THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS by Dane Rudhyar goes beyond simple dream symbols and interpretation guides to explore the nature of dreams and the four levels of human consciousness and dream-states. In so doing, composer, astrologer, philosopher Dane Rudhyar draws upon astrological symbolism and the Hindu mystic tradition of the Four States of Consciousness. “From the point of view we are developing,” Rudhyar writes, “one should speak of the ‘dream-state’ and understand its manifold nature before seeking to determine the meaning or lack of meaning of dreams as such. The Hindu yogi distinguished as a rule four states of consciousness. One of them is the waking-state, the highest is a condition of identification with the spirit usually regarded as ‘transcendent’.”
This accessible title includes discussions on:
*Three Basic Approaches to the Nature of Dreams
*The Four "States of Consciousness"
*Dreams as Symptoms
*Dreams as Expressions of Spiritual Intelligence
*Dreams as a Reflection of Spiritual Experience
*From Dreams to Complete Wakefulness
From the section on “Dreams as Symptoms”:
“Every human person is a microcosm; that is, a miniature universe. Every human person is within himself a small image of the whole society in the midst of which we live; and all the conflicts and struggles in that society are more or less actively or critically operating within the individual. These facts are brought to the mind of every thinking astrologer; for he or she well knows that the patterns of the birth chart are also those that record the cyclic processes of growth and decay in humanity as a whole, the changing climate, the tides of electro-magnetism affecting our globe and everything on its surface,
Seen from such a point of view, dreams represent typical functions in the organism of personality, and these functions correlate with certain sections of the birth-chart. Dreams as symptoms of the painful or tragic results of disharmonic personal and social activity can be characterized by conditions relating to the sixth and twelfth Houses; but there are also dreams of other types which refer to other Houses, all these we shall discuss in the next study.”
From “Dreams as Expressions of Spiritual Intelligence”:
“In the preceding chapter we defined three basic approaches to the nature of dreams: 1) The archaic or ‘theophanic’ approach considers every dream as the message, always trustable if it could be correctly interpreted, of an infinitely wise Intelligence; 2) The materialistic approach which denies any spiritual source to the dream; and 3) An attitude of reconciliation which establishes four basic states or levels of mind and several categories of dreams. We discussed the main characteristics of the ‘dream-state’ in contrast to the ‘waking-state’ of consciousness, and showed how, in the latter, everything in the human personality is normally brought to a condition of tension and ‘attention to life’ within the framework of the conscious ego and of the will. And when we become unable to maintain this state of purposeful activity, dictated by the life-needs and the problems of successful adjustment (economic, cultural, moral, etc.), we falls asleep.”
This accessible title includes discussions on:
*Three Basic Approaches to the Nature of Dreams
*The Four "States of Consciousness"
*Dreams as Symptoms
*Dreams as Expressions of Spiritual Intelligence
*Dreams as a Reflection of Spiritual Experience
*From Dreams to Complete Wakefulness
From the section on “Dreams as Symptoms”:
“Every human person is a microcosm; that is, a miniature universe. Every human person is within himself a small image of the whole society in the midst of which we live; and all the conflicts and struggles in that society are more or less actively or critically operating within the individual. These facts are brought to the mind of every thinking astrologer; for he or she well knows that the patterns of the birth chart are also those that record the cyclic processes of growth and decay in humanity as a whole, the changing climate, the tides of electro-magnetism affecting our globe and everything on its surface,
Seen from such a point of view, dreams represent typical functions in the organism of personality, and these functions correlate with certain sections of the birth-chart. Dreams as symptoms of the painful or tragic results of disharmonic personal and social activity can be characterized by conditions relating to the sixth and twelfth Houses; but there are also dreams of other types which refer to other Houses, all these we shall discuss in the next study.”
From “Dreams as Expressions of Spiritual Intelligence”:
“In the preceding chapter we defined three basic approaches to the nature of dreams: 1) The archaic or ‘theophanic’ approach considers every dream as the message, always trustable if it could be correctly interpreted, of an infinitely wise Intelligence; 2) The materialistic approach which denies any spiritual source to the dream; and 3) An attitude of reconciliation which establishes four basic states or levels of mind and several categories of dreams. We discussed the main characteristics of the ‘dream-state’ in contrast to the ‘waking-state’ of consciousness, and showed how, in the latter, everything in the human personality is normally brought to a condition of tension and ‘attention to life’ within the framework of the conscious ego and of the will. And when we become unable to maintain this state of purposeful activity, dictated by the life-needs and the problems of successful adjustment (economic, cultural, moral, etc.), we falls asleep.”
