Steady On
It’s time to clean out the sewers
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
― C.G. Jung
I am in the backyard of a house with a distinct Southern Californian style. There is a classic bowl-shaped swimming pool like the ones made famous in Dogtown and Z Boys. I am attending a briefing with a group of people that seem to be friends of my wife. To get votes for an upcoming election, we are going to walk through the neighborhood with long cleaning poles and remove sewage blocking the drains of water tanks. We are given a detailed description of how the sewage, which is mixed with clumps of branches and leaves, is blocking the drains.
A team of four large men join the meeting late. They are outfitted in the type of advanced military gear that navy seals would wear on an operation behind enemy lines. Despite their foreboding presence, they don’t know the first thing about removing the sewage and require a special training lesson out in the field. I stay back with my wife at the house.
Then I find myself in a large room adjacent to the pool area. The room is bisected by a set of small steps about a meter in height. I am on the landing when one of the military men appears at the top and yells something about how my wife is actually his wife. He leaps down at me and I hit him extremely hard on his head. We then lock horns like rams in battle. Eventually one of his buddies appears and a horrible feeling overtakes me as I realize I’m in well over my head. I am going to be crushed by these guys. I wake up with a flood of emotion.
Since I began writing this series about Jung, my dreams have grown in intensity and clarity. Because I miscalculated the number of weeks in June and the publishing schedule of this series, I have decided to share this dream before returning next week to the topic of the shadow and parenting.
After a session with my therapist unpacking the details and possible interpretations of the dream above, I feel like it was a breakthrough. It’s a sharp departure from my recent dreams because it's focused so sharply on the masculine aspects of my unconscious mind. The four military men are an obvious archetype of the masculine.
Generally, I am reluctant to engage universal dream image definitions. The symbolism produced by the dream ego is unique to the individual. However, I found this explanation of cleaning a sewer in dreams to be helpful to the larger narrative taking place in this one. To dream that you are cleaning a sewer is a sign that you need to work out old feelings and differences between you and others. Perhaps there is waste and negative emotions that have built up over time and needs to be cleared.
The striking thing here is that the military men (or the masculine representation) need to be taught to clean out the sewers. I don’t require hands-on training nor am I cleaning out any sewers. After the men go on their training mission (and presumably clean out some sewers), one comes back and attacks me as if that part of the masculine is fighting back against this cleaning out of old feelings. When I am attacked by this part of the unconscious, I land a great punch but am quickly consumed by its power to the point where I essentially fear for my life. Pretty rich material from the depths!
The process of tapping into my unconscious through dream work and active imagination is helping me locate the old feelings that need to be addressed but this stuff isn’t easy. This dream highlights the resistance coming from the masculine part of my unconscious. The funny thing is that this work leaves me a strange feeling of serenity. I get a strong sense of wholeness when I unpack the symbolism coming from the depths. By no means is this work done. There is something powerful down there that I have only brushed up against. I need to find the courage to keep returning and learn about why it is so fearful of change or what it is holding on to.
Reading and listening to other people’s dreams has been extremely helpful as I go deeper with these techniques. I am fascinated by the process of interpretation and struck by the universal dimension of the symbolism produced by the dream ego. Given the remarkable response to this series, it seemed natural to share one of my dreams this week.
Since it’s start, this newsletter has been a place for ideas that I am working through but the warm response to the Jung series is pushing me to go deeper with another exploration when it's done. As always, you are welcome to comment and engage with others or you can just write to me directly. Next week, I will return with one last piece in this series before my article on psychedelic parenting and Jung goes live at The New Fatherhood. In the meantime, I am leaving you with a light playlist compiled by the great Teju Cole. Steady on, friends.