Hi there,

just read my entries, which are from 2007...Very funny to see what i did dream then and where i am 2 years later. Back then i thought i recognized in real life the things that i dreamed, but right now i must say that it feels like the real steps towards change are made in the last few weeks (even maybe days)...maybe that is why i'm back here?

Oke, curious about the dream:

I'm at my parents house (the house i grew up). Suddenly i hear sirens. I recognize them as the sirens from the firebrigade. I walk into one of the bedrooms (at the back of the house) and look around to see where they are going. I'm surprised when i see them stopping at the parkingspace. I run outside to the parkingspace, where the firebrigade is already very busy. Strangely enough, the parkingspace exists for half of the normal stone ground and the other half is fresh black earth. One of the firetrucks is digging in the earth. I'm asking (in my mind) if maybe there's a gasleak. A woman (with same name as i have) answers that there's no leak, but that 2 dead people are found right now. A gypsy mother and her daughter. They were buried under the black earth. t feels like they have been buried there for very long. The gypsy mother and her daughter weren't buried there by other people. No, they had been lost for a long time. When i (seem to) know this i look at a street parallel to the parkingspace (between them are houses). In this image i see a car, with the gypsy mother and daughter in it, having an accident. And by this accident both were launched out of the car. And it was since then that nobody knew where they were...till now. While seeing this image i'm trying to remember the acccident (like seeing the image is only an explanation to me on how those 2 women ended up under the earth). It feels like i should be able to remember it, like it is known to everyone, but i just can't.
Though in the dream i feel that everyone who is watching the buried mother and daughter being found/digged up, is very happy and relieved, i don't seem to know how to feel about it.
End.

Greetings,
Mask

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

Mask,
The dream has all the indications of something being 'dug up' from your deep unconscious. Since the dream begins at your parent's house there may be associations not only to the actual house but to earlier experiences in life, especially childhood.

So the question becomes what the gypsy mother and her daughter represents. Looking to the HyperDictionary for clues to such a representation we come up with this:

Seeing a gypsy in your dream means your desire to roam freely without responsibility and obligation. Alternatively, this symbol may suggest your need to look toward the future.

The last part may fit with the need to get beyond whatever was buried within the unconscious but what that is still remains to be determined.
There seems to be a repressed aspect within the dream. This statement {with my comments} in particular leads me to believe such is the possibility:

And by this accident both were launched out of the car {launched from the unconscious}. And it was since then that nobody knew where they were...till now {the repressed matter is becoming conscious}. While seeing this image i'm trying to remember the accident (like seeing the image is only an explanation to me on how those 2 women ended up under the earth).
This last part 'trying to remember' would be a direct comment on what the dream is trying to get you to do.

The two women under the earth. The earth could be your total consciousness, your deepest psyche {associated with the deepest unconscious}. The two women, are they direct references to actual experiences from your past or symbols of your shadow? Could the mother and daughter be your mother and you and represent past experiences? There may be identity associations, something shared between you and your mother.

Let me know your impressions of what I have stated and see if you come up with something that may be relevant. I will examine your other posted dream to see if there are links that may help explain this dream.

A word about dream dictionaries
Although many dream dictionaries should be avoided some have references that can help lead to an understanding of a dream symbol. Nothing should be looked at as 'fixed' in its meaning but some explanations can offer help in understanding a dream symbol. I sometimes use the HyperDictionary as well as the MDS Dream Dictionary to help stimulate the possibilities of a symbol. They can be of great help especially when the mind is blank and needs a stimulus. If a dictionary provides a statement of fact, throw it away. If it offers possibilities then there may be a use for it.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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

Hello Jerry,

thanks for (both) your replies!
I'm still thinking about what you've written and what my own thoughts are about the dreams.
While (being lazy) falling asleep today i asked myself to (hopefully) dream about the meaning of the 'gypsy mother and daughter' with the next dream as a result:

