Greetings, Craig asked that I follow up with the dream that I shared during our last webinar.
Background before the dream: I was at a mentoring retreat for youth in Mendocino a week and a half ago, led by Michael Meade. The night that I had the dream, Meade was telling a story about the "half-boy: ( A boy born only with his left side). Early the next morning right before I awoke to join Meade and many other participants in the "Dream lodge" ( where we share dreams as a community), I dreamt that I was floating alone in the middle of the ocean on a log. From behind me emerged a terrifying creature, with a dragon's head and the body of a shark. It kept pursuing me and there was no escape. I felt so vulnerable and that the ocean was barren except for this creature. I awoke just as it started to devour me.
Upon awakening I felt enraged. Ever since I was married last year to a compassionate, dear person I've been hoping that my childhood wounding by women would ease up. But the wound emerged from the water. On one level this creature reminded me of the terror of my step-mom when I was ten.
In the dream lodge, instead of responding with anger or helplessness, Meade encouraged me to go down below, down into the depths of the ocean. However scary, this feels right to me. Last year Meade told the Blackfeet Indian story about the Orphan Boy and the Elk-dog. The boy must go down into the depths of the lake in order to discover the magical Elk-dogs and eventually return with them to his people. I think I did this to some extent and was able to heal enough to get married. I'm still in that story, but this year I am in the ocean and I learned that while my partner is a godsend, the wound doesn't just disappear.
Replies
Hi Michael. Thanks for posting your dream and commentary about it. I have found in my dreams that the ocean and water itself is a powerful metaphor for content that is seething (or constellating) below the level of the conscious attitude. If you don't have personal associations to the water in the way it is presented in the dream, it would seem that you can work with it.
I'm interested to hear your conclusions about the dream. One observation: the motif of the Self may be evident in the log that is your only support in this ocean, so you are not in this alone.