I am driving a car while also applying makeup (eye shadow/color) to my eyes using the rear view mirror. There is another woman with me. She is (maybe) instructing me on which color to select/use. Her own make-up is already applied. It looks very nice, easy, natural, has a gentle, complimentary effect. As I glance in my make-up bag (in my purse, in my lap), I am aware of feeling it not safe to continue to apply the makeup while driving. Next, we are in a Rest Area, of the sort located along the Interstate Highways. I have the sense that I am in the outer lounge/rest area that is part of the woman’s large restroom. I am standing at a mirror, applying my makeup when a man comes along, who feels to be some sort of “attendant.“ He is approximately my own age, maybe some bit older. I do not have the sense of him being the rest area maintenance man, but of some more esteemed position. In fact, the whole rest area has a refined (perhaps even elevated) feel to it, not at all like even some of the cleanest, most modern rest stops I have visited in my travels. There is something very substantial about this rest area…something feels very important for me here, very healing. I do not recall the specific interaction with the man. He is helpful in some way. When he appeared, I was throwing some things away into the trash can that was adjacent to me as I stood applying my makeup. He seemed to somehow help with this throwing away of things. Later, I dream I am in a clinic of some sort, meeting with a male doctor or technician. I then go to a pharmacy counter, waiting on a prescription. The pharmacist there (also a man) is not aware of a script for me. I explain that I was just seen in the clinic and a prescription was ordered. A call is made and the man who saw me in the clinic comes down and gives me the prescriptions: a bottle of some sort of pills; and then three little cups of red liquid. He tells me to use the little cups for any significant pain. He then helps me or escorts me out of the building as I depart for home.

Kristi

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I feel I should have indicated when sharing the above dream that I HAVE QUIT SMOKING (finally)!

I had the below dream two days ago. The above dream follows this one.

Dream: I am with Myra. We are near what is like a check-out counter in a specialty shop which is also a front for drug sales. Myra has come for drugs as she is having a withdrawal craving. There are several others here who have also come for drugs. A small duffel bag of dark color is handed to Myra. She stands off to the side, searching through the duffel, selecting or finding the item she wants. I do my best to shield or cover Myra from the view of a store camera while she digs through the bag. Later in the night, I dream: I am asleep in bed, as with my former spouse (Landon or Bill, I am not sure) when I wake and go out of doors. It is early morning. The sun is rising. I feel/know, “it is not too late,” as I set off to search for…///End of Dream.

It is only a short time that I have been smoke free, a bit more than one week. In this time, I have begun to realize how much I used cigarettes (since 13 years old) to medicate myself...how much of an addiction it was for me. I have shed a lot of healing tears - and continue to, feeling finally able to release so many tensions and concerns, finally feeling the love present here inside to "be with" all of this. Yet, moments of craving a cigarette have been strong. I think the biggest piece of the physiological withdrawal is over, and that what mostly remains is the psychological. Smoking was like an unconditionally accepting old friend that (when no one else was there to go to) always only soothed me. This is true for me, despite the fact that it also created bad health - and other undesirable things (ya know, a burn hole here or there, smelly home and clothes, etc.). It was the drug I escaped to.

While the Myra dream clearly speaks of the me who craved cigarettes, I feel the Rest Stop Healing dream also speaks to my quitting cigarettes.

It feels to speak to letting go of much of the old as I revision myself, so to speak ... begin to apply/wear a new face. The masculine elements feel to be lending strength - that their strength is the drug I need to make it through the tough spots of all this emotional healing.

