Posts Tagged ‘dreaming’

Catacomb

An exploration of your inner contents or past experiences and their effect on your present life. A descent into the unconscious, so meeting feelings about death and rebirth, deception and wisdom. A search for your inner roots, lasting values, underlying abilities. The unconscious link with forebears.

Usually refers to feelings connected with death as in the example. It suggests, even in this, a womb like condition, and birth or a child may also figure in the same dream. A place of power or hidden forces, where a connection may be made with our unconscious, our inner link with other people and the energies of our body.

Example: ‘I was in some kind of cave or crypt. My father told me and my family of his coming death. He was calm and caring but my mother, sister and myself were grief stricken and for some reason went to buy him gifts.’ Clare M.

Example: I had this dream about me and a girl my age in a dark ancient crypt and we were fighting/battling giant spiders and looking for something, once we were near done with the searching of the something she put hints in wanting to have sex and we ran through the cave/crypt looking for a place to have sex, upon finding the right spot we ran into a large spider than the rest and I found myself holding a butcher knife and I killed the spider, afterward a spectre or ghost appeared and I found myself standing with the girl in a mansion study.

The dark ancient crypt shows that you have found a way into your unconscious. You are with a girl – your female half – because in our inner world, of which dreams are a mirror, you are both male and female. To become a whole person you need to enter the girl fully and marry her – i.e. unite with her. But there are feelings in the way. You have not fully become independent of the influence of your mother. The fact that you killed the spider shows you have taken a big step toward independence. The ghost is probably an old trauma or experience that is still ‘haunting’ you.

Example: It seemed a terrifying thing to be dead and descends into a crypt, lifeless and without motivation. Here I felt or experienced a very strong sense almost like a dead body, if it had awareness, might feel in a crypt. This is quite difficult to describe. I suppose what I was experiencing was a sort of ready made or social image of death. The sort of fears we have about it. It had in it the sense of dust, decay and cobwebs – the quiet dead silence of the tomb. But here, right in the midst of death, I had the sense of eternal life, of resurrection. It seemed to me as if you could not have one without the other, and this was the meaning in Christian doctrine where it says you must die to be reborn.

I am not sure if it was at this point that many images of the mixture of death and birth came on me. I had the experience that one needed to be bitten by the snake and die before one can be reborn into that transcendent life. But what came next was a long experience of exploring the view of life arising out of being a biological bag of water, wind, and shit. This went on for image after image of rampant wet sexuality or eating, of seeing nothing in life except physical existence. Again it is difficult to describe because of the huge variety of the images and scenes.

I suppose the underlying thing I was searching for in this series of feelings and images of the very physical side of life, such as eating and fucking, and the question was, is this all there is? There was an underlying morbidity in what I saw and felt. But I think this was my view. I wanted to find the transcendental in all the aspects of life, but it was difficult within the way I was looking at these feelings or parts of life experience.

I thought, or at least I came to the conclusion, that they expressed the preoccupation with the body and the physical that most of us have in present times. We are preoccupied with the physical and with examining it in detail. We are all trying to arrive at an understanding of the meaning of things, of death, through this minute examination of the physical world.

The longer I was involved in these images, the more it seemed ridiculous in the light of everyday knowledge that all things rely on each other, and that everything exists as an integrated part of the cosmos. The theme of the dream then changed. The day before this session I had a long conversation with B. She had described some of the people she works with or cares for in the old people’s home. B. had described how frightened some of the people are of dying. Although they had lived a long and varied life, they had still not come to terms with death. In the dream I realised I was looking for some way of communicating certainty about the goodness of death to B. I wanted to be able to look her in the eye and tell her she would be cared for.

Tracing it back, when we go into death through the jaws of the hunter, the lion, what do we meet? If we go back far enough we discover not anger or lust, but the lion’s desire to feed its cubs, or to survive. We find ourselves back in, back behind things. Behind the snake, behind this tiger, behind the human being, behind the decay. If we go back far enough we find ourselves in the awareness of the pack, in the species, in the formative forces of survival and reproduction that lies behind things. We find ourselves in that mystery, in the jungle where the essence of life pervades the various forms. From that place the viewpoint that we are nothing but a physical form, that we are a small cog in the wheels of life, that we must put up with what we have, seems ridiculous.

