Dead Animals and the Old Woman.

[Zennaw]

Around 8am this morning I had a bad dream while in my boyfriends house, in his bed, beside him, after he just got back from dropping his parents to the airport about an hour beforehand. I am 5'6, long blonde hair, 18 years old, blue/green eyes, white skin. I live with my mum and two sisters and I am the middle child. In my dream I was in my boyfriends bedroom with my little sister and there was a dead grey/white rabbit on the double bed with an open wound, my little sister then said she was going to bed and she left, I don't know where the rabbit went after that but there was still red blood stains on the left hand side of the duvet. At the bottom of the room, facing the bottom of the bed, along the wall was a rectangular ditch, lined with concrete, that was 1-2 metres high and wide. There was shallow water in the bottom of the ditch with metal rusted grating at each side. The right side of the ditch had a closet door, suspiciously a lot like my walk-in closet at home. I opened the closet door but did not go in, from where i was i could see a dead fox lying on the ground with an open wound and I heard something scuffling about so I closed the door as I was scared and freaked out by this point. I had the sudden urge to talk to my older sister and she was sitting in the left hand corner of the room from my point of view from the bed. She was sitting on my boyfriends computer chair beside the open window and turned to look at me and said 'its cold in here, i think god is trying to tell you something'. Suddenly I came out with 'there's a woman in the closet'. My sister and I looked in the closet again and briefly saw the old woman with long grey hair over her face that had been feasting on the animals. My sister stood alone at the door while I tried to find my phone beside the bed for a torch light but when I could not find my phone i woke up. I told my boyfriend that I had a bad dream straight away as he was awake but trying to get to sleep, he described my breathing as rapid while I was asleep and he was concerned. Key symbols: Dead Fox, Dead Rabbit, Old Woman, Sisters, Closet. Please help me understand my dream, I feel like it means something important to me. What does it all mean?

[Athanor]

It’s generally safe to say that the presence of animals in dreams usually points to the issue of the dreamer’s overall attitude toward instinctive reactions, natural emotions of all kinds, vague feelings, intuitions, gut feelings and similar inborn earthy traits. The first scary image in your dream is of a dead rabbit on the bed, unfortunately showing that you might be in danger of slipping into an attitude where you don’t want to listen often enough to what your innate instinctive side might want to tell you (that is, the rabbit is “dead” and therefore he can’t tell you anything via intuitions, hunches etc.). Symbols in dreams usually have two sides to them. One part of the symbol of the rabbit which can be found for example in the Native American Black Elk’s account of the Sun Dance of the Oglala Sioux: “ … the men also put rabbit skins on their arms and legs, for the rabbit represents humility, because he is quiet and soft and not self-asserting – a quality which we must all possess when we go to the center of the world” Rabbits also often symbolize insights which come and go just like rabbits in the woods that we suddenly see and then they quickly disappear. But of course rabbits are also well known for their strong urge to multiply which might be hinted at by the scene taking place with the bed being an important part of it. So the two aspects of the unconscious mind are demonstrated in the rabbit’s nature as you’ve maybe already come across in yourself, that is, the “creative” side (e.g. sex) vs. the “devouring” side (e.g. possibly too much sex). Of course, we all have a lot of difficulty dealing with these opposites within ourselves and the danger is that we often want to just be “nice” instead of facing the other, darker side more often. So your little sister who’s at first in the room with you might symbolize the still innocent side of you that’s mixed in with the older part. This is of course very natural for someone of your age. Understandably, it might be that this younger part of you really doesn’t want to see certain sides of the often strong instincts we have (she wants to go to bed, that is, to “sleep” and therefore be “unconscious” of them). But if we ignore natural doubts and feelings etc. that come to us in quiet and subtle ways, a kind of unpleasant “ditch” with stagnant water in it might become too solidly entrenched in our overall outlook (the big concrete ditch at the bottom of the bedroom) and tend to shut out the messages from our instinctive and helpful psyche. So the dream apparently “takes you home” as it were (the walk-in closet that looks like the one at home) to help emphasize what’s happening in your “home-space”, that is, the unpleasant shutting out and “killing” of the helpful side of your instincts (the dead fox). Being scared and freaking out is probably what you SHOULD be feeling in a situation about which you’re mostly unaware and so the dream has come along to help point out what’s really going on. Based on analogies with outer foxes, dream foxes have connections with such characteristics as being wily and clever and able to escape from very difficult situations for example. But “killing the fox” might have come from a mostly unconscious impulse to avoid, for instance, certain painful insights which all the same could potentially allow you to escape certain negative habits of mind etc. (e.g. as maybe represented by the “out of place” concrete ditch in the bedroom). The dream might also be pointing to the need to get in touch with a “wiser” part of yourself (symbolized by your older sister) in order to help get out of a state of mind which might become too “cold” (your sister says how cold the room is). In addition, she is sitting near a computer which might suggest the idea of the “electronic”, “mechanical” and “non-human” approach that’s growing inside as opposed to the world of emotions and values for example. So “God” might be “trying to tell you something” in the sense that your natural feeling side as a young woman might possibly be in danger of eroding too much and this could upset the overall balance and completeness of yourself as an individual over time. If so, the dream seems to be emphasizing such a possibility by then introducing the frightening image of the old woman or “witch” who has been feasting on the animals. The end of the dream where you can’t find a “light” by finding your “electronic” phone could again be saying that looking for a solution to the “old woman” who’s killing and eating your instinctive side can’t be found through thinking about it (e.g. the light of a phone) but only through more “natural” and emotional ways. The way the dream ends is also probably saying something like “This is the way things are, so what are you going to DO about it?”, showing that through your own efforts, you can solve whatever the problem actually is, whether as outlined above or some other underlying situation. Anyway, without knowing much about you, this way of looking at your dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way. Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this particular way of looking at your very upsetting dream.