I would like to share this dream. It links pretty clearly to two of my other dreams - one involving 'the head nurse' and the other a 'female school teacher'.
I feel that the dream is showing me where the limitations are in my life, and the cause of those limitations. The dream theme is repeating because I still cannot really understand the role of the feminine here,

I am in prison. There is a female guard - large and daunting.
I am telling her that I didn't do anything wrong, that I took all the right advise, that I did what should have been considered right ,,,,, she shows little interest, the message seems to be that she has heard it all before.
Another prisoner is brought in, and I tell that person too.

Thanks for any nutcrackers to this.
I feel that it is a matter of going around this figure, but how to do so openly, non-furtively, and without attracting her wrath ,,,

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hi justin,

looking at the progression of the feminine figure through your series of dreams,ie,nurse,teacher,now a jailer!i can't help but think of some sort of mother attatchment,!
a physical mother ,would start as a nurse,then become teacher,but jailer?
i use this phrase mother attatchment, lightly as i believe it also covers any belief systems that we feel safe in, nurture and protect us,as a mother would.
this might reflect your comments in the dream about the right advice,did what you thought was right.
i would ask, is your life based on the advice of somebody elses thoughts and beliefs etc,or are you living out of your own dynamic,
in the grail myth,the last thing that parsifal has to drop is the under garment given to him by his mother,again its usefull to look at this lightly,to cover all the aspects of a mother metaphor.
what ever this feminine represents ,in your past dreams,
she has been barring doorways,getting in the way,obstructing,holding back.
please don't be offended,but in your latest dream there was an element of blaming something else,making excuses,and it seemed to me that the only way out of the cell and passed the guard,would be to force yourself out?
i sincerely hope you find the freedom you seek.
regards steve.

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Thanks Steve
I am definitely not offended; I am very grateful for your insights, they help a lot - that new perspective. Your observations are spot on I think.
In particular,
- in sights to the mother aspect. I have been looking at this but making little headway
- the reminder of Parsifal, in fact I had just picked this up to read when I reviewed Gerard's previous post
- the 'gentleness', viewing things lightly ,,, I have an ability to push too hard;
It is with this tendancy in mind that I am wary of 'pushing past' the mother (Jailer, teacher, nurse) - I think I have to try to slow down in order to get to MY true purpose ,,, I thnk that may be the 'way around' this self limiting / self obstrucing part of me ,,,

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justin,
reading your observations on your own dynamics,i was reminded of a chrysalis,which in a way, is almost prison like,but also an area of great change and transformation,this process cannot be speeded up,but happens in its own way and time,i think you know what is coming,and as you have said,you have an ability to push to hard,
serve your time with self discipline.
steve.

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Great dialog Steve and Justin. Such a simple dream but with perhaps very significant meaning.

Looking at the dream without considering your other posts {a reminder that this is how Jung instructs us to approach the dream}, these are my impressions.

The prison is confinement to perhaps a certain aspect within the Self, self imposed limitations? The female guard, large and daunting, is the creative/spiritual Self, in a positive but also a negative manner. Self imposed limitations would represent the negative, the female aspect the positive.

That brings us back to Parsifal {Perceval The Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes}. We try so hard to realize the Grail that we keep making the same 'little' mistakes. I say little because they are minor compared to those who have not realized the personal hero journey, a major mistake.
If you follow the story of Parsifal you see his journey is prolonged by his own self imposed limitations. He overcomes one obstacle at a time but it often takes many attempts. As we travle our personal paths we try to take in all the advice that is provided us by the 'helping hands' along the way. But because of our self imposed limitations {usually caused by social duty} we do not see all there is in plan view. The focus is still partially on the ego centered self, our excuses stem from these limitations. The feminine Self is not impressed. And no matter the re-inforcements we offer to support the ego desire, the Self has heard it all.

The task is not to go around this aspect of the Self but to realize and remove the limitations, whatever they may be. They are often minor things but because they are limitations to the Self they can be see as large and daunting.

Gerard

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Hi Jerry and Steve

I wanted to post a further insight to this dream of some time ago - there is another too that I'll try and fin.

