photo courtesy of travelue.com
A dreamer was nervous about a dream he had in which people
kept falling off a bridge into a lake. They were then eaten by a giant turtle
which left only their skeletons. Yesterday we restated the dream in its
metaphoric version. It suggested that the calamity being experienced by these
people was actually a positive symbol. These individuals were taking a bridge
from one side of a barren landscape to another. They were avoiding the lake
that the dreamer described as an oasis of revitalization. These people were trying to
cross the bridge to join a “social gathering” because there is “always…curiosity
about what I might be missing by not being a part of it.”
The dream seems to be suggesting that the dreamer is drawn
to a social climate at the expense of “wiping away all the old junk that gets
built up in me.” All of this is taking place in an environment that the dreamer
describes as a place of “undiscovered opportunity.” It’s a place that might be
inhabited by “an advanced civilization…that knows more than I do and from whom
I can learn.”
It was time to discuss the dream’s message with the dreamer.
Was he avoiding spiritual growth? If so, why?
The dreamer tells
his story
You know what’s really
funny about this whole thing? I actually love water. The more I can be around
the ocean or a big river or lake, the happier I am. So the idea that I’d
carefully try to keep from falling into a pond so that I could stick to dry, barren
land is crazy.
But I get what the
dream is saying, and, yeah, there’s truth to it. I’m deeply pulled to my own
inner life. I have stuff going on inside of me all the time. It can be vivid
and really exciting. Sometimes it’s even scary, but not very often. Mostly, it
just feels good. I feel like that’s where I belong.
But then I get into
this whole “guy” thing: What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I be just one of the crowd? If I ever told those guys what my life is really like, I know they’d
think I was nuts. And I really like my friends. The only trouble is that I can
never let them know who I am. Not who I really am, anyway.
That gets to be a
problem for me, because I’d love to fit in. So, yeah, part of me tries to shove
all that inner stuff away and pretend it’s not there—like it’s effeminate or
something.
Funny about the turtle
just eating all the temporary, fleshy stuff and leaving the basic structure.
Dreams are amazing!
My response
There is nothing about a spiritual existence that says you
can’t robustly participate in life. Those guys don’t ever have to know what
goes on inside of you; you can enjoy their company to your heart’s content.
Just don’t forget who you are. Your friends are like a delicious meal. Enjoy it
to the max, but know that it’s just temporary and will then be over. The real
you is the part that is getting eaten by the turtle.
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