Upper Right Wisdom Tooth: Lore Archetype

Learn about the metaphysical meaning of the wisdom tooth represented by the tooth archetype, Lore. Whether or not your upper right wisdom tooth is fully grown, is still impacted under the gum, causes concern, has been extracted, or just never developed, the Lore tooth archetype may have something to say about your relationship to traditional institutions and/or your paternal ancestral lineage. Listen to this lecture about the meaning of Lore (recorded in June 2025) and then explore the metaphysical meaning of your own upper right wisdom tooth with the Lore guided visualization track. Join our ongoing discussion about tooth archetypes in the Secret Lives of Teeth group here on Insight Timer.

Transcript

Welcome to a deep dive into the metaphysics of one tooth,

The upper right wisdom tooth,

Which I call the lore archetype.

That's spelled l-o-r-e like story,

Not l-a-w like legalities,

Although this tooth really highlights the relationship between those two ideas.

This tooth is strongest in your existential search for the nature of your soul and your awareness of the natural or spiritual world,

But it's most vulnerable to personal history or an ancestral history of either domination or exploitation,

Especially along your paternal lineage.

Here's what I'm planning to cover in today's talk.

First I'll put the upper right wisdom tooth in its context with reference to several metaphysical mapping systems of the mouth,

Then I'll talk about the specific themes and relationships that can be embodied within the upper right wisdom tooth specifically.

I'll explain how the lore archetype's emotional and energetic vulnerabilities show up as symptoms and how locating which of the tooth's surfaces has expressed such a symptom,

Like a cavity,

Allows you to get even more fine-grained metaphysical interpretations.

Finally,

I'll talk about what you can do to support the upper right wisdom tooth to thrive,

Whether it's physically present or not in your mouth.

I'll suggest some metaphysical approaches for healing this tooth or the site where the tooth would be,

And some prompts for working with lore for healing,

And finally,

Some symbolism,

The specific symbols that you can use to work with the lore archetype.

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

Or my tooth archetype framework specifically,

You might like to pause this track and go listen to my lecture called Tooth Archetypes,

Which introduces key concepts from my book The Secret Lives of Teeth,

Including important considerations to keep you safe as you do this kind of work.

Most importantly,

If you are in serious pain,

Have a fever or swelling around this or any other tooth,

You need to prioritise dental care before metaphysical healing.

What I'm discussing should be considered complementary rather than alternative health,

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

Including you.

Now let's introduce you to the lore archetype,

Which represents the energy of your upper right wisdom tooth.

In many indigenous traditions,

Such as Maori culture in New Zealand where I live,

An important element of any introduction includes a reference to your family and the land that you come from.

So the first thing that I want to share about the lore archetype is that it is one of a family of four wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth often represent your readiness for a new developmental stage of adult life and personal growth.

Do you remember when your wisdom teeth erupted or presented with challenging symptoms?

Did you happen to be making any significant life decisions or passing any major milestones around that time?

As with all wisdom teeth,

The lore archetype connects your individual body's experience with the collective and the ancestral.

Wisdom teeth ask you to let go of the idea of the atomised self,

The version of you that theoretically could exist outside of your family,

Your society,

Culture or environment.

Upper wisdom teeth recognise that you are a descendant of countless generations back to your ancient ancestors,

A lineage stretching into prehistoric times towards the earliest people with cultural links to your family.

Think of the earliest stories and legends of your grandparents' culture.

Even if you don't know anything about your family tree,

Your DNA links you to lost ancestors and their stories live on in your body,

And specifically your upper wisdom teeth.

The lore archetype's location on the right side of your mouth means that it may represent your father's side of the family or your paternal lineage or male relatives.

Sometimes an individual represented on the right is a man on your mother's side of the family,

Or it could be another gender who embodies so-called masculine traits of authority and leadership outside of the home and family.

Teeth on the right also relate to society,

Commerce,

Institutions and organisations.

Lore refers to the collective culture of your ancestral lineage,

Including any systems and structures for organising society or making sense of the world,

Like laws,

Rules,

Expectations,

Sometimes even etiquette or social norms,

Including gender expression.

The lore tooth can also refer to religious institutions,

Protocols and leaders,

As opposed to spiritual beliefs and teachings,

Which are more showing up on the lower wisdom teeth.

The separation of church and state is relatively recent in most countries,

So ancestral traditions,

Rules and norms that are now considered secular often began as religious teachings,

And both are represented in the lore archetype.

So that's the upper right wisdom tooth in context,

But what about the lore archetype itself,

Representing just one of the 32 teeth usually found in an adult mouth?

This tooth embodies symbols for making sense of the world.

