Author

Subject: Altar

Aneo

13:04 15/04/2002 

I woke in darkness all around me. To the left of my ears I could hear the voices calling for help. They seem to be behind an alter or hide. I could not see them, only hear them. I was standing, yet I could not move. They were calling me, and I began to weep silently. “Help us, help us,” they wailed.

A feeling of something coming began to fill my senses. I felt death was coming and knew that I could not move let alone escape. All my senses began to vibrate, I tried to speak to utter. And then the voices of the people, said, “He is coming for you, he is coming for you”.

I was so scared so frightened. Then I knew he had begun to come. I felt my eyelashes flutter, and I tried to speak, but no words did come. I tried so hard, only to begin to feel a vibration. My whole body was beginning to vibrate, and the words that were trying to release from my mouth sounded like a stuttering song. I could not run. I could not escape. The vibration took over my whole body, and then I began to spiral, slowly, it felt so nice. I then awoke. To find tears running down my face.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

2004

Jane Teresa's View

Jane Teresa Anderson

Overview Interpretation & Dream Alchemy Practice suggestion

OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION

Hi Aneo,

This is a beautiful release dream, Aneo. It released grief in the dream and in the shape of your waking tears, but it also released much more.

You dreamed you awoke to darkness. Waking in dreams is often symbolic of waking up to something about oneself, experiencing an awakening. So what did you awaken to? A call for help accompanied by tears, theirs and yours. Everyone in the dream symbolises the dreamer, so the call for help is from a voice deep within, unseen yet heard and felt.

The call for help came from behind an altar or hide. When you wrote out your dream you spelled altar, ‘alter’ and since spelling mistakes or typos are created by the unconscious mind they can be very telling, especially in dream analysis. In this case, one method of hiding something is to alter it, to change it. For example, one could hide a stolen car by altering its number plate and colour, or one could hide one’s disappointment by altering the expression on one’s face. Your dream suggests you have hidden a cry for help by altering… by altering what? How have you hidden your grief?

Suppose the voices spoke from behind an altar, a place of sacrifice and worship. Have you hidden grief or a need for help behind a façade of sacrifice or religion? Have you sacrificed the part of yourself that needs help and healing, channelled the loss away from yourself and into another cause? Do you help others instead of helping yourself rather than as well as helping yourself?

At this point you felt a sense of death. Death, in dreams, is often about death of the old way of being in preparation for the birth of new ways, new attitudes and new beliefs. At the end of your dream the previous darkness and grief was transformed into a lovely feeling as you spiralled slowly. In other words, there was death of darkness and grief giving way to birth of a better feeling. And the key?

In the dream you realised that you could not move, “let alone escape”. Where would escape have taken you? Would you have escaped the cry for help, escaped the tears, escaped the fear of death? Maybe. But would you have experienced the lovely spiralling, the birth? Perhaps not.

When you face fears or grief instead of escaping them, instead of running away, instead of diverting them, altering them or hiding them, they lose their darkness and present real opportunities for change

DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE

Writing Exercise

Set a timer for 15 minutes and start writing or typing as fast as you can – with no room for thought – a story starting with the words, “Did you ever wonder what lays behind the altar?…”. Just let the words flow – a kind of stream of consciousness. Stop when the timer sounds. Read over your story at leisure. You will be surprised how much you learn from this.

How does this work?

By working with dream elements and symbols in writing form you are communicating with your unconscious mind in its own language to create change, to explore your feelings and to resolve and heal past issues.

More details on various writing exercises as Dream Alchemy Practices in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 337-338.

Jane Teresa Anderson

You can consult with Jane Teresa or her Dream Team and receive your interpretation by email within five working days.

ORIGINAL THREAD

Below is the original forum discussion on this dream, contributed before Jane Teresa's 2004 interpretation.

Lena

08:51 16/04/2002 

Hi Aneo,

When I saw your dream's name, I thought it could be refering to the word "alter" as in "change". When we dream of death, I understand that it is not necessarily a bad thing. It can mean the death of old patterns or behaviours that are no longer needed.

So maybe the dream is an indication of some sort of major change. Good change, i think, because you say that the vibration "felt so nice". The tears could be part of a letting go feeling, not just sadness.

And yes, change can sometimes be scary, too, which could explain the feeling of being frightened.

Hope that helps you to work out what your dream is telling you.

Lena

Aneo

12:19 16/04/2002 

Lena....thank you kindly for assisting me.

Star

12:53 16/04/2002 

What a beautiful dream Aneo.

Like Lena I too see altar as being a reference to altering something, not just initially with the title but, also with the typo of Altar to alter in the writing of the dream.

Facing "Death" is a biggy for all of us. Perhaps this one is indicating facing the fear of death fully and letting it go. We are in fact helpless in many ways to stop that transformation.

Once we truly realise there is no death as in the end finished never to be no more, life does indeed change dramatically. Well it did for me anyway.

I don't know if this fits also but as I was reading I was reminded of "The Second Coming of Christ". Whilst many Christians have the belief that this is a literal appearance being referred to, my experiences showed me that it was more about the energy/vibration of Christ Consciousness which would be gradually merging with and appearing within all. It wasn't like Christ was going to just hop off a cloud manifesting somewhere in our World and say hey guys I'm back! :)

Blessings. Star.

Aneo

00:46 17/04/2002 

Good Point Star...Thank you.

Star

04:37 17/04/2002 

My pleasure.

AneO

09:48 17/04/2002 

Now thats interesting, my last name is Owen, yep...but I did not post as Owen...then I noticed another Owen down further on the board. A little mix-up, a hic-cup...sorri for the crease. Thank you.