dreamorpheus

DREAM
I dreamed I was at the airport and had too many bags.  I purposely left one bag behind that contained reminders of my past, literally ‘old baggage’, that I wanted to leave behind.  Unfortunately, weeks later I got a call from Security that they had found it and they insisted on returning it to me.

INTERPRETATION
This dream is a reminder that disposing of emotional baggage isn’t as easy as we’d like it to be. Memories cannot simply be discarded to satisfy convenience and naïve desire. All experiences, both good and bad, contribute to who you are today – and I bet you have a lot of wonderful talents and personal qualities.

Rather than dismiss the past by leaving it behind (perhaps for someone else to deal with?), you must accept that you have a responsibility to your essential self to accept the memories and assimilate the lessons from these experiences – even if they seem hard to handle.

It isn’t necessary to delve into the contents of that ‘old baggage’ regularly but you do need to accept ownership and responsibility for all of your luggage. Maybe, on your next dream trip, you could pack a lighter? Or  if you insist on carrying all your emotional baggage a trolley may make handling easier. Your own emotional security demands that you find a solution.

Oh, it is so good to be back online again after The Worst Move Ever.

DREAM
The context and background situation are not always the same but I frequently dream of having to shower in public. Sometimes, it is in a shower room in a public facility – like a gym or a swimming pool, but the shower rooms sometimes have no doors. At other times, in the open; on a train carriage, for example!  I feel no shame at stripping in public (for some reason in these dreams I just have to take a shower, even if the context seems inappropriate), only the frustration that the shower often doesn’t work, or I am interrupted. In other words, I never get to finish the shower and emerge clean. The frustration is never resolved and the dream usually ends there, or it changes into something else.

This dream sometimes (but not always) recurs together with another recurring dream situation, which is where I am trying very hard to get somewhere – an appointment, a concert, a deadline and so on – and I never manage to. There is always an obstacle to my progress. The vehicle I am travelling in is either slow, breaks down or turns into something else. One time, I was in an elevator that turned into a bus and drove me through the town! Like the shower dream, I never get to the end of the detour or the journey, and I wake up with the vague sense of unfulfilment and exhaustion. 

INTERPRETATION
The nakedness in this dream seems to represent not just a desire to reveal your true self, but to reach an ‘essential’ state of purity. This is an important personal quest – it doesn’t matter what others think of your nakedness or the circumstances that you are in. You ‘just have to take a shower’.

The transportation symbols are another way of showing how you are travelling towards this goal or destination. Although the dream goal itself changes, I feel you are already know what you seek. You are part way there, making progress, but frustrated by obstacles. Though you try many different methods (eg shower venues, modes of transport), full expression of your life direction is not yet being fulfilled.

There is a sense of urgency in your dreams that doesn’t necessarily apply to real life. Chill out. You instinctively know the ‘what’ of your life. The ‘how’ will unfold naturally if you give it a chance. Enjoy the journey.

DREAM
I was at a party at my best friend’s house. As I was leaving, she hugged me much longer and tighter than normal. I next noticed that I had misplaced my purse and began to look for it. I finally found my purse and as I was walking down the path outside, I looked inside it and there was a new born baby boy wrapped in a blanket. I thought, ‘What am I going to do with this baby?’ I was thinking about leaving him at a hospital before I woke up. 

INTERPRETATION
The central theme of this dream is value. Your best friend, your purse and the baby are all precious blessings of life that require nurturing and protection. Your friend, who is actually an aspect of your self, acknowledges this truth with a special hug. However, there is another, more familiar, aspect of your self that isn’t as careful; the part of you that misplaces the purse and considers leaving the baby at the hospital.

Your dream brings the tension between these two aspects of yourself to your consciousness. Part of you is reluctant to accept responsibility but another part completely embraces the wholeness of life. The presence of the baby shows that this new perception is now with you and is ready to be integrated into your life.

As you travel along your life path you will meet with the unexpected (like babies in purses!). These unexpected events, people and circumstances will be both gifts and challenges. The trick is to recognise the experiences and people of value and accept the rewards and the responsibility that comes with them.

DREAM

My partner and I were cleaning the house. I was shocked to find that the shower had many spiders nesting in it. They were all different colours and shapes and were sitting (not moving) over the walls of the shower – some had strange eggs with them. They were all BIG. I was vacuuming them up one by one and feeling very disgusted. I also had a can of insect spray. My partner took over and I was relieved that he was doing it.

All the spiders were gone and I was now alone. I checked the top of the shower (it had a roof) and there were some dead spiders and an ENORMOUS spider which slowly unfolded itself and started to move down into the shower.

I ran down the hallway and at the other end there was another spider. This one was undulating like an octopus and moving in my direction. There was a room I could go into and shut the door but I realised if I did that I would have no way of knowing if the spider had moved on or not. I ran into the room and as I did so I saw a small spider run under the bed.

I turned to shut the door and the big octopus spider was starting to come in. I sprayed it with the insect spray and felt guilty (as I always do when I spray insects) but also afraid it would not kill it. Its ‘head’ part separated from its octopus legs and started hopping towards me. I thought I could jump over the head and escape but the legs were still in my path. I woke up in panic.

In retrospect I realise that none of the spiders actually jumped at me, bit me or threatened me directly. But I was very freaked out.

INTERPRETATION
Wow, that’s a lot of spiders for one dream; no wonder you were freaked out. Spiders are cool animals though. Spiders (and octopuses) have eight legs which make me think of the witches sabbats. And they are the weavers of the web of fate – very creative little creatures. You are reluctantly confronting the feminine creative force.

All the action occurs inside the house so this dream is about thoughts and attitudes within you. Each big spider is a big creative idea that has been ‘cleaned out’ of the rest of the house and found refuge in the bathroom. The bathroom is a private space where we do the things we’d rather other people didn’t see. In the shower we wash ourselves clean and start afresh.

You’ve judged these ideas to be dirty, unworthy of public viewing. However, it doesn’t matter what you do – vacuum them up, shut yourself in a room, wield insecticide – the ideas are everywhere and will reproduce (by eggs or division).

Your dream indicates that the powerful ideas you are harbouring in the dark corners of your mind are demanding attention. It might freak you out to go there but it will prove very rewarding.

The Swan Maidens by Walter Crane (courtesy of Peter Nahum at Leicester Galleries)

DREAM
I was running a bath when a little boy came and placed a rotten potato in the bathwater. I didn’t get in. Then he tried to put some worms in the bathwater. I told him to take the worms outside and kill them in the rosebushes. There were three silver worms that turned into tiny silver bullets which then morphed into tiny silver swans. I told the little boy to kill them. He put a plastic bag over their heads to suffocate them and I woke up. 

INTERPRETATION
What leaps out to me about this dream is the contrast between disgust and beauty: a rotten potato; icky worms; thriving rosebushes; graceful swans. There’s plenty of death imagery there too: you tell the boy to kill the worms and the swans; there are bullets and suffocation.

What ties all these symbols together is the ‘morphing’, the endless cycle of life/death/rebirth. From the rotten potato, a new plant may sprout. The bodies of the dead worms will nourish the rosebushes. Rosebushes have beautiful fragrant blooms symbolic of love but they also bear sharp thorns. The silver morphs from worms into bullets and then into swans.

The swan is associated with beauty and grace – and as aquatic birds, this ties in nicely with the feminine symbolism of the water, the roses and the silver.

Do you remember the story of the ugly duckling? Look deeper; love yourself.  There is an intrinsic link between life and death. Nothing is static; everything transforms and evolves. This powerful energy is within you!

DREAM
I dreamt in black and white that I found a tiny baby elephant, only the size of a small cat.  I really wanted it. The elephant needed care and we ended up falling asleep together. When I woke up, the elephant was wooden with its trunk raised. I was upset because I felt I had killed it. 

INTERPRETATION
You see something that you desire and you seek to possess it. Although the elephant needs care, it isn’t compassion that motivates you to help it. You want to ‘own’ the elephant.

The dream imagery of the small wooden creature reminds me of the tale of Pinocchio, the wooden boy most whose nose grows when he lies. Not that you are telling lies – Pinocchio learnt many other lessons ­­– but I feel there is a blind spot, a lack of self awareness.

The primary message of this dream is to be aware of your true motives.  Fortunately, as emphasised by its trunk in the air, the dream lesson of the wooden elephant ultimately brings you good fortune and happiness.

DREAM
I am in a small boat with my husband crossing a river that runs out to the sea.  I feel I’ve been here before.  I can’t see the river bank behind us. We aren’t necessarily trying to reach the river bank on the other side; we are simply trying to get somewhere.   

The problem is that we have no way to go forward due to the way that crab pots have been set in the river.  The crab pots are represented by orange buoys floating on the surface with rope tied between them so our boat can’t motor through.  (I don’t know a lot about setting a crab pot except I would not have expected them to be where they were and there were far too many in one small space.)

The water was calm.  My husband and I do not talk during the dream.  I just had awareness that he was there and we were going somewhere together.  I feel puzzled and frustrated in my dream trying to figure out why the pots have been set in this way.  I also know that I’m not ready to go back to the river bank behind me as we’ve only just left it.

INTERPRETATION
The buoys floating on the calm river indicate that there are unaddressed emotional problems beneath the surface. The crab pots in the water are emotional traps. Like crabs, you and your husband are adept at sidestepping issues. Neither of you communicate about the problems represented by the buoys; even though they are obvious and relatively small, they are so numerous they are preventing you from making progress as a couple. It’s likely that the issues are Cancerian, relating to protecting the home and family. 

The good thing is that you are still ‘going somewhere together’ and you are determined to forge ahead. Have a chat to your husband; decide where you are heading; work together to lift the crab pots out of the way and there will be no stopping you.

I woke up several times but this horrible dream but it continued when I went back to sleep.  No matter whom I was with or what I was doing, I was constantly spitting out my crushed teeth.  There is no way I had enough teeth to make all the crushed shell-like mess that kept coming out.  I was freaking out but no one else around seemed to worry.  I was with my brother in his car, with my sister-in-law in her car, and then with my family. They all told me not to worry about it until they saw how much crushed teeth mess I was spitting in the bin. 

INTERPRETATION

Teeth are symbolic of the face you present to the world. They help us chew to receive nourishment – literally food, symbolically emotions. Teeth are also the main feature of your smile so can allude to ‘putting on a happy face’.

The endless supply of teeth indicates you have deep reserves and ability to please other people. However, as you freak out about the crushed teeth in the dream, it is likely in your waking life that you are beginning to realise that always giving to others isn’t normal or healthy. Everyone else is OK with the crushed teeth situation because they benefit from it – especially your family members – but once they know how serious the situation is and how it’s making you feel, they understand.

My advice is to stop doing so much for your family. You’ll feel better and they won’t mind at all.

DREAM

My boyfriend and I had a big black bear and a tabby cat as pets. The bear and the cat were friends. The bear made me nervous. It was a good bear but it was still a bear.

INTERPRETATION
The bear and the cat represent two aspects of yourself that fit together well; however, as indicated by your nervousness in the dream you are not quite ready to accept this integration.

Bears hibernate, retreating into the womb of the Earth each winter, a cycle that reminds us of receptive feminine energy. After this annual retreat, the bear emerges in spring, physically depleted but psychically nourished by the prolonged period of rest.

The cat is independent; aloof but affectionate, detached but sensual. She is a creature of the night, able to see the unseen and represents your magickal, intuitive self.

Duality pervades the dream: you and your boyfriend, the tabby’s stripes, the two animals. The dream is an invitation to integrate your earthiness with your intuition. Trust the bear; trust yourself.

Sponsa de Libano by Sir Edward Burne-Jones

DREAM

I was hanging out at a church-like service with my future husband’s Lebanese family. I was trying to find him so I would know what my husband looked like. Bizarre! It was a couple of days before our wedding and I spotted his brother and wondered if they looked similar. The dream ended without me seeing my husband-to-be.

INTERPRETATION

You are marrying a mystery man from an exotic land – a man so mysterious that you haven’t even seen him. You positively channel your natural curiosity to discover your fiancé’s identity by bonding with his family and considering his brother’s appearance.

Your dream is specific about your mystery man’s nationality so I feel this is a significant symbol. Perhaps, like Lebanon as a nation, you have resolved an inner conflict. You are on the threshold of discovering your animus (inner masculine personality) and marrying different but complementary aspects of your psyche.

Although the dream ends without revealing your fiancé’s identity, the dream indicates that you making progress along the exciting path of self-discovery.

Stay true to yourself, remembering the words of celebrated Lebanese poet, Kahlil Gibran:

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.