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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by John of Salisbury
In describing the methods of the interpreters of dreams I fear it may seem that I am not describing the art but am myself nodding, for it is no art or at best a meaningless one. For whoever involves himself in the deception of dreams is not sufficiently awake to the law of God, suffers a loss of faith, and drowses to his own ruin. Truth is indeed far removed from him, nor can he grasp it any more effectually than he who with blinded eyes gropes his way in broad daylight can lance a boil or treat a cancer. Although this drowsiness of infidelity in the form of dream interpretation is to be aroused by the goad of faith, and this mockery of craftiness (shall we call it, rather than of a craft) is to be battled with, we do not propose to block the path of the disposition of divine grace nor prevent the Holy Spirit from breathing where it will and according to its will suffusing obedient souls with its truth. But all who are credulous enough to put faith in dreams have patently wandered not only from the orbit of pure belief but also from that of reason. Surely if ambiguous language is used which lends itself to many interpretations would not one be justly regarded as quite ignorant who, as a result of it, stubbornly makes some particular decision without taking into consideration these meanings? All things involve varied and manifold meanings, as has been stated above. Careful discrimination is to be made amid this multiplicity of meanings, lest by following one line too enthusiastically there be a tendency to fall into error. Hence the dream interpreter which is inscribed with the name of Daniel is apparently lacking in the weight which truth carries, when it allows but one meaning to one thing. This matter really needs no further consideration since the whole tradition of this activity is foolish and the circulating manual of dream interpretation passes brazenly from hand to hand of the curious. Daniel himself certainly had received from the Lord the gift of interpreting dreams and visions. God forbid that this prophet, who was aware that it had been prohibited by the law of Moses for any of the faithful to pay attention to dreams, should be the one to reduce this insane practice to an art, for he well knew that the accomplice of Satan is transformed into an angel of light for the ruin of man and that the Lord sent upon him wicked angels. Joseph also, thanks to his gift of interpreting dreams, held the chief place in Egypt. His brothers, as if envying his dreams, sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites, but the hand of the Lord, by a miracle as pleasant as it was favorable to him, revealed the face of the future which was presented to the king as he slept and, as it were by the medium of dreams, raised Joseph not only from servitude to freedom but to the chief place among the nobles and grandees; so but to the chief place among the nobles and grandees; so that only in respect to the royal throne was the king above him. Now were this possible with regard to a profession based upon human wisdom, I would be inclined to believe that one of his predecessors had won distinction before him, or I would readily think that a holy man filled with the spirit of piety had bequeathed the knowledge of acquiring distinction, if not to man in general, which would have been but right, at least to his own sons and brothers. Furthermore Moses, trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, either was not acquainted with this art or scorned it, since in his abhorrence of impiety he banished it from God's people. However Daniel, a holy man, acquired the learning and wisdom of the Chaldeans, which assuredly a pious man would not have done if he had believed that the educational system of the Gentiles were sinful. He had too as fellow students those whom he rejoiced to have as sharers in the law and justice of God. For Ananias, Azariah, and Michael received with him all that the Chaldeans had to teach. They too were inspired by God and refrained from partaking of the royal table. Their diet too was vegetarian; they were content with it and they attending the King on his military expeditions. But behold! A unique gift which man was unable to confer had been conferred upon Daniel alone; he could solve the riddle of dreams and at the dictation of the Lord clarify the obscurity of allegory. To make his intimacy with divine favor more conspicuous, he knew what the kind, when lying in bed, premeditated. Pondering upon his visions Daniel had the wisdom to expound the miracle of salvation, which then lay in shadow and took place or rather was to take place at the end of the ages. Are interpreters of dreams thus wont to enter even into the thoughts of others, to banish darkness, to disclose the hidden, and to clarify the obscurity of allegory? If there be any who enjoys such special favor let him join Daniel and Joseph and like them attribute it to the Lord. But for him whom the spirit of truth has not illumined it is vain to place trust in the art, since every art has its source in nature and its development in experience and reason. But reason is so undependable in the case of interpreters of dreams that for the most part it knows not where to turn or what decision to make. That this is frequently the case may be gathered from a few instances. A certain individual (his name escapes me though I remember that the great Augustine narrates the incident), much troubled by a matter which caused him to hesitate, demanded with great insistence the opinion of one to whom he was aware the matter at issue was well known. This person put off the request with promises, thwarting by his cunning the insistence of the other. It chanced that on the same night each had a dream, the one that he was giving the explanation as requested, the other that he was being instructed by his informant. The result was that when he awoke he marveled that he had obtained the knowledge without the help of the other and without effort on his own part. Afterward, when as usual pleading that the promised information be given him, "What you asked," replied the other, "was done the night I came to instruct you." Who can explain such an incident unless on the supposition that good or bad spirits, influenced by the good or bad deeds of men, instruct or lead them astray? Our Holy Mother the Catholic Church knows on the authority of Jerome himself how he was hurried before the tribunal of God the Judge for the reason that he had been too devoted to pagan books, where he was forced to assert that he would not merely not read them further but would not even keep them. Before this declaration he had been questioned and had said that he was a Christian. His judge rebuked him sharply for being not His disciple but Cicero's. I do not dare affirm that this should be classed as a dream since this same truthful and learned teacher most solemnly states that it was not a shadowy dream but an actual experience and that the Lord did indeed visit him. To prove his assertion beyond the shadow of a doubt, on arising he displayed the livid welts and scars of wounds upon his body. When spirits act thus in the case of human beings the devout soul should reject every image except that which leaves its innocence unimpaired. For should the dream add fuel to vice, perchance by inducing lust and avarice or by inspiring greed for dominion or anything of the sort to destroy the soul, undoubtedly it is the flesh or the evil spirit that sends it. This spirit, with the permission of the Lord because of their sins, wreaks its unbridled wickedness upon some men so violently that what they suffer in the spirit they wretchedly but falsely believe comes to pass in the flesh. For example it is said that some Moon or Herodias or Mistress of the Night calls together councils and assemblies, that banquets are held, that different kinds of rites are performed, and that some are dragged to punishment for their deeds and others raised to glory. Moreover babes are exposed to witches and at one time their mangled limbs are eargly devoured, at another are flung back and restored to their cradles if the pity of her who presides is aroused. Cannot even the blind see that this is but the wickedness of mocking demons? This quite apparent from the fact that it is for the weaker sex and for men of little strength or sense that they disport themselves in such a cult. If in fact anyone who suffers from such illusion is firmly censured by someone or by some sign the malign influence is either overcome or yields, and, as the saying is, as soon as one is censured in the light the works of darkness cease. The most effective cure however for this bane is for one to embrace the true faith, refuse to listen to such lies, and never to give thought to follies and inanities of the sort.
Excerpted from Frivolities of Courtiers and Footprints of Philosophers, by Joseph P. Pike |
John
of Salisbury, The
Historia Pontificalis
of
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