Bogart or Redford: Fruition

Continued from yesterday:
Dream Scene 5: Raspberries and blueberries are growing in places where I hadn’t planted them. I say they are growing “in the house,” but clearly they are outside, in the garden. I spot a giant blueberry and eat it. It is amazingly delicious. I am surprised and delighted at how good it is and call out to Clark: “This is the best blueberry I’ve ever tasted!” I notice a raspberry bush laden with berries and think they’ve come in early and unexpectedly, and we won’t be able to eat them fast enough.

Interpretation: The psychic work has come to fruition. Jung identifies the soul with a man’s inner woman (anima) or a woman’s inner man (animus). My animus represents the more forceful aspects of my character. In this long dream I can see my unconscious’ successful struggle to create the animus I need. My dissenting parts (the 2 other women) have been replaced by Clark, my husband (my other half), who is ready to join in the feast.

Bogart or Redford: Bogart

Continued from yesterday:
Dream Scene 4: In the pub, I expect to see Robert Redford, but instead find Humphrey Bogart. Bogart is sexy and makes advances as I lie on a bed. After a while I begin to think Redford is not going to show. I feel hurt and decide to go in search of him. I find him in a Western version of a Buddhist colony. He is small, has curly hair, and a young/old face. As I look into his face I see other-worldliness. He has moved on and is no longer interested in earthly things. I begin to think that Bogart might be the better choice.

Interpretation: What sort of masculine energy do I want in my inner man? I thought I wanted the modern, sensitive man: Robert Redford—the sort of man who might go on a Buddhist retreat. But no--I’ll take sex and machismo, the old-fashioned 50s tough guy.

Bogart or Redford: The Bull

Continued from yesterday:
Dream Scene 3: Now I find myself in cow country. I still want to be reunited with Robert Redford. I decide the fastest way to get back to the pub (where we are to meet) is to ride a bull. And the way to get the bull to run the fastest is to hang in front of him from his horns. I position myself thus, thinking he will be angry and try to gore me, running very fast to get to me—but of course won’t be able to because I go with him. We get to the pub; I scuttle the bull at the swinging doors of the place that now looks like the bar in a 50s Western. The bull sits on his haunches quite tamely, looking rather sweet.

Interpretation: Again hints that I’m struggling with the feminine/masculine continuum. Cow country represents the female side of my nature; the bull represents my forceful, masculine energy. I decide to take the bull by its horns. I harness his energy to get me where I want to go; suddenly he is no longer a frightful creature.

Bogart or Redford: The Expedition

Continued from yesterday:
Dream Scene 2: The pub sits on top of a mountain.  The proprietor of the pub and I and one other woman go outside; we’re now at the base of the mountain standing on a small wooden bridge that straddles a shallow gully. I am lecturing the other women on the difficulties of wallpapering: the need to match the pattern, etc. They are bored. I feel they don’t comprehend the difficulty of the job and that’s partially the reason they do shoddy work.

The bridge inclines upward. As I follow its tilt I decide to take off and fly, surprised that I’m capable of it. After a short distance I decide I will continue to fly up the mountainside back to the pub. I encourage the others to do the same. One resists, saying she can’t, but in time she gets over her reservations, and both women fly up the mountain behind me.

Interpretation: The mountaintop suggests the dream is dealing with something big. Many myths speak of gaining wisdom on top of a mountain; I can expect to gain new insight (a higher level of awareness).  Just as suddenly as I realize the pub is on top of a mountain I find myself at its bottom. Several symbols tell me that this is not the spot where I should be: the bridge of wood hints at unexpressed emotion (a wooden expression); the waterless gully lacks what makes life possible. The saving grace is the upward inclining bridge which I can use to cross over into something new. The surprising decision to fly tells me that I am willing to move to a higher—that is more conscious—level. Up the mountain I go, encouraging my somewhat reluctant parts to come along.

Bogart or Redford: The Pub

When you have a very long dream, one way to begin to understand it is to break it down into sections and then work on one at a time. That’s what I’m going to do with this dream. Once you’ve explored each section in depth the meaning of the entire dream becomes clear.

Dream Scene 1: Robert Redford and I are in love. I am Jane Fonda, or someone very much like her. Redford and I are going to rendezvous in a pub-like setting. Sometimes this pub looks like a bar right out of the Old West, and sometimes it looks more like an English tearoom.

The proprietor of the pub has recently redecorated. I observe this as I attempt to use the toilet. Each time I go into the hallway to look for an empty john someone scoots in before me. As I wait I notice that the proprietor has put up Jacobean flowered wallpaper off the hallway in the dining area. The wallpaper and the redecoration are pretty, but look superficial, slapped on.

Interpretation: The first two characters, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, are actors who were in their prime during my young adulthood. If asked to describe them I would say they are attractive, superficial, and representative of the new vision of masculinity and femininity that was evolving at that time.  The pub (public house) indicates the dream is dealing with my relationship to society, and its features again reflect the masculine (50s Westerns) and the feminine (an English tea room). Searching for the toilet indicates I’d like some privacy; I wish I could get away from the social pressure of the “pub.” As for the redecorating—what am I trying to cover up? Are the changes I’ve made so far superficial?

The Dumb Blonde

This dream has mythological roots echoing back to Venus emerging from the sea.

The Dream: A blonde woman has a partner who’s like an evil magician. I come across the two of them at the shore, in the water near some rocks. Her partner is trying to get her to stay under water for longer and longer periods of time. She doesn’t like this and finally gets out and walks away from him. I wonder if her partner had been trying to get her to kill herself.

I am pregnant.

Interpretation: The dumb blonde, the one who could not speak, refuses to exist solely in the unconscious, here symbolized—as it often is—by the sea. She walks out of the water, and a new potential life is conceived.

The Human Tragedy

There are many dreams that can be looked at from the personal level, and some that can be seen as dealing with what Jung called archetypes. What is an archetype? It is a symbolic representation of something that affects all humanity.

The Dream: A superpower, like Superman, has been thrown in prison. This power has an atavistic quality, something of the ape: a very strong man with short black hair and apelike features.  I see him holding on to the bars of his cell, breathing his freezing breath, his last remaining strength, into a vent to his right.

Interpretation: On the personal level, this dream might be telling me I feel imprisoned; I need to vent; I’m feeling powerless. But if I look at the dream as expressing an archetype of the human condition, it’s about the human tragedy: a spirit imprisoned in a body. By freezing his breath the apelike superpower turns this symbol of the spirit into something concrete that can be seen. Although in the prison of the transient earthly body he still finds a vent through which he can express his spirit.