Exhibit Twenty-Nine: Acquired by the Dream Gallery 30 September 2000
'Necklace'
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?
Inevitably I feel drawn to the light around the woman's throat. At first I feel this emanates from the necklace but then I see that the pearls around the sides of the neck throw no light. My throat feels warm and light, confirming, for me, an inner source of this radiant energy rather than an outer spotlight. I feel the mystery of the silhouetted woman and the graceful strength of her biceps muscle. The more I focus on the picture, the more the biceps, though in darkness, outshines the throat in beauty and meaning. It is the gentle, understated, embracing strength that fires the light that reveals the pearls of wisdom.
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.
The neck often symbolises communication, not only through the spoken word but also on every level. The neck is the bridge, the channel, or perhaps the constriction, between the head and the heart. It can symbolise a blending of head and heart or a constricted communication between the two. It is also the site of the fifth chakra: the yoga energy point for communication. Some dreams portray communication release dramatically with a cut throat and flowing blood. The light shining from the throat in this image is a far gentler symbol of flow. White light is a blend of all the colours of the rainbow, suggesting the communication here is a perfect, perhaps spiritual blend. So, what message might this freeze frame dream image carry?
Jewelry often serves to underline or enhance the symbolism of the body part, or to indicate its value. In this way, the pearl necklace draws attention to the wisdom (pearls of wisdom) and richness (value of pearls) of right communication. A pearl is formed from grit that gets into the oyster's shell and causes irritation. In response the oyster secretes the pearl substance to cover and smooth the grit. In this way, a pearl necklace highlighting the neck may draw attention to the process of dealing with irritation through transforming it into something precious and of long-lasting value (i.e. wisdom). Remember that personal association to symbols over-rides more universal meaning. If you had a difficult experience with someone who wore pearls, or with someone named Pearl, for example, then the necklace in such a dream may reflect that issue.
If it were not for the light around the neck, the dark figure could have been a shadow. Shadows in dreams represent the shadows within ourselves: the aspects of ourselves we do not recognise or prefer not to acknowledge, the aspects we project onto others instead of owning. However this dark figure seems to be a silhouette: the form itself in darkness rather than a projection. It is the unknown in another sense, the understated, the mystery. It is partly known and partly unknown. It is emergent, or known through its effect rather than through its substance. These are the qualities that may be coming into light for the dreamer of such an image.
Purple may have unique meaning for each person, or, in the general sense, often symbolises the psychic or inter-personal energies. In the image it is the strong purple light which reveals the shape of the woman but which also coats it in silhouette mystery. The symbolism here is perhaps the balance between revealing and hiding, or of focussing on shape but not detail.
The object the woman holds is sufficiently bizarre that it will hold individual meaning for each person through association.
Arms embrace and the arm poised above the head may also symbolise shelter, protection, encompassing, higher thinking, or higher attainment (the last two since it draws the dreamer's attention upwards) and so on.
The dreamer of this dream might also consider the frame created by the woman's arms and the object she holds. Within the frame are her head, the light on her throat and the object in her hands. Such a dream could symbolise a new framing, a new way of viewing life, or a focus on the inter-connection between the symbols newly framed.
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!
- Which part of this image did you notice first?
- Why?
- What feeling does this part give you?
- Which part of this image holds the strongest appeal for you?
- Why?
- What feeling does this part give you?
- What feeling does the purple colour give you?
- Considering your answer to Q7, when was the last time this feeling was prominent in your life?
- If this time was in the past, imagine yourself back then as having something to communicate to you today. What is the message from your then-self to yourself today?
What irritated you back then? (The pearls.)
- Does this same irritation exist for you today in some shade, or have you found ways to smooth it? (The pearls.)
- Women: If you wore a pearl necklace, how would it make you feel?
- Men: What does a pearl necklace say about the person who wears it?
- Consider the object the woman is holding: what was your first reaction to this shape?
- What feelings does the shape of this object bring up for you?
- What is the source of the light in this image?
- Stand in the pose shown by the woman. Centre yourself. Feel the shape of your arms. Feel the light shining from or onto your neck. What feelings or memories does this draw up for you?
- Still standing in this pose, what are you drawn to say? Speak a sentence to yourself.
- What is the source of light in your life right now?
- How do you express this source, or express gratitude to it?
- How can you brighten this light or let it flow more freely?
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