I had this dream a while ago but it’s still bugging me. It starts with me finding out I’m pregnant and I’m somehow I know I’m due in July so I’m doing some counting trying to figure out how far along I am because I really want to find out what I’m having and I get disappointed because I think it’s too early to find out. It skips to me being at the doctors having an ultra sound then the dream jumps again and I’m still looking at the ultra sound but not on a monitor the baby is floating in front of my face, and I find out I’m having a girl. The dream jumps again and I’ve had the baby, jumps again and I’m in the backseat of a car with my mother in the drivers seat and my brother is also in the backseat to my left, I’m in the middle and the baby is in a car seat to my right. In my head I’m thinking of a name while I’m sitting in the car but at the same time I’m thinking of how weird it is to just be thinking of a name now. We’re sitting in a parking lot and a stranger (a lady) comes up to my window and hands me flowers. And it was weird but I remember feeling bad because this person couldn’t even afford them and it was so sweet that they found some free flowers to give me. And while we’re driving I’m starring at the baby and I just can’t get over how beautiful she is, she’s dressed in all white with a pink ribbon lightly tied around her neck. I made a comment about it because I didn’t want anyone to know what I had; I wanted it to be a surprise. I was going to announce the baby’s name and then everyone would know. I assumed I was using my last name because I had no idea who her father was. I was thinking of the party celebrating the baby when I got home but then became sad because I didn’t think anyone was really going to be there.

It skips again and I’m at work in the middle of the desert with my daughter. I had to go up this steep hill and once I got to the top there was a building a few feet back that I guess was where the boss stayed. There was a small shack that had a small kitchen that was for the workers. Everyone was working doing something like digging and moving large rocks/boulders around. I don’t know what we were really supposed to be doing. I have to leave my daughter on the floor of the shack and I worry about her falling down the hill. It skips again but I’m still at work, but in the shack and the baby’s being fussy and she’s looking at me, face all wrinkled looking very confused. I realize she needs to eat so I make her a bottle and I’m trying to fix the blanket so I can prop the bottle up so she can eat and I can get back to work. I’m suddenly hit with a feeling of horror and disbelief and I feel like a horrible parent because this is the first time I’m feeding her in 3 days, even though she looks like she’s 3 months old only 3 days had passed. I’m still trying to fix the blanket and suddenly she’s in a different spot lying on a weird angle.

Then I wake up. And before it’s asked I have no children and I’m not pregnant. Even though I doubt that really has anything to do with the dream.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23, California

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Hi Leeann,

Can you remember if you were having difficulty with anything in your real life at the time you had the dream?

It could be that the dream is highlighting a pattern which is why it is still bugging you. Because it happens over and over again in one's life.

"Baby" as a symbol is pretty big, so it will help if you can describe to me what a "baby" means to you, particularly a bay girl. In other words your associations. So if I sat the word "baby girl" what is the first thing that comes into your head. Do it a few times. Let me know if it takes you more than 5 seconds to respond to yourself.

Leeann, can I ask that you don't look up any dream/symbol dictionaries and can I also ask that no one on the forum by responding to her post. At least not until she has supplied her associations. I don;t normally ask this, but for some reason my instincts feel it is important in this situation.

Stephen

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 49 Sydney Australia

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? Yes

Mostly minor annoyances at the time, the only thing I can think of is that I had gotten into a fight with a friend and it had already been a little over a month since the fight and it had just been weighing on my mind.

I had trouble with the word association. The only thing that came to mind when I thought baby, was baby.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23, California

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Hi Leeann,
If you feel ok with it, can you share mith me what the fight with your friend was about.

Why I asked specifically about what associations you had with the word "baby" was because, did you know that Carl Jung was the pioneer of the modern day Lie Detector? He was asked by a woman friend to find out if one of her servants was stealing from their home. He put together a list of 100 words that was speicifically designed to prove one way or the other whether this woman was stealing. The servant arrived at his office and was asked to say the first thing that came into her mind after hearing a particular word. He would sit there and write down her response and the time it took for her to respond. From this list he was able to determine that she was indeed stealing from his friend. The Self cannot lie. it's like a person standing behind you, correcting you from your little white lies. You can't run away from it. What Jung was able to discover was that with word association if the answer didn't come or it took a few seconds to arrive then 99% of the time it was being blocked. Blocked by what? I hear you say. Being blocked by a complex. On the surface it would appear that you have a complex residing in your personal unconscious. Now a complex is nothing to be frightened of. We all have them. It's just a grouping of ideas/experiences/stories centered around a common theme, being in your case "baby".

My wife reminded me that at the moment all the women's magazines are showing pictures of stars with their babies. It's all around at the moment. It's the thing to do. And remember that Hephaestus was a baby when he was thrown down Mount Olympus by his parents.

So I think we need to both revisit your dream with this in mind. I realise this is getting pretty deep, so if you want to stop at any stage, please do.

Thank you to everyone for not putting a symbol meaning into Leeanns mind.

Stephen

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 49 Sydney Australia

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? Yes

Really interesting.

I personally know Lee and have since we were 11, and I agree about the complex being associated with baby.


