I am looking at a small pond with a couple people. I see under the water is some colorful outdoor sporting fabric and a carabiner (the clip for rock-climbing), I suspect the fabric is a parachute. I bring this to someone's attention and we draw near to inspect it, we pull on the parachute, connected to it is a man's body laying on his back as if fallen and drowned. I'm petrified, as someone runs toward him to help, he issues from his own mouth a thin stream of water about 6 ft tall. While we are all in uproarious laughter, I wander into a building. As I am getting a drink from a drinking fountain, I notice my laughter is somewhat hysterical...On my back, my wife and an older woman are looking down over me. The stranger is a medical woman, casually dressed, she has the paddles that are used to stimulate the heart, she is speaking to me casually about my blood pressure, I am slightly alarmed about the paddles. I am walking with the women up a sunny green mountain, we climb up until we reach a "skid road" (a dirt road cut into the mountain) on which my wife waits for me but I struggle to surmount...On a hill and vaguely at a basketball court, observing as if spectating a 13 yr old blonde girl standing on the court, her younger sister is pestering her, the older one's very blue eyes shut involuntarily due to her insecurity at her sister's badgering. A man's voice says that he has never coached a better team of girls. I see a 13yr dark skinned girl w/ similar blue eyes, she's on the team too. I'm excited to see her, I nudge the blond girl with my leg who is now sitting next to me, as if to express my excitement. I almost turn to look at the blond girl, I feel akward. Coming down off the hill, I'm driving, I miss the exit, I curse. I see people down below cursing. In the bleachers near the court, I'm sitting playing with something in my hands. Two men sit down in front of me, to watch the game, they lean their heads together affectionately for a moment. They obstruct my view of the court, I realize there is a game I could be watching. On the court is a shouting match between men, now the men in the stands are shouting, I'm trying to rationalize what the dispute is about...I'm going to a dentists office early in the morning, I know I'm late, I am very upset at this. The secretary is sorry but the next nearest time is the early afternoon. I try to express the immediacy of my situation, that it is nearly imperative for me to be seen this morning...I'm on a farm, I get on an old tractor, fiddling with levers and chokes and such. I start the tractor, I get it to start moving, it knocks me off balance a little when it lurches forward. I'm driving toward a road, there is a group of coyotes on the road barking at me as I approach. I'm concerned cause I'm on an exposed tractor without a cab. I have a pen in my hand and realize that will have to suffice as a defense.

I suspect the dream exhibits a great deal of anima possession, of a lack of protection and fear of the drowning effects of anima possession on the spirit. The parachuter should also be a diver but lacks the confidence in the face of a seductive anima. Drinking from the fountain might mean taking in the spirit of the parachuter that he shoots out of his mouth. The parachuter is possibly the Self? Not being able to climb up to my wife might mean there is a function of the anima that is waiting for me to grow up to. The men who obstruct my view may be the two men that I am, one maturing, one infantile, coming together to get me to pay attention to how ironic it is that they are together despite the fact that they are warring enemies. The dentist scene is my need to articulate consciously amidst this psychic dispute what my convictions and that I am on the side of illumination. The tractor is the agonizing realization that psychic and spiritual growth isn't something done in one visit to a dentist, but is a slow process like getting somewhere on a tractor. The coyotes are my infantile anima possession, that threatens to drown my unresolved spirit.
I noticed in typing down my interpretation, that I came across a lot more ideas that had not occurred to me when I was just thinking it through. I was also trying to think of what Jerry might say, and I was surprised at the things that I thought of. I don't regard this as a very edifying dream, the unconscious doesn't seem to speak much other than the fact that there is a dire moral conflict. That can be settled with more time and conscious/spiritual resolve, I think. Then the unconscious can begin to speak. I feel very humiliated by this, I wonder if such a banal dream really reveals anything more than what my inchoate comprehension of it can grasp. Sorry to be so time consuming. I would like to share one more dream. I will put it in my next post.

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Hi Sam,

A question: 'What else does need to be told/shown in your dream to make your dream less banal and more edifying? Isn't it in every dream (banal or not) the unconscious is speaking more of less?

The medical woman with the paddles, makes me think: 'How much alive and kicking are you?'
Isn't it, instead of just deciphering the dream, better and of more help to write every feeling you have in the dream down and try to decipher these feelings? I think your dreams will then start to become less banal...when you use the paddles...

(i think i've just written an answer to my own question on where my dreams have gone..i can't recall none.. )

Mask

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Sam,
Let's examine some of the symbols in your dream beginning with the opening sentence which often points to the central conflict expressed in a dream {see How Dreams Are Structured at my MDS page A Simple Guide to Dreams}. This will provide you with an idea how Jungian dream psyche works, at least in the sense I use in addressing a dream with an interpretation. I will not go into every symbol since the dream is long and you have offered your own interpretation of the dream. I will provide my thoughts to your interpretation.

