Dream about Lord Shiva

[Dreamer]

Dear Tony,

I had a very strange dream. I am a Christian. I saw a dream in which my sister and I were looking out of our kitchen window which is locked(mesh window pane) which extends into our balcony. In the balcony just outside the window ( it is night and quite dark) is sitting a figure which resembles Lord Shiva exactly. So, I call my sister and ask her to take a look. That figure comes closer to the locked window and we see it is Lord Shiva. It looks very androgynous. So he asks us to give him the oblation that we brought from a temple. My sister is about to open the window to give it to him,but all the time we both are having doubts regarding the truthfulness of this figure. So, as my sister is about to open the window latch to give it, this figure dressed as Lord Shiva says that he will enter the house and take it personally. To which we move back and deny. This makes this figure furious and it transforms into the form of an ugly and angry woman with long and messy hair and very dark complexion, looking like goddess Kali or some ghost, but looking at it we feel a lot of negativity and she says ' I will be back' and disappears with a huge leap off the balcony.

Now, this is disturbing me a lot. And  I am banking on you to provide me with the true interpretation. I believe in you Tony. Looking forward to the interpretation.

Regards.

[mikey]

hi,
i couldnt help but notice something in your dream which i heard from joseph campbell in one of his lectures,
namely the two aspects of the buddha
,i dont think the unconscious self is bothered what religion you follow and will use whatever symbology is needed to get the message across.
the two aspects  mentioned goes like this,
if you are open minded enough,the peaceful aspect comes,but if you are clinging hold of the ego and its little world,the wrathful aspect comes,

there is also the grail version,
if you are again ,open,the grail maiden comes,she is friendly ,but if you are clinging on to your ego world,the hidious damsel comes,she will tear strips off you,berating you for your sins,
the esential motive in most myths of this theme is to move you on,from some sort of spiritual rut , limbo,stagnation etc

shiva & kali would seem to represent the same duality in the above myths,so dont be offended by this symbology,
hope this kick starts something for you,if not ,i am sure others may trigger something for you,
rgds mikey

[Dreamer]

Hey there.

Your interpretation is pretty interesting. However, I think a point has been missed here and that is due to me not explaining in detail earlier. The point is, when one is watching God ( Lord Shiva in this context), there is a feeling of being completely mesmerised and overwhelming and positive, and I have immense amount of respect for each and every religion equally;about ego or a high handed attitude, i have never heard anyone even closest to me or vice versa ever have such an image of me,so bringing that kind of an angle into this dream does not make sense. So,coming back, here when I saw this dream, I am not mesmerised by seeing this figure even closely and i am having a constant feeling of doubt as to this is just a mask/cover and there is something shady and undivinely beneath this which is not revealing itself. However, upon showing(and not verbally) a hesitance in allowing this figure to enter the house as it does not seem right and besides,I am wanting to see its true face and that is when it changes with anger into this hideous woman. Now, I a assumed it is kali, however she looked more like a black magic woman and was very scary/ devilish. If she was kali, she would have destroyed, but she leapt out of the balcony like a coward, and that is totally unbecoming of Goddess Kali.

Therefore, it seems to have a different twist to it. I feel you have a good eye for detail and could throw some more light on it with these new revelations.

Thanks for the earlier reply. Looking forward to your next one.

Regards.

[mikey]

hi,
firstly,i am in no way saying you are egotistical or high handed as you put,
the ego campbell refered to is, the ego self that thinks it knows,although  is actually a small part in a much greater self,
i am not a dream interpreter,& most definatly not qualified to answer your dream for you,that i will leave to others more capable,
i saw a resemblence to something jo campbell talked about,thought i would pass it on,make of it what you will.
rgds mikey

[sailrmc]

Hello Dreamer,
I am one who firmly believes (and have see first hand) that religious, ethnic, and even cultural beliefs are important in deciphering the meaning of dreams. In your case I have to say that I have not enough knowledge or expertise in eastern religious beliefs to begin to attribute specific meaning.

