DREAM: THE GREAT MOTHER..november 18, 2009

I was at a teachers' training workshop. There were large open areas or auditoriums where different activities were going on. I was running late and was unsure of which area I was to attend. I was not finding any help or direction. Then an attractive woman appeared who was a teacher. I had known her in some way before and admired her accomplishments. A thought was going through my head and I expressed it to her as she was hurrying to her area. I said, ' Do you think that these days people are beginning to actually think of teachers as being elite and of the wealthy class? It used to be teachers were viewed as somewhat sacrificial, being well educated, working hard and not receiving much compensation for it. If that has changed it may be that teachers are now somewhat resented by the middle and lower economic class?'

A Teachers' Workshop

She agreed that it had become more that complicated way. Then I followed her into an art exhibit area. She commented on some large sculpture pieces. They were female images of various cultures. They were dressed colorfully and stretched out peacefully on their backs. She commented that these were done by a gay man who had been forced out of his political office because of his sexual orientation. She lamented this and said it is a serious statement about our present culture that a person's gifts cannot be fully exercised because of such bigotry and ignorance.

 I was driving down a country road. I saw a teacher colleague from my first teaching experience on the road side of his nice country home. He was proudly showing another man his fine vegetable garden. My inclination was to stop and speak but I knew  I was not fully and comfortably welcome. The reason for that is I had changed some of my religious views from our formerly mutual conservative religious faith. I was sad that without that shared tradition I felt not gladly welcomed as I would have been otherwise.

Teacher-Anima Image

A voice said to me and my friend of long ago, "Why don't you both go back to the Mother you came from and remember her? She still lives on Folpe Street." I had no idea what  Folpe Street was about but I thought to myself, ' We are all from the same source and equally valued and accepted by that source. Why have we forgotten that in the most practical ways?'

Greek 'Great Mother'-Feuerbach, 1875

REFLECTION: The dream sequence builds up to the recognition of the female nature of the ultimate sacred source of all, that in ancient times was called The Great Mother. One of my grandmothers was referred to as 'Big Mamma', no doubt a cultural unconscious reference to this ultimate archetype alive in my Southern culture.  A post-modern expression revealing the same image is ,'The Mother Of All......" The dream begins by honoring the importance of Education. Education is presented as having many  parts but all are connected. It depicts the history of formal education in America as often being supported by the sacrificial service of teachers. It implies that real educators should be seen as a high realm of human service for it is by and through education that other human achievements are possible. The art of learning and teaching should be held in high esteem and perhaps even as an elitist group because of their unique contribution to our culture. If their pay is not consistent with other professions the best and most capable will be less drawn to it. We should expect strong and  creative work from our teachers and give their demonstrated art the pay and respect the profession deserves in our culture.

Student and Teacher Doing Art

But it also points out that there is always a latent flaw in all efforts to educate oneself and others. That flaw is to after separating out the differences in things such as religions, political systems and all other areas where things are seen and experienced as opposites, to then 'pre judge' and value only one side of a seemingly irreconcilable pair. When any kind of education does that, so very common in Western education today, it becomes the seed of all kinds of unnecessary misunderstandings and of evil. This is the same error that creeps into most every religious faith, the mistaken notion that it is the 'one and only' true religion. This is seen, in the dream, in my fear that I had lost welcoming connection with my old friend. So much so I passed him by instead of recognizing our common origins, whether I felt he did or not. The reprimand is to us both that we should both go back and visit 'our common Mother." That is the wisdom that all humans who seek to be truly educated should take to heart. The dream shows my friend having nurtured a garden of nutritious food, food that is good for any human to eat. This should have reminded me that good comes forth from every source and every human situation, not only form the groups and ideologies with which I most personally agree.

The anima makes an appearance as an attractive woman whom I 'had known and admired before'. She has a special interest in 'the arts.' The Arts have always been where human creativity flourishes. In our culture the Arts are considered an 'add on' to formal education, not its foundation. If a school district has to cut something it will be invariably the Arts. This reflects the low value we place on the non rational part of the the human mind and soul. It is from the irrational and the Arts that the new and needed perceptions and creative discoveries have always come. We have been a technological , 'just do it', thinking, logical culture for several centuries now. To survive our present challenges we must come back to respecting the place of the Arts and the Humanities. Our culture has been blessed with the educational concept of 'Liberal Arts.' 

The Classical Greek-Roman Liberal(free person) Arts Education

In twelfth century Europe these were the heart of  universal learning and are alive in most of our Universities today:  literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.(painting to the right) We lose such values at our own peril. The natural religious impulse is one that is of the same nature as the Arts. Religion as it comes forth naturally to human consciousness is creative, not dogmatic. It is truth seeking, not truth defending. Institutionalized religion forgets its Mother and has often become something far different ,even the opposite, of its natural function. The anima raises perhaps the hottest social and moral issue of our day. She says that through the Arts, through the creative side of ourselves, through the naturally religious part of ourselves we would clearly see that gay/lesbian persons are no more or less moral than any straight person. That a full education would lead all to the conclusion that sexual preferences described in our culture as L.G.B.T. should not be a category that carries any negative moral or social value whatsoever. Differences represented by L.G.B.T. should be considered 'colorful' additions to humanity and people who are as harmless as anyone and  pictured in the dream as females stretched out 'on their back' , vulnerably offering themselves and their gifts to the rest of humanity.

