DREAM: DOG HOUSE.... april 4, 2010....edited August 30, 2011

I was with a male friend. We were walking down a sunlit country road carrying a well built dog house. We arrived at our destination. A little dark hair girl was happily playing in the yard and greeted us enthusiastically. I knew this little girl from before but suddenly was so much more 'aware and appreciative' of her. I commented, 'My goodness she is pleasant and so beautiful, isn't she?' My friend expressed full agreement.

Introductory Thoughts: Another dream which at first seems not worth noting. I also wondered did I "miss" part of the dream? It is hard to keep in mind that every dream is important and worth taking time to note and that any 'missing' or even any spontaneously added detail or image to the dream is also part of the work of the unconscious source. It is all about always taking what is there and knowing that is what is suppose to be there. This the closest I ever get to there 'being no question about God's will.' When one is seeking truth and is sincere there are no mistakes made or you can say that mistakes become a part of the actual message. This does not mean that the message is to be taken literally or is taken or followed without any question. The power to say "no" should never be stolen from the ego, even and especially by God. The ego must work with the content of the unconscious responsibly and with it's own limited level of authority. What it must not do is to ignore the unconscious and its difficult- to-accept truths and its sometimes demand of a full conscious sacrifice of the ego's position.

The unconscious is far bigger, stronger and wiser than the ego it has birthed. But the unconscious and ego must work mutually together for the right direction and the right attitude to be found on the human journey. This is what is being referenced in the gospels regarding 'dying to self', 'denying family and friends', 'loving God with heart, mind and strength', of having a 'single eye', choosing the 'narrow way' and 'seeking first the kingdom of God.' It is even the richer meaning of my religious heritage's slogan of 'seeking the old paths.' This is the meaning behind the apostles 'dropping their nets and following' when they heard a relatively 'stranger's voice' saying ' follow me.' To take these expressions literally or even as the sound response to the the human/god man Jesus is to give horrible advise to young or adult people in our day. To surrender to any ' person or god' unconsciously or to render ones ego consciousness disengaged or unneeded is to arrive at some level of personal or mass tragedy. Nazism and the 'Jim Jones mass suicide' are two contemporary examples of surrendering the ego to an outside authority. Something always tragic happens when a human negates their own ego consciousness to any 'outside of themselves' person or deity.

I realize it is hard to explain and know when the ego is responsibly yielding its 'right' to the genuine demand of the 'collective unconscious' or when the ego is , out of its need for certainty and protection, negating itself sacrilegiously by surrendering to some outside power. The force to appropriately and naturally surrender to is not a god of the 'group' or 'mass', the god of orthodoxy; but one that is unique to the internal personal psyche. It is possible for many individuals to surrender to their internal deity only to find that others have as well and that those individual 'gods' are in harmony with each other. A message and voice that deserves such surrender of ones ego consciousness must always be an inner one and one that is unique to each human person it addresses. Jesus, nor any other genuinely mature spiritual leader, was never about laying down group rules in order to build a strong and cohesive external organization.(Such may sometimes happen but never as a direct goal of any kind of grounded and godly spiritual teaching. Such are the goals of politics and dictators, not of healthy religion.)

Any desire that Jesus had to 'build a church' would be that more individuals would hear their inner voice that 'calls them out' of their ego being  as the center of their personality to the broader 'Self' being the center. This would be where both consciousness and the unconscious are united and incarnated in human experience. The process of that change of center for the human personality(from the ego to the Self) is what has always been the goal of spiritual discipline and practice. Jung simply brought fresh and needed attention to this and gave it the name 'individuation.'  The Jungian 'Self' is essentially a way of conceptualizing the ultimate Sacred. It is an internal 'image of God.'  It is an internal 'activity of God.'  The 'Self' is a way of describing the condition of the human personality and psyche when it has reached( momentarily or consistently) the ideal(which is never fully realized) goal of being in personal harmony with God, of God and Human being one. This is the meaning that became attached over time to Jesus of Nazareth. His memory, and more the archetypal expansion of his memory,  became an expression for his era and beyond of the 'Self'; and for his own people's inherited expression for the 'Self'- Messiah,  the 'son of man', or the 'I Am.'

