The Way of Inner Light

Amidst the Troubled World

Part of me has always wanted to become a monk, to live away from the world, a reclusive life that would allow my mind to soar to great heights. But I know, I just know that we are here to learn to uncover our inner light and share it with the world, not as a saint but as just another human being.

"Make of yourself a light." (said Gautama Buddha just before his death)

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (said Jesus. Matthew 5:16)

Awakening is not about tuning away from the world, shutting it out; it’s about tuning into the world recognising that you are part of it, biologically, psychologically, and spiritually.  Cutting yourself off from the world is shutting off part of your own being.

Yet that is exactly what most people do, trying to ignore problems right under our nose, to numb ourselves from our own pain and pain of others.

We don't allow ourselves to see or feel the pain of the world because it terrifies us, and we feel helpless before it.

But as long as we close our eyes and our hearts, we will never heal. The world cannot heal, and it will not change. The forms of misery might change over time, but the sickness, the suffering will remain.

How, then, do we live and grow in a world whose societies perpetuate human suffering, societies run by handfuls of powerful and wealthy who benefit from the misery of the millions and human despair?

First. Do what aeons of sages, prophets and masters have told us: Look within. Know Thyself.  Recognise the pain, trauma and denial on which you have built your own psychological patterns and perception of the world. Give yourself the acceptance and love that your heart needs to open up and feel.

Then bit by bit, consciously (and as slowly as it requires), acknowledge the suffering of others, and allow your heart to respond with compassion and love.

 Your heart aches when you hear of refugees drowning in wild seas. Don’t pretend it doesn’t.

You are horrified by pictures of starving or bombed children on your television. Don’t be ashamed of your pain.

You suppress the wave of compassion that arises when you pass by a homeless person. Don't. Allow yourself to feel that compassion, and to act on it.

We are not asked to bear the pain of the world, to suffer with it, or feel guilty. No one is asked to be a martyr. But we are asked to witness what is, both within and without. For only then can we feel the heart's urge to comfort, to be kind, to give what comfort we can, to help heal this world. 

Learn and practice daily to treat others respectfully, truthfully but without moral judgement, regardless of your emotional reaction to their words or action. 

Don’t give up on yourself. Don't give up on the world.

Transformation begins in you. In me. In your neighbour. In millions of people refusing to be numb and blind to the unacceptable costs of their social order, in those millions and millions of kindnesses that people show to each other and to other living things.

(Image from The Little Prince Movie — http://www.TheLittlePrinceMovie.com )

 

 

 

Crossing into the 4th Dimension

In the 1970's, a man named Ingo Swann 'saw' the planet Jupiter, and described features there that were not yet known to astrologers or astrophysicists, and only confirmed later.

"In 1973, Stanford Research Institute (SRI) conducted a research project called “The Jupiter Probe.” The idea was to have earthbound humans attempt to view Jupiter before NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft flew by with its cameras. The participants put their 3D bodies in a state of rest and, with their 4D minds, viewed Jupiter with their inner eyes. Among them was the now celebrated remote viewer, Ingo Swann. He was able to describe Jupiter as the spacecraft cameras were to see it a few weeks later." (excerpt from Edgar Cayce org magazine)

 

Here are sketches and notes Ingo made during his 'visit'.  

As part of his top secret work, he also 'viewed' the dark side of the moon and other places, and later wrote about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journeying to other dimensions

Did you know that you have probably visited other planets by crossing into the Fourth Dimension, maybe even more dimensions, and had experiences there? Most likely in the dream state, when your consciousness often travels to other places, other dimensions for its own purposes ... though if you remember any of it on waking, it is so heavily filtered and encoded by ordinary 3D consciousness according to its concerns that you can go a whole lifetime without realising the extent of your nightly travels.

Ingo Swann travelled across space and time, across dimensions via a practice called Remote viewing (RV), a form of clairvoyance by which a person can collect data about a distant, and typically unknown object, place or person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clairvoyant and artist, Ingo Swann, and one of his paintings, The Light Bringer.

