Exhibit Four: Acquired by the Dream Gallery 29 August 1998
'Flower Plate'
Feeling
The Picture
Your feeling reactions to a dream are keys to its interpretation. These are my feelings. If this were a scene in your dream or life, how would you feel about being there?
I feel a sense of harmony and replenishment in
the golden colour of both the flowers and the gold-leaf edge of the plate. The simplicity
of the offering - for that is what I feel it is - calms me, as if an overload has been
cleared and a Zen beauty shines in its place.
I don't feel deprived of food because I feel this
plate has been set at my table to clear my mind and remind me of the continual blooming of
new life and the lightness of being in harmony with the flow of life. Once I have been
mentally and spiritually replenished by this offering, I will be ready to receive more
gratefully the fulfilling feast which will be laid before me once the wine has been
poured. The palate is cleared so that I am ready to taste and appreciate the new.
The Symbols
Symbols in your dreams often relate to your personal memories and associations, so always consider those first. Then let your mind play with other, more general possibilities. They will not all apply! Just open your mind and notice where the symbol seems to fit and make sense of the rest of your dream.
A plate usually carries food, and as this plate
seems (to me) to be placed at a table, it may symbolise a vessel of nourishment. Food (or
anything else we may be offered in a dream, or find ourselves eating) usually symbolises
physical, mental, emotional or spiritual nourishment, so it is important to consider what
the food represents. Is the dream food being eaten or rejected? In such a dream do you
feel fulfilled or hungry? Are you getting what you want or being forced to 'take in'
something you don't want? Or does the plate symbolise a cliche? What, for example, is
being brought to you 'on a plate' - fait accompli, as if you are being waited upon?
Flowers symbolise whatever they 'feel' like to you. They may represent what is about to
bloom in your life, or they may be in your dream to remind you of a past association,
event or feeling .. and so much more. Again, the interpretation is often unravelled in
asking and answering questions about the dream picture.
The Questions
Here are some questions the dreamer of such a dream picture might ask to work towards a complete understanding of the dream.
Try these yourself: just give your 'gut reaction' answers to the questions - your answers will surprise you in the insights they deliver. The key thing to remember is, "Don't THINK about your answers - give quick gut reaction replies". Your unconscious will deliver.
If this process can work powerfully for this image, consider how infinitely more powerful the insights are when the image comes from one of your own dreams - direct from your unconscious!
* If the flower in this dream picture could talk,
what would it tell me?
* How does the flower feel?
* When did I last feel like this? In which situation?
* Who would own a plate like this?
* What kind of person would serve me using a plate like this?
* What kind of person would serve me this flower?
* What do the plate and the flower tell me about what serves me (or what should serve me)
at the moment?
* Do I serve myself well? Could I serve myself better?
* What is on offer to me in my life at the moment and how do I feel about it?
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