Images rise and create a story. We may be asleep, our physical bodies lying at rest, but our minds go on being active, allowing all kinds of odd things to appear and then disappear, the characters and plot lines blending, separating, making something happen, or dissolving into chaos and confusion.
Some people keep a dream journal to record the strange apparitions that occur, but I rely on my innermost memory to save what is important, while at the same time jettisoning anything that is not necessary. What this means, to me, is this: if an image or an event keeps recurring to me in dreamtime, or if it rises up once in a profound way and refuses to diminish, then I pay attention.
A case in point: last week I dreamed of a bobcat, a very big bobcat, one nearly as large as a human being. No need to go into details about the mission of the bobcat, who it might have represented, or what it hoped to accomplish. However, I felt strongly called to investigate the nature of the bobcat and what that might represent to me at this time in my life. Thus, I spent some time nosing around on the internet.
What I discovered was nothing particularly new because I have known since my days of living with bobcats in wilderness environments that they have the following attributes. They are known, among other things, to be adaptable, aware, cunning, patient, playful, smart, solitary, strategic, stealthy, and masters of silence. Again, however, in order to understand the purpose of the bobcat in my dreamtime, I needed to go one step further.
Of these characteristics, which ones did I believe I already harbored? Easy enough to answer: I feel that I am adaptable, aware, patient, smart, and solitary. All of these seem to me to be positive in nature. Playful also seems positive, but it is something that I lack because I tend to be quite serious. Of the others—cunning, strategic, stealthy—I sense in my gut a kind of slight revulsion, as if I would not like to be known for those things. Yet, truly, I would honestly love to become a master of silence. Therefore, it follows that if I ponder becoming more cunning, more strategic and more stealthy, then those very things might bring me closer to achieving my goal.
Images in dreamtime tend to tell us something about who we are truly meant to be. Paying attention can bring about incredible rewards.
~LJ