 

 

 

 

Read more about Ingo, a truly remarkable individual, at: http://aetherforce.com/ingo-swann-the-grandfather-of-remote-viewing/

 

According to most successful remote viewers, anyone can learn remote viewing - well, almost anyone. Russell Targ, who learned from Ingo Swann, was able to successfully train military men with no known psychic abilities to remote view, which delighted the CIA in the 1970's so much that they funded project Star Gate, a remote viewing project used to gain mostly military and technological secrets from Russia.

Russell Targ' banned TedX talk about this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBl0cwyn5GY

(TedX bans most talk about psychic matters, despite overwhelming evidence of psychic abilities. So does Wikipedia, by the way, either bans or tries to debunk it. Some would rather not know!)

 

Other known ways to move between dimensions are mystical or ecstatic experiences, out of body experiences, near death experiences and other exceptional kinds of experience that can occur out of the blue for only a moment or continue to days. I have had a few of those, and no doubt some of you have as well, maybe without realising what is happening, and later explaining it away in terms that you are more comfortable with. It can be disconcerting to shift between dimensions, for sure!

If such things interest you, here's a link to a post on the subject by John Van Auken of the Edgar Cayce organization:  Remote viewing - The Fourth Dimension—A Higher Reality

http://www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-posts/the-fourth-dimension%E2%80%94a-higher-reality

 

Remote Viewing Test

Do you think you have the makings of a remote viewer? You probably do, though it takes practice to develop the knack. Here are some tests of latent ability to try out, from Greater Reality.com:

http://www.greaterreality.com/rv/instruct.htm

The secret is to not try. Relax, let go, and accept whatever happens, even if it's nothing. It took me several weeks to stop getting in my own way!

Let me know how it turns out for you.

Tosca

Millenium, by Ingo Swann, in his study.

Being Authentic / more fully Yourself

We all wear personas out in the world to conform to others' expectations, to be accepted, or simply to hide our true personalities or feelings. 

The problem is that very often, we get stuck in certain personas that we have presented to the world for various reasons: to keep up the deception; because it brings us approval or respect or sympathy; to avoid being our real selves. Or we might start to believe that we really are that person.

Carl Jung gave the example of a doctor whose doctor persona is caring, sympathetic, with a terrific bedside manner, who at home is actually inconsiderate, cold, unsympathetic and critical. He becomes like two different people, but he himself is not even aware of it, and thinks of himself as caring and kind.  

Sooner or later, though, personas fail. Under stress, the doctor's caring persona might unexpectedly collapse and his true cold, uncaring nature comes through, shocking his patients. A woman's cheerful, easy-going, sociable persona might suddenly fail, exposing her hidden needy, fearful, melancholy nature, surprising those around her and causing her great embarrassment and shame.

Authenticity is strength. If you don't know who you really are, that is, your true self, you are not living as an authentic, coherent being. 

The task, then, which we all must undertake, is to find out who we really are. We may change, we may grow and cultivate different qualities, but we must learn who we really are now, and what is really important to us.

Here are some suggestions to help you know your Real self:

1. As you go about your day, stop now and then, and ask yourself :

    Is what I am doing right now, or intend to do really ME?

    Is this feeling that I am expressing or think I feel what I really feel?

    Am I saying what I truly think and believe? 

2. If your answer is No, ask yourself-  Why not?

    (Sometime, you may do not want to express or say what you think or feel, which is fine. You have the right to say nothing ... or mumble. But don't lie.

3. Then ask yourself, How I can be more truly Myself in each circumstance?

 

Aligning with the Universal Plan

Spiritual evolution means different things to different people, and we might all go about it differently. Yet how much more power we could create if we worked together, not necessarily in the same group or organisation, but with a common vision, shared intentions that we work towards with other like-minded people.

One young man from Argentina, Matías de Stefan, was born on earth to help us remember what we are, and our part in the Divine Plan of Earth's evolution, and the evolution of humankind. I believe him, or more truthfully, I know that in a world of would-be gurus and teachers, he is the real thing.

