A woman (no notion that it is me) is trapped by a group of men at the edge of a forest on a beautiful hot summer day. There is a stuffed large brown bear standing up-right with an open mouth at the edge of the forest on the right. The woman in the clearing is harassed by the four or five males to sign up some kind of an ultimatum or confession or contact – which she pretends to accept. She takes the single sheet of A4 white paper and goes away with it as if to think – but goes straight up towards the bear, and puts it into the taxidermic effigy’s open jaws. As I look at the bear, it is slightly covered with very dry eucalyptus leaves (flammable) and plenty of dry grass around. I hope the woman will set it on fire – and she does. I can see a flame started on the left – and I understand she is trying to send smoke signals asking for help.
g

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

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Gertrude,
There is some bad news and there is some good news.

The bad news first
I'll provide an interpretation to this dream and your second post Sunday morning. I will need to gather my 'intuitive' senses over night to give a proper response. I had a full day of slaying dragons {social}. Will check the e-mail, a little reading and then off to dreamland.

The Good News I received my new CD of Carlos Nakai Canyon Trilogy. The Native American flute, performed by probably the best known flutist in the world, Carlos Nakai {click on the link in red and listen free to samples from this album}. This is great for meditation. The flute is an amazing instrument. You can almost visualize the sounds, the animal calls, the eagle, the wolves. You are in that canyon, riding the wind, in a state of meditation, not of body or mind. Haunting sounds that resonate with the natural psyche. Some think of it as touching your soul. It does touch the deeper psyche {psy·che Greek for soul} That reminds me of Joseph Campbell's suggestion we all should spend time in meditation every day. In a sacred place, a place where you can 'stop thinking' and start sensing. He stressed the importance of having time for meditation. You don't have to abide any rules, quite meditation, Nature's sounds, corny music, whatever fits best. My favorite thing is with Nakai's Native American flute music. It puts me in the moment, all else falls away, ego-less and with practice bodiless. It is great for stress, great for tapping into that higher consciousness. And as with dreams, a way to explore the deeper psyche. Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again....Joseph Campbell

Another Campbell enlightening quote about life

"It seems to have had an order, to have been composed by someone, and those events that were merely accidental when they happened turn out to be the main elements in a consistent plot. Who composed this plot? Just as your dreams are composed, so your whole life has been composed by the will within you. Just as the people who you met by chance became effective agents in the structuring of your life, so you have been the agent in the structuring of other lives. And the whole thing gears together like one big symphony, everything influencing and structuring everything else. It's as though our lives were the dream of a single dreamer in which all of the dream characters are dreaming too. And so everything links to everything else moved out of the will in nature...It is as though there were an intention behind it yet it is all by chance. None of us lives the life that he had intended."

gerard/Jerry [meditation]pray]

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Gertrude,
A rule of thumb about dreams {in Jungian psyche} is people in your dreams is in some way related to you. The trapper woman would represent some aspect of yourself. Your dreams are about you and not some other 'trapped' woman. An unknown woman would most likely represent something you do not realize about yourself for one reason or another {repressing, forgetting, ignoring this aspect about yourself}.

The fact that you are trapped by a group of men would most likely relate to some masculine aspect, either within yourself {your animus} or actual references with men in your waking life, or both. If there are not any experiences that fit with the 'trapped' scenario in your waking life {trapped in male relationships} I would look 'inward' and determine what masculine aspects have you 'trapped'. Since you are just beyond that mid life stage the latter possibility is as real as the first. But with all dreams often the two elements at work pertaining to the 'trapped' experience are being addressed by the dream, thus both may apply {which is reasonable since men in your life would often stimulate masculine tendencies within you}.

And let's not forget the forest. Forests are full of trees which often symbolize personal growth. If you are still confronting that phase of life involving personal growth {what mid-life is often about} then what has you trapped may have to do with those issues. You may be the 'edge' of learning something about yourself that applies to personal growth. Our dreams are constant reminders of those things we unconsciously know but have yet to consciously realize or confront. This would fit with Jung's philosophy of compensation. The psyche regulates itself by a process of compensation. When there is an imbalance between the conscious and unconscious minds, the opposite attitude comes to the fore in an automatic attempt to restore a balanced attitude. This may point to be 'inner' search involving masculine aspects perhaps more so than outward waking experiences.

