dream: paradox bath: I am laying, dressed in a full winter flannel pyjamas (we are having a very hot summer now) with undies underneath in a shallow paper tray made of thick cardboard built to my size (as if in a bath). Nice clean water is pouring from a bath spout and I start undressing but I wonder how I can get washed in time with all the water soaking into the "bath", before the "bath" inevitably dissolves.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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Gertrude,
Lets look at the bath as a cleansing {internal}. The flannel pyjamas {pajamas for those of us who are 'bloody' Americans} could be the 'covering' up of unconscious contents or motivations {I am big on the 'roots' of our motivations and believe dreams do often expose such roots}. Winter would be the 'depressing' aspects {winter being the time of year many people become depressed}. This aspect of the dream may be addressing those internal issues that need to be 'cleansed'. The undies {those hidden things} would seem to point to unconscious aspects also. There could be an element of sexuality to it but not necessarily.

Something that grabs my attention is the 'shallow paper tray made of thick cardboard built to my size' As well as exposing the roots of our adult motivations dreams also point to personality traits. Could it be you are a bit 'thinned skinned' easily upset by external experiences? The undressing part of the dream may be the exposing of such personality traits/unconscious aspects. The need to 'get washed'/internal cleansing' {before the "bath" inevitably dissolves} may represent unconscious actions that are a part of your waking life. There may be a need to understand these motivations because they may be destructive or a hinderance to proper balance and harmony in your life.

Look at who you are and those negative aspects and determine which parts need a 'cleansing'. It may involve personality traits in your present waking life but also may point to deeper roots to such motivating factors to those traits. It would be related to some recent activity in your waking life so look back at recent events for clues to negative aspects of who you are or how you act.

gerard/Jerry

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Jerry,
thanks for your helpful insights.
the real problem to resolve here is why have i made a bath (i have made it especially) out of an inadequate material? there must be an important message in the fact that it is made with my own hands purposefully, and that it cannot work. the water was soaked up by the cardboard faster than i could use it, and i knew the cardboard will fall apart before i can get use of the faling water. so, the question is: what is the message from this absurd bath-vessel? somehow it seems akin to carrying water in a sieve.

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Gertrude,
What does the bath represent, what is the metaphor? Baths are often symbolic of an internal cleansing. The undressing, getting washed, the undies underneath seem to point to an inner cleansing. Dreams speak in symbols and metaphor and represent some aspect of your life. What is it emotionally that needs cleansing? That seems to be the reference the dream is addressing.

gerard/Jerry

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Gertrude,

Perhaps a bit more to consider that may be helpful:

If the bathing vessel is also you, it begs asking why you have made something not substantial enough to hold the water needed for cleansing?

From an Idiom dictionary: When you say that something does or does not 'hold water', it means that the point of view or argument put forward is or is not sound, strong or logical.

Something of you that is false, or permeable...

Is there some pretense or persona you put forward that belies (as)other aspect(s) of personality/self?

It is summer time, but you have the PJ's on. The pajamas may be symbolic of warmth, comfort, snuggly feelings of safety...

Is there a need for these basic needs to be met that you do not acknowledge? Does some part of your persona cover a need for these basic elements?

And, if you found (acknowledged) the emotional issue, could you then construct a bathing vessel substantial enough for the cleansing?

Kristi

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Kristi,
i am asking myself the same questions - and i am looking for the answers. because we are having a very hot summer here - my reliable old winter flanel pajamas must carry a message, obviously that i am keeping myself warm. but is there anything else there?
i am in urgent need of psyche cleansing, have been going through the process for a while, in various modes and going through the stages, coping OK (the water is abundant, clean, pure, nice).
but the question is that since i had made the "bath" myself and with my own hands, why have i chosen such unreliable and obviously wrong material when i am so eager to get cleaned? the answers i am seeking are in the unravelling of the "substance" problem. it cannot be about "persona" because nobody would ever see me in that old pajamas. i have a funny feeling that this question needs an answer from the alchemical approach. any ideas?

