Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’
Plunge
Taking a risk; facing uncertainty; going into something unknown or untried. To gain even an elementary understanding of dreams, one must plunge into that strange world of imagination we find in our own minds. It suggests taking the plunge in a new activity, relationship or way of life.
The plunge into the unconscious that dreams take us into may reveal some material, not deeply repressed, and which emerges easily and is understood very readily at verbal levels. Some, slightly more critical, appears veiled at first in symbolic images and dramas, in mythic dream stories. Other material, more painful, less acceptable to us, is obviously repressed to much deeper symbolic levels. To find it, the person who seeks resolution must plunge into weird and exotic gestural and physiological paradigms, or even suffer painful and upsetting symptom formations such as headaches, muscular spasms, and nervous tics and tremors.
I believe that if you really investigate dreams, first you will meet yourself. You will walk again the long road of your growth with the etched-in experiences that shaped you into the person you are. You will however, if you persist, see that there is a vaster self than this present personality, one that can reshape who you are, if you so dare. All of this means plunging into a very different world of experiences, one you need to adapt to.
Example: Joe no longer fears death. In fact the last time it happened he rather enjoyed the ride. First he was plunged into darkness, and then came a bright light, a field of flowers, and a man in white who told him about his future. Later doctors informed him that his pulse had been flat for 44 seconds. For Joe his near-death experience was a very real preview of what is in store for him after death.
Example: There were plants, animals, people, hills, rivers and mountains all coming to birth. They danced out in their own individual movement, yet each unknowingly was part of the whole wonderful and intricate dance which made a great pattern and movement in the body of the circle. All danced to the periphery and there turned and moved, still in their ballet, back to the centre. At that centre they plunged into its oblivion again. But at that very moment new life sprang from it to dance once more.
Example: The willingness to plunge again and again into unsavoury emotions and images can also be seen as a necessity. The beautiful is often hidden in the dirt, or grows out of it. It is only when we see that beauty grows out of dirt that we realise dirt is not ‘filth’, but earth. It is the basic stuff of life, the material all growth emerges from; the stuff that our life forces transform in the process of growing. But if we are out of touch with the earth of our nature, our energy has nothing to transform into the flower of our manhood or womanhood. In the East, the lotus growing out of the mud has always been a symbol of this.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Did I plunge easily or with anxiety?
What was plunged into?
Am I afraid of taking the plunge into anything new?
See Emotions and Mood in Dreams – Inner World – Learning to Allow Yourself – Secrets of Power Dreaming
Ones personal secrets or thoughts; self; sense of ownership or possession; vagina. Pockets, can also represent what we carry inside us – memories, skills.
A pocket can indicate memory; inner reserves of vitality, money, capabilities, tools, pen, etc
Hole in pocket: Fear of losing, or the realisation of losing important things, and a hole in trouser pockets could point to the sort of loss illustrated in the second example.
Front pocket: Front pockets near the sexual organs can in some way link with sexual feelings.
Trouser pocket: can refer to sexuality; your intimate space that you only allow certain people to enter. It can indicate the things you want handy, things you use or want to use often, things like personal items you love to have with you. Also medicines or herbs you keep ready in emergencies.
Example: I found a coat/jacket washed up on the beach. It looked very bedraggled. Then I looked inside and it was in better condition. With astonishment and pleasure I saw that the inside pocket was full of personal, interesting things. First to see was a pair of gloves.
In this dream the jacket – a means of keeping warm and giving social signals – is rough on the outside, but with great interest once you look inside. That suggests the dreamer is considering how he appears to other people. It recognises his lack of formality but inner richness.
Example: ‘I was in a headmaster’s study – no one I know. We were conversing when he suddenly held before my gaze a small head of a Buddha statue which looked as if it should fit onto something else. Immediately I recognised it as my own, and foolishly began to feel through my trouser pockets, perhaps to see if there was a hole there. I held my hand out for the head, to take it back into my possession, but with a smile the headmaster shook his head. I could not have it back yet, and to explain why he beckoned me to follow and led me to another room. We stood in the doorway and looked in. A large ornate bed was in the room with, I believe, a mirror above it. Suddenly it was like looking into the past. Scene after scene of sexual abandon, performed without love, commitment or any other feeling except the desire for pleasure, arose before me. I knew this was why I could not have the head of the Buddha, and also, more important, why I had lost it.’
