Dreams as Truth-Tellers

Are you facing big transitions or challenges right now? Your dreams may hold surprising insights for you. As Jung reminded us, “The dream paves the way for life…” ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ The Dream Two months after my husband died I started feeling obsessed with the idea that I had to redo the floors in the room of our home where he had passed away. The intensity of this obsession with the floor was puzzling . . . until I had the following dream: I am sitting at a desk with a fountain pen trying to write a phrase, and I’m having a hard time spelling the first word of the phrase. At first it comes out: “Soling for stability” I cross that out and try this: “Souling for stability” I cross that out and try yet again: “Soloing for stability” At that attempt I suddenly laugh out loud, and wake up inside the dream, realizing that it is a dream.  I also realize that each of the words is correct and that’s why I couldn’t choose which one to write.   The obsession with the floor is now clear: I needed to rebuild my foundations. Redoing the floor was both pragmatic and symbolic of this phase of my grieving - i.e. a ritual action. (This is why we have so many rituals to mark life transitions such as this one. The outer actions give form to the inner chaos and allow us to move through those passages with more grace and certainty.) Dream as Truth-Telling Image The image above is one I made in Midjourney a week before having that dream. I was trying to create a picture that mirrored the way I was feeling and when I finally got the image right it was so satisfying. I made up a new word for the feeling: “Raveldrift” - An emotional unraveling and the feeling that you are coming loose from your moorings, untethered from reality, uprooted from the place you were planted, and are drifting away. My unconscious was trying to help my conscious mind deal with this huge transition and the image - and then the dream that followed - were both gifts from the soul coming to aid me in this difficult time. What challenging transition are you wrestling with right now? The first time we go through any big change - first time as empty-nester first time we lose (or get) the great job first time we lose someone we love first time we have to downsize first time we face a major illness first time we retire first time we get divorced - the emotional equilibrium is disturbed and we realize that no matter how many books we’ve read or movies we’ve seen about this situation, our own feelings are more ambivalent and destabilizing than we expected. “Dreams pave the way for life . . .” C. G. Jung’s collaborator, Marie Louise von Franz, once said that “When we pay attention to our dreams a self-regulating tendency in the soul comes into play.” It is that aspect of the dream which is so important and so rarely enlisted in our own search for clarity and guidance. As Jung explained, “Dreams pave the way for life…” Have a dream that you want to decipher? I am offering a free 30-minute Dream Dialogue to anyone who wants one this summer! Let your dreams start to work for you in “paving the way” to a more meaningful life. FREE DREAM DIALOGUE click here AN IDEA ~ Forward this email to a friend who might like a free Dream Dialogue. Perhaps they’ll see it as the sign they’ve been waiting for! Next Time . . . Techniques for “Dream-Seeding”  CONTACT REBECCA  WorkingWithSoul.com Rebecca Armstrong, 1072 E 700 N, La Porte, United States Powered by Squarespace Unsubscribe