Watch, and if you feel a connection to what he is saying, look up some of his talks and decide for yourself whether you might like to be part of his journey or not. Or let him inspire you to find a way to share with others your highest vision for humankind, and act on it. <3

 

Go deeper with the videos at: https://consciousociety.org/partners/?fbclid=IwAR2deC1rD3tnq0R0-ykzvAK2iKvxfLODiPvedMQRAplgeLBGU2k1CtIjI1M

 

 

 

Seeing Differently

Judging from how many of us go to books, classes and teachers to learn spiritual truths, we should expect to be well acquainted with Truth and Wisdom, and know how to recognise them. We should find enlightened souls all around us. But we do not. Nor are most of us - no matter how deep our spiritual practice - intimate with the spiritual dimensions of being. Heaven knows, it's not for want of trying.

It's not that we cannot find Truth, but that our usual ways of looking and experiencing do not allow us to see it.

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand"

Matthew 13:11

Wanting and intending to know, and accepting the ideas of the Divine and Oneness might bring us to the path of transformation, but they are not enough. We must experience for ourselves, viscerally and intimately, the profound and inner shift to a new level of awareness that transforms our consciousness, and if we are to continue to grow, we must experience it over and over as consciousness becomes more and more refined, more expansive and awake.

"He who has eyes to see, let him see, and he who has ears to hear, let him hear."   Matthew 13:13

What are these “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”?

They are metaphors for spiritual awareness: both the willingness and ability to recognise the Truth before us....not just the daily truths that are honestly spoken, but the fundamental Truth of our spiritual nature, which is Divine. 

We like to think we know this Truth, but the majority of us do not. We try to see it, and some of us may even catch a brief glimpse of it, but too often, we fall back into old ways of seeing and thinking ... because we are not transformed. The Truth is right here before us, we are told, but for all our efforts, most of us do not really see it....nor will we until we are change our ways of seeing.

Most of us are like the boy in the Grimm brothers' story of the Goose Girl. In this story, a misused princess disguised as a goose girl speaks daily with the head of her dead horse, who laments her suffering. Every
day she combs out her hair which shines as brightly as the sun (symbol of higher or awakened consciousness), and every day when the boy tries to pluck a hair, she summons the wind to blow off his hat and carry it over the fields.

He knows this is strange, yet all he sees is an irritating goose girl. Like all of us who do not know the language of soul, he remains blind to the mystery being revealed to him, and to its invitation to step into greater awareness. 

Fortunately for the princess, the king (symbol of the Self) recognises the truth and marries her. 

 

“You cannot see Me with your present eyes," Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita,"Therefore I give you divine eyes.”

Just as those who do science must learn to see and experience the world in new ways –that is, scientifically - those who would be awakened must learn to see with more spiritual eyes.

Ordinary mind, the mind of the material self, is perfectly attuned to outer reality. Used properly, it enables us to function according to the laws of this reality at a much higher level than we presently do. To experience spiritual reality, however, we must engage spiritual dimensions of mind, with their unique attributes and processes.

We do it unconsciously in dreams, intuition, inspiration, sudden insights, and those unexpected moments when we feel totally connected to nature, others and the world - but we can learn to do it consciously. And that requires opening our inner gates of perception, and accepting what enters.

Most of us, though, are easily frightened or angered by anything that doesn't fit our beliefs about what is possible or real, that doesn't come through ordinary channels. Instead of opening itself to the unfamiliar and allowing itself to experience the mystery of the unknown, the conscious mind blocks it out, shunts it into our unconscious to remain hidden.

But eventually, even the most rational, materialistic seeker of Truth might come to a door where sensory perception and reason fail. Often, this occurs in times of crisis, or in those dark nights of the soul when we feel terribly lost.

 

 

(We come to a door that can only be entered by those willing to leave familiar ways of knowing behind).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When this happens, we might try to climb back onto familiar ground where things used to make sense, and refuse the opportunity to see things more truly. But some brave or desperate souls will accept this sacred invitation to accept not-knowing, walk through the wide open gate newly humbled, and surrender mind to the deep mystery of Self, of Being ... asking Who am I? What is this?

Eventually, if we keep asking, answers will come. And what do we do meanwhile?