It may represent your paternal ancestors,

But it can be the lineage of any grandfather from either your mother or father's side of the family.

But it's just as likely to embody your relationship or your family's relationship with institutions of lore,

Policy,

Religion or power.

Or it could be drawing attention to the indigenous culture and wisdom of the land where you live,

The ancient ancestors of that place,

Before it was colonised if it was colonised,

And before it was modernised if it's been modernised.

Lore itself embodies your or your family's relationship with governance and government,

Policy and politics,

Laws and legal systems,

Rules and regulations.

It can represent the defining or creating of those systems or the enforcement of them,

But it can also reflect conflict with rule of lore.

It may be telling stories about crime,

Resistance,

Protest or rebellion.

The lore archetype can embody your personal relationship with political power or your personal response to collective tensions around these kinds of themes.

The wisdom teeth are associated with wise ancestors from an era before written records.

Lore is very unlikely to be represented by a recognisable named forefather worthy of your respect with whom you have an actual family connection.

Nonetheless,

It may sometimes be possible to identify a historical or legendary figure from ancient times that you feel a connection with through family stories.

For example,

In my father's family,

There's a story that his great-grandfather's uncle was a Polish grand rabbi in the 19th century who traced our family tree all the way back in a direct line to King Solomon.

Since King Solomon is a legendary figure who represents wisdom and justice,

I've come to recognise how appropriate he is as the archetype to represent the strengths and vulnerabilities of my own upper right wisdom tooth.

King Solomon may or may not have been a historical individual and may or may not be one of my paternal ancestors.

I think that the truth is irrelevant to this kind of inner work.

I'm not claiming to be a descendant of King Solomon.

I am personally exploring how the idea,

The archetypal figure,

Can help me to understand how wisdom and justice could be embodied in my long lost upper right wisdom tooth and how those themes do or don't express in my life.

Although there are probably millions of people today who could be descendants of King Solomon if he was a real person,

And especially if he really had 700 wives and 300 concubines,

Your version of the lore archetype may show up as a different wise ancestor who is a prehistoric cultural representative that you can recognise and identify with.

Many of us have multicultural family backgrounds,

Or we may feel disconnected from our culture of origin,

Or not even know anything about it.

Lore invites you to research,

Reclaim and reconnect with those distant ancient ancestors who all shared in common a daily life that was defined by a deep knowledge of their local environment,

The cycles of the sun and moon,

And the changing seasons.

Their cultural lore was a precursor to the culture you inherited and was defined in many ways by the rhythms of nature in that place where they lived.

By connecting with your place where you live,

You also connect with the timeless values of your ancestors wherever their place was.

The lore archetype could also be represented by one of the indigenous ancestors of the land where you live right now.

Reaching back to a wise ancestor may not involve traversing your family tree,

But instead mean connecting respectfully with the first peoples of your place.

Honouring the natural world and the land you live on is a way to honour your ancient ancestors who did the same in their own location.

Of course,

If you are a person who is indigenous to the place that you are living,

Then the overlap of your family tree and the ancient ancestors associated with the land that you're on match.

Many of us have family histories of migration that have put a lot of distance between where our ancestors lived and where we're living now.

Complications with this upper right wisdom tooth may be linked with complicated feelings and difficult situations in relation to milestones of maturity.

This might be as a result of legal institutions that have held back your family or hold back your own ability to transition smoothly through life's stages.

This could happen from having dark skin in a society that accords more respect and opportunities to people with light coloured skin,

Or from being queer in a homophobic culture,

Or growing up a girl in a sexist society.

Different symptoms,

Conditions and variabilities with the upper right wisdom tooth may be communicating different metaphysical messages.

So first let's talk about what it means if you didn't grow a lore wisdom tooth at all.

20-25% of people never develop a full set of wisdom teeth and is often understood as an evolutionary response to jaws getting smaller and narrower.

And this phenomena is often understood as an evolutionary response to jaws getting smaller and narrower.

Metaphysically,

Not growing wisdom teeth may also be a collective response to the expansion of literacy and the availability of information from sources other than oral traditions.

As a society,

We no longer seem to value the wisdom of ancient ancestors as passed through oral traditions,

So that some of us no longer grow all our wisdom teeth.

On the positive side,

If you didn't grow the lore wisdom tooth,

That might indicate that you have a capacity to really easily adapt to the rapid shifts in contemporary politics,

Lore and social norms that are going on this century.

What about an impacted lore tooth that stays stuck below the gum?

Impacted wisdom teeth can crowd other teeth,

They can cause infection,

They can even trigger decay in other teeth that are being crowded.

