The patient is Charles Cohen whose biography can be found in chapter thirteen of my book, "The Mother's Signature, A Journal of Dreams" and in my essay "Where God Is" on my website www.holisticpsychoanalysis.com). He is a man in his early sixties, healthy, well educated, sophisticated and insatiably curious, and who has achieved a certain success in his life.

The patient relates this dream.

DREAM #1

We, a bunch of young people, have come to an island to protest (like protesters at the global warming conference in Copenhagen). We get into cars, check into a cheap hotel.

I, a young leader of the protesters, am in my room sorting through costumes and disguises that I find on a rack there. Other protesters come into the room. A young woman co-leader questions me (like reporter Amy Goodman on Democracy Now) about what to do. I tell her we're taking it day-by-day, step-by-step.

I, the young leader, have been studying the famous speech given by Ronald Reagan way before he was president. He didn't write the speech -- he was an actor hired to read it. The speech was written on 660 stones. Reagan said later, "I fell in love with the speech. I determined that as soon as I had the money, I'd buy the stones, own the speech, make it mine."

Then we protesters are camping on a narrow part of the island by a sea-side road leading to the tip of the island. "Where are the keys?" the young woman co-leader asks me. The keys, with a long strap attached to the ring, are divinatory. The way they fall when you toss them on the ground tells you which way to go for the attack or protest. I lost the keys but as soon as I start walking along the road, I see them lying there. I pick them up.

People giving conventional advice surround me as I'm about to toss the keys to see which way to go. I ask the people to give me a lot of space. I want to give the keys every chance to point in the right direction.

As I'm about to toss the keys, I realize that many ways the strap could point would be out to sea.

Patient: The island is Copenhagen where the meeting on global warming is going on. I just heard Amy Goodman who appears to be the only radio person in the auditorium and out on the street. One doesn't hear much about this meeting in the news. It seems to have been highjacked by the rich countries and the poor ones are rebelling and walking out. Anyway the place in the dream is full of young people. I wrote this dream as a poem. The idea just came to me.

Dr. B: Well, that's a new idea.

Patient: The dream also finds me on a path like the one in the other dream I told you, the path between the ocean and the mountains. The other dream was about an old friend of mine who I helped. I felt good I could do this. In the latter part of that dream I was walking on a path between the ocean and the mountains. I felt anxious but, as the dream went on, I see that my friend was doing cartwheels and when my friend's legs flew up she revealed she wore no panties. I averted my eyes. You have to understand, Dr. Bail, this is an old, old friend. I have known her for many, many years. In this dream I felt like being between the ocean and a hard place, which of course I was. I know that's symbolic but actually true.

Dr. B: Can you tell me in plain words, though I understand your metaphor?

Patient: I think of my mother as a child in Europe stuck at home with her father and uncle full of fear and no place to go. You know when you asked me the question I had a feeling of fear in my gut. It's that feeling, thinking of her as being stuck with no way out, a terrible place to be. No place to go and afraid of staying, compelled to stay, staying with your fear.

Dr. B: Why did you avert your eyes?

Patient: Out of respect.

Dr. B: But it seems to me that your friend's act was one of jubilation. It's really what a child or even a teenager might do who feels jubilant.

Patient: She was. She was very happy.

Dr. B: But what of the other part?

Patient: I realized I needed a key and I got it from the woman. When I did I asked the crowd to give me room so that I could throw the key - as in divination - and when I did the leather strap that was tied to the key pointed to the ocean and I heard someone say, "There are six hundred and sixty stones." There is a speech written for Reagan before he became a politician. He fell so in love with the speech that he wanted to buy all the stones on which it was written.

Dr. B: What about Reagan?

Patient: You know what I think of Reagan, a lousy actor and bad for our country in everything he did.

Dr. B: I seem to remember he worked for a company making some very conservative speeches.

Patient: Yeah. It was all about business, all for business like the healthcare debate and all the Republicans against it as usual; and, as usual, nothing for the people like in Copenhagen. It is all the same, all the time, different players, different venues but the same message. They get all. We get very little or nothing.

Dr. B: This is a very interesting dream for several reasons. The number 660 equaling 12 and in the tarot 12 is the hangman and has the meaning that all has to be done over again. It seems to say all that Reagan spoke about and did was wrong and all will have to be redone. The fact that he wants to buy these stones and own them is certainly constant with the behavior of big business and here I remember my essay "Masters and Slaves".

As you say the path is life and it is precarious though lit up at times with joy, as when your friend did a cartwheel, when people show their happiness because somebody was good to them, as you were to your friend. Your friend was like a child, carefree and happy. The divination is also interesting because it says the place to go is the unconscious. The key to solving all the problems can be found by going to the dreams that the unconscious throws up for us. So all of this seems to be consistent and note that the people around you are the young people. It is they who will have to carry the burden of another kind of system because your dream is saying there will have to be a change. It is the young who will need to carry it out as the blindness, the greed, the need to control everything becomes so odious it will fall apart and it will fail. Again you place fear as a great deterrent. You mention your mother. I can say it is that fear that deters everyone. This is a struggle that has been going on literally for millennia.

