Thread: A very important dream

It looks like your dream, which appeared some months after you began to feel depressed, was trying to generally show why you were feeling this way and how to improve the situation.

The fact that you still remember the dream after two years probably shows that not enough has been done as yet to solve the overall problem that the dream was dealing with.

But just to start off by mentioning that there are generally no rigidly 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 in a dream.

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 its meaning.

Also, it’s important to say that the language of dreams is one based on analogies and metaphors which can often be very complex and therefore 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.

Also, looking at the stories, myths and art etc. about a given image as created by people over thousands of years (e.g. the “witch” in your dream) can be very helpful in providing useful parallels which can clarify its meaning in a modern dream.

Your dream starts off with you being in your old high school. The class is over and you enter the hallways which have a white maze of stairways.

This could mean that it was time to leave an old way of thinking and acting (e.g. the class is over), and that this might have to involve putting aside a certain kind of “neat and tidy” conformist outlook (e.g. as possibly symbolized by the maze of white stairways that are also found in a high school that would be funded and run by “collective” entities as opposed to a more individual approach).

The dream seems to add to this idea of a need for change by having what should have been the routine picking up of you and your brothers becoming an annoying problem where you’ll have to walk a long distance to reach home.

“Home” in this case probably refers to reaching the “real you” which, as you mentioned, was apparently being blocked directly or indirectly by various expectations of your parents etc.

It’s likely the dream was advising you to give up trying to fulfill these pressures on you by showing your parents as unfeelingly leaving without you.

This is a method used in dream language to cause the dreamer to think twice about a certain attitude etc., namely, by disparaging a central symbol of the cause of the attitude, in this case, your parents (or at least what you believed your parents wanted regarding your education).

The idea that any such change in outlook etc. wouldn’t be easy is soon confirmed by the fact you end up walking in a deadly hot desert.

The desert, blazing sun and the very steep hill etc. likely symbolize the depression that you had unfortunately fallen into, and which you’d have to “go through” in order to at last find “a way out”.

In addition, the sun might symbolize an overly intense use of thinking and the intellect as understandably caused by your studies at university.

The little abandoned house with nothing inside stands for a part of your overall personality which has apparently been too neglected over time.

The figure of the “witch” comes from the deepest layers of your unconscious mind and has a large number of beliefs and legends connected to it over the ages.

Basically though, she represents the upsetting and annoying factor that balances out, for instance, a “too white and perfect” attitude as maybe earlier symbolized by the maze of white staircases.

That is, she stands for a deep part of nature which in itself is a mixture of both the dark and the light concerning life overall in all its complexities.

This part of ourselves wants change and development which takes in all aspects of our personality and not just the “nice” aspects. This is meant to gradually bring out our true nature which involves having a well-rounded approach to life in general.

The idea of change and transformation is also seen in the fact that you have to enter the bathtub.

This is meant to be a kind of “baptism” which is needed to bring about a new and healthier overall attitude.

The fact that the image is of a woman, albeit a witch, and that the water is a rosy color points to the idea that a closer loyalty to your true emotions and values is needed in order for you to move forward more effectively in the future.

The other dreams which you remember also tend to touch on the themes in this dream.

For example, hunting for ostrich eggs in trees that are found in a mall suggests the need to leave a certain “barren” and “unnatural” materialistic attitude (the mall) which is very common and, symbolically, highly “infectious” in modern societies.

Ostriches are birds and symbolically can bring “messages” (in this case, eggs) in the form of intuitions, subtle feelings and thoughts etc.

These and other instinctive parts of yourself were apparently undervalued in the past for whatever reason, symbolically making them very “angry” as shown in the dream where lions maul people at a bus stop. In a practical way, this probably unfortunately appeared later in you becoming depressed.

Generally speaking, a vehicle in dreams (whether a truck, car, bicycle, ship or aircraft etc.) represents a complex mix of the physical body along with the dreamer’s interests, drives, wishes and beliefs etc. etc.

So it symbolizes a kind of body-and-mind mix with which the person moves through daily life.

With this in mind, the dream about driving backwards from university to your parents’ house was probably trying to show that your energies were being used in a negative way which became more obvious later.

Anyway, without knowing much about you, this way of looking at your important dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope that these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Please make any comments or ask any questions about this interpretation that you’d like to.

Originally Posted by Athanor

It looks like your dream, which appeared some months after you began to feel depressed, was trying to generally show why you were feeling this way and how to improve the situation.

The fact that you still remember the dream after two years probably shows that not enough has been done as yet to solve the overall problem that the dream was dealing with.

After talking to my doctor and therapy, I realized I was depressed since high school. Two years ago, when the dream happened, it only got worse. It got so worse that I wasn't performing good in my job and had two crises. It has affected me emotionally, physically and mentally so much during the time, but a few months ago since I started therapy I've been gradually making changes in my life and I'm starting to feel like I can function normally. I still feel sad that I can never be the person I was before all this happened, but at the same time I feel like I have some kind of responsibility, like all this happened to me and I must make something out of it.

Your dream starts off with you being in your old high school. The class is over and you enter the hallways which have a white maze of stairways.

This could mean that it was time to leave an old way of thinking and acting (e.g. the class is over), and that this might have to involve putting aside a certain kind of “neat and tidy” conformist outlook (e.g. as possibly symbolized by the maze of white stairways that are also found in a high school that would be funded and run by “collective” entities as opposed to a more individual approach).

This is totally true. As I said, I was the "nice son", and I always tried to achieve in order to impress not only my parents but my teachers, etc.

The dream seems to add to this idea of a need for change by having what should have been the routine picking up of you and your brothers becoming an annoying problem where you’ll have to walk a long distance to reach home. “Home” in this case probably refers to reaching the “real you” which, as you mentioned, was apparently being blocked directly or indirectly by various expectations of your parents etc. It’s likely the dream was advising you to give up trying to fulfill these pressures on you by showing your parents as unfeelingly leaving without you.

The thing is I'm gay, and even when I came out to my parents and they still reacted positively to it, I felt like I had deeply disappointed them. I knew I was gay since I was a child and this has made hyper self-aware, and you can tell how this can take a toll on anybody's mental health lol.

This is a method used in dream language to cause the dreamer to think twice about a certain attitude etc., namely, by disparaging a central symbol of the cause of the attitude, in this case, your parents (or at least what you believed your parents wanted regarding your education).

I was the ony unfullfilled with my education though; my parents didn't really think any of it, but I was so let down by the non passion and systematic approach to education I was receiving in university. I graduated with honors, despite I feel like all I learned wasn't taught to me in university. I wanted to drop out because the disinterest from professors towards a more dynamic and creative education made me feel like I was wasting my time. I have a graduate degree on Film and TV production and direction.

The idea that any such change in outlook etc. wouldn’t be easy is soon confirmed by the fact you end up walking in a deadly hot desert. The desert, blazing sun and the very steep hill etc. likely symbolize the depression that you had unfortunately fallen into, and which you’d have to “go through” in order to at last find “a way out”. In addition, the sun might symbolize an overly intense use of thinking and the intellect as understandably caused by your studies at university.

I might re-interpret it the following way: the barrenness of the landscape symbolized the barrenness I found (and wanted to escape from but ultimately decided to endure) in higher education, and the fact that I practically had to look for education in outer sources. I learned a lot of things in this hostile environment though, and more importantly it served to teach me the ugly sides of life.

The little abandoned house with nothing inside stands for a part of your overall personality which has apparently been too neglected over time.

One of the things about my depression and which I constantly think about is that I believe its source comes from a feeling of being too different. I was always to "different", even though I had to repress that in order to make friends and please my parents and teachers. I like the fact that it's in this empty and neglected part of myself in which I find shelter and healing from the hostile environment in which I previously found myself in.

Another thing is at that time, when I woke up one of the first things I was curious about besides the old woman figure, was the fact that I didn't get to the top. Maybe this is just a reflection of my rigid and "people-pleasing" mindset at the time. What I now see is that the sun was so blazing that now I think that if I had reached the top I might have burst into flames! I really needed a bath, and despite choosing the abandoned house for the top of the hill, the sun was still blindingly reaching through the window.

The figure of the “witch” comes from the deepest layers of your unconscious mind and has a large number of beliefs and legends connected to it over the ages. Basically though, she represents the upsetting and annoying factor that balances out, for instance, a “too white and perfect” attitude as maybe earlier symbolized by the maze of white staircases. That is, she stands for a deep part of nature which in itself is a mixture of both the dark and the light concerning life overall in all its complexities. This part of ourselves wants change and development which takes in all aspects of our personality and not just the “nice” aspects. This is meant to gradually bring out our true nature which involves having a well-rounded approach to life in general.

I read that the old woman/hag/crone/wise old woman archetype appears in the arc of the story where the hero is in most trouble to help him... The thing I don't know is, is this crone a part of me (meaning I must be a crone to myself?) or is this someone I must look for in my life? I guess it's the former because I can't think of anyone in my life who could do that for me. And also, there's this phrase that has resonated with me for a long time: "be a mother to yourself". Maybe it's me indeed who needs to take this role in order to save the "hero" in myself.

The idea of change and transformation is also seen in the fact that you have to enter the bathtub. This is meant to be a kind of “baptism” which is needed to bring about a new and healthier overall attitude. The fact that the image is of a woman, albeit a witch, and that the water is a rosy color points to the idea that a closer loyalty to your true emotions and values is needed in order for you to move forward more effectively in the future.

This is what has made me progress so much in therapy: getting to the roots of my feelings and understanding my history. When I think of the crone figure, I think of grandmothers and how they store so much information from the past. My two grandmas always tell stories, and I always learn much from them and my perspective grows. Therapy has done the same for me, but in a tenfold manner.

The other dreams which you remember also tend to touch on the themes in this dream. For example, hunting for ostrich eggs in trees that are found in a mall suggests the need to leave a certain “barren” and “unnatural” materialistic attitude (the mall) which is very common and, symbolically, highly “infectious” in modern societies. Ostriches are birds and symbolically can bring “messages” (in this case, eggs) in the form of intuitions, subtle feelings and thoughts etc. These and other instinctive parts of yourself were apparently undervalued in the past for whatever reason, symbolically making them very “angry” as shown in the dream where lions maul people at a bus stop. In a practical way, this probably unfortunately appeared later in you becoming depressed.

I couldn't believe the amount of anger and repressed negative feelings I had inside. Coincidentally, when I started doing art for therapy, some of the motifs that surfaced where caged birds, volcanoes and wounds. I wasn't angry/etc at my parents, but at myself for doing all these silly things instead of being authentic and following my instincts.

Generally speaking, a vehicle in dreams (whether a truck, car, bicycle, ship or aircraft etc.) represents a complex mix of the physical body along with the dreamer’s interests, drives, wishes and beliefs etc. etc. So it symbolizes a kind of body-and-mind mix with which the person moves through daily life. With this in mind, the dream about driving backwards from university to your parents’ house was probably trying to show that your energies were being used in a negative way which became more obvious later.

I was definitely driving backwards at that time; I also had dreams where I would get lost going somewhere, had many times that kind of dream later around that time.


----

Thank you very much for interpreting this. I had a very vague idea about what the dream meant, just that I needed to heal. This might be the sharpest dream I've ever had in my life lol. Thanks again.

Hi again,

I’m glad that your therapy is helping you to, in effect, heal the split between the “real you” and the whole thing of “feeling too different” all these years.

