Dream One:

My cat, Poppy, is rushing round the old house (a very comfortable old house) that I am in (in my dream) as cats often do, screeching from one room to another.

The cat suddenly turns and rushes at the big fireplace in which a fire is burning well, rushes through the fire and up the chimney. A few seconds later down she comes again, out through the fire and then a little more rushing around (I am greatly amused buy this) and then up and down the chimney again. Then suddenly she disappears behind the chimney. I look behind and there is a large space in which is a huge brown bear. The bear is killing my cat. I am astonished but not upset at all. The bear appears from behind the chimney with the dead cat in its mouth and looks at me. I am still very amused and mock sternly order the bear from my house. The bear is contrite and although it doesn't speak I can "hear" what it is thinking "Oh, was that your cat? Oops! Sorry." and it walks out the door. I am filled with a great sense of rightness and satisfaction.

Dream Two:

I am in bed with this really beautiful woman. We are completely wrapped up in each others arms and legs. It is not erotic but it is deeply sensual and warm and safe and joyful. I look down and she has a hole on her chest at the base of her neck (something like a dolphin's blow hole) and I see that I have one too. They are both wide open and I realize we are both gasping for "breath". The woman laughs and says "Oh damn, Susie forgot to turn the water on (or was it off?) in the basement." She calls out and the water is fixed and we bury ourselves in each other again, no longer gasping. On waking I was filled with this truly wonderful sense of awe and joy. It is the "best" dream I have ever had. My wife liked it too!

I would love to hear what others think is going on in Jungian (or other) terms.

I am an introvert (mildly) intuitive (strongly).

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, South Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? No

David,
Dream One
From a 'jungian' point of view my thoughts are this dream is addressing those feminine qualities {cat} that are searching for an outlet {going from room to room and chimney}. You are in a comfortable place in your life {the house is you} but you still are looking for that one thing that fills your life. It may be you have already realized what that may be but it seems to disappear and reappear {up and down the chimney}. Alternatively it may be these '{feminine qualities need a stable outlet, being able to use such 'talents' on a more constant basis.

The bear, which uses stored up energy to survive and hibernate during certain times of the year, is the culprit that is denying this need/desire to utilize those qualities directed at the feminine aspects. It seems this is as much a game as it is something serious in your life. It may be it is your life in general, reflecting that comfortable place you are in at the present time.
The question becomes, what feminine aspect is it that is the focus of the dream?

Dream Two
Again there is this beautiful feminine aspect that is being addressed. It is not a sexual thing but sensual {could this be pointing to those intuitive qualities in some aspect?}. The chest may represent the location of the heart, both you and the feminine aspects live by breathing from this vital 'organ'. There are deep unconscious forces at work {water, the flow of unconscious forces, and basement, the deep unconscious}. Dependence on such forces from the heart, and deep unconscious, may suggest this feminine aspect is tied to the soul. In such cases we are speaking to creative aspects, and or spiritual aspects, both of which are feminine qualities of the psyche. Because you are an intuitive person {a higher quality I proclaim to possess also and an important aspect needed in dream interpretation} these feminine qualities seem to be the primary focus of the two dreams.

My sense of the dreams, and I use such intuitive senses as much as I do with the individual interpretation of symbols, is you are happy in your life but there is something that is blocking those deeper senses of wholeness you seek. That would most likely have to do with creative and/or spiritual aspects. But because you are in such a comfortable place in life, and at an 'advanced age of experience' you have learned to live life as it comes and not let such things become a true conflict. That would come from wisdom of those years of experience.

That is how this 'jungian' views your dreams. As a true 'jungian' {I use a small cap j since my focus is on his principles and theories and not the man} with a keen intuitive mind, and not that distant from the age of experience you possess, my senses do see positive qualities that need only to 'refocus' from time to time on these other 'important' feminine aspects. I dare say your wife is the primary 'feminine' structure in your life.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Thanks Jerry for your thoughtful reply.

Yes, to just about all that you said. I am comfortable with my life, I have a very happy marriage and I do have a number of creative outlets: painting, drawing, singing and I love to cook too.

And yes, there is that something missing, and it's a mystery, and it does haunt me.

