Bark Barking Howl

 (Of Tree see below)

A dog barking can be from man causes. A dog expresses a great deal of its deeply felt emotions through its voice. It can growl, bark, whine or howl, and it can express all manner of things in each of the sounds it makes. So you need to ask yourself what it was voicing in the dream.

 Example: Suddenly my head jumped up and a bark issued from my mouth. In that flash whole areas of past experience fell into place. Years ago I had dreamt of being in bed, and a large black Labrador being on my back attempting sexual intercourse. In the dream I had pushed the dog out and pushed it downstairs – back into the unconscious.

It has just struck me that John B. had a black Labrador. This one strange bark seems to tie all this up together. It was not just a bark. Suddenly I had inwardly become a dog that barked. My soul experienced the condition of a barking dog. Just as suddenly as the bark sounded from me, I knew that the homosexual desires shown in the session with John were not psychologically caused, but arose from this dog nature in me. I can now see that some of my sexuality arises not from love, but from the drives of this dog part of me. Similarly, much of my aggressiveness has come from this source. But this is still too new for me to see any deeper into these parts of my nature, and what subtle influences they have on my inner and outer life.

The example give a clear picture of what a dog is in our dream life and what its bark expresses. A dog is the less socialised side of our instinctive urges, it expresses our natural urges that have not been repressed by socialisation. Of course they can be sexual, joyful, unhappy, aggressive, painful, loving and supportive and a joy in play. See Mammal Brain.

Howling like a wolf or dog: I have experience of the voice expressing naturally from deep feelings. About three times in my life when I had become close to a person and they left without any sign of coming back, without warning or intention I howled like a dog. It always surprised me because when I tried to do it I could never make that wonderful sound. It was a sound that expressed everything and was very full of feelings. I feel from that if it is in us to sing our life, something of that howl will express through us.

It is most likely when we feel so much and cannot express it in words and so howl – which is all emotions, so “I call for you – I miss you terribly – I cry – I pour out my being to you – Why did you leave me? etc.

 Useful Questions and Hints:

Can I identify what part of my feelings the dog is expressing?

If I understand that the dog is a part of myself (see mammal brain) what can I do about it?

Is the dog asking or telling me about that part of me?

Can you, as in the example, take on the role of the dog? Try Stand in role.

 Bark of tree: This can be both life sustaining or a cover up. Life sustaining because without the bark the tree would die – but some trees regularly shed their bark and so one can take it off and see what is underneath.

 Example: Dreamt, at Beaford (Devon), that I was looking at the large plane tree at the back of our house in London. I noticed the base of the trunk was burnt internally. I pulled away bark. It looked a bit like a bees nest, but was cindered would. Now I saw folds in the trunk of the tree showing that the tree was leaning, and I realised the cindered bark I pulled away had been supporting the tree. It would now soon fall. I saw a very clear mental image of the tree falling to the right where there was space, because straight ahead was a building it would crush. The tree then began to fall exactly where I had visualised. I now saw the top of the trunk base cut clean.

Here it is shown how the bark both supports and hides, in the case of this dream a deep hurt at the base of the trunk – the base of his being.

If there is a wound in the bark it can leave the interior of the tree/you bare, and so can lead to the tree becoming hollow. Not always a bad thing because people can shelter in a hollow tree.

Example: I was looking at a very large and old tree. I wondered if I could climb it but couldn’t see any way up it. But I noticed a large area without any bark, like an old wound, and I thought that area would become rotten and so the tree would become hollow and offer shelter to animals and humans.

Then I walked around the back of the tree and saw that the bark was like thick cables about 6-8 inches wide. I could then see a fairly easy way to climb the tree. So I climbed up and the top of the tree was like a massive bell of a flower, like a crocus shape. And it was light and colourful. Suddenly I saw a spirit, a beautiful female. It was the spirit of the tree. At this point I was semi awake, and I wanted to hold the beautiful spirit, but realised that the tree was a representation of my life, and so was the spirit of the tree. The spirit sat on me in a sexual position, so I was lying on my back and she was upright. She slowly took me into her, I mean the whole me, as if she was sucking my whole body into her. I realised that I had to die because she wanted to take all my experience of life and endeavour into her and fertilise herself to form a baby. So I was ready to die and watched her form a new baby, a mixture of her and me.

Here is another wonderful dream, showing both the wound of the bark and how later it became a way to climb.

 

In some dreams trees can speak to us, and sometimes they are like a judge of our life. The bark becomes their lips.

 Example: I look at the trunk of the thistle examining it. At this point it seems like a giant hardwood tree. I snap a twig and it smells very nice – a perfumed wood. Other branches are going rotten. Walking around to the back of the tree to see if the bark is rotten I notice a hole where bees or wasps have a colony. I put my left hand up to touch the bark and as I do so notice there is also a hole in the back of my hand, in and out of which wasps are flying. With great shock I look in the hole and see wasps eating my flesh away, so my hand is almost hollow. I awake with the feeling of being old and decrepit.

Here the tree is obviously the person themselves, and the bark is still protective – it is not!

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way am I relating to the bark?

What function is the bark playing – protective or revealing, or something other?

How is the bark and the tree acting together?

Find out by using Easy Dream Interpretation