Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Elephants Running  (Read 3492 times)

horizen

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
    • View Profile
Elephants Running
« on: November 01, 2017, 08:01:03 AM »
First, let me preface this by saying that I adore elephants.  In fact, I've always longed to be up close to one.  I think they are sensitive, gentle, intelligent, emotional giants.  I dreamt I was in my house (only it was actually very different from my real home).  I was standing in the kitchen.  My mother was also there.  Suddenly, a heard of young elephants runs through the house, through the kitchen, and out the door to the outdoors.  And I mean RUNNING.  It was unusual to see elephants at full gallop like this.  Not something you'd see in nature.  It was extreme gallop..These were not full grown elephants, perhaps a few years old.  No where near the giant size of adult elephants, but not babies either.  In the dream, I was so thrilled at the surprising and rare sight of dozens of elephants.  One odd thing, they were RUNNING.  I wondered why they were running so fast.  Galloping.  I questioned the meaning of their running like this.  Was it healthy to run so fast for an elephant?  They ran like cheetas, the way they coordinated their legs; not what elephants do in nature.  I yearn to connect with them, visit with them up close.  I figure they are just outside, couldn't have gone too far away.  I rush over to the kitchen sink to wash a carrot for feeding them.  I wash and scrub the carrot. I take time to make sure it is thoroughly clean, scraping away any brown spots, or stringy growths.  There are some soft spots and I scrape them away; I don't want to give them rotten food.  Only the good parts.  I have a fear of making them sick.  However, I realize that by spending so much time cleaning this food, I may MISS my opportunity to be with them in person.  They may have run far away, or wandered away from our yard by the time I complete the carrot preparation.  Finally, I am done washing, scrubbing, and scraping the carrot.  I venture outside.  At first I believe I am too late.  I don't see any elephants.  There is a body of ocean water in front of me, and I see one young elephant in the water.  I eagerly walk toward it with the carrot.  The elephant retreats back into the ocean a few paces.  I stop, and retreat myself, not wanting to scare it away.  Not wanting to push it into the water too far (worrying about its safety as well as scaring it away). The elephant then emerges from the ocean water, with just the top of it's head and eyes peering out at me.  The rest of it is submerged underwater.
Large head and intelligent little eyes.  Magnificent being!  Suddenly, my wise older brother is there beside me, and he gestures to the sandy road/dirt path beside us, leading away from the ocean and to what appears to be a driveway...leading presumably to a road.  He advises me to be careful about leaving food out for the elephants during the day, as the path may lead them closer to the road.  He advises me NOT to feed them during the day, as this is when people and traffic are active.  The suggestion is that I feed them at night, when people are not around.  Then they'll be less likely to be hit by cars, to befall injury due to human activity.  I feel he is implying that they cannot be safe in the presence of humans.  I should not encourage them to come out if there is a possibility they will interact with other people.  It would only increase the likelihood that they'd be hit by cars, killed, maimed, or otherwise hurt by people.  Whether intentional, or not.  I agree with him.  He's right, of course.  I should put their welfare first and foremost.  Feed them only at night, when people are asleep and their paths will not cross.  What does this dream mean???  What do the elephants symbolize?  I feel I am being given advise about something I care deeply about. 