The depression, while very unpleasant, was in essence a symptom which contained a valuable part of you, namely, a genuine self-acceptance of who you are in an innate sense, and which had to be reconnected with.

Anyone who is cut off from this is usually, of course, in a very trying situation. You’re becoming able to function more normally again, and I would guess that a further step could now be needed in not blaming yourself for what happened.

You were very young when you realized you were gay and apparently saw signs that this wasn’t always “acceptable”. It also looks like you weren’t able to share this fact with anyone for quite some time and to gain other perspectives.

So I would say that the causes of your situation were “circumstance” and “Fate”, as it were, as opposed to “you”.

The split from your real self led to a fairly usual outcome, namely, a natural compensating drive to gain self-acceptance by “doing”.

This apparently appeared in a practical way in your obsessive desire to please others. This in turn eventually led to trying to succeed, as you say, in the university’s very dry environment as symbolized by the potentially killing sun in the dream.

Going up a very steep hill in dreams in the way you did usually symbolizes an unproductive “going against the gravity” of circumstances and of one’s own actual, innate reality as a person.

It looks like the true approach needed of just “being” (instead of “doing”, e.g. going up the old habitual hill of pleasing everyone) was demonstrated by the Crone who showed that the waters of emotion and true values could allow you to “relax” and change your outlook so that you could eventually ignore the blazing sun which was boring in through the window.

The Crone is part of the Jungian “anima” archetype which ranges from a girl to the aged Crone figure. She appears throughout mythology, beliefs, folk tales, art, movies, novels, painting, sculpture, dreams etc. etc.

Jung called the anima the “archetype of life itself”. She is also partly the personification of a male’s unconscious side which is often his emotional and values side.

But this is the case only where the male’s innate way of making his way through life is chiefly via the intellect and thinking which generally exclude much attention to his emotional side.

In contrast, it’s possible that your key innate method of making decisions and experiencing life is via your emotional and valuing side. If so, the dry academic approach of the professors to your chosen studies would indeed have seemed a boring and destructive travesty.

So the Crone is essentially inside yourself, but I would say that she has appeared in the outer world as well in the form of your grandmothers.

In addition though, you could also meet a “wise old woman” on the outside through a chance encounter.

The constantly resonating phrase "Be a mother to yourself" may be showing that the main way for you is to connect in an ongoing way with this inner woman, the anima or "muse".

Although it might sound like an unusual idea, one method is by using Jung’s technique of “Active Imagination. This method involves conversations with inner figures, and a description can be found in analyst Robert Johnson’s “Inner Work”, as well as in Mary Watkins’s “Invisible Guests” and “Waking Dreams”. The technique is also described to some extent in “Man and his Symbols” edited by C. G. Jung.
A recent book, “Imaginal Figures in Everyday Life: Stories from The World between Matter and Mind” by analyst Mary Harrell, is also very good.

If you’re interested in getting an idea about your actual personality type and how this affects your everyday life, a short but very useful and clear introduction to these ideas as developed by Carl Jung can be found in “Personality Types” by analyst Daryl Sharp. It’s available on such sites as Amazon etc.

However, you can actually download it free from the publisher’s website which is innercitybooks.net

If you go to the site, just click on “e-books”, then scroll down on the e-book page to the bottom where there are a few free books including “Personality Types”. You can then download and save it in PDF format.

In any case, I hope that these additional ideas can be helpful in some way, and please don’t hesitate to ask any other questions you may have.

