If you’re a Pisces, you’re probably fascinated by the practise of psychoanalysing dreams but also find the seemingly random mix of symbols to be both fascinating and frustrating. Yet there’s another way to get into this hidden layer of existence, and in The Waking Dream, Ray Grasse brings the dream experience into the waking world. To see the symbolic world that floats all around you, as discussed in the book, you must be awake and not asleep, and the symbols in your daily life can reveal themselves in a variety of ways; you need only “open your eyes,” so to speak, to see them. Ah, the mystical Pisces – the go-to sign for all things spiritual, from dream interpretation to tarot reading to channelling the otherworldly. Naturally, the primary drive is to venture into the depths of reality, the hidden realm of the mind, and the imperceptible universe. It’s like a vast ocean of knowledge, teeming with mental images and profound musings of introspection, all swimming around in the murky depths of your psyche.
For many centuries, this same idea found a more poetic expression in the belief that the world represents a kind of dream, similar in many respects to our fantasies during sleep. In Taoism, for example, there is a story of the man who dreamt one night he was a butterfly, only to discover upon waking he was a man. How could he be certain, he now wondered, whether he was a man who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who was now dreaming he was a man? As the Buddha said, Thus shall ye think of this fleeting world; A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, A flash of lightning in a summer cloud, A flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream. For the symbolist, the recognition of the essentially dreamlike character of reality carries with it a series of far-reaching implications. For instance, if experience is a kind of dream with its own symbolic dimension of meaningfulness, then it must also be possible to interpret it like a dream. Events and circumstances unfolding outwardly are reflections of developments occurring on deeper levels of our own consciousness. As in myths and sagas of antiquity in which the important developments and beings encountered along the hero’s or heroine’s journey are ultimately recognized as guides and initiators in the unfoldment of a greater spiritual quest, so in our own life the people, events and creatures encountered can be seen as messengers bearing important clues into our own unfolding inner processes. In this way, a randomly observed auto accident may hold a clue to understanding some inner conflict or problem; an unexpected gift of flowers may reveal a subtle shift of fortunes; or a job application lost in the mail or other recurring obstacle in the pursuit of a goal may be interpreted as reflecting a deeper lesson needing to be learned. Read as dream symbols, ordinary occurrences yield depths of information and teaching completely unsuspected by the untrained observer.
Since Pisces’s greatest gift is the ability to see the interconnectedness of all things, and since the Piscean’s higher qualities are a profound instinct and imagination as well as an instinctive awareness of mysticism, you’re able to immerse yourself in the symbolic world. If you were born under the sign of the Fishes, you have no reservations about delving into the realm of dreams and sifting through the unconscious in search of life’s deeper meanings. The primary reason is, of course, the curiosity to learn more about one’s own inner reality, one’s own subconscious, and the world beyond the visible. You need an outlet for the torrent of impressions you take in every day, for the deep pool of knowledge that flows through your senses and into the psychic waters of your own soul, where your inner gaze, images, and deep reflections reside and thrive.
Alchemists compared this inner light with the eyes of a fish – or fish with a single eye – which begin to shine out of the cooked prima material….The equation of this light or fish’s eye that exists in man’s unconscious with the eye of God” Dreams: A Study of the Dreams of Jung, Descartes, Socrates, and Other Historical Figures (C.G. Jung Foundation Book)
The following is an excerpt from The Waking Dream, which describes some of the book’s investigation into the symbolic meanings behind everyday objects:
Almost everyone, at some time or another, has experienced extraordinary coincidences or synchronicities so startling they are compelled to reflect upon their possible meaning. Do such occurrences hold a deeper significance? Might they hint at a hidden design underlying the seemingly random events unfolding around us? The world reflects the presence of a greater regulating intelligence, or Divine Mind, that both permeates and transcends material reality. All things partake in a greater continuum of order and design; consequently, there are no coincidences or truly random events. In turn, any chance event or process can divulge greater patterns of meaningfulness within the life of an individual or society. Reality is multileveled in character, involving phenomena and experiences across a wide spectrum of frequencies or vibration. The world is interwoven by a complex web of subtle correspondences or affinities, secret connections that link seemingly diverse phenomena through a deeper resonance of meaning. All phenomena are governed by processes of cyclic change, according to which things arise, grow, and decay. All forms can be reduced to a basic set of universal principles or archetypes. Described in various ways by different traditions, these principles reflect the underlying language of both outer and inner experience.