DREAMS

The New Moon Dream Analysis of 8* Leo, July 2000

The Dream
"It was night and I'm working in some sort of industrial type building."

Question: Does this remind you of a building that you've been in before?
Answer:  No. Nothing that I consciously remember being in. Just a metal and concrete building.

Commentary: Although this is not a particularly ominous beginning, the nighttime setting points toward an area of her psyche of which she is generally unconscious or, as the saying goes, "in the dark" about.  The fact that she does not work--nor has she ever worked--in the type building indicated in the dream also suggests that it such an image should be explored and understood symbolically, perhaps as an out-picturing of her life in some way.  Reviewing her current issue (above) alludes to the importance of this setting.

Question: Is there anything about this particular building that you recall or remember?
Answer: Lots of metal and no soft edges except the carpeting in the hallway, which really is incongruous with the rest of the building.

Commentary: This is an interesting development in that we have been shown sharp and contrasting dream imagery between the building and the hallway.  This polarity will be developed further on.

Question:  Does your life have any 'soft edges' in it at the moment?
Answer:  Oh, I understand what you mean.  No, not really.

Question: Do you remember any specific feelings about working there?
Answer: It's sort of dreary and depressing. Nothing to look forward to no matter how well I do my job.

Commentary:  The picture begins to emerge: A person working in a job in which she's not being creatively fulfilled, she also feels depressed and isolated.  On an object level, this obviously had some validity to her own current and work related experience.

"I am working with a computer in a room on the second floor. There are only two floors. The room is well lit, and I am by myself."

Commentary: Here we have our first image of a polarity in a spatial sense.  This seemingly trivial detail describes an inner dynamic of the dreamer's life that will contribute to and support the dream's basic meaning, as we shall see below.  Incidentally, the four directions in dreams have been associated to the four functions and elements:  West is commonly associated to sensation or Earth; east is intuition or Fire; south is feeling or Water; and north is thinking or Air.

Question: Spending time by yourself, is this familiar to you?
Answer: I am a loner by nature. Unlike most people I know and certainly most of my friends, I am not uncomfortable taking off by myself for a day to the beach, eating in a restaurant by myself, etc. In fact, if I don't get a certain amount of alone time every day I get testy.

"My cubicle is closest to the doorway. The hallway is dark, no light at all."

Commentary: A third polarity has emerged: the well lit cubicle in which she's working in close proximity to the hallway, where there's no light.  When I first heard this dream I had the feeling that it was setting the stage for something fairly dramatic.  You don't get this kind of repetitive build-up without being shown the goods later.  Within dream structure, we are still in the 'development' stage; the 'crisis' has not yet occurred.

Question: Do you have any feelings about the hallway itself?
Answer:  I think I remember discussing this with you before. (She's referring to our first conversation about this dream). The blue-green carpet represents the sea, because of the color. Seems to represent a birth canal.

"The hallway is dark but there is enough light from my office to see the way to the stairs and enough light coming up from downstairs to get down the stairs safely."

Commentary: I told her that on first hearing the dream, in our first conversation, the carpeted hallway had definitely caught my attention, and that I felt it was a key to the dream.  But I wasn't sure about her association to the hallway as representing a birth canal, although that image is certainly within plausibility as being the archetypal passageway from the world of the womb into this one.  The hallway, and one's passage through it, beckons a host of mythological imagery which I silently held until I had more information about this curiously carpeted, and incongruous, hallway.  A positive development is the fact that the hallway receives light, both from her own cubicle and from downstairs. It's also significant that she says that you can make the passage safely because it's lighted.  It suggests that a degree of her own conscious awareness has illuminated it, and thus, that it is safe to travel through it if need be.

Question: These two colors associated with each other in the carpet in the hallway, do they remind you of anything?
Answer: Definitely the ocean, although some people could argue this is the sky.  Which ever it is it represents an infinite space with no boundaries.

 Commentary: It's now becoming clearer that the hallway is taking on a kind of "Neptunian" or transcendent symbolism.  Also, that another part of herself says that we're also looking at the image of the sky as a second symbol of infinity.

"The bosses, supervisors or management are downstairs. I am tech support and am running some sort of report, which I have to take downstairs occasionally."

Question: What kinds of people are supervisors/bosses, etc?
Describe their personalities.
Answer: A little bit supercilious with an air of superiority. (Not an overly-descriptive response, but enough to go on).
Question: Was there anything about these people in particular that you recall?
Answer: They didn't listen to me. They gave my opinion no value.  Now whether that's because I am peon in the ranks or female--or some of both, is hard to tell.

Commentary: Now her psyche is making further distinctions that sharply contrast the peon from the bosses, and females from the males.  Moreover, we are seeing a punitive attitude reflected by her bosses toward her.  Since they did not remind her of anyone in her current life, these figures point toward a subject level interpretation which we will explore below.

"Suddenly my keyboard starts moving all over my desk by itself."

Commentary: Here we have it.  Her personal unconscious has chosen to 'possess' a keyboard.  This shows that a numinous core of a complex has been reached; 'magical' events are taking place.  The core of any complex is also dangerous because it contains tremendous power which can easily overwhelm the ego if its meaning remains unconscious, autonomous and thus unintegrated.  Were this to occur, we lose a portion of our own will and conscious capacity; our lives become progressively beyond our own control.  In astrological parlance, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto have a field day with your ego's wishes and desires.  The meaning of keyboard, as well as the meaning of its behavior however, has not yet been uncovered.  A couple of simple questions:

Question: What is a keyboard?
Answer: Keyboard can be buttons that someone pushes to get a reaction.
And what is its function?
Answer: A way to communicate.
Question:  If I wanted to get a reaction from you, how would I push your buttons?
Answer: Probably by attacking me at the mental level, with remarks meant to imply I am witless or unthinking. Then you will have my full attention and concentration...because when I fire back, it will be with deadly intent.

