Snakes, more snakes, a lioness, a building site and a playground.

Hi there,

I am new here. I recently had a really vivid dream, I wouldn't say a nightmare but it has me intrigued and any of your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I've put all the detail I can think of but if there's anything else significant please ask and I will add if I can recall. Thanks in advance for your time and interpretative effort.

I am an Australian man, late 30s, going through a divorce and in a new relationship. I would say there are genuine pockets of happiness in my life, with other areas that are unresolved and still causing me stress.

The dream started with me walking into a kind of building site on a hill, I think a new housing estate- very early stages, the roads were in and a few houses partially constructed. I was walking in with a guy I know through a previous job, and a but socially, although we are not close. I've recently had a bit more to do with him because a mutual friend recently lost their adult child and we were there to help.

We were there for a particular purpose but I don't recall what it was, other than to get to the top of a hill. We start walking up the road to gt somewhere, up the hill to the top of the site. We saw the first snake - it was still, on the side of the road- we tried to scare it away by clapping and stamping. But it came fast toward me slithering on the road. My first reaction was to think "wow, what is a snake doing here, and why is it not slithering away, why is it now scared of us?"

Then as it came for me we got a fright and ran up the hill. We looked behind us and there were more snakes chasing behind us, just several at this stage. Then we got to the top of the hill, and we had a sense that we had done what we had come for- that may have been to look at something at the site. We felt like we had seen what we needed to see and it was then time to go. We were speaking and wondering how we would get past the snakes on the way back down.

Then we started walking back down the hill, and the snakes started coming at me, not my friend really fast, jumping at me, leaping inthe air, and jumping or trying to get on my chest.

I kept shaking them off and was freaking out. I think a few jumped on my back, but I knew they wanted to get on my chest. They were all different colours- light grey rattle snakes, a cobra, brown ones (at first) and black- heavy but I didn't feel over powered by them strength wise- I was just worried they were going to bite me.

It was a constant number of them - I was walking forward down the hill, and as I threw them off, another jumped for me. I was taken aback by how fast, focused and aggressive they were and how high they could jump. Perhaps six had approached and jumped on me when my friend freaked and ran- I felt panicked and ran in the same direction down the hill.

I caught up with my friend at the bottom of the hill- he had stopped because there was a sea of different snakes writhing on the ground ahead. I remember being freaked out by how fast they were. They were all covering the road, but not piled on one another- a few wrapped up in each other, but I got the feeling that they hadn't seen me (yet)- they were more docile and just lying there in case I tried to get out that way.

There was a road ahead- the only way out- blocked by the snakes. Along side (right next to) the road was a 7-8 ft high chain-link fence, for as far as we could see. Snakes were only on the road side. This in the middle of a hot Australian day in the bush.

At this point another man appeared, about our age (mid-late 30s), who seemed to have the same work background as us (public service)...who we did not know, and we asked him how the heck would the three of us get out.

He replied "we will have to go through this fence". There was a hole in the fence- once we crawled through he explained were in a lion's enclosure- he was matter of fact and said we should be ok. He said we shouldn't run or show fear. One tried to bite me when I pulled it off, while I was holding its head. It was trying to turn its head around and bite my hand or arm. At this point I felt panicked and my friend bolted. We then saw the lioness- who had fixed on him, and started kind of play-hunting him, before jumping up on him and kind of play-clawing and play-wrestling him- that play where they try to dominate but not hurt.

At this stage I was getting annoyed by these animals interrupting my day. By then my friend had pushed her off and gotten out of the enclosure. The lioness then turned towards me. I had been hoping she wouldn't notice me and I would have been able to escape while she harassed my friend. I don't know where the other guy was at this stage but I didn't see him again. I knew that the lioness was alone and I only had to worry about her.

The lioness fixed on me, from about ten metres away and was between me and the escape point- another hole in the fence. I felt annoyance. She walked over and jumped up on me and I was quite aggressive and pushed her away. I think she jumped up again but I felt I'd established a kind of dominance with her because there wasn't much behind the second jump.

I walked out and realised that the lion enclosure was a fenced off area within a children's playground with swings, climbing apparatus etc. I woke up feeling confused and agitated. I also remember that despite the bush land, this area was all about to be built up into a suburban area.

Thanks again for any thoughts you have on this dream.

I can't help but think that the new housing site might represent the new relationship or your new life after the divorce.

But to get to the new life, it's an uphill battle. It is not only uphill, but there are scary issues that you expected to be able to just scare away, but they attack you instead and chace you. You feel like you cannot easily free yourself and fear to be bitten by something poisonous in the process - could this be the fear of something going wrong in your divorce, or has your prior marriage poisoned your expectation of relationships, so that you fear poison even when not expected?

There is a way out, but it appears to be even more frought with danger. Lions are predatory - do you feel like you might become prey?

The children's playground in the lionesses playpen. I assume since you did not mention that there are any children in your mention of divorce that you and your former wife did not have any? If you did, this could be your concern over children in your ex's care (she could be the lioness). Or it could be that the playground being trapped in the lion's enclosure is about the possibility of children and the fear that they might entrap you in new relationship. Alternatively, if you would like to have kids, maybe this is about how you want them but you fear that having kids may not be safe, given how you just went through a divorce and children thrive best in a stable relationship that is not endangered by relationship issues. It all depends on what your attitude toward kids is.

Another option: the children's playground may not be about your children (current or potential) at all, but it could be about your inner child, your innocence, which has been endangered by all that has happened to you. You might be realizing that you have lost your innocence and your trust in your safety. While I never went through a divorce if my own and don't think I ever shall, but my parents divorced when I was a teen, and I was never able to trust people and relationships and family quite as innocently as before. The world had become fragile and potentially dangerous, and part of me wished I had been able to stay naive and innocent. I think this may be what your playground in the lion den is about. For a while after my parents' divorce I remained emotionally much older than I should have been at that age, and my inner child had less chance to play safely. Over the years however I have healed quite a bit though I still have emotional scars, and my inner child is alive and well playing with my children.

I wish you peace, and I hope that some of my ideas will help you figure this out. However, if anything I mentioned does not sound right to you, please discard it.