Nature Spirits and other Earth Dwellers

Years ago, I had an encounter with nature spirits. My friend and I were walking with our six small children across a wild field towards a woods, and the children ran ahead laughing. Soon, when we realised that we could no longer hear them, we called out, but no reply, so I began to walk faster, calling out anxiously. I was coming close to tears when I heard a calm voice ask, "Why are you afraid?" and noticed three tall slender women in long light dresses to our far left, moving gracefully through the grasses. "Don't you know that we are watching over them?" asked the voice." Suddenly, I felt completely reassured, and moments later, the children came out of the edge of the woods towards us, still laughing and playing.

My friend seemed totally unaware of these nature spirits, and when I later asked her about them, she said that she had noticed nothing except that I had suddenly become calm. The children had seen no one.

Others have told of encounters with nature spirits or elementals, some, as with the Scottish scientist Robert Ogilvie Crombie, over many years. Crombie formed a long close relationship with the mythical Spirit of Nature, Pan, overlord of nature entities.

We so-called civilised westerners like to dismiss nature spirits, elves, faerie and other unseen creatures as fantasies of the primitive mind, products of an unsophisticated though enchanting way of thinking about the world.

“The primal human being" writes Richard Tarnas, "perceives the surrounding natural world as permeated with meaning, meaning whose significance is at once human and cosmic. Spirits are seen in the forest, presences are felt in the wind and the ocean, the river, the mountains. Meaning is recognized in the flight of two eagles across the horizon, in the conjunction of two planets in the heavens, in the unfolding cycles of the Moon and Sun. The primal world is ensouled.” (in Cosmos and Psyche).

Fairies looking through a Gothic arch. by John Anster Fitzgerald

Yet even today, some people do see these presences, and animals do sometimes give meaningful signs that may be understood. I have made my around the South Island of New Zealand without getting lost once by following hawks that appeared at every single intersection or fork in the road to guide me, and in the valley near where I live, a hawk taught me a valuable lesson on focus and intent by circling three times  over my head with a fish in its mouth. (I always ask for my messages in threes to dismiss the possibility of coincidence). (https://mythologos.typepad.com/blog/2015/07/hawks-lesson-on-heart.html)

In Iceland, belief in elves who often dwell in or beneath large rocks is still very much alive (love those Icelanders!), so much so that the Icelandic parliament ordered roadworks to be rerouted to avoid disturbing a site believed to be inhabited by elves. Almost half of Icelanders, it seems, believe in elves, and elf 'experts' are often consulted prior to roadworks and other constructions to determine whether elves live in that area and what to do about it.

 

    Elf habitat protected by Iceland parliament

 

 

 

"There are many splendid dwellings. One is there called Alfheim. There dwell the folk that are called light-elves; but the dark-elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike the light-elves in appearance, but much more so in deeds. The light-elves are fairer than the sun to look upon, but the dark-elves are blacker than pitch." (softpedia.com).

Then there is Bigfoot, or what the Australian Aborigines call the Yowie. Yes. They have been seen, and in my area as well, and Bigfoots have even been recorded. (https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/08/the-eerie-world-of-bigfoot-sound-recordings/)

I was, however, surprised to find that Seth, the entity who spoke through Jane Roberts, spoke of Bigfoot-like creatures on Earth.

"There are indeed two different kinds of upward-walking mammals, much like your own species, but much larger and with infinitely keener senses. They are indeed amazingly swift creatures and through scent alone they are aware of the presence of man when any member of your species is at all in the immediate area - standing, say, several miles away. Vegetable matter is a main diet, though often supplemented by insects, which are considered a delicacy. …… With some territorial variation, such creatures reside in many of the world areas on your planet, though their overall population is very small - altogether, perhaps several thousand. …….Language is not developed to any great degree, of their sensual ordinary equipment is so pure and swift that it almost becomes a language of its own. (Jane Roberts. Seth: The Way Toward Health).

Some might not like the idea of unseen intelligent beings around us, large or small, but I find it very reassuring that despite our astoundingly ignorant behaviour toward nature and other species, some beings have had the wisdom to avoid us and our bungling, violent ways. As I potter around the wild parts of my garden, I like to know that someone might be watching, and that in return for the untouched corner of wilderness where it is safe from harm, it is probably helping my garden to grow. If I run into a Yowie, though, I'd rather not be alone. 

the Fact of Oneness

Lately, I feel the separation between this me and the other selves of my multidimensional Being is thinner, more permeable, hardly there at all: that we are sort of melting into each other. It's like living in two dimensions at once: an external dimension that runs on space and time and action in the world, and inner dimensions where I exist free of space and time. Like in dreams, where we can be in several scenes at one time or jump between dreams without any apparent transition.

