Image Fifty-Eight: 1st June 2003. Photo by Michael Collins
Penguins on Rocks
Feeling The Picture
Your feeling reactions to a dream are keys to its interpretation. These are my feelings. If this were a scene in your dream or life, how would you feel about being there?
I feel a sense of contrast between the familiarity of the foreground and the surreal magical quality of the distance.
Familiarity! There's a surprise feeling, as I am not familiar with life as a penguin on the edge of the Antarctic! I feel the penguins are relishing the familiarity of their 'turf' - or seashore in this case. It's as if everyone's had a good breakfast and they're just enjoying the bliss of the post-coffee caffeine hit and the prospect of a new day ahead.
Yet in the distance I am entranced by the two dark figures on the rock. Are they penguins? More mysteriously I see a shape in the iceberg-cloud mass just above their heads. Outlined in deep blue it looks like a cross between a whale and a plane. I feel a sense of mystery, curiosity, excitement and suspense in the unknown. I feel anticipation. What will happen next?
The Symbols
Symbols in your dreams often relate to your personal memories and associations, so always consider those first. Then let your mind play with other, more general possibilities. They will not all apply! Just open your mind and notice where the symbol seems to fit and make sense of the rest of your dream.
What is in the foreground of your dream may symbolise the present or what you are focused on. What is in the distance may represent the background to the issue, or the deeper, perhaps metaphysical aspects of the issue.
What is in the distance may also represent what is in the past or in the future, depending on your feeling in the dream. Do you feel the figures in the distance are moving away (past) or towards (future) the figures in the foreground?
As always with dream animals, ask, "What do I feel is the energy of this animal?" For example, you might say penguin energy is "patient, community-oriented and comical". Another person might say "cumbersome on land, agile in water, expert at adaptation". Dream animals represent your instincts and energies and the interpretation is in the way you see them. In this example, the first person might be dealing with patience, the second with adapting to a situation.
These birds are strikingly black and white. Perhaps your dream penguin is drawing your attention to black and white thinking (extremes).
The environment is cold. Perhaps you are dealing with feelings of being out in the cold, emotionally. The Antarctic is a polar region. Perhaps your dream is looking at polar thinking - again, extremes.
The sea often represents emotions or the unconscious, while rocks may symbolise solid ground or ancient conscious thought forms. Always look for dream puns: what is 'rock hard' in your thinking or feeling?
Do you see the iceberg-cloud shapes that I see: the whale and the plane? The blueprint outlines without solidity may represent thought forms in the making or the breaking - the coming into or out of consciousness.
The Questions
Here are some questions the dreamer of such a dream picture might ask to work towards a complete understanding of the dream.
Try these yourself: just give your 'gut reaction' answers to the questions - your answers will surprise you in the insights they deliver. The key thing to remember is, "Don't THINK about your answers - give quick gut reaction replies". Your unconscious will deliver.
If this process can work powerfully for this image, consider how infinitely more powerful the insights are when the image comes from one of your own dreams - direct from your unconscious!
- Which one of these penguins do you relate to most? (Look at the body language.)
- What is that penguin thinking?
- What is it feeling?
- Does it have an issue or conflict with one of the other penguins? If so, which one?
- What is this second penguin thinking?
- What is this second penguin feeling?
- Do the penguins have a common purpose?
- If so, what is this purpose?
- What time of day is it?
- Are the penguins close to or far away from home?
- What is the energy of the rock in the middle of the image?
- What is the energy of the sea?
- What are the two dark shapes on the distant rock?
- What feeling do you get when you look at the two dark shapes on the distant rock?
- Are the penguins aware of the shapes in the distance?
- If the penguins were moved to the distant rocks, how would they feel?
- How many opposites can you see or feel in this image?
- Look back over your answers to Q's 1 - 16. How many opposites can you see in your answers?
- Look at your answer to Q8. Where or when has this purpose been important in your life?
- Look at your answer to Q9. Morning may symbolise the beginning, evening the end or a resolution. What do you get from this?
- Look at your answer to Q14. This may be a feeling you have kept hidden or a feeling that is coming into your life. If you expressed this feeling into your life now, what would change?
- Look at your answer to Q15. If you answered 'No', ask yourself if you are ignoring or denying the feelings you mentioned in your answer to Q14.
- Look at your answers to Q's 17 & 18. Do these opposites describe any conflict or issue in your life now?
- If you could write a word in the iceberg-clouds to inspire or help the penguins in this image, what would that word be?
- How can you use this message to take your next step?
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Quotes from Jane Teresa's book, Dream Alchemy, combined with Michael's photographic images, for you to frame.
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Photographic images set to Jane Teresa's dream insights.
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