Thank you for sharing this brilliant interview with MVF from the archives and the instructive prompt to reflect on apocalyptic dreams that may have a literal component. At the start of this year I dreamed of watching an approaching storm. The clouds gathered and winds raged, tearing a tree in full leaf from its roots and sending it crashing into the house in which I was standing. While elements of this dream felt subjective, I awoke with a sense the storm was not only personal to me but also symbolic of something collective.
The I’m not as worried about apocalyptic events by Trump/Musk/VanceRussia/China.
In my limited experience, apocalyptic dreams ~ at least in younger adults ~ are more about having to evaporate their inner father figure.
I know Jung had rough dreams at the end, and I’m not denying we’re consistently on the precipice, however, and forgive this reference, at the end of his life, Oral Roberts also had apocalyptic dreams.
He and Kenneth Copeland and Oral’s son, Richard, had some weird TV-enhanced moment ~ reconciling Richard and Oral, and simultaneously, Kenneth Copeland emerging as the true spiritual son of the Roberts’ fortunes.
(Thinking people here, forgive all this, but Kenneth Copeland was one of the televangelists Trump paid homage to right after this election + sent Copeland’s friend, Huckabee, to be ambassador to Israel.)
Sometimes I wonder if apocalyptic dreams in older men is more a way the unconscious is saying ‘you won’t be coming back here ~ this space-time box is evaporated for you.’
A while back there was an essay titled, “Sleepwalking Through the Apocalypse.”
I can’t find it anymore, but I feel that’s more what we’re doing; especially given our current rejection of feminism, racism, and climate change.
I liken Trump’s immediate moves after the election to that of the initial stages of the French Revolution, where Catholic priests were beheaded and Catholicism eliminated ~ Trump and the religious right’s immediate behavior feels like that kind of (religious) anger directed at what they perceive to be their oppressors ~ for me this moment feels like that kind of reactionary, hot anger.
These are wonderful stories! Thank you for sharing, and continuing the extraordinary work that feeds us Satya! I think maybe I am living a dream all the time...night and day...the Great Mystery as Von Franz says! My grandfather was sent to the US at the age of 17, from Poland. There was word that the Nazis were going to execute a young boy, and his family wanted to protect him. We have his signature on a document which was signed when he arrived at Ellis Island. When I was a young girl he would tell me stories of the Russian Czars. At that time it meant little to me. Suffering many hardships, he became a successful man, who loved the US. Many of his relatives, I met only once in 1999 when I visited Israel. My relatives gathered at the home of Saul Friedländer, who was married to my mother's cousin.
He is the author of many books, one, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: "The extermination of the Jews triggers disbelief. This volume presents a thorough historical study of the events that extends beyond the usual analysis of German policies, decisions, and measures that led to this most systematic and sustained of modern genocides. It includes the reactions of the surrounding world―authorities, populations, churches, social elites―related facets of everyday life throughout the continent, and their individual expressions.
The history of the victims is an intrinsic part of this overall context; their attitudes found expression in both collective responses and individual testimonies. Here, the individual voices are weaved into the narrative and are the main carriers of disbelief: Some of them end in liberation; most are cut short by extermination."
What we are facing today, globally, ignites fires in my belly and soul. The questions of what to do, rumble in my heart and mind with sobriety every moment.
Dreams of executing the earth, and protecting the sacred medicine, ones of holding ceremonies to protect the earth from what’s to come and taking a stand in prayer and community, dreams of the violent domination and the empty hungry belly of American “culture”, and visions of fire…so much fire.
Shortly after Inauguration Day, I had three apocalyptic dreams within a span of an about 2 weeks. I don’t often remember my dreams, and grieve this fact regularly, though I work to court my dreams in many ways, to reveal themselves to me.
But in this case - 3 dreams in succession. All had themes of water - broken levees ripping through villages, floods, and obliterated landscapes filled with rubble and smoke. In all of them I am trying to warn people of what is coming and being ignored or dismissed. No one seemed to be alarmed, and just went about their business as usual.
I’m still trying to figure out if this was my German soldier without a helmet, leading me and my family to safety. And then I wonder - where would I go when sometimes it feels as though everywhere or anywhere could be the lion’s den.
What will remain of us in the end? I will take comfort in Jung’s words, from that clip, about living on, even in the face of one’s imminent death - it’s all we can do: keep finding meaning and reasons to love and live on.
How do I join is it on line ?
Are you asking about the upcoming book group? If so, scroll to the top of this post for a link to learn more.
