My Dream: The Truth Humanity Must Face

You ever had a dream that’s so vivid, as if it’s been lived a thousand times and experienced as a visceral memory rather than a fading thought? Most of my dreams tend to include highly personal and subjective imagery - around family patterns, childhood memories, and/or recent experiences and situations with friends and families. Those dreams are somewhat easier to work with and they give us insight into ways we have acted out of alignment within any given situation.

But…

Occasionally, you have a dream that’s so “other worldly” where the imagery is nothing you’d have consciously thought of. Where it’s difficult to relate to the dream personally - because quite frankly, how can one relate to a humanity-destroying, red eyed, swimming robot? (Unless you’re Elon musk haha). Some dreams leave you in confused awe and reverence. Today, I want to share with you a dream I received on the 17th of September - a dream once studied, seems to reflect a most needed and vital process humanity HAS to undergo in this modern world - and quickly!

These are what we call archetypal dreams. Carl Jung would describe archetypes as inherited, dynamic, and autonomous structures of processes and patterns that make up the collective unconscious. They are universal, time-tested energies that draw us into their field and can “possess” us figuratively speaking. When we are unconscious of these archetypal energies that are within us, they can lead our lives in destructive ways (although, they do have their creative aspects too). For example, a common archetype is the King - in its most destructive aspect, it becomes the tyrant king who is ruthless and merciless. In it’s creative form, it’s the saviour king who protects the innocent, and guards what is sacred and valuable.  We all have the “King” in us - especially men!

When we have an archetypal dream, the images represent the collective unconscious energies that have permeated reality and existence since the dawn of creation. We see this in myth, folklore, legends, fairytales, and religion. They are all stories of how these archetypes work with each other, and what must unfold for the higher aspects of these energies to express themselves and become real. St. George must slay the dragon (fear, chaos, desire) to free the kingdom - he becomes the higher warrior. Cinderella must endure humiliation to become the sovereign queen. Little red riding hood has to confront the shadow trickster (wolf) to become the wise young woman. These stories play out in our personal lives, and the collective as a whole.

If these patterns/energies exist within the collective unconscious, does that mean we can individually feel them too? Yes, absolutely. This is also why they occasionally show up in dreams! The dream is pointing to a collective issue, that also resides in you! (It’s YOUR dream). You know these dreams are archetypal when the images are so “out there” that there is no way you can personally associate yourself with them. We must look at the dream from the perspective of these archetypes - what each dream element means in a universal symbolic way - that can relate to the universe at large.

Now that I’ve blabbered a lot in hopes to provide a framework to navigate by, I will share you the dream I had and why I think it’s imperative humanity can grasp the story it is telling. Here it is:

My Dream

I’m not in the dream, I’m witnessing everything. There is a big black submarine-ship that is moving fast down a huge river. There are towns and cities on each side of the river. This big ship releases hundreds of autonomous cyborgs - robot-looking mechanical machines - into the water. They swim with great speed. Coming from deeper under the water are mermaids. They are just as many in numbers. They approach the swimming robots who are above them. They reach them and merge into them. They fuse into each other. The mermaids have taken over the robots. The robots still look the same, but the mermaids are inside controlling them now. The whole scene appears as an animated show. I get the sense the mermaids have come to shift things towards a more positive light.

My personal connection: How I related to this dream personally wasn’t easy to connect initially (as most dream are - dreams are meant to be difficult to understand, that’s the beauty in it). I had been recently feeling robotic in my work life, not expressive enough, autonomous, as if my life was somehow on autopilot, too regimented, and boxed in. For the last year of my life, I have also been journeying my way to relate and connect with my animus (the inner feminine energy in myself). Through dreams, meditations, active imagination, transmutation modalities, and other stuff, i have honoured the calling for the inner sacred marriage between the two halves of my soul.

So, the dream was showing a merging between the autonomous instinct and the feminine energies within me - guiding me to continue on with this path. That in order to overcome the more unconscious masculine traits (robotic, autonomous, rigid, but also destructive), it will require the compassion, gentleness, and creative passion of the inner feminine.

On an archetypal level - and one perspective I was presented with by my mentor, was that the robot symbolises this unconscious drive that has reared it’s head over the last 60 years - the cyborg archetype or the War Machine. The collective drive towards technological power, and using technology to “advance” in war and battle. This isn’t just a personal battle we all face in the advent of AI systems and ChatGPT, but it’s a collective energy we’re all intertwined with as governments and industries vehemently push towards their technocratic dominion - to turn man into machine. It’s clear that technology has become such an integral part of our lives, in fact there are many today that have never experienced life where phones had cables and postage stamps were bundled in purses. Humanity must look this archetype deep into its red glowing eyes and realise what it has become.

This energy is flowing fast in the river of chaos and destruction. Technology is expanding at an exponential rate. Humans can’t keep up. This isn’t the river of the divine, this is a flow of energy, a stream of vivacity that stems from the fallen energies that have existed on this earth for centuries. The force that has cast its dark cloud over the unconscious collective. It’s also important to note that this is a masculine dominant force. I can recall a lot of men feeding into the hardness and concreteness of this autonomous energy. This energy often represents the masculine force in its most polarised and suppressed form. The ego masculine without his anima.

But, the divine is everywhere. In every corner and in the most evil places. Waiting patiently, with its dim light, to be seen, noticed, heard.

The mermaids represent transformation, feminine intuition and courage, and cleansing and purification. They are powerful symbols of feminine energy. They come from the deep waters, where the divine houses its glory and alchemy. The mermaids approach, rising from the bottom and slice the waters with speed making their way to the top. Humanity is slowly coming out of its patriarchal dominance, where the masculine reigns supreme but at the price of shutting himself off from his soul - his anima (Jung often associated the anima as the soul in a man). In the patriarchal world, cities are built, order is created, laws are enforced, aggressors fight, land is fought for, the pursuit for power and wealth has become obsessive, and the feminine impulses within man have been buried deep in the dark waters of the unconscious. Water often represents the unconscious - in this dream, the collective unconscious.

The mermaids, with their power of transformation, their feeling energy, emotions, intuition, creative expression, don’t approach the robots with hostility. They don’t fight with them in the masculine way. The world is doing too much of that (feminist propaganda!). Instead, they merge with the robots. They know that this can be the only way. To bring feeling and compassion and the higher feminine qualities to the archetype. To coalesce together. To recognise each other. For man to acknowledge and honour his inner feminine, and for the feminine to step into their divine gift of transformation. It occurred to me then, that this is an image of what awaits humanity - of what is being done by those who are gaining awareness and spiralling closer towards their own souls, and of what needs to be done internally by the collective.

Upon writing this, my close friends highlighted that the dream theme corresponds to where the earth is astrologically. I don’t know too much about astrology, but I am aware that the cosmic energies are constantly permeating our world through streams of energy. These energies underpin the evolution of the collective. They guide consciousness in a specific direction and call us to become more aware of our own inner realities. The moon is currently in Pisces (fish), and the sun is in Virgo (structure, order, practical, and efficient). These two energies are at an axis and creates an interesting dynamic between the cosmic energies of feminine/feeling and the practicality of Virgo. Here, humanity is called to balance these polarities within ourselves - exactly what the dream was eluding to.

One of the intentions I had for sharing this dream, was also to encourage others to begin their own journeys into dreamwork. To give you a sense of how to begin deconstructing dreams and bringing them to life! That’s what it’s all about, being able to relate to dreams and see the deeper symbology of the dream playing out in our own inner and outer lives. Dreams, when we can begin connecting deeply with them, enrich our lives with symbology, meaning, and give us a sense of wholeness and fullness. Dreams are messages from the divine - personal, archetypal, or otherwise. They are your communing with the highest of powers and creative force.

One of the ways i begin to integrate dreams into my reality, is by bringing them to life! By drawing and painting my dream images, it allows me to give character and colour to my dreams. To turn the dream into a living symbol that i can reflect on and honour. I painted this dream image:

I end with a quote by Carl Jung, to inspire you to consider journalling your way to meet your own inner dream-maker!

"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness may extend.”

- Carl G. Jung