Mikey – What a dream, a learning dream, a dream of instruction. Also a dream stating a truth.
The truth is that we are all primeval beasts because most of humanity have not met and integrated their animal rage against anything that threatened their existence. The rage of explosive animal fear, fear of being destroyed, fear that gives the energy to rend or kill anything that threatens. Can you see how, out of this roaring fear, still in us humans, so much violence, hate, war, carnage arises in the world?
The lions are both enormous strength when harnessed or the beast in you that has a healthy fear of much that goes on in today’s world. Fear is a guardian that protected ancient beast from uncountable dangers for millions of years. Yes, there were so many real dangers that fear gave us the strength to run from or to fight and kill. Yes, the healthy beast still feels fear as it looks out of its eyes as modern man. It must not be crushed or repressed. Gradually it will grow and fear less. Given the time, you can let it grow slowly beyond its fear into regal strength.
You keep your lions in a glass enclosure – glass because you have learnt how to look within. The woman is the synthesise of all mothering and caring for all creatures, and so knows them all intimately. She is an expression from your usually unconscious inner world.
She suggests feeding them grains/seeds. Seeds - the wheat seed - corn - the seed of life and death - food, everything is a seed. Everything starts from a seed, a grain, and the lions are fed something that has the power of growth.
The difficulty for human beings is that as an unconscious animal – a lion - the forces working blindly and universally through nature could be lived out blindly and unquestioningly. But with self-awareness the question can be asked - What Am I? Can you accept you are an animal that has amazingly achieved self-awareness? Can you see that as a human animal you are something that can either grow in awareness or simply believe that as a human you are already the king of the castle – yet the castle is a defence against the shitty world we are a part of?
The man you took with you is probably the part that was raised on the old paradigm/belief system. There is a belief system that millions of people are in the grip of in a way that controls them, imprisons them, and denies them their full potential. It is generally called the paradigm of the western mind. It could also be called the worldview or even the religion of most western people – religion because actually it is a belief system. However, if you asked most people in the streets of western cities about it they would not say they believed in what is being called a paradigm, they would insist it is reality. See
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-paradigm/Or perhaps you could feel like a powerful animal. One that is not holding himself back in regard to his fellow creatures. You would be ready to fight, play, love, laugh. All the different bits of you are available. The question you might ask yourself is, how do you get people to feel it - that basic animal experience of oneself. The wonderful experience of existing, of being alive with all the powers of a living creature - physical strength, emotions of anger, tenderness, passion and sexual excitement, awe and wonder in meeting life and the stars?
Tony