After the Magi had gone, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “and take the child, and his mother, and hurry off to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to hunt for the child, to kill him.” Matthew 2:13
Dreams are interesting.This topic has come up with a few people recently, as well as in some of my reading. We don’t discuss this much nor really know much of what to do with dreams or nightmares. At least I don’t. I’ve not been certified in Dreamology of any kind….YET.God has spoken through dreams in the past, and still does. “Dreams can be regarded as a tool of God to help us notice what needs attention in our inner and outer life.” With significant dreams, it may be good to search out what your dream may be asking or saying.
So, for those of you interested, here’s some of what I’ve come across recently that is intriguing and, hopefully, even helpful to some:
A method to start working with dreams (TTAQ):
- TITLE – Give your dream a title. Let it come to you spontaneously or ask yourself, “What title does this dream want itself to have?”
- THEME – State the major themes or issues which surface in the dream. If more than one, note them in sequence.
- AFFECT – What was the dominant feeling or emotional energy experienced during the dream? If there was a sequence of feelings, state them in a sequence.
- QUESTION – What questions is the dream asking of me? What is the dream trying to help me become conscious of?
Key points about dreams:
- We all dream, but many do not recall dreams in any detail.
- Most dreams are symbolic and invite questions rather than giving answers; rarely will a dream be predicitve.
- Dreams operate at several levels. People who appear in our dreams usually represent parts of ourselves, rather than saying something about actual people whom we might know in our conscious life.
- Generally, nightmares are simply trying to draw attention to something we are ignoring. If we face the ‘terror’ we often find that it represents part of our emotional life trying to find expression, and the nightmares cease. The exception is a nightmare with literal content–like a constant frightening replay of an actual event. These are more likely to be connected to trauma and have to be handled differently, usually with the help of a counsellor or psychotherapist.
In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria