[heading]The Dream[/heading]
I’m in my house: a special, personal space, and my inner sanctum where I choose the rules of engagement. Messages come to me in this house, delivered by a loud, disembodied voice, and later accompanied by bombs, like the kind dropped from a World War II plane.
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I understand that these messages are from the Mysteries that are directing and influencing my spiritual journey. They’re pushing me, sending bombs my way in the form of life challenges, waiting for me to answer them. I refuse to answer, and with every refusal, I enter deeper and deeper into my inner house, to rooms that are secret and special to me.
But still the messages and bombs come. The Mysteries can penetrate this secret, private space within me. And the bombs are getting bigger as I go deeper inward.
After a huge bomb lands on the floor in front of me, I wake up with a jolt and my initial reaction is fear and frustration. Aren’t I listening and responding to the Mysteries constantly? I work my dreams. I pay attention to what’s happening in my life always. I’m willing to heal, change, grow in whatever ways are necessary. Deep spiritual work is as natural and necessary to me as breathing. Am I missing something? And do I really need to just keep getting bombs to do my personal work? Bigger and bigger bombs… egads!
Then it comes to me — I’m not afraid in the dream at all. I’m calm, fully present, even slightly amused. The messages and bombs show up. I observe them, curious, engaged, but choose not to answer the Mysteries’ questions. Then I go to the next level, deeper inside of me, and do the same thing over again with the next message and bomb.
[heading]Dream Teaching[/heading]
The message of this dream is pretty direct: big change is here, and that change is driven by challenges that work the deepest layers of the psyche. Bombs are being dropped in my inner sanctum, going deeper and deeper, and getting bigger and bigger. Profound, core healing and transformation are required.
This is a personal message from the Mysteries, and also a collective one. My newsfeed is deluged with “big bombs” daily. There are immense, tumultuous, wrenching events going on in the public sphere on all levels: socially, politically and environmentally. The core of our human society is being exposed and challenged.
This is translating directly into our individual lives. In my community, close friendships and my own life, I’m intimately aware of the huge challenges landing in our laps — bombs are being dropped that demand a fundamental re-evaluation and re-making of things as they are.
[p-quote2] The most potent teaching in this dream isn’t so much in its content, but in my Waking Self and Dream Self responses. We have two choices when bombs show up in our inner landscape and outer lives: one is fear and frustration (my Waking Self) and the other is curiosity and acceptance (my Dream Self). [/p-quote2]
Although fear is an understandable initial response, it doesn’t get us anywhere. The necessity for deep change isn’t going away. Ignore the bomb, and another shows up, bigger and deeper. The best, most effective choice is to be like my Dream Self: a badass that welcomes challenge and change, and understands the bigger and deeper the bomb, the more fundamental and profound the healing and transformation.
This isn’t to say that my Dream Self is reckless and loves messing up my life. Bombs aren’t necessarily about negative catalysts for change. Sometimes that can be the case, especially if we resist and deny the impetus for change. But challenges can also be positive, for example: heeding a long-denied passion; healing a deep-rooted family pattern; leaving behind an unhealthy relationship; and stepping into fresh, empowering life circumstances.
The bomb that arrives in our inner sanctum is the specific challenge that we need to heal, grow and transform our lives. No matter whether it’s positive or negative, a response of curiosity and acceptance allows us to heed the promptings of the Mysteries, and of life itself, and to walk a path of profound healing and transformation.
[heading]Lesson in Pagan Dreaming[/heading]
This dream offers powerful lessons in dream images and symbolism.
[p-quote2] Dreams speak in the language of images and symbolism. Images work on two key levels: the collective and the personal/individual. [/p-quote2]
Collective images are sourced from our shared human consciousness, and offer a universal symbolic interpretation. For example, in this dream I’m in my house which typically represents the inner landscape and realm of my soul. This is reinforced in my dream by my sense of sovereignty and ownership of this house. By setting this dream in my house, I know immediately that this is an important dream that will speak to my spiritual pathwork.
Personal images are carefully selected by our Dream Self and psyche to bring specific aspects of our life story and experiences to our attention. These images provide context and further understanding for the collective images and other dream details, and offer clarity and focus for our spiritual pathwork.
[p-quote2] When I work with a dream, I don’t do a detailed analysis of its images and their symbolic meanings. Instead, I look for the images that are central to the dream, and more minor images that grab my attention. I’m also interested in anything that reflects what’s going on in my life at the moment. [/p-quote2]
Once I’ve identified these images, I empty my mind and see what intuitive leaps and information come to me. I may immediately get what the collective image means, recall a memory or situation that reveals the symbolism and purpose of the personal image, or decide I need to dig deeper. Digging deeper may involve research to learn more about a collective symbol, or open journaling to explore the roots of a personal image.
With my bomb dream, the images and symbolic meanings came to me right away. Without question, the bomb is the central symbol in the dream. This is a collective image that conjures up instant, massive destruction. Given that the bombs are landing in my house, it’s clear that this dream is about profound, core healing and transformation on a personal level, as discussed above.
But what parts of my life are these bombs connected to, and where do I need to focus my spiritual pathwork?
[p-quote2] It’s the personal images in dreams that move us from the collective to the individual level of meaning. [/p-quote2]
In my dream, the type of bomb is very specific: an old style from World War II. Again, I don’t need to do any digging to understand the personal symbolism in this image.
My parents were children in World War II, and lived in a city in England that was bombed regularly. My mother tells stories of running for the bomb shelter with my aunt and grandmother when the sirens went off. My father was separated from his family and sent to live with strangers in the countryside. My grandfather was in the Merchant Navy and survived his ships being blown up four times.
Recently I’ve started thinking about the generational stories that underlie the dysfunctional patterns that run in my family. I’ve been dealing with some “big bombs” around these patterns that are motivating me to heal and grow in core, fundamental ways. And this dream points me to my parents’ and grandparents’ experiences in World War II as the aspect of my family story that I need to explore in my spiritual pathwork at this time.
This dream is the beginning of a longer journey in search of the family and generational stories that will guide my healing and transformation in the months to come. I share it with you as an invitation to embrace your deep dreams with curiosity and acceptance, even when big bombs of healing and transformation show up in your dream landscape and outer life.
Within these dreams, you’ll find the very things you need, woven into the collective and personal images, to guide and deepen your spiritual pathwork, and bring profound, fundamental change to your life.
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Artwork by Eleonor Piteira (eleonorpiteira.squarespace.com)