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Gertrude,
Is it really about others seeing you in old pajamas or is it you seeing yourself?

gerard/Jerry

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Gertrude,

Gerard’s question is a good one. It reminds me of an earlier dream wherein I am in a darkened room and have a feeling of fear, of being seen through the window, outside of which is all “light.” It was telling how I was reluctant, hesitant (afraid) of seeing certain aspects of self. I was both the light and the one hiding in the darkness, afraid of the light (consciousness). I was experiencing a similar thing in my recent killing dream shared here. My unconscious and higher self felt I was ready to see that, hence the dream. As well as my own awareness in waking life (I must assume), but, still, a part of me was reluctant to see and so was having a hard time with its interpretation. I believe that those things of self which we would prefer to not show/expose to others are things that we also hold away from our own selves. And this is why there is great value, I feel, in learning to share honestly before others, for it helps us to learn to have penetrating honesty with ourselves, which is where it is of most importance and value.

It is not that others would not see you in your PJs, but it may be that there is something beneath the PJ’s which you need to see…the part of yourself that is hiding beneath the PJs.

I may be wrong, but I have a sense that whatever it is that needs cleansing cannot be cleansed until you acknowledge the need/wound – that, whatever it is, is being protected under the warm (safe feeling) pajamas. Could the container be your consciousness? And is the water merely passing through because you’ve yet to expose what is under the jammies? The words “see through” keep coming to me. Like, you do have awareness of the issues that require your attention/cleansing, but you’re not quite “getting it.” You unconscious shows you have constructed the wrong kind of bath, telling that the rejuvenating spring of water psyche IS supplying for you is not going to work, will pass right through the cover you wear that protects it. So, I am thinking that if you first got naked (honest/real) with yourself, with whatever the issue is, you would then be able to cleanse/release/work through it.

We do not get into bath tubs in PJs. We get into them “naked.”

My sense is that as you increase your conscious awareness of what is hiding beneath the jammies, you will also be constructing a stronger vessel (of consciousness) capable of receiving the water to do what it needs to do. It is there for you, just waiting for you to get the jammies off

If it might be helpful, I borrowed this from a page on alchemy (note the mention of relinquishing garments and the personae):

(((((first fully clad and later having relinquished their garments. The lovers thus confront each other with their personae and defenses, but proceed to a meeting in "naked truth". The partners then immerse themselves in the alchemical bath, thus allowing the force of love to engulf their conscious egos, blotting out rational and mundane considerations. While in this state of passionate engulfment the psychosexual union (coniunctio) takes place. But, contrary expectations, this union, which initially brought forth a newly formed androgynous being, results in death. The spiritual result of love is not viable and, having expired, undergoes decomposition.

It is at this point that the force of commitment to the process (though not necessarily to a particular partner) becomes all-important. By not abandoning the transformational work, the soul of the dead androgyne ascends to heaven, i.e., to a higher level of consciousness, while the body is washed in celestial dew. Soon the departed soul returns to its earthly body, and the reanimated corpse stands in its full, numinous glory for all to see. A new being is born which is the promised fruit of love, the transformed consciousness of the lovers, formed of the opposites, which are now welded into an inseparable imperishable wholeness. The alchemy of love has reached its true and triumphant culmination.)))))

Kristi

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Gertrude,

Not sure if any of this additional sharing may be helpful, but will post it in the event it may be. Your sharing this dream and the discussion has been helpful for me, as I reflect on my past dreams and where I am. As I shopped this morning, some more thoughts came to me...

You mentioned being "eager" to get cleansed. And it reminded me of Gerard's recent sharing with me that the process takes time. I've another very dear friend who I find, in one way or another, often reminding me that it takes time. Much needed, because I can be quite the eager beaver!

For what it is worth, I have had "many" dreams of baths and springs and showers (etc.), but the first big one came a few years ago ... and it showed only my body, standing upright, and I feel that I (my body) is literally bubbling and boiling water. Immediately preceding this was a meeting with my masculine counterpart in a church room. It wasn't time to enter the wedding chapel. We sat across from one another at a table, with a candle between us, under the minister's guidance. Then, the boiling bath of me.

