In front room of unfamiliar house...Big storm Outside
I look at the front entrance and notice a small doggie door
A huge Great Dane bursts through the doggie door.
He momentarily disappears into the back of the house.
Runs back past me and through the hole in the now trashed door.
I hear howling out front and step outside on to the porch.
I see blue eyes glowing in the not to distant front yard under an old tree.
The great dane becomes visible and begins to howl at me.
I began to howl back. I am not sure if it is to him or at him...maybe both

My wife woke me up and says: "you were howling in your sleep"

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Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 54 USA TX

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

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gottagrip,
Houses in dreams are symbolic metaphors of the dreamer or aspects of the dreamer. The house is you. An unfamiliar house would represent an unfamiliar aspect about yourself, something that has been stored within your unconscious. The reason it is unfamiliar is either you have forgotten about it, it was an experience that was memorable but not so much so it was traumatic or you have repressed the experience{s}, you want to forget what happened.

Storms are emotional storms. Big ones of course would represent big emotional storms, in your life {your dreams are about you and your emotions}. Doors are barriers, often blocking contents of what is within the unconscious. A doggie door would be a small opening to those contents. Noticing this door was either because the past experience had enough psychic energy you could no longer contain it or something recently prompted these stored memories/experiences to be noticed. At the age of 54 you are near the end of the mid-life stage where the past becomes the focus in life, looking back and trying to understanding the meaning of it all.

Great Danes are large dogs but with a friendly nature. My sense your Great Dane is 'playing' with you, in and out the door. His sudden appearance, along with him going to the back of the house {back into the unconscious} and then back through the small door {hard to get something that big through a small door} might suggest these past experiences are wanting to be acknowledged but there is a resistance {repression?}. The now trashed door may suggest the barrier that was once there is now gone, perhaps a notice these unconscious things will become conscious whether you want them to or not.

The howling 'out front' {your conscious self} could be 'sounds' of wounded emotions now being 'heard'. The porch would be your ego personality. Besides representing your conscious ego it could also be a statement about these unconscious energies having an affect your personality, affecting who you are and how you act.

The blue eyes could be real eyes belonging to someone who is party to these emotions. And/or they could be symbolic of 'seeing' things with clarity {blue as in blue sky}. It is being seen in the 'front' yard, consciously seeing what has been a part of your past personal growth {old tree}. It is 'branching' out from the unconscious to consciousness, these aggressive emotions {howling dog} becoming visible. Howling back is acknowledging these unconscious contents. Not sure if it is to him or at him suggests confusion with the him being you.

What emotional experiences in your past you have kept hidden? The dream says nothing of what that might be, just there is something within your unconscious that is 'force-ably' trying to become conscious. Future dreams may point to what that is, which is likely sense these things can only remain unconscious for a period of time before they start to invade your dreams. Dreams are therapeutic in they try to help you resolve emotional conflicts. This issue will remain a part of your dreams until it is resolved.

Jerry

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Thanks Jerry,

let me digest that...pretty cool stuff.
Appreciate you taking the time.

I don't know if you read the quote, but in my first entry i forgot to add that I felt akin or possibly sympathetic for the dog...

I think part of your interpretation was that the dog may be me,,,thats very interesting too.

Thanks again

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OK,,,
Here goes,,,Emotional repression:

Biggest in life unfolded ages 4-16.

Substantial physical abuse from mother.
Very close to Dad, but he never acknowledged to issue. Never fixed things.
The dramatic side of me wants to describe it as "never coming to my rescue)
At 13(?) Mom started closing him off from me (I don't know how), he withdrew from me.

Physical abuse escalated until I left home at 16.
Right before I walked out, I asked Dad for help (first and only time). He responded with "your Mom was there before you and she will be here after you leave"

I'm fine, always have been. Still in regular contact with parents. It took 20 years to get there, so we have remained in a "here is what we are doing, and I love you stage, lasting for an additional 20 years or so. Never ever talked about any of it.

My father will take it to his grave and my mom, who is very emotional and easily angered, may want to make amends when the curtains close, but not in advance.

You think the dream is about that?

Not looking for a shrink...please, just comment on the dream sir.

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gottagrip,
Thanks for the response. No, I am not a shrink. I only do dream analysis and interpretation using Jungian psyche. If you should ever decide to see a psychologist try to find one who uses dreams in their analysis. That most likely be a Jungian psychologist.

As for whether the abuse from your mother is what the dream is about. Most definitely. The big storm is an emotion storm brewing within your unconscious. Consciously you may have been able to repress the emotions but unconsciously it is still very much a part of your psyche. Most likely it has affected you in ways you never realized. Early life abuse, physical and/or emotional have a great influence on later life, including personality. One only need look at the children abused by Catholic priests to see the damage these early life experiences will cause. The younger the psyche where there is abuse the worst the damage. The early years are the formative years and form the foundations of who and what we become in later life. It all catches up with the person eventually, with mid-life being the usual time the 'accumulative' emotional baggage begins to show itself.

Dreams can be a barometer of unconscious contents that need to be made conscious. Often the emotional conflicts are the subject matter in our dreams, before it becomes conscious. We may have known all along of the experiences but have pushed it deep into the unconscious so it will not hinder our conscious life. Dreams are a direct link to the unconscious and those emotional experiences that retain strong psychic energies are stored in the psyche, waiting to be exposed at some time in later life. Your conscious life has unknowingly been affected but now your unconscious howling is becoming a conscious experience {your wife waking you because you were howling in your sleep}. You can expect more of that unless the conflicts are resolved.

The dream was a short dream but exact to what its message was. At the age of 54 you are in the later years of the mid-life stage and it is only a matter of time before the full force of your past begins to show itself, first in your dreams and eventually in a more conscious attitude {if it has not already begun to do so}. That is besides any affect it has had through the years on your personality. If it gets really bad and you are unable to handle the emotional pressures {depression and beyond} it may be you will need to seek professional counseling. Only by confronting the issues will you be able to resolve the conflicts.

As for the dog. Yes, it is a part of you, symbolically. Dreams are often very precise and the dog used was a Great Dane. You may have waking life associations with this type dog but when you look at the breed it fits with distinct requirements of the dream message. The 'bigness' of the dog depicts the 'great' energy forces of your past experiences. But this breed dog is a gentle breed which may very well depict the gentle soul of a child and possible who you are as an adult. The sympathy you feel is toward that child you were {I know this from first hand experience, being in a similar situation and having the same feelings toward my 'lost childhood'}. Feelings from a dream are as important as the symbols.

I hope my analysis puts some perspective on what is happening and what to expect. As I stated in my analysis the dream did not point to the cause of the 'strong storm'. Future dreams will likely address those aspects and your mother will be in your dreams, as herself and possibly in the form of 'negative' symbolic images. So you will know what future dreams may depict, the howling may be a prelude to future night time actions.

Jerry

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wow, cool...i think you may be correct.
I am fine...I keep the emotional baggage right below my surface.
I never tried to repress my past, but few know of (that part) it.

Thank you for taking out your valuable time for me.
If I have another dream that is related (or that I can even remember), I will come back to your site.

gotta go,
Gottagrip

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gottagrip,
Be careful not to let it come up from beneath that surface. If it should threaten to do so then do seek professional advice. No matter how strong you are and or how good you are at keeping it beneath the surface, the fact that it is there is always a danger. It is much like an inactive volcano that has a history of erupting. You don't know when it could do so but there is always that possibility.

Jerry

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