Exhibit Thirty Six: Acquired by the Dream Gallery 31 March 2001. Photo by Rowan Gray
'Camels'
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 experience this dream picture as the person sitting on the middle camel, camera raised to my eye, clicking the shutter. While I can feel the sensations of my living, breathing body and the smooth, shiny casing of my camera, I also feel a sense of distancing and momentary existence, seeing my body imprint transitionally upon the sand which is also shifting and changing pattern in the desert wind. The camel leaves hoofed footprints in place of my own, showing where I have been yet not with the pattern of my feet. In the next moment even these footprints are obliterated and lost as ancient grains of sand move on and on and on, sweeping centuries. I feel my transience, my mortality, my treading lightly upon the earth.
But wait... when I look deeper into the picture I see the superimposition of another dimension. I see the low, white houses and the leafy ghosts of trees from more watery climates silk painting the sky. I feel a sense of expansion, of mystery revealed, of being able to touch a dimension beyond this one. I feel a sudden permanence in the vision, knowing this is no mirage but the shadow of another existing world. I feel secure, knowing that beyond the transient, lightly treading shadow of my earthly body lies a timeless world, a world without place in past, present or future, a world at once omnipresent. I feel the spiritual oasis in the desert.
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 desert, in a dream, may symbolise not being in touch with your emotions (as water tends to symbolise emotions), or feeling a lack of emotion around you. It may represent a spiritual desert, akin to a wilderness, a harsh phase of life's journey which draws an insight, a response which may not have surfaced in your previous comfort zone. It may also be a dream pun on feeling deserted, rejected and abandoned. It may symbolise survival against the odds.
You may have personal associations to deserts in which case your own symbolism is most important. A dream desert may draw your attention to the sands of time, the wearing down of hard, anchored rock to create the fluidity of sand with its shape changing immediacy. It may represent sudden change, getting lost or a difficulty in finding horizons, landmarks or goals in your life.
Camels, like all animals in dreams, tend to represent an instinctual or animal nature within you. What natural instincts do you see in a camel? An ability to store water (emotional sustenance?) perhaps, or to carry other people, their bags and baggage? What is the personality of a camel in your view? Proud perhaps?
A shadow, particularly your shadow in a dream, may symbolise the shadow side of yourself. We all show the world our best face, our best qualities and hide or disown what we believe to be our faults or sins. The qualities we prefer to hide make up our shadow, which has an uncanny way of showing up in the world in any case, especially under a strong light. Our shadow, in our dreams, tells us about what we usually hide. Often one person's trash is another person's treasure: what we believe to be a shortcoming may, in fact, be a great personality trait, gift to the world or valuable path to personal insight. Just as shadows are projections of ourselves, so dream shadows may reveal what we project onto the world and onto others that we disown about ourselves,
A camera, in a dream, may symbolise what we are recording or observing about ourselves, or illustrating our particular way of picturing the world. We all create pictures of ourselves and the world, focussing on what we choose to see, cropping what we choose not to see and storing the picture as a memory, albeit, often, an inaccurate one.
Often, in a dream, we view the world through a camera (or watch a movie, television or play) when we are taking a more objective view of our life. Sometimes, when an issue is deeply emotional and difficult to face, we may find it easier to experience through a lens... distancing ourselves through objectivity. In this picture, the shadows and the desert add to this feeling of distancing from the living, feeling, subjective person behind the camera.
Finally the white houses and the trees may symbolise literal superimposition in your life, or a ghosting of the past, a ghosting of the future or even falseness, a mirage. If this picture were a freeze-frame from a dream, you would know which symbolism applied to you by the feelings the images inspired.
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 is the first thing you notice about this picture?
- Where are you in this picture?
- What is the person on the middle camel doing (judging by the shape of their shadow)?
- Who is the person riding the middle camel? (Person X)
- How is this person dressed?
- Who is the person riding the camel to the right? (Person Y)
- How is this person dressed?
- What is the relationship between these two people?
- What does Person X see that Person Y does not see?
- What does Person Y see that Person X does not see?
- If there were a person, Person Z, riding the camel to the left, what would they see that the other two miss?
- If the three camel shadows could speak, what would they each say about this moment?
- The desert has a name that reflects its heart and soul. What is the name of this desert?
- The desert has a secret wisdom. What is this secret wisdom?
- The desert has a secret longing: what is this secret longing?
- There is something about Person X that casts a shadow on this wisdom and longing. What is the "something" and what is the shadow it casts?
- There is something about Person Y that casts a shadow on this wisdom and longing. What is the "something" and what is the shadow it casts?
- Who lives in the white house?
- How would the picture make you feel if the house and trees came to the foreground and the desert and camels slipped into a ghostly background?
- Which situation in your life now reminds you of this foreground/ background theme?
- In this life situation, can you merge the foreground and background into one reality, or do you feel they represent mutually exclusive choices?
- Which part of this picture best expresses the essence of your being?
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