I have written in some of my other posts about how my life has become more meaningful since I began recording my dreams and trying to be open to what they are telling me. I recently had a dream that I would like to share with you: I have learned that three people I know and work with all died yesterday. I and my coworkers are in shock. All three people were young adults, ages 32, 42, and 45, and none of them had been sick, so their passing away was not expected by anyone. We’ve learned too that each person died in his or her home, that there was no connection among them such as all dying from the same cause. My coworkers and I would be shocked and saddened by just one person dying so unexpectedly, but the shock and sadness are even stronger because three people we knew are suddenly gone.
An essential component of Jungian dream theory is that dreams communicate through symbols. The deaths and the people in my dream, for example, are symbolic of something; they are not a prediction of someone’s immanent death in outer reality. In trying to discern what this dream was telling me, I thought about my associations to the three people. Although they all have positive qualities, what stood out for me is that they all three share the tendency of being overly controlling and they are all stubborn. And in fact these are aspects of myself I’ve been trying to be more aware of and to change. I believe that the dream was telling me that there has been some positive inner change in me: the “death” of stubbornness and controlling tendencies.
This dream is an example of how the Self gets our attention through dreams in order to help us grow in conscousness. It uses as symbols something that in outer reality would cause shock and deep sadness. And by having three people die rather than one, the dream further emphasizes its message. This dream also shows how the dream symbols depict something that is sad in outer reality but that is positive in inner reality. Dying as a symbol of the demise of a negative aspect of a person’s personality is a positive thing. I realize, of course, that my tendencies to be overly controlling and to be stubborn are not totally gone. I’m human after all. But I do believe they have decreased and that my dream was given to me to tell me this. Such dreams provide encouragement to continue to try to make positive changes; they help me to realize the work involved in recording and paying attention to my dreams is definitely worthwhile.