Angry Words In A Parking Lot: Post #3

An artist was in a parking lot collecting leaves from a bush to use in a cloth dying project. Suddenly, an SUV pulled up beside her, and the driver started accusing the artist of following her. The confrontation turned ugly with the driver yelling obscenities.

We treated the incident as a waking dream, isolated the symbols, and then worked to discover what metaphoric associations the symbols might reveal. You can scroll down to my last two posts to follow the discussion.

Now it was time to reassemble the waking dream using the metaphoric descriptions that the dreamer provided. To remind her that all symbols in the dream are aspects of herself, we would also insert short phrases like “There is a part of me” into the text.

Reassembled dream

There was a part of me that was doing chores, normal stuff. I parked myself where I do when I’m doing my business. It was for my work. I was using parts of myself to be creative and to bring nature into my creativity. I was collecting small samples to use. I was doing it to create a likeness of something natural, to give this part of myself color and beauty. But I needed to go too far, past my entrance, and then I had to double back. Suddenly, beside me, there was a part of me that reminded me of purity, but was also all about protection and power. This part of me was trying to be intimidating. The two of us weren’t near any business; we were on the outskirts. This intimidating part looked a little bit past her prime, and she was full of anger. I was trying to assist, to bring a resolution. But she took a defensive posture and expressed rage. She told me I was chasing her, but the opposite was true. She was chasing me. I was totally shocked and surprised. Then there was another expression of her irrational rage. I just collected my equipment that I needed to do my work. I could see her receding, along with her sense of purity and protection and power. She left me alone. We were no longer at loggerheads, but I couldn’t get her out of my head.

Thoughts while examining the restated dream

It never ceases to amaze me how the most unlikely dream plots—from either waking dreams or sleeping dreams—invariably come into focus with a specific message. The message is often about an internal conflict, although there are plenty of exceptions to that. In this case, there seems to be an issue of the dreamer expressing her creativity in a way that “went too far” for an aspect of herself that was symbolic of “protection and power.” Did this dreamer do something in her personal or artistic life that left her vulnerable? Was she needing to explore territory that was beyond her comfort zone? What was causing this internal battle?

We’ll let the dreamer tell us, herself, tomorrow. It should be interesting!

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