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  • AN UNUSUAL WEATHERMAKER, A HELL OF A GUY!

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    Dear blog friends,

    Christmas is approaching, it's the happy time of presents. And what present could I give you? It seems that for the majority, dear readers, you are American. What can I give you Americans?

    Ah, I will tell you a Christmas story that I loved, that fascinated me and that remains unforgettable for me.

    I am going to celebrate what the man I admire the most, General Patton, did at Christmas 1944. He accomplished a feat that you cannot imagine, a master stroke that defies reason, that made it possible to defeat the German army and win the war.

     

    Patton 1.jpg

     

    General Patton was a man who prayed to God every day, without worrying about religious frames. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he knew the Bible very well and went to church on Sundays, he also liked to go to Mass to pray; he considered reincarnation to be a reality and thought he was a warrior in ancient times, which, according to him, had developed his gifts as a strategist and his psychic gifts of clairvoyance.

     

    Patton 2.JPG

     

    This big, burly man, who didn't give a damn about standards, would follow his inner voice and pray as he felt, with his words, and even more so with his guts, to ask for help to liberate Europe from the Nazi invasion.

    What help?

    Let's see!

    It was December 1944.

    General Patton, in a formidable lightning offensive, had just liberated France from Normandy to Lorraine. "Overwhelming feats, swift advances, victory everywhere." The Allied armies, east in the Ardennes, were ready to invade Germany.

    But since September 1944, incessant rain had been falling and harassing the soldiers. The rain was the great concern, the permanent torment of the General Commander-in-Chief of the Third American Army. He was tired of seeing his soldiers fighting against mud and floods as much as against the Germans.

    On 8 December, in Nancy, General Patton called the chaplain of his army and declared to him :

    "Chaplain, this is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war."

    The Chaplain mentioned that it usually was not a customary practice among men of his profession to pray for clear weather in order to kill fellow men.

    The General retorted:

    "Chaplain, are you teaching me theology or are you the Chaplain of the Third Army? I want a prayer."

    The chaplain wrote a prayer on the spot and took it to Patton. Here it is:

    "Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen"

     

    Prayer.jpg

     

    The General read the prayer and asked: "Have 250,000 copies printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one." He then told the Chaplain:

    - Sit down for a moment, I want to talk to you about this matter of prayer.

    I am a strong believer in Prayer.

    There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by praying.

    Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking.

    Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that's working.

    But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes.

    Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God.

    God has His part, or margin in everything. That's where prayer comes in.

    Up to now, in the Third Army, God has been very good to us. We have never retreated; we have suffered no defeats, no famine, no epidemics. This is because a lot of people back home are praying for us. We were lucky in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy. Simply because people prayed.

    But we have to pray for ourselves, too.

    A good soldier is not made merely by making him think and work. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or working. It's his "guts."

    It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. Great living is not all output of thought and work. A man has to have intake as well. I don't know what you call it, but I call it Religion, Prayer, or God."

    Patton continued:

    We've got to get not only the chaplains but every man in the Third Army to pray. We must ask God to stop these rains. These rains are that margin that hold defeat or victory.

    If we all pray, it will be like what Dr. Alexis Carrel said [who described prayer "as one of the most powerful forms of energy man can generate"], it will be like plugging in on a current whose source is in Heaven. I believe that prayer completes that circuit. It is power. (1)

     

    Soldier praying 1.jpg

     

    On 14 December the prayer was distributed to the troops.

    Around 15 December 1944 General Patton woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning with a dream.

    He perceived intensely that German troops were launching a secret offensive to seize the port of Antwerp and thus deprive the American troops of their supplies. The enemies were therefore preparing to break the Allied lines advancing in the Ardennes. General Eisenhower was completely unaware of the German plan, as were his intelligence services.

    Patton, the clairvoyant, at 3 o'clock in the morning, dictated to his secretary all the steps to be taken for the counter-offensive. The operations to be carried out had just appeared to him in a dream. He ordered some of his troops to prepare to set off in an emergency.

    The incessant rain had given way to snow and the snow fell in a thick curtain that blocked everything, everything was white, the ground, the air all around, and the sky above. No one could see anything, nor hear anything, nor move forward, everyone froze.

