A Waking Dream About A Halloween Flasher: Post #3

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I woman whose family is now grown has gone back to school. Shortly before Halloween, on her way home from class one evening, she saw a flasher standing in his open doorway. He was holding an orange bucket that said “trick or treat” on it. While the woman was both repulsed and amused, she also recognized the incident as an important waking dream.

With her help, we have been analyzing the symbols, trying to discover their metaphoric significance to her. Now, with this new understanding, it is time to reassemble the dream. We will replace each symbol with her metaphoric description of it. Also, we will frequently insert phrases like, “There’s a part of me” or “myself” to remind the dreamer that all of her symbols represent aspects of herself.

Suddenly, a ludicrous and improbably distasteful event reveals a clear and poignant message.

The reconstructed dream

There’s a part of me that needs some more education to be able to pursue the inner career I have in mind. I am looking for my own acknowledgement that I have put in the time, effort and study to reach a certain level of competence. Inwardly, I am pursuing classes on specific topics designed to further my understanding. I can’t get the knowledge I need in my home base, so I have to move a little ways away to my own institution of learning. I’m looking in my dominant direction. Within me, I see the main entrance into the house—personal sanctuary—of a part of my masculine self. My masculine self is there, and there was no sense of hiding anything, or of being underhanded or sneaky. Everything is there, exposed for all the world to see. Stereotypically, this masculine part of me is the one in charge who goes out and makes a living and makes the most important decisions. It’s not true, of course, but that’s my perception. Nothing is hidden with this part of me. And what I notice particularly is his potency. His reproductive, creative capabilities are enormous. This part of me has a container that holds stuff. The container stands out, but it is also appropriate to the occasion, which is a time of potential mischief. There’s a choice. It’s about either being satisfied by receiving something desirable, or being hoodwinked somehow. I’m on a roller coaster of different feelings. I’m stunned into inaction. There’s a kind of denial in me. I’m looking for validation of my own perceptions. Frankly, it is really distasteful, but as such, it is also funny, and definitely surreal. I have a hard time fitting the whole incident into my sense of how life should be. It doesn’t put me into a crisis mode, but it is definitely unsavory, unpleasant, distasteful.

Some thoughts

In my first post on this waking dream, I brought up the possibility that this ludicrous flasher, who is definitely playing “the fool,” might actually be “the sage” in disguise. From reading the text of the restated dream, above, his role definitely shifts from idiocy to potency!

What is this dream about? And why does the dreamer feel such ambivalence toward a quality in her that seems constructive?

We’ll find out tomorrow.