I have had my dreams interpreted here before, and I would love to get your feed back on a series of dreams I have been having lately.

Dream 1: I am clutching an infant in my arms, it's my brother (I am the oldest of 5 and my brother is now 26 and bigger than me!). We are on a arid, dusty cliff with high walls all around and red dirt. Nowhere to go?? Suddenly this larger than life RAINBOW SERPENT appears up from below the cliff. His desire is to devour us. We run back and forth, dodging his blows, fangs showing. We finally make our escape to...? End

Dream 2: I am in the forest. I had been hiking (?) with my cousins (all second cousins, my mom's first cousins, by the way) when I separate from them and find this little wooden house nestled in the thick of the glen. I enter the house and come to a room and see this LARGER THAN LIFE tree in the corner of the room. The tree is so large, I can't even imagine the top of it, let alone see it, nor the ceiling of the room, but strangely the tree is in a corner. I immediately recognize it as the Tree of Life. I run back to tell and get my cousins, but when I return, the tree is gone. Of course they don't believe me. I glance out the door and see that down the hall, these little African Twa (pigmy) people are running around hiding the tree. (kinda like scooby-doo and the gang running through the many-door hallway). One looks at me and makes the "shhh" gesture with his finger on his lips. I give up trying to chase them down, and we return to our journey. End.

Dream 3: It's me and the cousins again. We are in an old house playing cards in a cramped little kitchen. All of a sudden the Devil appears. He's fleshy-pale white with mangled black hair wearing all black. We know he's the devil, so we run. We are hiding all over the house with it's cramped rooms, and after being discovered hiding behind the shower curtain in the bathroom, we run out the house to the desert. Suddenly I exclaim, "I know!" and we began to merrily sing the Lord's Prayer with him in the center of our handfasted circle with us skipping about a circle. Near the fourth or fifth line of the prayer/song, he starts melting (think Wizard of Oz Witch) and finally is no more. End.

Dream 4: I am in a park (looks like a ballpark). After a few 'hither 'n' yonder' moments, I am at the starting line for a race. Long story short (the race was in detail from the first foot fall to the last), I lose the race, and am feeling the agony of defeat. I go to sit on a near-by picnic table near a large beautiful tree. I am really sad, then all of a sudden from the side of the tree, (think--bugs bunny emerging from behind a pole) childhood fairy tale characters parade one by one pass me. (Hansel and Gretel, three blind mice, Raggedy Ann and Andy, snow white, cinderella, et al.) Finally, Goldy Locks and the Three Bears come to pass and join me at the table to console me. I feel better and baby bear and I go to see why there are police guarding a garbage dump area on the other side of the park. When we can't see in (there is a wooden fence surrounding the dump), we return to the bench near the tree. Suddenly we look up and see a HUGE rainbow growing from the mist of the branches and extending and bending as far as the eye can see. We stand beneath it like an aurora borealis. End.

Dream 5: (I must skip the beginning of this dream--it's too lengthy). Anyway, I am on this beach with my father. He has me by the hand and I am a little girl. It is a memory in a dream, back in time to remind me of now. There are all these large chunks of ice everywhere, and suddenly there is also snow. He says, "See, this is how angels are made." and as the snow melts, I began to make out the wings of an angel in one of the ice stones. It melts down and it is an over six-foot tall, androgynous (sp) man with a wing span twice the length of his body standing before me. Then there's sun and sand again and I am my adult age again. End.

Dream 6: (This one happened a few nights ago.) I am in what I perceive to be a volcanic region because the earth is black and hard with veins of red in it. I am not hot, though. Suddenly the earth cracks, exposing molten lava and a pit. I move to keep from falling into the pit as the earth continues to crack and look down. It's a black cave. In the center of this narrow cave is a crystal lake, clear, and the water looks sweet. The walls of the cave leave no room for shore. I believe it to be cold, because when the molten rocks hit it, there's steam. There are others, grown men. They fall into the pit one by one, and the water bubbles. It's purifying them. They emerge as Cherubs, baby faced and winged. I awake with the thought, "this is how Cherubs were created."

