Army

This suggests some form of conflict, internal or otherwise. The army might be depicting the forces or qualities you muster to deal with difficulties – i.e. courage, information; aggression or anger. They might be attitudes necessary to face anxieties such as determination or confidence in your core self.

The army is also an organisation and the dream might be about how you are relating to being organised, being told what to do, being under orders, or working within an organisation amongst many others. So it is important to recognise how you feel in the dream. Do you feel trapped, part of something, alone in a crowd, or a meaningful part of something bigger than you?

Sometimes army dreams occur when you are ready to confront the internal traumas and conflicts you carry. The important aspects of such dreams are about what they show of your attitudes or feelings about the army. But it is often necessary to read the entry on war, as the army dream might be mostly about the fighting. See: soldier; war.

Example: I had a series of dreams about being a soldier marching to the front with an army. Then came a day when I dreamt we were in the trenches waiting for the signal to go over the top. It came, I leapt up out of the trench and ran through the flying bullets to meet the foe.

The dreams came at a time when I was getting nearer facing internal traumas I had carried since childhood. After the last dream these broke through into waking life very dramatically, and I relived a tonsil operation experienced as a six year old. Anthony.

There is a great battle we are all part of, the battle to grow into the full beauty of women and men; the battle against the lies we live in; the battle to realise who we are.

This forgetfulness lies upon the world like a blanket of fog, a daytime night. We walk in it and call our darkness light. Believing in what we have as knowledge, we label the gleams of light reaching us, myth, legend, poetry, religion or mere nonsense. Yet the legend and dream persist in man’s awareness through all the changes of his so-called rational beliefs, his science, and his logic. Scientific attitudes constantly change, and with them the logic which depends on them, but fairy stories are as old as time. Or, to be more precise, the living experience in the story remains forever within us, though the outer details change. Thus the underlying essence of the stories of Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Baldur, Mithras, Osiris, and the others, are strangely alike. Echoes of our lost names, perhaps?

Ah yes, “We are shattered, tattered, demented remnants of a once glorious army. Among us are Princes and Captains of Armies, Lords of Battle, amnesic, aphasic, ataxic, jerkily trying to recall what was the battle the sounds of which still ring in our ears: is the battle still raging? If we could make our way back to join the main body of the army. Gropings, orientations, crumbs, fragments, bits of the jigsaw, a few demented ravings that may help the reconstruction of the lost message. I am just beginning to regain my memory, just beginning to realise I am lost, just getting faint sounds of old familiar music – snatches of old tunes, moments of deja-vu, a reawakening of a long-numbed agony – an unendurable realisation of what a debacle it was, what a shambles, what betrayal, horror, stupidity, ignorance, cowardice, craven lust, wretched greed. Faint recall of a raving nostalgia, for the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Paradise lost.” (The Bird Of Paradise by R. D. Laing – Quoted from my book Yield.)

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are my feelings about the army, or being in the army?

Is this army fighting for something, if so, what? How does that link with myself?

Am I avoiding or being part of the group?

Here are some ways to meet the conflict you face – Methods of Awakening – Life’s Little Secrets – Facing Fear.