Oneiric Musings... continued!

Here comes the fun part about the dreams I have--other than experiencing them!  Following the advice I was given, I do not run for the dream encyclopedia, (although I DO own one!)  It is quite simple really.  It turns out the key to deciphering your dreams is to pick out the main or key elements in the dream and deciding how you feel about each individual element.  I tend to start with the one that stuck out the most, or had the biggest impact in the dream experience.  This has in some cases been the dominant colour I saw in the dream and the actual dream event may have just been a fluff entertainment, filler if you will, and maybe didn't really mean anything.

Working on each element is like playing associations, because it is just that--what I associate each element to mean during my waking hours.  My 1st silly little example will be a dream I had as a kid.  It was a simple dream really--I saw two long lines of horses running side by side, until they came to a large pool of water.  At this point they turned away from each other, ran to opposite sides of said pool, then jumped in--in unison.  After the first pair jumped in the water went from being clear to purple!  For me it was easy to ascertain the horse part, they have been my favourite critters since I was seven.  I find them to be powerful, beautiful, and even a bit mysterious, after all why do they let us humans keep them, and gasp-- ride them?  Running in parallel lines suggested being in sync, especially when they matched pace with each other in perfect rhythm. Even when they "broke" parallel formation, they remained in mirror-image sync while turning and ultimately jumping into the pool.  The main stumbling block I had on this dream was the significance of the water turning purple.  It was a bit perplexing, I could not really think of a reason for this.  It wasn't like purple was my favourite colour or anything.  Blue, yes--purple was pushing it a bit.  I recall saying to the doctor I was discussing it with, "I don't have any special association to the colour purple, in fact, I don't believe I even own any purple clothing."  She suggested some common conceptions about the colour to see if that would help me unravel the meaning.  Things like it being a "rich" colour, that it was considered "regal".  No, I did not believe that was it.  So as a work in progress, we had that it was a dream about power, perhaps mystery, the motion of being in sync and unity.  Maybe purple wasn't that significant, it may have just been a splash of colour to end the dream.  A funny end note, while I was finishing up the discussion of my dreams, I had a sudden inclination to look down.  I had unintentionally fibbed.  There under the polar fleece top I was wearing--was a PURPLE t-shirt.  After I had claimed so ferverently that I did not own any purple clothing--oops, I guess.  It still didn't solve the mystery in my dream.  It just reminded me not to dismiss anything too quickly!

I have unraveled other dreams using this technique.  One was just bizarre in its mind-form, the way I experienced it.  It was amazing, after a bit of discussion and association, I was able to ascertain the dream was about how I felt about my parents' divorce.  Enlightenment!  I had a hard time grasping feelings on this event during my waking hours, but my mind found a twisted, convoluted way to tell me deep down I really did know how I felt.  It just had to be seen through the layers.  Figuring out that dream was relieving and empowering at the same time.

I got lucky with another strange dream.  It turned out the date I was told in the dream was a helpful reminder of a combination for a lock I had not used in some time.  Honestly, I thought the combination was deleted from my memory bank and that I was going to have to throw the lock out.  Turned out my brain had devised a clever, entertaining way to "remind" me what the combination was.  I guess it wasn't really gone, just misplaced in my grey matter--only to be pulled out again during a slumber.

Now as an adult, I sometimes have R-rated dreams that actually turn out to have a tame meaning or message, and other sweet and fluffy dreams--apparently, that with a bit of time and thinking have actually had a racy or adult-themed meaning.  I'm turning red now, as I guess I do have a dirty mind like a lot of others do--I guess!