My Pots Runneth Over

This image tells the story: an out of control mess.

The Dream: There are several pots of different sizes on the stove. All are boiling over, making a big mess. It looks as if they all contain the same thing, unappetizing ground meat in liquid. A man offers to help clean up, but I want him to go away and leave me to do it in my own way, which I feel will be more efficient.

Interpretation: I dislike cleaning up after others, and in general dislike disorganization, mess, and clutter. Controlling the mess in my environment is a way of controlling myself. Yet the mess is out of control in this dream, with more than one pot boiling over. This “mess” is a metaphor for a difficult family situation. The dream tells me not to expect to solve the problem in any sort of practical way (with the help of the man, who represents my masculine, logical side), but to leave its working out to my intuitive (feminine) side. 

The Symbolic Meaning of the Resurrection

On Easter, the day the Christian religion celebrates the resurrection of god, I find myself pondering the meaning of this archetypal event. For believing Christians it most fundamentally represents the conquest of mortality, but I think it has other meanings as well.  Its concurrence with the springtime rebirth of nature aligns the event with ancient celebrations of fertility, and we have remnants of these celebrations in the ubiquitous eggs and bunny rabbits of Easter Sunday. Even the word Easter has fertility associations; the encyclopedia Britannica quotes the 8^th c. Venerable Bede as saying that the day was named for “Eostre, or Eostrae, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility.” 

Yet for me the concept of resurrection has a meaning that is not tied to a particular wish (to defeat death) or time of year (spring). For me its most profound meaning is found in the ups and downs of life. There are times when I feel defeated, burned out, used up, finished. And then, a sort of miracle happens: in some mysterious way my spirit resurrects; I can go on; I have new life. So, I offer to you the idea of your perpetual resurrection, here, in this life.

Having Second Thoughts

The Dream: I’m in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where old things are displayed for sale on top of glass jewelers’ display cases. I see many intricate old things. One section has several ivory-carved bracelets, very elaborate. I remember the one I have that was my mother’s. I think it is probably more valuable than I had realized.

In another section of the museum I see a large scientific-looking magnifying glass. It was once part of some sort of technical equipment: it’s rectangular and has a few peripheral gadgets, but overall it’s simple. It occurs to me that it would be a perfect gift for Clark, who has been looking for a high-quality magnifying glass. I plan to purchase it for him, but am concerned it might be too large to be useful.

Interpretation: With the dream work I’ve been doing I’ve been looking at old things (past events, people, relationships, and so on). These things, long gone but very alive in my psyche, are more intricate and valuable than I have consciously realized. Is it a good idea to examine these things so closely? Perhaps magnifying them too much is not useful, especially for the part of me that Clark represents—the practical man of action.

My Niche

The Dream: Clark and I, both dressed so eclectically that we resemble hobos, are walking in a foreign city. We are near a closed bank with an open foyer. I need to adjust the laces on my hiking shoes so I enter, park myself in a niche and get to work. Clark sits in another niche while he waits for me.

The tellers arrive: their work station is directly across from me. One young lady with short blond hair and glasses begins to make loud and unpleasant comments, saying I don’t belong here. I work on my shoes, determined to ignore her but nevertheless I feel uncomfortable. When I’m done I look for Clark, who I had thought was nearby silently supporting me by also refusing to move. However, I notice he has already high-tailed it, so I go outside to find him.

Interpretation: I wander in alien territory (a foreign city) with my animus (Clark). We don’t fit in here (we are dressed creatively but inappropriately). So—I’m out of place, and in some way I am stuck: my shoes, the things that enable me to stand on my own two feet and to move in comfort, need adjustment. I find my niche and attempt to fix the problem.

The blond teller represents someone I know in waking life who is very interested in making money from her talent, so she represents the part of me that would like to do the same. She tries to dislodge me from my comfortable niche, and I try to ignore her. My discomfort tells me that I’m not immune to her criticism. In other words, I live in a commercial world, and a part of me disdains my inner “artist” for failing to succeed financially.  The part of me that deals with the world in a practical way (my animus Clark) does not support my retreat to a comfortable but unprofitable niche. To integrate these two adverse factions (practical vs. artistic) I have to leave my comfort zone (the niche) and go outside.

What Are Riches?

The Dream: A dream that asks “What are riches?”

Interpretation: The unconscious has given me something to ponder, a sort of philosophical question. What does being “rich” mean to me? After thinking about it here’s what I’ve come up with. Being rich is the feeling that my life has meaning.

Original

The Dream: I go outside from a house where I used to live onto a deck with several picnic tables off to the right side. They are populated with sightseers. I am looking for a place to sit and do a drawing. Finally I find an empty place at a table where several other people are sitting. A young round-faced woman sits across from me. She has a black eye (her right eye). She asks what I’m drawing, and I tell her it is a dream drawing. “Oh,” she says, “why don’t you do something original?”
I am surprised. “These are original!” I say.  
I leave the deck, noticing a low utilitarian gate opening onto the driveway that goes to the house.

Interpretation: I seem to be going in circles in this dream. First I’m in the house, then on the deck outside, and then see a path that leads back to the house. Something has me stuck in this house, and whatever it is makes it difficult for me to be original. To figure out what that’s about, I’ll look at the word “original.” Incased in the word is “origin.” Something about this loop is connected to my origins. To do something original means to do something that truly reflects who I am at my most basic—in other words, at my point of origin—where I start (originate) to define my unique self, what Jung calls individuation.
The visual is highly symbolic, as we can tell from the sight-seers (double emphasis on seeing with a dollop of mystical foresight: that is, seers.) The other actors in the dream are on the right; in this dream they represent my desire to do the “right” thing, the acceptable thing. Why does the person demanding originality have a black eye? Perhaps she is my black (unacceptable, secretive, mysterious) I (self). If I take the gate back to the house (my usual self) I am passing into the utilitarian, abandoning the possibility of discovering my own originality.

Serial Killer

As much as you might want to distance yourself from bad behavior in your dream, a first step in understanding the dream is to realize that all the people in it are you.
The Dream: My husband Clark is possibly a serial killer. I am looking for a woman friend to lunch with on my birthday.

Interpretation: Looking at the dream actors as combative parts of myself, my husband (my other half) has been killing off people (certain aspects of my psyche). In other words, my strongest part has been acting as an enforcer, subduing weaker parts. That it is my birthday tells me I am undergoing an important transformation: I have a new understanding of my repressed (killed) traits. That I am looking for a woman to lunch (be nourished) with tells me I am interested in developing and protecting my intuitive, feminine part. I might have to save her from the serial killer before that can happen. These insights seem to build on the partial illumination of the last dream I posted.