Understanding the Dream

‘Lack of conscious understanding does not mean that the dream has no effect at all. Even civilised man can occasionally observe that a dream which he cannot remember can slightly alter his mood for better or worse. Dreams can be ‘understood’ to a certain extent in a subliminal way, and that is mostly how they work‘. * Carl Jung: ref below 

 It is better to be uncertain about what the dream may be seeming to portray. In any event, one ‘understands’ better retrospectively. I often ask myself : can I depend on my own understanding? What other subliminal forces are at work of which I may be unaware?

The urge to have an answer to the meaning of the dream is real. Many of us live our lives to some degree through unconscious expectations and thus are often disappointed at the marriage that went wrong or lack of success at the job, as writer, as friend … fill in the blanks. And want answers. There are many unanswered questions when we note our dream and this is where we usher in the mystery of it. We can unpack it to some extent, like a Poirot on the scent of unclear clues. I’ve painted a few striking dreams – and I’m no artist by any stretch of the imagination. I spent much time resisting, and then fashioning my painting; it was worth the effort, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. I had to let go of my inhibitions about it not being good, or worthy, or perfect or any good. But the dream was important. And the image lent itself to being painted. Sometimes the hands work out something that the mind cannot to paraphrase Jung.

An unpleasant dream makes us uncomfortable, even subliminally, unless of course we simply discard it as so much rubbish and give it no more heed. We are the authors of our dreams, no one else. They come from down under, the deepest recesses of our being. Most of my dreams are absolutely unexpected and leave me mystified, at least for quite a while, until I ‘work’ on/with them, and allow them to work on me … they’re an unfinished symphony.

* Carl Jung: ‘Approaching the Unconscious’ in Man and His Symbols.

with thanks to google images for the graphic

Theatre of the Dream
All the world’s a stage,

and all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts, ..

‘As You Like It’ : William Shakespeare.

Like the great dramas of ancient Athens and Rome enacted in amphitheatres over days, weeks, months, years, so too is the great dream drama within and without enacted and unfolded. Like the dream on a stage, the curtains open and the characters are there, and the scenery is what is is. 

I like to think of this inner world of dreams as the theatre of the soul. The other night before I constructed this post, I dreamed of being with two women. One was my sister, the other I haven’t met but ‘know’ her through her blog posts. We were in a cinema passing chocolate to each other. And then we sang. (I’ve never sung in a dream before). The image of a darkened place, a projector somewhere in the background and being with two women I care deeply for, makes me know that I need to amplify it more, paying attention to the images. What am I called to see in the dark and what am I projecting onto my sister and ‘Elizabeth’. And chocolate? What is this ‘theatre’ in my dream?

Like the play on stage, the dream unfolds. We’re both participant and observer. After the opening scene there is development of the plot where the action commences followed by a culmination in which something happens. There is more but the word limit is restricting! But it would be remiss of me to leave out that the women in my dream are shadow aspects of me, since they are of of the same sex. Gold can be found in using the metaphorical torch to shine a little light onto the shadow –

Dreams invite us to get our teeth into it, to assimilate it, chewing it over and over and allowing them their slow digesting. Letting it take it’s own time, like the tides of the oceans, trusting that they will come into shore.

And again, let the images speak. It can be helpful to give the dream a tentative title.

Seeds in the DreamThat tiny acorn, buried in the ground, tentatively sprouting, filched by squirrels, bombarded by storms, blazing sun, freezing temperatures, high winds, fire, becoming flexible, enduring all as it matures in its natural intended way. Seeding and re-seeding through the seasons. The span of the branches is as wide above as its roots below. 

As above so below.

I love the symbol of The Tree, recognising the soil as its Mother, with its roots, trunk, branches, leaves, giving and taking, providing shade. 

Simon & Garfunkel’s song comes to mind:

Hello Darkness my old friend,

I’ve come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain,

still remains,

within the sounds –

of silence.

It’s like that in the dream … a seed is planted, something shifts. There’s more soul space within for growth, germinating, biding its time. Sometimes there’s a bit of sweet synchronicity when there appears to be no causal connection between two events. The bridge between the collective unconscious and consciousness seems a little less shaky and less narrow. We see the myth of our times a little more clearly, suffused with those inherited ones from aeons past.

