Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some additional general background information about you (and a description of events just before this very upsetting dream), a few ideas can be tried out to see if they might fit your personal situation in some way.
Just to mention that there are generally no fixed interpretations for a given image in a dream and it’s always best to have the spontaneous memories, thoughts and feelings of the dreamer as related to each image and event.
That way, a better analysis is more likely, but having said that, there are some general symbolic motifs that appear in dreams which can serve as a basic starting point for discovering a dream’s meaning.
Also, the language of dreams is one based on analogies and metaphors which of course can be hard to understand.
In addition, dreams are the broad equivalent to those processes which keep our physical bodies in an equilibrium.
For example, automatic adjustments are continually made to keep a person’s temperature, blood sugar level, water content etc. etc. at appropriate levels.
In an equivalent way, dreams try to maintain an overall psychological balance which will allow for the gradual all-round self-development of the dreamer.
So to start off with your dream, it looks like you could be mostly unaware of some kind of issue or situation etc. (e.g. you’re asleep, that is, “unaware”, and you’re in an “unknown” back yard, “back” and “behind” in dreams also referring to the unconscious in general).
Generally speaking, the presence of animals in dreams usually points to the issue of the dreamer’s overall attitude toward instinctive reactions, emotions, vague feelings, intuitions and similar inborn natural traits.
Given the challenging nature of the rest of the dream, it looks like the idea could be that it would be best keep close to your inner Loki and Sif (in the sense of staying strongly in touch with your instincts) as you explore what the dream apparently wants you to look into regarding some sort of urgent and demanding situation etc.
It’s good to remember that the dream could have chosen any dogs or any other animal to represent this need, so the fact that it chose to have Loki and Sif appear probably doesn’t depend just on the fact that they’re yours and “familiar” in the sense of how you normally rely on your instinctive responses, but because on analogy, they symbolize certain other very important points the dream is trying to make.
For example, it looks like the mythological aspects of Loki and Sif are possibly being used to illustrate something significant.
For instance, Loki is male and Sif is female, suggesting the idea of conflicting opposites. In myth, Loki is a trickster and shape-shifter, representing the instinctive but “annoying” urge for change, the loosening of habits and “structures” etc. in the personality. Sif symbolizes the family, the maternal and the nourishing.
So in your dream, Loki goes along willingly with you while Sif won’t go because maybe she wants the “status quo” too much.
Getting back to what urgently has to be done at this time, a clue probably lies in the fact that you have to go “home” in the dream; that is, to the “real you” as it were.
If so, the dream says that this is to be found in your grandma’s house.
Later, very frightening images regarding your grandmother appear in the dream and although unpleasant, they’re probably just meant to really “wake you up” to a powerful need to explore what reaching “home” actually could mean for you.
Any such “exploration” apparently won’t be very easy because you and Loki first enter the back door of a strange house where you know you shouldn’t be and walk across a fake snow decoration.
Symbolically, this might suggest that various “chilling” fears, doubts and feelings of guilt etc. could appear on the scene and these would have to be taken seriously instead of just as being surface “ornamentation” or “trimming” for example.
You then end up in what’s supposed to be your grandma’s garden and see there a round wrought-iron gate.
Usually, something impressive and round in dreams symbolizes the dreamer’s overall potential as a unique person.
In order to effectively work at making this potential real in all of its aspects, various “gates” have to be passed through to new areas of oneself over time.
A garden most often represents the Soul with all of its creative possibilities.
Apparently, some basics have to be dealt with first as maybe symbolized by being in the garage instead of the house. The latter would symbolize an overall psychological state of mind partly represented by various pieces of impressive furniture and paintings etc.
Your son could denote, for instance, a sense of enterprise and targeted attention that’s needed to reach “home” while at the same time the requirement to control urges for change that might tend to “run away” with you too much at times (e.g. he holds Loki’s leash).
The idea of going back for Sif, although natural, is apparently from the dream’s point of view, not something positive in the circumstances (e.g. at the moment you decide to go back for Sif, you and your son are filled with fear).
The idea might be, for example, that if you’re past midlife, it could be necessary for you to reduce your “maternal” and “family” role (as symbolized by Sif) to a reasonable degree in order to be able to pursue the real you by working at talents and abilities etc. that naturally had to be left behind in the first half of life.
The dream then maybe brutally and frighteningly shows that there is indeed “no going back” and that you have to face the, at first, dreadful challenges of becoming who you can become as a more complete person overall (e.g. you see the fire pit with the hanging skeleton who horrifyingly turns out to be your grandmother).
Fire is a very complex symbol but in this context, it probably means the destruction of the old in order to allow for the growth of the new. This is depicted, for instance, in the myth of the Phoenix.
Any such change is usually very painful and hard to endure, but “out of the ashes”, a new, central understanding and sense of meaning can emerge as shown by how the skeleton changed to a beautiful statue of the Madonna with a red ribbon covering her eyes.
So it looks like your task could be to “bring the statue to life” and allow it to “see” again in the sense of bringing to life the core of your feminine being along with a profound sense of meaning over time.
If anything about this interpretation seems to make sense in your personal situation, you might like to read some books by analyst James Hollis who has written extensively on how to make the best of the second half of life.
Anyway, I hope these ideas haven’t been too confusing and that they can be helpful in some way. Please feel free to comment on, or to ask any questions about this particular way of looking at your very important dream.
|
|
Bookmarks