It took a long time to get there and I am still bubbling and boiling, these three years later. My experience tells that we truly do have many levels and layers that need to be shed/cleansed. I know what you mean when you say "coping OK," for some days it does feel (literally) very much like I an walking in alchemical crucible/bath.

And, also, back to the eagerness. I find, for my self, that when I am eager I can almost always be certain that it is a faculty of ego that is the eager one. Gerard also recently reminded me of this, in saying that our desire often gets in the way of the very thing that we seek. Earnestness, I think is a better word, for me, describing someting different, a space of heart, and a willingness to receive something prayed for...and receiving often requires my getting out of the way, I am currently finding!

Kristi

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Hi, Gertrude.

The points in your dream that strike me as the most interesting are that you are in your pajamas and your undies, and while they have their place, the garments are inappropriate to the scene of bathing (cleansing, healing, rebirth). You not only need and want to take them off, you are quite willing to do so. So there seems to be no problem there. And there is no issue with the water being available, it is pouring from a spout.

The problem is with the vessel you have constructed to take a bath. It is shallow and not of an enduring or even viable nature. Paper thin, so to speak.

But you think that is the only way for you to get washed. I wonder if you have an image in your mind, Gertrude, of what you think would be a manifestation in your life of growth or cleansing or healing. That you link some inward process to some outside area of success. I suspect you may have already achieved something as indicated by your willingness to expose yourself and take advantage of the water but you are overly concerned with some link you have made and maybe your dream is telling you it is a shallow one and has no place in the picture. Let that link go and see what your next dream provides you with.

All the best.

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The dream, as written, does not show an exposure of self, but "fully dressed."

Kristi

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I forgot to mention that you might also want to see if any parts of this dream remind you or relate back to earlier remembered dreams. If so, it could be a further illustration or unraveling of something for you. An advancement of a sort.

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My apologies, Gertrude.

You were "dressed in full winter pajamas." Nonetheless, you were already in the bath, in the pajamas. It is out of place. Again, my sense is that the PJs are covering/protecting something... something, still to some degreem unconscious - else your dream maker could have just given you regular clothes to wear. As pajamas are connected with sleep (bed/nightime) it lends to it being something still held in the unconscious, that is asking for attention.

Any more information about the PJs? Do you in fact own/wear flannel PJs like these in the cold months? Or, are they similar to those known/used in another period of your life? Or, like those of someone else you know?

Kristi

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Kristi, Julie, Gerard, My Dear Friends,
i have to get this dream analysed untill i am satisfied, because i know it is telling me what i absolutely need to know to get "unstuck".
my haste to "cleanse" is probably the pressure from my awareness that at 60 y.o. i am doing the self-work i wished i had done thirty, at least twenty years ago at the latest. i have a sense of having wasted so much of precious time. i have wasted most valuable opportunities - and my dreams kept telling me so, by having missed exams, trains, not even knowing where the station is, and always there "too late" to board. i did not get it then bedcause i had no dream reading skills.
the cleansing issue is clear, no doubt about what needs a thorough clean up - since childhood i have let myself be driven by family tragedies and carried emotional wounds that made me into an emotional CRIPPLE unable to socialize. i became A RECLUSE. my mother hated me and i also married a man who is a "women hater" and barely manages to subdue his aggression between outbursts. i sabotaged my professional career surendering to the overwhelming fear of people and ended up on poverty line in spite of a university degree and a monumental scientific discovery which i am too affraid to publish. because people hurt and hated me, so i hated them back and with interest, like a primitive savage, bypassing my intelligence.
that is the "dirt" i am trying to wash off, to get rid of negativity, of primitive hostile emotions and responses. i want to learn how to be physically with people and not be affraid and not to hate when they don't like me.
the "bath" i have made of cardboard is probably my CONSCIOUSNESS - but where would i find some more info on how we build our consciousness? i know this is what i need to do, to build a new consciousness.
the "bath" is shallow - it is an oversized lengthwise PAPER TRAY of the height of a papertray made of cardboard i am using daily. i am in the bath instead of papers - should i consider this as a hint? or is it that i am "shallow" about something?
the pajamas i am wearing are about 25 years old faded flannel - with worn-out elastic held together with a safety pin. i survived unspeakable poverty and still feel unable to throw away or stop using whatever can still be used. i am not poor, but have low income.
why have i layed down in the bath in my pajamas - is it because i forgot, or was i just too hasty? what stage have i skipped?
yes, the alchemical bath is about getting both of my femenine and masculine sides together - but i am there alone, just as i am in reality in my emotional life.
i am in fully blown MID-LIFE CRISIS i should have had at 40 y.o. and feeling retarded. i went back to basics and attempt to re-learn how to live, how to be part of a group without a panic attack or becoming defensively aggressive.
for the first time in my life i am ADMITTING that i need help. PLEASE HELP ME!

