OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION
Hi Kat,
At least he has a name! Roger. Apart from your dream Roger, what kind of personality do you associate with this name?
You have never met your dream Roger in waking life, but have you met many other Rogers? Make a list of all the Rogers you have met or know of – either as first names or as surnames. Beside each name write three words describing their approach to life and then write the opposites to these words. Does anything strike you from your lists? Do your Rogers have something in common, or do they remind you of a certain period in your life? Do they bring up feelings of unresolved issues or regrets?
Dreams play with clichés. Roger the dodger could be one. Your dream Roger dodges speaking out and dodges taking on a leadership role too. In fact, he dodges taking an equal role.
The Roger in your dreams represents something in your life that lacks strength (he is sickly and malnourished). Being male he most likely symbolises your outer world, your Yang or the qualities of your left brain – assertiveness, action, intellect, rational thinking. Note the word action! Your dream Roger “never takes action alone”.
In your dreams his silence concerns you. What action or communication might you be dodging (perhaps) or needing to nourish?
No-one else seems to notice Roger and you only notice him out of the corner of your eye. He is just coming to your notice. When did he first appear in your dreams? What else was happening at that time? What was happening in terms of action and leadership? Where were you speaking up and where were you staying mute?
Are you more of a follower than a leader, a silent type, often feeling unnoticed? Now, your response to that question will be either a resounding ‘yes’ or an ‘absolutely not, I am so much the opposite!’ People in our dreams, such as Roger, usually represent extremes of our beliefs, so we either strongly identify with them or we strongly identify with their opposite. Here’s how it works:
Imagine your father was a great leader who spent most of his time away from home. As a child you might have greatly admired him, growing up to believe in strong leadership, emulating him in his extreme dedication to the cause. Or, you might have missed his presence at home, growing up believing that strong leadership equated with lack of love and that leadership was not a good thing. This is a simplified example, but it serves the purpose. When we live according to a belief, the opposite belief often hides buried in the unconscious, an unresolved, unhealed emotional issue. Dreams can help us to identify these polarities.
Other people in our dreams sometimes represent our polarities – one extreme or the other. Our dreams urge us to heal the issues behind the polarised belief and establish a more balanced point of view somewhere between the two.
Knowing this, what belief do you think Roger may represent and where (or from whom) do you think you learned this belief?
It’s time to get to know Roger and to find out why you have pushed him behind you and left him without nourishment or voice.
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Giving back the belief:
By now you have probably worked out a belief relating to Roger from your childhood that is affecting your current situation.
First write down that belief in one sentence, “I believe that …” Then write down the name of the person who you learned that belief from. Then write down a new belief to replace the old one. Now you’re ready to give back the original belief. Use the example below as a guide on how to do this.
How to do this:
Here’s an example. You can adapt it to suit the belief you are ready to give back:
(From DREAM ALCHEMY, page 67.)
“A little boy was taught that ‘boys don’t cry’ and ‘fathers don’t hug their sons’. Of course this little one desperately needed to cry or be hugged along the way, but he grew up to hold back his tears and keep an emotional distance from those he loved. On the surface all was cool, but deep inside that little boy lived on, still crying rejected, unloved tears. He took on the beliefs of his father and suffered as a result.
To perform this Giving Back the Belief dream alchemy practice this man imagines going back to meet himself as a little child and hugs this child. He tells him that he can now give his father back this belief that boys don’t cry and fathers don’t hug because it belongs to the father, not to the child. The grown man helps the child to do this, in the visualisation, and sees the father agree to take back the belief. In its place the grown man must give the child a new belief to replace the old. He chooses to give the belief, ‘It’s good for boys and men to cry when they need to and to hug and express their feelings’.”
Make sure that when you give back a belief you replace it with a better belief, otherwise it is likely to be filled by another unsuitable belief.
How does this work?
The beliefs you carry are not set in concrete. You borrowed them from other people so you can give them back. Since dreams usually show the person you borrowed the belief from, that person is the perfect symbol to use to communicate with your unconscious mind. Like any symbol, the person lives on in your mind not as the actual person, but as part of your unconscious language. By communicating with the person-symbol through dream alchemy you give back your belief – you reprogram your unconscious mind.
More details on Giving Back the Belief as a Dream Alchemy Practice in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 336-7.
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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