Pilgrim in America

Saturday, from 9:30 to 2:30 workshop on dreams. I say hello to Pam who is at the reception table. Similar audience, I meet again the two therapists from the church. Take a seat next to a middle aged woman. She is also a therapist. She knows the UU, they are well known in the city. She gives me a chocolate.

(Next to us on a coach: 2 men and a woman. Diversity: one of the men sitting cross-legged, the other has his nails painted red, the woman is beyond 250 pounds.)

They distribute some papers: Exercise Manual and Orientational Priciples: Identify the setting; Identify the psychic dominant; Translate this function; Ground the image;, Develop the moral imperative; Prediction and correction; The Gradient; Mantras. Exercises: analyses of dreams.

The nature of symbols is important. Examples: Going to the beach to take a swim in the sea. A shark fin shows up. The sea is the subconscious, the shark's fin is a symbol of a life threatening danger. It warns me not to proceed. Snorkelling in shallow water. An octopus shows up, I become frightened. Meaning: the octopus is harmless, the water is shallow, I can proceed.

Pursuing: escape from myself. Weird landscape: I feel myself alien. The house is also a symbol of myself. (Jung's dream of a house with many storeys. Bones in the cellar - Freud's interpretation: "You wish to kill me". Jung's interpretation: the ancient basis of the personal psyche, the collective subconscious. On the other hand Freud was also right: Jung got rid of him as an authority.) Death of someone close: letting go of the identification. I'm not prepared for exam: I'm not ready for the next stage in life or analysis. Nakedness: clothes are my persona, I need to get rid of it.

The kundalini power rising on the 7 chakras means realization of stages of spiritual evolution, corresponding to the 7 planets of the solar system - the oneness of the psyche and cosmic reality. Mother complex: we spent too much time in the maternal protection. Getting rid of it is leaving material safety, a heroic step. Car: symbol of the ego: takes me from here to there. Pushing the break with no avail: I can't control the events. In the past the horse had the same role: understanding old symbols in literature. Flowing water: direction of the evolution.

Identifying the physical illnesses with spiritual problems is difficult: connecting the two levels is not easy. Recurring illnesses on the other hand could mean psychological problems. (Cancer could mean a superfluous ego.)

Moral: 1. Pick an image; 2. Define its function; 3. Apply it to yourself (grow and change); 4. Find the mythological parallels; 5. Identify it in the context of the present times and live accordingly.