One thing I noticed as I read your reply was an inner voice that said "He didn't notice the fire. Why didn't he notice the fire?" So apparently the fire is more important than I thought too. I will pay attention to that.

I had another dream last night before I read your reply:

I am talking to a woman and I am asking her to take care of this homeless boy (about twelve or thirteen). She starts to bargain with me; if you do this or that then I'll take care of the boy. I am polite but very firm with her. No! You cannot bargain your way in or out of this. Either you are committed to this boy or you are not. Either way is fine, but I will not bargain over this.

She leaves but (somehow) we arrange to meet later. We meet on a desolate stretch of road above a beach. The wind is blowing strongly off the sea and it is bitterly cold. I am concerned for her because she is very lightly dressed, but she doesn't notice the cold. She says that I said that I knew a wonderful jeweller and she shows me a pendant round her neck. "If you get him to fix this, I'll take the boy." Again I firmly repeat about the bargaining. Either do or don't, no bargains.

I walk off and leave her there and cross a large sports field and as I get to the far corner I see that there is a long zig-zag wooden staircase I have to climb to the road above. As I reach the bottom it begins to snow very heavily. The flakes are enormous. I hold out my hands and as each one settles I see that in fact each one has the outline of an animal, it melts on my hand and then there is another one. I look up and think "All animals of Earth are falling down to me." I am completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the snow creatures and I wake with a great sense of joy and yet a profound sense of sadness.

Another point is that nearly always my dreams have a large component of anxiety in them. These have none, other strong feelings, but not anxiety.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, South Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
About the fire. The dream statement 'a fire is burning well' is probably addressing that fire within, the creative fire. The 'in and out' may be saying something about that inner fire. I know personally there are those times when my inner fire seems to be 'out' due to social obligations {mostly work related} but I always come back to the thing I love most {working with dreams}.

Your most recent dream
I sense an element of the past entwined with the
present. Usually when a younger age is depicted within a dream it is addressing experiences from that period of time {twelve or thirteen}. This is a pattern I have noticed in the posted dreams over time and it most always holds true.
The homeless boy. Is that purely metaphorical or is there an experience from your youth that would fit with that description? Symbolically a home or house in a dream is the dreamer and being without a home would be without that 'inner' home. But literally it could be addressing past experiences as a youth. Analyze that period in your life and see if you find associations.

"And yes, there is that something missing, and it's a mystery, and it does haunt me". That statement along with the 'profound sense of sadness' you felt from this dream may be addressing childhood issues. Normally that would be 'unresolved' childhood issues but since your life is balanced and harmonious I would think there has been some type resolution to whatever may have been the conflict. Perhaps you have merely moved on.

Then we get to the bargaining with the feminine self. There may be aspects having to do with experiences at age 12-13 but I sense it is also speaking to present day life. Society has its negative side that is a constant source of conflict {as with my obligation to have to work for a living when I would rather be giving all my energies to my dream work}. For you, in retirement and with few conflicts in your life, I sense this would be addressing distractions to that creative self, which is a feminine quality of the psyche. For the most of us the bargaining is a constant day to day thing {we all have that creative spirit and unconsciously it is where we would rather be}. What distractions would there be in your life that prevent that creative spirit from flowing freely? Perhaps it does have to do with real bargaining of some type in the present day.

But not being able to 'bargain your way out'. Beyond any personal associations as a youth I sense this is speaking to current creative aspects. There seems to be strong ties to the past as a youth but again the narrative returns {'She leaves but (somehow) we arrange to meet later'} to the feminine aspects. It is difficult to discern what is past and what is present but the present probably has to do with the creative flow that 'comes and goes'.

The word cold could have this meaning:
Dreaming that you are cold indicates that you are experiencing a breakthrough in some area in your life

This would be addressing issues from your past. Perhaps that is what is invading that flow of creativity, past issues that have remained unconscious that still seeks resolution. With a life of harmony such issues can be held within the unconscious, unresolved, and still have an influence on current day life. Dreams are therapeutic in they attempt to help resolve those conflicts in life, present and past.

