Messages

61

Dream Interpretation / In hiding and under protection

« on: March 07, 2011, 07:27:16 PM »

Well that was a weird one last night!

I was in a house with a small group of people when some militia of some sort were about to storm the building and take everyone captive. I was smuggled out quickly through an opening and secreted in an outhouse for my safety. I appeared to be of some significance to the militia. A little later, while I was hiding in the outhouse, reading a book,  one of the people, who turned out to be John Cleese (?), came and fitted big security locks to the door and said 'That will keep you safe!'

I didn't feel scared in the dream but I did feel protected.

62

Dream Interpretation / Re: Massacre and money

« on: February 21, 2011, 04:42:39 PM »

Thanks Tony - it was a dream that left me slightly troubled. One of those 'technicolour surround sound' varieties that is saying 'this is important'.
 
It did come, also, at a time when my normal opportunities for withdrawal and contemplation were being seriously eaten into.

The death of the people often takes place when there is a point of departure, a great choice, or giving up of old ways of life and entering the new.

I will treasure the opportunity of moving more into the exploration and the forest!

63

Dream Interpretation / Massacre and money

« on: February 16, 2011, 11:43:56 PM »

Last night I dreamt that I was in a clearing in the midst of woodland with a large group of people on our way to somewhere. We were ambushed by two or three violent people who set about killing the people by hitting them over the heads with large rocks. The people didn't run; they just stood, distressed but accepting their fate. In amongst all the mayhem, I saw the opportunity to slip away from the crowd, to pick up a brief case which I knew was full of money that the attackers had stolen and make off into the woods. I paused by the first track out of the woods but decided it was too close to the attackers and made my way further into the woods.

 

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Dream Interpretation / Re: The cat and the basket

« on: February 04, 2011, 11:30:33 AM »

Ooh thanks Tony - I knew I was missing something! I will ponder that!

So maybe: 'How I feel about the cat in the dream' is that I've lost control of her and need to find a new way to contain her when necessary.

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Dream Interpretation / The cat and the basket

« on: January 28, 2011, 02:07:45 PM »

  In your dictionary, it suggests replacing 'cat' with how I feel about the cat in the dream - I find that what I feel about the cat is so many words and so strong that I can't quite narrow it down. Maybe that's the point!

In the dream my cat (real in waking life) is in some way sick or injured - her back legs aren't working properly (some years ago, in waking life, I lost a cat through a thrombus that had this effect. He had to be euthanised after trying all options because his legs were 'dying'. It was really traumatic an devastating).
In the dream, I am trying to get my cat into her basket to get her to the vet. I put her in the basket but it is broken and she escapes through the bottom. I try with a different basket and the same happens. I am exacerbated and distraught; how am I going to get her help? She won't let me catch her again, that's for sure! someone - I can't see him/her in the dream - points out that the cat is walking well now. It's as though the problem comes and goes; even though it's something severe.

It's as though I fear that the 'secret', 'potent' 'cat like' part of me is still broken but it's not - that's just my perception. I try to keep it in the basket because I want it to be healed but it won't stay there. It insists on being free; my method of containing it no longer works. Maybe it can only be healed by being free. Letting the cat out of the basket is scary but I have to let her live and take her risks. I have to realise that 'she' will be fine. Living life is the thing; not preserving life while not living it. Well maybe that's what it's about. Maybe her woundedness frightens me when i reality, it's no longer there; I can be myself, be different and not answer anyone's questions and expectations; like the cat. Or maybe the broken basket indicates that  have to find a new way to access healing for the 'cat'.

66

Dream Interpretation / Re: The curse

« on: January 26, 2011, 12:08:23 PM »

Interesting, Tony. I think I got the stuff out - but maybe what I'm left with, is a residual feeling about my value in men's eyes that still comes back now and again.

67

Dream Interpretation / Re: The curse

« on: January 24, 2011, 10:10:24 PM »

Thanks Tony; my father wasn't dominating though: he was completely absent - I never met him.

It's funny, years of therapy don't fully deal with the ghosts- it has to continue. Like Alan Bennet says 'Life is like a tin of sardines; just when you think you've cleaned it out, there's always a bit stuck in the corner.' when that happens, I have to recognise it and deal with it at another level.

Perhaps it's the abandonment thing that still lurks in there somewhere that I curse him for..........I still expect to be abandoned at some level.

The thing about what is reality is something I have been thinking about lately.

But the cost of the curse that was the only way to be free.........coming back to punish me.........well that's true, too.

