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.

Sun Series & Valerie Lynch Art 2008

Cool. I’ve been blogging here at dreamorpheus for a year now. The Sun has done a full circle of the zodiac, back to the ‘natal’ astrological position.  In the dreamorpheus ‘first post’ chart, I like the look of Jupiter in Capricorn in the 3rd house trining Saturn in Virgo in the 11th. Communicating on a grand scale with some lovely stick-at-it Earth energy to ground me. There’s also a communicative Air trine between Mercury and the dream planet, Neptune.

I’m proud of my efforts and want to acknowledge the support I’ve received from readers who’ve submitted their dreams for interpretation and posted comments. Thank you. And extra special thanks to astrological wisewoman, Julie Demboski, for the inspiration and encouragement she has so generously given this baby blogger.

Brightest blessings to you all.

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.

Photo by David Cook

DREAM

On the night of Samhain, I dreamt of walking up narrow rocky woodland steps.  I was travelling with a party of others but couldn’t see any of them clearly. From behind me and to my right, a young boy fired a stone from a slingshot.  A magpie fell, dead, to the left of the path beside me.  When I realised what had happened my mind recoiled – I remember thinking: ‘Don’t look’.  It was just too sad to contemplate.

INTERPRETATION
You are seeking higher knowledge but there is a part of yourself, represented by the impetuous young boy, that doesn’t understand the significance of your journey. This boy has the potential to sabotage your spiritual development.

Birds bring messages. The black and white plumage of the magpie is symbolic of the integration of polarities (light/dark, right/left, life/death etc). The timing of your dream is fitting as Samhain is a time when the veils between the worlds thin and communication occurs between the living and the dead. Killing the magpie is shooting the messenger.

If you were to lose your ability to commune with spirit, you would be profoundly sad. Fortunately, your subconscious has brought the issue to the attention of your conscious mind in this dream. Don’t linger over possible losses; continue to climb the steps of spiritual development and amazing things will happen.

DREAM
I found myself with an adorable puffer kind of fish in my hands that was very friendly.  It puffed up and when it returned to its normal state it wanted to be put in a very big indoor swimming pool.  I found it strange that the fish could live in a pool and hesitated to put it in, but the fish was happy and it was the only thing in the big pool. 

I sat on the side and it stayed near me, about a foot away from the wall, the whole time.  Sometimes it would submerge vertically, but most of the time it would stay near the surface. 

The puffer started opening its mouth for food and I fed it straight into its mouth, which I thought was very weird but also thought that the fish was smart and we had a good connection. 

 After a while feeding, the fish wanted to get out of the pool so I lifted it out and when I placed it on the side of the pool I noticed it was wearing a life jacket, which I also thought was weird.  Then the fish became a very mini-human and the dream ended.

INTERPRETATION
The puffer fish has positive associations for dreamer, and the close connection between fish and human in the dream indicates the puffer fish is likely a totem animal for the dreamer. Check out http://www.animalspirits.com/index68.html for more.

In addition to the associations of deception and danger, the puffer fish combines the elements of air and water. Air is intellectual and social, while water is emotions and relationships. When combined, these elements speak of friendship and community.

At the start of the dream the fish is friendly but puffed up – the opposite of its natural instinct to puff when threatened. The fish isn’t communicating honestly. As all dream characters represent an aspect of the self, it is worth thinking about how you communicate in social situations. Are you considered aloof or sociable? Do your words align with your feelings?

The indoor swimming pool is an unnatural environment but the emotional waters are safe and controlled. There is the sense of a ‘little fish in a big pond’ as the fish stays near to you at the side of the pool. The fish doesn’t dive deep or plunge the emotional depths.

Have you joined a new social group? Perhaps with people who are casual and relaxed rather than intense and involved?

The time the fish spends in the swimming pool is short and recuperative and provides the nourishment necessary for the amazing transformation. The fish, out of water, becomes a mini-human, symbolic of evolving emotional intelligence.

Thanks to the puffer fish, you are blessed with a powerful instinct of protection and preservation. The protective buffer of air (life jacket) symbolises using your intellect and social skills to assimilate emotional experiences. The caution is to avoid becoming insensitive and distant.