Premortal

"A forty-four-year-old social worker spoke in one of my midlife workshops about how as a child she experienced a peculiar sensation of 'homesickness.'  'I couldn't have been more than five years old,' she told the class.  'But I had this sense that I didn't belong to the people I was living with - my family, the house where I lived, the other kids in kindergarten.  I felt like I had come from another world.  I felt that somehow I'd been plunked down in the midst of these strangers as a test or trial.  The feeling was like being homesick, and was so real it frightened me."

Harry R. Moody
the Five Stages of the Soul

Liberty

No Prisoner there be -
Where Liberty -
Himself - abide with Thee -



Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 742

Escape!

"It was one of those days," a friend said, "when the only thing to do was read John Buchan."  I knew at once what was meant.  We all know days when the small irritations of life conspire to prevent one settling to anything.  There is work to be done but no motivation, arrangements to be made but no impulse.  Letters lie accusingly unanswered.  A vague sense of unease pervades one's being.  An inner voice tells one to snap out of it.  The will to alter one's mood is inexplicably absent.


There is a very English recipe for dealing with this condition - fresh air, physical exercise, direct contact with nature.  Getting out of oneself is the cure, particularly to hills, cliffs, high tops, where the turf is springy and the views stretch to the distant, blue horizons.  Oppressive days come, however, when such escapes may not offer.  City streets and crowds surround, unyielding pavements meet one's feet, horizons can only be imagined.  At such times, Buchan opens the door to the world one's being seeks - a world of thickets refreshed by a recent rain shower, of streams tinkling over boulders smoothed by uncountable winter floods, of the sharp cry of an unseen bird in a bush, of peat smoke rising lazily from a cottage chimney in the calm evening air, a world of nature utterly at peace and yet - here is the key Buchan ingredient - tinged with the menace of man the enemy."


Sir John Keegan
Introduction
to John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps

Persistence

"All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-axe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that those, who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reason, and their spirit, the power of persisting in their purposes; acquire the art of sapping what they cannot batter, and the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance by obstinate attacks."

Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, 43

Jungian Analysis - II

"I made the statement earlier that the reasons a person gives for wanting to enter analysis are rarely the true reasons.  They are, without a doubt, the conscious reasons, and the would-be analysand is completely sincere in advancing them.  Whether he offers marital problems, or coming to terms with the death of a member of his family, or not being able to succeed in his work, or drinking too much, or sexual impotence, or a generalized feeling of anxiety - it all boils down to a truth which seems deceptively simple but in fact is complicated and all-encompassing.  It is that he has looked at himself and does not like the person he has become, and that he believes that somewhere in him is rising the possibility of being another sort of person, the one he was meant to be."

June Singer
Boundaries of the Soul

Jungian Analysis

"Patients need to recognize why they have come to analysis: they have found themselves in a conflict situation that appears insoluble, and this discrepancy is between the conscious attitude they hold and unconscious factors which interfere with their carrying through on the intentions which correspond to their conscious attitudes."

June Singer
Boundaries of the Soul

Revelation

"Where is the voice of God in our day?  Where has it been found in times past?


….Today we live in a world of material wealth and technological convenience, with little emphasis placed on God's revelation through inner experience such as dreams, images, and primary intuitions of spiritual truth."


Savary, Berne and Williams
Dreams and Spiritual Growth

Individuality - 2

"In my experience, I have found that people rarely enter into analysis with the stated purpose of confirming that individuality which was born in them as a potential, and has somehow gotten lost in the pursuit of the practical goals of their lives."

June Singer
Boundaries of the Soul

Individuality

"The Jungian, as psychotherapist, approaches each new patient with interest, curiosity and wonder....Each person speaks a different language....Each one's way of being, ways of being, ways of thinking, and feeling and perceiving and knowing are distinctly that person's....No one has ever been exactly like this person who sits with me - I must regard this person well, for there will never be another who is quite the same."

June Singer
Boundaries of the Soul

A Christian Perspective on Dreams

"Psychologically, we view dreamwork as a holistic process leading toward personality transformation....

"Spiritually, we view dreamwork as an arena of relationship between you and God, and as a helpful resource on the journey towards holiness as well as wholeness....

"While many people look to a dream to find an answer to their problems, we have discovered that a dream is more helpful when viewed as a question....

"While many have viewed dreams as a piece of information to be conceptually grasped, we have found, in contrast, that a dream is more helpfully viewed as an invitation to relationship.

Savary, Berne, and Williams
Dreams and Spiritual Growth

Accomplishment and the Long Haul

"Thus too much vigour in the beginning of an undertaking, often intercepts and prevents the steadiness and perseverance always necessary in the conduct of a complicated scheme, where many interests are to be connected, many movements to be adjusted, and the joint effort of distinct and independent powers to be directed to a single point. In all important events which have been suddenly brought to pass, chance has been the agent rather than reason; and, therefore, however those who seemed to preside in the transaction, may have been celebrated by such as loved or feared them, succeeding times have commonly considered them as fortunate rather than prudent. Every design in which the connexion is regularly traced from the first motion to the last, must be formed and executed by calm intrepidity, and requires not only courage which danger cannot turn aside, but constancy which fatigues cannot weary, and contrivance which impediments cannot exhaust."