The collective unconscious is a strata common to us all, where motifs, myths and the archetypes appear everywhere. Somehow we’ve lost touch with our sacred inheritance.

I can’t stress enough how the dream is specific to the dreamer. The archetype is impersonal. It just is. It is especially important in this regard to not be led away from the dream, but to  focus on the image, the form and content. A symbol is not a sign – a sign tells you this is black or white –  symbol goes beyond the obvious and immediate meaning of the dream. Let the image of the symbol continue in it’s shapeshifting.

 thanks to goggle images for the graphic

Re-cognising the Dream

 How can I possibly relate to these strange and weird dreams. It is all is too foreign and beyond my ken. For many of us including myself this is very difficult. The important thing though is how we feel about the dream and how we attempt to revise and revision by placing ourselves in that dream to see what it is saying: am I this wave or this tunnel or this walking around; am I this  house with it many rooms, known and unknown – and how it compensates for our waking attitude.

I may or may not recognise that woman or women in the dream, or that man at my home kneeling on the ground with a large piece of paper in front of him to whom I pass a blunt pair of scissors. Unexpected visitors turn up when I am unprepared for them and have no food in the house and have to leave the house to go in my car to buy food and get lost on the way.

These are the sorts of dreams that give me cause for pause. That I left those unexpected visitors is representative of me in some way. No food in the house (my inner realms metaphorically) to nourish these other parts of me. My thoughts go off in all sorts of directions … and I know I cannot reduce it to a simple formula.

When I walk, I get into a sort of reverie about them or it all. I put the ego aside for the while. I ponder and re-imagine, and re-member the dream, looking for loose threads that need to be located and realised. I go over it again and again, entering into it. And still it is beyond my grasp. But that’s ok. What am I not being receptive to I have to ask myself. And in this way, whether walking or retreating into myself in some other way, I can reflect and re-cognise.

Image: Google graphics

Q : Quo Vadis? on the Dream

 ‘Quo Vadis’? Latin: “Where are you going?”

The words asked by Peter when he met Christ upon the Appian Way. ‘Domine, Quo Vadis’? Lord, whither goest Thou?  

I do not know where my dream is going when I am dreaming. I do not know my destination in the dream. I wake at a particular juncture when it is important that I remember this dream, to write it down, so that I can look at it in the cold light of day. For me it brings up the old age question, Why? Why this dream now?

I remember a dream from years and years back. I was standing on the tennis court at our home, not dressed in tennis gear, no-one else about. Out of nowhere a huge library of books came tumbling down onto me and knocked me down to the ground. I can’t remember how long it took for me to decipher that dream, maybe not long at all, because in it’s way it was fairly clear. Although I resisted its message, I took away from it that it was time for me to get out of my head, stop living in it, stop being so one-sided, so intellectual, so up in the air, devouring books books books, to the exclusion of all else. Start living, start feeling, this last a much neglected side of me. Not necessarily to quench my thirst for learning but not to the extent of quarantining myself from my feeling function. I’m still learning how to do this –

When I ponder on a significant dream I ask the same sort of question, ‘whither goest thou’ of myself – it’s an ongoing quest.

Rilke: Live the Questions

Emily Bronte: ‘I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind’.

Talmud: An unexamined dream is like an unopened letter.

Pregnancy of the Dream

Land, sand, beach, sky, mountains, sea, plant life – each and all pregnant with life, pulsing with possibilities.

Like our dream –  also pregnant with potential and possibility –

Our psyche, or soul, or source, or inner beat, that deep rich soil within, provides the compost. 

Like poetry or a painting or a piece of writing or a sunset or sunrise or the sound of the waves or the trill of a bird that speaks to the soul, we feel the pull, the tug, some visceral reaction to a dream.  We pause when a dream or an image presents itself, whether in paradox or more clearly. Our psyche is penetrated, some passage is opened, a page is left opened for further study. There is purpose, though dimly seen.

