Dreams: Messages from the Gods?

For Jung, the archetypes, and archetypal energy is what the ancients were accessing. He says, “The rain ancestor has the form of rain, but in reality, he is a man. You see, what is essential in the totem is the idea of the archetypes.” (Dream Interpretation pg. 85).

An archetype, despite its psychoid nature, which means “partly” somatic, “partly” psychic, and “wholly” unknown, is not a “god,” but an “image” of a god. This psychic image, which contains energy, affects us somatically. We have since been alienated from this archetypal basin, due to our hyper-focus on rationality and the move away from anything irrational like “gods” or “dreams.”

But it raises the question, are these images from the gods or God? Jung, couldn’t say for sure and opted for what he could prove empirically through the dream. A Jungian might be content to say that, your dreams are how you learn about the patterns and energies in your unconscious self, but also what your position is on these matters. More accurately, how you (the ego) relates to the psychoid unconscious (the Self) and to a possible unknown spiritual or transpersonal existence (Dreams, a portal to the source pg.3).

Now, how we are relating to the messages from “the gods” or archetypes, can be shown by the dream, but can also be spotted in consciousness. For Jung, the ancients were in more or less in stages one, two or three, and identified with their projections of God “out there.” Whereas, for modern day people, have disidentified and withdrawn projections, (due to the rise of science) and say that “there are no Gods out there, I am in control.” The Jungians would say “yes, you’re right, they’re not out there, they’re in here.” So, in order reach the fifth level of consciousness, one must establish an “Ego-Self” axis, by paying attention to the “unconscious,” or the complex, which most veritably comes forth through the dreams.

I find it interesting that the Hindus say that our whole existence is because of the “dream of Vishnu,” and that our existence, in fact, depends on him staying asleep. When he wakes up, we vanish. It reminds me of one of Jung’s dreams, where he saw himself as a yogi meditating and said that it wasn’t him dreaming the yogi, but the yogi dreaming him. I often ponder these types of scenarios and go mad over it, thinking about what is and isn’t true. But for the purpose of the course, I find Jung’s yogi self dream to be a good “ego-Self” axis image, and how one can relate to the Self and the unconscious through the pattern of the dream. Also, just to amplify further, the ego is born out of the Self, and born out of the Self “in the dream.”  You see in the dream of Vishnu, where Brahma (perhaps a possible Ego image) is born out of Vishnu’s navel (the center of personality/creation). All the while Vishnu lies on a bed of snakes (i.e. the instincts/the unconscious). It seems to me at least, that there are some universal truths here operating and Jung helped to bring these teachings (in his own way) closer to consciousness.

I understand why the East advocates a no ego attitude. Jung says that there is no ego in the dream and that the dream is a psychology of the unconscious. If the dream is pure nature, then nature must not have any ego. Therefore being one with nature requires no ego, but since our lives are structured towards more ego, the ego-Self axis is the reality that is to be built, or rather unlocked because it is already built in to us. if we ever want to have any hope at redemption I think we need hold both these paradigms (ego and non-ego) in mind.

One of the reasons why dreams are so veritable for information that we could most likely not find anywhere else is because; the ego (or dream-ego) is an observer and can’t interfere with the contents of the dream. So the dream consists of all truth (perhaps why the messages of the Gods were taken to be literally as true and acted upon) and why Jung used it in his empirical psychology toolbox.

The ego is responsible for light and consciousness and can fabricate stories in daytime consciousness. But during the nighttime, the ego in the dream has minimal power to influence the contents of the dark unconscious. The dream offers a comment to the ego on its attitudes and behaviors but doesn’t tell it “what to do,” as you so rightly brought up. That’s why it doesn’t make sense when people claim that they can “lucid dream,” because as far as I know, you can’t control your dream any more than you can control your autonomic nervous system. The dream, like the nervous system, is made of pure nature.

Taking mental risks and playing around with hypotheses are apparently for the crazy weird people. I don’t get the sense that people want the retrieval or even go there (the Magico-Religious realm as Eliade called it) and take that shamanic journey because it’s not rational still. A good majority of people won’t budge unless “science/studies have confirmed” such and such, and a good majority of people still take the position that they are the “doer,” rather the thing that is being “done.”

The ego thinks its the doer, but the ego is being done by the Self. Just mention something like Astrology for example, and you’ll quickly see where people stand in consciousness in relation to the Self. There is a violent resistance to not being in control. It’s the illusion of control of course!

My own vision of truth involves it being absolute and clear. It may require many different angles to see this one truth, but my vision and hopes is to help people see it. Whether I can illustrate that in a drawing or a diagram, or through my writing or both, I want to show people the magical world of truth (if it is even possible) and that there is more than what meets the eye, you just have to train your eye to see it.

I think Jung may said this about how it does people no good to tell people things and make assertions. Better yet is to teach people “the Art of Seeing.” I don’t think anything is clear in dreams but that’s why we analyze them and look for the patterns to get clear on them so that we may teach people the “Art of Seeing.”

I recall one my Astrology teacher Sam Geppi talking about Mars and cruelty and that, “there is no judgment in Mars being cruel. That is his pure energy. You have to be harsh and pull the weeds out so that new plants can grow. It’s purpose is to strengthen what is weak.”

Dante’s Inferno is very dream like, and I imagine that the stream of images shown in that story would be something similar for the images that show up in dreams. Or something completely different. It’s all associative and dependent upon the subject. But in Dante’s inferno there comes a clarity and absoluteness that results from the image of “Greed” or any other sin, for that matter. So having an image becomes like a mirror that we enter for reflection. It’s what the silvering of the Moon in alchemy is all about. As James Hillman and Robert Bosnak say, can we become lu-natic in our reflection or will we become a “lunatic,” incapable of reflection.