dream animals

I went to Evanston Public Library yesterday, that is one of my favorite places. I found this book , and skimmed through it. I read certain chapters that referenced animals I'd dreamt of lately, but otherwise it seemed a little separate from my own thoughts: however, I've been thinking a lot about dreams lately. Because of my obsession with dreams, I did some cursory research about Jung, and James Hillman studied at the Jung Institute. So, it would appear he has taken some thoughts from Jung and created a thought process called Archetypal Psychology, living with the images of your dreams alive around you in order to understand yourself better.
"In our eagerness for conceptual meanings, we ignore the actual beast." reminded me of the opening of animal saints and being interrogated by an attendee as to the meaning of the work. But you can't find the meaning if you refuse to touch and smell and look for a while. Probably because my nature is like that, so in order to communicate with someone else who has a different nature- i guess it just wasn't the point. The point was the work, and if you want deeper meaning- you will have to make that for yourself. I have meaning attached to these items, but it is better if you live with them and let them tell you over time what the meaning is.

"We keep the Gods alive with flesh, our animal flesh, the animal of our meaty imagination, infested and buzzing with stinging winged things...They eat their way into our reluctant recognition, force us to remember them. What else is incarnation but the God driving himself, herself, into and under our skin. God, a bedbug, crab, chigger, tick. The Incarnation- the mystery of a louse. The Gods become diseases; ourselves infested by Gods, forced to religion by bodily sensations; the religious instinct, the religious insect."