Most often, the dream presents a puzzle to us, or to me in any event. But, with patience, putting those pieces of the puzzle into their rightful place, sometimes incorrectly, even misplacing the pieces of the borders, and seeing the pattern finally emerge, not necessarily to completion, is uplifting. 

Laying out the pieces of the puzzle requires preparation; the table needs to be clear. For my night-life some planning helps. Before I ‘turn in’ for the night, I ensure that my small torch is clipped to my dream journal. I often look at previous dreams to see if I can discern a thread – or give some sort of title to a previous dream. I ask my unconscious to provide a dream, knowing that this can’t be predicted.

I know that decoding my dreams takes practice and that the more attention I give to them, the more will be yielded. 

The dream is your guide, helpful in showing possible paths

own photo of Plettenberg Bay, Southern Cape.

Other in the Dream

Who is that ‘other‘ in the dream who I do not remotely know? That person is so opposite to me in every way. Or, I do know this person.  Sometimes I know this place, or I do not know it. It is so obscure, sometimes obstructive. What can I possibly discern from this? What will be my orientation to it in my waking life? Is it offering me anything? 

Well, yes, it does offer itself to you, like a gift, although it does want something in return, namely your overt attention. It does not want to be spurned. It provides the dreamer with a golden opportunity to look further, go deeper, go over and over it, again and again, especially if it is extremely puzzling.

 Carl Jung’s quote :

‘The more one-sided his conscious attitude is, and the further it deviates from the optimum, the greater the possibility that vivid dreams with a strongly contrasted but purposive content will appear as an expression of the self-regulation of the psyche’.

All those characters, events and place in the dream are only facets of the one dreamer.

I’ve stressed in previous posts, hopefully sufficiently enough, the importance of letting the dream cook and steam as in an oven, not rushing to turn it off to halt its cooking. Not rushing to interpret it, although as previously said, sometimes the meaning is very clear.

Many times my dreams are ordinary, and that’s ok. At least I feel that the channels are open and, if I wake, I write them down. It may be a sentence or two, even a few paragraphs or fairly lengthy. But it is for me a way of observing my inner world, checking it in my outer world – I want to know that unknown other, apart from me, though a part.

The dream is your guide, wanting your observation as you get to know the other within –

 thanks to google images for the graphic

Nature of the Dream

‘Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse’. see ref below.

Now, I feel I have taken on far too huge a task to bring across the value of the dream in approximately 300-350 words for each letter of the alphabet. Honestly, if I’ve said anything at all, it would represent the tip of my fingernail to my whole body. I can only encourage you to pay attention to your dreams, a very real and natural expression of your unconscious and the collective unconscious, that strata common to us all.

Dreams are hard nuts to crack. Those that give us cause for pause and or wake us up in the middle of the night because of the strangeness of it, are the ones to be attended to. Each dream and its associations are unique to the dreamer and in this are nuggets to be found. It shows possibilities, potentials, both negative and positive, and it is not necessary to find an answer. 

Don’t neglect your dreams. Not for nothing do we dream. Each dream or series of dreams offers a new point of view, a compensation for our usual conscious way of looking at things. It is not surprising that it is alien. Each offers a way of self-reflection. Each problem personified in a dream can be outgrown.

Sometimes it seems we are going nowhere in the dream. Our deepest self does know, but of this we often have no notion. 

 CG Jung “On the Nature of Dreams” CW 8 The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. pg.532

Mystery of the Dream

The dream like all mysteries takes time to demystify. Who is that who I see in the mirror – when I look?

The mud of it, thick, impenetrable, murky, mistaken. How can this possibly relate to me personally, and collectively.

The dream can serve as metaphor as we meander, faithfully holding the dream with care and reverence, until it yields its message. Autumn and winter precede spring and the dream oftentimes seems to follow a similar pattern, at least to me. It lies low, deep in the rich soil, germinating, and I am unsure it will ever flower.

For many the dream is a muse. Some well known ones:-

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of ‘Treasure Island & Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’, inter alia, wrote that he got many of his best stories from his dreams.

