Monday, March 26, 2012

DREAM: UNITING PAST WITHOUT LOSING PRESENT...March 25, 2012


I was a walking tourist in Europe. I think Spain or Italy. I came to some new stone modern construction. New apartment buildings were being constructed. There was an old abandoned stone church and ancient stone dwelling buildings that were being preserved and made as a seamless part of the new construction. This was expensive but I was greatly impressed at the cultural values that were being shown by this community and these builders. 

The inside of the the church had been hollowed out and tourists could walk through the ancient areas. An old rough skin wrinkled kind-eyed woman was skillfully brewing large urns of three kinds of herbal teas. She was doing this on the old stone floors of what had been the ancient church. I was giving her some assistance and was also serving the requested teas to some of the walking tourists.
New Construction Old Church

REFLECTION: This is to me a wonderful and soothing and hopeful dream. It is very archetypal in that the scene involves aspects of probably 14th century Europe. It is a picture of the deep archetypal roots from which much of my American culture developed. The dream reminds me that to know ourselves now we must gain a strong sense of our own spiritual/psychological/cultural roots. Post modern people suffer from uprootedness and we have tended to tear down and bury all the signs that could connect us to the ancient. Here some people had not been willing to do that. The old medieval Christianity extravagantly and overly  spiritualized all of reality. Two examples are Christ is now hardly a real human in our image of him and the 'good woman' is pictured as a physical virgin with no connection to erotic joy. The Christ story that orthodoxy developed eventually lost touch with the earth and thus to our instinctual humanity. We have become ungrounded, out of touch with our deepest roots. 

This is a very grounded and earthy dream. It respects the past for we must understand  our spiritual history in order to fully live our post modern lives. Keeping the old church and the old living quarters wonderfully unites the spiritual with the common and earthy. The stone floors in the old church could not be more solid and comforting. Our eyes are brought from the heavens to the earth thus uniting them.  This dream unites past and present by having new skilled construction built seamlessly connected to the old construction. 

It is significant that the old structures are kept but they have to be 'hollowed out.' Our post modern knowledge and psychological/spiritual development , new facts of a new era  must be incorporated and must replenish and sometimes replace much of the world view that the dwellers and worshipers of the old church had. This is a spin on the well know archetype that Jesus used which says, 'new wine requires new wine skins.' The old church has been hollowed out and reinforced so that it can be a container for new life and new perceptions.
Wise Anima Figure






I am pleased that the anima, our inner feminine principle who connects our consciousness to the Collective Unconscious, makes a strong and impressive but eloquent appearance. She is here pictured as a skillful brewer of tea. Tea drinking has long been a symbol of fellowship and generosity among humans. This is a tradition in both the Eastern traditions and in parts of Europe. Herbal tea stresses our present need to honor the earth, matter , dark,  the damp, the feminine. These are values that orthodoxy left behind that now demand their place in modern Western culture.  They are coming into the light of full conscious valuing the dream is saying.  This is needed for our improved  psychological/spiritual health and wholeness. 

I am glad to be pictured as cooperating(which is the correct attitude for humans to have regarding the forces and realities of the inner world and for the incoming content from the Collective Unconscious. Our place is  no longer to 'subdue and control' but to listen and to cooperate.)
Ancient Hot Tea Service
I am even assisting my anima in her desire to bring these ancient gifts so needed in our postmodern situation. This is a dream that presents the kind of values that will best serve our day, the kind of connectedness that we need to honor … with other humans and with the earth.

Moon, Venus, Jupiter March 25, 2012
This dream came after I had viewed an impressive early night Western sky. A crescent moon was aligned with bright Venus above and beautiful Jupiter below. We can still see things in the sky that our most distant human ancestors also gazed at and gave natural spiritual meaning to. The crescent moon in ancient times was associated with Venus, the goddess of love. I tend to think that this outward scene, reminding me of the goddess's love that was a union of both the Greek passionate Eros and tender nurturing phileo loves, inspired this dream. It creates the richly spiritual yet down to earth situation where such love can find a place of birth. This portends such love will be found  far more commonly in human beings than has ever been before. Such a perception can truly  change the world for humanity in  this new millennium. Jim




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