Experiencing the self means that we are always conscious about our own identity. Then we know, that we can never be someone else than ourself, that we can never lose ourselves and that we can never be estranged from ourselves. This is, because we realise that the self is indestructible, that it is always one and the same and that it can neither dissolve nor be exchanged against something else. The self enables us under all circumstances to stay the same.1

It is a time to develop your own being and no longer fill up the empty roles that we have been playing as concessions towards society.2

THE DREAM is the story of the spiritual journey of a young woman in her search for her true self showing the development of her awakening consciousness and the power of her creative self.
The Tarot, the wheel of life, is a very old book which illustrates the development and journey of our soul. The cards can be understood as an alphabet of the metaphorical language of our soul. While words are the language of our consciousness, images are the language of our subconscious.

THE DREAM interprets the last three Tarot cards of the great Arcana: The Sun XIX, Judgement XX and The World XXI are the last three steps. In THE DREAM, The World is not the end, but the starting point of the journey, as the wheel of life may spin in both directions.

The story is about that aspect of the human souls development, which, in the process of becoming the true self, makes us realise that our paradigm resembles a deceiving world, full of illusion, bondage, self-estrangement and fake identity.

The current state of the world resembles that of our ill souls, suffering from dissatisfaction and depression within this illusory world, while still longing for love.
The conditioning simply to accept instead of questioning the ruling paradigm, is represented by the shadow side, the dark interpretation of the card The World.

This is Maya, the Hindu/Buddhist concept of our senses` illusion which makes us believe we are separated from God and other people. Our society lives in consciousness of a separated perception of body and spirit. Our perception has separated from our body resulting in a loss of identity and an internal emptiness, crying for (visual) compensation.
However, everything is Brahman, the absolute, unchanging and omnipresent reality, the knowledge that everything is one, unity. Everything is connected. And deep inside it strives for a state of peaceful unity. The universal energy of Brahman exists in every individual in form of the Atman which is the soul or the self.

The first step on the way to the soul and true self is the insight that the ruling version of our reality is only an illusion and that there is more than what is merely visible.
Those who believe this illusion to be the only truth remain victims of false identities, fake and seductive images and systems and cannot find their selves, because they are distracted.
Those who do not question keep dreaming – while staying unhappy. (It is the dream-walking state of daily life which makes people easy to be governed and prevents them from even wanting to reach higher states of being).

By doubting the daily illusion, the sleeper realises the nightmare and his soul awakens. Still this disillusionment does not guarantee that the awakened can cope with this insight. There is a danger of becoming lunatic, fanatic or depressed.
If he survives this awakening he can finally confront his clear self, which is now free of false identification and sanctimony.

Only knowing the self and being free from deceitful entanglements within this world, enables one to perceive and to know someone elses` true soul. Only then is one capable of love. Unfortunately in all other cases “love“ only fulfils social or psychological functions. Therefore questioning our paradigm is not only vital for approaching self-realisation, but it also gives birth to the foundation of love.

The biblical idea of love thy neighbour like your self is the same thought. Loving myself is inseparably connected to loving all other beings (…). If man is able to love productively he also loves himself; if he can only love others, he cannot love at all.3
THE DREAM shows the awakening from the nightmare of the illusory world (The World, Judgement) and the aim (The Sun): unification with the innermost and highest self as foundation for a life full of love.
© Nabiha Dahhan & Thom Kolodziej 2004

1 Akron, Hajo Banzhaf: Der Crowley Tarot, S. 245, Goldmann.
2 Carl Gustav Jung: Grundwerk Bd.1-9. Olten 1985, Walter.
3 Erich Fromm: Die Kunst des Liebens, S. 74, Ullstein.