Dream: retreated ocean
I am visiting a man who lives his life to the fullest, in abundance in every area of life.
His house is on the Northern California coast, facing the ocean, and there is only a thin strip of black sand between the french windows in the living room and the water. He is late middle age, in very good shape, youthful, an avid surfer and outdoors man, in addition to being engaged and sophisticated in society as well (possibly business and sustainability.) The house is beautiful and rugged, relatively small, cubic in shape, with a very tasteful and functional interior, and only the most basic neccesities. I notice how this simplicity allows him to bring energy to what is more important to him.
He takes me out the door, down the beach, and then out to where the ocean was just as few minutes ago. It seems that the ocean has receded, maybe several miles out. Our path takes us among some tall craggy rocks, and fear comes up. Will I be able to return to the beach and the house if the ocean returns? Somehow, I know that he is safe even if the ocean returns. He is so comfortable and familiar with it, so at one with it, that it cannot harm him. They are not two, so no harm is possible.
This dream is similar to the swelling ocean dream from May last year, although in this dream, the ocean has retreated (before possibly returning.) The man reminds me of Paul Hawken who I see as someone who lives a life of abundance in many areas, including being engaged in creating a more life-centered society, focusing on business practices that are life-centered at many levels (profitable, good for earth and society.) His life - and house - is simple, yet beautiful, reflecting his personality and interests. He takes me out on the ocean floor, where the ocean was only minutes earlier. And it is clear that the ocean will not harm him. He is so at one with the ocean that there is no Other there to harm him. But there is still the question about what will happen with me if the ocean returns.
This theme is the same as from the May dream. This is what I wrote then:
... what stays with me from this dream is how I already know how to deal with the swelling and dramatic ocean - I know how it functions from the inside, there is no separation between us yet there is also room for distinction, I know how to flow and roll with it, yet also taking care of myself and others. I am fluid enough with it to even save others within it...
The dream also seems to be about death (and rebirth). In alchemical terms, this particular phase is the solutio, a dissolving, a temporary return to a fluid state, which can be experienced as a death, as being swallowed up, even drowning. This brings up fear as (parts of) what I know myself as will die. Yet, the man in the dream is a guide out into it, and also shows me that it is possible to be so fluid and familiar with the process that there is no fear.
In practical terms, it means to notice beliefs and identities (two sides of the same coin), their consequences, and then allowing the identification with them to relax. The stronger the initial identification, the more it will be experienced as a death. (It is a death of the identification, but since we are, yes, identified with it, it is what I take myself to be that dies. The experience is of "I" dying.)
The black sand may have to do with the endarkenment. Vast luminous blackness, a fullness, nurturing, deep silence. That which all form arises within and as, and which is inside of all forms. It holds all experiences in its soft embrace, including fear, and death, and even rebirth.