Author: Susan Schulte

Author and Jungian analyst John A. Sanford begins his book Dreams and Healing with these words: “Suppose someone told you that there was something that spoke to you every night, that always presented you with a truth about your own life and soul, that was tailor-made to your individual needs and particular life-story, and that offered to guide you throughout your lifetime and connect you with a source of wisdom far beyond yourself. And, furthermore, suppose that all of this was absolutely free. Naturally you would be astonished that something like this existed. Yet this is exactly the way it is with our dreams.”

I am thankful that when I saw a therapist many years ago to help me with some difficulties going on in my life that I was introduced to dream work. Before that I had never given much thought to dreams and didn’t recall having dreamed very often. In the years since learning about dreams as a source of guidance and information about myself, writing down and paying attention to my dreams has been an essential part of my life. In writing that dreams present each person with a truth about his or her own life and soul, Sanford is pointing out how each person’s dreams are unique to that person, just as each person is a unique individual different from every other human being. Each of us was created with certain potentials, and the symbols within and stories of our dreams can guide us toward reaching those potentials. I have also found that making the effort to record and pay attention to my dreams adds a sense of purpose to my life so that even at those times when what the dream is created to tell me isn’t clear, my being open to the dream’s message also matters.

I recently had this dream: On a stretch of wide sidewalk in the downtown area of a large city, two raised bed garden spaces have been built that have cement walls. They are each at least 10 feet by 20 feet and raised about two feet above the sidewalk that surrounds them. The cement walls are several inches wide, wide enough so that people may sit at the sides of the gardens. Someone had donated many plants to put in these spaces, and I see that a woman I know is putting the plants in the gardens. Each plant is already fairly large, about a foot tall, and the woman just needs to take each one out of its container and set it in the space, the soil from each container staying around the roots of each plant. Once all the plants are placed, someone will only need to fill in between them with more soil. About two-thirds of the plants are decorative, with flowers and various sizes and shapes of leaves. The other plants are vegetable plants–bell pepper, tomato, and others. I think how it’s such a nice idea to have both types, so a person passing by may take in the beauty of the decorative plants and also enjoy fresh vegetables from the vegetable plants.

When I woke up and remembered this dream, I felt a sense of peace and contentment, similar to how I would feel if I saw the scene in the dream in outer reality. How wonderful these garden spaces have been built so that there are living plants amid the concrete of a busy city. Plants not only add beauty, they also make the air healthier by providing oxygen. So in thinking about my dream, my associations are to beauty and good health.

I had this dream during a time when I was feeling some stress and sadness about a situation in my life. This dream brought me comfort and helped me feel more hopeful. In his book Meeting Force with Silence, Jungian psychotherapist and author Terry Chitwood writes: “Dreams are your friends. They are your guides through the struggle of life. When you need help, they give it. When you are lost and confused, they show you a way out.” This dream felt like a friend to me.

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.