For context, I am 29M, I struggle with anxiety and depressive like symptoms (I have not been diagnosed as depressive though). I have just recently started seeking help from a psychologist and, not long after (shout out to my synchronicities) started hearing and learning about Jungian psychology. Shortly after that, I started having the most vivid dreams, especially when taking naps, but during nightime too. This one particularly shook me, if anyone want to shoot their shot at explaining it, you're more than welcome.
I am walking my dog, on a long line, as I usually do (I do own a dog IRL), when all of a sudden, 3 deers appear in the distance, in a field. My dog gets a little excited, but rremains on the line and obeys my command.
Hunters show up (IRL I live in a rural part of France and hunting is still a big thing, which I really much disagree about but anyway) with a bunch of their hounds, completely left loose. My dog is still in control. Then things get a little blurry, but I am upset by the presence of this hunting party. I dont understand exactly what is going on until I see the hunters proceed to slaughter their own dogs, with axes and blades. This gets me even more upset, I shout slurs at them. The dream ends on the hunters riding away on horseback (which they didnt ride upon arrival) and me, going to invetigate the dogs slaughtered corps, which I see in my dream in a very detailed way.
The way I interpret it is the following. Dogs represent our unconscious. They follow us everywhere, for better or for worse. If properly educated, tended to, given the right place and stimulation they Will thrive, and make human life easier. Left unchecked, they can act purely on impulsivity and in a destructive manner. In this dream, I seem to be able to control a part of my inconscious (aka the dog I own IRL), which seems to show that my recent efforts to integrate some parts of my inconscious, instead of putting it away to the shadow, have bear fruit. But I cant seem to figure the hunting party and what they represent. The archetype of the hunter is usually representing the convenant between human and nature. Yet here, the hunting party is behaving in a destructive way only, and they dont take from nature, but slaughter their dogs. I cant really articulate the fact that I control my own dog in the dream, but the hunting party slaughters theirs in a gruesome and cruel way. Is the hunting party me ? Or is it my biaised projection of how I perceive human beings as a whole ? Any insight is welcome.
Thank you for tour time !