Sabine Lucas, PhD. a Jungian psychotherapist identified in her book, Past Life Dreamwork, the archetype of Reincarnation (Bear and Company, Rochester, Vermont, 2005). “Like all archetypes, it is surrounded by a symbolic field, which our dreams are staking out…the unconscious knows a great deal more about reincarnation than we do consciously…Reincarnation seems to be a creative dynamic process that runs in circles of simultaneous existence, with each incarnation being only part of a much greater whole.” (pps. 243-244).
Dr Lucas identifies 3 types of reincarnation dreams: “1. Classic type: Direct, factual and lacking normal dream features and has the déjà vu feeling of half-conscious memories. 2. Information type in which the dreamer is directly informed or simply knows by direct experience. 3. Hybrid type which is the most common type and combines the realistic and symbolic elements. In this type boundaries are blurred and other interpretations are possible. When ever one is not sure if one is dealing with archetypal material or past life material, use the presence or absence of realistic and personalized elements as decisive criteria, because past life material is personal, while archetypal material is universal and numinous.” (Past Life Dreamwork, pp xix and xx)
In working with my dreams, I have been able to identify two dreams (of the information type) which reference my past lives.
Dream 1. Dream on 07/12/1992 – Fagin was with this poverty-stricken family but they ate well. The food was mixed with rice and meat. They ate on metal plates but the stew meat dish was made of dog meat. The man was tall, lanky and a dirty man. He had a woman who worked for him, a servant type but who was from a higher class. She added discipline and daintiness to his world. But she was addicted to a white powder. She would spill quantities on the table and pick it up with her finger and eat it. It was a narcotic. The man loved her secretly. One time she was tidying a room and the door was closed. A shadow appeared under the crack in the door. It was he peering at her. He entered and clumsily embraced her, hardly touched her, telling her in his drawl, his affections for her. This man had gained the trust of 2 bearded schoolmasters, but in the process had stolen their books. They caught on and went to his house to assemble the contraband where they found over 3,000 volumes of 3 varieties of books he had stolen over the years. He had gained their confidence and had betrayed them. Before this discovery, they were about to bestow upon him the assistant principal of the school job. I was walking with this man. He was very friendly on the surface but was a sleazy person – a snake. I confronted him with all this garbage he had hidden in this one corridor. It was rotten. He poked me slightly in the ribs and smiled saying he never did like me. He was despicable in his cowardice trying to pretend he was assertive when he was not. I had just uncovered another of his games and he was trying to weasel out.
Associations and Dream enlargement:
Setting: 19th century, Character of Fagin as one who was low born and treated his family poorly, had prostitutes on the side which he kept addicted and dependent on him, had stolen from the public trust and was found out and discredited.
Correlation with historical research: Corrupt men in the 19 century who rose to the ranks in respectable society usually got that way by association with the military and monarchy. They were handmaidens of the policies of those who ruled. Sometimes during the colonial era, they made themselves indispensable by carrying out policies of the Ruler or King of a European country. The dream image of Fagin was that he was dressed in a military uniform with a bicorn styled hat fashionable in French and Napoleonic wars. In June 1815, Napoleon’s forces marched into Belgium, where separate armies of British and Prussian troops were camped.
Dream 2. Dream on 11/10/2022
I was with a group of people and someone discussed the assassination of King Leo. We talked about it but I did not know about it.
Associations and Dream image enlargement:
King Leopold was a Belgium King and there was an attempted assassination of him in November 15, 1902 by an Italian anarchist, named Gennaro Rubino who fired 3 shots at him when he was riding in a carriage after a ceremony at Church of St. Michael in memory of his recently deceased wife.
King Leopold II started the Congo Free State in February 1885 as a colony and presented himself as a philanthropist to free slaves and bring them to Christianity; but was famous for his exploitation and cruelness toward Africans who he forced into work groups to work the rubber plantations and lucrative Ivory trade to increase his personal wealth. He is responsible for the deaths of many Africans who drained villagers of the men to work for his army and raped the women by his 19,000 (Force Pulique) private and strong army of enforcers.
By the end of his life, King Leo was unpopular with his people. He spent long winters in luxurious quarters on the French Riveria, and was estranged from two of his three daughters. Moreover, he had a well-known penchant for teenaged girls. When he was 65, he began a liaison with a teenaged former prostitute who bore him two additional children.
Relationship between the two dreams:
I believe that Fagin as I called him belonged to King Leopold’s Force Publique and as one of King Leo’s soldiers, he was a previous incarnation of myself. He may have been enforcing King Leopold’s cruel policies in the Congo and after discharge, may have risen to a trusted position in society in Belgium as a teacher maybe of history. But like Leopold II, he had frequented prostitutes, was a thief and was ultimately dishonored.
Through repetition compulsion I had some behavior character traits passed over to this life: like going to prostitutes when overseas and being a thief- shoplifting as a teenager (early on in my life). I considered these traits my shadow where I would exploit women and society in an unlawful manner. I overcame these patterns of behavior by owning them and thanks to my dreams taking these dreams from the objective unconscious seriously.