A different dream is posted here each week with Jane Teresa's interpretation. These are real dreams collected from around the world.
We were outside my home, on the north side of the house. I was with a group of girls, maybe around six or eight. All of us were friends. One of them was my special friend Carmel.
I looked over and we all saw the moon rising, coming up above the silos, and we all said, "Look at the moon. It's different".
They all kept talking on as a group, and I sat there and watched the moon. It was different in its colour. And then I looked away and then looked back and saw there was a piece missing like the shape of a piece of pie.
It had me wondering what was happening, why the changes.
While I kept watching it, it came out with spots, like in an aboriginal painting. These spots moved like the snow in one of those Christmas ornaments that you shake and the snow moves and settles.
Behind this snow was a browny coloured turtle. The moon was orange and white in colour. The piece of moon that was missing was back now but there was another piece missing that looked like someone had taken a bite out of it. I sat there continuing to wonder what was going on, what's happening?
Note:
I wonder if this dream meant that something in my life is changing, but in slow process.
I am a quiet person and feel that this dream represented something about the idea that in this instance I WAS part of a group, I DID have a circle of friends that I BELONGED with. I feel the dream represented that my life WAS IN CHANGE.
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.
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