Others are feeling it as well, and many are starting to talk about it. We are moved by a strange sense of fluidity not only between our many selves or aspects of Self, but also between ourselves and others.

All it takes is to stop any kind of judgement, stop naming everything another says or does - he is angry, she is wrong etc - and just observe and listen. If you are quiet enough, you can almost feel delicate threads  forming between you, like in that old movie, The Celestine Prophecy.

You can do it with plants and animals too. I suspect that a great many of you already connect on that level with your pets. That's a good start.

Start to pay attention. Quiet your thoughts. Be open, and allow your ego to experience the reality of oneness for yourself.

.....See how easily your consciousness switches from inner to outer focus...How you can experience a moment from different perspectives?  Do you see that if you choose, you can mentally and emotionally reach across that seemingly vast distance between you and the mind of another individual to better understand his or her feelings, thoughts and perspective?

Practice this, build your consciousness of Oneness, and you will transform more than your own life.

 

Black Holes and the Sacred Serpent

I watched the movie Interstellar - again - trying to understand its theory about black holes.  

 Once considered the galaxy-eating monsters of our universe, black holes may, some think, "grow the galaxies surrounding them" (L.A. Times Jan 08, 2009).  Black hole HE0450-2958 located 5 billion light years away is thought to be  "powering star formation in the nearby galaxy by spraying its jets of high-energy particles toward it".  The team of astronomers has "identified black hole jets as a possible driver of galaxy formation"(www.space.com 30 Nov 2009). 

The paradox here is that spinning black holes also absorb entire galaxies and anything else that comes close enough, making them both cosmic destroyers and creators.

I suspect that as it discovers more about the nature of black holes, science will find that what they destroy in this universe provides the creative energy in another universe. Rather than our black holes spitting back the energy of absorbed galaxies, they may be releasing through wormholes or some other means the energy of other universes into our galaxies.

Simulated black hole. NASA.gov

 

If this is true, then black holes are cosmological demonstrations of a profound metaphysical and spiritual paradox:  Life born of Death; death and rebirth.

One mythological expression of this paradox and its deeper spiritual meaning is the  serpent.

                      Egyptian

                          Ancient Greek

 

On one level, the serpent is the supreme symbol of the soul's death or descent into materiality. The serpent is linked to the fall - the spiritual death - of mankind, and our attachment to the physical.

On another level, the serpent represents the rise of the soul from entrapment in materiality to its spiritual awakening to its divine nature...the soul's liberation from ego consciousness to the realisation of Christ, Buddha or God consciousness. Why the serpent? Because it represents embodied spirit. The awakened soul does not rise above the body and the world: rather, it engages more deeply, joyfully and meaningfully with the life being lived as it was intended to. 

This awakening of the soul, however, requires the repeated death of the lower self (that part that is attached to, addicted to sensual and ego gratification), and repeated rebirth into ever higher levels of awareness.

See it terms of energy: the transformation of spiritual energy.

Another mythic representation of the life-from-death paradox is the Vedic triad:  Shiva the destroyer, Brahma the creator, and Vishnu the preserver...three aspects of the one supreme divine principle. As the destroyer aspect of this divine triad, Shiva brings about the end of an aeon and destroys the world, which, after time of non-being, through the grace of Vishnu - "embodiment of mercy and goodness, the self-existent, all-pervading power that preserves the universe and maintains the cosmic order" - is created once again by Brahma.

In Vedic mythology, Vishnu floats on the cosmic sea on the coils of a great serpent, out of him rising Brahma who recreates the world. 

Vishnu resting on Ananta-Shesha as his onsort Lakshmi massages his feet

 

The spiral of Ananta-Shesha is a symbolic expression of the eternal cycle of Being. The god Shiva dances in cosmic spirals, representing the active force of truth in the  universe.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In mythic symbolism, the soul's awakening is often represented as a serpent spiralling upward, usually two spiralling  serpents, each spiral representing a stage in the soul's evolution.