Guisppe Tartini wrote his masterpiece for the violin, The Devil’s Sonata, after hearing it performed in a dream.

19th century chemist Dimitri Mendelev fell asleep while chamber music was being played in the next room. He understood in a dream that the basic chemical elements are all related to each other in a manner similar to the themes and phrases in music.

Albert Einstein as a young man, dreamed that he was sledding down a steep mountainside, going faster and faster, approaching the speed of light, which caused the stars in his dream to change their appearance. Meditating upon that dream, Einstein eventually worked out his extraordinary scientific achievement, the principle of relativity.

Your dreams too can be such a provident source. It means exercising that inner muscle, tensing, flexing, releasing, tensing again to see what the mirror reveals. The metaphor of matrix comes to mind. Dreams can be re-membered no matter from how long ago. The more we work on our dreams the more our own myth becomes apparent.

own graphic

Language of the Dream

The language of the dream is foreign and hard to decipher. This is not surprising – learning any lesser known language takes time, frustration and much patience. 

But surprisingly, the dream is tailor made for you. It’s a candle in the dark as it lights the way through the labyrinth. One’s inner eye adjusts to the shadows cast, all the while as the unknown other in the dream becomes more familiar. That unknown other is you, the dreamer.

The language of the dream is the language of the arts i.e. metaphor, myth, symbols, images, allegory – all seems vague and strange to us in the beginning. Its language is often indirect but not always; at times it is obvious what it is portraying.

Landscapes are often part of the scene. Some may present as desert-like, dry, life-less with no horizon in sight. Others – green and peaceful.  Mountains climbed, rivers crossed, valleys descended. Some landscapes show bridges to be crossed, or a fork in the road, driving a car in the dark, no lights, or being a passenger. A colour may stand out. Or all is dark and dank, sometimes bright and light. Invariably they reflect the inner life of the dreamer and it is up to us to figure it out.

Because the dream may seem irrational, it is necessary to approach our dream in the light of day in a non-linear way. Lost in this landscape? Why lack of direction? What longing is being expressed? What loss? Why lavatory dreams? What are we needing to expel? What lie have we been telling ourselves? What love is being expressed?

We have limited awareness of ourselves, the ‘me’ the ‘I’, the ‘thou’. If we listen, we hear more of who we are.

Talmud: An unexamined dream is like an unopened letter.

The lotus emerges from the mud and awakens in its longing for the light.

The dream is a candle light, leading you out of the labyrinth –

Thanks to google images for graphics.

Keys of the Dream

It’s one thing to reach for the key

and, through trial and error finding the only one that fits.

It’s another thing to put that unique key into the lock –

– and yet another to turn the key –

– and then yet another, of opening the door –

and perhaps the most daring of the lot is to step inside, and enter.

Your dream is key to what’s going underneath –

Truly, like the original explorer who wants to know more, is reminded of the Oracle of Delphi – Know Thyself. These words are often attributed to Socrates who did in fact say them: “I am not yet able, as the Delphic Inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not know that, to investigate irrelevant things”. Socrates publicly acknowledged his lack of self-knowledge and thus made his audience aware of their own.

C.G. Jung: He who looks outside dreams, who looks inside, awakes.

Bhagavad Gita: Wake up! Be thyself!

Ramayana: Enquiry into the truth of the Self is knowledge.

The keys to self-knowledge are in the dream. There will be knots to be untied – patiently, and not rushed – before the metaphorical kite can be extended and flown. But what a reward to see it take to the skies and clouds – reaching upwards, at long last – into the night sky and it’s depths – and to return it back to our hands.

With thanks to google images for graphics.

Journey of the Dream

Where do we go when we close our eyes and shut out the external world? 

This journey into the self is often times into uncharted and unfamiliar land or waters. Yet, like the traveller who sets off on an expedition and who has maps, with the moon and stars to assist on his travels here, below, above, not knowing what awaits, so we too can set off with a map – a different kind, namely our own inner guide as map.

Entering into the dream and working on the unknown facets of ourselves (for all those characters and place in a dream are representative of ourselves in some way) is a hero’s journey for those who wish to be fully themselves, no longer presenting a fake face to themselves and the world.

