jerry, ,i took your advice and looked for something lurking in the shaddows,i am not an aggressive person,perhaps i need to be a bit more assertive,i am not quite sure.this latest dream has somewhat disturbed me,as i wonder if i have made some sort of grave error in my judgement as to what actually constitutes male and female inner energies.i would appreciate your thoughts ,as i would like to put an end to this horrible symbology that is showing itself.
male lions are roaming around attacking people,they start to break through the door to my house,their paws with ferocious looking claws are totally trashing the door,i get an axe from a closet,and i say ,when i say go,open the door and let them in,the door is opened and i strike with the axe,to my horror its not lions at all, but two women,one older lady and one younger, who drops to the floor dead.i am appalled at what has happened and i feel that i will end up in prison ,.the females are unknown to me.
i have no idea as to what error it is talking about,
the only thing that came to mind was ,i was watching charmed with my kids and in this particular episode,one of the three sister was made to look like a demon with a spell and the others attacked her and nearly killed her,not knowing that it was one of there own.if this dream has come out of that,then i will be taking steps to limit my exposure to tv,but i am sure there is a deeper reason than that.regards steve.

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jerry,just as a foot note,in my crisis at the crossroad post,you said something about ,running over my mistakes, might expose the obstacle,well i feel this could be the mistake in all its glory.steve

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Thanks for your post Steve - it always takes me some time to digest and reflect on my dreams ,,, as I learn about myself + what dreams are saying. At the same time I am learning about the symbolism (symbology ?) of dreams and how they can represent the parts of our (humans) psychic make up.
Could this be saying that what you thought was a 'lion' (strong masculinne force) and were preparing to fight, has feminine characteristics that you don't need to 'axe',,,, if you take that path you will destroy somethng of the feminine ??
Really just wanted to say thanks for the post

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Some of the images arising in our dreams are truley terrifying (if taken literally). I took me a while to figure out that the more horrific the image, the more the dream is trying to attract our attention. What we don't get the first time, comes around again with more energy. Could the lion experieince be a repeat of the werewolf/bear dream you posted earlier, but with more energy? In both cases you seemed to react with a power struggle - survival of the fitest. The first you use your natural abilities (roaring), the second you use something man-made (axe). I too have had these types of dreams and it took me a while to figure out what in me could be natural as opposed to man-made. For me the only thing that clicked was my own "drive". One was my natural instinctual drive and the other was a drive I (ego) created. Isn't this one of the tasks of mid-life? Letting go of the man-made drives (eg. materialism). You seemed to have a good grip on the axe as a form of protecting your dream ego! I think it was Robert Johnson that had a good example of the encounter with his lion. I just can't think of which one of his books it was in. Anyway, just a thought.

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thanks for your thoughts steve and justin,the more i think about this dream,the more it reminds me of,the ghost and the darkness movie,which in turn keeps bringing me back to something jerry said in reply to my crisis at the crossroads post,namely,he felt it was something to do with my personal life yet to be confronted and i need to look for what maybe lurking in the shaddows,i have done this ,he also felt its maybe about an error cover up that needs to be run over,i think this is what it is about,this dream has shown me a grave error of judgement to do with character or intention something like that.i have been honest with my self as i need closure on this,it would be easy if it was a somebody whom i have misjudged,but something tells me its a bit deeper,we all make mistakes, and i know dreams can over emphasize emotional content,but its for a reason.if i just say the words of this dream its quite revealing,i have or am in danger of killing off a part of myself that i sense as masculine(aggressive),when in fact it is the feminine(passive),the sad thing i feel about this dream is that whatever the female/lion represents it wants to come in,i have accepted the inner femminine(anima) as real entity and based on my abyss dream/post i felt that this part of my self was being given serious attention.ref ,recovering anima
with regards to a power struggle,ie the werewolf/bear dream,i am aware of some myths and shamanic traditions where to be torn to shreds by an animal is ok and symbolic of death /rebirth,in this day and age would it be cosy for ones mental health,perhaps thats the power struggle,
maybe my journey requires this kind of radical change,and i am (through chattering teeth)brave enough to say bring it on.
regards steve

