I have been going over my dream journal, and I find it fascinating to track how symbols and themes reappear and evolve. I also notice that I have dreamed many events before they happened. But many of my dreams remain quite mysterious to me. What do you advise?
RM:
There are dreams that remain mysterious until life catches up
with them. There are dreams that cannot be understood until we see them as part
of a broader pattern. There are dreams that cannot be decoded in ordinary terms
because they are experiences in other realities that escape ordinary
understanding. There are dreams it is hard to fathom because they are glimpse
of lives we never led, in worlds we don’t recognize outside the dreaming. There
are dreams that seem alien because they are the dreams of others, not actually
our own.
A dream may be a mystery in the sense of a case to be solved, in which case we want to play detective and follow the clues. We want to follow threads of connection between one incident report and others around it. We want to see where the suspect - a dream character or element - may have turned up in other situations. We want to try to run down every detail, including words and names we can't initially figure out. We may be required to revisit the scene of the incident, which means lifting the police tape applied by the routine mind to the door of a dream and going back inside to look for more than was noted in the original report. A dream detective must be a pro at dream reentry.* You can bring assistant sleuths to help you investigate the scene.
You are going to use your imagination, but you are also going to respect the facts of the dream situation. Jung was quite correct about that: "Dreams are the facts from which we must proceed." Yes, your first report of that strange word in a foreign language may be garbled, but don't settle for some alternative version until you have checked and re-checked whether the original version is correct. And keep it in your active file - pinned to the wall in front of you - even as you are drawn to other leads.
A dream may be a mystery in a larger sense. It may be a mystery in the original Greek
sense of the word. A mysterion is a secret and powerful rite that can only be approached through a depth experience, through direct revelation. It is not a case to be solved but an engagement with the sacred that is to be lived. It requires transformation. The one who enters and understands the mystery in this sense becomes the mystes, the initiate.
You are going to use your imagination, but you are also going to respect the facts of the dream situation. Jung was quite correct about that: "Dreams are the facts from which we must proceed." Yes, your first report of that strange word in a foreign language may be garbled, but don't settle for some alternative version until you have checked and re-checked whether the original version is correct. And keep it in your active file - pinned to the wall in front of you - even as you are drawn to other leads.
A dream may be a mystery in a larger sense. It may be a mystery in the original Greek
* Dream reentry is a core technique of Active Dreaming. The method is explained in several of my books, including The Three "Only" Things and Active Dreaming. You can learn to revisit a dream with a partner or a whole team of helpers, or trackers, in a conscious journey for which shamanic drumming is especially helpful. "Wings for the Journey", my CD of shamanic drumming for dream travelers is available from Psyche Productions.
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