A dream from my travels

[fabrisse]

If any of you are into dream interpretation, have at it. This is only a snippet.

I suppressed most of my dreaming quite a while ago; it has to be very strong to get through my defenses. This is one of the few that I've awakened smiling from.


It's bright daylight and I'm in a colored loose dress or skirt. There's a companion with me whose company I enjoy but about whom I can remember no details -- not even sex. We're walking through a park over a wooden bridge. I'm slightly ahead when suddenly a pilot whale pops up to my right (just as I'm reaching the other shore).

It speaks to me. I don't remember the words, but the mood is congenial, maybe even happy. My steps are light and my smile wide as I finish crossing and follow the whale's wake with my eyes. I think I feel my companion coming up behind me.

I don't remember anything after that, not even coming off the bridge. I know I don't turn back and that there are alot of people in the park -- mostly in groups or pairs.

The bridge not only arches over the water, but it has a slight curve to the right.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Are you right-handed or left-handed?

Jungian interpretation:

You are crossing into a new phase of your life. You are in bright colors (=happy), accompanied by your Shadow-Self. The pilot whale is coming out of the water of your unconscious, on the right (which if you're right-handed is the "good", non-sinister side), and that's the way the bridge is turning. The pilot whale symbolizes your inner, unconscious guide (=pilot), your wise, intuitive inner voice that can steer you right (=right) if you learn to hear it. It is guiding you toward a world where you can find love & connection to others -- the people in the park are in groups or pairs.

No wonder you woke up smiling!

[siderea]

Seconded. (Good job, mercurtin! I always miss the puns.)

The only disagreement might be I have a nagging feeling that your Companion is not the Shadow-Self -- but I'm blanking on what archetype it evokes.

I would add that there is a symbol of feeling unfettered, of feeling free, and that is the looseness of the clothing.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

You're right the companion here is less like the Shadow-Self or even the Animus than it is the Double:

Another archetype that can apply to all sexual orientations, although usually it is of the same gender as the individual, is the Double, which in Plato's Symposium is a symbol for male and female same-sex wholeness, as well as for opposite-sex wholeness.

This reinforces the theme of wholeness and unification in the dream: the bridge which unites the two side of the river, the whale that unites water & air, conscious & unconscious, and the couples & groups of people in the park. As siderea says, this wholeness is not forced or constrained, but free and unfettered: the whale swims yet breathes air because it is its *nature*, the bridge unites because that is the very definition of a bridge.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Even my footsteps felt light -- like dancing.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I'm completely ambidextrous, though in day-to-day life I default to right-handed. I even test out as ambidextrously brained (i.e. both sides are used equally for problem-solving.

Thank you. I'm leaning toward going to the Pacific Northwest, ultimately, and this park had that feel to it -- lots of green, lots of tall trees, lots of water, and a feeling of spaciousness.

Sounds like I'm going in the right direction?

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! The whale also is a reference to the Pacific Northwest, IMHO.