INTERPRETATION
The moon ‘comes out’ or becomes visible at night. You cannot see it easily during the day. A turtle ‘comes out’ of its shell, or ‘comes out’ from the ocean. You cannot see it easily most of the time because it takes cover inside its shell. The scene in one of those Christmas ornaments that you shake only ‘comes out’ or becomes visible when the snow settles.
The falling snow covers the scene when the Christmas ornament is shaken. The turtle’s shell or the ocean covers the turtle’s head when he is emotionally shaken (and wants to hide), and the moon – well, we see the moon in a constant cycle of change, looking like its almost completely in its shell at new moon, and only bravely revealing its full face once a month.
So, there’s a repeating theme here! Always look for a repeating theme in a dream. (In dream interpretation, this is known as a motif.) Not all dreams have repeating themes, but many do. When you can identify a repeating theme – a motif –it’s a strong clue to the interpretation of the dream.
The motif is the issue you are processing, working on, trying to come to terms with. In this dream you could sum up the motif or issue as how much to stay in hiding, or under cover, and how much to reveal yourself. Even the turtle that can hide in its shell is part of the Christmas ornament scene that hides behind the snow. And even the scene in the Christmas ornament (whether it is a turtle or a traditional village scene), still has a covering – the snow –even when it becomes more visible.
I’ve described the moon, the turtle and the Christmas ornament scene as ‘coming out’ because these are the words we usually use, but you described the moon “rising”.
A turtle also rises to the surface of the ocean before its head rises above its shell, and the scene, in a Christmas ornament, can appear to rise out of the swirls of snow as the flakes settle. So there’s also a repeating theme of ‘rising above’ something – rising above shyness (the moon from the light of day, the turtle from its shell), or rising above chaos (the shaken snow).
Another related motif in your dream is change. The moon changes all the time, according to a set pattern, although in this dream it changes in unpredictable and different ways. The Christmas ornament scene can be changed at any time you choose, simply by shaking. How the snow settles each time will be different – and so the scene is changed.
So far we can say your dream is about change and whether you hide from it, rise above it or are changed by it.
Your dream is also about a feeling that something is missing, and the moon is a wonderful symbol for this because we rarely see the whole, full moon. When we see a quarter moon, is the rest of it missing, or should we trust that the whole thing is there, just hidden from sight? When you feel something is missing in your life, is it really missing or have you just hidden it from yourself as well as from others?
Your dream begins with you and 6-8 friends, so the dream may be about friendship and how much of yourself you reveal to your friends, but it’s most likely to relate to when you were aged 6-8. Dreams really do play with numbers this way. Think back to when you were aged 6-8, and ask yourself how you felt about hiding and revealing then. Were you shy? Why?
In your dream you said, “Look at the moon. It’s different.” All things in a dream represent you or something about the way you see life. You might just as well say, “Look at me and my life. It’s different!”
What has just changed, in your life, to make it feel different? Have you experienced a change? Do you feel different as in ‘new, changed’? Or have you only recently had an insight that you are different (compared to others) in some way? What do you see as your main point of difference?
Are you shy about your difference, tending to hide, or are you newly proud of it, happy to rise in the sky and be seen for who you are? As you have just had this dream, I’d say you are in transition between these – suddenly realizing how much you have hidden in the past, and being ready, now, to be seen and noticed for your differences and yet – you still feel something is missing.
At this point in the dream the others talked “as a group” while you sat and contemplated the moon and its differences. This suggests you see yourself as different from the group, or tending to be on your own rather than being part of a group. Is this the core issue – your feelings about being involved in groups and your feelings about being on your own? Do you feel that you’re the missing piece –that you’re missing being included in groups, and groups are missing out on your participation?
In the dream, you next wondered why this was happening, why the changes. This suggests that you are going through changes and re-evaluating how you feel about being a part of a group. Has a group recently made you feel that you are ‘different’, not one of them?
This is where your dream then introduces the hide-reveal motif, suggesting the changes you are going through relate to your feelings about hiding (from groups or from being seen) and about ‘rising’ above these feelings. Your dream offers you the opportunity to understand yourself better – to understand why you sometimes might feel like hiding, or feel like retreating from groups, or feel shy, or feel different, or feel as if something is missing – and it offers you the opportunity to understand this by thinking about your experiences around age 6-8.
Change is something you can introduce. You can pick up that Christmas ornament and shake it up at any time: you can shake up your life and change the picture any time. You can decide to shine like a full moon every night of the month instead of just once, or you can choose to introduce a change that gives you some balance in-between. You can choose to thaw some of the cold feelings in your life, to become warmer towards your friends, warmer towards yourself, to melt some emotions and reveal more of yourself.
Dreams always reflect where you’re at in your life right now. Knowing this, you can decide to make changes, if you wish.
You say in your notes that you wonder if the dream means that something in your life is changing in a slow process. Change is in your hands – would you like things to change faster? You can make that happen just by saying ‘yes’. Or you can hide back in your shell, behind the snow, in the darkness of a new moon, and wait for someone else to make a move. It’s clear from your notes that you wish to feel truly part of a group, to have a circle of friends, and to feel that you belong. These things are all in your hands. Because you felt your dream showed your life was in change, and because there are indeed elements of change in your dream, you must be making progress in these areas. Now you can really speed that process – if you choose. Start by doing the dream alchemy practice.
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Make a poster-sized drawing of a moon. This can be as simple as a circle on a piece of paper, or as detailed as a photo or painting of a full moon. Next, write words across your moon to describe all the good things about yourself – as you are now or as you wish to become. These can be single words (fun, loving, confident, creative, inspiring) or whole sentences (‘I inspire my friends to rise above circumstances’, ‘I am a beautiful, unique being’). Put the poster where you will see it every day. Add to it whenever you wish. For every change you wish to introduce into your life, write it on your moon as if it has already happened. Now, take the feeling of that full moon with you wherever you go. Let it shine.
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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