Upper Left Second Molar: Night Archetype

Learn all about the metaphysical meanings of the upper molar represented by the Night tooth archetype. Your #15 tooth may be speaking to you with a vocabulary of sensitivity, decay, or gum pockets. Whether or not it’s got fillings, a crown, or a root canal, or even if it’s been extracted and replaced by an implant or left as a gap, the Night tooth archetype has something to say about the very human longing to belong. This tooth may embody the pain of feeling excluded, ignored, or erased.

Learn what different symptoms and restorations mean for this molar and get guidance on how to work with the Night archetype for oral health and overall well-being.

Transcript

Welcome to a deep dive into the metaphysical meaning of the Knight Archetype,

Which is embodied in tooth 15,

The upper left second molar,

Or the space where it would be.

We're talking about the back tooth if you don't have a wisdom tooth on the upper left,

Or it's second from the back in front of your wisdom tooth.

The Knight Archetype is concerned with grief and loss.

It's especially sensitive to feeling unworthy of being seen or cared for.

Tooth archetypes are a way to interpret oral health symptoms in or around each tooth,

With strengths that support the tooth to heal and be healthy,

And vulnerabilities which can influence how a tooth might succumb to disease.

The strengths of the Knight Archetype are in quietly observing and adapting,

While Knight's vulnerabilities may arise from the pain of unacknowledged grief.

The Knight tooth thrives with solitude,

And symptoms can be activated by feeling ignored.

This tooth asks you to show your true self without shame.

In this talk,

I'll explain how the Knight Archetype fits into its place in the upper left quadrant as one of four second molars.

I'll outline its primary themes and relationships,

Offer interpretations of different symptoms common to this tooth,

And suggest strategies for using the Knight Archetype to support the health of the tooth,

Your whole mouth,

And your general well-being.

If you're not already familiar with metaphysical approaches to oral health,

You might like to pause this track and go listen to my talk on Tooth Archetypes,

Which introduces some foundational concepts from my book,

The Secret Lives of Teeth.

One of the key concepts is that,

In my experience,

The emotional or energetic cause of almost all oral health symptoms can be traced back to secrets,

Silences,

Or suppressed emotions.

Please note that if you are in serious pain,

Have a fever or swelling around this or any tooth,

You need to prioritise dental care alongside metaphysical healing.

What I am discussing should be considered complementary rather than alternative health.

Also,

Please do not use this discussion of metaphysical influences on physical health to blame or shame anyone,

Including yourself.

First,

Let's put the Knight Archetype in context as your upper left second molar.

Teeth located on the left side of your mouth tend to respond to relationships with women,

Your most intimate relationships,

And inner conflicts.

With its location in the upper jaw,

This tooth speaks to your past,

Where you came from,

Your background and influences.

Upper left teeth are especially but not only sensitive to old hurts associated with your mother or any other significant relationships with women in your personal life.

Second molars typically erupt around 12 years old and may represent conflict that arises from your increasing independence in the transition from childhood to adolescence.

These teeth may continue to respond to any tensions around independence which occur over the rest of your adult life.

The second molars may bear the burden of feeling forgotten,

Left out,

Neglected or rejected.

The other upper second molar is the Name Archetype and it's interesting to compare the back molar on the right to the one on the left in the ways that each embody their shared themes of belonging and exclusion.

The Knight Tooth is sensitive to being unseen,

Whereas the Name Tooth is sensitive to being unknown.

The Name Tooth embodies issues arising from your affiliations with a group,

But the Knight Archetype is about the identity of your authentic private self.

Where the Name Tooth catches trauma from how other people see your group affiliation,

The Knight Tooth holds on to trauma arising from how a group,

Like your family,

Sees you.

So that's the Knight Archetype in context.

Now what about the unique meanings of the upper left second molar,

This one tooth out of the complete set of 32 adult teeth?

The Knight Archetype can be summarised with three main themes.

One,

Your mother and her family and cultural heritage.

Two,

Self-neglect.

And three,

Grief,

Loss and abandonment.

