Now a certain Joseph dreamed his brothers bowed down to him and he told them about this dream.  He also reported a dream about his mother and father and likened them to the sun, moon and stars that also bowed down to him.  I saw symbolism in that he told how his stalk of wheat was tall and erect while his brothers’ stalks were lesser and bowing down before him.  The dreams foretold future events revealed later on, presaging the children of Abraham, the Jews, becoming enslaved in Egypt.  It was that event, along with the new monotheistic belief of Abram (now called Abraham) that transforming a singular people who then occupied a land they believed their God had given them. It was there where they built a Temple enclosing an Ark holding the Commandments revealed to Moses.  That is the story and that is stuff that dreams are made of.

Dreams have power and we have the power to find meaning in them that can energize ordinary people to do great things. Some dreamers have dreamed horrible futures for ordinary people. We have no explanations for the dreamers or the dreams but we can speculate a lot about meaning and this may energize great movements in history and cause endless speculation about what and who we humans are all about.

The content of dreams are so powerful at times they cannot be ignored and all peoples succumb to them for it is the power contained in them that is the cause for much of our behavior. Dreams power wishes that become ambition and success.

I likened the sheaves of wheat representing the brothers of Joseph encircling and empowering him despite his being the next to the youngest of Jacob/Israel’s sons. I saw they are very much like the fasces that the Romans used to demonstrate their military power in bundles of spears tied tightly about a powerful axe rising high above the rest. Fascism is power exercised by one but supported by the many. In Ancient Rome that was a Republic at its start, it became a dictatorship and eventually an empire with a God-like emperor or King.

We have learned the history of the Jews and the Romans (who learned much from the Greeks.) We should remember the lessons this story about wheat that as food gives us power. We should remember a dream giving power to a young spoiled man sold into slavery by his brothers. We should remember the dreams of this young man who eventually rose to become second highest to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh was believed to be a god but he depended on a dreamer for power.

Dreams are common but uncommon people have used the power they contain to change the world. We should pay attention to the dreamers and what they want for or from us.