Hi,

First I want to say thanks to anyone who can help me. I really think this is a great thing for people to do, and this dream really puzzles me.

First, brief background - in the weeks preceding this dream I was stuggling with a lot of spiritual issues, namely having a feeling in my life that I needed some religious path but unsure of what path to follow. I don't often dream, so to have a dream as vivid as this one is a rarity.

Anyway, here is the dream.

I was wearing a white robe and no shoes, and was walking down a wide, grassy path in the forest at night. The path became increasingly darker until it was black, but then opened onto a field on top of a hill. The wind was blowing strongly through tall grass. Below the hill I could see the lights of a village that looked very british and made of stone. In the center of the clearing was a squarish "machine" made of stone. The machine had strange markings etched onto it, including spirals and others I couldn't recognize. I looked up into the sky and had the sudden feeling that if I used the machine I would be launched into the stars. It was a wonderful feeling.

When I think back on the dream the dominant impression is the color green. The trees were very green, all of the grass was lush and green and soft.

Thanks again!

- Carl

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 24, north carolina, america

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? no

Hi Carl,

You’ve received a deeply important dream in response to your search for meaning and spirituality. It may seem short and not too significant in some ways but like poetry, dreams can pack a lot of meaning into a short space so I would make sure to preserve your dream in order to be able to mull it over in the months and years ahead.

To start off with, your partial namesake Carl Jung developed an excellent way to approach dreams and my first bit of advice would be to explore this site thoroughly if you haven’t already done so because it succinctly gathers together many important aspects of Jung’s ideas which will undoubtedly help you to understand this dream and those which will follow later.

If you study Jung’s method of dream analysis thoroughly and it turns out that you have a knack for interpreting your own dreams, they will be invaluable in helping you follow the path outlined by the dream you’ve just had. In reality, a person dreams about five or six times a night, so if you become open to remembering one or two each day, there will be a lot of material to work with.

What follows is just a general outline of the possible meaning of some of the dream images to start you off in thinking them over.

Of course the image of you on a path in a white robe and no shoes suggests the idea of a religious quest. But you’ll find that images often have varying layers of meaning. For example, in the overall context of your dream, not wearing shoes might partly point to the fact that you haven’t taken possession, as it were, of “the ground” or of three dimensional reality as yet.

This may seem to be a strange idea, but part of looking at a profound dream like yours is that traditional customs, ideas, stories and myths should be examined. And in this case, there are various customs where placing the shod foot on a piece of land or on the threshold of a house meant that the person was legally taking possession of it. A related example of this idea is that shoes are not allowed to be worn in mosques because doing so would imply that “man” was trying to take possession of what is God’s .

Another idea connected to shoes is the fact that in Classical antiquity, free men wore shoes while slaves went barefoot, that is, shoes are a sign of being one’s own master and responsible for one’s actions.

So in this one image lies the contradiction that in some way, you must be humble before a higher spiritual centre (called the Self in Jungian terms) while nonetheless maintaining a firm ego stance by putting on shoes when appropriate, e.g. when engaged in the nitty-gritty of everyday life and having to protect the "soul" (dreams often use a play on words) from being hurt in some way.

This idea in your dream might relate to Jung’s concept that the center of the unconscious mind must be approached in a humble respectful way but also the ego must also be strong in order not to be too caught up in strong negative currents of energy that may appear from the psyche.

The forest would tend to symbolize the unconscious with its confusing mix of instincts, thoughts, feelings, potentials, faults, and in general “the opposites” which have to be reconciled in some way over time.

The increasing dark may echo the idea of “darkest before the dawn”, that is, in your quest for understanding, certain aspects of life may be hard to swallow. Darkness relates to the lack of consciousness whereas coming out into the light and having the vista from a hill suggests the gaining of understanding.

The wind blowing through the tall grass is probably symbolic of “spirit” or meaning that is tied up very closely with having to experience the practicalities of earthly existence (the green grass).

The British stone village, the center of the clearing and the squarish machine all relate to Jung’s concept of the Self or the center of the personality. Being in Britain may suggest the idea of the Quest for the Grail which is another symbol of wholeness and meaning.

In general, the square stone machine might symbolize the “processing” of three dimensional experience so that a voyage to the “stars” of spiritual understanding may be possible in the end. I would tend to believe that the emphasis on the color green supports the idea of the need to actually experience everyday life because green usually symbolizes physical reality and perception via the senses.

Anyway, this has been only a postage-stamp-size interpretation of your dream which could be amplified ad finitum but I believe it’s important for you as a first step to savor the atmosphere of your dream and learn to avoid intellectualizing it and future dreams too much.

As a further introduction to working with dreams, “Inner Work” by Robert Johnson is very valuable as is the inexpensive tape set “Dreams: Language of the Soul” where analyst Marion Woodman provides many valuable tips in a long interview about dreams.

I hope that at least some of these ideas will help start you off toward an understanding of this powerful and meaningful dream.

Please Note: After a dream has been interpreted, a follow-up response to the interpretation is requested. This will help both the dreamer and the interpreter better understand the dream message. All interpretations are FREE and the only compensation we ask is your participation in the process of understanding your dream

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 57, Canada

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

Wow,

Thanks so much. That makes a lot of sense, actually. In terms of the Myers-Briggs personality typography I am a very strong INFP, which as I'm sure you know carries with it the chief challenge of reconciling idealistic ideals with the hard realities of everyday life, an issue I have struggled with repeatedly.

I will definitely continue to explore the site and look into those books you mentioned. I read "Man and his Symbols," but could use more work to really help me understand what's going on in my dreams.

Thanks again! It really is a great site and I hope it continues to run for years and years to come.

Happy dreaming!

- Carl

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 24, north carolina, america

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? no