Fortress

Feelings of security or insecurity. Our defensive attitudes and the way we defend ourselves against ‘attack’. Past attitudes which may have been necessary in childhood to defend ourselves while strengthening our identity; our way of defending against the remembering or experiencing of childhood pain. See: defence; defence mechanisms.

Example: I was inside a medieval style fortress – it felt as though this was my family home dominated by a male, father-like figure. I couldn’t get out; I desperately wanted to leave but he wouldn’t let me. I was standing at the huge wooden gate trying to escape when he found me. My only hope of escape was to curse him, which I did and so he let me go. Once free and in a better world, I admitted to my friends that I had had to curse him and that I knew the curse would come back on me but I had no other way to escape.

Here the fortress was the woman’s defence against the feeling stimulated by having no father. The fortress is also a prison because she is trapped by her own emotions.

Useful questions and hints:

What am I defending in myself, or defensive about?

Is there something I am seeking in the castle, if so what is it?

Does this express a desire for a secure and rich life?

See Avoid Being Victims – Life’s Little Secrets – Secrets of Power Dreaming