Recurring dream involving transportation

Hey everyone, this is my first post on a forum like this so I'm not sure what to anticipate, but here I go!

I've been having a recurring dream over perhaps the past year, but not steadily. I've had it about 3 or 4 times. Here's a little backstory before I get into it: I currently live in Canada with my mom. Before that, I lived in another country (let's call it country B) also with my mom, but my dad did and still does live there. I moved to Canada about a year and a half ago.

In my dream, I'm taking a bus (it always starts out with me on the bus). I'm either in Canada or Country B, but I am always going to visit my dad. I'm going only by bus, not to an airport or anything, which is strange because Country B and Canada aren't connected by land and so I couldn't just take a bus from one to the other. The bus passes by the stop I am supposed to get off at, because I neglected to press a button to tell the driver to stop. I wave it off and say it isn't a big deal, because I can just get off at the next stop and walk in the opposite direction to go to where I am supposed to. However, the next stop ends up being extremely far away, so far that I am unable to just walk back to the previous one (this is about the time that I realize it's 'that' dream, however I haven't been able to achieve full lucidity yet). Since it's the last stop on the bus route, I have to get off there. There aren't any buses going the opposite direction either, so I just continue walking in the direction the bus was going.

When I get off the bus I am in a place I don't recall seeing IRL. In the dream I assume it's in Country B because of the climate- it's hot. There is a small cliff with a cave in it that I have seen in other dreams- the cave is usually a homeless shelter or a small store where some women sell handmade products like scrubs and soaps (oddly specific but true!) but in this dream it is just a cave which I pass by.

Usually the dream ends there, at the cave, but the most recent time I've had it, I've continued walking and seen a town in Country B, but in a state I've never seen it before. There are many car crashes and it seems like there has been a flood or something, because everything is rotting and wet. People have set fires to things(like the broken cars, etc), but whether it is because they are rioting or they just need warmth, I don't know. In the dream, I am surprised to see everything like this, and then the dream ends.

As I'm writing this I've just now remembered- the first time I had this dream, instead of going to the cave, I instead go to my dad's house anyways, even though I got off far from the stop I was supposed to. He is happy to see me when I get there. Me and my dad haven't had arguments or anything since then.

Sorry if what I've written doesn't make sense at times, but I'd really appreciate any interpretations or anything, or even advice on how to extend the dream so I can learn more about the scenario it's in! :):heart:

It’s great that you’ve provided background information because doing so helps to improve the accuracy of the interpretation of your dream.

Just to start off by saying that a recurring dream appears in order to try and get an important message across to the dreamer about a certain inner and/or outer situation.

In your recurring dream, it’s probably best to think of your dad as symbolizing “fathering” as opposed to representing your dad himself.

In this way of looking at your dream, the landscape and the journey symbolize a need to get in touch with an inner “fathering” aspect of yourself which hasn’t existed up until now or with which a connection may have perhaps become too weak.

To help to clarify this approach, “fathering” is a so-called “masculine” activating principle present in a person regardless of their gender.

Its presence helps to ensure that a person doesn’t tend to lose momentum in her or his self-development but instead is revitalized and energized in an ongoing way.

So the idea is that a person should try to create a kind of inner “protector” and empowering agent so that one’s own sense of authority is able to feel strong enough when facing the various practical challenges of life.

This includes the ability to “overthrow” any outer “authority” that could get in the way of the person fulfilling her or his own individual potentials.

One also has to be able to accept the need to face and deal with such feelings as fear and loneliness etc. that will appear in various challenging situations which help us to mature over time.

In your dream, riding along on the bus probably partly symbolizes the need at this time to move through life by partly going along with a certain level of “commonality” and “what everybody else does” in order to help to fit in with others and to make friends etc.

However, the dream seems to be saying that at certain times, you should purposely “get off the bus” in order to re-connect with your own personal authority and individuality as symbolized by your dad.

This seemingly is needed in order to prevent drifting along to a kind of “dead end” where there’s nothing of importance in the area and in fact, apparently only a hot, lifeless expanse where there’s a cliff with an unexplored cave in it.

It’s possible that the underlying situation, whatever it may actually be, is tending to deteriorate over time.

This is because in the first dream of the series, you met with your dad and he was glad to see you, possibly meaning in this way of looking at your dream that you were able to maintain a certain kind of personal presence and firmness in the early stages of your move to Canada with all of the challenges this would involve.

However, the latest dream shows an upsetting scene where there might have been a flood and wrecked cars are set on fire etc.

A vehicle in dreams basically symbolizes the complex mix of the physical body along with one’s interests, drives, wishes and beliefs etc. etc.; that is, it symbolizes a kind of body-and-soul unity with which the person moves through daily life.

In this case, the dream might unfortunately be showing how things could potentially break down too much in how you’re moving forward if more of an effort isn’t made to become more forceful and assertive, for example, if you possibly tend to be a little shy at times.

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.

If by chance you feel that you might benefit from bolstering your assertiveness skills, a couple of time-tested and reliable books which I often recommend are “Your Perfect Right: Assertiveness and Equality in Your Life and Relationships / Edition 9” by Robert Alberti and Michael Eammons, and “Asserting Yourself” by Sharon and Gordon Bower. These are available on such websites as Barnes & Noble and Amazon for example.

Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this particular way of looking at your recurring dream.