Those of us who are fascinated by dreams and working with them must be doing some amazing dreaming ourselves, yes? Want some help gleaning meaning from the symbols and tone and postures of a particular dream? Here's the place to gain insight from around the world and every style of dream work!
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Hi Tamara! I'm so glad to have you participating in The Twilight Zone and welcome any comments or suggestions that you feel like adding!
Here are some questions that come to me as I read your cat dream: Do cats (versus dogs or other animals) represent a particular quality or mix of qualities for you? And, then, here are three of them, uncared for, but who return in various states of neglect (the feral one returns first and curls up on the bed). Are there aspects of yourself that are also neglected? I am also struck by this line: "I couldn't find them anywhere . . . became horribly worried and scared that they had starved to death in my absence."
If this were my dream, I might engage Tiger, Fluffy and Izzie in separate conversations to see what they have to say to me and what they might need from me to thrive.
Any other dreamers want to weigh in?
Tamara Long > Dorene MahoneyMarch 23, 2011 at 9:44am
Thank you so much Dorene! I appreciate your suggestion that I feel inward to assess my own feelings of neglect or being neglected. Your feedback really fills out my own interpretations and gives me more to consider. I did engage in active imagination with Tiger which did yield some interesting insight. Maybe I'll try it with the other two cats. For some reason, I often have some resistance to doing it.
Wanna give me a dream or are you strictly facilitator here?
Hmmm, yes, resistance. I try always to listen to any resistance that comes up for me around Active Imagination or any depth methods. My own task has been to distinguish between true leanings that come from my deeper wisdom (as in . . . it's not time yet; don't push the river) and some form of inner critic that doesn't want me to open doors to change. In the first case, I honor the resistance; in the second case, I either barrel through the resistance, or ask someone to be a guide for me. Sometimes having a third party facilitate helps me take steps in Active Imagination that I would give up on if I were by myself.
As far as me presenting a dream of my own, you are correct that I feel a little hesitant as the group facilitator. Frankly, I think I see too much of my mug on the site as I weigh in on other people's points, or try to get new conversations going! But another issue for me is that I don't dream much these days. What I have picked up on is a pattern of dreams (none particularly interesting) over many months that involve my older brother, plus many of my dreams (including the ones with my brother) that involve men and the work of men. I think that I am knee-deep in animus stuff. I'll definitely share if I come up with one that seems remotely interesting!!! Thank you, Tamara!
I rarely remember my dreams (it may have something to do with the way my brain is wired with AS) so when I do I make sure and record as true as I can my dream report right after I awake.
Here's a dream that has perplexed me for a while, and I wonder if some of you might have any notions of the symbolism / metaphors herewith:
Dream Report – the perfect volcano [(B3) a dream of psychic danger?]
My dream began with me & my family on a “working holiday” somewhere in the Beaufort Sea. I was up there as a geologist (volcanologist) looking for the “perfect volcanic crater”.
I told my co-workers I had seen an old marine chart at some point that had the most perfect volcanic cone island on it once. I couldn’t remember where I had seen this old map, but I knew I had come across it somewhere… The chart appears in my minds eye in incredible, minute detail as I recall it – I cans see all the geographic contours, the mapping symbols and the “lay of the land” so-to-speak,
So I search & search for days, even weeks, for this old map. Suddenly, in the musty corner of an old attached shed, I finally locate the aging chart. A decrepit old thing, it clearly shows the Lats-Deps of the most perfect cone anyone has ever witnessed. We rejoice at my find, and all my cohorts hold a party in gratitude. The “island” was a perfect crater in every way, complete with steep terrain, fumaroles, a deep, inactive crater in the centre, and teaming with life!
The next day, I began preparing for the ‘journey of discovery’. I planned the entire exploratory trip right down to the last detail. Part of the exploration was to dive the cone beneath the surface of the Sea. These were arctic waters and I knew my time below would be limited to the size of batteries I could take with me underwater. I chose to use a submersible to carry this necessary heat source, and my air tanks and to afford me a modicum of protection against the huge sharks and Orca that inhabited these waters.
As the day of the first dive approaches, I begin to get nervous about the minisub named the “Silent Runner II”; the sub’s design was from a very old plan I think I once perused in an old Popular Mechanics magazine as a kid (June 1971) – I was an avid reader of PM mags!!!
After donning my SCUBA gear, and climbing into the submersible, I began my descent into the frigid waters. At this point, I vision the most exquisite submarine sea life I’ve ever witnessed! Captivated by the amazing colours, the diversity of life and the fecundity of the ocean depths astound me!
As I approach a level submarine “shelf” a community of barrel sponges and fish rise to greet me (I’ve actually witnessed a bed of sponges similar to this during a real life diving expedition on the west Coast of Canada). Just then, a large ominous figure appears from out of the depths. It’s a 9.0m Orca, on the prowl for its next meal! As my minisub could be easily mistaken for a sea lion or large seal, I hug the rocks tenaciously; hoping the huge predator won’t notice me. Just then, I scrape a large boulder and the sound reverberates through the water like a sonar beacon. The Orca locates me by echo location, and starts approaching the sub. As he does I notice the trap door at my legs has come ajar, exposing my lower torso to the open water.
The Orca approaches with amazing rapidity and looks like he might ram my minisub… just as he looms near, at the last moment, I awake drenched in sweat and screaming!
Possible Associations:
SEE Chris MacKenna’s article entitled “The Dream of Perfection” (2007) – pertinent??
Salient questions:
What is my view of “Orca”? How do I see them? Is it a ominous figure? life-threatening even?
Or is this a Shadow figure simply wanting to be heard? Why does it want to “ram” my vessel? Is this a way of “getting my attention”? or is it really “hungry” for something?
Marvelous book, might be good to read or re-read at this time?
Dorene Mahoney > Alan A. MacKENZIEMarch 23, 2011 at 9:22am
Hi Alan,
What a rich dream this is! There are so many ways to take it, it's hard to know where to start. I must say that this passage in your writing got my interest:
So I search & search for days, even weeks, for this old map. Suddenly, in the musty corner of an old attached shed, I finally locate the aging chart. A decrepit old thing, it clearly shows the Lats-Deps of the most perfect cone anyone has ever witnessed. We rejoice at my find, and all my cohorts hold a party in gratitude. The “island” was a perfect crater in every way, complete with steep terrain, fumaroles, a deep, inactive crater in the centre, and teaming with life!
The next day, I began preparing for the ‘journey of discovery’. I planned the entire exploratory trip right down to the last detail. Part of the exploration was to dive the cone beneath the surface of the Sea.
I am left wondering if you are having thoughts about aging. Much of your dream could be symbolic of uncertainty around the aging process, of digging through land and sea to find, "the amazing colours, the diversity of life and the fecundity of the ocean depths astound me!"
What do you think? Does this angle have any resonance for you?
It is indeed a pleasure to share my dream.. especailly with someone as amazingly insightful as you, Dorene! I had seen that angle before! Incredible "find" if you'll pardon the pun!
Initially I do resonate deeply with this take-- and will sit with it in reflections to be sure. I think I resonate most because I'm 55 years old, looking down the slope of the latter half of life, wondering sometimes where my journey is taking me and whether the path I've trodden has truly been "fecund" at all!
And now that you focus me on the aging theme, the passgae "a deep, inactive crater in the centre" jumps out even more. Hmmmm..... I need to sit with this some more, don't I? Thank you again, Dorene. Wish I lived nearer to you -- I'd luv to 'sit at your feet' in the Socratean sense and learn how you do what you do!!! Blessings, Alan
Adding to the radiance and beauty of all that has already been shared...
