Dreamcatcher: OM NAMO NARAYANAYA

OM NAMO NARAYANAYA

It's night time.... The Gnostic group and Jeff Comer are in a field, deep in the surrounding acreage of a boarding school. There are fountains coming up from the earth and Comer is encouraging us to bathe in them. We are hollering ecstatically, dancing in, and very jubilant about the water.

I have an assignment to work on, so I begin to wander back towards the school. I stop at the mouth of a grass-filled cave with tall wooden double-doors at its entrance. The grass grows in the cave with no sunlight. I can see inside, but just barely through narrow windows that tightly frame the doors.

Amber has asked me to host a night of Kirtan at Sutra, and I must prepare. I grab my guitar off its stand and head out, hopping a city bus. It is now day time and sunny. I get halfway there and notice that my guitar is missing its D-string (this note in the musical scale corresponds to Svadhisthana--the 2nd chakra). Also, I remember that the copies of song sheets with the words and notation are in my guitar case at home. I feel very stressed. I pour through my mind attempting to remember the words and chords to the Kirtan songs.

I pray to my Being that I will know what to do. The simple words of one of the songs materializes in my heart: OM NAMO NARAYANAYA
("glory be unto awakened consciousness")

Arriving at Sutra, the crowd of students is very large. There is another girl there who tells me that she will be doing the second half of the Kirtan program. Amber introduces me to her and tells me this girl used to be a Gnostic teacher. She has on a dark brown baggy sweatshirt and a short pony tail. Why did you stop teaching? I ask. "I don't know" she says as we step outside. It is night time again. She lights up a cigarette. Amber comes outside and says "No! Don't do it like that!" and we assumed she meant don't smoke outside of Sutra. But then Amber takes the cigarette out of the girl's hand and sits on the bench directly outside the door, takes a drag, and pretends to cough uncontrollably as people walk by. She does this several times, attempting to show that smoking is harmful. We giggle over her method of conveying this message.

The Dictionary of Symbols

Within the general symbolism of landscape, forests occupy a notable
place, and are often found in myths, legends and folktales. Forest-symbolism is
complex, but it is connected at all levels with the symbolism of the female principle or of the Great Mother. The forest is the place where vegetable life thrives
and luxuriates, free from any control or cultivation. And since its foliage obscures
the light of the sun, it is therefore regarded as opposed to the sun’s power and as
a symbol of the earth. In Druid mythology, the forest was given to the sun in
marriage (49). Since the female principle is identified with the unconscious in
Man, it follows that the forest is also a symbol of the unconscious. It is for this
reason that Jung maintains that the sylvan terrors that figure so prominently in
children’s tales symbolize the perilous aspects of the unconscious, that is, its
tendency to devour or obscure the reason (31). Zimmer stresses that, in contrast
with the city, the house and cultivated land, which are all safe areas, the forest
harbours all kinds of dangers and demons, enemies and diseases (60). This is why forests were among the first places in nature to be dedicated to the cult of the
gods, and why propitiatory offerings were suspended from trees (the tree being,
in this case, the equivalent of a sacrificial stake) (8).

Dream Moods

To dream that you are in or walking through the forest, signifies a transitional phase. Follow your instincts. Alternatively, it indicates that you want to escape to a simpler way of life. You are feeling weighed down by the demands of your life.

To dream that you are lost in a forest, indicates that you are searching through your unconscious for a better understanding of yourself.

To dream of a forest fire, indicates that transformation and regeneration is only possible through some hardships. Alternatively, it suggests that your anger is out of control; it is affecting those around you.

10,000 Dreams Interpreted

To dream that you find yourself in a dense forest, denotes loss in trade, unhappy home influences and quarrels among families. If you are cold and feel hungry, you will be forced to make a long journey to settle some unpleasant affair.

To see a forest of stately trees in foliage, denotes prosperity and pleasures. To literary people, this dream foretells fame and much appreciation from the public. A young lady relates the following dream and its fulfilment: ``I was in a strange forest of what appeared to be cocoanut trees, with red and yellow berries growing on them. The ground was covered with blasted leaves, and I could hear them crackle under my feet as I wandered about lost. The next afternoon I received a telegram announcing the death of a dear cousin.''

Hyper Dictionary

Dreaming that you are in or walking through the forest means a transitional phase. You may be following your instincts. Dreaming that you are lost in a forest means that you are searching through your unconscious for a better understanding of yourself.