'Either do or don't', that reminds me of a very famous phrase from Yoda of Star Wars {"Do or Do not. There is no try"}. There is no bargaining. This is speaking to the inner 'Force', your inner creative force.
But is it also speaking to the past?

Note: George Lucas was greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell and like myself was a student of his. Of course Campbell was a 'jungian' also although he was a pioneer on his own in the field of myth, symbol and metaphor.

I am going to stop here to let you respond to what I already stated. I think it important to determine what past experiences there may have been as a youth that the dream is addressing so to distinguish between those experiences and current issues involving your creative self. Your dreams are most interesting because of your age and those possible negative experiences from the past, yet a harmonious life in the present. Getting to the roots of any possible negative experiences at the age of 12/13 may help in determining the intent of your dreams. As i stated previously conflicts from the past that are unresolved most always come to the fore front seeking resolution. Especially in our dreams {the therapeutic value of dreams}.
I eagerly await your response.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

I don't have to think far! At age thirteen I was sent to a private English and, as it turned out, brutal boarding school. A very tough five years followed.

I do wax hot and cold over my creative stuff, which are very important to me. I find myself frequently unable to settle to one thing, I move on to another, then another and then back to the original one. It is frustrating. I am well passed blaming myself for this (most of the time!) but it is difficult because it stops me digging deeper and improving ...

I had an insight about my last dream. The pendant that the woman showed me was like the pendant I gave my wife as an engagement "ring". It was handmade by a very good jeweller whose name was "The Blind Pilot." Now that's interesting!

I think I need to add another dream which I had a few days before the first one I posted:

I am in a hospital at the bedside of a very sick girl aged about twelve. She is deathly pale and cold. I am holding her hand and I am very worried about her.

She opens her eyes and looks toward the end of her bed and look of absolute terror comes onto her face. I look to see what she has seen and there is Kali, the black goddess, in all her stinking glory. She is terrifying but I am quite unconcerned. I turn back to the girl and say "Oh don't worry that's just Kali. She's here to protect you. Just imagine how safe you'll be with her protecting you." I watch the colour and warmth flood back in to her face and body.


Last night's dream:

I am on a powerful motorcycle with my wife riding pillion. She is snuggled close behind me with her arms around my waist.

I am looking down a long pier going out into the ocean and a man I can't see is shouting into a loud-hailer "We are only just discovering the bottom of the seabed." Suddenly the view changes to another but longer pier and the man shouts the same thing sounding like an old-fashioned ringmaster from a circus. Then the view changes again to another pier. This one is several kilometers long and rising in a series of waves to height of maybe two hundred meters above the sea. The ringmaster shouts out again and I am filled with a fierce excitement. I open the throttle wide and off we go. My wife is laughing and she says in my ear "I hope you know what you're doing, hotshot!" I do. I am going to do a jump off the end of the pier into the ocean.

We are going "mach3 with our hair on fire" when we reach the end, but instead of the pier ending abruptly it slopes down very steeply to the water and into a mess of netting and cables. I know immediately that way will be fatal, so I swerve left and off the edge and into the air. We kick the bike away and fall towards the ocean and we are laughing like a pair of very happy lunatics. The ringmaster calls out "We are only just beginning to discover the bottom of the seabed."

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
I will provide my thoughts on 'last night's dream' later today {social calls early this morning}. But I will comment about the dream of the 12 year old girl. I see this as returning to the present, with perhaps the past {when you were 12/13 as perhaps being the beginning of your problem with focusing on your creative self in the present day. Kali is the Goddess of the Black Death, reflecting a major transition in life when the inner self is resurrected to consciousness {the death being of the ego centered self}. As a matter of fact it was Kali in a dream I had many years ago {1997-98} that reflected my awakening to that inner domain. It was not long after I had the dream I began to learn web design {self taught} which of course led to the birth of my web site Myths-Dreams-Symbols {I first put it on-line in 1998}. Of course that was the birth of my creative and the prelude to my learning how to interpret dreams.

Back to your dream. The girl {feminine aspect} is in need of healing {hospital}. At age 12 it may be pointing to the age your young psyche was affected by the trauma of the brutal boarding school.