First let's talk about those relationships.

The key relationships that the Knight Tooth tends to respond to include your mother,

Her family,

Your family and also your family's culture.

The Knight Tooth Archetype may suffer from losing access to your cultural heritage,

Particularly on your mother's or grandmother's side of the family.

It may embody the part of you which is grieving for lost cultural continuity.

Grieving for a deep sense of belonging,

Or grieving for a sense of feeling completely at home in your own body within your family.

Your family's experience of cultural discontinuity may have been personally violent,

Like through an acrimonious divorce,

Abandonment,

Mental breakdown or disassociative addiction.

Or it may have been instigated by institutionalised violence,

Such as war,

Slavery,

Colonisation,

Forced migration,

Residential schools and so on.

However,

Cultural discontinuity can also be non-violent,

Insidious and subtle,

Resulting from the forces of capitalism which discourage things like multi-generational living and which institutionalise childcare and eldercare.

Cultural discontinuity can be a gift of survival and a celebration of rebellion.

It can be an escape from oppression,

From homophobia,

Sexism or racism.

And in such cases,

The grief then is not for the oppressive culture of origin that you've lost,

So much as the unrealised possibility of a healthy,

Life-affirming family background.

The knight archetype is vulnerable to feeling ignored and undervalued in the family.

As a second molar,

The knight tooth may have erupted through the gum when you were younger than 12,

If you had to grow up fast because your needs went unnoticed by the adults around you.

For example,

You might have been responsible for younger siblings or had to look after a sick parent.

The knight tooth may suffer from a painful rupture in the relationship if your mother doesn't see who you really are,

But projects her own ideas and ideals onto you.

This tooth responds to trauma caused by a mother who was so distracted,

She ignored your needs,

Was so narcissistic that she made it clear that she considered you uninteresting.

If the only way that you could get attention in your family was to deny your authentic truth,

Whether in compliance or rebellion,

This is one of the teeth that may suffer.

The second theme of self-neglect is because knight is an inward focused and introspective archetype,

Which may be happy for you to be quiet,

Shy or introverted.

However,

This tooth wants you to see yourself,

Even if you aren't interested in being seen by others.

The knight tooth may be content for you to stay backstage,

Unacknowledged and invisible,

But it thrives with self-care,

Chosen solitude,

Silent meditation and the joy of missing out.

So if you've been neglecting a part of your psyche,

Especially your desires or your inner child,

Then the knight tooth may activate physical symptoms in order to draw your attention towards a previously ignored aspect of yourself.

Your intuition or your inner guides want your attention,

Not your self-denial.

The knight tooth is also sensitive to your self-image as part of your family or another close intimate group.

It may be asking you to be honest with yourself about whether you are truly introverted or you might be rather trying to deny that you don't see yourself as lovable and worthy of acceptance.

Just because your family dismissed your importance doesn't mean you can't be important to other people.

The feeling of safety that you get from feeling invisible may not meet your real needs for connection and support.

The third theme is grief and loss.

One way to visualise the knight archetype could be as long nights of private grief which is hidden,

Ignored or disguised.

This tooth may be vulnerable to conforming with social norms which discourage displays of emotion or which require you to carry on as usual straight after a loss.

The tooth may be sensitive to criticism for what someone else perceives as excessive or extended,

Unseemly or inappropriate grieving.

Pain in the knight tooth might be what you feel instead of an emotion recognisable as grief.

The knight tooth can carry the burden of self-criticism for not grieving enough or in the right way.

The truth is that there are no correct ways to grieve but it is possible for grief to be experienced as so distorted that it can get expressed as symptoms in the upper left back molar.

The knight tooth might be burdened by a secret grief for the loss of someone for whom the depth of your feelings cannot publicly be acknowledged such as an affair.

If you weren't invited to the funeral you might feel as though others had more right to mourn for this person than you do or fear that your grief is disproportionate to your relationship,

Perhaps if your feelings for the person were not reciprocated.

The knight tooth's grief may be tinged with anger that the relationship was abusive in some way.

