Exhibit Thirty One: Acquired by the Dream Gallery 30 November 2000. Photo by Michael Collins
'Tree Ring'
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 humbled by the vulnerability yet strength of the flower, blossoming with vivid intensity for a few eye-catching days of life while surrounded by, and perhaps drawing on, the memory of decades of sturdy, green tree. The flower is vulnerable in its shallow soil, its need for water and its isolation. Yet the flower also has strength: strength to flower under such limited circumstances, strength to be colourful amidst the faded death of tree bark and strength to live all its beauty in one quality-filled short life span.
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.
Plants, in dreams, often symbolise growth in our life. The plant coming into bloom may reflect what is about to blossom in our waking life and how we feel about this. Healthy green leaves may represent a period of personal growth, vibrant health or progress and growth in our relationship, work or other situation. Less healthy leaves may draw our attention to factors, which, are draining our growth, or stunting our development.
Trees can symbolise longer periods of growth and being. They may represent the whole self. Sometimes they represent the family tree. The tree in this picture is a tree stump. Dreams love puns, so, if this was a dream, the symbolism could portray feeling stumped about something. This is the base of a tree trunk, so in a dream this could illustrate the basis of a long-dead situation, some part of which still lives on in a sense, or which gives some stability, strength or platform.
The tree rings may symbolise memory, the importance of history or marks we make in life. Circles can also enclose, to provide sanctuary and safety, or to imprison and smother what is at its centre. At the same time, the object or feeling at the centre may also be the heart of the matter, the energy, which feeds the circle.
There is an emphasis of circles and rings in this picture. These can symbolise completeness or a holistic, all-encompassing attitude, thought or feeling.
Shoes can symbolise our standing or position in life - as we perceive and feel it to be. In this picture, as the person is standing on the tree trunk, this underlines the 'standing' message. Dreams often reiterate a theme using several different avenues such as a symbol, a pun and a feeling.
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!
- What TITLE would you give this picture?
- Imagine the flower could contemplate this title. Write three or four sentences on this from the perspective of the flower.
- Repeat 2 for the person who is wearing the shoes.
- Repeat 2 for the tree trunk / bark rings.
- If the flower were a person known to you, who would it be? (Someone known personally to you in your present or past, a fictitious character or a well-known person.) [Person A]
- If the person wearing the shoes were a person known to you, who would it be? [Person B]
- If the tree trunk/ was a person known to you, who would it be? [Person C]
- For each of these people, A, B and C, write down their main weakness, as you see it.
- Now write down their main strength as you see it.
- Now write down, for each of these three people, one thing that they have healed or overcome in their life.
- Which of these three people do you most admire?
- Which of these three people would you most like to help?
- How would you help the person in Q12 to take the next step in life?
- Does the person in Q12 remind you of yourself or your feelings about a situation you are in?
- If so, what next step in life could you take?
- Is there anything about this picture which makes you feel uncomfortable?
- How would you change the picture to feel more comfortable?
- Is there anything else you'd like to do to improve this picture?
- What message does the original picture give you?
- What message does the changed picture give you?
- Write one sentence about what you have learned about yourself from this exercise or what next step you will take.
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