 (Left: Mesopotamian Ningizzida).

 

 

To me, this grand mythic cycle of sacred serpents represents the fundamental cosmic cycle in which galaxies -  perhaps even whole universes - are born, grow, and die, their forces stilled like the pause between the inbreath and the outbreath until they are reborn as new into a new world.

'As above, so below'. So is the cosmic order mirrored in the spiral of a person's spiritual liberation.

It is also a fundamental form in nature...sacred geometry seen in the spiral of a coiled fern frond; the endless spirals of fractals; the orderly spirals of magnetic energy and the spirals of galaxies, dark holes and other cosmic bodies.

Who knows.  If, at the moment of transition from waking to sleep, from one thought to another, from one dimension to another, we could really see our consciousness, it might appear as a galaxy, a cluster of galaxies spiralling joyfully towards the black hole of transformation.

Nothing Passive about Acceptance!

Spiritual teachers of many persuasions teach the idea of acceptance, that through acceptance, we find peace. that we must say 'yes' to everything.

But this brings one face to face with the problem of evil. Do we say 'yes' to that as well, and accept it as part of life, or do we actively distance ourselves from it and focus only on the good?

I have struggled with this dilemma many times over a long life time, and the only answer I come up with is this:

That what is, is, because somehow, we have allowed it to be, perhaps even (unwittingly or no) helped it to be.

The state of our world, including the evil in it, reflects back to us, to all of us, all that we have thought, believed and done....every hateful thought, every cruelty, every neglect of someone in need, each refusal to acknowledge another's suffering, and be moved enough to try to relieve it...all of it. 

In accepting what is, ugly as it might be, we are admitting to ourselves that we are all responsible for what is. We are all part of the society and its history that has helped to create this ugliness, and we are all accountable for it. 

Accepting it, recognising it as it is, is to say, "this too is me". In other words, the potential to do this, commit this act, be this way also exists in me.

The potential for evil is part of being human. If we refuse to accept it in ourselves, we will continue to project it out onto others, other people, other cultures, other societies etc. They in return are projecting all that is unacceptable onto others. We are always projecting, and very rarely, and only with great effort do we realise that 'the enemy is us'.

So acceptance of what is, saying 'yes', that is part of my reality, is the first step to taking back our projections. When we take them back, we can begin the hard work of dealing with them, of recognising our shadow selves and finding ways to integrate them in positive ways.

Saying 'yes' is not the final step. It is the first. First, recognise and accept.

Then, heal and correct that thing, that evil, that fault or whatever in ourselves. This is the true basis of forgiveness.

Christ taught love and forgiveness not because they are good, but because through forgiveness, we diminish the energies of  evil, anger, guilt, and despair; through love, we nourish the energies of life, growth and inner strength.

But we cannot truly forgive what we refuse to accept, either in ourselves or others. 'Yes', I see that, I acknowledge it. And I forgive it so that I can turn all my energy to good.

 

Looking at a Dream from the Inside

I had this dream some time ago, and working with it was one of my first experiences of Carl Jung's Active Imagination approach to dreams and the unconscious. Yet the dream images often come to mind, so I know that the dream is still working in me, and am using active imagination go a little deeper into it at this time.

Black parrots dream

I watch a child climbing a dense tree and notice small oblong hives of bees (ancient Egyptian style), which will hurt him if disturbed. I tell the child (my grandson) to come down though he is unconcerned and I guide him past the bees. I noticed three big black eagle-like parrots watching him. They are between him and me. I am unusually calm (usually anxious in my dreams). The boy is fearless, smiling as he stops to observe the bees on the way down. The birds, however, are fierce-looking, their hooked beaks partly open and hungry-looking. Yet I know that as long as I am watchful and guide the boy safely past the bees, the birds will not harm him. They watch me, waiting for a moment of self-doubt, of hesitation, and I hear the words, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. I do not falter.

