The Archetypal Dream: Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold,the angels of God were ascending and descending on it….
“Later in the Renaissance in the seventeenth century, Jacob’s Ladder was symbolically as being the sounds and vowels of human speech, or the different qualities of the world, or the different numbers of the world.
The basic idea of different systems of thought was projected onto the ladder.
But in all cases the ladder symbolized a continuous, constant connection with the divine powers of the unconscious. We could say the dream itself was such a ladder. It connects us with the unknown depth of our psyche. Every dream is a rung on a ladder, so to speak.”
Marie Louse Von Franz
Pages 88-89
Nuremberg Bible, German School. Hand Coloured Woodblock print.
15th Century
Cathedral, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany>
Anonymous French painter, 16th Century
Canvas.
Musee du Petit Palais, Paris, France
Canvas.
Musee du Petit Palais, Paris, France
Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610
Bartolome Esteban Murillo
Hermitage Museum
Oil on canvas.
246×360 cm
Episcopal palace in Udine
Tiepolo (1726-1729)
Gustave Doré, 1832-1883
Marc Chagall, 1973
Oil on canvas. 73 x 92
Private collection.
The artist I studied is Georgia O’Keefe . My favorite painting by that artist is called “Summer Days”. I created my own painting inspired by this art–I call it “Ladder to the Moon”. My artist worked in America in the 1900’s. Georgia O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1986.
Chase, 5th Grade