Patriarchal Nightmare Part 3

The Meaning of the Term Nightmare. Its meaning is implicit in the word as a combination of “night” and “mare,” that is, a female horse that as a dream aspect haunts us during the night. The word functions as a precise metaphor for macho men’s greatest fear which is a central concern of this book. The mare aspect also drives “home” how instinctual this fear is. “Mare,” “home” and “night” have feminine connotations. We at night enter into ourselves, slow down thinking and feel more as well as reflect more. Finally, we surrender to the darkness of sleep during which we dream, some of which we call a nightmare.

The typical response to such a dream, after the adrenalin and heart beats reside, is “Thank God, it was only a dream.” This remark epitomizes the ignorance of this outer, superficial culture that knows only social and bodily/physical reality and is unaware of or frightened of the third reality, that of inner psychic reality. A tennis player, however who practices “inner tennis” knows it helps him play better. Olympic down-hill skiers have learned to imagine skiing down a particular hill endless times, as advised by mentors. This new athletic behavior is called “sports psyche.” These athletes know the power of the imagination also present in dreams coming from the unconscious. The unconscious, in turn, participates in the mind of all of Nature.

This same imagination serves life’s most fundamental task, knowing one’s authentic Self. Research in dream labs also shows that all dreams, remembered or not, balance conscious unbalances. In turn, this imagination emerges out of the womb of Mother Nature in us called the Essential Self. Jung puts it this way: ”One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” (Jung, l967, para. 335) Also, like the mind of Nature, dreams speak only the truth and are in the service of life. No dream – and I have worked with many thousands—ever teaches evil.

Nightmares, however, contain a factor not found in ordinary dreams. That factor is sheer fear. Such a fear, moreover, is different than an objective fear, such as being in a field when thunder and lightning is occurring or in war when bombs are falling. Facing these, one runs for cover. In a typical nightmare, one is running away from a dangerous animal, a powerful person, or some strange presence in a threatening area. All these possibilities are examples of psychic or subjective fear. This kind of fear is at the cutting edge of our growth, for in its fearfulness the seeds of courage and creativity are present. In its darkness, a greater light of awareness is awaiting. Such fruitions do not occur, however, without our consciously confronting the fear. For example, the parents of the ancient dream people of Malaysia, the Senoi Indians, would say to a child who reported a tiger was chasing her in a dream: “Child, turn and face the tiger the next time. Look into its eyes, wrestle with it, kill if you need to. This way, you will receive its power.” Jung teaches us to do the same, asking at the same time, “Who are you? What do you want? What am I supposed to learn from you?” The challenge of patriarchal men is to do the same with Nature and women. Otherwise, their patriarchal pathology which always exclude people or ideas that are different with continue. The maternal principle in all of us and in in all things, on the other hand is of her very essence inclusive. A patriarchal culture’s most lethal exclusion has been the sacredness and power of Nature; and so her environment has been raped by this male viewpoint. Mother Nature is now inclusive in her anger, due to her being unnaturally warmed and her earth, water and air polluted. She has recently, for example, shown us her anger in Hurricane Sandy on our Northeastern coast, the mile and half wide tornadoes in Oklahoma and the most recent severe storm of all in the Philippians that killed over 5,000 and rendered 500,000 homeless. Since our response to this crisis must be a world-wide cooperation of every nation, all of humankind must realize the inclusive outlook of the maternal principle. Hopefully a collective fear of cosmic proportions will help patriarchal men---who as industrial and political leaders have been responsible for this collective rape--- overcome their greatest nightmare.

Yet we must not, as we pursue this massive social effort, forget the immediacy, creativity and beauty of Nature, first of all, within ourselves. Jung states this truth as follows:

Nowhere are we closer to the sublime secret of all [Nature’s] origination than in the recognition of our own selves, whom we always think we know already. Yet we know the immensities of space better than we know our own depths, where ---even though we do not understand it---we can listen directly to the throb of creation itself. (Jung, l980, para. 737)

Then, given that Jung also taught us to see the beauty in psyche’s depth, we can join with Hildegard of Bingen, one of the wisest women who has ever lived, to realize “There is no creation that does not have a radiance.”