    On 16 December, the secret German offensive of which Patton had just dreamed of took place. The Germans appeared unexpectedly, the surprise was total, they advanced "like a hot knife blade in a lump of butter". They were approaching victory.

    Their objective was to take control of a strategic road junction of vital importance, which was in the small village of Bastogne in Belgium.

    This road junction was defended by the 101st Airborne of the Third Army led by Patton: it was a division of the army, specially trained in airborne assault. It consisted of 11,000 men who blocked the advance of the German troops. This point of resistance was not to be broken.

    But on 16 of December, 60,000 German soldiers surrounded the 11,000 American soldiers in Bastogne.

     

    Bastogne Battle Map.JPG

     

    On 19 December, three days later, Eisenhower heard the news from the front and became aware of the danger. Very worried, he summoned his generals and asked Patton to send reinforcements to Bastogne. Patton promised to free Bastogne on Christmas Day, but the appalling weather conditions prevented any progress.

     

    Tank under snow 1.jpg

     

    Meanwhile, the besieged, under the command of General Mc Auliffe, were defending themselves heroically and awaiting reinforcements. The dreadful weather made it impossible to carry out any air supply. The men were fighting in cruel conditions, they lacked everything, they had no winter clothes, no ammunition, no food, no medical means.

    On 22 December, the German command ordered General Mc Auliffe to surrender.

    Determined to continue the struggle, even without hope, Mc Auliffe responded with a vigorous and famous reply:

    "Nuts!"

    And for his part, the chief of the Third Army despaired of not being able to help him.

    On 23 December, 50 km from Bastogne, Patton stopped in Luxembourg City. He entered the chapel of the Pescator Foundation, walked up to the crucifix above the altar, ...

     

    Patton 3.jpg

     

    He took off his helmet with its 3 stars, knelt down and prayed. He prayed aloud to ask for the victory of his troops at Christmas. His words were taken down in shorthand by one of the officers of the General Staff.

    "Sir, this is Patton speaking.

    The past fourteen days have been straight hell. Rain, snow, more rain, more snow. I am beginning to wonder what’s going on in your headquarters.

    Whose side are You on anyway?

    For three years my chaplains have been explaining that this is a religious war. This, they tell me, is the Crusades all over again, except that we’re riding tanks instead of chargers. They insist we are here to annihilate the German Army and the godless Hitler so that religious freedom may return to Europe.

    Up to now I have gone along with them, for You have given us Your unreserved cooperation. Clear skies and calm sea in Africa made the landings highly successful and helped us to eliminate Rommel. Sicily was comparatively easy and You supplied excellent weather for the armored dash across France, the greatest military victory that You have thus far allowed me.

    You have often given me excellent guidance in difficult command situations and You have led the German units into traps that made their elimination fairly simple.

    But now, you’ve changed horses in midstream. You seem to have given von Rundstedt every break in the book and frankly, he’s been beating the hell out of us.

    My army is neither trained nor equipped for winter warfare. And as You know this weather is more suitable for Eskimos than for southern cavalrymen.

    But now, Sir, I can’t help but feel that I have offended you in some way. That suddenly you have lost all sympathy for our cause. That You are throwing in with von Rundstedt and his paper-hanging God. (2)

    You know without my telling You that our situation is desperate. Sure, I can tell my staff that everything is going according to plan, but there’s no use in telling You that my 101st Airborne is holding out against tremendous od in Bastogne, and that this continual storm is making it impossible to supply them even from the air. I’ve sent Hugh Gaffey, one of my ablest generals, with his 4th Armored Division, north toward that all-important road center to relieve the encircled garrison and he’s finding Your weather much more difficult than he is the Krauts.

     

    Dying soldier by Marie Elise.jpg

     

    I don’t like to complain unreasonably, but my soldiers from the Meuse to Echtemach are suffering the tortures of the damned. Today I visited several hospitals, all full of frostbite cases and the wounded are dying in the fields because they cannot be brought back for medical care.
    But this isn’t the worst of the situation. Lack of visibility, continued rains have completely grounded my air force.

    My technique of battle calls for close-in-fighter support, and if my planes can’t fly, how can I use them as aerial artillery?

