Love is not condescension, never
that, nor books, nor any marking
on paper, nor what people say of
each other. Love is a tree with
branches reaching into eternity
and roots set deep in eternity,
and no trunk! Have you seen it?
The mind cannot. Your desiring
cannot. The longing you feel for
this loves comes from inside you.
When you become the Friend, your
longing will be as the man in
the ocean who holds to a piece of
wood. Eventually, wood, man, and
oceans become one swaying being,
shams Tabriz, the secret of God.
Traditional symbols of love always express a duality in which the two
antagonistic elements are, nevertheless, reconciled. Thus, the Indian lingam, the Yang-Yin, or even the Cross, where the upright beam is the world-axis and Chinese
the cross-beam the world of phenomena. They are, in other words, symbols of a
conjunction, or the expression of the ultimate goal of true love: the elimination of
dualism and separation, uniting them in the mystic ‘centre’, the ‘unvarying mean’
of Far Eastern philosophy. The rose, the lotus flower, the heart, the irradiating
point—these are the most frequent symbols of this hidden centre; ‘hidden’ because it does not exist in space, although it is imagined as doing so, but denotes the
state achieved through the elimination of separation. The biological act of love
itself expresses this desire to die in the object of the desire, to dissolve in that
which is already dissolved. According to the Book of Baruch: ‘Erotic desire and
its satisfaction is the key to the origin of the world. Disappointment in love and
the revenge which follows in its wake are the root of all the evil and the selfishness
in this world. The whole of history is the work of love. Beings seek and find one
another; separate and hurt one another; and in the end, comes acute suffering
which leads to renunciation.’ Or to put it another way: Maya as opposed to
Lilith, illusion balanced by the serpent.
To dream of love or being in love, suggests intense feelings carried over from a waking relationship. It refers to your contentment with what you already have and where you are in life. On the other hand, the dream may be compensatory and implies that you may not be getting enough love in your life. We naturally long for the sense to belong and to be accepted.
To see a couple in love or expressing love to each other, indicates success ahead for you.
To dream that your friend is in love with you, may be one of wish fulfillment. Perhaps you have developed feelings for your friend and are wondering how he or she feels. Your preoccupation has found its way into your dreaming mind. On the other hand, the dream may suggests that you have accepted certain qualities of your friend and incorporated it into your own character.
To dream that you are making love in public or in different places, relates to some overt sexual issue or need. Your dream may be telling you that you need to express yourself more openly. Alternatively, it represents your perceptions about your own sexuality in the context of social norms. You may be questioning your feelings about sex, marriage, love, and gender roles.
To dream of loving any object, denotes satisfaction with your present environments.
To dream that the love of others fills you with happy forebodings, successful affairs will give you contentment and freedom from the anxious cares of life. If you find that your love fails, or is not reciprocated, you will become despondent over some conflicting question arising in your mind as to whether it is best to change your mode of living or to marry and trust fortune for the future advancement of your state.
For a husband or wife to dream that their companion is loving, foretells great happiness around the hearthstone, and bright children will contribute to the sunshine of the home.
To dream of the love of parents, foretells uprightness in character and a continual progress toward fortune and elevation.
The love of animals, indicates contentment with what you possess, though you may not think so. For a time, fortune will crown you.
Dreaming of love of being in love, suggests intense feelings carried over from a waking relationship. It implies happiness and contentment with what you have and where you are in life. On the other hand, you may not be getting enough love in your daily life. We naturally long for the sense to belong and to be accepted. Seeing a couple in love or expressing love to each other indicates much success ahead for you. Dreaming that you are making love in public or in different places, relates to some overt sexual issue or need. Your dream may be telling you that you need to express yourself more openly. Alternatively, it represents your perceptions about your own sexuality in the context of politic and social norms. You may be questioning your feelings about sex, marriage, love, and gender roles.
The number one is equivalent to the ‘Centre’, to the non-manifest point,
to the creative power or the ‘unmoved mover’. Plotinus equates one with moral
purpose, and multiplicity with evil—a distinction which is in complete accord
with symbolist doctrine.