The brown bear may represent aggressive tendencies {a masculine characteristic}. The open mouth is an aggressive sign of behavior for a bear {a warning sign of possible aggression on his part}. Being at the edge of the forest {personal growth issues} and on the right may suggest issues having to do with the social life {right is social, left is the inner adventure}. Inner masculine tendencies may be affecting your personality, aggressive tendencies that you are not aware of or have no clue to why you demonstrate such behavior. It has you trapped, perhaps an indication the feminine self is trapped by masculine attitudes or behavior.

Are there any ultimatums in your waking life that you are having to confront? This would help in determining what aspect to look in discovering what the dream is trying to address. If it is an inner ultimatum, brought on by masculine tendencies, or even an outward ultimatum, then you may need to confront the issue head on {goes straight up towards the bear, and puts it into the taxidermic effigy’s open jaws}. Dreams don't often present absolute solutions to a problem but it sometimes does. In such an instance it would be 'compensating' your already conscious conclusions of what to do. If this is the case then the dream would be supporting that conclusion.

Are there any waking experiences having to do with 'taxidermic effigy’s'? That seems to be an unusual dream statement that may be a stimulus from waking life experiences.

The fact that the bear is slightly covered with leaves and in dry grass, there is a possibility this issue is approaching the point to where it is on the verge of erupting. The fire could represent anger, or even aggression. It is starting on the left {left being the inner adventure} then this issue may be 'primarily' focused on inner masculine qualities. Your unconscious is attempting to send 'smoke signals' to your conscious mind in an attempt to balance an out of balance aspect related to masculine tendencies.

It seems I have taken the long route to perhaps a fairly simple dream. The dream is most likely addressing masculine aspects/tendencies that have you trapped. If there are not any men in your waking life that fit with this, then you need to look at your own masculine aspects to determine what is out of balance. Have you demonstrated aggressive behavior in recent days, or become more aggressive in your attitude toward certain issues {or men?}. If there is not that waling masculine experience then the dream would be addressing inner animus qualities that have caused or could cause an imbalance in your psyche/life. There are warning signs within the dream, the smoke signals being important since it appears in the end of the dream. Let me know your thoughts and perhaps we will be able to better determine where to look for those answers.

gerard/Jerry

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

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Gerard, I just wanted to say that I have Carlos' Canyon Trilogy (have had it for some years now) and I love it ... very soulful, very spiritual. I have a couple of his other titles as well, but the Canyon Trilogy is my favorite.

Kristi

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What I feel is the essence of this dream is that I am watching the young energetic attractive woman who has been kidnapped and taken to this remote location by male forces – but at no point feels intimidated, scared or even “trapped” – she is focusing on finding a solution and a way out, and using for ill all available means, including the ominous paper she is supposed to sign to seal her fate according to the wishes of the males. She does not waste time on arguing, not even a moment on fretting but instantly notices “resources” available at the location and converts the dangerous paper into kindling to send smoke signals to get help.

The revolutionary breakthrough for me in this dream comes from considering “getting help” as a solution to my problem as the first thought – which was never possible before. My inability to ask for help, to even have a NOTION IN MY HEAD that “HELP” was something that exists --- can be illustrated by the fact that I was not able to ask for help even when it nearly cost me my life. Thirty years ago I was a refugee hiding in a foreign country in fear of being kidnapped by the secret police or deported for lack of documentation. I was homeless and with no means of supporting myself or survival. I was hungry like an animal, raiding restaurant garbage bins for a morsel, stupefied by the all consuming power of having to find something to eat. I had full awareness of having legitimate and acceptable options – return to the oppression of communism, to my good prestigious job and no hope to ever live spiritual freedom, which I could have done any time for I have not destroyed my original passport and my old job was secure. I could have let myself be captured which would have let me “save face” and pretend that I could not help being caught, the enemy was stronger. But even as I sat shivering from cold and savaged by hunger that made me think I know how concentration camp people felt, because I was converting into those skeletons, even then I knew that I was testing my resolve to live in spiritual freedom, and nothing would break me, not even death.