When the lore tooth is impacted,

You may be resisting a transition through markers of external,

Institutional or legal maturity in adulthood,

Like maybe getting a driver's license or graduating from college.

If that's something that you've avoided or resisted or rebelled against,

Then maybe that is informing the impaction of your lore tooth.

Impaction where the lore tooth grows at odd angles,

Where it pushes your bite out of alignment or otherwise causes problems with your jaw,

That may be embodying blocks to your desire and pursuit of those external milestones.

So you might really want to achieve those markers of maturity,

But maybe family expectations or legal limitations or even institutional violence is getting in the way.

Many people go for years with a lore tooth that is very comfortably impacted,

It's below the gum and it is behaving itself very nicely,

It's not causing problems.

And that suggests that you might be very comfortable with delaying or avoiding those external markers of maturity,

Those life stages.

And of course,

You know,

You may be adopting some life changes and not others.

So this is not kind of a blanket interpretation.

Sometimes the wisdom tooth can be partially impacted.

So it seems to be rising out of the gum and then disappearing into the gum again,

Looks like it's going up and down.

But what's really happening with a partially impacted tooth like that is that the tooth is trapped in that partial eruption position and the gum periodically swells to cover all or most of the tooth and then the swelling might go down and then the tooth is exposed again and then the tooth swells up and back and forth.

This is really troublesome from a physical perspective because of the risk of infection from food particles,

Bacterial film that's stuck to the teeth and that gets carried inside the gums as they rise and retreat.

It can cause real serious problems.

But metaphysically,

When you have a partially impacted lore tooth,

It may suggest that you're ambivalent about taking on like more adult leadership responsibilities or that you feel simultaneously attracted to or repelled by powerful roles or opportunities to gain wisdom through experience.

You're not so much resisting or avoiding,

But you have complicated feelings about those transitions in your life.

If that's going on for you,

If you've got a partially impacted lore tooth that keeps popping out and then disappearing,

Keep track of the times that you see it appear and disappear into the gum.

Along with some notes on the wider context of events in your life,

Things that you're concerned about,

Opportunities that you're considering or declining,

You may start to see a pattern or theme which shows the kind of circumstances that activate your lore archetype and so stimulate this symptomatic response of the gum swelling around the tooth.

Unfortunately,

With some teeth,

Whether they're impacted,

Partially impacted or fully erupted,

They can get infected.

So if your lore tooth is infected or inflamed or has an abscess or cyst,

That might be a clue to consider whether you are carrying internalized,

Suppressed anger,

Frustration or rage,

Specifically in reaction to unfair rules or laws or policies.

If you're feeling oppressed by the past or by older generations or authority figures or by systems,

Then expressing your anger rather than turning it inwards may help relieve or moderate the infection.

Like a seriously advanced infection or abscess is probably not going to fully resolve by doing this kind of inner work of expressing and releasing anger.

But it can take some of the pressure off,

It can reduce your symptoms and it buys you some time to get the physical care that this tooth needs.

Problems with the root of the lore tooth,

Which is often where an infection will show up,

Are a reminder to ground into the ancestral wisdom of your place where you live,

Work and stand now.

This could be asking you to learn about the indigenous first people of the place you're living,

Their culture,

Their values,

Their laws and lore.

What can you learn about them that is valuable today?

And how can you deepen your relationship with the natural world of your place and connect with local ancestral wisdom in a respectful way?

Was your lore wisdom tooth extracted?

Mine is long gone,

Sometime in my early 20s,

Long before I was really paying attention to my teeth and I'm not even sure when it happened or why.

But when the lore tooth is extracted,

That archetypal energy is no longer concentrated in the physical cells of enamel,

Dentin and pulp,

But it remains in a diffuse way at the back of your mouth influencing adjacent teeth,

The TMJ,

That's the temporomandibular joint between upper and lower jaws,

The jawbone,

Your gums and along the meridian channels that are adjacent to the tooth and that flow through the site where your tooth once was.

If you have lore types of issues that need attention in your life,

Then your body might continue to try and draw your attention to those issues even if the tooth is gone.

An extracted upper right wisdom tooth doesn't mean you as an individual have lost your connection with traditional wisdom.

You can compensate for a missing lore tooth by engaging with sources and systems of traditional wisdom that help to expand your social awareness,

To connect more with your family history,

To connect more with the indigenous wisdom of the land where you are living,

To bring more empowerment and balance into your relationship with institutional structures that affect your life.

A cavity in the lore tooth,

So if you have a lore tooth that's erupted or partially erupted and it develops a cavity,

It could be a sign that you may be consciously or unconsciously suffering in the absence of wise traditions from your cultural heritage or from the indigenous heritage of the place where you are living.

