Month: March 2021

Hello dreamers! I hope everyone is feeling energized by the spring weather. This week we will be analyzing a childhood dream from a family member of mine who, at the time of the dream, had just been told they were adopted. For the sake of this person’s anonymity, I will be using they/them pronouns in the description of their dream.

Onto the dream!

Trudging Up That Hill 

The child is five years old. They walk alone up the main road next to the deli in their town. Cars whiz past, the shiny colors blurring together as they enter and exit the child’s peripheral vision. The child has a backpack on, a small, square, red bag that is too loose for their shoulders. Their white sneakers pitter patter against the concrete of the seemingly endless ascending road. At the end of the road is their comfortable house, where they live with their parents.

As the child walks up the hill to get to their house, they begin to find it more and more difficult to walk. They trudge upward, moving their feet, which feel like lead, in long movements. The hill feels insurmountable, an impossible feat. The child feels tears stinging their eyes. They keep fighting their way upward, but they move only an inch with each step.

In the house at the top of the road, their mother cooks dinner while their father reads the newspaper. Stuck on this hill, the child sees them in their own head. Their stomach ties itself in knots. They keep walking upward, far away from their parents.

The Analysis 

This family member recounted their dream to me knowing that it had to do with their adoption. I will operate under this knowledge in my analysis.

The primary motif is a hill that is impossible to climb. Hills in literature and dreams can symbolize a struggle of some kind, as well as a journey from point A (perhaps an emotional state or relationship) to point B (a change in this emotional state or relationship, or a realization). The dreamer here is facing a devastating emotional challenge for someone so young—they have to cope with the fact that they are adopted when they do not have the tools to do so. This challenge manifests in the dream as a struggle uphill, a journey that never gets anywhere.

The most important part of this hill, however, is not the struggle of climbing it, but rather the fact that it acts as a barrier between the child and their parents. This dream tells a story of a child who feels utterly alienated from their parents. Their mother and father are inaccessible in the dream, much like how in the dreamer’s waking life the dreamer may have felt they were unable to access the connection they once had with them. As a young adoptee without the understanding that their relationship with their parents was a normal and healthy one even in the face of adoption, the dreamer felt lost and disconnected.

The idea of a child being stuck in one place also lends itself to the analysis of stunted development. The dreamer may have felt like they were unable to move forward in life with the knowledge of their adoption, so they remained stuck on that metaphorical, subconscious hill. The dreamer yearns for progression, but does not know how to move forward after being told what they’ve been told.

In conclusion, this dream brought up themes of struggle, disconnection from parents, and stunted development. Stay loose and dream lucid!

 

Hello dreamers! We’ve made it through deliberations! I hope everyone is proud of their participation. I think everyone did a great job. This week on In Your Dreams, we are analyzing one of my own dreams that struck me as symbolic recently.

Onto the dream!

Meteor Voices

I lay on my back the ground, alone, staring up at a clear night sky. I am somewhere in the mountains. The stars burn bright pinholes in the black, expansive darkness. I am on the grass and I can feel the pointy blades tickling my arms and legs. It is summertime. It must be.

As I watch the sky, a white blur streaks across it between a wide cluster of stars, there for a split second and then gone. I keep watching, my interest growing along with my peace. In another pocket of the sky, away from the first, another radiating blur streaks across the inky plane, there momentarily and then gone. I see another one elsewhere in the sky, there and gone.

Soon more of what I now recognize to be meteors explode white across the dotted black palette, never lingering. I hear a soft chattering coming from above, but I think I am mishearing. It’s just a trick of the ear, like stars may once have been thought of as a trick of the light. But the chattering grows, and I realize that as it grows louder, more meteors burst across my vision. They are speaking.

The meteors whisper and murmur as they exist visibly for a moment and then individually go quiet when they disappear. There are so many of them that their voices become uproarious, a tidal wave of sound and light.

This is where the dream ends.

The Analysis

In my dream, meteors grew voices. They became like humans, or at least showed signs of life to a human, and I, a human, became privy to their conversations. The question is whether they intended for me to hear their conversations or whether I was a happenstance listener in the private details of the lives of astronomical bodies, somebody who just happened to stumble in at just the right time to hear the phenomenon.

It is worth noting that I could not understand what the meteors were saying in the dream even when there were only a few of them. They spoke in a language beyond human understanding. This separates me, the spectator, from them, the spectacle. Their language was indecipherable to me, so I was held apart from the beauty of the phenomenon. I don’t remember how I felt in the dream, but based on this analysis, I would suggest that there was likely a sense of longing to become a celestial body, to participate in their conversation, and to transcend human life.

