My tall, thin male friend (only in my dream) was walking beside me to go and check out a white two-carriage rail motor train that we had supposed was responsible for some strange phenomena going on. (I don't know what).
Next thing we are on this little old platform, a lonely little thing with a little wooden fence, like something you might find in a little old quiet country town. I am looking at this train. My friend is on it and it is incredibly crowded to bursting point. Even if I wanted to get on I couldn't. I thought my friend would get off because of the nature of the train.
There were no other people on the platform but the station guard. I said to him, “This train is too crowded”. He just kept leaning on the fence and didn't say a word. I thought to myself that he couldn't really say anything because if he did he would have to admit to himself that he didn't do his job properly.
I watched the train pull out and was astounded by the amount of people on it. The train seemed to be bulging the people were so squashed in. There was no sound from them or the train at all. Nothing strange happened.
Next I remember being on this little country platform again and it was full of people. I don't know why I was there.
A good way to approach a dream is to look for opposites. You have crowded (the overcrowded train) versus spacious and empty (the platform). Not only is the platform empty but you have also described it as lonely and quiet.
Pairs of opposites in a dream often define an issue that requires balancing. In this case the issue appears to be one of personal space. This could be physical, mental or emotional space, though I feel it may refer to mental space or an issue of protecting ideas and ways of thinking. I’ll explain.
Let’s look at the empty platform first. The only other person present is the guard. He represents your beliefs about guarding your space, or being on guard. The fence is prominent and he even leans on the fence. A fence is a barrier, or demarcation of space. You are guarding your space with fences – perhaps even with de-fences.
What else can we learn from the guard? He was avoiding admitting to himself that he wasn’t doing his job properly. (He was in denial.) In the context of the dream, where was he lacking in his skills? According to your dream he was ignoring the issue of crowding on the train. The feeling here is that you are feeling crowded out in at least one area of your life and you are coping with this by ignoring it and trying to create an alternative personal space, but your personal space is a lonely one. The guard’s job should be to keep the balance right and he (you) is not doing this.
The crowding is on the train. Dreams do use word play, so the train may represent training. Are you training or studying and feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ideas and work, for example? As your train was white, this may be a spiritual training (white being pure). It has two carriages, so it may be a two-stage training of some kind. Can you think what it might be?
Trains, or rail motors, are unable to deviate from the set tracks, which is another reason why trains often represent set disciplines or training courses in dreams.
The tall, thin male friend is a dream character – no-one you know in waking life. The male friend in a dream often represents your male side: your Yang, your left-brain qualities such as rational thinking, action, mechanistic thinking, competition and orientation to the outer world. He was tall but thin, lofty (high) but perhaps not well nourished. His height may represent your higher learning or your higher potential, while his thinness may represent a need for more substance, perhaps. You could imagine his body as not taking up much space, as if he has no fences, as if he is crowded out.
I wonder whether you need to simplify your study course, or unload yourself of those ideas that you are perhaps keeping to yourself. If you have identified what the train represents, then why would you be keeping it overloaded? What ideas might you be holding back, unwilling to share? What, in your current life situation, would change if you let those ideas loose, let down your fences or simplified your life? Do you fear this change?
It sounds like it’s time to add substance to your outer world (Yang) perhaps by sharing some of your ideas or by letting go of some so that you can focus and develop others. The loneliness of the platform indicates that your current survival tactics are creating loneliness.
If you have identified the train as your work, then have a look again at the guard who doesn’t want to admit to himself that he’s not doing his job properly. Would your career or work output have more substance if you focussed more on balance than on overloading yourself?
The dream started with the assumption that the train was responsible for some strange phenomena and your job, at the start of the dream, was to check this out. The result of your investigation was to note that the train was overcrowded and that the guard was guarding his denial. Then you noted that, after all, “nothing strange happened”.
You did good work in this dream. Your observations revealed your own denial and showed how this is complicating things for you. The ‘strange phenomena’ that had been resulting from not dealing effectively with over-crowding are now over. This is emphasised in the last part of your dream where the platform was no longer empty. You had put the situation back in balance. Now simply apply this formula to the waking life situation.
Consult me confidentially about your dream.
Identify an area of your house or office that could do with a clear out. You might choose to clear out some cupboards, donating things you no longer need to charity, or carting garbage to the dump. Or you might want to sort through old files at work and decide what you need to keep on your desk. Or perhaps you could look through your address book and delete names and phone numbers that are out of date.
By clearing space in your physical world you clear space in your mental, emotional and spiritual worlds, restoring balance.
More details on Dream Alchemy Practices, why and how they work, are detailed in: “Dream Alchemy” by Jane Teresa Anderson.
Jane Teresa Anderson