Lastly, Dream 7: I am in my room with one of my cousins from before. We are sitting on my bed talking when I look through the window over the head of my bed and see this beautiful heavy-set woman in a flowing red dress covered with matching scarves seated beneath a tree. She has beautiful, thick, wavy hair and I stare at her trying to take her features in. She is very much African with high, full cheek bones and a deep, loving smile. Her face is warm and inviting. She sits patiently. I invite her to come in and she climbs through the window and sits next to me on the bed while my cousin sit across from me in a chair. I ask her, "Are you God?" She shakes her head no, and smiles as if I should have known that answer would be no. I ask her of her name. She says I won't remember it, but I beg her to tell me anyway. She tells me (no, I don't remember it, only that it was exceptionally long...and ancient) in a wind swept voice. I smile because she is right. I began to ask her about life and mystical, magical things. Things not of this world. She answers all my questions (there are many); and finally I say to her, "What about Tarot Cards? Are they evil?" She says, "They are merely tools, no more evil than the person who uses them." She turns to the foot of my bed and finishes, "Why, here are the cards that Moses used," and suddenly there is a display stand at the foot of my bed with decks of cards on them displaying the silouette of an African man's head. I want to look at them and go over to them for closer inspection, but I know her time will be up soon and she will have to leave. I leave the cards be and come back to her. There are a few more questions I have to ask, and I ask them. Suddenly, the room is filled with children of all ages. They are everywhere on everything. One has crawled into my lap and is playing with the phone. I 'pop' his little leg and tell him to stop. He picks it back up, and before I can admonish him again, she stays my hand and tells me, "He is a child, he doesn't know what he is doing is wrong or harmful, don't hit him." I don't, and as I am soaking all this in, a light shines through a window across the room with an air-conditioner unit in it. I ask her if she will return, because I know now is the time for her to leave. She smiles, and fades into the sunlight. The children are still there and we prepare to leave to go to a graduation. Next I am walking down the street in Memphis near the mono-rail to Mud Island. I walk towards the sun. End.

I would love to hear your feedback on these dreams. I have been told that the woman in the red dress was a demon, but she wasn't. I KNOW she wasn't, and no one has deciphered the other dreams for me. Why angels and larger than life trees? My soul begs for an answer. My mind is baffled.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 35, Atlanta

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Gyrl

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Katchi,
Two things that stand out in your dreams. One is the children {which probably reflect your childhood in some form}, and two, the inclusion of trees, serpents and Cherubs, all of which point to the "TRUE"
self or true identity.

All these dreams seem to be addressing your past, your childhood, and a reconciliation in the present of those experiences {at 35 you are just now entering the twi-light zone-of MIDDLE AGE- a time of reflection and reconciling who you are-LARGER THAN LIFE tree}. Dreams are focused on those unresolved issues of your life, current conditions due to everyday experiences as well as past experiences that reflect your evolution to this point in time. Have you recently stated to look back, or reflect on your past?

The dream that catches my attention most is the one with your father. What type of relationship have you had with your father? Has it been a cold one, but now a thawing between the two of you? I sense these dreams are focusing on your past, those childhood experiences that remain unresolved. They {experiences} could merely be a reflecting back on that time in life, but there may be deeper experiences from that period of time that is in need of resolution.

The sixth dream may be trying to expose your attitude toward men, possibly a reflection of your relationship with your father. Do you tend to prefer certain type of men, those who in the childhood eyes are purified, either entirely different from your father, or men who are just like your father? Black caves are often symbolic of the deeper unconscious where hidden habits and traits are stored. The influences from childhood often play an important role in the make-up of these habits/trait.

The seventh dream does seem to be an archetypal dream. Joseph Campbell spoke of seeing a large black {and often beautiful} women in a dream. These dreams usually represent a time of change, important transitions in the waking life. And this dream also features children, perhaps a reference to your past and possible symbolic of those transformations {you are in the formative phase of those transformations, a childhood of sorts} of the psyche which are in play {or perhaps should be} in your current waking life.

Let me know your thoughts. If you can provide details of your childhood, that would be helpful, especially if there are unresolved issues that have 'suddenly' come up recently. Are you in a transition?

Gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 57 Murfreesboro, Tn.

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

dream 1 seems to indicate that maybe you are struggling, and have struugled, with the idea that giving in totally to your primal urges was a great thing.
You may have come in touch with the fact that it is not good , because of your youngest brother, as you wished that better for him.

Were there ever any issues having to do with someone who is homosexual?

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

dream 2 seems to be about missed opportunity. You seem to feel you missed an opportunity to enhance your life.
You may feel you missed this chance because of insignificant things: games. there also may be some idea that you were supposed to ramain silent about it, and not tell the world.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

dream 3

this seems to indicate that you feel a need for a more stable way to live. Rather than living haphazardly, taking risk, gambling with your fate and life and emotional well being, you want stability, balance, in life and a philosophy, or a profound belief system so that you can overcome the instability of life, with all its pit falls and pain.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

dream 4
may be about a feeling of loss, or maybe a feeling of ow self esteem. YOu seem to feel that you were in a competition, perhaps you were just taking part in the life as it occurs within the human Race. You seem to feel that you lost, or that your place in life is a an ignble lot. this is a well thought out conclusion within you. It is not something that you took up on a whim. YOu may have had a hard luck life to come to this conclusion(my addition)

This loss, or low self esteem has caused you to resign yourself to leading an abstemious and illusory life. this seems to give you comfort, and hope.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

dreams 5 and 6

these dreams seem to touch on your attitudes toward men and yourself in relation to men, which were learned from your paternal relationship.

