Dreams might hold
God’s messages

In the Book of Numbers (12:26), it is written, "Hear my words: if there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream." The voice of God, or the Self in Jungian terms, offers continual redemption and guidance through our dreams today as in the biblical age. We need only begin to take seriously our inner life, learn the language of symbols and realize that dreams are the voice of a psychic center within us striving for the wholeness necessary for psychological and spiritual maturity.

The quest for spiritual and psychological maturity, when successful, leads to a constant narrowing of the gap between conscious and unconscious realities through which transformation and reconciliation between the opposites within the psyche occur.

In this transformation the unconscious motivations of the false self are worn away, and the maturing values from the center of the psyche, from the Self, become operative serving as a stimulus to continuous integration and expanded consciousness.

Through myth and legend, human beings have always used symbolic stories to express awareness of the mysteries underlying existence as well as to express abstract qualities such as courage, truth and love or such shadow qualities as anger, greed and the need for power and control.

Each person's inner journey and struggle can be given greater meaning when viewed as an individual path toward wholeness, a symbolic quest awakened by the soul.

Dreams are an integral part of that quest for those seriously committed to the inner life, to their own growth and a deepening relationship with God. In all recorded history we find examples of the value of dreams as a source of meaning, wisdom and guidance. In this age, when we are more psychologically aware, we can begin to understand the transformative potential and complexities that arise when attending to one's dreams.

Dreams are the symbolic language of the soul and as such are often teleological, pointing toward one's destiny and life purpose. This was certainly true for Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, in the dreams of his youth, and though his dreams revealed his egocentricity, they also connected him to guidance from the Self. Years of suffering would transform the egocentric star into a mature psychological and spiritual force.

The Bible regards angels, dreams and visions in much the same way. A concordance lists 126 references to dreams and 103 to visions in the Bible. Besides Joseph's dreams we easily recall Jacob's ladder dream, Abimelech's warning from God about Sarah and the dream in which an angel bids Joseph retain Mary as his wife. In just the first two chapters of Matthew, there are five dreams recorded, and the action taken is based on the guidance from these dreams.

Attending to dreams is a valuable spiritual practice serving to open one to ever-deeper resources available within. It is a practice offering understanding, wisdom, discernment and the opportunity to know one's self.