The coins of several Roman emperors bear an allegory of eternity
depicted in the figure of a girl holding the sun and the moon in her hands. And, in
alchemy, there are comparable images, alluding to the opus as a ‘conjunction’ or a
‘marriage of opposites’, which illustrate the essential principle that the eternal
order can be achieved only with the abolition of antithesis, separateness and
change. Eternity has also been represented as infinite time, both in the ‘Mithraic
Cronos’ and in the Ouroboros (the serpent or dragon which bites its own tail).
The phoenix is another symbol of eternity (8).
A mother-symbol (31). Burnt wood signifies wisdom and death (50).
The magic and fertilizing propensities of the wood burnt in sacrificial rites are
supposed to be transmitted to the ashes and the charcoal. Cremation is regarded
as a return to the ‘seed’-state; this has given rise to many rites and folklore
customs, related in turn to fire-symbolism (17).
To dream of wood, suggests that you are feeling dead and emotionless inside. Your behavior is too automated. You are not fully thinking things through. Alternatively, the dream may be a pun on "getting wood" or sexual arousal.
To dream that you are carving or shaping a piece of wood, indicates a power-giving act or creative gesture. You are molding or shaping the course of your own life. Alternatively, the carved wood symbolizes spirituality and vital energy.
Dreaming of wood, suggests that you are feeling dead inside and emotionless. You may be behaving automatically and just going along with the flow. Or you may be acting out without fully thinking things through. Dreaming that you are carving or shaping a piece of wood indicates a power-giving, creative act/gesture. Alternatively, the wood may also symbolize spirituality and vital energy.
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.
According to Piobb, the Graeco-Roman conception of the ocean
encompassing the earth was a graphic representation of the current of energy
induced by the terrestrial globe (48). Setting aside its grandeur, the two most
essential aspects of the ocean are its ceaseless movement and the formlessness of
its waters. It is a symbol, therefore, of dynamic forces and of transitional states
between the stable (or solids) and the formless (air or gas). The ocean as a whole,
as opposed to the concept of the drop of water, is a symbol of universal life as
opposed to the particular (38). It is regarded traditionally as the source of the
generation of all life (57), and science has confirmed that life did in fact begin in the
sea (3). Zimmer observes that the ocean is ‘immense illogic’—a vast expanse
dreaming its own dreams and asleep in its own reality, yet containing within itself
the seeds of its antitheses. The island is the opponent of the ocean and symbolic
of the metaphysical point of irradiating force (60). In keeping with the general
symbolism of water, both fresh and salt, the ocean stands for the sum of all the
possibilities of one plane of existence. Having regard to its characteristics, one
may deduce whether these potentialities are positive (or germinant) or negative
(destructive) (26). The ocean, then, denotes an ambivalent situation. As the begetter of monsters, it is the abysmal abode par excellence, the chaotic source
which still brings forth base entities ill-fitted to life in its aerial and superior
forms. Consequently, aquatic monsters represent a cosmic or psychological situation at a lower level than land-monsters; this is why sirens and tritons denote a
sub-animal order. The power of salt water to destroy the higher forms of land-life
means that it is also a symbol of sterility, so confirming the ambivalent nature of the ocean—its contradictory dynamism (32). The ocean is also to be found as a
symbol of woman or the mother (in both her benevolent and her terrible aspects)
(56). As Frobenius comments in Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes: ‘If the blood-red
sunrise is interpreted as the “birth” of an astral body, then two questions arise:
Who is the father? And how did the mother come to conceive? And since she, like
the fish, is a sea-symbol, and since our premiss is that the sun plunges into the sea
and yet is born in it, the answer must be that the sea previously swallowed up the
old sun and the appearance of a “new sun” confirms that she has been fecundated.
The symbolism here coincides with that of Isis whose twin lunar horns embrace
the sun.’ This appearance of the sun and its disappearance back into the deeps of
the ocean confirm that the ‘Lower Waters’ signify the abyss out of which forms
arise to unfold their potentialities within existence. Thus, the ocean is equated
also with the collective unconscious, out of which arises the sun of the spirit (32).