The authoritative voice suggests that my old friend and I, with the implication that all post-moderns need to, return and remember the 'Mother of us all'. Early twentieth century Psychologist Carl Jung, and to a milder degree theologian Paul Tillich, envisioned the ultimate sacred 'source of all that is' as female. Jung referred to this archetype as ' The Great Mother Goddess' and Tillich used the expression of the creative 'Ground of Being.' Even the concept of the Sacred as a Trinity can be viewed as coming forth from this more ultimate origin. This would also be the great Chaos and Abyss of Genesis one. The idea is  if all people could reach a genuine consciousness that they and all that is has been flung from the same ultimate source it would create bridges between all peoples and would create a stronger appreciation and care for all of creation. It would create an attitude that 'No created thing or being is to be considered without important place and value.'

I had never heard the name Folpe. So I googled it and noticed the first item up was ' Emily Folpe.'  She is an art historian at New York University. She wrote and compiled a book in 2002 entitled It Happened On Washington Square. Washington Square is the heart of Greenwich Village, the oldest section of New York City. It has been an American center of creative thought, public debate of political, social and religious issues for nearly 200 years. It has especially been a center of struggle and debate regarding Urban Development for itself and beyond. I, at Brent Hibbett's insistence, visited Greenwich Village with him two years ago. Here is one brief description from Folpe's book on the meaning of Washington Square: 

Washington Square Park

 

The heart of New York City's Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park has been a vital public space for nearly two centuries. Lined by elegant townhouses, anchored by Stanford White's iconic Washington Arch, and used by students and professionals, dog walkers and musicians, chess players and toddlers, the park is both an oasis from and an ideal of urban life. Synonymous with the city's artistic identity, the park has also witnessed waves of political and social unrest, and served as a focal point for contentious debates about the future of urban development. This rich and colorful history is captivatingly told by Emily Kies Folpe in It Happened on Washington Square.

Farmed by New Amsterdam's freed African slaves in the seventeenth century, the park was used as a potter's field and dueling ground in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War and then converted into a parade ground for the city's volunteer militia in 1826. Since the 1830s, when it formed the nucleus of an upscale community, Washington Square has been an incubator for American art and a haven for writers, painters, sculptors, and architects. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the area began to attract the artists and political radicals--from John Reed to the Beats--who gave the Square a counter-cultural aura it still possesses. In recent decades, the Square's residents have united against such threats to their neighborhood as the urban redevelopment proposed by Robert Moses and the expansion of New York University. Illustrated with a remarkable selection of historic images, It Happened on Washington Square explains why the survival of this unique public space is so important.

So Washington Square is offered by the dream source as a metaphor for the where the 'The Great Mother' lives. This helps describe a central attribute of the ultimate Sacred, the source of all and everything that is. This ontological description of Great Mother is a full openness and appreciation of all that is. This means a full openness to all ideas that come forth to human public debate, with an appreciation of the need for both sides to be expressed. It means an openness to all aspects of the created world; to all humans and all creatures and to all other forms of creation. 'The Great Mother' exists before there is any separation into myriad forms of existing creation. The Great Mother contains without separation every conceivable and inconceivable opposite pair: male-female, power-meaning, Protestant-Catholic, hot-cold, freedom-destiny, good-evil, sexuality-spirituality, heaven-hell and  every social, political and religious possibility.

Tillich and Jung both saw that the created world exhibits a trinitarian life, from which archetype came the Christian Trinity dogma in the third century CE. A trinitarian reality is seen in every opposite pair(two) and a third element capable of holding together those opposites. In Hegelian Philosophy, inspired by Christian Mystic Jacob Bohem, all of history is interpreted as the trinity: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The Christian Trinity consists of the opposites Father and Son sustained and united by the Holy Spirit. But the source of all trinities is the Nothingness of the Ultimate which has been described as this Great Mother, the source of all that is or can be. Jim

DREAM: CIRCLE THEOLOGY....december 3, 2009

Beautiful colorful circles were being distributed to people of all nationalities and ethnicities. Some of these were large simple sculpture pieces and some were round tables. It was called to everyone's attention that garbage cans were made from many circles. 

 REFLECTION: This seems to me to be a call to rise to a new and broader spiritual and theological point of view. Jungian psychology has documented that the circle is a central image, along with the sphere and square, of God, of wholeness and the potential goal for humanity that has been present in the collective unconscious and in all religious groups for millennia. Since the circles are being given to all kinds and stripes of people it is saying that all people have the same innate potential to become what all humans are destined to eventually become. For Christians this may mean that all are moving toward coming to be the 'fullness of the image of the Christ.' What Christians would learn from this dream is that all people are inspired by the ultimate Sacred to move to the same goals and values which to the Christian are seen in Jesus. But to not take this that all the world's people are to become Christians like us but their own form of the same kind of human potential. The dream would make clear that when the various religions, nationalities and ethnicities move toward such wholeness that it will be via their own unique path. It would be good to see that the goal for all is to become more fully what it means to be human. For Christians we would see this in the image of Jesus , others would see that same goal of becoming more fully human in their own heritage somewhere.

