Greetings, Craig asked that I follow up with the dream that I shared during our last webinar.
Background before the dream: I was at a mentoring retreat for youth in Mendocino a week and a half ago, led by Michael Meade. The night that I had the dream, Meade was telling a story about the "half-boy: ( A boy born only with his left side). Early the next morning right before I awoke to join Meade and many other participants in the "Dream lodge" ( where we share dreams as a community), I dreamt that I was floating alone in the middle of the ocean on a log. From behind me emerged a terrifying creature, with a dragon's head and the body of a shark. It kept pursuing me and there was no escape. I felt so vulnerable and that the ocean was barren except for this creature. I awoke just as it started to devour me.
Upon awakening I felt enraged. Ever since I was married last year to a compassionate, dear person I've been hoping that my childhood wounding by women would ease up. But the wound emerged from the water. On one level this creature reminded me of the terror of my step-mom when I was ten.
In the dream lodge, instead of responding with anger or helplessness, Meade encouraged me to go down below, down into the depths of the ocean. However scary, this feels right to me. Last year Meade told the Blackfeet Indian story about the Orphan Boy and the Elk-dog. The boy must go down into the depths of the lake in order to discover the magical Elk-dogs and eventually return with them to his people. I think I did this to some extent and was able to heal enough to get married. I'm still in that story, but this year I am in the ocean and I learned that while my partner is a godsend, the wound doesn't just disappear.
Bonnie mentioned this creature may be a figure guarding the underworld or the depths. I like that insight. As well, I need to integrate the energetic ferocity this creature represents so it doesn't devour me. I haven't had much time to work with this dream. I realized this morning that I was a ten-year-old boy floating on that log.
I need to hold that boy and remember all the love, goodness and friends in my life. Part of me energetically was frozen at 10yrs old. Like the story of the Half-Boy. This is my journey toward greater individuation.
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When I heard this dream it reminded me of dreaming of water dragon about 18 months ago as I considered taking my current job, back into the field of riverine management. In the dream, I was about to reunite with a previous lover who in waking life through his passion for rivers introduced me to this field. He is also a scientific rationalist. We had just arrived at his castle-lodge in the middle of a large flat sea and were standing on a stone veranda right at ocean level when an angry water dragon reared out of the water and spit poison on him. I continued to dream of dragons, but later an iridescent black earth dragon who invited me to follow her through her cave-hole into the earth. I wasn't up on dragons before this, but started to read about them as symbols in Celtic and Chinese mythology. I ended up taking the poison-spitting as a helpful warning and useful information (although think I still fell into the trap and feel out of balance - maybe I should also have dived into the ocean). The dragons in my dreams seem to be helpful, even when angry - one blasted a hole with her angry fire into the dome of a place I was trapped - yeah, that's not a bad power to have when needed! You probably have also heard that disassembly by being eaten by an animal in dreams can be viewed as a sort of shamanic initiation into reorganization (I don't know much more about that and would be curious to hear other's experiences). I'm sorry this may have nothing much to do with your, Michael's personal trajectory, but in the spirit of group share, that's my dream encounter with a sea dragon. One more thing, I've read that the Hawaiians work with shark spirit and Pele's brother is a fierce warrior who is a Shark God. Kamohoalii apparently translates as "dragon or shark king".
Hi Leslie, your story is fascinating. Thank you so much. I want to share more soon. It's bed time.
Thanks, Michael. In addition to being your own individual dream, this feels like a group dream too.
Michael,
When I heard your dream during last week's webinar, the image of the log as a symbol of the earth element holding and supporting you as you floated in the vastness of the ocean being pursued by the creature is what caught my attention. Might be a symbol to explore as well.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your kind words this morning about my post.
Cool dream. I love how our unconscious generously seems to provide us with images, dreams, and feelings from the past until we've met them, held on to them for a while, and moved through them. You are so brave to be in alignment with the trajectory of your journey. Sometimes it can be super intense. I like that you have conceptualized your journey as one toward greater individuation, and I would like to add, from a teacher of mine, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, that perhaps you are on a journey also toward greater connection. Bonnie says that covering the entire surface of the earth, under the buildings and the cement, within the top layers of soil, there is a web of spongy fungus-like stuff that breathes, and that supports us in each and every moment. There is invisible, yet palpable support here to tune in to ~
Hi Claire, I really appreciate your helpful insights and encouragement; especially the "web of spongy fungus-like stuff that breathes" Living in the city is draining; this image of the web of supportive sponge just at the surface of the earth is reassuring. Yes, this work can be emotionally intense and humbling - those parts of us we thought were healed that resurface and ask or scare us into waking up more.
Big Hugs
Thanks Michael for this posting. You've inspired me to do some journey work (aka active imagination) involving some kind of diving into the depths of the sea. I recently connected with the spirit of the Turtle, which is both fast-swimming and protected from danger by its hard shell. The Turtle also has an aura of nobility to it; it is dignified, strong, and wise. It may be a good ally to work with in deep-sea and deep-consciousness explorations!
Hey Travis, Thanks for inviting the Turtle into my consciousness - they strike me as such noble, loving creatures. Yes, they are so tender inside and yet protected by this pre-historic shell. The week of my dream, while at a retreat, I was part of the Whale clan. How appropriate. I will invite these ocean beings into my dreams. Blessings on your journey, (active imagination) into the depths.
By the way, I asked for another dream to help me with the Dragon-shark-dream and I dreamt of this young boy in his room and I was telling him to use the fire (there was this infinite stream of fire coming up from the floor). "Don't be afraid" I told him.- This primal fire can be of service. I think it was the fire of the dragon, not unleashed to eat me this time as in the previous dream, but to empower me - the half-boy striving for wholeness.