My husband (a pastor in waking life) comes to me and shows me what has happened to one of the volumes of his Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. "How could you do this?" he says. The cover is torn, maybe even ripped off. But I recognize it as the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. He opens it and shows me that pictures have been drawn all over the pages by our son, Adam, who is about 11 years old in the dream. I admire one of the pictures. It is a very detailed drawing of a shoe. He based his drawing on a drawing of a shoe in the dictionary. I seem to be responsible for this torn book. I turn through the pages. What I see reminds me of the black-and-white Sears and Roebuck catalogues I used to look at a lot as a child. I say to my husband, "It's all just ads and pictures, anyway!" My husband is exasperated with this explanation. I feel bad that I allowed the book to be abused.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 55

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Harriet,
There seems to be a disconnect with your husbands theology and your own spiritual needs. And it may be {or at least a desire} something you want your son to follow up on {follow his own spiritual path}. The detailed drawing of the shoe {if it fits} from the Sears and Roebuck catalog {is it still called Sears and Roebuck?} may suggest you are looking at life through a more objective prism than your husband. Is there a disconnect in your waking life when it comes to his spirituality? Or a guilt that is caused because you unconsciously resist his spiritual path?
Have you discovered your true spiritual path?

gerard/Jerry

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

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Thanks. I have definitely been disconnecting from the church and following my own spiritual path, though I'm not really sure what my path is! I guess you often don't know what path you're on. I hadn't connected the shoe with the path, but that seems to fit, too. Yes, Roebuck is long gone from the Sears name. But since it appeared in my dream, I wonder if my unconscious was making a sort of bad joke on the masculine/feminine with Roe being feminine and Buck masculine. I have heard that dreams can take that kind of literal approach to get your attention. My son has grown up to become someone who does follow his own spiritual path through music, and I am glad of that. Maybe the dream is reminding me that my son and I both came out of that more traditional spiritual path and that we learned from it and used it. And maybe the dream is reminding me that I have been "ripping apart" the church in a way, that I have allowed that more traditional approach to spirituality to be abused and abused it myself.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 55

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harriet,
Your 'maybes' sound very plausible with the dream. The spiritual disconnect does seem to be what the dream is focusing on in general. I saw the shoe as something that fits both you and your son, the different spiritual paths as opposed to the religious tradition of your husband {how has that worked out, the conflicts in spiritual paths?}. Adam drew the shoe, the one picture you admired. You are responsible for the 'torn book', metaphor for your son's choice of spiritual paths, being torn away from your husband's tradition spiritual path.

The bad feelings, 'maybe' the guilt for abandoning your true spiritual path, your true spiritual self, your TRUE SELF.

Dreams first and foremost focus on the TRUE SELF. And the conflicts associated with being that person. And once you discover that true self, taste the true spiritual nature within you, you can never go backwards without the unconscious objecting to the false identity that you have to live with in your waking life.

The positive aspect of your son's spiritual path, is that a negative in your relationship with your husband? Could the dream be addressing negative aspects between you and your husband? "How could you do this?" he says. An accusatory statement. Does that fit somewhere with waking life experiences?

the spiritual path is a psychological journey

gerard/Jerry