From that place we look at ourselves and see what a fantastic piece of equipment our body and mind is. As a conscious person we are right in the middle of everything. To say, “Oh God, we are nothing but a piece of slime, a helpless pawn in the hands of destiny,” is ridiculous. We are the culmination of everything that has existed before. We are that growing tip, that exploring awareness, in touch with unimaginable potential. We are everything that can be. What can we do?

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I meeting deeply buried memories from childhood, or the repressed parts of myself?

Do I have any feekings this might represent past lives?

Do I have unconscious fears or dreads of some sort?

See Unconscious – Acting on your dream – What we need to remember about us

Caterpillar

Male sexuality. It can also depict prenatal forces of growth. Or sometimes destructive activities, like a bacteria, something causing disintegration.

Although sometimes the caterpillar in a dream refers to  sex in some way, it has many other associations. The caterpillar can transform from a grub like state, that sometimes depicts prenatal life and its power of growth, into a completely different creature – the butterfly or moth. So it can suggest the power in you that if cooperated with, can turn your life around from mere existence to life in a different dimension. Sometimes this links with enormous internal changes going on within.

Chrysalis and butterfly, crucifixion and resurrection, have the same significance. First there is death and burial, the caterpillar turning into chrysalis. Then a new creature is born and the resurrection takes place. These are symbols of the life of each one of us. We are all potential butterflies.

Example: Last night dreamt a science fiction sort of dream. I can only remember a small part of it. I was looking at a tiny caterpillar sort of creature. It was on the door of a cupboard, worm like, with a pointed burnt out looking tail. The thing was that the creature had within it the mind of a mature person. I was trying to communicate with it by holding up sheets of paper or cardboard on which Chinese script was written. I thought the being inside was of Chinese origin. Later in the dream I saw huge changes going on in the environment. I realised that the tiny creature and others like them were responsible for the enormous earthquake like changes occurring.

Example: Today my son dropped the container in which we had reared a beautiful caterpillar. It had shed one skin, grown to a wonderful size and loveliness, with enormous fur and shining colour. A few days ago it began to spin its web prior to becoming a chrysalis. It was dropped. It is now pulp, going moldy.

I loved that caterpillar. Like all things in the world, a small movement can destroy it. How many lovely children or people have been smeared upon the earth today.

Today, several days later, I saw that the caterpillar was not killed. Although the blow came while it was in its fluid condition it has transformed into a shining chrysalis. It is a symbol for me of the faith I must have in myself while I yield to love and life. I must trust myself to being undone, fluid, dispersed.

If there are destructive caterpillars: This suggests worries are eating up your emotional energy and destroying potential growth and positive change.

If moving to chrysalis stage: This suggests an urge to find environment in which to make changes in your life.

Chrysalis: Major change going on within yourself; a new aspect of yourself getting ready to emerge; desire to retreat from the world.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are there any sexual overtones in my dream – if so what do they suggest?

What were my feelings during the dream, and what do they link with – were they about personal growth, beauty, childhood, feeling grub like or what?

What is the process of change and growth I am facing?

Are worries eating away at me in some way?

Try using Acting on your dream; Talking As; Life’s Little Secrets

Cave

It can represent a woman’s sex Organs, her womb, or experience of life in the womb, or prior to birth. Another possibility is contact with the past, with the inner life. Experiencing the past levels of consciousness, where treasures or fears may be found. Or we may find a spring, the source of our feelings or life.

Apart from a spring, there may be early man, or a snake in the cave. The ancient man is your earliest levels of consciousness. But the spring and snake can bring healing and peace, for you may have tapped deep sources of healing in such a dream.

Generally the cave represent your ability to withdraw into yourself in some way. Therefore it links with the possibility of experiencing earlier states such as those that were common to you in childhood, or even prenatal life.

Example: ‘I am in a large, airy cave like room. I am pregnant and wearing a white gown. I am lying on my back on a flat slab like surface with my legs drawn up.’ Joan D.

