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!

Dreams of Water

Since the Sun is traveling through the sign of Cancer, whose element is Water, it's a great time to explore what Water means in dreams.

 

The element of water is a basic necessity of life.  Without it we soon die.  That's why all ancient myths call it the Water of Life.  Our bodies are composed of 80% water and we were gestated in our mother's watery womb, just as Life itself was nurtured in the womb of the primeval oceans.

There are many forms of water that can appear in our dreams.  Rivers, the ocean, a pond.  The rain.  It's how we interpret the images that help us understand why this particular type of water appears in our dreams.

This is a dream a woman reader sent me about her male friend.

I have a very good friend (more than a friend) who had a dream of him, together with Jesus walking across water, which had very big and high waves. They walked on the waves and through them like they were solid ground. They were both happy, talking, smiling. He says it was a very unusual dream and he had never had such an unusual dream before.

The Bible story about Jesus walking on water comes after two very important events. The first is the death of John the Baptist. The second is that Jesus and the disciples feed 5000 people in the desert with five loaves of bread and two fishes. After this, Jesus sends his disciples back in their boat to cross the lake and he goes to pray. Then Jesus walks on water to the boat. At first his disciples think he is a spirit, and when he says he isn’t, Peter says, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water." Jesus calls him to come walk with him and Peter does. But the waves are high and the wind is strong and Peter is afraid. He loses faith and starts to sink. Jesus reaches out to him and saves him, saying, "O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?"

The Bible story shows us the evolution of faith. After the death of the prophet John, people were in doubt and fear. The government could kill anyone they wanted to, even someone as respected as John. We see this happening in our world right now. So the people seek out Jesus and he feeds them. He feeds them by providing them with an example – we have to share our resources. They ended up with more bread and fish than they began with. It was a miracle, or at least the miracle of getting people to share.

When we are in fear of what the world can do to us, it is our faith in Spirit – whether Jesus, the Buddha, the Goddess or God – that can nurture us. But if we want more than simple faith and nurturing, we have to trust in Spirit during the stormy, insecure times by taking steps that might seem highly dangerous. We have to walk on water.

Walking on water is an amazing feat. These waters symbolize the Collective Unconscious, the collective rejected needs of the world; yet despite the great unrest in our collective consciousness, we don't have to be overwhelmed by it. The wild waters symbolize feelings that could swamp this man if he wasn't centered in Spirit.

Walking on water indicates that a seemingly impossible situation is being dealt with quite well. This man isn’t afraid of the stormy waters. He is walking and talking with Jesus, his particular spiritual guide. And they are happy, because he knows that ‘All is Well’ even if outer events seem to indicate the opposite.

This is a wonderful dream not only for this man but for all of us. He is handling a rough time in his life with faith and confidence, because he is being guided by Spirit. Can we say the same?  

One of the astrological patterns we're working with now deals with this issue of faith in troubled times. (see The Cosmic Story)  Do we have the spiritual will and creative imagination to 'walk on water' as we face an uncertain future?  That's the question this man, and each of us, is being asked.

Until next time,

Sweet Dreams

Why Interpret Our Dreams?

Why interpret dreams?

Welcome to the wonderful world of dreams! I am your tour-guide through the mysterious, magical, weird, confusing, intriguing, and sometimes comical landscapes of the dreamworld.

You might ask yourself, 'Why does someone become a dream interpreter?'  Well, my mother often asked me that question, so I have an answer for you!

I love dreams. I love the magic and adventure of the dreamworld, and now that I understand the symbolic language of dreams, I love to dig in, follow the thread of the story and discover what it's trying to tell me. In truth, every dream does have a meaning, and every dream wants to enlarge your understanding of your life -- and life in general. I love dreams because they help me understand myself by taking me to other worlds, embroiling me in interesting and often outrageous situations, and letting me see how I deal with it.

I trained at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland, studied the theories of the famous Swiss psychologist, Carl G. Jung, and discovered for myself how the human psyche and the Unconscious works. I agree with Jung who felt that dreams are really messages from your Self or your Soul, the part of you which knows who you really are and what you really want out of life.

Dreams give us a larger perspective on life, beyond our ego-knowledge. Dreams come from the Soul and connect us to Spirit.  Dreams give us the truth of ourselves.

So I began my life-long study of dreams, which entails studying all sorts of ancient myths, legends, fairy tales and religious/esoteric systems that contribute to the symbolic language of dreams. Can you begin to see why my mother often asked this question about my work -- what exactly was I supposed to do with this kind of knowledge in the modern world?

Well, Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist, partly answered those questions in his interviews with Bill Moyer called The Power of Myth. Campbell, like Jung and Freud, said that myths are still alive and well in our modern culture. And one of the ways these ancient stories show up in our lives is through our dreams. By understanding what these dream stories tell us about the myth of our lives, we can navigate through life's journey with the wisdom of the ages as our guide.

We need this wisdom because frankly, our society is not meeting our needs. At this time of great change and transformation, we must see ourselves as a united world to deal with the global issues facing us. That means we have to look at our priorities and values, face ourselves and take charge of our future. And believe it or not, dreams can guide us to that knowledge.

All four of my children turned out to be great dreamers. When they were young, my oldest son came down to breakfast one morning and said, 'Mom, I hate dreams!' You can imagine my surprise and dismay. When I asked him why, he said, 'Because you have to wake up!' 

Needless to say, he still pays attention to his dreams, and because all my children still ask me about their dreams, I have a perfect way of keeping an eye on how they're really doing in their lives. This certainly gives me an advantage over parents who say they don't understand their kids! 

Dreams tell us the truth of what we are experiencing, not just our ego sense of things.  If you want to understand yourself, your partner, your family and friends as well as your place in the world, take the time to pay attention to your dreams.

It is well worth it.