At the same time a new friend opened a bank account for me depositing money “on trust” to allow me to buy a passport or some other way to “legitimise” my new identity. Years later, just recently, I started pondering that even as I was near death from lack of funds – at no point has it occurred to me to go to the bank and take out some of this entrusted money that belonged to someone else and use it for food, as I had full access to the account. It was his money and that was that. He was rich and not only would not have missed the money, but in hindsight would have felt horrified that I did not use it in my hour of ultimate need.

I also met several very nice people who would have --- in hindsight --- probably felt honoured to have an opportunity to help someone in need, and with so little as a bowl of soup. But I was hiding my hunger and destitution, pretending I was just like them and living there as a tourist passing by. When my mind found out about this opportunity to get help, the thought of which had not found birth in my mind till not so long ago, I was totally shaken to find such a severe and life-threatening handicap in my life-skills.

THAT IS WHY SETTING THE BEAR ALIGHT IS EXTREMELY POSITIVE message from this dream

THE BEAR was probably brought to my dream when I mentioned to Kristi that there was a dream associated with polishing stones in a comment to her crystals dream.

TAXIDERMY came into my life in a most powerful and profound French documentary about reasons people have to preserve, “stuff” their pets and have them continue to live with them. it was the inability to let go emotionally of what was, to become attached to the stuffed dead carcass and investing it with emotional qualities that are not there that shocked me at the time. One of the women, who never married because she was excessively attached to her mother, would hardly get out of the house because if she went shopping visiting or for a walk she would so worry about the dead stuffed dogs missing her that she would run home, breathless and beg forgiveness for leaving them alone.

There is another meaning to the word “stuffed” and probably even closer to the emotional meaning in the dream: I use words “I stuffed it” or “it is a real stuff-up” when I feel I need to admit to having made an error.

The upright posture of the bear and the position of the open mouth in the dream was exactly like the one I have looked at several times in one of my favourite books: THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF SYMBOLS by David Fontana with the inscription: “In its male form the bear symbolized bravery and strength to the native North Americans and the Chinese. In its female form the Greeks saw it as sacred to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt (Diana in Roman myth).”

The sex of the bear in the dream is not present. The life-death struggle in killing of a large brown bear to obtain medicinal “fat” from it to save a wounded hero’s life in ancient Poland featured prominently in one of my favourite childhood films and became part of my own “life experiences” to the extent to which we learn from our heroes.

BEAR can also be maternal and mean resurrection, birth into new life, initiation and rites of passage. If this bear is maternal – I am only now recovering from severe emotional abuse by my mother.

FIRE set voluntarily under control may mean cleansing and purifying.

“Burning of an effigy” was an ancient folk ritual in Poland, one which I have not experienced directly as part of the ritual but seen it on TV and “felt” from stories told was that of saying goodbye to the evils of winter. A wooden frame is dressed in woman’s clothes, ugly face painted on cloth with wild hair made of black wool, set on a wooden “cross” and after dancing around camp fire and singing songs about the going away of winter and welcome the life giving spring – she, the figure the effigy would then be set on fire and thrown into the river, to be then taken by the water to the North Pole.

Well, Gerard, these stories form the emotional and intellectual background of the “bear” dream and I wonder what might come to you through your intuition

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

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Gertrude,
I'll give a better detailed response latter. But a couple of questions and observations.
What is your life in the present? What type personality do you possess? Have you been able to discern particular behavior patterns you now possess that had their grounding from these earlier life experiences? I'm sure you recognize the link of the trapped woman in your dream to your own life? How have you gone about addressing this issue and related issues? You have provided a good detail of your life growing up. What about the present? Who are you in relationship to that 'child' growing up? Have you been able to free yourself from those shackles? Or do they still hold you captive {its obvious you have done much work in self therapy, where are you in aspect?}.

Recognizing such patterns and working to create balance in those aspects of life is why Jung looked to dreams for insights to psychological behavior and disorder. Dreams provide insights to the psychological condition of the dreamer but limits itself to general aspects of why a particular symbol or metaphor is used to address an aspect of the psyche {as a rule of thumb of course, and in big dreams when detail can become so real}. Your investigation of the cultural aspects will help better understand inherent and/or imprinted patterns {mythology providing examples}. The correction of negative aspects is the next step.
That is where the discipline part becomes so important.

gerard/Jerry

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