    Not only is this a deplorable situation, but, worse yet, my reconnaissance planes haven’t been in the air for fourteen days, and I haven’t the faintest idea of what’s going on behind German lines.

    Damn it, Sir, I can’t fight a shadow. Without Your cooperation from a weather standpoint I am deprived of an accurate disposition of the German armies.

    How in hell can I be intelligent in my attack?

    All of this probably sounds unreasonable to You, but I have lost all patience with Your chaplains who insist that this is a typical Ardennes winter, and that I must have faith.

    Faith and patience be damned! You have got to make up Your mind whose side You’re on. You must come to my assistance, so that I may dispatch the entire German Army as a birthday present to Your prince of Peace.

    Sir, I have never been an unreasonable man, I am not going to ask you for the impossible. I do not even insist on a miracle, for all I request is four days of clear weather.

    Give me four clear days so that my planes can fly, so that my fighter-bombers can bomb and strafe, so that my reconnaissance may pick out targets for my magnificent artillery.

    Give me four days of sunshine to dry this blasted mud,

     

    Tank under snow 2.jpg

     

    so that my tanks roll, so that ammunition and rations may be taken to my hungry ill-equipped infantry.

    I need these four days to send von Rundstedt and his godless army to their Valhalla.

    I am sick of the unnecessary butchery of American youth, and in exchange for four days of fighting weather, I will deliver You enough Krauts to keep Your bookkeepers months behind in their work." (3)

    Patton bowed his head, waited for a moment and then finished with ...

    "Amen."

    And then?

    A few hours later ...

     

    Patton 4.jpg

     

    ... a sun spell appeared ...

    Yes, the good weather was coming back! Beautiful weather, not only for 4 days, but for a whole week!

    And on 25 December 1944, as Patton had announced, the troops were there, ready to attack.

    Gigantic forces were in place: 600,000 American soldiers, 500,000 German soldiers, all equally brave, would face each other the following days in the Belgian-Luxemburgish Ardennes.

    Patton's army advanced heroically as far as Bastogne, which was liberated on 26 December 1944.

    It was the biggest, bloodiest and most heroic battle of the war in Europe.

    80,000 American soldiers, 100,000 German soldiers sacrificed themselves at the end of 1944.

     

    military cemetary.jpg

     

    Tribute be paid to all these brave men.

    Thank you to those American soldiers who, in this battle of the Ardennes, gave their lives for our freedom.

    Tribute also to the German soldiers who served their country.

     

    On the morning of December 27th, Patton walked into a small chapel and dropped to his knees and began to pray:

    "Sir, this is Patton again and I beg to report complete progress. Sir, it seems to me that You have been much better informed about the situation than I was, because it was that awful weather which I cursed You for so much which made it possible for the German army to commit suicide. That, Sir, was a brilliant military move, and I bow humbly to Your supreme genius". (3)

    Who was this man? What a wonderful connection he had with his God who dwelt in him!

    So what happened?

    The Germans had waited for the bad winter weather to arrive before launching their attack in mid-December. They were counting on the fog and permanent snowstorms to prevent American planes from supporting the troops on the ground.

    But the bad weather had the effect of slowing down their troops as well. The narrow roads in the Ardennes and the relentless American resistance did the rest to frustrate their planning.

    In the meantime, the German soldiers lost their strength and were exhausted. They also ran out of petrol reserves. The return of good weather and the arrival of American forces were fatal to them. The Nazis had thrown their last forces into the Battle of the Bulge, they could not recover and lost the war.

    This is why Patton considered that the bad weather had led the German army to commit suicide. And already on December 27 he had foreseen the outcome of the war one month later.

    On 1 January 1945, in the New Year's greetings, Patton thanked his soldiers with these words:

    "Valiant soldiers, veterans, you have been hardened and tempered by fire and blood and have become pure steel".

    A month later, on January 15 1945, the German armies withdrew, they lost the Battle of the Bulge.

     

    Patton 5.jpg

     

    Conclusion

    General Patton, with his men, fought to liberate France and Europe. He fought to honour the Prince of Peace. For this, he turned to the Eternal God of Armies, this god so well known to the Jews of the Old Testament, whose accents he found in his prayers.