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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Gertrude,

Thank you for sharing all of that.

I don't know that I would worry about stages, what stage you have skipped, etc. - but instead just being with your self, where you are, now, without pressuring your self. We get a lot/learn a lot of that in life. I find it an ungentle way to be with my self.

The "feeling" energy of dreams is so very important when healing emotional issues. Did you have/are you able to connect with a feeling sense in this dream? How did you feel, there? If you relax, in the moment, now, can you tell how you felt there in the bath?

The cardboard tray you use in your home, do you stack old newspapers in it? How is it that you use it?

I've learned to pray for help, now, every day.

Kristi

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Gertrude,

I wanted to come back, to be sure to say that I do understand the sense of haste you have, of wanting to heal issues in your life. And that where I said to not pressure your self, it is intended to be an encouragement to relax.

It is truly a safe place to share, here.

It took a lot of courage to share all that you did, and I do, truly, thank you.

Kristi

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Dear Kristi,
it is such comfort for me that you care and you want to help me. i do need help, so much. i never before was either able to ask or accept help, or even admit i needed it - and this inner "strength" broguht me to my knees. i do realise i cannot get out of this mess by myself.

the cardboard trays hold papers, usually corespondence and other printed matter that i MUST attend to, but delay postpone procrastinate and don't seem to ever get around to attend to. it could be a metaphor or a sign for unresolved pressing issues. when the tray is full i just make a new one, rather than to deal with what really has to be done and resolved, and the papers thrown out or shredded. i seem to always think that i can do it better "tomorrow" when i am not so tired, sad, when the brain is more alert - "tomorrow".

my FEELINGS? just haste, worry that the bath will dissolve before i can even get undressed, watching the water soak into the material and knowing how soggy it is becoming and how it will break away into nothing at any moment.

the time of the dream is night by inference (i bathe at night, and have a large nice bath at home).

it also seems important that i should have water in the bath rather than trying to catch it in my hands from the tap and just wash "like a cat".

what is the fault in my consciousness? the symptoms are that i have always had difficulty with relating to reality, and only now make efforts to "come down from the clouds" and "ground" myself. i now know i escaped throughout my youth and adult life into the worlds of fantasy to get away from the pain and what i could not accept in my "real" life which i have never lived, it passed me by.

would you know how to heal a consciousness that is like swiss cheese or a colander? or what is it that "does not hold water" in my warped crippled attitudes to life? it is one thing to know i am a cripple - but quite another to see how it can be remedied or what needs to be done.

thank you for finding time to help me,
Gertrude

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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You share of how you were earlier unable to ask for help and I am reminded of how it was the same for my own self … as I know that it is for many. We learn to have to be so strong to hold pain away, to put on the face, to keep going. It is part of an armor that we develop, and it is, in my experience, false. My Army persona was part of this mask for me. But there came a day when I could no longer hold it all together.

Sometimes, the container must fall apart. So that it may come together again in a new order. Maybe, see your dream this way. Real, lasting change rarely comes about without crises, without some amount of chaos.

