By The Light Of Your Dreams

by Dr. Betty Thompson

Ask me what brings me joy in life and high on the list are my dreams, closely followed by the dreams of those who share their dreams with me. Because dreams come to us when our whole Being is available in sleep, they give us extraordinary experiences we otherwise could not have. Without restrictions of time and space as we know it when we are awake, we can be conscious in our inner space and do and see things, feel things, discover our real sense of humor, think about the seemingly impossible, and often do it all in color.

Color – what does color have to do with dreams?

This is a question I have asked myself since the beginning of my private practice as a psychoanalyst. My clients in the ‘70’s in New York City were almost entirely young professionals—lawyers, social workers, artists, health professionals, teachers, clergy, psychologists. Most of them brought color dreams to their sessions, and all of them put a high value on their dream experience.

Although dream analysis was the cornerstone of psychoanalytic work, the common wisdom of the day was that a client’s choice of colors for dream images was due purely to personal preference and therefore no universal system could be involved. I accepted that people had color preferences but I deeply felt that there was a universal story about color for all of us that was not unique to the individual. I felt, upon hearing some dreams, that the color was the dream.  Color, for me, had power.  At the very least it had to be some kind of energy.  Let me give you an example:

 

Tim’s Dream 

      I had been wearing my red sweater for months. (You know I would never do that.  I never even wear the same thing two days in a row.) I was so tired of wearing it.

     I went into a closet, and found on a high shelf, a beautiful butter-yellow sweater.  I put it on and it felt so good that when I woke up I thought I was still wearing it!  This is the best dream I have had in a long time.

At that moment Tim could not add anything more about the effect the colors had on his feelings or what the colors might stand for.  He just kept repeating how wonderful the yellow sweater made him feel. I could understand that he was happy about some change in himself, some growth apparently since he reached for it on a high shelf, but I didn’t have any framework from which to understand exactly what was happening to him, except that it was good. I still wanted to know what it was he was celebrating when he told me his dream.  A few sessions later it occurred to me to ask him his favorite color, thinking he might mention one of the sweater colors. But he replied that his favorite color by far, although he wore all colors happily, was a certain shade of deep blue.

His answer intensified my wish to understand the language in which the colors were speaking. Later I would have the good fortune to get a glimpse of the answer.

A year later, in 1980, at a time when acupuncture was becoming popular in this country, the subject caught my attention.  I was fascinated by the five element chart that acupuncturists use as an energy map for the whole person. The chart has a star pattern that maps out energy movement and a written part to say what it is that is moving—vision, hearing, seasons, directions, weather, emotion, sounds (20 or more categories that include references to the physical, mental—emotional and spiritual aspects of our Being).

In coming to understand this general idea of the chart cycle, I learned that the five elements refer to five electromagnetic phases that power our whole Being.  Each of the five phases builds on the one before and when the cycle is complete, a new cycle begins. Each phase is represented by a color of light—green, red, yellow, white and black.  For example; a plant with green leaves creates a red blossom that transforms itself into a mature fruit at yellow.  The process is completed when the fruit is harvested at white and at black stores its seed and produces water for a new cycle.  These cycles are working at every level, big or small, visible or invisible. Each color has its own vibration signature.

Although all colors are present in the sphere that encloses the star, the five colors mentioned represent the tipping points at which one color matures into the next. These are points of transition, when one color is lifted gradually into a higher dimension, a higher electromagnetic frequency.

This information reminded me of Tim’s dream and his movement from a red sweater to a butter-yellow sweater. Emotion is one of the 20 aspects of life listed on the chart.  The emotion of the red color is joy or pleasure.  Tim had apparently been enjoying red for some time and was tired of it. Yellow indicates the capacity to have sympathy for others as well as oneself. This involves a major shift in ego development, a transformation. Indeed, Tim had this dream at a time when he was just beginning to reach out to others for their own sake—but I had not associated these facts with the colors in the dream.

Soon I found other equivalents on the chart that provided good short cuts to understanding the thrust of a dream.  Most importantly, I learned that virtually all dream images can be coded for color according to the element they represent. Everything made of wood, for example, be it a cooking spoon, a house or a barn, paper or sticks—can be considered “green” in vibration. A car (being metal) is white basically.  Its color of paint is a secondary influence.  In this way all dream images can be placed on the chart.

To place the dream images on the chart, list them in the order in which they occurred in the dream; if the colors are moving clockwise, development is occurring.  If the colors jump around or go backward, repairs are being made to secure the foundation for future growth.

In spite of my delight at being able to understand Tim’s dream and find the chart useful, I was unprepared when my clients began to go on fast forward, recovering memories of painful historical points in their early lives with relative ease, cleaning up their ego problems and taking more responsibility for their own progress.

The dynamics of dreaming operate beyond our rational mind. But the five-element view of those dynamics provides guidance from the dream level itself that the rational mind can then use to understand the efforts our dreams are making to keep us on our path.  This guidance, universal in its nature, can be used to enrich any Western system of therapy, personality theory, or dream interpretation.

This book is an introduction to some of the basics implied by the Five Element Chart.  It is designed to encourage you, the reader, to apply this chart to your own dreams as you move through the experience of the dreams related here.  Even if you don’t remember your dreams, reading this book may help you to begin to do so.  The joy of feeling all one’s forces working in unity is awaiting every dreamer.  Use whatever you can from this book without focusing too much on the mental aspects of dreaming.  Enjoy the process. Don’t be in a hurry.  Your colors will change with your seasons. Using the chart creates inspiration for your own dreaming and a path for realizing your whole Being.