Introduction: As I review this dream and reflection from nearly two years ago I cannot help but conclude that the 'time to begin bringing to the outside world' what has for 26 years been kept mostly private has arrived. It is now potentially happening through the venue of this simple blog I, to my own surprise, started two months ago. This demonstrates how the concept of time in the Unconscious can never be concretely interpreted by our rational mind. And the 'how' by which the Unconscious brings to outer reality what it has forecast inwardly must always surprise our rational thinking. I am rather spell bound seeing such synchronicities, from my point of view, happening. I had completely forgotten about this dream until I brought it up randomly tonight. This whole dream series strikes me as a modern statement of the Greek 'Kairos' meaning , 'at just the right time.'
The Dreams:
1. I was walking down the street of a very upscale neighborhood. I noticed a tall thin neighbor dressed casually and he appeared to not be older than a teen. Later I saw him in my house and he was an elderly man. As I passed by him on the sidewalk he said excitedly to another man that 'Jackie Robinson' would be with them at church today.
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| Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson |
2.I was inside a new very luxurious home. The same man and his wife were in a very fancy high tech little cart. They were about to enter an elevator going up. I could tell he was older than he had appeared on the street. They were very well but casually dressed.
3.I was aware that there was a large round flowered blue and white circular porcelain bowl and stand outside my home. The same neighbor brought it to my door and insisted that it be brought inside. It had leaves and debris on it. It sat there on the carpet for awhile. But later I asked a little smiling boy to help me put it outside. He was very glad to help and took up one side of the large vessel. I made sure to keep most of the weight on myself as we took it to a good outside place.
4.I was walking down a bright hallway of this home. A very pleasant friendly female accompanied me. She said the area of this hallway had now been finished and there was pretty grass growing outside of it. Then she said to me ,"if you could not walk me down the isle it would ruin my wedding."
5.There were some activities or tasks that I needed to do. I could not do them until they were assigned their correct numbers. Finally it was clear that there were two of these tasks and that they had actually already been accomplished. They both had the same number which was 8,000.
REFLECTION: I recall no previous dream where I lived in a really nice home. I've been in nice homes in my dreams but not my own. The neighbor reflects a 'more than human' characteristic of not-aging. He also reflects that there is a community that he, and I think I, am a part of. The mention of Jackie Robinson indicates that the community is not racist and it also transcends death. This can reflect the potential meaning of 'ekklesia' or church. This would show the ultimate 'church' as all inclusive. I would take my personal experience in the dream as typical of the eventual experience of every human, for we are all a part of God's family and created to eventually display the image of the sacred. I think Christian teaching has all but forgotten that 'The Christ' experience is meant to be a model of every human life, not just the one.
The beauty of the home and the neighborhood along with these other things seem to reflect a transcendent community and state of mind. This would be a version of the archetype of 'heaven.' It is not here a place of gold streets, which has never appealed to me even symbolically, but of a welcoming and secure community. Heaven in the gospels does not primarily refer to the blessed place of the afterlife but to the 'realm or kingdom of God' which is a present potential. I think this dream is depicting me in such a state. In a sense this is what what all human spiritual systems seek to bring into awareness and existence.
The original Marx communism was inspired by such an archetype but was warped in the process of coming into actual outer experience. It became the dark-side of what began as a very humane and hopeful image of humans living in support of each other, very similar to the picture of the Christian community depicted in Acts 2. The great fear of 'socialism' so presently alive in the nation is to some extent an unconscious emotional reaction to the danger of any archetype that might resemble the 'Kingdom of God.' on earth. But such a one-sided fear based reaction defeats a primary motivation of religion including Christianity. Even our Declaration of Independence raises such an image when it says, 'We pledge our live, our fortunes and our Sacred Honor to each other.' This is frightening to all of us for we fear we will be asked to value others to our own personal demise. This is parallel to Jesus saying that there is a way we can profitably 'die to self so that we might really live.' Our nation is presently facing such a spiritual dilemma and crisis. The archetype of 'rugged individualism' that has been so foundational to our culture, and very appropriate for the pioneer spirit, has reached the point of not being the effective and needed value for post modern America. But many now cling to in some desperation. This is seen in much of the political polarization we are experiencing and all the ways that men are nudged to play the macho role while women are patronized as weaker and less capable of their own individuality and choices. Cultures do not easily let loose of fading archetypes for it is an experience of loosing one's basic cultural identity. But even the most cherished ones will fade and the opportunity arises for new and more suitable archetypes to arise from the Collective Unconscious. This is the state of psychological and spiritual disconnect we have been suffering in recent decades with respect to social, national, world and religious identity. No human or institution can choose what archetypes will presently come alive for the collective culture. We can only have the wisdom to recognize the signs of the time and be open to cooperate with the movement of the Collective Unconscious rather than to fight it. This can be a correct way to live out the meaning of 'seeking and following the Will of God' in our era.
The round vessel is central to the dream and is another strong symbol of wholeness and union of all opposites. This is the goal of individuation, the goal of human life-individually and collectively. The reality for which things are the symbol of must always begin as an inner reality. Efforts to arrive at perfect outer lives, systems , cultures or communities always prove to be illusions, illusions that entice and lure but invariably end up as human disappointments.