Humanness Becomes A Higher Value Than Ethnicity Or Formal Religion?

 The 'table' has been a symbol of acceptance and fellowship in many religious movements. It was viewed that way in early Christianity. The dream emphasizes that the needed direction today by all religious and spiritual persuasions is to recognize the need and value of each other in a world where we are living more and more next door. Such a heart is excited about 'breaking bread' with ones who before were considered the heathen, the outsider or the ones separated from God.

To accept the dream's image is to confer upon all humans regardless of culture, religion or ethnicity the confidence that we are all of equal value and all are equally needed to help creation to be as conceived by God.  This seeks to usher in the day when more Humans  place a higher value on the Human Community than one their specific ethnic or religious group. This very belief accepted would immediately reduce by many fold the capacity to see other humans as primarily an enemy. This immediately begins to make the world more safe, more humane and more capable of allowing new generations to experience a higher quality of life.

Eating At The 'Round'  Table

 The reference to garbage cans being made of circles is stating that principle seen in all times in all spiritual disciplines,  that the Sacred and the goal of human life is seen in the most humble and earthy of situations, in the most unlikely places. Is this not the central story of Christmas? The image of God is not primarily found 

In Least Expected Places

in palaces, though surely it is there, but in the humble and lowly and often even most resented of human conditions, such as a lowly stable. The dream is warning, just as Peter's dream of old did; to not discount, reject, or exclude anything or any persons that are a part of God's creation. It is a theology of 'nothing is left out' or 'nothing is trash'. Everything contains the image of God, the circle---even that which we may have considered, in our egocentricity , as garbage.

The more one's heritage has most recently been, in practice and story,- tribal,sexist, nationalistic, homophobic, ethnically exclusive the greater the challenge to embrace such a universal theology will be. In the past half century many individuals and some groups have moved toward such a more inclusive vision of God and of reality. Such individuals often remain very loyal and responsible participants in their own group but do it without viewing themselves as superior or as having an inside or 'more right'track to God. Such individuals will  clearly see that harmful error in their own heritage and are open to new ways of interpreting their own heritage and religious story. They will also be aware of some of the imperfections and dangerous errors in the other religious, political and economic systems.

This is true of national devotions as well. Such a view gives up seeing its own founding documents as being inspired by God and literally applicable for all times and all situations. For example an American who is moving toward such a 'circle theology' does not see the 'founding fathers' as having the capacity to judge specifically what is needed for all time for the country. As long as their 'vision' continues to be an inspiration and challenge for a better world and life for all, which our U.S. Constitution seems to continue to do for most Americans, then our forefathers are serving us well. But to fantasize that persons like Thomas Jefferson or George Washington could presently make the applications, judgments and interpretations needed today is to dismiss their humanity and fail to take our own responsibility, as present day Americans, seriously and confidently enough. Such a  'circle' view would take the Constitution as needing to be reinterpreted(as it has throughout our history) to meet the challenge of new problems and potentials brought about by increased knowledge and information 

Signing The U.S. Constitution by  Howard C. Christy..1940

and human evolution. Such a 'circle theology' resists becoming any kind of fundamentalism or view that it has already been determined in one person, group or writing what is the final revelation of God. It requires that we humans live always in the 'eternal now' as theologian Paul Tillich imaged. Wit great appreciation and understanding of the past but also a clear understanding that no human or group of humans of the past has the capacity or insight to be responsible for our present. This calls forth and inspires the highest level of creativity and present enthusiasm(God  breathed through the Human) to meet the challenges of present times. The Source of this dream is inviting all humans to take on the challenge together to be all that we can be, to realize in significantly greater measure the' image of God' that is alive in us all. Jim

DREAM: VOCATION, RELIGION, FAMILY ... january 19, 2010

The scene was a country elementary school whose campus was more like a small farm. The central issue was the work that a young male teacher was doing. It was very creative. I was there as a guest to give my opinion. Beverly was with me. Somehow we were the only ones who were positively impressed.

This teacher with another assisting him put on weekly teaching stunts outdoors for the school. The stunts were so detailed and clever and took a lot of preparation. They involved making at least one full sized old fashion truck out of a soft balsa kind of wood. Beverly and I examined the wood and could see how it was layered to easily come apart in a crash. During the stunt that had some kind of plot,often with an appropriate amount of humor, the car would wreck with the male teachers in it. The kids always looked forward to the wreck with

Creative Teacher

the wood flying in every direction. To prepare, both men would dip themselves in a large vat of black thick liquid. They would be totally black except for their faces. They were dressed like country farmers. The men were nearly clown like in the stunts. To help prepare, the kids in their art classes would draw and paint back ground sets for the upcoming stunt. The men worked on the truck in a hidden place in the barn all week. I saw several of these stunts and could not get over the high quality of the scenes. One involved a different stunt car that was driven by my brother Gene and his wife who were also teachers at this school.

During the dream I was letting the two teachers and others know that I thought it was a wonderful education project. I only wondered how they found time to do such elaborate creations every week. But they both insisted that it was just a routine that they followed and that the other teachers and kids helped them with everything. They were not the least over impressed with themselves but were just hard working committed educators doing their very creative thing and capturing the adoring attention of the young students.

Educaiton In Natural Setting

Another side scene of the dream involved a would be teacher who was seeking to get hired and who wanted to take over this stunt project herself. She had come to visit this community and was attending a church service at a country church. Also visiting this community and church overnight were my brother George and his wife. I was speaking with some others about a mutual church member. We were implying that he was pretty tight with money but we knew he was a very a faithful and caring church person. At a church service several things happened. The one who wished to be a newly hired teacher found out she was not going to be and pitched an open fit in church. She was screaming that she was the best person for the job and they would regret not hiring her. Also an elementary boy told a story at church that suddenly turned very mean spirited. He began making fun of another boy who was huddled defenselessly in his mother's arms. The speaking boy kept attacking and name calling the other boy. He was physically taken away by adults

About this same time we got upsetting news that one of my brothers had been in an auto wreck in his new large white car. He had run over the top of another vehicle. Apparently no one was hurt badly. We wondered if he should be driving at all.

REFLECTION: I have no initial idea of any meaning to assign to this at the moment. It was very vivid so I thought I should record it. I cannot yet imagine anything else to say about it.......

The only structure that is forming about these dreams is they represent three components of the typical adult human life as it develops. These are work or vocation, religious or philosophical disposition and extended family. Each of these is represented in the dream. Much attention is given in the dream to the work aspect of human life. I'm not sure at the moment how much the dreams are describing my personal experience of these or whether it is a statement of how these are ideally to be experienced in general. I guess it is a combination.

So much of one's life energy is poured into what in our culture is our vocation, our calling. It is generally how we spend at least forty hours of waking life a week making a living. I think this dream shows some attitudes and experiences that are part of successful vocation. One thing is that at its best it involves creativity. These teachers were being very creative in their goal of affecting children at a very profound level. And like the story Jesus told they were unaware of what a good job they were doing. They were just being themselves. This made what looked like a very complicated job seem normal and routine to them. They were like the ones who said, 'when did we do anything out of the ordinary?" Their vocation put them in touch with the children in such a way that the children were involved in their own learning in very practical ways. The whole vocational setting was 'country'. It was closely connected to nature and to the lives of creatures(It was on a farm.) So the dream pictures vocation being creative and connecting to other humans and creation in very natural ways. These qualities of vocation easily slip away in our high tech, money driven, impersonal world. The dream would encourage cultural and corporate leaders to create vocational environments where workers have a richer more humane experience.

Also, the vocation shows the need of being conscious of one's persona, that mask that we all need to function in the outside world, that helps give us a 'role to play' and a way to relate to people in our social and vocational surroundings. The men dressed up as 'characters' or 'clowns' each week and presented themselves to others through this persona. Even the 'role of teacher' is a persona as are all described vocations. 

Fits Can Be Thrown Many Ways And At All Ages

It is a tragedy when a person is unconscious of where his real self ends and his persona begins. The woman who demanded a teaching position is a person who thought the role she tried to play was her real person so she pushed it much to far, demanding respect of her role in a way that is not justified or healthy. If one is unconscious of his/her persona, they will take any rejection of their persona as an unbearable rejection of themselves. One hopefully understands that their 'job' or 'profession' is a role and not their truest self. In fact part of its purpose is to cover up or protect one's truest self.

The dream acknowledges that one's religious or philosophical viewpoint is an important aspect of ones life. It is from our religious viewpoint that , like it or not, we make judgments of the values and actions of other 

Religious Learning Project

 people. Here we are shown discussing and making some judgment of one of our members. Fortunately we seem to be able to make a somewhat balanced judgment. We see his human imperfection of being somewhat tight(aren't many of us?.) but we also see his virtue as a positive contributor to the community and lives of others. It is also implied by the dream that our religious or philosophical viewpoint serves to put restrictions on our nasty and uncivil behavior. Hopefully our religious viewpoint can rescue us from our dark and demonic tendencies. Both the would-be teacher and the mean spirited boy were provided disapproval by the religious community for their uncivil behavior. As we mature we carry our own inner corrector of destructive behavior and do not rely on the external community or any external authority to correct us. It is done through the natural development our our religious or spiritual sensibility.

The dream speaks of my connection to biological family. Most of us gradually move away from daily contact with our family of origin. But the impact and the images of family remain very important and influential to us. Two brothers and their wives unexpectedly appear to me as they go about their vocations and living out their personae in ways that are presently quite detached and unknown personally to me. But I still feel a very genuine and 

Two Of My Big Brothers.. Lester and Geroge

caring connection to them. The one I am delighted to see again in this unexpected crossing of paths. And the other I feel I am happy to see can then have  strong concern  as he goes through one of life's troubles. But we are no longer related in such a way that we are having daily profound affect on each other. The people in our immediate family and our vocations are the ones who impact us on a daily basis. In those relationships we have opportunity to sometimes step out of our persona and reveal our more true selves to others. Also , barely noticeable yet very present is Beverly with me. I feel a closeness and presence that never leaves even though she is gone from this life. Also I experience what may can only be true of long time spouses, that (about some things)I know her judgments and values like I know my own. This is because we have experienced each other very close to our actual selves with most of the persona lifted. To a significant extent we've had the experience of 'knowing as we are known.' In this dream I was aware that Beverly was feeling just as I did, especially about the high quality of education the farm school is giving to its children. Beverly would have been very outward in her praise for them and would have been a source of great encouragement to them. I was trying to do that but knew I was not as effective at it as she would be.