Samuel Johnson,
The Rambler, 43

Opposition

A Tooth upon our Peace
The Peace cannot deface -
Then Wherefore be the Tooth?
To vitalize the grace -

The Heaven hath a Hell -
Itself to signalize -
And every sign before the Place -
Is Gilt with Sacrifice -


Emily Dickinson
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Franklin), 694

Predispositions

This passage reminded me of James Hillman's The Soul's Code.  Even Hillman admitted he was using extreme cases to indicate the reality of far more common (and subtle) patterns.  Johnson's doubt lines up with Hillman's recognition of a spectrum.

"Some that imagine themselves to have looked with more than common penetration into human nature, have endeavoured to persuade us that each man is born with a mind formed peculiarly for certain purposes, and with desires unalterably determined to particular objects, from which the attention cannot be long diverted, and which alone, as they are well or ill pursued, must produce the praise or blame, the happiness or misery of his future life.

This position has not, indeed, been hitherto proved with strength proportionate to the assurance with which it has been advanced, and perhaps will never gain much prevalence by a close examination.
If the doctrine of innate ideas be itself disputable, there seems to be little hope of establishing an opinion, which supposes that even complications of ideas have been given us at our birth, and that we are made by nature ambitious, or covetous, before we know the meaning of either power or money."

Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, 43

The Power of Knowing How Much is Enough

Here is a concept I first found in Joe Dominguez's Your Money or Your Life.  He argued that it is not true that money can't buy happiness.  When a basic need is met, you can indeed become happier.  But money and happiness often have a relationship expressed by a bell curve.  As long as you are meeting real needs, happiness can increase with wealth, but as soon as your real needs are met, the odd thing is that happiness begins to decline with increased material possessions and wealth.  As human beings, however, we are seldom wise enough to stop our feverish acquisition at what Samuel Johnson would call "a moderate fortune."



"Of all those things that make us superior to others, there is none so much within the reach of our endeavours as riches, nor any thing more eagerly or constantly desired. Poverty is an evil always in our view, an evil complicated with so many circumstances of uneasiness and vexation, that every man is studious to avoid it. Some degree of riches is therefore required, that we may be exempt from the gripe of necessity; when this purpose is once attained, we naturally wish for more, that the evil which is regarded with so much horrour, may be yet at a greater distance from us; as he that has once felt or dreaded the paw of a savage, will not be at rest till they are parted by some barrier, which may take away all possibility of a second attack.

....But it almost always happens, that the man who grows rich, changes his notions of poverty, states his wants by some new measure, and from flying the enemy that pursued him, bends his endeavours to overtake those whom he sees before him. The power of gratifying his appetites increases their demands; a thousand wishes crowd in upon him, importunate to be satisfied, and vanity and ambition open prospects to desire, which still grow wider, as they are more contemplated.

Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of possessions deluges the soul, and we sink into the gulphs of insatiability, only because we do not sufficiently consider, that all real need is very soon supplied, and all real danger of its invasion easily precluded; that the claims of vanity, being without limits, must be denied at last; and that the pain of repressing them is less pungent before they have been long accustomed to compliance."

Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, 39

Inflation

One of the real dangers of spiritual manifestations is what Jungian psychologists call Inflation:  The encounter with the divine, instead of producing a healthy humility, puffs up the ego and produces a self-centered response to the divine instead of a God centered response.

Jean and Wallace Clift describe it in Jungian terms this way:

“In fact, a major danger at the times of encounters with the Self is that the ego may become inflated by identifying itself with the Self, instead of realizing the Other to be the ‘heavier body’ in the relationship.”
 

The opposite of inflation is described in much more powerful words by a believer, Thomas R. Kelley, an American Quaker-

“The sense of Presence is as if two beings were joined in one single configuration, and the center of gravity is not in us but in that Other.  As two bodies, closely attached together and whirling in the air, are predominantly determined by the heavier body, so does the sense of Presence carry within it a sense of our lives being in large part guided, dynamically moved from beyond our usual selves.  Instead of being the active, hurrying church worker and the anxious, careful planner of shrewd moves toward the good life, we become pliant creatures, less brittle, less obstinately rational.  The energizing, dynamic center is not in us but in the Divine Presence in which we share.”

 

Alienation

One of the effects of the fall is a very real sense of alienation.  We are separated from God and from each other by gulfs that only grace can bridge.  I find many modern descriptions of the phenomenon of alienation to be quite suggestive.  Here is one from a Jungian analyst:

“A sense of dividedness or separation seems to have been basic to the human condition, probably since coming to consciousness, and the vocational ‘call’ to wholeness arises in moments of special conflict and crisis.  Every human heart longs for the overcoming of the sense of alientation….some sense of being connected to a larger reality is basic to healing that separation and finding meaning in life.”

