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Dreams and recurrent themes...
Jun. 22nd, 2003 07:57 pmI've never had what most people would call a recurring dream. I understand that some people have the same dream twice or more, that they get to know the dream or at least to recognise it. I've never had that happen; at most, I've had the occasional repetition of a fragment of a dream, but there's always something changed. For instance, I've had the Running Away From Something Menacing dream. But it's never been the same menace twice, nor has it been through the same landscape, nor has it ended the same way. For the most part it ends one of two ways: I outpace the menace a little and hide before it can catch up, at which point it overshoots me, or else I not only manage to get away from it but I double back on it and impress it sufficiently that it offers to tell me something or let me in on its purpose or secret. The recent Agent Smith and the fountain drawing on the River of Languages dream is not much different from this - I outpaced the Agent in ways he didn't expect and almost accomplished my task, but the fact that I had thrown my cup of water from the World Ocean into the wrong part of the fountain had nothing to do with him. I'd outdone him and gotten away, which is the important part. I've had a lot of repetitive anxiety elements in the past, the most common being Oh No My Contact Lenses Are Ruined!, Dear God What's Happening To My Teeth, Why Am I Getting My Exam Grades In This Setting / How Did I Do So Damn Poorly, and I Don't Remember Ever Seeing THAT Light Up On The Dashboard Before.
Anyway, last night I hit one of my most common repetitive non-anxiety dream elements. I had to get somewhere relatively quickly, and was less than pleased with how fast ordinary jogging was getting me there. I thought hmm, the street is a bit sloped; perhaps I could move more quickly if I were able to use my hands as well as my feet? And just like that, I found that I was, indeed, capable of running remarkably quickly by doing so on all fours. A few people gave me very odd looks, but for the most part they weren't paying that much attention, and I didn't really care. Sure, I was only barely touching the ground with my fingertips to get the extra boost of speed, but it was enough to make a difference. I was wondering why I hadn't thought to try it like that before when I woke up.
Other people have the Dream Where I Can Fly. I've only had that dream after reading about lucid dreaming and deliberately trying to do so for a week or two at a stretch. On the other hand, the Running On All Fours dream occurs several times a year - maybe even several times a quarter. Most of the time there isn't anyone else around in the dream. Occasionally there is; I remember it happening once when I was at college, and I dreamed I had to get to class quickly so I opted to run on all fours despite funny looks. Thinking too hard about the mechanics of the situation screws it up - in one such dream I was trying to run down my own street and doing very well until a neighbour's jeering child asked how I was doing it. As I tried to memorize the leg / arm sequence, I got tangled up in my own limbs and fell down. For the most part I think the gait is a canter or something close to it, as it's far more fluid than a trot and I don't think there's the leap element one finds in a full gallop. It's still quite fast, though. I'm reasonably sure it's accomplished digitigrade, too, since for the most part I feel my fingers against the ground rather than my full hands. Not sure about the feet, though.
I'm not sure what the imagery of such a dream is meant to represent. I have been told that the Flying Dream bespeaks a great deal of self confidence and that the Teeth Dream generally indicates self-esteem issues. I know full well that the Contact Lens Dream and the Car Dream are anxiety dreams, since I have them when I'm under stress. I don't generally have the Naked In Public dream, or at least I haven't since high school, so perhaps they have replaced that as a sort of culturally appropriate anxiety dream... but the all fours thing has me wondering. I never change shape in my dreams, and believe me there have been times when I've tried. It's me as a human running on all fours, fast as a racing dog or perhaps some sort of horse. Perhaps there is some kind of meaning there, but blimey if I know what it is. My mother once suggested that it might be some kind of representation of an urge to be more back-to-nature, or something. Perhaps. I don't know. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and learning to knit on double pointed needles, and before that I was very anxious about work, since I spent most of Friday in a horrifically stressed-out situation and lost my temper more than once with people despite the fact that I was in the wrong. I don't know if the dream comes out of that, since I wasn't trying to run away from anything - in fact I was trying to get something done that was either work or school related, and had to be done quickly. Who knows? I will freely admit that on occasion I wonder whether such a dream might not get an interesting interpretation from practitioners of the shamanic arts, but who hasn't allowed themselves speculations of such significance?
Anyway, last night I hit one of my most common repetitive non-anxiety dream elements. I had to get somewhere relatively quickly, and was less than pleased with how fast ordinary jogging was getting me there. I thought hmm, the street is a bit sloped; perhaps I could move more quickly if I were able to use my hands as well as my feet? And just like that, I found that I was, indeed, capable of running remarkably quickly by doing so on all fours. A few people gave me very odd looks, but for the most part they weren't paying that much attention, and I didn't really care. Sure, I was only barely touching the ground with my fingertips to get the extra boost of speed, but it was enough to make a difference. I was wondering why I hadn't thought to try it like that before when I woke up.
Other people have the Dream Where I Can Fly. I've only had that dream after reading about lucid dreaming and deliberately trying to do so for a week or two at a stretch. On the other hand, the Running On All Fours dream occurs several times a year - maybe even several times a quarter. Most of the time there isn't anyone else around in the dream. Occasionally there is; I remember it happening once when I was at college, and I dreamed I had to get to class quickly so I opted to run on all fours despite funny looks. Thinking too hard about the mechanics of the situation screws it up - in one such dream I was trying to run down my own street and doing very well until a neighbour's jeering child asked how I was doing it. As I tried to memorize the leg / arm sequence, I got tangled up in my own limbs and fell down. For the most part I think the gait is a canter or something close to it, as it's far more fluid than a trot and I don't think there's the leap element one finds in a full gallop. It's still quite fast, though. I'm reasonably sure it's accomplished digitigrade, too, since for the most part I feel my fingers against the ground rather than my full hands. Not sure about the feet, though.
I'm not sure what the imagery of such a dream is meant to represent. I have been told that the Flying Dream bespeaks a great deal of self confidence and that the Teeth Dream generally indicates self-esteem issues. I know full well that the Contact Lens Dream and the Car Dream are anxiety dreams, since I have them when I'm under stress. I don't generally have the Naked In Public dream, or at least I haven't since high school, so perhaps they have replaced that as a sort of culturally appropriate anxiety dream... but the all fours thing has me wondering. I never change shape in my dreams, and believe me there have been times when I've tried. It's me as a human running on all fours, fast as a racing dog or perhaps some sort of horse. Perhaps there is some kind of meaning there, but blimey if I know what it is. My mother once suggested that it might be some kind of representation of an urge to be more back-to-nature, or something. Perhaps. I don't know. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and learning to knit on double pointed needles, and before that I was very anxious about work, since I spent most of Friday in a horrifically stressed-out situation and lost my temper more than once with people despite the fact that I was in the wrong. I don't know if the dream comes out of that, since I wasn't trying to run away from anything - in fact I was trying to get something done that was either work or school related, and had to be done quickly. Who knows? I will freely admit that on occasion I wonder whether such a dream might not get an interesting interpretation from practitioners of the shamanic arts, but who hasn't allowed themselves speculations of such significance?
