I awoke this Sunday morning with a curious image in my mind. It was the Sphinx.

In that blissful hypnogogic state between sleeping and wakefulness, I began to receive images and intimations about its meaning. Of course, we now know that the Sphinx is much older than the pyramids it seems to guard. So it has a very ancient message for mankind.

This is what I learned from this thought-stream : the Sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a god. There is no essentially “human” part to it, yet it represents the nature of humanity.

If that seems a bit opaque, the answer is that humans are provisional creatures having the attributes of both animals and gods. Each one of us is on a path which rises from the ground of nature, beyond what we think of as human, to a kind of divine status above the mundane confines of this Earth.

People can be classified as less or more developed by reference to the Sphinx. We all know folk who are almost indistinguishable from animals. Their humour is based on sex and bodily functions, and their aspirations don’t rise much higher. These people have their centre of gravity right down at the tail of the Sphinx. Others, further up the body, have rather more cerebral or emotional attributes.

But the highest humans are centred up in the head of the god. These are the ones ready to pass beyond the physical to the various spiritual realms, which themselves are progressive. Each of us has an imperative to lift up those who are below us in the chain, as the price of further progress.

The way to get on top of this process is to become aware of it : to make the unconscious conscious. Then we can ourselves aim at higher consciousness. If we don’t do this, the process will force it on us ~ and this will be very painful. Being forced to reject earthy and physical modes of being is a kind of death. We all die many times in a single lifetime. By taking control of our progress, we avoid these distressing adjustments which “nature” makes from time to time, and we move onwards to our destiny.

So, there you have it. Quite a “dream”, but, as with all such Grade A visions, very useful for the future.

Now, where are the Sunday newspapers?