Anonymous,
I'll comment later about your dream and response but let me address the analysis/interpretation of dreams in general.

I do appreciate the compliment on my abilities to interpret dreams. I have for a long time thought I possessed the skills to properly analyze dreams but now that I have 20+ years experience in working with dreams, and have 'decidedly' begun to recognize even more distinct patterns in them, I feel even more skilled in 'reading' dreams. Using Jungian concepts/theories I believe beyond any doubt that all dreams can be interpreted properly. Not to mean anyone can state exactly what the emotional issues are any particular dream is attempting to communicate, only the dreamer can know that. But by properly analyzing and interpreting the images/actions {symbols} a skilled person with a well developed intuitive sense can drawn an outline of the issues that the dreamer can recognize as applicable to their life. And because just about every dream I now work with gets a positive response, that tells me not only did Jung get it right in his concepts/theories but also dreams do have a universal pattern in the use of the images/actions. In other words the house, as an example, is the dreamer in some relationship. Using that premise when a house is seen in a dream it is the dreamer or related to some important aspect of the dreamer {a mother's house would be about the relationship with the mother in some important aspect}. The same goes for a car or most other forms of transportation {this isn't so strange since we so strongly identify with our cars in a conscious way}. Those things that are normal inclusions in our daily lives reflect who we are and thus are used as images to identify the truth about who we really are. Counter to what many who follow Jungian psyche believe about images being static or fixed, I believe many are {beyond the archetypal applications}. I call these universal symbols {so not to confuse them with the archetypes} because their application is not only mostly fixed but universal {most everyone lives in a house and/or has a car}. I believe one reason I do have great success in correctly analyzing and interpreting dreams because I do use these universal symbols and find the application is true. Science is based on trial and error and truth comes from eliminating the errors.

I will surely discover more new things about how dreams function and that excites me. What I hope to do is present my case about these universal applications to the academic world to determine whether indeed I am correct in my assumptions. If it is true perhaps it will convince even the strongest skeptics that dreams not only have meaning but they can be properly and correctly interpreted. My 'body' of work at the Dream Forum is one place to start in that determination since my success with dreams is on display here. To be convincing there must be facts to support the theory. I believe I have that here at the Forum.

Jerry

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Anonymous,
Picard the captain, that is what I came away with in his inclusion in your dream. A positive figure that reflects an aspect of yourself, something you recognize and need to utilize. Whatever the crisis in in your life {something that may have been an actual recent intrusion in your life on one level, another level being the deeper issues}, you are able to successfully to avoid the subversion {as Picard always is able to do}. Dreams use such images {you obviously identify with Picard, the reason he is in the dream} as metaphors {you are Picard}. This is standard Jungian concepts that fits in most every instance. Universal patterns reflected in the concepts Jung recognized.

As for the poem. Reading it metaphorically I see the deeper psyche of the person who penned it. The creative self needs expression and poetry is one tool to do this. I use my websites {especially Myths-Dreams-Symbols in my early/mid years of self discovery} to express my deeper self. Having an outlet for expression allows us to get to know ourselves, our true selves. Being that true self is the task of the hero/heroine. Not always the hero/heroine in the world at large but in our own lives. The rewards are inward and in my opinion fall within the general patterns of nature which provide rewards in the outer world. Different levels as with most things in nature, including our dreams.

Jerry

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