A Dream About A Tsunami: Post #3

 image courtesy of express.co.uk.2

A young man told me he had “a really short dream” with “only a couple of symbols.” He wanted to know if I would help him with it. It was a dream about being tossed around and tumbled by a tsunami.

This week we have been going through the symbols, and it is now time to reassemble the dream using the metaphoric associations the dreamer made. Today I will reconstruct his dream using the dreamer’s own words as much as possible. I will also add short phrases from time to time, such as “There is a part of me…” The purpose of these phrases is to remind the dreamer that all of his symbols are facets of himself.

Reassembled dream

There’s a part of me that is the place where I go to be near the ocean in myself. I don’t actually have to get wet, but I can still breathe the air and enjoy myself here. Walking here is really fun; it’s different. Everything here is just right and it puts a smile on my face. But I see that my life is never going to be the same after this, that’s for sure. Coming toward me is a part of me that is a huge wall of water. It is going to take every part of me in its path. There’s no manipulating it. This part of me is the king; it’s undisputed, and that’s that. I’m a goner. I might as well relax because “me,” as I knew myself, is over. I mean, what’s there to do? There are no alternatives. I’m right in the middle of the turmoil, right in the thick of it, and I’m getting pummeled. I guess my instinct is to live, and I’m not sure I’m going to survive this, so I’m frightened. Now, I’m not being battered as hard as before, even though I’m not really in any more control. This huge part of me is leaving me alone more. My fear goes away, and it’s replaced by curiosity and hope and a little bit of fun. This is unexpected, and it changes the bad feelings to good ones. Without being able to take air within myself, I would die. That was my fear. But now, I realize that I can survive here for a long time, forever if I want to. I start really enjoying myself when I realize that this huge, forceful part of myself is not trying to kill me. Now it’s really fun and exciting.

An oversight that needs correction

This is a wonderful dream! However, I am chagrined at my own oversight. There are two symbols that are absolutely vital to this dream which I did never asked the dreamer about. The first one appears in the very first sentence: ocean. The second one is stated twice in this dream: air. While we certainly get the sense of constructive change that the dreamer is experiencing, we need to know what “ocean” and “air” mean to get the whole sense of the dream. We’ll ask him tomorrow.

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