Dream Interpretation 19

DREAM 19

1 January 2012

Main environment

• PC’s house in Sheringham (where my possessions are stored in real-life)
• An outside location – with a 10-foot brick wall and a pavement

Timing

Daytime

Characters

• Myself (first person perspective)
• PS
• ‘Harold Bishop’ from Neighbours (aka Ian Smith)

Narrative

I was at PC’s house, sitting in the armchair by the airing cupboard. I was sorting through some old artwork/photographs (I had actually thought about doing so in real-life recently, as I wanted to look back on some of my eccentric hairstyles of yesteryear) which I was taking out of the airing cupboard (in real-life this contains a boiler and laundry, but PC also sometimes stores a pile of magazines in there on the top shelf). I found an art portfolio (does not exist in real-life, I did not study ‘fine art’ beyond GSCE and therefore do not have an actual portfolio to speak of) and a photograph album (this exists in real-life, see above). I looked through the art portfolio – it was approximately A3 sized and the art was behind protective transparent sleeves. As I looked at each page, I didn’t recognise any of the drawings/paintings as my own. The majority of them depicted multi-coloured, ornate horses, coloured with felt-tip pen. They were all very accomplished, but I was annoyed and thought “I didn’t make this art”. I then looked through the photograph album and in the dream, saw photographs of myself which I know exist in real-life and can be found in that album. However I noticed the photographs I was looking for in particular – the ones taken in photo-booths and those where I have platinum blonde hair – were absent. In the dream I noticed this and felt disappointed.  

The next scene I was sitting on the 10ft brick wall (like that seen in illustrations of ‘Humpty Dumpty’ – with a clear drop either side and nothing else). At the bottom of the wall was pavement. I was sat between PS (on my left) and ‘Harold Bishop’ (on my right). In real-life I have a fear of heights and would never climb anything above my own height by free will. I was reading a magazine. I told PS I wanted to get down off the wall, but he wouldn’t help me. I looked down and knew I could not just jump. PS said to ‘Harold’: “help her down”. Harold leapt down from the wall and pulled me down by my ankles. I landed on my feet on the pavement. I woke up. 

Potential triggers

I can’t recall any recent obvious triggers for this dream, although on the night of the dream, I did have a conversation with friends about a third party, JP who had a mental health condition and previously spoke of delusions he had of saving the world using horses. I had also taken some photographs of myself that night, and as mentioned above, was thinking about digging out my old albums when I next visit PC.

Interpretation

Childhood home:

1. Desires for building a family; 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

Artwork:

1. The person, place or thing shown in the artwork; a special focus or thought about them
2. A remote or distant feeling regarding what's in the picture; unattainability  
3. Expression; opinion; belief
4. Creativity

Folder/portfolio:

1. A container or grouping of things
2. Organisation; being organised; how things are organised
3. Putting something where it belongs or where you can find it again later
4. Forming an opinion that compartmentalises something or someone

Photograph:

1. The person, place or thing shown in the photograph; a special focus on them
2. Memories or the way you remember an event
3. The idea of a mock-up or fake version of what's in the photo (rather than the real thing)

Photograph album:

Idealising and holding on to memories from the past

Horse:

1. Power; ability to work; freedom; journeys
2. Strength; durability; virility; sexual prowess
3. Need to tame wild forces within the self; arrogance; exhausted strengths/power

Bricks:

1. Strength; solidness; reliability; rigidity
2. An input for to a creative process
3. A catalyst a creative process such as resourcefulness or talent
4. A supply or need for a creative process
5. The process of establishing or building something
6. The process of breaking something down into its smallest components (for example, to examine or understand it)
7. Weight; load; burden; feeling weighed down

Wall:

1. Limitations; obstacles; boundaries
2. Barrier obstructing your progress
3. Too accustomed to your old habits and way of thinking; feeling stuck
4. To dream that you jump over a wall - ability to confront tough obstacles and get around barriers with success and ease

Being elevated; at high altitude; or looking down on a scene:

1. A higher or insightful perspective or ability to see the ‘big picture’
2. Superiority; enhanced power; greater knowledge or vision; aloofness
3. Experience and qualification
4. Wisdom; maturity; evolution; progress
5. Spirituality

On top of something:

1. Success/recognition; a desire for it
2. Achievement or work
3. A feeling of fulfilment or satisfaction
4. Superiority - or a feeling of it (possibly based on a feeling of inferiority)

Road:

1. A way to get from one place to another, either literally or symbolically - as in series of events or one action leading to certain results
2. Your life path or life journey, or a portion of it - past, present or future

Magazine:

1. Something that is one in a series (such as an event)
2. A cycle
3. The topic of the magazine or something or you associate with it
4. Information or answers; entertainment and relaxation

Being rescued:

1. Feeling that you need help or need to be rescued - physically, mentally or emotionally
2. Receiving good will or support from others
3. The idea of letting others rescue you or clean up your messes too often
4. The idea that you could benefit by being more open to help from others

Jumping:

1. Making great or sudden progress
2. Taking a risk, especially when the jump from one place to another in the dream is a risky one

Pulling:

1. Desire; want; need;  a demand for someone's attention
2. A desire to change something or modify a situation in your life

Ankles:

Progress and ability to move forward in life

Ground/land:

1. A foundation - such as a set of beliefs, values, relationships and other factors that form the basis of a person's life and experience
2. What is obvious, visible, or known to others (whereas something underground is not obvious or could be secret)
3. The place where you are in your life right now, as in ‘where you stand’ or ‘how things stand’ right now

Celebrity/character:

The subconscious mind cannot always separate the concept of ‘knowing’ a person from ‘knowing’ of a person via the media. Talking to or about a celebrity, as if they are known to you as a person, within the dream may reflect your waking perceptions or your desire to communicate and interact with them. A ‘character’ may represent qualities associated with that person. The character ‘Harold Bishop’ is a pillar of his local community – a staunch Christian and charitable person who is characterised by traits of conservatism; indecisiveness and compassion. He is also vegetarian (I recently stopped being vegetarian after several years); teetotal (I recently began enjoying alcohol myself, after a period of being teetotal); fastidious and old-fashioned. Although he is male, he does not exhibit many qualities typically associated with the masculine – although following a stroke, the character did adopt many ‘reversals’ i.e. became sexually predatorial and started drinking alcohol.

Ian Smith - 'Harold Bishop' in Australian soap Neighbours

Analysis 
This basic interpretation suggests that I may be ‘stuck’ – as represented by my position on top of the high wall (which did not make me feel comfortable) and my requests for help which went unmet by PS, who himself did not seem to want to get off the wall. I am very confused by the presence of ‘Harold Bishop’ in this dream – especially by the fact that he was the person who came to my rescue and helped me down from the wall – I haven’t seen nor heard of him (in my recollection) for very many years now. It is interesting that I was positioned on a wall – and longed to get down to ‘ground level’, whilst the symbol of the horse – which appeared many times in the portfolio of artwork may be representative of needing to ‘get down from your high horse’. The concept of idealising and longing to relive the past is very accurate – I associate the time that the photographs from the album were taken with happiness; optimism; opportunity and freedom.