Childhood Home

The childhood home is a dream setting so common it has its own name in Jungian literature: the first dwelling. To dream of it is to return to the architecture in which the self was first shaped. What state the house is in matters enormously. Rooms you did not remember existing often signify aspects of the self being rediscovered; rooms flooded or damaged, early material asking for acknowledgment; the house in perfect condition, an integration of origins the dreamer has earned. Notice who is in the house with you — present family, absent family, strangers — and which room you find yourself in. Basements and attics, in particular, carry classical weight: basement for unconscious, attic for memory and ideal.