Note: Once again your dream of the boy at the age of 12-13 demonstrates such dreams are addressing emotional conflicts during that period of life. This seems to be a constant with the dreams posted at the Forum

Black Kali is in your dreams in the present. That may reflect a conscious realization of unresolved conflicts from an earlier age, something that has been stored away but still has an influence on your life {an inability to focus on your creative self}. Kali at first glance is a terrifying sight. But her healing powers are tremendous. Perhaps she is in this dream to help heal the inability to focus. By realizing and confronting the past emotional experiences, it may help with that problem. And since she is the Black Death and the girl in your dream is 12, perhaps it points to a new birth of your inner self providing new abilities to focus on the creative aspects. The 'color and warmth' is returning, you can finally let go of the past {by confronting it and finally putting it in its proper place}. This is the therapeutic healing affect of dreams at work.

Perhaps 'last night's' dream will provide answers to that possibility. The dream statement "We are only just discovering the bottom of the seabed" does seem to be pointing to those very deep unconscious conflicts {the deeper the water the deeper the unconscious contents}. That statement is repeated at the end of the dream which suggests this is the beginning of those discoveries.
As terrifying as Kali may seem, going deep into the unconscious can be much more terrifying.
"I hope you know what you're doing, hotshot!"

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

Thanks again for your thoughtful reply. It is very helpful to get an "outsider" to look at my dreams, especially someone as insightful as yourself.

You were a student of Joe Campbell? Lucky you! He is one of my heroes along with Gregory Bateson. I tried to study with GB at UCSC, but it didn't work out. Sigh!

Anyway ... Kali. Yes I think she is there to heal. Quite how I don't know, and I don't think I actually need to know. I am healing myself, I can feel it. And that is good.

Dream Five:

I am getting off an airplane at LAX. I am met by a woman called Jane Oxnard and I am meeting her because she has adopted two girls and I am getting ready to do the same and I want to talk.

She has brought a bicycle for me and she sets off with me pedaling behind and watching the world go by. I look up and she has vanished. I look around and I see her way ahead of me. I finally catch up with her as she is letting herself into her home.

"Hey Jane" I say. She turns around and it's not Jane. I have been following the wrong woman. I explain what has happened. She says her name is Susan Plowright, and she says "That's not the Jane Oxnard who has adopted two daughters is it?" I say it is and she smiles and says she knows her. "Come on in," she says "and we'll figure something out."

When I told my wife this dream, she said "See, never mess with a woman, we all know each other."

Damn right! :)

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
I will need to 'catch up' on your last two dreams later today or in the morning. The 'social dragon' is requiring too much of my time but I have a herd of cats {literally} to feed so I must give in to those needs. Yesterday was a full day, from early morning to late in the evening. My busiest time of the year {I am a contractor}.

Your wife is of course right about messing with a woman. But the deeper aspects are even more important. I am a believer in the powerful 'feminine'. She, the inner feminine aspects of the psyche, is more powerful than the masculine. Man comes from the womb and in nature it is the mother that is most powerful. Unfortunately our Western way of thinking is patriarchal and tries to suppress this vital aspect of the psyche. They do so at their own peril, or as the 'world turns', the peril of the whole planet {global warming, destruction of the planet}. It has come to such a destructive nature even the Catholic church finds itself in peril {abuse of children by priests}. So we must be in awe of the powerful feminine or risk the wrath of the Great Mother.

I see in this mornings news they are predicting a strong hurricane season. We all remember Katrina and that year of hurricanes. Mother Nature doesn't tolerate such abuses {even though the patriarchal church does}.

You are wise to listen to your wife. But I sense you possess a great wisdom of your own. Added to the wisdom of your wife you must be living a great life together. A great model for us all.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

I was dream-free last night. Well, I wasn't of course, I just didn't remember it/them. But at least we have nothing to catch up on today! No hurry with the dreams, there is plenty of time in this world.

Am I wise? I've kicked around the world a bit; been married to a very wise and loving woman for nearly forty years; have about 25 years of formal education which, truly, these days I think is worth not much at all, everything that I learned that was worthwhile I learned over a cold beer (or two); and I have read and read and read so I have taught myself which is the best way. So ... wise? I don't know, and anyway that's not really for me to say.

