Chameleon

Changing emotions, instability, lack of stability or sense of duty. Will change values to suit outer events, rather than be true to promises or duty; or adaptability.

Something or someone that is overlooked or seems part of the background.

But a chameleon can represent the means we use to adapt to what others see us as –  I quote from Eric Fromm’s book Escape from Freedom, “A personality offered to you by cultural patterns; and you therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect you to be. The discrepancy between “I” and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness. This mechanism can be compared with the protective coloring some animals assume. They look so similar to their surroundings that they are hardly distinguishable from them. The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self.”

Of course you can also master this as a shape shifter blending in and yet maintaining your own individuality. Either ones desire to fade into the background, or adaptability. So perhaps like a shape shifter who can be many different things. Or the trained hunter or predator who makes himself of herself blend in to approach the victim. See Avoid Being Victims

Example: ‘My wife and I saw a large lizard on the wall near a banana. It was there to catch the flies. The lizard turned so it was facing away from us – head up the wall. We then were able to see it had large wing like flaps that spread from its head in an inverted V. With amazement we saw on these flaps wonderful pictures, in full colour, of birds. In fleeting thoughts I wondered if the bird ‘paintings’ were to attract birds, or were some form of camouflage. But I felt certain the lizard had ‘painted’ these wonderful pictures with its unconscious art.’ David T.

In the example the banana is both David’s pleasure and sexuality, while the lizard is the creativity emerging from his unconscious through the attention he is giving it – in other words he is looking at the lizard, his instinctive life, through exploring his dreams. See the information about the reptilian brain under brain levels and dreams.

In this next example it can be seen how allowing the influence of the instinctive ‘lizard’ life into awareness is strengthening.

Example: As we were walking something touched my leg or ankle. It was some sort of alien lizard type creature. I realised it had scratched me and thereby put something into my bloodstream. There was slight anxiety about what this would do, but as I stood wondering I could feel some change going on with my hand and wrists. I looked at my right wrist and saw it had become thicker and stronger. It looked really powerful, and I could feel the same sort of change and strength occurring throughout my body. It was like a positive viral attack. As we walked along further the changes deepened. All of us were now changing and metamorphosing, a process we were learning to direct or change in some degree. I remember making my head bullet proof and my body almost armoured with a sort of scaled chitin.

Just after this dream a massive storage heater in my cottage fell on my right foot as I was cleaning it. The pain was awful and a large swelling came up immediately as if the impact had burst a blood vessel or broken bones. It was about two inches across. I thought I had crushed my foot, but was relieved to see I could just about move a couple of toes. The pain was too much to do more. Within an hour and a half all the swelling had gone and the pain was disappearing. By the evening my foot appeared normal apart from small abrasions. This was so amazing I wept to see how my body healed itself so quickly. The next day I went for a long walk with a friend without any pain.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you feel as if you are fading into the background or a shape shifter?

What was your feeling or reaction to seeing the chameleon?

Did anything happen to you in the dream?

Try using  Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Life’s Little Secrets