When things happen repeatedly, it’s time to pay attention.

So, with Claire completing her challenge last week on interpreting dreams, and several clients mentioning dreams during the last week’s sessions, I knew it important to pay attention to the dream which left me quite disturbed when I woke up this morning.

The general dream ‘plot’ was:

I was in my old suburb with my other sister Liz. We were out on the street and stopped in at a house, which had a male occupant and two children. The house was dingy and dark and while the children were happy playing I became aware that they had been mistreated. Liz and I felt uncomfortable and decided to leave. The man’s wife arrived and was happy to help us in leaving. As we left, we tried to get a cab at a taxi rank, but none of the drivers would take us. When we finally found one which would, I noticed as we got into the taxi that it was actually a converted boat. It looked pretty shabby.

After a block, we decided to get out and walk. We had to cross a busy main road. It looked far more relaxed over on the opposite side. As I went to cross, I received a text message from a friend who wanted a reading, but I decided to not do the reading and cross over the road. Liz decided to leave me at this point, happily waving goodbye.

When I arrived on the other side of the road, it looked entirely different. I knew I was now in France, however, the scene was grey and black, very dull and lifeless. There was another house there, which I went into to wait for another friend, ‘Polly’. As I entered the house, I noticed the walls were bare and made from wrought iron and wicker. It was eery, lonely and deserted. I went to walk upstairs, and noticed a wrought iron day bed at the foot of the stairs. It didn’t look very comfortable, so I hauled it aside and proceeded up the stairs. As I made it to half way, I had to help fill an internal retaining wall. We filled it with rocks and pebbles, and as it sifted into place I noticed pink macaroons in the supporting material. It was the only colour in this part of the dream.

Then, I noticed another friend, ‘Margaret’ in a bedroom. She was putting her two children to sleep, but she looked lonely.

Symbols:

As I’ve mentioned in other dream interpreting blog posts, it’s important to pay attention to the symbols. Using a dream dictionary and my own intuition, I developed the following list of symbols and meanings (for people and locations, I use the first three words that come to mind as to how I would describe them in this moment):

Suburb: solitary, healing and change

Liz: balanced, level-headed, grounded

First house: creepy, inappropriate behaviour, children taken advantage of

Children: inner child

Wife: loving, blinded, devoted

Taxi: asking for help moving forward. Could also mean ‘being taken for a ride’

Boat: reflects ability to cope with emotions and express emotions

Road: life path, sense of direction

Crossing road: wanting to get to other side of an issue

Text message/mobile phone: receptive to new ideas and messages, communication (or lack of)

Friend: creative, non-conformist, alternative

France: peaceful, creative, relaxed

Second home: old, weathered, dull, harsh materials

Day bed: rest and relaxation

‘Polly’: stubborn, studying, trying

Stairs: ascending to higher understanding

Retaining wall: protection, stability, support

‘Margaret’: financially comfortable, lonely, healing

Bedroom: comfort, rest

Children: inner child

Interpretation:

This dream was not about the actual people, locations or events. Instead, I’ve interpreted this dream to mean the following:

My balanced, level-headed, grounded self (Liz) is being solitary, healing and changing (suburb). My current self (house) and inner child (children) feels violated, taken advantage of and the people charged with its responsibility haven’t taken care of it. My balanced, level-headed, grounded self no longer wants to stay in this environment. The loving, blinded, devoted aspect of myself (wife) wants to stay in that position, but is happy for us to take care of what we need. My balanced, level-headed, grounded self (Liz) is seeking help (taxis) but not able to find what I need. When I do receive help, it looks different than I thought it would. My ability to express my emotions and cope with my emotions is shabby (boat).

My balanced, level-headed, grounded self and I come to the path everyone else is racing along, heading in a different direction (main road). I want to intersect it, not join it. I want to be free on the other side of the road, not on this side with the violation of my inner child (children). I receive a message from my creative, non-conformist, alternative self (friend) which wants me to perform in a certain way and I choose not to. My balanced, level-headed, grounded self is happy to leave me for the next part of the journey.

Finding myself on the other side, I’m in a creative, peaceful, relaxed environment (France) – but here I see myself (second house) as weathered, dull, lifeless and harsh. I see an opportunity to rest, but it looks uncomfortable (wrought iron day bed) so I push it aside and carry on working hard. I move to ascend (upstairs) but stop half way as I feel I have to prepare for my stubborn, studying, trying self (‘Polly’). I work hard to put into place the support and stability I think the stubborn, studying, trying self needs (retaining wall) and in doing so, notice colour, fun and nourishment (pink macaroons) in small doses.

I see the financially comfortable, lonely, healing part of myself (‘Margaret’) trying to comfort and rest my inner child.

Common themes

Because I record the dreams I remember, I was able to go back over previous recent dreams and see a theme here. I need a rest! I also need to nourish and nurture myself, bring some colour and joy into my life – not work myself so hard into the ground. Fortunately, my break is only weeks away… in the meantime, I need to take it down a notch (easier said than done, running your own business, planning a wedding in six weeks and being pregnant!)

Also of interest to me in this dream, was that when I saw children, I saw them in pairs. I’ve taken this to mean not only my inner child, but the literal child I’m carrying – this dream is also a reminder to me that whatever I’m feeling, my baby will also be affected by – and this is NOT the environment I want them in.

Today, I have focused on working with these symbols to improve the dream and begin to see myself, my inner child (both of them) and my situation a little differently.

And all this from sleep!