  

Jean and Wallace Clift

Symbols of Transformation in Dreams

Jung's God

Jung found it hard to commit himself to any traditional theological position.  In practice, his approach to the inner archetype of the Self fulfilled many of the functions which a deity would provide -

“Jung saw this central archetype as the organizer and inventor of dream images – the inner guiding factor that continually extends and matures the personality when the ego is willing to listen to the messages of the Self.  The ego perceives the Self as ‘other,’ and the subjective experience conveys the feeling that ‘some suprapersonal force is actively interfering in a creative way.  One sometimes feels that the unconscious is leading the way in accordance with a secret design.’  Jung spoke of the Self as the ‘god image’ in the psyche, and encounters with the Self have all the qualities associated with the concept of God.”

……………..

 

“Jung says that those who have developed a kind of dialogue between the ego and the rest of the psyche sense themselves as the objects of an unknown and supraordinate object.  He closed his Answer to Job with this passage”

 

            'Even the enlightened person remains what he is, and is never more than his own limited ego before the One who dwells within him, whose form has no knowable boundaries, who encompasses him on all sides, fathomless as the abysms of the earth and vast as the sky.'

 

These descriptions are remarkably like those of many Christian Writers.”

Jean and Wallace Clift

Symbols of Transformation in Dreams

A Vicious Cycle

"There is a general succession of events in which contraries are produced by periodical vicissitudes; labour and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins that reputation which accuracy had raised."

Samuel Johnson,
The Rambler, 29

How do dreams mean? A Jungian Answer

I went through the Topical Guide to the Scriptures on the topic of Dreams and found the collected references quite insightful.  The scriptures do not give us a dream encyclopedia, just a reminder that the interpretation of dreams is a spiritual gift.

Fascinated by how dreams communicate to us, I have collected some examples (with a little bit of underlying theory) of what people have learned from dreams.

One Jungian theory is that some dreams are "compensatory or complementary."  They "balance a one-sided attitude of consciousness" or "complete what is lacking in the contents of consciousness which are too narrow or are not considered sufficiently valuable."

Some examples of such balancing dreams

1.  "...someone who suffers from feelings insecurity and inferiority and in a dream finds himself in a hero role."
2. "Jung relates the case of a lady who was well known for her stupid prejudices and her stubborn resistance to reasoned argument.  One night she dreamed she was invited to an important social affair.  Her hostess greeted her with the words, 'Oh, how nice you have come!  All your friends are here already and are expecting you.'  The hostess then led her to a door, opened it and the dreamer stepped into - a cowshed!  'The woman would not admit at first the point of a dream that struck so directly at her self-importance, but its message nevertheless went home.'"

"Sometimes a dream...gives advice like a well meaning person."

1. "I had a rich elderly woman analysand who had been alcoholic and had given up drinking.  But the neurotic problems that lay behind her alcoholism, especially a general demoralization and slovenliness, still had to be worked out.  Once she dreamed that a voice told her, 'You need a breakfast corset.'  I asked her in great detail what time she ate breakfast, what kind of corset she wore, when she put it on, etc.  I discovered then that out of vanity she wore a very tight corset but never put it on in the morning; rather she breakfasted in her dressing gown, then dawdled around the apartment in her negligee the rest of the morning and put her corset on around noon.  Only then did her day actually begin.  After this information, the dream no longer needed interpretation, and we both laughed heartily.  I would ask her, 'How is it going with the breakfast corset?'"
2. "I once had an analysand who had to give up alcohol, which he did bravely for a couple of months.  Then he said to me, 'Listen, don't you think I could dare now to have one glass of beer in the evening at the Sternan Hotel with Betty?  Just one glass?  I am always so lost in the evenings, so lonely.'  Although I knew this was not advisable, I just said, 'I don't know, I don't want to be your governess.  Try it and we will see how your unconscious reacts.'  He did this, drank his glass of beer, and went home.  That night he dreamed of driving his car up a mountain, all the way to the top, but when he got there he did not brake properly and the car rolled backward all the way down the mountain until he was back where he started....He immediately realized that 'only one glass of beer' would not work."

Quotes from
Marie-Louise Von Franz
Dreams

A Jewish "Falling Away"

Like Christianity, which must confront the difference between modern times and the miraculous, charismatic events of the first century, Judaism has had to ponder the end of the prophetic era.

"After the death of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, the last of the prophets, the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel."

Tosifta Sot. xiii, 2
quoted by
Abraham Cohen
Everyman's Talmud

"By the rabbinic period, prophecy - direct communication from God - had given way to textual interpretation: exactly what we are doing.  The sages preferred to interpret the Torah actively rather than passively awaiting new revelations.  Further, I suspect that they were suspicious of new revelations, which potentially undercut their authority.  They preferred an established system of commentary to charismatic religion.  For the rabbis, active prophecy ended with the biblical books of the Minor Prophets, Haggai, Malachi and Zechariah.  From that point onward, the rabbis engaged in midrash, the searching out God's will through interpretation of the scriptural canon."

Rabbi Burton L. Visotsky
Sage Tales

"The men of prehistoric times, being able to use the Holy Spirit, gave names to their children which indicated events that were going to happen to them later in their lives; we, on the other hand, who cannot employ the Holy Spirit, name our children after our ancestors."

Genesis R. xxxvii, 7
quoted by
Abraham Cohen
Everyman's Talmud