This mornings message is about dreams. According to Annette Noontil in her book “The Body is the Barometer of the Soul” there are two types of dreams – prophetic and symbolic. I believe that the daily ‘Dream Messages’ that I have been receiving since the outbreak of the Coronavirus are more of a ‘prophetic’ nature but the dream I had this morning was ‘symbolic’.
Symbolic dreams are often personal and are an important way to source unconscious information so that we can raise our level of consciousness. Symbols are a way to inform us of what we are doing or not doing. They often stick in our memory so that we can remember that we need to take some sort of action by what the dream is telling us.
Symbols can be both universal and personal. For example some symbols have the same meaning for everyone. Dreaming of the sun often means spirit or spiritual, houses – the state of your consciousness, fire – cleansing, book – knowledge, baby – a new idea or beginning, naked – free or not hiding anything or being exposed. Personal symbols often only have meaning for us and to interpret the dream it is important to take note of the overall feeling of the dream. For example if we dream of a person we know they may be a symbol of their personality or the attributes they hold.
This morning I woke up from a dream in which a hairy caterpillar was placed in the left palm of my hand by a male teacher in a class room setting. This male teacher was well qualified and respected and as I was called to the blackboard I was quick to hold my left hand out when asked. After the teacher placed the caterpillar in my hand, I noticed what I call a ‘Mona Lisa’ smile on his face. Very quickly the caterpillar started disintegrating in my hand and black thin spike like needles began digging into my open palm like porcupine quills. Each spike stung like a bee sting and my palm was covered in them. When I returned to my desk another male student in the dream helped me to remove the quills.
When I woke I could still feel the sensation of the dream. I had a sense of needing to rub the palm of my left hand but I was also left with a warm fuzzy feeling by the qualities of the unknown male stranger in the dream who helped me.
The left hand in a dream symbolises graciousness and feminine, receptive qualities. The ideal student-teacher relationship should involve a well-balanced combination of respect, trust, and discipline. By my actions in the dream I had a sense that I believed that this was the basis of the relationship that I had with this male teacher. At first the caterpillar felt soft and furry but as it became the very opposite to what it appeared I remember feeling surprised, puzzled and hurt by the pain I was feeling. Then I sensed that the other male who helped me remove the quills in the dream had a softness about him and a caring and compassionate nature.
For me this dream message goes to the heart of a pattern that I have had in life of giving myself away as a female to strong male authority figures, or men I believe can keep me safe. But the dream showed me that this belief is deceptive and needs to change.
In fact, the world political swing to right wing politics is also a reflection of this type of belief that conservative control and the strongman leader can save and protect us. The dream showed me that our faith in these types of leaders is misplaced and that we need to take ownership of our own authority, power and compassion.
The dream clearly showed me that there are both masculine and feminine qualities within the male gender (because this is my lesson) and that the ‘strongman’ leaders who we have in Government are in essence only a reflection of the imbalance within ourselves. Regardless of gender, each one of us needs to cultivate within ourselves what Carl Jung termed the Anima and the Animus – the Divine Feminine and Masculine. The Anima and Animus energy within us has nothing to do with sexuality, instead, it is all about creating balance.
The anima is thought to be the feminine part of a man’s soul, and the animus refers to the masculine part of a female’s soul. Both the anima and animus are ancient archetypes (or raw forms of energy) that every being contains. In our modern society these qualities have become unbalanced and polarised and need to be rebalanced and restabilised. [1]
Thus connecting with our own inner male and female energy is essential to balance the opposites within us to create a sense of Wholeness. The point is not to give up your sexual preference or identity, but to become a more mature human being. This means we need to take notice of our dreams and of symbols, which are important keys to our inner world.
It is therefore important to remember that the truth of our essence is one of balance and wholeness and now is the time that we are being called upon to take responsibility and reclaim our connection to both the masculine and feminine parts within ourselves. Once we transform internally then we will begin to see the changes in our outer world that are so desperately needed and we will be represented by leaders who themselves are balanced and whole.