Dream interpretation
51 Year Old Female
United Kingdom

This post will be in two parts because of its length. The second part is here

Dream
Exposition: I dreamt that I was in the garden in Africa where I grew up – but not the original house where I had spent my childhood. I was with one of our old African workers.

the development or plot that contains something new (essential change): A very bright yellow toad with big brown eyes (almost false, toy like in its appearance) was jumping around. Because of its color I assumed it was one of those poisonous toads and I was really worried that it was going to get to the man who was near me and poison him- I thought he would not realize it was dangerous.

The Crisis: It did land near him after jumping energetically all over the place. It landed near his hand and he was sitting on the floor and I thought ‘that’s it now.’ The man took something out of the toad’s mouth like a piece of false teeth or something like the toy teeth we used to get in lucky bags. It was covered in some sort of transparent film.

Lysis/Resolution or conclusion: I was worried that he had put his hand in the toad’s mouth therefore he would be poisoned. The dream ended.

: There is such a contrast between the toy element in the dream and the worry about poison.

Interpreting the Dream & the Dream Symbols
The exposition, the initial situation (setting)

According to Jung the beginning of the dream sets the tone for what the dream is attempting to communicate about the dreamer's emotional self. Dreams are compensatory, they add something to our conscious knowledge that is within the unconscious. There are different contexts to Jungian analysis other than the primary structure {personal context, cultural context and archetypal context} and while I may touch on these I will not go into great detail with this dream.

The symbols that need to be amplified and examined are the garden, Africa, house , childhood and old African workers.

My associations with the symbols are:

• 
  The garden is where things grow, beautiful things that will blossom if there is sufficient nourishment. In this instance the garden is an unconscious one as well as alluding to her personal growth. Since all dream symbols point to aspects of the dreamer the reference would be to her growth, particularly her childhood where proper nourishment, or a lack of it, determines her evolution throughout the rest of her life.


• Africa is the deep unconscious, a large country where people with primarily black skin live. Black is a common symbol for the unconscious
  
  Although this is the actual placed where you grew up the word itself may be referencing aspects of her psyche. Those would be unconscious aspects with Africa being a country where the color of people's skin is primarily black and black representing the unconscious. A large country like Africa could suggest a large influence on the dreamer's psyche


• House: Houses in dreams are universally symbolic of the dreamer or aspects of the dreamer. Because it was not the original you grew up in suggested to me the house was addressing something that was not original about her. Not the original home suggests something is different, changed, altered.


• Childhood home: Language such as this would suggest this home is about her early life experiences. My experiences when seeing such language in the opening of a dream is it is addressing childhood issues. I have verified this time and again and it always seems to fit.


• Old African Workers: Old is the past. African would represent the unconscious. Workers would be 'laboring' with the past, an unconscious laboring about early childhood experiences/influences.

My original interpretation dealing with this beginning of the dream was:

The opening of your dream seems to be pointing to childhood experiences/influences that you may have reduced to unconscious memory and not let you bother you as you have grown in your adult life. The experiences may have altered your personal grown as you have aged {not the original house where I had spent my childhood}. The original house would be your original self as a child. Not being 'that' house may suggest something that affected that original, true self. Your unconscious, through the dream, is trying to show you that true self which was affected by these experiences {a toad would symbolize your 'ugly' side, the yellow light the repressed unconscious memories}.

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The plot that contains something new (essential change)
The symbols that need to be amplified and examined are the bright yellow toad, big brown eyes, false/toy like, jumping around, poisonous and man.

• 
  Yellow Toad: Toads are ugly creatures, live partly in water {unconscious} and on land {conscious} and evolved from something other than what they become. The toad would represent something with her unconscious. The yellow would represent 'cowardliness', something she is afraid to bring to her consciousness because of how 'ugly' it is.
  
  Big Brown Eyes: The eyes are 'unconscious eyes', what the dream sees. Big suggests something significant. Brown is the color of decline {autumn into winter}.
  
  False/Toy Like: False is something not real or true. Toy like suggests something unconscious is toying with the conscious mind.
  
  Jumping Around: Something that has to do with her childhood is jumping around within the unconscious.
  
  Poisonous: There was something poisonous involving an ugly experience{s} in the dreamer's life. This may be a reference to actual experiences as well as referencing the 'poisonous nature it holds within her unconscious. That could lead to repressing such experiences.
  
  Man: The man may represent an actual person as well as her animus {masculine aspects}.
  
  What we have is from this part of the dream is:
  Something ugly within her unconscious needs to be seen {consciously} is toying with her, jumping around with her unconscious wanting/needing to be noticed/acknowledged. It is something big, stemming from childhood and having to do with her personal growth. The poisonous nature of early life experiences has formed a 'false' identity in her ego persona. The man is someone/something she worries about. This may suggest the early life experiences has damaged her animus. But the reference to him could related to 'dangerous' experience having to do with a man early in life. That possibility is amplified in the next phase of the dream.
  
  The second part is here
  
  I pointed this out in my original interpretation {which is here} and which I will comment on later in the post.
  
  Here is the whole posted dream, interpretation, response from dreamer and follow up posts.
  
  Jerry
  

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  Jan 1st, 2013 - 11:06 AM