Macrobiotics Today, September/October 1994, Vol. 34, No. 5
"The Food of Dreams" Anne Scott
Macrobiotics, while retaining its essence, can respond to the needs of today by recognizing a growing inner hunger for soul nourishment. In addition to the care of the body, macrobiotics must embrace this inner need if it is to guide people into the twenty-first century. The psyche, too, needs nourishment, and one of the ways that it can be nourished is through our dreams.
Dreams can be affected by the foods we eat since the quality of our blood is largely determined by our diet. It follows that we can sometimes better understand our physical condition by looking at our dreams. Beyond the causal interpretation of dreams, however, is a realm that perhaps has been undervalued in macrobiotics.
In the ancient Sufi tradition, for instance, dreams have long been considered a source of wisdom and insight. They are known to provide guidance on the wayfarer's journey toward Truth, or Reality. The focus is on the archetypal and spiritual interpretation of a dream rather than a more personal interpretation. Dreams often reveal the parts of ourselves that we have rejected, the parts that simply want to be loved. These denied aspects of ourselves also want food.
It is this inner world that must also be nourished today, for it has been culturally neglected, and we are the poorer for it. Understanding our dreams is one way to listen to the depths of ourselves. This is nourishment for the soul.
The following chapter about dreams is from my book, Serving Fire: Food for Thought, Body and Soul. In this chapter I refer to the hearth. I use the hearth as a symbol for that part of us that unites earth and heart, matter and spirit.
The Food of Dreams
When it is possible to hear the beloved speak himself, why listen to second-hand reports?
Jami 13th Century Mystic
Dreams help us sweep the hearth. They speak of a very real inner world that takes us beyond our self-conceptions. By listening to our dreams, we gain access to a hidden part of ourselves. We clear the hearth of old conditioning that smothers the fire.
In the unconscious, we find precious raw material for our growth - and it's not always a pretty sight. We are given a glimpse, through dreams, of the dark side of the moon - our shadow, which would be unbearable to witness in the light of day. Yet we also have those dreams that speak the poetry of our souls. These dreams call to us from such depths that we barely recognize the voice as our own.
The following is a woman's dream that hints at longing quite unknown to her. This dream occurred many times over a period of years.
I am at a large banquet table. My brothers, sisters, parents, uncles, and aunts are seated around the table. It is magnificently set, and waiters serve sumptuous food to all but me. I wait and wait, and everyone is served but me. My plate remains empty. I feel so much sadness, I can hardly bear it.
The dreamer did not understand the dream and ignored it. The dream first appeared while she was still in an unhappy marriage and continued through the subsequent divorce. She later developed breast cancer and had surgery. After recovery she made changes in her life. Yet even after going into therapy, changing her diet, and starting to meditate, she still felt dissatisfied and joyless. She grew stronger, yet the dream continued to haunt her.
When she came to me for nutritional counseling, she told me about her dream and of the terrible sadness that made her so uneasy. Instead of fending off this feeling, as if it were a beast trying to bite her, she now gave it space. In doing so, a part of herself that had been buried deep within her was given permission to exist. Her longing led her to her own mystical nature that began to be expressed in her work as a painter. The dream was finally heard when she became conscious of the inner "food" that she desired and it didn't return.
It takes time to learn how to listen to dreams. The language of dreams is not the language of daily life; dreams speak in symbols. The symbols carry a powerful energy that can, at times, feel overwhelming. There is a way to meet dreams so as not to get lost in them. Ask this question: "What does this dream mean to me?" As soon as personal meaning is given to a dream, we have the power to look at what the dream brings. The meaning makes the dream conscious and that provides protection.
Since dreams use symbols to communicate with us, they generally should not be taken literally. Yet sometimes a dream may give us an obvious insight about our daily lives. Working with the symbols can help us make changes in our way of thinking, breaking us out of fixed patterns.
Arianne came to me for nutritional and lifestyle education. She was anemic and had been a vegetarian for more than ten years. This is her dream:
I see a beautiful Native American woman walking with her arms full of food. She carries huge baskets full of corn. In her hand is a salmon, freshly caught. She is radiant, and very strong. She walks with great joy and a respect for the food she carries.
At the time of this dream, Arianne and her daughter, Tia, were both physically weak. Arianne had become so fixed in her intention to eat a specific diet related to her spiritual path that she was unable to comprehend that it could be causing their weakness. Arianne also resented her husband's dietary influence on Tia because he occasionally chose to eat fish and poultry. Food intended as a source of nourishment had created a schism in the family.
As Arianne and I discussed the dream she saw how it related to her present situation. She realized that she could trust her instincts instead of a rigid dietary plan to show her what foods would nourish herself and her family.
