When I googled “How to Become a Jungian Therapist” last week, one of the hits was a Quora page where someone asked this question and a Jungian Analyst responded that you should have a dream about it. That was so far out of left field, I told my boyfriend about it, and we were laughing, until I realized that I actually did have a dream the evening prior about a therapist. Two young women in their twenties were best friends, but one was a therapist, although she didn’t look like she had any more authority or wisdom than the other. The surprising thing was that this therapist didn’t know much about her friend, which was weird given how close they were. What that meant, I had no idea. Was the dream about me, and it was telling me I didn’t know myself? Was that a way of shaming me or something? Thanks, Brain.
I like Jung, but I’m not so sure I’m on board with his emphasis on dreams. I started on the spiritual path in the late 1990’s because of my curiosity about dreams, but I have never really gotten much from them over the many years, at least they haven’t been a reliable source of spiritual nutrition for me, nor a guide. For about 20 years, I had a recurring dream that drove me crazy. I didn’t really think much of it for the first 10 years, but after 15 years, I thought something must be wrong. I was only able to make it stop when I went to a high school reunion and saw the person who kept reappearing. Nothing happened to give me closure, the dream was as senseless and cruel as someone just taunting me for lacking what the person in the dream had. The dreams have for the most part stopped, but I still don’t have the quality that the person in the dream had. I have had lots of interesting dreams, but there is rarely a kernel of truth I can glean out of them for future action. I don’t even find that I can use them as reliable predictors. I’ve had dreams mislead me about as often as they’ve confirmed a good decision.
What I find much more useful are omens, and when you know the archetypes from astrology and see them appear, you can tell something is about to happen with that archetype. Twice, I have predicted that someone would go wrong with management at work that day when I’ve broken a nail (management and nails are both ruled by Mercury). Injuries are a big indicator of something going wrong in the future. When there was a pregnant cat at my uncle’s outdoor funeral, I predicted that was a good omen for someone, and sure enough, his daughter later fell pregnant with twins. I am always thinking about omens, I find it a most interesting and … more than I can say about dreams… fruitful activity. This video is what got me interesting in omens. I’ve probably watched it 6 or 7 times and I just love how astrology gives you a vocabulary for how omens speak to us in the everyday.