Thread: I had three strange dreams. Could someone please interpret them for me?

Although it would usually be best to have additional general background information about you as well as recent events just before the dreams in order to provide an accurate interpretation, you’ve provided a lot of detail about the dreams and this is always much better than presenting sort of “edited” versions because the smallest detail of a dream can be the clue to its basic meaning.

Watching a film in a dream often signifies that it’s as if the dreamer is tending to distance themselves from an issue, maybe preferring instead to treat it like a minor, unimportant problem when it isn’t.

Belfast likely has all sorts of personal associations which would be relevant to unravelling the dream, but in general terms, a known city usually pictures an inner, established and ego-built group of “constructs” by and through which the dreamer usually navigates day to day life.

It could be that at a certain level, the teen secret agent represents the need to uncover a “secret” to be found in your “inner city”, perhaps related to a difference between a current attitude and one that was more prevalent during your teenage years.

Going back in time in dreams can symbolize how early and deep certain influences affected the dreamer, so the idea of going back 50 years when you are only 20 is possibly meant to emphasize how deeply ingrained a certain attitude or belief etc. is and how it may be strongly affecting your current life in some way.

In this approach to the dream, the next scenes would be taken as outlining what the basic nature of a certain outlook etc. is that could be influencing your life at this time in university.

A kitchen is a place where the “raw ingredients” of various foods are processed and cooked so that “nutrition” can occur.

On analogy, certain experiences, beliefs, thoughts and opinions etc. “feed” our day to day life in a psychological sense, either leading to further healthy inner growth or not, according to the “quality of the ingredients” etc.

In this case, it looks like the area of the instincts, emotions and the body is involved because of the various animals present.

Basically, conditions for the animals don’t seem to be the best. For example, it’s unlikely that a donkey would be best kept in a shed in Belfast even 50 years ago, assuming that it’s a small house on a regular street, and a dried up loaf of bread wouldn’t be the best food for him.

Following along with this idea, it wouldn’t probably be a good place to have a number of dogs. In fact, we are shown one barking dog who is apparently one of many who turn up at times, as well as an aggressive black dog who is possibly shown as being kind of worried about the penned up donkey.

Aggressive animals in dreams usually symbolize the idea that the dreamer is in some way either damaging his or her instinctive side, or is tending towards that direction in some way.

The way the dream ends is probably saying something like “Don’t let your loyal and loving instinctive side down”.

Since you’re in university, it could be that there’s a strong tendency toward the intellectual and thinking side mostly taking over so that your instinctive life might lack the chance to “stretch its legs” enough (the donkey is penned up in a small shed).

Maybe some lip service is being given to natural reactions, intuitions and feelings etc., but maybe on the whole, your instincts are sometimes being treated more like “beasts of burden” as opposed to being helpful partners in your life.

At least, this perhaps COULD become the norm and maybe even a long lasting habit after university if certain attitudes aren’t kept a close eye on at this time.

In this context, it looks like dream two could be saying much the same thing.

Maybe attempts to keep in touch with your instinctive side (the party) result in “taunting” inner guilty thoughts which say things like “You should only work, not play”, or “You shouldn’t get so carried away” etc. etc.

Musical instruments usually symbolize instinctive, creative, spiritual and feeling factors in the dreamer that have been paid attention to and which can therefore be given controlled expression in some appropriate way just like playing an instrument can be “harmonious”.

These aspects of oneself are generally the opposite of rational and intellectual concerns for example, and they “tame” and “control” the instincts in a civilized way without cutting them out of the picture which can lead to big problems overall.

Apparently, the cello isn’t being used as a “musical instrument” to calm the marauding group of males, but as a weapon which doesn’t have much of an effect in the end anyway (drunken unconcerned staff member, stabbed guy unaffected).

Maybe because of this overall approach, the “eggs” of more controlled thoughts, positive new insights and understanding aren’t perhaps allowed to gestate in the male’s abdomen over time, and this may be what you should feel guilty about from the dream’s point of view.

The idea could be that by remaining loyal to your emotional and values side (the cello), you’ll be able to develop over time a more fruitful and less damaging relationship with the opposite side which consists of the spiritual and the intellectual.

The third dream seems to be reiterating the idea that an ongoing conflict between you as the conscious feeling side versus a potentially very powerful spiritual-understanding side could potentially lead away too much from the real you (lorry carries you and him away from your house).

The dream’s conclusion might be saying something along the lines of “Rubbish submission moves like squeezing his finger to make him suffer won’t do the trick in solving this intrinsic conflict within your personality”.

Analyst Marion Woodman has dealt with this issue over many years and some of her books may be useful in understanding how to deal with it. A good overall introduction to her viewpoint could be “Body and Soul: Honoring Marion Woodman”.

Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this approach to your dreams may not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Second opinion:

DREAM 1
WATCHING YOUR WAR
I think you were watching what happened in your mind, about your inner war.
Maybe that's why all the animals, if your animal, or lower, nature is largely in control here. But being mostly dogs may mean the amount, or amount of times, you want what they mean in you.
The donkey might mean the burden in life you have, or work you have to do. Feeding it was hard in your life, which is locked up in the back of you.
The part of you you love and care for was small when it tried to alert you regarding the donkey which you were afraid to open the door to for fear it might run away or maybe that you wouldn't have control of it.
Maybe you ignored the part of you you love here possibly because you couldn't love this other unruly side of you.
And that made you angry, negative, and perhaps see how you are out of control.

BLACK DOG
The knowing you thought you might as well put that down as you've thrown out all things that belong to it or relate to it. You rejected this dark side.
The knowing part in you cut it's expression, making the opposite in you appear - what you love about yourself that is the kindest and most beautiful - which lost its balance in you as it's expression was bleeding and, as you looked into its depth yet could not see, you knew would die soon because the negative would return.
It made you very sad to lose this cherished side of you.

THE DONKEY
You were trying to feed what the donkey meant. A donkey is like a small horse.
Maybe it means it's meant to be controlled by man for its use, whether to ride on or carry things.
The black dog was out of control in the same place a donkey can be ridden or used in control.
Were you feeding that part of you so you could be in control, yet was small and kept in the back of yourself because it was so hard?

DREAM 2
SOCIALIZING WITH OTHERS
Learning to interact with others, you knew you had to go back to yourself and learn there first.
You feel taunted by them, or by you. Fighting them or you.
The more knowing part of you who should be in control was not bothered by it, was amused, and was not in control.
You stabbed to stop what would have hatched from your enemy side, so that it would run out and not be digested and become part of you.
Interesting you stabbed with cello, instead of saying hello. That is quite amusing, attacking with an instrument of peace. But the real weapons are peace and harmony.
This attack made you feel guilty, and you wanted to heal it. So it sounds like, as the beginning of the dream indicated, you attacked others, in your mind anyway.

DREAM 3
FEELING POWERLESS
You feel powerless again to stop what or who you feel attacks you - which you think is so proficient - making you go back to the war in you that was taking you for a ride again.


CONCLUSION CONCLUSION CONCLUSION
So dream 1 is where it all started. You fighting yourself perhaps to try to be in control.
The next dreams may show you increasingly powerless to gain the control you want, meaning you are using the wrong methods or approach.
Maybe you are fighting instead of commanding yourself and accepting you already have it. Maybe you really underestimate your power.