Some therapist may see some much deeper themes to this dream but this is the most I can glean from it at the present time. Some of the symbols that may need explored include: the 'wrecking of the cars', the 'clown likeness of the characters', the 'dipping in black' liquid, how my 'brothers appear in the dream' , the 'role of church' to notice a few. But overall it seems to be reminding me of the importance of my life experience of Vocation,Religion and Family. It seems to be more of an enjoyable review than a motivation for me to do or change something. That is nice. Jim

DREAM: FATHER ...july 25, 2009 (edited september 19,2011)

Introduction: I post this dream because it demonstrates  again how what at first seems meaningless and useless dream activity eventually shows the dreamer important vistas and avenues of needed increased awareness. Since 'Father' is a central image here I'd like to comment on a related New Testament passage: A primary barrier to Christians being able to accept and value other world faiths is what the author of the Gospel of John has Jesus say, ' I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.'  John 14:6.  For one thing  the author is using a literary tool. This passage is part of a series of metaphorical statements John gives Jesus as he weaves his gospel. He uses the familiar Exodus definition of God as , "I Am." He then has Jesus say numerous 'I AM' statements eg:  ' I Am.... the door, the life, gate,  bread,  the path, the way etc.' These are not the kind of statements a spiritually mature person says about himself but what others said in their explanations of his extraordinary demonstrations of love and godliness.  (Most have learned in Bible study that "I AM" in Hebrew can be rightly translated , " I will be what I will be." This would give us a hint to expect to 'see' other and changing  images of God.) Yet Jesus can be thought of as sincerely and sanely  saying that just as his dearest personal 'image of God' is that of 'loving father' so any who 'listen to him' will be heirs to that image of God also.  But that should not be taken as some end-all evaluation of all legitimate encounters with or descriptions of the Sacred. As Christians we begin with 'Father' as a primary image of God that Jesus points us to, and then we likely and hopefully move and grow from that(If one does not expect such changes in their 'God Image' then growth might be hindered.) Just as there are many other images of God in the Bible each of us is likely to be introduced to still others, ones essential for our personal needs and situation, as the Collective Unconscious brings them to us via nightly dreams or intuitive moments. This kind of spiritual path is what I have experienced the past twenty seven years. I have never rejected  the grand image of 'God the Father' but it is  one among many and one that  standing alone would not have been sufficient to carry me through  the various parts of my Christian journey. Numerous of my blog posts are descriptions of various images of God, many of which are found across time and religions. *This dream well explores where the 'Father God' image likely leads if we stay with it long enough and are open to it not as a 'final revelation' but as a developing one and a place to begin.

Dream 1. I was with brothers and their families. I was a youngster. We were at some rather rugged camp or retreat. This is an 'earthy' setting signifying we are looking at life in the most basic 'back to nature' way. No pretense or fancy cover up for what is really going on . We were in an assembly building sitting in lined up chairs like we are waiting for some program. There was something wrong with me. I was sitting by the wall on the front row on a toilet. I was constantly having bowel movement. I was embarrassed for all could hear and see. I was attempting to keep clean and presentable. I flushed the toilet and realized it was backing up.

I imagined the humiliating result. Somehow it did not start flowing out onto the floor. All this in front of musing eyes. Not a word was said. At this moment African American workmen brought in a new soda machine. The chairs, and my toilet, along the wall were all moved to let them through. I was relieved to not be the center of attention and thought a new soda machine is fine. I was aware of the hard work the men were doing.

Dream 2. I was driving my father's car on rough muddy roads. We were going to a store to get something he needed. Suddenly he complained that the car was not going to be able to get there. So he got out and started walking. I turned down another road that was worse. Once it was so steep that I was sure I would get lodged in a ditch but somehow the car made it through the bad spot.

Again Daddy was in the car with me. He said he needed a new radio for his car but wondered if such could be found. I said I was sure you could buy nice kits for car radios. We were then walking in an alley and I looked down at a pile of household garbage a man had thrown out. There in a sack was a nice red portable circle shaped radio. I picked it up, hesitant the man might see me going through his trash. As we walked away daddy took the radio with him which started playing. I was walking another direction and wishing Daddy would find how to turn the radio off until he got home.

REFLECTION: I continue to see no way in the world to make meaningful sense out of this and do not even want to try. This dream came during a one hour nap. I'll try to hear its not obvious meaning later.....I'll take a break from this and do some totally different kind of activity.

.....These dreams are now becoming important for me. The first part is personal and acknowledges a troubling part of my self image. The second is primarily collective but also personal. It is a strong theological statement.