The location of the cavity can be interpreted with specific meanings according to Dr Christian Bayer.

The explanations that I'm about to offer are based on his work.

So a cavity on the mesial surface,

Which is the part of the tooth that faces the front of the mouth,

On the lore it's the part that's touching the tooth right in front of it,

That second molar,

Which I call the name archetype.

And it can represent feeling guilty about behaving in ways that conflict with your ancestral traditions or feeling bad about having lost an inherited asset or being the one to lose or sell it yourself or if someone else in your family has lost it and you feel a lot of disappointment and regret about that.

Or if there's a family business that's failed or became obsolete before your time or on your watch,

Those are all things that could activate the vulnerability to developing a cavity on that mesial surface.

That mesial surface also might be embodying conflict with your family about your education,

Especially if whatever you ended up doing,

Whether it was your preference or your family's didn't work out.

Like if you didn't complete your studies or if you completed your studies and then didn't find career success.

A cavity on the distal surface,

Which is the surface of that upper right wisdom tooth,

Which faces the back of the mouth,

That surface could reflect a hidden feeling that you don't measure up to your family's expectations.

This part of the tooth can hold memories of a shameful event from your past or your family's or an event that was covered up and kept secret to protect the family status.

So you might not even know about that secret being covered up,

But it's still affecting your vulnerability to a cavity on that tooth.

Or you could know and feel like a hypocrite as a result of something shameful or secretive.

But if you have a cavity there and you can't pinpoint something shameful or a secret or so on,

That could be a clue that you need to ask more questions to re-examine episodes from your family history or your own life story to see if there has been some shameful secret that has got an emotional impact on you.

A cavity on the occlusal surface,

So that's the chewing surface of the tooth,

The part of the tooth that faces the lower teeth.

That could indicate repentance in relation to rules or laws or family expectations.

That occlusal surface can hold hurts arising on either side of a dynamic of controlling a family member's behavior or thinking or their political affiliations or even their occupation in order to preserve the family's social status.

So you could be someone who has felt controlled,

Been hurt by attempts to control your behavior and so on,

Or you could have been someone who was trying to control someone else's behavior because of a concern with the family's status.

This surface can also be vulnerable to conflict between expectations and your own authentic identity or soul's path.

So it might not be your family,

It could be a wider group or organization that you have a relationship,

Your workplace or a club or a church or something like that.

A cavity on the buccal surface,

That's the side of the upper right wisdom tooth that faces your cheek,

May embody hurts from conflict with religious protocols or religious leaders who were trying to control you.

This part of the tooth is really vulnerable to feeling bad about no longer observing religious practices.

Like if you still believe in the spiritual aspects of your religious tradition but you don't support the social or political leadership of the religious organization that you grew up in.

This surface could show symptoms if you abandon soul-aligned practices because they seem like a waste of time or unproductive.

The cervical buccal part of the lower tooth is the gum line that faces the cheek and it can embody ambivalence about changing your religious affiliation or studying spiritual traditions that aren't connected with your own heritage.

This part of the tooth can be vulnerable to a cavity if an ancestor strategically converted to another religion and then was excluded from their family of origin.

Or if you chose to convert without a genuine transcendental belief,

For example in order to marry someone or to achieve a higher social status.

A cavity on the cervical lingual part of the tooth,

That's the gum line facing your tongue,

May embody a conflict between professional expectations and the true nature of your soul purpose.

Like if you sacrifice your soul path for economic security.

It's also vulnerable if you or an ancestor were forced to convert for safety or if you had to submit to a leader or a religious order in order to survive.

So now I'm going to talk about how you can work with the lower archetype.

No matter what the state of that tooth is,

Whether it's present or absent in your mouth,

Whether it's causing you problems right now or it's not,

You can work with the energy of the archetype in ways that support your health and well-being.

In traditional Chinese medicine,

There are four meridians that affect all four wisdom teeth.

The heart and the small intestine meridians and the triple warmer and pericardium meridians.

So any meridian based therapy like acupuncture or reflexology or EFT and so on can support the energy flow to this tooth or to the site where the tooth would be.

Those four meridians that are associated with law are all fire elements and fire is associated with emotions of joy,

Love,

Hope,

Openness,

Empathy,

Cooperation,

Generosity,

Mental clarity and decisiveness.

So if you prioritize those emotions in your life,

That can support the upper right wisdom tooth.

You can also use tools like meditation,

Journaling,

Artistic expression,

Therapeutic conversations and other therapeutic practices to explore your life story and experiences.

