– dreams – the golden thread – part four

I’ve been in resistance mode for the last several weeks. The thought of writing another blog on dreams has filled me with despair. I think this is due to what I see as the enormity of dreams as a subject – or object. As a subject it is too big an attempt to write about dreams on a blog. It is too psychological, too big, too meaningful, too serious, too filled with gravitas. Where do I go from here I wonder to myself. Perhaps I should have attempted to write about them in a different way right at the beginning. I think my second blog on dreams got a bit too technical and didactic in that I gave tips for enlarging the dream inter alia by underlining the verbs in the (written down) dream. This may have been a bit off-putting to those of you who are new to ‘dreaming’. Or perhaps it is simply that no-one really wants to take the time and energy to pursue their dream/s and their meaning; and also that no-one really has the time or the inclination to read a blog (mine) on dreams. Who am I to say anything about dreams anyway. Maybe I am guilty of hubris imagining that anyone else may be interested. But in spite of all the aforementioned misgivings, I feel that I must say something more about dreams, even if it kills me.

All is not so despairing actually. Every now and then things happen that bring me out of the gloom. More lately, I am reading Richard Tarnas’ book: Cosmos and Psyche. Intimations of a New World View. I am newly into the book – on about page 60 in a book of well over 500 pages. It is such a pleasure to read this book. He writes so eloquently and cogently and speaks clearly to the existential crisis that we are in, now, even if we are unaware of it. The rise of technology has dehumanized the world to a great extent, even though we have much to laud and be grateful for the stunning advances in all areas of science, medicine, technology et al.

These days, in our post modern world where reason and empiricism holds sway and our world is largely mechanistic, this way of being has now become overly fixed with very little room for movement or flexibility.

Very little of soul manages to get through. This is why I continue to write about dreams, as I believe this is one of the many fruitful ways of retaining or re-claiming a connection with all that is soul-ful.

The act of commitment changes things: Goethe

This means to me that when I commit to any project the universe supports that commitment. When I say ‘yes’ an unfolding seems to occur both innerly and outerly. I know that as mother’s milk increases the more the infant is fed from the breast, so too do dreams yield more of their secrets and enchantments when I say ‘yes’ to my dreams and ‘yes’ I will take them seriously and pay them the attention that they deserve. When I say ‘yes’ to my psyche, it responds and is helpful along the way, even though I may be in for some surprises, good or otherwise.

                  the importance of the inner world as counter to the outer world

The language of the dream – mostly in metaphor – opens up our inner space. Our dreams tell a story and they really do invite you in. Of course they are not easy to decipher. The dreams says you have to go really deep if you want to understand me. I will take you where you have never been before. I will tell you things that you did not know before. You may be disoriented when your dreams start to mean something to you, but disorientation is necessary to experience deeper unity.

That which is neglected will appear on the outside as in Fate

                                 a journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step

 Every interpretation is an hypothesis, an attempt to read an unknown text. (Jung, Collected Works, 16, para. 322)

One would do well to treat every dream as though it were a totally unknown object. Look at it from all sides, take it in your hands, carry it about with you, let your imagination play around with it. (Jung, CW, 10, para. 320)

So, something compels me to continue my diligence in writing down my dreams and pondering on them, knowing full well that I have a duty to my psyche to listen to what they are saying and knowing too that the answer is not immediately apparent.