{"id":3370,"date":"2011-10-18T14:05:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T18:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3370"},"modified":"2011-10-06T14:18:20","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T18:18:20","slug":"daniel-finds-the-kings-missing-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-finds-the-kings-missing-dream.html","title":{"rendered":"Daniel finds the king’s missing dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Nebuchadnezzar in his madness by William Blake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nebuchadnezzar II was the warrior-king of Babylon who laid waste to Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon\u2019s Temple, and deported the Jews of Palestine into exile. An intriguing episode from Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s reign (605-562 BCE) provides a window into an ancient way of dreaming. The central character in the story is Daniel, and its only source is the book of the Tanakh, or Old Testament, named after him.<\/p>\n

Daniel was taken toBabylonas a child, and was one of the boys selected by the chef eunuch, at the king\u2019s direction, to be taught to read and write in the Chaldean language and to be educated as a \u201ctablet-knowing scribe\u201d in the royal service. This would necessarily have involved becoming conversant with Mesopotamian modes of dreaming and divination; books on these subjects, preserved on clay tablets, were a main feature of royal libraries. The very word \u201cChaldean\u201d was a synonym for \u201cdiviner\u201d. Daniel was given a pagan Chaldean name \u2013 Belteshazzar \u2013 but succeeded in maintaining a kosher diet, according to his chronicler.<\/p>\n

Daniel was presented to Nebuchadnezzar while still a student, and soon became a trusted counselor, along with his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (better remembered by their Chaldean names Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego). \u201cThey became members of the king\u2019s court, and on whatever point of wisdom or understanding he might question them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and soothsayers in his entire kingdom.\u201d [Daniel 1:19-20 NJB]<\/p>\n

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by disturbing dreams. He summoned the chief diviners and told them he wanted them to explain a dream. Naturally, they asked the king to tell his dream. The king\u2019s response was extraordinary. He expected the diviners to tell him <\/em>the dream that troubled him. His challenge was fierce: \u201cIf you cannot tell me what I dreamed and what it means, I shall have you torn limb from limb and your houses turned into dunghills.\u201d [Daniel 2:5 NJB] When the magicians begged him to reveal his dream, the king barked, \u201cTell me what my dream was, and then I shall know whether you can interpret it.\u201d [Dan 2:9 NJB] The diviners were stumped, complaining that what the king is asking is something beyond mortal skill. He flew into a rage and decreed that \u201call the Babylonian sages\u201d will be put to death. The names of Daniel and his friends were on the list.<\/p>\n

When Daniel heard about the death order, he went to meet death on the road. He intercepted the high executioner, Arioch, and learned from him about the dream challenge. He then went to the king to request a stay of execution; he would use this to retrieve the king\u2019s dream and its correct interpretation. That night, he asked his friends to invoke the support of \u201cthe God of heaven\u201d to help him in his quest for the secret of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream. \u00a0\u201cThe mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a night vision\u201d [Dan2:19].<\/p>\n

Daniel returned to the palace. Facing the king, Daniel described \u201cthe dreams and the visions that passed through your head as you lay in bed\u201d in vivid detail.<\/p>\n

Daniel described how the king\u2019s thoughts had turned to the future and the \u201cRevealer of Mysteries\u201d had given him a vision of \u201cwhat is to take place in the final days.\u201d In the vision, the king saw a composite statue, blazingly bright. The head was of shining gold, the chest and arms were silver, the belly and thighs were bronze, the legs iron, and the feet were part iron and part clay. As the king watched, a stone flew through the air, untouched by any hand, and shattered the statue\u2019s feet. Then all the parts of the statue broke into pieces, \u201cas fine as the chaff on the threshing-floor\u201d and the wind blew them away. The stone grew into a great mountain, filling the whole world. [Dan 2:31-36]<\/p>\n

Daniel explained how the dream foretold the rise and fall of empires. After Nebuchadnezzar (the golden head) would come a lesser kingdom, then a third, of bronze and a fourth hard as iron. The fifth empire, of iron and clay, would be \u201cpartly strong and partly brittle\u201d, weakened by its divisions. Then the God of heaven would shatter all that came before and establish a new order, solid as the world-mountain.<\/p>\n

According to the author of the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed by all this he threw himself at Daniel\u2019s feet, offered him \u201cfragrant sacrifice\u201d, and appointed\u00a0 him governor of the province and \u201chead of all the sages ofBabylon\u201d. Although Nebuchadnezzar later went mad and lived as a wild beast \u2013 a madness brilliantly evoked in a painting by William Blake \u2013 it is doubtful that he was ever mad enough to prostrate himself before a palace servant.<\/p>\n

Next: Daniel, an active dreamer in the Bible<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adapted from The Secret History of Dreaming<\/a><\/em> by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebuchadnezzar II was the warrior-king of Babylon who laid waste to Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon\u2019s Temple, and deported the Jews of Palestine into exile. An intriguing episode from Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s reign (605-562 BCE) provides a window into an ancient way of dreaming. The central character in the story is Daniel, and its only source is the book…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,38,13,35,5,2,20,7],"tags":[658,662,661,659,660,657],"class_list":["post-3370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-ancient-religions","category-dream-symbols","category-dreaming-in-religion","category-dreams","category-dreamwork","category-history-of-dreaming","category-lucid-dreaming","tag-babylon","tag-bible-dreams","tag-book-of-daniel","tag-chaldeans","tag-daniel","tag-nebuchadnezzar"],"yoast_head":"\nDaniel finds the king's missing dream - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/daniel-finds-the-kings-missing-dream.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daniel finds the king's missing dream - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nebuchadnezzar II was the warrior-king of Babylon who laid waste to Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon\u2019s Temple, and deported the Jews of Palestine into exile. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3376,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}