Hello, I would very much like some tips about the meaning of a dream I had last night:

I was walking in a shallow, muddy river when I felt something moving under my feet. At first I thought it might be a big fish and I wanted to catch it. When I moved out of the way the river dried out and there was only dry mud left. A big brown snake came up from the ground and I was suddenly aware that my father, son, uncle and a dog that he used to have were also there. My son was also much younger in the dream than he actually is. We all ran around the snake trying to avoid it. My father started to walk behind it stamping his feet to scare it. Then the snake went back through the same hole it had come out. My father wanted to lure it back out to catch it, continuing to stamp his feet. Suddenly a huge, powerful white snake burst through the mud immediately chasing us. It was really fast. It went past me but headed straight for my little son filling me with anxiety. He tried to bite but barely missed him and continued down the road. As I ran to pick up my son I saw the dog chasing the white snake biting it's tail and pulled so the snake was torn in half. The half snake immediately turned to chase the dog and the look of the dog when turning from tough aggressor to terrified potential prey made me laugh so hard that I woke up.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 34 Oslo

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I may be wrong on this approach but my sense is there was a transforming event or experience in your early childhood that may be a cause for emotional detachment. It may involve your father and perhaps to do with attitudes or personal traits he possesses that you may have inherited {and is a negative}. You probably protect yourself or insulate yourself from emotional attachments by withdrawing anytime you encounter personalities of a higher instinct. Your animal nature {aggression} turns on you, inward you are the victim. It may be you are afraid you will become like your father.

What was/is the relationship with your father like? Was there any experiences as a child that was 'transforming', something that was imprinted in your mind and leads you to act or behave in a particular manner? Let me know your thoughts and perhaps we will be able to determine what habits or traits that are chasing you.

gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 58 Murfreesboro, Tn

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I really cannot point to any particular event in my childhood as transforming, but you might not be so far off in the interpretation anyway. My father was kind of unstable when I was a kid, ranging from the most thoughtful and generous to an unpredictable angry maniac. When in a good mood, he was a father that all my friends envied me, but they rarely saw his other side when he would strike for the slightest misbehaviour. As the oldest of two brothers I usually received most of his beatings and I remember very well that I swore in my mind to revenge that when I got bigger. Anyway when I was 12 my parents divorced and he changed completely. He managed to be on his best side almost all the time and up to this day I must say that we have a very good relationship.

That said, I do find myself in situations with my own kids where I get angry for no particular reason and I sometimes get like an out of body experience, observing myself from outside behaving like a raging maniac exactly like he used to. The other day I hit my son for swearing at me and I still feel terrible about it. He is now 12 and I never did anything like that before.

The waves of anger that sometimes flush over me were very frequent during all of my adolescence and early adulthood, but are fortunately less and less frequent now. But I still fear that my surroundings might see me as unstable and that they worry about which mood I might be in the next day. I never talked about any of this so a little unexpected that this was brought up now

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 34 Oslo

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

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Christian,
I do feel the dream is addressing your own current behavior with your children. The anger you feel today is probably related to your relationship with your father, although there is probably deeper emotional wounds from your childhood that cause you to possess such anger.

You state this anger is less frequent as you grow older. There is cause to worry though since you have displayed such anger. If you should experience these bouts of anger in the future I do strongly suggest you seek counseling. Remember, the actions of the parent are all too often reflected in the children's adult life. It is important to discover the reasons why you even have this anger. But it is more important to understand the effects these emotional outbursts have on your children. You have been there, you know the negative effects they can cause.

gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 58 Murfreesboro, Tn

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

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it and it really made me think about a few things.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 34 Oslo

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