[Shaahayda Rizvi]

Marianne and James,

Marianne. Thank you for your generous and wise words on this dream thread. Passages from CW of Jung were especially big eye-openers. I read all that you wrote, and went over some online discussion of the same that is “Difference between individuation and individuality, the collective aspect and the non-conformity to the collective. “

Marianne, You wrote “what is in the present is also always unfolding, so in a sense the present is already what is present in the future, in its unfoldment..” Now this brings me to a question, don’t dreams just mix up our sense of time. We can dream about our childhood events, home or school, years and years ago, and then in quick new scene we are sitting in front of a TV that happens to be just where we are in present time. So, as past events link us to out present, our present leads us into our future. A dream is a wonderful whole package  – A psychological and historical self, displayed via scenes of symbols and stories.

James, this passage from Joseph that you quoted, brought in a whole new dimension to the dream self – a self that is deep and mysterious and yet a product of one’s own psychological and historical state, Quoting from your post, “Joseph said something which to me is truly profound; “we are standing on a whale fishing for minnows”; which symbolizes this deep fathomless ocean we are riding on all the time concerning the inner depths of our being. This powerful deep inner mystery that is informing us all the time in this language we are constantly struggling to understand. … “

Joseph also states; or at least in the way I understand it; that these forces must be interpreted or assimilated and they often come to us in the form of our dream life.” Thank you James for this passage.

This morning I awoke to the cawing of  my favorite crows near my bedroom window. They had sensed  that my desire to hike the mountain has a lot to do with sighting them, and cawing back to them. Here is a picture:

Maybe they come to this tree around the first three days of spring, but it’s only the last two years that I have started noticing them.

James, regarding “in the early stages of life as Joseph mentions; the individual is concerned with achievement of life…… But in the later stages of life the mental and emotional focus of the individual begins to shift towards the realization of the later stages which include acceptance and decline and loss of power of that life you have achieve” Unfortunately, I paid very little attention to my dreams in the early stages of my life, but now in my later stages, I am into them, writing them, looking at them, asking for guidance on a physical level. It’s in my later years that I am fascinated with crows, and they come to me in my dreams and guide me to my childhood homes and courtyards that I hold so dear. Truly a fascinating adventure.

Talking about fascinating adventure, I love this quote,  “In “Pathways to Bliss” on page 80; Joseph says this:

“Jung says life is like the day of a solar journey. The first part of it is up; moving from birth to the society. And the second part of it is down, moving from participation in the world and the society to death. And whereas the threat of the first half of life was life, the threat of the second half is death., and all the symbols are changing meaning.

Through the remaining part of life, Jung says, the great problem is integrating the inferior with the superior functions. That’s the great task of your later years.” 

I am sad that I paid no attention to my dreams when I was young, or as Jung puts it the first part of one’s life. If the first part of life is up and around our mid thirties, it would be fair to ask, did you Marianne and James ? I know Stephen has been devoted to his dream world much before his mid thirties.   Wondering if this would have somehow shaped a different trajectory? Wondering if this would have guided us in recognizing our soul mates, wondering if we could have made the right choices then? Just some thoughts. Marianne,  do you encourage your daughter or your grand daughter in recalling their dreams? I do encourage my son, now and then, but it does not make much of a dent.

Much to follow later.

Shaahayda