I think this dream is explaining that Feminine is:
- not interested in doing things done for in the name of Duty. Feminine is not interested in what we have achieved, rather the motivations behind our acts.
and expanding this -> Feminine is interested in Truth - living our real truth,,, acting from our own personal truths.
Ultimatly, this means doing what we do as an expression of love. To live from this place !!! absolute honesty - to one's self/ Self as an offering to the Feminine.... oh boy

Justin

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I agree Justin, but do you also think this dream is encouraging you to meet your anima and become balanced in terms of masculine/feminine attributes?
In waking terms, the roles of nurse and teacher are to do with duty, but this duty would only be completed with love behind it in the first place?
They may also represent your fears of 'authority' and particulary the authority of the 'self' as Gerard explained?

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Hi All

This is a follow up to three dreams that I had in 2005 !!!
They all related to being obstructed by women - in Jungian terms - by the Feminine.
There was -a female prison guard, a Head Nurse, and a female Teacher
All were obstructing me ,,, I took this to mean that I was being obstructed by the Feminine ,, by my Feminine ,,, and this 'fitted' in my waking life.
I could not get past, or she would not let me past ,,, no matter what reasons I gave. I saw this as the Patriarchal Feminine ,,, the cold feminine ,, and that has been so in my life - the negative mother or the non-conscious mother / feminine in my life.

HOWEVER as I brewed over this, over the years, I see another meaning.

I was giving 'reasons' ,,, logic ,,, asking 'her' to be reasonable ,,,, however this is not the way it is. The Great Mother does not have to be reasonable; she does not need to respond to 'reason'

Indeed, REASON is the realm of patriachy ,,, even in the dreams I was buying into patriachy ,,, logic. I had been (have always done) doing what was expected, what must be done ,,, HOWEVER this is NOT the way of the GREAT FEMININE.

I have just been re-reading i) the Grail Myth and ii) The Maiden King by Bly + Woodman ,,, and ugh ho ,,,
Percival was stopped by the feminine ,, because he did not ask the question.
And Ivan - was challenged by Baba Yuga three times ,,, these were tests of initiation ,,, that would reflect Ivans ability to i) joke in the face of death and ii) not relying on reason, logic.

Ugh - so I may have learned a lot, BUT I ahve still been acting from a place of reason and logic

I think what is needed is the illogical reason of the heart ,,, life may not make sense but it must be embraced;
Life is illogical. Life doesn't make sense ,, doing things because 'we have to' is not an answer that Life respects ,, the reason is 'because I wanted to, it was part of my souls calling, and I had no choice'

Be great
Justin

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Hi Justin I like your understanding of your dream, and appreciate the confusion over the prison guards feminine role. Just to sum up then it seems that no matter how much your inquiring mind, logic and rational 'appeals', 'you' your ego self still remain imprisoned, by 'feelings' which are 'large and daunting'.

To put it another way Its almost as if that no matter how hard you try to liberate yourself, no amout of deliberation, and taking what should be the right course of action is going to set you free.

In some way your dream suggests that getting to know that which 'feels' to you large and daunting and which is not of the mind, might be the key to your freedom, and sense of freedom.

When caught up in using the mind it becomes much akin to trying to work out what came first the chicken or the egg, there is no answer for the logical mind for it is limited in its ability to understand, its here or there, black and white. The same goes when we are working through our feelings we are unable to process them with the logical mind, we may be able to understand them from an intellectual point of view but the real undrstanding takes place at the feeling level which means moving from the head into the body and experiencing them for what they are without analysis or judgement. Experiencing ones feelings through the body is very healing and very liberating, even though for you right now they seem large and daunting, and in turn are serving to keep you, theappealing mind imprisoned.

From my experience of female characters in dreams not only do they represent the feminine receptive intuitive soul within but also the earth the sensate aspect of our body/mind that part of us through which we experience our feelings.

At the time of your dream was there anything happening in your life, maybe prospects of tackling something that seemed daunting, or feelings that were daunting to you, in which you resorted to looking for a way through by means of deliberation.

Just another avenue to explore

Regards Marce

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