IN THIS Department will be given interpretations of dreams and visions of those needing to know their inner meaning. We reserve for it only those of special interest and helpfulness.

FOR MANY years I have had, at longer or shorter intervals, the same dream. The circumstances change, but always in the dream I am climbing steps leading to a hole or trap-door in the ceiling through which I have to pass. But the steps end too soon, and I have to place my arms on the sides of the hole and draw myself through. As my feet leave the last step and swing in space, I have a sickening feeling of helplessness, but I continue to struggle. The dream becomes a nightmare. But always I succeed, although I never remember how the last successful effort is made. One moment I am struggling, and then I am through, but I don’t know. And always the dream ends there—except once.

That was about two years ago. In that dream I was running with others along a road. We passed into a kind of tunnel. I don’t know what became of the others—I think they passed through the tunnel—but I saw a hole in the roof and knew what I was to do. I climbed steps cut in the side. They did not reach high enough. How I struggled, with my feet swinging in space, to draw myself through that hole. How alone I was and how impossible it seemed! Then I saw I was not alone. Two youths waited above for me. One stooped, urging me on, but he did not touch me. And then I was through—it seemed a miracle. I should have imagined that after that struggling I would have lain on the ground spent and panting. But no, I leapt to my feet full of new life, and the three of us sped away across the country. I awoke.

The constant dream of climbing steps leading to a hole or trap-door in the ceiling through which you had to pass, is but the memory you bring back of the struggles of your soul to free itself from the darkness of ignorance and error of the mortal mind. The fact that you always finally got through that hole, but do not remember what happened afterwards, with the one exception when you got further and proved then in a minute through which you likewise tried to escape, proves that your soul was successfully gaining its freedom. And let us hope that that final experience of climbing through the hole and being met by the two youths was the result of the Light of Truth now brought you by your Higher Self in these Impersonal Lessons, which will free you from the darkness of ignorance and error which have held you so long.

I WOULD like to ask your help in interpreting dreams that I have had I have noticed that whenever in a dream I seem to be in adverse circumstance I always seem able to rise out of them by claiming God as my life and protection; except that ever since I can remember I occasionally dream of snakes and I am always afraid of them, and there never seems any way out. I am wondering if this has any particular significance which you might help me understand.

If you in all your dreams have learned that in adverse circumstances you can claim God as your life and protection, why then can you not do the same in your fear of snakes? Think and see how foolish it is not to be able to do that when it works in all other things.

This means that you must reason this thing out with your mind, so that it sees the foolishness of it and will no longer have any fear of snakes, but know that God can protect you from them as He can from anything else.

Snakes symbolize snaky, subtle thoughts that get into the consciousness before you know it and which are hard to eliminate. When such thoughts come, practice staying with them until you have mastered them—when you will have no more dreams of snakes.

I THOUGHT I was leading one of our women’s meetings, when the room changed into a vast hall. A cone-like structure appeared in the middle, and down a spiral path Christ descended. At different stages on that path people stood. Each had words written in gold lettering on bands across his or her robe. These we understood were qualities that had been developed, and as Christ passed down the path He paused to examine and bless. When this was over we proceeded to the gallery that ran round the building. We were not told, but we knew in some way, that we were to receive a message from Him. We thought it was to be a message to us as a whole, but while we waited we realized that each of us would receive a special message.

I was thinking quietly about this when I felt an arm thrown about my shoulders, and then I was gazing into two wonderful eyes, while a Voice of great sweetness said, “Little one, be not afraid. I Am with you.”

Then it seemed—how can I put it?—it loses so in the telling; it seemed as if I was drawn into His very Life. I could not only feel, but I could see blessing and power around me. When I awoke, so real was that experience, that wave after wave of rapture passed over me, and I felt how needless were all my fears and anxieties about my children and other loved ones.

This dream is in a way a confirmation of what we have indicated. When the Christ came to you, put His arms around your shoulders and gazed into your eyes, saying, “Little One be not afraid, I am with you,” it was to assure you that He is indeed with you always, and to prove to you that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that frees you from all bondage of human concerns and problems.