In December 2021, I awoke from a vivid dream in which I'd taken a ferry to an island off the coast of Maine where my dad grew up. As I walked along the shoreline dotted with yellow wildflowers, a supersize hummingbird swooped down, landed on my left shoulder, and began pecking at my sweatshirt near my breast. I turned my head toward my shoulder, and in that moment our eyes met. He was shockingly pink with purples and greens on his chest and underbelly, and he was inches from my face. I tried to contort my body so I could snap a photo but failed.
I was so struck by the dream that I asked Jungian psychoanalyst Helen Marlo, Ph.D., to help me decode it. Marlo, dean of the School of Psychology at Notre Dame de Namur University, explained that a ferry is known to be a journey symbol. "A vehicle in water can mean a journey into the unconscious/less conscious waters," she said. Then she peppered me with questions: Which image stands out the most? What does Maine mean to you? How do you feel about pink?
The standout image was the hummingbird's playful and protective nature. "I've always associated hummingbirds with my late father and the only time I'd been to Maine was with him--just weeks before I had surgery to remove a massive tumor," I replied. "And pink? I've never liked pink."
What is the hummingbird trying to make me see? I wondered. What am I missing?
Days later, I had a dream about getting a mammogram. After the exam, I went to the room where my family was waiting. I thought I was done until a doctor said I needed more testing.
Even though I was writing an article about precognitive dreams at the time-women who dreamed about their breast cancers before they were diagnosed-the symbolism packed inside these dreams eluded me. Marlo later told me she had a sinking feeling when she read my first dream. She already suspected what I was just beginning to discover: I, too, had breast cancer.
この記事は Spirituality & Health の July/August 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Spirituality & Health の July/August 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
LET'S NOT LIMIT NATURE
\"NATURE IS MY CHURCH!\" she exclaims. And I cringe. That may surprise many of you, what with my constant ecological and spiritual musings about squirrels, monkeys, and other nature-y creatures. My conundrum with this often-uttered sentiment is the artificial boundary the word nature creates. Let me explain.
TIME TO TAKE THE RISK
We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.-Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-century Benedictine mystic, medical practitioner, writer, and composer
The Essence of FRIENDSHIP
A DEEP DIVE INTO WHAT MAKES THE BEST FRIENDSHIPS
QUEEN DIAMBI KABATUSUILA SHEDS A NEW LIGHT ON AFRICA
In 2016, before she became queen of the Bakwa Luntu people of the Dimbelenge territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Queen Diambi Kabatusuila was a 48-year-old therapist going through a difficult divorce, living in Boca Raton, Florida, and having a recurring dream about an old woman in an African village.
Recognizing and Tuning Into Medical Intuition
How one woman learned to trust her instincts and heal her body
Over the MOON About Helping Animals (and Their People)
Since I was a child, I've had a ritual: Every night, I go outside and search the sky for the moon and stars. I marvel at the magnificence of a dark, crisp, clear, midnight blue sky and its symphony of constellations, occasional meteors, and the glorious moon herself-each illuminating the vastness. This simple practice always gives me the deepest peace and centeredness. It aligns my internal compass every night before bed.
ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVES: AMANDLA STENBERG CHANNELS 'THE FORCE'
Journalist KAREN BRAILSFORD was over the moon when actress and musician AMANDLA STENBERG agreed to meet her over Zoom for this heart-to-heart about spiritual matters for Spirituality & Health: A Unity Publication. Brailsford, a lifelong seeker who feels blessed to be Stenberg's mother, once captioned an Instagram photo of her daughter with Michael Bernard Beckwith of the Agape International Spiritual Center: \"When your master teachers run into one another at a Hollywood event.\" Brailsford says she has learned a great deal from each one.
Unlikely Lightworkers from Liverpool
The Beatles were more than musical masters-they were spiritual pioneers.
The Neuroscience of Getting What You Want
AND WHY YOU MAY NOT WANT TO SEEK WHAT YOU WANT AFTER ALL
ANTI-RACISM IS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
GROWING UP in very charismatic and evangelical Christian spaces, I was told that the Devil's greatest trick was convincing us that he didn't exist. I feel a similar vibe when it comes to the big three systems of oppression-capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy-in New Thought and other spiritual spaces. These systems managed to convince some of us that they don't exist, we are immune from them, talking about them isn't helpful, or we will overcome them just by doing our spiritual practices.
