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A confidential, private space for Dream Academy students, past and present, to build community, share experiences, and get to know each other.
This space is for you, the community, and although I – Jane Teresa Anderson – do pop in to post about new podcasts and blogs that I think might interest you, it’s really about dedicating a space where you can all communicate and get to know each other. So please, enjoy!
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Your dream alchemy art
- This topic has 22 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 11 months ago by
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Have you created any dream alchemy art, or do you have other dream-based artwork you’d like to share? Remember, dream alchemy art does not have to be a work of art: it may be a stickman drawing, or a splash of simple colour. It’s about using art as a tool to communicate with your unconscious mind to create positive transformation. Do share:
To add your pictures, under the Attachments heading below, click Browse to locate your image files and add them to your post. More than one image can be added. Each image should be added separately.
Please note, images need to be less than 512KB. If you need to resize your image to bring it under 512KB, here’s a helpful tool you can use: http://www.BulkResizingPhotos.com The resizing tool is not supported by Safari but is by Chrome and Firefox. It’s super easy to use!
How did you do that? Well jel!
Um…. I’ve scuffed together some quick sketches on occasion just to remind me of an image but… mostly no..
Although I’m quite fond of drawing things… like swirls and undulations when I’m. .. sort of… drunk. Ok I said it . Drunk. It’s just a lovely place to be sometimes. Wine and music and paper and pen and just keeping yourself company.
I’m very much into listening to all the different Yous inside and kind of drawing or.. just doodling with whichever You is talking at the time
I’ll show the next one when it happens.
This was painted after a very positive enjoyable dream, that I wanted to share with a dream group I was in at the time.
In the same way I feel nurtured and heart-warmed by pictures of my loved ones (family and friends) on the walls; I also feel nurtured by the pictures from my positive dreams on my walls.
Hi Kim,
Thank you for trying to post your art.
To add your pictures, under the Attachments heading below, click Browse to locate your image files and add them to your post. More than one image can be added. Each image should be added separately.
Please note, images need to be less than 512KB. If you need to resize your image to bring it under 512KB, here’s a helpful tool you can use: https://bulkresizephotos.com. The resizing tool is not supported by Safari but is by Chrome and Firefox.
Caroline,
Thanks for asking! There are many ways to have a dream group. The dream group I was in, involved meeting every 2 weeks, for 2 or 3 hours, with 5 others in a home. There we would drink tea and bring a dream to share. After hearing a dream we could ask clarifying questions or start with the sentence “If this were my dream….” and share any thoughts, feelings, interpretations that came up while hearing the dreamed . We formed the group after taking a dream workshop together, and it lasted a few years.
If I was to do it again I would like to do it with others who like the Jane Teresa dream approach as much as I do. I miss having the group still or a therapist, because sometimes I want my dream and the excitement I feel around it to be witnessed by another person. Also I usually find it easier to interpret someone else’s dreams.
Hi Kim.
Forgive the delay in my response.
Well why can’t we have one here?
Imagine if like…mmm…. what if we had a safe space thread just for our dreams? What if we had like a thread where we can tell our own dreams and we as a group, can go through them just like you describe?
It’s actually quite a solitary place interpreting your own dreams, and in some revelations, maybe sad or maybe euphoric.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a safe place to share and rejoice or to non judgmentally learn about ourselves and each other.
I want a dream group! Let’s just make it happen…
Hmm, well, I have one that I’m stuck on. Last night I had two dreams that I can recall, the first reflects my attempts to move away from excessive perfectionism to ‘good enough’, and I am succeeding in this, but the second was a lot trickier to interpret, and I can’t see any way to resolve it either:-
There is a mouse, and it’s really hungry and there’s no food around at all, until I find a lump of plastic, which I realise contains something. I peel off the plastic to revel something like soft toffee, but most of it is useless, stuck to the plastic, anyway, the mouse is still hungry. There is also a cockerel (at least I assume it’s a cockerel, actually I only see it’s feet, my viewpoint is not much higher than the mouse) the mouse gets the cockerel to stand in a scalding hot pool of water, I realise that the mouse is actually trying to cook the poor cockerel’s feet so it can eat it’s toes! I’m horrified, but the cockerel is oblivious to the heat and won’t move, it seems that it doesn’t really care . . . !
Should I leave it there, or add my insights, such as they are?I thought about it to start:
The mouse, that hungry aspect of yourself. Something might have happened the day before, and it made you aware of that need. You don’t see any food to give it. Even the last crumbles of toffee cannot be eaten, they cannot be used. You want to express the qualities the mouse represents to you, but you don’t know how. You are looking for ways to do it, but you’ve had no success so far. It makes you feel like a basic need is not being met.
