Hi Skye, thanks for your candid sharing of the work of early life imagination. These sometime unwelcome experiences that arise from who-knows-where give us the opportunity to respond with either curiosity or fearful retreat. The latter would be expected and OK for a child without much capacity for abstract thought. But curiosity opens many possible doors for understanding, exploring questions like "what complex inner parts of me do these dreams represent?", "what do these images tell me about my strengths?", "what do these images imply about choices I have?", and "how would I choose to change the dream next time?" And then of course, the fact that we humans have such vivid imaginal experiences raises other questions such as "how do we know what we know?", "what is real?", and "how many of our every day experiences are metaphorical and symbolic?" Interestingly, I think all of those questions could also be applied to sacred texts, which also can be perplexing and disturbing at times. It's a good reminder for me to approach scripture with curiosity rather than recoil when the text frightens me or seems offensive.
Thanks, Robert. I do think it's wise to cultivate an "imaginal" way of reading and responding to the Bible and other sacred texts. What you're helping me to see is how creative it might be to think of Ignatius of Loyola and Carl Jung sitting down for a conversation!
Hi Skye, thanks for your candid sharing of the work of early life imagination. These sometime unwelcome experiences that arise from who-knows-where give us the opportunity to respond with either curiosity or fearful retreat. The latter would be expected and OK for a child without much capacity for abstract thought. But curiosity opens many possible doors for understanding, exploring questions like "what complex inner parts of me do these dreams represent?", "what do these images tell me about my strengths?", "what do these images imply about choices I have?", and "how would I choose to change the dream next time?" And then of course, the fact that we humans have such vivid imaginal experiences raises other questions such as "how do we know what we know?", "what is real?", and "how many of our every day experiences are metaphorical and symbolic?" Interestingly, I think all of those questions could also be applied to sacred texts, which also can be perplexing and disturbing at times. It's a good reminder for me to approach scripture with curiosity rather than recoil when the text frightens me or seems offensive.
Thanks, Robert. I do think it's wise to cultivate an "imaginal" way of reading and responding to the Bible and other sacred texts. What you're helping me to see is how creative it might be to think of Ignatius of Loyola and Carl Jung sitting down for a conversation!