The Dream: Communal singing has begun, and Clark and I join in. A young attractive woman with short curly hair asks us if we will join the church choir in our new area. She says it’s fantastic and everyone either belongs to it or joins in the singing at the services. I see a very large choir at the front of a church where the altar would normally be. The choir is joyous and full of life. I think that with Clark’s distaste for religion it isn’t likely we’ll be joining this group.
We leave the hall and are walking outside. It is summer, but there is slushy snow on the ground, and a light snow is falling. I am comfortable as we walk through the chilly air, but I notice Clark has no gloves; his hands are bare. “You have to learn how to dress for the cold,” I tell him.
Interpretation: Again I deal with isolation. The seduction of belonging is clear; the group makes beautiful music. But my other half, as represented by my husband Clark, cannot pay the price required to join in. Again the intellect is the culprit: I cannot pretend to believe what is so demonstrably not true. I tell this part of myself that since it’s going to be out in the cold, so to speak, it better learn how to dress for it.
Where was the communal singing in the opening of the dream? I'd be interested in exploring the details, or lack thereof, of the opening scene where the singing is spontaneous and from which the dream moves.
ReplyDeleteI am struck by the image of the mandala in the background of the scene, which in Jungian terms, is a symbol of the Self. Who is the female figure who gives you (me)the invitation to join the singing in a new place, a holy place, at the sacred altar of the Self? For me, the figure symbolizes the Feminine who will bring me to the Holy. Which is a very large step (an image from another posted dream) downwards.
Our negative animus figures want to fight us (women) all the way if our path is taking us in a new direction, whether consciously or unconsciously. So, for me, this dream brings me to a holy (wholly) place where the singing is taken to a new level, an invitation to become part of the whole, ending the (internal) isolation. But, my intellect still wants things in a certain way, but even my intellect can't explain why it's snowing in the summer. This dream truly resonates with me! -E-
The communal singing is in the church, the choir standing on risers in the area where you would expect to see the altar.
ReplyDeleteYou point out the play on words between "holy" and "whole." This is an interesting point because, in the literature of earlier eras--the works of Milton and Donne, for example, alienation and isolation are presented as the soul's longing for the completeness that only comes from union with God. Many early cultures symbolically represented this union, this "wholeness" as the Sacred Marriage.
Yes, and as I am learning in my Spiritual Direction program, we all have this longing towards the Mysterious. I don't necessarily like to use the God word as such, but there is a divinity in and through all things - call it energy, call it vibrations. We are all connected. Interesting about touch in the next dream as well - I think there's also a hint towards using intuition, to parallel that the intellect will not necessarily get one into union with the All. What a great series of dreams. -E-
ReplyDeleteThank you, E, and thanks for elaborating on the spiritual dimension in this series of dreams. Best of luck with your program; our era is desperately in need of spiritual succor.
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