Thread: The wolf, me or someone else?

Although in order to give a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some general background information about you (and a description of events just before the dream), it’s safe to say that animals in dreams show how the dreamer is dealing with his instinctive side, such as with his emotions etc.

A boat usually symbolizes the practical methods the dreamer is using to deal with everyday problems.

The forest symbolizes his unconscious mind, things he really isn’t very aware of etc.

So maybe not long before the dream, you “took command” by using a certain method to look at a part of you (the instincts and feelings etc.) that you don’t know very well which is symbolized by the forest overall.

Maybe the way you did this (symbolized by the man who was attacked) was bad for your instinctive side, and this is why the wolf attacked him first.

It might be that you “agree” too much with this bad method (you help the crew member), so the wolf also then attacks you.

You and your crew are after all “intruders” into his area and his reaction is therefore natural and understandable.

The crew member then doesn’t help you by hitting the wolf with the wood. This could mean that recently, something inside you partly saw that your treatment of the instincts (the wolf) isn’t good and should not continue.

But you fight the wolf and it runs away.

It looks like the person that is unfortunately attacking both you and everyone else, both physically and verbally, could be the cause of you maybe “hurting” your instinctive side (the wolf) too much without knowing it.

So it’s most likely that the wolf symbolizes the instinctive side of yourself and not this other person.

While Freud thought that a dream did everything possible to conceal and change things, hiding them behind a “façade”, the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote instead:

“I was never able to agree…that the dream is a ‘façade’ behind which its meaning lies hidden - a meaning already known but maliciously, so to speak, withheld from consciousness. To me, dreams are a part of nature, which harbors no intention to deceive, but expresses something as best it can, just as a plant grows or and animal seeks its food as best it can.”

So if a dream was directly about the person who is attacking you, it would almost certainly show him or her most often as an exact photographic replica and never as an animal.

If there was something even slightly “different” about the image of the person, it would be describing a certain part of your personality which has been built up over time.

In contrast, a wolf symbolizes your deepest instincts which were born with you and can’t be “removed” by ignoring them etc.

Sadly, it could be that the person who is attacking you is causing so great an emotional pain that you might be trying to understandably shut down and turn off most of your feelings so that this pain won’t hurt too much (e.g. you chase away the wolf, that is, your natural emotions).

Your earlier dream about the man holding a woman in bondage could be about the same type of problem.

If so, the bridge in your other dream means that there needs to be a change in any such situation.

This is like going from one side of a bridge to another, from one way of acting to a new way of acting “on the other side” in a new attitude etc.

But the big mansion inside the bridge where the man hurts the woman might mean that you don’t really see this going on in your daily life, so you don’t see a need to move to any new way of acting etc.

For example, you might believe that you express your emotions well (e.g. the man plays the piano) but you might be pretending to be nice when inside, you don’t really feel that way at all. This would be like the man hurting the woman because you’re not being honest enough about your own emotions.

It also looks like your feelings are “left out in the cold” like the poor women who live on the bridge, that is, you might not even be aware of what emotions you have sometimes.

If this is going on, your feelings could turn against you (the bridge will be destroyed by the weather, the wolf will probably attack you again).

For example, you could suddenly be taken over by feelings of anger or other very strong emotions which would be mostly out of your control (e.g. attacked by the wolf which could possibly “tear you to pieces”).

Anyway, as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this might not be a right interpretation of your dreams.

But if these ideas seem to fit your own situation in some way, you might like the book “Emotion: A Very Short Introduction” by Dylan Evans. This book can be found on Amazon UK for example.

I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Originally Posted by Athanor

So maybe not long before the dream, you “took command” by using a certain method to look at a part of you (the instincts and feelings etc.) that you don’t know very well which is symbolized by the forest overall.

Maybe the way you did this (symbolized by the man who was attacked) was bad for your instinctive side, and this is why the wolf attacked him first.

It might be that you “agree” too much with this bad method (you help the crew member), so the wolf also then attacks you.