By way of introduction into the dream's map, one might ask, (and without needing a public answer), what may have been happening in the dreamer's life in the time of the early 1970's, and how might that relate to the forces of the sexual and root area or lower torso, which is being 'exposed' in the dream?
The newly rediscovered map and 'silent running vehicle (2), 'Silent Runner II' may speak to something that was active and then went silent...? The dream announces that the silence has been broken in some way, relevant to the deep, inner unconscious mystery and travelling thus in the realm of mystery in an outdated mode brings some danger. Bringing one's self to the edge of a volcano and in, while under water brings the piece into the realm of the intuitional and feeling mysteries. It marries deep earth, fire and water. One might look upon (and in!) the third eye as a kind of volcano too... The deep creative cavern of discovery may be where the flow of earth blood bubbles close to the surface lense and the waters teem with energy and spirit, life forms and death bringers of all kinds.
More vibrant questions...(for private appreciation perhaps) ....and possibly forbidden to the less resourced consciousness, might be...What has compelled the dreamer to take up that ardent search/research for his 'map' to the 'inner world'? What has the lower half of his body to do with 'predatory' behaviors or experiences? What does the experience of that teeming lfe bring into his living body and experience of life? How does this dream serve the 're-couperation', repatriation of forces set aside for a time and now, re-presented or rejoined with his and our waking awareness?
It may be of benefit while contemplating a deeper dive into the dream's numinous layers to entertain the shifting of consciousness from 'ordinary states' to those that carry the wisdom states in unconditionally loving, non-judgemental, healing and compassionate service to body and soul. Diving into the depths now, it seems, calls for more than the 'usual' or 'historically adequate' modes of protection and 'silent running'. It is a timely reminder to us all, that the mysteries shared through the deep heart, transform us according to the capacity we carry when greeting their forces.
Being 'silent' or silenced...into running or being inconspicuous may not serve the newly discoveed or re-entered realms of inner wonder, beauty and killing force. When entering the deep feminine, one does so naked...the better to become intimately acquainted with her. The predatory signature is also one that serves by 'taking out' or scaring off what is not equipped to handle the forces of this sort of induction or initiation. Perhaps a step back and surrendering to...calling in what are the complementary resources to this dream experience, inviting them to embue the dreamer in the experience of the dream's wonders and warnings might also serve the dreamer and the piece.
It may be that the dreamer is in connection now, anew with a vast resource which is intuitionally aspected and which may have been 'closed off' in some way, or run from when a child...by virtue of a deeply disturbing, astounding or fearsome encounter...and now it invites the man back into its 'eye' , though with some sense of warning as to the need for inner preparation/initiation. Step by step, mindful organization (masculine modes) may perhaps be not enough. One might be invited to bow and surrender the organizational impress to the part of the inner panoply that carries the ranges for diving this piece, with all eyes open and naked to its gifts. The perspective of the fearful child will not do, when entering the holy of holies. One gets spat out, directly. A great teacher, Dr. Brugh Joy has shared many times...that 'Travelling into the mysteries of dream and dipping a curious toe into the unconscious is like travelling up the amazon, naked." The girding of loins, the protection of individual presence and the opening to serving resource steps into play not so much from the outer trappings of armor and proper kit and meticulous planning, but from the inner resourcing and opening to the radiance of that realm, through the auspices of the mystery of the heart.
The dream portends, perhaps the opening of the 'eye' (again) to as yet untold wonders, in the experience of the wholeness of constructive and destructive force...the feminine deeps. The heart centred state, the deeply feeling and responsive state can allow more into the field of view and experience. To each, there is a unique way to take on that mantle, that radiance...a sound, some particular music, an image of a beloved teacher or deity, nature in all its forms... For many, a simple lowering of the eyelid and connection to heart will open the door, ah....the transpersonal state owes nothing to us and yet offers us everything...from within.
