whatdreamsmaycome

Last night I had a dream. I looked out behind my parent’s house. My car was parked there, but there was water coming in and almost covering it completely. It was really at the shore at Sebago Lake. So I went to move the car, but I realized that it was hopeless, so I started climbing up a ladder to the deck. My niece called to me. It was Sila. So I put her on my back and kept climbing. There was scaffolding to the house and I told her to climb onto it. She did, but then the scaffolding began to collapse. Then I was inside Sila’s thoughts and I could hear her say, that’s it, I’m dead, goodbye. She began to fall off the scaffolding, but as she fell, I grabbed her foot and saved her.

What could it mean?

I feel very connected to my niece. I see in her the same sensitivity that I carry, the same beauty and openness. And I fear for her. The lake is the unconscious, or unconscious elements that threaten to overwhelm the conscious. This means that there are parts of the self or parts of the soul that are shielded and protected and not allowed to communicate with conscious elements. For example, painful, traumatic experiences from the past that are potentially overwhelming to the psyche. Climbing up the scaffolding is an attempt to stay in the conscious realm, to not suffer the pains of looking into the unconscious, painful and repressed memories, sensations, etc. Scaffolding can be any of the structures that we create in our waking lives to protect us from seeing the painful things that we have repressed, or from living the full and authentic lives that we crave.

But looking at my niece I know that she will have to make the same journey that I have, she will be confronted with the abyss and she will need to navigate it in her own way.

When you dream about someone, always you are looking at some aspect of yourself. In my dream, my niece represents the child. She is the beautiful, fresh, innocent personality that wants to learn and grow. The fear and the falling are my fears for myself. Catching her by the foot is a way of saying two things. First, something is afoot in my life. I am actively engaged in looking at unconscious material, but in a safe way. I will not let myself be thrown headlong into the abyss. The second thing is that I am strong and capable and I will not let her (or myself) die. The end of the dream is also a way of saying that I am in the process of rescuing the child-like or innocent part of the self, that fears that it will die and fall away into oblivion. Finally, it must be said that, in the dream I was seeking my parent's house as a refuge of safety. Since I had to climb the scaffold there was a sense that it was a false refuge.  Like all structures it was unstable, as Eckhart Tolle has observed. Ultimately the scaffold fails, as all structures fail. Even catching the child's foot to save her is an action that will ultimately fail. We must all look at the abyss, underneath the water, sooner or later.

This is a positive dream, full of action and symbols and hope.