Sunday, June 16, 2013

Something Grates


The Dream: We have a guest cottage on the property. Three standing grates have been installed to keep people from inadvertently falling into holes. We have some visitors staying in the cottage, and when we drop in to visit we notice they've replaced these decorative black wrought-iron grates with larger ones made of an unattractive gray plastic. This seems presumptuous on another's property and, besides that, I'm not sure they are properly installed.

Interpretation: The standing grates represent three issues, of long standing, that I find irritating (grating), but that I have avoided with a cover up rather than a fix. The guests (something from the outside; for example, distractions) try to fix this by putting covers over the the pits I could fall into. They want to keep me safe, but in the end the dream teaches me that my salvation won't come from the outside: the new “protectors” are unattractive, gray (ambiguous), and not properly installed. When I react to the guests' efforts as being “presumptuous” I acknowledge that this is not the solution. I must take a good look at the holes, figure out what caused them, and fix them properly rather than cover them up.

3 comments:

  1. I thought I'd just be writing with no comments..just to say I love your posts and drawings and commitment ...
    but I am drawn in -Three is a great (grate) number - could it mean something new? holes are not just to be fallen into - whole? "we drop in" - I wonder if dropping into the holes (whole) will give me a new awareness - I wonder who these visitors are? Do I have a bias against getting to know them because they use plastic ?- I don't necessarily need to fix this...just notice and see what new thing happens to continue to make me whole ...
    thanks again

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  2. I often think of the dream ego of being that part of us that carries our waking life attitudes, and thus, is offered optional ways of reacting or responding in our dreams. I view this dream, if it were my own, as one in which my invited guests are making it easier for me to enter any one of these 3 passages into my unconscious, or perhaps into my intuition or femininity. For I can much more easily remove these gray (integration of black & white) gates and enter this unknown state or possibility. According to Dictionary of Symbols, holes "carry a greater wealth of meaning than the mere void. They may be regarded symbolically as 'a passage through which ideas naturally come to birth'. They are pregnant with all the potentiality of what will fill them or pass through their opening..." (Not quoted in order.) Athena, wisdom, arose from a hole in Zeus' skull. This dream is about invitation to me, for as I have invited guests to my cottage, so my guests have invited me into these holes (whole ideas?) I have been trying to protect myself from. For me, my salvation comes when I enter into conversation (an alchemical dream practice) with my guests and ask why they decided to remove these iron wrought gates and replace them with these gray plastic ones. Why are they making it easier for me to fall into or enter these 3 holes? What gift are they bringing to me? My dream ego's state of seeing their behavior as presumptuous may be an error on my dream ego's understanding of the actions of my guests. As in Rumi's poem, The Guest House" invite them all in - accept them all. Another wonderful dream to reflect on!

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  3. Thank you, Demma and Emily! Your comments encourage me to explore these holes, and perhaps doing so will result in my becoming whole!

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