I came across a deadly snake, like a Taipan, which I managed to cut up pretty badly in an attempt to kill it. When I thought it was dead I proceeded to spread it on my toast. (Seemed like the natural thing to do at the time!) But it was still alive. It made terrible sounds because it was obviously in pain and tried to strike me, but missed. Then it slithered away.
Our little dog saw the thing and proceeded to chase it. He's a joyful little fellow full of joie de vivre, leaping and bounding at the sight of a stick to be thrown. I called after him to stop him because I was sure the snake would get him, but he was gone. Shortly he returned and I don't know if he was bitten but I was pretty sure he probably had been.
I think our dog represents the light heartedness and joy of my life being killed off by all the hideous and evil stuff going down. Would this be a fair interpretation?
You are right to look at the animals in your dream as representing your instincts and feelings, and how these are faring in your waking life.
You associate your dog with light-heartedness and joy – your OWN light-heartedness and joy.
You associate the snakes with the ‘hideous and evil stuff going down’. Clearly this is how you feel about some elements of your waking life, but you get more insight from a dream if you look at EVERYTHING as reflecting your own inner beliefs and feelings. Hmmm, you may think, what does this mean? That I am hideous and evil?
No, of course not.
But why is it that different people deal with the same situation in different ways? I don’t know what your hideous situation is, but let’s take an example:
Let’s imagine the hideous situation is blackmail. One person may not know how to overcome the situation and end up succumbing, paying the blackmailer, emotionally and financially, as he or she demands. A second person might find a way to undermine the blackmailer, to expose him or her, and not lose out emotionally or financially.
The example shows that a situation FEELS a certain way according to how we deal with it – and that often depends on our own beliefs and experiences. In other words, the most important factor in any given situation is not so much what it seems to be, but what our own inner beliefs are.
If your inner beliefs were changed in some way, you might find that the hideous and evil situation is a bubble you can blow away.
So, let’s look again at that snake:
Look at all animals in a dream as representing instincts and energies within you. Here is something that can inflict pain to protect itself; that is hard to kill; that should be toast (dead) but isn’t. Here is an energy that is deadly but also “cut up pretty badly”. It makes terrible sounds because it is in pain (?) and you feel at risk of further pain if it strikes you.
Snakes in dreams often represent healing as healing involves facing pain (instead of burying it). Have a look at the paragraph above and see how much of that energy sounds familiar to you:
Do you sometimes feel an urge to say or do something that may be hurtful because you are trying to protect yourself? What is the pain within you that feels “cut up pretty badly”? Wouldn’t life be easier if this pain was gone – if it was toast? But it lives on, doesn’t it? And the more it lives on the more you feel at risk of further pain. The only way to avoid FURTHER pain is to face the past/ current pain and let it go.
The potential for healing is to face the pain, to see it for what is.
You wondered if your dream meant that the light-heartedness and joy of your life (your dog) was being killed off by the hideous situation. But although you were pretty sure your dog had been bitten in the dream, it’s interesting that he was okay when he returned. He HAD faced the pain (and perhaps felt it if he had been bitten – really got in touch with it) but he seemed to be still alive and joyful.
I wonder whether light-heartedness and joy is the means to overcoming the situation.
You will find it helpful to read ‘Snakes’ in Dream Alchemy pages 176-82.
Think about the situation you are in, and other situations in your life right now. Include relationship situations, job, health, financial situations and so on.
Make a list of these.
Now consider each one in turn and get in touch with how you feel in each situation. How do you feel when things are going well? How do you feel when things are not going so well? How do you feel when communicating with people in each of these situations?
Then consider which animal would best represent each feeling in each situation. For example, you might feel like a rabbit talking to a work colleague, and like a lion when you consider your health.
When you’ve done this, simply observe, over the next few weeks, the range of animal energies within you. As you do this you will gain greater insight into the roles that your dog and the cut up snake play in your response to life, and you will become clearer on how to act in a healing way.
Discover more about Jane Teresa's Dream Alchemy Practices in her 2003 book, "Dream Alchemy" (Lothian Books).
Jane Teresa Anderson