The power of this kind of loss is that now you can reframe the relationship on your terms in your imagination and choose healing regardless of the person's limitations while they lived.

Another distortion which the knight tooth might pick up is grief over feeling as though you were only visible through the lost relationship either when they were the only person who really saw you or if other people only saw you because you were adjacent to the person who has gone.

In this case the knight tooth needs you to step out of the shadow of your loss and take up space on your own terms.

Now let's explore ways to interpret different kinds of symptoms that the knight tooth may experience.

All back teeth including the upper left second molar are more vulnerable to developing physical symptoms than most other adult teeth.

Back molars don't always get the same level of careful daily oral hygiene as teeth nearer the front of the mouth.

Molars get cracked,

Chipped or broken by bruxism and they are prone to decay because food gets stuck on the naturally rough occlusal or chewing surface of the molars.

When the knight tooth experiences symptoms it's seeking attention that you might need from your family,

Close friends or yourself.

Your body may be asking you to change the way you show up in the world,

To take up more space,

To speak more loudly or clearly,

To expect to be noticed instead of hoping to go unnoticed.

You don't have to wait for a serious symptom to respond to its metaphysical meaning.

This tooth may be asking you to risk vulnerability by stepping out of the shadows,

To allow your authentic self to be truly seen and known or presenting you with a need to re-examine your motives for accepting invisibility.

Different kinds of symptoms may offer clues to the particular knight archetype issues that are pertinent for you.

So I'll outline some interpretations for various symptoms and where they show up on the tooth.

If you no longer have the upper left second molar you can look to the tooth's prior history rather than trying to interpret its current absence.

The archetype may still be activated by the original symptoms in ways that affect implants,

Accelerate bone loss or impact adjacent teeth.

No matter how long you've been dealing with issues in the upper left second molar,

It's worth trying to trace its history back to the earliest symptoms which for many people may have been a twinge of sensitivity.

A sensitive knight tooth may be picking up on the residue of deep grief that arises from an overwhelming unbearable loss,

Particularly but not only if you're suppressing rather than expressing your sadness.

Since an unbearable loss does actually have to be born,

The knight tooth may be helping you to bear the pain.

Chronic sensitivity localised in the upper left second molar might be because your go-to coping strategy for being overlooked is to shrug and pretend not to care.

But if you feel an unfamiliar jolt of sensitivity in the upper left back molar,

Pay attention to the circumstances thoughts and conversations leading up to the moment,

Staying alert for any of the themes of the knight archetype.

Perhaps you were ignored but didn't do anything about it or you received unwelcome attention when you would rather have stayed anonymous.

One of my clients who I'll call Lisa was a very quiet self-effacing woman in her early 60s when she started working with me to address concerns with sensitivity and crowding in multiple teeth.

We spent half a year working through each tooth archetype's stories and Lisa had started to reclaim her voice.

It felt both scary and empowering for her to access suppressed anger instead of shutting down and giving up on herself as she had done for so long.

Then one day her tooth 15,

The knight archetype,

Called for attention with a rare twinge of sensitivity just before she was going to a social event with work colleagues.

This tooth had been root canaled after an abscess more than 10 years earlier but it was not one of the troublesome teeth when we started our coaching together.

Lisa was well practiced by now at paying attention to the sensations in her mouth so even though it was a very minor symptom she noted its location.

Meditating later on what it could mean she recognized that the knight archetype's themes of invisibility and exclusion had been activated by a series of work meetings where Lisa's opinion didn't seem to have much sway despite her years of experience.

As a remote worker she regularly zoomed into meetings where the on-site staff gathered in person.

When she had summoned the courage to speak up in the latest meeting raising a concern about communication the team leader's response was gaslighting and sarcasm while the other woman in the meeting seemed oblivious.

The dynamic was reminiscent of her father's caustic put downs at the family dinner table when she was a teenager while her mother and sister stayed silent as he mockingly told Lisa her opinions were wrong.

