Dreams and fairytales use language of emotions

The world of the dream, myth and fairy tale is gradually opening up

Dreams and fairy tales teach us to love

Abundance of life as an aim

Fairy tales are important for all ages

Soul touch is necessary

Silence and play

Dreams, myths, and fairy tales carry deeper truths than our scientific knowledge. They speak the language of emotions, expressing our deepest and most beautiful essence. It is through them that we gain the energy for living.

    We are citizens of two worlds. On the one hand, we live our daily lives, where we imagine to act in a rational way. On the other, our actions and dealings are guided by our bodily feelings. In short, man is not the master of his own deeds. This latter world we have customarily come to term the world of the subconscious, of body and feelings. Aboriginal peoples call it their religious reality, shamans, in turn, the domain of the spirits.

    We never leave that world of stories and myths. During the day, we live there on a subconscious level. Every night in sleep we enter into it with our whole being.

    The conscious world, that of reason, is without energy. By force of mere reason, man is not capable of much; for the power of reason derives its energy from this other world, the domain of body and emotions. It is through the energy created by the emotions, touching us from the subconscious, that our logical world gains its power. We all know that genuine emotions cannot be made up: joy and sorrow, love, fascination, hatred, and all like feelings will simply arise in certain situations. These feelings being in the body are our real life, here and now, and only they help us to be present, alive to each situation. In our everyday lives, each and every one of us is occupied by things that touch us, have an effect on our dealings, contain something of the power of life. In other words, even routine life in the domain of reason derives its real driving power from the world of emotions. We may be largely unaware of the fact that our fundamental power of life is derived from the emotions aroused by various things and situations, meanings hidden behind all phenomena.

    Throughout the history of man, there has been a specific language for bodily being, the language of gestures, bodily expressions and emotions - the language of myths and fairytales, the actual means of man’s expressive power. Each utterance or sentence, no matter how rational or scientific it may appear, contains the elements of the language used by mythical tradition. All linguistic usage carries a hidden 'layout', the deep structure of the dream, myth and fairytale.

    On the level of the myth and fairytale, man appears to have remained the same throughout his living history. Cave paintings from tens of thousands of years ago suggest similarities between their age and ours. Since the dawn of man, as a rational being, he has made every attempt to gain control of surrounding reality and his life. It is for this reason that we have come to prefer the world of reason over that of the mythical tradition. We have created an illusion of a great change, a giant step from one world to the other. The actual change, however, is minimal. It remains a fact that we still live to the full only in our world of mythical tradition.

The world of the dream, myth and fairy tale is gradually opening up

The professional psychiatrist, not to speak of the ordinary person, is puzzled at the specific language of dreams. We often hear people say - and we even say it ourselves - that it is a language beyond comprehension. The difficulty of understanding it, is derived, from the hegemony - not to say, tyranny - of the scientific language, the language of reason. We tend to approach dreams from the viewpoint of the rational mind. That is why we never quite understand the messages dreams carry for us. Every night dreams tell us stories using the traditional language of the myth. Like our rational language, mythical language also contains certain identifiable structures. My book (The Truth is in Dreams, Stories and Fairy tales) seeks to open up to the reader these structures, employing a language that comes close to the language of the average reader, yet not traveling too far from the original language of myths. One of the essential factors employed in this book of is the Jungian term, archetype, which is also occasionally called a ’spirit’ or  a ’energy’. In my opinion the more comprehensive expression could be a complex of associations, because emotions and early experiences are connected to each other by mental images, which are associated with them. Certain images, emotions and experiences arouse other images, emotions and experiences, for example, because they appeared originally at the same time. Other ’laws’ for connecting are bodily associations and reactions, and cultural associations expressed in symbols, and in basic expressions and structures of language.

    It is possible that the subconscious world of dreams and myths has several functions. One of them is to help a person to find a genuine and meaningful life. All dreams seem to share a common factor: to create stories by the help of which an individual will be able to release himself from the burden of his past, allowing a ”new lease on life”.

    The typical myth or fairy tale tells the story of a hero fighting monsters, witches, or other evil powers. Vanquished, the monstrosity either disappears or turns into the fairest prince or princess, whom the hero then marries. These monsters of the dream world are made up of reproaches, suspicions, fears, and other similar subconscious emotions left within us by our fathers and mothers. It is seldom that parents are aware of this aspect. The ambivalent, confused, emotional charges still hiding within us originate from our parents; initially they were foreign to ourselves and out of any kind of comprehension. It seems, therefore, that the worst of them have particularly turned into monsters in our minds.

    The fairy tale is among man’s most ingenious and intuitive finds and an instrument for his efforts to break free from the curse inflicted upon him by his parents, partly consciously, mostly subconsciously. Fairy tales often put this fact in plain terms: the evil stepmother has turned the prince into a monster, animal, or some other character. The evil stepmother is none other than the unclear emotions and the negative aspects of one’s own mother-experience, hidden in the subconscious mind.

Soul touch is necessary

An individual can live a good and harmonious life if he is in contact with his soul, his genuine world of emotions. One cannot experience the world through the feelings of his parents. Their feelings will alienate him from the world open to him. One has to be in touch with the world through his senses. My term ’soul’ designates the inner wisdom present in every person. It can be described as a program, principle, or model directing the individual into the best personal world possible for him. Soul is not a ’being’ within a person, but something ’divine’ - something of the best and grandest within us. Therefore, it represents a person’s most genuine and profound feelings and sensations. Once a person lives in live contact with these, he always has a healthy store of energy and vigor: Life brings tears of happiness into his eyes, whether it is a question of joy or sorrow. The genuine feeling, touching one - the soul touch - is one of happiness.

    Soul level seems to run ’parallel’ to the level of our daily toil in the world. Aborigines have designated it the world of spirits and gods, a world beyond. The present relevant term for it is the world of the subconscious; even if this term represents rather poorly the scope and richness of its earlier equivalent. This gives us a good reason to familiarize ourselves with these earlier concepts and go through these myths in a new light.

    Guiding us into the domain of our soul reality are our deepest emotions, dreams, and mythical tradition with its legends, myths, fables, and fairy tales; as well as its entire art heritage. Even the western mind has gained insight for interpreting these in a new way; while the best among all artists have known their proper and truthful interpretations throughout mankind’s history. Finally, the time has arrived for western science to find its correct interpretation. The age of science and reason has tended to evade mythical tradition, only because it has not arrived at its correct interpretation. Along this line, the tendency of regarding reason as the universal measure of all essence has been developed. As a result of these developments - not least of the underestimation of emotions and mythical tradition - mankind is straying  further away from the genuine core of human essence.

    We are poorly equipped in the field of emotions. In addition, we have begun to fail in the basic skills of a true life. General ill-being, psychic disorders, serious diseases, and various other life problems are on the increase. It is now that we need the rich archaic language provided to us by dreams, fairy tales, and myths. One of the purposes of this book is to help the reader towards the rediscovery of this rich linguistic tradition. At the same time, it can mean for him the rediscovery of his soul, his very essence. Through knowledge of mythical tradition, the reader will gain access to re-experiencing and re-interpreting his own emotions, his life-story, and his dreams.

    Scientific language will seldom help a person in finding himself: the language of one’s most profound essence, the soul, is the very language of the fairy tale, myth, and dream. Its rich symbolism and allegory is the best and most accurate expressive tool for man’s genuine feelings. They manifest both the problems, and the new insight through which these problems can be solved - we only grow to understand the language of mythical tradition. Reason has detached us from our natural connection with the subconscious world. Therefore we no longer hold these fairy stories and myths as sacred descriptions of the emotional and sensuous within us. Today, that sacredness can manifest itself only to us if we become conscious of the significance of the general essence of the ’sacred’ in our lives. The appreciation of the language in dreams and myths calls for their conscious understanding. That is why we are able to learn the correct interpretation of dreams and mythical tradition.

The Archetypes in us make us alive

With our purpose to introduce the reader into the rich language of the soul and help him with its correct interpretation, we cannot stop at an interpretation by means of the simplified jargon used by science. Such a rendition will destroy and distort the intricate and subtle beauty of the world of the myth and dream. The purpose of the interpretation, on the contrary, is to help everyone see better, and more clearly. This is possible only if the interpretation remains in close contact with mythical tradition. It is worth bearing in mind that it is our most profound emotions that create the dream. Thus such feelings are represented to us by live mythical tradition, and not by reason. By this token, any attempt to interpret the obscure language of the dream in terms of reason is an act of violence against it. A dream may contain no rational elements, and yet, it usually contains ingredients of profound life wisdom. A more correct interpretation for a dream is to be found within mythical tradition that created it in the first place.

    An interpretation is required whenever it helps to bring to light an aspect that seeks its manifestation in the mind. In a way, interpretation is the work of a midwife: to help to give birth to what is about to come out. The actual process, of course, takes place in the person about to create a story. One can work as a midwife both to himself and to another. One of the chief aims of this book, as stated, is to bring the reader in contact with the wisdom of age-old mythical tradition. At the same time, the reader will be helped in finding the fact that the wonder of living, its zeal, and power are created by that contact.

    Subconscious life is our most profound life - and in even our actual lives. It is represented not only by the dream, but also by our daily existence. Thus our daily lives gain their power and essence from the fact that even the slightest of our notions, observations, and actions have their own subconscious significance. Our every mien and gesture signal a subconscious, but mostly worthily message. Our every act, whether one of endearment, daily routine, or ceremony, carries its own significance which is manifested by the emotions connected to them.