Idioms: a pocket of resistance; be in somebody’s pocket; air pockets to form; deep pockets; emptying his pockets; in/out of pocket; pocket money; pocket ones pride; pocket books; burn a hole in ones pocket; dip into ones pocket; pocket extra change; pocket Hercules; pockets of experience; pocket their ball; air pockets to form; pocket Venus; line ones pocket; an odd pocket to be cleared up; I went through his pockets.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What do I like to keep in my pockets?
Was there something special in the pockets?
What sort of pocket was involved?
See Questions – Processing Dreams – Habits – Being the Person or Thing
Pocket Book
See: Wallet.
Pod
Restrictive and protective influence you break out of. Somebody is said to come out of their shell when they break free of reserve or restraining influences. Parental influence could be symbolised as a pod. The pod might also refer to the experience of being in the womb.
A pod is like the womb which not only protects while vital processes of life are taking place, but also feeds the process.
Being in a pod suggests that you are going through a vital and important growth process.
The seed, falling from the pod, and growing, carries with it the essence of the old plant. So it symbolises reincarnation, the starting again, under the influence of past experience and karma.
Talking about a pea pod that appeared as part of her imagery, Constance Newland shows how it represented her father’s penis. The pea associated with pee or urine, and the pod with a seed carrier, the testicles.
Example: I watched an insect emerging from what appeared to be its chrysalis – shaped a little like a mermaid’s purse. As it emerged it was vibrant with life, movement and colour. I watched another insect doing the same thing, and began to realise how life was bursting forth in the garden. Looking up in the hedge I noticed a large pod expanding on top of a stalk. Its was visibly getting larger, like a balloon. Suddenly it opened, forming many stalks with leaves and small rose like buds. Another pod was doing the same.
Example: So I was being born and yet at the same time destroying the person I had been. It was a wonderful feeling to sense the rather restrictive person I had been. Yet at the same time it was a process of growth that had to tear its way out of its pod/womb/chimney. It linked with an episode of the TV series in which an electro/organic/mechanical space ship gave birth to its offspring. To get out the infant ship had to fire a cannon to make the opening wider. It worked without any ill effects on the infant ship or the mother ship.
Poem Poet Poetry
Imaginative faculty that may, through inspiration or intuition, express your deepest feelings, feelings and meanings that may be hidden to the more conservative, conscious, self. I have virtually no record of people dreaming about poetry or poets. Where it does happen the poem seems to sum up profound feelings that summarise the dreamer’s best or worst view of life. So it seems a poem is a form of self expression of subtle content or impressions, probably like a gestalt. Therefore the poet would be the aspect of your own mind that forms such intuitive gestalts.
Point Pointing
For pointing
Meaning: meeting or unity; direction. Arriving at a destination; something powerful or focused enough to penetrate. This can refer to an idea or an experience that can enter us or get through any defences we may have. Pointing suggests a way of directing your attention to something, or drawing attention to some aspect of yourself. See: Dot.
Anything pointed can refer to male sexuality; reaching a point – arriving at a culmination or change; a meaning; a decision to be made; something powerful or focused enough to penetrate. This can refer to an idea or an experience that can enter us or get through any defences we may have; a point of reference or interest. Something pointed to, meaning it is probably important.
Idioms: a starting point; an end point; an important point; point of view; pointed out; at this point; points to ponder; at that point; at some point; point of growth; vantage point; what is the point; pressure points; point of despair; points out; my point of view; at no point; useful points; high point; finer points; mid-point; general points; at this point in time; point a finger at; beside the point; the breaking point; put too fine a point on; point of no return; point out; point is well taken; selling point; point-blank range; pointed questions
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is the point threatening or useful?
Did I get the point or was it aimed at me?
Were there any sexual implications in the dream?
Did anything like a remark or feeling penetrate you?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Magical Dream Machine
Pointing: – Drawing ones attention to something; feeling at the receiving end of someone’s attention, emotions or suggestions. Pointing in a dream may mean the dreamer is trying to determine the best direction for reaching some goal. The dreamer may have reached a fork in the road and can no longer proceed along the same old path.
Pointing hand: Drawing your attention to something.
Pointing stick or gun: Aggressive or defensive sexuality or emotions.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Was I pointing or was someone else?
Did I feel in danger or that I could protect myself?
Is there an indication of a direction to take?
