Author

Subject: Antique Linens

Jasmine

05:45 25/03/2002 

I was at a very old homestead. There were lots of people around doing various tasks, but they were not significant. My task was to take very old clothes from the closet and iron them. I discovered that someone had hidden beautiful antique linens inside the clothing. These were worth a lot of money and I would take them and put them in the back bedroom in a stack. I had a rather large stack of them and they were absolutely gorgeous. No one knew about my hidden treasures.

At some point in time, I showed my sister-in-law, Peggy, the linens. She thought they were beautiful. I later went to add more linens to the stack and discovered that someone had stolen all of them. I was so upset. I went and told Peggy. She said that my mother-in-law might have taken them or that another older woman there might have taken them (I did not know this other woman). She also said that she would help me get them back.

The rest of the dream was just confusion and upset. I could not discern who had taken the linens, so I was suspicious of my mother-in-law and the other woman, and Peggy could not get them back. The dream started out with high hopes and excitement, then all was dashed by an unknown thief and I was left with a lot of suspicion and ANGER.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

2004

Jane Teresa's View

Jane Teresa Anderson

Overview Interpretation & Dream Alchemy Practice suggestion

OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION

Hi Jasmine,

There is a sense of lost heritage in this dream. The two women you knew in the dream were both in-laws, not people from your birth family. When you marry into another family you have two lines of heritage, your birth line and the new one. If you took on your husband’s surname when you married then you may even feel a conflict of heritage, bearing the name of your husband’s line and not your own.

You are at a very old homestead. I see the word ‘stead’ in ‘homestead’, sounding like ‘steady’, evoking a feeling of foundation and establishment. The home in the dream represents you and, possibly, your feelings about establishment and heritage.

Clothes in dreams often represent opinions and image, how we choose to show ourselves to the world. The very old clothes may refer to ‘very old’ opinions or attitudes within yourself (ones that you have worn for most of your life) or they may represent family values – attitudes that stretch way back, handed down from generation to generation. Your task is to remove these from the closet (to bring them out into the open) and iron them (iron them out, smooth them). Have you been reviewing family values, or your own attitudes recently?

You discover that someone has hidden beautiful and valuable antique linens and then you hide these again. It’s as if you have uncovered a secret and then hasten to hide it again. These valuable linens are part of you, something of great value that has been around for a long time, but which you have hidden in the past. You fear letting others see this wonderful treasure so you quickly hide it again. This hidden quality seems to be related to heritage.

You see the linens as being worth a lot of money and you stack them up. ‘Stack’ is a word we often use to describe money – stacks of money, a stack of notes, stacks of coins. It’s as if you are laying these linens aside as security for your future. What are you holding back, keeping to one side for the future? I get a feeling here that you do not feel entirely comfortable with your in-law heritage and that you are keeping a valuable part of yourself back. As you say, at the end of the dream, “started out with high hopes and excitement, then all was dashed .. and I was left with suspicion and anger”. Did your marriage start out with high hopes and have those hopes been dashed? If not, where else, in your life now, do you feel your high hopes have been dashed?

What inner treasure do you feel has been stolen from you? How far back did this stealing occur? Have you left a valuable part of yourself stuck in the past?

In the dream you trusted Peggy, suggesting you see something in Peggy that you identify with. What is it?

When you feel anger in a dream it is usually a good thing. This is most likely anger that you have held back in the past but that you are now releasing in the dream. Your task is to discover what emotion lies below the anger – what emotion and feeling the anger was really hiding. Now, doesn’t this begin to sound like the hidden linen story?

Dreams often use word play. Perhaps the linen is the valuable silver ‘lining’ treasure to be found hiding underneath the anger. You have taken your anger out of the closet to ‘iron out’ a few issues, and look what you discover! So, please don’t hide it again. Let that silver lining shine!

DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE

Artwork:

Buy some small pieces of linen – new or antique – and create a collage, patchwork quilt (very old homestead!), item of clothing or other artwork of your choice. Then display it, hang it, wear it – anything but hide it! You might want to title your artwork, “Shining my silver lining”.

Important:

Do your artwork dream alchemy practice alone. This is your contemplation time. Exploring your feelings as you do your artwork is an important part of the alchemy.

How does this work?

By working with dream elements and symbols in art form you are communicating with your unconscious mind in its own language to create change, to explore your feelings or to resolve past issues.

More details on Artwork as a Dream Alchemy Practice in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 333-4.

Jane Teresa Anderson

You can consult with Jane Teresa or her Dream Team and receive your interpretation by email within five working days.

ORIGINAL THREAD

Below is the original forum discussion on this dream, contributed before Jane Teresa's 2004 interpretation.

Lena

17:14 25/03/2002 

Hi Jasmine,

Homes usually relate to our inner selves, so I have a feeling that you were storing away some treasures (treasured memories, perhaps) and someone/thing stole them from you.

Does that make any sense?

guest

05:57 27/03/2002 

Hi Lena--

You are really awesome in your interpretations! I wonder if this could be related to my oldest daughter going off to college last fall. It has been devastating to me, and she is so far away that our visits to each other are not that often. She was just home for Spring break, and it's just the fact that it will never be the same that absolutely craters me. We are still very, very close and communicate constantly. This could be, in a sense, my lost treasures.

Jasmine

Tom

08:27 27/03/2002 

But what of the older women? What do they represent? One of them you knew and the other you did not. Both of them are suspects in a painful letdown in plain sight of a blessing. The treasure was found in something usually condsidered used up and not worth much. You had experienced a "Serindipity" and the blessing was meant for you. Then, some unethical and dubious character snuffed away your blessing in an instance. The saying goes that the devil will offer a substitute just before you were to receive a blessing. In essence, stealing your blessing. Have you been given a choice and rather than showing patience you may have jumped the gun to early so to speak? Only to find out if you had waited, you would have been rewared? It could have been anything. Maybe bought something from a store only to have it go on sale shortly after. Or maybe something very serious. How do you think the women represent? Who or what has taken your blessing lately that you found fair and square? Be patient with me I am a beginner.

guest

11:45 27/03/2002 

Hi Tom--

Very, very interesting observations that you have made. I also wondered about the two women. I deal in antiques, and so does my mother-in-law. I don't see her very often. Our relationship is bittersweet. The other older women is just a total stranger, but surrounded by suspicion in the dream.

I have been processing this, and it occurred to me that I have been very upset about some things that are occurring with my husband's job. The company that he works for is owned by a husband and wife team. My husband is paid per day of work. For instance, he might work 10-12 days, but his paycheck will only reflect 8 days. What is happening with the other days, and when will they get caught up? He works such a hectic schedule that it is hard to keep track of everything, and at the end of last year there was a conflict over days. Now the same thing is happening again. I can't believe that they are doing this. The wife does the payroll. My husband says that the owner husband talks on the phone like a "woman". Could this be it? Or....

How does one know if this might be a premonition dream" concerning my antiques?

Jasmine