But, the “container,” is actually metaphor. Perhaps all that really happens is that illusion falls away. So many of our creations, of our minds, of our intellects, are like paper, houses of cards – and they crumble and fall down easily. Perhaps this is only so that we may find what is real and true – what was always there, underneath, waiting only for us to re-member.

It doesn’t come without pain, for that is part of the journey, my experience tells, where we learn to appreciate all that life has given (the bright and beautiful and the bad and ugly), all that it is has been, for the soul making that it gives us. There are tears to be shed, as I know you know, but when we cry are we really giving those tears to our Self, or are “we” (the “me”) still trying to hold on, still plotting and figuring and judging and trying to understand and making changes and adjustments and seeking and finding…”

Sometimes, getting down on our hands and knees is exactly what we need to do, to open to and receive the help available. Sometimes, we need to be able to admit that “I don’t know” and that what “I am doing is not working” and to say “Please help me find the way.” It is, ultimately, to our own Higher Self (God, however you choose to define this part of your Self) that we learn to surrender to. Learning to trust and have faith is important to. To keep putting one foot in front of the other, doing all we can do, but then being really open to receive – and this often entails our getting out of the way (getting our ego out of the way – which takes practice). Sometimes, it is just the beauty of seeing a flower, or a bird in the sky, that is our sustaining strength – that whispers promise to us, as we seem to touch and know that we too are that simple beingness demonstrated in their example. We begin to learn to not be so complicated, as life taught our minds to do.

Disciplining the mind and building a new consciousness is something that takes time and a lot of surrendering of the self, else that “new” can’t be built. It really is not a process of addition, but one of subtraction. See, it is all the mess that has brought us to such a confused state in the first place. So, even as we reach for another book, another something to help guide the way, we have to be careful and ask the question, “Am I only adding to my inventory of this me I am trying to heal?” Or, “Am I letting the Sacred Other speak and guide? Who or what is it that I am listening to?” The false personality that has, already, kept me going in circles? Or, truth? As we do this, looking only for truth, we also find the conglomeration of so many other voices of our lifetime (be they Mom or Dad or husband or sister or friend) falling away. And we can come to find that one true voice/sound inside of us … our Self guiding our way.

I think you may be right, Gertrude. I think you answered it. Perhaps the dream is telling you that it is time to tend to you. As I read some of your postings here on the forum, I get the sense of one who has been trying so hard to fight and fix that she has taken little time to be true to her self/Self. When I read of your telling of your chase dreams and how in your dream world you learned to fight back, I wondered if you took the time to incorporate that into your life. To sit and know that it is safe, now, to “feel,” to allow yourself to feel again, to heal the child inside. We can’t just continue to live in our dreams – else that becomes a form of escape, too. We have to bring the insight back into our lives.

Sometimes, nothing needs to be done, except letting all the old fall away.

Kristi

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Dear Gertrude,

As I reflect more on the posts you've contributed to the forum, I see a woman who has a wealth of information with which to do the healing she is in need of. And so I really do wonder if the dream is asking you to just let things melt away, to relax and not impose on yourself a pressure of needing "to do" -like you somehow regard yourself the same way as do you that stack of "to do" things sitting in the cardboard trays. There are some spiritual teachers, many (or most) really, that tell: "there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to fix, no one to try to be, no where to get to," etc. That, it is all illusion that has us to think otherwise. I know it can be at first hard to hear and grok something like this, as we learn to believe otherwise. I am still grokking it, too.

And for what it may mean to share this, I don't think it much matters what age we are when we come to deeply feel the desire to heal in a profound way. I was 34 when I started, and still felt like I missed the boat! And beat my self up for not already being that somewhere I imagined I needed to be. That too, can be another unneccessary pressure we put on ourselves, I feel.

As children we are often told (from many) to do this, do that, you gotta be this way, that way, etc. Hell, the inlfuences are numerous, we hear/learn them everywhere, starting in our homes as children, but then echoed all throughout society, school, teachers, media, so many things we learn to compare ourselves against. Is there really a need for us to do that?

