Eye was preparing for a friday night football game with my HS and REM teammates. We were the Colonel Crawford Eagles and our opponent was unnamed as of yet. The only alternate eye could remember from 3D was Jared Lillo and he would be the rotating 12th. Having been shorthanded in many ways, We would be playing with 12 guys going both ways in this battle and eye knew immediately that exhaustion would play a part in all of our nights. As eye pulled up my Hannover 96 wristband and got used to the feel of my pads and equipment. Eye heard a voice tell me that eye looked ready to play. Eye took a piss in a urinal nearby, my cleats click clacking on the concrete floor of the locker room. Then, it was gridiron time.
The essence of the question involved here is contained in the saying of
Plotinus that the eye would not be able to see the sun if, in a manner, it were not
itself a sun. Given that the sun is the source of light and that light is symbolic of
the intelligence and of the spirit, then the process of seeing represents a spiritual
act and symbolizes understanding. Hence, the ‘divine eye’ of the Egyptians—a
determinative sign in their hieroglyphics called Wadza—denotes ‘He who feeds
the sacred fire or the intelligence of Man’ (28)—Osiris, in fact. Very interesting,
too, is the way the Egyptians defined the eye—or, rather, the circle of the iris
with the pupil as centre—as the ‘sun in the mouth’ (or the creative Word) (8). René Magritte, the surrealist painter, has illustrated this same relationship between the sun and the mouth in one of his most fascinating paintings. The possession of two eyes conveys physical normality and its spiritual equivalent, and it
follows that the third eye is symbolic of the superhuman or the divine. As for the
single eye, its significance is ambivalent: on the one hand it implies the subhuman
because it is less than two (two eyes being equated with the norm); but on the
other hand, given its location in the forehead, above the place designated for the
eyes by nature, it seems to allude to extra-human powers which are in fact—in
mythology—incarnated in the Cyclops. At the same time the eye in the forehead
is linked up with the idea of destruction, for obvious reasons in the case of the
single eye; but the same also applies when there is a third eye in the forehead, as
with Siva (or Shiva). This is explained by reference to one of the facets of the
symbolism of the number three: for if three can be said to correspond to the
active, the passive and the neutral, it can also apply to creation, conservation and
destruction. Heterotopic eyes are the spiritual equivalent of sight, that is, of
clairvoyance. (Heterotopic eyes are those which have been transferred anatomically to various parts of the body, such as the hands, wings, torso, arms, and
different parts of the head, in figures of fantastic beings, angels, deities and so on.)
When the eyes are situated in the hand, for example, by association with the
symbolism of the hand they come to denote clairvoyant action. An excessive
number of eyes has an ambivalent significance which it is important to note. In
the first place, the eyes refer to night with its myriads of stars, in the second
place, paradoxically yet necessarily, the possessor of so many eyes is left in
darkness. Furthermore, by way of corroboration, let us recall that in symbolist
theory multiplicity is always a sign of inferiority. Such ambivalences are common
in the realm of the unconscious and its projected images. Instructive in this
connexion is the example of Argus, who with all his eyes could not escape death.
The Adversary (Satan, in Hebrew) has been represented in a variety of ways,
among others, as a being with many eyes. A Tarot card in the Cabinet des Estampes
in Paris (Kh. 34d), for instance, depicts the devil as Argus with many eyes all over
his body. Another comparable symbolic device is also found commonly in demonic figures: it consists of taking some part of the body that possesses, as it
were, a certain autonomy of character or which is directly associated with a
definite function, and portraying it as a face. Multiple faces and eyes imply
disintegration or psychic decomposition—a conception which lies at the root of the demoniacal idea of rending apart (59). Finally, to come back to the pure
meaning of the eye in itself, Jung considers it to be the maternal bosom, and the
pupil its ‘child’.
(1)
Thus the great solar god becomes a child again, seeking renovation at his mother’s bosom (a symbol, for the Egyptians, of the mouth) (31).
1 The Jungian idea is expressed as a pun. ‘Niña’ means both ‘daughter’ and ‘pupil (of the eye)’. The
phrase ‘Niña de los ojos’ is like the English ‘apple of one’s eye’, which gives something of the feel of
the pun.—Translator
To dream of seeing an eye, warns you that watchful enemies are seeking the slightest chance to work injury to your business. This dream indicates to a lover, that a rival will usurp him if he is not careful.
To dream of brown eyes, denotes deceit and perfidy.
To see blue eyes, denotes weakness in carrying out any intention.
To see gray eyes, denotes a love of flattery for the owner.
To dream of losing an eye, or that the eyes are sore, denotes trouble.
To see a one-eyed man, denotes that you will be threatened with loss and trouble, beside which all others will appear insignificant.
Seeing your own eyes in your dream, represents enlightenment, knowledge, comprehension, understanding, and intellectual awareness. Unconscious thoughts may be coming onto the surface. The left eye is symbolic of the moon, while the right eye represents the sun. It may also be a pun on "I" or the self. If you dream that your eyes have turned inside your head and you can now see the inside of your head, then it symbolizes insight and something that you need to be aware of. This dream may be literally telling you that you need to look within yourself. Trust your intuition and instincts. Dreaming that you have something in your eye, represents obstacles in your path. Alternatively, it may represent your critical view and how you tend to see faults in others. Dreaming that you have one eye indicates your refusal to accept another viewpoint. It suggests that you are one-sided in your ways of thinking. Dreaming that you have a third eye, symbolizes inner vision and insight. You need to start looking within yourself. Dreaming that your eyes are injured or closed, suggests your refusal to see the truth about something or the avoidance of intimacy. You may be expressing feelings of hurt, pain or sympathy. Dreaming that you have crossed eyes indicates that you are not seeing straight with regards to some situation. You may be getting your facts mixed up.
Man comes to see himself as a symbol in so far as he is conscious of his
being. Hallstatt art, in Austria, shows fine examples of animal-heads with human
figures appearing above them. In India, in New Guinea, in the West as well, the
bull’s or ox’s head with a human form drawn between the horns is a very common
motif. Since the bull is a symbol for the father-heaven, man comes to be seen as
both his and the earth’s son (22), also, as a third possibility, the son of the sun and
the moon (49). The implications of Origen’s remark: ‘Understand that you are
another world in miniature and that in you are the sun, the moon and also the
stars’, are to be found in all symbolic traditions. In Moslem esoteric thought, man
is the symbol of universal existence (29), an idea which has found its way into
contemporary philosophy in the definition of man as ‘the messenger of being’;
however, in symbolic theory, man is not defined by function alone (that of
appropriating the consciousness of the cosmos), but rather by analogy, whereby
he is seen as an image of the universe. This analogical relationship is sometimes
expressed explicitly, as in some of the more ancient sections of the Upanishads—
the Brihadaranyaka and the Chandogya for instance—where the analogy between the human organism and the macrocosmos is drawn step by step by means
of correspondences with the organs of the body and the senses (7). So, for
example, the components of the nervous system are derived from fiery substance, and blood from watery substance (26). These oriental concepts first
appear in the West during the Romanesque period: Honorius of Autun, in his Elucidarium (12th century) states that the flesh (and the bones) of man are
derived from the earth, blood from water, his breath from air, and body-heat from
fire. Each part of the body relates to a corresponding part of the universe: the
head corresponds to the heavens, the breath to air, the belly to the sea, the lower
extremities to earth. The five senses were given analogies in accordance with a
system which came to Europe, perhaps, from the Hebrews and the Greeks (14).
Thus, Hildegard of Bingen, living in the same period, states that man is disposed
according to the number five: he is of five equal parts in height and five in girth; he
has five senses, and five members, echoed in the hand as five fingers. Hence the
pentagram is a sign of the microcosmos. Agrippa of Nettesheim represented this graphically, after Valeriano, who drew the analogy between the five-pointed star
and the five wounds of Christ. There is a relationship, too, between the organic
laws of Man and the Cistercian temple (14). Fabre d’Olivet, following the Cabala,
maintains that another number closely associated with the human being is nine—
the triple ternary. He divides human potentialities into three planes: those of the
body, of the soul or life and of the spirit. Each of these planes is characterized by
three modes: the active, the passive and the neutral (43). In the Far East, also,
speculation about the symbolism of man began very early. The same kind of
triple ternary organization is to be seen in the ancient teachings of the Taoists
(13). It is also interesting to note that there is a relationship between the human
being and the essential or archetypal animals (the turtle, the phoenix, the dragon
and the unicorn) who appear to bear the same relation to man—who is central—
as the tetramorphs do to the Pantokrator. Now, between man as a concrete
individual and the universe there is a medial term—a mesocosmos. And this
mesocosmos is the ‘Universal Man’, the King (Wang) in Far Eastern tradition,
and the Adam Kadmon of the Cabala. He symbolizes the whole pattern of the
world of manifestation, that is, the complete range of possibilities open to mankind. In a way, the concept corresponds to Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’. According to Guénon, Leibniz—perhaps influenced by Raymond Lull—conceded
that every ‘individual substance’ must contain within itself an integral reproduction of the universe, even if only as an image, just as the seed contains the totality
of the being into which it will develop (25). In Indian symbolism, Vaishvânara, or
the ‘Universal Man’, is divided into seven principal sections: (1) The superior,
luminous spheres as a whole, or the supreme states of being; (2) the sun and the
moon—or rather, the principles to which they pertain—as expressed in the right
and the left eye respectively; (3) the fire-principle—the mouth; (4) the directions
of space—the ears; (5) the atmosphere—the lungs; (6) the intermediary zone
between earth and heaven—the stomach; (7) the earth—the natural functions or
the lower part of the body. The heart is not mentioned, because, being the ‘centre’
or dwelling-place of Brahma, it is regarded as being beyond the ‘wheel’ of things
(26). Now, this concept of the ‘Universal Man’ implies hermaphroditism, though
never specifically. For the concrete, existential human being, in so far as he is
either a man or a woman, represents the dissected ‘human’ whole, not only in the
physical sense but also spiritually. Thus, to quote the Upanishads: ‘He was, in
truth, as big as a man and a woman embracing. He divided this atman into two
parts; from them sprang husband and wife.’ In Western iconography one sometimes finds images which would seem to be echoes of this concept (32). A human
couple, by their very nature, must always symbolize the urge to unite what is in
fact discrete. Figures which are shown embracing one another, or joining hands, or growing out of roots which bind them together, and so on, symbolize ‘conjunction’, that is, coincidentia oppositorum. There is a Hindu image representing the
‘joining of the unjoinable’ (analogous to the marriage of fire and water) by the
interlinking of Man and Woman, which may be taken to symbolize the joining of
all opposites: good and bad, high and low, cold and hot, wet and dry, and so on
(32). In alchemy, Man and Woman symbolize sulphur and mercury (the metal).
In psychology, level-symbolism is often brought to bear upon the members of the
body, so that the right side corresponds to the conscious level and the left to the
unconscious. The shapes of the parts of the body, depending upon whether they
are positive or negative—whether they are protuberances or cavities—should be
seen not only as sex-symbols but also in the light of the symbolism of levels. The
head is almost universally regarded as a symbol of virility (56). The attitudes
which the body may take up are of great symbolic importance, because they are
both the instrument and the expression of the human tendency towards ascendence
and evolution. A position with the arms wide open pertains to the symbolism of
the cross. And a posture in the form of the letter ‘X’ refers to the union of the two
worlds, a symbol which is related to the hour-glass, the ‘X’ and all other symbols
of intersection (50). Another important posture is that of Buddha in the traditional iconography of the Orient, a posture characteristic also of some Celtic gods
such as the so-called ‘Bouray god’ or the famous Roquepertuse figure. This
squatting position expresses the renunciation of the ‘baser part’ and of ambulatory movement and symbolizes identification with the mystic centre.
To see a man in your dream, denotes the aspect of yourself that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. Perhaps you need to incorporate these aspects into your own character. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him.
If you are a woman and dream that you are in the arms of a man, then it suggests that you are accepting and welcoming your stronger assertive personality. It may also highlight your desires to be in a relationship and your image of the ideal man.
To see an old man in your dream, represents wisdom or forgiveness. The old man may be a archetypal figure who is offering guidance to some daily problem.
To dream of a man, if handsome, well formed and supple, denotes that you will enjoy life vastly and come into rich possessions. If he is misshapen and sour-visaged, you will meet disappointments and many perplexities will involve you.
For a woman to dream of a handsome man, she is likely to have distinction offered her. If he is ugly, she will experience trouble through some one whom she considers a friend.
Seeing a man in your dream indicates the masculine aspect of yourself - the side that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him. If you are a woman and dream that you are in the arms of a man, suggests that you are accepting and welcoming your stronger assertive personality . It may also highlight your desires to be in a relationship and your image of the ideal man. Seeing an old man in your dream, represents wisdom or forgiveness.
All different kinds of people clutter our dream landscape. The men in your dream may include family members or total strangers. You may dream about your father, son, husband, or friend and should interpret the dream according to its details. A man, particularly the father figure, may represent collective consciousness and the traditional human spirit. He is the Yang and his energy, when mobilised, creates the earthly realities. Depending on the details of the dream, the masculine figure could be interpreted as the Creator or Destroyer. At times, women dream about men that are strangers to them. These men may represent the women's unconscious psychic energy. At times, a strange and ominous man in men's dreams could represent their "shadow" or their negativity and darker sides of personality.
To dream that you are playing, refers to your tendency to go against the norm and break the rules of convention. You are displaying unrestricted creativity. Alternatively, playing implies that you are all work and no play. You need to relax and let loose. On the other hand, the dream may also be saying that you are not taking things seriously enough. You need to face reality.
To dream that you are in a play, represents the roles you play in your life and the various acts and personas you put on. If you are watching the play, then it suggests that you need to draw from the inspiration of others.
For a young woman to dream that she attends a play, foretells that she will be courted by a genial friend, and will marry to further her prospects and pleasure seeking. If there is trouble in getting to and from the play, or discordant and hideous scenes, she will be confronted with many displeasing surprises.
Dreaming that you are playing, suggests your tendency to go against the norm and break the rules of convention. You have unrestricted creativity. Alternatively, it may be an indication that you are all work and no play. Dreaming that you are watching a play, represents the parts you play in your life and the various acts and personas you put on.
To dream of a urinal, disorder will predominate in your home.
To see a urinal in your dream, signifies disorder in your personal relationships.
Seeing a urinal in your dream means disorder in your personal relationships.
To dream of hearing voices, denotes pleasant reconciliations, if they are calm and pleasing; high-pitched and angry voices, signify disappointments and unfavorable situations.
To hear weeping voices, shows that sudden anger will cause you to inflict injury upon a friend.
If you hear the voice of God, you will make a noble effort to rise higher in unselfish and honorable principles, and will justly hold the admiration of high-minded people.
For a mother to hear the voice of her child, is a sign of approaching misery, perplexity and grievous doubts.
To hear the voice of distress, or a warning one calling to you, implies your own serious misfortune or that of some one close to you. If the voice is recognized, it is often ominous of accident or illness, which may eliminate death or loss.