The Turquoise Box

The Dream: A turquoise box, filled with wriggling people.

Interpretation: This dream doesn’t seem to give us much to work with, just some shape and color. But in the end it has more to say than you might expect. When we dream of square shapes, like this turquoise box, Jung tells us that we have created a temenos, a safe psychic space for transformation. Turquoise, according to Tony Crisp, speaks of intuition and an expanding consciousness.  And what about the colors that create turquoise, blue and green? Blue is associated with religious feeling (the Virgin Mary wears blue for this reason) and new horizons (the vast blue sky).  Green is the color of growth.

The wiggling people? They must be all those inner selves trying to find their proper place in my psyche. There are enough positive symbols in this dream for me to think they might succeed.

The Next Step

I was completely stumped by this dream, but when my friend Beth heard it she knew exactly what it meant.

The Dream: There is a pattern on the floor made of oval-edged shapes. One motif to the right looks like a flower; the others are amorphous. The overall shape is a rectangle. I stand in front of this as if in a Step class and I do a step-like routine. I must place my foot on each of these shapes in a certain sequence. I do it perfectly.
Later I am called upon to do this again, and I find I have completely forgotten the routine. I stare blankly at the pattern on the floor and try to remember it. Someone wants to make a video of the step routine I can’t remember. I’m afraid it will be pornographic.

Interpretation: Beth pointed out that this dream is about performance anxiety. There is a progression of “freezing up,” revealed by my reaction to three different levels of scrutiny:

• Level 1 No Scrutiny: I’m perfect when I’m working on my own, with no one to observe.
• Level 2 Some Scrutiny: Someone asks me to do something and I choke.
• Level 3 Invasive Scrutiny: Someone wants to video my performance, and it feels like pornography.

The Manikin and the Dress

The word play in this dream tipped me off to its meaning.

The Dream: I see a manikin. It looks as if it is my size and shape. I see it again later when it has become like a mirror reflecting my dress, a velvet shift, which fits it perfectly. I point this out to my friend, who says, “Oh, you really aren’t small,” as if she had always thought I was but now sees me differently.

Interpretation: There’s a shift in my self-image.

Taera of the Waterfall

Dreams are very good at turning ideas into images, as this one does.

The Dream: A woman tells me about an art gallery where she is exhibiting her work. She thinks I should also exhibit there. We look at several of my very large paintings. One in particular catches our attention: on the left is an abstractly rendered waterfall with discrete patches of color suspended in space; on the right sits a female goddess. The picture is called Taera of the Waterfall.

Interpretation: Over the years I’ve come up with an idea about why making art is difficult. It requires two contradictory qualities: control and abandon. The waterfall in the dream, with its flowing water made out of rigid shapes, is a pictogram of this concept.