Every body knows the vision Jung had about Europe covered in blood right before World War One started. Dreams seem to be connected with psychic powers.
This is Mindfunda’s presentation for the Dream Weekend organized by the Dutch society for dreamers: Vereninging voor de Studie van Dromen (VSD) . Unfortunately influenza payed me an uninvited visit. I was not able to attend the weekend. Aad van Ouwerkerk, author and dream worker read my presentation to the visitors. I thank him for doing that.
This is a series of blogs about my proces of dreaming my way through the Red Book*. I have divided it into five steps:
Carl Jung
Psychic Power and dreams
Animus/anima dreams
God
the Self.
Psychic Powers and total darkness
We all have been there: in total darkness. Lost and alone, looking for a new way of life. A new way of being. In those moments of darkness it seems like our psychic powers lighten up out path.
Carl Jung began writing the Red Book (Click to buy and support Mindfunda) on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Mindfunda looks at his search for the supreme meaning in five (easy) steps. Because this will be a long post I have divided it into five parts. By clicking on each part it will guide you to the step I am talking about.
This blog will talk about the second step of my proces of reading the Red Book: psychic powers and dreams.
Psychic Powers and Receiving THE Red book
In Jung’s eyes it was a relieve when world war one broke out. A confirmation that he was not schizophrenic, like he feared when the visions kept enduring.
Almost all of us have experienced dreams and visions where we knew about something that was going to happen. The National Dream Centre did research in 2014 called Project August. A random group of people were incubating dreams about big headlines for the month of August. The results (see link) were amazing. Out of the 119 headlines dreamed up by the group 100 actually got published…
When I ordered the Red Book, it had to be mailed to me from America. Usually they put it on the slow boat to China. there was no way of telling when I was going to receive it. But the night before I received the Red book I had the following dream:
I am in a department store. A voice over says: “It is now closing time would you all please leave?”. I see the elevator at the end of the hallway and I start running. I manage to jump into the elevator. In it is a man with glasses on:
He reached across me and pushed the button to get the elevator down.
It was time for me to reach down to my soul…
Psychic Powers and Our Dream Group
The Red that Jung saw in his vision came back in our dream group. Maria Cernuto shared this dream:
A man died. His blood is being used to paint. There was something significant about his blood – like whomever he was in life was important. The idea is that the blood is his life force, and from his death, the act of painting is creating new life. I think I am the one painting / creating. I am standing before, and looking at, a large blank canvas.
The red in this dream has a magical quality, filled with psychic powers. One of the core concepts explored in the Red Book is the uniting of opposites. In this dream a picture is painted on white canvas. The Red blood, the life power is the material to perform the art of living. You can use this life force to create any kind of imagery you want. Just put your heart and soul in it…
Christian Gerike alerted our group that many people had shared red in their dreams. He shares one of his own:
“I am with some people, there is a “cubby-hole” in the wall, and past some kind of blankets covering it, I can see a person sitting in it, head to my right, body is partially scrunched up, perhaps propped up, and the person is reading . . . the person looks toward us and he has very long bright reddish hair, he shakes his head and the hair falls out of the cubbyhole . . ”
Just crawl through that little cubbyhole of your personal defending wall. We all have built one because live can be cruel. The hair, as a symbol of force (remember the tale of Samson?) sticks through it…
Christian was also struck by the Red Book and Jung’s dreams/visions with blood in them. Not only his precognitive dream of Europe covered in blood. But also such entries in the Red Book as the bloody head of a man (p. 147, reader’s edition); and a red stream of blood, thick red blood springs up (p. 148, reader’s edition). Also, In the deepest of the stream shines a red sun(p. 148, reader’s edition). Red people, Red Book, blood, red sun. It reminded Christian and the rest of the group about rubedo in alchemy.
Psychic Powers and The Mirror of Truth
The Red of the Red Book is also mentioned in a book called Speculum Veritatis, attributed to Eugenius Philalethes, representing The Perfect Red King. The mirror of truth and the Red King both appeared in dreams of our group. Maria shared this dream:
“There is a mirror you put on the wall. When you look into the mirror it brought you into a higher consciousness or greater reality… brought you to a higher level. Recall gazing into the mirror, my reflection receding into darkness, and then feeling like I was transported into another dimension.”
Again in this dream there is a need to be aware of the darkness before you can be transported to another dimension. The shadow that played a big part in Jung his theory is a reality in our dreams.
Jenna shared her dream “Loyalty to the King”:
“I am in a coach pulled by a horse galloping fast down a dark road. I have an old wound beneath my heart on my left side. I feel the pain of it, but it is almost healed. In the dream I hear the words that it was a “conspirator’s blow” given me by an enemy of the King. I am fiercely loyal to the King and would never betray him (I feel this intensely in the dream), so I am traveling fast, lest the conspirator catch me again. I must get to the King quickly and warn him of this old enemy. I am feeling much love for the King as I go to meet him.”
Here again, the dream makes us aware that taking the “dark road” is essential for saving the King. There is also a reference to the story of Parzival and King Arthur.
Jung’s felt that the Arthur story was THE myth of the Western World. An old wound by the heart on the left side can only be caused by love. And only be healed by the person caused the wound. Like the oracle told to Telephus wounded by Achilles. It is all about love. The wound by the heart on the left side, the feminine side of feeling, mothering, seduction, enchantment. But also the side of wrath and revenge, sorcery and delusion as Joseph Campbell explains in his “The masks of God”.
“This simple symbol of a fire triangle with three radiating arrows below represents the “Perfect Red King,” the Sulfur of the Philosophers. In alchemy, sulphur represents Sol, the fiery male element (the counterpart of Luna, mercury, the female element) of the Celestial marriage (conjunctio). Chemically, the red sulfur was a mixture of mercury (spirit) and sulfur (soul), the marriage of which also represented the spiritual goal of alchemical work. This emblem appears in the Constantine, the movie adaptation of the Hellblazer Comic Book series, as a tattoo worn as a protective device by the title character, used to summon the angel Gabriel”. (Quote from symbol dictionary.net). Linda Mastrangelo shared her dream about a marriage between spirit and soul:
I am in this otherworldly community- of very sweet loving and compassionate people. I have fallen in love with a young man and the unfolding of this love is witnessed by the community in the dream. At first there is shyness and vulnerability. A hesitancy-is this Love true? I can feel this fear coming from him and I’m also paying attention to my own feelings. There is a dizzying attraction here that only comes with new love-we are hugging and kissing -the energy is transferred to both if us and our community. There is a tender moment where I am truly clear about my feelings as we hold each other under the stars.
I whisper to him “I love you” and tell him I want yo be with him and live here in the community. I mean it. And there is a moment of relief from him — a big smile and hug. It is true. Our love is real. This love is important and tied to the community. The Union will benefit the community and the community will benefit the Union.
It is a sacred marriage.
It was a Big Dream with the feelings still resonating hours after waking.I can’t help but feel connections to Anima/Animus and to Soul. Also the importance of clarity, truth of feeling and intention.
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> Read on in part 3, about: Animus/anima dreams
< Jumped in from elsewhere? Start at part 1
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