Camera

With my family (parents and brother) i seem to be on a hike. It is like we are on vacation and now are off for a hiking day. (we did this very often irl when i was a child)It is like we just took off and now are walking down a hill. At the bottom of the hill there's a little stream (no bridge). At our side of the stream i see a man, who feels like being a business-man. He is carrying several bags with him and i know he's on the way to a new working task. He stands beside the stream and puts all his bags, which seem to be held together by invisible ropes, in the water. They don't sink, but already start to go with the stream. I also notice every bag is packed in a waterproof cloth. The man then steps into the water. I'm imagening the man then walking besides the stream, following it. This image makes me laugh, because i know the then would have to walk very fast because the stream of the water is faster then his walking. But instead of this the man walks to the other side of the stream and takes a waterbike. (or how you call it). This makes sense to me.
Me i my family then cross the stream and follow the stream a little to the left. We walk slowly and enjoy the site we're in. Then, through some large trees, i see a large building. As i walk closer i recognize an old castle in it. It has a lot of small towers and all windows have closed shutters. This castle makes the environment even more amazing and i tell my family that this little, so beautiful part of the world shouldn't be kept hidden. I tell them to take photo's and so they do. I want to take photo's also, but i don't have my camera with me. I know the other three are taking pictures, but i want to take pictures myself also. So, i go back to search for my camera.
While walking back i'm suddenly worried about how i'm going to cross the stream when i get back with my camera...knowing that there's no bridge.
I arive at a house, which seems to be a studenthome. I go inside and search in every room. My search takes me all the way up into the attic of the house. In the attic there's an open space and at the left there's a room. In the open space a male student is studying behind a desk. Another student is standing in the space. I tell them i'm looking for my camera. The make room for me so i can search the desk. On the desk i find nothing, but i don't give up. I even climb on the shelf above the desk. But even there i can't find my camera. I think about searching in the room besides the desk, but while thinking this the standing student enters that room and shuts the door. My way down from the shelf to the ground is made impossible also. It feels like they don't want me to search around here. Like they are trying to hide things from me.
So , there i sit on the shelf, looking around for any solution to climb down, when all of a sudden a woman and her daughter appear (out of nowhere) in this space. Under the shelf their husband/father appears. He is a patient. (i know these people from work from some time ago). The space now seems to be a hospital-scene. Mother and daughter visiting their husband/father. Then i get a zoomed-in image of the waist of the daughter. I notice her waist is very small/thin. Then my attention goes to the mother. She says she knows a solution for me on how to get down from the shelf. She says that i could take some iron wiring (used for making fences) and let this hang down from the sides of the shelf so that i can climb down.

Funny part was, that while hiking and finding that castle i was there with both parents and brother, but only my mother was visible. (that is why i think this is a possible follow-up to that gypsy-dream).

Well, i'm going to do some more thinking and definitely will be back with the results..hoping the coming night will even give me some more insights..


Greeting,
Mask

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

Some thoughts...

From the beginning:

The gypsy mother and daughter were lost after having been launched out of a car in an accident (by accident). Later they are found buried in the earth by the firebrigade. I see the accident in an image, but cannot remember the accident.
>> How can i see something, while not being able to remember it? >> maybe meaning: ignoring something?

Something was once 'launched by accident' out of 'the self' (car). That something being the gypsies. Gypsies are, besides roaming freely and able to look into the future, 'firy people'.
It is the 'fire'brigade who dug up the gypsies out of the earth. I'm an earth-type (ox), so the car and the earth could be symbolic of my self.
There is no fire to put out, but i think it is about a fire that needs to burn again...my inner fire.
'Gypsies launched by accident' could be symbolic of an experience i had some years ago. After a few meditations my life suddenly got upside down. I suddenly had lots of energy, suddenly could remember my dreams and had lots of dreams in the following year, i started to write poetry like out of the blue, i felt very happy. It felt like i had entered a story...my own story. Like i started a self-study.
As for the firy gypsies being launched out of the car by accident...the meditations seemed to have started my inner fire burning. By accident because back then i didn't understand how all of it had started. When someone would have told me i was going to experience all those things i would have laughed him in the face. Because i didn't know anything about the spiritual at all.
The gypsies (my inner fire/intuition/creativity etc) were lost for some time, because of a growing fear of the unknown and the invisible. I buried the gypsies myself...in the earth (myself).
Seeing the accident in an image, but not remembering it to me now feels like ignoring instead of having repressed something and really not being able to remember.
Hearing the sirens of the firebrigade i think is some sort of a wake-up call.
At first i'm thinking of a gasleak, which makes me afraid because this could cause an explosion and fire. Gas is invisible...referring to the unknown which i got afraid of?

The castle, just like the ring to me are symbolic of the real self (the inner treasure...the place of the inner fire). The shutters (blinds) of the castle-windows are closed. The real self is not being used.

Me, wanting to take photo's with my own camera instead of using the photo's taken by others...i need to see and experience things myself...making my own opinions...creating my own vision.
But i can't find my camera. The search for my camera leads me all the way into the attic, where i get stuck on a shelf. A shelf is for books...attic, place of knowledge, information etc. The ratio. I'm stuck in the attic i.e. stuck in my head/ratio. The student keeing the door to the room shut for me...i'm blocking myself.

