This is in respone to Beck's snake dream. I have done just a little research on dreams and all the books say that snakes represent sexuality. I dont know, usually sex represents sex in mine, but thought that was interesting. Or could it be the original sin idea, you know the snake tempted Eve and that is where modern dream analysist come up with the snake representation. Or could it be that the snake is the evil wtbs? Remember all the pics of the evil snake, Satan, maybe you are transfering your rage agaisnt WTBS and it is represented by squeeze the life out of ya, snake. Just wondering, I have no idea, I think you have to figure out what your dreams mean by your own experiences. I write mine down and then read them later. It helps to do it first thing , when you wake up. Even very subtle things can be major in dreams. Email some of yours to me if you like, i love the world of dreams, unless they are terrors lol.
What is your Totem Animal?
by Hyghlandyr 79 Replies latest jw friends
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teejay
Hyghlandyr,
Thanks for breaking things down for me. Your response does help clear things up a bit. Your mention of the bald eagle being America's totem was helpful.
Excuse me for saying this—I don’t mean to offend—but “shifting” sounds a bit like play acting. I was thinking that YOU thought that you actually **became** your totem animal in some way. Instead, you consciously ‘act like’ your totem animal, not really “shifting” at all. I could be wrong but it seems that “shifting” is nothing more than a mental exercise that one uses to control their behavior, not much different from Christians who use the “wwjd” totem that helps to put them in the right frame of mind at various times. I don’t see anything wrong with any of it – whatever works, I guess.
Thanks, also, for explaining the projection thing. You say that you’ve done many things that one might describe as supernatural, e.g. “traveling the astral and ethereal planes to ‘places’ like Tir ná mBan and The Summerlands, eating with Cu Chulain, and swimming with Marie.” You then say that these events may be the products of “hypnosis, chemical imbalances and delusions. Fantasy.”
I’m inclined to believe these hypotheses that might very well explain these “events.”
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Beck_Melbourne
Thanks for that Hyghlandyr . I have never thought about surrendering to the fear in my dreams...I feel anxiety just thinking about it. I have seen snakes and touched them and I don't get this fear or feeling of uneasiness...it is only in my dreams. I will keep in touch regarding this.
LyingEyes...as for sexuality...ewwwww LOL. I have to agree that my first encounter with a snake was the WT image in the old publications. There would be Eve holding the fruit and the serpent in the tree with a flickering tongue. It is ironic to say this...but my very first user name on the Internet was 'Eve'...I used this username for 3 yrs...why did I choose Eve? Because she represented disobedience and failing to resist temptation...if the cap fits So there could be a relationship between my indoctrinated WT thinking and my subconscience.
Teejay: have you ever read Jean Auel's books? The first one is Clan of the Cave Bear...the character is Ayla...and Hyghlandyr, please correct me if I'm wrong...but the process of shape shifting seems to be well described in this book. It is fiction...but amazing reading...and thoroughly researched. I don't really read books about hunting the mammoth and glorious glaziers...but this series of books were unbelievable. If you are a reader...check them out.
Beck
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plmkrzy
Woha, Beck. I think your dream is very fascinating.
I use to be bothered with one particular dream that could be considered similar to yours in some ways. It was a nightmare. And a vivid one. Most of my dreams are extremely vivid but not usually nightmares.I had some help with that one via a therapist. I was really amazed with how things turned out as far as that one was concerned.
I knew all along what the dream was about but I never talked about it except to my room mate and my kids new about it because I had the dream sometimes every time I would go to sleep and it drove me nuts to the point that I didn't want to sleep. I would stay awake sometimes 2 or 3 days and then just fall asleep where ever.
Anyway even though I new what the dream was about there were things in the dream I couldn't connect anything to until I started discussing them in detail with the therapist who analyzes dreams.
Like your snake for instance.
For me it was very large black hornets.Thousands of them. My kids would be screaming but we couldn't get away from them because the only way out was a small crack above a very large door and it was also dark except for the light coming through the crack.
I could feel the hornets burning me on my arms but I wasn't fighting them I was just staying above my kids trying to cover them.