It seems like you feel that being cold toward men emerged from your relation to your father. This is very common.

YOu also seem to feel that men must first be processed and cleansed through some fire trials with you. Meaning that you may feel tht you need to give a malte a very hard time and test him to see if he is true.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Gerard: Could you please explain to me how trees, serpents, and cherubs point to the “true” self or true identity? I need to 'see' the connection, although, I, too, feel it's there.

Also, you stated that the dreams are addressing my past, my childhood. Although my childhood was filled with many changes and transitions, it was also filled with many friends, lots of love and many educational experiences. I don’t really have issues with my childhood. I was well loved and well liked and had/have! a life filled with books, cookies, friends and playtime. I adjusted well to environments easily and got along with my mother, my father and my step-dad. Yes, I did have my moments of terror, as does any child, but they aren’t “baggage” I lug around now. My childhood always makes me smile. I can mostly only remember the good times, and there were plentiful, and the bad ones, well, let’s just say that I got my just desserts. (I later thanked my mother for the whippings that I’d received and told her, “the ones I got that I might not have deserved made up for the things you did not know. We’re even.”)

Regarding my father: I have two, one who raised me, and the one who made me. My relationship with both are great. My mother never had one bad thing to say about either of them, and neither do I. The one who made me was a lady’s man, he and my mother were each other’s first loves. He and I did reunite after many years of estrangement, but it wasn’t due to ill will, just miscommunication. He is my best friend. He was ‘purified by a pit’, but I do recognize him to be like no man I have ever met. That would be impossible. My other father is still my hero to this day and my encyclopedic reference. Both men are amicable toward one another, and very fond of me as well. Both are reliable for support, advice, laughs and hugs. Since I do believe no two men are alike, I guess you could say that none the men in my life are alike. I don’t prefer a certain type of man. (Dumb, smart, fat, skinny, funny, nerdy, doesn’t matter as long as they are good people, tactful, and tasteful.) But my father, in no means turned into an angel after his ‘purification’.

I am thinking: if these dreams are referring to my past, it is to my teenage years, not my childhood, and not to my father, but the many different men/boys I encountered in my life. If there is any trauma there, it evolved during my dating years. But no matter what, I wasn’t discouraged from dating. I just kept trying until I found someone I was compatible with, as we all do.

As far as your interpretation on the seventh dream, the children were of many different ages, and I assume you would interpret this to refer to different years in my life, which were filled with many changes, but my life has always been change. That is the only constant. What stood out to me was the fact that I was addressing many issues of the occult with her. That was the most important aspect I carried with me upon waking; and I had embarked on a spiritual quest which led into the world of metaphysics and the occult (many years before). What are your thoughts on that perspective?

I can’t wait to hear from you again. Thanks for your input.

Carlos: Your interpretation of dream one fit me well. I have the view that life should be explored--what is life if you don’t live it? I loved as many people as would let me and still do. I learn about all I can even when others told me the subjects were taboo. Nay-sayers have, at times made me doubt myself, however, I held fast to my resolve to explore my limits and watch my influences on those who looked up to me. However, I don’t have issues with homos, I am “homo-friendly”, yet hetero, myself. And my self-esteem is quite high.
Regarding dream two: I had a vision once while doing esoteric work that reminded me of a veil being pulled back, and there were truths revealed. Periodically, I recall that time and depression sets in because I received an impression that I cannot imprint on the minds of others out of fear. Each one of us has a clue which once revealed, cannot be disclosed to the world. I don’t feel, however, that there are missed opportunities. Sure, there are ‘shoulda-woulda-coulda’s, but if it were meant to be for me, I would have it. I firmly believe that. I am where I should be, even if I don’t want to be here.
I appreciate your interpretation of dream three. It did reflect my inner longings. In my search for the origin of religion, I found that most religions have a similar foundation, yet most people would rather subscribe to folklore and superstition. As such, most of the worlds religions have been corrupted. (Hint: Christmas Trees aren’t Christian, they’re Pagan)I felt like a child without a home, but I found that the points of The Lord’s Prayer encompassed the best things I could ask for: A spiritual guide outside of myself I could revere and hold sacred. A reason and a purpose for everything in life. Good sustenance, and an easy heart; life free of pitfalls and dangers, and pride in a creation that endures. Maybe my “dissolving the devil” with the help of my loved ones expressed my ability to actually have that on some level, or my desire to have that.

