Category: dreams

If you have read my other blogs, you know I think highly of the writing of John A. Sanford, a Jungian analyst, writer, and speaker, who also was an Episcopal priest for 19 years. In his book Dreams and Healing, Sanford writes: “Dreams also help us by showing us what it is upon which we should focus our attention. It is easy to be overwhelmed by our fears, the confusion of life, and the myriad small and great worries that beset us. A dream gives us an image of what it is we most need to ponder. In this way dreams can lift us beyond the narrow confines of our ordinary conscious life, and present us with a larger picture.”

I have found this to be true. In my experience, and based on reading I’ve done, some dreams are more clearly meant to direct a person to take some type of action. And when a person has a dream like that, trying to take the steps toward accomplishing what the dream is directing is what matters most. As Sanford says, that is where we should focus our attention. Because dreams when properly understood help us to learn about ourselves by bringing unconscious content to consciousness, each person becomes more whole as he or she tries to follow dream direction. This takes courage because we don’t necessarily know what will result from following dream direction.

A number of years ago I had a dream where several women were busy packing my belongings, putting them into boxes and sealing the boxes. For a few months before having that dream, I had thought it might be time to move to a different city, and this dream confirmed that yes, I needed to move. I didn’t particularly want to move; it would be costly, I would need to find a job, I would be leaving friends I cared about. But this dream was so clear in its meaning that I knew I would be going against what was right for me if I didn’t follow the dream’s direction. And I’m happy to say I have never regretted moving to where I live. My family and I benefited in many ways because I followed the direction of the dream.

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.

In my blog titled “A Special Dream,” I shared a dream that gave me reassurance that things were well in my inner life even though at the time I was feeling down and limited in my outer, day-to-day life. That dream helped me to feel better and to get more on track with what mattered in my life. I’d like to share another dream with you. I had this dream at a time when at a conscious level I was feeling like things were going quite well.
Here is the dream: I am a teenager and have a sister who is a little older and who disagrees with everything I say and makes a point of getting in the way of my being able to carry out my ideas. Knowing this, I haven’t shared ideas with her for a long time and I have avoided her in general because she’s so hateful, but somehow she still always finds a way to block me from moving forward. I feel frustrated with her interference and her seeming power over me and I don’t know what to do to get away from her.
This dream is an example of how our dreams bring unconscious content to consciousness. On a conscious, ego level, I felt as though things were going along pretty well. This dream revealed to me, however, that a part of my psyche, my negative feminine aspect, was causing major problems. The positive feminine aspect of myself who wants to grow and move forward in life is being held back by the negative feminine. In Jungian terms, this negative aspect is my shadow. This dream reminded me that, even though I thought things were going pretty well, it needed to be brought to
my awareness that that wasn’t so. There’s a part of my psyche who doesn’t want me to be creative, to grow, to change in a positive way–and the dream was pointing that out. I was able to use this information and made time to do some writing that I had been putting off; I hadn’t been making it a priority and I believe my dream was telling me I needed to. I think there’s a good possibility the dream was given to me to help me not only to make writing more of a prioriety and to stop making excuses for not having enough time to write, but also for other reasons that were not
readily discernable by me. It often happens that after some time has passed, I realize a dream might also have been referring to another area of development that is needed. That’s why it’s so important to think of dreams as giving us information about what is happening at the time we have the dream and also to keep the dream in mind in the days and weeks that follow.

In my blog titled “Dreams” I wrote about how I have become familiar with many aspects of Jungian theory, including Carl Jung’s ideas about dreams.  And about how recording and trying to learn from my dreams has added greatly to my life.  Rather than approaching dreams with the idea of “interpreting” them, it’s better to ask yourself “What might this dream be trying to tell me about myself?”  Among other things, dreams can provide direction and give assistance during difficult or confusing times.  As one writer whose writing I admire said “Dreams are our friends.”  Dreams provide a window to the unconscious by bringing to consciousness aspects of ourselves of which we need to become aware.

I’d like to share with you a dream I had some time ago that helps to show how dreams add to our conscious awareness.  I had been feeling kind of down and lacking in direction.  Then I had this dream:  I go in the basement and am surprised to see a bunch of cats living there–at least 20 adult cats.  At first I’m concerned, thinking the basement isn’t a good place for cats, they need to have sunlight and room to run.  And since I did not know they were there, I wonder how they have obtained fresh water and sufficient food and I worry they will be sick.  But I see that is not the case–they are healthy, their fur is clean and glossy, and they’re purring with contentment.  And they all seem to enjoy each others’ company.

Two things cats can symbolize in dreams are health and the feminine.  Therefore, I found this dream to be reasurring; in a way it was telling me that even though I had been feeling down on a conscious level, within my unconscious there were positive things happening.  Being in touch with the feminine aspect of myself which the cats symbolized reminded me of qualities such as gentleness and nurturing.  The basement in a dream often symbolizes the unconscious, so having all those healthy, purring cats in the basement in the dream provided me with reassurance that things were well in my inner life.  And I did feel better outwardly because of the reassurance the dream gave me through its symbols.

Many years ago I was going through a difficult time and decided I might benefit by meeting with a therapist.  It was during our work together that I became familiar with Carl Jung’s dream theories, and my work with the therapist included working with my dreams.  Prior to that I had not thought very much about my dreams. I might have noticed if a dream was unusual, but I never thought of dreams as have meaning or a purpose.  I also didn’t remember having dreams very often.  Since then I have kept journals where I have recorded my dreams as well as my thoughts about and associations to aspects of my dreams.  I have found this to be very helpful and I encourage people to consider doing this.

There are various theories about and approaches to dreams; I believe the Jungian approach is the most valid.  Many books have been written by Jungian analysts about dreamwork.  An author whose writing I respect is John A. Sanford, who was a Jungian analyst and an Episcopal priest.  In addition to being very knowledgeable about Jungian theory and having worked with thousands of dreams in his therapy practice, Sanford, who passed away in 2005, had the gift of being able to express concepts in clear, understandable language.  I have read and re-read his books and highly recommend them to you.  They include Dreams and Healing, Healing and Wholeness, and Dreams–God’s Forgotten Language.

I don’t want to give the impression a person can learn to understand the meaning of her or his dreams simply by reading a book.  But it’s a starting point.  Working with a capable therapist and/or participating in a dream group facilitated by a capable therapist would be very helpful.  Just as each human being is unique, the dreams he or she receives are unique to him or her.  Although there are some dream symbols that tend to have universal meanings, such as the ocean symbolizing the unconscious and a snake symbolizing wisdom, the meanings of images in dreams are often based on the dreamer’s associations to the images, and those associations are based on each person’s life experiences.