Kristi

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Kristi,
Assuming the dream is addressing the smoking issue.
Could the makeup for the eyes using the rear view mirror be a reflection of that better part of you that you wish to see? If the dream is focusing on your cigarette smoking then perhaps the opening of the dream {setting the stage for the dream plot} is using this reflection to better yourself {in your own eyes}. The other woman of course would be you, the wiser self instructing you on what to do. This is the person you want/need to be {makeup already applied}. It compliments the already growing personal growth attitude you have chosen in life {dreams as one aspect of personal growth}. The identity you wish to possess is in your own lap and most valuable {purse}. There is natural anxiety in this chosen growth aspect of quit smoking {not safe while driving}. It is a major change in your life {interstate highway}, something that requires purging on the outside {restroom}. In this reflective mode {standing at mirror} there is a realization of the need for the masculine {discipline, strength} as the attendant in your efforts to stop smoking. The esteemed positions would reflect that position of no longer smoking {a lesser quality than someone who does not possess the 'bad' habit}. The refined restroom would also be a reflection of your 'clean' self, that person who no longer smokes. This is the true person you wish/need to be {very healing/important}. The helping animus is very important in this desire for personal growth. It is needed to kelp 'cast out' the bad habit.

The 'later' aspect of the dream is dealing primarily with the animus function. It may be hard to accept this masculine aspect since the feminine has been the primary focus in your personal growth. You are quite aware of the function of the masculine but you are now in the position of needing this important quality {discipline, straight, perseverance}. The prescription may be alluding to an actual prescription in helping to quite but the primary prescription is centered in these masculine qualities. This prescription of masculine qualities is to help complete the process to stop smoking {Jung says three may signify that something is nearly but not quite complete}. It is the masculine qualities that will ultimately help you stop smoking {he ten helps me}.
This interpretation is based on the assumption the dream is addressing the smoking issue. It would fit with your true waking life experience. Since there is no mention of smoking {which is not unusual} the dream could also be addressing other aspects that need healing, and would require an infusion of the animus qualities already mentioned. Your response will help fill in the blanks of that I may have left out.

Jerry

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Kristi,
About your second post.

First it would be important to identify the connection with Myra. I'm guessing the drug of choice in the dream is the cigarettes {a very powerful drug we now know}. The search of the duffel bag {a large cylindrical bag} may represent the circular aspect of wholeness, the bag representing where you keep those inner aspects. Those qualities that best fit Myra may be qualities you need to shield yourself from.

The later dream may still be addressing the smoking issue. Did Landon or Bill smoke? You have done away with those relationships, and the qualities {of smoking?} they represent. Early morning may represent the rising of a new day without smoking. It is not too late to stop smoking, a new day where the rising sun holds great promise.

Jerry

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Jerry,

I will come back to respond to the other portions soon, just commenting briefly on Myra right now. I did not see the drug as cigarettes in this dream, but as some substance in a small tight plastic package, less than the size of a cigarette pack. Myra, suprisingly, is someone who does not smoke and one would never imagine that she does. She is a co-worker. She is kind, appropriate, helfpul, not meddlesome. I could even say 'clean.' Innocent, in a sense. One just does not find faulty areas to pick at. She is a person I would tend to "go easy" on, be understading of. So, I wondered if in the midst of the very strong cravings I was having, the dream was encouraging I be compassionate with myself. But, also, must consider the fact that Myra gives the impression of being a shadowless person - and how I was covering her view from the store camera. For some years now, I have felt to be hiding my cigarette habit from most of the world. Society has forced smokers into a certain amount of isolation and certainly sends the message "we don't like smokers," "smoking is bad." I think this, coupled with my own now long time desire to quit smoking, made it such that I somehow felt like two persons, the one who smoked and the one who did not. I do not have friends that smoke and have not had for some long time now, nor do I frequent any locations where folks smoke. The dream may be showing this in the Myra me who would never smoke and the me hiding the habit from camera's view. But this is not something I was unconscious of. In fact, I shared this position with co-workers on the day this dream later came.

As for my former spouses, yes, they both smoke(d). Yes, great promise in the rising sun of a new day.

Kristi

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Jerry,

You wrote: The search of the duffel bag {a large cylindrical bag} may represent the circular aspect of wholeness, the bag representing where you keep those inner aspects.

