Hi Owen,
A scary dream. The gift within a scary dream is the opportunity to face a fear.
When we are frightened in a dream our bodies release adrenalin to prepare us for fight or flight in exactly the same way that they do when we find ourselves in frightening or stressful situations in waking life. The cold feeling and the sweating when you wake up are biproducts of the adrenalin response.
Fear, in waking life, usually blocks us in some way. Sometimes fear protects us by stopping us: for example, fear of getting too near the edge of a high cliff protects us from falling off. Often, though, fear stops us from doing or feeling or discovering something beautiful. Why?
From the moment we are born we protect ourselves. If something hurts we usually avoid doing it again, for example. We set up many self-protection behaviours designed to keep us safe. But as we grow older we sometimes forget to realise that we no longer need to be kept safe from certain things. The unconscious mind holds onto all its safety-protective mechanisms and behaviours until it learns to let them go. Dreams often help to reveal these mechanisms and to expose them as being helpful once but a hindrance now.
An example would be the case of a relationship where someone is emotionally hurt. The protective mechanism might be to become fearful of entering into trusting relationships so that they do not get hurt again. A false protection, of course. All the protection is doing, in this example, is preventing the person from benefitting from a trusting relationship.
We all have fears stretching back to childhood that are not being at all helpful to us as adults.
So, when you face fear in your dream (known from your cold and sweating waking reaction) you are most likely at a point in your life where you are ready to confront something that has been fearful for you for some time.
There are two possible routes for you to take: you can agree with the fear and take the dream as a warning (either as a valid warning or as a false warning that is only going to serve to 'protect' you from further growth) or examine the fear, perhaps see it as no longer relevant, and let it go.
In your dream, Owen, you can't see the enemy but you know they are there. This suggests that you are about to confront something that has been a conflict for you for some time OR - and far more likely - you are about to confront your worst enemy and we all know who that is! Our worse enemies are always ourselves. We are incredibly good at getting in our own way, fighting and defeating our progress, defending our positions and attacking.
Your enemy in the dream are soldiers wearing uniform: 'uniform' thinking and actions ... discipline .. taking orders ... How do these fit into your life? Where in your life (now or in the past) have taking orders, discipline or uniform behaviour been a feature? Who or what has been firm with you?
When we scale a hill, mountain or cliff in a dream we are often "getting on top of" something: getting close to overcoming a previous mountain of a hurdle. Hurdles don't come much harder than sheer cliffs. What, in your life, has felt like trying to climb a sheer cliff?
The darkness most likely represents what is unknown (to your conscious mind): "in the dark" though it can also represent feeling dark, depressed or moody. Your emphasis is on not being able to SEE the enemy, so my feeling is that the darkness is either simply what you do not yet know (not knowing enough yet to understand who or what the enemy is) or a dark feeling that is in the way of you being able to get clarity on this.
Rain: what feeling did the rain give you in the dream? Was it quenching rain or depressing rain? Was it releasing rain or the kind of rain that makes the climbing tough? What would be the rain in your life at the moment?
Basically I see your dream as beautifully positive: you have worked hard to get on top of a difficult situation (though you may be unaware of this - for example, people don't often KNOW they're in an oppressive situation until years later when they look back) and you are now ready to face a fear that has kept you in conflict with yourself and with others.
This is your time to examine why you might have been your own worse enemy and what you can now do to move forward in a more peaceful and free-flowing way.
Hope this helps, Owen,
Jane Teresa Anderson |