Last, I think the work has led you to a new way of expressing yourself that I think is very attractive and captures the reader. Your dream, which you have transformed into a poem, is like blank verse and I think this is a breakthrough for you and your writing.

POEM

young, we’ve come to the island of Denmark
to protest the old clowns killing us.
piling into cars, we check into a cheap hotel.
in my room, I sort theater costumes on Voltaire’s rack.
I tell my friend: take it a step at a time, strategize.
I tell her: I’ve been studying Reagan’s famous speech
from before he was king.
He was just a hired actor giving that speech.
Written on 660 stones,
he fell in love with it.
“As soon as I have money,” he declared,
“I’ll buy those stones,
I’ll own that speech.”
now, walking by the sea,
my friend asks: “Where are the keys?”
I had them a minute ago, I say.
(They’re divinatory keys.
When you toss them,
the long strap on the ring points where to start the fight.)
On the path between cliff and ocean, I find the keys.
Clear a space, I yell, I’m gonna toss them.
Though I know the strap might point out to sea

Dr. B: In your poem I see you mention Voltaire.

Patient: When I visited his home, in France or Switzerland, a troupe was putting on a performance. There were costumes on the rack.

Dr. B: But why Voltaire?

Patient: He was a fighter for social justice. He hired lawyers to determine what the laws were and tried to get them changed so as to get more rights for people. He was a visionary, a genius of the highest order and, along with Rousseau and others, laid the foundation for the French Revolution, a new order.

Dr. B: I like the poetry. I think it captures the passion and the drama and, by the way, since you put it in Denmark it brings up Hamlet and his famous and the now cliché, "To be or not to be". All of this is not by chance. The concept of chance does not exist in the unconscious. The task of the younger generation will be "being" who they are. It is not only a problem for the individual but also for the masses to be who they are and to get the social justice they deserve; not the demagogic utterings of people like Reagan and others, who are only actors in the Oval Office, or anyone in a position of authority who have their speeches written for them. Obviously those who pay the speechwriters pay to stress a certain point of view and then disseminate that point of view. In ordinary life the individual often speaks the words his parents have said to him which may not always be in his best interest.

The mass unconscious hears the message from the masters,

"You are unworthy, you are rabble, you are impoverished, you are sinners." And the masses believe this swamp of deception, just as the child may believe he is a disappointment and failure to his parents when they tell him he is such.

The mass unconscious replies, "True we are unworthy. We do not want health insurance, education or a better life. We will give up everything to protect our country and to keep it in constant preparation of war so we see no enemy." But there must be one if you know better and you must know better since you hold all the high positions that enable your propositions. I could go on. It is a replay of childhood as our history is a replay of past histories of empires. Now we are Rome with most expenditures going for war, preparing for war, fighting a war or defending our outposts around the world. How can we fail? How could Rome have failed? We do not think we can fail, but all the powerful men in Rome felt similarly. In the end it fell.

N.B. As a result, in this Age of Deception and No Responsibility and as a result of the near crash of the financial system of the world, there has been a reiteration that for the preservation of the country and the capitalist system the banking system must prevail above all else. The rationalization is wealth will trickle down - a proven falsehood. Usury used to be regarded as the province of the shylocks and usurers were once upon a time abhorred; this is no longer so. All the banks practice it without humiliation or shame. They say, "It is our right" and in this the Congress of the United States acquiesces.

Dream #2

They (my parents?) come back to the Village after a long absence. Meanwhile I've been living there with the native servants. We're in my house but we're in Africa. I've been in charge. I'm talking things over with the gardener. We're in the kitchen. My mother comes in. After a while I stand, remembering it's her house. She sits where I was sitting at the kitchen table, talks with the gardener. From discussing the garden, their conversation seamlessly evolves to having measurements taken for their mutual bed. They are lovers, I realize. My mother seems to have no shame about it. "I'd have no shame about it either," the gardener tells her, "if you've been faithful to me." She says calmly to him, "You said when I came back, you'd know." He looks her in the eye. Surprised at what he sees, he exclaims, "You were faithful! You were away for years yet you remembered me." Everything and everyone in the household revolves around my mother and the gardener.

A great tribal feast is to be held outside. It's night, almost feast time.. The matriarchs, native and black, sit in a row of deck chairs in the field where the feast will be held. My mother, chief matriarch, arrives. She takes her seat next to the gardener. Everyone accepts this as the natural order. Different matriarchs in their feast finery get up and make demands, show off what they are wearing, explain why and how they will dance and with whom. Everyone accepts what they say.

