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Issue 14, 11 October 1999Dreaming Tricks & Turns©Jane Teresa Anderson, October 1999
"Oh, quick, please move the car! It looks terrible parked right outside the hotel!" It was a large, white, workhorse of a car plumped smack in front of the elegant hotel foyer steps I was about to climb in my dream. Although the car looked comfortable and honest, its basic image didn’t fit the occasion and I wanted it moved out of sight! Glen jumped into the driver’s seat and whisked the gear into reverse. Since the car was parked tail to bumper with others he had to reverse a little to exit the parking spot and move forward. This was where the trouble began. He accidentally knocked the car that was parked behind. Just a nudge, a soft tap on the bumper, but it was enough to set that second car rolling backwards, until it gathered speed and set off on a long, tortuous, driver-less, backwards journey, accompanied by the excited mock-horror gasps of the crowd gathering behind me on the hotel steps. Yes, the very people I had wanted to impress in the first place were all there, soaking up every moment of the drama. Since this was a dream we could see forever from the steps, and as we settled into watching the growing farce, the funny side of it all began to take over. We laughed great resounding belly laughs as the car tornado-ed back through its past journey, releasing all the energy that had previously driven it forward. By the time it came to rest in a conveniently positioned haystack I no longer cared who knew about the old workhorse image I had wanted to hide. I was all-laughed-out, but that still wasn’t the end of the story. Even in the dream I knew that although it was Glen who had reversed the car, the dream was really about me. I couldn’t have been made to look any sillier - or could I? The last laugh would have been at my further expense if I had still cared, for there had only ever been two cars parked outside the hotel: the workhorse and the one behind it. There had been no car parked in front and so no need to reverse in the first place. The obstacle that I had perceived to be in front of the car had never been there at all. All of that drama could have been avoided! I laughed my way through the rest of the dream and giggled right through the next day. Something within me had clearly been released beyond the laughter. The dream had allowed me to take a step back to help me to go forward. That step back had revealed a whole different perception of my situation and I was able to release an old way of thinking which was preventing me from going forward. That release simultaneously removed the illusion of the vehicle blocking my way. There had been no obstacle all along, other than myself. There are times when we need to step back from life to see things differently and our dreams can provide us with this perfect opportunity. I could relate the dream concern with my image to my waking life concern about the web site forums breaking down and the negative image I believed this was projecting. As the site began to groan and reveal the holes in its workhorse structure, I contemplated the huge obstacles that seemed to lay between the broken site and a much-needed updated, streamlined new system. The way forward seemed blocked, yet the dream forced me to stand back and laugh as my hard work crumbled to reveal my technological inadequacies and limitations. When the funny side bursts through a dream farce and leaves you giggling well into the next day, you can be sure you have been visited by the Trickster. The Trickster is a mythological figure known to many cultures and a well-known dream symbol. He (or she) may be disguised as anyone who makes a clown-like appearance in your dream, or as someone who jokes, teases or plays a trick or magic illusion on you. Occasionally the Trickster may appear as an object instead: the runaway car was my dream Trickster. This kind of dream comes up at a time of transition and change, when you are breaking through from one way of seeing a situation into a new perception. Suddenly you realise, through the dream, that your old perception of the world was a trick, an illusion. That wasn’t how it was at all! There is release, relief and great laughter, although such a dream can sometimes still leave a feeling of confusion as you take your first wobbly steps across the bridge between the old way of seeing and the new. Once you see the folly of your old vision of reality you touch upon the drama of life’s illusion. The serious face of life is cracked into a smile, which is just as well since the Trickster’s favourite trick is making you look really silly (in and out of dreams) until you get the point! It is at such times of personal change that synchronicity and precognition often occur. (To understand this more clearly, see my book "The Shape of Things to Come".) In my own web site dilemma I was fortunate to be blessed with a precognitive dream which led to a perfect solution. I’m saving the dream for a future newsletter, but you’ll see the first forward step of the result on Monday (4th October) when a totally new look and feel web site will be launched — as well as fully-functional forums ready for you to enjoy. What you will see is Phase One: one dream went a long way and there is much more to follow. So, in a way, I’ve had the last laugh albeit at my own expense, but I’m going to leave the punch-line to that old transformational Trickster: I recently interpreted a dream for a woman who we shall call Laura. The dream showed Laura a shift in perception about the value of her genetic origins and included enough tricks and illusions to reveal the Trickster at work behind this. The dream also included a great wind, which often symbolises the ‘winds of change’. I described the nature of the Trickster to Laura and told her she might experience some synchronicities. She replied that there had been one recurring synchronicity in recent months about her car, but that was all. The next day, however, she emailed me with the next installment. She had been sitting in her parked car having lunch with her husband, explaining her dream and the myth of the Trickster, when a raven struggled against an incredible wind to land nearby. Thinking the bird wanted food, she opened the window and offered some bread. The raven ignored the food and looked her hard in the eye before taking flight again. The message had been delivered for Laura’s genetic heritage included Native American, and in that culture the raven is known as "The Trickster". (Post script: for those of you interested in deeper interpretation) Every part of a dream reveals its interpretation and mine was long, detailed and insightful. I know some of you will be quite intrigued by the haystack in this dream, so I thought I’d enlighten you on that part. I suffered very badly from hay-fever as a child, so a haystack, for me, spells breathing difficulties and all the other discomforts hay-fever brings. For many years I have understood this childhood allergy to reflect a feeling, back then, of being blocked from the flow of life: oxygen, summer outdoors and so on, as if I wasn’t entitled to have what others could have with ease. I had to pay in some way. The dream deals with the perceived need to work hard (workhorse) to pay for my entitlements and reveals the inherent flaws in such an approach. The hotel symbolises the transition and the decision to be rid of the old way. Jane Teresa Anderson
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