Have you ever awakened from a dream knowing that it was more significant than just your psyche processing the events of the day? Recurring dreams, or vivid dreams that feel important, are sometimes visions. Dreams can be more than sources of helpful personal insights. Your dream might be a message about someone in your family, for your community, or even a message from the Earth.

Last night I dreamed that a tornado was coming and my family and I went to the basement for safety. There was a passage leading to another lower basement, and then a door leading to a room even further below. Three levels below the ground, I figured, we should be safe from the storm.

The book, The Earth Has a Soul, describes a dream of the famous psychologist Carl Jung, about a house with many levels representing different aspects of the human story. The top floor was something like modern culture, and the basement was like our primordial roots (neither one better than the other). Was my dream about needing to find a safe place from some problem in my life? Or was it a bigger message, that surviving the monumental environmental and social problems of our world requires looking into the depth of our most basic human core?

My daughter returned from a walk in the woods and showed me a piece of hollow bone she found. It was cool to look inside and see the criss-cross strands of bone material. It was like being able to look at life itself forming. The outside was covered with teeth marks from mice munching it. We took turns holding it, feeling it, wondering what animal it came from. What does it mean to a 12-year old girl to find an elemental piece of another living creature, what places in her heart does it touch as she imagines the life it had, what does it stir in the caves of her psyche, what dreams of the future does it inspire? Empathy? A greater understanding of her own life and death? Curiosity about the relationship between humans and animals, how we treat the non-human world?

There is so much we can learn if we allow the dreamlike quality of our waking experiences to unfold and open our curious mind and senses to the stories within. It feels like imagination and that’s great--that’s the gateway. The more you practice, you realize you can trust that what seems like imagination is true. The amazing thing is that magic is found in what is real. Almost anywhere you are, you can see the dream message in some bit of nature…a flower petal, a leaf, a cloud, a whiff of wind.

Some cultures use dreams communally as a basis for actions and decisions. What do your dreams say about your community? About your ancient roots? About possibilities for the future of your world? If we don’t explore the meanings of our dreams, are we missing an opportunity to learn from these teaching stories that are sourced from our soul, as well as from our collective humanness, and even from the planet that sustains us?

Just before the New Year, I dreamed that I gave birth to a baby. She nursed and then looked up at me with a contented smile. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m on the right track in a new project. Perhaps it’s a cultural message that healthy new beginnings are coming to fruition. Or validation from the Earth that the message of hope and renewal in the Christmas story is a universal truth. I don’t need to know for sure. To contemplate the meaning for myself, my community and the world, and to simply honor that this energy is at work in our lives, is important work and an enriching gift to myself and others.

A while ago I dreamed I was in a city that was polluted, grey and lifeless. I craved to be near water, so I went down to the dirty beach under the bridge. I felt the urge to make a fire. From among the trash I was able to scrounge a few pieces of wood, but I had no matches. An elder with long hair appeared and wordlessly communicated to me that I should breathe on the wood to start the fire. I tried once and failed. I tried again more earnestly and the fire started. How do I apply that to my life?

The idea of the hollow bone is that we are open and able to be filled with what needs to speak or manifest through us. What a challenge it is to source my life from primordial human roots while living in the modern world. I have to get the kids to school and myself to work each day. How can we integrate the dream world into modern life? It is THE adventure of the modern explorer.

I am grateful for the opportunity to write this. It has reminded me of these dreams, and of how easily I am distracted from a deep feeling that carrying this fire is one of the most important things to me. I am not sure what it means or how to do it, but I am glad you were part of this journey today.

• Published in Environment & Social Justice
• 0 Comments
•