Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Trinity of Faith, Hope and Love

Uncovering Christian Dream Symbols - Diamonds, Blood, Feet



pencil drawing bringing together many images that represent faith,hope and love in my dreams including roses, diamonds, and feet.
Collage of Dream Images for Faith, Hope and Love
It’s Carl Jung’s contention that Christian symbolism ubiquitous in our culture, regardless of whether we are religious people, people of faith, or neither – the symbols of the Jewish and Christian faith are embedded in our ideals, social constructs, ideas fairness, sacrifice, and connection with the spiritual world. The Unconscious mind will use the symbols available to deliver the message we need.

I had to wonder a bit about my own personal symbology, because Christian symbols were largely missing – no crosses, Sistine chapel type images, angels, and other things. I had assumed that my spiritual dream symbols would be ‘traditional’ – perhaps like the great art works of older times. Not so, as it happens. So, I had to wonder about myself a bit, since nothing like that was showing up.

Over time however, I found that the Trinity of Faith, Hope and Love showed continually blended together in subtle forms.  These are some of the ways that I believe the Spirit and my spirit were communicating spiritual truths, higher calling, comfort, and hope. If the number 3 appeared, it did not seem to refer to body, mind, and spirit, but rather Faith, Hope and Love. My Big 3.

Hope  is a Diamond

Diamonds represent hope to me, as in the famous Hope Diamond. I have seen the diamond symbol in promise rings, family heirloom rings, cards like the 9 or queen of diamonds, and baseball diamonds. One ring contained a pink diamond, a blood diamond in essence, combining Love and Hope in single ring which should not be lost. Rings have the additional reference to promises made, kept, and hoped for. Once the diamonds decorated a hope chest.

Love is our Lifeblood

Blood is the image that speaks most clearly of Love to me. Blood feeds our hearts and our whole body. Love is the very essence of what we are in this world, to each other, and to our God. There was scary vampire that laughed at me before he bit me. All my Christian incantations could not make him go away - he had a mission to get through my protective skin, to the real me, and let all of my emotion, love, and pain come out –an absolute necessity in dealing personal loss. Even a vampire can be an unorthodox helper. The Unconscious mind will find a person to do the job.

Leona Lewis singing Bleeding Love

Faith is in our Walk

I was mystified by the images of my feet in my dreams, especially my own bare feet walking on glass or gem stones, yet unharmed. I saw this image twice, months apart. It was a powerful image and I puzzled over it for some time. One day, in another context I thought, “The Apostle Paul would say that faith is in your feet.” And there was the symbol for me. And indeed it is. Not our words, our feet.

Sometimes, I think the Unconscious will swap out an image if you just don’t get it, or sometimes it will repeat it again, as if to say, “Seriously, you should get this one.”

Faith and Love messages also come into dreams through the Dream People or characters. They might be people of strong faith, or have faith names, (promises, peace, beloved). See my blog on Dream People.

When you realize the message contained in a very important dream symbol’s message, I believe you will often feel powerful emotion, gratitude, joy, even tears. I have no doubt that I will be hearing and seeing more about my three friends Faith, Hope and Love.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

People You Know - Family, Friends, Co-workers, Bosses

Almost all of our dreams include ourselves and other people, many times people that we know in our conscious life. In our dreams, they can represent many things and it’s often a little tricky to figure out why they appear in a dream, or rather why your Unconscious mind has selected them for a role in the dream. My purpose in this blog article is to help you with the task of understanding the key characters that might show up in your dream.

Without being critical in any way of online dream sites, I have mostly found too general in their discussion of Dream characters. That is probably because we all know different people and how can you ever explain what they can symbolize. However, I’m tackling this subject in order to try and help other people who are fascinated with Dream life to understand their Dream people better.

People, Symbols and Meanings

Known people who epitomize a characteristic, this characteristic can be either positive or negative in actual life, but usually in a dream, the Unconscious is pointing out the person as an example of someone who has mastered something and we need to adopt some of that feature.

For the sake of this blog, and so that the innocent can be protected! the names of the actual people have been changed. However, these are all based on actual Dream People I have encountered!

Tyler - The Coach, Door Opener

I don’t actually know this person well, but he is a coach who gave my daughter a wonderful opportunity to try out a new sport. It was a wonderful new learning opportunity for her. When he pops up a dream, it’s a reminder of to appreciate the new doors that might open soon.

Zeke - The Torch Bearer, The Lover

This person, I knew something about in general terms but was not an intimate friend by any means. So, I kept thinking – what does he mean in my dream? responsible, mature? But I finally saw a dream in which the lighting came from a torchiere lamp and I knew! He is a man who carries a torch, loves from afar.

Christian friends, Church friends

I have many Christian friends who pop up in dreams and sometimes they represent themselves and sometimes they represent or reflect faith, hope or honesty, or peace, back to me.  If I hug or kiss them, then it’s a message about ‘hold to your Faith” or “keep the faith”.

James - It's all about Me.

This person was a sometime friend who was smart, charming and good looking. He probably still is. However, after knowing him for a while I discovered that his personal belief system was about one thing – doing exactly what he wanted and only considering himself. He would really admit and preach this. As a result he only looked after himself and his interest. It was puzzleing that he showed up years later in my dream. I had to wonder"Why would James show up now? He was always all about himself." And there was the answer. Yeah, he was about himself and if he is here in my dream, (golfing with me!) maybe that is a hint that a situation in my waking life requires me to take a page out of his book, the All About Me book.

Brian - the Fearless One

This friend is likely to start a new business, tour the world on a motorcycle, walk away from one occupation and create a new plan from scratch. He does not worry – he is The Fearless One.  When he is in a dream, he is chides me for being afraid to make changes, shows me how to live in the moment, to follow my dreams and passions. He is both a delightful friend and also a helpful dream symbol.

Compatible people

I used to work at a company called Compatible Systems. People from that past job started popping up in my dreams. It took a little while to realize that they did not so much represent themselves as the need to seek out work that was more compatible with me, and where the culture was more compatible.

Freeman, Free Man

Sometimes people's names will give us a clue. What does their first or last name mean literally? or what does it sound like? I had a duo of Freeman sisters show up in a dream series focused on the issue of being free, and being bound.

Janet - I have My Whole Life Ahead of Me

This young woman I knew many years ago and I remember her always saying, “I’m young, I have my whole life ahead of me.” In a dream context that was helpful in recognizing that we are always choosing our path and even at midlife, we have a lot of time left to do things that make us happy and fulfilled.

Really Looking

So, if a person is in your dream, I try to look at her or him from different sides, like turning a stone in your hand. Is she herself, the person? is she really a part of me calling me to the thing she represents? Does he the represent the same characteristic in this dream as in another one? How is he changed? How the same? Our friends and relatives are so interesting and we see many sides of them over time. They provide so much interesting material for the Unconscious mind to use.

I hope these examples might be helpful to the reader in discovering the wealth of meaning that Dream people represent. Take some time thinking about the meaning of our Dream characters.

Above all, they are there to help and we should never be afraid of them, only pleasantly surprised when our Unconscious serves them up.


Other Dream Blogs:


10 Steps to Interpreting your Dreams

The Trinity of Faith, Hope and Love

People You Know - Family, Friends, Co-workers, Bosses

Strangers, Vampire, Cheerleaders and Foreign Folk

Spiders, Spider Webs, and Weaving Dream Meanings