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Like any other animal, human beings have developed certain physical
and behavioural traits. Some of these traits, such as a new born baby
attempting to suckle the breast, and attempt to bond with its mother,
are rooted in millions of years of past experience and can be thought
of as instinctive. To be abandoned by ones mother, even for a short
time, was a life threatening danger in the past, and is still felt as
such today by an infant because of the millions of years of imprinted
experience.
We can observe such traits in a dog in such behaviour as cocking of
the leg in male dogs. We can see some of our own traits in such things
as the human desire to elect leaders. Many of these habits are
psychobiological or social. In our dreams we represent these drives or
habits in the form of various animals. Our restrained sex drive or
aggression may be shown in our dream as a dog on a lead. The power of
drives such as the urge to parenthood via sex might be shown as a
horse which we are trying to control. More than anything else though,
our dream animal represents our powerful feeling reactions to
situations - reactions developed through centuries of human experience
in frequently terrible situations. This aspect of ourselves is rooted
in the older portions of the brain. The feeling reactions indicated
are those such as the fight or flight reaction; the drive to protect
property or territory even to the point of killing another human
being; the urge, often not accepted in its naked power, to find a mate
and to have sex in order to procreate; the desire to have standing and
recognition in ones social group; the drive for dominance - or the
resulting depression or sickness if no recognition or place in the
group is found.
Because dreams exhibit a powerfully precise way of using symbols,
there is a difference in meaning between the wild animals and the
domesticated animals we dream of. In general the domesticated animal
such as a cat or horse represent urges we have more conscious control
over and are therefore less threatening to our conscious desire to be
in charge. The wild animals in our dreams often pose a much greater
threat to our ego, but nevertheless offer rich rewards if we can
develop a working relationship with them. After all they are aspects
of ourselves, so the relationship can release more of our usable
potential.
EXAMPLE: I
am sitting in the hotel staff room eating lunch at a large dining
table. One by one I am joined by perhaps a dozen women. The
atmosphere is pleasant, easy and light hearted. I enjoy the feeling
of being the only male among a dozen attractive women. Then I notice
a strange thing. One by one all the girls around me turn into cats,
but carry on laughing and talking as if nothing is happening. I find
this interesting and not alarming. I am aware each girl turns into
the sort of cat that is right for her - a vivacious redhead becomes
a purring orange tabby; an aloof, slightly superior lady becomes a
Siamese; the only ex-girlfriend of mine present becomes a black
witches familiar.
I remember turning to my left and asking: "Tell me Rebecca,
how did you do this?" The Rebecca cat giggles with a human
voice and says: "He doesn't have a clue, does he?" As I
look at the Rebecca cat I realise she still has her human eyes. This
I realise is true of all the cats, they have human eyes in feline
faces. As I realise this one says: "I think he's beginning to
understand now" and laughs. Paul C. Teletext.
This graphic dream so well illustrates how our human personality
exists within our animal drives and urges.
The animal in our dreams has commonly been seen only as the sex
drive. A careful examination of animal dreams shows this to be untrue.
The animal represents all aspects of sexuality and relationship. If
this wider sexuality in an individual is damaged or traumatised, the
person might become a parent who has lost the natural bonding and care
for their child; an individual who has no sense of social status or
responsibility; criminally violent; someone with disturbed and
misplaced sexuality, a person unable to love or care for someone else.
Dominating or attempting to kill the animal in us can cause tension,
depression and illness. The escape into dry intellectualism that might
occur if the 'animal' aspect of oneself is denied, can be a cause of
internal conflict. Complete permissiveness is no answer either. Our
higher brain functions need expression also. So one of the challenges
of maturing is how to meet and relate to our 'animals', and perhaps
bring them into expression in a satisfying way. Such drives are
fundamentally a push toward LIFE. Our dreams are selective in what
animal is used to portray our situation. For instance a dog or horse
are creatures that have been socialised for thousands of years,
whereas a dinosaur has no history of socialisation. These different
animals - domesticated or wild - can therefore be used to represent
the socialised or untrained elements of ourselves.
In considering what our dream animal communicates to us, consider
how you feel about that animal, what view you have of it, whether it
excites, disgusts or frightens you. Is it funny because it exhibits
some aspect of human nature so openly, like monkeys making love in
public? Is it to be envied because it is so honest, like the dog
growling at someone it doesn't like or is frightened of, and giving
obvious affection to someone it has a link with? With such
straightforward questions we can arrive at what our dream animals
represents to us personally. |