There is also the point of the meteors’ transience which makes them like humans. Meteors are only visible to the human eye for a few seconds before they disappear. Like the human lifespan, the “lifespan” of a meteor is brief. This similarity perhaps added onto the feeling of longing—if I am going to live a brief life anyway, why not become a meteor and burn brightly for all to see?

Overall, this dream exemplifies my human desire to be like a meteor.

This dream also inspired a poem that I wrote for my poetry class about a comet, another astronomical phenomenon. You can read it below:

Halley’s Comet, 2061

You asked me a celestial lifetime ago
whether I would return.

I traveled long stretches in the darkness,
the barren planes stirring
undistilled loneliness
until distant stars guided me back to you.

You, groundling:
Feet tethered by gravity
to the earth.
Eyes skyward, wide,
reflecting the whole
of my soaring
across your lifetime.

We mirror one another again,
separated only by atmosphere.
My nucleus gazing over the Earth,
your face watching the sky.

Two orbs, each miming the other
across space: your pale, awed face,
my burning body.
The spark in your eyes
as you stare into me
as bright as the sparks dancing
across my surface.
Your hair streaming behind your ears
like my kind’s detritus.

Me as cinder, ice, and ions,
you as star-born flesh.

You, human watcher, the one
I have longed for—to see you,
standing there, alight with wonder
at something so like yourself.
That is the mystery I return to—

You asked me a celestial lifetime ago
whether I would return.

I have waited 2 billion
three hundred-sixty-five million
two-hundred thousand seconds
of the sun’s turning
to answer you:
Yes, yes, yes.

Stay loose and dream lucid!

Hello dreamers! We’ve made it through the first day of deliberation. I hope everyone is feeling refreshed from the Wellness Day. This week, for the first time ever, we are going to be analyzing a song about dreams! The song is by one of my favorite artists in the world, Kate Bush, a powerhouse of inventive hooks inspired by subjects like literature (see her song Wuthering Heights), the seemingly impossible exchange of empathy between a man and a woman (see Running Up That Hill), and the way one can overcome cowardice by letting go in love (see Hounds of Love).

I found The Dreaming soon after discovering Kate Bush. When I first listened to it, I recognized the Australian influence, but I didn’t know what the song was about. “The Dreaming” is the name for the Aboriginal Australian philosophy that states that all people and things are interconnected, and represents the time when spirits roamed the Earth. Keep this in mind as you read the lyrics. I like to think that Kate Bush also dreamed this song before she wrote it. Onto the dream!

The Dreaming 

“Bang!” goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
Many an Aborigine’s mistaken for a tree
‘Til you near him on the motorway and the tree begin to breathe
See the light ram through the gaps in the land

Come in with the golden light
In the morning
Come in with the golden light
Is the New Man
Come in with the golden light
Is my dented van
Woomera

Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Me-me-me-me-me
Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
Woomera
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Me-me-me-me-me
Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti…

The civilized keep alive the territorial war
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
Erase the race that claim the place and say we dig for ore
Or dangle devils in a bottle and push them from the Pull of the Bush
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
You find them in the road
See the light bounce off the rocks to the sand
In the road

Come in with the golden light
In the morning
Come in with the golden light
With no warning
Come in with the golden light
We bring in the rigging
Dig, dig, dig, dig away

Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Me-me-me-me-me
Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
Woomera
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Me-me-me-me-me
Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Woomera
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Me-me-me-me-me
Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
A-a-a-a-a-
M-m-m-m-m-
Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
I-i-i-i-i-
Woomera
Me-me-me-me-me

Many an Aborigine’s mistaken for a tree
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
You near him on the motorway and the tree begin to breathe
Erase the race that claim the place and say we dig for ore
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
Dangle devils in a bottle and push them from the Pull of the Bush
See the sun set in the hand of the man

‘Bang!’ goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van
See the light bounce off the rocks to the sand
You find them in the road
See the light ram through the gaps in the land
In the road
See the light
Push ’em from the
Pull of the Bush
See the light bounce off the rocks to the sand
Push ’em from the
Pull of the Bush
See the sun set in the hands of man.

The Analysis

The first detail that stands out in the song is the recurrence of “light.” The first iteration of light is after the “bang,” which is presumably a gunshot. This could mean that “light” is referring to the blinding light of a gun being fired. However, light appears later in the pre-chorus when Kate Bush sings “come in with the golden light of the morning.” Light in the song serves two purposes, functioning first as a flashbang and second as the sunlight.

Kate Bush references “Many an Aborigine mistaken for a tree” and begins to mimic Aboriginal songs, indicating that this song is about the plight of the Aborigines. The people who mistake the Aborigines for a tree and implicitly chop them down are mentioned by name once in the song, when Kate Bush says “The civilized keep alive the territorial war.” The ones who wish harm upon the Aborigines are the “civilized,” or Europeans.

