CHALLENGE of the Dreamdreamimages (12)

In conversation with my sister a while back, long distance, she related a dream she’d had that morning which had left her weepy. We agreed it was a challenging dream, cryptic in its characterisation, yet the connections to her psyche were clear.

 Curiosity towards the dream is good as long as it not idle intellectual curiosity. Curiosity implies a creative attitude, allowing an opening where things previously looked choked or blocked. This challenging dream requires a commitment from her to apply herself to it, in order for the connections between her conscious and unconscious life to become clearer.

If the dream gives cause for pause it is assuredly portraying something. Again, we have to be careful of our blind spots, that we do not bark up the wrong tree or down a depleted river. It needs to be held, nurtured, even though it may be weeks and months before its meaning becomes clearer. It’s our cross to bear that we become conscious of the conflict.

C.G. Jung: ‘The dream shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is, not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is’

 Even if the dream seems barely worth any consideration, make a note. Don’t be certain of its meaning. Let it cook in the psyche, allowing it its alchemy. Let it change, dissolve, transmute, while it simmers and steams and be conscious of the changes of its complexities. Each clue is like a crystal and has value even though it be darkly hinted at. We have the capacity –

Can we uncover that which has been covered? And be compassionate towards whatever is revealed?

The dream is your friend, waiting in the wings, wanting to be made conscious –

And a Blessed Pesach and Easter to all.

 Thanks to Google image for above image

54 Comments on Challenge of the Dream

  1. It’s so true, isn’t it, that applying idle intellectual curiosity to our dreams is rarely fruitful. We don’t want to suffocate the meaning in logic or mild interest, but rather to float our way gently into the dream, and to invite to flow gently into us. Or, at least that’s the approach that works best for me.

    I love this line: “Let it cook in the psyche, allowing it its alchemy.” I’m just heading off to bed now, and when I wake tomorrow I plan to do just that–let my dreams cook in my psyche and allow them their alchemy. I just love the way you look at things, Susan.

    • Thank you so much Kern! I love your line ‘..but rather to float our way gently into the dream, and to invite to flow gently into us’. A lovely approach!

      Sweet dreaming!

  2. Certain mornings I wake up remembering every detail of my dream, others just fragments, and there are mornings when it’s all a daze. But I hold on to my dreams, nonetheless, and my mind wonders back to those images from time to time. At some level dreams do affect us.
    Thank you for the wonderful post, Susan.

    • Thank you so much Silvia. They are ‘affecting’ aren’t they. Right now I’m wondering/pondering a dream from a few nights back, re-reading it a few times, trying to get to it’s essence.

  3. Your dream subject is one I need to begin paying more attention to. I dream every night, as we all do, yet I am proactive in the contents of my story. Your wonderful blog is alerting me to return to the days when I was more attentive and able to use the messages, that I believe, are important to our waking hours. Thank you Susan.

  4. I’m so enjoying your approach to dreams Susan which feels so resonant to mine. I like to think of dreams as honored guests I hold in love, and put some effort into nurturing our relationship.

    • Thank you Deborah, honoured guests indeed. I’m reminded of the unexpected guest at the table in the Bible, hence to always lay a place for the honoured unexpected!

  6. Susan, I watched “The Imitation Game” last night and then had a dream in which the coding was highlighted for me. Watching that movie and reading your posts on dreams combined to make what otherwise I would have regarded as just a little dream something to take a closer look at. I wrote it down — almost 700 words, it turns out — and got a perspective counter to what I usually get from this, yes, recurring dream. What Patricia says above — when I reread my dreams later, the interpretation or my perspective changes. I never set the meaning in stone.

    Do you think there’s something in decoding dreams akin to that used in decoding the Enigma Machine? Just a thought, but it’s all math, after all.

    Thanks for writing on this inspiring dream theme.

    • Thank you so much Samantha and we’ve just come back from seeing The Imitation Game! An extremely excellent film in my view .. a profound film. My post scheduled for tomorrow is on dialogue with the dream and being like a detective decoding the data …

      What a lovely example of a ‘little dream’ being much larger than you thought and getting another perspective on it! That is so exciting! And encouraging hopefully for you to see the little dream in a larger perspective.

      And setting anything in stone is one-sided and fixed and does no-one any favours!

      Thank you Samantha 🙂 🙂

  7. Understanding and working out dreams definitely takes commitment, caring, and curiosity. You have a wealth of knowledge about dreaming so it is interesting learning from you. I tend toward working like an old fashioned percolating coffee pot as the information has to filter through my system before it becomes strong enough to take in.

    Thanks for your interesting post.

    • The percolating coffee pot is a perfect metaphor Gwynn thank you (instead of instant)!
      Thank you for your compliment. For the moment I’m passing on Jean Raffa’s link to her Six-Step Method for Working with Dreams – have just received her permission. I will make this link more widely available in next day or so. When it comes up, look for her January postings and you will see it there. (Don’t be mad at me if you get totally caught up in all her other wonderful posts). http://www.jeanraffa.wordpress.com

  8. I wonder whether the Google photo shows an image of a dream sequence in one’s brain. I have always thought dreams are a portal to inner workings of our unconscious mind – Carl Jung philosophy makes sense to me too. Do enjoy Easter weekend!

