Calling on Archetypes or Christ?

Introduction: The Question Behind the Question

In dreamweaving, we enter deeply relaxed, imaginal, sometimes trance-like states to pursue healing, guidance, and transformation. Within that space, many people:

• Call on archetypes or inner figures (the Wise Old Man, the Healer, the Warrior)
• Speak to a "higher self" or inner knowing
• Invoke mythological characters or symbolic beings
• Listen to intuition as a kind of inner compass

From a Christian perspective, this immediately raises serious questions:

• Is this spiritism or just psychology with pictures?
• Does this pull people toward Christ, or away from Him?
• Can a Christian ethically use these tools to help people, including non-Christians, without violating Scripture?

This article explores those questions in depth, drawing on:

• Christian theology and Scripture
• Comparative religion (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Indigenous traditions)
• Psychological and neurological research
• The practical realities of dreamweaving as a transformational method

At the end I'll also share my own view as a Christian who wants to help all people find healing and, ultimately, encounter the light and love of Jesus.

1. Biblical and Theological Ground: Who Should Christians Seek Guidance From?

1.1 Christ as unique mediator and source of guidance

The New Testament insists that Jesus Christ is the unique mediator between God and humanity:

• "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim 2:5)
• Jesus describes Himself as "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6) and Acts affirms "there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

This leads Christian theology to a core conviction:

Ultimate allegiance, trust, and spiritual guidance belong to the triune God alone—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

From that starting point, any other "guidance source" must be weighed in relation to Christ, never alongside or above Him.

1.2 Scriptural prohibitions on divination, mediums, and necromancy

Scripture is extremely clear on one point: God forbids His people from seeking knowledge or power through forbidden spiritual means:

• "Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them." (Lev 19:31) (biblegateway.com)
• Those who turn to mediums are said to provoke God's face against them (Lev 20:6). (ESV Bible)
• Deuteronomy 18:10–12 forbids divination, soothsaying, sorcery, interpreting omens, witchcraft, casting spells, and consulting the dead, calling such practices an abomination. (biblegateway.com)

Resources such as GotQuestions.org summarize this biblical teaching and label necromancy, spiritism, and magic as off-limits for believers.

From a traditional Christian perspective, any practice that:

• Invokes spirits apart from the triune God
• Seeks secret knowledge or control through those spirits

falls under the biblical category of divination / spiritism, not legitimate spiritual guidance.

1.3 The caution zone: what about archetypes, inner guides, and "energies"?

The tricky part is that modern language blurs the line between:

• Literal spirits (e.g., "calling on the dead" or unknown entities), and
• Psychological constructs ("talk to your inner healer")

This is where Christian perspectives diverge:

1. Strict-conservative lane
   • Many evangelicals and fundamentalists view archetypes, "spirit guides," and higher-self language as spiritually dangerous or occult-flavored.
   • They see them as too close to the spiritism Scripture forbids, even when presented as "symbolic."
2. Integrative lane
   • Others, including some Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Jung-friendly Christians, view archetypes as created psychological patterns (not spirits) and treat them as symbolic mirrors of the soul through which God can work—if they are kept subordinate to Christ. (Wikipedia)
3. Contemplative-mystical lane
   • Christian contemplative traditions (Ignatian spirituality, Carmelite mystics, Orthodox hesychasm) have always used inner imagery in prayer, while insisting that discerning which inner voices are truly from God is essential.

All three lanes agree on one fundamental point:

Christians must not transfer worship or ultimate trust to any inner figure, archetype, or "entity" that rivals Christ.

Where they differ is how strongly they police the boundary around psychological symbolism and metaphor.

2. What Are Archetypes, Higher Self, and Inner Guides?

To think clearly theologically, we need to define these terms psychologically.

2.1 Jungian archetypes and the collective unconscious

Carl Jung proposed that beneath our personal unconscious lies a collective unconscious shared by humanity, populated by archetypes—innate patterns of thought and behavior that seek expression in dreams, myths, and symbols. (Wikipedia)

Examples include:

• The Mother
• The Hero
• The Wise Old Man / Woman
• The Shadow (rejected aspects of self)

Jung also described a Self archetype, representing wholeness and integration of the personality. Some Jungians and theologians note that Jung sometimes speaks of Christ as a symbol of the Self, expressing the image of God in the human psyche. (Medium)

From a Christian-Jungian perspective:

• Archetypes are not literal spirits but deep structures of the psyche.
• Religious symbols (like Christ, Mary, the cross) express archetypal patterns, but Christ also transcends archetypal psychology as the incarnate Son of God.