The toffee is gone, the crumbles left in the plastic are useless… I like this toffee symbol, even not knowing what it refers too!
Then come the cockerel’s feet. You are sacrificing what the cockerel represents to you as an attempt to keep the mouse alive. You see the feet, not the whole thing. There’s a separation, a disconnection. You don’t see the big picture, just some parts. The feet support our body. When you cook its feet, you want to change the way you support yourself, maybe. The feet might refer to basic needs once more.
But you are terrified when you see it in the dream! Maybe something has made you realize you were not aware of it. Not aware of how you’ve been harming something (the cockerel) to save something else (the mouse), instead of making an agreement, striking a balance.
Oh, some insights would be great! =D
I like the bit about not seeing the whole picture, I will give that some more thought. Also the way I support myself, well, I don’t actually, I’m very fortunate that my elderly Mum has enough to subsidise me, in return for basic domestic help. This obviously is not a permanent situation, but plans for an alternative source of income are progressing nicely, so my anxieties about what will I do once she’s gone are evaporating nicely.
For me though the key to this is my feelings about the mouse’s exploitation of the placid cockerel. The mouse represents the exploitative minority, and the cockerel, the sheeple that blindly go along with the media/political BS. This is something that really winds me up, so even though I don’t remember anything triggering that feeling in the previous few days, (I’ve been too busy to watch the TV etc) but it does come up a lot so I’m not surprised that I’m getting dreams about it. The problem is what can I do to stop getting wound up over people getting screwed by the system?
This resonates with a dream of a couple of weeks ago, where a really nice guy is lynched for something his evil twin did. Again, those feelings of shock and horror.
I could also describe the scenario in more general spiritual terms, but the problem is essentially the same.
Looking at this latest dream with me as every part of the dream, me as the mouse, what am I hungry for? I am deep down lonely. I guess, in the words of the song, I need somebody to love. But I can’t identify with the cockerel, it’s significant that it’s a cockerel, IRL it was a hen that had it’s toe possibly amputated by rats. The cockerel had that distinct enigmatic calm of the father figure that Has appeared a few times recently. If I am the cockerel though, as well as the mouse, that means I’m scheming to eat my own toes. This resonates with another dream, one that I was sure I had ‘got the message’ of.
Hmm it’s late, I’m off to bed, thanks for your input, I will think on this as I go to sleep, and hopefully I will get something clearer by the morning!The political thing must surely be one of this dream’s layer, as it is something you are deeply involved with, at least at an emotional level. But I guess it might be referring to something more personal as well (and that would probably be the most important feature).
(During the last election here in Brazil, I would constantly dream about political parties and politicians, and I wanted to believe that it was just about the country’s current scenario. The “weather” was too heavy, like there was a dark shadow around people’s heads. But it turns out it was also about other areas in my personal life. I was living my “battles” too. Some months ago, I dreamed about the president and his sons as a metaphor for my boss! We had had an argument after a meeting the day before. It also represented the way I was forcing me to accept things I didn’t agree with in order to keep my job. The day before, there were also some weird news on the media concerning the president and his sons, and many people were commenting about it).
I think it could be the same with the other dream about the evil twin getting away from murder. The political thing might be one first and significant dream’s layer, but it might also reveal something more.
I’m intrigued about the mouse cooking the cockerel’s feet! The way you felt terrified by the mouse’s cruelty too. How cruel it is to cook the oblivious cockerel, who doesn’t see, doesn’t feel what is going on… The key to your dream lies here, indeed. We’ll figure it out!
I’m reading a wee pattern in here about feelings of shock and outrage and horror… is that a thing in the awake world for you? Putting the imagery aside, where have you felt that before?
I also see a similarity in your talk of politics and how the people are controlled by a bigger force. Then i read about how you you and mum are in a relationship of she looks after you in lieu of you looking after her. Then a mouse with cockerel (or mother hen?) Legs standing over you and you’re the mouse… all looks linked to me.
I can’t guess what your imagery means to you but the first thing you wrote about was the working relationship with mum. Being at mouse level, cooking cockerel (mother hen ?) Toes, feeling horror… looking to nibble your way out from under her feet.. horror? Guilt at those feelings?
Do you have thoughts or feelings in you that you feel guilt about? Or thoughts you think are not ok to think?
