Dream 22 -
The double house and the maintenance gang
These
two dreams came to me in January of 1989.
The
first dream was of the "double house". It was one of a number of
recurring dreams. I am living in two adjacent houses, each a mirror image of the
other. There is a workshop in the basement of the left hand one but as yet
nothing in the same place in the right hand one; at present this is empty. There
are many alternative routes from floor to floor, from room to room, and from
house to house. Thus it is a maze. There are a number of lodgers. I always end
up trying to fix the lights. Many of the bulbs will not switch on, so some areas
are dark. This dream followed by a second, the first only being recalled when
writing the notes of the second dream and the experience that went with it.
Much
of the content of this dream is obvious. The many rooms, many "l's",
many aspects or parts of the mind; the mirror image houses, the outer and inner
mind. The lights which do not all work, so some areas are in darkness, this is a
lack of understanding. Of special significance is the right and left hand
basement. The left hand one is already operational with its workshop, while the
right hand one is still empty. In the Gospel parable of the man with the
withered hand, it was the right hand which was withered. Left and right have a
special significance in esotericism. We talk about being righteous, of being in
the right as contrasted, with being in the wrong. Right and wrong, right and
left. The word left is interesting in itself, for besides indicating that
something has gone, has left, it can also by used to indicate what remains.
So
right traditionally refers to that which is good, while left refers to that
which is bad. But such simple ambivalency is characteristic of formatory
thinking, of the functioning of the Intellectual Mind. We come closer to reality
if we begin to see that left refers to the lower level or outer part of the
human which is inevitably dominated by self love and vanity, in fact a creature
of the senses, conscious only in the outer mind, while right is the higher level
or inner part of the human, the unconscious mind. The higher part acts from love
of the totality, from that which is beyond oneself, from a position of self
transcendence. In the beginning the two have to be kept separate. If what one
does from the higher level becomes a matter of praise, it nourishes the lower
level of self-love, vanity and self righteousness and so brings the human down
to the lower level. This is why we are told in the Gospels "not to let the
left hand know what the right hand does".
In
the second dream, I was with two others in a pick up truck. I was driving into
the city to do maintenance job. It must have been a weekend or early morning
because the streets were deserted. I kept looking in the mirror, because often
we were driving on the wrong side of the road and even though there was no
traffic, we might get caught.
Then
we were in the labyrinth of the back streets, but more than this, and underneath
in the semi basements of the large buildings. It was all red brick walls, some
broken down, so one could go from building to building in this rear
part-underground labyrinth. The others had gone. My job was to keep the fire
going from the old wood that had been part of the buildings. It was all a
picture of age and neglect, of walls and rooms that needed cleaning and
replacing and putting to good use, and yet it was the main structure that took
the loads of the new parts of the large buildings that faced the street. Those
in the city did not know what held up their building on which their survival
depended.
It
was as if although having been hired to do a job, we should not have been there.
At least those that appeared to be in charge of the newer parts of the buildings
did not think so.
I
had to find the others because they had been away too long. I knew that the
building above was a modern engineering company. I found my way up through the
basement and the back to the front ground floor entrance hall. As I was opening
the door on to the street, the man in charge was there. He seemed surprised to
see me. Outside was a special policeman who watched me emerge. He was tall,
handsome, clean, dark and shiny, in an immaculate form; he was just like Harry
Belefonti; and the phrase comes back: "lovely island in the Sun, left to me
by my Father's hand." The man exuded calm, justice, understanding and help.
I explained to him that I was there for a reason, but he already knew. He
assented to all that I said because he already knew it. Then he asked me "
What did you think of the engineering company in the building? It was good. The
canteen was good. Oh! So you have eaten there in the canteen? Yes, we all eat
there when we work there. It is good."
And
then I awoke, but the dream went on as if there were two sides of me, two
awareness, The one I had fallen out of sleep into, the ordinary world of
ordinary rules and logic, and yet the dream world was still present and of equal
or greater reality, with its different laws and logic. Just as when the sun is
going down or coming up one can still see the moon and the stars all at the same
time. I lay there realising that the dream had been all about finding my way
through a maze to the higher levels and that all the levels are interdependent.
Everything depended upon everything else. There was also the importance of
making sure that the foundations were in good order. They must not be neglected
in favour of the upper structures. Another theme was the importance of the right
food again. I have to tend the fire. In other words I have to provide the energy
for the process of exploration.
And
then it changed again as it fused and expanded. There was the large drawing or
was it Chartres Cathedral itself, and there I was in the Cathedral looking
towards the Sacred Centre; in fact I had approached very closely to the Sacred
Centre, across the Round Table, across the Square Table, and had just put my
feet on the Rectangular Table, and there on the left side of the transept was
the reality I had just fallen out of sleep into, and in the right side of the
transept was the dream I was still in. So I was on the bridge looking both ways,
in both worlds at the one time, but also about to move in a direction
independent of both, to another level, and yet all the levels are dependent one
on another.
Here
we have part of the symbology showing us the left and right hand or the male and
female sides in each of us and at the same time the outer and inner mind. Hence
the double house. In addition the "dream" intrudes into so called
reality, so that for a while one is conscious in both worlds together, a
foretaste of the completion of the integration process. The importance and yet
the instability of this stage is emphasised by the maintenance gang and the
information that it is the unseen inner parts of the buildings which they depend
upon for their structural integrity. This part has to be right and if necessary
strengthened. Further there is the reference to the importance of the food being
right, the psychological food, if we are to develop.
Finally,
although many of us have heard the refrain many times, lovely island in the Sun,
left to me by my Father's hand, few have realised its true significance. The
island is a powerful symbol of the inner mind which has to be reached. It is
beautiful and in the Sun, the Sun being another powerful symbol of the
unconscious mind. The fact that it has been left to me by my Father's hand tells
me at least that in my unconscious mind, leading to Universal Mind, is all the
past experiences of the totality. So the guidance that is available to me once I
have made contact with Universal Mind, has been left to me by those who have
gone before.
