![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chomijiSo I was dreaming about houses last night. I often dream about exploring a house, but I don't think I've ever had a dream with three different houses in it before. And ghosts. And a demon giving us lessons in how to fight off the ghosts.
It started off pretty mundanely: I dreamed I was selling my father's house, which I actually did a couple of years ago after his death, but this time, it was in fact my childhood home in Rock Creek Forest. And even though the yard was all torn up, as if from construction, it sold right away. But for some reason I was also selling the next house down the hill, which used to belong to (and in fact, likely still does) one of the two rabbis at our synagogue - the one I like better, actually. And I was staying in this house while it was for sale, sharing a bedroom with some young woman I'd never met before. We were being very polite with each other and careful about keeping the room tidy.
This seemed to have worked, because we must have sold the house. Next thing I know, the Mr. and I had bought another house. Bizarrely, it was exactly the kind of house I don't like, an expanded split foyer home similar to what we had when we lived in Kensington. But somehow this one was better - I remember walking up and down and all through it - and I was delighted. So much so, that when I looked out the window at the back yard, and saw that there was an extremely creepy-looking graveyard right there (!), I wasn't freaked out at all. We even made sure to take a good look at the graveyard by night, when the ghosts were stirring (!), and my reaction was "Sure, we can handle this. After all, this house is really great."
I called out to the ghosts - they were ghosts of tough-looking evil guys, something like bikers crossed with pirates - that they had better behave, we knew a couple of Priestesses of Light. This is pretty much true - I was thinking a couple of old friends who are practicing Pagans. And this tactic seemed to work. In fact, some sort of demonic spirit showed up and started giving us advice about dealing with the ghosts in the future. For example, we had to be very careful to not only lock the door, but also to latch it with an iron latch - we had one on the outside and one on the inside. It didn't look very effective, but because it was iron, it did the job. And when the Mr. and I were doing some yard work, and were menaced by one of the ghosts, my lightweight weeding trowel wasn't very effective as a weapon, but the heavier one went right into the ghost, and that seemed to fix him quite well!
I woke up at this point, and found myself wondering why we were taking this demon's advice, even though it seemed to be working. Why was he helping us? What was in it for him? I found myself thinking of Ryuk, the shinigami in Death Note, even though our demon advisor didn't look much like him. I keep thinking that Ryuk's advice is going to be Light's undoing one of these days.
ah, Death Note
Date: 2007-04-29 02:14 am (UTC)I'd prefer a written form if I could get my hands on it.
that is one cool dream you had.
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamthemes/house.htm
homes are often representative of the self. you have in your dream: your childhood home (your childhood self), your rabbi's home (your religious self), and a house much like the one you lived in before, in Kensington (so, your Kensington self, whenever that was).
the way you feel about the homes in your dream often is symbolic of how you feel about those aspects of yourself. To dream that you are selling something, signifies changes and your feelings toward these changes. You may be experiencing difficulties in letting go or parting with something about the past.
To see your childhood home in particular reflects aspects of yourself that were prominent or developed during the time you lived in that home. to see the yard all torn up denotes that there are aspects of your life (in the past or related to the that time in the past) that are out of your control.
the rabbi's house, which is symbolic of your religious self, you shared with a young woman. she probably represents nurturance, passivity, caring nature, and love. alternatively, it may indicate temptation and guilt. it really depends on how you see her. it sounds like you got along fine, but you were very formal with each other and that might indicate that you were not very comfortable with the religion, or that you are/were just very careful/concerned with religion, esp proper ceremonies. you also sold this house, so that indicates a change in your previous views about religion and your current views.
a graveyard in your backyard at the Kensington-type house represents discarded aspects of yourself from this time in your life. the ghosts being outlaws (pirates and bikers lmao) suggests that these discarded aspects are repressed. you are calling out to them in the dream, so you are dealing with them now on some level. btw a garden trowel signifies the spreading of kindness and affection, so it was very noteworthy that a heavy dose of that took care of the ghost. iron can symbolize harshness and ruthlessness---or on a positive note, it may signify strength and willpower. so you will have to be well-resolved, firm, and kind to deal with these emotions or issues/etc but you will succeed.
re the demon's advice about the iron latch... To see a latch in your dream, signifies that you will receive an unwelcome appeal for aid. and if a spirit gives you advice in a dream, it may relate to a problem in your waking life (and you should always take it, Death Note or no). so, if in the near future, you receive an unwelcome appeal for aid (or somebody tries to foist off their obligations onto you or otherwise take advantage of your good nature), you must be firm and resolute about saying no, even to the point of appearing harsh. they will appeal to you from more than one angle; the outside of the front door being the usual route, and the inside of the front door being a circumspect route (perhaps they ask your husband or your colleague or someone to advocate on their behalf).
