Awhile back I had an unusual dream. It was one of those dreams where you are not a part of it but are witnessing something. Anyway in this dream there was an ant, and on his back was a drop of dew and in that drop of dew existed our world. Now in my dream the ant continuously climbed up and down a mountain, going up one side, coming down the other, and then passing through a tunnel under the mountain to get back to the other side. At the top of this mountain lived the Sun and in the tunnel that ran through the bottom of the mountain lived the Moon. In my dream the act of the ant traveling up and down the mountain caused our days and nights.
When I awoke from this dream I had the very odd sensation of having learned a great truth. After the grogginess of sleep wore off I felt silly because the dream had effected me in such a profound way and I am well aware of how we really have day and night and I know about our solar system and all that. That feeling got me thinking though.
I started thinking about mythology, especially creation myths and the importance of dreams to many ancient cultures. If I had been born into another time and culture perhaps this would have been seen as a sign from the Gods. Who knows, maybe this would have even started a religion based off of the belief that the world was carried on the back of an ant, and perhaps that religion would have flourished and today we would have a subset of Pagans worshiping a modern day version of it in which ants are considered sacred. I had always believed myths were created as a way of explaining the unknowable while also enforcing traditions and morals/beliefs. However I had never really considered how they came up with these myths which can appear pretty outlandish by today's standard. Now I am thinking perhaps these myths started off as someones dream, a vision brought on by psychedelics, trance work, or meditation. Or maybe not, we have no way of knowing.
I was still puzzled by my feeling of having received some great truth until I had a different dream last night (I shall write about that later) and am now pretty sure that my ant dream wasn't meant to show me how the world really works but rather to get me to realize an important life truth; you don't have to be big, powerful, strong, well know, etc to achieve great things and that we should take note of the little things in life because they can have huge impacts.
Has anyone else ever had a dream which showed you something important you needed to realize in life or perhaps had epiphany brought on by meditation? If so I would love to hear about them or about your thoughts on the merits of dreams in general.
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