I'm in an unfamiliar house with my grandparents. We are rummaging through stuff. I find two swords.
One is of little significance the other is very old. It has the words "Colony of Massachusetts" written on the sheath, which was the first indication that this was an antique.
Further inspection revealed the year it was made, sometime in the 1700's. Someone comes over to inspect the sword, and I explain (poorly) that I'm more interested in hearing about the history of the sword than necessarily selling it.
This person says that the sword is not really that old, but then I realize that they are looking at the wrong sword. I can't seem to make this person aware of that fact.
Next scene, something is wrong with my grandmother. She is laying on the floor so I kneel down and console her. My grandfather is trying to get me to leave, downplaying her condition.
I ignore his requests. I get the feeling that he doesn't want me there because he doesn't trust me. I stay with my grandmother.
I woke up feeling like I had a chance to tell her some things, but I can't remember what I told her.
Note:
My grandmother died several years ago, and I've carried some guilt for not writing her a letter that she specifically asked for.
One of the swords was made “sometime in the 1700s”. What happened for you when you were 17? Dreams often add zeros to numbers. It’s a dramatic device for underlining the number.
What does Massachusetts mean to you? Have you lived there, or did your grandparents come from there? If not, ask yourself what character or personality Massachusetts conjures up for you. If were to live in Massachusetts, what kind of lifestyle might you lead?
Isn’t there a song about Massachusetts? If you know this song, what clues does it give you about your personal feelings for this place?
Whatever Massachusetts symbolises for you personally, is the source of conflict your dream is exploring, since one of the swords relates to this place.
The sword was engraved ‘Colony of Massachusetts’. Isn’t Massachusetts Bay Colony where early settlers from England set up camp? Weren’t they seeking to create a freer form of their religion? If this history is familiar to you, might your dreaming mind have conjured up Colony of Massachusetts to represent your own religious conflicts or a need to escape strict religious codes? At age 17, did you begin to fight (make the sword) your religious upbringing? In your notes you referred to a letter your grandmother had asked you to write. Did this letter relate to religion?
Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in the 17th century (the 1600s) which may alternatively explain the 1700s in your dream.
Was there something in your grandmother’s history, something that happened when she was 17?
At the start of your dream you find two swords and you say that one of them is of little significance. Later in your dream your grandfather is “downplaying” your grandmother’s condition. To downplay something is to try to reduce its significance – to take something important and meaningful and portray it as “of little significance”. This is a vital clue because it’s a repeating theme in this dream – the theme is that there are two alternatives, one seen as deeply important or significant, and one downplayed as insignificant. A repeating theme in a dream is known as a motif. It’s usually the central element or issue the dreaming mind is exploring, over and over again in slightly different ways.
So we know from this motif that the issue your dream is addressing can be seen from two alternative points of view – one deeply significant, one downplayed as insignificant. At age 17, what seemed important and significant to you? And what did you downplay as insignificant? What seemed important and significant to others, and what did others downplay as insignificant? Where did you disagree?
You found two swords, there were two repeats of the theme, and you called your dream ‘Second chance’. Lots of twos! The feeling I got when I read your dream was ‘double edged sword’. Not too different from two swords is a double edged sword. We say something is a double edged sword when it has a downside and an upside, and the one comes with the other. You get the good, but the bad comes with it. What a dilemma!
When you were 17, did you feel there was a ‘double edged sword’ situation? No matter which way you went, you’d have to take some of the bad along with the good? No win-win feeling in sight?
Was this the feeling you had over the letter your grandmother had wanted you to write? Was it a bit of a double-edged sword for you? Did it represent a struggle of significance and meaning? Who tried to downplay the significance? What did you feel, at the time, you would have lost by writing the letter? What, at the time, did you feel you would have gained? How did your grandmother and others around you at the time see the losses and gains?
There’s also a feeling that the old sword represents your grandmother and the old ways, and the modern one, “of little significance” represents how you felt about yourself then, or how you feel about yourself now. Has the guilt you mentioned in your notes left you feeling that your own needs and feelings at the time were insignificant compared to the needs and feelings of your grandmother?
Remember, as you read this interpretation, that there’s a reason why you dreamed this dream when you did. A dream always reflects your experiences – conscious and unconscious – of the 24-48 hours prior to the dream. If those experiences resonate with issues from the past, your dream will go back and explore those issues. So even though, until now, this interpretation has focussed on the past – when you were 17, and the time when your grandmother died – it’s important to identify why this has come up for you now.
So, what experience, in the day or two before your dream, felt like a double-edged sword, or felt like a matter of weighing up the significance of something, perhaps downplaying something that shouldn’t have been downplayed?
Did you catch yourself almost discounting a matter as being insignificant because you didn’t trust yourself to handle it due to the guilt you still carry from that letter writing request? (Your dream explored trust. Your grandfather downplayed the significance because of a lack of trust. This shows your own concerns about not trusting yourself to handle something of significance.)
The ‘second chance’ refers to whatever is happening in your life now. You can’t change the past, but you can learn from the past and so change the present. Your second chance is to approach the situation in your life today that reminds you of that letter-writing dilemma back in history and trust yourself to do the best thing this time.
As you said in the dream, the important thing to you was to hear about the history of the sword, meaning you want to understand the past as it relates to the matter in front of you today. In this way the new sword is today, and the old sword is the past. You’ve been discounting today’s conflict as insignificant compared to the past, but it’s time now to turn this around and realise that today is what is significant and meaningful. Explore the past deeply and sufficiently so that you understand where everyone was coming from and so that you fully understand and appreciate why you didn’t write that letter back then. Then let it go. Guilty people can’t be trusted (you think) so release yourself from the guilt you feel and move on. You did what seemed right according to your understanding back then, but that’s ancient history now. Get it off your chest, and attend to today’s matter without the burden of the past clouding your judgement.
Consult me confidentially about your dream.
