"Dreams Pave the Way for Life"

Just back from a wonderful trip to the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC. W. 17h St. I went with a dear friend to see the Red Book of the great dream guru, C.G. Jung. I went thinking there wouldn't be much else but a glimpse of two pages under glass, but it's a beautiful museum and the exhibit, though small, was magical and amazing. Go!

We took the train down and got in a great conversation about our ideas about death and beyond. In the conversation, my friend recounted her experience at the death bed of her sister-in-law who died recently of cancer. She had a dream a night or so before her s-i-l died. In her dream, she's sitting beneath the full moon outside the house, under the bedroom window where her sister-in-law lay in labor with death. She sees the essence of her sister-in-law flowing out the window and floating to the moon. It happens fast and she knows her sister-in-law has just died and her essence has gone to the moon, she has a beautiful image of her floating freely up. A morning or so later, she finds herself alone of all the family in her sister-in-law's room with her. Holding her hand she tells her dream. Her sister-in-law rouses and looks at her and says "yes", which my friend repeats lovingly to her over and over. Moments later, surrounded by her family, my friend's dear sister-in-law dies.

I'm stunned by the beauty of this story and about the incredible gifts of dreaming. "Dreams pave the way for life" is a quote from Jung's Red Book, and I can add this footnote; "Dreams pave the way for death, as well."

The collective unconscious, (Jung would be loving this), is at play in this story, too. Robert Moss loves to take dreamers on journeys to Luna. I participated in one journey where he invited all of us in the group to journey to Luna, either at the place for souls leaving and entering life or where they return, after death. It seems the moon is an ancient mythic way station for these two great transitions. My friend was delighted that she didn't know this consciously; yet, this was what she saw in her dream.