Hi again,
The fact that the bats have to be let out at sunset reduces the idea of things being sort of “out of kilter” in how they are treated but probably emphasizes that what they symbolize “can’t clearly be seen” most of the time because of the reduced “light of awareness” (sunset) being involved.
The idea of the bats overall relates to the symbolism of animals of all kinds including insects, birds, reptiles etc.
So in addition to their being potential “messengers”, they include the basic symbolism of animals, namely the dreamer’s connection with and overall attitude toward natural instinctive reactions, strong emotions, vague feelings, intuitions and similar inborn earthy traits.
As touched on earlier, dreams where any type of animal, alone or in groups, attacks the dreamer means that, in some way, an important aspect of the instinctive side is not being nurtured and cared for adequately.
Dreams express themselves through analogies and metaphors, so just like dealing with a snarling dog or other enraged animal or snake etc. in outer life shouldn’t be taken lightly, one has to be careful when approaching instinctive emotions which are “in an attacking mood”.
In your dream, the fact that “if you remain in the house while they exit, it could be very dire” seems to point to the need for great care in delving further into certain underlying issues for example.
This could be part of the dilemma expressed by the balcony scene where the bats won’t leave but you also can’t enter the house.
For example, while the dream is probably trying to say that it would be best if the problem of the bats in the attic were dealt with, it’s also advising that this could possibly be very difficult to handle alone.
That is, it looks like it could be best to avoid doing what previous occupants symbolically did in trying to handle the problem themselves without calling in outside help.
The overall analogy of the bats might also include the fact that in outer life, people are very upset by having bats in their homes and usually make every effort to call in experts to solve the problem.
The fact that the balcony door likely opens into a bathroom expands on the symbolic meaning of the second floor, adding other implications to those already mentioned, e.g. symbolically being “asleep” or too “passive” (lying down) in some way about an underlying problem.
For instance, peeing occurs in a bathroom. The medical term for peeing is the “expression of urine” and this links it up via analogy to the free and open “expression” of feelings which shouldn’t be “held back”, just like not peeing can lead to serious medical problems.
In addition, excrement and pee can symbolize, as an example, the “disgusting” results of having to “absorb” and “digest” various realities regarding our own lives and those of others.
The “by-products” of this process include such things as anger, resentment, jealousies and grudges etc. etc. which somehow have to be “gotten rid of”.
Similarly, giving up control, pride or fear is equally part of the “elimination” that is vital.
“Giving all of this up” in the end product of feces is therefore a sign in a way of the great value of the process overall which has led to new understanding and maturity even though part of the process is indeed very “smelly” and “disgusting”.
This idea is seen in many dreams and folk tales etc. where feces changes to gold in a miraculous way.
Also, many young children conceive theories about childbirth being related to feces and therefore see their own excrement as proof of their own creative magic.
Also, the idea of transition and change is also included in the image of the bathroom because symbolically, a “bath” suggests the water of “baptism” which relates to moving into new strong new attitudes and beliefs which can carry a person through difficult times. Today, many people have to find such a “baptism” outside of organized religion.
So it looks like being kept out of the bathroom could imply that the process of absorbing certain unpleasant issues more fully might be impeded in some way, therefore slowing down your self-development and renewal in a couple of areas.
You mentioned that you’re working at various talents and this supports the idea that perhaps the real problem being dealt with by the dream relates to a need to deal more fully with one or more of the painful issues which you described.
Since you’re very much a logic/brain person, there can be an extra difficulty in handling certain “non-rational” things such as very painful emotions.
The dream might have been hinting at this in general by setting up the scenario where certain unknown people who you don’t even see have described the bat situation but in thinking back on the dream, you kind of doubt their advice in retrospect because it’s not clear whether it’s empirically based.
That is, you apparently might usually mistrust certain advice that isn’t “scientific”, “logical” or “rational”, thereby often excluding just “knowing” that something is correct in the circumstances (e.g. via an emotion, a visual intuition or a gut feeling etc.).
This non-rational advice may appear from outside or from within but in either case, the information is at least slightly discounted (e.g. you don’t fully follow the advice given in the dream which apparently does cause the problem of being stranded on the balcony and the bats haven’t been allowed out to forage).
This is of course a very natural reaction because your usual way of problem solving works so well.
From how you described this process in yourself, it looks like your chief means of orientation is, as you said, via thinking/logic which uses facts as gathered and stored over time from “the five senses” as it were in order to reach a conclusion.
One theory would take this to mean that the opposite of thinking, i.e. using values and emotions to decide on a direction in any given situation, is far from being available for easy conscious use.
The use of intuition might be present but could possibly “come and go” unreliably in general terms.
However, its presence might be the reason people have continued to confide in you because they sense you “know” intuitively “what’s wrong” and “what to say” in order to help them.
So it’s possible that values/emotions and intuition would tend to be your “blind spots” which could cause problems, depending how unaware you are of these aspects of yourself.
You might like “Personality Types” by analyst Daryl Sharp as a brief starter book to help explore these ideas further.
An equally valuable starter book related to looking at your dreams is “Inner Work” by analyst Robert Johnson.
So overall, you can try thinking over these ideas to see if they may fit your circumstances in some way and whether the recurring dream is perhaps advising overall the need to speak with an outside source such as a professional counsellor in order to deal with certain unresolved issues from your past.
Anyway, please let me know if you have any further questions or comments.
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