Dreams & The Symbolic Life Process (A Class)
You dream every night, whether you remember it or not. Without the dreaming
function, we would go nuts. Or, for those who believe we are already nuts, perhaps
we should state we would be even less stable and capable than we are accustomed to
being.
The psyche is a self-regulating system, viewed from one perspective, and dreams
are an essential component to that regulation. Viewed otherwise, the dream is the
flower and fruit of the relationship between the unconscious and consciousness.
They “work” even when we don’t work on them. However, when we do relate with
our dreams in relation to our lives, the work allows for deeper relationship, greater
insight, and spiritual development in our lives.
The Talmud likened an uninterpreted dream to an unopened letter. While some
discount dreams as meaningless or as merely the cyclic discharge of daily stresses and
events. Others consider the dream and the unconscious generally to be one more area
to be mined and appropriated by the conscious mind for personal, material gain.
In contrast to an exploitative orientation, pioneer Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. C G Jung,
understood dreams as the expression of the unconscious. Simultaneously, they offer a
reflection on our waking life as well as the needs of the soul. One-sidedness of attitude
and orientation create conflict and inhibit the unfolding of an individual potentiality to
wholeness. Becoming more whole was what Jung called the individuation process.
On dreams, Jung wrote:
The whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where
the dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and
critic.
The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the
soul, which opens into that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was
a conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach.
The conscious mind allows itself to be trained like a parrot, but the unconscious
does not--which is why St. Augustine thanked God for not making him responsible for
his dreams.
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it
just as much by feeling. Therefore the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half
of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.
While we, like St. Augustine, may find relief in not being responsible for our dreams,
we can develop an attitude which cultivates greater responsibility and relationship
with psyche, or soul. In doing so, we may better learn to balance thinking and feeling,
sensate and the intuitive functions. We may also understand the meaning within
symbols in our dream and waking life to live more meaningfully and soulfully.
Such is the objective behind a six week class I offer in “Dreams & Life Process.”
Class begins Nov. 10th, 7 pm, for up to six individuals. Cost is $ 250. All are
welcome.
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