Men and women from many different cultures and eras have paid attention
to their dreams, seeking guidance from their Creator. They have sought
to gain a deeper awareness of themselves, their world and their
relationship with God
through dream interpretation.
Dreams are mentioned in the Bible.
Joseph is involved in
dreams of the Egyptian
Pharaoh, a story beautifully brought to life in the musical 'Joseph
and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat'.
Here it is made clear that dreams are a form of God’s
communication with mankind.
Dreams are symbolic.
There are many types of dream — prophetic, visionary,
healing, warnings, nightmares, and dreams related to the dynamics of the
A dream is like a play or drama where the plot, actors
and the audience are an aspect of the dreamer. All the characters and
objects symbolise our attitudes, feeling, thinking and experience.
Dream symbols are often drawn from the
individual’s memory and experience and used to convey meaning e.g. a
dream about sitting an exam at school, years after the event took place,
may convey the stress and anxiety the person is feeling in his life at
Because these symbols are imbued with our own personal
meaning, blanket interpretations of the form ‘this’ means ‘that’ are of
little use. However there is a deeper universal aspect to this, as all
people face essential learning tasks on their spiritual journey, e.g. an
ever expanding awareness of ego’s ‘blinkered’ attitudes.
These dream symbols can be a container into which
the Divine can flow — but we choose whether to open the dream
and let it speak to us.
explains that before language emerged ancient
races were spiritually guided by their dreams and visions rather than
depending upon the written words in spiritual teachings. Dreams connect
us with the spiritual realms. Dreams form a network powered by Creative Love that pours forth from the Divine connecting angels,
spirits and people — all receiving this energy according to their own
Jung (one of the founders of depth psychology) also
believed in the power of the image (in dreams or otherwise). He saw
images as forming a universal language which conveys energy — which can
be transformational. The individual in his interaction with dream images
is enabled to progress towards the person he was created to be.
Swedenborg himself during his transition from scientist
towards visionary and mystic wrote a dream journal. In this journal we
find a man struggling with his inner demons with great honesty and
courage. It truly was a rite of passage towards a more spiritual life.
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