The cave is also an entrance to the unconscious. As such it may lead to completely different dimensions, environments or states of mind. The following dream illustrates this.

Example: I unblocked a hole in the cave and climbed through. It was like entering another dimension, for I was in a brilliantly lit room. In the room were many windows and doors. The room was in the shape of an arc, a semicircle. Looking out of one window I seemed to be looking at a Swiss landscape. The next window looked out on an entirely different place, and so with the third.  Eddie.

Entering the cave can therefore lead to re-experiencing life in the womb. But it links to the life beyond the restrictions of everyday awareness, linking our present self with all the links it has with the past and life itself. This is the path that eventually confronts us with the void we face at time of taking our next step in our personal evolution. We may experience this as an empty cave in which we thought there would be spiritual upliftment or treasure. This is a confrontation with the fact of our link with all things, in which we lose the sense of external things to find or rely on. In some dreams this leads to a real contact with the forces of our evolutionary journey. See Meeting Our Own Hugeness

Sometimes the cave appears in dreams dealing with your exploration of the deeper levels of your mind. So it depicts going back into the past levels of your consciousness, where treasures or fears may be found. This is like an inner archaeology. Or you may find a spring, the source of your feelings or life. Apart from the spring, there may be primitive humans, or a snake, in the cave. The spring and snake can bring healing and peace; in them you are touching the energy of your latent potential.

Example: This morning I woke up and as I opened my eyes and sat up there was this alien creature there in front of me. I was amazed and felt wonder because it was real and solid and was trying to communicate with me. I felt so much love for this strange creature and its attempts to communicate even though I couldn t understand what it was trying to say.

Then suddenly a switch must have been tripped inside me and I understood and knew the alien. It was my wife and she was saying, “Tony turn over you are snoring.”

I must have been coming awake from a level where my language centre hadn’t yet been switched on and I was seeing my wife as a delightful  alien. I believe it is an example that shows the very different states of mind between waking and sleeping – In sleep we are in the most basic and primal level of consciousness where there is no awareness of language. Remember our evolution spans millions of years, and our sleep consciousness was at the very beginning before we were even different sexes, before language and certainly before waking awareness.

Christ is said to have been born in a cave, and this depicts your infinite potential being found in the ancient levels of your being. See: catacomb and crypt; unconscious; Archetype of Christ; last few paragraphs in individuation.

Sometimes a cave has been man made by chipping away at the rock face.

Example: I have come across a cave dug into a rocky cliff.  A track sloped down from a hill or a mountain past the tunnel entrance, which was on my left.  I saw a few men emerging from the tunnel.  Small broken rock covered the exit to the cave forming a level surface to walk on.  I knew the men had found treasure in the cave.  I saw bits of gold, like chunks of rock, on the ground near the exit. I knew also that there was still a great treasure in the tunnel.  Another person went in to get some of the treasure.  However, I knew that to have a treasure you had to answer a question put to you by something like a Guardian of the tunnel – maybe a sphinx. The person didn’t emerge and I knew they had not been able to answer the question.  But I heard the question I would be asking if I went for the treasure.  It was, “What goes into everything twice?” I thought the answer to be 1/2, but wasn’t sure.

The man who dreamt the above dreamt explored it fully. He says of it,  As the exploration begins I then start thinking about my life as it is at the moment and it is the work that I do, and the last big insight was in regard to preparing for the future and I wonder if I will find anything to add to that.  I have felt, for instance, that there are huge changes ahead, but I have no clear indication of what they might be for me personally yet. What I did find was that the cave is an absence of something.  It is the result of work done of clearing out, of chipping away at what was there.

This led to revealing what we consider to be treasure.  The treasure was there but it had not been revealed, it was part and parcel of the rock.  So I am left wondering what the something is inside the cave that asks the questions of those who enter.  I have a sense, not anything strong, but a sense that it is a question, or a questioning, that exists within me.  I feel that all of us perhaps have such innate questions; life itself questions how to survive, what it is.