Thank you for sharing this brilliant interview with MVF from the archives and the instructive prompt to reflect on apocalyptic dreams that may have a literal component. At the start of this year I dreamed of watching an approaching storm. The clouds gathered and winds raged, tearing a tree in full leaf from its roots and sending it crashing into the house in which I was standing. While elements of this dream felt subjective, I awoke with a sense the storm was not only personal to me but also symbolic of something collective.
The I’m not as worried about apocalyptic events by Trump/Musk/VanceRussia/China.
In my limited experience, apocalyptic dreams ~ at least in younger adults ~ are more about having to evaporate their inner father figure.
I know Jung had rough dreams at the end, and I’m not denying we’re consistently on the precipice, however, and forgive this reference, at the end of his life, Oral Roberts also had apocalyptic dreams.
He and Kenneth Copeland and Oral’s son, Richard, had some weird TV-enhanced moment ~ reconciling Richard and Oral, and simultaneously, Kenneth Copeland emerging as the true spiritual son of the Roberts’ fortunes.
(Thinking people here, forgive all this, but Kenneth Copeland was one of the televangelists Trump paid homage to right after this election + sent Copeland’s friend, Huckabee, to be ambassador to Israel.)
Sometimes I wonder if apocalyptic dreams in older men is more a way the unconscious is saying ‘you won’t be coming back here ~ this space-time box is evaporated for you.’
A while back there was an essay titled, “Sleepwalking Through the Apocalypse.”
I can’t find it anymore, but I feel that’s more what we’re doing; especially given our current rejection of feminism, racism, and climate change.
I liken Trump’s immediate moves after the election to that of the initial stages of the French Revolution, where Catholic priests were beheaded and Catholicism eliminated ~ Trump and the religious right’s immediate behavior feels like that kind of (religious) anger directed at what they perceive to be their oppressors ~ for me this moment feels like that kind of reactionary, hot anger.
I think of Bannon…
These are wonderful stories! Thank you for sharing, and continuing the extraordinary work that feeds us Satya! I think maybe I am living a dream all the time...night and day...the Great Mystery as Von Franz says! My grandfather was sent to the US at the age of 17, from Poland. There was word that the Nazis were going to execute a young boy, and his family wanted to protect him. We have his signature on a document which was signed when he arrived at Ellis Island. When I was a young girl he would tell me stories of the Russian Czars. At that time it meant little to me. Suffering many hardships, he became a successful man, who loved the US. Many of his relatives, I met only once in 1999 when I visited Israel. My relatives gathered at the home of Saul Friedländer, who was married to my mother's cousin.
He is the author of many books, one, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: "The extermination of the Jews triggers disbelief. This volume presents a thorough historical study of the events that extends beyond the usual analysis of German policies, decisions, and measures that led to this most systematic and sustained of modern genocides. It includes the reactions of the surrounding world―authorities, populations, churches, social elites―related facets of everyday life throughout the continent, and their individual expressions.
The history of the victims is an intrinsic part of this overall context; their attitudes found expression in both collective responses and individual testimonies. Here, the individual voices are weaved into the narrative and are the main carriers of disbelief: Some of them end in liberation; most are cut short by extermination."
What we are facing today, globally, ignites fires in my belly and soul. The questions of what to do, rumble in my heart and mind with sobriety every moment.
Dreams of executing the earth, and protecting the sacred medicine, ones of holding ceremonies to protect the earth from what’s to come and taking a stand in prayer and community, dreams of the violent domination and the empty hungry belly of American “culture”, and visions of fire…so much fire.
Shortly after Inauguration Day, I had three apocalyptic dreams within a span of an about 2 weeks. I don’t often remember my dreams, and grieve this fact regularly, though I work to court my dreams in many ways, to reveal themselves to me.
But in this case - 3 dreams in succession. All had themes of water - broken levees ripping through villages, floods, and obliterated landscapes filled with rubble and smoke. In all of them I am trying to warn people of what is coming and being ignored or dismissed. No one seemed to be alarmed, and just went about their business as usual.
I’m still trying to figure out if this was my German soldier without a helmet, leading me and my family to safety. And then I wonder - where would I go when sometimes it feels as though everywhere or anywhere could be the lion’s den.
What will remain of us in the end? I will take comfort in Jung’s words, from that clip, about living on, even in the face of one’s imminent death - it’s all we can do: keep finding meaning and reasons to love and live on.
I was just able to find it too, through interlibrary loan. Reading it now.
I was able to get The Third Reich of Dreams on inter library loan as some universities have it on their shelves. Well worth it! Zadie Smith wrote a wonderful review of it in the New York Review of Books, too. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/12/05/the-dream-of-the-raised-arm-third-reich-of-dreams-beradt-zadie-smith/