A Disturbing Dream

I had a dream. I was walking through the woods in early spring , seeing a few small flowers on a few dead stalks, but I had been in these woods the day before and saw no visible living thing. I observed several dead trees.

In the dream I came upon a dead stump about 4 inches in diameter and 3 ft tall. A flower bloomed on the edge of the top of the stump. Smoke came from the other side of the blossom. Within the rising smoke wafting around the top of the stump, small flames no larger than what comes from a match came into being, retreated, and burst out again.

I was shocked, a bit frightened and didn't know what to do. Would this start a forest fire? What was causing it? 

I awoke and could not return to sleep. This had been a Jungian dream, with much symbolism and of import to my life. I had read a lot of Jung in the 70s. Somehow it was connected to another symbolic event,the vulture that fell dead from the sky into my backyard three days before. I, the secular, atheist was now thinking about omens,a foreboding of something to come that would change everything, possibly for good, but likely for ill.

Now I was thinking of Moses and the burning bush, and what symbolism was at work there and in my dream. The burning stump seemed to indicate the mysterious presence of a primordial power that called for my attention. “Listen up, Dennis, to what is going on and what you must do,” would be the voice in the flame. The fire symbolizes “spirit” in the Biblical story of Pentecost, and probably in the myths and legends of every religion. Coming to awareness of the divine within and from without, and self-awareness have often been described as a burning. It has only been 50 years since Christians began speaking of "spirituality," and about that long that psychologists ceased to describe religious experiences as mental illness.

Before the dream, as I fell asleep, I thought about how all of our political and economic problems are essentially spiritual. As a nation, we are in a spiritual crisis, and yet few of all the opinion commentators and theologians I read and hear speak of this. And what does “spiritual crisis” mean? I came of age in the 60s and came to a Christian faith, which led me to attend a seminary during the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements. I had seen a spiritual crisis in the nation’s unresolved racism and its choice to make war in Asia against “communism,” a complex symbol for undemocratic authoritarianism that threatened capitalism and our way of life. Complex because religious Westerners accused communism of being “materialistic” because it denies God and the Spirit, whereas we Westerners were deeply materialistic in our greed for goods and greater wealth. So both communism and capitalism are expressions of spiritual crises.

Following the dream I was struck that we mostly have forgotten what Trump's first term was like. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have wiped our memories of that period. We were drowning in fear of what would happen next and anxiety that we or those we love might die from covid. 

That is our problem; we are afraid, and we have been afraid. From the beginning of Trump’s entrance into politics, he fanned flames of fear and hate. We forget the many frightening events of his first term, and the many malicious characters that surrounded him. We have forgotten the two impeachments. The Senate protected him and did not convict him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December 2019, and again in January 2021, for incitement of insurrection. We took Trump lightly the first time, thinking that guardrails would protect us from harm. 

We were relieved to elect Biden and a Democratic Congress and Senate, but half the country was offended by the return to liberalism, the belief that we should accept all people, including those we really hate deep down, and that government should actively better the lives of everyone. 

Conservatives, those who wanted to preserve the past and move slowly toward change, were replaced by a large minority that supported Trump in wanting to tear down old systems that they perceived had harmed them and rewarded the undeserving. Liberals and even many former conservatives fear this. We are fearful now of almost everything. Even if Trump dies then we have to worry about Vance. We know only a little about him, but we know he is cruel has to do with the future, but our spiritual crisis also touches on the past. Now, we feel guilt that we did not act decisively against Trump and the ideas he represented during his first term.

This guilt is like that of the French after World War II for not having done enough or anything to save their neighbors who were being taken away by the Nazis.

Moses encountered his burning bush when he was living well in Midian after escaping from Egypt. Now he had family, and Midian was far east of Egypt, across the Sinai and the Gulf of Aquaba in what is now northwest Saudi Arabia. He was safe and had no reason to involve himself in Egypt. But the burning bush was a revelation from God that his people were slaves in Egypt and that he should go and free them.

So am I fat and safe, and old as well, not inclined to accept a new call, especially one without the detail from Yahweh of what to do and how. Actually, I am in the same position as everyone else who opposes Trump, his aides, and their program of government destruction.

But response to a spiritual crisis requires, first that we recognize and confess our fear and guilt and analyze our errors and failings. Then follows the articulation of visions and goals and the identification of new leaders who will unite us in our exodus from autocracy, mendacity, and cruelty.