Another feeling or thought that I have is the question that within the cave represents things that we need to deal with before we can actually access the treasure we have within ourselves.  What I mean by this is that we ask ourselves many questions that may divert our attention or energy, and those things that need to be in some way met before one can go any further. The question I met in the dream was, “ What goes into everything twice?” I think I know the answer.  It is a 1/2.  Divide anything by 1/2 and 1/2 goes into it twice.  But what significance that has I do not know.  The answer leaves as big a question in my mind as the question itself.

What I find interesting about the dream is that there are pieces of gold lying about outside the cave.  So one could gather a lot of treasure simply from what is already available.  There would be no need to enter the cave.  But there is the promise of enormous treasure inside.  It isn’t so much the wealth, but there is the impression that the treasure is not simply lumps of gold, but un-nameable things that one would find extremely valuable.  There is also the sense I have while that the cave that has been dug, that has been mined, connects with natural caves that go deep into the earth within the mountain.  I have a sense that these link with the far past, with the origins of life on earth, and our own beginnings.

A question I asked myself now is, who are the men that come out with armfuls of treasure?  What aspects of myself are these men who had come out with the treasure?  Also – what part of myself – is the person who went into the cave and did not come out?  Is there a part of me trapped in the search, trapped in this inner exploration?

As I begin to feel my way into the question, I have a sense that the cave connects with the memory of my ancestral past.  This arises out of a feeling that both of them lead into the unknown, into a darkness that has not yet been fully explored.

I feel, as I enter more deeply into my wider awareness, that the men who came out with the treasure depict the enormous amount that I have mined from the long years of my exploring.  I have in fact already gathered enormous treasure.  Of course I still wonder what else there is left to find.

I am feeling that the person who went in and did not come out represents the unanswered questions that we all hold within ourselves.  Those questions of course keep us still within the mine, still seeking answers and understanding.  That is the part of self that continues to chip away at the rock face, knocking away the rock from the gold, uncovering more of the possibilities that were held within that solidity.

We may find in the cave: A fear of madness or being lost; a sense of meeting the divine; our own traumas or destiny; a meeting with death and rebirth, or our long past.

The empty house/cave: There is an inner emptiness that is often thought of as nothingness. But that nothing is everything; if it were something it would be some-thing and therefore could not be everything. As such it is your core self.

When people think of emptiness they usually see it as a destruction of everything – a death of self. But the nothingness of the void is part of the paradox of existence – for the nothingness is at the same time everything. But everything is all inclusive. As such it cannot have any defined characteristics or shape, otherwise it wouldn’t be everything. This is because if you were to say what a beach is, you could not say the sea was the beach, or the sky, or the land. None of them separately is the beach. The beach is the indefinable amalgam of them all. In just that way the Nothing is the indefinable everything that underlies the particulars of your life – you fundamental self.  The Next Step.

People often feel they are facing death. But what is death?

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I trying to withdraw back into myself to avoid difficulties in life – if so what are they?

Am I experiencing deeper levels of myself in this dream, and if so how would I describe them?

What do I experience or find in the cave, and how does that link with my present stage of life?

Try using Processing Dreams; Associations Working With; Secrets of Power Dreaming

 

Cd

Can simply be the sort of pleasure you feel on listening to music; the impressions left on you by events, people – therefore memory, but often memory integrated by the unconscious into insights; information you have gathered; the impression we might leave behind at death – what remains of us; the impression we would like to give others. Idioms: For the record; track record..

Ceiling

The attitudes or beliefs you use to protect your identity; the height or range of your imagination; your mental limit or boundary.

Protection, security, against the life’s difficulties, so protection against the storms of life. Something above your head, or out of reach. The attitudes or beliefs you use to protect your identity, the height or range of your imagination, or your mental limit or boundary, so a boundary of ideas or awareness. If you live in a flat with people above you, the ceiling can mean the things other people do that enter your life, interfere with it, or even damage you in some way. See house and buildings.

The ceiling is often the place where we find ourselves the first time we experience being out of our body. So it can indicate higher awareness or an approach to the spiritual dimension.

In many dreams awful or frightening things come from or through the ceiling. This shows they are creations of your own mind, coming through the boundary of your imaginations. Of course sometimes a wonderful light or being comes through the ceiling.