68

Dream Interpretation / The curse

« on: January 21, 2011, 11:26:25 AM »

I was inside a medieval style fortress - it felt as though this was my family home dominated by a male, father-like figure. I couldn't get out; I desperately wanted to leave but he wouldn't let me. I was standing at the huge wooden gate trying to escape when he found me. My only hope of escape was to curse him, which I did and so he let me go. Once free and in a better world, I admitted to my friends that I had had to curse him and that I knew the curse would come back on me but I had no other way to escape.

Perhaps it's important to say that, in waking life, I had no relationship with my father as he left when I was a baby and never made contact. My mother was the dominating force; angry and unpredictable and I eventually ceased contact with her about 9 years ago.

69

Dream Interpretation / Re: Beautiful gift

« on: December 31, 2010, 01:50:41 PM »

Tony, I've sent you a private message, when you have time to look as I don't want to share details about my friend's illness on the open forum.
Many thanks!

70

Dream Interpretation / topic locked

« on: December 31, 2010, 12:55:18 PM »

Hi Tony - you appear to have locked my topic; not sure whether intentionally or accidentally. I've sent you a private message, when you have time.
Many thanks!!

71

Dream Interpretation / Beautiful gift

« on: December 30, 2010, 12:05:17 PM »

Last night I dreamt that I received a beautiful gift through the post from my friend (in waking life - the friend I love very much whom I haven't seen for a long time because he's been ill). The gift was held in a transparent wrap on which he'd written a lovely message but when I removed the wrap, I realised I could no longer read the message and would need to place it over the box again to see it. The box was a very beautiful, padded and embroidered work of art. The hinges were half way down so that, when I opened it, it had two sections of equal depth. In each section were lots of small, individually wrapped gifts. I picked one up and could feel that it was a small geod from the left hand section and instantly knew that all the gifts were crystals. (My friend knows I love crystals). I was very moved that he had taken the time to wrap each of these many small crystals. There was also an exquisite, hand stitched label, with my name and a message, made at a special shop where I knew the owners  (not in waking life); at first I thought the label was from them but realised that he'd got them to make the label.

Then I was temporarily staying in a dormitory with a number of people; almost as if there were a military connection. I realised that I hadn't brought the box with me and would have to wait until I returned home to look at it again.

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Dream Interpretation / Re: Full of symbols?

« on: November 30, 2010, 04:09:16 PM »

Thanks Tony; it's given me lots to think about. In the dream, I was jealous of the girl, I think; I couldn't bear to see him with her because I want to be with him.......of course, in symbolism it means something quite different, I realise.

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Dream Interpretation / Full of symbols?

« on: November 29, 2010, 09:24:43 PM »

Hi Tony, last night I had a dream that was so full of symbols that I am tempted to read as classic but would like your view on it if you have time.

The setting: my church (a modern, warm building - not trad at all)
The characters: a man I know in waking life and with whom I would possibly be interested in having a relationship with. Three women. Me, a female friend (possibly about my own age) and a young girl/young woman - probably late teens or early twenties. (Immediately I can't help thinking female trinities and 3 stages of me).

The man has had a relationship with my friend - but she tells me about a conversation she started while they were having sex and he dropped out of the relationship. I can see why he did this - the conversation was completely inappropriate for the occasion. (In waking I can't remember the contents of the conversation). I want to be with him but his attention is elsewhere: he has brought this young girl back with him and clearly plans to sleep with her. It's as though the Church is in some way my home and he is using it like an apartment. I and my friend are supposed to leave and go to my house but when we get outside, I can't find my car keys. We are stranded. we creep back into the church and settle down in the chapel, thinking we will have to spend the night there.

The man has taken loads of candles and lit them in a pathway through the building. He lies down within them but the young girl remains standing and doesn't join him. He realises that we are there and both of them come over. I explain that I can't find my keys and the young girl asks whether I'd like her to look and I agree. I have two handbags with me and she goes through both; first the functional one and then the more delicate, gossamer light, thin drawstring one and there she finds the keys. I am very grateful to her (as much because I don't want to be their, seeing him with her as to get home) and I and my friend get up to leave. The man comments on how lovely the candles look and that he has them all over the vestry and above the headboard of the bed in there, too. I say that I will invoice him for the candles!

I got the impression that the really meaningful relationship in the dream was the one between 'me' and the man, yet I was leaving and he was staying with the young girl.