    He had to have something in his guts, which he called "Religion, Prayer or God. "

    He knew how to animate, through prayer, the inner strength in his men that instills confidence, courage, resistance and heroism in the midst of trial and suffering.

    And this god, it seems, listened to the prayers:

    - those of 250,000 soldiers of the Third Army,

    - those of other soldiers and families,

    - the relentless and fierce prayers of this powerful general who spoke to God live, without politeness.

    And it seems that God not only heard and listened, but also answered these prayers.

    Once again we see that the inner and outer worlds speak to each other, correspond and "respond to each other in a dark and profound unity".

    And finally I leave you with the striking commentary of an observer on these events:

    "I find this prayer very powerful.

    - Making 250,000 men pray together.

    - An army blocked by a harsh winter, which the enemy had counted on.

    - To have this revealing dream.

    - And to pray to Heaven.

    - To turn this snowfall into a hail of iron and fire on the enemy and change it into victory.

    - I believe that since the ancient crossing of the Red Sea

    by Moses and his people,

    mankind has never known such a celestial event

    to change its destiny." (4)

     

    Soldier praying 2.jpg

     

    Dear friends, allow me to add a few personal lines.

    I was born in 1944, just as Patton was crossing France victoriously and advancing towards Germany. When I think "American", I am seized with deep emotion, I think of those brave, heroic soldiers who came to fight in France, I think of their mother and father, their wife, their children, their family, all those who prayed for them. I think of those men who gave their blood, gave their lives, to liberate my country from the Nazis. Their sacrifice made it possible for me to live freely. All my life I will remain immensely grateful to the Americans, to the American soldiers and to General Patton, a general who prayed to God every day.

    Christiane

    Translated by Marianne

     

    Notes

    (1) The speech was taken from http://www.pattonhq.com/prayer.html

    (2) Indeed, Hitler's job was to glue wallpaper, before going into politics.

    (3) Patton's prayers were taken from http://gregsegroves.blogspot.com/2015/03/pattons-prayer-okay-god-whose-side-are.html

    (4) For Christmas 2015 I have put on my blog this same prayer of Patton formulated at Christmas time on December 23 1944. Gilbert gave us the pleasure of reading his wonderful comparison in commentary.

     

    Bibliography

    You will find a lot of information on the internet.

    http://gregsegroves.blogspot.fr/2015/03/pattons-prayer-okay-god-whose-side-are.html

    http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge

     

    Illustrations

    I would like to thank the artists and photographers whose works allowed me to illustrate my blog.

    Patton praying in the chapel of the Pescator Foundation on 23 December 1944: http://historiasegundaguerramundial.com/

    Tank passing a vehicle that slipped on the ice and fell into the ditch: http://peopleus.blogspot.com/

    Dying soldiers in the snow, by French artist Marie Elise: http://ardenneweb.eu/

    Patton after his prayer, when the sun comes to light up his face, painted by the French artist Marie Elise: http://ardenneweb.eu/

    Soldier in prayer: http://inchristourhope.over-blog.com/la-prière-la-respiration-du-soldat-1/2

     

    This study was published on the French blog on 30 November 2019:

    http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2019/11/30/un-drole-de-faiseur-de-temps-un-sacre-bonhomme-3144231.html

  • HOW CAN I TREAT MY CHERRY TREE?

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    Dear blog friends,

    Today, I would like to take up the study of a currently very important topic again, that is, the catastrophic state of the Earth. As for me, I tried to put in the dream's two cents by asking a few questions:

    - Does the unconscious, who is often so benevolent, send dreams that would offer solutions to the problem of the planet?

    - Which are then the dreams that could enlighten us?

    - Could we discover in these dreams one or several constants that might enable us to venture a few consistent deductions, or even to venture a potential solution?

    Thus, we have studied two dreams : “Threat of a planetary disaster” and “Saving the planet”; these two dreams have led us to advance the following hypothesis :

    Could there be a connection between the outer world and the inner world?

    Could the quality of our environment on Earth be related to the quality of our inner, instinctive life, which the alchemists called “our inner earth”, whose other name is the unconscious?