The light I mentioned acts as both a symbol for these colonizers and the Aborigines. In the first verse, Kate Bush sings, “See the light ram through the gaps in the land.” Here, the light represents the violence and force of the “civilized.” As the light invades the cracked Earth, the colonizers too invade the Aboriginal people of Australia.

The light also operates as an emblem for the Aborigines’ spiritual life. Kate Bush sings, “Come in with the golden light of morning.” The colonizers come to the bush, where the Aboriginal people view themselves as connected to everything and everyone. There, the colonizers shoot and destroy, rupturing the interconnected peace.

The final line, “See the sun set in the hand of man,” represents the death of the Aborigines, literally and spiritually, at the hands of the colonizers. The colonizers held the Aborigines’ spiritual light in the hands and caused that ever-glowing sun to set.

Overall, Kate Bush’s song, “The Dreaming” about the plight of the Aborigines at the hands of Europeans uses Aboriginal descriptions and music to convey its message and light to represent the colonizers and the colonized. Stay loose and dream lucid!

Hi everyone! Unbelievably, we are almost halfway through the semester. Time has been catapulting forward during these past few months. Speaking of time, a friend of mine, Kenzy, shared with me a recurring dream of hers that started in childhood and pertains to the prehistoric era. Get your dream analysis magnifying glasses and pajamas because we’ll be analyzing it today.

Onto the dream!

Prehistoric Pressure

(The following is my own rendition of the brief synopsis Kenzy gave me of her dream.)

A young Kenzy sprints through the Cretaceous trees, which curl their astounding height upward toward a brilliant sun. Kenzy does not have time to admire the beauty. She is out of breath, panicked. Moving beside her are her parents, who pummel the ground with their feet as they, too, run. A frenzied roar permeates the air, choking Kenzy with fear like a vise. She runs faster, somehow, and feels her mom beside her, but her father falls behind. She does not have time to turn around and call out to him before the creature makes itself known.

The tyrannosaurus rex crashes through the trees, bloodthirsty and vicious, and clamps its endless rows of teeth down on Kenzy’s father’s leg. Kenzy, who is still running, does not look behind her, but knows innately that her father is going to be eaten. She hears the snap of jaws and knows that she has no time to grieve. She keeps running.

She and her mother make their way through the forest, massive ferns brushing their ankles, until Kenzy realizes that her mother is not beside her. She hears the tyrannosaurus rex roar and turns around to see her mother snapped up in its violent jaws. Kenzy turns back toward the forest before her and launches herself forward into the greenery, running harder than she ever has.

The tyrannosaurus rex pursues her, snarling and snapping. She feels its hot, sticky breath at her back. Bile rises in her throat. The feeling of the dinosaur’s breath  disorients her enough that she trips on a rock. The tyrannosaurus rex opens its mouth to rip her apart. That is when she wakes up.

The Analysis 

Kenzy’s dream, which was recurring, developed to replace her parents with various other people she cared about. She always ended up in the forest with the tyrannosaurus rex, but the people changed depending on how old she was at the time she had the dream.

To me, this indicates an evolving dream. What I mean by this is that the dream represented the same fear but different relationships at different times in Kenzy’s life. The question is, which fear?

Let’s start with childhood. If during the first occurrence of Kenzy’s dream she sees her parents, and they are placed in a survival scenario, it could indicate a basic primal fear that all children have of losing their parents and having to fend for themselves. The T-rex, then, would represent death by any means (a T-rex is just what a child would think of), and the T-rex eating Kenzy represents Kenzy being unable to fend for herself and not making it because of it.

However, I’m more interested in what this dream represents in future iterations. In adult life, the tyrannosaurus rex is associated with violence, history and therefore time, and  humanity’s smallness. If Kenzy has a version of this dream where she is running away from the T-rex and her three closest friends are picked off one by one, these complex associations with the T-rex figure could mean:

1) that she is afraid of violence or death being enacted on her loved ones and herself

2) that she is fearful of her own past alienating her from her relationships

3) that she anxious about the passage of time and its result, which is death

Or 4) that she is afraid of her insignificance in the face of all that exists in the world.

I think that the most likely interpretation will have some connection to the original iteration, which has to do with death. Therefore, it is probably interpretation 1 or 3.

In sum, Kenzy’s recurring dream about a tyrannosaurus rex chasing and eating Kenzy’s closest people and herself could stem from the common childhood fear of losing caregivers’ support, and later iterations of the dream may mean that she is afraid of she and her loved ones being killed or harmed or that she is afraid of the passage of time leading to death. Stay loose and dream lucid!