Hi Catherine,
There is a lot in your dream and it is a very powerful one. Here are some starting points: others may wish to add more:
Snakes can mean a number of things in our dreams, but they do have a deep symbolism, across the world, as the healing energy within ourselves. (Snakes are incorporated into many healing legends and stories and health symbols such as our western medicine caduceus.)
Your grandfather gave you the snake but you put it in a dark place and lost it. Your grandfather in a dream can symbolise the 'old and wise' part of yourself: it seems you have a wise understanding of healing but you have pushed it into the dark (into your unconscious). The healing you feel you have 'lost' may either be healing skills (a sense of knowing) or the need to heal something within yourself.
In dreams, the bite of a snake often symbolises the moment of facing the pain of a healing, afterwhich we move on, healed, refreshed. Your snake, being in the dark, can neither bite you into healing nor be used by you to facilitate healing in others.
The warehouses may symbolise storage, again giving rise to the idea that you may have put healing into storage. You also dreamed of a truck that wouldn't start: a truck may symbolise work ( a practical way of getting around) as warehouses may also be used for work purposes. So here you can see healing could be coming up in the context of work: only the snake is lost and the truck is going nowhere! (Cars in dreams often symbolise how you're going about your life, your drive and direction.)
Jumping on a bit, the bookshelves fell on top of you: to me this suggests that knowledge (books) is getting in the way of your healing. Either the 'wrong' kind of knowledge - or, possibly, if you are a student, the feeling that your study is getting 'on top of you' (as literally shown in the dream). Do you feel the weight of too much study or the 'wrong' kind of knowledge?
The little snakes are possibly smaller areas of healing or healing-knowledge that you are dealing with in your life now - but you know they are nothing compared to the big one.
There is more - but there are some clues there Catherine. Hope it helps.
Some liken snakes to symbols of sexuality, and with your note about petting the lap dog, this could be an angle here, but I feel the healing one is overwhelmingly where this dream is at.
Let us know how you feel about all of this!
Jane Anderson |