The energetic theme of invisibility and exclusion was relevant to understanding her back left upper molar even though the triggering incident took place at work which is usually associated with the right side of the mouth because the original traumatic experience had happened in her family home.

For teenage Lisa and for Lisa in her 60s the feeling of betrayal by the witnesses to her attack her mother and sister then and her colleagues now was more damaging than the attack from an authority figure her father then and her team leader now.

Recognizing exploring and releasing the pain of these parallel stories meant that Lisa responded differently to the next iteration of her workplace drama.

A couple of weeks later when the manager decided to limit regular meetings to on-site staff only Lisa felt the exclusion like a sucker punch at first but within a day she had reframed the news into relief at no longer being required to waste her time with discussions that she considered irrelevant to her own work and there were no more twinges from her night tooth this time.

Let's talk about root problems.

Root issues with your night tooth may be embodying the loss of your home or another foundation in your life.

Root issues may be a response to grieving so intensely that your life force is being drained away.

When a root canal is recommended for this tooth it might be an invitation to develop your hidden strengths while still honoring your feelings.

An infection,

Abscess,

Inflammation or cyst over the night tooth may embody suppressed resentment at being overlooked in your family or a close group particularly at a time of loss or change.

You might not even admit to yourself that you were quietly seething about someone else in the family getting credit for your efforts or a less suitable person taking up a valued role or your contribution being taken for granted or your presence going unappreciated but deep inside your mouth the night tooth archetype could be burning with the unfairness of this kind of situation.

For whatever reason if you feel unable to say anything to protest or take action to change the situation and you feel you have to tolerate it in silence then the energy of your anger has to go somewhere and it goes into your night tooth and expresses as an infection,

An abscess,

Inflammation or a cyst.

Cavities can be an embodiment of absence so the night tooth is particularly vulnerable to feeling the absence of someone you love so keenly that it is as though they are utterly lost to you.

The night archetype is also vulnerable to feeling invisible unseen or unknown.

If you're someone who always lurks on the margins of your personal life whether by choice or not then this is the tooth which will carry any hurts associated with being left out and forgotten.

According to Dr Christian Baer,

Identifying the surface which develops a cavity can provide more clues to its unique meaning for you.

The distal surface of the night tooth faces the back of your mouth touching the wisdom tooth if you have one.

It may embody a primal sense of feeling unwanted for example if you believe your mother regretted your birth.

The distal surface is vulnerable to thinking you've ended up on the losing side in a high-stakes family conflict such as between your parents or in a family feud.

The distal surface may be affected by the adjacent virtues tooth archetype especially if that wisdom tooth is missing or troubled.

That could mean the night molar's distal surface embodies guilt or shame perhaps from believing you are excluded because you or your ancestors were not virtuous enough.

Listen to the virtues tooth archetype talk to learn more about that wisdom tooth's possible influence on your night tooth.

The mesial surface which is the front facing surface of your upper left back molar may embody an internalized fear that you are not interesting attractive or good enough to be noticed or remembered.

This is the part of the tooth where your feelings of being low status or low value can settle.

For example if you or your parent were a foster child who never really felt wanted.

Another childhood dynamic which can become embodied in the night's mesial surface is depriving yourself so that another family member won't get jealous.

The mesial surface can also be affected by the adjacent earth mother tooth archetype number 14 especially if that first molar is missing or symptomatic.

It might feel like you are not worthy of nourishment or of belonging in the natural world.

Cavities facing each other across the mesial surface of the night tooth and the distal surface of the earth mother tooth may embody trauma from feeling invisible in a natural disaster.

Perhaps being separated from your family or feeling that your needs are not serious enough to warrant help because so many other people have it worse than you.

The occlusal or chewing surface of the upper left back molar may embody a persistent feeling that you don't fit in.

This surface is vulnerable if you were abandoned by your family,

Excluded from family gatherings or they just made you feel like you were too annoying to bear.

The distress of never feeling relaxed and confident that you were wanted in your family can become a pattern of being marginalized in other group settings.

This may be an ancestral trauma passed down by one of your parents or ancestors who were forgotten by their family.