Hello! I hope you are still around xD

I've been reading Carl Jung and I've found very interesting things. I also have been having a recurring dream about flying. I had three different dreams: in the first I had wings and was learning to fly. In the second, a forest of very tall trees grew next to my house and I was flying there (and I was enjoying it to be honest). In all these dreams I am at my house for the record. The third is the most special: I was flying over my house, but it didn't look like my real house: it was a house of 3 floors, and the last floor was some sort of shrine, and there was a vase there (I've had some other dreams where my house has 2 or more floors). The house in this dream looked similar to the house of the dream this thread is about. I was flying towards the third floor and when I saw the the vase I felt like I shouldn't take it or even touch it. I kinda felt like it was some sort of trap, like something bad would happen to me if I inspected it, so I chose not to do anything and then I became awake. I was still sleepy so I fell back right away, but the dream was in another place. I was with a friend and we were getting prepared to serve some people that were to come. There was a loooooong table full of cups, and we were getting ready for the guests. And then I woke up again.

EDIT: I had wings in all three dreams.

Reply MR 8

Hi again.

When a dream is repeating the same image on various occasions, it usually means that it’s very important for the dreamer to understand what the dreams are about. Most often, when the dreamer finally realizes what the dreams are saying, they will stop or at least happen much less often. In this case, it might even be that your reading of Carl Jung could have caused your recurring dream about flying.

For example, reading Jung’s ideas can help you to explore your “house” or overall personality in various ways (e.g. you are flying around your house in the dreams and seeing it more clearly). In one dream, the house is bigger that your real house, that is, its three floors high. This maybe suggests that you can gradually “enlarge” your understanding about life and yourself over time.

However, the image of flying in a dream can mean that the dreamer could be in danger of leaving “solid reality” too often and eventually “falling far below to the solid ground” of the here and now. This can occur because some aspects of everyday life can be hurtful and understandably difficult to deal with, so we tend to “fly away” and prefer to ignore them, possibly by concentrating on something that removes us from the need to pay attention to various problems etc.

In your dream, you fly close to a shrine on the third floor where you see a vase but you feel that looking at it more closely could be a trap and therefore decide not to. In the Jungian approach, a sacred vase, container, vessel, pot or cup etc. often symbolizes the “womb” of the unconscious which can “bring forth” many new and positive living parts of oneself. But instead, what appears can also turn out to be dangerous and destructive in some way if not approached carefully and at the right time. So your recurring dream might possibly be warning you that, for example, you could be very understandably enjoying the powerful and fascinating ideas and concepts of Jungian psychology, but these might tend to lead you away from actually facing certain issues in a down-to-earth and practical way.

The dream that you had right after this one seems to express the same type of idea, namely, that there could possibly be way too much delving into your unconscious mind right now (e.g. as symbolized by the very long table full of cups from which everyone is going to “take in” a lot of possibly “intoxicating” drink).

If so, the overall idea of these dreams could be that it might be best to slow down and to control how much you’re looking into your own psyche at this time.

Having said that, a Jungian-related book that you might like to read in the future which I didn’t mention last time is “Same-Sex Love and the Path to Wholeness” edited by Robert Hopcke and others.

In any case, please don’t hesitate to ask any other questions you might have about these dreams.

Thank you so much for replying. I actually had these dreams last year, a little bit after this thread was made! I only remembered because I've recently started reading Carl Jung's material, and I was reading about the chakras: I related the state of Manipura to my dream of being washed by a witch and Anahata to my series of dreams about flying:

For Jung and his understanding of the psychology of manipura, emphasis is on where manipura has to move up, off the surface of the diaphragm/earth to anahata – to air, to thought, to first consciousness. Before anahata, all is still unconscious-ness – instinctual, primitive, naive. Unformed, fluid, murky, churning coming to light in manipura. Here manipura is transitory for Jung (whereas it is often site-specific for a particular transformative experience for chakra psychology). In the process of individuation, we move through, integrate and keep on moving.

He says something very interesting that relates the part of my old dream of being in the bathtub in contact with a blinding sun and my dream about learning to fly:

Yes, you rise above the horizon according to the Egyptian symbolism. If you are identical with the sun, you rise above the horizon with the sun ship and travel over the heavens. The sun is a superior power. If you are an appendix of the Pharoah, the sun can lift you up to almost a divine position. And the contact with the sun in manipura lifts you up off your feet into the sphere above the earth. The wind also can do it, because in primitive beliefs the spirit is a kind of wind.”

About the fear of inspecting the vase:

“So the crossing over from manipura to anahata is really very difficult. The recognition that the psyche is a self-moving thing, something genuine and not yourself, is exceedingly difficult to see and to admit. For it means that the consciousness which you call yourself is at an end. In your consciousness everything is as you have put it, but then you discover that you are not master in your own house, you are not living alone in your own room, and there are spooks about that play havoc with your realities, and that is the end of your monarchy.”

About the subsequent dream of practically being a waiter, lol

We understand more or less what manipura means psychologically, but now we have come to great leap, anahata. What follows psychologically after you fallen into hell? When you have come into the whirlpool of passions, of instincts, of desires and so on, what follows after?”

(Mrs. Crowley offers an answer: “Usually an enantodromia; some opposite will now be constellated. Some vision perhaps, or something more impersonal will follow.”)

I think this dream where I'm waiting to serve is more about a kind of "sharing" and I've been thinking a lot about that. The first way it has manifested in my life is, obviously, how I'm "sharing" my life truly as opposed to the past. A peculiar thing about the cups is that they were filled with water, "transparent" liquid. I mean, this could be the final analysis of my dream--a newfound sense of reality--but deep inside I would love to find even a bigger way to share my experiences with others.

Thank you again for replying--you've been nothing but helpful, and I'll surely get my hands on that book!

I also found his description of the symbolism of birds (as spirit) and trees (a continual life that unites earth and heaven, an "emergence") important. I also recall dreaming last year of being a bird and perching on a flowering tree in my backyard, going from branch to branch, at the end of the dreaming i flew down and returned to my human form and watched the tree, as breeze moved it and it's leaves fell towards my way along with drizzle. The sun was shining in a particular way that it made the leaves shine. It was a very beautiful dream and I woke up feeling very happy.



All the difference in the world could be made just by being true from the start.

Your thoughts on your dreams are very interesting and show how they were indeed “archetypal” in nature. That’s emphasized by the fact that recently reading Jung’s ideas on Kundalini Yoga, which are ideas in effect linked to the archetypes, stirred up spontaneous associations with the flying dreams from last June and in turn, with the witch and flying/vase dreams from around two and a half years ago. You also recalled the beautiful archetypal dream from last year about being a bird and sitting in the flowering tree.

Associations are very important ways of exploring the meaning of our dreams because they provide basic keys that allow for a personal understanding if they’re carefully looked at as well as possible in an objective way. This brings up the idea of how it’s usually harder to analyze our own dreams than those of others. That’s because, in trying to balance out an attitude or way of looking at things etc. that may not be best for us in the long run, they’re often in effect trying to tell us something that we’d prefer not to hear (although your dream about being a bird isn’t of this type).

So since the memory of the dreams from last June appeared when you were reading some very deep and meaningful insights as presented by Jung, the idea might continue to be that “flying above your house”, for example, might apply to a feeling that was stirred when reading these concepts. That is, a reaction might have been in some way similar to feelings and attitudes that existed behind the dreams when they first appeared. In addition, these feelings and ideas link back even further to the dreams you had two and a half years ago.

For example, the witch and the bath were related to the freeing up of emotions but, as Jung writes, along with this there’s a need for the ability to see the emotions as being separate from the ego, that is, as part of the Self. Without gradually building up this ability through various experiences over time, a person could tend to be “burnt up” by the heat of such emotions and therefore be “blinded” or “killed” by this particular uncontrolled energy of the Self (as possibly symbolized by the intense light of the sun outside the hut in the desert). So remembering the dreams about flying above your house could therefore still symbolize a possible lack of understanding of this practical fact instead of representing a movement this early on towards a high spiritual level of comprehension. If so, this could potentially lead to problems over time.

