In the dream, there are four black bears walking on a path close to a house in which my family and I are living. One of the bears leaves the path and comes towards us. Somehow, he gets inside the house, and I must escape with my daughter. This we do, fairly easily, and as I leave I plan to call the authorities so they can get the bear, shoot the bear – I don’t know what “they” will do, but they will take care of it. At the last moment, I turn and look through the window and see the bear, which is now standing on its hind legs in a curiously familiar position, looking very much like a human bear. Our eyes lock, and in that tiny fraction of seeing into the bear, I know him and he knows me, and we both know all is well. But when I look away, back to the path, back to the hope of “them” who will save me from the bear, I discover that is the path I choose.

When I awoke from the dream, I felt disappointed that I was so fearful of the bear. The bear was not violent or even particularly scary, and yet I was afraid. I also felt sad that I wanted to get other humans to kill this bear, who hadn’t really hurt anyone. Why did I not trust our moment of connection?

Whether we like their messages or not, this is the job of dreams: to tell us more about who we really are. Carl Jung dubbed them the “conscious mind of the unconscious.” In symbolic code, dreams point out our fears and secret desires, our doubts and worries, our covert longings. They are a blue print of our deep psyche, giving us a glimpse of the forces that dance our inner and outer selves. As Dr. Brugh Joy writes, “Dreams are a threshold to understanding universal principles of Life in general, and they have collective as well as individual significance.”

While working on this issue of Alaska Wellness, supposedly focused on the topic of animals, I was initially surprised that so many articles had to do with the nature of fear. But this, too, is who we are, where we are. As we go through a global transformation of consciousness, evolving to greater spiritual awareness, we necessarily confront our fears, both individually and collectively. And as we work to meet and integrate all aspects of ourselves, we inevitably meet our shadow selves – be they in the form of bears, terrorists or political leaders.

So, what will we do on meeting our shadow? Will we run? Shoot the bear (or get others to shoot it for us)? Hide? Or will we reach out? Remember to trust our experiences and our intuition? It’s a tricky business, forming a relationship with our shadow selves. It’s scary because it’s what we’re most afraid of, and yet, it’s powerful beyond measure, for it involves moving ourselves into a greater presence, opening to a larger awareness of who we truly are.

Dawn Brunke is the editor of Alaska Wellness and author of Animal Voices and Awakening to Animal Voices: A Teen Guide to Telepathic Communication with All Life, which is now available! See www.animalvoices.net for more.