I think I remember being in command and deciding to go on land. If this indeed was my friend, I do not remember any distortions of him in this character, however I did not look much at him so therefore cannot tell exactly. Now when it comes to my friend, he is in to hallucinogenic drugs. I've had the chance of trying 4-aco-dmt with him that he brought. All I can say is that it was interesting, although I did not hallucinate and I actually think that only people with already not that healthy mind hallucinate on drugs, but I guess I will have to research on that further

You and your crew are after all “intruders” into his area and his reaction is therefore natural and understandable.

Well consider that there were another "crew" there already that had already made camp there, and they had some food stuff where they were that I was debating with myself whether to take it or not (because it looked really tasty but I don't remember what exactly it was) and I think I decided not to take it, and right after that the wolf showed up and ran towards us. So in other words, we were not the first "intruders" to come there, but it is interesting that for some reason the wolf attacked just that guy.

The crew member then doesn’t help you by hitting the wolf with the wood. This could mean that recently, something inside you partly saw that your treatment of the instincts (the wolf) isn’t good and should not continue.

But you fight the wolf and it runs away.

It looks like the person that is unfortunately attacking both you and everyone else, both physically and verbally, could be the cause of you maybe “hurting” your instinctive side (the wolf) too much without knowing it.

So it’s most likely that the wolf symbolizes the instinctive side of yourself and not this other person.

I remember wondering in the dream why he didn't help me, but now I can think of more reasons of why he didn't: a) he simply didn't have to or b) which is more likely, that it was not his fight. I also remember liking the wolf, I did not consider it my enemy.

I get the feeling that the wolf is a part of me and as you have described it, it does seem to be so.

While Freud thought that a dream did everything possible to conceal and change things, hiding them behind a “façade”, the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote instead:

“I was never able to agree…that the dream is a ‘façade’ behind which its meaning lies hidden - a meaning already known but maliciously, so to speak, withheld from consciousness. To me, dreams are a part of nature, which harbors no intention to deceive, but expresses something as best it can, just as a plant grows or and animal seeks its food as best it can.”

This reminds me of my first symbolic dream (the one with the bridge was the second) which I got some months ago. Initially the dream was very chaotic, I don't know if it has any symbolic meaning / "message" from my subconscious, but I was apparently part of a group that were about to rob a bank. I get the feeling that one of the crew members, a woman, intends to use the explosives to blow me up instead. So the first part of the dream is just about me trying to escape her. Eventually I come to some industrial road and I walk on it. Suddenly there's an 1800's style church to the left of the road, and a group of people (perhaps my crew that were behind me) walk into it. I'm not sure if I want to go into it, but eventually I do, just to look around As I go inside I see that instead of it looking like a normal church, all there is is a group of tables in the middle of it and benches around the tables. I see a woman in 1800's style clothes, but that of ordinary citizens, not of rich people. I sit down at one of the tables. Right when I have a seat, a big (huge) black cat jumps in front of me and wants me to pet it. So I do and it likes me. Then out of nowhere an older man is sitting beside me and he holds a paper towards me (which just says "34" on it if I remember correctly) and tells me, "this cat is size 34". I look at the cat and I tell him, "Yes, this cat is size 34". As I'm looking at the cat, I start to think of the cat that is in the house where I live. As I think of this cat, another smaller cat appears beside me, but it has the composition of being cautious towards me, and is perhaps a tenth the size of the black cat. Then I wake up.

When I first had this dream I thought it was nonsense, and I was like "34! How stupid! How can a cat be size 34! What measure is that?!". Then it hit me, 34 is the size I have on my pants, exactly 34/34. This means that, if the cat has my size, it fits me! So the older man was suggesting, here is a cat that fits me, and I agreed!

If you would like you can weigh in what you think this cat represents. This was anyway my first symbolic dream. My best interpretation so far is that these are two different women. One that will come as I "go into the church", or live a spiritual life, that will fit me perfectly. The other, who also lives at the house where I'm living now, will then not dare to approach me.

