After reading the latest dismal news about crashing economies and ecosystems, I went to bed and was visited by a remarkable dream.

Most of us don't take dreams very seriously, raised as we were in a culture that dismisses them  as more or less random brainwave activity. Having studied dreams for twenty-five years or so, I knew them to be rather accurate statements about the personal or collective psyche once their symbolism was deciphered.

The symbolism is what make dreams difficult to unravel, but failing to have a go at it is like leaving a letter unopened, as the Talmud suggested long ago. In dreams the larger dimensions of the psyche tell us what they are thinking about.

I have been rereading Gnostic scriptures, so it makes sense that this dream would select familiar spiritual symbolism--for in the dream I was on the coast watching the sun rise, and the sun was the face of Sophia, goddesss of wisdom and sacred half of the divine. Unusual and important, that detail of a sun rising over the coast of California rather than setting there as it does every evening: something illuminating being born where the light usually goes out.

Sophia's face looked ill and feverish (global warming?), but these were her exact words: "Thank God there is still so much light in the world!"

At this point the dream turned lucid, meaning I knew in the dream that I was dreaming. This was my chance to ask the big question, and I didn't hesitate: "Can we still save the world?"

Her response: "Yes, you can," in a definitive tone.

Of course, this dream will not be authoritative or even interesting to readers who don't take the deep psyche seriously. Those who do might recognize the ray of hope it offers in a darkening time. Such dreams are meant to be shared and have a way of stimulating more dreams, something a culture alienated from its inner sources always could stand a few more of.