DREAM: 'COMING FOR ME'...september 8,2009(edited Oct2, 2011)

INTRODUCTION: This dream of two years ago captures a kind of image that dreams often do. It is best to let the whole series of dreams be an 'image' rather than a story, a time sequence or even at first something to be interpreted. One should simply let it be what it is and catch the feeling and spirit it generates. I think I capture how this image feels in my reflection. The dream gave me the impression of some kind of change being imminent and caused a kind of foreboding excitement. This I think is rather common in modern day dreams. It shows how an anxious 'hope' originates in the human heart and what it feels like. Such can be a powerful motivation to 'keep living' and 'keep going' during dark and challenging times.That is no small gift.

It also shows that the Collective Unconscious does not regard time at all like we humans have come to regard it. We forget that the 'clock' is a relatively new technology of humans and it set us on the path of thinking of time as a linear happening of life events. The Unconscious and dreams have  no such limitation. So here after two years this image is still alive in me and what it seemed to point to as imminent then does not seem yet to have fully happened. Although much has changed in the world and in myself in these two years. Thank goodness my back, nor anything else in my body, is as painful as then.

This 'time' thing may be something to ponder as what was going on with early Christian believers and maybe Jesus himself regarding the way the collective archetypes were being activated in that community. It gave them a sense of an imminent intervention of God on their behalf. Jesus is portrayed as having said such apocalyptic words and the community around him were 'certain' that He was going to return to human life any day, any moment after he died. Jesus taught them to pray, 'Thy Kingdom Come.' That never happened as they interpreted the archetype and has been an ongoing problem, concern and hope in Christianity ever since. There is an indeterminable line regarding archetypal information affecting human consciousness like this; of whether the final verdict in history will be that one(or a community) was deceived by it or whether it was a mistake of claiming a set time for the image to break in some way into reality. That is the kind of dilemma I have had much wrestling with the past 26 years and this dream, after two years, demonstrates it rather clearly. Who can pass judgment on such things? It certainly demonstrates that 'visions', 'dreams' or  'intuitions' of imminent or future events needs to handled, stated and acted on with great care, patience and prayer for discernment. There is no area of religious life where 'believers', including myself, have seemed to have more 'egg on their face' or have had an unpleasant meal of 'crow.' We need to acknowledge and confess that aspect of any deeply religious life. It is part of risk and mystery  of living with Soul. Something that is no small thing, whether a prediction 'comes true' or not, a person's life who deals with such archetypal energy will change. This kind of energy drives life forward whether for an individual or for communities such as where the Christian religion began.

DREAM:

1.My back was very painful most of the night. The only initial dream was a voice that said," All of this is in Linda's file.'

Seeking relief I took a gabapentene pain pill at 9am which was prescribed a month ago. I went to sleep and had two more dreams.

2. A red haired anima figure is driving a fast older model mercury convertible. She was not particularly 

beautiful but very strong  willed and all business. She is not a person I'd want to have against me. She briskly parked in front of a small town city hall and with quick steps left the car going into the building.

3. The name I'd have to give this image and aura is 'She is coming for me.' All her, the same figure as in dream #2, focus is on me. She is literally about to pick me up and take me away. This is a totally non sexual gesture and act. She is far stronger than I am and has 'come to take me.' It is not 'poor weak Jim is rescued from his life' idea but simply a recognition that there are times when we all need help to accomplish that which is beyond our human effort and power. At such points the Sacred may work through and with humans as we co-create the divine/human story.

REFLECTION
1.The voice was clearly audible. To me it seems like a final confirmation of the reality and importance of my overall 25 year anima experience. Linda is a reference to 'her' . It says that the whole unexpected scenario of the past 25 years has been initiated and supported by her. That she has 'all' of this in her 'file'.

I've all along been very surprised how I have maneuvered and negotiated my way through the various changes that have formed my outer life. Nothing that has happened was planned by my ego. This is certainly true of all my professional work including counseling, continued education, teaching high school, doing insurance sales, getting my degree and certifications in counseling, preaching and pastoring, being ordained, every job I've had. I have always maintained a strong personal goal of keeping strongly related and loyal to my family, but to the extent that has happened it has been by no specific plan of mine. I was always taking  things as they came. And all of the trips and activities, our divorce, the movements, changes of our children's lives and arrival of grandchildren has all seemed to me very much a matter of fate. It could have gone either way. I am grateful for how it has all developed.