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Let's look at this dream. Male lions may be the devouring masculine aspect attacking the other aspects that make up your total psyche. Unconsciouly you defend yourself from these attacks from the masculine but what you need to do is to acknowlege consciously {opne the door and let them in}. This is how you can 'cut' them open and see your true self. But there is a fear by doing so you will kill the best part of you, your feminine aspects.You feel imprisoned by the 'situation' more so than anything else.

About Charmed the TV show
Isn't it interesting how a TV show can present metaphors about ourselves. Whether this really applies to you is not clear. The show Charmed, as well as other shows and movies that knowingly use metaphor, touch the deeper unconscious mind that often escapes the conscious mind. We inherently uderstand the message but consciously only identify with it because of the unconscious recognition. Star Wars was such a movie. Even in the youngest children there was a recognition of the dark forces verses the good. Why? Because they represent the collective recognition within all of us of the battle within. This is what myth does.

As for your 'situation'. You may be mistaking the war of masculine vs feminine as a collective war when it should be looked at as a single aspect in your life. In other words there may have been experiences in your past where males {perhaps even yourself] treated females unfairly. Whereas you are on one hand trying to 'Individuate' {for thoise unfamilair with the term, see Defintions on the left of the page} your whole life, there remians that one thing you have not openned up to. It may be something traumatic, or may be merely an experience that left a profound impression on you. Not all dreams are life altering, in fact few are. Collectively they give meaning and are alreing, when you recognize what is hidden and begin to change what needs to be changed.

Continue to examine your life {I've been doing it for 13 years now and still learn new things about myself} and see what may lye hidden underneath. But continue your hero quest with the knowldege that you will find the 'Holy Grail', merely because you are consciously living the path. To put it in spiritual terms, if you live as Christ would have you live your life, try with all your heart to achieve Buddha consciousness, you are right where you should be and the helping hands will always be there to help you.
Gerard

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the only instance in my life regarding treating a female badly,was before i was married,it still haunts me to this day,i met and fell in love with a female named caroline,we were both 18/19 at the time,i shared a flat with two friends,one night she contacted me to say she had missed her last bus,i immediatley offered for her to stay with me,my intentions were strictly honourable,she useing my bed,me on the couch,my two friends arived home and made life miserable for the pair of us that evening,resulting in caroline leaving,nothing happened apart from continual male sexually orientated taunts.i was angry to say the least,but caroline was my first priority,i caught up with her and appologised for there behaviour,we were both in need of somwhere to stay now,as no way would i have left her alone,we ended up sleeping in a hay stack that evening,again nothing took place, as i have always been a man of honour.
the following day was a nightmare,i was kicked out of the flat,and for some unknown stupid reason,i totally ignored caroline,i know now that all i had to do was explain,but i didnt,and i lost her,i have never been able to forgive myself for this even though i have been married to someone else for 25 years.i feel i have addressed most of my past sins,but this one i cannot put right,i have tried many times to find her,just to say sorry,and move on,but i was informed she was killed in an accident many years ago,maybe this is the problem! online confession for all the world to see.regards steve

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That could be what is still lurking in the dark, she could be that feminine aspect in your dream. I never properly apologized to my second wife {my only son's mother} for the many mistakes I made in our relationship. I still have moments of emotions when I think of her and the missed opportunities. Such things of the heart linger long.

Gerard

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Steve,

Obviously your dream/dreams have served as a catalyst to bring unresolved issues to the surface - and I'm impressed with the level of honesty and openness you have displayed - all the while coming to a clearer understanding of the dream's message and purpose.

