FOOTBALL SYMBOLISM
Can a sport have symbolism? I know it is an odd concept, but my dreams have suggested this is so. As I see it, such things can be inspired, just as with works of art. My theory is that inspirations are related to dreams, even when we do not remember them.
In 1992 I dreamed that I was playing football with young people. I ran downfield on a play, and saw a guy laying down. He was hurt, but not badly. He was a young black kid, high school age. I talked to him and he was friendly. I answered a question by saying, "You know why? I'm too old for this." I got up slow, muscles and joints aching and headed down to the huddle.
As I wrote the dream down, I realized that football could represent one's life-path. Each day being being a "play". The huddle represents the dream state where we "Put our heads together" to plan each day or "play". My dream voice told me that only men play the game because the physical reality is male. The rectangle of the playing field represents the "square" of the earth. The cheerleaders are the intuitive aspects, or Holy Spirits that cheer and inspire from the sidelines. They are frequently ignored by the players.
The Coach is God or an Entity Higher than us, perhaps the Oversoul. He knows the overall plan. He uses the players for maximum effect wtih their various attributes. The cheerleader coach is the female aspect of the Deity, or the Mother Goddess.
The fans are spiritual entities watching and cheering from the higher perspective of the bleachers. The referees are the police or similar forces, like the military. A male relative dreamed of blowing a whistle at the guys in the weightlifting gym. A penalty is set-back in life. Some dreams seem to suggest that police or security guards are related to the idea of karma.
The opposing coach is Satan, in the sense of the "opponent." The opposing team are his "deamons." The whole thing is a learning experience involving a challenge or problem. You try to reach a goal. An opposing force, or defense, is need to create the challenge.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
Calling Play in Huddle - Symbolic language
Audible - Spontaneity and altering plan in daytime.
Uniforms - Disguised identity.
Pre-game Planning & preparation - Planning before (re)incarnation.
Instant Replay - Review is done in other world for additional learning.
Field Goal - Hitting or missing the mark. (The word of "sin," in the Gnostic tradition came from the sport of archery, and meant "missing the mark).
Astroturf - Our world is somewhat artificial (Maya/illusion).
(A friend dreamed that animals came to his porch and
layed on astroturf).
Season - cycle of time, where aggression, violent feelings are
discharged.
Throw & Catch - of ideas.
Time Out - Pause in our life to recover and have spirit renewed.
(Drink water)
Four Quarters - Seasons, cycles of time or quadrants of earth.
Substitute - "Walk-in".
Coin Toss - Fate
Young Man's Game - Emerging consciousness learns in this manner.
Older spirits move on to other realities.
Team Names - Identities/Totems (Bears, Lions, Vikings, etc.).
Football - The shape in two dimensions is like a "flower-petal", or the "nimbus of glory" that surrounds divinities. It's also associated with the feminine, the Virgin Mary and the Grail. It is the shape of the vesica piscis, formed by two interlocking circles. In my experience of the shape, it is the focus personality as part of the Oversoul. The Grail would be the chalice of the mind.
Numbers - 11 players on each team, for an 11:11. (11:11 Doorway). 6 points for a touchdown, and one for an extra point. (The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, 6 redily visible, the 7th is The Lost Pleiad. Related to The Seven Days of Creation; 6 days of work, one of rest). 120 yards of the field, including the end zones (120 degrees between tetrahedaral points). 360 feet of field length (Gematrian Wheel). 300 feet between goal lines (300 is the number of the Elohim).
In football, the player tries to do the Will of the coach, although he may fail. He has the free will to do the opposite, but it's not likely. He was in on the preparation and planning and joined the team willingly. Besides, he would be "taken out".
As the football player gets farther and farther away from the game itself, he sees it in a different perspective. All the "plays, games, and seasons," and the intense striving for the "goal" were in themselves, laughingly unimportant. But the experience was a wonderful learning experience that helped us as we traveled through life. It was all the interactions with people and working as a team for a common goal, and the brotherhood feelings, and all that kind of thing that was important, and stays with us.
I remember a pre-cognitive dream about the 49rs in 1991 and the "coincidence" later. I walked the sidelines as they played along a highway of astroturf field. The climactic win came at the top of an overpass. A trick play was used at the end that caught everyone by surprise. I started falling off the overpass. I grabbed the astroturf, but it was loose, and I was about to fall, hanging on for dear life. As I yelled, the big black linesman came over and helped me up. Month's later, after the 49rs amazingly won the Super Bowl, I read the interview with Coach Walsh in "Sports Illustrated". He was asked about the trick play. He said something about when he thought it up, it was like a man "falling off a cliff".
Perhaps there are deeper levels of meaning in the dream. According to "The Keys of Enoch," there are 49 (7 x 7) stages of consciousness evolution. There are also 49 stages of Bardo. The San Fransisco 49ers, of course, are named after the people who came West in 1849 to find gold. The next stage of evolution, the Great Change, is sometimes called "The Age of Gold." One example is this Nostradamus quatrain:
Century V-41
Born in the shadows and during
a dark day,
He will be sovereign in realm
and goodness:
He will cause his blood to
revive the ancient urn,
Renewing the age of gold
for that of brass.
Around 1993 I had another dream about football. I had joined the team just before the final big game. The opposing team was very good, and expected to defeat us. I got in line with the team near the edge of the field. I started to write a check to the head coach, Mr. Web, to pay for my equipment. But, the assistant coach, Mr. Noon, reminded me that he had paid for the equipment, so the payment should go to him. I wrote the check, but I could not sign it, because threads had been woven like a web on the signature area of the check. I cut them off, and removed them, then signed my name.
After I recorded the dream, I recalled that there are 43,200 seconds in a day up until "noon" (60 x 60 x 12). 432, often with various zeros attached, is a universal cycle of time number.
Well, it is a bit hard to believe football contains symbolism. Perhaps I am just myth-making. But, just wait until you read my theories about baseball!
If you have any questions or comments about this article, please e-mail to:jmason@greatdreams.com