Today’s guest dream comes from artist and writer Gail Gray
who has recently published
Shaman
Circus. She had the dream the night before her 61
st birthday.
The Dream: I was at the Burgholzi Clinic in Zurich
and Dr. Carl Jung was there. He had asked many of us to bring our
“patients” into a room so he could see how we were doing with their
analyses. At first we were all worried, what would these unusual people
do with each other? Would there be trouble? Would they get along?
So I left and got my patient (I never saw myself in the dream, I just know it
was me in my own skin walking around and doing things. I never talked. I
came back with my “patient” who was a large teddy bear sort of man, mute, who
carried a large mason jar full of lightening bugs. He moved very
slowly--as if in a dream within my dream, sort of “not with it,” - a
lumbering giant. The man himself was sad and poignant, not quite sure what to
do. I was uncomfortable and feeling bad because I hadn't made much progress
with my giant and had not come to know him very well. There wasn't much action
after this, even when other people brought in their “patients,” except that we
were all rather mesmerized by the beauty of the light in the jar, but also the
bittersweet sadness of them being trapped in a jar.
When I woke on my birthday I was elated, even though in the dream I'd been
uncomfortable because of the remarkable appearance of Jung.
Carla’s thoughts: As usual when interpreting a guest dream,
I’ll react to Gail’s dream as if it were my own. (If you would like to know
why, read this post:
Cement Men
of Mars.)
Here’s my take on Gail’s dream: Dr. Jung has asked me (the
dream ego) to produce my patient (a part of myself that I don’t entirely
accept) so that he can assess my progress in analyzing (understanding and
integrating) him. My concern about whether or not my patient will get along
with the others hints at a social discomfort: I am afraid of conflict or some
sort of disharmony if I allow this part of me out in public. The fact that I’m
not talking in the dream tells me that I’m dealing with something that is
unconscious: it can’t be “verbalized” or discussed—at least not yet.
Because my patient evokes a “teddy bear” he symbolizes my
vulnerable inner child, possibly the Divine Child archetype (he carries light).
That he is large tells me he represents something that is very important to me;
and that he’s mute emphasizes the nonverbal, unconscious element that my own
silence in the dream alludes to. This child has not been able to get through to
me (he’s not quite sure what to do, and I feel bad because I don’t know him
very well). The crux of the dream, however, lies in this unusual detail about
the figure: He is the source of a
mesmerizing--if confined--light.
Dr. Jung represents my healing journey toward getting in
touch with this source of light within me. The word “patient” is repeated four
times in this relatively short dream, hinting that I need to be patient in
order to understand the spiritual truth of the light I carry. My light is
carried in a Mason jar; a mason works with stone; revealing this light is hard
(as stone) for me.
The timing of this dream is significant. Because I had this
dream on the eve of my birthday, it symbolizes the birth of a new
understanding. I am elated because I’ve begun to experience my own inner light,
and I can anticipate freeing it from its previously limited existence (in the
mason jar).
The dreamer always gets the last word, so I encourage Gail
to leave us her thoughts in a comment.
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