which gives the mythical or cultural background and 3) Archetypal Commentary, where you find comparative patterns of the image and how to think about it in a psychological way.  This new format was revised in the mid 1980s and this is how the two volumes of the ARAS Encyclopedia and all new entries have been done.  Entries written before that time don't include a separate Archetypal Commentary.
 
We explain the difference between the personal and collective level of symbols and dreams. ARAS doesn't have a picture of someone dreaming of their aunt, so you will find material related to such an image by
searching for keywords such as "Old woman," which takes you to "Wisdom figure, feminine," and other entries such as "Prophetess," "Sophia," "Virgin, dark," or "Witches and witchcraft."  Here in New York, for example, subway dreams are quite common.  We typically direct a user to look up keywords such as "Underworld" and "Vehicles." Our ancestors did not dream about the New York City subway system, but they did dream about trips to the underworld, and maybe that is what the dream is really about.  There is a whole net of cross-referencing, which Joseph Henderson helped create, based on archetypal ideas.
 
Torben:  If ARAS does not give me a handy interpretation, how can I find my way to a result? What makes a good user of ARAS?
 
Ami:  You look up something similar, let the images guide you – and look for what makes you excited, what moves you – what feels like "aha – that's it."  ARAS is a rich collection, which guides your imagination in wonderful ways.  In a practical or "hands on" way this means to begin with a thread, follow another lead, look up similar ideas, and to move around intuitively.  There is an interconnectedness of symbols, and we often have to circumambulate – or walk around – a symbol or a dream in order to get to the core.  We call it amplification. Also, people use the archive in very different ways.  Someone who is preparing a lecture will go through the files and let the images inspire them to new ideas while someone else may be looking for images to illustrate something they have already written. Synchronicity is a major force in finding images, it seems – when someone is really connected to their material – that's when they put in a keyword and the right picture just appears. Wherever you look, it seems that the images you are searching for come to you.  This is not linear thinking but intuitive and iterative search. It is image thinking, with connections like a tree's many branches, leaves, roots. The unlimited possibility of searching for subjects across all cultures and eras and reading the image commentaries is in itself a generative experience.  I have never come across an ARAS user who said that he or she got nothing out of the time spent with the collection.
 
Historically, the images were selected in terms of archetypal motifs and this continues to be the underlying principle of ARAS and its magic.  As the word 'motif' suggests, there is something that moves us.  Anyone who has followed a symbol through the many representations in various cultural and historical settings has experienced this power.  Certainly it is known to those who have been able to visit the Archive in person.  I am happy that it is now possible for many more to have the experience in their own homes or offices through ARAS Online.