A Dream of a Road

Last night's dream was about a road in the country. It was a road I knew in waking life, near the farm where I grew up. I was driving on this road and I had to stop because a construction crew was turning it into a freeway. I parked my car and asked the foreman whether there was a detour so I could drive around. He said I wouldn't be able to move my car because they were working all around it now. Then he warned me they were about to pour concrete. Suddenly the road was like a river and concrete was flowing like water and the concrete covered my car, burying it under the new freeway. The foreman and his crew laughed while I stood speechless. Before I was awake I was already speculating on the meaning of this dream. My first worry was that it meant I was becoming hard and inflexible like concrete. First impressions are often the wrong ones. One way of understanding a dream is to find the opposite meaning of your first impression. There was a road - the road that I'm traveling on, my life-path. There was a flood of concrete burying my car - and if it was water (as it appeared to be) I'd think it symbolized an overwhelming realization from the Unconscious. That's all I got! I'll have to mull it over a while longer.

Dream of Art Critique

Continuing to record my dreams. last night I dreamed that I was sitting in a restaurant with two performance poets. In the waking world I know several poets. As we sat, there was a man having a conversation nearby. I think he was Noel Coward. I like Noel Coward's work. While sitting at the table, I said to the other two poets, "Is he a good artist or is he a great artist?" I wanted to continue by saying, "Some are good artists and great talkers, and some are great artists but only good artists." I woke up before I could finish my statement! On the topic of art, some artists would like to make an impact on people. I have that fantasy myself, that I could make an impact. It occured to me today that making an impact is a form of violence. Physical impact is violent, so of course a psychological or spiritual impact is violence. Any action that changes or alters... Several years ago my legs were broken in a car accident. I was changed by that impact. And yet, we'd like art to make an impact. When it does, we consider it to be great art.

Dream of a Tidal Wave

Last night's dream: I was on a beach, watching the waves. Out in the water I could see a raft. As it grew closer to the shore an enormous wave came toward me. I ran from the wave but it closed in on me and lifted me. I felt like I was surfing but soon realized that the raft had scooped me up and was carrying me miles inland on this tidal wave. When the wave finally subsided, I was gently landed onto a grassy field. I hope these dreams aren't boring - other people's dreams, who care? LoL - Maybe I'll think of something more interesting to share eventually. I'm writing a short ebook about Greek gods in the roles of the cast of The Big Bang Theory. I decided that I just want to have fun with writing for a while, and if it isn't fun I'll go do something else! My New Year's resolution!

a horse, a bridge, and von Franz

Marie-Louise von Franz wrote that the horse in dreams is the "carrying instinct." I don't know how that fits in with my dream last night: I was leading a horse, with halter and lead-line, through a large room. Several people were in the room - none of them recognizable, in fact the room wasn't a familiar place although this didn't bother me in the dream. After we walked through the room we came to wood ramp crossing a crevice. I led the horse across the ramp. Several boards were missing and the horse had to be careful to not step through the open spaces. We went through another room and another ramp leading to the second story of the building. Again the horse had to be careful, and he talked. The horse said something to the effect that the ramp had missing boards and we were going to the second floor. I thought, "I wonder what people think about this being a talking horse." Then I realized that we should have stayed on the ground floor because the door was at the other side of the room on the ground floor. And thus ended this dream.

Dreaming of the Anima

Last night I was reading Animus and Anima, a short book with two essays by Emma Jung. She writes, in the book, about elemental beings in fairytales as examples of how the anima behaves. I went to sleep with my mind filled with ideas about nixies, swan maidens, water women and other mythical feminine figures. I had a dream that I was standing in a bedroom with my son - a bedroom in my house according to the dream but not familiar in the real world - and a bookshelf in the room was filled with children's books written for adults: pornographic fairytale books! I felt uncomfortable for a moment about my son finding these books, but I shrugged that off and decided they were just part of life and he'd be okay reading them. Suddenly then, as I was sitting on the bed, I felt a porcupine quill stuck in the tip of my index finger. I pulled it out and dropped it onto the floor. The thought crossed my mind that someone might step on it, but I decided there were plenty porcupine quills around and I wouldn't worry about one more. And that's where the dream ended. Hah - I don't even want to speculate what that might be about - but I blame Emma Jung's book!

A Dream of Tigers

Had a dream last night that I was petting a female tiger. She was big and powerful, but she didn't harm me. In fact she was friendly and playful. Then a male tiger entered the scene. Unlike the female, this male was de-clawed. He was friendly and playful also. As I petted these tigers I realized we were inside a large fenced, enclosed habitat. One of my co-workers, from my day-job, entered the scene and seemed to disapprove of my interaction with these tigers, claiming they were his. Odd dream. Must mean something about my comfort with the power of my natural instincts, and something about my day job being incompatible with my natural drives as a human animal and as an artist. That's my impression, at least. I haven't been very faithful to my blogging the past few months! I can't seem to take hold of a theme and run with it. I think I'll make simple posts about the dreams that come to me at night. A simple enough theme and compatible with depth psychology.