The Dream: I’m in bed with my husband Clark, but having sex
with someone else who is small in stature and not particularly attractive, but
very seductive. I later find out he has had concurrent affairs with many
others, each of whom thought she was the only one. I find a message he has sent
to one of his paramours. He has drawn a lush lake shore in an expressionistic
style. In some way this art conveys his undying love for some other woman.
I am incensed and go to fight with this guy who, I had
believed, loved only me. I find him in a cafeteria with Clark.
The fellow grabs hold of me and won’t let go. No one helps me; I struggle on.
Interpretation: The figure in the dream appears to be a
trickster: he is small, seductive, and unattractive. There’s some small
unattractive part of me that I find seductive. In the dream I try out this
part, merging with it (having sex). The part of me that deals with life and the
world in a practical way (Clark, playing the part of my
animus) refuses to get involved in the problem. First he sleeps as the
trickster and I become one, and then he doesn’t lift a finger to free me when I’ve
had enough of the experiment. I’ve seen the trickster for what he is:
duplicitous and deceptive, yet in some way connected to art and regeneration (the lush lake shore). The dream tells me I’ll struggle on until I
recognize and integrate this unappealing part of myself.
