Monday, October 24, 2016

Terese's Dream - The Lion and I


A few weeks ago, I thought I was dying with a heart attack.  The pain in my left chest was unbearable and I was alone at the time.  As I am already preparing to die, there was no need to call 911.  I called my sister to come because I didn't want to be alone but they lived about 40 minutes away and I was completely panicked.  I was texting my friend, Yahnia, earlier in the day, and when I grabbed by cell phone I was able to text her back and forth.  The pain was such that I really couldn't talk but texting seemed to work okay.  About 20 minutes into that conversation, it dawned on me to call The Nuns in Indiana.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to talk much and they were startled at first because of the distress I was in, however, they quickly assessed the situation and started soothing me with beautiful memories and lots of tender words.  Just then my sister and mother arrived.  

As it turns out, it wasn't a heart attack (such a drama queen but I never had a heart attack before and the pain was unbearable).  We first put it to pleurisy but later determined it was a herniated thoracic disc, not high on the list of medical priorities given my other health issues and the pain subsided within the week with a trip to the hospital and some muscle relaxants and pain pills.  After the hospital, I had to call The Nuns to let them know it wasn't a heart attack (much to my embarrassment).  The good news and the point of this blog post is that the conversation gave The Dreamer in Terese a dream of me as a young blond child in a field with a grown male lion.  In the dream, I walked over to the lion and placed my hand on his forehead.  My immediate Jungian associations were my inner child and the Lion of Judah (Jewish Scripture) but Terese went Gospel with Aslan from CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.  Reflecting on the dream further, I was also thinking about the inner child and the lion as psychosis and rage.  The child trying to comfort the lion.  In the end, I look at the dream as a signpost for peace in my journey home.  The great Prophet Jeremiah said, the “lion and the lamb shall lay down together” - a prophecy speaking of a literal utopia on earth to come or my eventual requiescat in pace. My own Dreamer has begun a series of navigational dreams, both moral decisions and physical directional choices...good or moral, evil or immoral, North or South, East or West, etc.  Like the journey of the mythological heroes (the realm of the archetypes), my Dreamer is preparing the road map for my return to Zion.

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