I have in most all respects been a 'follower' rather than an initiator. I have constantly done what seemed in front of me to do. I've always sensed that in a short while my life would greatly change for the better, regarding personal happiness for myself and others. I have had the continuing experience of following 'a way'. This all grew out of my rather well matured trust in the spiritual presence of the Spirit of Jesus that I felt guided my life. Beginning at least 28 years ago I consciously brought to His presence and asked His attention to EVERYTHING that I began to experience as true that might appear as a strong diversion from my inherited religious views. I am confident that it was through that basic Christian Faith that I was ushered into the dangerous experiences from the  Collective Unconscious including the central experience of the 'anima.'

This "following' has been centered on the material I've received from the Unconscious and at a center of that experience has always been an inner female function I call the 'anima'. The dream is not discounting the high importance of the personal ego(what we consciously consider our personal selves.) with this statement about the anima 'coming for me.' While following the anima the ego is never made to violate its deepest moral principles but 'she'  peels away all that which is not truly deep and essential. She, as in that O.T. image, separates the 'seed from the chaff' with her wind and fire.  I think one discovers what really are the deepest and most important principles of one's inherited formal religion, the ones of true highest value to be retained while the others are let go.

The ego is not forced to do anything actually. But the Unconscious via the anima has such an appeal and authority to it that the ego decides it would be foolish and against the highest and richest kind of reality to resist 'her' directions. And I sensed consistently  that she is fully working on my behalf and for my good interest. This is strongly shown in dream number 3. The dream says this whole story is in and likely 'came from' 'Linda's file.'

2 .Her being so determined in her manner and movement gives the impression she is finally doing something  she has been preparing for decades of my life, and perhaps for hundreds or thousands of years in her realm. 'Mercury' is the Greek messenger god and is swift and ready to act the will of the gods. Her attending 

'No Nonsense' Anima Figure

to 'legal' business is implied by entering the city hall. She works within but can drastically change the systems which support a culture. Her work is not just in connection with the high and mighty but the ordinary 'small town' person. My work as counselor, teacher  and pastor has been very much with such people living in such towns. Many are people who are very exasperating to me in their slowness and resistance to needed changes. But such people are the center of God's attention. I am certainly one of the ordinary small town people. Her deepest interest is for the good of the average, the little person and even more the disadvantaged and forgotten. She is first and always 'lady justice.' I confess to harboring a somewhat life long stereotype of 'red headed' men and women. That they carry a kind of 'fire' and have a temperament that a person does not want to get on the wrong side of. So the dream I think pictures for me this strong 'no nonsense' aspect of the anima as a 'red head.'

3. I had this dream about three hours ago. Since then I went to my Physical Therapy appointment and he helped me see that I need to call the orthopedic doctor and set up the back injection. (My cardiologist gave me his approval to go off plavix as the Orthopedist had requested.) I also need to call and cancel my thumb surgery which I really hate to do at this last minute. My thumb issue is nothing compared to this 'knife in the back' pain affecting my daily life. During all this I've had this dream image burned in my mind. I'm feeling the 'high' effects of the medicine but it 'seems' to make even clear that I

'Jesus Coming In The Clouds'  ..photograph

NEED the anima figure to COME FOR ME. With this pain I can do nothing. I could not begin to work a shift as chaplain or sit still to lead a support group. I can't do any kind of exercise. I feel the words ending the Revelation are appropriate for me now, ' Even so come Anima friend!!' I am very uncertain what it means for her to 'come' but I feel I am totally ready and needing her to do so. Jim Hibbett

LATER REFLECTION: My back pain and the pain meds I've taken have likely been part of the dynamics of this dream. But, to me , that does not diminish the importance and meaning of them. I am still extremely uncomfortable and am trying to again set up a back injection. These dreams seem to come even closer to some climax, some significant turn in my life if not something far more extensive than that. I am feeling the tensions in the nation are to the point of being quite dangerous. Perhaps I am feeling that cultural pain in my back -who knows? I am still very confident in the integrity of Obama and of the extremely important truly 'changer' (for the better) role he is to have for the nation. It is becoming harder for more and more people who have welcomed his presidency to feel that way. And his critics have in a wider way become extremely dangerous to his presidency  and likely even to his life. We need to confess that we are a nation who frequently assassinates our leaders. The dreams may be reflecting this national unrest and need  more than my personal life, as I have interpreted them. I do not know? These are simply my impressions of my dreams. I realize how melodramatic and apocalyptic(in a positive way) all this sounds. I'm not comfortable with it but confess some level of exciting hope built on a quarter of century life experience influenced by such images.