There is a hidden world of mystery that resides in the subliminal recesses of our consciousness, influencing everything about how we live and move and have our being. The intuitive nature of its unconscious expression seems to modulate the actions and feelings of our conscious existence

Why humans dream remains one of behavioural sciences great unanswered questions. Researchers have offered many theories including memory consolidation or emotional regulation but a verifiable one remains elusive. The ancient mystics believed that dreams were the transcendent cues of the gods who break into our lives to enhance immanent awareness of the Divine’s participation in our spiritual formation.

I have always been a prolific dreamer, or should I say I have always been able to recall the vivid details of my fantastical nocturnal imaginings. We all dream but for some of us it is somehow erased from our remembrance around the time we awake.

Dreams come in a range of shapes and sizes, some with distinct and unique clarity of denotation while others are a random mix of convoluted memories and images and they are not constricted to our sleeping hours. Day-dreaming is broadly understood as the creative consideration of deep aspiration, longing, and yearning for greater meaning in life.

For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds. - Job 33:14-15 (TNIV)

All the spiritual writings of antiquity mention the idea of dreams as a 'divine voice’ that arrive to enhance human agency. ‘God speaking’ in all of the ancient religious traditions was not so much about an audible sound booming from the heavens but a deep inner knowing that comes in the form of intuitive realisation. Perceiving the intricacies of its purpose is what includes us in the flow of its eternal unifying whole. Dreams and visions are metaphors for new ways of seeing, our spiritual eyes opened to new perspective and possibility. They invariably welcome us into new seasons of change catalysing courage as the new curator of our maturation. Just as the natural seasons notify us of the earth’s changing position and its effect on our well being, the traditional church calendar aligns us with the Jesus narrative and its sacred place in our spiritual development.

Advent (‘the arrival') is the season where we welcome the idea of incarnation, a coming together of all things God and all things human, a yearly reminder that there has always been a dream in the heart of God for what humanity could and would become. Jesus is the archetype for the great potentiality of that becoming. Throughout history the divine has revealed its transcendent purpose through incarnational moments of disclosure.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David… St Luke

Angels are divine messengers that interject to remind us of the great transcendent agenda. I am not sure that the historical artistic impressionism of angels has really helped us in our understanding of the mysterious nature of their activities. The images of humans with wings has diluted the beautiful subjectivity of their role in our lives. Angels may well be divine intermediaries that prepare us for the significant moments of epiphany that open our hearts to new spiritual experiences. The nativity is a reboot of the dramatic interplay between the mortal and immortal, the unfolding of a new chapter in humanity’s evolution.

Mary experiences a dreamy moment of unparalleled wonder where she is invited into a deep, internal, and full-bodied participation in the incarnation. The significance of her experience is sometimes lost in translation if we refuse to see the incredulity of the moment. This young teenager (we think) is asked to give the very best of herself to what could only be seen as culturally inappropriate and improper in order to birth a new idea of God. For those of us who have become bored with the traditional telling of the story, this is a wake up call to rediscover the mystery of the divine that hides between the lines of the narrative.

Advent is a time when we reconsider the divine dreams and aspirations that percolate in us, and as we allow them to realign our imagination we will hopefully find new expectation.

Let our prayer in this season mirror Mary’s words….“May it be to me according to your word.”

Greg Burson