The sense of a meaning

Last Tuesday started out with a routine trip to the dentist for a check up, so I was rather shocked to exit the surgery minus two teeth, a wisdom tooth and the one next to it. “Bone loss,” the dentist had explained, “better to take them out.”

Later in the week I was telling my daughter about my unexpected loss. “Tuesday?” she asked, “Really?” It turned out that she had taken Isobel, my five-year-old granddaughter, to the dentist for a check up on the same day (different dentist, different city), and a new tooth was discovered poking through her gum, right at the back of her mouth. It was the same tooth that I had had extracted. An unexpected gain to match my unexpected loss. Or, as my daughter put it, “Both ends of the life cycle Mum!”

There was something calming about the symmetry, the timing, the beauty of the equation, the sense of a meaning.

As an isolated case, I’d write the experience off as a coincidence, but mystery beckons on a regular basis in my life, laying itself at my feet for appreciation and exploration.

I am both scientist and mystic, attuned to seeing and researching patterns to better understand the universe. I’m in my element working with dreams and the dreaming mind.

When I analyse a dream, I begin by looking for patterns, symmetries, balances and imbalances, the weaving of dream threads that reveal the tapestry of the dreamer’s life.

Many dreams contain at least one pair of opposites, or symmetries, when you look closely. You might see references to the sky, or high up, balanced by references to the ground or sea, or low down. You might see references to confidence and doubt, to defence and attack, to risk and safety, to loss and gain. These give clues about issues and conflicts the dreamer is processing, issues and conflicts that have been prominent in the 1-2 days before the dream.

Deeper exploration of a dream shows the life experiences behind the issue, the emotional contexts, and the unconscious belief patterns that make up the dreamer’s perspective. The dreamer’s blocks to resolving the issue become clear through analysing the dream, and the light of fresh understanding opens the way for change and resolution.

Look into your own dreams in this way, search for opposites that help you to identify issues, and hunt for dream clues that help you to understand the pattern of your struggles and find fresh perspective. These are beginning steps. It takes practice to explore the territory of your dreams with an eye to finding meaningful insight and discovering the exquisite patterning of life.

As I chew over the loss of my two teeth (carefully, on one side of my mouth while my gum heals), and think about my loss and my granddaughter’s gain, I also see the gains in my loss.

It was my tooth that came to the end of its cycle of life, not my self, and there is value in letting go of structures that no longer serve, and creating space for the new. Metaphorically, that is.

 

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