The whole time there burning me and I can see nothing but swarms of long black wings, now it gets weird, this part I don't remember clearly, somehow got a hold of a hose and started pulling it through the crack and I also don't know how I turned the hose on but as soon as I was able to spray water into the hornets they started melting.It goes on and there’s more to it but what I want to get at is I didn't start having these dreams until several years after (that’s another story I wont talk about) what inspired them per sa'
It turned out that after I decided to take a computer class at the college, this was the first class after winter semester so the computers or a good number of them had just been sitting and not used for a while.
It was after I started the classes that the dreams started happening. They were so intense sometimes I would literally have sores on my arms. Like I was breaking out with poison ivy or something.
I'll cut to the chase now and just tell you how it turned out after a LOOONG time.
I ended up withdrawing from that class I started having panic attacks severe ones every time I would get in class and I couldn't take it anymore.
Anyway after going through a few doctors who new more about making Jell-O then what was wrong with me I finally found one that helped me and it was so simple.It turned out that the hornets represent something that’s alive. And as soon as I understood that, everything just began to fall into place. The connection with the computer class was the smell of the wires and dust, when I say wires I know that sounds strange but have you ever started up an old furnace or a pilot lite that’s been sitting idle for a while? It has a certain funky smell or the smell of dust or even hair that’s singed? That’s what I mean. Along with that the sound the computers would make at first, not loud enough to notice unless of course your brain is supersensitive to that sort of thing for some reason and it just so happened that mine was.
The connection between the hornets and the fire we were in several years prior was the back draft from opening a door. If you've ever seen anything about back drafts then you might have an idea as to the life it seems to have. It isn't at all like a fire. Doesn’t sound like a fire and it doesn't look like a fire. It is more like something that’s really alive and breathing. It doesn't seem real its almost trancelike.
It wasn't until I understood the connections that the dream stopped and I haven't had that dream to this day. It wasn’t an over night thing I didn’t just stop it took awhile to make all the conections and it was because it was able to talk about it with someone who new how to help me interpret them.
But anyway its really incredible when you start discovering the little things like taste and smell and certain sounds can trigger our mind to respond the way the do.
The first thing that crossed my mind when you were describing the details of your dream was perhaps your experience in the WTS and fear of not being able to protect your children from absorbing poison? Or maybe a fear of making wrong decisions and it affecting them?
The possibilities are endless. But for what ever its worth I think your dream is a really good sign. You just need to connect the dots.
What does the snake represent to you and also find out what it represents in a textbook sense. You’ll probably amaze yourself once you begin to study the different elements of it.I hope you are able to figure it out and post how it turns out if you do. I’d like to hear about it.
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Hyghlandyr
LyinEyes
You brought out some excellent points about snakes. In other cultures they mean different things. If I were beck I would be interested in knowing what her heritage or native australians think of snakes, what is the symbolism there. Since that is where she is at it could have a bearing. Hindus think of snakes as very majestic, the represent good not evil. I think the original genesis story means just that. In fact with the Gnostics, and it is a bit convoluted, they felt that God was actually evil, and satan was trying to free us. Jesus then came down to tell us the truth that god had lied about. I dont have all the details here and I will get them for another post, but again the idea is that the original eden story, the snake wasnt supposed to be evil, but represented wisdom and knowledge.
Teejay
Sometimes it is play acting. Like when I am wrestling with my dog, and I shift into the form of a dog, barking and growling on all fours at him. Or when I am in a car, barking as we are stopped at a light watching people look around for the wounded dog, it's great..hehe
It is a mental exercise, and usually does not occur in any physical sense. However, I have shifted in dreams. Now I know when I am dreaming, so I know the shift is a fantasy. But, it feels real. The best I can use to explain it, is if you have ever had 'that dream where you are flying'. Now you have most likely never flown like superman before, but whe you dream that dream, you know what it is like, and you wake with the memory of the flight and it feels good. The same thing when I shift, I feel the fur and the claws and paws and teeth and ears and nose and so on. I hear the animals in their language and speak it and understand it. The memories, while complete fantasy, are as real as any other memories. I just accept them that way.
Beck
I'm not suggesting you try it quite yet, just keep that in the back of your mind. When you are lucid and able to control your other dreams, then that will be a time to step into controlling that one..or letting it flow knowing that if it goes someplace you dont like you can always take control of it.