The stormy sea, as a poetic image or a dream, is a sign of an analogous state in the
lower depths of the affective unconscious. A translucent calm, on the other hand,
denotes a state of contemplative serenity.
To see an ocean in your dream, represents the state of your emotions and feelings. It is indicative of spiritual refreshment, tranquility and renewal. Alternatively, the dream means that you are feeling empowered and unhindered. You have a positive outlook in life and are not limited by anything. If you are sailing across the ocean, then it signifies new found freedom and independence. You are showing great courage. If the ocean is rough, then the dream represents some emotional turmoil. You are doing your best to handle life's ups and downs.
The state of life will be as the ocean is perceived to be in dream, viz., calm and
peaceful life when the ocean is calm and troublesome life when the ocean is stormy, etc.
To dream of the ocean when it is calm is propitious.
The sailor will have a pleasant and profitable voyage.
The business man will enjoy a season of remuneration,
and the young man will revel in his sweetheart's charms.
To be far out on the ocean, and hear the waves lash the ship, forebodes disaster in business life, and quarrels and stormy periods in the household.
To be on shore and see the waves of the ocean foaming against each other, foretells your narrow escape from injury and the designs of enemies.
To dream of seeing the ocean so shallow as to allow wading, or a view of the bottom, signifies prosperity and pleasure with a commingling of sorrow and hardships.
To sail on the ocean when it is calm, is always propitious.
Seeing an ocean in your dream, represents the state of your emotions and feelings. It is indicative of some spiritual refreshment, tranquility and renewal.
It traditionally represents our great unconscious, memories, emotions, and individual soul and collective experiences. Look at all of the details in this dream. Is the water clear or murky? Is it calm or turbulent? Are you catching fish, or are you stranded and afraid? Look, listen, and try to comprehend the messages in this dream. No one is in a better position to give meaning to your dreams than you can. Concentrate and learn for yourself.
To see friends in your dream, signify aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to incorporate and acknowledge. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Alternatively, dreaming of a friend, indicates positive news.
To see your childhood friend in your dream, signifies regression into your past where you had no responsibilities. Things were much simpler and carefree. You may be wanting to escape the pressures and stresses of adulthood. Consider the relationship you had with this friend and the lessons that were learned. Alternatively, the childhood friend suggests that you have been acting in a childish manner. You need to start acting like an adult.
To dream that your best friend is dying, suggests that some aspect or quality that your best friend possess is dying within your own self.
To dream of friends being well and happy, denotes pleasant tidings of them, or you will soon see them or some of their relatives.
To see your friend troubled and haggard, sickness or distress is upon them.
To see your friends dark-colored, denotes unusual sickness or trouble to you or to them. To see them take the form of animals, signifies that enemies will separate you from your closest relations.
To see your friend who dresses in somber colors in flaming red, foretells that unpleasant things will transpire, causing you anxiety if not loss, and that friends will be implicated.
To dream you see a friend standing like a statue on a hill, denotes you will advance beyond present pursuits, but will retain former impressions of justice and knowledge, seeking these through every change. If the figure below be low, you will ignore your friends of former days in your future advancement. If it is on a plane or level with you, you will fail in your ambition to reach other spheres. If you seem to be going from it, you will force yourself to seek a change in spite of friendly ties or self-admonition.
To dream you see a friend with a white cloth tied over his face, denotes that you will be injured by some person who will endeavor to keep up friendly relations with you.
To dream that you are shaking hands with a person who has wronged you, and he is taking his departure and looks sad, foretells you will have differences with a close friend and alienation will perhaps follow. You are most assuredly nearing loss of some character.
Seeing your friends in your dream means aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to integrate these rejected part of yourself. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Additionally, this symbol foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news. Seeing your childhood friend in your dream means regression into your past where you had no responsibilities and things were much simpler and carefree. You may be wanting to escape the the pressures and stresses of adulthood. Consider the relationship you had with this friend and the lessons that were learned. Alternatively, the childhood friend may be suggesting that you have been acting in a childish manner and you need to start acting like an adult. Dreaming that your best friend is dying, suggests that some aspect or quality that your best friend possess is dying within your own self.