I'm presuming the three women are facets of me and that the dream is about how I feel about my relationship with this man  and maybe what my young self could teach me/show me; ie she finds the keys in the beautiful, delicate handbag.

74

Dream Interpretation / Re: Hostage

« on: November 15, 2010, 06:11:09 PM »

Thanks Tony - I'll take a look. There were more cats being murdered and saved last night - dark ones, this time. Cats are an important part of my life, so maybe it's about what they mean to me as well as generally in this one. When it's not cats, it's horses at the moment.  

"So if you dare to grow beyond your present maturity, you are bound to have a few nightmares. Try to see what they say about you. You have nothing to lose but your fear."

It's interesting because I've just had a significant birthday and yet am not particularly preoccupied with this in waking life. It is presumably, therefore, coming out in my dream life and making me conscious of it. What is interesting, is that as I get older, I feel more liberated and independent, rather than less. I am more aware of my attractiveness and more accepting of who I am and what I look like. There is a freedom and a power in ageing as a woman. Eventually, people have to take you more seriously and have less chance to patronise - although some still try! So there is a power, potency and confidence in middle age that isn't there in youth. Yet, there must also be transition and loss. Our society so focuses its sense of beauty on youth and thinness; as women age (and men too, perhaps) it is tempting to give in to the increasingly popular option of fake youth. It's missing the point, though; there is a different and richer beauty with age.

A question though; it's also me that saves the cat (and 'real' me - I intervened from my observer status) and me who loves it and wants to keep it. So surely this isn't just about the me that is fighting the approach of age and is feeling the murderous rage? It feels like it's a conflict, too.

75

Dream Interpretation / Re: Hostage

« on: November 12, 2010, 11:03:51 AM »

  Somehow the changes I begin to make in my life that I am managing come out really scary and challenging in my dreams.    Is this one about the implications inside me, I wonder or is it simply about getting older and learning to become more united within myself? Could it be that the older 'me' wants to bring her femininity and sexuality into the new life but the younger 'me' doesn't want it? Or something else? I can't help but feel these two women are a little reminiscent of the two wolves in the cherokee story!

There were two women; one in her 30s or 40s who was dark haired and strong willed and a bit sharp and unpleasant. The other, grey haired and gentle and obliging.

The darker haired woman had a large house and her female friends were moving in with her but the grey haired woman, who wanted to move was saying how she couldn't do so without her dear, old, blue persian cat - and the dark haired woman didn't want the cat.

The dark haired woman poisoned the cat but I saw this and intervened; I grabbed the cat and made it cough up the piece of bread with the poison on. The cat was saved.

The dark haired woman gave in and the cat moved into her house with the grey haired woman. However, there was some sort of party or gathering and the friends lined up for a photo and the dark haired woman took the chance to grab the cat (without the grey haired woman seeing) and she tried to strangle it. The cat struggled and scratched the woman very badly and then escaped into a field. The grey haired woman was distraught; she looked at the deep scratches on the hands and legs of the dark haired woman and expressed how dreadful the wounds were. She looked into the field wondering where her cat was and not understanding why he would have done such a thing.


I'm editing to add a comment: I've been looking at this literally in terms of the ages of the women and thinking that the older woman is me now but could she be the 'old' me? Perhaps I am struggling with the 'new' me (who is of course actually older in literal terms)? The 'new' me is tougher, less of a walkover. Over the last few months I've begun to be less of a people pleaser; less 'agreeable' in psychological terms - I am a little more comfortable with people not liking me or what I say. I am less inclined to give in to unreasonable expectations. The cat is a blue-grey colour so this could tie in with fear, gloominess or depression if I take your dictionary interpretations literally...This colour but a long haired cat:



and when I say it looked unkempt, it looked a bit like this



The cat is 'old' too; so perhaps my attitudes to affection, sex and sexuality, religion ....these are all changing. BUT the cat fights for its life and survives and I also save its life. It is being poisoned by something - bread is something a cat wouldn't usually eat and indeed, it's hard to poison a cat. Bread - stuff of life and of ritual. The cat is a symbol of affection and as someone who loves cats, a positive thing. It is also the survival instinct and the predator. It leaves deep wounds. It runs off into the wild.

Also, dividing these two women is a cat. The cat is Persian; I've never owned a persian cat, so I don't really know much about them - I've ended up doing a search for more info now! It was old and a bit unkempt looking. It occurs to me that this breed is modified and somewhat removed from its natural state.

The dream felt really quite disturbing.