Some of the questions you might want to bring into those practices could include,

Have you ever abandoned a soul aligned spiritual practice because it seemed like a waste of time or it conflicted with your sense of safety,

Security or belonging?

Do you sometimes feel like a spiritual hypocrite?

Do you ever fear you lost touch with your soul?

Have you ever been involved in a controlling cult or followed a dodgy guru or been traumatized in relation to church leaders?

Do you have a difficult relationship with your father's family or any older male relatives?

Have you had any difficulties with the law or been in conflict over rules and regulations or been harshly judged by traditional etiquette or social norms?

What traditional values or cultural traits still influence you but really are no longer serving your highest good?

I've got some suggestions to help you get started exploring your family history and cultural background,

But also any kind of ancestor work can be really relevant for this tooth.

You could try to research,

Recognise and honour what's been lost from your cultural heritage from those distant ancestors that's still of value today.

Try meditating with those traditions,

Legendary or historical figures or representative objects that seem worthy of your respect and relevant to your world now.

Visualise introducing a prehistoric wise ancestor of your family lineage to a wise indigenous ancestor of the place where you live now.

What do they have in common and what could they learn from each other?

What could they both teach you?

How can you honour and respect them both?

I'm releasing this talk together with a guided meditation intended to connect you with an appropriate kind of ancient archetypal ancestor,

But without being limited to any particular cultural traditions,

Environment or even gender.

The way you visualise your law archetype is the most meaningful and useful image for you to engage with.

Your personal vision of the archetype may change form over time,

Particularly as your wisdom tooth changes.

You may find that your visualisation of law appears one way when the upper right wisdom tooth is impacted,

Another way once it's erupted and another way if it's extracted.

Or it could show up as the same avatar in different roles,

Different ages,

Clothes or settings.

Here are some suggestions of symbols you can use in ritual or on altars to represent your law archetype wisdom tooth.

You can even use them in creative practices like journaling and art and so on.

The fire element,

So a candle,

A hearth,

Even burning incense.

The colour red.

Heart symbols because of the meridian connection with the heart.

You might also like to find symbols for the brain or adrenals,

Thyroid and endocrine if you like that kind of anatomical imagery.

Images or objects that represent your family tree,

Your ancestors,

Particularly on your father's side or in relation to males on either side of the family.

A picture of King Solomon or another wise Saturnian older figure who carries themselves with authority.

Local rocks or indigenous plants to connect you with the place you live.

Symbols from the local indigenous culture which are acquired ethically and used with respect.

And please be careful when you do this not to be appropriating the culture disrespectfully.

The astrological planet of Saturn is associated with wisdom teeth as is the symbolic animal of fish.

But you could also use another ancient symbol that is representative of your religious heritage.

You could use a traditional god or goddess figure that has meaning for you.

Magnesium oil.

The element of magnesium is associated with wisdom teeth.

And finally the major arcana tarot cards of star and judgment.

And I use these cards as the inspiration for the conclusion of this talk.

As you heal your relationship with your upper right wisdom tooth,

Consider the ways that the lore archetype can be a guiding star for you.

Offering direction when you feel lost.

Perspective when you feel overwhelmed.

And clarity when you feel confused.

Nurture a spiritual connection with your wisest ancient ancestor whose relationship with the rhythms of the natural world was so thoroughly integrated into their human experience that they codified their understanding into lore.

Teaching stories to guide their community.

Meditate on the essential timeless truths of that ancient lore which can help to guide you today.

Those particular values and boundaries,

Rituals and restrictions which are grounded in nature and spirit and can help you to navigate the turbulent uncertainty of today's social upheaval,

Climate chaos and technological revolutions.

The lore archetype also invites you to use your own wise discernment as you evaluate the laws and etiquette which govern your life as a citizen and community member.

Legal codes and institutional regulations are human agreements which promote fairness,

Equity and justice at their best.

But too often such rules are created in exclusionary processes and are enforced primarily to protect the interests of the rich and powerful at the expense of the majority.

Lore invites you to use your inner wisdom grounded in timeless values to decide for yourself which social norms,

Rules or laws you will support and comply with and which you will question,

Protest,

Try to change or even if necessary defy.

At every stage and variation of the life of your upper right wisdom tooth's presence or absence in your mouth,

The lore archetype can be a valuable concept to support your well-being.

Your unique healing story about the lore archetype,

Reflecting your background,

Your values,

Your relationship with institutions,

That matters more than any descriptions I have shared today.

Trust your inner wisdom's guidance about this tooth.

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

And then come and share it in the Secret Lives of Teeth discussion group on Insight Timer.

I want to know what you imagine.