Hi Marion, I wonder if I can offer any ideas on your dream please? I’m going to do this ‘if it were my dream’, so please feel free to contest any of it, or chuck it right out the window! Its your dream. The first question I would ask you if we were doing it together, is what qualities you attribute to the nature of the mouse and the cockerel? I will offer my interpretation with my own set of attributes, and what questions and feelings it brings up in me. Though I have a feeling most people would ascribe similar attributes to these animals, of course yours may be entirely different and that would change everything. I’ve tried to stick to the language of the dream and give the animals a voice as if they are totems, and just see where it takes me.
“There is a mouse, and it’s really hungry and there’s no food around at all,”
The animal is a part of you, Jung gave us the notion that animals represent our instinctual selves. The attributes you ascribe to the animal are representative of your own instincts. The Mouse, I would describe as a shy creature, small and timid, it often needs to hide in order to survive and lives by its wits. The part of you that is shy and timid, trying to survive is telling you through the dream that it is hungry. It wants you to nourish it.
“until I find a lump of plastic, which I realise contains something. I peel off the plastic to revel something like soft toffee, but most of it is useless, stuck to the plastic, anyway, the mouse is still hungry.”
In the dream you attempt to nourish this unseen timid part of you, with a “lump of plastic”, this seems in everyway to be the opposite of food, Indigestible, manufactured and fake. There maybe efforts you are making to nurture or nourish yourself with something that you really know to be of no substance. But you then notice that within this “plastic” or “fake” wrapper, the exterior, there does appear to be something that you could use to feed the mouse. In the dream you decide to unwrap it, to see what’s beneath the metaphorical layers. A toffee, this is something sweet. Sugar would certainly keep your mouse alive, it would revive him. This “sweetness” may be an aspect of yourself that you aren’t really acknowledging as having any value? When you find it beneath the plastic wrapper you don’t feed it to the mouse, and he has to try more extreme measures. You decide not offer that nourishing “sweetness” to the timid part that’s in hiding, you decide that it is “soft and useless”. Would this be a viewpoint you could relate to? That having a sweet nature, or that showing yourself some sweetness might be “useless” ? Its stuck to the plastic wrapper, maybe you haven’t fully found a way to uncover your sweet underlying nature yet. Or perhaps its the recognition that you need something “soft” to sustain you, that is still yet to be peeled from it’s plastic wrapper in someway. Though you have looked underneath and found its there, you can see it but you dismiss it and so your mouse” is still hungry”
“There is also a cockerel (at least I assume it’s a cockerel, actually I only see it’s feet, my viewpoint is not much higher than the mouse) the mouse gets the cockerel to stand in a scalding hot pool of water, ”
Then I thought about what kind of an animal the cockerel is. He is flash and showy with his bright plumes, he struts his stuff and is very confident, he is “cocky”. This could be another part of you, perhaps its an aspect that seeks to make sure that the mouse stays in hiding. However in your dream we see that the mouse is actually very much in charge. Although the mouse is smaller, your mouse gets your cocky cock to stand “in hot water”. If it were my dream I would be wondering who is running the show, although the cock should be able to look after himself, he perhaps walks the walk, we are after all looking at his feet, he in fact is driven by the starving, neglected little mouse, who very much wants you to know that something about this dynamic, gets you “in hot water”.
“my viewpoint is not much higher than the mouse” this part interests me, because its as if a part of you has realised by this stage that in fact the cock isn’t better than the mouse, he isn’t higher, he doesn’t have “higher” importance. It isn’t of higher importance to appear confident if really you are timid.
“I realise that the mouse is actually trying to cook the poor cockerel’s feet so it can eat it’s toes! I’m horrified, but the cockerel is oblivious to the heat and won’t move, it seems that it doesn’t really care . . . !”
If this were my dream, I would feel that the mouse part, the shy timid pard really wants to get noticed, it had to do something that horrified you to be seen, to shock you into seeing just how hungry he really is! He is showing you how powerful it is, how much control he can have even though he is small and timid. But that showy cockerel, who walks the walk, just stands there in hot water, in this predicament, he doesn’t even realise what’s going on! he doesn’t seem to care, I wonder because his function is to offer an attractive and confident display. The cock has many hens, he is seen as being capable and strong, he is often seen as hugely successful. If it were my dream I think I would be wondering if I was trying to put on a brave face, to show the world how strong I am, what I can withstand even, he’s in hot water and yet he doesn’t “seem” to care. When really there is another aspect of the self underneath that really needs nurturing, that feels small by comparison and will in fact, at this stage be so in need he can totally run the show and go to any lengths to be noticed and fed. It seems the mouse even seeks the demise if the cock! if he looses his toes or his feet, he wont be able to take any more steps in life. I would be wondering if the cockerel wasn’t standing so tall anymore and I peeled back a few layers, if I might find something sweet and soft within myself, that can in fact be very good at nurturing a timid little mouse. Something that fare from being useless that in fact is very very useful if I can prize it free from this “plastic” wrapper”. I think that my hungry little mouse would be very grateful of this being acknowledged. The mouse is a vulnerable animal, he lives by his wits, he’s always planning ahead, checking out what’s around the corner, what’s coming next. That’s a hard life. But the mouse is also but really really intelligent, hence why yours knows how to both create the ultimate downfall of the cock and get what he needs to be able to flourish.
I hope there’s something in here that might spark a few ideas for you. My intention isn’t to give you a diagnosis, its what the dream brings out in me really, which I think is the point in dream sharing, to see what the dream has to offer to everyone, and maybe the dreamer will find a little nugget somewhere in what others find that rings true for themselves too. Interestingly, I have been called by this mouse imagery myself several times over the last week which I s why I was keen to explore it at length really. I also have an inner mouse! I’d love to dialogue any of it with you if you would like.
Sent with all friendly intentions and love,
Alex x
Cintia, you are so right about layers, I think this is the most layered dream I have ever had! I found three myself, and you found three more! The overt meaning is about my view of politics and humanity in general. It is also showing me that I get wound up over things I cannot change. For me this is the principal problem. A possible solution is there too, though; I’m only seeing a small part, I need to look at the wider picture. Looking really wide, in a few billion years we will all be star dust again, the whole planet and the sun included.
Putting myself as the mouse brings out a spiritual metaphor. Mouse is not happy with a mouse sized portion. Putting myself as both the mouse and the cockerel brings out another, that was the subject of another dream some weeks ago.Hi Caroline, yes, every time I get a scam phone call or catch a whiff of some political or economic agenda on the TV or radio, or something like that comes up in conversation.
I only mentioned Mum first in response to Cintia’s post. There is absolutely no exploitation either way, we have an excellent relationship, and always have done. I do need to find an independent source of income, but only because she will not be here forever. Things are finally progressing on that though. I like the interpretation of standing over me protectively but the main issue is definitely my getting wound up over eco-politico shenanigans.
I have had slightly guilty feelings about abandoning Mum in favour of getting on with redecorating my house, and vice versa, for making Mum the excuse for not getting on with it, but actually Mum is fine and very happy that I am getting stuff done.
Hi Barbara, sorry but that doesn’t work for me. There’s no rush anyway. Maybe with someone else’s . . .Hi Alexandra, In the dream, mouse is mean, scheming and selfish, cockerel is placid, enigmatic, amused. IRL mice are a cute nuisance, that need to be caught and taken and released a long way away, cockerels are, well they each have their own personalities, but collectively they need to be put into a shed with sound insulation every night so that one sh***y neighbour can’t make them into an excuse to get me into trouble with the council (for crowing in the early morning). Two are adorable, one I feel sorry for, he’s ill, but carries on like nothing’s wrong, I doubt that he will survive the winter, but that’s what I thought last year too! The last one is a mean PITA that beats up any of the others that it gets the opportunity to, but is very handsome. I don’t think the IRL attributes are relevant here, but I’ll run with it to see if it does bring up anything else relevant.
This dream mouse is not shy or timid (nor am I!), but mean, scheming and selfish, these attributes are all but dead as parts of my persona, not even as big as a mouse. Curiously this exercise is making me realise, I do actually identify with the cockerel; in situations that don’t get me wound up, I am happy to go along with whatever everyone else is doing, although not to the extent of being taken advantage of.The mouse had the main bit of toffee that I managed to get out of the plastic, but was still hungry. Actually attributes associated with mouse being small makes sense too, if I were more selfish, I wouldn’t get so upset at all the injustices in the world but tbh, I’d rather be taken advantage of like the cockerel than be uncaring. I need to find somewhere in between. In that respect, I am indeed reluctant to feed the mouse.
The bit about cocky cockerel, and not being any higher than the mouse etc. doesn’t fit. The cockerel is aware of what’s going on, but is unconcerned. Definitely in control of himself, and perhaps deliberately allowing the mouse it’s evil way. (Though the mouse doesn’t actually get as far as eating his toes.) The cockerel is definitely higher than the mouse, that’s why I can’t see him.
Ah it’s time for bed, but I haven’t written about last night’s dream. In short although there were some really weird aspects to it, in short, I manage to escape all the bad guys, with a companion, who goes back for the rest of us including a cat and the (still living) head of a horse, who escape by flying (a bit like Santa), we all meet up safely, and set about putting the horse together again. (I did say there was weirdness!) In musing on this I realised the element of flying over the bad guys = rising above the scammers and politicians grasping hands.
