Dreams are an integral part of Celtic Spirituality. Dreams are twins, dreams that come by day are visions. Both are gateways into the divine, places we can't visit without imagination, places we must visit to work on those things we can't approach consciously.
Dream and Vision. Aisling augus Fís
I rarely remember my dreams more than an instant after I wake up. Even if I were to have pen and paper next to the bed, the dreams would be gone before I could turn on the light and blink my vision into focus. I don't mean to imply I don't dream because I do and I am aware every morning I experienced dreams during the night. I can often times remember a topic or theme but the details are simply missing.
I would like to think I am having dreams we hear about in popular culture. Would it not be grand to wake in the morning to the vivid memory of standing knee deep in a river and casting a fly to a large willing fish? How about a dream of watching the sun melt in the western horizon leaving behind a glassy orange, gold and yellow cast on waves lapping at the edge of the world? How about to young again and to be standing hand in hand with your best girl gazing out off a towering cliff that is being pounded by angry waves driven by a now spent Hurricane.
Those aren't the kind of dreams I have. Mine tend to arise out of replaying a conflict at work that might not have actually happened but just might. Another topic is somehow trying to still find closure on relationships that ended 40 or 50 years ago with people I never think about in the daylight. How about the crazy ones like you get an email wondering why you are not attending a class you registered for and, oh by the way, you have to pass the class to graduate. Those are not the kind of dreams I would chose if I could control the process but those are the dreams that are chosen for me because dream time is the only time my bullheaded ego will allow God and the Holy spirit to dig up buried conflicts I need to resolve. There are times I wake up so frightened that I can't face getting out of bed but I have no recollection of what scared me. Other times I am so angry I often catch myself trying to continue whatever argument I dreamt of with my poor wife even though she probably wasn't even in the dream.
Dreams have a twin companion that visit us by day. We call dreams that visit during wakefulness day dreams but that does not give them justice and the common understanding of day dreams is they are the past times of lazy people who are slow to step up what is needed in the moment. Let's call them visions because often that is what they are and they can be as much sent by God as are dreams. I have lots of visions. Too many, sometimes.
Rather than chase that thought lets came back around to why dreams are important spiritually.
Numbers 12:6
He said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
We know God chooses to speak to us during dreams or visions. Why? Because we are defenseless and we become willing to go where we are lead, to see what is shown us and to year what is told to us. The ego can't get in the way.
As men, husbands and fathers, the best example of God coming to us in dreams is in the example of Joseph. An angel came to him and first spoke of God's will that he accept Mary and again when he was told to carry Mary and Jesus to Egypt and a third time when he was told in a dream it was time to come back to Israel.
Think also when Elijah was called by the Lord.
1st Kings 19
Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound.
When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah?
Why was he there? Because he was without direction and did not now what was expected next of him. He was caught in threshold, unable to go back but uncertain where to go next. In this vision God engages him in way that caused him to listen and then gave him direction. God, through the vision, gave Elijah what he needed go forth through threshold from where he was to where he was meant to be. So it was with Joseph and so it is with us.
As I look back and reflect the times when I have stood on a threshold uncertain, frightened, and confused, it was only after extended time in prayer that allowed me see with some clarity the choices before and to discern between what most likely was the will of God and what might have been my own will. It was only the quiet, protected place where my ego could not enter that it became possible to step forward. I have learned this through the experience of having chosen wrongly and then having to correct course.
I want to finish with a quote and then a poem from John O'Donohue who had a great insight in to the human presence. Often times I can think deeply on a subject and then later look to see what John might have had to say about the revelation I uncovered only to find he said what I wanted to see with a prose made of honey and insight. This comes from "To Bless the Space Between Us":
It remains the dream of every life to realize itself, to reach out and lift itself up to greater heights. A life that continues to remain on the safe side of its own habits and repetitions, that never engages with the risk of its own possibility remains an unlived life. There is within each heart a hidden voice that calls out for freedom and creativity. We often linger for years in spaces that are too small and shabby for the grandeur of our spirit. yet experience always remains faithful to us. If lived truthfully and generously, it will always guide us toward the real pastures.
Looking back along life’s journey, you come to see how each of the central phases of your life began at a decisive threshold where you left one way of being and entered another. A threshold where you left one way of being and entered another. A threshold is not simply an accidental line that happens to separate one region from another. It is an intense frontier that divides a world of feeling from another. Often the threshold becomes clearly visible once you have crossed it. Crossing can often mean the total loss of all you enjoyed while on the other side it becomes a dividing live between the past and the future. More often than not the reason you cannot return to where you were is that you have changed, you are no longer the one who crossed over.
How profound is that? We can't return because we were not longer the person who crossed over. I also thing it is true that once we reach the threshold we have changed already, it is why we traveled to that point.
Finally this also from the same book:
For longing ~John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.
May the forms of your belonging–in love, creativity, and friendship–
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.
May the one you long for long for you.
May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.
May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.
May your mind inhabit your life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world.
May your heart never be haunted by ghost structures of old damage.
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.
When we bless someone, we activate the holy spirit to come into the presence of the indwelling spirit of both ourselves and those whom we bless.
When we bless, the blessing is gifted back to us and so we all share in the power of the spirit. Thanks be to God.
