Hi Gerard and everyone,

I've just had a rather Arthurian legend dream. I'm wondering what I should do with it.

I was standing half-way in and out of a house with my husband when I saw a dark skinned and bearded man coming past on a silver foot-scooter. I could see he was in trouble when it slid off the road and down into a ditch. In trying to go forward, he pushed too much and too hard and the scooter went deeper into the mud. Abandoning it, he came towards me to ask for help. My husband didn't seem to know what to do, nor did he care much, but I went straight out to help the man willingly.

His scooter was now a sword! It was quite a distance from the road now and was jammed deep into a muddy lake. Without hesitation I headed into the mud, which was thigh-high, and waded to the sword. The man, rather ineffectively, stood a distance from me. I showed him how to get it out by holding it in a different way, with both hands. One on the handle, one by the blade, where it could be seen at the top of the mud. It came out with ease. I held the sword high and felt a sense of satisfaction and victory.

Many thanks in advance.
Angela

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 40 UK

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

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Angela,
Could this dream be addressing masculine aspects that are in conflict, either inner animus aspects or with actual men in your life, or both? There is trouble with these aspects and you may be 'pushing' too hard to resolve them. You may have tried to use a certain approach but that only made it worse.

The sword may suggest something in the relationship to the masculine that can 'penetrate' when used properly. But there is a problem with the proper use. The masculine 'aspect' {or person} has been ineffective in making it work and you have to 'demonstrate' how to do it. Success is rewarding in ways that cause 'great satisfaction'.

gerard/Jerry

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

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Hi Gerard,

It’s that negative/weak animus again, isn’t it…

Maybe I don’t really know what that means. Because I’m just not sure what to do about it and how to deal with it in a different way, because I can’t seem to identify how I’ve been dealing with it in the wrong way, or where I’ve been pushing too hard.

This morning I had two urgent and difficult animus dreams of old boyfriends -- before my husband -- perhaps they can shine some further light as I put them all together here.

‘Bart’s Packages’
Bart chose to spend the night with a female neighbour instead of me, even though it was expected we’d be together that night. He was carrying packages to give to the other woman instead of me. When he said where he was going I told him I was perfectly fine. But when it registered that I wasn’t fine moments later, he didn’t listen because we kept being interrupted by construction workers and his cell phone.

‘Death in a Backward Car’
The second dream I was trying to get to a dangerous job on time. All sorts of things were going wrong. I forgot things, there was an argument, etc., eventually I ran into Stuart (boyfriend in early 20s) when the car started sliding backwards down an icy hill and stopped on one of the yellow duvets that was dotted about the hill. (Stuart had been riding mountain bikes down the hill and was using my duvets on his course.) He was happy to see me until I became emotional, telling him of my stress. He started ignoring me and I could tell he was uncomfortable with my emotions. We were in my car, waiting for someone, with another girl (Stuart and I in the back seat). Stuart got out so as not to have to listen to me anymore. That was when the car started going backwards. I told the girl to put it in park. She couldn’t, so I jumped into the driver’s seat and tried to put on the brake, but I noticed the pedals were not connected and were just lying on the floor. It was too late. The car was racing backwards. A quick glance behind showed a hairpin bend and a cliff. I said to the girl, “We’re going to die now.” And we both held hands and shut our eyes, preparing for the death with terror at first, then calm.

I’ve just had a thought:
If my animus is connected to putting my creative spirit into the outer world, I suppose a feeling that I had a few weeks ago to stop writing (I write novels and poetry) might be what is coming up???

Could my pull to abandon the art (notice both Bart and Stuart have ‘art’ in their names!) actually be causing me to dig myself deeper into the world of stuck and ineffectiveness? Not to mention, going backwards…

Hey -- ‘Sword’ is also an anagram for ‘Words’!

Do you think this could be the right track here?

Thanks for the prompting feedback, Gerard.

Angela

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 40 UK

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 again,

I think I've got a poignant association to 'going into the ditch', just as my male on a scooter did in the first dream.

In my first year of school, at age five or six, I thought I might like to have a scribbler specifically to practise my writing. I saved my weekly icecream money for five weeks in order to have enough and I was pleased as could be on the day that I actually bought it. I walked the mile home holding it very proudly, until a niggling feeling over what I'd done started to sink in.

I began to feel horribly guilty and as if I'd done something very wrong. Mom had not said that it was okay to trade my icecream money for a scribbler and I feared she would be very angry. Perhaps not because I chose a scribbler over icecream, but because I'd secretively done this. Each step closer to the house, I got more and more upset, until finally, with a great sense of loss, I threw the scribbler in the ditch.

Hmmm... The unconscious associations with writing and ditching suddenly appear rather obvious!

Over and out.

Angela.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 40 UK

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

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Angela,
what is most obvious here is that you have an emotionally stuck "bent" on denying yourself what you really and trully want in your own heart - because you put forward the opinions of others. the mechanism is akin to hiding a heavy metal object near the main compass of a boat you are stiring to a safe port. your self-denial, inability to feel you have the right to have what you want seems to have developed so early in your life that you might not even have had a chance to ever have had a different view, a chance to see the authentoic way to be yourself, to do what you want to do and fight for it.
your "sword in mud" dream is importantly mythical, i remember something about "sword in water" - but must make an effort to remember what it meant. it is a grand victory in your subconscois about something - i shall try to get more on it.

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

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

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Angela,
It is amazing how when we discover what was so obvious was there all along. Given though to a subject, deep thought will do that.
gerard/Jerry

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

Thanks Gerard!

And thanks for your comment Gertrude. I take your words to heart. The layers continue to peel away as the dream insights get deeper and deeper.

All best,
Angela

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 40 UK

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