For dreamweaving, this means that meeting a "wise inner guide" can be interpreted as a manifestation of the Wise Old Man archetype emerging from the unconscious—not necessarily a separate spiritual being.

2.2 The "higher self"

In many New Age and therapeutic traditions, the "higher self" is described as:

• The deepest, most wise and loving core of a person
• A place of inner guidance and perspective
• Sometimes explicitly divine, sometimes just "best self"

In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, a related idea is the Self—a core state characterized by the "8 C's": calm, curiosity, compassion, clarity, courage, confidence, creativity, and connectedness. (Therapy with Alessio)

Some spiritual IFS practitioners explicitly link this Self to a spiritual or sacred center, sometimes calling it the "Highest Self." (The Holistic Counseling Center)

A Christian reinterpretation might say:

• The Self / higher self is not God, but can be understood as the most integrated expression of the person as made in the image of God and indwelt by the Spirit (for believers).
• It's a psychological doorway through which God's wisdom can be more readily perceived.

2.3 Inner guides and symbolic entities

Dreamwork, hypnosis, and guided visualization routinely use inner guides:

• A wise elder on a mountain
• A guardian animal
• A healer figure laying hands on the person

From a purely psychological angle, these are personified functions of the psyche—ways of accessing resources like courage, wisdom, or compassion.

From a spiritual angle, people interpret them differently:

• Some say they are actual spirit beings.
• Others (including many Christians who use imaginal prayer) treat them as representations of Christ, angels, or the Spirit's work.
• A Christ-centered dreamweaver can explicitly talk about meeting Jesus in the inner world, or the Holy Spirit bringing helpful symbols.

The theological risk appears when:

• Psychological symbols are treated as new gods or spirit guides independent of Christ,
• Or when spirits other than Christ / the Holy Spirit / angels sent by God are deliberately invoked.

3. How Other Religions Approach Inner Guidance and Symbolic Beings

Understanding how other traditions use inner guidance gives context for dreamweaving work with non-Christians.

3.1 Hinduism: Deities and the inner Self

In many forms of Hinduism:

• The ultimate reality is Brahman, with personal forms such as Vishnu, Shiva, or Devi.
• Devotees often choose an ishta-devatā (chosen deity) as their primary focus of love and guidance.
• Meditation and yoga aim at realizing the identity or deep unity of Ātman (inner self) and Brahman, interpreted as discovering an inner divine core.

Guidance thus comes from:

• Personal deities encountered in worship and meditation
• The inner self, understood as divine in some schools

From a Christian standpoint, this challenges the Creator–creature distinction. While Christians affirm Christ "in us," they do not say that the human self is God. Yet the hunger for union and inner transformation is deeply resonant.

3.2 Buddhism: Bodhisattvas, deities, and non-self

In Buddhism:

• Ultimate guidance is the Dharma—the Buddha's teaching and direct insight into reality.
• Bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin/Kannon) embody compassion and are invoked for help.
• Tibetan Vajrayāna uses elaborate visualization of deities and mandalas—but teachers stress that these figures are empty of inherent existence, functioning as skillful means.

So a Buddhist dreamweaving analog might:

• Visualize a Bodhisattva
• Receive guidance or healing
• Understand that experience as a manifestation of compassion and wisdom, not a creator God.

3.3 Islam and Sufism: Strict monotheism and guided inner experiences

Mainstream Islam forbids:

• Siḥr (magic)
• Fortune telling and divination
• Seeking help from jinn and spirits in ways that compete with reliance on Allah

Classical legal texts and modern fatwas emphasize that such practices constitute serious sin.

At the same time, Sufi tradition recognizes:

• Inner unveiling (kashf), dreams, and inspired insights
• The mysterious figure Khidr, who appears in Qur'an 18:65–82 as a servant of God with special knowledge, later interpreted as a kind of spiritual guide in Sufi lore.

Like Christianity, Islam combines:

• Severe warnings against unauthorized spirit contact
• Recognition that God may guide through inner experiences, dreams, and symbolic encounters—always judged by the Qur'an and Sharia.