But when such goals are understood as ones that must first become real in the inner human psyche before they can have the possibility of realization in the outside world they do have the potential of significantly changing the outer world situation. This would be the equivalent of a 'kingdom of God coming' that is central in Jesus' teaching and expectation. The round vessel is a female symbol which is able to receive, include and unite all that has been separated and categorized into its separateness. This process of separation is essential and is a matter of distinguishing opposites and differences. The Jesus story, as historically interpreted, has done its great service as such with respect to good and evil. The Christ is the description of perfect good and light, the devil( Which few people now have any serious view of in every day life. There are more jokes about the 'devil' than serious efforts to call out evil. Forty years ago I refused to accept a framed handwork piece that depicted a cartoon devil and said, ' The devil made me do it.' Which I guess means that I did take the devil very seriously? ) evil and darkness. Since the age of enlightenment we have, in the West, had an amazing run of such separating and defining. Science, technology, medicine and historical analysis of religious texts have been some of the results of this historic period. All of this is progress coming through the so-called ' male' attributes of discriminating, penetrating and deciphering. This is the yang principle at work. But now a shift is urgently needed.
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| The Ancient Chinese Yin Yang Symbolizing The Union Of Opposites. |
A shift that is the work of the Yin, the female, the dark, the earthy, the material. Wholeness, unity, yin and yang existing in harmony is symbolized by the point, the circle, the mandala, the number four and its multiples.
So the dream is showing that the movement to the 'coming of Sacred kingdom' in an outer way is now happening in my, and likely many others, personal psyche and now into outside reality. This circular porcelain dish symbol has a 'stand' indicating that is is well established and developed. Also the 'more than human' being is seeking to keep it inside. In my own development I have experienced having to keep the unifying process of individuation on the inside. There is great danger of a human being seduced into thinking this is initially an outer process. So the principles on the 'other side' or of the spirit world recognize this danger and are pictured as encouraging me to keep this all on the inside. But the dream shows it is time for a shift, that the time has come for what I have kept inside to have its effect and exposure in the outside world. My ego consciousness is 'correcting' the message that it has long accepted from the Unconscious, that this all be contained inside. The 'other side' is not shown as now strongly resisting the inner coming to the outside. And with the help of 'the child' it is moved to the 'out side' which is later described has having 'pretty green grass.'
The principles of the Spirit world are shown as ready to 'move up' to a new level after having already made their 'incarnating' trip down and becoming united with that which is physical and earthy. This is a parallel to Jesus' incarnation and ascension.
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| Jimmy Hibbett About Six Years Old |
I think the 'little boy' and the female presence are parts of my inner spiritual life. My first practical effort to locate inner parts of myself was the idea of the 'inner child' which remains forever a part of each of us. I did a lot of counseling based on this concept. I worked with Beverly in this area of her integrating the experiences of her 'little girl' who was so traumatized by her burning accident. My 'little boy' here seems well cared for and living confidently as a child. That is encouraging for he is the same little boy whose mother died unexpectedly, the great trauma of my childhood. So he is shown as enthused at the process of bringing the developmental process into the outside world of our experience.
The female presence I see as an anima appearance. She speaks of marriage which surely must be the Holy, Royal, Sacred, Inner marriage so often presented in dream and religious myth. Marriage, as documented extensively by Jung, is a rich and frequent symbol of wholeness, of uniting the opposites. Sacred texts have frequent references to marriage as a spiritual experience, with Christ and the church even being bride and groom. Some are embarrassed at the sexual implications that are essential for all the uses of the marriage symbol in scripture.
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| A Medieval Alchemist Image Of Sacred Marriage |
Jung demonstrated that this 'conjunctio' or marriage was the primary spiritual goal being sought by the alchemists, who represented somewhat of an underground movement in medieval Christianity. Jung was able to demonstrate that they were not just dealing with literal matter and its changes but were projecting the unconscious process of individuation onto their physical experiments. So the female anima in the dream is speaking of her 'marriage' which would represent the 'uniting of opposites ' within the inner human experience. This is primarily the uniting of the ego consciousness with the Collective Unconscious. This is the goal of individuation and the spiritual goal of meaning and life. The anima is recognizing that the human 'ego consciousness' ,which seems so puny compared to the depth and breadth of the vast unconscious from which it came, is so essential to the process of wholeness and completion of individuation. In fact it is one half of the marriage. The marriage is the union of the unconscious , represented by the anima, and the ego consciousness that began its process with no conscious awareness of that with which it needed to eventually become one, the unconscious.
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Such things as attending the ALS walk today and saying the public prayer are typical examples of 'outer tasks' along the way. Such 'tasks' seem to me more and more like the final tasks of this process. Presently there are fewer people depending directly on me and I have less specific responsibility to others ever before in my life. The dream is depicting these many tasks as two general tasks. I would take them as inner and outer tasks. They are both given the number 8,000. Eight being a multiple of four and times a thousand is an extreme number of completion and wholeness. And the understanding that these have actually 'been completed' is another suggestion that I, and perhaps we all, are at some turning point. I would like to see this as a parallel of the statement attributed to Jesus where completion of a life time of actions of simple trust are congratulated with the words, 'well done good and faithful servant.'.
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| Psyche(soul) Must Complete Four Tasks Before Reuniting With Eros. |
On reflection these dreams are in much harmony with each other. All point to a positive completion of a very long process. There is never a total completion of spiritual growth or individuation but the dream indicates that there can be important turning points and milestones in the process. These dreams are saying that in my process I am at a time where much that has needed to be contained to an inner psychological spiritual process can now begin to be safely a part of my outside world. This I would assume would also involve what has been 'secret' to me becoming more openly shared with others. This is frightening to me for, like the 'more than human' in the dream, I am accustomed to keeping the experience very private and inner. It feels dangerous to think of it being exposed to the outside. I do not plan to change my level of revealing in any specific ways but will try to be be open to sharing opportunities that seem appropriate and reasonably safe for me and others. Jim
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