But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. (2: 19-21)
In this fourth dream in the Gospel of Matthew we have the death of that which was threatening the life of the new Child. The father of that Child is then advised by the Lord to take Him and His mother into the land of Israel. Israel means he shall be prince of God, and so we have here a movement from the land of two straits (Egypt) in which the old hero was ruling, into a place where the new way of being becomes something to be acknowledged as a descendant of the Lord, and therefore as something that has come forth from Him. And, being a prince, it has the potential to one day be that which rules the land as king.
In the previous modules we have looked at applying the In Me tool to see how the Text might apply to us personally. We then also looked at examining the descriptions of space and time to see how they might be seen as describing different aspects and qualities of our thought and feeling life. These are movements away from our literal mode of reading the Text into a new way which instead teaches us about the nature of our spirit, of the thought and feeling life that we call our mind. We saw this illustrated in the dreams in Matthew in which first the wise men, and then Jospeh, are instructed to move away from the current hero ruler of the land so that the Child might be protected from the hero’s desire to kill it. But now that hero is dead, and a new man (the Child Jesus) is developing and growing to take its place.
Moving our thinking away from person is the final blow to the old mode of reading and viewing the Text. It is one thing to think representatively or figuratively about places, landscapes and movements in time but quite another to apply that idea to person, because our sense of self relates so strongly to the idea of being a person itself; that sense of being a person that is independent and defined, and therefore feels threatened when anything challenges the core of what its life is based upon, and of what it believes it is. As finite beings we relate to others through this sense of who we are and what we believe is real. This sense of self is the hero of its own story. But if we can engage with the Text from the life of the spirit – then it slowly will begin to offer us new ways to understand the self and its relation to the Divine, the Lord. It is an awakening to a new sense of self, and hence a new way to experience reality; a reality in which people in the stories we encounter are reflecting back the many different aspects of the self that we say “I” to, or ‘Yes this is me’. We see that instead of being one single entity that is unchanging and fixed, we are in fact made up of many different changing senses of self – which then opens up the possibility to be in these more consciously, to examine their quality and to determine their use.
In this module we will be specifically looking at the descriptions of people and focusing on their nature with regards to how they think, feel and speak and interact with one another and their surroundings, all with the aim of seeing how these might relate to our inner person or personalities.
Read through the dream and highlight or mark up the descriptions of people and anything that relates to their behaviour, actions and motivations.
Here is an example with the above text from Matthew:
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. (2: 19-21)
Your turn now… we’ve done the first few to start you off.
Genesis 28:10-16
Now Jacob … he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Reflections
- Make a list of all that you’ve marked or highlighted, and your list will include all of the people in the dream and any descriptions that relate to them. e.g., Jacob, he dreamed, angels of God, were ascending and descending and so on.
- Next to each item on the list write down your responses to the following questions…
- What feelings and thoughts surround each of these for you? (You may also like to look up the meaning of the names of the people as part of this exercise using a simple Google search, but it is not essential).
- How do they differ from each other?
- How do they connect with each other?
- Look at each of the people you have listed, their actions and behaviors and your responses above to them. From these, make a short summary of the personality or persona of each, and of the current state they are in?
- How might these reflect states or functions of your own thought and feeling life?
- Read back through the dream now and see if anything new is offered in how it might be speaking to you about your inner life, as states in you. What might it be offering to teach you?
- Can you read through it again and also integrate the work you did with it on spaces, landscapes and movements in time?
- What questions are you still left with?
- What insights will you take away with you?
Now do the same with the text from Arcana Coelestia and also your dream, using the reflection questions above to work through with each of them.
Arcana Coelestia 1977
I was put to sleep and dreamed that a ship laden with all kinds of delicious and savory things to eat had arrived. The cargo was not in sight but rather was hidden. On the deck stood two armed guards, and a third man besides, who was captain of the vessel. The ship was pulling into a kind of covered dock.
Your Dream
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Final Reflections
- Now that you have worked with all three dreams, and added each subsequent layer of understanding from a space, time and then person perspective – what have you learnt?
- Can you see a pattern or connection between what each of the three dreams offered you?