    Could our outer Earth be ill because our inner earth is mistreated?

    So here comes the third part of this original study. We are going to see a dream which answers the question and gets right to the heart of the matter: “How can I treat my cherry tree?”

    Circumstances

    Carole, a dynamic psychtherapist in her forties, is well aware of the importance of sexual life. She tells her clients about it, and as for her, she is well conscious of the vigilance that sexual life requires. She has a very sound approach of the needs of her body and lives close to her instinct. Therefore, it is not this aspect of her life which concerns her. What does worry her at the moment is the cherry tree in her garden, which begins to wither away without reason.

     

    cherry tree 1.jpg

     

    She doesn't know how to treat it and decides to confide in her dream, which has so often kindly given her advice and precious help. Before sleep, she asks the question “How can I treat my cherry tree?”

    And she receives this dream:

     

    Dream: Raspberries and basil

    I am in the garden of my next door neighbour. I am picking raspberries which I put in my wicker basket. The neighbour tells me not to take much of them, because he wants to make raspberry jam.

    I go home, I realise that I don't have my key, I am suddenly afraid that I might have lost it, especially as I only have one. Then I go back to the garden and find it under the raspberry bushes. I take it and go back home.

    Jean-Luc is standing in the kitchen. He's giving me a surprise by preparing a recipe for lunch. He explains me that for this recipe he needed basil.

     

    Now let us analyse the different symbols.

    I pick raspberries which I put in my wicker basket.

    Raspberries: with their exquisite flavour, these little red berries immediately remind of the delicious pleasures of the female body.

     

    raspberries.jpg

     

    My basket: the basket is a receptacle that can stand for the lower abdomen or pelvis. But Carole also immediately thinks of the french expression “mettre la main au panier”, “to put the hand to the basket”, which means “to touch somebody's butt/bum”, and deduces that her basket, in her dream, not only represents her pelvis, but also her fundament, the more or less vulgar synonyms of which are the rump, the bottom, the ass.

    So the basket is an image to denote the part of her body connected to sexuality.

    I put raspberries in my wicker basket.

     

    Painting Raspberries Roses by Eloise Harriet Stannart.jpg

     

    This wicker basket could also have been made of straw. Why then does the dream choose this material? Listen ... Do you hear? “Wicker”, “Osier” in French, wicker that plays with “Oser y est”, “Dare is there”. It's about daring. With the wicker basket, it is a matter of daring to do something in one's sex life.

    The image indicates that our dreamer dares to pick the pleasures of her body. She dares to pleasure herself.

     

    Serge Marshennikov Painting Women in Love 1.jpg

     

    The neighbour tells me not to take much of them:

    The neighbour represents a facet of the dreamer, who wishes to restrict the picking and limit the delights of autoeroticism.

    He wants to make jam: Carole does not want to touch the berries to keep them for later.

    So what does the dream mean with these raspberries, these solitary pleasures that should not be picked, but on the contrary left on the bush, and then with this jam that is to be eaten later on?

    I then ask the young woman:

    - What does that make you think of in your sex life, solitary pleasures that you dare to put in your basket, while forbidding yourself to pick a lot of them, because you have to save them for later?

    Carole answers me right away:

    - But that's exactly what is happening, I really want to pleasure myself at the moment, because my friend is away, and I often feel the desire rising in me. But I avoid touching myself alone because I want to save myself for him. I want to save, to keep all my loving energy for him.

     

    Serge Marshennikov Painting Women in Love 2.jpg

     

    Let's see the rest of the dream. What does it show?

    I go home, I realise that I don't have my key, I think I lost it, I find it under the raspberry bushes.

    When Carole gives up the red berries to save herself for her friend, what happens then? She lost her key under the bushes.

    What is this key that opens her door? You immediately understood that this elongated object represents the clitoris, which opens the door to love pleasures.

    So what does the dream teach us? When the dreamer refuses to satisfy her sexual desires on her own to keep these pleasures to share them with her friend, she misplaces her key, she weakens her capacity for pleasure. Abstinence and lack of training causes the loss of vitality in this exquisitely sensitive organ.