See direction – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Magical Dream Machine
Poison
A warning that you might be taking in something that can harm you mentally, emotionally or physically. This might be in the form of words, thoughts or substances. Warning to avoid something; something that will not be good for us; attitudes, emotions or thoughts that can harm us; warning against business deal or relationship; possibly related to foods we are eating that are not suitable.
But thoughts such as jealousy and hate are deeply poisonous to our system. Also to constantly think you are ill and unloved are equally deadly.
And remember that we are all poisoners of the life in us if we eat adulterated foods produced in factories. Each time we eat such foods, such as white sugar, white flour and white rice our body has to struggle to make it right – as with alcohol.
Poisoning someone else – this can easily be done by feeding them malicious gossip or suggestions. Or being poisoned by someone else is similar.
Thoughts without love are poison. Thought with love is peace.
Poisoned by a snake bite in a dream is not like in waking life. It is about fear of dying. In other words you are frightened of facing the great changes that can occur in your life as you face real growth. You old self will die as the new you emerges. See snake
Example: I was introduced to my wife’s brother in law’s brother. We talked for a while and parted. Afterwards I felt ill at ease and couldn’t relax. I suppose if I had used drink I wold have had a drink and forgotten about it. Being used to listen to my dreams I thought I would investigate the feeling like a dream. Quickly the words came to me, “It is him! He was trying to put me down because he wanted my wife.” As this thought came I could see it in action. It was all quite subtle so was not immediately observable, but he had made several remarks I could see influenced me. The next time we were together, my wife was present, and one of the first things he said was what a stupid hat I was wearing – said in such a way to demean me. I turned to my wife and said, “Here he goes again.”
Example: There are many sordid hurtful things done that I have forgiven myself for. Maybe some have even been more brutal in their own way. God knows I have enough poison in me. But I cannot forgive the time I hurt those eyes. I cannot forget, or forgive.
Example: But things will not be different even if we run away and start again. For we cannot run away from ourselves. We carry the poison about in our breath, in our words, the tone of voice, the way we sit and whatever thing we do. We have to start right in here, this very moment, this very situation, and wrestle with, change it, do something with it. And in the wrestle with the external some poison is let loose from us, some cleansing takes place, something happens. I don’t know, but we are not really wrestling with things outside, but with ourselves. And we do not change things but change ourselves.
Idioms: What’s your poison; poison ones mind; poison pen letter; avoid it like poison.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Did I see a label saying poison or did I take it?
Was it from a snake bite?
Am I scared of being poisoned?
See Martial Art of the Mind – Avoid Being Victims – Talking to Inner Self
Pole
The penis; male sexuality; self expression in its positive extending aspect. Anything upright like this can also represent the spine, with its connotations of strength or ‘spinelessness’. So a pole with flag flying high could show the mood of well-being and rejoicing. The pole thrown down or broken could be a sense of defeat or low spirits.
Also a pole can be weapon or even a way of overcoming barriers like a vaulting pole. See: Maypole; Oar; Pole Star; Oak .
A pole is sometimes used to refer to a Polish person.
The image of Jesus suffering on the Cross – which is a pole with arms – is a familiar one. What is the mystery of this suffering? There are some mythological parallels, described in Campbell’s The Masks of God. There is the Norse god, Wotan, for example, who hangs from a tree, speared in sacrifice to himself, in order to learn the secret of the Runes. There is also Ixion, forever bound to the Wheel of Life by his passion; yet it is his passion that also creates the wheel and sustains it.
There is the Sun Dance, which involves a pole, has something to teach about suffering. The leather strap from the central pole is gouged into the dancer’s chest. As the dancer leans back, pulling on the strap, he enters into suffering. If he moves too close to the centre, the strap becomes slack and there is no suffering. If he pulls back too hard, his skin tears and he separates himself from the dance. Maintaining the maximum amount of tension that the flesh will allow, the dancer sustains the suffering. At a certain point, the body ceases to distinguish suffering from non-suffering, and at that moment the dancer is initiated into the mystery by a vision.
Example: To prepare for dreaming together, the twelve women arranged their sleeping bags into a “wheel” surrounding a central pole. In addition, each woman had two strands of ribbon attached to her sleeping bag which were then attached to the pole, making a “dream net.” The arrangement is quite similar to the May Pole and Sun Dance ceremonies; except, in this case, the people are lying down, asleep and dreaming.
