Awakening & the Apocalyptic Dream

Eckhart Tolle once stated, “The longing to be awakened is part of the awakening process.” Our urge to merge with the Divine, Self, Awareness, Consciousness, Presence, or whatever name you wish to call It, is inherent within our beingness. It stems from a sense of longing, a feeling of emptiness, or that something is “missing.” No relationship, amount of security, good health, friends, travel, or pet can fill this void.

The dream below is from my “awakening journal” which I began keeping many years after my heart chakra blew wide open in 1994. The deepening process continued which can take a long time, though a few individuals experience spontaneous awakenings. And at times, we can fall back asleep. In my own life, there were detours along the way, but the commitment to awakening kept returning. After diving into spiritual practices to deepen my sense of oneness with the Self in 2003, I finally gave up in 2008 thinking it was not going to happen, at least, not in this body this time around. Perhaps you can relate. How many of us have yearned to awaken but gave up seeking because it wasn’t “happening?” And yet, we keep learning from non-dual sages like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj how we are already that which we seek. In 2021, after a series of life-changing events, the urge to merge returned with even greater passion. The following dream illustrates this resolve. While falling asleep, I remember repeating a lesson from A Course in Miracles: “I am one Self, united with my Creator” (Workbook Lesson 95), then later that night, this dream appeared:

Nov 6, 2021

I am outside in a vast open environment, and it is pitch dark. I am with Robert Redford and we are outside with others whom I do not recognize. I look up at the sky and as I adjust my focus, I see a whole slew of white planes flying overhead in the night sky. I realize they might be military planes and they are hiding what they are doing from people by flying at night. Then I see large mountains that have bulldozers all over them and they are bull dozing the land. These large bulldozers are digging deep into the dirt and the entire landscape begins to shift. I now realize this may be the beginning of Armageddon or some kind of apocalyptic experience. I point out what I am seeing to Robert and am not feeling any fear, just profound curiosity.

What Does the Apocalyptic Dream Have to Do with Awakening?

Let’s unpack this dream.

Robert Redford is an actor who has played a myriad of roles, like we all do throughout our lives. Sometimes we play the role of spouse, parent, friend, employer, or neighbor and we often “act” differently depending on the role. These roles continuously change as do all phenomena in the realm of consciousness. Redford’s aspect in this dream represents my false self. He symbolizes the longstanding belief of a “mythical me” who I mistakenly thought was “real” based on conditioning that began at birth. It unconsciously molded my personality, perceptions, beliefs, values, body, thoughts, feelings, etc. A story was born and this narrative became the decision making force in my life. No one escapes the conditioning of a false, separate self.

However, in his everyday life, Redford plays the role of a dedicated environmental activist. This aspect mirrors my love for Gaia and every single living creature. Nature is my sacred space. Nature is the place where I contemplate, reflect, and am supremely happy. Nature is where I most experience my True Nature, though I am aware it exists everywhere I AM, and in every moment.

When apocalyptic dreams arise, what are we being invited to acknowledge? What is the meaning of the archetype for us?

Dr. Carl Jung explains when an apocalyptic dream appears, the ego-structure, or conditioned self is beginning to lose its grip and the “Self is coming into conscious realization.”  Jung elaborates how the ego does not enjoy facing its own frailty and wants to remain in control of the entire show of life. It abhors looking at its weaknesses and limitations. An integral part of awakening is recognizing the ego never was in control of life. The false self is manifested from the belief in a separate body and mind, from mistaking our identity as a separate person with individual preferences, needs and desires. When this lie becomes exposed, the inner landscape of the fear-based ego structure begins to lose its grip. As this happens, we may experience feelings of impending death, destruction, or annihilation. It is akin to taking a hammer to a mirror and smashing it into tiny fragments. Our worldview and sense of self are being shattered which is the whole goal of the Self. Our inquiry becomes: Who is being shattered? And we discover it is the separate self, not the true Self.

Jung calls this process the apocatastasis which is the core of the apocalypse archetype. Meaning, that only by awakening from the conditioned mind/false self may we truly know our True Nature/Self. This timeless presence is always content, peaceful, and formless. This is not an easy process because it demands clearing the unconscious mind of its shadow material. Meditation is one way to clean out the unconscious patterns, beliefs, and preferences, but there are other ways as well. Dream work is particularly powerful because our dream characters and objects reveal what needs to be brought into conscious awareness and integrated. When the apocalypse appears in our dreams, be prepared because you may be waking up! We are witnessing how our programmed thinking, feeling, and behaving is dissolving so our most authentic Self can emerge front and center. This journey-less journey can take a while, but the Self is forever patient.  

Namaste.

Laura Grace, PhD