And yes, I love women. I like everything about them! To me, the saddest kind of man is a misogynist. What they are missing :-)

In peace.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
"We are only just discovering the bottom of the seabed."
This dream statement could apply to both personal conflicts when you were 12/13 and/or discovering the deep inner core of the soul which produces that balance and harmonious life you are now living. I am believer of such 'inner secrets' but look at them as natural phenomenon available to the mind when engaged in a truly spiritual awakening. That is what Jung's Individuation Process can offer to those who dare venture the journey inward.

The two different 'piers' {peers} may be evidence of both views of your life. You are the ringmaster of your own circus {satisfaction and contentment with your life}. You are able without fear to confront those deepest aspects of your life, 'jumping off the pier into the ocean' {deep unconscious}.

'hair on fire' is indicative of your attitudes. Virility, sensuality, and good health seem to rule your life. And it does matter that you have a wife who shares the same values. Going at 'mach3' suggests you are living life at its fullest. And to do that you have to be able to put life into perspective, including the negatives that always are present within the recesses of the unconscious, being able to avoid the 'fatal' aspects that often bring lesser souls down. Swerving to the 'left' {left in the hero journey of mythology is the path of adventure, not letting society dictate how you live your life}, you are able to realize that life of 'happy lunatics'.

But you are only 'discovering the bottom of the seabed'. I see this idiom {'as in Davy Jones locker'} as addressing the rest of your life, as well as 'exploring and realizing' what the soul has to offer beyond the norm of waking realization. The last of course is purely subjective but without personal concepts that can not be proven {or disprove} how would be discover what we don't already know? I sense you do possess concepts of the 'metaphysical' kind that helps you to be able to live this 'crazy life' that only a lunatic could live in this crazy world.

Dream Five
This dream may have personal connotations as well as symbolic, experiences from recent waking experiences that only you can recognize the associations. Following the wrong woman would be metaphor for addressing your anima aspects and probably your creative endeavors. Literally in many ways your wife is 'ahead' of you. The vanishing woman would be your creative aspects, that part of you that fulfills the soul. The woman who isn't who you think she is would probably be related to those aspects of your life, a 'play' on words that again address the 'off and on again' creative juices. The two adopted girls, your creative self {a feminine aspect} and the life you have lived for 40 years with your wife. Each knows each other well, and you, as well.


The wisdom you possess, common sense of experience plus the education of 25 years. You have chosen the first in the last part of life, being that true self, evolving from the natural aspects not limited by social duty {formal education}. Better to enjoy a cold beer under the stars than be a star that can not enjoy what nature has to offer. I sense more wisdom than you admit to. And a life I envy and hope to immulate as I grow older.
Peace and harmony.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

My dream sequence appears to have come to an end for the moment anyway.

Your replies have been very provocative (in the best sense) and have been a necessary and gentle shove to look deeper at my dreams and I have found it really useful. Thanks.

I seem to have leaped off into the void with my wife beside me. I like the idea of swerving left into adventure. Very cool!

Joseph Campbell's video(s) on the Kundalini Yoga:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=100902359

also mentions the the motor cycle couples on the freeways and what they represent.

Thanks Jerry. And when my dreams re-surface, I will no doubt be back.

Kia kaha.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
Our conversations have been a pleasant and rewarding experience. It is seldom that someone your age and wisdom posts their dreams. And more seldom that I encounter someone who is blessed with a truly balanced and harmonious life. I do believe your dreams demonstrate the positive aspects in life while at the same type present those 'negative' aspects as well {experiences as a youth}. Those conflicts are uniform to what I believe the deep unconscious keeps in 'storage' no matter the condition of the waking life. In my mind there is no doubt you have learned to live with the negatives probably because you have put them into proper perspective. That lesson is what the 'Individuation Process is about. Discovering the emotional conflicts, confronting the shadow, realizing the underlying causes, and putting them into perspective. Often there is a confrontation with actual persons involved to help resolve the conflicts. But for you and I {I never confronted my father about his emotional abuse} there is an ability to work through the conflicts and find within ourselves those 'inner resources' to balance life and live it to its fullest. I see you as a great example of what can be when a person looks inward and discovers within himself the source of true being, which Jung proclaimed be spiritual and creative. You are living your life on your own terms and not bound by anything other than what the heart and soul desire. A true resurrection of the spirit which is required in the journey of life.

