Grandparents
Personal feelings connected with the grandparent; family traditions, such as established values or unconscious attitudes; spiritual values; old age; death.
The grandparent can also represent what you have come to know, what you have built into you of the divine spark of life, the radiant potential that is at your core. So you might say that the grandparent is the divine or infinite you know because of what you have drawn out of the infinite possibilities of everyday life.
Some ancient cultures believe that dead relatives such as grandparents are part of their life, as if they are sharing your life experience and offering a channel for divine forces to bring changes about. Also grandparents can be seen to give information and support in a person dreams.
Example: Grof said that in some people the experience was of ancestors fairly near in time, such as grandparents or great grandparents. But sometimes they felt as if they broke out of their usual limits of memory and found deep knowledge of ancient ancestors. These regressions were felt to be very much a part of the sub-strata of the person’s present life. I have personally experienced this and what I met gave me an enormously enlarged understanding of my grandparents, my father and my own life tendencies. My recover of ‘memory’ was of several hundred years in the past. It arose from exploring what appeared to be a simple dream. My sense was that I was not reading my genetic code, but a heritage of behaviour strategies passed on to me unconsciously by my forebears.
Example: I am getting near to a place where the deads “live”; it is not a cemetery, it has big walls (it is a place similar to the one I usually go to when I visit my grandparents in my dreams) it is a big space where a lot of people can be. When at first the gates open I am afraid by the thick fog which is everywhere, I can’t see anything, and I feel scared; I started running and I call for the livings; then the fog disappears and I am entering among the deads; they are all packed together, it’s a crowd of beings, I am looking for my grandfather, I see him and I recognize him.
Example: What I see is that if we think of the ancestors as our parents and grandparents, at their death that life experiences absorbed back into that huge collective memory. What they have done and been becomes a possibility in our own life. It is an influence that we either need to understand and reject, or potentials that we can allow ourselves and express. Each year that we ourselves live does not disappear. Its influence is absorbed and tempers the responses to life we experience at the moment. Our forebears, personal and social, have just the same sort of influence in our present life. Emmeline Pankhurst, although she was a major figure in the emancipation of women, was herself simply a link in a chain of influence that had started long before her. She now is a link in the chain of present action on the part of women’s rights.
The Inner Grandparent: Many people do not realise that they have an inner grandparent equally as powerful as an external grandparent. You have taken in millions of bit of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings or problems met by loving and living with or knowing your grandparent, and they are what makes you the person you are. This is true even if your grandparent was never there for you – you still have all the memories of him not being there for you filed under ‘grandparent’. The memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. Such an inner grandparent can appear in dreams because you are still deeply influenced by what you hold within you. The inner grandparent can also signify what has been received via genes passed on or ancestral influences. See Conjuring Trick; Ancestors; Parent integration
Our relationship with the dead should not be seen as the same as when alive, for we have left the body life beg=hind and live in dimension of experience without boundaries. Of course dreams try to help us with this but it can be difficult to understand. Below are parts of communications received.
“I am now part of your life. In this place of no boundaries means our lives roll together. And this is part of the love that links those in life and those in death. I am also creating possibilities and situations in your life here and now.
From this dimension life and death are not separated, and that my friend Kevin partook of my life through the love developed between myself and him. The link was so pronounced that he also experienced my life as I lived it as there were no boundaries.”
Useful Questions and Hints:
Do you feel the influence of your grandparents in your life?
Can you feel yourself as a link in an amazing chain of life?
Have your grandparents ever supported or advised you in your dreams?
