Thread: Same dream three times, what does it mean?

I think it is better if you write the whole dream (one of them) from beginning to end, and also tell us a little bit about yourself too. Otherwise there's really not much to work with.

Originally Posted by Wakinyan

I think it is better if you write the whole dream (one of them) from beginning to end, and also tell us a little bit about yourself too. Otherwise there's really not much to work with.

Well, I am 20, living at home, I had a pretty depressing teenage years and my childhood wasn't really good either, growing up with an alcoholic mom and dad who always saw her in me was not easy. I dropped out of school, currently working, dealing with my sister who used to bully me and literary hates everything I am, my dad favouring my sisters over me, cant say I had a great life honestly.

And for the dream, I will try to remember the last dream I had, because the dream kind of changes every time, but the main story (the bear on the road in the woods) is the same. I don't really remember much, because I always just remember what I told you, but in the last dream besides seeing a bear on the side of the road and being scared of him, I see my grandma and I try to call her if she can help me but she ignores me I think and I usually have this bike or something that I'm very scared to use, because its too small and he might catch me, so I always wake up from there or go to another dream which I cant remember. But sometimes I dream about being in the woods and being scared of bears, I wish I could say more, but its always being in the woods and scared of bears, although that dream that I had for three times pretty much the same is the most common one.

I'm sorry to hear about your highly unsatisfactory life situation, hopefully you get the opportunity to start your own life soon. Now I'm almost a little embarrassed I asked, especially since I don't think the dream has much to do with the specifics of your current life situation.

When I try to analyze a dream it is much easier to me if it is a little longer because then there's a development and more material to work with. I will not try to interpret what this dream "means" because I don't really get a feel of what's going on, but since you came back with an honest answer to my question I feel I should give something back.

If we take a look at the symbols in the dream, first there is the wood. The wood is a common symbol for parts of our inner self that is mostly unconscious, because we don’t know the wood like we know our home town for instance. It is not man made, so it is uncivilized or uncultured part of our self, and animals live here rather than humans, so that which goes here are not under our influence, it is “the other”; it is not a part of ourselves were our consciousness rule, but once again we are unconscious of what’s going on here. So woods are of course a common setting for dreams and often we get lost or meet an animal and so forth.

In this unconscious part of yourself you meet a bear. Since this is a recurring symbol that represents something in you that you are not aware of, I recommend that you do a little “bear work”. Read about bears, go to a zoo and watch them, try to get to know what a bear is. Write a short piece about bears -- what are these animals, really? By a little bear trinket, or another symbol for this work. In this way you can integrate the bear in you consciousness even though you don’t know what it means, but you grow an intuitive relationship with this animal. The wood is a part of yourself, and thus the bear is part of yourself, so you might as well get to know it.

When you have built your own “feel” for the bear, you could go on and read about them in dictionaries of symbols, or even dream dictionaries, and so forth, but I would recommend that you create your own image of the bear first, otherwise you get others’ ideas – and the bear in your dream is yours, not theirs, so you should not let “them” tell you what it is.

The bear is dangerous, just like all unconscious material is potentially dangerous to our ego, because it is the other which is threatening the ego’s dominance; so different unconscious aspects of ourselves are often depicted as dangerous animals. But it is in the same time what the philosophical alchemists called prima materia, that is, that which we have to work with for our inner development. Actually bear, lion and dragon are all recurring symbols (almost interchangeably) as prima materia for these mystics, in their works, so having recurring dreams about a bear is potentially a very good starting point. That’s why I recommend that you work with your bear, though cautiously, because it is stronger than you, obviously.

So the bear is an universal symbol – your grandmother is not. Here you need to switch from working with common ideas to personal ideas. First, your actual relationship with you grandmother is important. Is she a helpful person in real life or not? Would she ignore you in real life or not? Since I don’t know anything about her or your relationship with her, I cannot give you any input. (Except that she can represent a universal aspect, as "the great mother" and so forth, but I will not go down that path now.)

In the dream she is representing something partly unknown. Your hope, your wisdom, a bad or good experience – something like that, if she is not just acting like she would in real life. Write down your associations to “grandmother”, with associations we can describe the contents of a dream image. And then you summarize this in a few words, and then you can ask yourself: In what way is xxx ignoring me, or unable to help me?

Then there’s the bike. I assume that you do not have a driver’s license or that you usually don’t get around by car, because it seems that car and bike are interchangeable in dreams and it often depending on which vehicle one usually uses, or would use if any, it is either in the dream. But here there might also be personal associations that are important, for instance, you may have certain associations to the bike which I don’t know about and which makes this vehicle mean something special for you.

But in any case, the bike is your vehicle. It is the way or the machinery your ego uses to get by in life, or at least in this part of your life. So it is important how well it works, and so forth. From this dream we can see that your means of escape are insufficient. You are a little bit trapped, you cannot get help and you really cannot get away. It’s you and the bear. So you might as well get to know him.

To summarize, there is a certain part of you (an energy, a potentiality) that you are unconscious about that is repeatedly trying to get your attention. You are afraid of it because it is something unknown and it has the potentiality to change you. By working with this dream image, you can establish a intuitive, but yet more conscious relationship with it, and then you will see that your dreams about bears changes, and that you grow from the experience.

So that’s my thoughts in this matter, I hope it is of any help to you. All the best.

Thank you so much for that long post!

Today my dream slightly changed, but again it was about a bear. This time I remember more details if anyone is interested in reading.

It was day and I was driving on a pink little bike , there were also other cars of my family members. They were in them, we were probably going home. I saw three bears I believe, but later it was only one and I was very worried for my dad in a car that he might get killed, so I tried to warn him, but I couldn't really tell him. I saw the shape of a bear in the woods and my family members started driving each in other direction trying to get away. Then I saw my dad outside the car and I was trying to tell him that there is a bear. Then I tried to escape myself, because I was on a little bike and not in a car, so I drove on the road trying to drive quick, but the bear caught up with me. I turned around and it was little cute bear, I think it was kind of smiling you know in a cute way. I still wanted to go away, so I turned around, but the only roads were up and if I would want to escape I would have to push the bike, so I would be slow. Then I woke up. In a dream I drove very slowly, like almost I was too tall for a bike, which obviously I would be since the bike was small.

Thats a new dream tho, but it felt like deja vu, I think I dreamt something similar a while ago.

Easy...it means you NEED to get help on whatever situation you are going thru in waking life! And maybe do something.

It would be easier if I would know which situation, because I think I'm getting over my problems.

Maybe your subconscious wants you to try a different approach about something in your life? For example, you can't use the road with the bear and you can't get help, maybe you need to "find a different road"?

Also, I think it's interesting that when the bear chased you, the bike was too small for you and the bear turned out to be a cute, little bear. Your family seems to be involved quite a lot too. Your grandma, your dad, and the house you're trying to get to is full of people, and you call it home. Maybe the bear is something that scares you and keeps you away from your family, but, in the end, it's something small. Maybe it's something that you wouldn't consider a situation that needs to be solved, because it's small like the bear and the bike. You know, just one of those things that bothers you and that you're not sure how to handle, so you just let it go? The "letting go" would be the not being able to get past the bear part of your dream.

Thank you, yeah, I just need to I guess really take time and find that thing that I'm holding on.

I've had similar dreams and experiences with bulls. For me its about not being able to see a way forward in my life, not seeing how my problems can be resolved. I think this is the case for you too, and it does fit with your circumstances.

There's a scene in a book, Pilgrim's Progress I think, where I man sees a lion on the trail ahead of him. But then when he reaches it, he finds the lion isn't actually exactly on the trail, its chained off to one side. A lot of times life is like that. If you keep working hard and keep trying to do the right things, and avoid destructive habits, things tend to work out OK. Its always a struggle, never easy, but not as bad as you might fear either.

Like a lot of people I've had a hard life too, an abusive, alcohol abusing father, a mean older sister, disastrous love affairs, soul-crushing jobs. I remember 20 years ago, thinking that if I ever killed myself I'd set myself on fire, just as a statement of how little the pain means to me in contrast to what I'd endured. Now I'm struck by the lack of self-love in that thought. My life is still difficult but I'm also greatly blessed. Things do get better.

Originally Posted by jtanja13

It would be easier if I would know which situation, because I think I'm getting over my problems.

Sometimes I think our dreams are a delayed reaction, so it could be that while you are getting over your problems in waking life, the emotional aftershocks in dreams continue beyond their corresponding waking life issues?

That makes sense yes. Also, I have this dream to do in life, but I lack of self confidence, so its possible that the bear represents my dream that I think its scary and big to go after and the little bike is my self confidence. Maybe I should just get a bigger bike.