Saturday, July 30, 2016

Cosmic Dreamer: The Fires of Transformation

What's Cooking?: Fires of Transformation


Dreams can offer us knowledge about our shadows, our fears and our anxieties, as well as our transformative experiences.  Our dream images can pinpoint how these energies are expressing themselves in our lives.



Fire is one of the primal elements of life, along with water, air and earth.  The element of fire illuminates, transforms, creates and destroys.  Fire in dreams can express some of our fears very clearly, as well as our passion and our need for transformation.

When we dream about fire burning down our house, it helps to look at what we're angry at.  What's going on in our lives that is making us so angry that we'd rather destroy something than heal it? When our 'home' is overwhelm by the destructive power of fire, we are losing a vital part of ourselves in the flames.  What's burning you up inside?  Are you having a temper tantrum?  Burning houses down is not a sign of health.

When we dream of fire as passion, we might find ourselves in a flaming bed if our passion is becoming obsession.  Or we might dream that a candle set in a window is calling us home to our heart.



One of many repeating dreams I've had over the years about fire involves kitchen stoves.  I would often have dreams where there were two or three kitchens in my home.  I would go and stoke the fire to cook something in one, and then I'd find myself in a whole other part of the house in a new kitchen.  And sometimes even find myself in a third kitchen.  And as we know, the Goddess always works in threes!  So I was undergoing a process, a process that transformed and enlightened me. 

Fire helps transform what is raw into something cooked and easily assimilated into consciousness.  Having the fire in a stove makes for more control and focus. During my years at the C. G. Jung-Institut, Zurich, I had many house dreams with multiple kitchens.  These were the years when I was undergoing major transformations in my life, years when I had to learn what my life experiences were teaching me and forming my character. 

On one level these multiple kitchens and stoves symbolized the process of integrating my unconscious knowledge into my life.  On another level, multiple kitchens referred to transformation occurring in my Body, Mind and Spirit.  

And of course, there are the Sacred Fires, like the fire above at the Sekhmet Temple, which burn with our passionate love for the Goddess.  

However Fire finds its way into your dreams, always treat it with respect and honor its power!

Until Next Time,

Sweet Dreams!

  

Monday, July 4, 2016

More Water Dreams: Tidal Waves!

Dreaming of Tidal Waves 




Dreams speak to us in symbolic language, but too often we want to make them concrete. In our dreams, 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar' (referring to Freud's insistence that it's a penis), but most of our dreams tell us a story in symbols.
Since the Sun is still in Cancer, we are discussing the symbolism of water. Let's look at a very powerful dream image—the Tidal Wave/ Tsunami.
Have you had Tidal Wave dreams? How did you feel about it? Fearful, worried, interested?
Tidal waves can symbolize a powerful upheavel in the collective unconscious. The oceans symbolize this realm of our collective experience.
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung felt that the collective unconscious represents a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain. He also felt that it contained all those feelings and needs that have been rejected by our collective consciousness.
So having a Tidal Wave dream tells us that we're experiencing that up-welling of feelings that are rejected by our society—such as love, compassion, wisdom, equality, freedom. These waves are not just about our personal upset, but about how the entire culture is shifting and changing.
Tidal Wave dreams comes in many forms. Sometimes people dream that they see a tidal wave coming at them or their house and are full of fear. Sometimes the waves sweep over them and sometimes they only come up to the house and then depart. These dreamers often feel threatened by the feelings and changes these waves symbolize.
I used to have many tidal wave dreams back in the 70s and 80s. I would be walking on the beach and would see giant waves hanging in the sky, never breaking, just hanging there. Sometimes people were even swimming in those waves, like daring surfers who ride giant waves on their boards. I was surprised and interested but never afraid. Sometimes I even swam in those waves myself.
The most interesting tidal wave dream I had was in one of my formative
'big dreams'. In it, I was sitting in a buckboard wagon and I saw a waning Moon in the sky. Suddenly I knew a giant tidal wave was about to break over me and the people I was with. I thought, “this is it”. The next thing I knew, the wave had gone by and a beautiful waxing crescent Moon shone in the sky. There was more to the dream, which I've recounted in my book, Wisdom's Daughters: How Women Can Change the World.
All of us have times in our lives when our old life must be left behind so a new life can begin. This is the message of a Tidal Wave Dream. The old is being swept away, so the new life can emerge from the depths. Each of us will meet this change in oiur own way—either with fear or with excitement.
If you have any tidal wave dreams you want to share, please do!
Until next time,

Sweet Dreams!