Interpretation

Because of their fierceness and cold bright eyes, I think that the parrots represent my critical ego self waiting for the child/me to be hurt and say, "See, I told you not to trust yourself". I think that I am the higher self watching, guiding, ready to stop the birds if they moved toward the child. So maybe Stupid is directed at my ego, which misunderstood everything, or maybe at the trusting child/inner child who does not recognise the danger. I don't know, and the dream, don't give it any thought.

So I interpreted that dream as telling me that if I am fully present, fully conscious, sensitive to the forces and energies around me, I will be safe. I can trust myself.

Second interpretation

Yet when I used Carl Jung's active imagination approach to ‘speak’ with the birds, I found that the dream had a lot more to say. The birds told me to that I must be “infinitely patient and let things unfold, yet hold a clear purpose.”

When I asked what they represented, they asked, “Don’t you want our fierce will, our determination, our watchfulness?” Yes, I did. I do.

They drew my attention to the bees, which I had taken as representing potential risk or danger, or as gatekeepers to gold (honey, spiritual treasure). “We watch over them,” the birds said, “because they are preoccupied and dreaming. Yet they are life itself; they carry the seeds of procreation.” From this, I understood that the bees represented the creative force that speaks not to waking consciousness but to the dreaming or entranced self.

The birds also represented a part of me that I had considered unacceptable, and often been criticised for, a stern, stubborn, fierce aspect of my being that I had tried to smother with gentleness and compliance.

“Why are you so fierce?” I asked. They replied, “Because you want to be fierce and still, and dangerous.....You don’t feel safe with gentle and loving. You want to feel protected, steely-winged angels at your side....You want to be guarded by fearless ones who love you, cherish you.” “And you do that?” I asked. “Always. As angel, eagle, castle wall, I am with you.”

I cannot tell you how reassuring that was, and how validating to know that I could express those tough, steely qualities with which I had protected myself through a difficult childhood, and accept the fearfulness that lay behind them. My only real protection is to accept and integrate.

"You cannot deny fear," they said. "You must accept it, face it. Until you do, your safety is based on avoiding danger. Instead you must find the courage within you."

"Do you want me to be afraid?" I asked. They replied, "To face it, take it in. Transform it into light, energy, power...or the child will never be allowed to grow. He will forever be held back by what you do not make fully conscious and acceptable." I must say that I was surprised, but it feels true.

Regarding the dream parrots, I had read somewhere Marie Louise von Franz’s discussion on parrots in eastern fairytales. The birds in my dream were eagle-like parrots, with lustrous blue-black feathers and parrot beaks, but the fierce eyes and stillness of eagles. They were also very large and conveyed the quiet power and authority that one associates more with eagles.

Von Franz’s parrots represent the Self, both its destructive and its redemptive power for the soul, and one must be very careful not to arouse the destructive power but to watch for the right moment to catch their redemptive power. I see that in this dream.

The three birds are the Self with a capital S, watching and totally aware, and seeming dangerous. The other watcher, ego self, though confident, is afraid for the child's safety. Stupid might refer to that, the ego as setter of limitations, builder of walls, "the inner critic" that often calls me stupid. It takes courage to ignore ego, which can seem so intelligent, and trust as one's higher Self or Soul pushes me toward the unknown. Yet that is what I must do.

I have found in my own life that the inner guides and the Soul can be very stern with those who lack the courage to leave the ego path. If we do not obey them (for they demand our obedience), they may remain silent, let us suffer the consequences of our choices and learn from them how wrong ego can be . It is very humbling.

Humility is ego’s most efficient teacher, I think, absolutely necessary if ego is to take its rightful place as servant of the soul. Which it must, if we are to become whole, truly conscious beings. 

For now, this little poem is enough to express my dreamwork experience with this dream.

I am still working on a little sketch in response to some more recent, and deeper inner work with it. I'll share it in a new post when it's ready.

I climb through tangled branches, leaves,

Curious adventurer into secret wilderness.

I watch from the side

bees silent as breath around their oval nests.

I guide the child past

Slow, alert, trusting.

I watch other watchers,

Curved beaks, fierce eyes, shimmering like opals in the leaves

Still but for their eager breath, waiting.

I am the child... I am the watcher that guides...

...the waiting birds...

I am the tree and the bees unaware.

I am consciousness

And there is no fear.