I also believe that the unconscious mind will take every opportunity to make it easy for the dreamer to gain understanding of the information that it conveys to consciousness (via dreams). Since I do not have the background (as I have already mentioned), I will attempt to shine light on meaning, and ask you to consider what I say. It is your dream and you will know if I am on track or not.

Considering the symbolism presented (in the context shown), I believe that you are experiencing emotional backlash for changing the basis of something that you have a deep  seated belief in. Perhaps it is transition in general as you progress into another phase of your life, OR it might be something much more specific. If I remember correctly from Jung's archetypes, I see a correlation between what you have presented, and Carl Jung's archetype (specifically the wise old woman, wise old man). As it relates to symbolism that you have given, wisdom has found it's way into your life and now that you have rejected your old and established (by changing your way of thinking) it symbolically transforms into a destructive force as it leaves the the presence of your body and mind.
In my effort to abridge the symbolic fingerprint of this archetype I may not have explained it's significance.

If you Google, Carl Jung archetype wise old woman wise old man, you will get a much more accurate and in depth explanation.

In any case, I see your dream as one that is depicting , the casting (on your part, of out of old and deep seated beliefs, as you change to a new way of thinking or acting). The old way of thinking goes out kicking and screaming...so to speak.

Overlay what I have said to recent happenings in your life, or to the way that you think, in recent times.

regards,
sailrmc
Your thoughts would be appreciated 

[Tony Crisp]

I believe that there is fear of the malevolent as if it could hurt you. You are only dealing with dream images which are masks for your feelings.

Here is an example of not being afraid.

"Had a very unusual dream last night. I was in an outdoor environment. It seemed a bit dark, or maybe morbid is the right word. I was with other people but none of them stood out to remain in memory. There was a definite awareness though of being near to a place that was haunted, and that a man was in trouble in the haunted place.

I decided to go and see if I could sort out the problem. I walked down a slope to where the centre of the haunting existed. It was an open space with an old double-decker bus in it. The only person on the bus was a middle-aged man who was sitting on the top deck leaning out of a window on the right hand side of the bus. I stood beneath him and looked up. He was staring in a glazed way and didn’t see me. I could see and feel that he was being hit by fantasies or hallucinations by whatever was the source of the haunting. This invasion of his mind was grabbing his attention so fully that he wasn’t aware of his surrounding or of me. I was sure that if he went any deeper into this mind stuff he wouldn’t be able to pull out. I waved my hand in his line of vision and banged my hand on the bus to make a noise and get his attention. At first it didn’t seem as if I would bring him out of it, but after a while he looked at me.

I shouted at him to pull out. I said that he had a wife and some more years of his life to live, so why lose himself into this entrancement. This didn’t seem to grab him so I shouted again and said that he would eventually slip into this empty mind world anyway - at death - so why not live with his wife the remaining years of his life. I was sure that if he lost awareness he would let himself starve.

I was aware that what he desired was to slip away into the void, into the awareness of the one life in which he lost any awareness of self. But I banged and shouted and he became more ‘present’. I then felt I had to confront whatever was the source of the powerful ‘haunting’ that was pulling him into the inner mind. I turned away from the man and saw just to my right a short distance from the bus an animal that was the ‘haunter’. It was a mammal of no particular type - a bit like a mixture of dog, rat and guinea pig. It seemed very ordinary and tame, and stood looking at me. I walked toward it and stretched out my hand. It was a tan colour with short fur and gave a feeling of being okay to approach, so I touched it to stroke. This was okay and I was thinking there was no problem when the creature leapt at my throat in a flash of movement and ripped my throat out.

This sounds disturbing but I simply observed this and thought to myself that stroking and trying to be friendly was no way of dealing with this thing. It was as if I was in command of the imagery in that I simply formed another body. The creature ripped out my throat again and dived into my body to eat it. I woke at this point and went for a pee. When I went back to sleep I carried on with the dream. The only way that felt as if I might deal with the creature was to have the meditative state of not having any goals, and not feeling panic at it’s attacks. In fact apart from the gory imagery, there was nothing to be frightened of, as the creature was only attacking my dream image of myself. As I wasn’t identified with this, it couldn’t hurt me. That was the end of the dream."

Tony