09/11/18

I dreamt last night that I was looking for someone, at
least I thought I was. Turns out, I really was searching
for me. I found myself in a heavily wooded area near the sea.
Enormous waves were lapping the shoreline. My line of
sight allowed me to see both the water and the trees. I was
deeply enamored with the beauty of the scene but felt anxious
as I didn't understand where I was nor how I had gotten there.
I saw a path nearby in the wooded area. I began ascending
it, hoping to find out where I was and why. I came upon a
lovely family home. There was a mother and child in the side
yard apparently building something in a small garden area.
The child was playing with different rocks, trying to pile them
up to create a small structure. The mother handed him stones
from time to time, but simply seemed to be enjoying him. I
approached and spoke to the woman. I explained that I had no
idea where I was nor how I had gotten there; I hoped she could
enlighten me. She smiled, rather knowingly, actually. It made me
wonder if she had experienced this before. She got up quietly,
stated that she needed to go inside for a moment and would
I please keep an eye out for the little boy. A few moments
later, a man, obviously the father, arrived on the scene. We
spoke a bit and it soon became apparent that he could shed
some light on my queries. As I awakened, I felt a rather
instant understanding that I had been searching for myself.
The terrain I walked between water and forested area indicated
choices. The mother, child and father were all different parts
of my own psyche and by searching for them, meeting them,
I was exploring my own distinct personas. Part of me is a tad
fearful, but mostly I sense the excitement of unlocking the
mysteries of my own soul . . .

who am i and why
donning courage I query
is it time i ask

Makes me think of Jung, Whitman and Kierkegaard... all of whom had interesting insights into the self. Here's a bit of Jung: "the Self...embraces ego-consciousness, shadow, anima, and collective unconscious in indeterminable extension. As a totality, the self is a coincidentia oppositorum; it is therefore bright and dark and yet neither". Alternatively, he stated that "the Self is the total, timeless [parson]...who stands for the mutual integration of conscious and unconscious". Jung recognized many dream images as representing the self, including a stone, the world tree, an elephant, and the Christ.

The warning of the dark aspects of self are also fascinating: "the dark side of the Self is the most dangerous thing of all, precisely because the Self is the greatest power in the psyche. It can cause people to 'spin' megalomanic or other delusionary fantasies that catch them up", so that the victim "thinks with mounting excitement that he has grasped the great cosmic riddles; he therefore loses all touch with human reality.

~Luis Ferreyra