Our lives are represented in the dream world when we are given cause for pause. We wonder whether to go this way, that way. There may necessary dangers when making that next step. It may show to not be too hasty, stay awhile at this crossroad before going anywhere, don’t make assumptions, reflect more, go further back, further forward, don’t rush, pay attention, have faith –

And hold with care until it unfolds. Keep a journal of your dreams. It’s a way of being present with yourself, jotting down whatever comes to mind, knowing that your writings, your journalling, has the potential to lead you to deeper levels of awareness.

It will take us out of our comfort zones when we heed the call knowing that there are always risks in undertaking journeys. We need to prepare in order to return ..

Who knows, maybe we’ll find jewels along the way, even if it takes forever to crack the shells surrounding it. Perhaps that diamond or pearl will slowly itself reveal as the layers are exposed. Joy maybe ..

 Thanks to google images for above graphic.

    Image in the Dream

Einstein: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere*

An image that presents itself in a dream to you may not have the same meaning that I would ascribe to it were I to have a similar image, e.g. dreaming of lilies. For you it may mean flowers on a coffin, or remembering fields of lilies, or loss or just your favourite flower. I’m reminded of the tears that fell from Eve’s eyes as she and Adam left the Garden of Eden and, where her tears fell, lilies sprang up – and of course Lilith, the serpent in disguise who returned from her exile in the depths of the Red Sea and offered Eve the apple.

The dream image is usually specific to the dreamer and their particular cultural and social circumstances, although the collective unconscious is ever present. There is no ‘one size fits all’ meaning of an image. If there were a simple formula this would fix the dream and would render it lifeless. It invites you to use your imagination! The impulse to making an immediate interpretation is to be resisted.

Nevertheless, there is some universality in dream images. Many of us dream of being unprepared for an exam, being naked in public, driving over a cliff, being in the sea facing a wave that is about to engulf us, being chased, an intruder, losing teeth or our identity documents and wallets, opening or closing a gate, a bridge, fishing. These sorts of images are helpful in that they speak to our inner lives.

Insight gained from working with the dream, no matter how irrational, helps develop an integration between our inner and outer lives. By accepting the invitation from our dreams and working with our interior world, we develop an intimacy with the unknown, and known, parts of the self and thus we are led towards our individuality.

The dream is on your side, waiting in the wings, wanting to intrude, wanting your individual expression of your inner other.

Einstein quote from brainy quotes; thumbnail google images

   Home of the Dream

Does the dream have a home? Does it venture out, to return?

Its’ home is from the deepest layer of our being, the collective unconscious (distinct from the personal unconscious) which, if utilised in an authentic manner, can provide a corrective view to the dreamer – as for example, the blind spot mentioned in an earlier post –  but also more, much more. And, it sometimes seems as if Hermes the necessary trickster, is abroad, above and below.

The unconscious is not inactive. Like our conscious mind, governed largely by our ego, the unconscious, inter alia, ‘…is ceaselessly engaged in grouping and regrouping its contents’.* This indicates that there is purpose and aim in the workings of the unconscious.

These unconscious workings, brought to the fore in significant part by working on our dreams, is given light in the struggle. Being responsible towards our dreamwork – for work it is – adds life and depth, a broader more encompassing perspective, fullness, harmony and meaning to our lives. From its dwelling place, it offers, as a gift, a way of communication between our conscious, visible and physical lives, with that of our psyche – or soul, or spirit, or that invisible aspect of ourselves. From its’ dwelling place of the unconscious and collective unconscious, it needs to be held lovingly, carefully, tending to it, hearing its prompt to us to live in greater awareness, harmony and consciousness in our inner and outer homes. Like ourselves, the dream has many mansions that invite exploration.

And even if the dream is dreadful there is holiness in the hell  – and healing – somewhere – 

We’re sometimes at the helm in the dream, often times not, and sometimes we cannot see the horizon, but when we hold the dream with care, the hidden messages will reveal the heart of it – and guide us home –

*CG Jung Vol 7

The dream is your friend and guide, waiting in the wings,  – always searching for its home –