    • Marian, thank you so much for your comment. That is an interesting thought about the image above being an image of the brain while asleep, I wouldn’t be surprised. Certainly brain waves etc can be tracked while the person is sleeping and areas are highlighted as wave patterns change (as is determined eg when one is meditating or starved of sleep). Perhaps next would be being able to determine the image formed in the sleeping yet active brain. Or even in an alert brain ..

  9. Dear Susan;
    How hard it is to manage the challenge towards consiousness that each dream provides…
    Susan

    • Thank you Susan – encapsulating the challenge towards consciousness in a few words. Our dreams carry great responsibility.
      Susan

  11. I love the challenge of the dream – as if it were a letter from a far away friend – it may tell me something and ask of me something but the challenge is (once decoded) to respond to that message. Perhaps I dream of my long-gone mother and she is tapping with her Fire & Ice polished nails on an envelope with the words ‘When my ship comes in’ scrawled in her writing on it What is the invitation? It is to remember to live in the present not the future perhaps. And how have I been ignoring that truth? By not working through my issues on the spot? We’ll see.

    • Thank you Jan! The Talmud: An unopened letter is like an unexamined dream. It’s so necessary to respond. Lovely image you present. I dream of my late parents from time to time and wonder …

  12. The Dream Topic in Susan’s Brilliant Blog, and the insightful comments of all the readers, immensely stimulate and expand how I apprehend life in general.

    At the same time we are in the Portal of Dreams for Well-Being and Self-Reflection, I also appreciate the many additional Portals that we are blessed with.

    Examples are:- A quiet walk in nature and hearing beautiful silences and all living things, also a walk on a path near quiet waters and under a blue sky with bright clouds.

    I am also happy for the opportunity to dream in these additional contexts and find special meanings during such dreams.

    • Thank you Joseph – what could be more lovely than walking in Nature or day dreaming: sacred time to let the ego recede. This is so meaningful and it’s lovely to have you say so, thank you again.

  13. This idea of dreams having real meaning—instead of just being scary or enjoyable—is one I have little understanding of. I am eager to learn more, Susa. Thanks you!

    • Thank you Stephen – I’m reminded of Joseph’s dreaming in Genesis of the wheat and much more besides – deciphering Pharoah’s dreams or was it Potiphar’s. Einstein and his theory of relativity was devised because of a dream of being on the ski slopes and sliding down at great speed – the stars changed shape – but more of that in a later post!

  14. Hi Susan – I don’t hold my dreams or snippets of them … but can see how they could affect one’s life … interesting to read the posts, and also the comments – cheers Hilary

  15. I love the Gloria Steinem quote. Perhaps dreams show us not only what is, but also what could be.
    Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

  16. The dreams are images you carry with you. They shape the creative process as you walk through the day whether you remember them or not. Your Psyche does and it uses them freely. Dreaming is important to the creative process.

    • Rumi said that writing comes from dreams – or words to that effect. They come from the psyche, the most real part of one. Thank you Mary for your comment.

  17. I believe that dreams that we are meant to remember we do remember and as you rightly said, sometimes make no sense in the present. Love the Gloria Steinem quote.

  18. Hi,
    Speaking of myself, I believe the incubation of a dream is the most difficult for me. Sometimes like an impatient little child, I want to look and see if there is anything I can do to make it happen. And there’s my challenge. Therefore, I do write down my dreams and I am thankful that I can go back and look at them because this is what keeps me from moving too far ahead of myself and try to make it happen.
    Excellent post, Susan.
    Shalom,
    Patricia

    • This is the one of the difficult parts Patricia! Patience is a challenge! Hence the value of re-reading one’s dreams. Maybe not unlike re-reading a favourite book and finding other meanings not found before.

      Thank you for your comment.
      Shalom, Susan

  19. OH, challenges…my dream that I remembered when I awoke this morning definitely requires some time to ponder. I am tempted to dismiss it, probably not willing to understand its meaning. So…I guess I can’t! Thanks, Susan.

    • Rather than refusing/rejecting it outright Beth, let it cook a bit. Who knows what flavour/s and scents it may bring –

      Thank you for coming by ..

  20. You set yourself an interesting challenge with a wonderful theme, dreams. I’m just composing a post on ‘reading,’ which somehow relates.

  21. A very interesting read, Sis – thank you. It’s made me realise even more, how important it is to be conscious of our dreams, and to note them, so as to be able to rethink them in the future – otherwise they become lost.

  23. “The dream is your friend, waiting in the wings, wanting to be made conscious”… I like that! But what if one is not able to remember the dreams?

    • Thank you Shilpa ..many do not remember their dreams even though dreaming is a fact. Ask your unconscious for a dream before you turn in for the night and have pen paper and torch beside your bed. Ask with intent …

  24. You know I keep meaning to read more of Jung, I find his hypothesis fascinating.

    I used to dream, repeatedly, about driving, and as the journey continued I became more and more out of control, unable to stop. Ironic given I can’t drive at all. But it’s been a long time since I had that dream, and I do equate it with being happier than I’ve been for a long time. I simply didn’t see the relevance of that dream sequence repeating until now.

    • Thank you Flip for commenting…Driving walking wandering happens often in my dream. Also, my car is out of control sometimes, or brakes don’t work, or I’m reversing in the dark no lights etc

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