A Rocket Ship Dream: Concluding Post

I’ve been examining my own dream about nervously watching a young boy trying to land a rocket. Scroll down to my post—dated 4-4-16—to read the dream. I worked on this dream in two ways. First, I filtered it through the typical “Tell me about it” question and answer process. That led to the following restatement:

My dream metaphorically restated

There is a part of me that has created an artificial community inside of myself in order to exist in a hostile environment. I’m far away from my natural home base. The new place is a thriving, interactive community with lots to offer. And I am dealing with a part of me that is a substantial vehicle for traveling vast distances at great speed. But the part of me piloting is completely inexperienced and involved in a task that is beyond him. I see the potential for disaster. But the pilot part of me has not a care in the world. He thinks it’s a lark, a diversion without consequences. I have to negotiate two parts of a hookup that is also a foundation. The pilot part of me tried but got it wrong at first. Then, despite everything, he did OK and my worries went away.

I also asked my dream class for any thoughts they might have, and there was one observation that was especially insightful: 

*  There’s an element of masculine and feminine energy in this dream. You even used the words “male” and “female,” and there is an effort to have them join together—even with quasi-sexual imagery.

What this dream is about

If you read through the restated dream above, the themes are clear—to a point. There is something about my feeling that I am in a hostile environment, trying to do something that will take me vast distances at great speed. Part of me is afraid, and the other part is fearless—almost reckless. In the dream I am trying to get these two parts of me to “hook up.”  

It was the class member’s observation about masculine and feminine that held the key. The feminine—intuitive—part of me is gung ho, ready to forge ahead with no fear. It is the masculine—assertive—part of me that is nervous. And these two parts of me have to come together. This was symbolically represented in the dream as a space docking, quite sexual in imagery, in which a recessed area in the rocket had to fit over a protruding platform.

As much as anything, this is about my own work with dreams. The idea of the waking dream—where odd events during the day are analyzed as dreams—strikes many people as strange and suspect. I am sometimes affected by those attitudes. My intuitive side is enthusiastic, but my assertive side retreats. The dream message is clear: There needs to be a healthy “intercourse” between my two conflicted selves. When there is, I’ll travel far and high, and at great speed!

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