May be peace and longivity be with you and your lovely and loving wife {I know she is lovely because no soul can be such an inspiration without such qualities}. I hope you will stop by from time to time to inspire us with your life of dreams, a life that would fit with the greatest of dreams. You are a wonderful example of how to live life. Great wisdom I see.
twam twam asi,

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

I have had the same dream in different clothes maybe five or six times over the last two nights. My wife is away at a conference and I don't sleep so easily with her gone!

All the dreams are like this: I find two females (cats, children, teenagers, women, cows (cows!!??)) and I know they are lost. I talk to them and point the way and go happily on their way. The end.

Why two females I wonder?

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
The two 'feminine' aspects in your life, your wife and your creative/spiritual Self. When they seem to be lost {or away at a conference} you need only look inward to find the path to point to to lead them back.

The different clothes usually would point to the persona, the 'inner self' obscured by the outer clothing we wear {ego}. With your wife away, or your creative spirit on the wane, you are one person. When she is with you and/or when your creative juices are flowing you are another.

As for the 'cows'. They would qualify as 'feminine'. Passive, mothering, giving {milk}, nurturing. Of course recent experiences often trigger many symbols in our dreams. A cow could be descriptive of another feminine quality but we won't go there.

Strange that this is a part of your dream. Recently I have looked at that very aspect about myself. When I am working with dreams I am in another world, different from the world of 'social obligations'. Although I am comfortable {and relatively successful} at what I do for a living {that success is more and more predicated on honesty, ethics and doing what is right- spiritual aspects} I have lost that zeal for it. I guess that comes with growing older. But as with the politician who had found his 'soul mate' {Governor, South Carolina, Brazil, mistress} his 'sole' desire was to be with her. My dream work is my mistress but my social obligations {work} is what I am really married to all too often.

As Campbell put it, two aspects of the same thing.

OK. I've given as much time as I can this morning to my 'true Self. Now on to my 'real' self. I have to do my taxes.
Ouch!

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry
Of course! I have been watching Joseph Campbell again. And I have been drawing pictures of the twin energies twining themselves around the spine, the kundalini energies. Different "clothes" = different chakras maybe?

I never put the two together - doh!

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
I need to watch Campbell's video's again. I always pick up something new every time I view them. I spent many, many hours during the 90s listening, watching and reading anything that was available by him. When I finally started reading Jung it was if I already knew much of what was coming. Campbell is a great primer for the difficult style that is Jungian psyche.

Have you seen his Transformations of Myth lectures. They have been recast as the Mythos series also. You can watch the Transformations videos here or the Mythos here. I also have both listed by individual video, along with the Power of Myth videos, on the front page of Myths-Dreams-Symbols. These lectures help clarify a lot of the insights to the psyche in a way most anyone can understand. That is probably perhaps the one thing about Campbell that makes him so valuable to the average intellect {like mine}, his ability to articulate the message.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Jerry

I agree, the videos are really really good for anyone like me with an interest in this boundary between Jung and the mythological world. I watched some of them on PBS when I was living in the US in the 80s and I didn't really understand them, I think. I was deep into Freud at the time :)

I've just about finished "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" and I think I'll start on "Man and his Symbols" next.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 70, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

David,
'Man and His Symbols' is really deep stuff. But because you have read and do understand the important message from Campbell you will undoubtedly have little trouble with it. Like you it took a lot for me to finally understand the depths of the psyche for which Campbell and Jung takes us. But perhaps because we do have this affection for all things 'nature' what they have to offer fits 'naturally'. Their message is of the soul and anyone who dares to venture into the world of the deep psyche will come away enlightened. But you know this already or you would not be living that harmonious life you and your wife share. That is one of the great benefits of going 'inward'. You are 'living' proof of that as well as a great example.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes