He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently
he sees us from the way we see ourselves.
―Carl Jung
Elias as a Monk
It's Wednesday again and time for my weekly appointment with Elias, my shrink.
Of course it's raining and bone-numbing cold. It's supposed to be mid-May and most folk in Ontario plant their annual flowers around May 24th, Queen Victoria's birthday, which is still celebrated in Canada like the 4th of July further south.
Don't ask me why, but these things we do and pretend it's spring-like when it's bloody cold.
As if to add to my angst a young jogger passes by outside dressed in a Tee-shirt and shorts. Damn! but it's a Canadian thing, though I don't buy in, especially since I'm still experiencing chills after seeing apparitions of Lillian in my bedroom.
I'm feeling like I have neither youth nor age but like Old King David in the Bible, I can 'gat no heat'.
And yeah, that's the King James version―more Elizabethan English, the implications of which no doubt will provide a field day for Elias.
He's waiting for me behind his resolute desk looking more like a desert monk than therapist which is probably why I purchased a painting of Jung depicted as a monk. It really does suit him to be portrayed as an ascetic and he'd probably do well sequestered in a monastery, but here he is, staring out his rain darkened window at a squall on the lake and wondering what storms I bring.
"So, a good week, I trust?" He swivels round to face me, sizing me up with a glance.
"Good is such relative a term," I deadpan. "I'd say it was productive at best."
"Productive, eh?" he smiles, which with Elias is never good and always portends ill.
I decided to take the initiative.
"These meaningful coincidences you talk about, these synchronicities as Jung calls them, seem to be occurring more frequently now. For instance, I met a girl called Tess Woods who owns an antique shop in town called Afterlife Antiques. It turns out she has a cedar chest from the Yardley estate and I've got the feeling it may have belonged to Lillian."
"Now that is meaningful, " Elias beamed. "I think your being back here in West Harbour is liberating some of those buried memories."
"But it's not just recovering lost memories, Elias, some of the occurrences were really spooky. For instance, I had a dream about carving Lillian's initials and mine on a huge boulder and then Nat Cohen, a friend I met, told me about The Boulders at Smokey Hollow and we went there and sure enough our initials were there."
I watched Elias closely to gauge his reaction but he was, as usual, inscrutable.
"I don't doubt your innate sensitivity, Marcus, or the validity of your encounters with the other world. Jung had many ghostly experiences often connected with his own dreams. He was a lonely man and thought, being a contemplative, such experiences might arise as a phenomenon of solitude."
"So, you think being orphaned and cut off from others because of my memory loss might be a contributory factor in these paranormal experiences."
Elias leaned back in his chair and gazed out over the lake as if seeking an answer in the roiling swells.
"As you say, it might be a contributing factor but don't get me wrong―I'm not dismissing your experiences. I believe they're real and your memory loss and isolation permits you to perceive them in a way you might not if you had many distractions in your life."
I find myself breathing a sigh of relief. Elias doesn't think me mad and actually validated my experiences. Just the realization of his support reassures me.
"So, where do we go from here?" I ask.
"I'd like you to keep a dream journal and put a notepad or tape recorder beside your bed and record everything you can remember about your dream the moment you wake up. It's a bit of a nuisance but it's an invaluable asset to help us understand."
"Will you be able to interpret my dreams?"
"Not interpret, Marcus. I'm not here to tell you what you're experiencing. Think of me more asa Promethean figure―a light-bearer. There are deep layers underlying cognitive processes and dark shapes moving around down there. I just want to bring some light so you can come to your own realization. How does that sound?"
It sounded good to me frankly and I could feel my anxiety melt as we talked, It was a good session and put me in an excellent mood to meet Tess Woods for lunch.