Commentary:  At this point it wasn't too difficult to help her see and realize her own intellectual insecurities and how she has consistently attempted to hide these through compensation. This kind of behavior, as we all know from our own experience, takes a significant amount of psychic energy to maintain, to defend our ego's from.  A breaking point in her psyche has obviously been reached and her defenses are weakening.  In effect, her personality which places great emphasis on her need to communicate, is being 'suspended'. A 'softening' has to occur.   To be possessed by something is to be summarily isolated from oneself and from the environment. Her feeling of being isolated had been initially out-pictured in terms of the sterile work environment and cubicle in which she is working at the beginning of the dream.  Since shadow images are most always dark, this is probably why the dream opens at night. It is a rather cold, hard, dark and isolated reality that her unconscious experiences as being her life.   It's one thing to be told something by someone, it's another thing to be confronted by your own unconscious, with a custom tailored message just for you.

"I jump up and run downstairs to get someone to witness and look at what is happening.  When I get back upstairs with several managers, all dressed in white shirts, black ties and dark slacks, the keyboard is hovering in midair with the cable still attached to the tower."

Commentary:  This next sentence is revealing and is actually quite encouraging: she wants to get someone from downstairs so that they can bring their knowledge and awareness to what has just happened.  Again, it's one thing to feel stuck in a nightmare, facing a terrifying demon and not knowing what to do, it's another thing to go for help, which she does.  This is what is being shown here.  It indicates a conscious willingness toward her own growth and development.  Most of us wake up at this stage, where the crisis is reached, and where we see no way out.  But she runs for help.

Question: Do you know anyone, or does this remind you of anyone in your personal life who wears this kind of clothing?
Answer: No.  But usually upper management dresses in casual slacks and shirts, often with a tie.

Commentary:  Here, since she had no personal associations to this kind of fashion, we need to look at these guys
symbolically--even mythologically, to understand their function in the dream.  If you're at all familiar with mythology, you can't help but notice the contrast (or polarity) in the supervisors clothes: black and white.  This could lead to more questions since 'black and white' could mean many things to many people. A key here is the fact that they must come from downstairs, and then up the stairs to the second floor where she is working. Here
the tech's cross the hallway, they also bridge the spatial polarity referred to above.  The only class of deity in mythology that I know of who acts this way is the trickster.  He/She is Mercury/Hermes par excellence.  He/She both exemplifies (black and white) and unites ('ties') together the opposites, by traveling between this and the other world.  It's the trickster deity who delivers the message from the 'other side' or in this dream, from
'down below.'  Enki, the Sumerian trickster deity also performs this function in the rebirth myth of the twin sisters Innana and Ereshkigal.  (Remember: the Gemini twins in astrology are siblings).  Within the context of trickster energy, we experience bewilderment and confusion as a result of our own one-sided perspectives.  This is how our own shadow comes into being, developmentally speaking, which is basically unavoidable.  And this is what the trickster deity hopes to correct, for our own benefit, growth and awareness.  The tech's, which she ran to get, are meant to perform this function for her.  She was able to see that her relationship to these inner figures, dressed in opposite colors of black and white, were necessary to fetch toward her own growth and development.  Unconsciously she knew this, which is why she ran to get them.  As inner transcendent figures, they have the potential to 'fix' the possessed keyboard: which is her own currently 'suspended' capacity to communicate to the world through her own working, professional environment, as lacking in human warmth as it was shown to be.

"The supervisors think this is some sort of tech joke and are running their hands over the keyboard looking for hidden wires, nylon fishing line, etc."

Question: Why do they believe this is some sort of tech joke?
Answer: Techs love to play practical jokes (just like tricksters!) involving the computer in some way.

"I am completely freaked out and keep insisting this is like something from The Exorcist. Their attitude is, 'There, there little lady, let us he-men handle this.' "

End of Dream

"I woke up at this point with my heart pounding. I should add I rarely remember dreams and rarely dream in color. When I do dream in color it is a signal to me to 'pay attention' and remember this."

Commentary: It is rare that a person is able to fully integrate the meaning of a dream spontaneously. And this case is no exception.  Essentially, she has been introduced to her spoiling animus, the tech's. And then, generally speaking, she must begin to recycle these shadow figures back into her ego.  The final scene shows that this work has more or less just begun; that she is to become more conscious of these inner figures, as central--and unifying--figures in this dream.  She reports that she has personally 'softened' a bit.  She has also been recently hired (immediately following working with the dream) in an occupation that gives far more reign to her intuitive/feeling side.  There's little question in her mind that she is further along in her own self-awareness as a result of understanding this dreams' meaning for her.

 For those who would like an astrological perspective of this dream, I would draw your attention to the transit of Pluto, Mars, and to her nodal return in Cancer/Capricorn.

If you are interested in communicating with her, she has given her permission to be contacted.  Being the Gemini that she is, she would love to tell you more about it.   Her email address is: sjscott@spiritone.com

DREAM ARCHIVES

JULY 2000

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