Clear out your house sooner rather than later. Throw out all the stuff you don’t need/want/use, and then give the place a spring clean.  You might also like to cleasnse the space energetically by smudging. It’s not that there’s anything in your house but the snake is a symbol of transformation and it seems to be rather persistent about getting your attention. Using a salt scrub in the shower might also be a good idea. You want to create a blank canvas for new conditions.

Going downstairs and using the high-pressure water cleaner indicates that you have some repressed/hidden emotional stuff to release. Do you run or lift weights? I feel that some sort of “macho” physical exercise would be helpful here. There’s a lot of energy being held back and you need to find a controlled and positive way to release it. Boxercise or martial arts would also work.

It’s rare for the people in our dreams to actually represent the people in our waking life. Houses are our psyches. Your brothers represent the masculine part of yourself and all the good things about men – how they are strong, take charge, make decisions, and leap into action. This is what the snake wants you to do. You fought it off in the dreams but now you have to bring this fighting spirit to your waking life.

DREAM
Throughout this dream I am flooded with a barrage of thoughts and questions about good and evil, life and death, and natural order – from my own point of view as well as that of the scarab beetle and the spider.

I rescued a green-golden scarab beetle that had become caught in the spider’s web outside my bedroom window. I used a pen inscribed with ‘Health by Choice’ to separate the two creatures. The spider retreated under the window and the beetle fell into the grass. When I found the beetle it was covered in sticky web, unable to use its wings. The beetle spoke to me distressed and confused before dying. I marked the location with a twig and went back inside the house.

Some time later I returned to find the beetle’s body still in the grass and the spider looking down from the window. Again, I was overwhelmed by the barrage of emotions and moral questions that flooded me as I watched the spider hunt and as I watched the beetle die. I was so saddened; there was an intense ringing in my ears and my heart began to beat faster and faster when I suddenly awoke feeling very agitated.

INTERPRETATION
The scarab beetle is revered as a symbol of rebirth in ancient Egypt. The young beetles emerge from dung balls; a natural example of discarded matter sustaining new life. The beetles were also associated with the rising and setting of the sun (moving the sun across the sky like a dung ball). A green heart scarab was an important mummification ornament to assist the deceased during the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ ceremony.

Spiders too are sacred. They are weavers of dreams and fate. By creating a web, a spider creates its own world – a home, a trap, a nursery, a pantry… In common with the scarab beetle, due to the spider’s association with the figure 8 (which turned on its side is the symbol for infinity), the spider has also come to symbolise eternity.

It is interesting that you intervene between the spider and the beetle with a pen. After all, the pen is mightier than the sword. I believe this is the key symbol in your dream. There are risks associated with putting things down, or merely thinking, in black and white. The big questions that you ask yourself (as a human, as the scarab beetle, and as the spider) show that the choice between good and evil, right and wrong, life and death are not as easy as perhaps they first appear.

Everyday choices play a part in the bigger picture. We all contribute to the dance of life. Inside each one of us is the predator and the prey. It is not a question of who wins. Life is not a battle, or even a game; it is a dance. Through everyday choices – big and small – each of us plays a part in the bigger picture. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow but we all contribute to the dance of life.

DREAM
Last night I had a most delightful dream. I was travelling the world with a two-year-old girl. The little girl and I painted ourselves with glitter and called it fairy dust. We sprinkled this dust and all the other joy we had on a long piece of chewing gum. At the end of our travels, I knew I had to get the little girl home. All of a sudden, we were being chased and had to jump down a big slope to get her to the gate to her mother. I was worried about my knees failing and remember trusting and recalling I will be okay. With the girl in my arms, I jumped and landed well, got the little one through the gate to her mother. We then urged the mother to ‘taste the joy’ of our travels by having some of the chewing gum.

INTERPRETATION
This dream urges you to embrace the joy of childhood innocence in your adult life. The little girl and the mother are both aspects of your Self. The chewing gum is an interesting dream symbol, embodying youthful flexibility and fun – qualities that your adult self needs a little encouragement to taste. You have the skills and most importantly the faith to take the leap required to reunite the mother and daughter within yourself.

Some background information: I’m going through a major transitional state right now. It seems like a major phase of my life is coming to an end and I’m not sure where I’m headed.

INTERPRETATION
The cage is representative of your state of mind. You can see out of a cage but ultimately it is a rigid structure designed to imprison. The panther and the goldfish are parts of your self: one strong, powerful and focused on the goal; the others small, scattered and waiting to be eaten or rescued. The cage coming apart symbolises the known structures of your life breaking down.

Change is inevitable. The panther will be free and sacrifices will be made (ie you are going to loose some goldfish). Embrace your strong psychic-spiritual feminine energy, call Her into your material world, trust and actively choose to walk your own path through the unknown. You are the black panther.

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.

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

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!