Something Fishy in the Collective Unconscious?

I've been working on a post about goldfish and saw this news story this morning about dumped goldfish growing to monstrous proportions in Australian waterways -

Salt-resistant goldfish found in rivers prompt biologist to issue warning

"Dumped pet goldfish have been found in Australian estuaries, prompting fears the fish could make their way into connected river systems and kill off native species.

Last year, scientists from the same university discovered giant, football-sized goldfish weighing more than two kilograms stalking the waterways.
Now new research has revealed the invasive species are living in salt water, which means they can travel between river systems and colonise more ecosystems."

I've always used the goldfish in a bowl as a mascot for my blog since day dot, because I've always felt like a goldfish looking out at a f#cked up, although mysteriously strange and beautiful world, and feeling that I don't really belong in this world, and that I'm just an observer in.

I guess it all stems back to when I owned two goldfish in a bowl that I had won from the Brisbane Ekka.

That goldfish article above was written by William McInnes, who happens to have a gold frame on the Redcliffe "Walk of Fame", which I wrote about in this post -
Successful Whale Watching Thought Experiment ... or Just a Big Coincidence?

At first it seemed like a novelty to own fish and feed them every day with fish-food, but the novelty soon whore off and every now and then when I would watch TV I would glance over at the goldfish bowl and think just why do people keep fish trapped in glass bowls to look out at the bizarre world of their captors and are probably bored out of their brains?
I vowed then that fish should be free to swim where they liked and not be trapped in bowls, so I turned against the "owning" of any animal that was captive to a great extent like birds, fish, etc.

This Is Water: David Foster Wallace

"Proof of the existence of a collective unconscious, and insight into its nature, could be gleaned primarily from dreams and from active imagination, a waking exploration of fantasy.

Jung considered that 'the shadow' and the anima and animus differ from the other archetypes in the fact that their content is more directly related to the individual's personal situation'.

These archetypes, a special focus of Jung's work, become autonomous personalities within an individual psyche.

Jung encouraged direct conscious dialogue of the patient's with these personalities within.

While the shadow usually personifies the personal unconscious, the anima or the Wise Old Man can act as representatives of the collective unconscious."

"Jung suggested that parapsychology, alchemy, and occult religious ideas could contribute understanding of the collective unconscious.

Based on his interpretation of synchronicity and extra-sensory perception, Jung argued that psychic activity transcended the brain.

In alchemy, Jung found that plain water, or seawater, corresponded to his concept of the collective unconscious.
In humans, the psyche mediates between the primal force of the collective unconscious and the experience of consciousness or dream.

Therefore, symbols may require interpretation before they can be understood as archetypes.

Jung writes:
We have only to disregard the dependence of dream language on environment and substitute "eagle" for "aeroplane," "dragon" for "automobile" or "train," "snake-bite" for "injection," and so forth, in order to arrive at the more universal and more fundamental language of mythology.

This give us access to the primordial images that underlie all thinking and have a considerable influence even on our scientific ideas.
A single archetype can manifest in many different ways.

Regarding the Mother archetype, Jung suggests that not only can it apply to mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, mothers-in-law, and mothers in mythology, but to various concepts, places, objects, and animals:
Other symbols of the mother in a figurative sense appear in things representing the goal of our longing for redemption, such as Paradise, the Kingdom of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Many things arousing devotion or feelings of awe, as for instance the Church, university, city or country, heaven, earth, the woods, the sea or any still waters, matter even, the underworld and the moon, can be mother-symbols.

The archetype is often associated with things and places standing for fertility and fruitfulness: the cornucopia, a ploughed field, a garden.

It can be attached to a rock, a cave, a tree, a spring, a deep well, or to various vessels such as the baptismal font, or to vessel-shaped flowers like the rose or the lotus.

Because of the protection it implies, the magic circle or mandala can be a form of mother archetype.

Hollow objects such as ovens or cooking vessels are associated with the mother archetype, and, of course, the uterus, yoni, and anything of a like shape.

Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general."
Lifeboats, Flying Fish and the Sea of the Subconscious

A real-life flying fish

Skye Whales Synchronicities and Catching the Big Fish