Hello Dreamviews,

I was reading up on the Chariot Tarot card. The author's religious views were not compatible with mine but he got me thinking. He described the card in 2 parts. First, a celebration of one's victory. Second, a warning against the danger of identifying as the Hero archetype after which he quoted Jung. Both Jung and the author warned against identifying with our unconscious, or aspects of our unconscious (such as the Hero archetype). Doing so, they say, leads to an inflated ego. I infer identifying with the Child or the Shadow leads to their own issues?

It was the first time I've been warned against identifying with my unconscious. I thought it was an interesting concept, since as lucid dreamers, part of our ritual is to dissipate the idea of a duality between oneself and the dream. "I am the dream, the dream is me" seems like an appropriate mantra to unlock the ability to be an active participant in the dream.

What I understood from Jung, though I wouldn't be surprised I was wrong, is to identify only with our consciousness and nurture a sense of duality with our unconscious as well as a sense of "connectedness"... (but not identity). This seems... more grounded in reality?

During a dream, if someone perceives the dream stimuli as coming from outside of oneself, they're likely to call the dream an astral projection.
Perceiving the dream stimuli as coming from within describes a dream and potentially a lucid one.
Is then, identifying with the dream, believing "I" am the dream, not an exaggerated claim? Or is it a lucid thought?

I was wondering about this dilemma. Is it just philosophy or is there advantages/disadvantages to accepting the dream comes from one's body, yet is not "me" vs identifying with the dream?