Dear blog friends,

You certainly remember how in our previous study the dream surprisingly advised Loren to express her anger. When, a few days later, she felt this instinctive emotion that she had always repressed rising up in her, she followed the advice of her dream and expressed her anger to her husband.

Then... oh paradox! Her so-called negative emotion triggered a positive emotion in her husband, he hugged her with love. Loren felt liberated, energised, happy.

But what if she had once again repressed her anger?

Let us see now the case of another woman.

Some time ago Anne Marie phoned me very worried. She had just had a very bad dream. Judge for yourself:

She dreamed:

I'm in a living room and I see a dark-haired child who repeats that Léon Ceint - you pronounce the t - that Léon Ceinte has been killed. He was murdered. The child says it with great pain.

Before I tell you the interpretation of her dream, let me introduce you to this charming and delicate young woman.

Anne Marie was expecting a second child. The day before she called me, during the evening, she made her husband François certain remarks which he did not appreciate and he brutally reproached her. He was harsh and hurt Anne Marie.

Since our friend always wants a peaceful life, she consequently tried not to upset her husband, she remained silent, took refuge in the bedroom, hid her tears and wanted to forget this painful moment.

And that night she received a dream that certainly commented on what had happened.

Let's see the different images:

The living room

The living room refers to the space where the family gathers to spend quality time together. The dream thus places its scenario in the setting where, the previous evening, Anne Marie was reproached by her husband.

I see a dark-haired child

A child has a spontaneous way of being. It represents a natural aspect of the dreamer who is growing up and needs to be cared for. The brown hair colour indicates that this child is close to the unconscious: he lives and reacts instinctively, he shows his emotions, his affects, he expresses his feelings.

The child repeats that Léon Ceint - e - has been killed, murdered.

The dream insists heavily on the crime committed.

Who is Léon Ceint-e-?

Anne Marie doesn't know anyone by that name.

Let us pause here to see a very interesting aspect of dreams which was already well known by dream interpreters in Antiquity. Dreams play with syllables, they make puns and plays on words. This is called "the language of birds".

The first name Leon clearly means "Lion", it confers an ability to adopt leonine behaviour.

For Anne Marie, as for many, the lion, the king of animals, impresses with his majesty when he advances, he roars with such power that his frightened adversaries immediately retreat.

Léon Ceint-e

Let's listen to the word "Léon Ceinte", could there be a pun in this name? When she heard this name, the young woman, who was about to give birth, first heard:

"L" = elle = she,

"é" = est = is,

"onCeinte" = enceinte = pregnant.

"L  é  onceinte" = elle est enceinte = she's pregnant

Thus Léon Ceinte refers to the young pregnant woman who could behave like a lion, a lioness.

But Anne Marie also heard "sainte" in "ceinte", and "sainte" means "saint", "holy".

Ah?...

Ah?...

...Yes! ... Go on! ... Push your analysis to the end, and don't be afraid to make the necessary deductions... :

Leon Saint?

When this young woman starts to shout and roar like a lioness, yes, then she is a saint.

What is a saint?

The French version of Wikipedia states:

"Saints are men or women distinguished for their spiritual elevation and suggested to believers as models of life because of a personality trait or behaviour deemed exemplary."

So, answering, arguing, fighting, shouting would be an exemplary behaviour and the proof of a certain spiritual elevation?

The French dictionary Grand Robert, the equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary, explains:

A saint is one "who conforms to the precepts of religious morality or who is inspired by piety".

So what is piety?

Still according to the Grand Robert de la langue française, piety is the quality of someone who shows "a fervent attachment to the service of God and to the practices of religion".

What does it mean? What does "Léon Ceinte" mean?

You've got it.

For the dream, to be able to roar like a lion is not only the characteristic of spiritual elevation, but it is also a pious behaviour that marks a fervent attachment to the service of God and the practices of religion.

I know that many people bristle at this statement, but my job is to translate the dream, not to try to please.

Alas, what does the dream teach us? What does the child repeat with pain?

Léon Ceinte is dead, he was murdered.

Anne Marie collected herself for a moment, went within herseld and said to me:

- So, Christiane, if I understand correctly, when last night I didn't want to 'yell' at my husband because his harsh words had hurt me, I killed the lion in me, the one who lives in a fervent attachment to serving God?

Like the child, Anne Marie and I had a heavy heart.

Anne Marie and I remained silent for a moment. With great astonishment, with immense gratitude, we welcomed the unthinkable advice of the dream, which always comes to guide us through the trials of daily life.

But how can we imagine the advice of dreams?

How can we think that anger and shouting, so decried, so condemned, are services rendered to the divine, are a religious or spiritual practice?

Astonishing!

Is Zeus not the master of lightning? Is God's wrath not "quickly kindled" (Psalm 2, verse 12)? This is what turns us upside down today! But there is a truth here that people knew in the past: the right to get angry in order to defend oneself was a sacred right, a moment when the black divinity in oneself came to express itself.

This dream places us in the midst of alchemy.

Yes, that's right:

Since we live too much in the light of the conscious mind, of rational thoughts, which claim to be superior, then, in an opposite and complementary way, it is at the obscure and misunderstood physical level, it is in this animal body within us that we meet the divine.

This instinctive, animal divinity manifests itself to Anne Marie, as it does to many, in the form of the roaring lion, whose power makes his opponents recoil.

Is it any wonder that 4500 years ago the Nubians in southern Egypt worshipped the lion-headed god Apedemak, the god of war, victory and fertility?

The Egyptians also worshipped the goddess Sekhmet "the mighty", a woman with the head of a lioness, nicknamed "the wrath of Ra", the sun god; she is also the one who governs the domain of female cycles, of fertility.

Strange concordances of these images with "Leon Ceinte". As Jung showed, these similarities prove that there exist in the unconscious, through time, constant images common to humanity. He called these images "archetypal" and thus demonstrated the existence of the collective unconscious, of infinite dimension compared to the personal unconscious.

With this great image of the lion and the lioness, the dream today has come to remind the young pregnant mother of the crime she has committed by refusing to let this god within her express itself, this same fundamental, archetypal power that would have given her the strength to fight in words with her husband, would have ensured her victory and also her fertility. All she gained was to go, defeated, to cry in her room. And, like a saint, with generosity and self-denial, she forgave.

Of course, she thought she was doing the right thing, but she was very much mistaken. The alchemical dream then reminded her that it is precisely by doing "the bad" that she will do "the good".

Conclusion

This is the great lesson of dreams and alchemy today, which, in the name of morality, we are reluctant to practice. This, however, is what we need most. It is even the vital problem of our decaying society: to let the animal in us express itself, to recognise the value, the dignity, the divinity of our instinctive life, which is the safeguard of our balance, our health, our joy of living.

What I am telling you here is not a dogma, it is not a nebulous theoretical conception. It is a fact and a fact that dreams constantly bring to light. Jung showed it. In my turn I have just given you again the actual proof of it with this dream.

I now offer you an eloquent video. You will be able to contemplate the anger of the lion, feel the power that emanates from its roar and see the terror of the enemy who flees:

Lion versus crocodile on Youtube

Written by Christiane

Translated by Marianne
My Facebook Page about Dream Interpretation
a.vos.songes@gmail.com

Illustrations

I would like to thank the artists and photographers whose work I have used to illustrate my blog.

angry woman shouting: 7sur7.be
Lion: Istockphoto.com
Dead lion: rfi.fr
Lion-headed warrior god Apedemak: Wikipedia
Sekhmet from the temple of Mut at Luxor, granite, 1403–1365 B.C., in the National Museum, Copenhagen: Wikipedia
Bas relief of the goddess Sekhmet: travelevasion.fr
Quarrelling couple: fortissima.com

This article was first published on the French blog on 18 February 2017:
"Suite alchimique 2" on Christiane's French blog