Neptune dreaming…

“The work on dreams follows the work of dreams. We work on the dream, not to unravel it as Freud said, to undo the dream work’s undoing, but to respond to its work with the likeness of our work, all the while aiming to speak like the dream, imagine like the dream.”  (James Hillman, Dream and the Underworld, 102)

Some people say they don’t dream; what they don’t realise is that they don’t recall their dreams.  Dreams are universal – not just the dreaming of them but their images.

Others say their dreams are ‘crazy’ or ‘rubbish’; what this means is that they are unskilled in understanding them.  We all dream and all our dreams are intelligent statements of the psyche – soul’s messages.

You can buy books full of dream symbols and their ‘meanings’; these are useful for propping up a corner of an uneven table.  The only book anyone needs is a journal or notebook.  Anyone can gain insight into their own dreams just from writing them down – no analysis required.

Writing is largely unconscious (and thus a tool of the soul) – our style, our choice of words, emphasis and use of grammar were all learned in childhood and are as embedded in our way of being as our spoken language and ethnicity.

Writing down a dream is an exercise in translation in itself; the waking self draws on the unconscious self for help with what the sleeping self has to say.

So, try it.  Write down your dreams and, rather than referring to someone elses ideas of what they ‘mean’, trust in your own ability to understand and communicate.