This dream also offers the collective...the communal pool, a gift of gifts through the auspices of this most generous and courageous adventurer. Terror serves as a terrific announcer of change. It tends to wake one fully to the possibilities when that state of consciousness shifts and the being softens the eye and invites in the compassionate play.
P.
Dorene Mahoney > Alan A. MacKENZIEMarch 24, 2011 at 8:11am
Wow! What a compliment, Alan, thank you! I know that you know this, but it's always easier for someone else to see things in our dreams. I saw a film with Marie Louise von Franz once where she said that dreams don't come to tell us something that we already know, only what we don't know. She went on to say that if we think we know what our dream means, we should dig deeper. I always try to remember that when I'm trying to make something of a particularly rich and complicated dream such as this one that you presented.
Tsunami Dream: I dreamed during the early hours of March 11 2011, as I wrote it upon waking at 6 am EST:
Dad and John standing in garden overlooking round rocks cliff, looking down on me, they turn and leave, i'm submerged in ocean below them, dirty water, waves, i swim to grab a handle on a white garage door, to the right a series of 7 waves advances, rogues, growlers, no time to escape, so i hang on for dear life, HOlding breath. Then relief, i see no more big waves on horizon, so I clamber up the rocks, rescuing a struggling wet kitten or rabbit near the top.
Notes: The characters "Dad and John" are both deceased, father and brother, who died within a month of each other, back in 2002, Dad of natural causes and brother of suicide. The garden is quite sunny and civilized, a lawn as if an estate ending at the cliff's edge. Cliff is a gentle slope, rounded rocks, maybe 50 to 100 feet long on a fairly steep incline. It is not unusual for me to dream of ocean and water as much of my life has been spent sailing, but it was remarkable that I saw the rogue wave series approaching and could count them as 7 in number. When I woke and wrote the dream, I did not know the earthquake and tsunami had taken place in Japan. The waves in my dream were approaching from the right, which is like the West in waking life.
Replies
Hi Tamara! I'm so glad to have you participating in The Twilight Zone and welcome any comments or suggestions that you feel like adding!
Here are some questions that come to me as I read your cat dream: Do cats (versus dogs or other animals) represent a particular quality or mix of qualities for you? And, then, here are three of them, uncared for, but who return in various states of neglect (the feral one returns first and curls up on the bed). Are there aspects of yourself that are also neglected? I am also struck by this line: "I couldn't find them anywhere . . . became horribly worried and scared that they had starved to death in my absence."
If this were my dream, I might engage Tiger, Fluffy and Izzie in separate conversations to see what they have to say to me and what they might need from me to thrive.
Any other dreamers want to weigh in?
Thank you so much Dorene! I appreciate your suggestion that I feel inward to assess my own feelings of neglect or being neglected. Your feedback really fills out my own interpretations and gives me more to consider. I did engage in active imagination with Tiger which did yield some interesting insight. Maybe I'll try it with the other two cats. For some reason, I often have some resistance to doing it.
Wanna give me a dream or are you strictly facilitator here?
Hmmm, yes, resistance. I try always to listen to any resistance that comes up for me around Active Imagination or any depth methods. My own task has been to distinguish between true leanings that come from my deeper wisdom (as in . . . it's not time yet; don't push the river) and some form of inner critic that doesn't want me to open doors to change. In the first case, I honor the resistance; in the second case, I either barrel through the resistance, or ask someone to be a guide for me. Sometimes having a third party facilitate helps me take steps in Active Imagination that I would give up on if I were by myself.
As far as me presenting a dream of my own, you are correct that I feel a little hesitant as the group facilitator. Frankly, I think I see too much of my mug on the site as I weigh in on other people's points, or try to get new conversations going! But another issue for me is that I don't dream much these days. What I have picked up on is a pattern of dreams (none particularly interesting) over many months that involve my older brother, plus many of my dreams (including the ones with my brother) that involve men and the work of men. I think that I am knee-deep in animus stuff. I'll definitely share if I come up with one that seems remotely interesting!!! Thank you, Tamara!