    Ten or twenty years ago the subject of female masturbation was still taboo. We hardly talked about it, but the dreams spoke out loud about it. I often saw it in women's dreams.

    Someone also got it right, namely the famous sexologist Dr. Gérard Leleu, who in 2005 in his book The caress of Venus insists and explains: "The clitoris is in a way the "key" to female sexuality".

    And he recommends:

    Let women practice clitoral self-stimulation regularly, for it is the best preparation for sexual union.

    Doctor Leleu also stresses that this self-stimulation must already be done by the little girl.

     

    Book Cover - Caress of Venus by Leleu.jpg

     

    So the famous sex therapist gives women the same advice as the dream.

    As for me, in 2006 appeared my book Love and sex in your dreams (Amour et sexe dans vos rêves), prefaced precisely by Dr Gérard Leleu. I studied the subject there in chapters 4 and 5 in particular and I explained several dreams which underline the benefits of masturbation. (Dreams n° 23, 24, 26, 60, 66)

     

    Book cover - Amour et Sexe dans vos rêves - Love and sex in your dreams - Christiane Riedel.jpg

     

    You will also find on the French blog an "astounding" dream:

    http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/11/30/le-reve-therapeute-ch-6.html

    Now let's come back to Carole who goes in with her key.

    Once at home, the dreamer notices that someone, Jean Luc, has come to cook for her.

    Who is Jean Luc? He is a gardener friend, he is the one who takes care of the soil and must know how to take care of the cherry tree.

    What is the link between these two images?

    Thus, when the dreamer recognizes the need to satisfy her instinctive needs, as her body demands, she has in her hands the key which will reveal to her the delight of the senses. And that's when Jean-Luc appears, the dynamism in her that takes care of the garden of her body and prepares delicious food.

    Jean-Luc prepared a recipe for me. And for his recipe he needs basil.

    Carole hears the word "basil" with two different meanings.

    On the one hand, the word "basil" (French: basilic) applies to a plant with broad leaves, which develops a strong, healthy and delicious taste. Wouldn't that be an image of the feminine intimate area?

     

    basil.jpeg

     

    But our friend also hears the word "basilica" (French: basilique), which refers to a church, a sacred place where the divine whom we come to meet resides.

     

    basilica.jpg

     

    What does this connection between basil and basilica mean?

    With the basil, the dreamer enjoys her intimacy; the joy of the senses then leads to the inner basilica, where the encounter with the divine within is accomplished. It is because one enters the sanctuary of the divinity that sexual pleasure takes its heavenly intensity. Sensuality and spirituality are blended.

    Jean-Luc

    It is in this perspective that Jean-Luc's first name also takes on its full meaning. We can indeed wonder why the dream chooses this gardener friend while the dreamer knows several of them. And wouldn't there be a fancy wink of the dream again? Let's see.

    Luc (Luke) comes from the Greek "leukos" which means "light"; and everyone in France knows that Luc's anagram is "cul", "ass". That there is in the foundation of the "ass" a source of light, this is what is meant in french erotic slang by the expressions "to shine" ("faire reluire") or "to illuminate" ("illuminer") which mean: "to give an orgasm". The pun on Luc / cul (Luke / ass) therefore takes up the teaching given by basil / basilica again.

    And Jean? (John) What does this name give if I play and reverse the syllables? "an/je", that is "ange" ("angel").

    So, I will calmly deduce that in the foundation there is a force which brings out the light and connects to the divinity. And why not?

    Is this shocking? The sexual and the spiritual are the two instinctive poles of Eros, the two sides of the same soul reality. The soul that expresses itself in love is as much animal as it is spiritual. "The orgasm is the experience in the body of the ecstasy which animates the soul." (1)

     

    Sculpture Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss.JPG

     

    We have now arrived at the meaning of the dream:

    The inner guide advises our friend to allow herself, in the absence of her friend, to savor the erotic pleasures alone. She is also invited to be well aware that, even alone in this jubilation, there too the divine is present, as when she is in the arms of her friend.

    Carole can't believe it! For her, this is a surprise! What an initiation!

    A question now arises: what does this have to do with the question Carole asked while falling asleep? "How can I treat my cherry tree?"

