If not your own child, it may represent your inner child; unfinished growth processes within you; a childish part of you that is reacting to a waking situation. It can represent your own child and wishes for that child; perceptions about your child; your own childhood needs awakened by actions of your real child.

An archetypal child, which may appear as a wonder or divine child, represents the collective unconscious, the treasure hard to obtain. It is out potential, our urge to be all that we can; therefore, the archetypal child represents a healer, a bringer of wholeness. In folklore, the motif may be expressed by the appearance of a dwarf.

Child can symbolize innocence; the future; growth; spontaneity; carefulness; fearlessness. The child’s age may represent some experience or issue that occurred around that age, or a process that began that number of years ago. If the child is age is not readily apparent, make a guess.

See boy, daughter, dwarf, family, girl, son.