    I is important to find the significant connections of life by means of one system of interpretation. Finding these meaningful connections is to discover a link between individual dreams, feelings, actions, and entire life-stories with the collective tradition of the myth, folk tale and fairy story. This is most aptly gained by identifying the most typical features of our lives, and in particular, the most essential archetypal ’actors’ in them. This is the name I have given to the characters within the mythical tradition. It is they that accomplish everything we do. They contain the life and spirit that is within us. I will point out that it is not we that live but these very archetypal actors within us and the stories behind them are those who actually live in us. Or, in other words, our lives are carried out by their lives within us.

    In practice, an interpretation works only in the individuals themselves, since the interpretations I have given in my book are to seen only as suggestions for individual interpretative work. More often than not, old stories have an excellent reference value, and their ability of manifesting our problems is seen in their continued existence. Similar stories have been told, throughout the world, for thousands of years. They, therefore must contain something of constant value to us. They help to bring subconscious occurrences to the surface, and through this, help us towards a better life.

    When making an interpretation, one is to bear in mind that a conscious process of interpretation has no purpose in itself: it must not ruin a wonderful story. Similarly, a conscious scientific approach must not have a special position of preference. When an event surfaces in the shape of a story, it must be evaluated and appreciated as such. On the other hand, a good, keen, and perceptive interpretation at best gives added strength and vigor to the story. The meaning, I would prefer to say, the sacredness of the story is however in its ability to arouse emotions.

    Conscious life and work is a vital part of human existence. It has a genuine and significant element to the human dimension in our existence. Nevertheless, this element in ourselves must not be given free reign, thus posing a potential threat of destroying the rich life within us. An act of interpretation is helpful in encouraging us to live on despite all obstacles and difficulties.

Abundance of life as an aim

The significance of conscious work is in the increasing, the clarity of life. The more clearly I see the disturbing aspirations and powers which are active in myself, the more peaceful and harmonious my life will become. The images posing a treat to that peace and harmony are the monsters and pursuers harassing my dreams and life-story. All these are easier to get rid of by means of a conscious approach. On the other hand, the helpers, good fairies, radiant beings of light in my dreams, and mythical tradition gain the position that belongs to them; if we are able to study the messages received from them on the conscious level. The purpose of all is abundance of life. There are times when this abundance flourishes at best in a shape that is hidden, vexed and sick; let us then leave that as it is. Beauty brought to life by such beings is just as equally important. On the other hand, whenever it is possible to alleviate and facilitate a more true and profound life by interpreting such dreams, let us by all means support such efforts. The conscious mind finds opportunity when the hidden is prepared to come out of hiding. Every such surfacing of hidden material will help us live a better, and more meaningful life.

Family is the best and the worst

The story of man is a story of an animal growing up in a family. The more one familiarizes himself with and gains insight of Greek mythology, the world of fairy tales and folklore, the clearer it is manifested the immense wisdom included in them. The Greek pantheon represents a most complex and intricate network of human relationships with all its inherent assistant spirits, actors and disturbing spirits. It amply shows what shape the life of a person growing up in a family can take. Once we identify a Greek god or goddess as our kindred spirit, we are given the tools of finding our own problems and prehistories in the mythology.

    Family is the best and the worst at the same time. Every human individual is an 'animal' being growing up under the aegis of a family. Within this family, the loving and caring presence of the father and mother leaves us with an indelible imprint of the beautiful, the profound, and the eternal. Brothers and sisters lend us courage to live. And yet, this very family also leaves us with the obsessing spirits that vex us until the end of our lives. After growing up in a family and gaining courage for life, an individual must also be prepared to die to his family identity and to be reborn to a personal life with no clear selfhood, his identity only being shown by his soul. The very essence of growth is to grow up into adulthood, breaking free from the swaddling clothes of childhood.

Silence and play

Silence brings about the dream and the story. These both are the playful speech of life, without any seriousness. Life is a merely a dream and a story. The grandest part of life is like a beautiful dream or a touching story. They jointly represent the basic elements of a life seeker: beauty, love, and truthfulness. In love, an individual can best be present to reality and understand another. During the experience of beauty, all speech dies down. In truth, all words lose their meaning. There is only silence that seeks to surface as images, dreams, stories, and myths.

    Even a text seeking scientific truth is a form of story. Its only criterion is advancement of truth. In it, its main task is facilitating and advancing communication. This is enabled by the similarity of concepts, ideas, and experiences. The demand for the objectivity of science is hence well grounded. It is illusory, however, to presume that a single scientific writing should comply with all the criteria of objectivity. There will always be some elements that remain in the domain of the subjective. This allows for the survival of life in the text. Life is hidden in the silence occupying the spaces between the lines, silence giving rise to ever new stories and interpretations. Life can never be written as a story with an end.

This article is out of my coming book published by Atophill in USA 2009