Last night (I wrote this Feb. 8th morning, but decided to delay this post a few days), I had a dream about Galileo, and specifically a quote came up in the dream that noted Galileo’s response to a student asking about the visibility of nature and the invisibility of God. “Galilyus” was actually the name at the bottom of the quote, and my searches ended up in Galileo’s (Galileus’) domain.

Not in recent times do I recall hearkening to Galileo’s name or ideas, nor have I ever known (or inquired) much about him beyond studying his heliocentrism ideas in high school.

I was fascinated, in waking from this early morning dream, to discover such abundant books and ideas from Galileo on God and nature, and though I would love to have time to discover more, I have now lost my energy to pursue this much further. If you can add any rich quotes you find from Galileo on nature, I’d love for you to post them in the comment section. Somehow this dream is a gift to me, or beyond me, and I’d like to discover what is inside the package.

Quotes From Galileo Galilei On Nature:

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Galileus Galilei (Galileo, 1564-1642)
(Italian natural Philosopher, Astronomer and Mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the development of the scientific method and to the sciences of motion, astronomy and strength of materials. 1564-1642)

(for a nice t-shirt, go here). The “But it moves…” quote is apparently (though debateably) what Galileo muttered under his breath when his innovations in scientific thinking met with the Church’s resistance.

Last night, I had a dream that reminded of a central element in the “way” that we do learning at the Institute Of Contemporary & Emerging Worship Studies and St. Stephen’s University.

Our Two Week Intensive In Worship Studies & Spiritual Formation is based on the principles I’ll outline here, and is coming up April 23-May 4 (applications due right away due to space at the roundtable).

TALKING CIRCLES

Talking circles are a tradition of group communication and listening that are used in many indigenous groups (such as the Native American cultures, and by the Passamaquoddy (which means “People Of The Dawn”) in our area). Based on a circular, face to face conversation, every person has a chance to speak their perspective on the issue at hand.

While we don’t use the talking stick (giving the person the floor as it is passed to them), we create an environment at SSU in many of our classes that allows each singular, even marginal, voice to be heard in our Three Voice Learning forums. Good friend Nathan Rieger and the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard use this model of conversation in many of their dealings in the community.

A DREAM BASED ON THE TALKING CIRCLE

Last night, my dream was of a circle of friends, gathered to learn from one another, in a circle much like we create in our Vineyard Canada national gatherings or at the university. Then, each person began to speak.

As they did, their voice took on a physical presence; small, glowing, three dimensional clouds carrying the width of experience, the height of maturation and the depth of wisdom. As the small clouds rose, about 50 small points of light shimmered in each small, spherical cloud, and thin bands of light began to connect across the clouds of the conversations by the hundreds.

Soon, three dimensional clouds were lofting into the space between the circled people in the 10’s and 20’s from each person, filling the room, and creating a web of light to which all were contributing. It was quite beautiful, actually.

The non-Western born talking circle concept gets my vote as a practice that brings a dignity of human-ness, and humanity, to the fore.

Note: For me, as always, this concept lives and breathes because of the doctrine of the imago Dei, our origins narrative in Judaeo-Christianity, that narrates for us the reality that human beings were born in glory and dignity, are fallen and broken due to our choice to turn from the circle of Trinitarian invitation with God, and have been redeemed through a new Adam (meaning “mankind,”), Jesus, the Christ.

Many dreams seem to lack significance and these are eaisily intuitively screend out. Dreams rich in emotion, plot and/or symbolic are almost always potentially significant.

We always dream; remembering depends on when/how we wake up and whether we’re tuned in to paying attention. A notebook by the bed is key when wanting to pay attention.

While some dreams may be sent by God to give us a specific message, in most cases the gift of dreams refers to the their ability to reveal to us important aspects of ourselves.

Dreams naturally speak a language of symbol and metaphor. The meaning of those symbols, while culturally shaped, is idiosyncratic. We know better than any expert the associations of the symbols that occur. However, since we sometimes resist seeing the relevant association, it is sometimes useful to consult others.

Many people believe that people in our dreams primarily represent different aspects of ourselves. Quite probably, they occasionally represent “introjected others” as well.

The emotional content of a dream is often central to its understanding. It is often helpful to consdier what the dream might be saying about places in our lives where we feel the same emotion.

The “meaning” of a dream may reside in it or may be projected onto it. Either can be valid and/or useful.

One of the central purposes of dreams is to raise certain questions and suggest certain alterations of our conscious orientation.

Sometimes it can be useful to do something concrete (perhaps a ritual of a sort) to connect something we feel is significant in the dream with our life.

To have your REM sleep interupted, continually, your memory gets lost. It doesn’t have time to download the information the day before into your memory. Studies are clear. People need deep REM sleep.

An hour or two into sleep, we’re in the deepest sleep. Not dreaming. Then we go into REM cycles

Processing Dreams (Rather Than Interpreting):

Sometimes there is a meaning to draw out, other times, there is a meaning to apply to it.

Recurring Dreams Are Always Significant.

We evaluated some dreams.

Active imagination is a close cousin to inner healing prayer.

Carry through an unfinished dream or nightmare, with a light hand, by daydreaming about it. Bring it to a conclusion.