The Old Wise Man

This post is materializing because of a post written by a Don McLeod on a article written at NPR 13.7 Cosmos and Culture called, " Facing Cancer, With A Robot Surgeon By My Side, by  Barbara J. King.

Don McLeod writes,

When I had cancer it appeared in my dreams as a bear.This probably sounds odd to you, crackpot even, given your background in the rational field of science, but dream symbols and science are not mutually exclusive. As my ultimately successful treatment progressed the bear began to reduce in size from an adult to a cub. Once cured, I was still anxious about the possibility of the cancer recurring, which prompted another dream which I will relate: I was out for a walk. I left the city and found myself walking on a trail in the wooded hills. It was a pleasant enough walk but at some point it occurred to me that if I were to encounter a bear on the trail I would be in trouble because I had no weapon, and if I climbed a tree the bear would climb up after me. As I pondered my vulnerability I heard footsteps approaching from behind. Turning around I saw a tall, thin man of about eighty years wearing a hat. He appeared spry and was long of stride. He appeared to me to be someone who had walked the outdoors for many years. So I stopped him and related my concern about bears and asked him how he handled such encounters. He told me bears posed no problem for him because he always carried "these". Then he opened his left hand which was full of vegetables of different varieties. He told me that whenever he encounters a bear he tosses the vegetables off to the side of the trail, causing the bear to chase after the veggies and thereby leaving him unmolested. Then I woke up. Dreams can often be confusing and difficult to interpret but his one required no deep thinking. The old hiker was the Wise Old Man, the seminal archetype of the collective unconscious. As we say in the hood, "This old dude be knowing s**t." I took his advice and became a vegetable hound, and now, thirteen years later I remain cancer free. The vegetables didn't cure my cancer of course, modern medical technology did that. But my unconscious, through dreams and images gave me insight about my cancer. In my case it was reassuring, yours may or may not be. Nonetheless, you may be entering the biggest knock-down-drag-out fight of your life and you will want all the information and help you can get. Your unconscious psyche will help you so pay attention to your dreams, write them down, and see what they tell you. You're a scientist. Observe your psyche and remain open to possibilities. Psyche is as much a part of Nature as everything else. (I add bold for emphasis)

I of course sympathize with Barbara J. King for the rode ahead and wish her all the best in the surgery. The purpose of this post is about how as individuals the use of power in symbols as relayed in Don's dream are effective at describing a process that was unfolding in him and the progression toward wellness being demonstrated when he saids, "As my ultimately successful treatment progressed the bear began to reduce in size from an adult to a cub."

This post is not about something you have to do in order to cure an illness, but more about what occurs on an everyday level that such events can travel deep inside you whether you are aware of the effect this has on you or not.

I saw correspondence in the type and illustration of the dream. It came from a earlier time in my life, that was very much similar in its subjectivity. This happen when I was quite young, and was already entertaining what it was I wanted to do with my life.

So the Old Wise Man becomes a symbol of sorts, and for those of you who have had similar experience, this is a profound imagery that is encapsulated in an old man with a white cloak and long white beard. How traditional then this figure that he is to reside in one's own head,  and that we are in a sense able to project the wisdom of self for our viewing.

So thus,  such imagery is to encapsulate something that is quite powerful as to convey knowledge that works to alleviate the concerns that runs deep in our souls. It is an answer to the question of what it is that is happening with our everyday life awareness. This is a consequence of daily living that somehow transcends the every day world we see  as a revelation that runs counter to that normal objective world.

The correspondence and power that was given was an understanding on such a deep level that it became a catalyst of sorts for the examination of such things in other people. Don's comment was a recognition for me of this powerful level of understanding that took place  as it was of a healing that occurred for him.

So also I added the labels of Socrates and Daemon at the bottom of this post. This was to exemplify facets of this understanding which grew from the experience I had at an age of about 12 years old. I also relay this information in a post given with regard to the Park.

The Park was written to show, that levels of perception that run deep inside are equal factors to which information may be drawn into oneself, given the framework of the reality that you had created. The Old Wise represents an aspect of your higher self which is to say that consciousness at that level does not find itself impeded from gaining true knowledge of those beyond ourselves to have then actually answer events in our every day lives.

So what you have done in essence is created a script that can become intelligible for the offering of information beyond the scope of inherent thinking suited to that daily process.

So it was important that I also examine efforts to help our minds be taken to levels of consciousness that may impart such opportunities for information to be given.  The basis for this thought process was to believe,  for me,  that all information will and has always existed.  It is that we only had to be reminded of such correspondences to say, such information even exists, but that such processes exist also in us all.