Example: Regeneration was also a theme of the tree festivity. Involving the rebirth of Dionysus, who, like the later Risen Christ of Easter, was seen as a twice-born young man. Another spring festival is the May Pole celebration of the British Isles, with its flowers and the dancing with ribbons around a pole prepared from a tree. It is almost as if by decorating a barren tree with flowers and dancing around it, the people are trying to coax the tree to imitate the spring in their dance and sprout forth its own flowers.
Snake a pole: The blind instinctive forces of life emerging into conscious experience – in other words the essence of human experience with its involvement in pain, pleasure, time and eternity; the process of personal growth or evolution. This is healing because personal growth often moves us beyond old attitudes or situations that led to inner tension or even sickness.
Totem pole: Like any pole it represents the uprising forces of nature and so is also a phallic symbol. But the carvings are man made and represent the stories that tribesmen honour – the great events of their tribe that are also the traditions that give the people their identity. So in a dream it can represent you links with your cultural or family heritage; your state of sexual energy; or the marks you have carved on the tree of life through your own activities. See identity.
Example: We were trying to cross the hall diagonally toward the exit, but were constantly attacked or haunted by black demons or ghosts. I was fighting them off, but the struggle went on and on as they came back. Then toward the end I had a large pole and I was smashing them aside shouting, “By the power of God within me, I dismiss you” – or words to that effect.
The dreamer says of this dream, “I felt a slightly sore throat as I became semi awake wondering about the dream. I remembered that yesterday I had a flu injection, and what I arrived at was that the blackness depicted serious illness that I had been fighting off. As I was looking at this the black demons became very real for me and I felt I could not really dismiss them as an influence. I struggled and struggled with this, as I had in the dream, but now semi awake. But gradually I became aware of peace, a solid unmovable peace – a steadiness of consciousness – and the steady peace seemed to dissolve any threat I felt. Also the sore throat went”.
Idioms: bean pole; low on the totem pole; may pole; pimple pole; pole vault; poles (negative and positive – north and south); scaffold pole; telephone pole; totem pole; touch it with a ten foot pole; up the pole
Useful Questions and Hints:
Was I using the pole or connected to in some way?
Did I feel any sexual attraction during the dream?
What feelings did I have in the dream?
What was the pole used for?
See Being the Person or Thing – Characters and People in Dreams – Key Words
Pole Star
Your highest intuition about direction. A link with the cosmic sense of yourself. See: NorthStar.
Police Policeman Policewoman
Your sense of what is right and wrong in your personal or social life. It can also refer to your feelings about how you stand in relationship with others, your feelings of ease or guilt for instance. Therefore it might indicate conscience or rules of conduct. But the police can also depict your strength of self discipline in your efforts to transform or grow. As part of this they might link with self-analysis, or the questioning of your motives or actions.
Police are also what we turn to when seeking to solve or help with a problem, to right a wrong, for protection or support. So ask yourself what were you in search of and why.
If you are in the police force it will represent some aspect of your work, or the dream may illustrate a problem you face through your work. See Incubating Dreams
The police do not necessarily represent your innermost or spiritual directions, but only your social or more conscious codes. These, like the country’s laws, can arbitrarily change, and be replaced by other laws or moral codes. The policeman is therefore most often a symbol of outer and social relationships, and how we feel about this. So it can represent behaviour influenced by the need to conform to orthodoxy or uniformity.
The police can also depict a source of help you can depend on in an emergency – or if you have had a bad time with the police, then the power of society to abuse you.
Because as human beings we lost contact with out instinctive knowledge that guided us, we erected religion instead. It was to serve the place of the voice of instinct which had always guided human beings in the past. We split it off from the individual human being and made it a social function. Now society would dictate the direction of the individual.
The external symbol of human instincts – god, the gods – became a means to manipulate individuals. The ability to manipulate – to ‘guide’ humans now their personal guidance was suppressed – led to a new form of human society, the human termite hill, with its hierarchy, and suppressants – i.e. kings, priests, armed guards, police, soldiery, etc.
Calling the police: Very often a sign you are calling out for support or help. In a way these are acknowledgements of our need for love, for caring and protection. But also might indicate our admittance of weakness of spirit.
