Exhibit Six: Acquired by the Dream Gallery 8 October 1998
'Tumbling River'
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 that the water is refreshingly cold. I
would love to be in it, even though I can see this could be risky as there are obviously
rocks below the surface and holes and little waterfalls.
I feel the water is in full flow, not because it
is in flood but because it is fully expressing itself. It's not holding anything back. It
feels as if the river originated as a spring and the colours of the leaves in the picture
feel like spring too.
The sun peeping through is not burning, hot and
steamy, but freshly brings the promise of a new morning. My senses overflow with being in
this picture, but I'm not overwhelmed. This is not too much. I am in bliss.
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.
Water tends to symbolise emotions according to
how you feel when you look at it. In a dream the state of the water is a direct reflection
of your unconscious and conscious emotions.
Vegetation frequently represents growth: your
personal growth. How healthy is the vegetation? Is it growing or stunted, well watered or
dry?
Rocks can symbolise the most ancient of our
conscious thoughts or our most firm grounding (our firmest beliefs?). They can feel like
steady anchors when we stand on them or cling onto them, or they can be extremely
dangerous when submerged below water. Ancient rocks, old beliefs and everyday anchors can
interfere with our emotional flow or with the natural course of our flow and change on
life's journey.
Does the rock hold back the water? Does it shape
the water? Does it give it form and added beauty? A dream picture such as this underlines
the importance of interpreting how the symbols interact in a dream rather than
interpreting the symbols in isolation.Our lives are about interaction: so our dreams
reflect this and comment on it.
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 river in this dream picture could talk,
what would it tell me?
* How does the vegetation feel?
* When did I last feel like this? In which situation?
* If the rocks below the surface of the river could speak, what would they tell me?
* What can I identify in my life now which reminds me of these rocks below the surface?
* What are the most positive feelings the river in this picture gives me?
* What steps can I take in my life now to bring some of these positive feelings in?
* What are the most negative feelings the river in this picture gives me?
* What steps can I take in my life now to replace these negative feelings with more
positive ones?
* How is my life flowing right now?
* How would I like my life to flow now?
* Practically, how can I achieve this?
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