OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION
Hi Caroline,
Dreams often help us to recognise, express and release emotions that we once suppressed because we were unable to cope at with the experience at the time. These dreams provide the perfect environment for us to feel the full force of an emotion safely. Interpreting the dream throws light on the circumstances.
You felt shock and sadness or grief. The cause of this, according to your dream, is a deception that has been living with you for many years. You were deceived over a commitment (marriage) – or lack of one. You had been helping someone who was struggling and also deceiving you. It’s as if you demonstrated a strong commitment to family by helping, only to discover that the commitment was not returned. The couple had no legal commitment (marriage) and your help was based on a false (deceived) premise of family (in terms of marriage only the nephew was family, not his partner).
Which three words would you use to describe your nephew’s approach to life or personality? Write these down and then write down the opposites to these three words. Do the same for your nephew’s wife. Look at your sets of opposites and see which ones describe issues or conflicts in your current situation.
For example, you might have ‘hard working versus lazy’ and ‘passionate versus lacklustre’ and you might identify with both of these because you spend a lot of time working hard at a job that you were once passionate about. (This is only an example, but you will see your own connections when you make your list.)
Still following the example, you may realise that you lost your passion some time ago and that you have been deceiving yourself for many years about your commitment to your job, working as hard as ever to ‘help’ make up for the loss, as if the effort will turn around the hard (lacklustre) times and ‘help’ you to rediscover the passion.
This dream may be about a situation in which you feel you have been deceived, but, as with all dreams, it is most likely that all the dream characters are revealing your own beliefs and feelings. This dream suggests you have been deluding yourself (self- deception) for many years and now it’s time for you to realise this and gain insight from this truth.
When you’ve identified the self-deception, think back to when it began. You’ll discover an event or experience that occurred at that time, one that you responded to with shock, a shock that you covered up as quickly as possible so you could continue as if all was well. It is time to grieve for your experience back then and then to reap the wisdom that can now take you forward, eyes open to the truth and what you can learn from it, rather than closed.
When you recall only a small part of a dream one of the most insightful dream alchemy practices to do is a dialogue. I have suggested one for you here.
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Dialogue:
Your dialogue is between you and your nephew (as he appeared to be in the dream). Start with you saying, “Why did you let us help you so much?” and see what your nephew 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.
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