The Faculty of True Discernment

The Dream Scene was a well sun lit grassy field with large rocks and fallen trees that created a natural gathering place for hikers and nature lovers to sit down and rest. Sitting down and playing a guitar was this ... I have to say it ... an extremely ugly woman. But the guitar playing was the most beautiful I had ever heard. Then there were these men, crude fellows, who approached, and gathered around her to ridicule her merely for her unattractive appearance. I was concerned that this would annoy her into stopping her music, and I became irritated that the boisterous laughing was drowning out the guitar playing, so I told the young men, "Listen! Everything else aside, can't you hear the quality of that music. We are in the presence of some real talent. Shut up!" Then the lady, who had seemed oblivious to all of us, suddenly looked up, and looking me square in the eye said, "The faculty most worth cultivating, is the faculty of True Discernment".


In an instant I was transported to a moon-lit arbor. It was a young growth forest with as many bushes on the forest floor as the trees around them, which formed a low canopy. The air was cool, and this felt like a nice place to be. Much of the Moon light came through and gave a silvery glow to the furry little down-covered pods on the drooping branches of the willow trees. I was a disembodied presence, simply witnessing; I would not be an Actor in this Dream; I would just watch. What I witnessed was a beautify Greek Goddess Diana, Goddess of the Hunt in a pearl-white translucent toga, belted at her waist, and bare foot. She had a bow and a quiver of arrows. She was serenely languid and in no hurry. It was breathtaking, and I knew this was a special vision. But the tranquility was shattered when along came this strong bearded man too old to be called young, but not old enough to be supposed wise. He was delighted to happen upon such a pretty woman and of course wanted to make her acquaintance. He said, boastfully, as if boasting could endear his self to her, "I am hunting tonight. It is misfortunate for the poor animals, because I am such a good shot that the animals surely don't stand a chance". Diana paused not hurrying any reply, but rather pulled a special arrow from her quiver. She held it out for a moment so that the hunter could see that it was probably the most crocked arrow that could still be straight enough to be shot from a bow. She loaded it onto the string and pulled back in preparation of shooting... then turned her head to the side so it could be seen that she was not aiming, and she released the shot. S H HO O O PP, the arrow whistled off. It lodged inside a bush I could see the feathers sticking out. She walked over and took hold of the arrow and withdrew it from the shrub, and, amazingly, there impaled on the end of it was a game bird. Then she spoke, not to the Hunter, but to me, "Chance? Nothing happens by Chance".' Then I awoke.

What does it mean? The first part of the Dream was prelude to the second part. If I had not seen behind the appearance in the First Dream, I would not have been shown the Second. The injunction "The faculty most worth cultivating is the Faculty of True Discernment", was to be my guiding mantra if I were to properly understand the next dream, indeed, to understand my subsequent Life. The Night, the Trees, Moon Light, the Anima Goddess. This was my inner life. The Bearded Hunter was the invasion of my aggressive persona, my conceit, pride, perhaps even my intellect. The Huntress provided a lesson that teaches that a Greater Unity would always subsume and transcend any actions of the Hunter. Could this Unity be understood? No. The Arrow was crooked and no deliberation guided its aim -- it was released into Fate. Yet there was Intention, there was Will. The Goddess meant to hit the Bird. Apart from Design, pure Volition can resonate enough to evoke its own Results. But the Dynamics here are beyond ordinary cause and effect. It happened because it was both destined to happen and willed to happen. So, what is left for True Discernment to discern, if we omit the rational? Why, the Importance of It All, that is what. If we see Life and the World as arbitrary, a conglomeration of accidents, then we dismiss it. But to see it as a riddle with imbedded meaning makes us look at it harder and deeper. We can understand it as Mystery, but in the positive sense.