3.4 Indigenous and shamanic traditions: Spirit guides and vision quests

Many indigenous and shamanic systems rely on:

• Vision quests
• Trance journeys to the spirit world
• Encounters with animal spirits, ancestors, or tribal guardians

These spirits are experienced as real agents in a living, ensouled cosmos, not simply inner symbols. (A Lotus in the Mud)

From a Christian point of view, this is where biblical warnings about other spirits become most pointed. But it is also where the deep human desire for relational, embodied connection with the unseen world is most apparent.

4. The Psychology and Neuroscience of Guidance Experiences

Regardless of theology, there is always a psychological and neurological side to inner guidance experiences.

4.1 Archetypes as structuring patterns of the psyche

Jungian psychology suggests that archetypes are innate patterns that:

• Shape how we perceive, dream, and imagine
• Show up in myths, religions, and personal dreams
• Drive us toward individuation—becoming more integrated and whole (Wikipedia)

For dreamweaving, this means:

• When someone meets a wise guide, a guardian animal, or a healing figure, we can understand that experience as an archetypal pattern surfacing to help organize and transform the person's psyche.

From a Christian-Jungian view, these archetypal movements can be:

• Places where God's providence and the imago Dei are at work
• Also places where distortions and idols can emerge if not tested and oriented toward the true God

4.2 Dual-process cognition: intuition vs. reflection

Psychology's dual-process theory (popularized by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow) distinguishes: (BioLogos)

• System 1 – fast, automatic, intuitive, emotional
• System 2 – slow, deliberate, analytical

When someone in a dreamweaving session says, "I just know this is the path I need to take," that "knowing" often arises from System 1—a massive integration of past experiences and emotional cues.

Christian discernment can be seen as:

• Allowing intuition to speak, but
• Then bringing it under System-2 review: Scripture, theology, wise counsel, and the fruits of the Spirit.

Dreamweaving that honors Christian boundaries teaches people to listen to intuition without canonizing it as infallible revelation.

4.3 Parts work and IFS: inner families and the Self

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model describes the mind as a system of "parts" (protectors, exiles, managers) plus a core Self that naturally expresses calm, curiosity, compassion, and other "8 C's." (IFS Institute)

• In therapy, clients often talk with inner parts and allow the Self to lead them into healing.
• The Self is sometimes interpreted spiritually as a sacred inner presence; some see it as resonant with the image of God in the soul. (The Holistic Counseling Center)

Dreamweaving that uses inner guides can map onto parts work:

• A protector may appear as a stern warrior,
• An exile as a wounded child,
• The Self as a compassionate, wise presence.

For Christians, the Self may be understood as the most surrendered, Spirit-responsive center of the person—not a divine being, but the human core aligned with Christ.

4.4 Neurotheology: brain correlates of spiritual experience

Neurotheology studies how religious experiences show up in the brain. (BioLogos)

Research shows that:

• Prayer, meditation, and mystical states involve changes in brain areas related to attention, self-processing, and emotion.
• Studies with Carmelite nuns and other meditators show consistent activation patterns during prayer and contemplation. (A Lotus in the Mud)

This doesn't negate spiritual reality; it simply shows:

Whenever we experience God, guidance, or inner symbols, our brains are participating in that experience.

Dreamweaving, hypnosis, and contemplative prayer likely tap similar neural networks:

• Reduced default-mode activity (self-chatter)
• Increased imagery and emotional learning
• Heightened receptivity to suggestion and insight

For Christian dreamweavers, this neural understanding can encourage:

• Ethical care (avoid manipulation),
• Respect for human vulnerability in altered states,
• Appreciation that God may work through these natural processes.

5. Dreamweaving and Hypnosis: Tool or Temptation?

5.1 Christian debates around hypnosis

Because dreamweaving often employs hypnotic or trance-like techniques, it's helpful to look at Christian views of hypnosis.

Some Christian writers and ministries argue that hypnosis is:

• A morally neutral tool for focused attention and suggestion, not inherently religious
• Accepted by several historic churches (e.g., Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran) in clinical contexts (Roger Moore Hypnosis)

Others, like some evangelical leaders, are strongly opposed, associating hypnosis with demonic influence or witchcraft. (Jennifer LeClaire Ministries)

Still others (e.g., Focus on the Family, biblical counseling voices) express cautious concern:

• They note the Bible calls believers to sober-mindedness and active discernment, not passive absorption of another person's suggestions. (Focus on the Family)

Overall, a pattern emerges:

• The state (deep relaxation, focused attention) is not explicitly condemned in Scripture.
• The content and intent of what happens in that state are what matter.

