Wednesday, May 14, 2014

What Am I Shutting Out?


The Dream: Clark and I and two friends, Tom and Joan, are sitting on the floor in a circle. Tom is being very sweet and congenial, but I feel angry and resentful toward him; I'm not ready to forgive his past bad behavior.
Clark doesn't seem bothered at all, in fact he quickly builds a wooden shutter for the guest room window. The morning sun is very bright in there, and he wants to screen it out so that the room is more comfortable. He builds a 4-panelled folding screen, but doesn't paint or finish it. He decides to put it in the guest room closet: when someone visits he'll finish it.

Interpretation: This unforgiven friend, Tom, is a screen for a part of myself that I find unacceptable. In the beginning of the dream the four dream actors are together; the circle they sit in emphasizes their unity and tells me they are all part of the same thing: me, in this case. Even the unacceptable one, the one I resent, is congenial.
My husband, who represents my animus, doesn't see—or admit—that there's a problem. Even as he denies the difficulty he works to shut out the light (awareness), making the excuse that the room is more comfortable this way. This tells me that I really don't want to see this—it's too uncomfortable. The screen has four panels, echoing the four dream actors and Jung's four aspects of the Self. It isn't finished, but closeted (hidden away). This difficulty will be worked on again when the next guest (insightful dream) arrives at my house.

1 comment:

  1. What immediately strikes me about this dream is the 4 people sitting in a circle. The "Squaring of the Circle" or "Circling of the Square". This is the archetype of wholeness, the expression of Self. Once again, I think dream ego has it wrong, in that she fears accepting her enlightenment. The morning sun is very bright - the birth of a new day, a new Self, a new idea, a new project with all its clarity and wisdom makes dream ego extremely uncomfortable. Again, the 4-motif in the 4-panelled wooden shutters - could this be a hint of a future art project; if I recall correctly, dreamer does paint on panels. One of my animus' has prepared it for me and left it for me to paint. There is a pun on "shutters" to "shudder". Do we not quiver when we are exposed to the Divine? The question not answered for me in the dream is what am I unable to forgive Tom for? Despite my inability to forgive, other parts of my psyche are still moving forward. I must be on the right path - the light is not being shut out.

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