Hello Everyone:
I rarely remember my dreams (it may have something to do with the way my brain is wired with AS) so when I do I make sure and record as true as I can my dream report right after I awake.
Here's a dream that has perplexed me for a while, and I wonder if some of you might have any notions of the symbolism / metaphors herewith:
Dream Report – the perfect volcano [(B3) a dream of psychic danger?]
Possible Associations:
SEE Chris MacKenna’s article entitled “The Dream of Perfection” (2007) – pertinent??
Salient questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Analogue
Marvelous book, might be good to read or re-read at this time?
Hi Alan,
What a rich dream this is! There are so many ways to take it, it's hard to know where to start. I must say that this passage in your writing got my interest:
So I search & search for days, even weeks, for this old map. Suddenly, in the musty corner of an old attached shed, I finally locate the aging chart. A decrepit old thing, it clearly shows the Lats-Deps of the most perfect cone anyone has ever witnessed. We rejoice at my find, and all my cohorts hold a party in gratitude. The “island” was a perfect crater in every way, complete with steep terrain, fumaroles, a deep, inactive crater in the centre, and teaming with life!
The next day, I began preparing for the ‘journey of discovery’. I planned the entire exploratory trip right down to the last detail. Part of the exploration was to dive the cone beneath the surface of the Sea.
I am left wondering if you are having thoughts about aging. Much of your dream could be symbolic of uncertainty around the aging process, of digging through land and sea to find, "the amazing colours, the diversity of life and the fecundity of the ocean depths astound me!"
What do you think? Does this angle have any resonance for you?
A wonderful dream--thank you for sharing it!
It is indeed a pleasure to share my dream.. especailly with someone as amazingly insightful as you, Dorene! I had seen that angle before! Incredible "find" if you'll pardon the pun!
Initially I do resonate deeply with this take-- and will sit with it in reflections to be sure. I think I resonate most because I'm 55 years old, looking down the slope of the latter half of life, wondering sometimes where my journey is taking me and whether the path I've trodden has truly been "fecund" at all!
And now that you focus me on the aging theme, the passgae "a deep, inactive crater in the centre" jumps out even more. Hmmmm..... I need to sit with this some more, don't I? Thank you again, Dorene. Wish I lived nearer to you -- I'd luv to 'sit at your feet' in the Socratean sense and learn how you do what you do!!! Blessings, Alan
Adding to the radiance and beauty of all that has already been shared...
By way of introduction into the dream's map, one might ask, (and without needing a public answer), what may have been happening in the dreamer's life in the time of the early 1970's, and how might that relate to the forces of the sexual and root area or lower torso, which is being 'exposed' in the dream?
The newly rediscovered map and 'silent running vehicle (2), 'Silent Runner II' may speak to something that was active and then went silent...? The dream announces that the silence has been broken in some way, relevant to the deep, inner unconscious mystery and travelling thus in the realm of mystery in an outdated mode brings some danger. Bringing one's self to the edge of a volcano and in, while under water brings the piece into the realm of the intuitional and feeling mysteries. It marries deep earth, fire and water. One might look upon (and in!) the third eye as a kind of volcano too... The deep creative cavern of discovery may be where the flow of earth blood bubbles close to the surface lense and the waters teem with energy and spirit, life forms and death bringers of all kinds.
More vibrant questions...(for private appreciation perhaps) ....and possibly forbidden to the less resourced consciousness, might be...What has compelled the dreamer to take up that ardent search/research for his 'map' to the 'inner world'? What has the lower half of his body to do with 'predatory' behaviors or experiences? What does the experience of that teeming lfe bring into his living body and experience of life? How does this dream serve the 're-couperation', repatriation of forces set aside for a time and now, re-presented or rejoined with his and our waking awareness?