Example: My recurring dream – some disaster is happening. I try to contact the police or my husband. Can never contact either. I try ringing 999 again and again and can feel terror, and sometimes dreadful anger or complete panic. I cry, I scream and shout and never get through! Recently I have stopped trying to contact my husband. I managed once to reach him but he said he was too busy and I would have to deal with it myself. I woke in a furious temper with him and kicked him while he was still asleep.
Policeman or woman at ones door: Anxiety about bad news; traditionally a sign of trouble arriving at ones doorstep, or perhaps a confrontation with guilt. It can be request for information.
Policewoman: As general, but more emphasis on moral issues connected with feeling values.
Police Station: Can connect with many things depending on the country you are in. If your dream is connected with collecting mail, giving identification to a dead person, torture, and alarm connected with police station, taking a criminal to the station, being interrogated, phoning for police, being a hero or heroine with the police, a police person working at the station, judgment or looking down on racial types, then you would need define what the situation was and use something like Settings in Dreams or else Being the Person or Thing
Example: “People being held for questioning in police stations, for example, may be treated humanely, but they get virtually no sensory input,” he says. “If the detention is for short periods of time, I don’t think that’s a problem, but there is talk of extending the period of time for which people can be held on suspicion of terrorist offences. And if people are indeed more suggestible, the longer they are held in isolation, the more that must raise questions about the reliability of their evidence.”
Exactly why people’s brains can be affected so radically by a short spell of isolation is still not fully understood, but Professor Robbins believes that the cells that connect nerve cells and help them to communicate, called dendrites, may lose some of their connectivity if not continually stimulated. There’s certainly evidence of the opposite, that stimulating the brain increases the number of connections. Studies on people with brain injuries have shown that mental stimulation increases the number of dendritic connections that form.
I believe that it is because in general people’s personality or sense if themselves is not founded on a rock but on shifting sand. In other words they depend on being in contact (smartphone use) all time, to not be alone (See Isolation), to be part of a group of friends or family, which you build contact with; or like to be part of a pack or tribe as with football fans or socially way out people.
To be arrested: Can mean something is blocking or interfering with your freedom to make your own decisions or your ability to grow – arrested growth. When investigated one is held back by ones own attitudes or feelings.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What was happening with the dream police?
Where you in trouble, investigated or arrested?
What did they want with me or what where they doing?
See guilt – Martial Art of the Mind; Avoid Being Victims
Political Politician Politics
Sometimes symbolises interests in how you govern your outer life as distinct to inner life. Naturally, if you have strong political feelings, it would symbolise the underlying attitudes that produce these feelings or ideas. It also links with shrewdness, or attempts to manoeuvre or influence; or perhaps to do the thing that others will support.
The politician in your dream suggests talents or urges toward leadership or ways of dealing with your social or economic situation. But it depends what you feel about politicians, and if it is a politician you know, then her or she will be an indication of those feelings and in what way they are active in your life. It could suggest you are playing at politics, speaking much and saying little, or whatever you may associate with politicians. See Characters and People in Dreams
If you have rigid views about politics, religion, society, or the subject of the dream you are trying to research, they act upon the formation of creative realisation just as a rigid tense body would act upon the expression of a dance. As much as possible let go of them.
The new attitudes in women, and new ideas and urges in regard to world politics, religion, family life, music and art, have arisen originally in a few individuals who found a creative relationship with their own inner life. They were able to see through the constricting views and standards in which they were raised. Their own inner frustration and pain demanded to be heard and they listened. Out of that arose the new themes we can now see in the theatre, films, music and social reform. So does your dream present a criticism or a new insight into politics? Our dreams clarify our inner politics, what is going on within us in the huge world of our inner life. And because our inner and outer cannot easily be disconnected, and often we are in conflict with ourselves, shown as feeling ill at ease or depressed, we can do a lot worse than trying to enter the inner world of our dreams.
Politics are extremely important because they often arouse tremendous support or antagonism. The released inner response of our being in dreams and in our life is revolutionary in nature. This is probably why established traditions of religion, medicine and politics often suppress any signs of its appearance.
Example: Confusion in the street. No matter what I found it was no good. Was that why I was put away in an orphanage? Because I didn’t have the answers. Two children having children (my parents) like E. and G., Kids!. There is nowhere to go. Live under guilt, the anger always mad. Worked with you over the years because of the pain. . Nobody else understands. It’s all my own journey. Always thinking I’m not strong enough, not emotional enough. . . . . . . . . That has a yes to it. (To T.) You did or you have found the right way the right way. It does not accept or deny the different aspects of life from politics to religion. etc. The Buddhists say they have found it but they walk about with the robes on – three meals a day. There is a choice as to whether the west to stay within it. In India- I saw three Buddhists with a rich couple, Big men, the main man was like a Mafia boss. Power.