In order to truly follow your bliss and find the path that leads higher still - you'll want to travel light. There are just some things we were never designed to carry. The inability to forgive ourselves for wrongdoing is just as damaging to our psyche as harboring unforgiveness toward those who have wronged us. I'm convinced that both scenarios hold us hostage emotionally. It may be that the time has come for the unforgiveness (of yourself)to die.

Just some thoughts to ponder...

Deedee

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deedee,thank you for your words,i believe too,that dreams help to bring unresolved issues to the fore,it maybe that this escapade from my life ,is not the issue at all,it is not something i have repressed ever,but i suppose it is an open wound.i incubated a dream last night,hoping for further clarification,i dreamt,i was in an old mansion house,upstairs,i was feeling and hugging the walls to get a sense of its history and heart,a bit like psychics do in haunted houses,i felt the house had a good heart and history,when suddenly a door slams shut by its self,i open it ,walk into another room and relate this to a female there,and i point to the open door and it slams shut again,i become aware of an invisible entity in the house that means no harm, but just wants to let me know of its presence.
it would be easy to think that some psychic energy is demanding to be taken seriously,but i think its more to do with my latest series of dreams,that negative, repressed,memories can become a stumbling block to progress,poltergeist activity and door slamming , has often been associated with angry teenagers and attention seeking,and this dream activity is a metaphor for the same,in as much that ,negative inner energies(repressed,unresolved issues) seek recognition,and if this is not done,they will get louder and noisier until they are heard.
this is all new to me, and will take some time to assimilate,i can only hope that in time, i will become a better contributor to the understanding of dreams and their interpretation .regards steve.

all the old things are returning,
inner cycles ever churning,
heres the truth,
we are searching for,
life is our saviour,

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Wow Steve what an experience you have encountered.
Who opened the door in your first posting? Notice how in the latest dream the door is shutting.

I saw a video this week called "A Matter of Heart" about Jung and the early Jungians. One of them, Marie Louise von Franz said "only by doing inner work can we shut the doors in our psyche so to protect it from invasion by the Collective Devil, not to be confused by the Personal Devil" The example of the Collective Devil she used were the Nazi's in WW2. So I hope you keep an open mind about what "shutting the door" means. A truely heroic part of your journey. Stephen G.

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stephen G,what a really different way to look at it,i get a bit confused with all this masculine,feminine talk sometimes,i forgot to look at who was opening the door,thanks for bringing it up,puts a slightly different perspective on things,the figure in the lion dream was a spirit,an entity,which was also in the mansion dream,how could i have missed that!
this entity/spirit was letting me know it was there,and maybe its about finding the true identity behind what the lion represents,when you kill a werewolf it turns back to its human form.when i killed the female, i was in no doubt as to it being a man eating lion,from a warning dream point of view ,i don't personally know any females who would fall into the catagory of man eater, so i ruled that out ,.
there was definatley a reference to the movie, ghost and the darkness,i think i will have to watch it and see if anything clicks.
with reference to the door shutting in the second dream,it was the same spirit/entity,so these dreams are connected,i think if i remember correctly,i did say that i had incubated a dream for further
clarification,
its time i woke up.thanks for the kick in the pants.
regards steve.

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Steve, which one is the mansion dream?
I have discovered that interpreting your own dreams is one of the hardest things to do, especially if you are one-sided with a particular function ie, feeling, thinking, sensation or intuition. That's what is so great about this forum. You get to achieve 'circumambulation' by having people with different points of view to contribute their take on the dream. Sounds like you have made a connection and that is the only way I know if my contribution was of any help to you. Play with your dream (childlike naivete) and see what arises. Stephen G

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hi Stephen,the mansion dream is mentioned in the next reply to Deedees on this post,it came in response i believe, to my asking for further clarification,and you are absolutely right,i find it easier to read other peoples dreams than my own,and input from fellow hikers of the dream world, can be a great help in digging out the bugs and grubs of our inner outback,just a little poetic license to make you feel at home.regards Steve.

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