See Talking with the dead – Characters and People in Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Edgar Cayce
Comments
Dear Tony,
I wish to share a dream which is very strange. It happened two times. I saw in my dream the grandmother of my partner. There was a guy who came into my life when i was already sure that inwould never get married since i have some medical disabilities. This guy when i met , we were suddenly brought to a close point where he proposed for marriage but yet i denied n i shared with him all my medical problems that can render our marriage unsuccessful. Yet, he accepted. Now it happened one night when he took me to his home to show me everything of his life. He used to talk abt his deceased grandmother and how close she was to him, how much he loved her since she supported him a lot. I just saw a picture of her and i didn’t even concentrate much. Yet, this night we both were sleeping in his bedroom at home and i saw this dream. Me n my partner were walking through a dark hallway, i was the only one seeing his grandma walking along with us, then we both entered a dark room n she was still along, i can see her but he doesn’t. Then we tried to turn on the lights but it wasnt working, then suddenly my partner open a jar of milk related butter which they produce at home and told me that this is the purest form of butter in the whole world. It was so bright n shining enough that i could see his face so clear and smiling regardless that there was no light in the room. His grandma never spoke in dream to me. She was just walking along. Like she is just watching… Can you please explain?!
Second dream is that when i agreed for marriage with my partner, there happened an incident that he had to move out of town and i was so devastated that i am unable to reach him even to talk on phone.. I was quite worried that if i might be losing him. Then comes the dream that me n my partner were in a bed room. Light was there this time n we both are lying down on bed.. He was cuddling me n i was running a song that i used to hear when he wasn’t there.. At that time again its me only seeing her. She was sitting on the floot, so happy and smiling while looking at us and she was enjoying the music alot…
My only confusion is why his grandmother comes in my dream when it never happened in my whole life to dream even of my own grandparents…
Please advise..
Dear Sara – To understand your confusion why your partner’s grandmother comes in your dream you will have to explore the thoughts and feelings of your dream figure when she/you see his grandmother, when you cannot turn on the lights, when your partner’s face is lit by what he perceives as “the purest form of butter in the whole world”.
Because this first dream takes place in the dark, it could mean that many of the feelings you have about your partner’s love for his grandmother and his family are not clear to you yet; they are still unconscious.
Do you feel threatened in any way by the influence of his grandmother and by your partner’s feelings of love for her and his family?
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
Because your partner perceives his grandmother as a person he is very close to whom he loves a lot because of all the support he receives from her, you may have become aware how much his inner world is still illuminated by her presence.
You may notice that I re-wrote your sentence in the present tense and not in the past tense as you did. That is because in the inner world of your partner his grandmother and her inheritance are still alive.
Many people do not realise that they have an inner grandmother equally as powerful as an external grandmother.
Your partner has taken in millions of bit of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings met by loving and living with or knowing his grandmother, and they are what makes him the person he is.
The memories and experience he has gathered unconsciously changed him and are not lost. It is part of him and is symbolised in dreams as a person – his grandmother – or event; “butter which they produce at home and told me that this is the purest form of butter in the whole world.”
And so his inner grandmother may have appeared in your dreams because you are aware that your partner is still deeply influenced by what he holds within him. The inner grandmother can also signify what has been received via genes passed on or ancestral influences.
The second dream may reflect that you believe you need his grandmother’s approval for having a relationship with your partner, perhaps because you are aware of her influence in his (inner) life?
Using “Being the person or thing” may also help you explore your feelings when you see his grandmother “sitting on the floor, so happy and smiling while looking at us and she was enjoying the music a lot…”
Anna 🙂
Dear Anna,
I never felt threatened by his grandmother or his feelings for her or his Family at all. Nor in any case has she communicated with either of us in the dream. Yes, i had quite confused feelings for him because i wanted to come closer to him in this relationship but i was a bit hesitated.. Also idea of seeing her in d dream was shocking for me since i didn’t even give her a space in my thoughts..
Second time, yes, i was quite under the influence that, what if she came in my dream to tell me to trust him and agree to be with him.. May be this is the reason why i Saw her smiling.. I am in India. And my partner is an Indian. When i shared this dream with my girlfriends here. They used to tell me analysis as per their culture. They used to explain to me that seeing this butter is just a sign of faithfulness in my partner’s feelings that i should be ready to trust.. Seeing his grandmother is nothing but that she is a part of him that is watching over his life and everyone who enters it.
Anyhow whatever it may mean, i just needed to speak it out.. Thanks a lot for you to respond.
Sara