Dreaming the Future

One important thing I have learnt over the years is to 'chillax' as my young ones would say...take a chill pill and go with the flow.  Simply respond, as opposed to reacting, to whatever is going on, and never from a place of agitation or fear, just acceptance of what is. I have my Buddhist monk teachers to thank for their constant entreaty to live with equanimity. Another teacher talked about responding to Life with poise and elegance. I like that. It stood me in good stead when the Destroyer archetype came to call, to tell me to fix up or ship out.  It all began with a dream. But first let me tell you just a little about dreams from a personal perspective.

Dreams contain several layers and levels of meaning; they can be reflective of the past, present and future. While there may be universal – or archetypal – images in dreams, meaning belongs solely to the dreamer and reflects that soul's entanglements, longings and desires now, and from the past. Dreams are also predictive - indicators of an experience waiting to happen or in progress. There’s just one problem: we are not accustomed, and don’t know how, to interpret our dreams.

A couple years ago I did a test run for an online dream interpretation ‘drop-in’ programme. One of the participants made contact with me at the beginning of this very year to update me on her unfolding story. She expressed astonishment at how her dream had manifested over the period. She had arrived at the threshold of major mind-blowing change, something she would never have contemplated two years ago. But it had all been laid out in that dream. The whole thing revolved around one very specific motif in the dream. On the surface the dream was unintelligible and most people would have dismissed it as inconsequential, and making little sense. But the dream told her precisely what was emerging in her life; things of great significance about the direction her life was taking.

Dream interpretation is second nature to me….it’s just one of those things I can do.  So could my mum before me.  If my mother had a dream, you can bet your bottom dollar that her interpretation of it would be spot on.  She was uncannily and unnervingly accurate.  In dream interpretation it is important to note that every character represents an aspect of the dreaming self; and all dream images and ‘storyline’ are symbolic, relevant only to the dreamer and no one else. But how to interpret the symbols?  While the skill and knowhow of the dreamsmith will support you in finding meaning; the individual concerned must 'read' and make sense of their own dream. The dreamsmith will say 'Oh look, do you notice that rabbit dancing the samba? What do you make of that?'

'Royal road to Unconscious'

Dreams are never straightforward; like myth and fairytale they communicate in symbols and metaphor. Once the dreamer is able to align the dream images with events, experiences and desires in his or her life, and depending on the individual’s insightfulness and state of awareness, various layers of meaning will be revealed.

Carl Jung was keen on dream analysis and used it as an aid to assist his patients to get a better handle on what was going on in their lives. Jung believed that dreams were a 'royal road to the unconscious', and a natural phenomenon through which we can gain knowledge of the hidden part of the mind; that dream symbols reveal both conscious and unconscious mental processes.  Dreams come directly from the psyche, a vast unknown and uncharted inner continent, a mysterious ‘beyond world’ described by Jung as something which “challenged the adventuresome with the prospect of rich discovery and frightened the timid with the threat of insanity”.

My dreams never let me down. They are sometimes literal, and the most reliable predictors of events about to emerge in my life, given my direction of travel. They are purveyors of critical information, as long as I can interpret the symbols. So when a symbol of the destroyer appeared in my dream, I had a nervous breakdown, otherwise known as a major depressive episode - an MDE! I knew exactly what it was telling me.

In 2008, at the very beginning of my health challenges, a dream indicated that fundamental change would, almost without warning, rip through my life. It would completely dismantle the omnipresence of an old and controlling ruler. The dream was short, sharp and pointed.

I dreamt that a missile, rather like one of those drones that target terrorists, smashed into the house where I lived with my family - mother and twin brothers. There was a young girl staying with the family because she was about to attend a nearby school, with which I seem to have a connection. Our house was the only one on the street hit by the missile; the building was badly damaged and basically uninhabitable but we all escaped unscathed.

What was that all about?  Tell you more in my next post.