The opposing tooth in the lower jaw is the conception archetype of tooth 18 and it can impact the night tooth's occlusal surface if your sense of abandonment started at birth.

Perhaps having been adopted.

The buccal surface on the side of the night tooth.

The buccal surface on the side of the night tooth which faces the cheek is vulnerable to feeling judged,

Particularly by women in your family.

If your mother,

Grandmother or mother-in-law or another woman in a close relationship is critical of your body or your personal life,

Your parenting style or choice of romantic partnership,

This part of the tooth may embody those hurts,

Especially if you tolerate such criticism silently.

This surface may also develop cavities if you feel guilty about your lifestyle or stay in the closet because you fear your family's judgment and rejection.

The cervical buccal surface which is along the gum line facing your cheek may embody a fear of not having fulfilled your potential.

This surface may bear the emotional scars of delayed growth if you,

A parent or grandparent experienced undernourishment as a child.

The cervical lingual surface of the upper left back molar,

Which is the gum line facing your tongue,

Is vulnerable to feeling disconnected from the source of your identity,

Such as having been forced out of your family home,

Hometown or homeland.

It can embody the hurts of unwilling disconnection from your primal source of emotional nourishment and cultural continuity and that vulnerability may have been passed down through generations if it was an ancestral experience of disconnection.

Tooth archetypes don't only manifest in the teeth,

They can activate symptoms in the adjacent gum tissue.

Gum problems around the back teeth may be reflecting ways that you are denying or ignoring your intuition,

Desires and preferences.

Gum issues with night may embody how your need for support goes unnoticed by your family and those closest to you.

Or perhaps it's you who doesn't even recognize that you need support,

That you're the one who expects yourself to manage without it and who believes that you alone are responsible when things feel hard.

Different kinds of gum symptoms may be trying to show you how you are worthy of support.

A gum pocket over the upper left back molar may show up if you have a pattern of denial or dishonesty about the support you need.

Perhaps anytime someone asks if they can help,

You say no it's fine I can manage,

Even if you can't really.

If you're unwilling to be vulnerable and show what you think of as weakness,

The pocket opens up.

A pocket on this tooth may be a sign you need to ask for and accept support.

Gingivitis or inflammation localized near this tooth may be responding to feeling ashamed of needing support.

If you try to hide your needs,

Your body is not going to play along with this deception.

Your wise inner self wants you to get help and is presenting symptoms to try and make you get over the internal barriers to seeking it.

Thin and sagging gums caused by the periodontal ligaments around the night tooth's root may embody your need for support as you adapt to a new environment,

A new home,

A new family or somewhere that you aren't known and therefore feel invisible.

The symptom may be asking you to depend on strangers or people who seem very different from yourself.

Bone loss over the night tooth may be embodying a lack of support if your financial and material needs are not being met.

This could be in response to being cut off from your family or if your family is not in a position to give you practical support.

Perhaps they are so preoccupied with their own troubles that they don't realize that you are struggling too.

Maybe you don't want to add to their burden so you are hiding your own difficulties.

Now let's explore ways to work with the night archetype to support the health of your upper left back molar or if it's missing the space where it would have been.

You can work with tooth archetypes in many kinds of therapy including somatic therapies,

Talking therapies,

And spiritual practices.

You could start exploring your night archetype by identifying in what part of your personal life you accept invisibility or are still grieving a loss or are in conflict with a woman in your family.

Look back at the dental history of your upper left back molar and note when it grew in,

When it was first filled or when it had other interventions and then try to remember the context of your personal life at those times of dental issues with the tooth.

What were you hiding,

Grieving or suppressing around that time?

With a night tooth that is holding on to unresolved grief,

Explore whether you are pained by a lingering sense of lost opportunity now that it's too late to say what needed to be said.

With this kind of story your tooth may benefit from writing a letter or using a therapeutic conversation to role play saying aloud what you regret not having said.

Try different ways to express what you need to in order to release any secrets,

Silences or suppressed emotions from where they got stuck in the night tooth.