So if a dream was directly about the person who is attacking you, it would almost certainly show him or her most often as an exact photographic replica and never as an animal.

If there was something even slightly “different” about the image of the person, it would be describing a certain part of your personality which has been built up over time.

This reminds me of yet another dream of which I have not cared to interpret that much, and almost forgot so thanks for reminding me.

I'm walking with a character that looks exactly like my friend, however he is not acting like my friend. Previously I have thought that this friend has some feminine traits, such as wearing wristbands, how he decorates his house, and the fact that he gets very emotionally tied to girls he meets. But in the dream he is carrying a designer handbag, and he's moving as if he was a woman, very effeminate (which my friend doesn't really, only maybe a little). We're on our way to a house where he works (in the dream, not in reality). Somehow I am either told or I understand that he is being ill treated at this house, but he doesn't dare to do anything about it. So I commit trespass and I confront the family of three that live there. I get into some kind of argument with the woman of the house, and the man wants to call the police. All of these people are strangers to me, I've never seen their faces anywhere. The only thing I remember having said was "stop ill-treating (for lack of a better word) my friend!". However, this wasn't an act that my friend appreciated, rather he/she was still afraid of that family, and kept working there.

I don't know if this dream has meaning. I guess it does.

In contrast, a wolf symbolizes your deepest instincts which were born with you and can’t be “removed” by ignoring them etc.

Sadly, it could be that the person who is attacking you is causing so great an emotional pain that you might be trying to understandably shut down and turn off most of your feelings so that this pain won’t hurt too much (e.g. you chase away the wolf, that is, your natural emotions).

Your earlier dream about the man holding a woman in bondage could be about the same type of problem.

If so, the bridge in your other dream means that there needs to be a change in any such situation.

This is like going from one side of a bridge to another, from one way of acting to a new way of acting “on the other side” in a new attitude etc.

But the big mansion inside the bridge where the man hurts the woman might mean that you don’t really see this going on in your daily life, so you don’t see a need to move to any new way of acting etc.

For example, you might believe that you express your emotions well (e.g. the man plays the piano) but you might be pretending to be nice when inside, you don’t really feel that way at all. This would be like the man hurting the woman because you’re not being honest enough about your own emotions.

I've read on dreammoods that playing piano symbolises a striving for harmony, and depending on where the piano is situated that is where one is striving for harmony. So in the case of that dream, the piano was situated in the relationship between these two people. While indeed her situation was rather unfavourable, she was not against it! And the impression I got from the man was that he was doing the best he could for this woman. But obviously, it couldn't have been the right thing.

It also looks like your feelings are “left out in the cold” like the poor women who live on the bridge, that is, you might not even be aware of what emotions you have sometimes.

This is very interesting. I wouldn't say sometimes though, but most of the times I am not able to understand what I am feeling. But recently I have been trying to do so, and maybe that is why I have started to get symbolic dreams.

If this is going on, your feelings could turn against you (the bridge will be destroyed by the weather, the wolf will probably attack you again).

For example, you could suddenly be taken over by feelings of anger or other very strong emotions which would be mostly out of your control (e.g. attacked by the wolf which could possibly “tear you to pieces”).

I don't think there is any risk the wolf will tear me to pieces, as I proved myself stronger than it, but my house/life might get destroyed if I don't do what is right. It's interesting that the woman in bondage, and the women locked outside, might be the same thing: I'm not expressing my feelings, or holding them outside, to the point I'm not even aware of them.

Anyway, as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this might not be a right interpretation of your dreams.

But if these ideas seem to fit your own situation in some way, you might like the book “Emotion: A Very Short Introduction” by Dylan Evans. This book can be found on Amazon UK for example.

I'll have a look at it.

I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

You've brought me some good insights. Thank you.

Hi again,

I’m glad that some ideas have been helpful.

