You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The greatest riddle of religious literature is the mystery of the Ineffable Name. The knowledge of how the consonants of Jehovah's name (JHVH) were really pronounced has been lost and together with it has vanished the power by which, in primitive belief, miracles could be worked. The meaning of the four letter word, the Tetragrammaton, is as fresh a challenge to the human mind now as it was in remote ages. In it we find the most powerful symbol that antiquity bequeathed to us—with clues that are few and far between. Yet, it can be contended, nothing that is symbolic is ever lost. The racial psyche manifests itself today, through the unconscious mind of the individual, in the same way as it did ages ago. The finding of the original meaning of any lost symbol depends on the sweep of our vision.
In the following I wish to present two dreams in both of which my unconscious mind appears to be devoted to the problem of the Tetragrammaton. At neither time was I making a conscious effort to penetrate the mystery, nor had the hope entered my mind that, through unconscious means, I could.
The first dream is entered in my dream diary under the date of “London, Oct. 29th, 1938,” as follows:
I dreamed that my daughter wanted to read H. G. Well's “First Men in the Moon” (which she did some time before). The question arose between myself and my wife whether she should. I took the attitude that if she wanted to read it she should.
Then the dream scene shifted. A man of sallow complexion and broad face was giving flowers to my wife. I remembered he did this before but my wife did not want his flowers and left them on the window sill of the big room where we were in the dream. The present gift was a basketful of flowers, and my wife left them on the floor. I knew the man would be passing by and would be hurt by my wife's attitude. So I took out the best and added to them a big bunch of white flowers which were crown-shaped, consisting of a large number of tiny white
Page 165snap-dragons (spurs