Dream 1. Until I embraced my 'shadow' as referred to in several recent dreams I viewed myself as very good, nice and responsible. I felt that most other people viewed me that way, at least the ones that mattered. This is a perfect example of how well a 'persona' can work for a large part of ones life. But once I encountered and owned my shadow I began to have uneasiness as to how others viewed me. It was hard to give up the 'perfect' image and begin to allow a more honest persona but one that not everyone was pleased with. As time passed my theological beliefs began to change and as a preacher I began to share them. These were not generally well received. So I began to be burdened with the awareness that I was being viewed as 'having problems', 'being strange' and as the dream describes one who was constantly generating smelly, personal, worthless debris. Sitting on the toilet, with diarrhea, and the feces water threatening to overflow on everyone around is the graphic way the dream shows me viewing my fears of how some others see me. This is perhaps the price I've had to pay for acknowledging and embracing the shadow and the changes it subsequently brought. As in the dream whether I'm around extended family, old church acquaintances or even my UCC denomination rarely does anyone directly confront me about my 'mess' but such stink is sometimes in the air. The dream shows my very responsible attempts to keep a lid on the troublesome material I am working with coming up from the depths. Perhaps , I've felt at times, I am one of few who has been  required by life's circumstances  to take up the 'collective mess' we have inherited and deal with it at least at a personal level as responsibly as I can. This might  resemble the political analogy of Obama trying to deal with decades of irresponsible government and people seeing all the 'mess' as primarily his doing. That is how I have sometimes felt about my own struggles. It is significant in the dream that I manage with much effort to keep the toilet waters contained. It did not overflow. That is a very good sign about my efforts.

Then the black men bringing in the soda machine. I am always relieved to not have the focus on my 'stuff' for it means a stressful burden for me and the likely need for me to defend myself. I'm grateful that my writing has hardly been public at all. Of course any writer would welcome appreciative readers but where my writings have been public that is not the kind of readers I've generally had. The soda machine means that what is being 

Lincoln, Nebraska Foundry...1959

discussed here involves the modern and post modern age even though it comes from deep, old , imperfect but true roots. Soda still represents something refreshing to the human being in her troubles and labor. It is fizzy and sparkly representing something truly alive. There is an admiration here for hard working laborers who make life possible and more livable for everyone. There is something extremely valuable and admirable about hard manual labor wherever it occurs in the human community. The single most ugly blight on America is that it built its early economy on the backs of enslaved black laborers, ignoring their individuality, privacy ,their family life and their culture. There is no way to ever repay that damage but it seems to me it has not been fully owned up to by whites to this present day. Forgiveness has not been fully sought or experienced by the white community. There is a wide spread grudge and suspicion against people of color as I write.  The irrational despising of a very 'like us' black person as President is evidence of still deep seated racism. . Have the top leaders of congress ever said of a new President on election day, " Our number one goal is to make him a one term president?"  I don't think so. I  think we whites have only begun to 'see' the meaning is such statements of otherwise well educated, reasonable, even handed people.   The dream is not letting me forget that as these 'black' me labor before me.

Dream 2. Notice I named this dream 'Father' from the start. That was a clue to its meaning for I never called my earthly parent 'Father' but Daddy. Little was I thinking this was a dream about God , a theological dream. This comes in the most basic down to earth imagery imaginable. A culture's image of God is a very enduring and long lasting foundation. Such psychic images usually last millennia. Our Western God image is now two thousand years old, actually much older for it has remained consistent with the Hebrew male God Jehovah. 

Father And Son In Truck Together

But signs are everywhere that it is breaking down, not suddenly but gradually and steadily. But there surely must be key moments and happenings that are quantum leaps in such a change. I think I have experienced personally such a quantum change in my perceptions of God and I think it parallels what is happening in the whole culture, especially I'm thinking the Christian culture. 'Father' is the outstanding image the West has inherited. The dream reminds me that I or no one can just simply shed the collective God image and swap it for another. After all it is the 'Father's car' I am driving. It is a painful and spiritually wrenching process , especially if experienced as an individual. And it is at the individual level where all such changes have to first happen. This dream speaks of my individual experience with 'Father' but I am confident that it represents what many other individuals have experienced and what is happening in the general collective consciousness. I , and many others, am pictured as 'working with' a very tired and aging Father. We know we must help him accomplish his last responsibilities. So we are respectfully taking him where he needs to go. He may be fading in many ways but He is still clear about his central responsibilities and though he may seem strange to us we know how important He still is.

I have written an essay on 'cooperative suffering'.** This unfamiliar myth pictures the Godhead as having from before creation an internal ethical problem. The solution was gradually shown to God to only be possible in the mutual suffering of man and God which is what we all experience now in the world. The dream has God going to the store to get something He still needs in his effort to resolve this problem. He is assuming rightly that we humans are still working with him but there is growing impatience. His slowness in getting things done causes all kinds of human trouble depicted as traveling on dangerous and unnecessarily rough roads. When the Father returns he states that he needs a 'radio' in his car. The car indicates that the world of the Father and humanity is moving and changing rapidly. The radio indicates that we are in the high tech age, now the post modern age, brought about by the same human mind development that began to question the long unchallenged patriarchal view of a 'perfectly good Fatherly ' God. This would be the Western enlightenment of the 1600's. America's founders were highly influenced by this kind of materialistic, patriarchal, overly optimistic at times, thinking.

Round Red Radio

The 'radio' also represents the single biggest break through in world wide human communications. The Father is stating that He realizes that the need for free and genuine 'human communication' is at the heart of the incongruity that has remained in the Godhead. Eden depicts God as forbidding humans from seeking the fullest possible communication and the knowledge that comes from it. This was not a moral act on the part of God and has caused unmentionable suffering and lack of development ever since the story was received as 'God's will'. The Father here acknowledges He is now supportive of all full and true communication among humans and that he is now obligating himself to it. This is change indeed. The 'circle' which appears consistently in recent dreams is the central symbol, in Jungian psychology and he believes the collective unconscious itself, of wholeness and completion. Always a powerful symbol of hope and meaning.

