The Divine Presence in Dreams
Bob Hoss, author Dream Language
Just as the imagery in dreams can originate out of various states of consciousness, theappearance of angelic or divine beings in dreams can have many origins. At one extreme,divine beings can appear as part of a true vision or higher state of consciousness achievedin the dream state. At the other extreme the divine being may simply be a metaphor orrepresentation of the dreamer’s association with the concept of the divine. Often, thedivine being appears as a representation of what Jung3 referred to as the Self, that withinour collective unconscious which contains the higher order pattern all we can become,our model of wholeness and connectedness to the universe.
The Divine as a Visionary Presence
“I had been asleep and am not sure if I woke or was still half asleep when I looked at theend of the bed and there stood a glorious angel. He spoke to me but not in words andtold me that it was all right, it was not my time yet”. That dream occurred to a womanwho had been hospitalized for a miscarriage that had gone very badly and the doctors hadnot expected her to live. She was very concerned that she would have to leave her othertwo children. After the vision she became calm and recovered more quickly than expected.
Throughout the ages there have been many reports of dreams of a visionary nature thatprovide guidance, comfort or "truth" from what appears to be a divine presence.Visionary dreams of a divine nature can be so striking that they change a person’s life, orthe course of history (as evidenced from biblical history). Big visions are not justreserved for the holy masters. The following dream series1 occurred to a house wife whowas simply searching for truth. “I was being shown a huge brightly lit triangular-shapedsign with lettering in red which said, ‘Make yourself a perfect channel and wait, and allthings will be given to you’.” Her wait was not long. Shortly thereafter she had thefollowing dream, seemingly explaining the divine order of things: “I saw a wheel of fire– a strange wheel endlessly turning. Fire - yet not fire - not material fire; electricalforces like the fire seen through closed eyes. The wheel was the Wheel of Time, andhovering above it were souls of all things created; animal, vegetable and man. Much likea computer, programmed to accept each one in its time, each one descended onto theearth only when an opening appeared in the wheel. The vibrations at the opening wereattuned to the vibrations of that particular soul. The return from earth happened in asimilar manner. Only when the proper opening appeared and the vibrations were rightcould the soul return from whence it came. There were some who wandered or floatedbeneath the wheel, unable to return through the fire until the proper opening appeared.And I saw the wheel from above, without wonder, as something I had seen before andrecognized.”
Often an angelic or divine presence will appear in dreams as a person goes throughspiritual transformation or transcendence. Nigel Hamilton2, researched dreams of twenty persons who went through the process of what he called psycho-spiritual transformation,nineteen of them on spiritual retreats. He observed a dramatic appearance of light, colorand visionary imagery in the dreams at the point of transcendence including divine beingsand what he called “clear light” (similar to the divine light that is reported from visionaryor near death experiences).
Divine Presence as a Metaphor
Most imagery in dreams are visual representations of concepts, emotions and thoughtsthat are being processed by the sleeping brain. These visual images are presented asmetaphors or associations and in some cases represent the appearance of a naturalbalancing force from the collective Self. Carl Jung3 stated that dreams act on a naturaltendency towards balance or wholeness, and generally employ ‘compensation’ as themeans to achieve this. Compensation attempts to restore balance by reversing or alteringmisconceptio ns that leaves the dreamer stuck in inappropriate behavior patterns. Thecompensating message is often delivered by a seemingly divine presence or in the formof a surprise or surprising imagery. This is the case in the following dream1: “I dreamedthat it was the end of the world and Christ was coming in the sky (to my right) in the formof the Holy Trinity. But Christ appeared as a trinity of Santa Clauses, who merged asone and began pouring gifts of love from an urn. They were invisible, but I felt the giftshit me, so I ran. I tripped, falling down the mountain, with the gifts pouring on me thewhole time.” The dream was indeed related to the dreamer’s spiritual life, but there wasan interesting clue in the dream; a “Santa Claus” Christ is not exactly what one mightconsider a divine presence! The Santa Claus Christ was a down-to-earth metaphorintended to illustrate the dreamers misconceived view of what Christ was all about. Thedreamer had an expectation that living a good spiritual life should bring the gift ofphysical rewards. The dream was compensating for a misconception that, if she were agood girl, God would bring her physical gifts. The dream showed the true gifts to beinvisible and intangible gifts of love. Indeed the message was a spiritual one, but thevision of Christ was a metaphor.
Divine Presence as a symbol of the higher SELFPerhaps the most frequent appearance of divine beings in dreams are what Carl Jungcalled archetypes.4 Archetypes are patterns from within the collective unconscious thatguide the human psyche toward a state of wholeness. He indicated that who we are asindividuals evolves out of the collective unconscious in cycles of transformation, underthe influence of an organizing force he called the Self. He observed that dreams not onlyreflect this process but act on a natural tendency towards balance or wholeness in order tohelp bring it about. Jung related human transformation to a symbolic death and rebirth, adeath of the existing ego state in order for the new self to emerge or be born.4 As you canwell imagine, such a death/rebirth cycle would be filled with imagery of a divine spiritualnature.
