Dreams show us the landscapes of our souls. Where do your dreams regularly take place? What is the felt sense of that space? How does it speak to you? 'We live in the speaking land,' the Australian Aborigines believe. And indeed, if we open ourselves, increase our receptivity, and tune into Nature, we'll find that everything is talking to us. Within that field of resonance, we will find an interconnectedness with the whole of the Universe across time and space. What is the resonance within our own soul as reflected in the landscapes of our dreams? Do parts of you dwell in deserts, grass savannahs, forests, underwater, on mountains, in caves, in snow-covered open spaces, villages, or suburbs of cities?
According to the African indigenous perspective on dreaming, the landscapes in our dreams denote our DNA and the people we originate from. It may even be an ancestor or the ancestor of the land speaking to you through your dreams in the image of an aspect of Nature. According to John Lockley, a fully initiated Sangoma in the Xhosa tradition and author of the book "The Way of the Leopard," the indigenous worldview is that you need to respect your dreams as sacred portals to the Other World. We need to have a right relationship with dreams, which will lead to personal power, clarity, and compassion, allowing us to walk in this world with dignity. When we track our dreams, we track our Souls. Part of this process is to befriend Nature, whose voice may be reflected in the landscapes of our dreams.
The sea or ocean, along with other expanses of water of various kinds such as rivers, lakes, ponds, and pools, is one of the most widespread and familiar images in dream life. Jung talked about the 'two-million-year-old person' inside all of us, which represents the deeper instinctive strata of the human psyche, inclusive of our gradual evolutionary adaptation in which the ocean played a very definite role. The sea and other bodies of water, as archetypal images, are common experiences for all life forms, not only humans but also all life that has adapted in one manner or another to the ‘living water’.
Image credit: Afrika Burn
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