The daughters' thin waist...Waist in dutch is 'middel' and 'middel' in english is 'a manner/way on how to...'. After seeing the thin waist her mother comes with a solution to how i can get of the shelf. Mother/female...caring/intuition...
The husband/father of the these mother and daughter is a patient...Husband/male...ratio. It is the situation of being stuck in my head which needs to be solved. How can i get out my head and move towards my intuition. How can i balance them?
The mother says i could hang iron wiring down from the shelf like a fence so that i can climb down and don't have to jump. Maybe it means: take little steps.

The ring to me also is symbolic for commitment. In the 'ring-dream' my mother sits in 'her chair'. This chair is 'her place' in real life. In the livingroom/the conscious. Me asking her if i could have her ring feels like i am asking if it is okay to take/make my own place in life. And taking my own place to me means being my real self. This means making a commitment with myself...between my and my real self. This means trusting in my self, in my knowledge, my possibilities, my talents...getting the inner fire burning and keep it burning. Getting out of my head, open the blinds...

The dreams do not come by accident. In daily life, the last days, i suddenly see opportunities (i'm on the way of starting my own pratice as a counselor). Suddenly i believe that certain dreams i have can really happen. It is the business man going to his new task. Starting to go with the flow (stream). My 'luggage' are packed waterproof, while taking the 'water-way'. The 'water-way' (stream) meaning 'following my heart/intuition/feelings'. All my inner possessions are waterproof. Waterproof cloth being a solution to not getting things wet...to not get to much influenced by emotions. A balance of the female/male? (>> the ring...commitment)

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

A dream from last night then:

The greenhouse

In the beginning of the dream i'm in a house, my house. (not my house irl) The house is one in a row and it is in another town (nearby) then where i live irl. The backyard is connected (open) with all backyards of the other houses in the row/street. It's not a normal open-space garden, but a very huge greenhouse in which all backyards are.
Then, all of sudden, i'm on the road, by foot. I'm going home. At first i walking home with a clear sense that it's the right way home, but after some time i'm getting insecure. I turn around, walk back for some time untill i see a signpost. I recognize the citynames on it and conclude that i was walking the right way so again i turn around. When i get closer and closer to my house, i start running. I run past some guys. They are just lying beside the road, doing nothing. It's like i hear their thoughts. They think: "Hey, there's she is again. I've seen her walk away some time ago."
When at my house i take something out of the house and walk directly into my backyard...the huge greenhouse (glass walls and roof...flowers and plants everywhere). I open the thing i took (don't know what i took) and inside i find a large wooden box. I open the box (it's almost as large as a normal backyard but i can hold it in my hands). In it there are, mostly, spring-flowers, just starting blooming. I'm happy to have found this. I remember that i had bought the plants when they were very little and seeing them in bloom now i find it time to give them a place in the greenhouse. I find it a little stupid of myself that i had totally forgotten about this.
So i'm giving the flowers a place in a greenhouse, watching carefully if they match with the plants already standing there. From a little distance i watch a little, young family. They are cleaning up a spot...branches of a christmastree...dry branches without the needles. I think that it must have been their christmastree from last year. Then i get back to giving my flowers a new place.

Why i was in that nearby town?

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

Mask,
Houses represent the dreamer in some form or aspect. A different house that belongs to you would represent some other aspect of yourself, possibly one you are unaware of or have ignored. Since dreams are about the emotions this other house may have to do with insecurities {after some time i'm getting insecure} you are feeling in some aspect of your life. It may also be addressing a new phase that is ready, or needs to be recognized, something that is blooming. You may not have been giving enough attention to this aspect, There is the potential but is there enough effort? Better care may be needed so that you do not fall back to old ways thus preventing this new aspect from growing as it should.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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

Thank you Jerry,

i think all the possible meanings you wrote have something to do with it. The insecurities, something in need to be recognized and the taking better care.