5.2 Dreamweaving as a structured altered state

Dreamweaving is, at its core:

• Guided relaxation or trance
• Intensified imagery
• Use of story, symbol, and suggestion to move toward healing, insight, and transformation

From a Christian theological standpoint, dreamweaving is not automatically occult. It becomes problematic when:

• It invokes spirits or powers apart from the triune God
• It encourages idolatrous trust in archetypes, energies, or guides
• It bypasses moral discernment and sober judgment

Dreamweaving can also be deeply compatible with Christian sanctification if it:

• Seeks to heal wounds, remove lies, and align the heart more fully with Christ
• Uses symbols and inner imagery intentionally as parables of the inner life
• Keeps Jesus as Lord, not just as one symbol among many

6. A Christian Dreamweaver's Perspective

In this section I speak personally, as a follower of Jesus who uses dreamweaving as a tool.

6.1 My core conviction: Jesus is the Light

First and foremost:

I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, crucified and risen, the one mediator between God and humanity, and the only ultimate source of salvation, truth, and light.

This shapes everything I do. When I guide someone through a dreamweaving journey, I am not leading them to a collection of "energies" or competing spirits. I am inviting them into a process of inner healing, imagination, and transformation that I understand to ultimately come from God's grace.

6.2 Why I use archetypes and inner imagery

I work with people from many backgrounds—Christian, secular, spiritual-but-not-religious. I meet them where they are. For some, a direct encounter with "Jesus" in imagination feels comfortable. For others, meeting a "wise guide" or a "healer figure" is a more accessible doorway.

My conviction is that:

• These symbols and inner figures are psychological doorways, not gods.
• The love, wisdom, and healing they represent ultimately flows from the one true God, whether the person knows it yet or not.
• My job is to point toward the Light—not to force a particular label on it, but to trust that anyone genuinely seeking truth, love, and healing is being drawn by the Spirit.

6.3 How I maintain Christian boundaries

Practically, this means:

1. No spirit invocation. I don't call on named spirits, entities, or powers outside the Christian understanding of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
2. No divination or forbidden practices. I don't use dreamweaving for fortune-telling, past-life regression, or contact with the dead.
3. Respect for the person's freedom. I explain that I frame things Christianly, but I don't force beliefs. I invite, not coerce.
4. Pointing toward Christ. Whenever appropriate, I offer the possibility of encountering Jesus directly in prayer and imagination. For those open to it, this can be the most profound healing of all.
5. Testing by fruits. I evaluate sessions by whether they produce the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22–23). If an experience leads to confusion, fear, obsession, or moral compromise, something has gone wrong.

6.4 Serving non-Christians with integrity

For non-Christian clients, I act as a skilled guide and a servant of their well-being:

• I use universal language that respects their worldview.
• I trust that genuine healing and growth point toward the God they may not yet name.
• I never pretend to be religiously neutral—I'm transparent that I'm Christian—but I don't impose.
• My hope is that anyone who experiences deep love, compassion, and truth in a session will be moved closer to the ultimate source of those things.

6.5 The ultimate goal: encounter with Christ

At the end of the day, I believe:

The deepest healing comes when a person encounters Jesus—not merely as a symbol, but as the living Lord who loves them, died for them, and invites them into eternal relationship.

Dreamweaving, for me, is one set of tools that can help people clear away the debris of trauma, lies, and fear—making space for that encounter to happen. It's not a replacement for the Gospel. It's a preparation for hearing it more clearly.

Conclusion: Both/And, Not Either/Or

The question "Should Christians call on archetypes or Christ?" sets up a false dichotomy.

The answer is: Call on Christ as ultimate Lord, and use archetypes wisely as psychological tools under His lordship.

For Christians engaging in dreamweaving or inner work:

• Keep Christ central—He is the source of all truth, love, and healing.
• Reject spiritism—don't invoke powers outside the triune God.
• Use discernment—test experiences by Scripture, the fruits of the Spirit, and wise counsel.
• Serve others with love—meet people where they are, respect their freedom, and trust the Spirit to draw them toward truth.

For non-Christians exploring dreamweaving:

• You are welcome here. I respect your journey.
• I believe the healing and insight you seek ultimately points to the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
• I won't force that on you, but I will always be honest about where I stand.

May we all walk humbly, seek truth courageously, and love generously—following the Light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world.