I had a dream!
I had a dream!
Collage and photo: Renate Siedentopf
I acknowledge all of my feelings because I am in touch with my feelings.
The ancient Greeks tell us that the images and stories of dreams are woven by “Psyche”, the archetypal being of the soul herself! Thus this inner work with images, giving us a different kind of eyes with which to see, has often been called “soul work.” Borrowing then from the Greeks the image for the soul personified, Psyche represents the unknown aspects of the self, a part of being that contains both the “superconscious” (connected to higher dimensions) and “subconscious” (connected with the earth and physical universe). C. G. Jung found that it was through the guiding help of inner sight that a person’s life is made better. He writes about those who pursue the inner images of dream and visions, “Such a person becomes a more complete being.”
Jung wrote, “ Consciousness if forever interfering.” Innerwork is the place where intuition must be given full reign without suspending personal reason and responsibility.
Many innovations in science and the arts have come directly from dreams along with intuitive and life-enhancing insights. Even when specific empirical answers and solutions to the often unsolvable issues of life do not come forth in dreams, Jung found that patients who engaged their dreams would simply grow bigger than the life problems they faced.
The "pool" of our soul has to be still, so that both heaven and earth can be reflected clearly in it. Jung describes this “stillness” as the Tao, a concept of wholeness and fulfillment that he gained from the teachings of Lao Tse.
Jung took this insight as guide to developing the most fruitful relationship with one’s dreaming soul, or Psyche. He found that whatever face we give to Psyche—how we approach her—is the face with which she will greet us. In other words, if we look to her with quiet enthusiasm, curiosity, and positive expectations, she will be a sponsoring guide. In fact, Jung’s approach to working with the inner images has been called one of “utter reverence and gentle receptivity.” Jung believed that, far from ignoring or even distrusting the soulful weaver of our dreams, she should be seen as friend and helpmate. Like a muse, one may well woo her.
Plotinus, founding Neoplatonist of the third-century AD, puts it this way, ‘When the imagination is in the right place, when it is functioning correctly, it works like a mirror that by means of it the reflection of consciousness takes place.” Further he found that when we are in right relation to the inner images, there is a functional correspondence between the dreaming self and conscious ideas and concepts so that the latter may be corrected by the images of the soul.
- Darielle Richards -
