Br. Dennis on Dreams, Healing & Falling into the Elevator Shaft
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Neva Rok & Nevena Gicevic | Dusan Jaukovic | Morfium ‘Chasing Dreams’ AOC Private Studio
Dear Anne,
Your voice reaches into my heart and spirit, calling forth myriad of spiritual premises. They have fused together forming the core of my deepest convictions in knowing. So far, my life’s journey has revealed spiritual threads weaving through ideologies, philosophies, rituals and behavior. Conversely, in fulfilling my vocation that was conceived as a child, I have made every attempt to accomplish the tasks that has moved my will through the darkest of times. In light of our communications, I have found an opportunity through 2Ps in a Pod to be a vehicle that enables a much-bridled experience to be used in service to others. Thank you for this gift.
Engaged in your writing, I was unsure of your destination of thought. Completing the read, I was awash with nimble responses from my heart (affected by four decades of relationships—the good, the bad and the excruciating) and spirit (steeped within my life of prayer and Carmelite tradition of spirituality and mysticism) though unsure of which portion of your experience to engage. (Note: Bro. Dennis will write more than one post, focused on Anne’s Profane & Profound Unite for Easeamine Skincare Beauty.)
Most vulnerable, yet simple, would be my understanding of your dream, which easily could be wrought with error. The vulnerability lay in the approach of my understanding. Accordingly, I discern your dream through an intuitive/discursive approach that emerges from within.
Here’s to jumping into the water—head first!
On Dreams
Dreams are a manifestation of the subconscious/hidden aspects of our mind (intellect), heart, spirit and or soul. Being composed of such elements, our nature beckons our existence to healing, wholeness and truth. Avoiding, deflecting or repressing our primordial need for wholeness results in dysfunctional patterns of behavior, which are often times self-destructive.
Truth and fear are pervasive in their ability to influence our responses and reactions to circumstances. When we respond, we are “in control” and are capable of accessing the inner resources of our intellect, heart, spirit and soul. However, when we react, we are “not in control” and inclined to repeat dysfunctional patterns of behavior steeped in the history that was handed down to us by those who tended to our years of dependence on being nurtured.
Love As A Powerful Virtue
Love is the most powerful virtue and attribute that exist in life. It is a pivotal experience and expression that affects us at a time in our early life between birth and five years old (not exclusively). The effect has direct influence over our ability to give and receive—relative to relationship. It also has a compelling force over our conscious or unconscious choice to actively love regardless of the circumstances.
To the contrary, we may oppress our “heart” (the core of our rational sense of understanding that affects our emotion) relative to our developmental capacity for further healing, wholeness and truth. A more extensive account would require psychological developmental information, which is not at my disposal. In short, somewhere in our early development we make a choice to allow our heart to be vulnerable to love’s promptings or protect our heart and diffuse/dismiss love’s promptings. Although there are variations to the proposed choices, the first opens us to the excruciating experience that has the ultimate power to transform us to become more an icon of God, while the latter limits our ability to love our selves and those who cross our paths.
Often hidden from consciousness are the very opportunities that have the ability to bring about truth, healing and growth to our existence. So the mind, heart, spirit and or soul (they are all distinctly different in nature according to St. John of the Cross, a Spaniard and Carmelite mystics of the 16th century) seek to project into reality what the conscious mind inhibits, being too busy with perceived reality.
Psychotherapy has a casual ability to unearth some of the deeper experiences of our being, but the process of learning (through the discipline of the mind and understanding of our spirit, heart and the revelation of our soul) how to authentically love our selves without judgment or condemnation has greater restorative value and ability.
The Dream
The “plunging to my certain death”, is symbolic of a dramatic transformation to new life, similar to a child passing through the birth canal, or like Fall merging into the “death” of winter to be awakened to new “life” found in Spring. Paralleled to the “sleep moment that left me calm, self-possessed and empty enough of anxiety”, is preemptive to the beauty of the intimate union of the healing “self” that cries out with the need to love others, but struggles with this desire until the “self” can love itself.
“Saved, chosen, spared, innocent…I was falling into a web, a trampoline affair but softer and cocoon-like….” The words you chose to identify your emotional response to the dream qualify the essence of deep inner healing. I was intrigued by the “trap-door in the wall, an exit out of the elevator shaft” which seems to be symbolic of your self-reflective attitude and response to life, enabling you to “open doors” with decided effort to move into a new stage of life, as in “walk[ing] onto a picnic table”! This movement brings closure to the old, while continuing the transition into healing the deeper recesses of your being.
Recognizing your wounded child of memories past, particularly seeing yourself at the age of four is a crucial awareness, for it potentially penetrates into painfully poignant times of abuse. The fleeting yet intimate exchange, “Looking up, she kept typing on her Mac Powerbook, with barely a nod, let alone a smile”, is an expression of the bond held between two souls in union…there is no need to communicate with words, for the soul and spirit communicate volumes in a moment, as God does when we are in union with Him. In this experience, communication is not restricted by time, language or space, because the marriage transcends human limitations, moving from believing the other—to knowing the other. No wonder, “the moment was the most powerful one I’ve ever felt in my life. I was whole…”, it is a life process of acquiring and accepting truth. Wisdom is truth in action. It takes courage to be wise.
Peace,
Br.Dennis
www.Easeamine.com
Note from Anne: I spoke this morning with photographer Dusan Jaukovic about using Morfium Couture images past and present to support 2Ps in a Pod. Dusan and Jelena Malesevic, his partner and designer of Morfium, are thrilled to have their images support our spiritual, literary journey
