Dreams as summons

Dear Reader,

Imagine this dream:

I am in a park with a group of about 10-12 people. It’s a warm, sunny spring afternoon and we are gathered under the shade of a large tree. There is a picnic table with open containers of food. Some of us have plates in our hands while others drink something from paper cups. The mood seems celebratory though the dream scene itself is quiet with no soundtrack of park noises (e.g. trees, birds), or of people talking or laughing. As we stand there, it starts to rain gently though it isn’t water that falls to the ground. Small flames that look exactly like the emoji 🔥 start to fall from the sky as though gently tossed by unknown, invisible hands. I hear faint whoosh sounds as the individual flames land on the grass. Where the flames fall on the grass, they hold on to their size and shape, forming small flickering flame-flowers on the green grass. Nothing is on fire and there is no smoke, just small flame-flowers dancing on the grass. I think our group starts running, but there is no sense of fear or panic. I hear a startled laugh or two, and I, too, start to run, a growing smile on my face. As I run, a portion of the grass in front of me slides back neatly, as though some hidden lever has been pressed, and I see stairs leading down into the earth. I run down the stairs and disappear from view.

Let’s start from a place where we don’t know much about dreams. We may have a general idea they are presumed to be helpful in processing emotions and organizing memories, but apart from that, we might assume they are general, albeit fantastical, debris.

I had this flame-flower dream at a time in my life when I felt stuck in many ways. I didn’t know what, if anything, was possible for me. I felt exhausted and depleted in some vital way and was gripped by a debilitating, strong belief that this - my life situation, my attitude - was simply going to solidify into some semi-permanent state of stuck-ness.

According to Jungian psychology, dreams are messages rising from the unconscious and they may serve a compensatory function, showing us something we might not be (yet) conscious of.

I remember I couldn’t stop thinking about this dream for many reasons. For one, I don’t think I was dreaming a lot in those days, at least nothing I remembered. It felt like the dream arrived completely out of the blue and it captured my attention. It had a fresh and hopeful quality that was completely at odds with both my situation and attitude. In the days that followed, I took the dream everywhere with me¹. I even drew a cartoon of it in my journal. It was vivid and pretty, and it hung around in the air around me like a lingering invitation. At times, it felt like a summons and a taunt, all rolled into one. I wondered who all those people at the party were. I wondered why I ran down the stairs. I wondered what was underground.

Reader, I’d love to hear your thoughts on dreams and about those dreams that showed up just when you needed them.

Best,

Priya

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1. There is a powerful Jung quote about taking your dreams everywhere. I’ll update the post if I locate it.