    The Mother’s Return (Dream in Poem form)

    in charge of our Kenyan village
    I sit at the kitchen table
    with Evo the gardener.
    Mother’s been away for years.
    Now she walks in.
    Remembering it’s her kitchen, I stand.
    She talks with Evo, recalling the measurements of their bed.
    She’s not ashamed of the affair.
    Evo: I’m not ashamed either – if you’ve been faithful.
    Calm as Penelope, Mother replies,
    You said when I came home, you’d know.
    Reading in her clear eyes, he’s amazed.
    You were faithful. You remembered me.
    Outside in the night field – time for the great tribal feast.
    the matriarchs in their finery
    sit in a long curved row of deck chairs.
    Mother takes her seat by Evo.
    each matriarch in turn stands
    announcing how she’ll dance, and with whom.
    everyone approves, nods

Patient: I think this is my father and mother but my mother was never unfaithful to my father. You know from previous sessions it was my father who was unfaithful and almost openly when my mother fell ill. It caused my mother great pain. This dream doesn't seem to pertain to my parents. What I am thinking about is the climate summit in Copenhagen. I think this dream must be connected to that.

Dr. B: In this dream you appear to have two main associations. They seem to match the grand scale that your dream invokes - matriarchs, chiefs, your mother as chief matriarch, and the gardener, who must be God. After all he created the universe and all within it, certainly the garden of all vegetation and all other natural phenomenon.

This would seem to be a dream of high purpose. However there are a few points you are making. Fidelity is a prime one. How does one verify it? Second, there are secrets and most of all of the bed. You call up an archetype of literature and culture, that is the story of Penelope and Ulysses. And then there are in your dreams all the lesser matriarchs and their consorts. But let's go back to the Copenhagen conference and your mentioning of Evo Morales.

Patient: I listened to the program "Democracy Now" at the time and President Morales of Bolivia referred to Mother Earth as "Her". I remember telling you how elegant and unusual Morales' clothes always are.

Dr. B: Then let's get the name of this tailor.

The patient laughed......

Patient: Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and perhaps the first indigenous president of a South American country.

The patient continued.....

Patient: Morales talked about all countries of the world meeting to give back the land to Mother Earth. By the way, Morales has set up an international conference about giving back the land to Mother Earth, I think in April.

Dr. B: And the feast?

Patient: The feast in the dream is what it would be like if all countries in the world did indeed honor Mother Earth. I think it's significant that when everything is right with all nations it's a matriarchy we are talking about with Mother Earth as chief matriarch paired - but having precedence over (she sits a few inches in front of him) - with her male partner the gardener.

COMMENTARY

I think these two dreams are to be taken together, the first introducing and really invoking the prayer for enlightenment. People rebel when they feel that justice is wanting, that freedom to have an input into matters that concern them are denied, as it was at the meeting in Copenhagen. It seems to be the rich nations gain all the way. Indeed it was discovered that all had been completed before the meeting had begun.

Remember that the patient had thrown the divinatory keys into the ocean (the unconscious). By doing that he was asking for guidance such as, "Please God tell us what to do". This is an implicit request and a prayer that the past will be shown and that justice will be done in the future.

The latter dream brings about bold characterizations of great dimension like the Great Matriarch, her consort and all the lesser matriarchs with their spouses in celebration. The patient felt that this was a metaphor honoring the great Mother Earth, the great matriarch, whose consort is the gardener, or God, the creator of all that exists in the universe which, of course, includes our own world.

The issue of fidelity is raised and settled. The matriarch has been faithful. We already know that this dream does not have to do with the patient's family. Fidelity here is a problem in relation to the land, the air and the oceans. The question is has mankind been faithful to what was given to it, to the obligation to leave the paradise of earth as we have found it. We know that we have not, that we have created an imbalance in earthly fashion. The imbalance is likened to a sacred vow in marriage that has been broken. When this vow of fidelity is kept there is balance. If it is broken there is imbalance. I believe Source is not concerned with individual indiscretions. These serve to unbalance the individual's life and he/she and all who are not faithful to the implicit promises to wives, husbands, children, to the people of a country upset the balance which must come to order, usually at great cost to all people involved.

So far mankind has not found the way to create balance or peace for he waging war, intruding somewhere in the world, taking advantage of other people, exploiting their wealth and their lives - all of which creates great imbalance.

Mankind does not realize that all are affected by this foray into violence. It is this awkward swing of the pendulum that must be put right. The poet tells us the truth when he says, "Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." It tolls for every person on the planet.

Though the supposed conquerors may feel that there is no consequence for them, universal law cannot be conquered. How does one conquer the law of gravity or how does one conquer the law of cause and effect?

The patient sees, in this best of all possible worlds, the great mother and father and all the chieftains and matriarchs representing all the countries of the world coming together for celebration, for dancing and joy. There is at last unity between all people and between all people and God.

The truth about a situation is the greatest gift that one can be given.

January 2010