Vulnerability as Seen In Dreams

Image via Pinterest

We often don’t “feel” our own vulnerability due to the defensive and denial power of the ego; however, dreams show us when we are vulnerable and this can be a great aid in spiritual development and in generally taking care of ourselves.

The Franciscan friar and spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, states in a very insightful book I heartily recommend, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self, that vulnerability “…may be the only start for any true spiritual journey.”  Noticing when we are vulnerable and how our dreams portray this state can significantly help us become aware of how vulnerability affects us individually.  Dreams can often also gives us clues on how to do deal with this state, all of which will contribute much to our spiritual growth and well-being.  Dealing with a vulnerability dream may be the first step to living a deeply spiritual life that is is marked by a profound sense of inner strength and well-being.

Dream Images of Vulnerability

Common images and themes found in dreams that may relate to vulnerability are:

• Appearing naked or scantily clothed in a public or inhospitable environment.
• Being lost or wandering in a strange setting
• Breakdown of one’s vehicle
• A wounded or diseased body part
• Losing one’s wallet or purse

What Can Be Done

1. Instead of forgetting or ignoring these upsetting images, reverence them as profound symbols with messages telling us to take care.
2. A great way to mine the richness of the dream is to notice and appreciate these images by asking ourselves how they relate to what’s going on in our current life. For example, a loss of a wallet containing an ID card may relate to a sense of losing one’s identity, making us vulnerable to others’ control.
3. We may even pray about the image, seeking guidance or healing about the issue. If insightful guidance comes, act on it!
4. Observe if there are helpers in the dream. How are they helping?  Are there persons in one’s waking life that are helping in a corresponding manner?  This may also give clues to nature of the vulnerability.  Are these helpers spiritual in nature, such as a guardian angel?  Also, consider that these helpers may be aspects of oneself such as some talent or skill that could resolve a situation where one feels uncomfortable in waking life.

A User Manual on Intentional Dreaming for Healing and Spiritual Growth

Intentional Dreaming for Healing and Spiritual Growth

Now Available! Harvesting the Healing Dream Garden: A User Manual on Intentional Dreaming for Healing and Spiritual Growth.

This practical booklet in PDF format includes:

• How my dream journey began with me being in a hijacked plane
• Reasons why dreams are important to healing and spiritual growth
• Why dreams are all about the dreamer and why this works for you the dreamer
• The health benefits of working with dreams to heal
• A tried and true basic method of intentional dreaming
• Working with symbols, themes and processes in dreams, especially as they relate to health and spiritual growth
• The how’s and why’s of keeping a dream journal
• Good dreamwork practices
• Many examples of working with dream themes such as the appearance in dreams of dream lovers, snakes, huge waves, etc.  Examples can be found in this blog but in the booklet, they are all in one place and easy to find!

Great for people who are good at teaching themselves, Harvesting the Healing Dream Garden provides the basics on what you need to know about intentional dreaming. Currently in PDF formatting, the manual is usually emailed to the shopper within 2 business days of purchase. The PDF formatted copy is free if the Dreamwork Fundamentals (DF) Consulting Session Package is purchased. Then, the book is a good accompaniment to the coaching session. Price: $19.99, now on special store-opening sale of $9.99! Offer good until May 11, 2015.

Order yours now at my website: http://www.healingdreamgarden.net/user-manuals.html

Edgar Cayce: 4 Approaches to Nurturing Personal Spiritual Development

Edgar Cayce circa 1910

Edgar Cayce was one of the groundbreakers in the early 20th century that encouraged average people to take spiritual growth beyond following the rules and knowing the teachings of an organized religion, and make it their personal responsibility. Some of the teachings he advocated that support nurturing the spiritual development of the ordinary person can be seen in the following approaches:

1. Each person must find his own way. No matter how educated a person can become in a religious tradition, each person must find his or her own path to the Divine that is unique because it is based on a personal experience of the Divine in daily life. It is the purpose we are put on earth. While Cayce stated that Christ was the pattern for all mankind, all religions pointed to the way and that each person could find the way if they modeled their life on the loving Christ-like life, no matter what religion they practiced. Gurus, priests, and teachers can only do so much and ultimately one must rely on personal experience, intuitive insight and making choices in keeping with one’s Ideal.
2. Be part of a reflection group where all are equal. In order to grow spiritually it is very helpful to be part of a small group which gathers for mutual support, spiritual reading and reflection. In these groups, each person has an equal say to freely question and explore, trusting in the truth and personal experience to guide. There is no “leader” to impose either a presence or a certain teaching. Rather, a facilitator provides guidelines and keeps the process going.
3. Insist on the importance of the average person remembering and learning from dreams as a means to his or her personal spiritual growth and development. In the early 20th century western culture, dreams were suspect – something the average individual was not encouraged to dwell upon by religious leaders. Very few understood the value of working with dreams, and fewer still were truly knowledgeable in doing so. This cultural attitude is seen even today in the huge number of people who can’t and don’t want to remember dreams. However, Edgar Cayce thought that everyone had to take responsibility for their own spiritual journeys and dreamwork was necessary because it was a dependable way of connecting to the soul and its journey. Waking life tends to distract us from our real purpose as it imposes its own demands that are often different from the soul’s demands. As Henry Reed, Ph.D. says in the Edgar Cayce Guide, Awakening Your Psychic Powers,  “a dream is an experience of the soul.” Learning from our dreams helps us understand what our soul is feeling in the human realm and what it wants us to do to grow towards the divine.  Through dreams we come to know our souls.
4. Provide dreamwork guidelines that can work for the average person. On the official Edgar Cayce website, Keven Todeschi , Executive Director and CEO of Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. and Atlantic University, writes that Edgar Cayce provided “average individuals with guidelines for working with what has become one of the most practical approaches to dreams.” http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/edgarcayce.aspx?id=2255.  Among these guidelines were the ideas that only the dreamer can interpret his or her own dream and that one’s deeper consciousness is impelling the dream, driving it forward so that we might better understand our life in this world in relationship to our soul’s purpose.