Issue 52, December 2002
Let Sleeping Cows Lie
©Jane Teresa Anderson, December 2002
If you could be an animal for a day, what would you be? Why?
If you had to pick an animal to best symbolise your personality, what would it be? Why?
If you could choose an animal to be your inspiration, your guide, your totem, what would it be? Why?
I'd be most surprised if you've answered 'cow' to any of these questions. Personally, cows would be way down on my list of great life experiences, alter egos and guides. My dream, a few weeks ago, was of another opinion. It decided cows were the energy of the day to reflect where I was at. Worse still, they were sleeping cows. Lots of them.
When you dream of an animal it is most helpful to look at the animal as representing an energy or instinct within yourself. Hmmm. Cow. Sleeping cow.
I see cows as domestic, subordinate and bored. 'Poor cow' is apt. Was that really how I was feeling?
Cows also bring to mind Garry Larsen's Far Side greeting cards which frequently feature bovine creatures. One of my favourites shows a bunch of cows standing up in a field near a main road, reading newspapers and conversing intelligently. A car approaches, the chief cow shouts out a warning, and they all assume the expected four-legged, cud-chewing, cow position while the car speeds by.
As my other dream on the cow-dream night concerned buying a Garry Larsen greetings card, I thought I'd follow the humour to awaken to the meaning of my dream.
In my cow dream, I was walking along an English country track when I noticed a sleeping cow. It wasn't sleeping in the usual position. It was sprawled out as if it had just collapsed in an exhausted heap, all four legs and tail splayed out in a star shape. I knelt down and whispered words of encouragement into the cow's ear, urging it to wake up enough to jump over the stile (gate) a little further up the track. The cow was too exhausted to hear me. I walked further along the track and found another sleeping cow, whispered the same and got the same no-go result. Many sleeping cows and many whispers later the dream ended.
In the second dream, after buying the greetings card, I went to get into my dream car. What a car! It was a gleaming yellow Alpha Romeo Spider. I watched my daughter get into the back (hmmm, I know there's no back seat in a spider) as gingerly as if she were climbing into a tiny dinghy. The spider wobbled, just like a bobbing boat, while I whispered words of encouragement to help her find her balance, to still the car-boat so we could drive away - which we did.
A key dream interpretation tool is to look for similarities between different dreams on the same night.
Here they include: the cow theme (cows, Garry Larsen card), whispering encouragement (in the cow's ears and to my daughter) and the aim of moving on (jump a stile and drive forward).
After you've identified the similarities, ask yourself if both dreams have similar outcomes, or if one dream seems more successful than the other.
In my case, the Alpha Romeo dream was more successful because we got to drive away, whereas the sleeping cows in the first dream hadn't budged.
Then ask yourself what was the key to the successful outcome in the successful dream.
In my dream there seemed to be two keys. One was buying into the funny side of the cow theme (the greetings card) as that created the racy car as the means of transport (instead of just walking the country lane). The second key was the change in my whispered words. In the first dream I tried to inspire the cows to put in one last effort (jump that stile). In the second dream I urged only balance. Once balance was achieved, we were off, fast and with great ease!
Without fully understanding either dream, this interpretation approach gave me solid practical advice: make forward progress through ensuring balance rather than through slogging myself, when exhausted, to jump one more stile.
Now, this instantly rang true. I had slogged through a few weeks of very intensely creative work, too many hours despite a great sense of achievement and contentment with the results. Yes, I could see. The poor, exhausted cow was indeed I. I needed time out to re-establish a sense of balance. So I took it and revelled in domestic bliss.
Preferring to enjoy the funny far side of all things, I can never leave a dream without checking for word plays and cliches. Well, here we have helping lame dogs over stiles, let sleeping dogs lie, poor exhausted cow - but then it hit me. My mother used to despair of the speedy way I used to run with ideas as a child. I'd have an idea and want to do it NOW. I still do. It's like running with the energy while it's fresh and happening, before there's time for the idea to go cold, to see flaws or to feel fear. "Slow down! You're like a bull at a gate!" she would shout. (This being the very same woman who would equally as often advise, "Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do today"!)
So now my dreams have offered a choice. I can continue to charge through new projects like a bull at a gate and then fall into an exhausted sleep and restore balance during a period of domestic cud-chewing, or I can see the funny side of my working style and get the balance right BEFORE the event rather than after it.
And the Alpha Romeo spider? Well, the one in my dream reminded me of a James Bond car. Secret intelligence stuff. Maybe my sleeping cow is really a cover for ...
Jane Teresa Anderson
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