photo courtesy of waldaeer.com
A woman asked me about an amusing dream she had. As you can
read below, when it is metaphorically reconstructed, there is a deeper, and
slightly sinister quality to it. We rebuilt the dream in the usual fashion,
reminding the dreamer that all symbols are aspects of herself.
The reconstructed
dream
I’m with a part of me
that is my family, that I’m related to. We share a great deal. I can trust this
part of me with my most personal thoughts. We also enjoy each other’s company.
This part of me has invited me to participate in a stylized sport for snobby
people. Everybody gets dressed up, but it’s actually brutal. The whole feeling
is rough and tumble—full of testosterone—even though my own personal
environment is rainier, softer and gentler. We end up at a place within myself
that is designed to blow off steam. It’s a part of me that likes to have fun,
to participate in a silly diversion that doesn’t last long. It’s a place in me
where I can see how good I am at something; where I’m held up to a standard.
Normally, there’d be a bunch of dogs and men that live inside of me that would
gang up on a victim in a way that creates impossible odds. It’s really unfair.
So the fact that there is no victim is a good thing. There is a part of me that
is noisy and a hunter. It can be really nice, but it has an instinct to pursue
prey. It can be a killer. Suddenly, I realize that the part of me that is
family is gone. It’s no longer in my life. We can’t communicate in the normal
way. But this part of me offers a gesture of support and affection. I see,
also, that the part of me that pursues prey and is a killer has an unusual
quality. It’s special and has a sense of purity about it. This family part of
me was supposed to be bonded; together for keeps. It was supposed to be with a
part of me that is like my second mother, someone I love to be around. But they
are apart and there is something vaguely disturbing—perhaps an incident—that separated
them. I definitely have the feeling that there is more to the story than is
being let on.
Thoughts
Despite this dream’s quirky and lighthearted plot, it is
clearly describing the dreamer’s struggle and ambivalence about something.
There seem to be two themes. There is the idea of “family” which should be
bonded closely and living in a “softer and gentler” environment. But that isn’t
the case. Instead, there is an element of pursuing prey and a quality of being
a “killer.” There is the feeling of being “vaguely disturbed and separated.” And
there is the comment at the end about having “more to the story.”
Tomorrow, we’ll ask the dreamer what she thinks this
uncomfortable dream might be about.
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