A week later Arianne bought some salmon. Tia was so astonished when Arianne told her the fish was dinner for the whole family that she burst out in joy to her father, "We all get to eat the same thing tonight!" she shouted happily. "We're all going to eat together!"
Within three months, Arianne's anemia was healed and Tia was much stronger. The family was able to relax when they ate, without the tension of unspoken resentments about food preferences. The dream had directly helped Arianne in her physical life and held the promise of nourishment on an inner level. To Arianne, the Native American woman symbolized a place within her where instincts were still intact and not suppressed by intellectual belief systems.
Once, at a dream seminar, I heard the following dream of a young woman in her early twenties.
I am following my boyfriend on a path. He is drawn toward a range of snow-peaked mountains. I lag behind and then notice a swimming pool in a deep hollow in the earth. I leave the path, and decide to enter this pool. It is full of luxuriant flowers and plants. Inside the pool I discover an old peasant woman in the corner making a huge pancake, several feet round. It looks so delicious; I want it badly.
The dreamer understood her dream to mean that she was too busy conquering the world, so to speak, and had no time for her inner life. The dream indicated to her that she was now ready to face herself. This would nourish her in an abundant way. The giant pancake and lush growth in the pool symbolized inner nourishment to her. The peasant woman was the nurturer, Mother Earth, who could feed her with the nourishment she so badly wanted.
Dreams can point the way for us when we aren't conscious of what we want. The following dream came to a friend, Julia, who expressed disinterest in spiritual life. The dream showed otherwise.
I am in a friend's living room. I want to peek into my friend's kitchen to see what foods she eats. I open the refrigerator and find it empty except for three loaves of homemade bread. I devour them, stuffing them into my mouth as fast as I can. I am a little embarrassed, realizing what I have done. I close the refrigerator door and open a cupboard. Hidden inside are neat piles of candy bars. I don't want these. I just want the bread.
Julia realized from this dream that she was hungry for inner nourishment. She did not want the candy that tasted good but was really only empty food. "I just want the bread," she clearly says in her dream. Julia was actually embarrassed about her own spirituality, and so it remained hidden from her. She was raised in an intellectual family where spirituality was mocked. The dream cracked her defenses, however, and allowed her longing for more meaning in life to emerge and be integrated.
Julia's dream came at a critical time; her husband had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He resisted her attempts to serve health foods, and eating had become a point of contention which emphasized their differences. Inspired by the dream, Julia shifted her attention from her frustration and resentment over his refusal to eat the healing foods she offered to her hunger for a nourishing inner life. She found the strength that allowed for a healing of past suffering between her and her husband. By turning within, Julia was able to love and support him in the way he most needed. Love permeated the family during the last few months of his life, allowing the children to experience the depth of their father's love for them.
Now what about the dreams that wake us up trembling in the middle of the night? The dreams we would just as soon forget because they are so disturbing? These too can nourish. Such "shadow" dreams show us what we have repressed or denied in ourselves. They may also bring up painful or forgotten memories of events in our past.
Healing is possible when what has been hidden in the darkness surfaces into the light of our awareness. Something wants our attention, and the unconscious knows how to help. Recognition of what we have repressed can free up energy that has become distorted and deformed in the darkness. It can then become a positive creative force that serves us in life.
A guide is helpful in order to enter into the dark regions of the unconscious. The guide may be a book about dream work, or a trusted teacher. Dreams follow their own laws, and we can become confused or frightened when we mistake the symbols for their literal meaning.
Even though our dreams are very personal, they sometimes need to be told. When we share the mysterious depths of ourselves with others, in a space made holy by the attitude of the listeners, then the magic of transformation can become a reality to our waking mind. Our dreams touch the dreams of the listeners, and they can provide interpretations that may help us to better understand ourselves.
Practice
How do we learn the way of dreams? A notebook is a good place to start. This notebook is for dreams and only dreams. It's not a place for shopping lists. Keep it beside your bed with a pen and perhaps a flashlight if you want to write down a dream in the middle of the night. Writing down dreams is a message to your unconscious. "I am listening," it says. The more you listen, the more often you will remember dreams.
The relationship to dreams is a delicate one that calls for respect. You can't chase after them. That would only get in the way. So just write them down. Dreams you need to remember remain with you.
And yet, it may still take a long while before a dream is truly understood. Save your dream journals. One day, months or years later, reread your dreams. You might see how they warned you at times, or guided you, or revealed hidden desires. Then your dreams become old friends. This is how trust grows.
End of Article
Author bio-statement: Anne Scott is a writer, teacher and counselor. Anne lives with her husband and two daughters in Sebastopol, California.
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