Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Guest Dreamer: I Need to Sleep on It


Today's guest dreamer Travis Wernet gives us the opportunity to further explore the shoe theme. Travis works with both dreams and sound healing. You can find out more about his work here. Like Tyler, Travis has a two-dream sequence, and both of his feature shoes. We'll look at the first dream today.
Travis' First Dream:
I'm in a bedroom, arranging a transparent pillow full of branches/twigs/herbs on a bed and at the 'head', which is on my 'right'... To the left is a group/audience - composed of all women (I am pretty sure). My waking life sister opens a door to the left and enters with a friend. I feel interrupted/distracted. They've brought in two pairs of shoes and set them on the bed. One woman in the audience whom I am seeking to impress remarks on the "fine, stylish red pair." I know they're leather and I myself don't see them as red, but more dark/brown. She wants me to put them on and wear them and it seems to me they are very finely crafted shoes, but I seem hesitant to wear them and want to get back to my pillow arranging activity.

Carla' thoughts: The bedroom, the place where I sleep, is also the place where I encounter my unconscious. Of course it is also a place of intimacy, so this dream is giving me information about my unconscious feelings about a relationship. The relationship might be with another person or it might be with my own anima (the woman that lives within a man). How I relate to my anima will affect the way I interact with women in general, and I think I might be on the right track here because there are so many women in this dream.

The transparent pillow is particularly important since it occurs both at the beginning and at the end of the dream. A pillow is a place where I put my head—a symbol for the rational—while I sleep. This is when I can experience the unconscious intuitive way of thinking that is traditionally associated with women. The pillow's branches tell me that I'm branching out, ready to experience something new. The twigs suggest new growth, and the herbs tell me that the new growth that will emerge from my branching out is healing. The pillow's transparency symbolizes that what the dream is telling me is clear—not opaque.

My sister (my anima) opens a door (gives access) to the left (my unconscious). Of course I'm distracted by this intrusion; it interrupts my usual relationship to my psyche. She and her friend present me with an implied choice between two pairs of shoes, although the second pair doesn't show up until the second dream. They put the shoes on the bed (symbol of my intimacy with women), and I begin to experience conflict. There's a woman that I want to impress, but she and I don't see eye to eye. She thinks the shoes are red, while I see them as brown (I'm more down to earth; her feelings are more passionate than mine). The shoes are leather (I'm dealing with something basic, instinctive). Yet she sees the shoes in a more superficial way, as stylish. She wants me to do something I am not yet comfortable with: I'm not ready to wear these shoes, fine as they are. I go back to arranging the pillow: I need to sleep on it (do some further psychic preparation.)


2 comments:

  1. Thanks Carla - this is very helpful and takes me well past my initial reflections on the dream. One aspect that stands out is the thought/insight around the pillow and its transparency, as well as the indication of 'branching out' and the herbs bringing healing. As my primary focal point is working with dreams at this time in my life, both personally and professionally, I also have strong 'A-Ha's' about the bed and the pillow and 'sleeping/dreaming on it' as a wonderfully inclusive metaphor of how my Psyche is preparing me to continue to take steps to inhabit a passionate yet down to earth attitude around it all, and to do so with feeling, but to be sure that the feeling is my own, and coming from 'my truth' about the right time to put on the instinctive shoes. I sense how it all takes place on a bed as indicating my dance/walk with dreams as a profession describes levels of involving myself in a Feminine engagement and seeking to honor these energies in my work - a portion of outer life that has previously been and continues to be dominated by men, but in the dream, the import of the women suggests a balancing that I feel quite good about!

    So Appreciate the work and play here and the helpful comments and projections! Travis W

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  2. The one addition I wanted to make is to use Bob Hoss' Dream Color Chart to explore the feelings the color red elicits. Here's the link: http://www.dreamgate.com Emily

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