Exhibit Forty-Seven: 1st June 2002. Photo by Michael Collins
'Bowl'
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 curious, wondering about the origin of the contents of this bowl. At first I thought the green was mould and algae that had accumulated where a pot plant had once stood, but there was something about the saturated, vivid colour of this image that led me away from the rational explanation and delivered a more surreal experience. I feel I am looking through a telescope into the enormity of a green-hued galaxy at the same moment that I am looking through a microscope at the residue of what has been. Aha - I feel the anticipation of seeing my future in a bowl of green tea leaves while knowing that I create my own magic from the crucible of my life experiences.
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 main symbol here is the circular shape of the bowl. Circles often symbolise wholeness or completion. There are no straight segments in a circle: no left brain logic, all is right brain fluidity and creativity. A circle has flow, yet the beginning of a circle is also its ending as well as its next beginning. So, is there a beginning and end to a circle? Circles may also symbolise a life cycle or a recurring theme. It is an ancient truth that we end a journey by arriving at the start, seeing it as if for the first time. Yet we can also be trapped, going round in circles, getting nowhere fast. Be guided by the feeling in your dream, or by the feelings this image brings up for you, for your interpretation of this symbol.
A bowl may hold food, water, coins, anything ... or nothing. A bowl may contain an offering for you or may be a vessel for you to make your offering. Does a bowl receive or give? What are you receiving or giving in your life?
The bowl may symbolise you as a vessel. What do you hold? What do you contain?
Always consider dream puns or word plays. Are you bowled over? Is this about being bold?
If the green substance seems to be a residue it may symbolise residual feelings, thoughts, beliefs and experiences that you hold.
The floorboards most likely symbolise grounding and foundation. They draw your attention to the basis, to what you are standing on (to what 'under'stands you). What understandings form your foundations?
The bowl has three legs or feet. Three often symbolises the body, mind and soul - or the balance of the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual.
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 texture of the green substance?
- How does the green substance make you feel when you reach out to touch it?
- How did the green get into the bowl?
- How long has the green been in the bowl?
- What happened to the person/ thing / event that put the green into the bowl?
- Is the bowl better with the green in it or better with the green removed?
- If you removed the green, what positive use could you put the green substance to?
- If the green was removed from the bowl, what positive use could you put the bowl to?
- If the green substance were removed from the bowl, would the energy of the bowl suffer in any way? If so - how?
- What is the best use for the green substance?
- What is the best use for the bowl?
- How can the bowl and the green substance work together to produce the best outcome for both?
- What is the understanding upon which the bowl and green substance interact while the green is in the bowl?
- What would need to change in the understanding between the bowl and the green substance for them to work together to produce the best outcome you decided upon in your answer to Q13?
- Look at your answer to Q2. Where, in your life now, is this feeling strong for you?
- Look at your answer to Q4. What happened in your life this long ago? (Or, if this happened before you were born, what feeling does that bygone era give you?)
- Look at your answer to Q5. What do you feel the person/ thing represents in your life now or, perhaps more relevantly, in your past?
- Look at your answer to Q17. If this situation were to come round again (like a circle, or cycle, like the shape of the bowl), how would you handle it now?
- In your life today, what is the green substance? What is the bowl?
- How are your two answers to Q19 linked together in your life now?
- What next step can you take to get the best outcome from this situation?
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