 Example: I walked past the photo stat. room. Two girls came out into passageway, TERRIBLY distressed and spoke of Satan. I went into the room and saw Satan in the upper corner of the ceiling leering down and mocking head and shoulders. I calmed the girls and everything became okay. Mr. A. A.

Example: I’m in a flat in a skyscraper; I don’t like it very much because in real life I’m frightened by heights and this is a very high flat. There are some friends of my partner into alternative lifestyle; there is a girl who would like to make love with my partner. I feel there is a connection between them. We are in fact on the top flat so I can see the sky through the ceiling made of glass. There is a huge eagle; it is so huge I can only see his head, his eye and his big wings. I feel it is huge and it is looking like some kind of bigger awareness, looking at human life and at me, it has got to do with a wider consciousness above us and around.

Example: ‘I have to keep walking because there is something I am afraid of behind me. When I am pressed up against the ceiling being crushed I look down and the stairs and banister rail are swarming alive with a black moving wave of crawling things, like some awful insects. In the hallway is a swamp with crocodiles and other hideous things. My terror is terrible. The person who actually lived in this part of the house was the owner’s mother. She treated me badly but no one knew as she was artful in her abuse. She pulled me along by my hair, locked me in a cupboard, and once locked me in the orchard – four high walls and a hidden door.’ Rita

 

Idioms: hit the ceiling; scrape me off the ceiling.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I feel any sense of security or protection against difficulties?

Is something over my head, or out of reach?

Could this show mental or creative limits or boundaries?

Or does a feeling or horror intrude?

See Talking As – Processing Dreams

Celebrity

Meeting or being a celebrity may show that you desire to be noticed and acclaimed. Or the famous person may be your own potential, often unacknowledged, and projected onto dream character.

If you are deferring to the character, or feeling they have power over you, they may be showing how you relate to a parent.

If you have difficulty relating to the famous person, you may be struggling with accepting yourself as respected, or your desire ambitions and efforts to become successful.

Sometimes: The person may, because of their life or role, represent a particular quality such as courage, love, ‘ruling’ drives in life, authority, etc.

Cellar

See: Basement; Cave.

Cemetery

You are probably dealing with thoughts and feelings about death, your family heritage of attitudes or traditions. In a few cases, the dream may be a form of contact with someone you know who is dead. The cemetery may also refer to things in your life you have ‘buried’; melancholy about life or feeling ‘different’ to other people; a relationship, which you think is ‘dead and buried’. See grave; Dreaming of Death

Depicts our thoughts and feelings regarding death and therefore our family and cultural heritage of attitudes or traditions relating to death. In western white stock who have been raised in a culture dominated by a materialistic view of life, the image of the graveyard often includes feelings of limited time left to live, of death as a final end, of death as a morbid corruption that is the concluding goal or meaning of life.

The cemetery can also indicate your personal contact with the dead. By this is meant either a very real meeting with the essence of the dead person, or a fuller experience of what you carry within you of them through your relationship with them.

The cemetery, and especially graves, can point to things you have ‘buried’ – memories or love, pain or guilt that you have suppressed or tried to hide from. Therefore it might indicate a relationship that we think is ‘dead and buried’. See Difficult Relationship

If you are an introverted person the graveyard can link with feelings of being melancholy about life or feeling ‘different’ to other people. See Archetype of death

Example: During a major operation I dreamt I saw my little daughter – dead for many years – standing in a corn field. When she was actually buried the cemetery was skirted by a corn field, and later in life, coming to terms with this early death of a child, I imagined my daughter walking into the corn field. In the dream I walked into the corn field. My daughter was waiting for me with her arms held up. I put my arms to her and we greeted each other smiling. At that point I felt it wasn’t time to die yet, turned and walked out of the corn field. Ken S.

Example: I was walking by a riverbank near a cemetery. As I walked and drew near to the cemetery, I saw submerged in the river a record player-in fact my record player. I walked into the river and pulled it out.

Prior to this dream he had experienced several dreams showing the river being blocked, or silted up, or made sluggish with reeds and weeds, and in this dream he was walking in the direction the river flowed, it being clear and free flowing. The river is the flow of his life, showing the energies of growth and creativity, the energies underlying emotions, thinking and sexuality. The dream shows him as consciously following their flow. The cemetery is the many past lives buried within him. The record player is the faculty of memory covered up by the emotions or flow of his inner life, but now he is bringing this faculty to the surface. He felt this dream had something to do with past lives, but was far from being sure.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I feeling in regard to this cemetery or the graves in it – and where does that feeling appear in my life?

Am I meeting feelings about death here – if so what are they and can I really feel them?

What have I buried that is being met in this dream?

Am I feeling a contact or memory of someone who has died?

See Dead Husband – Talking As – Easy Dream Understanding

Centaur

Human nature has arisen out of the instinctive and powerful experiences of animal life and consciousness. The centaur is a beautiful image of this mixture of animal and human that we still are, and often deny. The techniques of yoga are in some ways an attempt to unite the two in harmony. The word yoga actually means unite or join together, like the word yoke.

Dreams often remind us of this connection, and how we may be ignoring it and losing the wonderful advantages of linking our conscious personality with this much older level of ourselves. So the centaur in our dream shows that you are in some way meeting and relating to this part of you. See: Horse.

This might be reference to your sun sing Sagittarius. As such it is said to deal with: Physically it is related to the pelvis, hips and thighs. It is said to have a masculine nature, and is therefore more active in its energy expression.

As a Fire sign it is connected with the identity – specifically with the search to find a deeper meaning in human existence. It is therefore connected with religious and philosophical urges. As a Mutable sign, planets placed here express their energy in a flexible and changeable manner, with a certain restlessness or inconstancy. Sagittarius in characterised by a love of truth and righteousness, and an unfortunate tendency to express it rather too directly, even when not asked.

There is a love of open horizons and travel and a need to expand on an inner intellectual level. There is a pronounced urge to rise above the animal nature towards the divine, and an impatience with the trivial issues in life. A dislike of superficiality may result in intolerance for the ordinary niceties between people

Useful questions:

In what way am I relating to the centaur, and what does that suggest?

Did my dream centaur communicate with me in any way, and if so what?

Have I recently been experiencing an awareness of things previously not met?

See Levels (Brain) – Talking As – Acting on your dream

Centre Middle

If it is a person or thing in the middle of somewhere, an event or something, then your dream is emphasising the importance of the thing or person.

If the middle is between opposite: This suggests either conflict or balance, depending upon the feelings in the dream.

Emphasises the importance of the thing, person or animal in that position. It can indicate conflict where the middle is between opposites or obstruction when something might be in the middle of the road, corridor, etc. Or it could be feelings of being involved, when in the middle of a crowd for instance.

When something is in the middle of a circle or square can represent contact or awareness of you core self or Spirit.

If it is a centre such as a garden or educational center: Use things like Easy Dream Understanding to define the dream and its meaning.

If you are in the middle of something such as an exam or having sex: Use things like Easy Dream Understanding and Talking As

Idioms: Middle of the road; piggy in the middle; centre of attention.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What does the middle or centre mean to you?

What is this the center of? Use Talking As to define.

Does this represent the unchanging core of myself, beyond thoughts and feelings?

Am I tapping into the unseen power behind my life?

See Acting on your dream and Easy Dream Understanding

Centrifuge Centripetal

An influence that is pushing you outward or away from a centre, person or thing. A centripetal force pulling you toward a central point would be the opposite. It might indicate powerful feelings in yourself, or fears

If you are pulled into the middle of something it may also link with the mysterious life that is in ‘the middle’ or centre of all things. Or it may suggest the growth or beginning of something, the emergence from the mystery in the centre. It may also suggest pregnancy.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling as if a powerful force or influence is at work in my life at the moment – if so what is happening to me?

Do I feel pulled into or pushed out of something or a relationship?

How have I described this force in the dream, and what does that suggest?

Use Talking As – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Ceremony Ritual

Your dream is probably emphasising something that is taking place in your life. For instance at puberty your body carries you from youth to manhood or womanhood. This is an incredibly important event, yet society seldom acknowledges you as a changed person. Your dream may do this, and even reveal some of the mysterious new qualities you have ass you move from one stage of life to another.

Similar to initiation. Such dream ceremonies or rituals often mark a point of change or transition, as ceremonies do in waking life – baptism, marriage, graduation, etc.

Ritual is also used to focus feeling or sexual energy in some way to gain an effect, such as healing or insight. So a ritual can point to important change – such as entrance into puberty; entrance into deeper levels of yourself; the opening of new attitudes or skills, just as marriage is an entrance into a new type of life and social situation.

As with marriage, a ritual can mark a promise of some kind. But occasionally rituals are the performance of habits – a ritualistic carrying out of actions that no longer have meaning or feelings attached to them.

Our unconscious has a wider sense of self, and things are seen as important that we might consciously feel are trivial. A ceremony in a dream brings such things to our attention.

In the example the girl is with her boyfriend. She may thus have been ‘initiated’ into sexual activity. Sex with her boyfriend has changed her image of herself.

Example: ‘A ritual began whereby a large knife was drawn and a few deep cuts were made to both our faces. I put my hands to my face and saw them covered with blood, crying and crying.’ O. S.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is happening in this ceremony, and what change, promise or new way of life is suggested?

Have I recently begun a new phase of my life, and is of what does it involve me in?

In what way am I involved in this – and what way am I involved in what I face in life?

Use Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Talking As

Certificate

Suggests the achievement of a new skill, or reaching a new phase of your growth or maturity. It can also link with feelings of confidence in your ability to attain a goal. See: Prize.

These are an indication that you have passed an exam or are now qualified in some way. They are sometimes man made distinctions and dreams often point out important things for you in regard to getting recognition and authority.

Example: I remember standing a room a few days after the baby was born and thinking “I should call my dad and tell him that I had the baby.” But I couldn’t remember when the baby was born so I got the birth certificate and I started looking for the birth date and how much he weighed at birth, but it wasn’t a birth certificate it was some type of paper that I couldn’t understand so I gave up on looking.

The thing about the birth certificate is important. It is saying that there is something you do not understand about your baby and its background. It was a dream baby without a father and known background. Because you do not understand your dream baby you could not understand what was said on the paper. I believe it was telling you that Life gave you this baby, and it will grow in you to change your life. It is small and vulnerable so take care of it.

Example: So, I’ve decided to attend a week long Dream Retreat at the Haden Institute, in part to see if I want to partake of the dream certification program. Around here, it seems one needs some sort of “authority” or “certificate” to be taken seriously in anything. I also have to balance that in myself – do I feel I need a certificate to be an effective dream worker? How much does my self-worth have to do with having or not having a “certificate”? So, I am hoping that attending this retreat will help me sort out that answer. I remember your words on this issue – how much you have been able to accomplish on your own.

Example: I was getting ready for the next level. But the whole dream was about these divisions or the sense of divisions – such as the dividing lines between the levels of experience. I find it difficult to define exactly what the pervading feeling was. There was a growing internal struggle though and a questioning. It may have been that I felt the divisions between the experiences were artificial – just as I feel, looking at Maria’s certificates of courses taken in massage and Reiki, that humans artificially create denomination to make them saleable or profitable – we create differences and demarcations for our own profit.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I seeking or have got a certificate?

Do I have any certificates in waking life – if so what do I associate with them? See Associations Working With

Do I feel the need for certification?

See Processing Dreams and Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Cesspool Cesspit

All those parts of self, such as values, emotions, desires, ideas, hopes, that have been passed out of our living system and become the corruptible parts of human nature that become manure for new growth; and faeces can also represent money or riches, fertility. Such a dream image may also suggest decay, a part of yourself or society cut off from life and growth.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was I doing in connection with the cesspool?

Was I threatened by it or did I see it as opportunity?

What was the outcome of the dream and would I like to change it?