This process begins when our ego is faced with abandoning some view of self, belief ormyth that it is holding on to, that no longer works. The dream may reflect theabandonment of the old ego as death, fear of death, a loss, being trapped, impendingstorms, moving into darkness or darkening and descending. Symbolic death is followedby a period of searching for a new self, which can appear as a journey, a search, beinglost, underground, or winter. We turn inward to face our shadow self, encounter elementsof our instinctual nature, and experience encounters and conflict between opposing sidesof self. At some point the natural balancing forces within the psyche appear in order tore-integrate the fragmented self in a way that is more consistent with a higher order senseof Self. The eventual transcendence (integration and acceptance of new parts of self) isaccompanied by imagery of release, emergence, celebration and joy. Increases in natureimagery, beauty, light and color are experienced.
The divine presence would typically appear in the form of what Jung referred to as theAnima or Animus, or symbol of the Self. They often reveal themselves as the divinewise old male or female character or angelic beings, the divine child wise beyond theirage, the divine masculine or feminine presence or simply the voice or words from aseemingly divine source.4 They typically provide a guiding role in dreams.
Such a guiding presence was experienced in the following dream1 : “I was wandering allover town looking for the book of truth. No one could tell me where it was. Suddenly Isaw a divine male presence sitting on the left, who pointed down a descending woodenspiral staircase. He said that truth lies down there. I descended the spiral staircase andfound myself in an underground mall, where I proceeded to continue to go from store tostore looking for the book. I looked to my left and there was another set of stairsdescending from above and on it was a beautiful glowing angelic female. She pointed toa pedestal in front of her which had a golden book on top of it and gave me a knowingglance. I suddenly understood, the book of truth is within myself - not out there in a booksomewhere to be purchased.”
The visionary experience of the angel at the end of the bed, discussed earlier, came at atime of critical physical illness. It seems that guidance from angelic characters in dreamscan appear at times of lesser physical problems as well. The following dream was thesecond of two dreams that provided direct literal messages, seemingly to demandattention to the dietary needs of a man who made a radical change to a vegetarian diet1 :“I dreamed of a beautiful mystical woman, with a glow emanating from her, sitting on athrone like chair. I was attracted to her and approached her. She looked at me and said‘bring me tea’. After the first dream with the message ‘eat more fish’ I took this asanother dietary demand from my body trying to adjust to the new diet.”
One of the primary functions of the higher SELF is to bring about integration within thepsyche, between the conscious and unconscious. At the core of this is the integrationbetween the ego self and shadow. The shadow according to Jung is an unknown personof the same sex as the dreamer.4 The shadow is not always what it sounds like, a darkshadowy frightening character; as the ego moves closer to integration with the shadow itcan appear as something beautiful and divine. This is seen in the following dream: “As Iwent down the stairs, I saw on my left a large stone archway and a room beyond. On theleft side of this room was a young woman. As the sunlight streamed in she came forward,and I saw that she was me. She walked toward me and we blended into one person .”
Symbols of the SELF as Related to the Diving Presence in Dreams
When the divine presence in a dream originates from the SELF, it might be identified assuch by certain clues in the dream; patterns that are representative of integration. Jungstated that the symbols of the SELF come from within the collective unconscious. Basedon the observations of Jung4, confirmed with hundreds of dreams in my own research1,the dream elements of an unconscious origin typically appear in the left field of vision,behind or below in dreams, sometimes emerging from darkness. This is in contrast toconscious concepts which typically appear in the right field of vision, ahead or above,that are usually bathed in light. Hoss1 theorizes that there is also a biological basis forthis, having to do with the difference in processing between the left and right brainhemispheres.
Notice that in the visions or visionary dream examples above, the divine imageryappeared in front of the dreamer. The angel appeared at the end of the bed, the triangularsign was in front and above, and the wheel of fire was seen as above and then fromabove. In contrast to this, that the imagery in the dream examples that were related to theSELF, all appeared to the left of the dreamer. In the “book of truth” dream both thedivine male and female presence was to the left of the dreamer. In the dream where thewoman integrated with herself, the female figure she integrated with was also located onthe left. Note also that the metaphor of the “Santa Claus Christ” was seen as comingfrom above and to the right, as one might expect of a conscious construct.
Conclusion
The origin of angels or other divine entities in dreams or pseudo dream states, are oftendifficult to determine from their appearance alone. A case can be made for true visionsand visitations from the divine. A case can also be made for these divine entities beingsymbolic representations in the natural balancing and transformation process talkingplace in dreams. Perhaps the symbolic clues provided by Jung, in particular as they relateto archetypes of the unconscious, can help distinguish between a divine visitation fromwithout, versus the natural balancing forces of the inner SELF.
REFERENCES1. Robert J Hoss, Dream Language, Innersource, Ashland Oregon 20052. N. Hamilton, The Role of Dreams in the Study of Human Transformation,presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Association for theStudy of Dreams, June 2005, Berkeley, CA.3. C. G. Jung, "Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious", Part 5 of ThePortable Jung, Edited by Joseph Campbell, The Viking Press, N.Y. 19714. C. G. Jung, Man and His Symbols, Dell Publishing Co. NY, NY, 1973
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