Best,
Kristi

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Dear Gertrude,

I wonder if you are aware of the impact and influence your courage in exposing yourself and your anxieties and vulnerabilities is having on some of the rest of us. It truly is courageous in my eyes. Your willingness to bring something to light by publicly sharing it so honestly and frankly is illuminating a process for the rest of us, a path we are all walking down, or have walked or will yet walk again.

The pressure you feel as illustrated in your dream by the water and the ¨bathtub¨ and in your life in terms of time and tangible progress, is something I identify with. In times of anxiety, I remind myself to trust that the right thing is happening at the right time and in the right way, despite the mysteries of its ways to me. I so get all the papers and the pressing matters in the trays looming over you like a big clock with a thunderous tick-tock that makes it so hard to hear anything else.

I once read an article in which an astronaut was asked, if there were a crisis and you had three minutes to respond to it, what would you do? He answered that he would spend two minutes quietly thinking and one minute acting. I have often had to apply the wisdom in that during my own process of personal growth, reminding myself when I feel high pressure to give my attention over to outstanding outside matters that I can better manage those matters if I remain patient and continue to invest time and attention to the task at hand. It requires faith in the belief that the time needed is available to us.

One of the things I'd love to see, Gertrude, in terms of your dream, is if you turn it around for just a moment, what good indications do you see in it and would you share those with us?

Thanks.

Julie

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My Dear Friends Kristi and Julie ( I hope you might let me call you that),
I hope you might have at least some notion of how much it means to me to have your advice and caring. I have never had this, mostly my fault, I was too afraid of being rejected and hurt again to find the courage to trust or get close to anybody, so this is really my first time for some personal disclosures, and that because I am truly on my knees and in despair . I was paralysed by fear into inaction and forfeited magnificent opportunities to fulfil my destiny and talents by procrastinating, delaying, putting off, and doing anything except participating in real life. I think I could have had friends, some people did like me, but I never wrote back, never called back, never accepted meetings of coffees. I would just let time pass till people lost interest in pursuing my company – and this had no reemdy, there was nothing I could do, I would have a blank if there was someone nice and friendly who was willing for my company.

I will study your words very carefully, for I consider them as pure gold. I thank you and I appreciate what you are doing for me. I hope I will be able to give it back, and if not, I will make sure to past YOUR GOLD onto others in need.

Thank you,

Gertrude

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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Gertrude,

I can't stop thinking of your dream in connection with something from my own spiritual tradition, the Pool of Siloam, a pool of healing waters. The "nice, clean water" of your dream made a powerful impression on me. I keep thinking of the words of the man in the Bible story. He was blind from birth (as we all are in a way), and said,after following Jesus's words and going to the pool, "So I went and washed and then I could see." In a way this seems like one of those dreams that's about us all. We're there for the healing waters, yet we have these human things (pajamas, cardboard bath, time) standing between us and having our sight restored. Harriett

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Gertrude,

Ofcourse you may call me Dear Friend. And I want to assure you that I am no stranger to ALL of the feelings and fears and concerns you have mentioned in this last post. The company is good! And you are welcome for any help you may derive from my sharing ... and I, thank you, too, for yours. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I will get back to working on my own dream (of the Crystal Man and Yoga, etc.) ... and others I have had since then. It is Finals week for me, at school. That, combined with processing my own stuff, has kept me from sharing as much I would like to.

Kristi

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Oh, P.S. - I wanted to add to what Harriett wrote here, about the healing waters... Sharing here on the forum is like taking a dip into healing waters. We all learn and grow from what one another brings/shares. For each of us, there is an increased capacity to see and apprehend truth.

Kristi

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Dear Harriett,
I really appreciate your input and I have not attended to your last dream yet because it is complex and I get so little time to type before I must get some sleep. But I will – because I am fascinated by your awakening and your journey to be a spiritual leader (this is what I see in your dreams).

Thanks for your comment about the clean running water – I am deeply aware of the value of its cleanliness and purity and running – thank you, that is exactly what is happening here. And I know all the badness of my negative attitudes that I have to “wash away” --- so worried that the time is running out.

