Archetypal Imagery During Meditation

[Velvet Elvis]

I had a meditation experience last night that I’m still sitting with and would love this group’s thoughts on.

I have an inner space I sometimes enter during meditation that I call “the waiting room.” It’s basically a place where I allow whatever (or whoever) wants to appear, appear.

Before entering that space, I saw something in my mind’s eye, far off in the distance: what looked like a floating red clay or stone sculpture- a cluster of enormous hands layered over one another. After I entered the waiting room, it appeared again. This time it was massive, megalithic, hovering above me and larger than the room itself.

I instinctively knew it was the same structure I had seen earlier, but up close it wasn’t hands anymore. It was fused human figures. The phrase “one-but-many” immediately came to mind. Some of the figures were holding spears; others had twisted, anguished expressions.  All or most of them were frozen in static poses that seemed to suggest combat or warrior stances. It felt ancient. Carved. Almost Mesoamerican in tone, but also reminiscent of Hindu many-armed deity imagery… except instead of many arms, it was many individuals forming a single structure.

I didn’t fear for my safety, but there was something undeniably unsettling about its weight and scale. I asked it what it was, but there was no response. It didn’t communicate or feel like it was watching me. It simply was there- heavy, imposing and impossible to ignore.

The closest language I have for it is archetypal- maybe something akin to a collective form, a monument to humanity or civilizational force. But I’m cautious about immediately reducing it to just a product of the psyche.  It carried a distinctly numinous, ancient quality.
I’m curious how others here might frame something like this. Has anyone encountered imagery that presents more as structure than personality? The many-as-one motif feels significant.

Would love your thoughts.
Velvet Elvis

[Sirius]

my thoughts are 'why are you fixating on the motif when you are having an experience?' 

What do you want to know about? It all kind of seems clear to me but it's your thing.

[Maxmars]

I'm going to be presumptuous and hope that my instant thoughts on this matter...

A robust and impactful concept is coalescing in your perception...
your full perception.

Our minds exist in a special setting, often analyzing, sorting, evaluating connections in weight and relevance.
Even while we can't offer attention.

Perhaps this image speaks to you from a certain locality of perception specifically...
or maybe it's a vibrational potential you are casting into form to understand 'differently.'

Massive potential... unspecified energy... within a 'form' ...
not to fear necessarily, but you could.

Just a spontaneous feedback attempt.

What you witness in here... would you conjure it up again?
I would be hesitant to try though...
the same message, heard twice, can appear differently.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

I can only tell you how I would interpret that if it happen to me. 

I would note the symbolism of clay as part of the collective archetype of biblical influence. "The most special creation as made from earth and clay."

But then I would only see the works of clay.

I would see the statue of the collective frozen in time, ready for battle, distorted, and molded into that position by EVERYONE.

I would see the multiple hands it initially looked like (also being in clay) as symbolizing that the distorted warriors the hands morphed into were created by ALL. 

"We created this statue TOGETHER."

So I would see it as an unconscious parable arguing for the works of C.G. Jung's collective unconscious... 

...and also how violently and divergent from possibility everyone collectively molded the world statue.

Like the premise of the book Sphere, where instead of creating paradise they all conjured up jellyfish and poisonous snakes and ways to kill each-other.

[Sirius]

DM me if you want to know/bothers you or find me elsewhere..

[Velvet Elvis]

my thoughts are 'why are you fixating on the motif when you are having an experience?' 

What do you want to know about? It all kind of seems clear to me but it's your thing.

That’s fair. But to clarify, I wasn’t fixating on it during the experience-  I was just taking it in.
For me, meditation is partly about insight, and insight usually comes through some degree of reflection afterward.

I’m not trying to dissect it to death. I’m curious about the many-as-one motif because it stood out so strongly from what I normally experience in that space. I don’t usually encounter imagery that feels that archetypal or imposing.

Part of what intrigues me is what it might represent- I have my own ideas- but I’m equally interested in why it appeared at that moment.

I haven’t explored Jung deeply, but I’m aware of his work on archetypes and the collective unconscious, and this experience definitely makes me want to look into it more.

You mentioned it seems clear to you- I’m genuinely interested in what you see there.

[Velvet Elvis]

I'm going to be presumptuous and hope that my instant thoughts on this matter...

A robust and impactful concept is coalescing in your perception...
your full perception.

Our minds exist in a special setting, often analyzing, sorting, evaluating connections in weight and relevance.
Even while we can't offer attention.

Perhaps this image speaks to you from a certain locality of perception specifically...
or maybe it's a vibrational potential you are casting into form to understand 'differently.'