The dream here passingly acknowledges that central symbol of Western Christianity, the color of Red. The unconscious acknowledges here that the shedding of human blood is a serious matter and has often been shed in willing  and noble sacrifice in the striving for a higher consciousness which at times has been a genuine political goal and achievement. More often human sacrifice is found in human love relationships. It is the bloodless but sacrificial letting go of one's ambitions and dreams for timely support of  the other's. The dream acknowledges the importance of humans making personal  sacrifice but not in terms of one 'dying for all others' or one's sacrifice becoming a substitute for another's  own sacrifice. Such human generosity always shows the capacity for humans to transcend selfish ambition for the good of others. This is an admirable part of human wholeness and completion. A very misguided kind of  sacrifice myth and a blight on Sacred and Human development is carried in the archetype and literal practice of one party sacrificing another. This is called usually 'human sacrifice.' It is seen in the Abraham-Isaac story and the orthodox Christian dogma of Atonement that was built on the Abrahamic model. The most atrocious example of this is choosing human war, where the culture willingly 'gives the blood of its young' to some grossly misguided idea of preserving national freedom even when such freedom is not directly threatened or such threat is extremely exaggerated.

Then as the Father and Human  walk among the debris of humanity , the alley junk pile, the human is able to produce , to discover with his ever evolving consciousness , exactly what the Father orders, a radio. (Like sitting on the open toilet I am pictured embarrassed that I am finding value in what my culture considers garbage. It is the old thing of God being born in a stinking stable rather than a temple all over again.) The radio is a symbol of free and unbridled communication and search for knowledge with no religious or political taboos. And this is now with the Father's blessing. The human here is aware of the dangers of such knowledge and knows that care must be taken in its development and application. But the aging Father is happy to hear the 'sound of music' of this leap in human freedom that He is ultimately responsible for. So He is not interested in turning it off for any reason. It is 'music to His ears.' He is pictured as more sold on the 'new theological reality' than even the human is capable of being.  He after all does have the greatest investment in this whole enterprise of creation.

The Father and the Human are walking down different roads but both knowing they have cooperatively changed the course of the world. Both are likely very appreciative of the other but they also know they are different. This seriously questions the most common description in Western popular Christianity of the

connection between God and man. Many say and claim the need and blessing of a 'personal relationship' with God. The dream shows the human setting out to have for the first time a more real and personal relationship with a few other humans and an empathy for humankind in general. How can we have a personal relationship with God when it is clear that we have as yet failed to have sustained truly personal relationships with each other. This may be a sign of our unacknowledged sacrilege. The God – Human relationship is not one that is 'personal' in the sense of our being friends and buddies with the sacred or even where we potentially receive the greatest joy and on going ecstasy. It is only in human to human relationships that such joy is to be found. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that God is potentially most personal to us through the Human-Human relationship. Our understanding and connection to God needs to be kept honest, exploratory and also acknowledged as life's deepest mystery. Our God connection becomes the path to such needed and yearned for human relationship. Our honest connection to the 'Father' image of God is now much like that of an aging earthly Father and son. The son respects him, knows that the Father has a kind of wisdom that the son still lacks and understands the Father still has important life tasks to complete. But the son knows he must responsibly and hopefully move forward. It is far more likely that the two will have an occasional good visit than that they will live together in a 'personal relationship' as a mutual source of joy and ecstasy. The latter can only come from the mutual  intimate human  relationship of two humans whose connection is sealed by the richest levels of human/divine love as best described in those Greek words including agape, Eros, and phileo. Perhaps the Father has known this all along and is pleased that the way is finally open to that becoming a common and consistent experience of humans. Jim

*http://jhibbett.blogspot.com/2011/09/dream-great-mothernovember-18-2009.html
**http://jhibbett.blogspot.com/2011/08/cooperative-suffering-of-god-and-human.html

DREAM: 'SEEING' AND 'BREATHING..january 6, 2010

1. I dreamed throughout the night but also seemed to be sleeping well. The center piece of the dream was two Clear coaster glasses. Initially I was discounting the dream as not important. Then as I returned to to this image later I noticed each glass had the Spanish word 'casa' on it. That is the closest word to 'home' in a 

Glasses  Engraved With 'Casa.'

foreign language that I am consciously aware of so I took it that way. I was taking it in the dream as a hope filled image of 'going home.' Then Beverly and I in a car with me driving. She leaned deeply into the floor board and found a hand gun. She seemed fascinated with it. I was disturbed and told her it was dangerous and may be loaded and to put it away. She instead pulled the trigger. This caused her body to move way up under the dash board. While moving I reached over to pull her out and I lost control of the car. I was sure we were going to crash with me holding on to her. It was so real. Then the action ended and only the glasses were present. It was at this point I was tending to dismiss the dream but again noticed the 'casa' on the glasses.