The pond could represent tranquility but being a body of water it may be saying something about unconscious contents, perhaps unconscious conflicts under a normal life of tranquility. 'Seeing under the water' would support this possibility.

Being outdoors often suggests the conflicts being addressing is an outer experience. Or it could represent some unconfined emotions that need/have already been 'let out'. Or both {usual for dreams since Jung tells us all dreams have at least two interpretations {usually addressing waking experiences from recent days and the deeper aspects of the psyche which are in conflict}.

The parachute may represent a 'safety net'. Or protection in which risks are involved.

"Bringing it to some one's attention" would likely symbolize an aspect that needs your conscious attention. Inspecting it is what the dream is doing, unconsciously {as all dreams do}.

The man's body that seems to have drowned may be expressing waking emotional experiences that are 'drowned' in emotional conflict. There is a need to use the parachute for emotional protection.

So, we have the opening of the dream providing what may be insights to the central conflict of the dream. Thus far all the characters are unknown and/or are male. Unknown or unnamed people in a dream usually represent aspects of the dreamer, parts of the psyche that are in conflict. Males in a dream of a male would usually be addressing masculine aspects {a shadow figure would usually require a more distinct 'shadow' male character}.

Then there is the laughter, hysterical laughter. This may be a release mechanism, perhaps having to do with neurotic responses rather than controlled emotions.

What the beginning seems to be addressing is an emotional conflict {dreams are about the dreamer's emotional state of being, or the emotions in general} where there is 'safety net' that is used when these particular emotions are 'let out'.


Then, after the opening sentence, the anima/feminine aspects enters in the form of your wife, older woman and medical woman. The stranger medical woman stimulates the heart. Not in a romantic aspect but in a medicinal aspect. Perhaps a healing aspect is involved.

The road cut into the mountain. Mountains are something we must climb, barriers, in order to 'get over'. A road cut into a mountain either suggests an inroad to possible unconscious contents or a need to make inroads.

The 13 year old girl is interesting. We could look to this as addressing earlier life experiences, possibly establishing the foundations for emotional complexes later in life. Or it could be about the numbers, 13, when added together equals 4. The number 4 is the number for wholeness, the primary intent of all dreams.
But the 13 old 'girls' may be addressing waking life experiences. Do you children, more specifically girls? Or has there been waking experiences having to do with girls of this age?

The excitement needs to be examined. And the awkward feelings.

There is a conflict of masculine aspects, something that needs 'rational' and not emotional reasoning. Going to a dentist may suggest a meed to 'extract' some emotional aspect dealing with the 'excitement yet awkward feelings. Being late may represent 'putting off' what needs to be examined or extracted. Unconsciously this may suggest something is bothering you but consciously you either have ignored or repressed these emotions.

The scene changes to a farm. Farms are where we cultivate the different aspects that make up our emotional being. The old tractor may represent an older aspect of self, a part of you. You need/desire to get the 'levers' to operate properly. You are able to do so {perhaps mirroring actual experiences in some aspect of your waking life} but it throws you off balance. The ending of a dream usually displays the 'way things really are' in your life. Something is out of balance. There may be weakness in character aspects {coyotes}that need to be consciously examined. You feel exposed in certain situations. You may have expressed these aspects but yet have to really change them.

---

Your Interpretation
Since you know more 'about you' than anyone else we must take your response as serious and thoughtful. What I gained from your statement is an overall anima possession but not a direct comment on what that may be. My sense is the dream is addressing directly to the foundations of this possession {as dreams often do}. The seductive anima is the clearest possibility to the the foundations/sources of your possession. Perhaps if you focus on this aspect, along with what I have provided in my interpretation, you may realize the deeper aspects of the possession of the feminine aspects. Let me know your thoughts and perhaps we can learn more about this anima self, and what needs to be the next step in unconscious realizations that will lead to healing {if needed} and a more balanced psyche.

Jerry

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Thank You guys - I have much progress ahead of me. I have our two year old girl today while my wife works. I'm kind of tied up with her, but I will read all the suggested material tonight. I read Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth and Flight of the Wild Gander when I was 20. The video link you gave me was awesome. I will place Campbell's work back to the top of my list, since there was little soil for it to grow in at 20.. Thank You for your valuable help Jerry. Thank You too Mask. Both of you emphasize that I should focus on my emotional state rather than trying to explain everything logically. I have much reappraising to do. Thank You, Sam

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