In another instance, a series of dreams provided beautiful but mysterious glimpses of something I didn’t grasp fully without the additional passage of time. It began during the summer of 1969, when I dreamed, I see the head and helmet of Athena. At that time I had just had a few magazine articles and a short story published. I was beginning to find my way back into art work as well and had won some prizes in exhibits. I realized that Athena, as the Greek goddess of art, related to my life in a general way, but I could not draw any specific message from it. In another dream from that series, I leap out from my forehead, look for my name in the telephone book, but it isn’t there. Within this dream was the physical sensation of actually doing an acrobatic forward roll right out of my forehead. I could make the association, "(Someone) sprang full- grown from the head of Zeus." I couldn’t remember who the someone was in that saying. Later research revealed that it was Athena! Then, late in the summer of 1976, I had a dream which I now connect with this series: I turn the pages of a book, noticing that all of the left-hand pages are covered with writing but all of the right-hand pages are blank. I thought that this dream meant that all I had learned, all the ability I had acquired was available to me (the writing on the left-hand pages), and I was free to choose how I wanted to apply it (the blank right-hand pages). At that time, I was struggling to decide whether or not to quit my secure, rather well-paying job as a sign painter and return to freelance writing and fine arts painting. That fall, I did quit my job, after much mental struggle and a fierce vow not to be afraid. Then, all three of my unresolved dreams suddenly knit together while I was reading Rollo May’s book, The Courage to Create.

Discussing the Delphic shrine of Apollo on Mt. Parnassus, Rollo May states how important, psychologically, the attributes of Apollo were to the Greeks of that day, who were struggling with the "anxiety of possibilities" in a time of change and growth. He lists those qualities as form, reason and logic, light of the mind, light of insight and healing and well- being. He describes how a pilgrim going to Delphi to consult Apollo would meditate on these attributes during every step of the journey. He also reminds us of Spinoza’s insight that if we fix our attention on a desired virtue, we thus tend to acquire that virtue. He then observes, "For the one who participates in them, symbols and myths carry their own healing power. This chapter is thus an essay on the creating of one’s self." At that point in my reading, my mind shot back