the dream's sweet surprise...
I’ve written about essential (of the soul) and non-essential (not of the soul) qualities and how our dreams teach us about each. As we work with what is shown to us in our dreams we learn to discriminate between essential feelings of love, pain, joy, sorrow and those that are non-essential, moments of judgement, reactive anger, false joy and in doing so we return to that which is eternal in us...our soul.
Today I want to speak of an essential quality that few of us expect to find when we begin working with our dreams...and yet the dreams bring us to almost immediately...and that is our eternal capacity to be in our desire and to be desired...our sensuality, sexuality, passion, libido, creativity...all the deliciousness of who are eternally in our essence.
And this eternal quality is ours regardless of our age...has always and will always be ours. This is the dream’s sweet surprise.
Many of us thought our passion died years ago, others thought they never had it. Some were damaged in this very vulnerable part of who we are. Young and old alike may think this kind of passion is for the young...but here it is in everyone’s dreams. We forgot that these fires of desire and passion never go out.
The outer wrinkles belie the eternal youth of the soul within...and our dreams help us recover what had we resigned ourselves as lost.
To be with a client in his 80’s who giggles as he feels into the impishness of the boy in his dream...all that energy and potency still belonging to him.To be with a client in her late 60’s who blushes as she feels arms of the handsome man in her dreams wrap around her, wanting her...all that sensuality, sexuality still belonging to her.
As we remember and recognize these forgotten parts of ourselves, the change is reflected in the outer world and in our relationships. We pick up that musical instrument, those paint brushes, we reach out to our lover to be held and to be intimate. We laugh more easily, take things more lightly...all with the renewed twinkle in our eyes that says we know we are part a sweet inner secret that our dreams repaired in us.
Mary Jo Heyen
Archetypal Dreamwork Practitioner
Author of the dream primer, “Who are Those Guys?”
Dream sessions in person, via Skype or on the phone