Author

Subject: roast beef

owen

10:09 12/04/2002 

It is an old house, white washed walls, kerosene of some such lanterns and doorways opening unexpectedly onto rooms of fine heavy furniture. There are a number of people in the rooms, soldiers standing and sitting about, older women doing chores in the kitchen where I am standing, and through the door of the kitchen I can see an army officer of high rank leaning back in a high backed wooden /leather chair. He looks pale and ill.

I am eating a very large meal of roast beef and potatoes, standing in the kitchen, and being cheerfully urged by the ladies to keep eating. I am dressed in an army greatcoat with a knapsack on my back. There is too much beef and I can't finish it.

I feel I am much younger than everyone else in the house, this is an old time, the uniforms are old fashioned, the women have lace collars and long dark dresses. There is a closed off fireplace and when one of the soldiers begins arranging books in front of it on a small table, a woman stops him. I wake up.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

2004

Jane Teresa's View

Jane Teresa Anderson

Overview Interpretation & Dream Alchemy Practice suggestion

OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION

Hi Owen,

It’s always tempting to feel, when the dream setting looks and feels historic, that you have travelled back into history or are experiencing a past life. While this may be possible, it’s always true that the dream is relevant to your current situation. You have most to gain by looking at the historic scene as part of the symbolism of your dream.

It is true that dreams refer us back to earlier days, commonly to our childhood, revealing the origins of experiences and beliefs that built our character and affect our responses to life. It could be argued that if you have lived before, those memories might be accessible through dreams and useful in throwing light on your current life situation. But, think about this: even when a dream takes you back to your childhood home the old home scene is changed in some way – it includes many symbolic elements. If you feel you have visited a past life in a dream, it is unlikely to be literally accurate, being subject to the same shifts of perspective that we see when we visit our childhood in dreams. Your unconscious mind pictures past, present and future in symbolic rather than literal terms.

Dreams also borrow from our experiences of books and movies, and you will have seen plenty of period war movies, I’m sure. When we see a film and resonate with one of the characters, that feeling of shared experience can spill over into our dreams.

So, what symbolism does the historic setting of your dream offer? The setting is a place where soldiers, people who would normally be at war, are resting up. If you have served in a war, your dream may be exploring your recovery and healing, or, if you have not been in the army, then your dream may be exploring respite from a conflict in your waking life.

The walls of the house are whitewashed. We speak of whitewashing something when we are glossing over it, covering up something we don’t want others to know about, or simply making a clean start, a fresh slate.

There are doors opening unexpectedly onto rooms of fine furniture. When we find extra rooms in dreams we are generally recognising extra potential within ourselves, and here you see fine potential.

You stand in the kitchen, the nurturing centre of the house, being well fed. Always look for opposites in a dream: here you have the pale, ill army officer and you, the well-fed (too much food), healthy, younger soldier. There is also the warm nurturing kitchen (too much cheerful urging to overfeed) versus the closed-off fireplace.

There is too much beef and we wonder whether the army officer would be healthy if he had the beef and the nurturing of the kitchen, rather than sitting by the closed-off fireplace.

Why too much beef? Dreams often work in word play. Have you been ‘beefing something up’ or ‘making meat of it’ instead of seeing it as it is? Could this be related to whatever you are whitewashing? It’s beginning to sound like a media spin: beefing something up, whitewashing something over.

I wonder whether the historic setting is suggesting, “This is all ancient history. This is past,” especially as you feel you are younger than everyone else. Is it time to let wartime experiences or a present day personal conflict go? Are you spending too much time ‘feeding’ the past, beefing it up, making meat over it or whitewashing it instead of letting it go? Could this be making you exhausted – pale and ill?

I have a feeling the pale, ill army officer can enlighten you here, so I’ve suggested a dialogue dream alchemy practice to see what you can learn from this symbol.

You will find it helpful to read ‘Was that a past life’ in Dream Alchemy, pages 194-199, and ‘Wow! Extra rooms’ in Dream Alchemy, pages 189-193.

DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE

Dialogue:

Your dialogue is between you and the pale, ill army officer. Start with you saying, “Can I help you?” and see what the officer automatically answers. Keep it going for 20 minutes.

How to do this:

Give yourself no longer than 20 minutes. When you do this exercise do NOT think! Don’t plan ahead. Just let whatever happens happen. Let the two entities speak to each other on paper using whatever words come up. It’s a bit like writing a film script or play – but without the brain being involved.

How does this work?

By not thinking, by keeping the words flowing, you are letting your right brain and unconscious mind do most of the work. They created the original dream so they know what these symbols mean for you. They will reveal. You will be surprised.

More details on Dialogue as a Dream Alchemy Practice in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 321-4 and 333.

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.

Star

21:57 12/04/2002 

Hi Owen - sounds very much like a past life scenario to me - how does it fit in with what is occurring in your life now and what do you make out of it??

Owen

08:58 13/04/2002 

Star, my thoughts exactly. Since retirement and illness have been getting alot of strange dreams. Posting a new one now, only short but vivid. Owen.

Star

18:41 13/04/2002 

Owen, hi again - found for myself that once I stopped work due to life threatening illness the dream experiences became not just strange but bizarre, to say the least!!!! Was dreadfully confusing for quite a while and many days I truly did wonder if I weren't losing the plot so to speak, eventually discovered I was actually truly finding it.

Past life scenarios always fitted in with whatever was happening for me at exactly that same point if you like, though there really are no points, in my present waking reality, and even though folk looked different between now and then I always just knew who those people were in this life time, what the issue was I needed to address with them i.e. what I needed to change within myself in order to release whatever.

Seems to me a great many of us are here to clear out our stuff - unresolved emotions, beliefs, etc. which are the true cause of illness and dis-ease that we've subconsciously hung onto life time after life time, after life time. Once it seeps into consciousness via a dream like experience and we recognise it for what it truly is, fully feel our emotions around it and change ourselves accordingly, it, whatever it is goes.

Eventually I learned to recognise what was past life and what was purely symbolic BUT the only way I could address the issues and make any sense of any of it was to treat EVERYTHING and EVERYONE both in dreaming and in waking as a symbolic aspect of Self.

Your other dream above about the swamp also reminded me of a past life scenario issue - but symbolically it also holds a great deal of meaning. Main thing I got from that was about facing fear and not trying to hide from it - also the term being swamped by your emotions came into my head.

Can't help but wonder if the women who were telling you to eat in this dream are symbolic of you perhaps needing to either nurture yourself more or of needing to stand up for yourself more and say no when you really don't want to do something.

Best of luck, can be a rough and very lonely journey at times but it's more than worth it.

There is a book which came out quite some time ago that may interest you "Past Lives Present Dreams" by Denise Linn.

With love, Star.

o

15:33 14/04/2002 

Hi Star, thank you for the comments, I'm more inclined to believing that dreams are in fact from a past life in one definition, but in another that certain dreams are in fact your spiritual self entering into another world that exists along with our material world. Determining which dream is past life and which is a seperate world is the trick. Don't know, maybe it's me who has lost the plot. Owen.

Star

18:11 14/04/2002 

Agree fully Owen - doubt you've lost the plot cause whilst there only seems to be one world physically there are in fact many.

I had great difficulty for quite some time walking between what I call two worlds, the physical and the spiritual. Was like having a foot in each and still trying to function fully in this one which was indeed extremely tricky. Especially in relation to what I experienced as being future in this one.

Often nothing from the other or many matched this one in many instances - but the past life scenarios were always, for me anyway, very clear and did match situations now.

Eventually it became clear that all are One and there is no separation, nor does time really exist as we know it.

The mystery of it all intrigued me, still does.

Anne

10:57 18/04/2002 

Star, I've tried looking for that book in my local library, but they didn't have it, but I did get a loan of 'Signposts' by the same author, which I read on a bus trip up to Melbourne on Tuesday.

I'm a bit of a novice at these things, how do you know what your personal signs are? I feel I have a correlation with the number 5, with the number of times it comes up with personal things, but not birthdays.

I have also borrowed 'Descendants'.

Star

20:22 20/04/2002 

Hi Anne - Signposts is great isn't it - I have most of her books and just love them.

Personal signs for me are a bit like my totem animals Anne. Usually what appears most frequently to me in either reality.

As I said in meaty dreams - Eagle is one of mine and 3's and multiples of it always turn up when I am "on the right track." I usually scan rego numbers, additions of phone numbers, street addresses etc. when someone or something new comes into my life and 9 times out of 10 only follow those leads.

I've found several houses to move into, all of which I have been very happy in via the messages I get both from Eagle and these numbers. Also found a great deal of growth and change occurring for myself when I have chosen to follow these things.

That is to say whenever I am in logical doubt about anything I am wanting to do, or doing I usually let all the signs (whatever they are and however they appear dream or this reality) and my heart/feeling guide me.

Hope that assists somewhat, if not let me know.