OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION
Hi Tom,
At the start of your dream something that is long dead was exploded open, presenting an opportunity to really look into what has died and why. Death in dreams is symbolic of what we have let die in our lives. Sometimes it is good to let things die, such as beliefs and attitudes that have been working against us. Sometimes we let things die prematurely, perhaps our goals, hopes, talents or drive.
Once we work out what particular death the dream refers to, we can decide whether to mourn the past and move on to birth new attitudes and projects, for example, or whether to resurrect what we have buried and give it new life.
In your dream you were exploring a newer subdivision of the cemetery, suggesting more recent burials or deaths. Being newer it is also the place where you expect to see the ground being opened up in readiness for burial. What is below the surface of the earth in dreams may reflect what is below the surface within you – the unconscious mind where you bury memories, experiences, feelings and beliefs hoping they’ll stay hidden and rest in peace. Have you been doing some personal development work recently, perhaps opening up to see what you have buried?
The children and teenagers are setting off explosive devices and the grave explodes. Have you been feeling explosive, angry, frustrated? The children and teenagers most likely represent yourself at that age, at a time when you had explosive feelings. Current anger may be resonating with a deeper childhood anger that is ready to be uncovered for your healing.
Bottle rockets. What kind of bottles? Baby bottles? Beer bottles? Milk bottles? Do any of these relate to your teenage years? Dreams use word play. When we talk about frustration or anger we often talk about “bottled up” feelings. Your dream suggests bottled up feelings of anger (the fire in the firecrackers) from your childhood years reaching explosion point.
The exploding grave belonged to a child. Did you have any feeling for the age of the child when he died or for how old the grave was? If, for example, he was five years old, he may represent something you buried within yourself when you were five years old or something you buried five years ago. If you felt that the grave was 250 years old, think of 2.5 years or 25 years. Dreams add zeros to grab attention.
I wonder what the pipe represents. Did someone you know at that age smoke (a pipe) or die of a tracheal (wind pipe) disease? Did you play the pipe? Was someone a plumber? Stretch your brain to look for a connection between your associations with pipes and what you might have buried within yourself.
When I read your dream I saw the pipe as a breathing hole from the grave, as if the child or its parent had been afraid of being buried alive. Did you feel suffocated emotionally as a child or teenager?
After the explosion people come “running out of nowhere” as if they have exploded onto the scene. They want to know what the cause of all of this is, just as your dream is about investigating why you have buried this anger, perhaps. The “nowhere” the people exploded from could relate to your feelings of death (the grave) being a “nowhere” – a lack of faith in an afterlife or a lack of hope in your own future. When you buried those angry feelings, did you also bury hope, relegating it to an empty space, a nowhere nothingness? Was the pipe leading to the surface a last connection with hope –the hope of breathing, of life?
This theme is repeated when you explore the small building, going from room to room, all “dank” and “empty”, “just searching”. Is there or was there a dank, emptiness within you, despite searching for something more positive?
The people wanted to investigate the cause of all of this and it’s interesting that you then went into a building used for wakes to escape the calamity. But you can’t escape in a place that awakens (wakes) you to what you need to know! Here your dream suggests that it was a need to escape explosive anger (or escape facing what you buried) that caused the accumulation of this bottled-up energy that should have been dealt with, rather than buried, long ago.
The little children were happy playing, but would soon die. Could the children be your childhood hopes for the future (children should have a future, after all), preparing to die? Could the sadness be your own sadness at giving up these hopes? Were you forced to end childhood early, to be grown-up too soon? When you misspell a word the new meaning may be a clue, the word being an unconscious communication. Rather than saying, “I couldn’t bear the scene ..” you said, “I couldn’t bare the scene”, suggesting that you were uncovering (baring) something that you had buried. This is why I feel the children represent a past you are reticent to uncover rather than a new acceptance to let something die.
It was meeting your brother that got you out of there. Assuming your brother spent his childhood and teenage years with you, what can you learn about all of this by thinking about his approach to life, back then and now?
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Artwork:
Create an artwork (painting, collage, music) titled, “After the explosion – Hope”. Or, replace the word ‘hope’ with the word that seems healing to you after working through the questions I have posed in this interpretation.
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.
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