Guest Dreamer: An Issue is Aired

This dreamer has been attempting to write about a painful event. She breaks through her writer's block in this dream.
The Dream: I'm naked and about to put my clothes on. My breasts feel strange. I look down at them. I think air is coming out of my nipples. It's hard for me to believe, so I put the palms of my hands about 4 inches away from my breasts and, sure enough, there are puffs of air coming out. Then I actually see the puffs. You know, like those typical drawings of the wind blowing.

Carla's thoughts: If this were my dream, my nakedness represents exposure, the naked truth. I am about to retreat from it (put on my clothes) but there's something inside me that won't be stifled: it insists on being aired, issuing forth in puffs from my breasts. I'm getting something off my chest! I hadn't thought this was possible, so I test it out with my other senses. When I put my hands near my breasts I soon learn that I can feel the process happening, and then I am able to see it. My previously blocked attempt to release so much pain has found its vent.

Diminution of the Mother

I had this dream after my older child moved to her own apartment.
The Dream: My mother is getting breast augmentation surgery. My son and I clutch hands for comfort in our anxiety over mother's operation. I begin to wonder if he is too old (he's about 9) to hold hands with his mother, and I wonder if he will pull away in embarrassment.

Next we are inside the medical facility where we see mother's picture on a video screen. She has turned into a baby and is dressed in a very feminine outfit with a bonnet. Her face, however, is still mother's. She looks cranky. “I don't think mother is going to like this,” I say.

Interpretation: As much as we are happy to see our children achieve and go out on their own, it represents a loss. As I lose the mother role to my child's independence, my mother (me as a mother) wants to have her mother role (breasts) enlarged. I ponder accepting the child's need for independence as I wonder if my dream son will be embarrassed to be holding hands with his mother. By the end of the dream, mother has been reduced to a cranky baby. I apparently haven't accepted my child's new life with good grace quite yet.

Performance

The Dream: I’m part of a group that performs, and some of us die during the course of my dream. The man I am engaged to spends a lot of time with the leading lady, who is very pretty and well aware of it: arrogant and exclusive. I am wandering about in the morning among sleeping bags looking for my fiancé. He is with this other woman; they have slept side-by-side. Later I see them holding hands and I think, “He doesn’t hold my hand.” I go up to them. I place my hand on his arm and say, “It’s over.”

Interpretation: During the course of my life I’ve performed many roles, and some of these are no longer desirable. In that sense, they’re dead. In my psyche, an important part of me (my fiancé) is very attracted (she’s pretty) to some negative qualities: exclusivity and arrogance. These two live beneath my conscious comprehension (in sleeping bags), but as I wander close to them, daylight (morning) signals a dawning awareness. I begin to see I’ve cheated myself by my engagement with these traits, and that I can reject them. (It’s over.)

Taking the Plunge

The Dream: I am on a high diving board, hanging by my hands. Someone is instructing me in the correct way to do the dive, which of course requires that I reposition myself. I think I could simply let go and drop—that might be easiest. I am afraid of taking the plunge, but feel less fearful once the “drop” idea occurs to me.

Interpretation: This is not the time to fret over the correct way of doing something. This is the time to let go, take the plunge, and do it my way.

Touch, not Sight

The Dream: Coming down a steep staircase I close my eyes and run my hands along the surrounding walls, which function as a banister might. I navigate by touch, not sight. I feel that Clark is guiding me, and I can just about conquer my fear by not looking.

Interpretation: In order to experience the deeper levels of my psyche (get to the bottom of the staircase) I must rely on feeling (touch) not intellect (sight). Here Clark represents what Jung calls my animus, the part of a woman that copes with the outside (male-dominated) world. I'm up against the wall, so to speak. Will I get past the ban(ister)?

Out in the Cold

The Dream: Communal singing has begun, and Clark and I join in. A young attractive woman with short curly hair asks us if we will join the church choir in our new area. She says it’s fantastic and everyone either belongs to it or joins in the singing at the services. I see a very large choir at the front of a church where the altar would normally be. The choir is joyous and full of life. I think that with Clark’s distaste for religion it isn’t likely we’ll be joining this group.

We leave the hall and are walking outside. It is summer, but there is slushy snow on the ground, and a light snow is falling. I am comfortable as we walk through the chilly air, but I notice Clark has no gloves; his hands are bare. “You have to learn how to dress for the cold,” I tell him.

Interpretation: Again I deal with isolation. The seduction of belonging is clear; the group makes beautiful music. But my other half, as represented by my husband Clark, cannot pay the price required to join in. Again the intellect is the culprit: I cannot pretend to believe what is so demonstrably not true. I tell this part of myself that since it’s going to be out in the cold, so to speak, it better learn how to dress for it.

Only the Shadow Knows

Sometimes you just can’t get rid of those pesky imperfections.

The Dream: I am in an office building and a hobo is on a ladder outside the window. He puts out his hand, in a supplicating way, as if requesting money. He is unstable, and his ladder falls away from the window. I am glad, not bothering myself about his probable fate after falling from a considerable height. I am relieved to be rid of him. Moments later he is back.

Interpretation: This shadow figure, as Jung would call him, is appealing to me (he puts out his hand in supplication). I may reject him; I may think he’s dead and gone. But nope—he’ll be back until I give him what he wants: the acknowledgment that he is part of me.

The Crystal Vase

This dream was inspired by a conversation with an artist friend. Jane suggested a group of us make art pieces based on clothing that couldn’t be worn.

The Dream: I am wearing a Waterford crystal vase.

Interpretation: I sent the dream to Jane, knowing she would find it as amusing as I did. Here is her interpretation, written in the first person because that’s the polite way to talk about someone else’s dream: “I am transparent. That the crystal is Waterford and that vases typically hold water suggest the unconscious. I am beautiful all over but strong and fragile too. I sing when wet fingers spin on the rim. The "singing" shows how I process life through my spirit and intelligence, my hands and senses.”

Now you can see why I’m so fond of Jane.