I'm guessing that this unwelcome appeal for aid comes from some connection to the Kensington house... somebody in your life then or somehow connected to something you did then???
the fact that you are NOT selling your Kensington home is important; you need to resolve these issues before you can move on maybe? but also important is that you delight in the house itself; you are accepting of who you were then, your Kensington self so to speak. it is not your past self but some aspects or emotional issues from that time that are behind this dream. also, the homes themselves were all intact; it was just the yard in your childhood home and the Kensington home that had problems. again, not you, but something about that time.
now, let's wait and see how very wrong I am lol
I used to keep a dream journal; I have a goal to start it up again... I think maybe now I will ;)
Re: ah, Death Note
Date: 2007-04-29 07:59 pm (UTC)I've started buying the Death Note manga (I blogged vols. 1-4 here). It's an interesting story, but I don't love it the way I love the other manga series I'm reading (Samurai Deeper Kyo, Saiyuki, and Vagabond). Someone noted on my LJ that the anime is even grimmer (hard to imagine!) than the manga. I don't usually watch video stuff unless it involves going out to a movie theater!
The House Dream
I don't entirely buy the interp, but it got me started thinking about other ways of looking at it. That's the main reason I like dream interp tools, and why I sometimes read Tarot or I Ching - it makes me think of the situation in different ways.
See, I'm having issues with our synagogue. My religion is a comfy fit for me, but I am having trouble dealing with the people at my place of worship. On the plus side, it's the synagogue in which I grew up, and they are pretty much OK with mixed marriages (my husband isn't Jewish), and they do a lot of community service - including ecological stuff and outreach/cooperative work with other religious groups. On the other hand, I've never been comfortable there socially, and neither are my husband and daughter. We're just all too geeky and introverted, that's all. The Young Lady is almost finished with religious school. I think that after next year (her last year), I'm going to have to find another place, somehow.
So the meaning of the rabbi's house is now more clear to me. The young woman is, I think, the other people (especially the other moms) at the synagogue, with whom I am co-existing but not interacting, while I decide what to do. I've been "digging around" in my past feelings about this whole issue - the fact that the rabbi's house was next to my parents' is a lucky coincidence exploited by my subconscious - and I'm almost ready to get rid of that part of me.
BTW, the "new" house wasn't actually our Kensington house. So I'm not going with that aspect of it 100%. But, there is another Reform Jewish congregation in the area - and it's in ... Kensington! And I don't like changes, so I've been resisting the idea of even checking it out. Also, we lived in Kensington mainly because it was literally just around the corner from my father and stepmother during the last years of his life, when he was ill and confined to a wheelchair, so I don't have many happy memories of that time. MaybeI'm getting ready to deal with all that. I certainly hope that I'm finally getting out of this depression, which was triggered in part by his death.
The connection between a latch and an appeal for aid is far-fetched to me - I think that symbols have to make sense to the dreamer. For example, someone who keeps rabbits as pets (like we do) will likely associate rabbits with the usual interps for pets, not the usual interps for rabbits (e.g., fertility). To me, a latch is extra security. The thought process was something like, OK, so there's an iron latch on the inside - but how do I use that to secure the house when I'm on the outside - I'd lock myself out if I did. And the demon thing pointed out that there was a latch on the outside too. And then I felt it was OK - that the house was indeed secure against the ghosts - and I can return there.
I think that the demon was my "dream guide" - I've only had a couple of those that I recall. I think it's interesting that he showed up only in response to my actions - I didn't have help until I asserted myself. But maybe I don't entirely trust my own decision-making here - hence my distrust of his advice. But also, I've been afraid to go out and make changes - I don't want to make things worse than they are now, and I'm afraid of doing something irrevocable. Perhaps the latch indicates that I can step out of my current self/situation, and my inner self will be safe when I get back.
Thanks for helping me to think through this!
I shall have to get my hands on the Manga; the Anime is very dark indeed
Date: 2007-04-30 05:01 pm (UTC)no, I agree with you 100%, about how Symbols are mostly meant as guides to help us approach the situation in maybe a different way, to really get us thinking. especially with Tarot. dreams are so personal that what one dream means to one person could mean something else completely if another person dreamt the same thing, given that their associations and experiences vary as well. it is very subjective, and only the dreamer can truly know what it means. probably only if you had no other personal interpretation of something (the latch) should you rely on the symbolic archaetypical meaning.
but it's quite distracting and can be entertaining to pursue the symbols themselves sometimes. plus I am a big fan of chaos theory. ;) I hope you don't mind that I gave it a go
I hope it works out with your (possible) new congregation and school. and I do hope that the dream does signify your emerging from depression of course.