How to Use the Archive
To use the archive, you first decide to explore a symbol: from a dream, as an idea to use in an artistic creation, for a cultural study, for research or simply to enjoy the richness of the archive. As you search you will come up with multiple examples that demonstrate how the same symbol is expressed in different times, cultures and mediums. It is the commonality that helps to distill the meaning you are after. The search may lead you off on various tangents, circling around the meaning, fleshing it out until you finally come to an understanding of what it means to you. One thing is certain about this process, though—an excitement and enthusiasm will easily grip you, carrying you along on your fascinating and enlightening journey through the world of symbolic images.
Search the Archive
- Click on Search and type in a word, such as the name of a symbol from a dream, for example, "cow".
- Up will come the timeline with a list of found images of "cows".
- You can narrow the search by clicking on the triangle corresponding to a specific historical or cultural time-frame or scroll through the full list of found images.
- When you have located an image of interest, click on the image to enlarge it and to access the accompanying cultural and psychological commentary.
- You have the option to enlarge the image, download it, or print it along with the commentary.
- You may then want to move on to explore the next image. Simply move back or forward to the next image in the archive or return to the original list of search results.
- When you have finished research on the image of the "cow", you may want to save the images of interest for future use using the My Lists feature and begin another search.
Basic Searching
- To search on any arbitrary word, just type it in. For example, to see all records that contain the word Jung, just type in Jung.
- If you type in more than one word, you'll get records containing both words, as in pyramid egypt.
- To search on a phrase, put it in double quotes, as in "collective unconscious".
- To see a specific ARAS record or image, type in its number, such as 1Bf.001, 1Bf.001.1, or 1bf.001a.
- Don't bother to capitalize or put accents on letters, as the search automatically finds words containing these.
Help Videos
To help our members make the best use of ARAS.org, we have put together the following videos that include some helpful tips and tricks!
How to compile groups of images and save your favorites:
How to use the Concordance of Jung's Collected Works:
Explore the parts of an ARAS record:
How to use the timeline to refine your search results:
Citing the Archive
To cite an ARAS Online record in an article, paper, or elsewhere, we recommend the following format:
"Image Name - Record number." ARAS Online [online archive]. New York: The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism; available from www.aras.org; accessed date.
For images without names, just put the ARAS record number itself at the beginning of the citation. Examples:
"Penitence of David - Record 5Ck.009." ARAS Online [online archive]. New York: The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism; available from www.aras.org; accessed 30 March 2006.
"Record 2Bp.029." ARAS Online [online archive]. New York: The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism; available from www.aras.org; accessed 5 September 2009.