When I read this (not sure if it was part of your thoughts as well), I thought of how I traded the peace and love of the true inner aspects for the peace afforded me from the chemicals contained in cigarettes. Yes, a very powerful drug, I now know. I did not know (really know) that I had a drug addiction. I think smokers (and others) downplay how serious and powerful a drug cigarettes are. Since quitting, what I am finding is the part of me that is infinitely more powerful and more full of sustenance and love and strength and (of course) more enduring than the drug/cigarette.

Kristi ... who will never again smoke a cigarette.

I could not have given myself a finer Christmas gift than quitting smoking.

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Jerry,

You wrote: Could the makeup for the eyes using the rear view mirror be a reflection of that better part of you that you wish to see?

Yes, I feel this is exactly right. The application of makeup is the re-visioning of myself, something that has been underway for some time. She is who I am working to become/be.

I think you did very well interpreting this. I surely had the general gist of it, as stated above, but some of the words you shared in your interpretation were very helpful, were things I was not seeing, such as: The identity you wish to possess is in your own lap and most valuable {purse}. Thank you.

The dream is definitely addressing the quitting smoking, a time which feels some as a stop (Rest Stop) along my way. It feels as a stop because I was all geared up and ready to move forward with my writing, etc., until it became clear to me that I needed to STOP smoking, now, first. There is great (huge) healing in this for me … so much to be gained before I continue on with my writing.

You wrote: It may be hard to accept this masculine aspect since the feminine has been the primary focus in your personal growth. You are quite aware of the function of the masculine but you are now in the position of needing this important quality {discipline, straight, perseverance}. The prescription may be alluding to an actual prescription in helping to quite but the primary prescription is centered in these masculine qualities.

This is so true, Jerry. The masculine has been reaching to me now, for some time, but I have had a hard time accepting it, wanted only to focus mostly on the feminine. Yet, all things in their own time, as there had still been more that required healing/letting go within me regarding my past experiences with men. I do think the primary prescription required here is the masculine qualities of strength, discipline and perseverance. And it is wonderful to now allow myself to “feel” what the positive masculine gives/provides for me. I can feel my dream characters inside of me in a way now that I could not before, as a part of me now…including even the man who hands me the three little cups of red liquid. I am going to go with the meaning of “three” you shared, as I have no other idea what it may mean. I only felt sure that this inner persona was making himself known to me to give me the needed strength to make it through some tough cravings…which were especially strong the day after this dream came. His energy had the feeling sense of telling me, “You will be just fine. You will make it. You can do it.”

Kristi

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Hi Mask,

No, I would not be disappointed to find out that Myra was also in need of something in actual life. Not many suprises are there in life, for me, any longer. Despite what I said of her, I do "know" that we all have a shadow. One just does not see Myra's much. I think this piece may be speaking to the fact that I was still coming to terms with the fact that I have an "addiction" ... that this is what I was hiding innocent Myra me from. I think perhaps it was showing, as already said, that cigarettes are a powerful drug. It did not just show the getting of cigarettes, could have bought those at any store, at the counter ... instead this store was a "front" for drug sales. The "front" may also speak to the dual role I was holding, pretending to most of the world I did not smoke, when really I was very much addicted to cigarettes.

I had smiliar thoughts regarding the red liquid ... the trinity, love, passion, sacrifice. That is what is happening here, a part of me must die, in a sense, so that the new me may be born.

Kristi

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Mask wrote: is it about what you were hiding by smoking.

I needed to come back to this comment from Mask, because there is truth in it and I don't want to avoid avoid it.

My sharing in the thread may have already alluded to it, but I just wanted to state clearly that I was hiding a lot by smoking, a whole lot of emotions. Smoking became a major coping mechanism for me at a young age. It started at the time of some of the most painful things in my life, as a child, and just continued on such that I learned to cope with all of daily life events through the use of cigarettes.

I will not do that any longer.

If there was a Nicotine Anonymous Group in my area, I would be there among them, now.

Kristi

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