Image Sixty-Two: 1st February 2004. Photo by Michael Collins
Face in Crowd
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 crowded out, a little too close to this woman who is trying to communicate with someone behind me. She does not see me or feel my presence, making me feel overlooked and insignificant.
Being overlooked and insignificant is okay, even welcome, in some circumstances, but in this case I feel irritated and disrespected because my peaceful space is being disrupted by her unnecessary angry shouting.
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.
When people from your waking life appear in your dreams, the first step is to describe their personality and approach to life. Next you write down the opposites to these descriptions. (E.g. serious, playful; or lazy, hardworking.) You will often discover that these pairs of opposites define the issues your dream is addressing. (E.g. the issue of how serious or playful you are; the issue of how lazy or hardworking you are.) Such dreams help us to realise that living at extremes (e.g. too playful and never serious, or too serious and never playful) is not healthy. Such dreams urge us to find a balanced middle point.
But what does it mean when you dream of people unknown to you in waking life?
If the person in your dream had obvious personality traits, or was expressing strong feelings, then you can still apply the same principles. For example, if you see this woman as loud and outspoken, then the opposites might be soft and repressed. In this example, your dream might be awakening you to look at how outspoken or repressed you are, or at how loudly or softly you express yourself, urging you to find a healthier middle point style of communicating.
Women in dreams tend to represent your Yin and your right brain qualities. If you feel this woman is a mother, she may represent your mothering instincts (nurturing yourself and others) or be drawing attention to your attitudes about mothers. If you see this woman as an elderly wise person, then she may represent your own growing wisdom.
This woman’s racial or cultural heritage may be of personal significance to you. She is South American. Have you lived in South America (in which case her dream presence may be taking you back to that time)? She looks indigenous, suggesting she may symbolise ancient wisdoms or instincts within you.
The main colour here is grey. What are your feelings about grey? If you feel it is a colour lacking passion, then this may well be its meaning in your dream. Or perhaps you feel it is the colour of anonymity, or of wishy-washy expression. Your personal associations are always important in understanding the symbolism of YOUR dream.
This woman is wrapped in her hat and poncho. Is she protecting herself from the cold or from something else? Clothes in a dream often represent how we feel about our image, how we project ourselves.
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!
1. How old is this woman? (Your gut reaction answer.)
2. What is she wearing underneath her blanket or poncho?
3. How would she feel if you saw her in those clothes, without her poncho?
4. Is she speaking, shouting or singing?
5. Who is she addressing?
6. Is she being heard by the person she is addressing?
7. Is she being understood by the person she is addressing?
8. How is she feeling?
9. What is this place?
10. Why has she come here?
11. Where is she going after this?
12. What feeling does the colour grey give you?
13. How does the woman feel about being wrapped in her poncho?
14. What feeling does she get when she wears this hat?
15. What is her standing among other people in her locality?
16. Who gave her the earrings she is wearing?
17. How old are her earrings?
18. Look at your answer to Q1. Does this number have any significance for you?
19. Look at your answer to Q3. When, in your life, do you have this feeling?
20. Look at your answer to Q6. How often are you heard?
21. Look at your answer to Q7. How often do you feel understood?
22. Look at your answer to Q12. Where, in your life, do you have this feeling?
23. Look at your answer to Q12 again. What is the opposite of this feeling?
24. Look at your answer to Q23. Where, in your life, do you have this feeling?
25. Look at your answer to Q17. What happened for you this number of years or months ago?
26. If you have an answer for Q25, what message or insight do you see, looking back to that time?
27. What would you like to say to this woman?
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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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