A Fox Hunt At An Amusement Park: Post #3

 photo courtesy of waldaeer.com

A woman asked me about an amusing dream she had. As you can read below, when it is metaphorically reconstructed, there is a deeper, and slightly sinister quality to it. We rebuilt the dream in the usual fashion, reminding the dreamer that all symbols are aspects of herself.

The reconstructed dream

I’m with a part of me that is my family, that I’m related to. We share a great deal. I can trust this part of me with my most personal thoughts. We also enjoy each other’s company. This part of me has invited me to participate in a stylized sport for snobby people. Everybody gets dressed up, but it’s actually brutal. The whole feeling is rough and tumble—full of testosterone—even though my own personal environment is rainier, softer and gentler. We end up at a place within myself that is designed to blow off steam. It’s a part of me that likes to have fun, to participate in a silly diversion that doesn’t last long. It’s a place in me where I can see how good I am at something; where I’m held up to a standard. Normally, there’d be a bunch of dogs and men that live inside of me that would gang up on a victim in a way that creates impossible odds. It’s really unfair. So the fact that there is no victim is a good thing. There is a part of me that is noisy and a hunter. It can be really nice, but it has an instinct to pursue prey. It can be a killer. Suddenly, I realize that the part of me that is family is gone. It’s no longer in my life. We can’t communicate in the normal way. But this part of me offers a gesture of support and affection. I see, also, that the part of me that pursues prey and is a killer has an unusual quality. It’s special and has a sense of purity about it. This family part of me was supposed to be bonded; together for keeps. It was supposed to be with a part of me that is like my second mother, someone I love to be around. But they are apart and there is something vaguely disturbing—perhaps an incident—that separated them. I definitely have the feeling that there is more to the story than is being let on.

Thoughts

Despite this dream’s quirky and lighthearted plot, it is clearly describing the dreamer’s struggle and ambivalence about something. There seem to be two themes. There is the idea of “family” which should be bonded closely and living in a “softer and gentler” environment. But that isn’t the case. Instead, there is an element of pursuing prey and a quality of being a “killer.” There is the feeling of being “vaguely disturbed and separated.” And there is the comment at the end about having “more to the story.”

Tomorrow, we’ll ask the dreamer what she thinks this uncomfortable dream might be about.

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