Hi Marion,
thanks for your thoughts. A couple of things that came up for me in your reply, certainly not wishing to push my ideas, but something might come here for you.Of course there are many ways to look at dreams, but I do subscribe to Jane Teresas notion that everything in dreams represents an aspect of the self. As I understand it, when we dream of animals the theory is that we look at two things, the animal as an archetype AND the behaviour of the animal. So if I dreamed of a crocodile that was behaving in a placid way, I could interpret that as something that I interpret as dangerous or a threat to me has become less so, or is not a problem for me at the moment. I could not ignore the fact that the crocodile is violent and a predator because that is his nature, however he might appear in the dream. Your dream mouse was selfish and mean, but that doesn’t describe all mice, that describes how the mouse part, whatever he represents, is acting out in you at the moment for whatever reason. If mice are basically troublesome and they need to be caught and released, so it may be a part of you that you feel is troublesome and needs some form of release too and behaves in a selfish way for some deeper reason.
Dreams need dialogue, knowing that you did indeed give the mouse the main bit of toffee changes a lot. The basic premise of the dream seems to be that the mouse is acting out because it is not getting the food it needs and is still hungry. So I would postulate that the way in which you ARE feeding this aspect of yourself is not what is really needed. Or perhaps what is on offer at the current time is not what you want, perhaps its too sweet or serine? maybe it makes you feel mean in some way even, however it still seems to me that the motivation for the mouse behaving in this way because he is hungry rather than purely to be unkind. The toffee is great as a life saver but has little nutritional value.
Just ideas. I dream of animals a lot, I find them really interesting to work with in this way as totems. Most animals have many attributes, they wont all fit, the psyche seems to pick certain animals to represent specific aspects it can relate to well. Or it does with me anyway. I have some animals that I know very clearly now what they are talking about when they come, because they come often, the dream situation and the behaviours changes, but they are still talking about the same subject.
Enjoying this conversation. I will try to offer up a dream of my own soon, if anyone wants to see what they make of it.
Have a good day all,
AxxHow many impressive ideas! The toffee, the thoughts about animals, everything…
I’ve just thought about something that might be important when I read this comment once more, after considering the whole discussion:
“Looking at this latest dream with me as every part of the dream, me as the mouse, what am I hungry for? I am deep down lonely. I guess, in the words of the song, I need somebody to love. But I can’t identify with the cockerel, it’s significant that it’s a cockerel, IRL it was a hen that had it’s toe possibly amputated by rats.”
When did that hen have its toes amputated by rats? Maybe the dream is reflecting a conflict you had at that time. Something similar might be going on now, as the dream image is similar to that.
These comments seem important too… We are getting closer:
“In the dream, mouse is mean, scheming and selfish, cockerel is placid, enigmatic, amused. IRL mice are a cute nuisance, that need to be caught and taken and released a long way away, cockerels are, well they each have their own personalities, but collectively they need to be put into a shed with sound insulation every night so that one sh***y neighbour can’t make them into an excuse to get me into trouble with the council (for crowing in the early morning). Two are adorable, one I feel sorry for, he’s ill, but carries on like nothing’s wrong, I doubt that he will survive the winter, but that’s what I thought last year too! The last one is a mean PITA that beats up any of the others that it gets the opportunity to, but is very handsome”.
It’s fun to read all the different interpretations of this dream. It is such a clear demonstration on how personally specific the images in a dream are to each dreamer. Yet how the dreams stimulate so much for each reader/listener.
A few things about your dream that stand out to me are the contrast between a mouse (quiet as a mouse) and the cockerel (Which is so noisy you’re worried about your neighbors complaining). Also the description of your cockerel who is “ill but carries on like nothings wrong”, reminds me of the cockerel in the dream who is oblivious to his situation in the hot water.
Oh Kim! You’ve just unlocked the relevance of the cockerel. It represents my faith, which I am very private about because it is not in line with Christianity, and I do worry about offending strict Christians, so I hide it away, like the cockerels. Once again though, it is the attributes personal to me that are relevant, not the generic ones.
Now that I’ve been moved to post another reply here, I will also post the most relevant interpretation of the mouse. Yes, being small is a generic attribute but it was also small in the dream. The attributes attributed to it are a very small part of my personality, not actually because I repress them, but simply because I am rubbish at scheming/manipulation, and not naturally selfish or mean. I often wish I was though, as I wouldn’t get upset so often if I only cared about myself. i.e. I like these attributes: The mouse is cute. In reality though, these attributes are best avoided(IMO): Should be taken far away and abandoned. So the mouse is representing my attitude to the attributes it represents in the dream.
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