Dreams & the Subconscious

Lesson 2: Laying the Foundations

Working with the Dream -- Initial Stages

After you’ve recorded the entire dream, begin to explore more deeply. Start with the initial setting. Dreamtime is not linear and dream sequence is not “before and after, cause and effect.” However, first look upon the dream as a drama and keep in mind that, like a master craftsperson, the dreammaker has chosen every symbol, every scene, every act, and every character precisely and explicitly to convey an important message. What is happening in the first part of the dream that you can recall? Is it light or dark? Darkness often means you are looking at a situation that is taking place in the deep unconscious.

Are there characters or animals or objects that are referred to or heard but unseen, as if they were “offstage”? These are parts of yourself that are unknown to you but are just now emerging so that you can become aware of them. Where is the action taking place? Are you in nature (in the instinctual, natural world), in a car (moving, in transition, at some point along your path) or in a house? If you are in a house, is it one you know? Is it your house, your parents’ house, or a house you’ve never seen before? What is the condition of the house? Overflowing plumbing is a common dream theme in someone who is overwhelmed and often in emotional distress. Old “stuff” is coming back up, along with the emotional overflow that may have caused you to suppress it to begin with.

If you are in your parents’ house, how old were you when you lived there? Explore how you are feeling in the dream and how you feel “in the now” about returning to that place. Did you feel loved or unloved, safe or threatened? Then ask, what happened yesterday that made you feel exactly the same way? There may be a number in the dream. If you dream of a “3”, ask yourself, what happened three days, months, or years ago that felt just like what you are experiencing today.

Usually a dream will play out a scene and then will switch abruptly to a totally different scenario. Look back at the first scene and look at where it leaves off. Then enter the second scene. Here is another aspect or view of the same dream theme. Let’s say that in scene one you are at a party and your lover rejects you, abandons you, and leaves with someone else. In the next scene, perhaps you are in your mother’s kitchen. So one theme may be a recent experience of rejection that the dream is exploring. Your emotional response has then taken you into another time in childhood where you were rejected or where you felt the same sense of vulnerability or the kitchen may have been a place of healing from rejection for you.

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