“One of the essential features of the child motif is its futurity. The child is potential future. Hence the occurrence of the child motif in the psychology of the individual signifies as a rule an anticipation of future developments, even though at first it may seem like a retrospective configuration. … In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality. It is therefore a symbol which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, that is, one who makes whole. ... The hero’s main feat is to overcome the monster of darkness: it is the long-hoped-for and expected triumph of consciousness over the unconscious. Day and light are synonyms for consciousness, night and dark for the unconscious. The coming of consciousness was probably the most tremendous experience of primeval times, for with it a world came into being whose existence no one had suspected before. ‘And God said: Let there be light!’ is the projection of that immemorial experience of the separation of the conscious from the unconscious. ... Hence the ‘child’ [archetype] distinguishes itself by deeds which point to the conquest of the dark.”
– C.G. Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious