People Attending A Concert

 photo courtesy of theguardian.com

Often dreams give us clues to old patterns that we have been incorporating into our lives, ones that long ago ceased to be useful. We continue to act on dictates and rules we learned when we were young, dictates from our parents, or teachers, or friends. Some of those dictates hold us in good stead. But others are ideas we outgrew long ago. Still, we carry them around with us, even though we are unaware of doing so.

The dream we will examine this week deals with this issue. The dreamer, a woman in her 50s, is trying to shed the role she was placed into by society when she was a child. It is a role she long ago outgrew, but one she still takes on despite herself.

A dream about attending a concert

In my dream, I’m in a bedroom on the second floor of a building that seems to be my parents’ home. There’s a balcony. I look out and see a village with all of these people walking in one direction. They are going to an event, and I want to attend. I think it is going to be a concert of music, and the sense I get is that it is going to be really special. There will be celebrities performing, and I don’t want to miss it. There is a sense of it being an event that is celestial and spiritual, and I know I must be there. As I prepare to leave to join the throngs of people going to this event, I hear my mother downstairs. She is calling to me. She is admonishing me to come downstairs. She is afraid that I will forget my chores and leave them undone. At that moment, I look down at myself and see that I am wearing clothes from an earlier time in my life. I also notice that my sister is in the room with me. She hands me a pair of golden socks. I realize that I can ignore my mother and just go. I sneak past a bunch of appliances—like stoves and washing machines—and head to the street. I join the crowd. There are no cars, just pedestrians. We walk together until we come to a corner and make a right turn. And that’s when I wake up.

Some initial observations

Some of the symbols in this dream seem straightforward. There is a pull in alternate directions. That is probably the crux of the conflict being experienced by the dreamer. On one hand, there is the desire to attend a concert with celebrities and a celestial, spiritual ambiance. On the other, there is the call of the dreamer’s mother who wants her to come downstairs and do her chores. Clearly, the dreamer needs to make a choice.

Then there are other symbols that could mean almost anything. There is the odd image of the dreamer’s sister handing her a pair of golden socks. There are large appliances that she needs to walk past on her way out the door.

As always, the key to understanding the dream is to discuss it with the dreamer herself.

We’ll start that process on Wednesday!