That is a man’s revolutionary feelings as he explored his actual life experience.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Do I feel politics are an important part of my life?
Am I feeling revolutionary feelings about politics?
Do I feel nothing about politics?
What was my dream saying about politics and my feelings about it?
See Avoid Being Victims – Martial Art of the Mind – Programmed – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Pollen
Sperm, fruition, fertility as from new ideas. Plants and fishes cascade pollen and are fertilised. For pollen is the sperm of a plant. Bees collect it because it is rich in protein and vitamins and minerals.
The Navaho have a wonderful image of what they call the Pollen Path. Pollen is the life source; the pollen path is the way to the center of that life source. The Navaho say,
“Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I am on the pollen path.
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The picture is of the Pollen Path, and shows, similar to the Ox Herding Pictures a path of transformation. Joseph Campbell wrote, that in terms if the aims of the deceased in life were no higher than those of the animal instincts, the Swallower claims the soul.The implication is that if one has not reached the heart level of love and compassion during a lifetime, the person must be reborn, that is, reincarnated back on earth, in order to try again. Otherwise, the soul is free to move on to higher planes of existence. |
Example: A rather shadowy man gave me a leather pull-string purse or pouch. In the pouch was powder that the man suggested I pour onto my rather stained trousers. Immediately the powder started working like yeast, cleansing and purifying my trousers in a spreading action. I knew that this yeast, or pollen, had also penetrated my body, and was gradually working through me, purifying and healing. – Adrian.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What was my relationship with the pollen in the dream?
Was it in any fertilising, healing or transforming?
What did I sense or feel in the dream?
Was anything planted?
See Working with associations – Being the Person or Thing – Magical Dream Machine
Pool
The inner world of your mind and imagination. Particularly links with looking into yourself and becoming aware of what you are feeling or daydreaming. Sometimes if you are in the pool, or remember being in the pool, it might be referring to a time, perhaps in the womb, when you felt connected with all living things through shared awareness. Sometimes such dreams appear to show you the river of your life stretching through time.
Also an ability to grow beyond your fears by actually meeting them and passing beyond them to a fuller life. See You Are a Dual Being
Being under water in the pool: Looking at what is happening deep within your mind and feelings; an aspect of yourself that is submerged in the sense of being unconsciousness. Particularly links with looking into yourself and becoming aware of what you are feeling or daydreaming. See: water; swimming pool.
Our inner world of thoughts, fantasies and feelings; sometimes a sense of unity with living beings – collective consciousness or the influence other people have on us in a social or group interaction – as for instance when public opinion or condemnation influences us.
Being in a pool or with other people around or in it suggests you are sharing a common awareness in some degree. It indicates an opening up of uncharted territories in the unconscious. The depth of the water, and the ability of the person are all factors reflecting one’s feelings concerning the unconscious.
Psychomanteums were ancient Greek oracles of the dead where seekers could consult the spirits of the deceased. After fasting and certain other preparatory rituals, a vision of the departed was evoked by the seeker’s staring into a pool or pan of water (a technique similar to the practice of “crystal gazing”).
Being under water in the pool: Looking at what is happening deep within your mind and feelings; an aspect of yourself that is submerged in the sense of being unconsciousness. Particularly links with looking into yourself and becoming aware of what you are feeling or daydreaming. See: water; swimming pool.
Example: And through all this play, consciousness learned to dive in and out of time and space as a marten plays in a pond. Suddenly there were worlds where no time was. Everything went on forever. There was a laughter which never stopped, and love without an ending. There were vistas that stretched out to encompass Einstein’s curved universe in a nutshell. Then awareness hesitated, looked down at the whirling vertigo of time, and the heart missed a beat in sick wonder.
Later, the forms and colours and lights disappeared and melted into nothingness. Then came one final experience that seemed a culmination of all others. In it came an end to the tortured division of self and other, an end to pain, an end to frustration, and there bloomed that radiant blaze of ecstasy which seemed the end of all desire, yet desire itself, the answer to all questions and the end of questioning—the essential eternal “reality.”
