The advice in the I Ching to "see the Great Man" took on new meanings through a number of experiences. One of the earliest was a short dream I had in 1997:
In the dream I saw myself standing at the edge of a very steep slope. I saw a man running down the slope at high speed. I heard myself thinking, "Oh, how terrible! He’s going to get killed (because he’ll lose control)!" No sooner had I had that thought than I saw the man tumbling over and over, ever closer to the abyss. At that moment, I noticed that someone was standing on my left side. Then I heard a very firm voice saying, "activate the guardian angel!" As soon as those words had been spoken, I saw a man appearing right next to the tumbling man. He helped him back on his feet and led him safely back up the slope.
This dream made me realize an old pattern of thinking: that when seeing someone in danger, I would see the situation as inevitably doomed, instead of asking for help from the invisible world.
The dream was so crystal clear in its message that from then to now, whenever I see someone getting hurt or hurting himself, I inwardly ask for that help. It has taken away the old feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, and it also prevents me from rushing into a dangerous situation to help someone, only from the false feeling that "I have to do it all."
Later, I was made to realize that it was really the Sage that had been standing beside me, and that it was also the Sage in the presence of the tumbling man that was activated by the call for help. The Sage was using the name "guardian angel" as a "handhold" (something preliminary) to enable me to understand the message in words that I was used to at that time.
By Hanna Moog