The dream preceding this is less important to me, however, in case it relates in anyway to the elephant dream...here it is:  I am in bed at night.  My father is also in bed.  I feel that intruders have entered the house.  They are breaking in.  I can hear them start to break in; then I hear/sense them in the lower entry way; then I sense them in the lower part of the house; then working their way up to the upstairs.  All the while, I warn my father every step of the way.  Right from the beginning, I alerted him to what I sensed.  First, he tells me flat out I am WRONG.  Then the house alarm goes off.  It blares loudly.  He still tells me it is nothing. Ignore it.  I now hear the intruders on the same floor, just outside the bedroom.  My father now hears it as well.  This time he gets up out of bed, heads toward the door, only to turn around, away from the door and retreat back towards the bed.  "What are you doing??!!" I think in my head, but do not say aloud.
This whole time I am frustrated by how insistently, recklessly, irresponsibly, he REFUSED to acknowledge the intruders, despite all the warnings.  He had ample warnings.  Even before they entered the house, I was telling him.  But now, when I see him when it is too late (they are already just outside the bedroom door), and he doesn't know what to do, still retreating, turning away, as if an ostrich in the sand, I see the cowardice.  He is a huge, tall, aggressive man.  But never uses these traits to protect us.  Only to bully us.  When these traits would actually be put to good use (protecting his family, putting his aggression toward actual threats) he does nothing.  He shrinks back.  Because he doesn't want to DO anything about the actual threat, he pretends there isn't one, rather than acknowledge he is cowardly failing to take action.  A familiar theme.  Well, the intruders break into the room.  They are a dozen or so burly, rough men.  Like a gang of rough men.  They move us to the lower part of the house.  Where I discover they have killed my younger sister.  I am fuming inside.  I want to scream at them, "Where is my sister?  Where is her body? What did you do to her?"  I hold it in.  I have to be tactical.  If I let on that they did something wrong, if I reminded them of what they did, it would incite their anger.  It would stroke the flames of their aggression more.  I know, from the way my own parents behave, if you don't want to be attacked, then you have to play along and pretend they never did the bad things they did.  So I keep an outward facade of calm.  But inside the anger of what they did to my sister is so powerful, I have thoughts that are almost violent.  How dare they do this!  I want them to suffer consequences, but if I want to live and see another day, somehow escape this hostage situation, I will have to continue to "stuff it."  Somehow, I continue to keep it inside.  And plot my escape. After awhile they think I am cool with them and feel I will not leave or resist them.  This is when I make my move to escape.  I push through my fear, and make myself attempt to escape, knowing the stakes--if they catch me, they will kill me.  My passive, submissive, no- mind- of- my- own cover will be blown and I'll never get a second chance.  When they are distracted, fighting amongst themselves, I make my move to slip out quietly.  I quietly, ever so silently open a door I didn't know existed (it was like walking into an expensive wooden china closet).  What a nice room!  I think to myself, no wonder they wanted to break in, part of this house is like a china closet, as if we live in luxury!  Filled with fine, breakable, expensive things.  I was so afraid to make any noise at all.  I silently opened the door ajar, just enough to sneak into the "china closet room" (expensive looking room filled and made with fine china, glass top to bottom).  However, they discovered my attempted sneak away and started coming after me.  I remember trying to find ways to hide (in piping, in the walls) scrambling for some way to hide...and ultimately get out before they recaptured me.  The dream ends with my desperate attempt to slip out of their grasp, and them aggressively coming after me. 

Tony Crisp

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3419
    • View Profile
    • Dreamhawk.com
Re: Elephants Running
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2017, 10:16:08 AM »
Horizen – Looking at the first dream’s theme, it is about a passive attitude you learnt in response to your father, underneath which are violent feelings that are breaking through the rather thoughtful, feeling and artistic exterior. These are represented by the thugs entering you/your house. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-conjuring-trick/

Those violent emotions have killed out the vulnerable younger you, because all the people, animals, places you see in your dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images.

The elephant dream is almost an exploration of that tender younger side. The kitchen often represents the creative caring aspect of yourself, and the elephants are the “sensitive, gentle, intelligent, emotional giants” which girl children often are – things you love and care for. Ask yourself how did that young you get killed by what you inherited from your father?

Running like that in a dream expresses the unhindered flow of your innate self, so an expression of the person you can be if the tensions, blockages and hesitations are dropped away. The rest of the dream describes your careful coming out of your everyday attitudes into a more open and approachable self – feeding the elephant, which is emerging from the sea; emerging from being unknown into being aware.

Your wiser more mature self, represented by your brother, tells you not to expose these parts if you - the “sensitive, gentle, intelligent, emotional giants” – everyday life, but only in situations where others cannot be involved with you.

Consider this well, because the advice might have arisen from reaction to confronting your father. It might have been sensible then, but may need revising now. Certainly be cautious about exposing this lovely part of you to anyone, but with people with similar sensitivities it can be wonderful. Experiment!

Try ‘being’ that elephant with its intelligent little eyes, who is a magnificent being, using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson

Tony