When you enter the powerful world of dreams
If you’re new here, I write a weekly letter exploring what it means to go on a metaphorical journey and what it means to come home, looking at them through both philosophical and psychological perspectives. My hope and intention is that the newsletter arrives like a letter in the mail, one from an old friend, and maybe, it sparks something within you. If for some reason this email cuts off, you can read the entire letter at Ten Thousand Journeys. Also, I just saw the Ten Thousand Journeys newsletter is rising today in Philosophy on Substack, one of the top 5! Yay!
Dear Reader,
How are you? I’ve recently gotten back home after weeks of travel. I haven’t sent out a newsletter in some time (paid subscriptions were paused) and though I’ve been writing almost nonstop for my work, I’ve missed the self-reflection and conversations that writing here inevitably brings on.
It is Saturday morning. As I sit down to write, I think of how good it is to be home, to sit at my desk in the morning light. How good it is to look at the familiar pictures and postcards that I’ve arranged around me, and at the small but growing tower of unread books. It is wonderful to run the tip of my finger over the old crayons in different sizes and colors. And, to feel once again under my wrists, the coarse embroidery of the pink tapestry covering the desk. Home is, at once, a potent symbol, a dream, and a felt sense of safety, and as I get older, I’m slowly learning to create it within myself. But, it’s good to be back and to be writing to you. I haven’t forgotten how to write here, I try to reassure myself, as I smooth my fingers over the small brass figure of the Goddess that I carefully place in front of me before opening my laptop.
At the end of March, I wrote a post on instructions for life (just three!) and the first instruction was track your dreams.
A few things happened almost simultaneously when I was in my mid-forties- I went through a situation that was psychologically very challenging and because I had no idea how to navigate it, I started reading a lot on self-help and psychology, especially Jungian depth psychology. Around the same time, I noticed I was suddenly experiencing a lot of vivid dreams. I initially thought of them as just neurological debris, but because they were so cinematic, so full of color and elaborate detail, and drama and strange beings, I started writing them down. I thought I might use them in one of my short stories or in the novel I was working on. In one particular series of dreams, I dreamt of events at various venues- a wedding, a dance recital, a music concert and even a sporting event. These were vivid dreams and I can still remember some scenes really clearly. In each of these dreams, which arrived over a span of 2-3 months, the audience watched, cheered, and generally participated in the event. But, I remained in the periphery of the group, just hanging around. Sometimes, while the main event was going and everyone was totally engrossed in it, I walked around from room to room or in the corridor, apparently searching for something. It was this series, whose core idea seemed to be the same- one interpretation that really resonated was of life happening, going on without me while I stayed in the sidelines, perhaps wasting precious time because I was too afraid to take a decisive step- that really got me interested in dreams.
Dreams are very important in Jungian psychology and entire books have been written on how to interpret them. A biologist might say dreams help us process emotions and consolidate memories, but a depth psychologist, especially one working with Jungian theories, will tell you that, according to Jung, dreams are natural symbols that emerge from the unconscious, the instinctual part of our psyche that we are not conscious of.
Here are some important points I learned when I started looking at dreams: it’s important to acknowledge that we are entering unknown territory, and to proceed with caution and with a healthy dose of respect. There is no quick solution or interpretation to dreams and it might take much circling before we may puzzle out the meaning. No dream dictionary or readymade guide can definitively tell you what your dream means. The dreamer’s personal, individual situation and the meaning that ‘clicks’1 for them is of utmost importance.
As entry points, consider just these three quotes from C.G. Jung on dreams:
The two fundamental points in dealing with dreams are these: First, the dream should be treated as a fact, about which one must make no previous assumption except that it somehow makes sense; and second, the dream is a specific expression of the unconscious. - Jung, C. G. (1997). Man & His Symbols. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
And, according to Jung, dreams are symbolic and should not be interpreted literally.
As most people know, one of the basic principles of analytical psychology is that dream-images are to be understood symbolically; that is to say, one must not take them literally, but must surmise a hidden meaning in them. - Jung, C.G. (1956). Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 5: Symbols of Transformation (G. Adler & R. F. C. Hull, Eds.). Princeton University Press..
The unconscious uses the rich language of symbols to tell us something about ourselves or our life situation, something we are not aware of, and it does this to return to psychological balance.
“The general function of dreams is to try to restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium. This is what I call the complementary (or compensatory) role of dreams in our psychic make-up. It explains why people who have unrealistic ideas or too high an opinion of themselves, or who make grandiose plans out of proportion to their real capacities, have dreams of flying or falling.” - Jung, C. G.(1997). Man & His Symbols. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
It’s your turn! What do you think of dreams? Have you had a significant one that you felt carried a special message? I’d love to hear!
Best,
Priya
I couldn’t find the reference for this but I will add it once I locate it.
Congratulations on rising so high in philosophy Priya! That’s awesome.
Also this piece was really interesting. Jung’s quotes about dreams really had me thinking. :)
The idea is to look for common themes. One possibility is the fear of missing out. I wonder if at some point in your life actually missed out on something you felt was very important? What other theme can you find?