A Lion In The Living Room

photo courtesy of oldweb.sbc.edu

Dreams of wild animals are frequent. Sometimes they’re scary. But other times, the dreamer has a matter-of-fact feeling all during unlikely and potentially lethal encounters. The dream featured this week is typical. The dreamer is a woman in her mid-40s.

A dream about an encounter with a lion

In my dream I’m in my house. I’m looking out the living room window and am startled to see a male lion looking in at me. He’s magnificent with a full, handsome mane. But then he starts to push his face against the window pane, and I can see that he is putting stress on it. It even bows a little bit. I become alarmed as he puts more and more pressure against the window. He is clearly trying to break it so that he can get into the house. Next, the window is broken out. There is no shattered glass lying around, just a big, gaping opening. And the lion is starting to ease his way into my house. I’m not really panicked, but I am plenty nervous, wondering how I am going to handle this huge animal. I try to think of all sorts of defensive measures and begin to prepare my plan. But then the scene shifts and I am with the lion in my house. I don’t have him on a leash, but I am trying to guide him by his massive front shoulders, pushing him sideways in one direction or the other. I am trying to steer him out the open door into the yard. There is no fear, although I am being plenty attentive. I can’t really tell exactly what we are doing together, but we are clearly a team on a mission. We have a purpose and a goal, and we need to get the goal accomplished.

Initial observations

It is always inadvisable to try and second-guess someone’s dream symbols. We will make certain not to fall into that hazardous trap. Dream symbols are unique to the dreamer, and we must make certain to have the dreamer’s input and understand the associations she makes with each one of them.

That being said, it is also good practice to try, quietly and individually, to ponder the symbols and see what we might come up with on our own—knowing full well that our results may have little bearing on the final interpretation.

For me, personally, symbols of houses, windows, living rooms and open doors are fairly straight forward. I would say that houses are “where you live” (in your consciousness), and doors and windows are ways to bring in light or to have access in or out of the “living” area.

In this initial pondering of the dream, what I find far more intriguing is the symbol of the lion. This animal seems a threat at first, but then becomes part of a constructive team. It’s a bit unwieldy to maneuver, but progress is clearly being made.

It will be fascinating to get the dreamer’s own take on this. More on Wednesday.

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