numinous dreams

Merriam Webster defines numinous:

1

: supernatural, mysterious

2

: filled with a sense of the presence of divinity : holy

3

: appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense : spiritual



“Issue” dreams

Most dreams tend to bring up our life's issues. Through moving symbols, they speak about where we are trying to grow and where we are getting blocked. Without judgment, they comment on events and emotions that arise in our lives, what needs to be healed, and how to heal it. 

Many “issue” dreams begin with our setup in life. Common topics circle around birth, early childhood, and the influence of our parents and caregivers. They speak about how these seeds of life have contributed to our energy, relationships, and careers. They may comment on how early issues influence the condition of our health and wellness today. These dreams are rarely all negative, often they are littered with information about our spiritual gifts, our life purpose, and our goals as a being.

Numinous dreams

While there is no hierarchy in the dream world, numinous dreams have a different energetic flavor than everyday “issue” dreams. Numinosity may be found within an “issue” dream, but at some point, the dream quality shifts. Time slows and may feel deconstructed, as though the scene is alive and vibrant, but in a state of pause, outside of the familiar structure of time-space. 

A numinous dream is mystical. A sensation of merging with the highlighted symbol, image, being, or landscape may be present. Objects that would be considered inanimate in waking life undulate and breathe. An incredible sense of mystery and reverence fills the space. The dreamer may find themself staring at the beauty of it all, in wonder. Many emotions may be present but numinosity has a powerful magnetic force that may be described as a combination of awe and love. To confront the numinous is to encounter the sacred. 

Image of Hermes Trismegistus, and Sun and Moon conjunctio. From Daniel Stolcius von Stolcenbeerg, Viridarium Chymicun. 1624.

Collective unconscious symbols

Beings and symbols that bubble up from the collective unconscious in a dream can be filled with a particularly remarkable numinosity.

An example I once encountered was the embodiment of the alchemical “conjunctio”, or the conjunction of the sun and moon. This image is a rich historical symbol. Alchemical texts speak about the conjunctio as a sacred union of the soul and spirit, an energetic combining of masculine and feminine energies. In the dream, the conjunctio was not just an image, but a profound, 10-20' foot tall, hovering, fiery being. It was a visitation, and a reflection of an alchemical process happening within myself.  With its roots in ancient alchemy, it connected the process I was going through to the transpersonal, connected to the collective.


The version of the conjunctio that visited me looked remarkably like the Stolcius von Stolcenbeerg image from the 1600s. A drawing does not really do it justice. A token of the numinous is its ineffability.

Mundane numinous symbols

Within numinous dreams, there is a range of potency. Some moments of numinosity may simply involve slowly admiring an eye or animal, noticing each piece of a subject’s intricate beauty. To describe this, a dreamer may simply state that they were staring at an eye and that it was an amazing dream. But if they were to truly pull the sensations, images, and emotions apart, the dream’s message might be more akin to something more like a transcendent, holy, or enlightening moment. 

Recognizing the numinous

What I love about the numinous in dreams is that it shows us how these powerful divine energies exist within and around us. Unconfined by the historical guarding by religion, these mystical dream experiences expand and enlighten us. They aesthetically move us and gift us with meaning. They reconnect us to a divinity wants to in communication with us, to be seen, felt, and experienced. 

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Processing dreams through drawing symbols: