I am walking in an alley downtown. From a basement window, a small girl calls to me. She begs for money. She has a strong foreign accent. All I have are some pennies and nickels. I give her those. The next time I pass through the alley, there are two little girls begging from the window, holding out their hands. Another woman passing by says they have an Irish accent. I'm sure it's a Middle-Eastern accent, and the girls look like they're from that part of the world. Every time I pass by, they have raised the amount of money they want. They want dollar bills, and then they want $5 bills. Then they come out into the alley. By now they have no foreign accent at all. They look and act like typical American kids. Their mother is with them. She has short blonde hair and wears jeans and a tee shirt. When they ask me for money, she says, "I told you not to beg for money." I know she's lying, though. I'm sure she taught them to beg for money. I feel like I've been taken advantage of and manipulated.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 55

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harriet,
Three things in the start of your dream point to unconscious contents, probably aspects that are in conflict and unresolved. There is the downtown alley and the basement window. All three can represent the unconscious, downward and basement being the deep aspects and alley being what is in the back of your mind.
The young girl calling you is some one you don't recognize {foreign accent}, very possibly from your own childhood. That little girl is seeking resources, love, acceptance, even possibly pointing to a childhood without material worth {did you grow up poor, without material items?}.
Do you have a sister? Or are there two different aspects within your psyche that need attention? You are seeking balance, those things that are lacking from your past {Middle-Eastern}.
Personally you are growing out of this situation. You are seeking real worth in your life {real money} and that requires changes from the past {5 is often a symbol for changes in life}. Slowly you are growing out of those past stigmas that held you back. You are finding your true self, regaining your inner positive voice {no accent at all.
Who did the manipulating? What is the relationship with your mother? Or does she represent your own 'inner mother'?

There is a positive tone to the dream but scars still remain. If the dream is speaking about childhood experiences then it is a bit straightforward. You are growing personally but the past experiences still have aspects that remain in conflict.

If there were not childhood experiences having to do with a childhood doing without then the little girls represent your inner child, still seeking nourishment, love and acceptance. That aspect is like a little girl, now an adult seeking, sometimes begging {an inner begging} for that love and acceptance.

Does this fit?

gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 58 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Yes, your interpretation fits. Although the family I grew up in was middle-class, my father often told us that we were headed straight to the poorhouse. I remember feeling terrified when he said that. I grew up being afraid to spend money. Even today, I have gone without things I needed for my job because I didn't want to spend the money on them. As an adult I've never had much money and have gone without material items most people have. I think there is a material as well as a spiritual truth in this dream. I do not have a sister, and I see the two little girls as aspects of myself. They were like twins or at least were very close in age. I see the manipulating mother as an aspect of myself, the part that trained the girls to beg because she knew they'd get more pity and therefore more money. Yet she disowns them in a way by acting as if she's appalled that they're begging. She shifts the blame to them.
I take it as a positive sign that the girls come out of the basement and at least come up to ground level, though they are still downtown and in an alley. I really think that I have felt "held back" by the stigma of poverty-- not so much a literal poverty as a feeling that the world is not a place of opportunity, not a place that will meet my needs. If anything, I have felt that I should have no needs. So I see the two begging girls as a step forward. At first it bothered me that they asked for more and more, but the more they asked for, the less "foreign" they were and the healthier and more whole they were. I could see all of them and not just their tiny hands reaching from the basement window. Harriett

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 55

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Harriet,
Thanks for the response. It demonstrates just how childhood fears, even without the actual experience {poverty} can leave an imprint on the psyche and have affects into adult life. That is a vital process often found in dreams, imprinting of negative childhood experiences that unconsciously {until they become conscious} can have control in the adult life.

And the mother, you named her in your response {I see the manipulating mother as an aspect of myself}. That would be one negative affect of childhood experiences. Realizing that is you can help you resolve those conflicts. Realizing the childhood experiences of fear and how they can affect your life as an adult is the therapeutic affect of dreams. They provide info about the self that will help solve inner emotional conflicts.

And I do agree with you of the positive aspects of the dream {as I stated in my interpretation}. You are working to improve who you are {which is evident by your knowledge of dreams and the representation of symbols} and by doing that are elevating yourself out of those emotional conflicts. What was unconscious is now becoming consciously clear and by that you can work to resolve the conflicts.

Good work in understanding your dream, and yourself. If I can help you realize something about yourself that was unconscious then I feel I have done my job. But it is you have taken the initiative to improve yourself and your life. Continue that positive track and I have no doubt your life will be less 'impoverished', at least emotion wise.

gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 58 Murfreesboro, Tn

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

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