What is the Adventure?

 

A lot of my inspiration comes from dreams, many of which appear archetypical. It often seems the dream world presents a scenario that could have come to anyone, at any time.

And maybe that's so. Maybe other people have had my same dream, or its essential content, though in some other form. Maybe the collective unconscious is constantly burbling up into distinct, specific impressions through whoever is open to it.

It is not hard to imagine the unconscious as an infinite soup of psychic content - a cosmic stew of all possibilities floating around, yet under pressure to rise up into awareness and become embodied in the light of human experience.

So when a simple, symbolic dream is presented, I sense that the message is universal and that it will speak to others as well as me. 

I see a woman working, attending to the duties life has presented. She is endeavoring to do what needs to be done without creating or having any more problems.  She had experienced a lot of crisis and calamity in the past and is now careful and cautious as a result.  Her overriding desire is simply to carry on, to make it through the day and the rest of her earthly cycle while avoiding suffering as much as possible.  Her future seems rather bleak and uninviting.

At the same time this woman is also blessed to have a remarkable daughter, a wise medicine child. The daughter is always available to help not only with the woman's outer, physical work but also with her inner spiritual work - of which most children would be completely unaware. 

When the woman struggles with fear and doubt, the daughter calms her spirits and enables her to cope.  When circumstances are unsettling the woman turns to her daughter for guidance and thus regains her own emotional strength and mental clarity..

The compassionate daughter understands her mother's wounds and limitations, but also comprehends the wonder and fulness of what her mother could become. She sees a bigger picture of freedom that is possible through letting go of fear and doubt.

So she cheerfully asks, "Mom, what is the adventure? What is the adventure we are looking for?"


Hmm . . . somehow that seems like the archetypal question of these times . . . 

What is the adventure we are looking for?