Massive potential... unspecified energy... within a 'form' ...
not to fear necessarily, but you could.

Just a spontaneous feedback attempt.

What you witness in here... would you conjure it up again?
I would be hesitant to try though...
the same message, heard twice, can appear differently.

appreciate the spontaneous feedback Maxmars.

What stood out to me wasn’t so much “potential” as density. It didn’t feel like something forming - it felt already formed. Almost architectural. Ancient rather than emergent.

I’m open to the idea that perception shapes how these things present, but this felt less like something I was casting into form and more like something that presented itself fully structured.

As for conjuring it again, I wouldn’t intentionally try. My practice is more about allowing than summoning. If it reappears organically, I’d meet it there, but I’m not looking to replicate it.

I’m curious what specifically in the imagery reads as “potential” to you?

[Velvet Elvis]

I can only tell you how I would interpret that if it happen to me. 

I would note the symbolism of clay as part of the collective archetype of biblical influence. "The most special creation as made from earth and clay."

But then I would only see the works of clay.

I would see the statue of the collective frozen in time, ready for battle, distorted, and molded into that position by EVERYONE.

I would see the multiple hands it initially looked like (also being in clay) as symbolizing that the distorted warriors the hands morphed into were created by ALL. 

"We created this statue TOGETHER."

So I would see it as an unconscious parable arguing for the works of C.G. Jung's collective unconscious... 

...and also how violently and divergent from possibility everyone collectively molded the world statue.

Like the premise of the book Sphere, where instead of creating paradise they all conjured up jellyfish and poisonous snakes and ways to kill each-other.

I really appreciate the way you framed this- especially the clay as collective building material. I hadn’t consciously connected it to the Genesis thread, but that symbolism fits surprisingly well.

The idea that the hands becoming warriors could imply “we made this together” is compelling. That collective agency piece definitely resonates more than a single deity narrative.

What makes this especially interesting for me personally is that since my husband died, I’ve been sitting with the idea that in some way, we may all be facets of a single collective entity- different expressions of one underlying whole. And at the same time, I’ve been trying to reconcile that with the very real diversity of human paths, and how we navigate people who seem to have lost their way.

So, this image of a many-as-one structure (unified but also fractured...even violent)  feels oddly aligned with that inner questioning. Not necessarily in an accusatory or moralizing way, but more like a monument to the interplay of that tension itself.

The Sphere comparison is intriguing too.  The idea that the collective unconscious can and will manifest shadow as easily as potential. That might be the most Jungian layer of it.

I’m still sitting with whether the image was descriptive of humanity broadly, or reflective of something more personal nested inside that collective structure.

[Sirius]

That’s fair. But to clarify, I wasn’t fixating on it during the experience-  I was just taking it in.
For me, meditation is partly about insight, and insight usually comes through some degree of reflection afterward.

I’m not trying to dissect it to death. I’m curious about the many-as-one motif because it stood out so strongly from what I normally experience in that space. I don’t usually encounter imagery that feels that archetypal or imposing.

Part of what intrigues me is what it might represent- I have my own ideas- but I’m equally interested in why it appeared at that moment.

I haven’t explored Jung deeply, but I’m aware of his work on archetypes and the collective unconscious, and this experience definitely makes me want to look into it more.

You mentioned it seems clear to you- I’m genuinely interested in what you see there.

I can't talk about this stuff publicly dear, nobody sane does that.... Don't stress about it, don't message me. 

For this kind of thing in general keep a journal, journal more than just your visions. Don't post your dreams/visions on the internet as such, be crafty if you need information.  That's the best I can give you sorry.

[Maxmars]

There is some truth in the value of discretion...

However...


In search of truth there can be no secrets.


I was thinking further...

and please forgive me if this matter is closed.

Before entering that space, ....

I inferred words adjacent to your own... my own reflexive thought experiment...

Here's kind of where I was coming from.... just to avoid painting your original and true information... recognizing my inferences for what they are... a reaction.

In your imagery I thought... perhaps..

You approached, or were approached by a magnitude of presence...

It formed as you observed, metaphorically, as clay before a sculptor...
the theme was 'hands' and the natural apparatus of manipulations... many of them...

I would think it appeared as something which presents it's magnitude in realization...

You were impressed, I think.

The imagery may be personal, the result of you and you alone.

Others may know so much more, and be more gifted in their considerations...

I'll leave it to you to apply discretion...
because it remains true not all members see all perspectives.
Some of those unseen may be useful to look at.


(How's that for pretentious?  )