Dream Nation: The Larger than Life Hiccup
Before I dive into the nature deficit pieces from this book, I wanted to take an opportunity to address some larger issues. My main focus in deconstructing some of this book is to tackle how ignorance can perpetuate nature disconnect and human disembodiment. I used this book as my go-to for years because I believed I needed it in order to adequately and properly interpret my own dreams. Over time, Milligan’s language, and it is his language, seeped into deeper crevices where even non-Creator dreams were influenced in unhealthy ways. In essence, it aggravates that nature deficit issue lacing the world around me with increased fear and superstition. Keep in mind, I like woo woo, so I don’t say superstition lightly. It’s all a learning process really.
Milligan seeks to attract specifically Christian believers who still believe that this God speaks, but also dishes out gifts to his followers. Please note the code words - ”biblical keys” - in the subtitle. I’ve found over the years that being “biblical” is a very important part of Christian life. That may seem ridiculous to say, but other versions of Christianity are okay with having traditions with their slice of bible. While I don’t have an issue with any of that to speak about, I quite understand the importance of the centering of religious text, the concept of being biblical is so over used it means almost nothing.
It’s still important that it be used in order to signal the group about one’s legitimacy within the group. Being “biblical” reads like a wobbie - you know a security blanket. Being biblical has various other signals related to non-existent traditions [what Protestants don’t want to recognize as a tradition anyway] that include the underlying understanding that the bible is authoritative, is usually inerrant, and is the epicenter for Christian virtue. To be biblical means to assume an authoritative place to legitimately teach others. Really, it does. The virtue signaling with this concept is pretty fascinating.
At any rate, Milligan is signaling his audience his book is “biblical” by citing that it provides bible based keys to understanding one’s dream life. Honestly, he uses the bible. I wouldn't agree that he necessarily derives his understanding from the bible. That would require a library card. I raise this issue because when I was given the second edition version, for me biblical keys meant Milligan derived his understanding from the bible and that he wasn’t just using the bible to meet his own needs in teaching about dream interpretation. Literally, I thought his dictionary would be informed by the bible. That means Kangaroos would be a difficult entry.
This book does contain theological assumptions and beliefs otherwise known as interpretations. Both are embedded into symbol meaning and actually demonstrate the embodiment of how perceptions and pre-existing beliefs jade interpretation and leak into symbol meaning. Circular reasoning is everywhere.
Despite all the talk about being biblical, between the flaps of the text, Milligan readily admits that symbols derive their meanings from numerous sources.
The biggest source for meaning are the inherent characteristics of whatever the symbol involved [46-48]. Next to this category is personal meaning to the dreamer, cultural meaning from the wider society, and then, also the bible. For Milligan though, the most reliable source of information about numbers comes from the bible. In fact, Milligan argues the bible is the only legitimate source for understanding numbers [p.s. he’s wrong actually, with love, T. Snickerpuss.] [49].
The list on symbol meaning sources is helpful, although Milligan is missing the fact that personal meaning and cultural meaning are so deeply entangled it’s difficult to separate at times. I do know he means personal experiences which can vary from person-to-person and group-to-group. It’s just that I do a lot of reading on brain development and how researchers theorize our perceptions are formed. Let me just put it this way, personal experience is deeply entwined with the wider culture more than one sees - especially if you’re not looking at the pond water little fishy. We come from a society that is extraordinarily blind to systemic anything, preferring instead an individualistic approach to life viewing. Additionally, because the bible is sacred text, I often notice people operate in a bit of an unnerving paradox. On the one hand, decent teachers and scholars will tell the average Christian that the bible has a cultural context all its own. Most Christians seem to get it while they seem not to - like Jesus was a Jewish guy while the picture on the bible is a white European guy. I’m not convinced the average Christian really deeply understands Jesus was embedded in a culture and point in time that is dramatically different from our own in significant ways.
When Milligan talks about the bible being a source of information for interpreting dreams, especially for numbers, then the reader really needs to get a hold of what that means. It means that ANOTHER foreign and ANCIENT culture is a reliable source of dream symbol information for you, a 21st Century United States-ian. You’d better have a library card and a good library and plenty of time to get culturally acquainted with the culture that is not yours.
Perhaps the most troubling for me is Milligan’s notion that if we can see what numbers and objects mean in the bible, we can know “exactly” what they mean for us as dreamers [46]. In other words, the bible is a dream dictionary book. He’s not the only author in this stream to make this suggestion.
We’ve now leapt out of a big box here. If the bible is a “go to” source for dream interpretation, than is it, in some sense, a dream dictionary? Like I said, part of being biblical is letting the bible guide Christian life. Literally, I’ve been around people where every jot and tittle must be derived from the bible to be legitimate. If dreams were not in the bible, it probably wouldn’t be legit as a reality outside of it even if people have dreams all the time. In fact, I could see people going off the deep-end claiming dreams were from the devil if they were not found in the bible. Unfortunately, it’s just human thinking. At any rate, is it appropriate to use the bible in the manner suggested here - as dream dictionary? Well, no. It’s not. And there are really good reasons why.
The texts have been redacted and collapsed into a collection. It’s an important concept to understand that the bible itself is filled with different genre’s of writing that fit the authors place and time. The texts where compiled by different authors at different points in time. They service a particular purpose. Some texts are historical. Others are prophetic. While others are poetry and proverbs. Not one text is designed to be your symbol repository for your own dreams. It’s kind of disrespectful to suggest another culture’s religious story is your personal dream repository. That’s Twisted Serpent fishy.
What you do see in the texts that have been stringed together and smashed into a single tome, is cultural realities across time. Dogs, for instance, don’t stay static between the New and Old Testament. They are viewed a bit more favorably in the New Testament. Despite traditions, cultures change. As a human culture, they mirror our culture’s use of metaphor, literary style and writing, and use of nature to present a worldview in a series of stories, teachings, and so much more. When I say they mirror our culture - I mean they use similar bits and bobs. We have a literary style in our culture for instance. We too, use metaphor and nature to write. Get me here?
It’s also an interesting note that there are covenant and spirit differences in these periods of time. In the entire Old Testament, the spirit is spooned out only to certain people. In the New Testament, the spirit is poured out on anyone who believes. In the Old Testament dreams are a form of divination. If you notice, most people who have dreams are major figures in the text - usually leaders. You may also notice that very few people interpret their own dreams. While Joseph pondered his, he also interpreted other people’s dreams. Dream interpretation, as part of a divination classification, had specialists. It’s probably the same in the New Testament as far as time and space. Nowadays, in our democratic climate, anyone can have a dream and interpret it themselves. Heaven knows there are plenty of books on how to do it, like Milligan’s book. Yet, Milligan is still a type of specialist. He teaches dream interpretation and has a book so a specialist is teaching a layperson how to do this for themselves in a sort of dream interpretation self-help book. This is why he needs to justify his authority as legitimate in these Christian spaces. He must be a credible insider.
I have a couple of authors sitting on my shelf pointing to the bible as a dream dictionary resource. They point people to the bible’s symbolism and how similar objects like say “apples” are used by these ancient authors that God would still use - with the same exact meaning - to a 21st Century person from another culture. A good apologetic Christian would say anything is possible.
Let’s Get Complicated - Because it is.
Cultural Idioms -Calgon Take Me Away
I find this concept of bible as dream dictionary repository slightly amusing. One particularly big reason for my amusement is that authors who write and believe this, by way of their nonchalant direction and almost taken for granted conclusion about the use of the bible, point people to it while simultaneously ignoring the complicated nature of what they are actually doing. It’s almost like hey, just flip that ancient book open, look up every place it says apples and voila! You now know exactly what your dream means!
But there is a lot of trouble with this notion of simplicity that is implied by indicating that the symbolism and metaphors are easily and generally recognizable from just a plain ole reading of the text. Let’s just take apples for a brief “for instance.”[1]
Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 @priscilladupreez [Unsplash]
If you pop over to the biblegateway.com website and type in apples [the link takes you to a quick search] you get a bunch of verses with apple in them. The expression “the apple of His eye” is present in several verses followed by the use of an apple metaphorically and by way of poetic type literature [e.g. a love poem] in Song of Songs. I’m going to focus for a second on the use of idiom “apple of his eye” over the poetic and descriptive uses found in that list. I think it’s uber important to take a look at “other translations” [just click on the upper right] and see how many translations use this because translation is actually an important “problem” if you’re going to be using the bible this way. Hopefully, if you are looking a bit, you’ll discover that this idiom is exactly that - an idiom and the translators are using that idiom to describe a concept. The term apple in some of these verses is actually pupil - to keep it at the pupil of one’s eye But let’s stick with Deuteronomy 32.10 for a second since it’s first and I’m pointing there.
I don’t know about you, but the idiom used here resonates with me on an interpretive level of being precious or important - special. No doubt, given the covenant story line for Israel, Israel was obviously special. According to Merriam-Webster, the meaning of the idiom is along these lines for English speakers. They write the meaning out as:
“: a person or thing that someone loves very much” [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary]
You’ve found the meaning, voila, that is what an apple means in your dream? Of course, the context of your dream is going to matter and it could be something else but let’s just play here. Apple here is really pupil, specially the pupil of the eye. It’s also important that this particular passage has CONTEXT and was written toward an ancient Israelite thus, the meaning of this section is tied to the wider area in the rest of the paragraph. That can’t be ignored so now you’re going to have to interpret all of that and hopefully well enough. It is, after all, a symbol dictionary to derive an exact meaning of your dream symbol according to Mr. Milligan.
According to Prof. Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss in her article on thetorah.com titled The Multiple Metaphors for God in Shirat Haazinu: Deuteronomy 32 imagines God as a father, an eyelid, an eagle, a nursing mother, and a protective rock. Why so many metaphors? This particular description is describing God as an eyelid. Yes, an eyelid. She writes:
“The poem goes on to recall how God found and cared for Israel in the wilderness: God “watched over him, guarded him like the pupil of God’s eye” (v. 10). This simile aims to illustrate how God protected Israel like an eyelid, which instinctively blinks to safeguard the vulnerable pupil (as in Psalm 17:8).”
In keeping with this interpretation, one can see a bit of a difference from a protective eyelid and being very special and loved. By way of implication the latter is true, but the exact description usage is particular and provides a particular aspect of God’s character. Look at the additional information of the idiom? A blinking eye is reflective action. It’s instinctually protective. To me, that’s a big difference.
Now of course, this is just a cursory dive on one verse. But because the bible is made of genre one would need to be familiar with the type of genre, the symbolism, the use and the like within the context of a specific relationship. You’ve got to know a little about what you’re looking for and in this case, translation is something of a stumbling block that may cause a reader to miss the point by pointing to some simple reading of the book. You have to interpret the book and it takes some leg work to do that well. There are plenty of other examples.
Now, you might not think this really matters, after all, all things are possible and why should the translation matter or what even the cultural context is at some level. If it says apple of God’s eye who cares. Well, I do. So thank you.
Animals. I need dark chocolate.
While Mr. Milligan does address the need to interpret the texts within their cultural context, he is not consistent about this himself. I need to repeat this, to get into the cultural context one needs access to a library of scholars on the bible, particularly on the cultural aspects, an understanding of geography, as well as an idea of the types of flora and fauna the bible points to when it makes use of nature in literary writing. Who has this? Most people don’t. The metaphors, the animals, the geography, all the stuff that makes up stories, myths, facts, and historical events are not where USians live. We are not familiar with the geography of the land, the flora, or even that much of the fauna. It’s well known that many Americans are nature deficient. We are also not ancient pastoral people either- as a general rule. We sit in air conditioned offices knowing that if mold/mildew shows up in our house, we can go buy some bleach instead of opening up the windows and hoping for the best [Leviticus 14.35 is]. For the record, that passage across translations isn’t the same. I’m citing the NIV because it suits my purpose. Convenient right? Here again, not all translations agree. Some say “a diseased infection” [NET], another says “a serious fungus” [MESS], while another translates it as a “infection of skin disease” [CEB], and yet another says it’s “a mark of leprosy” [AMP]. Which is it people? Bible as dream dictionary problem rIgHT. hErE and it doesn’t even involve aPpLeS. Who knew a wall could have a skin infection?
Another example is with animals. When you think of a vulture, what do you picture? All these lovelies in the first row have habitat in the USA. In my own life time, in real life, I’ve only seen Turkey Vultures in flight and hanging out on a fence. Look at that bright red head. That bird is working the runway of red and brown I tell ya. My relationship with vultures is cursory and distant. I’m happy I can identify one if you really wanna know.
It begs the question. What were some ancient Hebrew options when the word “vulture” pops up? And let me remind you, they were much closer to the land than we are as a civilization. The closer to the land, the more familiar you will be with what is floating around the ecological web. To give you some idea, here are three vulture beings from the area. Aren’t they beautiful? Poetry in motion I say.
For the record, the first two ARE in the bible. Well, I should say the first one for sure. In some translations there is an issue between the Griffin Vulture and the Eagle. Which one is it? It’s sort of a guess. It could go either way depending on where you’re reading. At any rate, I doubt you’re thinking of these birds when vulture comes to mind unless you’re familiar with them already. The bible is NOT referencing the US versions but these lovelies above.
You might just flap your lip at me and say a vulture is a vulture. Um, no. Interpretation matters. Keep in mind, we create symbol meaning and that process involves an observation, a process, and an interpretation. Mr. Milligan associates vultures with authority and bases some of his interpretation on the absence of feathers on the bird’s noggin [132]. Look closely. That Egyptian Vulture [a.k.a. Pharaohs Chicken] has a full set of hair unlike the King Vulture which is working the monk look. As for the Griffin Vulture, it’s got baby feathers on its head but they can be a bit bald looking since their body feathers are much bigger. But of course, if Mr. Milligan is thinking of US vultures - only two are truly naked on the scalp. Well, you could argue about the condor but it could just have a severely receding hair line. It DOES matter when you’re assigning symbol meaning what animal you’re picturing! And really, do you think a bunch of Hebrews are going to think not eating vulture is related to some kind of weirdness with authority and bird feathers on the head of the bird in question? Now THAT is some creative interpreting. Bravo! Is it biblical though?
If you’re going to turn to the bible for dream help, you’d better make sure you’re dreaming in ancient Hebrew. And no, it’s not the best place to interpret your dreams. That’s the Twisted Serpent right there.
Notations
[1] One book I used to have actually used apples as an example.
Bibliography
Andrea L. Weiss (2014). The Multiple Metaphors for God in Shirat Haazinu. TheTorah.com. https://thetorah.com/article/the-multiple-metaphors-for-god-in-shirat-haazinu
“Apple.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apple. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
Chuck Szmurlo, California Condor Photograph. CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Ilse Orsel, Black Vulture Photograph. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/@lgtts
Instituto Últimos Refúgios, King Vulture Photograph. CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Joshua Cotten, Turkey Vulture Photograph. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/@jcotten
Milligan, Ira L. The Ultimate Guide to Understanding The Dreams You Dream: Biblical Keys for Hearing God’s Voice in The Night. Destiny Image, 2012.
Noufal Tariq, Griffin Vulture Photograph. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/@snoufaltariq
Priscilla Du Preez, Apple Photograph. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/@priscilladupreez
“The apple of someone's eye.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20apple%20of%20someone%27s%20eye. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
Till Niermann, Egyptian Vulture Photograph. CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons