Dream 27 -
The underground village, the big black cats and the darkness
This
dream was very special indeed and came to me in January of 1994.
In
the dream I was leaving Hoover Ltd., where I used to work, on the Western Avenue
in a suburb of London. I was on my bicycle and I had some of their property in
the saddle bag. There was a major road diversion outside and as a result instead
of turning left as I wished, I had to turn right and follow the cars along the
diversion.
I
got hopelessly lost and eventually found myself in the centre of London, but it
was in fact ancient Babylon, all red brickwork. I went down an underpass and
then found that I was in the centre of an underground village. It was like an
enormous cavern but with many caves around the walls. Each cave was in fact the
entrance to a house. It was all in darkness except for the warm glowing golden
light which came from each doorway of each cave or house. In each doorway stood
a woman, clothed in black with a burnoose, in traditional Muslim dress. The
women were neither friendly nor aggressive, and I felt that if I had gone up to
one of the dwellings, I would have been allowed in as a guest.
The
light from these dwellings was the only light which illuminated the main dark
cave. The whole area was like a maze. I then realised that there were many large
black cat like animals, as big as leopards, all lying on the ground. I had to
step over them carefully in the darkness. Their eyes glowed with the reflected
light from the doorways of the houses or caves. I expected them to stand up and
attack me, but they did not. As I gained confidence I gently stroked some of
them. They did not move but accepted my advances.
Then
I found that there was an even bigger cavern leading off the one I was in with
the many side caves. It was totally black, no light at all. As I found my way
into it I realised that I had no fear and that I knew that I would not bump into
anything or anyone, because although there was no ordinary light, I had a direct
awareness of all that was there.
I
still went into the absolute darkness and wondered if I would ever be able to
return to my family. I wondered if this was the last chapter when I had to admit
that I cannot know? Or isit the moment of death and extinction? And yet I am
still aware.
I
feel I that there are many levels of meaning in this dream. It starts with
having to turn right instead of left. In other words I am about to enter the
inner mind. The feeling about reaching Babylon tells me that I am accessing
ancient knowledge, archetypal material, even some material from the collective
unconscious, Universal Mind. The large cats are of great significance and at
first feared by me in the dream. The cat is a symbol for the Moon and of the
Hermetic reflection. They are laying down, quiet, in fact reflecting. Cats are
also identified with the Sun and so the Universal Mind. The basis of the
symbolism of the cat is it eyes which shine in the dark because they reflect any
light that is present.
My
feeling is that the various caves around the main cavern represent individual
unconscious mind, each guarded by a woman, symbol of the Anima, the guide to the
unconscious for a man. So the whole complex could represent humanity, all the
individual minds, or perhaps the many different personalities or "l's"
still active in myself. The fact that all is quiet, particularly the cats, shows
that I have reached the reflective stage of the transformation process. The
final movement into the larger, darker cavern, is then the first faltering steps
to contact the Universal Mind. As Jung says:- "In order that the individual
consciousness can rise from the collective psyche, it has to be a different
consciousness".3
So the price of obtaining individual or
self-consciousness, is death - the individual consciousness must eventually fade
on the death of the organism, since it is separate from the collective
unconscious or Universal Mind. As Meister Eckhart said, "Man's last and
highest leave-taking is leaving God for God". Ramakrishna said, "At
the break of day He disappears into the secret chamber of His House".