I have not read the Cave of the Clan Bear series but I have a couple of them. I have glanced through them. It is true that she does a lot of research into her stuff, and is well commended always for it. I am interested in reading that series eventually, reading had been a chore for me the past few years. Maybe as a result of my watchtower tedium. I used to read at least a novel a day. I could read and remember incredibly fast. Now I dont have much desire to read because I cannot maintain that speed. I will be getting a photoreading course which should help. If it does what they say, I will defintely read through her stuff pretty quick.
A lot of my knowledge is just instinctual. Racial memories as I said (which she touches on in those books, I forget the term she uses). Then when i do read up on the topic at hand, find out that I am practicing fairly close to the way ancients did, but a bit more rudely and brashly.
Plum
What can I say? Thanks for sharing that experience and with all of the symbolism, that should answer some of Teejay's questons. Mundane things, through symbolism, simply take on an almost ethereal significance...
Let's see, three wives, seven concubines, nine slave girls, and twenty-seven black nazi female body guards. I've only got forty-five women to go and my cult is complete
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COMF
Hey, Plum,
I am going to paint that on my living room wall.
Cool! Which one?
Your totem animal is the WOLF.
In that case, you'll probably like another Bev Doolittle painting, "The Sentinel":
Wolves of the Crow:
Ah, love! could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mould it nearer to the heart's desire! -
COMF
Something for those with an eagle totem:
Rushing War Eagle
The Good Omen
Ah, love! could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mould it nearer to the heart's desire! -
Beck_Melbourne
COMF...WOW...cool pics. I wanna be an american indian
Your experience is amazing Plum...how bizaare was that? The subconscience is an amazing thing....and how it affects our dreams is unbelievable.
Hyghlandyr...my heritage has no connection to Australia. I live here now...but I am from New Zealand. My ancestry is very spiritual...my people are maori..native New Zealanders. The tattoo band that I want to get is a traditional maori pattern...there are many patterns...all very symbolic. However, my brothers and sister and I want one that is unique to our family history...as we were deprived of our culture due to the WT. We were separated from it...it was too spiritistic. Hence...it always gave us the heebie jeebies as kids. There are also no snakes in NZ...other than in zoos and wild life parks...not like here in Australia. I wish I knew what the snake means. Some things will always be mysteries.
Beck
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LyinEyes
I am half Irish, tad of german, on mothers side. My father is american indian with a tad of french. I always have been drawn to the indian side of my heritage, I fit there. The family on that side was very very, spiritual. Not in the JW sense ,but in nature and in sensing things in the world around them. Add being catholic to that and you have very lively sometimes uunbeivable occurances. I being raised as the only JW out of 35 grands felt in awe at the stories they told. My family are known for being a little off, mentally , LOL
And many of them lacked education. But they were very in touch with who they were and never doubted some kind of good force that directed their lives. There were many many stories they would tell of first hand encounters with animals , that lead them out of danger. One was about my grandpa, lost in the woods and he heard a voice and looked up. He saw and deer and followed it and came out safely. As i type this i still get goose bumps!!! These people were not liars, or out to prove anything , so i didnt understand what they were trying to get me to see. Another example , a story of a horse turning into a little dog, and a white horse that was showing up here and there, a wild horse. These stories scared me as a JW child, my dad said it was demons playing tricks on them. But even he knew that his family had seen something as they did not play or joke about things of this nature. He just said it was evil spirits. I still wonder if they saw these things or if they just think they did. I would have to see it to beleive it. But they beleived . My point was that my native american heritage is very much into nature, maybe that is why ,they always had animals active in their stories. As for snakes, my people
have the mind set to leave the snake alone and it will leave you alone. No real fear there, just be watchful and dont spook it, if you get bit it is more your fault than the snakes. I am not afraid of them because of this, my people taught me how to walk in the woods without getting on a snake, and to be cautious. I think Hygh has a good point on seeing what your heritage's view on the snakes are. Afterall, that is how we come to form our view of everything, from our people. Sometimes we do this with out realizing it. Let me know what ya find out. -
plmkrzy
COMF
Great PICs like'm all.
My brother would really like the one with the eagels wings over the rider.
He is remodeling his house right now I think I will give him a suggestion for one of his rooms[8>] He has more of our father in him then I do so I think he would really like that one. Although he mostly collects hopi stuff.