The direction in which I see it going is that I have not opted to wash myself, my body, under the running water, but feel I must collect this water and “submerge”. That is where the problem is. I chose a vessel, and of MY OWN MAKING that is “unable to hold water” – as one of my wonderful “dream friends” brought up more than once. Is this vessel my “consciousness”? is this my mind, which is definitely what I have developed myself? The issue is, of course, that I am undergoing an INITIATION, a BAPTISM of sorts, an alchemical process. If it is my MIND that is unable to hold water, how would I know what is it that is the MATERIAL part of it?

Any thoughts on this problem?
Gertrude

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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Hi, Gertrude,

I hesitate to say anything about others' dreams because I really don't feel that I have much skill at analyzing and interpreting dreams!

I didn't really understand that you felt the problem was that you wanted to submerge in the tub instead of washing under the running water. You see submerging in the tub as a mistake? To me it didn't seem like a mistake. It seemed more like what you described as kind of a life pattern-- that you tended to draw back, keep from exposing yourself (you at first wore pajamas in the tub instead of lying in there naked)) but that now you are sort of trying to make up for lost time and that you feel you must hurry because you started too late (the same way you felt in the dream, that you had to hurry before the cardboard tub dissolved). I can see that the vessel could be your consciousness. Isn't anyone's consciousness the equivalent of that cardboard bathtub? It's not adequate to hold the water. The consciousness is the equivalent of the mail tray-- it's adequate for attending to business, mail going in and out, etc. but the consciousness and the cardboard bath are not adequate for your initiation or healing or baptism or alchemical process. I didn't see it as your mind being unable to hold water, as if this is a shortcoming of your personal mind, so much as it is simply the nature of all consciousness because consciousness is only part of the picture.
Do you ever do rituals as a way to work on dreams and learn from them? Since I'm not the analytic type, I do that kind of thing a lot with dreams. If this were my dream, I'd probably look for a picture of the most luxurious bathtub I could find, put it in my dream book, and then use active imagination to go back into the dream. Or I'd take a real bath and try to re-enter the dream. It sure sounds like you are already doing a lot to honor the unconscious by paying close attention to your dreams. I hope I haven't totally missed the point. Thanks for sharing your dream. Harriett

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The questions that i really need answered are the direction in which the dream is going that is I have not opted to wash myself, my body, under the running water, but feel I must collect this water and “submerge”. That is where the problem is. I chose a vessel, and of MY OWN MAKING that is “unable to hold water” – as one of my wonderful “dream friends” brought up more than once. Is this vessel my “consciousness”? is this my mind, which is definitely what I have developed myself? The issue is, of course, that I am undergoing an INITIATION, a BAPTISM of sorts, an alchemical process. If it is my MIND that is unable to hold water, how would I know what is it that is the MATERIAL part of it?

Any thoughts on this problem? can anyone help, please?
Gertrude

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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Hi, Gertrude,

The thing that jumped out at me from your latest musings on your dreams was that you felt that you needed "to collect the water" and it is from this impulse that gives rise to anxiety.

One of the things I myself have been working on is accepting with full trust the knowledge that what we need is always available to us and will flow to us. To receive it and not try to hoard it or cling to it beause we are afraid--for whatever personal reasons--is very difficult. For example, oftentimes when you grow up poor, it is a challenge not to over worry about money and find it elusive or hoard it when you get a bit of it or think of it as a fluke not likely to be repeated. To face a challenge of poverty of money as a child prepares us and helps us to recognize a far more important kind of poverty as adults, perhaps it is a kind of poverty in the conscious mind of all of us, a small way of thinking and being that we cling to fearfully.

And it so true that whatever we chase with worry will always be just that one step ahead of us, mere inches beyond our reach.

I'll leave the rest of the dream and your questions to others here with more insight into those aspects. But I would ask you again, Gertrude, if you can see any good things or positive signs in the dream and if so, if you would share them.

Julie

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thanks, Julie, i will think of these new comments, most valuable, you are gerat!
Gertrude

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 y.o., Australia

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