2. I was in the laboratory of a short plump oriental woman. She was a teacher/doctor. She was very respectful of and interested in me. She wanted to be of service. She checked me out and said she wanted me to do some 'vision' exercises so that I could 'see' better. Then she noticed my breath smelled bad. She was gracious but was saying it was really horrible. She gave me a medicine to take she said would make my breath sweet again. She had a young Caucasian white male assistant, maybe an intern. He also took caring interest in me and showed me some things about living things that were fascinating in his research. They both said I could take an instrument home with me to do my 'vision' exercises and they wanted me to come back anytime.

The 'glasses' were always coming in and out of the dream with the words 'casa' brightly engraved. So I kept saying to myself, 'All of this is helping me to get home at last.'

REFLECTION: I’ve not done more than recall and feel the over all positiveness of the dream. Key words are 'casa': Miriam Webster says 'In the U.S. mostly Southwest'  and meaning 'cottage.' It says its first known use in English was 1843. So in some ways it is a very modern word apparently but it comes from the very ancient Latin originally. The word is also basially the same in French and Italian. So  I get the idea that  ideally one's home is the 'world.'  I have such a strongly felt need to 'go home'. I don't know whether this refers to a change in my mortal life or to leaving this mortal life? Another near heart attack has me most aware of my mortality. I’ve been this aware before, even as far back as 'pre-visions' of Aug. 85. Then it more boardered on a willingness to suicide should that be required. After one episode of that in Houston that issue has never been suggested or  considered again. I know that is not being asked of me.

The dream is about improving my 'vision' and my 'breath'. Vision is my need to 'see' more clearly the meaning embedded in my life experience. How it ties to any larger picture of the meaning of life in my and other cultures. 'Glasses' is a also a word that has to do with improving 'vision.' The glasses were very clear implying 'clear and improved vision.'

'Breath' is associated with Spirit. There is a need for my exhaling of  Spirit to be more presentable. My story is crude, rough and hard to receive by the people I would like to be able to hear it and maybe to benefit. She says she is giving me a medicine that can do just that. It seems that is out of my hands as a 

project to do myself. I must rely on the wisdom of the woman. This is a very appropriate anima figure for me. I have , in the past, used the Chinese I Ching extensively to better touch the Spirit world and the Collective Archetypes. I have always sensed it is the anima that somehow has 'given me the medicine' that has made the I Ching be a practical and trustworthy guide for strongly needed wisdom. The I Ching does not make finding wisdom easy but I have found it to be a reliable tool for one in sincere need. The I Ching makes very demanding ethical bounderies on anyone who would seek its council. It is not an instrument to be used for playing  the unseen world but one for finding very much needed wisdom and answers to ones most pressing  and essential questions.

Beverly(imaged in the dream)  and her actual struggles with cancer and  death are a constant reminder to me of keeping a focus on the Spirit world of the Unconscious as a means of being grounded in my outer world. This dream reminds me  to keep such an  'eye on the road.'

A Reflection on the meaning of James Hillman's work I made this same day: Regarding my perusal of several of James Hillman's books. If I had found his writing instead of Jung's back in '84 I would have heard no voice that would have given me hope I so needed. Its not there for me to the extent I've read him. This is likely a matter of personal chemistry for I recognize James Hillman as making very important contributions to depth psychology.  He gives excellent descriptions of many psychological concepts. He warns about ever thinking the Unconscious’s message is simple to grasp. Yet I learned from him to take care to not leave the impact of the dream image by making it time sequenced and demanding rational meaning. This was new to me and I'm not sure I've learned to practice that well but I keep it in mind. I feel on reading him I have heard a very deeply developed reasoning exercise. But for me I miss in him the  part of Jung that inspires, through much embracing of the dark and negative. James Hillman is by no means afraid of the dark but sometimes I don't find him looking for the light. In Jung I heard and still do a voice of hope in the midst of darkness and despair, both for me personally and for all of us culturally. That is what drew me to Jung's words and ideas. His words of psychology also blended  with my growing theological perspective and nurtured that part of me.. I've not even heard, in my reading so far, Hillman mention synchronicity which is a deeply hopeful aspect of Jung's work. All of this may be in Hillman but I do not yet 'hear' it. In reading Jung I feel I am hearing someone writing out of their own actual experience along with their strong objective scientific thinking.  I fail to pick that up in Hillman. I hear a very 'heady' tone rather than one that is able to help carry me to the sources of the Unconscious which I have found speak the deathly truth, but also bring strength and joy to the human heart.  I have learned nothing of James Hillman the person. I should see if there is  any autobiographical material that would  open that area up for me. I guess for now  I should lay Hillman down for awhile. I think that would presently be me 'seeing' more clearly through 'glasses' that can 'lead me home.'

DREAM: KAIROS.......october 16,2009

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

            Individuation  Turns Out To Be  A 'Long And Winding Road.'

The 'tasks' must also refer to the tasks of individuation. The process of spiritual development , of individuation, consists of many tasks along the way. I think I have been involved in being led through such tasks for the past twenty five years or longer. What began as an experience of 'having arrived' which I experienced in a breakthrough of my sense of ministry in '81-84 and then especially with the visions in Aug. of 85, are now seen as only the the 'beginning' of a very long process with many 'tasks' to be completed, both in my inner world- which has always seemed of higher importance and source of greater promises- ,and my outer world of jobs, ministries and family relationships.

 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.'.

 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