About deciding to go on land, it probably means that you are trying to get on “solid ground” about some issues about emotions so that you understand them better.

Since you didn’t look at or see your friend clearly, it probably means that you could be too unaware of this part of you.

Because your real friend uses drugs and these tend to “blot out” awareness overall, his image in the dream might mean the same general thing as the man’s mansion in the bridge, a kind of “not wanting to see” some very painful problems which is of course very natural. Unfortunately, it’s hard to fight against this problem.

Thinking about stealing the food from the other crew could possibly be showing that you might kind of “want something for nothing” sometimes in trying to improve things in your life right now.

Although the wolf did not attack the other crew, it’s possible that you and your crew’s arrival might have been the final thing that made the wolf attack, finally making it really mad that people were invading its territory without really knowing much about what they were doing.

From what you’ve said about your friend, the wolf might have attacked him first because any attempt to “shut down” too much regarding emotions or being aware in general (by using drugs for example) is really against what the instincts try to do; that is, they try to keep a person alert to all sorts of things so that they can move through life’s everyday challenges better.

The reasons you gave about why your friend didn’t help you fight the wolf maybe shows that something inside you “doesn’t care” and this isn’t good.

Also, you felt the wolf was your friend but you still tried to beat him off and drive him away.

It looks like the wolf was angry with you for being friendly with someone who symbolically wants to cut him off and to not pay attention to what he has to say instinctively in order to help you.

Your dream about the robbery might again be about the idea of “getting something for nothing”, maybe by not having to face the very bad pain of some feelings while you try to get what you want in life.

Doing this could cause your feeling side (the woman) to “blow you up” somehow.

It looks like trying to escape her won’t work because at some point in time, you’ll have to look at your “spiritual” and “meaning” side (the old church) until you find how to get in better touch with your true self partly by way of your emotions.

Again, the cat symbolizes your instinctive, natural feelings and reactions which the dream seems to say would “fit you perfectly” and should be accepted because they would help how you get along with others.

That’s because of the connection with clothes (34 waist, 34 leg). Clothes symbolize how we look to others in our behavior and attitudes etc.

The other dream about your friend could mean that you sometimes might be too “passive” (i.e. “effeminate”) in the face of certain problems (the people in the house) and it would be best to face them head on (you yell at them in the dream to stop hurting your friend).

But at first, when we try to stop old habits and to change etc., it’s as if these outdated ways of acting etc. kind of resist any change very strongly (your friend doesn’t appreciate what you said and keeps working there because he’s still afraid). So it can be hard to stay firm and to keep trying to change.

Just to mention that it’s best to be careful about the meanings shown in “dream dictionaries” because they can often be too narrow and rigid.

For example, the ideas on Dreammoods about the meaning of a piano partly touch on the idea of “music” and “harmony” and this can be helpful, but dreams choose their images based on the actual specific dreamer, so the question becomes “Why a piano?”, that is, why not a violin, cello, or other musical instrument?

You could try to find out why it was a piano in your dream by keeping the image of the piano in mind, and then by writing down every spontaneous memory, thought and feeling that comes to mind.

Looking through what appears could hopefully give a clue about the more specific meaning of the piano in your dream.

As you’ve said, recently you’ve been trying to get in touch with your feelings more and it’s true that your dreams have appeared because of this.

Each one of them is trying to add something new to your understanding by looking at things from a slightly different direction and probably building on some of the thoughts and ideas that you had about the meaning of each dream.

Anyway, I hope these ideas can also be helpful.

Sorry for the late reply life has been keeping my busy.

Originally Posted by Athanor

Hi again,

I’m glad that some ideas have been helpful.

About deciding to go on land, it probably means that you are trying to get on “solid ground” about some issues about emotions so that you understand them better.

Since you didn’t look at or see your friend clearly, it probably means that you could be too unaware of this part of you.

Seems legit.