See Secrets of Power Dreaming and Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Chain Chained Chains

Very often a chain depicts restriction of some sort. The restriction might be in the form of dependence upon someone, or it might be in the form of imposed constraint. We might feel ‘chained’ to our marriage partner or work, or we may be chained by mental attitudes or habits. See: example in abandoned.

Chains have not only been imposed on prisoners, but also slaves, to stop them escaping. Women working in the sex trade often wore a chain around their ankle, and this probably has links with past servitude also.

A chain can be used to show strength or a powerful or even protective force. In this sense the image may suggest a serious of events – links – which lead to the present situation. Or the dream might point to the links in the chain – a connection broken by breaking any one of the links, or that is broken by a weak link.

Example: ‘My Mother asked me to go and buy some butter for her. A chain on my left leg prevented me from going very far. I look down the road and see my Mum, Dad and my four brothers in the back of a car. I wave and call and they drive right past me, going over the chain I am wearing on my leg.’ Lorraine. LBC.

Lorraine’s dream illustrates not only her feelings of being left out of family life, but also the chain on her leg shows her not fully independent.

Jewellery chains obviously suggest something different, and have been used from the beginning of human history. Originally they were probably seen as a form of magic. In other words, if a woman wore a certain ornament it made her more attractive to men. Of if a man wore something that his fellows didn’t have, it made others respect or notice him. So it was felt the chain was a form of magic. This type of ‘magic’ is still used by men and women today, helping people to feel more confident in their relationships and undertakings. As happens with people wearing a St. Christopher or a cross on a chain.

Chains have also been used to denote an official social position, and so might depict authority in some form.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is the chain in my dream doing – is it a restriction or a link with something?

Is this suggesting strength, if so what does it refer to in my life?

What am I chained to or dependent upon?

Try using Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Avoid Being Victims – Questions

Chair

It suggests a passive, relaxed attitude or inactivity. It can indicate receptivity or openness or even escapism – escapism if you regularly sit in a chair to read or watch TV as a form or escapism.

If it is your chair it probably represent your rights or position. If you are relaxed in the chair maybe you need to rest or relax.

Putting things under a chair might be like sweeping things under the carpet – getting them out of sight or unnoticed.

A chair can be a place you have stayed in for years, attitudes, feelings, harboured anger that you have not moved out of.

Example: I called out to one person not to go because it looked dangerous, but she ran off. I stayed in that chair for twenty years. When I decided to come down, I was fifty years old and all of that activity was over. I had no emotions, and when I went down, it looked quite a distance. Before I went down, I had to get out of the chair, which was on a shaky and narrow balcony. I needed some help to get out of the chair.

 

Placing of chair in group: Sense of status or importance.

Wheelchair: An in-valid situation; a sense of weakness or illness.

If pushing someone else: Seeing self as carrying an invalid part of you.

Baby’s high chair: This could mean you are acting as a child, not being responsible or not in control.

Standing on a chair: A need for care, because it might indicate an unsafe position.

 

Example: At the end of the promenade was a path which we took. The path went along the top of a cliff. The sea below was pretty rough, a typical Autumn day at the seaside. All of a sudden the path came to an end and there was a steep slope to the right which led down to the beach, I decided to turn right and go down the slope. When we got half way down the slope the path started to give way on the left and I found myself without enough room for the four wheels of the wheelchair. I was desperately holding on, tilting the wheelchair to the right to keep it balanced on the two right wheels when my husband got panicky in the chair and moved. The chair tilted to the left and fell down the rocks. I started running down the path towards the beach, towards my husband and the wheelchair. I never reached the wheelchair or my husband because I awoke and that was the end of the dream. ‘ Mrs C.

Example: ‘I was in a house that I lived in many years ago, how I got there I do not know, but I saw myself sitting in an ordinary chair just behind the closed front street door. It was very quiet, and I was afraid, but I did not make any effort to move.’ Ms J.

Idioms: grab a chair; have a chair; musical chairs; play musical chairs; shuffle the chairs on the deck.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What am I doing in relation to the chair?

Is it another person in or using the chair? See Characters and People in Dreams

Was it a chair I know? See Associations Working with

Try using Acting on your dream – Secrets of Power Dreaming