The night archetype may want you to speak up and demand attention to show your true feelings in a setting where you've been staying silent in the background and accepting invisibility for too long.

That doesn't necessarily require you to step out of character with bold words or attention-grabbing behavior but rather for you to become more self-aware and less afraid of standing up for yourself especially with your family or people close to you.

Even though your habit of staying below the radar has seemed to keep you safe in the past,

Perhaps it is no longer the most rational strategy for actually keeping danger at bay.

Unfortunately there are real and present risks to visibility for many people in the world right now.

Use your rational mind and your intuition to decide how much to show yourself and to whom.

Sometimes you have to feel safe before you show yourself but sometimes it's enough to intellectually know you are safe,

Act on that basis and then allow your nervous system to catch up after you've taken your moment in the spotlight.

Try somatic practices like eye scanning and havening to reassure your nervous system that there really is no present danger.

In traditional Chinese medicine the upper molars and lower premolars are associated with the stomach and spleen meridians.

Any meridian-based therapy such as acupuncture,

Reflexology or EFT could support the energy flow to the night tooth or the site where the tooth would be.

The stomach and spleen meridians are considered earth elements which represent confidence,

Harmony and satisfaction so make space in your life to encourage those kinds of feelings.

If you know someone else who is struggling with their upper left back molar you could try to support them by allowing space to express their feelings of grief or exclusion.

This might show up at first as cynicism or anxiety but if you can stay steady and present with unflinching willingness to see them clearly the underlying emotions may eventually surface to be released helping to free up their tooth from its emotional burden.

Now I'm going to share some suggestions of symbols that you can use in rituals,

On altars or in any creative or spiritual practices where you want to represent the night archetype in order to support your upper left second molar.

The colour yellow.

Crystals and plants to represent the element of earth.

A candle or lamp representing light and visibility.

Pictures or objects representing eyes and sight.

A picture or object representing someone who has always seen you clearly.

A picture or object representing someone you have loved and lost.

A symbol of Hermes or another god or goddess that has meaning for you.

Dr Michelle Kafan associates this tooth with Pegasus,

The mythological flying horse which is one of my favourite symbols that I work with a lot.

And with the astrological planet of Mercury which happens to be my time lord this year as I'm recording this.

And the mineral sulphur.

I associate the night archetype with the tarot card the five of cups.

In closing,

If I've done my job right with this talk then you might not have noticed how difficult I've always found it to see the night tooth archetype clearly.

The irony of this struggle doesn't escape me because the essence of the night archetype is to feel unknowable.

This tooth's meaning hides in the shadows on the far side of the moon.

The night archetype can be a cloak of invisibility,

Inviting you to reframe the pain of being ignored into a superpower of disguise,

Adaption and observation.

You can choose when to discard it to be seen,

And you can choose when to wrap yourself in its darkness and operate outside of other people's conscious awareness.

It's a protective disguise if you allow its folds to embrace you and guard your authentic self from the harms of an environment which isn't safe.

You can benefit from the night's powers of border crossing and information gathering even after you discard the cloak of invisibility.

The night archetype's qualities can contain the power of understanding other people's points of view and knowing other people's secrets.

You get to decide how you will wield these powers,

For good I hope.

Your ability to pass unnoticed at will is also the ability to choose where and when and how you want to be seen.

Finally,

The night archetype may also represent the impossibility of really knowing anyone else's inner life.

It invites you to know yourself better if your inner and outer lives are incongruent.

A rich inner life supports this tooth,

As does taking the risk of really being known by someone else.

At every stage of the life of your upper left back molar's presence or absence in your mouth,

The night archetype can be a valuable partner in your well-being.

Your unique healing story about the night archetype reflecting your background,

Body and inner life matters more than any descriptions I have shared today.

Trust what your intuition says about this tooth.

Use my ideas and suggestions just as much as is helpful to get you started in telling your own unique healing story.

Then,

Come and share it in the Secret Lives of Teeth discussion group on Insight Timer.

I would love to see you in the light.