REFLECTION: This little dream, upon reflection, is very significant to me. It is a summarizing dream I think. I and my male friend, whom I take here as a symbol of the Self, are in harmony on life's road. For a man a highest symbol of wholeness is frequently a male image, often the 'wise old man' of many myths. Here is a more contemporary 'Self' image pictured as a helpful and mutual male traveler. I was not aware of his 'face' in the dream. I'm reminded that 'no one has seen the face of God and lived.' This is an image of the human and God being in harmony, walking together in mutual support and mutual reliance, the 'best of friends.'

I hear the dream saying , "Jim you are no longer 'in the dog house' but with God's help you now carry the dog houses that have so often entrapped and isolated you." This message comes as a most needed one. Some days it is difficult for me to do anything, to have any interest. I sometimes have doubts about a deceived or wasted adult life. I have felt very much 'in the dog house' at some point  in every aspect of life. To be 'in the dog house' means, among other things, to be isolated with ones own thoughts and beliefs. It is a very 'lonely place to be' says the popular Whitney Houston song, 'The Greatest Love Of All.'. The song continues that 'learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all.'

The little girl brings tears to my eyes in a way that I know she must  be a reference to the faithful 'anima' figure. Here she is just so sweet and innocent and joy filled with the simplicities of living. How can I not adore and love and appreciate her? The same inner force that has been at times so strong , forceful, demanding, and even frightful is here being the way she really likes to be and can be once she is integrated into adult consciousness.  And my God I saw how beautiful she really is and how impossible it is for me to be fully conscious of her value and preciousness. I can only try. I was moved to nothing less than a worshipful disposition filled with gratitude and wonder at this amazing inner creature.  That has happened for me on many occasions, once right outside Edward Fudge's Houston home two days after the first 'vision' experiences came to me.  She was a beautiful woman presented clearly to me in the moving leaves of a tree. She was chattering to me non stop as if she finally had my attention, and she did. I remarked to her  with tears, " This is how you have been trying to speak to me for years but I have not listened. Never again." What a magnificent way this dream offers me now to image  my anima friend, a precious girl welcoming me home for simply who I am. A figure who has been rescuer, goddess, leader and counselor now is just pleased and contented to be with me, no strings attached. She will tell me where to put the 'dog house' and we can retell the stories of how she helped me get out of it a thousand different times and ways. For me the truth of the old hymn lives that says, compared to her ..' Nobody knows'.... She knows all.

The emotion imaged in this dream reminds me of that in the gospel story of the men and Jesus walking on the 'Road To Emmaus.'  They suddenly recognized the Sacred was with them and the story implies will now be forever. The dream pictures me having such an epiphany that is brought into my awareness by the presence of the  young anima figure. For Jung the purpose of the 'anima' figure in human dreams is  to provide a bridge from the Ego to the Collective Unconscious which effectively is the  Ultimate Sacred,  God.  This can lead to a direct experience of the Sacred, not one that is based on someone else's story or proved by rational argument. This is the meaning of 'gnosis' that the Christian Gnostics were rejected and persecuted for reporting, and the reason their gospels were mostly  burned. Well organized religions usually have a doctrine banning gnosis for they fear one will, and they likely might, find an authority that is higher than any religious program. For Catholics this became sacred church tradition and for protestants a Book of writings. Both of these are important sources of wisdom but not an ultimate authority as the actual 'voice of God' is. Though denigrated by most Christian orthodoxy 'Gnosis' ironically is the kind of knowledge that most of the Bible stories are referring to when they speak of 'knowing or encountering God.'

Before the 'gnosis'(direct unreasoned knowledge) on Emmaus Road

 The Self figure, in this dream, simply agreed with my high estimate of the little girl. To him it had always been obvious what a value to me she is. But now He no longer needed to sell me on that. I know it as fully and surely as He does. We are together on that also.