    The dream comes to show the young woman that in order to treat the cherry tree in her concrete outdoor garden, she must take care of her Earth, her body, her symbolic inner garden, she must dare to pluck even solitary sensual pleasures, knowing that the Earth, like her body, is the temple of the divinity.

    So, by recognizing the sacred dimension of her body, by healing her inner Earth, her instinctive Nature, she also heals Nature, the Earth outside of her.

    And very humbly this is how she can take care of her cherry tree according to the dream.

     

    blossoming cherry tree.jpg

     

    Conclusion

    I have just presented you three dreams, dreams of women where it is a question of saving the earth, of healing the sick earth, the sick tree.

    These three dreams seem to insist on the same point. All three invite the dreamers to change their way of thinking: instead of claiming to control their life with ideas that the dream considers false, tyrannical, even destructive, they would benefit from making more room for instinctive and sexual life, which has nothing to do with intellectual cogitations.

    From these three dreams, could we allow ourselves to deduce that this would be a general advice?

    Could it then be that by caring for our inner Earth, our instinctive Nature, we are also healing Nature, the Earth outside?

    But respecting your instinctive life, it sounds really popular and working-class, it's so prosaic, trivial, even "typically French", isn't it? Frankly, it seems too stupid and too simple.

    And you will tell me:

    "- Come on Christiane, stop writing poppycock! Saving the planet requires enormous interventions at the planetary level, much more important means on a world scale, and not very small intimate and personal means, at the individual level. Do you realise the nonsense you are talking?

    I know. But why wouldn't the dream invite everyone, where they are, to try to find the oldest ecology, the primitive basic ecology?

    And why couldn't the right activity of billions of beings influence the planet?

    What is better?

    - Skip school to demonstrate to save the planet? Or :

    - Attend lessons and cultivate one's secret garden, under the smiling gaze of the gods who make the earth flower?

    Possible correspondence between these moments, when "in a dark and deep unity" the inner earth and the outer earth "to each other respond"?

    Wouldn't this be the ABC of instinctive ecology?

    Would the dream seem to invite every environmentalist, who fights for the planet, not to follow his intellect and his calculations, but to first honor his body and the force of sensual love which lies within him/her, because this force is the expression in him/her of the divinity who protects and rules the earth?

    You know well that the dream does not come to say things which we already know. He comes to show what we do not see.

    Christiane

    ***

    Could this caring for our inner earth also help in case of severe drought? Can we directly influence the climate by changing our inner attitude? Don't miss our next study to get the answer!

    In the passion for dreams,

    Marianne

     

    Garden in Giverny - painting by Claude Monet.jpg

     

    Bibliography

    (1) This quote is taken from Christiane Riedel's book Amour et sexe dans vos rêves (Love and sex in your dreams), Trajectoire editions, p. 10. It was written by Dr Gérard Leleu in his introduction to my book, to present the perspective of dreams, as I have set them out in the pages of this book.

     

    Illustrations

    I thank the artists whose works, paintings and photographs have enabled me to illustrate my blog.

    I especially thank the contemporary Russian artist Serge Marschennikov, who paints women with such a splendor and refinement I never get tired of admiring.

    ill cherry tree: http://greffer.net/

    "Basket, raspberries and roses", painting by the English artist Eloise Harriet Stannart (1829-1915): https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/overturned-basket-with-raspberries-white-currants-and-roses-1028

    Young sleeping woman: Serge Marshennikov. This painting is part of a series called "Women in love".

    https://widowcranky.com/2017/12/02/women-in-love-serge-marshennikov/

    Girl with wheat hair, Serge Marshennikov

    Basil: http://123RF.com/

    Basilica: Inside of Saint Peter's basilica in Rome, Vatican city.

    http://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier

    Amore e psiche: Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, by the italian sculptor Antonio Canova, 1757-1822. This piece required 6 years of work, from 1787 to 1793 ; Louvre museum: http://adjine.canalblog.com/

    Blossoming cherry tree: booksofdante.wordpress.com

    Claude Monnet's garden in Giverny from the French painter Claude Monnet (1840-1926)

     

    This article was first published on the French blog on November 10, 2019:

    http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2019/11/10/comment-soigner-mon-cerisier-3143537.html