Posted 04/03/02

Dream:

“In the moment before waking, I dreamed of a tower cascading water.  I was at eye level with the top of the tower. However, I could not see the ground.  The water fell into endless space. Although I felt the power of the image of the waterfall, I was not afraid.  It inspired a sublime feeling of awe. I awoke wishing that I could dream on.”

Commentary:

The cascading water which falls into endless space has a sense for me of the cup that is endlessly full, always pouring forth. Now what is that from?  In the images of alchemy there is a picture of a fountain that continually replenishes itself.  This would be like a tower from which water continually cascades.  The continuous power of a flowing river, which is always replenished by the mystery of the Earth’s water cycle.  A natural resource.

So this would be an image that could provide you with a source of continuous energy in your life.  Dreams can provide access to qualities you didn’t know you had. In visioning your dream, I can feel the positive influence such a dream is bringing into your life. When you are low in energy, feeling lifeless or depressed, you can meditate on this vision in order to energize yourself.

Posted 04/03/02

Dream:

“There is a beautiful boat shop big and heavy in construction. It has an organic quality. There is an older man whom I’m helping.  His physical nature is vital, middle-aged but I know that he is old. He has no bravado, is hardly moving, no attachment to the work, but so much love for his life-style, very grounded.  He is slow, very intelligent, refined, sensitive, thoughtful, philosophical, and intellectually spiritual.  This is a refinement that is naturally earthy, even his clothes are of natural earth tones, and are made of expensive fabrics. He is working on this fishing boat, a big old beefy girl of great quality. The owner, an old man very rough and tough, came by.  We all sit on a beam to hang out talking about various cigars.  I feel a bit out-classed but strong in myself.  They were smoking these cigars and the old man said how he buys these that have the tip filled with sweeter tobacco, so what you taste is good.  He’s not afraid to admit to taking a softer more comfortable and thoughtfully intelligent approach.  To go that extra effort to make his life just a little sweeter, take the bitterness out.  He seems wised up to making himself happy instead of just toughing it out in dollars and cents. This is the importance of tending to the Self, tilling the soil.

I lit up my cheap, black, Mexican cigar. It felt good inside that I knew how to enjoy a cigar too.  The boatbuilder handed me this cool beautiful candle, like a huge shell, 2-1/2 feet long. Soft white with this liquid inside and a novel wick set-up. He obviously also loved to pay attention to small personal touches in his work.  There is a door that’s beautiful, organic.  The flitch is all painted. A choice piece of sculpted wood that is a little touch of artistic expression.  It allowed light and air in, so it would be cold in winter. This construction is not anal, not about being warm and sealed off.” 

Commentary:

This dream indicates that you have a strong capacity for relatedness and relationship, qualities that are recently being admired and valued in men in American culture.

The dream gives particular emphasis to attributes which you have, but which you may not value positively at present. Your ability to process things slowly, your intelligence and sensitivity, thoughtfulness, philosophical nature and intellectual spirituality, added to your culturally refined earthiness are potentiating and attractive characteristics which will serve you well if you invest yourself in learning about them and eventually integrate them into your daily life as a man.

Right now you have feelings of being out-classed but you also feel strength that will serve to carry you forward.  You have some difficulty with softness and sweetness, but the old man doesn’t. He is teaching you about a masculine energy that is not externally driven, not oriented toward unwarranted heroics and money-making that will deplete your resources for having a more satisfying life.

The masculine energy is further symbolized in this dream by the cheap, black, Mexican cigar and by the beautiful candle.  Masculine energy is also present in the lack of insular warmth.  If you were more drawn to being warm and sealed off, anal as you say, this would indicate the potentially suffocating influence of some unmet childhood need, originating in either a mother or father issue. When these influences are strong, we as adults have a hard time moving forward creatively. In this dream you like the light and the air, the possibility of a slow and personal movement into creativity and artistic expression.  This is a positive energy from which to move outward in your life.  The dream indicates you have an artistic nature and need to do something with it.

Posted 10/23/00

Dream:

"A mummy man was sitting in a bright room on a bed grieving.  He was wrapped in white gauze bandages from head to toe, part of the wrap blending with his disfigured face and head.  He was a bit like "The English Patient," and all he wanted was love.  I was a little afraid to face him, as I peered through the doorway at his nondescript profile. But I went in, kissed his head and promised to introduce him to a blind woman friend of mine."

Commentary:

What strikes me the most is the mythic realm of this dream.  It has elements of the ancient Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris.  In this story, Osiris is killed and his body scattered around the Earth.  His wife Isis takes on the arduous task of finding the parts of his body and re-membering Osiris.  This is what is happening at this point in your dream, some deep relationship toward your own masculinity is being re-membered.  The myth is a classic story of the death and re-birth cycle.  In your own life, the mythic nature of your dream points to a large transition that you are going through in your own life with respect to masculine energy.  You are probably approaching, with a little fear, the possibility of masculine energy operating within you in a new way.  This would be dying to old ways of being with masculinity in order to make way for the birth of a new vantage point.

Posted 10/23/00

Dream:

"There is some conflict in my relationship with Richard. I write him two letters expressing my anger and frustration and telling him I have decided to take a job in Canada. The second letter is a brief summary of the first, which is quite long. We ride to school together and he picks up his mail, so both letters ride along with us, unopened. I suffer.  At the very last minute, I tell him what is in the letter and say I don't really want to go away, but feel angry and tell him about it.  He says he's said it before, but he'll say it again: "I love you."  I tell him he hasn't said it before, and that's made it difficult for me to say it, but I love him very much.  Another woman, a skier, takes the job in Canada--a much better arrangement."

Commentary:

You have some trouble sharing your feelings of anger and frustration in the dream and experience suffering with regard to this.  I imagine that this operates in your life as well--that you suffer when you cannot get your feelings out in a conflict.  What I notice is that when you do get the feelings out, the male figure in your dream states that he loves you, something that was difficult for you to hear him say or that he has not said in the past.  This inner male figure loves you, and you love him back, when you are able to get the "negative" feelings out.  There is warmth here; when you express yourself honestly, you get inner love back. Then you don't have to ski away to the colder parts of the world, you don't have to distance yourself from yourself, and it will be possible for you to receive the love of others.