hi all,this dream i had last night which does not need much interpretation,is an example of a mythological dream motif,i am taken out to sea by the tide i am afraid and it is dark,i am aware of sharks swimming around under the dark water,i do not know wh
ere the beach is,the tide turns and takes me back towards the beach where i am washed up into the shallows,the water is crystal clear and mullet type fish are feeding where my footsteps have disturbed the sand under the water,i walk back to my house to find it filled with people sat waiting ,i am furious at them,although i feel i have only been away for the weekend ,i realise i have been away for so long that i am presumed dead and my wife may even have got re-married,in my hand ,a have a gold key which has on it the inscription 20/10,i found out that this means perfect vision,or at least better than average.
this whole dream was the story of odysseus,all i had to do was re-read the myth .what i understood was that life is not about finding the magic dust of enlightenment and dissapearing into nothingness in a puff of logic ,that would be a loss of personality, participation in life!,myths and some dreams put you in touch with this,as the great sage dorothy in the wizard of oz found out,theres no place like home!!
.regards steve

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Steve,
Thanks for sharing the dream. And also identifing the mythological motif it represents in your personal life. It is not always clear, and less so for those who do not understand myth, the significance of mythological motifs in identifying patterns in an individual. When one reads a story, a fairly tale, a myth, they are reading about patterns of human behavor and emotions. If we all would identify with a particular myth, the underlying causes of individual behavor would be recognized and could be dealth with properly. Jung did this with his patients. When a patient tended to drift away to other things in his/her life Jung would always instruct them to' get back to your dream'. Understanding dreams and how to interpret them is the best route to the unconscious mind. Of course the dream is one part of self examination, Jung's 'Individuation Process'. A lot cheaper than hiring a psychologist to do the work for you, if you are capable of doing it yourself.
Thanks, again,
Gerard

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hi jerry,first of all i think i need to say that on further investigation as to the meaning of this dream,i feel my first conclusions were somewhat premature,i was led by somesort of unconscious compulsion to investigate further,although the odysseus myth seems to be floating around in the dream imagery,i realised it had more in common with the dead zone,which i am sure you know,he spent 6 years in a coma and woke up to find that his intended wife and friends had all started new lives for them selves and he was given a gift of precognition,although he thought he had only been away for a short while,this is the story that is being played out in my dream, the key that i get with 20/10 on it (better vision)is a pun i think for better vision is the key.
i feel that there is still an element of the odyssey in this dream ,but mainly the return motif as in the stages of the heroes journey,i remember a picture out of hero with a thousand faces,of jason being regurgitated back on to a beach by a giant serpent after one of his adventures.i suppose odysseus had a similar journey which could easily have been sybolised by being swallowed by a snake.and that perhaps the imagery/symbology of descending into a coma,where time doesnt exist and returning with a gift runs parallel with some of these myths.i would be interested in your thoughts.regards steve

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Steve,
I haven't compared your story with the mythological patterns you mentioned. To compare your life's story to any pattern would require detailed information about your life. Since you have studied the myths extensively and know the possible relationship to the motifs in your dreams, you are best to ascertain which myth{s} fits your life. In general the hero myth has it basic patterns {as prescribed by Campbell} and although it is difficult at times to really understand where one may be in his/her journey, the individual path should always be the focal point. I tend to believe when comparing myths to an individual life it is the emotions that are being addressed. Archetypal images represent the emotions of the dreamer and the mythological images are the patterns that best fit the universal model of patterns. When you find a situation of a young girl is abducted by temptation you can quickly look to Persephone as the archetypal pattern. But the individual life rarely parallels exactly to a certain myth. As in evolution, there are the variations, and the variations of the variations. The various species derived from the original form. Just as in nature, where animals are predisposed to a certain pattern, it is the environment in which animals {including the human animal species} live that determines in what direction the species will eventually evolve.
Gerard

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