Hello Shooting Star, Gracie and Belinda,
Thank you for replying here.
Three quite different dreams.
Gracie: your interpretation is already in your description, isn't it? The feeling of being centred in the middle of change all around you and yet also aware of the enormous power of the changes going on in your life. You 'rolled with it' as a calm centre in your dream ... and from a calm and centred perspective we are best equipped to make the right decisions regarding our actions and being. Perfect dream advice. As you were calm and rolling with the changes, there was no 'crash' ... your journey within the wave of change just kept on going. Was this how life was for you when you had the dream, or was your dream experience a calm voice within urging you to take this approach, do you feel?
Belinda: yes, the feeling of not having the time or the energy to come up for air between one huge wave of emotion or change and the next ... and all the children (new things in your life and / or the beliefs you had as a child) getting knocked down each time. I guess your middle road (Bette Middler) was the equivalent of Gracie's 'roll with it in the calm centre' approach to the tidal waves of life.
Shooting Star: your friend's dream is a good example of the differences between facing the waves (and either riding them or seeing them disappear) and running away or being about to be caught by the wave ('stuck' and overpowered).
Tidal waves, in dreams, tend to symbolise the emotions we try to repress or hold back to 'deal with' later. Water tends to represent our emotions: you can't put water under pressure without drastic results in the same way that you can't lock emotions into a box to deal with later. Tidal waves, in dreams, show the enormous power and pressure of our unconscious emotions.
Tidal waves may be formed from positive shut-away emotions (creativity, love, passion) just as often as from the emotions we think of as being negative (anger, grief, disappointment and so on).
In waking life we say we are 'dealing' or 'coping' with tough conditions, but really dealing and coping are really ways of ignoring and denying through trying to 'carry on' as before instead of address or acknowledge feelings and emotions which (we know) will result in change. How many times do we run away from change - even when it is positive change? That old, familiar safety zone can be so engrossing.
As the dreams show, running away (from emotions or from change) gets us nowhere but - stuck or paralysed in the status quo from fear of facing change ... or bowled over into a 'breakdown' as the wave, ignored for far too long, catches up and 'breaks'.
As the dreams show, facing the wave and showing no fear (facing fear) is the way to go. After this you ride the changes in life, roll with the flow and let the power of your life force take you to a better place .. a place where emotions and feelings are out of the box and therefore not subjected to mounting pressure.
As the ocean can also represent the unconscious, tidal waves can symbolise the forward movement of the unconscious, relentlessly insisting on our forward progress (personal development, self understanding, enlightenment) and showing us, through the dream action, where we are resisting this.
Sometimes your tidal wave dreams are clearer in retrospect. If you do not face the emotions, changes or forward movement the tidal waves urge, then life takes you to a place of forced-facing .. of crisis. Looking back you will see all the signs from your dreams and see where your dreams included hints on how to achieve change through gentler means than getting totally bowled over.
In this way, tidal wave dreams can be seen to be precognitive, as our unconscious is so far ahead of our conscious mind in expressing the shape of things to come.
A book could be written on this subject ... hmm. now, there's a thought!!!
So, next time you catch yourself saying, "I'm coping," or "I'm dealing with it," ... think again. If you're coping or dealing ... consider very carefully that you may, in fact, be NOT FACING.
Thanks again to Star, Gracie and Belinda for contributing examples .. others please feel free to add.
Jane Teresa Anderson |