It may be of benefit while contemplating a deeper dive into the dream's numinous layers to entertain the shifting of consciousness from 'ordinary states' to those that carry the wisdom states in unconditionally loving, non-judgemental, healing and compassionate service to body and soul. Diving into the depths now, it seems, calls for more than the 'usual' or 'historically adequate' modes of protection and 'silent running'. It is a timely reminder to us all, that the mysteries shared through the deep heart, transform us according to the capacity we carry when greeting their forces.
Being 'silent' or silenced...into running or being inconspicuous may not serve the newly discoveed or re-entered realms of inner wonder, beauty and killing force. When entering the deep feminine, one does so naked...the better to become intimately acquainted with her. The predatory signature is also one that serves by 'taking out' or scaring off what is not equipped to handle the forces of this sort of induction or initiation. Perhaps a step back and surrendering to...calling in what are the complementary resources to this dream experience, inviting them to embue the dreamer in the experience of the dream's wonders and warnings might also serve the dreamer and the piece.
It may be that the dreamer is in connection now, anew with a vast resource which is intuitionally aspected and which may have been 'closed off' in some way, or run from when a child...by virtue of a deeply disturbing, astounding or fearsome encounter...and now it invites the man back into its 'eye' , though with some sense of warning as to the need for inner preparation/initiation. Step by step, mindful organization (masculine modes) may perhaps be not enough. One might be invited to bow and surrender the organizational impress to the part of the inner panoply that carries the ranges for diving this piece, with all eyes open and naked to its gifts. The perspective of the fearful child will not do, when entering the holy of holies. One gets spat out, directly. A great teacher, Dr. Brugh Joy has shared many times...that 'Travelling into the mysteries of dream and dipping a curious toe into the unconscious is like travelling up the amazon, naked." The girding of loins, the protection of individual presence and the opening to serving resource steps into play not so much from the outer trappings of armor and proper kit and meticulous planning, but from the inner resourcing and opening to the radiance of that realm, through the auspices of the mystery of the heart.
The dream portends, perhaps the opening of the 'eye' (again) to as yet untold wonders, in the experience of the wholeness of constructive and destructive force...the feminine deeps. The heart centred state, the deeply feeling and responsive state can allow more into the field of view and experience. To each, there is a unique way to take on that mantle, that radiance...a sound, some particular music, an image of a beloved teacher or deity, nature in all its forms... For many, a simple lowering of the eyelid and connection to heart will open the door, ah....the transpersonal state owes nothing to us and yet offers us everything...from within.
This dream also offers the collective...the communal pool, a gift of gifts through the auspices of this most generous and courageous adventurer. Terror serves as a terrific announcer of change. It tends to wake one fully to the possibilities when that state of consciousness shifts and the being softens the eye and invites in the compassionate play.
P.
Tsunami Dream: I dreamed during the early hours of March 11 2011, as I wrote it upon waking at 6 am EST:
Dad and John standing in garden overlooking round rocks cliff, looking down on me, they turn and leave, i'm submerged in ocean below them, dirty water, waves, i swim to grab a handle on a white garage door, to the right a series of 7 waves advances, rogues, growlers, no time to escape, so i hang on for dear life, HOlding breath. Then relief, i see no more big waves on horizon, so I clamber up the rocks, rescuing a struggling wet kitten or rabbit near the top.
Notes: The characters "Dad and John" are both deceased, father and brother, who died within a month of each other, back in 2002, Dad of natural causes and brother of suicide. The garden is quite sunny and civilized, a lawn as if an estate ending at the cliff's edge. Cliff is a gentle slope, rounded rocks, maybe 50 to 100 feet long on a fairly steep incline. It is not unusual for me to dream of ocean and water as much of my life has been spent sailing, but it was remarkable that I saw the rogue wave series approaching and could count them as 7 in number. When I woke and wrote the dream, I did not know the earthquake and tsunami had taken place in Japan. The waves in my dream were approaching from the right, which is like the West in waking life.
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