Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language

Last Saturday, Lorna and I led a workshop entitles Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language at St. John’s-by-the-Lake Anglican Church in Grand Bend, Ontario.  As the title suggests the workshop is from the perspective that God speaks to us in our dreams.  We explored how, as in biblical times, God continues to speak to us through the means of our dreams.  The title of the workshop is based on a book by that title by John Sanford who is an Episcopal priest and Jungian analyst.  The workshop title is by way of the Haden Institute where I received training in leading dream groups which utilize the method and concept of dream work developed by Carl Jung.

The approach that we use recognizes that God spoke to many people in the bible through dreams in both the New and Old Testament.  I’m sure that anyone who has a basic familiarity with the bible can identify some occasions in which God spoke to people in and through their dreams.  Indeed, as Sanford notes, there are over seventy occasions in the bible in which God’s uses dreams to send messages to people or passages which refer to dreams and visions.  In the bible and in my understanding, visions are waking dreams.

Dreams come in the service of health and wholeness of the dreamer and in the language of that old Gospel hymn, they are a balm for our sin-sick souls.  However, unlike the people of biblical times, we no longer understand the language of dreams.  Carl Jung, building on the work of Freud, began to develop this language in a way that is compatible with our modern understanding of psychology.  In effect, the language of dreams is metaphor and symbol which make it a challenge for our logical minds to understand and comprehend the message which is contained in them for the dreamer.

There are many dreams which do not have a direct message from God as in many of the biblical accounts.  However, they give us information about where we are in our lives and how we can understand where God is leading us to become the people that God intends us to be.  We are all on a journey in which we may not be aware of what is our true destination or even when we have run into road blocks and have chosen the wrong route.  Dreams can help us find the right path for that journey.  There are many different ways in which can help guide us on that journey.  In my experience, dreams are one of the best ways.  Jung called that journey individuation. 

Blessings on your journey into becoming the whole person God created you to be.