Dear blog friends

Last year the International Association for the Study of Dreams, IASD chose to have its annual congress in Europe, in Rolduc’s magnificent abbey in the Netherlands.

This year the International Congress will take place in Berkeley, California.

“Everyone dreams every single night. Now you have a special opportunity to understand and explore your dreams at the Sailing on the Sea of Dreams Conference, June 22-26, 2012.

This five day conference offers over 200 workshops, seminars and exhibits on all aspects of dreaming and is open to the public.

Sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Dreams, there are special programs with CE credits for psychotherapists and professionals, as well as many sessions of interest to the general public.

Hear and meet dozens of world-famous authors, researchers, and experts on dreams. Participate in the biggest dream conference ever held!

For information and registration, visit ASDREAMS.ORG.”

The dreams Conference takes place in the splendid Double Tree Hotel in Berkeley, a wonderful setting.

I hope you will have the opportunity to attend the Conference. I wish I could, but because it is so far, I will forego this special time with the other IASD members I was so pleased to meet last year in Rolduc.

Nevertheless my activities regarding dreams continue.

Now here’s some news about my activities in France :

In January I led a seminar on “Meaning of Christian symbols in  dreams”.

In February I was in the North of France in Amiens, well known for its marvellous cathedral, miraculously saved during world war 2.

There I held a conference : “Dreams and the Bible”.  The Bible actually relates nearly 250 dreams, through which the Divine directly speaks to human.

Over the week-end I held a dream interpretation initiation seminar. For the first time the attendees discovered the wisdom of this inner voice speaking to them during the night. They were so delighted at understanding how to decipher dreams, that some of them immediately signed up for an other seminar at the end of March.

During two five day intensive dream interpretation seminars, I will teach dream interpretation next summer : students will experience practical training on each other’s dreams. That ‘s why I work only with small groups.

From July 23rd –27th, the first will take place in the noble old city St Germain en Laye, famous for its castle.

The other, 6- 11 August, will be held in Provence, Southern France in the antique small village Antonaves.

Would it be that the interest in dreams and dreaming is awakening in France ?

Illustration

Cathedral in Amiens, ( 1220-1288), recognized by UNESCO as World heritage of Humanity Site.

 Once again, a coffee ! 

Last time I explained how to interpret an object in a dream. In that example the object in question was a coffee.

Today’s dream concerns the same  symbol : a coffee.

Easy ! We’ve just covered that !  True, but surprise… surprise…

Loretta, who lives on a farm pays great attention to her inner life, she aspires to dwell in the light and love of Christ who appeared in her dreams several times.

She strives to remain sinless in a life of purity and perfection.

Recently she received this dream :

Dream

I am at my mother’s place, sitting in the kitchen.  The priest, father Francisco enters, I go off to the bathroom.  When I come back he’s no longer there.

I ask my mother :

- Did you offer him a coffee ?

- Sorry, I didn’t think about it.

Such an ordinary and simple scenario !

Let’s go on to the interpretation. Proceeding with the interview technique, I ask the usual questions.

Questions 1 and 2 : ( Refer back to lesson 2 : Who is the other ? 04/ 04/ 2011)

What can you tell us about your mother, what is your mother like?

Loretta says :

 - My mother died several years ago, she was a devoted woman who did everything for her seven children.  She was always very busy taking care of her house and family.  She didn’t manifest her affection with cuddles but she puts her heart into everything she did.

I recapitulate :  

Loretta’s mother is devoted to her family but doesn’t express her affection with cuddles.

I establish the link with everyday life

I ask Loretta : inside or outside yourself, who does it remind you of : someone who is devoted to her family, who doesn’t express her affection with cuddles?

The dreamer ponders, answers the question and finds the meaning of this symbol “mother”.

Loretta immediately recognises herself.

So Loretta’s mother symbolizes Loretta’s maternal aspect, putting her heart into her family’s care.

But to be sure of it, we must check that Loretta can apply to herself all that she has said about her mother.

Proceeding with the verifications

Loretta recognizes that such is the case. Each detail of the description suits her as well as her mother.

We now continue examining the next symbol : the kitchen

Questions 1 and 2

What is a kitchen and what is it like ?

In a home, the kitchen is the place “par excellence” where the mother prepares good meals for the family. A kitchen is a warm, welcoming place where people are happy to get together.

This is the setting in which

 The priest, father Francesco arrives

Question 1

- What is a priest ?

Answer :

- He’s a man who helps you with your spiritual life, he guides you towards God.

Question 2

 - And father Francisco, what is he like ?

Answer :

- Hesimply lives the day to day life ; he knows me well.  He’s always telling me that I strain myself uselessly, that I feel guilty about too many things and that my efforts to attain perfection don’t necessarily lead me to God.  He says that I’m fine the way I am, that God loves me the way I am, including my imperfections.

Making the recapitulation and establishing the link, I ask :

- Loretta, inside or outside yourself, someone who helps you in your spiritual life, who knows you well, who tells you that God loves you as you are, who does that remind you of ?

Loretta ponders, answers the question and finds the meaning of the symbol “priest” :

 - On the exterior it’s father Francesco of course… inside, who would it be, in me ?

And within me,… someone who knows me ?… who tells me God loves me as I am…? Oh !… Could it be God ?

God. That is the meaning that Loretta proposes for the image of the priest :

Proceeding with the verifications

OK ! that’s a first interpretation hypothesis. Let’s do the verifications.

I go over all the associations given by the dreamer and ask :

- For you, is God present in your everyday life ?

