I am seeing M in her office. I am sharing my recent insights with her. She asks me, “Where are you sitting?” I feel she is asking of a dream I had/have. I envision an auditorium full of people and see and describe that I am seated in the middle. I am getting in my car in M's driveway. As I depart the driveway, I see another vehicle readying to back into the driveway. This vehicle is towing a small black wagon, about half the size of the vehicle. It appears empty. On the road, I find it is M that is driving my car. She is taking me to a space she wants to show me. We enter a rural area. She asks if I know the area. Seeing some landmarks, I tell her it does look familiar to me. It reminds me of the landscapes seen in the rural areas of Leavenworth, through which I traveled during the years of my marriages. Looking at the land, I have a feeling of scarcity. It reminds me of the hot and dry season of the year. We continue driving. There is something else she wants me to see. We arrive on a quaint and quiet piece of property. There are many trees and much natural growth that makes the space feel welcoming and comfortable. We park the car and walk over to a serene pond. There is an enormous weeping willow tree that canopies the small body of water. I have the sense of feeling embraced, covered and cared for, by “Mother Nature.” I tell M how wonderful it feels here. I feel she wants me to come spend time here. There are others here – the keepers/caretakers of the property. They are very earth based women, very intuitive and nutritive, warm and embracing. As we are driving back, I am touching/massaging M’s shoulder, until I find that I am feeling her “bones.” I move my hand about her back, rubbing and massaging, all the while feeling (and in feeling, seeing) her skeletal structure. She tells me that the women of the willow tree very much care for and love me. Back at her house, I am leaving through the front entryway where I meet with W standing on the porch. He tells me that while we were gone, Landon came looking for me and he sent him away. I say something to the effect of wishing he had never come into my life. There is a beautiful young boy about. As I step off the porch on my way, I tell him “I love you, _________.”

M is my analyst. An old woman (77 yrs). Some months ago, in a dream, she transfigured into (an equally aged [old]) feminine figure veiled in black (nude beneath the see-through veil with prominent breasts despite the age of the body), heralding death. My association was/is that of the movement of the divine feminine in my journey, how our work together has helped me to find this aspect in my self. W is her husband, also a therapist, a theologian (former minister) and poet. Though I have never worked with W, their home (where there offices are located) would be symbolic of the sacred container of my journey. Landon, as mentioned in an earlier thread (Game Show Dispute) is my former spouse. This dream (above) was prefigured by one wherein I am using the bathroom when I hear a voice address me to, "Please come to the church." There, in what feels and appears as a holy temple, I am met by an attendant in orange robes who tells me my father has died.

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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 Embrace,

My initial thought to the dream was about this dream is the Grimm Brothers version of "Cinderella" where the dead mother in the tree was like an inner voice. In the original fairy tale the dead mother was the birds and animals in the forest, A different form of "mother nature".

The this leads me to the type of tree in the dream - the weeping willow. Why did psyche use this tree. Instead of branches extending up towards the sun, its branches droop towards the small pond. So this tree is attracted to water, rather than the sun. It's like there is not enough strength in the branches, but the roots and the trunk of the tree are very strong. So what do branches represent as part of spirituality and a snapshot of the soul. The word "weeping" conjurs up thoughts of melancholy, feeling "down". You are well grounded, have enough height, but just not enough energy to get those branches up.

Getting back to "Cinderella" the positive aspects of the mother were gone at an early age. The father was around but was absent for most of the time. The negative aspects of the mother took over most of Cinderella's early life. Hate to say this, but this pattern is also found in "Wicked".

Now the little boy at the end of the dream. The psyche is set in a period in Cinderella where the father is still alive and the step mother has moved in, so Cinderella would be around 7 or 8, so it would make sense that the prince (positive aspects of the Animus) would be around the same age. I assume this is where your psychological development is at.

So what are you projecting on to M and W? The step-mother (the archetype of the terrible mother) and father, maybe?

What do you think?

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

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for taking the time to comment. After having posted this dream, I felt otherwise than to do so. There was/is no need. So, I trust you'll pardon me for not responding.

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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

No. Not at all.
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, are you saying you will not pardon my absence of a reply...?

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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 Embrace,

There are no accidents. I say "No. Not at all." when people give me the indication that not carrying on will cause a problem. Meaning I don't mind. I read your earlier post and this was what I felt I had to reply.

I think there is an opportunity for you here. It has triggered something. What did you feel when you read my last reply. Try to be honest as possible.

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

Hi Stephen,

Okay, here is what I felt...

First, I truly felt (after the fact) that there was not a need for me to post this dream. It seemed to me that I was looking for affirmation/validation verses trusting my feelings regarding this dream.

And when I read what you commented with, it was far from what I see in the dream, though some points I do feel are worth my attention.

When I said, "I trust you'll pardon my not responding..." You replied with,"No, not at all." I would have thought your words more appropriate had you said something to the effect of, "Yeah (Yes), no elproblemo!" Now, I did think you intended as I just said, as you indicated in this case.

Yet, yes, wow ... I also wondered if you were saying that you did want a response. I actually felt it like a challenge. Like, maybe, your interpretation was challenging me. For mine is quite a bit different.

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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, Stephen:

For what it is worth, I felt to come back and say just a bit more.

My projections with M & W are quite contrary to what you ask if they may be. In fact, the only place in all of this that I saw or felt any tendency to the negative parent (mother or father) was in your voice/response...

And the willow, is a very feminine symbol, associated with Quan Yin and other of the Goddesses. In the case of the weeping willow (which does have some literal relevance in the meaning of my dream), she is like a fountain, if you will, rising up from the earth to return her grace to the earth. The willow grows mostly and most well where there is ample water supply/moisture - near streams/rivers...

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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 Embrace,

I really don' know how cinderella works in with the dream - I have to figure it out, in other words work it into my consciousness.

I had to look up Quen Yin (never heard of this goddess) and found out that she is the Goddess of compassion (def. deep awareness of the sufferring of another, coupled with a wish to relieve it -empathy -sorrow). The link between the weeeping willow and Quen Yin is that rain falls down the branhes and leaves like tears of sorrow. This corresponds to my intial feeling of melancholy with the trees symbol.

The willow is also a flexible tree, that bends with the winds of change.

For your association with the willow being like a fountain, there would normally have to be an abundance of water, but in the dream it is only a small pond and the willow is very large. You would have to admit that a fountain of that size would need a huge amount of water to function properly. But it is a dry season, isn't it?

I don't know how you feel towards the protagonist of Cinderella, but I feel for her like the definition of "compassion".

So I would guess this only leads to one question. What does compassion have to do with you, Embrace?

I can't help it, but Elphaba turned the people she loved into other things so they would not get hurt. She did it for compassionate reasons, from the point-of-view of the observer, but the other characters perceived the spells as something wicked!!!

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

Hi Stephen,

I am not familiar enough with the tale of Cinderalla...

Melancholy is apt, letting go of sadnesses, through compassion for self, accepting what life had dealt...

A moving through the dry season and finding the oasis...

The smallness of the pond feels to make it very "personal" for me. The land in this area was righ and thriving. And for whatever reason, it does support this beautiful tree.

Still, I've not read the Wicked. Time is not on my side. So, I'm not sure I understand where you may be going in what you have said of her regarding turning others into different things so that they would not suffer/hurt...

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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 Embrace,

I will leave it there then, until you read the stories. Read the Perrault version of cinderella.

Is time an excuse or a choice?

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

Hi, Stephen:

I'm good with this dream and where I am. All things will be worked out in their time and in a way that is organic to me. It's a choice. Thank you.

Embrace

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 41, Kansas

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