Let me describe a sliver of a dream I had recently, and the effect it had on me.
There's a balcony or a deck. It's impossibly high up, A sci-fi skyscraper, like out of Metropolis. A cat is out there. It either climbs the guardrail or someone lifts it, that detail is unclear.
And there I shake myself awake. I don't have an irrational fear of heights. I have a very rational belief that you don't mess with heights past a certain point. And while cats are graceful, there are limits.
2 comments:
Whereas I used to remember my dreams, in the past few years that seems to have stopped. There are a number of sites where you can find dictionaries of dream symbols but I've never bothered as it seems the imagery is highly personal enough that some simplistic analysis can be nothing but silly.. ie, if you dream of an empty cup it means so and so.
Carl Jung, the pioneer psychologist, had some interesting thoughts about dreamlife in general and how to go about finding out their meaning:
"Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?"
~ Carl Jung, The Red Book
There seems to be a social prejudice that it's boring or self-indulgent to talk about your dreams. Telling everyone about them all the time in excruciating detail might not be a good idea, but they're not to be discarded. You might have a subconscious memory of yours. You're right that the imagery in them is highly individual--it certainly should be--and can't be interpreted through a universal code.
This was something that Carl Jung, a very thoughtful man, had a lot to say about. He knew that dreams give rise to myths, and myths always have a continuing relevance to our actions.
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