- Is there a common thread or theme running through them?
- If so, what is it? What is being communicated to you?
Before Moving on to Module 5 …
You’re now halfway through this course. You may be finding that there is a lot to digest, and a lot of questions are arising for you. As always, give yourself time between each module to sit with all that you have worked through so far. And keep journaling your insights and thoughts.
Support In Your Work
This type of inner reflective work can give rise to states of resistance or conflict, as well as opening up many questions. If you would like to talk with someone to explore this more, then you can Contact Us.
Further Reading
There are with man two minds, one higher or interior, which is called the spiritual mind; and the other lower or exterior, which is called the natural mind. The natural mind is first opened and cultivated with men, because this most nearly stands forth in the world; and afterwards the spiritual mind is opened and cultivated, but only to the extent that man receives in the life the cognitions of truth from the Word, or from doctrine from the Word; consequently, with those who do not apply knowledges to the life it is not opened. But when the spiritual mind is opened the light of heaven flows in through that mind into the natural mind and enlightens it, whereby the natural mind becomes spiritual-natural; for the spiritual mind then sees in the natural almost as a man sees his face in a mirror and acknowledges the things that are in agreement with itself. But when the spiritual mind is not opened, as is the case with those who do not apply to their life the cognitions of truth and good that are in the Word, there is nevertheless formed in man a mind in the interior part of the natural; but this mind consists of mere falsities and evils; because the spiritual mind, by which the light of heaven is let into the natural by a direct way is not opened; but [light is let in] only through chinks round about; from this a man has the faculty to think, reason, and speak, and also the faculty to understand truths, but not the faculty to love them, or to do them from affection. For the faculty to love truths because they are truths is given only through an influx of the light of heaven through the spiritual mind; for the light of heaven through the spiritual mind is conjoined with the heat of heaven, which is love, which is comparatively like the light of the world in the time of spring; but the light of heaven flowing only through chinks into the natural is a light separated from the heat of heaven which is love, and this light is comparatively like the light of the world in the time of winter. This makes clear that a man in whom the spiritual mind is opened is like a garden and a paradise; but a man in whom the spiritual mind is not opened is like a wilderness, and like land covered with snow. Because the mind makes the man (the mind consisting of understanding and will) it is the same whether you say the mind or the man, thus whether you say the spiritual and natural mind or the spiritual and natural man. (Apocalypse Explained 406)
But when the spiritual mind is open the state of the natural mind is wholly different. Then the natural mind is arranged in compliance with the spiritual mind, and is subordinated to it. For the spiritual mind acts upon the natural mind from above or within, and removes the things therein that react, and adapts to itself those that act in harmony with itself, whereby the excessive reaction is gradually taken away. It is to be noted, that in things greatest and least of the universe, both living and dead, there is action and reaction, from which comes an equilibrium of all things; this is destroyed when action overcomes reaction, or the reverse. It is the same with the natural and with the spiritual mind. When the natural mind acts from the enjoyments of its love and the pleasures of its thought, which are in themselves evils and falsities, the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind and blocks the doors lest they enter, and it makes action to come from such things as agree with its reaction. The result is an action and reaction of the natural mind opposite to the action and reaction of the spiritual mind, whereby there is a closing of the spiritual mind like the twisting back of a spiral. But when the spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind are inverted; for the spiritual mind acts from above or within, and at the same time it acts from below or from without, through those things in the natural mind which are arranged in compliance with it; and it twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural mind lie. For the natural mind is by birth in opposition to the things belonging to the spiritual mind; an opposition derived, as is well known, from parents by heredity. Such is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself downward; but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself upwards; therefore man before reformation looks downwards to hell, but after reformation looks upwards to heaven. (Divine Love and Wisdom 263)
Extra Exploration
Here are some extra passages that you might like to explore to try working with the aspects relating to person, space and time as well as using the In me Tool:
Zechariah 3: 1-10 (Vision of the high priest)
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the branch. For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.’ “
Daniel 7: 1-15 (The four beasts and Son of Man)
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts. Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’ After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened. “I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. “I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.