Dream Interpretation 17

DREAM 17

28 December 2011

Main environment

The first location was a medieval building – which was later identified as a courthouse. There was a ground floor – completely made of dark grey stone and then a long narrow stone passageway which led to two tall flights of stone stairs, which met at the bottom and went up at diagonal angles, meeting again at the top (this is impossibility). At the top of the stairs were two separate wooden doors, leading to different court-rooms (I did not see inside). The next scene was the market in Albert Square, Walford, the fictional London borough in Eastenders. There was then a transition and I was in my old bedroom in my former home in Pine Grove, Sheringham (where I lived from 11 years to adult), which appeared as it did in its original form, before my parent’s redecorated it – with the two fitted wardrobes and alcove in the middle, with a vanity unit built in; the bed against the wall with the door; the rear-facing window adjacent to my wardrobe (the other was used by my step-brother at these times); and graffiti on the walls. The final scene was in my kitchen, at home in London, also appearing as it does in real-life.

Floor plan of courthouse building from the first scene of my dream

Timing

The first part of the dream, it was ambiguous – then revealed to be daylight. The latter part of the dream took place in the morning.

Characters

Myself (first person perspective – I did not see myself); the fictional Eastenders ‘Billy Mitchell’ (Perry Fenwick) and his girlfriend ‘Julie Perkins’ (Cathy Murphy – she wasn’t a major character in the soap and had left the show some months prior to this dream); and various persons in the market square; various members of my family (who did not seem to appear in person).

Perry Fenwick - 'Billy Michell' in Eastenders

Cathy Murphy - 'Julie Perkins' in Eastenders

Prison suits and shackles

Handcuffed to the rear

Narrative

multi-coloured wall-tacks attached to the label. However the garments were far too big to fit a doll, I concluded. I picked up a white knitted matinee jacket and wondered whether it would fit my adult self. It seemed very long for a baby and I held it up against the door of the wardrobe for a better inspection. I saw it was buttoned up and then realised it was extremely narrow and most certainly would not fit me. I thought, ‘perhaps I’m having a baby myself’. I then wondered whether I should be getting ready to go to university and remembered that my family had told me I should attend there before meeting them again later. I stepped backwards and looked at the alcove space between the two fitted wardrobes. Usually there would be an overhead cabinet, then in the alcove, a mirror and shelving where I used to keep my cosmetics. Instead of the cabinet, there was a clock. The time was 8.40am. I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to be late anyway, I’m not going to bother going’. I looked at the outside of my wardrobe door and saw the words ‘RIP’ written there (this was actually on my real-life wardrobe door, written sometime during the mid-1990s following the deaths of Notorious BIG, Tupac and Kurt Cobain). I looked out of the window and saw it was a bright sunny morning. I felt extremely peaceful and relaxed. There was then a transition and I was standing in the kitchen in my current home in London. I was leaning against the counter, looking at the sink (which is situated below the window – I could see that the sun was still shining). Everything appeared normal, but I could see that there was a sink with full sink of washing-up and soapy water, but someone had sat an electric deep fat fryer in amongst it all. I felt angry at thoughts of a risk of electrocution due to such silly actions of another (I didn’t know who had put the fryer in the dishwater). I woke up.

Potential Triggers

I am an avid fan of Eastenders, although the characters ‘Billy’ and ‘Julie’ are insignificant to my enjoyment of the programme and in any event, ‘Julie’ has not been featured in any storyline for some months now. Strangely, ‘Billy’s’ teenage granddaughter has recently revealed she is pregnant on the soap – and there was a minor plot a couple of weeks ago, where ‘Billy’ was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods. ‘Julie’ was a character introduced into the soap as dishonest and serving a community sentence (i.e. electronic tagging/curfew) for theft. Of course, my own educational and career background involves criminal law and it is a subject I am immersed in on a daily basis. The need to clean has been on my mind – and there was some outstanding washing-up to be done in real-life at the time of this dream.

Interpretation

Viewing a situation/looking down on action from above:

1. A higher or insightful perspective, or ability to see the ‘big picture’
2. Superiority; power; or having greater knowledge or vision - if you are looking down on others in the dream
3. Feeling more experienced; qualified, or at a higher level
4. Wisdom; maturity; evolution; progress
5. More spiritual or more in touch with a higher power
6. Aloofness; unwillingness to involve yourself in the lives of others
7. Being ‘above the law’

Watching:

1. A feeling of observing rather than participating
2. An objective or neutral observer's perspective
3. Curiosity or a desire to understand whatever is represented by the object being watched in the dream

Hallway/corridor:                                                     

1. A passage from one phase to another in your life or being caught between two major aspects of your life
2. Spiritual; mental and physical development; self exploration
3. A new beginning/initial steps
4. Connection from one dream scene to the next
5. If stuck – stagnant position; inability to break free; indication of path to be followed to make a transition

Void/empty space:

1. Openness; freedom; potential; endless possibility
2. Feeling emotionally empty; missing something or someone; lacking something in particular.
3. An unmet need or expectation
4. Meaningless or insincere - as in an ‘empty praise’

Bricks:

1. Strength, solidness, reliability, or rigidity
2. Individual thoughts and creative process; ideas, designs, information
3. A catalyst a creative process, such as resourcefulness or talent
4. The process of establishing or building something
5. The process of breaking something down into its smallest components (for example, to examine or understand it)
6. Weight, load, burden, or feeling weighed down
7. Hardening of the person by the experience of heartbreak or callousness as a result of previous bad experience; may indicate inner sensitivity despite a tough outer-shell
8. Defensive actions; protection against future pain; isolation

Familiar characters from popular culture:

1. Characters from the soap, Eastenders, are a recurrent dream motif
2. Characteristics attributed to those characters – real-life meaning of significance

Crime:

1. Breaking rule or law
2. Unacceptable behaviour; going against a societal norm
3. Accusation or blame

Prisoners:

1. Discipline
2. Anxiety regarding those with authority over you; loss or surrender of control to those in authority
3. Lack of freedom

Ankles:

1. Ability to move forward and make progress in life – I imagine that shackled ankles represent the reverse
2. Seeking support and direction in life

Shackles:

Life stuck in a rut; need for direction

Chains:

1. Limitations imposed by self; those in authority
2. Narrow-thinking; limited views; dogmatic beliefs

Handcuffs:

1. Something or someone is holding back your success; opportunities are shut off to you
2. Loss of power and effectiveness
3. Your own fears and doubts may be holding you back
4. To see others in handcuffs  - you are being overly possessive

Orange:

I’ve noticed this is a recurring colour-symbol within my dreams

1. Bold; outgoing; assertive; invigorated
2. Autumn; the winding down of a phase or cycle

Stairs:

1. Progress or moving forward in life
2. Boundary or passageway between the levels of consciousness (subconscious, conscious, spiritual etc)

Tunnel:

1. Covert activity
2. Accessing/dealing with issues which exist in subconscious mind
3. Secret ways of progressing, unknown by others
4. Courtroom:
5. Aspect of your life subject to judgment; those with authority over your life

Door/entrance:

1. A new beginning or a transition from one phase to another in your life
2. An entrance to a different reality
3. A dream cue to indicate passing from one setting, context or time-frame in the dream story

Escape:

1. Escape from jail or some place of confinement – a need to escape from a restrictive situation or attitude
2. Refusal  to confront/deal with problems

Cleaning:

1. Getting rid of unwanted things, feelings, thoughts, situations etc; a desire to do so
2. A desire to make things more neat and orderly in your physical, emotional, mental world
3. Making improvements somehow in your life; a desire to do so
4. Denial, trying to ‘erase’ facts; trying to get rid of feelings or evidence etc
5. Cleaning up other people's messes; fixing their problems; coming to their rescue or supporting their irresponsibilities

Childhood home:

1. Your own desires for building a family; your family ideologies
2. Aspects of yourself that were prominent or developed during the time you lived in that home
3. Unfinished feelings that are being triggered by some waking situation
4. Outdated thinking

Family:

Represents particular aspects of your own family; your perceptions of family members – also consider archetypal meanings (the family members I thought about in the dream were my mum and other female relatives – therefore suggesting qualities associated with their actual roles and feminine qualities generally)

Bedroom:

1. Aspects of yourself kept private
2. Intimacy; sexuality; carnal desires; romance

Baby/baby-related items:

1. Need for self nurturing
2. Need to take responsibility for yourself and others

Baby's matinee jacket - as seen in the bedroom scene of my dream

Baby clothes:

1. Subtle self-expression
2. Former ways of thinking which you have outgrown

White:

Purity; clean slate

Grey:

Lifelessness; neutrality; gloominess; dullness

Knitting:

1. A particular pastime or hobby (my mum and grandmother do knit for babies)
2. A particular age group – i.e. grandmother/baby – confirmed by the thought ‘did my mum knit this for me when I was a baby?’

Plastic bag:

1. Temporary burdens/responsibilities in real-life
2. Lack of control

Baggie - attached to label in collar of matinee jacket

Thumb-tacks

Tacks:

1. Annoyances in your life; you are becoming confrontational and quarrelsome
2. Something that you need to remember
3. Issues/responsibilities at work

Wardrobe:

1. Something kept hidden; unveiling of previously hidden aspects of yourself
2. Transitional phase
3. Self-image; way you portray yourself to outside world

Morning:

1. Beginning, fresh start, clean slate
2. Awakening (physical/mental/emotional); insight; or clarity

* Note the reference to the baby’s ‘matinee jacket’

Learning institution:

1. Desire to gain knowledge; understand more; greater awareness
2. Progress through hard work
3. Period of stress in your life
4. An important lesson in life

Clock:

1. The passage of time
2. Punctuality; anxieties over adhering to a schedule
3. Particular significance of the time depicted – i.e. 8.40 am

Lateness:

1. Aspect of extreme significance in real-life – i.e. university education
2. Neglecting a responsibly
3. Avoidance of ‘event’ you are late for; fears of failure
4. Passive-aggressive response to authority represented by ‘event’ you are late for
5. Too much on mind/schedule; disorganisation
6. Fears of loss of control

Window:

Your perception of the world around you

Sunny morning seen through window

Sunny day:

1. A happy or carefree mood
2. A positive outlook
3. A lack of problems or complications

Kitchen:

1. Need for warmth, spiritual nourishment and healing
2. The nurturing mother or the way that you are for your loved ones
3. Transformation. Something new or life altering is about to occur
4. A need to abort your plans

Kitchen sink:

1. If a kitchen sink is where you clean up after nourishing yourself or your family, in a dream it might represent ‘cleaning up after’ yourself or family - especially taking responsibility for its past decisions, direction, and actions - and ‘cleaning up’ any ‘messes’ that have occurred
2. Responsibility for the mental, emotional, or spiritual nourishment of yourself or your family
3. A kitchen sink with dirty dishes stacked up can represent a catch-all - someone or something who takes on any and all problems from other people, or someone who has trouble saying no

Electric item:

1. The idea of being or seeming robotic; inanimate; inhuman
2. Efficiency
3. Intelligence - as in advanced technology
4. The idea of automation or something that takes place without awareness

Fryer/frying pan:

1. Completeness in love
2. Need to start accepting consequences of your actions
3. An inescapable situation

Electrocution:

Real-life shock/trauma – short-circuiting or overwhelming your body/emotions

Sink of washing-up/dishwater & electric deep fat fryer

Analysis

I think the characters ‘Billy’ and ‘Julie’ represent an aspect of my life – thoughts that I choose relationships ‘doomed to fail’. The symbolism in this respect is quite apt. In terms of the imagery indicating burdens and responsibilities – this reflects my current thoughts surrounding my education. However (and this aspect of my interpretation requires a much deeper analysis, which I shall undertake as soon as I have cleared the backlog of dream write-ups) I believe the dream represents something else – my own self-analysis is present as a theme. Many of the symbols referred to above relate to the linking and exploration of different planes of consciousness (and of course, as part of my dream experimentation, every night I meditate upon the notion of entering a dream and witnessing the expression of my subconscious mind) and the notion that deliberately trying to access hidden or significant material.  

Examples of impossible or endless staircases