The clamouring awareness cried, “This is it! The ultimate reality of all life!” The dissenting intelligence cried, “This is nothing. It has no name, no form, no colour, no sound, no time, no space. You cannot eat it, you cannot use it, you cannot live it out. It is nothing, nothing.”
Example: She remained very quiet for about 2 hours when she suddenly and violently felt herself as a small girl in bed with her father lying behind her and with his erect penis between her legs. She then felt that her legs and abdomen were covered in “slime”, which she knew was semen; as a child it seemed like a large pool in the bed. The episode was clear to her, came as a great shock and was associated with disgust both with herself and her father. The same episode was repeated even more vividly than before with more feelings of guilt combined with an understanding that her father was really mentally ill when she was a child. This release of feelings led to a sense of inner peace and towards the end of the session she suddenly said: “Now I know why I had the migraine headaches. It was those deep hidden feelings, feelings of a mixture of love and hate about my father”.
Example: ‘I fell into a pond. My brother was frightened to be by himself so he jumped in. We were both drowning in the water and we shouted out for Mum. My brother drowned.’ Poppy S.
Poppy dreamt this while young and feeling insecure and anxious due to her father being ill.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Have you ever paddled or played near ponds?
Did you ever catch fish, newts or other creatures in a pond?
What was happening with the pond in the dream?
See Being the Person or Thing – Dream Yoga – Roots – Summing Up
Pope
Spiritual values or dogmatic religious authority, depending on your associations. A father figure; code of behaviour arising from religious beliefs; God. See: spiritual life in dreams.
There is a tragedy connected with this figure because it abdicates responsibility and allows other human beings to manipulate, through becoming powerful symbols, for ones own power and insight. Thus we have popes, kings, dictators and presidents.
Many individuals barely recognise their own instinctive drives. Yet these drives are powerful enough when manipulated to gather huge armies of people who then march to their death. They are behind enormous hostility between neighbours and nations. Although irrational, and not in our best interest to be influenced by, millions of us are moved by them as if we had little will of our own. The feelings behind them, although seldom acknowledged directly by our conscious self, are often raised to religious status. The procreative drive, the election of leaders, the parental and child raising urges, are all to be seen in the Christian religion as the bones behind the robes and rituals. Why does Catholicism ban the condom and divorce; make a giant figure out of the Pope; worship a woman with a baby in her arms – if it is not based on these mighty urges and biological drives?
The power of the king or ruler has developed out of thousands of years of social interaction between rulers and subjects throughout the world. To explain this social side of the power I include the following description of how identity of a group and of individuals, is deeply connected with a leader figure such as king, queen or Pope.
The attitudes toward leader figures and royalty seen in modern individuals appear to have developed out of the way humans originally related to each other in small groups. This was added to and refined when people began to live in larger social gatherings. In both circumstances virtually all early human groups looked to leader figures for guidance and protection.
One of the greatest factors influencing this relationship between a group, the individuals in it and a leader is that of identity, both for the individual, and for the group. In a small group, such as the hunter gatherer groups which preceded the larger tribal or national groups, we see that the identity of the individual was largely formed out of the relationships with members of the group, and from their collective beliefs and customs. This was and is very evident with tribal peoples – the history of tribal Africa and the Jewish people gives graphic illustrations of this. Thus the ‘identity’ of the Jewish people is still very much alive today, forming obvious links with people otherwise separated by nationality and national culture. The religious beliefs and customs of such a group form a major part of this personal and group identity.
There are obviously negative and positive sides to such identification. See Individuation
Useful Questions and Hints:
What personal feelings do I have about the pope?
What was the pope doing in the dream?
Did you interact with the pope in any way?
See People from our past – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions
Pop Star
Similar to what has been said about famous people, but might also carry feelings to do with intense teenage sexuality or need; what you hold as an ideal or idol; a role model; egomania.
Porcupine
The porcupine has immense power to protect itself or even to kill, so might relate to feelings of defensiveness. But it can also suggest independence by keeping others at bay through a ‘keep off’ attitude or even open hostility. Nevertheless the porcupine goes about its business quietly if left alone, so might show that attitude. See: hedgehog.
Useful questions are:
Am I creating a ‘don’t get nearer’ feeling around me?
What is my porcupine doing and what does this suggest? See: themes.
What do I wasn’t to be ‘left alone’ about?
Is there someone else who is being prickly?