> So in this, I am quite perplexed by what my unconscious, and by what God might have been trying to tell me in such a dream. I know the chessboard imagery evidently arose out of our discussions here on Rinkworks. But overall, in Byron's words... What does all this really mean?

The college class I took in Jungian psychology didn't help me understand dreams one whit better than before, and I don't have any reasonable interpretation to suggest. I have usually thought that dreams present, in other forms, the emotions and stresses we feel in real life, but I can't know how you may or may not be feeling anything related to the anxiety of not knowing for certain how to arrange the chess pieces on the board.

Unlike Sam, I'm open to the possibility of God communicating through dreams, but he and I agree insofar as I'd attach *far* less significance to dreams than to God's direct teachings in Scripture. My belief is that a dream in which Christ or some representation of Christ plays a role should lead a person to spend time in prayer and meditation over her relationship with God, and to ask God to "search my heart" and open it more to Him. Such dreams probably should not be dissected too finely in search of a detailed message, unless the dreamer feels God is leading her to do so.

I wish that I could remember my dreams better than I do. For the past several years, it's rare for me to remember even the outline of a dream, much less the details, a few minutes after I wake. Your description of the dream you've had was vivid and detailed, and I greatly enjoyed reading it and visualizing the scene in my own mind.

Iss