The dream four interpretation is also nearly dead on. MAN makes life suck. (Not men, mind you, I love them!) I dislike competition, especially when my competitor has an unfair advantage. (At the final leg of the race, she pulled out rocket boots!) However, my life hasn’t been too hard, but it is filled with the reality of the hardships of others. It’s rare to meet a girl who grew up unmolested or not abused. It’s hard to hear a black man talk without hearing of how he really put forth a good faith effort only to not succeed in his just time. It’s hard to watch mothers raise children without fathers, and fathers struggle to change their image from dead-beat-dad yet still can’t find a job. It’s hard to hear of the elderly taken advantage of by a system they thought would help them once they reached the latter years of live, stressed out with medical bills and only receiving $10 in food stamps a month based on a low income fixed budget. It’s hard to see and talk to a homeless veteran who can’t get governmental assistance and is homeless. And I do this everyday. Yet, I don’t lead an abstemious (interesting word) nor illusory life. Life is hard, and death is my reward, but I am not going to squander the moments that lie betwixt the two. Neither am I a pessimist; I see myself as more of an idealist.

As such (regarding your interpretations of dreams 5 and 6), I am anything but cold toward men. My best friends have usually always been men, and I relate to them better than I do to other women. And my fathers and I have open and honest relationship from sex and religion to politics and money. They are my greatest resource, next to my mother who is my favorite person in my world. Even my roommate is a man, and no, neither of us are gay. I feel that most men meet enough hardships to not burden them further with drama, and have been told I have a down-to-earth quality that is endearing and comforting from a stressful world by more than a few good men. I like board games, card games, video games, and even car games, but mind games are not my thing, they are tiring and time consuming. Tests are for students and I have always learned from the men in my life. I am a woman, assuredly, but I do not chose sides as to whom I should like more, except in matters of physical intimacy.

After reading your interpretation I began to think. Maybe I am realizing that life itself is the ‘fire trial’, and that we are purified by our experiences. And that even when we fall, we have the potential to rise?

Please also remember, the water in the pit was perceived to be cool.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 35, Atlanta

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Gyrl

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Katchi,
Perhaps I should have stated they could very well have to do with your past, your childhood. Everyone is in some way a product of their childhood. It could be more on the positive side, of the negative, dreams look at both. There is probably an impression I am guilty of as much as anyone that dreams reflect only the negative. I do believe they accent the negative since those aspects are what get your life out-of-balance. But the positive also makes up who you are.

The changes may be the focus of the children in your dream. Exactly what it is addressing may take many dreams to determine. The dating years may have been formative in some ways. You will have to analyze your life to determine your roots. When you do that you find what we call the 'true self', the greater self, and usually a spiritual and/or creative self.

The seventh dream and your response about a spiritual quest. I refer to the above. You are at that age of the beginning phase of mid-life, a time of reflection and introspection. Your personal growth may be like a tree {tree is a tree, no question about its true self}. There are changes, growth, expanding the outer limits as well as the inner.

Serpents shed their skin, a death and resurrection, a transformation. In the East this is a positive symbol. Out with the old, in with a new skin. Perhaps it reflects leaving the old world of values {spiritually speaking, ending the influence of the old time religion and transforming yourself to the new spiritual values in your life, which lead into the world of metaphysics and the occult. This is a true transformation {I too experienced a similar spiritual transformation-I am a bonafide recovering church of christ/southern baptist}. One that is looked upon often in American society as bad or even evil {by closed minded people}.

The definition of cherub is more from a mythological position. From Hyperdictionary.com:
an angel of the second order whose gift is knowledge; usually portrayed as a winged child.
This is spiritual stuff. In Western mythology the word cherub comes from the Hebrew Kerub, and refers to winged celestial beings, part human and part animal, who pulled the chariot of God in Jewish mythology.

Sometimes, they are depicted as guardians of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). Other times, they are depicted as guardian God's throne (Exodus 25:18-20). In Christian mythology, their part human, part animal nature was dropped and they became regarded simply as guardian angels.

Campbell and Jung believed the TRUE SELF was to be found in the spiritual/creative aspects of the psyche. These two things tend to come up at mid-life. Where are you in the present in your spiritual quest? Perhaps the children are referring to that aspect of your life. Carlos does an excellent job with the 'Freudian' aspect of the dream. If you identify with what he said then you may want to look at your ego self and compare it to your spiritual Self. You may find meaning in that.

Gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 57 Murfreesboro, Tn.

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

OK katchi,

dream 5 and 6 alternate interpretation.

I really just noticed that both dreams had to do with angels. these 2 dreams seem to be seeking a wider awareness and meaning to life. Again like dream 2? this wider awareness helps you fend off negative influences, although dream 5 and 6 don't touch on that.
Here for some reason your relation and your learning from your father is important. It seems he is responsible for your ability to remain calm, and phlegmatic.
The Th dream may be a reiteration of dream 3 (the race dream) where you clearly indicated that society has its issues. You may have this idea deeply impressed in your psyche. If it is this is good to know because it will help you achieve what you want in dream 5: cold, cool reasoning to achieve a wider awareness and spirituality.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

the TH dream, should read the 6th dream.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 43

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} m

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes