perspective

Sun 4.3.23

When I first got divorced many years ago I knew that I would never go back to that kind of life.  I was out on my own in the world, I was in college, and in need of counseling to help with the transition.

The man was a Jungian psychologist who trained me to write my dreams.  We did not get along and I stormed out of his office not understanding what he was trying to teach me.  He wasn’t a bad guy, the first person to tell me I was a writer, but he was a jerk. Yet I knew there was something about dreams, and I kept transcribing them.  Then one day, 6 months later, while sitting in the faculty diningroom it hit me – I knew what my dreams meant.

I have a sculpture which is made of wood, 3 blocks, 2 are twins, that when placed one on top of the other form a square whose center is hollow and forms a perfect circle within the square. The third piece is a long square-shaped post which is placed in the center of the circle piercing through it.

Dreams speak to us in symbols, puns, play on words, opposites.  They can even be poetic, sublime.  They communicate on many levels, some of which are incomprehensible.  The dream is a puzzle one has to solve in order to understand its meaning.  The more attention you pay to your dreams the more seriously they respond to clarilfy their meaning.  I bring up the circle in the square sculpture because both are symbols that appear often in dreams.  The circle in my dreams indicates that forces within myself are concentrating power and energy because of a challenge presented that I must deal with.  The circle is protective while this process is taking place.  The square indicates completion, resolution.  Fruition is the breakthrough symbolized in my sculpture by the square-shaped wooden post piercing through the circle and square; the resolution is bearing fruit.  The more arcane the symbol the deeper significance it has in one’s life.

On a more prosaic level, a recent dream had me telling someone sitting on a bench of a man who wasn’t behaving correctly.  I next speak to a huge woman, this time I’m the one sitting on the bench.  We talk about a spill.  It’s only water, I tell her.  The huge woman joins me on the bench sitting practically on top of me.

You can’t miss the symbol of the bench; the man’s been benched, not contributing to the game.  That he’s not doing what he should symbolizes the masculine active, responsible aspect of myself which in this case is not acting; the huge woman? Overindulgence obviously.  It sits on me and prevents me from acting.  Whatever is causing this blockage is water under the bridge, i.e. past, done, gone.  

Move on!