- Yes, he’s always present in my thoughts and my heart.

- Does he tell you that you worry too much ?

- Well sometimes, as father Francesco says, I have the feeling that complicating things doesn’t necessarily please God.

- Does God consider that you are fine as you are ?

Loretta exclaims :

- Who loves me as I am ? Only God !

We’ve proceeded with the verifications and can conclude that father Francesco is indeed a symbol of the divine Father.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen the divine appearing under a human form.  There are examples of that on my French blog :

- in the dream of an American business man in 1926, God was as a business man ( see 30 / 03 / 2008).

- in  lawyer Ruben’s dream in 1990, God was a Jewish Capitalist (see 06/ 09/ 2009)

- in Michelle’s dream, God appeared as a man offering her a flower. 

To refer to these dreams, you can consult the index of my French blog under the word “Dieu” (God).

Let’s get back to our study :

The priest arrives in the kitchen

This is the very place where the divine father chooses to present himself.

It is important to consider whom he is visiting.

He’s visiting the devoted mother, Loretta in her kitchen, who is expressing her love through repetitive humble daily tasks such as peeling  potatoes, baking  a cake, doing the dishes … again and again every single day. 

And so the divine comes to visit those who serve others with devotion in their humble everyday life.  For the dreams, it’s at this level that one can have and feel the experience of His presence.

I go off to the bathroom.

When father Francesco appears, Loretta, instead of welcoming him, leaves him and goes to the bathroom. She is single minded : she wants to be impeccable, her only thought is to purify herself to be worthy of meeting God.

I ask our dreamer :

- Loretta, what does this behavior remind you of ?

Loretta explains that she performs several rituals to purify herself, in preparation for contact with the divine.

She surrounds herself with candles, practices visualisations while concentrating on the image of Virgin Mary or Christ.

When I come back father Francesco is no longer there

But when she comes back to present herself to God…HE IS GONE, his presence is no longer perceptible.

This part of the dream clearly indicates that the divine comes to see her without waiting for her to be pure ; as the priest told her : “God loves you as you are, with your impurities.”

Then Loretta asks her mother

- Did you offer him a coffee ?

- Sorry I didn’t think about it.

A coffee

Now let’s see

Question 1 :

- What is a coffee ?

- It’s something you offer someone as a greeting, says Loretta.

Question 2

- And what’s it like ?

- It’s good, it’s hot and makes you feel good.

- Is there anything else ?

- No, I can’t think of anything else.

How to recapitulate ? What can I say, having so few indications ?

As for myself, my mind is still full of the previous study "Lesson 3" I just completed on my blog pertaining to the image of coffee, where I demonstrated that it symbolized dream interpretation.

So now what do I do with that ? Why would dream interpretation come up in the dream of this woman, who is asking for an interpretation for the first time. 

I feel uneasy. It’s so pleasant when you already know.  Now I’m searching, I’m on the phone, I must find quickly. 

I go over my notes, I analyse the scenario and search for it’s logical deductions :

Loretta said that a coffee is a way of greeting someone, that it’s hot and good. But what happens in the dream ? Neither Loretta nor her mother offered the priest a coffee.  Neither of them greeted the divine who presented himself in the kitchen, in the ordinary daily life.

Yes, that is the meaning of the image.

The dreamer said it at the offset : a coffee is a way of greeting someone. It would be useless to press on with the interview technique to find out more. 

Now let me make a commentary

This little dream contains two lessons .

One lesson concerning dream interpretation :

Refrain from applying a pre-established meaning on an image. 

Remenber : always start afresh with an empty mind, to avoid searching in a wrong direction.

Refrain from pressing on with the interview to get additional multiple associations.  The first ones are generally sufficient.  Overdoing it only leads to confusion.

This little dream also holds a great spiritual lesson

The fashionable purification rituals, the elevated aspirations to reach a higher level of consciousness in contact with the divine or “ascended” Masters, the efforts, the spiritualization exercises proposed by numerous pathways don’t always lead to a contact with the divine as shown in this dream.

Well no, it’s very simple, too simple, the divine accompanies us in our ordinary everyday life, and that is precisely the one we try to escape from, in our wish to have access to celestial spheres.

However when the divine manifests itself within our everyday life, without anything sensational, without miracles or synchronicities, without vibrations in the body or Kundalini experiences, without images or ecstasies, we forget to greet Him. When he comes telling us :

- I love you, as you are in your darkness and your little everyday life, with your errors, your insufficiencies, your weaknesses, that’s where I’m  with you…

…we don’t even offer him a coffee.

Illustrations

I thank the artists whose paintings and photos allow me to illustrate my blog :

Christ, painted in the church St Hugues en Chartreuse by the French contemporary painter Arcabas.

Purity : artbible.net

Mother in the kitchen : fr.dreamstime.com

In the kitchen : tribugourmande.com

Priest : Father Louis Blondel, assassinated this year in South Africa : archives.fr.novopress.info

Padre Tortilla, Honduras priest : nospetitsfreresetsoeurs.org

Paul Newman

Peeling potatoes : supertoinette.com

Dishes : vieuxdeux.blogspot.com

Candle : everyoneweb.com

Meditation : espaceducalme.canalblog.com

Virgin Mary : rayonaurore.jpg

Mercyful Christ : christroi.overblog.com

Angelus or evening prayer by the French painter Millet, 1857-1859.

Gone : painted in the church St Hugues en Chartreuse by the French contemporary painter Arcabas.