Funny, last night there's was a dream with again a house in it. A good friend of mine told me she, her husband, and little girl were going to move to another house, in another state. Now they were going to take a look at/in the house and i was going with them, curious. At first we drove on a highway, which we left after some time, to follow a small countryroad...this road was sandy/not paved. We finally found the house, but that sandy road wasn't an easy one...had a very sharp turn somewhere.
Then we were standing in front of the house. I looked at it. The first floor had 3 windows; the windows took my attention. Then we went inside. We saw that the kitchen needed some renovation. Besides the kitchen it was the bathroom which attracted my attention also. As my friend opened the bathroom door i was wondered with the large space the bathroom was. The floor was made of beautiful authentic old tiles...coloured yellow and blue. There was a 2-personbath and even 2 showers. One of the showers could be lifted and i thought that was nice, because when there would be guests this particular shower could be taken to the guestroom.
After some time i went home, leaving my friends behind in the house. I felt kind of sad. It felt like i wouldn't probably see them so much anymore, because they were living in another state now.

I see this house as my real self, because male/female/(inner)child are living in it. The three windows might refer to the visible 2 eyes and the invisible third eye/intuition. That the house might need some renovation could mean that i need to balance my inside with the outside world; to take my place in this world...my authentic me.
The other state they were going to live in, might even be taken literaly...another state of consciousness...or: living more by intuition. Being sad about this, i think means that i think i'm going to loose myself...let go of some things.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

Mask,
A friend in a dream often represents another aspect of yourself, an aspect that has been rejected/ignored and is now ready for re-integration into your life. That would fit with the 'other house' in your dream, the other aspect of yourself. The fact you needed to leave the main highway and take a country road may say something that provides clues to this other you. The road is not paved but of sand. That may suggest a path never taken, a new direction, and the sand may represent a 'shift' in direction. Sand can be hard to maneuver in so this 'house' {you} may have trouble maneuvering this path.

Are you married and have a little girl? If so this part of the dream is merely stating a natural desire to include your immediate family. If not they, the husband and child would be metaphors for different aspects of yourself. The male would be masculine and the child would be related to your own childhood. The dream could be addressing both, your true family and these metaphorical references. The change {moving to a new house} may involve psychological tendencies related to childhood. This could be addressing personality issues.

Windows often represent visual openings that let us see unconscious aspects about ourselves {as in dreams}. And going inside is to look without the psyche, addressing those aspects. Three is often symbolic of the mind/body/soul. There needs to be a balance of the three to find true harmony in life.

The different rooms could represent the different aspects of personality/traits/self of the dreamer. Renovations would be what the dreamer is needing/considering in their life. This may involve decisions to be made in your life.

Of the different rooms in the dream it is the bathroom floor {bathrooms are were we 'let out' those rejected aspects} that may be most significant. It is made of 'authentic' old tiles. This would probably suggest the dream is pointing to that authentic self. The old tiles could be addressing personality which is formed from your beginning, childhood. Since the bathroom is very large in the dream it may be saying something about what needs to be 'purged' from your unconscious.

Note: Dreams often address personality traits/issues. These aspects are usually formed in early childhood and looking back to that period of time will provide insights to who you are and why you are that person.

The bathroom would be important because of the showers. Showers cleanse the psyche. A portable shower could cleanse all the different aspects of the self {'guests', or unknown aspects that have yet to be consciously recognized}.

Going back home probably suggests this new house {you} has yet to be realized. It would represent another 'state' of being.

At the age of 36 you are just beginning to enter that twi-light zone often known as mid-life. It is at this stage of life we begin to search for 'meaning'*** in life, seeking out that authentic self which is usually found in a spiritual and or creative identity. Are you on such a search {a rhetorical question of sorts since you are at the Dream Forum posting your dreams}. What new aspects of yourself do you visualize but have yet to realize {leaving my friends behind in the house}? This seems to be the key question posed in the dreamed.

Of course there is another possibility to the dream, one which I see as having a lesser role. The dream could be addressing actual recent experiences having to do with family and friends. But the primary focus of the dream would be the 'inner life', using the waking life experiences as references to the inner self.
Such is the way of dreams.

***The Meaning of Life
Joseph Campbell tells us there is no real meaning of life. We are humans with a biological makeup living in a world of other living things. Meaning is to be 'found' in the individual life. The true meaning in a life is usually associated with creativity, doing that thing in life that you truly love most, following your 'bliss'.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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

And thanks again, Jerry..

Most of the things you wrote make sense to me. It all has to do with my inner life. As for the mid-life..i must have been in it for at least 6 years..
I've had some sort of, what you could call, awakening years ago. I got to know a whole other part of me...a creative part (with words and dreams). Back then i suddenly felt like i'd found what i had been missing and still believe that if i could integrate that creative part in my current life my life would be/feel much easier and happier.

The last few days i started to do practices out of two different books. One is about getting your creativity back and the other about how to use dreaming in both sleeping and waking life. Funny enough in both first chapters i had to start looking for what it is that holds me back from doing the things i like...what thoughts come to mind when i have a certain idea. And then to find out where in my life these thoughts have their start (mostly of what other people once/more often told me in particular situations). So, i think this is why the dreams with these houses show up again.
About five years ago, when all the dreaming started, i had a hard time in finding out what the dreams were relating to. Back then i first had to find out how my life had been till then. Right now the dreaming seems to be just in flow/in sync with what i'm doing/reading/writing during the day. That's nice!

One thing is true: i'm really in fear of what is going to happen when i succeed in 'moving into that new house'. I know that i'm the only one who's holding myself back, letting those thoughts from long ago weigh that much on me.

Maybe it's not even about what i want in life right now, but even more about getting back in the 'state' i got in back then when the dreaming started. I'm certain of it that back then i got to know my authentic self. I experienced how energetic i could be, how easy things could go and feel, how quite it can be in my head...i referred to it as having entered a story...my own story. So, please...let me enter it again..

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 36 netherlands

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, long, long ago

Mask,
Discovering the creative aspect and living it is what Joseph Campbell termed 'following your bliss'. Campbell states we have two chances in life to do so. First is in our teens/early adult years. The second chance comes at mid-life. To know of the creative aspect and not to follow it is what he called 'the refusal of the call'. Few even realize their calling and fewer still answer it.

But perhaps in these times it is hardest to follow the call because of social duty {slaying the social DRAGON}. I have stated my own circumstances many times, the inability to 'follow my bliss', working with dreams and my website {Myths-Dreams-Symbols} because of my social obligations of having a small business to run {full time}. Having to make a living in the 21st century is more demanding in times past. In my case I am looking toward 2012 when I will turn 62 and early retirement. For others there are other social obligations, many of which are emotionally influenced. I believe getting past those emotional barriers is the hardest thing to do {something I have been able to accomplish in the 16+ years of following the 'hero path'}. My remedy for the emotional aspects was Jung's Individuation Process, the self examination of one's psyche, a self psychology {which is the essence of the hero journey}. The good news about consciously being aware of the journey and living by its codes is there are always those 'helping hands' to guide you through the maze of social duty and the emotional barriers.

"The achievement of the hero is one that he is ready for and it's really a manifestation of his character. It's amusing the way in which the landscape and conditions of the environment match the readiness of the hero. The adventure that he is ready for is"....Joseph Campbell

As for your adventure. What are the barriers that keep you from that 'blissful' state? If you have discovered your creative Self then the primary goal is to overcome those barriers. Examining the life and 'seeing' what is holding you back is a part of the journey. It is first psychological. Once that is done the task is to overcome those barriers, slay those dragons and demons and move to a higher existence of being.

Campbell
“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

That are many fearful aspects that must be left behind to finally achieve the ultimate goal. I believe the most important, and this goes to the every day life experiences, is to follow the spiritual path. Not just a religious life but a truly spiritual life that includes living in accord with nature.

Campbell
“Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat, Chit, Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked."

It is in the gnosis that the rapture is achieved. Gnosis is a 'secret' knowledge of the inner self. But the core understanding is the acceptance that the inner life is as important as the outer life of the ego. It isn't really a secret. It is a discipline where the inner life is promoted to a higher acceptance and the ego is subjugated to the spiritual Self. This is what the death and resurrection is all about {The primary myth being Jesus on the cross}. You have to die to the ego dominance and be reborn to the spiritual.

Living a spiritual life does not mean one has to become overly religious. In fact religion often gets in the way of true spirituality because our patriarchal system of religious beliefs denies many of the required aspects of being spiritual. Most important is the feminine aspects {Jesus lived from the feminine, God the masculine}. It is a matter of vision, seeing beyond the ego condition and accepting the inner Self as the true guide in life.

The question becomes Mask, what are the barriers that keep you from your bliss and what can you do to remove them? Again, this is the essence of the 'hero journey'. First is the discovery of ones bliss and accepting this as the soul's intent, and second working toward those goals of achieving that bliss. Slaying a mythical dragon is metaphor for overcoming those barriers {most often being from social duty}.

Campbell
“You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or a path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential."

The goal is stay the course, enter the dark forest and not be afraid. Overcoming the fears can be most daunting. But when you are in that blissful state of being, you are doing the soul's work, a spiritual endeavor of giving of oneself to a higher cause. The Muse is the guiding spirit, the creative Self giving of oneself to that higher calling.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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