Just saying Lee ;)

I won't go into detail, don't want to taint this at all, but this is very interesting. I love to read the dialouge.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23 Michigan

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

The word association test is a really interesting exercise to undertake. It points out quite quickly what areas need to be looked at for dominant complexes. I'm amazed at how few people in the mental health industry use it because it will give them a descent scorecard on what is going on in the client's mind. The general word association test is listed in Jung's Collected Works. I think it was No. 10. If I knew how to attach a document to the forum I could attach the list of 100 words to use. I have used the list myself and it was very accurate. For me anyway. Gerard, is there a way to attach a txt document?

Stephen

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 49 Sydney Australia

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? Yes

Well I don’t know how much of a “fight” you could say it was. We had been hanging out, having a few drinks and everything was fine and he suddenly freaked out on me, yelling at me and kicked me out of his house. It left me feeling very confused because I didn’t know what happened, maybe a little upset and angry and I didn’t hear from him for a while so it was on my mind.

Well Posh agrees I have a complex with baby and I understand what she’s saying. Baby is usually a happy thing to most people but it bears negative thoughts and feelings for me as I have chosen to give up hopes that I’ll ever have a baby. So whenever I hear baby or think baby it brings on feelings of sadness and anger. And it’s all around me, at work, on tv, in the magazines so sometimes it just feels like a slap in the face.

Me and Hephaestus seem to have a lot of similarities.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23, California

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Hi Leeann,

Thank you for your generosity with your life's situations. It certainly adds dimension to your dream.

Here is the text of the version of the myth that I think pertains to your dream.

Another Homeric version of Hephaestus's myth has that Hera, mortified to have brought forth such grotesque offspring, promptly threw him from Mount Olympus. He fell many days and nights and landed in the ocean, where he was brought up by the Oceanids Thetis (mother of Achilles) and Eurynome. (Hephaestus’s physical appearance indicates arsenicosis, low levels of arsenic poisoning, resulting in lameness and skin cancers.[citation needed] Arsenic was added to bronze to harden it and most smiths of the Bronze Age would have suffered from chronic workplace poisoning.)

Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne which, when she sat on it, did not allow her to leave it. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite, the goddess of love, as his wife.

Notice in the dream how it is you alone with the birth of the baby. I connect this with how Hera gave birth to Hephaestus. Hera bore him alone out of jealousy for Zeus's solo birth of Athena. An old tit for tat thing. And it explains why your mother is diving the car. It is probably an attitude/belief you have taken on from your mother. And Hephaestus' brother was Ares (the god of war), which is probably represented by your brother in the dream.

As I mentioned before, Hephaestus was the only god that worked and notice how your dream ends up in a work environment.

Jean Bolen writes in her book "Gods in Everyman" - Hephaestus is the archetype of the unvalued and rejected one in a culture, that values the heroic, the intellect (Zeus), lofty spiritual values, power, and the ability to adapt to what is expected and to anticipate the next move. In a sky god culture, such as patriachies are, what is "earthy" is devalued or opressed: Mother Earth, passionate feelings, instinct, bodies, women and men who are like Hephaestus. But here is your thing Leeann, the Hephaestus energy is dominant in your Animus and therefore you are probably projecting him on to others. That is until you realize (at the moment) he is a major part of who you are. One of his psychogical difficulties is low self esteem, but his strengths are creativity, capacity to see and make beauty and skill with hands.

The main theme of the dream is about valuing something, nurturing, seeing the beauty and hence your ego-self in real life is depriving you of this creative element in you. Just like you said "Baby is usually a happy thing to most people but it bears negative thoughts and feelings for me as I have chosen to give up hopes that I’ll ever have a baby. So whenever I hear baby or think baby it brings on feelings of sadness and anger. And it’s all around me, at work, on tv, in the magazines so sometimes it just feels like a slap in the face." Your dream is even pointing you in the direction you should be heading. Love and nurture this Hephaestian energy, rather than exhibit his feelings of sadness and ange at being thrown off Mount Olympus by his parents. And this is probably the meaning of the getting back up a steep hill to a house on the top. Getting back to Mount Olympus, which is what Hephaestus refused to do, which is probably unconsciously stopping you from getting back home.

It's amazing how the psyche works. Here you are telling me on the one hand what the word "baby" brings up in you, but when your ego is not in control the dream shows what you are really capable of doing. All Hephaestus wanted was the love of his parents, or to be accepted and your dream shows you how this is done.

I think that's all I have at this point in time. Let me know if any of this clicks with you.

Stephen

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 49 Sydney Australia

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? Yes

Yeah something clicked for me. You were talking about how Hephaestus had low self esteem and it made me think that maybe that’s why in my dream I kept starring at the baby and couldn’t get over how beautiful she was, and maybe that’s why the father wasn’t present in the dream, so I couldn’t push it on him and tell myself “oh well yeah she’s beautiful because she has his looks not mine” And all he wanted was to be loved and accepted and that’s obviously how I’m feeling and what I’m searching for.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23, California

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes

Hi Leeann,

Are you on your way with the understanding of this dream? I think you have the gist of the unconscious energy that is pulling your strings currently.

I just re-read your side of the story with what happened with your friend. It was straight out of Hepaestus' myth of being cast out. I'm sure Hephaestus couldn't understand why he was being thrown (cast) out either.

I think you have quite a few things to mull over. I hope you have been able to cope with it all. There are many people on this forum you can discuss this dream with, including myself. If you want to.

Stephen

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 49 Sydney Australia

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? Yes

Stephen,
Yes, I think I understand my dream now. I have quite a bit of things to think about. I appreciate your help with my dream. Thank you.
–Leeann-

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23, California

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

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? yes