This way of looking at your dreams also includes the important idea that any dream has multiple levels of meaning at the same time. So, for example, your dream about the witch and the bath is still very positive although at the same time, it could be including a heads-up of a danger still involved in allowing your feelings to come in too quickly and of understandably hoping that everything will be solved in this way.

Similarly, your dream about being a “waiter” has a very positive side in that you’d like to somehow share your experiences with others. However, it could be that the fact there are so very many cups points to the dream being about “multiplicity”; that is, the image of the many cups could tend to point away from the idea of “unity” and “wholeness”. Experiences and your situation might not have “coalesced” or “come together” enough as yet into one “sacred vessel”. Similarly, the cups contain only water which, although vital for life itself, isn’t a drink which has been “worked on” and “created” such as wine, for example. The idea could be that your overall psychological and physical energies (as symbolized by the many cups of water) need more work in order to become “whole” as partly expressed by anahata.

As Jung writes in Lecture 4 of “The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga”:

“So if we are wise and live in reality, when we want to describe something we always begin with everyday banal events, and with the practical and concrete. In a word, we begin with the sthula aspect [Sthula is a Sanskrit term and adjective which is used in yogic writings and philosophy to denote that which is fixed and manifest]. To us the things that are real beyond question are our professions, the places where we live, our bank accounts, our families and our social connections. We are forced to take these realities as our premises if we want to live at all. Without personal life, without the here and now, we cannot attain to the suprapersonal. Personal life must first be fulfilled in order that the process of the suprapersonal side of the psyche can be introduced”

Reading about Jung’s ideas related to birds and trees apparently stirred the memory of your striking dream from a year ago. In addition to representing spirit, a bird also symbolizes a “messenger” which brings communications from the psyche. An unusual tree often represents the core of the psyche, the Self. So because you are a bird who felt comfortable among the branches of the tree, it’s possible that in some important way, it could be that over time, you might potentially become a “messenger” of some kind for ideas related to the Self, conveying these to other people, for example. Turning to your human form at the end of the dream likely signifies the need to make any such potential real and conscious over time.

Anyway, if you have any further thoughts or questions, please let me know. In the meantime, if you haven’t come across them yet, here are a few very helpful books written for the general public by Jungian analysts which include how to approach dreams:

“Jungian Dream Interpretation” by James Hall; “Jung: A Very Short Introduction” by Anthony Stevens; ”Ariadne’s Clue” by Anthony Stevens; “Jung and the Human Psyche: An Understandable Introduction by Mary Ann Mattoon”; “The Dream Story” by Donald Broadribb.

Carl Jung’s autobiography “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” contains the interpretation of his various fascinating dreams and is also very inspiring overall. “Dreams” by Carl Jung is a compilation of his work about dreams as derived from the Collected Works.

Here is what I saw of the recurring dreams, before I read the last few posts:.

"I've found very interesting things" could lead to having a recurring dream about flying. And having wings and learning to fly sounds like higher learning of freedom.
Second dream might be you wanting to grow tall or above things, maybe the forest meaning others, to enjoy yourself on a higher level which can fit flying.
Can the third dream mean adding this new third level of freedom to yourself you want to attain, which'd be most special? It sounds like the spiritual level. The second might be the mental.
The vase trap may mean don't fall into the trap of leaving your feminine side empty ~ emotions and connection to people. A shrine is sacred and usually to the dead, so you want it full and alive.

After waking up to this danger, it seems you then could be prepared for people which would be friendly, not a danger. (The lions at the bus stop may be social hurt, threat, or anger.)
But it's a long table for this fulfilment. A cup is to be filled, like a vase, but maybe means will take a long time, or has, yet a vase is often an instant container for a fully grown flower.
So the message might be drink with others to make that grow.

Your first dream of ostrich eggs that are located on trees can mean ostriches can't fly, but trees are high.
But other birds, which are in the next or recent dream, use trees and fly.