Because your real friend uses drugs and these tend to “blot out” awareness overall, his image in the dream might mean the same general thing as the man’s mansion in the bridge, a kind of “not wanting to see” some very painful problems which is of course very natural. Unfortunately, it’s hard to fight against this problem.

Here however, the drugs in particular like I said are hallucinogenic drugs, that is, drugs that should get you in touch with your subconcious more and not less. You mentioned earlier that the wolf attacked him because his way of exploring the subconcious was illegitimate.

It looks like the wolf was angry with you for being friendly with someone who symbolically wants to cut him off and to not pay attention to what he has to say instinctively in order to help you.

That's a good point, but interestingly the person I spoke of earlier, who I thought could be the wolf, has this kind of attitude towards my friend.

Your dream about the robbery might again be about the idea of “getting something for nothing”, maybe by not having to face the very bad pain of some feelings while you try to get what you want in life.

Doing this could cause your feeling side (the woman) to “blow you up” somehow.

It looks like trying to escape her won’t work because at some point in time, you’ll have to look at your “spiritual” and “meaning” side (the old church) until you find how to get in better touch with your true self partly by way of your emotions.

Again, the cat symbolizes your instinctive, natural feelings and reactions which the dream seems to say would “fit you perfectly” and should be accepted because they would help how you get along with others.

That’s because of the connection with clothes (34 waist, 34 leg). Clothes symbolize how we look to others in our behavior and attitudes etc.

An interpretation I've been thinking about when it comes to clothes is flesh, that is, our spirit is clothed with the flesh. Therefore, finding fitting clothes would mean finding a fitting body. Although your interpretation makes sense as well.

But I had another dream recently. I was at some kind of night club (although it was more of a fancy restaurant) and the time was about 10 pm so there had not arrived many guests, and I was just running around the place trying to find someone to socialize with. First, a waiter/some kind of personell calls me over, and when I get to him he starts saying something on the loudspeaker which I didin't hear clearly, but my reaction was to leave him. Then, completely unrelated to the waiter, I get close to a group of people, and a woman in the group who is blonde and in her 40's, yells out my name. So I approach her and ask her how she knows me. She doesn't answer, so I keep trying to get an answer by asking questions like, "have I seen you at church?". Finally she says, "Brand?". I get a bit confused, "What do you mean Brand? A clothing brand?". Then she says again, "Colleague?", and I am again confused. Then some music starts playing outside the club near the water (it's some kind of harbor), I almost remember the song. So we head towards it, and as we are going, the woman takes off her blonde hair (as if it were a wig) and shows short, wine-red hair underneath! And after that I wake up.

So there is some symbolism with this woman I haven't fully interpreted. My only interpretation of what she said has been that she is a colleague of the same brand, that is, she is of the same race as I (I'm mostly Slavic). I have no idea what the change of hair means. But I suppose you have a better interpretation than mine.

Edit: Also, "brand" has biblical meaning who you belong to, so in that case, I as a Christian am obviously branded with Christ's name. This then correlates with the Church, where I met a fitting cat.

You can make another spin to it, going along your terms, that the person in this dream and the cat in the other, is me, and I am meeting myself in God, or Christ, that is, in the Church, or in the Label. I'm more keen to see it as another person though.

Perhaps the symbols need to be interpreted in all the ways at the same time.

The other dream about your friend could mean that you sometimes might be too “passive” (i.e. “effeminate”) in the face of certain problems (the people in the house) and it would be best to face them head on (you yell at them in the dream to stop hurting your friend).

But at first, when we try to stop old habits and to change etc., it’s as if these outdated ways of acting etc. kind of resist any change very strongly (your friend doesn’t appreciate what you said and keeps working there because he’s still afraid). So it can be hard to stay firm and to keep trying to change.

Just to mention that it’s best to be careful about the meanings shown in “dream dictionaries” because they can often be too narrow and rigid.

For example, the ideas on Dreammoods about the meaning of a piano partly touch on the idea of “music” and “harmony” and this can be helpful, but dreams choose their images based on the actual specific dreamer, so the question becomes “Why a piano?”, that is, why not a violin, cello, or other musical instrument?

You could try to find out why it was a piano in your dream by keeping the image of the piano in mind, and then by writing down every spontaneous memory, thought and feeling that comes to mind.

Looking through what appears could hopefully give a clue about the more specific meaning of the piano in your dream.

As you’ve said, recently you’ve been trying to get in touch with your feelings more and it’s true that your dreams have appeared because of this.

Each one of them is trying to add something new to your understanding by looking at things from a slightly different direction and probably building on some of the thoughts and ideas that you had about the meaning of each dream.

Anyway, I hope these ideas can also be helpful.

When I think of the piano, I am moved to think that the piano is for the woman. He is not playing the piano for himself. What annoys me with the woman is that she is not trying to break free of the bondage, although she is suffering and is apparently starved even.

Hi again,

Regarding hallucinogenic drugs getting a person more in touch with the unconscious mind, it’s true that they do this in a certain way but usually the ego per se is knocked out of commission at the same time.

Since the unconscious contains both positive and negative things, a strong, knowledgeable and aware ego is needed to sort through what appears from the psyche. Sadly, some people sink into the unconscious because of using such drugs and they never return to normal life.

About the guy you thought could be the wolf, it looks like the dream is using the analogy about the outer situation to show more clearly what’s going on inside you between your own “wolf” and its attitude towards your drug-taking friend. This is what dreams do, they use analogies and “as if” ways of looking at things, along with metaphors and similes to get across their message in a symbolic way.

Your idea about flesh “clothing” the spirit makes a lot of sense because sometimes, certain diseases of the skin can be brought about by very serious psychological problems.

As a very general example and one that would apply in only very rare cases, a person might have a noticeable and unpleasant skin disease covering her or his body. This could be the result of feeling “bad” or “evil” about themselves deep down but not being aware of this.

So the skin disease appears and it’s as if the person is walking along like a leper in medieval times ringing a bell or symbolically saying something like “Keep away! I am evil!”

Only by slowly learning to realize that they are not “bad” or “evil” would be skin disease get better.

Your dream about the night club could be trying to make clearer things that are affecting how you “socialize” and make “personal contacts” in general, especially with women.

Apparently, some part of you might come on “too loud” when being with others but you aren’t too aware of this (the waiter is on a loudspeaker but you can’t understand him).

Right after this, you meet the blond woman who says strange things like “brand” and “colleague”.

You’re right to think that she means you’re “two of a kind”, mostly in the quality of your feeling life (for example, you hear the music, which is related to emotions, when outside with her).

Maybe Slavic men and women have a certain traditional way of acting with each other and the dream is partly referring to this.

In any case, no matter where men and women live, they usually put on a front of fake, nice feelings especially when getting to know someone early on.

So the dream could be hinting that sometimes you might not be real enough with your feelings when with women (e.g. she takes off her blonde wig to show her “real” feelings underneath, that is, her red hair).

If so, you would tend to unconsciously be attracted only to women who are much the same and this might mean that relationships wouldn’t last too long.

It might be that your thoughts about the piano and how it’s for the woman show how you might too often have some self-hurtful feelings about yourself.

It’s as if a man inside you might always be “playing the same music” of not really liking yourself for instance.

Unfortunately, this might be too often the “normal” state of your emotions about yourself.

If so, this bad way of feeling towards yourself which you’re probably not aware of very much (e.g. feelings like “I’m no good”, “I’m not popular enough” etc. etc.) is shown by the woman (who represents your feeling side) not trying to break free of the bondage although she is suffering and is apparently starving.

That’s because, for her, this is all “normal” but of course, it’s very destructive to you to be in any such state of feeling like this about yourself.

Feel free to let me know what you think about these ideas.

I think these dreams are telling me that my yin/yang is unblanced, and that the perfect partnership I am seeking should be with myself (my subconscious). I haven't believed in this yin/yang stuff before, but I have been wondering why my right side is a lot more thense than my left side (it's almost crippled compared to the left) and I am constantly struggling with my right side of the body in this way, and thus, even on the physical level I am not in balance.

In the dream with the bridge, my life was obviously being ravaged by the sea (maybe indicating emotional distress). The problem was that one part of me had taken complete control and wanted to run everyting by himself (playing the piano as well as he could) and the woman seemed to rather be a burden, instead of using her as help. This setup was not a successful one and he ended up with losing his life.

The dream with the cat and the church I think is telling me to go inwards (the church/spiritual life) where I will find my perfect partner (the black cat), or my subconscious.

Regarding the dream with my friend and the wolf, since he is rather immature in his character, I wonder if he is able to face everything coming from the subconscious. He has suffered delusions before, for which he was hospitalized, and has been talking about some strange stuff lately.

Now, you mentioned the unconscious, but is that the same thing as what I am calling the subconscious?

Regarding the dream with the party, I think it is as you say, that the true feelings aren't shown or seen, but this leads rather to relationships not existing at all, rather than being shortlived.

In other words, the true affection (represented perhaps by the color red) is not communicated either way, and a good enough relationship is not able to form.

The idea of balancing yin/yang does seem to fit your situation because roughly speaking, yin/yang is about balancing the so-called “masculine” and “feminine” parts of ourselves, and this has to be done by both men and women.

If your right side is bothering you, maybe it would be good to see a doctor because there might possibly be a pinched nerve or something which is causing this, maybe added to a little by your yin/yang being “unbalanced” as well.

The bridge scene and the sea probably do show that some underlying anger and other emotions could be upsetting you a lot.

Trying to run things and artificially controlling the “music” of feelings instead of listening for help from the inner woman would cause problems as you said.

Listening to all parts of your instinctive side (the cat) is part of developing your spiritual side (the church) as you mentioned.

It looks like your friend had a genetic tendency for his ego to be overwhelmed by the unconscious and taking hallucinogenic drugs was therefore very bad for him. This can even happen with marijuana because it’s much stronger than in the past, being able to cause the appearance of schizophrenia in young people who have a genetic weakness built in for developing it.

I prefer to use the word “unconscious” which means the same thing as the word “subconscious”. That’s because the prefix “sub” has meanings attached to it like “inferior” and “lower” etc. when in fact, the unconscious is actually much bigger and more powerful than the conscious ego.

You’re right that no real relationships exist without real feelings being in them.

It looks like your dreams are helping you a lot in finding out more about your feelings and this should help you in the years ahead, so don’t give up trying.

I just had a dream where a woman, if I'm not mistaken someone I know from church, suddenly menstruated an enormous volume where she sat and I had to take care of it while people took care of her.

The choice of character for her might indicate that this has to do, again, with "church". I'm not sure what the menstrual blood is supposed to mean though.

Although it might sound arbitrary, menstrual blood in dreams symbolizes the dissolution of structure.

This is based on a primitive view (which appears in the dreams of modern people) that since menstruation stops during pregnancy, the blood must instead be being used to “build up” the baby.

Therefore, during menstruation “structure” (e.g. a baby) isn’t being built up but is instead being “broken down” and this allows for all sorts of new possibilities, based on the sacred and fertilizing properties of blood (i.e. of energy).

So psychologically, a “death” and “breaking down” of old habits and attitudes etc. can allow for new potentials to appear.

The large amount of blood in your dream maybe suggests that new and powerful feelings and ideas etc. might appear that can support big changes in yourself.

This process would have to be supported by care and attention to your so-called “feminine” side (e.g. the people there take care of her).

It’s possible that, because this took place in church, certain attitudes and approaches to life which you learned there might have to change to some extent.

If so, this could be unpleasant and messy to handle at first (you have to clean up the blood) but this is a part of life which we have to try to accept so that we can move forward more effectively.

Anyway, I hope these ideas aren’t too confusing and that they can be helpful.